Aventuradoras

Okay so I have a lot to talk about! And I have muchos fotos : ), but first I have to talk about school... It is very nice. I have only been to like two of my classes but they were pretty interesting and I think I'll stay engaged. I'm only taking 3 classes here which equates to full time at ASU. 

I'm taking a spanish class which is pretty easy so far so I'm gonna try it out for another week and if its to easy I will try and transfer. Then I have a Tango class which is two-parted: theory and dance. I've only been to the theory section so far but its really cool, mostly history and learning about different cultures and where tango comes from and what it means to different cultures. Anyway, its in spanish and their spanish is hard sometimes so in that class it is a lot of lecture so I just have to really focus the whole time. And my final class?...drumroll please...acting! yeah I'm pretty stoked that I get to take a theatre class here and in spanish (or castellano : )) and with locals so it will be way different and difficult and fun and I can meet a lot of new people and yeah. Then, the cherry on top of all of it is that I only have class mon-wed so I have a four day weekend every week that I can use to travel and explore and discover (and study very very much). 

So that is school so far, the campus is not like a US campus its just like three buildings so I'll get some photos of that later. As for other adventures, we went on a group trip to Tigre, which is a river town and its really quaint and we took a boat tour and it was really pretty.

My new friend Julie and I in the freezing town of Tigre and

 enjoying a merienda (snack) que fue muy rico (really good)

This is where the river flows into the ocean 

Tigre was a few days ago, but today me and some of my friends didn't have class so we went and did a bit of exploring to the nearby neighborhoods. We walked forever to get to this town next to us called Palermo but it was really nice scenery and cool churches and trees. Palermo is where we mostly hang out because Belgrano is really safe and nice but its mostly populated with rich old people and things are over priced. Palermo is like a 10 minute subway ride so we went to this huge park they have with little lakes and statues and it was gorgeous! I went a little camera crazy so you're going to get a highly concentrated version of my palermo park album : )

Where's the parakeet?

There's graffiti all over in Palermo...and something tells me 

they aren't big fans of Bush. I'm very intuitive : )

Big movies release here not too far from when they 

do in the States so I was excited to see this

Q: Do we really look that much like tourists? 

A: Yes. Yes we do.

Cute little fountain plaza area 

Julie scarfing some cotton candy (it was soo good)

Kate's obsessed with trees #1

#2

#3

(feel free to copy paste these photos, I know you want them for your computer background : P)

The trees here are really amazing, its the middle of winter so at first I thought they looked kind of dreadful but then in some areas they are just massive and all different types. AND they have Jacaranda trees everywhere which makes me especially happy because we have those in Arizona so it gives me a little comfort of home. 

SO that is it for now, I will be doing some more exploring tomorrow and will update you all soon. E-mail me, skype me, I miss everyone and want to hear from you! 

-Kate

Orientation

Soo... I feel like I should have made another exciting post by now buuuuuttt we've just had orientations everyday I've been here. We just go over everything with our program directors and then go to the University's orientations with all of the international students in spanish and THEN in english lol so I get everything twice, lucky me right? But the exciting stuff is just walking around the city with other people in the group and going to little cafes and little bars and bakeries. (and trying to communicate effectively with a mexican/american accent when they speak soo different here). 

  Also, its fah-ree-zing! The first few days weren't so bad like i just needed a hoodie but yesterday rained from when I woke up 'til after I went to bed. And today isn't as rainy but its like 35 degrees and some full sized branches crashed into cars, which in conjunction with the driving was pretty nuts. 

Me and my roommate Kirsten after we walked like 8 blocks

     in the pouring rain at night (in flip flops....I don't wear those anymore : )

Even though it's cold it's still been fun, I bought cute boots here : ) everyone wears them and its super cute. And today my roomate and this other girl and guy and me all went to the other side of our suburb on the bus to find this peruvian restaurant and we made it there int he rain and cold only to find out that it didn't open until like 8pm and it was 4:30. (side note: they don't eat dinner here until like 9pm, they get up around 10am and on the weekends they go out starting at like 1am. kind of a weird schedule but its fun). So we ended up eating at this tiny little cafe that this one little lady ran by herself and she was really sweet and made me and my friend vegetarian stuff even though it wasn't on the menu so it ended up working out. 

I start classes on Monday so I should have more exciting stories then, and probably some embarrassing ones too since I'm gonna take some classes with locals and try to use my spanish. Wish me luck! 

Miss you all, 

Kate

El primer día

I made it! And I didn't get robbed and the plane didn't crash so I'm good. Since I have been watching lost this summer the thought was in the back of my mind that my plane would crash and I would end up on some island : ).  The flight was very long and I'm not gonna lie pretty dang boring. But on the flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires I sat next to the kid I know from ASU so that was cool and the food was surprisingly good. 

My first day has been kind of nuts but I'm getting used to it. I live in an apartment with an older lady and another girl from my program, a guy from the UK that studies law here, and eventually some student from Pepperdine University. AND the lady's granddaughter stays here sometimes and she's 13 but its kind of cool because she speak

s english.  The apartment is on the 7th floor and really close to my classes so I like it. 

It's really (really) different here and when I first came to the apartment my roomate wasnt here yet and I was going on 2 hours of sleep and needed a shower and the lady (MaryLou) was a bit overwhelming. Nonetheless the place is pretty cute...

This is my room (and this is the bed I rented : P)

My closet, all the stuff at the top is Marylou's

This is the view from the balcony off the dining area (well the view of other buildings). 

And there's this cute Panaderia (bakery/cafe) down the street that I went to that was cool. ANd my house smells really good because Maylou is cooking and I saw some cake in the oven and I am starving so I'm stoked. Weird fact, they don't eat dinner til 9 or 10pm everyday...a bit of an adjustment for me lol but I'll figure it out. Love you and miss you all (a lot)!

love, 

kate