Study Break

So last weekend I was studying for my exams (that finished yesterday!) and on Sunday there was a soccer game at 2. It was the best kind of study break! I love soccer and so do Italians and on a really nice day, watching semi-pro soccer, you are really able to let all the stress and worries go away.
SPAL is the soccer team here and as of last Sunday, they were in the running to be in the playoffs. They played a really good game, but unfortunately the other team scored during the second half and we just weren't able to catch up. They played a really good game and we learned lots of new cheers with new bad words...Afterwards, I went home and studied, fully refreshed.
The pictures are of my new SPAL shirt and the soccer field...

The Earthquake in L'Aquila

I'm sure everyone in the States heard about the massive earthquake that occurred in central Italy about a month ago, that cause a lot of damage. I'm also sure that everyone there has also probably forgotten about it. It's weird being here and actually witnessing a national tragedy in a place you don't consider home. A lot of the Italians I know discussed making trips down there to help in the relief and some are still contemplating it, because L'Aquila is nowhere near being cleaned up yet. One of my American friends was telling me about how his host parents got into an argument because the wife wants to go down and help, but she has health issues and her husband was concerned for her. It's really affected everyone.
I read some articles from Italian journalists and from American journalists and noticed big differences in the description. In the Italian newspaper, the journalist described the tragedy in full detail with a lot of examples of human suffering. You really got a good idea of what people were feeling and thinking during the earthquake. In the American article, all I read about was what a tragedy it was to lose all the wonderful art that was in the area. The difference in the tone of the articles was a little disquieting..
I don't have any pictures for this post because I don't have any idea what kind of picture someone would want to see..the earthquake? no...

Mid-terms

I'm finally finished with my midterms. Everyone else is far far away traveling for sprink break, while I pulled an allnighter last night after a week long of studying, all for one class... PHILOSOPHY! I remember when I went to the Registrar's office at Wofford and had them sign off that it was ok for me to take philosophy abroad. The funny thing is that Lucy Quinn looked me straight in the eye and said "DON'T DO IT!" I did it anyway... I should have listened. But, it's too late, so too bad! Because of this decision, I am the only foreign exchange student in this "Problems of Philosophy" or "Problemas Filosoficas" class. Everyday, the students ask me why I did this to myself. They say, "This is hard even for us, and we SPEAK spanish." I agree. It's ridiculously hard. But, I have a tutor, and I go get his help ALL the time. My philosophy midterm covered Plato's Republic (the alegories of the line, the sun, and the cave), Laques, Teeton, The Apology of Socrates, Fedon, and probably something else that I'm forgetting (btw, excuse the spelling... I only know the names in Spanish sometimes, because it's not like I've ever learned this stuff in english either!!) It also included Aristoteles' Metaphysics, and then Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas. I thought I might die. Last night, in a last attempt to learn this stuff, I pulled ALMOST an allnighter. In order to stay awake... I had amo... a pot of mate, freshly made! I read, and read, and thought, and thought, and translated, and then thought and read some more. This stuff is difficult no matter the language! Have you ever tried to read Saint Augustine in english??? How about Spanish? Yea, DON'T! Anyhow, I slept for a couple of hours, and then at 4am I got back up again to continue studying! I walked to class for my 8am exam. I didn't know that in order to take the exam you needed to hand over your passport, so luckily for me they accepted my driver's license. I started writing, and writing... I was impressed with the fact that I had studied everything that was on the test. It's not that I KNEW everything on the test, but I remember studying everything, which for me, to even know what the questions were asking, was a mini victory. I had brought along my dictionary, but I basically didn't even need it (the kids in my class were making fun of me, and they said I probably had all the answers written in the dictionary... this of course was not the case). Anyhow, after 5 pages front and back, I think I ran out of things to say. And although my grade will probably be terrible, I know that I gave it a good effort. I do worry about how taking this class will impact my GPA at Wofford, but I guess it's not all that important. If I don't get into grad school, I guess it's for a reason. I wouldn't want to go somewhere that wouldn't allow me to do weird things and take risks anyhow! I'm prooud of myself. After the test I was talking with the other Argentines in my class, and one of them didn't even know all four of Aristoteles' causes: efficient, final, formal, and material. See, I know them! Whatever happens... happens. It's done. "Ya esta, basta. Ahora a divertirme!" Ciao.

Springtime in Ferrara

Spring has finally arrived in Ferrara!
It's absolutely beautiful here and everything has turned green. There aren't a lot of things in bloom, but the green is a welcome change to the constant gray tones.
The wall of the city is completely lined with huge trees that hang over the path. It's a really wonderful bike ride.
At night, everyone comes out to the center of the city and hangs out in front of the Duomo.
It's really funny, because they're all drinking and it feels like we're doing something "bad" ha ha
The picture is of the fascist monument we have in Ferrara that looks way less scary now than it did in the winter...

Olive Oil Factories, Wineries, and Fun in Mendoza

Olive Oil?-- Who Knew olives could be strikingly interesting? Definately not this writer. We arrive at PasRai, with the expectation that this is the most random tour ever. But really olive oil is pretty 'cool.' The factory uses a large granit stone to mash the olives and the pit into a paste. Then the paste is put on a metal wheel and put under a hydrolic compressor that squeezes all the juice and water out of the paste. The dry past is sold to 2nd rate companies that makea poorer quality olive oil. Then the water and the ail are seperated and the oil is filtered. This company even makes hand lotion out of the olive oils because of the high concentration of vitamin E. Though I may still pick the olives off of my muzzarella pizza in Buenos Aires, I have a new respect for what they can make!

We spent a day shopping and exploring the city of Mendoza. Of course shopping time, meant calling home to mommy time. The thing that dumbfounded me the most was the at 2:30 in the afternoon the streets were closed, and no stores were opened. I later found out that stores do not open until 4:30 to 6:00 because of their lunch break. It was definately a change to stores in the states on Saturdays. In an attempt to save a few pesos, I ate a cheap lunch, AMERICAN STYLE. Of course it was Subway! But here the slogan is not eat fresh, it is eat rich, and eat healthy!

Once I left Mendoza, I was headed for Santiago Chile, but first I had to do one thing, cross the Andes. Never in my life did I expect to get to see the Andes mountains. I always thought it was a mountain range beyond my means of ability to travel. But yet again, I have proven new and exciting things to myself. As we drove into the Mendoza, we saw the snow-capped mountains in the distance, but now we were driving right through them. We ventured off from Mendoza to Santiago at 7:30am. We started in a typical semi-cama bus with two hippies in front of us. One, in which, who had dreds that overlapped onto our seats. We made our climb up into the Adnes. They stretched out as far as the eye could see from North to South. We went through tunnel after tunnel and hill after hill. Slowly we made our way to Chile. Then.... POP!!!! Our tire decided to blow out as soon as we crossed the Chile border! There we were a group of foreigners stuck in the middle of the Andes with no cell phone service or transportation! It was like a scene straight from the Hills Have Eyes. We arrive at immigrations, only to be harassed because we are traveling on an American passport. The immigrations officers wanted to take my temperature to make sure I did not have Swine Flu. I told them NO, I had been living in Argentina for two months now. They kept insisting. Finally, with very poor Spanish, I got out of getting my temperature taken! Then because our bus was broken we had to bored a 'school bus' for another 3 hours. It was hot, and dusty on the bus, and there wasn't even enough room to sneeze properly! We headed down the steepest, most winding and dangerous moutain roads!

My Spring Break

So, IES mid-terms are over and everyone is traveling... except me. Someone should warn the overachievers that when they sign up for the Advanced honors program, they will not have fun. I'm not allowed to travel, because I have a mid-term at UTDT on Thursday. So, I've decided to explore Buenos Aires/occasionally study... ALONE! Since ther's almost noone here. Where to start. I tried to go to a museum here in Belgrano, but it was aholiday, and it was closed. So, I stayed in my neighborhood laying around, vegging, for two days, while there were lots of protest going on downtown. Since it seemed to have cleared up over the weekend, I was able to go out and abotu on Saturday. And thank goodness. Me housemom was driving me batty. That's as much of an explanation as I can write without beginning to use explicitives. So, I left the apartment and went to Recoleta. I called a friend who lives in Recoleta, and we grabbed a bite to eat. Then, she talked me into facing my cemetery fears again. We ended up spending over 2 hours walking around exploring. I still have to say that I'm not a huge fan, but it's not as bad as it was the first time. The shock factor is over, I guess. Anyhow, after the cemetery, we walked around the pseo Recoleta Feria again. I got some really cute wooden painted arrings with pink flowers on them!! Then, we got icecream. After the icecream, we decided to go to a movie. The thing playing next happened to be Fast and Furious 3... so we went. It was horrible, but atleast we got a good laugh at how bad the acting was. Afterwards we went to a restaurant and had pizza. We decided to hang out at her apartment for the night, so we went to a grocery store and stocked up on wine, fruit, and of course delicious cookies! We watched movies and youtube until we were both exhausted. I called a cab and headed home. This morning (Sunday) I woke up and headed to San Telmo for the day. I walked around Plaza Dorrego, had lunch, and then bought some cool stuff along the way from Plaza Dorrego all through the Feria de Independencia on Defensa Street headed toward the Plaza de Mayo. I now have a cute pink ring and cute multicolored scarf that matched my outfit and the earrings that I bought yesterday! How perfect! I also found a gift for my mom!! After being on my feet for hours, I found the Plaza de Mayo... sort of on accident. And since I was already there, I decided to explore, of course. I went to the Museo de Cabildo (the old townhall and prison from the 1500's), I went to the Casa Rosada (the argentine version of the white house), and then I saw San martin's tomb inside the national Cathedral. I finally caught a bus and headed hoe, making it just beofre dark! What a day. I'm exhausted, but I must pull some energy from somewhere, because although it's my spring break, I do have a really tough mid term... well, I guess I'll go start that!!

Mendoza!

I am alive. I have arrived in Mendoza. Lil ole me forgot to post this week for a second time. Mendoza is gorgeous. And well worth the 18 hours on a bus! The Andes are in the background creating a beautiful landscape! I have fought through a huge crowd in order to get to a computer, but I doubt this will happen again! I will update everyone when I return from Mendoza and Santiago. I am off to a wine tour now! Pictures are to come! Hasta luego!