Typical...

It's another Tuesday morning, Beby's phone alarm is going off. There are pigeons ramming into our windows again. I can hear them over our fan. It's around 7 a.m.I fall back asleep for about an hour, Beby's alarm is going off again. 10 minutes later it's loyda's alarm. 30 minutes later it's mine. Finally we are all up. Bebys already gone. I jump in the shower, the water smells like sulfer again, gross. I get dressed and flip on my "morning mix" on my ipod.Loyda leaves. I go put laundry in the washer. I grab some fruit from the caf. Scratch that, there's no fruit in the caf this morning. Nevermind breakfast. Back to the room. I open my grammar book. Quiz in an hour. Decide i'd rather read my book instead. Go put laundry into the dryer. Go to class. Raul is funny as he tries to explain the newest lesson. Laugh at Davyeon's laugh. done with class, off to the caf. Stand in line for 30 minutes. not worth it, the food is gross, as usual. Settle for a salad and rice and beans. Surprise. Sit with some ACA friends. Talk about the grammar quiz. Back to dorm. It's too hot. Change into pj shorts.Beby's asleep. Study for a little bit, then get tired myself. Siesta! Wake up 1.5 hours later, remember my laundy. Go pick it up. Put away laundry. Maybe go to El Navegante for coffe. Maybe hang out in Trishas room. get online. Internet doesn't work, end up taking photos with photobooth and laughing about something stupid. Off to class. 3 hours. Inbetween we go to the CEAPE and get chipas. End up sharing chipas with all of the class. Get out of class early.Go to the caf. Hmm, milenasa and egg sandwiches. Pass. It's cereal again for dinner. Hang out in the caf for an hour talking with people. Back to the dorm, Loyda's studying. Go for a run, or maybe a walk. Get back ... Loydas studying. Talk about my run. Talk about her test. Talk about how we want to watch a movie.Take a shower. Go to Trisha's room. We all get into a crazy laughing fit with Giselle and Lory. Laura is in a bad mood again. We move to Chelles room. Terere with Anto.mmm. Try and get internet. Write some e-mails. Check the news. Worry a little about dengue fever. Back to my room, Bebys already asleep. Do some homework...okay, attempt to do homework.I don't really have any anyway. Finish my book. Not really tired because of the nap...also the terere. but there's not much else to do so i get in bed anyway.
Turn on Enchanted. Watch all the good parts. Loyda jumps on my bed. We watch all the good parts again. It's 1 a.m. Off to bed. Another successful day in Argentina. Definitely going to miss it...

ACA 2008. We are cool.

We love taking pictures, but a simple smile gets boring after a while. Entonces, our ACA group has come up with quite a few interesting photo ideas throughout the year.
One of my personal favorites is the "head shake" photo.
This is where you shake your head while buzzing your lips... The result is a very funny picture. haha....

The guys:Ladies:

Rio!

Our last ACA trip has come and gone :( Time has truly flown by.
The trip was amazing, one of the best. We spent a little less than a week enjoying the beaches, food, and sights of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and picked up a little Portuguese while we were at it **side note, Spanish is sooo much better than Portuguese**.
We took a city tour one day and saw where Carnival is held, the world largest sports stadium, a modern Catholic church, and a beautiful botanical garden. We also saw Cristo Redentor, and went up Pao de Azucar where we had panoramic views of the beaches and ocean...beautiful.
When we weren't touring we spent time tanning on the beach, drinking smoothies, and walking around the beach front and outdoor market.
We took hundreds of pictures, bronzed our skin, watched a scary movie and laughed more than should be legal. I am going to miss our ACA group so much, we all have so much fun together and get along really well. The trip was a great ending to an awesome year :) Only 6 more weeks of school left!

P.S. My lovely friend Trisha wrote a blog about our trip that is much more detailed and colorful. If you want to take a peek, here's the link...

http://lavidadetrisha.blogspot.com/2009/03/brasil-trip-2009.html

Spring Break Adventures!

Well, I'm back from my 10 day "spring break". I'm not totally sure why they refer to it in this way since it is, in fact, almost fall here in Argentina. But I suppose the name doesn't really matter much, us ACA were all excited to have break from school. The best part about my break was that my mom came down to travel with me! It was so fun, and definitely an adventure having her here.

Although we met up a few different times with some ACA friends, for the most part it was just me and her so that left me, the only spanish speaker, doing all of the arranging. It was REALLY great practice for me, and although I had a few issues along the way, we mostly got along really well :)
Yes! My spanish is getting better!!
We started out in Mar Del Plata where we met up with my friend Trisha. We stayed there for 3 days enjoying cafe shop hopping, and strolling the beach/town and enjoying all the great "sights".
We said goodbye to Trisha from there and mom and I headed on a dreadfully long bus ride down to Bariloche.



Bariloche is my favorite Argentinian city. It is located in the Lake District and is surrounded by beautiful lakes, mountians and adorable sweedish buildings. Oh, and did I mention that it is the Chocolate capital of the country. Perfect.
Mom and I stayed in an adorable apartment, and tasted chocolate all day long. It was amazing.
A few days after we got there we met up with two other friends, Emily and Laura. We all rented a car and drove two hours to a fun Hippie town and another lake.




A few days later we packed up and headed out on a 30 hour bus trip back to the school. It was definitely a loooong trip, but we made it back safely. Mom got to hang out at la UAP for a few days before she packed up again and headed home :(


Anyway, a very condensed version of an awesome break. It was so great having my mom down here, giving her a taste of my argentinian life. :) Only 65 more days left! I can't believe it!

Chistes..

At dinner tonight two of my native friends were trying their hand at a few english phrases, which turned out to be quite entertaining. My favorite was probably when Jessica turned to me with a proud grin and said,
"Shauna... don't tell me what to me."

Trish, Tiff, and I kind of sat there confused, and then Vale, another native friend shook her head...
"no, no. you say, don't tell me what to you"

We cracked up laughing when we realized that what they were actually trying to say was,
"don't tell me what to do."

All us ACA have had our share of embarrassing moments, that's for sure. It felt good to finally be on the other side of things. Haha. Learning a new language sure is entertaining...

Puppy Kisses..

This last weekend my roommate, Beby, was babysitting this cute little puppy, named Pica. It was great being greeted by the little wiggly furball every time we came into the room, and puppy kisses in the morning. And for a few days our room had that sweet and sour smell of puppy breath....
It was great.

Argentinian Downpour

The weather here is always changing...although it usually stays a nice hot temperature no matter what.
Recently we will wake up to a smoldering hot day only to have massive rain fall in the afternoon.
I love the rain and thunderstorms here. The rain falls so hard and loud, it's like a base drum that almost drown out our professors during classes. Thunder is even better because when it cracks you can feel it in your chest. I've never heard thunder as loud as i have here. The buildings shake, and the windows rattle, and it is so awesome.
Today was one of these days. My friend Nancy and I went and stood out in the rain between classes and were completely drenched after a few moments. If there was any dry spots left, they were taken care of when we all had to run back to our dorm.