Mar Del Plata

I'm here in Mar Del Plata, I took a bus up here alone and I'm having a great time! The bus ride was great and really comfortable. I paid only 10 pesos more for coche cama and it was really nice. So I arrived yesterday around 4 pm, checked into my hostel which is all guys! o my gosh! There are about 5 guys that are students that work in the hotel, all the guests are guys, and all their friends come over and say hi and are guys. I said where are all the girls? haha! Anyway, so I checked in and I walked the beach, walked around the city, bought a shirt that I probably can buy in BA haha and then went back to the hostel. There I met two girls from Sweden, finally, who are staying in my room with me. They took a nap while I did yoga and afterwards one of the girls and I went downstairs. There we met had our fun drinking beer and eating pizza with the guys that work at the hostel. It was really fun because the girl doesn't speak any Spanish and the guys very little English, so I had to keep switching back and forth, it was real practice for my language skills! So the Mardelplatenses as they are called, obviously wanted to go out, the girl from Sweden was too tired, I didn't bring anything to go out in and wanted to wake up early to rent a bike a go riding in the city, so we retired around 1 am but it was great fun. Now I have a friend in Sweden! Yay, she told me anytime I want to come out to Europe I have a place to stay with her. Yay! She is really cool! She actually started her adventure in California in San Francisco, went down to San Jose, she said there was a big mountain or hill behind her where she was staying there, I'm assuming it was Blossom Hill, then she went to Santa Cruz. Afterwards, she went to Los Angeles and from there to Panama and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now she is in Mar del Plata with me here and is going back to Buenos Aires the same day as I am on Sunday. I'm going to show them around since I just have my finals next week and not much is going on. Then from there they are going to Brasil and then they don't know....wow what a trip! They have been using this system online called couch surfing where you pay very little to stay in people's houses for a night or two. How great! I'm totally going to use that! I love hostels though too. I will never stay in a hotel again, unless I really want to relax but if I'm traveling what for? Anyway, so this city is great, it is just like Santa Cruz minus the beach boardwalk but wow the temperature, the surf brands everywhere, the people except the language, the tourism, everything! So today, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, a bike ride to this part of the city where they have mariscos probably, probably to the museum where I can see my professor's book from Sacramento, he donated it to the museum and Jose Hernandez has his works there too. Then to the city center to check out the shopping hehehe as always. Anyway, I was kind of feeling a bit lonely when I got here b/c with the end of the semester I haven't been doing much but studying and going back to the house and everyone from my facultad is going home and all my Argentine friends are really busy with work, so I've been alone a lot lately. I was feeling like I had lost the language a bit b/c I was talking to my family and Steven a lot in the apartment in English. This trip has really brought my spirit back, I'm glad I went alone. Last night really made me feel comfortable with the language again! In two weeks but Argentine friends want to go to Rosario so I'm going to go with them. I'm just going to travel as much as possible I've decided. I'm here to travel and I'll work later. Unless Trece wants me to do something for them, but other than that travel, travel, travel! O and I learned that I can't take the Literature class at the UBA but that's ok, I still have to take an extra semester in the Spring of 2011, wow that sounds weird, with only two classes, so now I'll have three classes and then I'll graduate and then move on to Grad school! Well, today is a lovely day, so i better head out there and get it started! Les amo a todos!!!!!!!!!! CHAU CHAU CHAU CHAU BESOTES
Raquelita

Un plan para el futuro

Bueno! ok I have a plan. So recently, I was given the opportunity to do some translating for my mom's former company: Trece. I told the company owner that I would like to get into the agricultural sector when it comes to my speciality in Int'l Affairs. He told me that he would like to get me involved with what they are doing down here in Argentina, while I'm here, with SENASA but he isn't sure what he can do with that right now but it's worth a shot no? So what I would be doing for him is: translating protocols, MSDS safety documents, maybe meeting with their customers who live down here. That would all be sooooo exciting! My plan is now: when I get home I will only have one more semester until I graduate yay! I will have my double bachelors in Spanish and Int'l Relations. So, I want to apply to a grad school that specializes in Int'l Affairs and focus my studies on Agricultural Business, Negotiations, Relations....what have you. Oh, i'm so excited. And since most of my units in this for this speciality are used in fieldwork or internships, I won't be at school too much, more onhands experience. O wow! This will be great. I grew up in agriculture, I know a lot about it, and living in California and wanting to focus my career on having relations with Latin America, I really think this is a great choice.

So I'm glad that's all settled, its what I wanted to do when I came here, was to decide where I wanted to focus my masters study, and now I know. I'm really happy!

So life is getting easier, except the humidity is making my leg swollen and painful a bit. I swear the other day my thighs from the humidity expanding two sizes. All my pants which were normally baggy on me, were skin tight. Not going to like that when the weather starts changing. In Sacramento, when its hot, I usually go down a size b/c I can't eat. Anyway, we will see.

So Steven comes in 9 weeks, I'm super excited. Here's my plan:

He comes at the end of December, we will spend the New Years here in Buenos Aires, then go to Mar de Plata the following week for his Bday and then the following week we will go to Mendoza where we can cross the border into Chile and hike the Andes! yay! So he stays 20 days,

Then my friend Jannie comes on the 25th, we will hang here, go to Iguazu (flying there no bus), then we will maybe go to Salta or Jujuy, then come back to Buenos Aires and hang out for a while. She likes the warm areas so I think the North would be best for us to go.

Then my mom and auntie come on the 22 of February and we are going to Bariloche 5 days, crossing the border into Chile again hehe, then to Calafate and then back to Buenos Aires. These two places are in the South of the country. I am going to know this whole country better than I know my own! wow how shameful.

When I get home, I'm making a promise to myself and Steven is doing it too, that we will get to know the different states and regions of our own country. I think when I get home we're going to take the train to Oregon with the bikes. I heard it was supposed to be like a humongous Davis. Then I've met so many ppl here from the East Coast that I really would love to visit New York and Florida etc. I definitely wil be traveling more and more when I get home. My time has definitely made me want to see the entire world and to travel travel travel! Anyway, I have one week left then finals and then I'm done until March. Wow! I can't believe its been almost 4 months, that's incredible. How much I do love it here, I will be glad to get home, eventually. Haha! But not now, now I just want the time to come when my family and friends visit!
Well, I'm off to school.

Chau chau!
Raquelita

El fin del semestre

Well I only have one week left of class and then finals. I can't believe its ending so soon! But that's fine, I'm ready to change classes since these ones were not all that great! My Spanish is really great now, its improved A LOT since I've come here, I just need to work on pronunciation I believe and adverbial phrases. But all I need to do is read my grammar book for that, which I haven't done since I've been here. BAD! Ok, every night I will look at it, I promise myself. Ok, what else? Well, for my Political Science final I'm going to talk about the fight between the campesinos and the government, which is quite a long issue and drawnout issue with a deep history that runs all the way from the beginnings of the Argentine Republic, but since I only have 5 minutes and limited vocabulary haha, I'm going to talk about what's going on right now. The government wants to tax the campos: which includes the campesinos and the multinational corporations, on anything that is exported out of the country. Argentina has always had its riches coming from the Agricultural and Food Sector, so there's lots of money to be made from this sector. The government doesn't want to miss out on that money, so they want to tax the Campos. It used to be that the campos consisted of family farms and such but now the multinational coporations have gotten their greedy hands into the mix with the rise and popularity of globalization. The fight here in Latin America, is the fight between the classes and the fight for power. Its the fight between those with land and those with no land. Anyway, that's what I got so far, now just to say it in Spanish haha. Then for my final in Argentine Traditions, I'm going to talk about a young group here in Argentina: the hijos de Plaza De Mayo. Its a political group of the children of those who were murdered and disappeared during the dictatorship of the 1970s. I wanted to research something political, not something stupid like the goths or the skateboarders or the potheads, this doesn't interest me. Anyway, think it will be quite fulfilling to research these two topics. I can get something out of this semester. Then for my tango paper, this I'm just going to write about the different artists and instruments of tango. I don't really feel like getting into the politics of it all. Maybe I will, I don't know. Ok so I think I'm going to go to Mar del Plata by myself not this weekend but the following weekend b/c I have a free night in a Hostel and I want to use it. And this place is close and it has the beach and I can go there to study for my "finals". So today it's rainy, rainy, rainy, trying to decide if I want to go to school hahaha. I probably will. Well, not much else to report on: 65 days till Steven comes! yay! And he can bring me all the things i want from the US hahaha. I know I'm spoiled. Well, off the do some research, maybe I'll just go to the library here instead of going to school....hehehe

El Finde!

This weekend was great! I got lots of sun and exercise. On Saturday I met my friend Belen and we went for a bike ride for 3 hours in the Reserva, its like an ecological park, very pretty. Reminded me of Rancho Cordoba near the river riding my bike. Then we went to her house, drank some mate, and she helped me correct my first protocol I translated for Trece and she said that it actually sounded really well, correct and professional. Just a few technical terms that are hard to translated was all I needed to fix. Anyway, then I went home and met up with two people from New York City that I met in Iguazu. I told them I would show them a good time here in BA, I said I would show them some culture stuff, no boliches or clubs haha. So we first went to a feminist coffee shop where my teacher was performing with his tango band, really cool music, and the guy read poetry inbetween. Then afterwards, we went to see Tito perform, it was like improv kind of but it was more like a performance a live act, I don't know how to explain it. No scripts but they practiced before, anyway the first act was as if they were in the avenida Florida, it was intense people were being robbed, running into each other, it looked so real. The second was them acting like they were from the future and we were like aliens and they were testing us with their props. It was different but cool! He performaned in La Catedral which is really cool, its a really old building from the beginning of the era of tango like 1880s and it is a tango house. People go there to dance tango, its one of the most important tango houses in BA. It was really really pretty and the lighting was really sensual and romantic. The people who danced tango were like professionals but they just do it for fun, wow it was amazing. Anyway, then I got home at 3 am and talked with the guy who I was going to go to Uruguay with and he started acting really weird and forward calling me honey and sweetie so in the end I told him I'm not going with him but thanks for the offer. Today, I cleaned up everything in the house, my room, put away my winter clothes b/c the spring is here. But now I have to do homework! I've been avoiding it all day. I just have to read nothing huge, I only have two weeks left, then finals. I can't believe it, then my bday! Then Steven comes, Jannie, mommy and auntie! Wow, its going to fly by. Love you all
Rachel
ps think i'm going to go to el Tigre this weekend with my lesbian friend who I biked with on Saturday, she is respectful and isn't going to try anything, i hope hahaha no jk
We can take the bikes on the train and bike up there, its supposed to be really lovely.

Viernes y un resumen de mis pensamientos

I'm sitting out here in my favorite spot in the whole city, tea connection in Puerto Madero eating my Reina Batata salad and my ice tea of peace and roses, so perfect! Today I decided to ride my bike over here, its only 9.2 KM about 5 miles for those who don't use the metric system, but it took forever because of traffic! o my gosh, but it so nice out today that I really didn't mind the ride. It was nice to get on the bike again, I've been riding it lately but I will say that only professionals should ride here, its really really really dangerous! Anyway, so here is a list of my pathetic finals

Traditions class: research and report about 5 mins about a group of young ppl here in Buenos Aires
(nothing about history, the flag, presidents, peronism, folklore, music etc.)

Latin America Political Science: Talk about whatever you want for 5 mins with the teacher about anything political about America Latina.

Tango Theory Class: Write a 7 page paper about whatever you want about tango (the politics, history, theory, music, artists) this one isn't so bad

Literature: An actual exam, multiple choice about Martin Fierro (actually a real exam that I will have to study for which makes me happy)

Tango Dance: I think just show that you can dance the dance and know the moves

Well I've decided that this semester was for me to learn the culture, language, and city and to travel. I'm not going to worry about the fact that I'm getting all As without even trying. But o well who cares, I now can say that I can speak Spanish comfortably and I can write and understand completely fluently. Speaking and pronuciation I need to work on but that will come by the end of the year. Speaking of traveling, on the micro we met a really nice Argentine guy from Buenos Aires that's my age and loves to travel. He usually travels solo, so we are going to become traveling buddies. We're going to Uruguay together the next weekend. His traveling style is just like me, no plan, no worries, just walk around see all there is to see, and we both love to hike and do exercise. When I went with the girls, it was like I was walking and wanted to do more, but had to wait for them to take pictures, rest, eat, etc. Anyway, so that will be cool. I think having a male as a partner to travel with is better anyway since I'm not really girly and I enjoy the outdoors and don't bring 60 bags with me when I travel and don't take 3 hours to get ready to go to the waterfalls, where we got completely soaked and everyone's makeup fell off. Anyway, no more talking bad about ppl, I had fun and I'm going to have so much more fun with Steven when he comes because we both LOVE the outdoors.
So, I don't know if I said anything about this yet but my mom's ex boss does business with agricultural companies here in Argentina and he has given me a little job to do during my break. It's perfect, I just translate information for him for his clients here. I translate protocols and I can do it at my house or for instance here at Puerto Madero, while I travel and I don't have to worry about being bored because it does take up a lot of time! So excited! Well, I better get to work on it, I already wasted a lot of time riding down here haha. Love you all! Come and visit if you can!
BESOTES
Raquelita

IGUAZUUUUUUUUUUU!!!

Wow! What am amazing place it is here! We arrived with a bit of difficulty but we finally arrived thank god! The tire on the bus was flat and it took them four hours to fix it, so after that we were on our way! It took the whole estimated time: all 17.5 hours! O my gosh, next time flight but it was definitely worth it. I don´t know what else I could do here. We did two excursions. Yesterday we went to the falls: Cataratas to the Argentine side since I can´t go to the Brasilian side because it´s a holiday and plus it costs $100 US, not worth it right now. Maybe if I were to go for a week but for a day no, I could buy a plane ticket to Chile with that money. Anyway, so we went on a boat that took us to the Brasilian side and the Argentine side, we got completely soaked. Then we hiked the entire park, it was completely beautiful and the weather was perfect! Then we went to the Garganta del Diablo, o my god completely amazing. I can´t explain it, its soooooooo huge! It´s as if the waterfall had a mouth and it was sucking everything in it´s sight into it, hence the name. It was sooooo beautiful and breathtaking. We didn´t see many wildlife because the truck tour was full and the boat tour we couldn´t do because of the water being too high. But I´m quite satisfied. Then last night we got home and ate dinner with some guy friends that met us up here at their hotel: which was a rip off! I prefer to stay in the hostels, you meet people and have fun. But next time I´m definitely going alone or with an Argentine or someone who is cheap and likes to go with the flow because I´m with two whiners ugh! I love them to death but when we arrived one asked for a private room because she didn´t trust ppl and the other got upset that I didn´t want to spend 100 bucks to go to Brasil, come on lady! Anyway, they are really sweet but I´m just so cheap and frugal and go with the flow, they stress me out a bit. Anyway, so today we went zip lining, hiking, and rock climbing soooooooo coool! I had such a great time! And it wasn´t too expensive. Then we went to the centro and I bought a mate and some yerba so I don´t have to keep using Cristian´s stuff. Iguazu is a really small town, there is a lot of poverty here too. Lots of Brasilian tourism and lots of Germans. Actually we were staying with two women from France in their 50s. I got their email, they said when and if I come to France I can visit them. Maybe I should work in a hostel, I am really good with people and love to meet people from all around the world. Could be cool huh? I would love to live in Iguazu for the summer and work here but then I couldn´t travel. It´s just the temperature and the style of the city I love it. Reminds me of Santa Cruz but warmer, or maybe like Zihuatanejo. It´s sooooooo cool here. But like I said there is poverty and the people that are impovershed have to work for the tourists, its the part I don´t really like. I like coming here but then tourism also can be harmful to the culture and the people who live in the city. Anyway, everything was great! This is my new favorite place in Iguazu! I don´t want to leave and I definitely don´t want to get back on that bus :( Ok well I´ll write when I get back to the city. Love you all! Only 3 more weeks left, next trip is to Uruguay and then Cordoba once again. Besotes!
Raquelita

Aduana de Argentina y mucho mas!

Ok so my wonderful father sent me a carepackage with some things in it that I can't seem to find here in Argentina. Thanks so much Dad!!!!! But it was sure fun trying to get it. I had to wait for Fed/Ex to send me a letter telling me to go to EZE at the Aduana or Customs center to pick up my package. So when I got that, I woke up super early this morning, took a bus to the shuttle to get to the airport, rode the shuttle for 45 mins to the international airport, got to the airport, ran around trying to find the correct aduana area, finally found it, got there, went to office two, then to office 3, then to office one, then to 3, then to one, then to 3, then to one, then paid my impuestos (taxes) and finally picked up my package. Oh man! Then I took the shuttle named Tienda Leon home! What a journey. I kid you not, I had to go to each office that many times, not an exaggeration! But everyone was really nice at the Aduana station. If I'm nice and speak the language, they tend to treat you better. So, then I took the shuttle, its great much safer and cheaper than a cab because the International Airport is out in the middle of nowhere like the Sacramento Int'l Airport. Soooooo anyway I got my package yay! And now I know how to use the Tienda Leon for when my friends and my love Steven come! I can take it to meet Steven and its much better and the drive is so pretty! Its all green grass with a huge soccer field and cattle everywhere, like Salinas jaja. So, all is well, just got done with my "midterms" at my super easy school. Did well I think, got two As and an A- because the class I got the A- in is really unstructured and so were my notes so I didn't explain myself well enough, oh well! Plus, I had never checked my grade I got last semester in my Literature class at Sac State because I was worried I got a bad one: A-, now my GPA is a solid 3.5! Awesome! I think even higher in my major specifically. Anyway, tonight I'm heading off to Iguazu Falls with two girls I met here, Marion from Germany and Sahar from Canada. Should be a blast! Check out the hostel I'm staying at: http://www.marcopoloinniguazu.com/ Look at the pictures, its so pretty! Its got a pool. Well I'll be putting up pictures on my facebook, so check them out k! Love you all! Chau chau, four hours till I leave for my 17 hour busride! AAAAAAA, I got a good book, fruit, cookies, and a sleeping aid haha! Love you! Chau chau!