kelly's hOMMMe

Iguazu Falls

Here's a picture from the Argentina side of the falls...I was utterly amazed.

posted by Kelly @ 2:39 PM 2 comments

The bus to Iguazú

17 hours in a bus from Buenos Aires to Iguazú Falls...what an adventure! You’d think that a trip like that on a huge bus would be utter torture. On the contrary, it was quite comfortable. We (Rachel, two friends, and I) boarded the bus at 7 p.m. and were greeted with whiskey on the rocks, a warm meal and red wine, dessert and champagne. They showed movies and we fell asleep in our chairs that converted into full-blown beds. When we woke up we watched Star Wars and had a breakfast of croissants and café, arrived in Puerto de Iguazú refreshed and ready to start our tour…

The waterfalls are one of the seven natural wonders and even more amazing than I would have imagined. They span a region that covers parts of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay- absolutely breathtaking. Aurelien arrived the second day that we were there to help us explore properly. We took a speed boat tour to the base of the falls, soaked we were!

On the third day we decided to take a risk and visit the border city in Paraguay despite its description in Rach’s travel guide- “a dodgy place for money launders and smugglers.” This trip was almost a disaster because we realized we had very little time and catching a bus back to Argentina was going to be a headache. We begged a taxi driver to take us back, but he only agreed to take us to the boarder of Brazil and Argentina. We eagerly accepted and ended up doing our shopping (that was our initial motivation for going to Paraguay- it is CHEAP, cheap, cheap) from the back seat of the cab as we sat in traffic. People walked through the lanes of traffic, selling beer, exotic fruit from Brazil, and random junk. Things really came to a head when we found ourselves eating lunch in a Brazilian café only an hour before our bus was to depart from the station in Argentina. Aurelien was calm and collected while Rach and I started to flip out…long story short, we made it back with just enough time!

posted by Kelly @ 2:33 PM 1 comments

Catedral en La Plata

La Plata is the capital of the province of Buenos Aires. Here is a shot of the inside a GORGEOUS catedral...this one was taken especially with my MOM in mind!!!

posted by Kelly @ 4:13 PM 0 comments

Casa Rosada

This building is the equivalent of the White House. They call it Casa Rosada which means, for those of you who didn't take Spanish 101, the "Pink House." You can see that it is two different shades of pink. They started to repaint it a few years ago, but after the financial crisis in 2001 the project was abandoned.

posted by Kelly @ 4:07 PM 0 comments

Breakthrough

I'm not really sure what happened, but today it was like something clicked. I first noticed it when I was in the kitchen eating breakfast. I realized that I understood everything Beatriz (my host mom) was saying...usually she speaks a mile a minute, making her hilarious stories virtually impossible to understand.

Then, a few hours later, I was running at the gym and a trainer came over to chat. We had a 10 minute conversation and I felt completely at ease. I was thinking to myself that this must be one of my good days. It's strange because my progress here has not been linear. Some days I feel like I'm speaking wonderfully while other days my Spanish attempts are disastrous.

BUT it isn't just the speaking that is going well today...while eating lunch I read Clarin (my favorite local newspaper) WITHOUT my dictionary in hand. It was amazing, I could understand virtually everything. Here's some of the news of the day: Argentina just raised minimum wage (from 1.50 pesos per hour to 2 pesos per hour), illegal immigrants found on the border of the U.S. and Canada or Mexico can now be immediately deported without the judicial proceeding that was formerly required, Brazil has decided to create a state-operated condom factory to fight their AIDS problem (they have the highest rate of contraction in all of South America).

Rachel Newbound is coming in from England tomorrow! I am going to take it easy tonight in preparation for her arrival, especially after last night: margaritas, caiperinhas (another fun drink with a lime base), a LOUD political debate and a fun group from all over the world (3 americans, 1 french, 1 canadian, 1 argentine)...we all enjoyed the music at a place called the "Soul Cafe." Rach will be in town for about 2 weeks, I'm sure there will be interesting stories to come! Hoorah for a three day weekend :)

posted by Kelly @ 3:31 PM 0 comments

CIA Asks Bush To Discontinue Blog

Here is a funny article from the Onion...

posted by Kelly @ 2:31 PM 0 comments

Mi horario (My schedule)

I know, I know...it's going to look like I am on a serious vacation when you see my class schedule for this semester. Just remember that it's quite fun taking philosophy IN Spanish...hopefully some day soon I'll have the courage to contribute in class :)

Mon 10-12: Teorias de la Justicia (Theories of Justice)

Tues 12:45-2:45: Teorias de la Justicia Practico (Practical section, I guess it's a discussion session); 2:45-4:45: Derecho Internacional Privado (Private Int'l Law)

Wed 11-12: Teorias de la Justicia; 2:45-4:45 Derecho Int'l Privado

Thurs- OFF :)

Friday 10-1: Topicos de Derecho Internacional (Seminar on Int'l Law)
___________________________________________________

Update on the sequestrado situation: we found out that several houses in our neighborhood were hit with the same scam. I'm not sure why our area was targeted, but it's good to know that we weren't picked just because we live in a house full of extranjeros (foreigners).

posted by Kelly @ 12:21 PM 0 comments

500 Pesos en Tarjetas Telefónicas

I thought, after a night out at a fun Brazilian bar, that I would have a nice morning sleeping in and then a little self-led yoga…because I have NO CLASS on Thursdays. I was definitely not expecting the wakeup call that I actually received. My host mom, Beatriz came frantically knocking on my door around 9 a.m. and when she heard my voice she went down the hall to my roommates´ doors…same frantic tone, same hurried demeanor.

She was talking on the phone with someone and her son, Raúl had a very worried look on his face. Turns out the person on the phone was telling Beatriz that someone in our house was “sequestrado.” I know what that word means in Spanish, but I couldn´t believe that this was really happening. The only person missing was my roommate Patrick, who had left for school around 8ish. Had he really been kidnapped???

Beatriz became too upset to continue talking on the phone so Raúl took over as the person on the other line (I still don´t know who it was- police or otherwise) began to ask for money. Here´s what was weird about the whole situation- they wanted to be paid 500 pesos in phone cards!! ¡Muy raro! Raúl rushed out to the locutorio to buy the cards, but the girl behind the counter told him to proceed with caution. She suggested that we check the school to see if Patrick was really missing before we started handing over dinero or phone cards.

With tear-stained cheeks and a pounding heart, I hopped in a cab and went with Raúl to my school so that we could look for Patrick…we knew that he had two classes today and that his first one was over. I had no idea where to start looking and Raúl had never even been to UTDT. What a search party!! I looked in the window of every single classroom…no Patrick. He was not sipping a café in the smoky cafeteria nor was he playing ping pong (as he loves to do) in the student lounge. Finally, gracias a Dios, we found him in the basement checking his email. Needless to say the whole house was overjoyed when he walked through the door…we had been scammed big style.

My day only got better (how could it not?!) because I finally had lunch with a new Porteña friend that I met randomly a few weeks ago. Then I checked out two local gímnasios because it´s finally time to join! The girl behind the counter at one of the gyms even told me I speak with a good accent. Tonight we are having a happy hour hosted by the school…this is definitely going to be a memorable semester :)

posted by Kelly @ 3:47 PM 1 comments

she's back in school...

Well, I got to school nice and early this morning so that I could finally post the pictures that I've been promising...more to come soon I promise. Now everyone can see where I lay my head to sleep each night!

Today is the first day of classes, my first one starts in approximately 30 minutes...Derecho Internacional (International Law). This week promises to bring more of the usual headaches that seem to accompany my sleeping attempts each night.

All is well here in Argentina, I have been settling in quite nicely. It's sometimes easy to forget that I'm living in a South American country because there is a definite European vibe here. Everything from the cafe culture to the tiny French cars (along with the incessant smoking) screams of a French/Italian city. In addition, the gorgeous architecture is usually French in design as well.

Very soon tales of a gringa's experience in a law classes taught entirely in Spanish will find a place on this blozog. For those of you who are still enjoying your summer, take a deep breath and remember to live life fearlessly (as I recently told a best friend of mine)...

posted by Kelly @ 9:29 AM 1 comments

Front view of the house

Pics of my house in Buenos Aires Originally uploaded by kstolpman.

posted by Kelly @ 9:28 AM 0 comments

Living Room/Dining Room

Pics of my house in Buenos Aires Originally uploaded by kstolpman.

posted by Kelly @ 9:27 AM 0 comments

The BEDroom

Pics of my house in Buenos Aires Originally uploaded by kstolpman.

posted by Kelly @ 9:27 AM 2 comments

La Casa en Buenos Aires

Pics of my house in Buenos Aires Originally uploaded by kstolpman.

posted by Kelly @ 9:26 AM 0 comments