La Accion de Dia de Gracias

Well I did it! I made my first Thanksgiving Dinner and it was great! The food came out perfect and man was it hard. I give all props to my mom for cooking all those years. Love you mama! But anyway, I got to share this night with my family here in Argentina: the guys, Marina, Cristian and Andrea, and my new friend Jezmin who is from the US but is Mexicana. It was great! Next up, a costume party at Marin's house. I'm a bit sad though because I'm so use to spending this time with my family, I feel like I'm missing out on being with them and I know poor Steven is with his family right now and they are all probably asking him how I am what I'm doing blah blah blah and he has to think about all that and that I'm not there. We just had our 3 year anniversary on the 24th, how sad not to be together. But anyway, its alright because we are going to spend New Years and his birthday together, so all is well on my side. Anyway, the night was great, good food, good friends, good conversation. Now, after tonight, I really feel fluent. I understood all the conversation, participated as if it were my language, and only had problems pronunciating words I wasn't familiar with. Other than that, I feel real Argentine right now, real portena. I'm so happy! So my friend Marin is going to Miami to live, she is Argentine, and wants to do the same thing I'm doing here. I'm sad but happy at the same time, sad because she is leaving but happy because she will be getting something great out of living in another country plus I can easily visit her there. Then my friend Andrea is moving to Brasil in January. Again happy for her but sad because she is ultra cool. Like Janis Joplin, she reminds me a bit. Then my friend Jezmin is probably moving to France with her boyfriend in April. I know I'm heading back home but to think that I won't see these people everyday when they are gone or I'm gone, saddens me. Wish I could put my two worlds together. But that is life right? Plus the guys, o my god, I really wish I could take the guys with me to the US. They would fit right in with me and Steven. They share the same views that we do and are really really really great, really like my brothers. I love them. Anyway, now comes December wow! I can't believe it. What's for December, well I'm going to travel, not sure where, the south probably. Probably will go sola. Then Steven comes, we're either going to Uruguay or Mendoza. Then Jannie comes and we're going to Mendoza or Iguazu. Wow, lots of traveling coming up. Then I'm going to take this Portuguese class, then ya I start again my semester. I'm so so so glad I chose to stay for a year because time really does fly by. Especially now that Steven is coming and Jannie, my time will fly sooooo fast. Anyway, I'm having a great time now, really learning a lot alot! I love you all and wish you all Happy Thanksgiving! I'm so greatful to be here and so greatful to have you all as my support for being here. Besotessssssssssss
Rachel

Mis Cumpleaños en Buenos Aires

Great great great night! Sorry California but I have never had a birthday like the one I had last night! It was great. First we went to this place Bellagamba where its self serve empanadas, pizza, mini parrilla, all typical food in Argentina. And really cheap and easy! You just go and grab what you want to eat, heat it up, and bring it to the cashier and pay. Perfecto for a birthday especially one where the birthday girl invited everyone she has ever met in Argentina. So many people came out to the event. It was sooooo great! I love the life here, you meet one person and its like you are meeting all their friends and their friend's friends and so you have this big family in a place so far from your real family. Anyway, so the guys, my loves, my roomies came too to eat. And they brought their friend who I met on my very first day coming here, but the difference was I could have a conversation with her, she told me how lovely it is to finally meet me because obviously when I arrived it was difficult to know who I really was for her because I couldn't really talk. Anyway, she has a boyfriend that lives in Brasil and she thinks its great that I'm going to start taking up Portuguese. So, as usually I socialized with everyone and we heading out to Crobar around 2pm and danced the night away. It was sooooo great! The musica was in the beginning a lot of pop from the United States but then towards the end my favorite: electronica! Then later on we ended the night at a bar close to my house because my Argentine friend Andrea wanted to meet her guy. Anyway, when we stepped out into the light, I knew it was time to go to bed haha! All in all, greatest birthday ever so far.
I'm also really happy that I met my Argentine friends because they really help me with my language acquisition and of course being able to understand and speak the slang. The Argentines use A LOT of slang, so if a person doesn't understand something but speaks decent Spanish, its probably because the Argentines speak in code or lunfardo. And now that I'm starting to understand and know the different words and phrases, life is a lot easier. Anyways, great night! o and it rained, it was my bday except the fact that it was super humid and my hair the I straightened was completely ruined and fluffy!

Next party fin del aneo con mi amorrrrrrrrrrr Steven! 35 dias no lo puedo creer! And next week I'm making the Thanksgiving feast, we will see how that goes....haha Anyway all in all good times, and I feel so close with my roomies now, we just get along soooo well, they are really my family now. Bueno nos hablamossssssssssssssssss chauuuuuuuuuu

ps I started to make notecards again to help me remember new words, I don't know why I stopped doing that, it really helps me with my memory to remember everything and anything, gosh its a blessing and a pain all at the same time!

Mi vida ultimamente

Ok so this is what's been going on. I met a really awesome girl from San Diego but she is mexicana, she lived there for 5 years and lived in Spain for one year and we just really hit it off. She is a great friend to have here because she speaks fluent Spanish and English so it really helps me a lot and plus we are the same age! So great. So we are planning on going to Machu Piccu in December and later we are going to go to the south together. Right now we are taking salsa lessons, I like this dance better than tango, I know how shameful. Anyway, i'm really glad I met her. Since I will be traveling in December with her, then with Steven and then with Jannie in January, I basically have those months filled up. Which leaves February to fill. So, I decided since I feel completely confident with my Spanish now, its time to move on to my third language: Portuguese. I'm going to take an intensive course in February, its 3 hours a day and its four weeks. I go each day Tues-Friday and its 400 pesos. So about 100 dollars, what a bargain! Then I researched that in Sacramento there is a class for beginners of Portuguese that I can take when I get home. How great! So I'm really excited about that. I've been going to the local tourist sites in the city with my friend Tomas from Germany. We went to the Museo de Evita and yesterday we went to the Museo of Natural Science. It was awesome! I have never seen the dinosaur bones in real life, only in Jurassic Park! I loved it. Tomorrow we're going to the MALBA a museum of Arts and we're going to watch the movie Yellow Submarine. Next week I'm going to see my first obra or what is the word in english o play! I'm going to see a play, its called Medea, its a greek tragedy. I read the play about a year ago in my Greek Mythology class. The guys, me and my friend Cris are all going. Then I am going to TRY and cook Thanksgiving dinner for me, the guys, my friend Cris, Andrea and my new friend my San Diego Jezmin. It will be an interesting time because I have never cooked Thanksgiving dinner and our apartment is so small, its going to be like an oven in the whole place. Anyway, should be interesting and fun! Then on Sunday I'm going to go see my first soccer game with Cris who told me if I don't root for the River Plate soccer team, I am never allowed to ride in his car again. There are two rival teams here in the capital: La Boca Jrs and River Plate. Honestly, there are a lot of teams in the capital but these two are the rivals, they played each other about two weeks ago and ended in a tie. What else? O my god! I find myself eating so much meat all the time! And I crave it too. I feel so Argentine. Andrea and Cris said their mission is for me to leave here sounding like a complete Portena or a person from Buenos Aire, slang, curse words and all. I already got the Mate and meat down. I'm really excited about my time here, its going really great now that I've met some wonderful people. I'm still apart of Greenpeace down here and i'm going to volunteer to help sign petitions for the issue with global warming, it will definitely be a test for my Spanish. So the weather here is soooo weird. One second it will be hot and humid and then all of a sudden a huge storm. Cristian says its starting to turn from subtropical to tropical weather here in the capital because of global warming. I really want to dedicate my studies and my masters to environmental studies and helping solve the global warming issue but I'm not so sure its that important economially to Latin America and the United States. I know the agriculture will always be something really important but what's important to me is the environment and I see so many things that could be fixed here and that we can fix in the US, like public transportation, that I learned from Argentina. Anyway, when the time comes. So all is well, my bday is on Saturday. Tomorrow me and Jezmin are going to salsa lesson and then we are going to eat dinner and wait for midnight to celebrate my bday as they do here in Argentina. Then on Saturday I'm having dinner in this cool pub with all you can eat empanadas jaja cheap and easy. Then we are going to dance the night away at a club called Crobar. I'll send pictures and write about the night on Sunday, probably in the evening. Well I love you all! And I can't wait to meet up with you in the future in our secret hiding spot in Zihautanejo. Les amooooooo! Necesito descansarme porque fue un día largo!
BESOTESSSSS

El Tigre y Nueva Semana

So I went to Tigre yesterday with Marin and Guillermo. Its a train ride away like 45 minutes and its great! Its sooooo pretty. You can ride bikes, sit by the river and drink mate, go shopping....which is what we did oops. We walked around, its like a huge denios more or less. We ate carne of course and walked around, chatted and spent the whole day together. o my gosh the whollleeeeeeee day. We left at 2pm and got home at 2am. But we did go to this Taco Shop here in Palermo to drink margaritas and try out their tacos. They were good but ugh I am full now, only fruit and veggies from now on hahaha. I ate soooo much this weekend. But anyway it was fun yesterday, I got a cool dress, sunglasses, a ring, toe ring, earrings, and this box to put different types of teas in. Its great. I really like it, but also the dress is great too. Then what else? Well my Spanish is getting really great, I rarely have to say ummmm when I'm talking, everything is coming out naturally and without thought. Plus when I talk with people I can understand everything they are saying. It's soooo great! I can't imagine how great I'll be by the end of my adventure. What's next? Portuguese, Italian, French? Not sure yet. Portuguese would be economically wise to know for purpose of working for the government with Latin America but Italian would be great because it would help me feel connected to my roots. Well, why not both? haha. I'll probably start with Portuguese because it is soooo similar to Spanish. So, this is my first day on my vacation from school. It was a nice day, me and Cristian just hung around the house, I had a doctors appointment this morning, my hormones are off here and we're doing some tests. The medical system here is sooooo great! We need something like this in the United States. I heard that the lower legislature passed the public medical plan, its not complete yet, but atleast its a step forward in the right direction. What else? Well, I really want to go to Maccu Picchu but its soooo expensive to fly! Maybe I'll have to save it for another trip but I'm going to meet up with this girl from Mexico tonight because she wants to travel here too, if anything we can just be friends and travel within the country. Well, not much else is going on, I'm really happy here right now. I feel really relaxed and at peace. Especially now that I actually feel apart of society here and can participate in conversations, I actually feel like a person again who can express feelings as opposed to when I arrived where I just had to work with what I knew of the language. It's great. I have an opinion and can express it now! haha. Oh yeah, I went to Gay Pride here in the city! It was awesome!!!!!!!! So many great people. I joined a political group for the rights for Homosexuals in Argentina and for women and abortion because its illegal here. I love this country, its sooooo political! And they fight for their rights! There is always a strike or a march! It's sooooo great!!!
Well, I'm off to the gym, I'm really happy and I will be soooo much happier when Steven comes in 45 days wow!
LOVE RAQUELITAAAAAAA

Terminé con todo

So I am completely done with the semester, I got all A's yay that's going to bump up my GPA! So let's see what to do....well Steven doesn't come until the 28 of December and since we are traveling together, I figured I would hang around the city and see the sights here, possibly go to the afueras of the city, however I really really really want to go to Machu Piccu and trying to figure out how and when I will do that. I have a friend that is going there to live in December for a month soooo I might just meet her there in the beginning of December and we can do the 4 day hike to Machu Piccu. Also, I'm going to have dinner with my friends from Peru on Saturday, maybe I can talk one of them into going with me. It's such a shame that at the end of the semester I am meeting all these great people. So what happened is because the system for finals at Belgrano is sooooo completely disorganized, we all had a lot of time waiting outside the classroom for the teacher to meet individually with each of us for 5 minutes. So during this time, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people who now come to find out are leaving in December or January so that's a bummer. But also I have met some people who are staying for the year which is great too! There are two girls from France, two from Sweden, Melissa from Sacramento, another girl from US and that's all I can think of at the moment, there aren't a lot that are staying the year but ni importa, I will meet more people during the break and next semester, especially since I will be taking classes with Argentines. I've noticed here that it's far easier to make friends here that are international students from different countries than to make friends that are Argentine. Anyway, doesn't matter. So last night I went to this great Vinyasa Yoga class, o it was very relaxing and fulfilling. Then afterwards I went to meet my new friends at a "mexican" restaurant here in Palermo. It was two girls from Arizona, a girl from Colombia, 2 from Germany, and 4 guy from Italy who were crazy and were making fun of me all night for never being to Italy even though my family is from there and apparently where my family is from is supposed to be one of the most beautiful parts of Italy. Dad we have to look up the family and go there! I'll pick up some Italian before we go! Just me and you, lets do it! So it was a blast but like I said all these people are going home in December or January and are traveling this month because they are leaving soon. It's sad.....but o well I wasn't going to know them forever I suppose. But now I have even more people to visit hahaha. World traveler. I want to fill up that passport of mine. Well, today is a cool day, actually looks like it's going to rain but I can still feel the humidity, ugh my legs and feet are sooooo swollen. My bday is in 15 days and I will be 25, god I can't believe how the years are flying by! O my god. Not sure what I will do on that day and then Thanksgiving in on the 26th, that's going to be hard not to have anyone to celebrate with. But I think me and the guys are going to make a Thanksgiving mini-feast. I'm going to have to think of some things to cook....any ideas? Turkey, bread, sweet potatos, acorn squash, stuffing, pumpkin pie....anything else? I think that's good enough for three people. Anyway, love you all! Talk to you soon!

La semana de los finales

So I have my finales this week, blah! Not hard but soooo unorganized as usual. Its kinda a big waiting game. So during my waiting period, I´ve met a lot of friends and students from around the world whom I had class with or whom I had never met before. So that´s kinda interesting. Well, I´m going to get all As in all my classes pretty sure, if I got a B I would be really surprised. Right now I´m waiting to take my final/oral exam in Tradiciones y Culturas Argentinas and there are 40 students in the class, he started an hour and a half ago and he´s only on number 11. So this is great, probably going to be stuck here all night long. Lame. Anyway, so this week is kinda pointless and lame but atleast I´m meeting a lot of new people and talking about adventures. Steven comes in 55 days and Jannie in 85 days yay! I really want to plan a trip to Machu Piccu, this weekend I´m going with my Peruvian friends to eat peruvian food, so maybe we can plan something. I really want to go! So, I can´t believe the semester is over, this means that the next semester is going to fly by just like this one. I´ll be home in no time wow! Next semester though I´m taking all courses with Argentines: Macroeconomics, Mercosur and Diplomacy and the History of International Relations I. Should hopefully be more interesting than this semester. I need a challenge. Everyone says o the classes with the Argentines are hard you have to read a lot, please I want to be challenged I want to read, I want to have to study actually. Well, tonight I´m going to the Catedral maybe with my ecuadorian friend and tomorrow I´m going with two girls from Arizona and a guy from Germany to a mini-concert. Should be fun. Now that schools over, its time to see the sites and really know the city. Anyway, I´m going to go back down, maybe I can sneak my way into getting ahead of the others....probably not. I don´t understand an oral exam with one teacher for 40 students, doesn´t make any sense. Anyways, I´ll write more later, this week is all busy work and paperwork more exact. Chau nos vemos!
Raquel