One Week Gone By

Well friends, one week has gone by since I've arrived here in Argentina. I must say though, it feels like it's been a lot longer! Lately, I've just been pretty overwhelmed with things here. It is quite the Spanish overload! And today we began choosing our classes, which was very stressful since the education system is so different from the US.

Yesterday, Bot and I had a really good day! It started off my signing our contract. We signed away the right to speak English in our program. From now on, we are expected to ONLY speak Spanish in the program headquarters! We got lunch at a cafe with some other girls from the program-had my first Argentine pizzeta (little pizza). Then we had a little bit of an introduction to the education system. We finished Orientation stuff for the day and Bot and I headed to ANOTHER café for Quilmes!

Then we decided to explore some more of Buenos Aires. We ended up doing some more shopping and stumbled upon an awesome bookstore! (And for me to say a bookstore is awesome takes a lot! -- It was an old theater converted into a bookstore with a café!

(Lyss, you would have LOVED this! Wish you could have been here to experience it with me)

Well, tomorrow the subways go on strike, which is extremely unfortunate since the subway is my main form of transportation. AND tomorrow we need to begin the process of changing our Visa from "tourist" to "student/resident." So prayers are appreciated as I experiment with the bus system down here (which is extremely confusing!) Also, tomorrow some of us will be participating in a introductory Tango class, which should be really fun!

A bit of miscellaneous information:

          -Have I mentioned that the people here are gorgeous?! I'm surprised everyday by how many beautiful people I see as I walk down the streets on my daily commute! 

          -I've gotten used to (and over) the 'piropos' (catcalls). The men here have NO shame in calling out piropos to any and every girl that walks by. Being blonde makes it even worse! But, after only a week, I've learned to completely ignore them!

          -Today was a wonderful day, in the sense that I got to 1) skype with Becky, 2) chat with Kenny, Katie, Eric, & Tommy, and 3) skype with my parents, as well as  4) receive e-mails from Emily, Alyssa, and Chelsea! 

Missing you all today, and everyday, but trusting in the Lord to be my strength!

-C

El Día del Bicentenario de la Creación de la Bandera Argentina

Today was El Día del Bicentenario de la Creación de la Bendera Argentina (200th Anniversary of the Argentine Flag)

Lucky for us, we didn't have school/orientation today! Bot's host mom, Marta, invited me over to their apartment for waffles con ducle de leche this afternoon around 12. She also invited two other American students she had met in church who were studying in a different program than CIEE. Jaime and John are juniors at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania. We spent most of the day with them! After finishing waffles, Marta wanted to take us out for a cup of coffee. Little did we know, she was taking us to a beach quite a ways out of the city. We ended up at the café, which had a 45 minute wait :/ so instead of waiting, we just looked around the beach a bit and enjoyed the sun!

After the beach, which was more like a grassy field with water, we headed back to Marta's apartment, where she bought us ice cream! After spending 5+ hours with our new friends and Marta, Bot and I politely excused ourselves and headed to Plaza del Mayo!

Plaza del Mayo is surrounded by a number of important government buildings, monuments, and the Catedral. 

Me in front of La Casa Rosada (one of the governmental buildings)

Bot and I also explored the inside of the Catedral which has gorgeous shrines(?) and paintings!

While we were sitting in front of the Obelisco (which looks very similar to the Washington Monument) we were caught in a heavy rainfall! Bot and dashed to the nearest subte (subway) entrance and headed home for the night! 

Since then, I have been hanging at home with Rossana. She really loves crime shows so she has been watching CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS etc all night! It's been raining/thundering/lightening for most of the night, which is a bit depressing! Tomorrow starts another day of Orientation, which I'm sure will be very exhausting!

On the bright side, today was a good day! I flip flop between feeling really excited that I'm in Argentina and feeling that I'm not going home for a whole FIVE MONTHS! But today I was excited to be here! So praise God for that! I'm also feeling a lot more confident in my comprehension of Spanish, which is improving more and more everyday!

Continued prayers are appreciated!

Ciao amig@s!

-C

Psalm 13:6

I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

Salmos 13:6

Canto salmos al SEÑOR. ¡El SEÑOR ha sido bueno conmigo!

Sunday Strolls, Swigs, & Services!

Hola!


What a day! It was a pretty fantastic Sunday-my first one in Argentina!


I got to sleep in today, till around 11, which was fantastic. My host mom, Rossana, woke up about a half hour before me and we enjoyed breakfast together--coffee and toast with dulce de leche! 


Bot and I spent the rest of the day exploring our neighborhood, Palermo. We met up at Alto Palermo which is the 'mall' near my apartment. We figured out that Bot only lives about 4 subte (subway) stations away from me! We walked around the mall for a bit, doing some window shopping & ended up at the Claro Kiosk (our phone company). We both had received phones from our host families and we needed to add minutes. At the kiosk, Bot had no difficulty getting minutes added to her phone. I, unfortunately, ran into some trouble. My host mom gave me what she thought was the number for my phone (In order to add minutes, you need to know your number) Little did I know, this wasn't actually my phone number. So I added 50 pesos to a number that was not mine. No big deal, 50 pesos is around $12. Anyway, I eventually got it all straightened out in my broken Spanish. We grabbed lunch after that, a broccoli and pesto tarta that we both ended up hating! 


From the mall, we quickly stopped back at my apartment to grab my sunglasses, and Bot met my host mom. And off to the botanical garden we went. A few blocks away from my house, we found the Botanical Garden of Carlos Thays which is absolutely beautiful. We spent a lot of time walking around and taking pictures! 

Outside of the garden, I finally took a picture of God's little reminder to us that Gordon is our home!

Our own Gordon Fighting Scot, smack in the middle of Buenos Aires

Around 5 o'clock, Bot and I headed to a little cafe a block or so away from my apartment. We decided, being the legal adults that we are in Argentina, to get a drink and something to eat since we wouldn't be eating dinner until 9 or 10 that night. We ordered a tarta bariloche

which was fantastic! 

We also ordered some fruity drinks, at which point our waitress told us they didn't have the 'ingredients' to make it, so we ended up blindly choosing a 'Negroni'

Little did we know that a Negroni was one part gin, one part sweet (red) vermouth, and one part bitters. 

Bot's reaction is quite appropriate.

Needless to say, neither of us finished more than half of the drink.

But, last minute we decided to go to church that night. We crossed the city, to a different neighborhood and ended up at Iglesia del Centro, an Evangelical church we heard about from a fellow-Gordon student (Thanks Amy!) It was an amazing experience. We were able to worship our God in a completely different language! We were welcomed into the church and immediately recognized the first worship song: How Great is Our God, rather, Cuan Grande es Dios! The service ended up being more than 2 hours long, which we weren't really prepared for, but it was still incredible! God is good, all the time!

I'm getting more and more excited about the next 5 months, although I'm still quite aware that 5 months is a long time!

Buenas Noches

-C

(another song we sang in church)

Tú eres todo poderoso (You are all powerful)
Eres grande y majestuoso, (You are great and majestic) Eres fuerte, invencible (You are strong, invincible)

y no hay nadie como tú (and there is none like You)

Mi casa!

Un beso (a kiss) to you from Argentina!

It's been a long day, almost so long that I forgot what I did this morning. But I guess I'll start with last night. We went out to an awesome restaurant called Prosciutto. We dinned on the tercer piso (3rd floor) with the rest of the students in the CIEE program as well as the program staff. We had a pretty typical Argentine dinner consisting of carne (steak) and puré (mashed potatoes). For dessert, I had some sort of flan-like dessert & Bot indulged in raspberry helado (ice cream). After returning from dinner, I worked a bit on a Spanish 'exam' that the program is requiring us to finish and then went to bed around 1:30am.

On to today! Today was, I guess, our first official day of Orientation. We started off the day with a light breakfast, with coffee of course! After breakfast we headed over to the CIEE offices (a few blocks away from the hotel) and got an introduction to the program and formal introduction to all the staff. We also got a quick introduction to how Argentines greet each other. In Argentina, like most other Latin American countries, a kiss on the cheek is the only acceptable form of greeting one another. (a handshake is pretty much considered rude) So, in the small auditorium of CIEE, we kissed each other...we passed a kiss from the front of the auditorium all the way to the back, going from one person to another. It was a fun and light-hearted way to start the day. (Side note: Caro, one of the staffers, made a joke that I thought was funny and clever, she told us that in Argentina, the greeting is ONLY ONE kiss, because Argentines don't have any time for more than that-since they're always so busy).

After the introduction, we had to take a written exam so the staffers could get an idea of where we are in our Spanish. I'm fairly certain that I will place in the most basic Spanish level, which is fine with me! Shortly after the exam, Bot and I walked all around the city looking for a bank to take out money from the ATM. We tried to do it yesterday, but the ATM we used rejected our tarjetas (cards). Luckily, we found a bank that accepts our TD Bank cards! Yay

Anyway, to speed things up, afterwards, we had orientation workshops for Housing/Insurance and Transportation/Security. Both were very helpful, although I'm still pretty nervous to use the public transportation here, but I suppose it's very similar to that of NYC!

Finally, I got to meet my host mom! Rosana, is probably in her 60s, with 3 grown children. She lives alone in an apartment in Palermo, which is still part of the Ciudad de Buneos Aires, but is quite a few blocks away from our CIEE offices. Palermo has a very good reputation for being safe and wealthy. One of Rosana's friends is a taxi driver, so he picked us up from the hotel and brought us back to the apartment. I have my own room, which is actually bigger than I expected it to be and I am finally settled in. My closet is two GINORMOUS mirrored sliding doors that stretch from ceiling to floor and I have an ethernet cord, which was quite surprising since our CIEE staff told us not to except internet in our houses.

Rosana and I chatted a bit about ourselves before I got settled in. I ran into a problem with my converter, which didn't fit my Mac charger, so we took a quick stroll out to a store to buy me the right one! Rosana's two daughters came over for dinner tonight, Lily and Marcella, along with Lilly's husband, Ricky. My Spanish is still very basic, so I had some trouble understanding things (especially when they talk fast) and I find myself using the phrase 'esta bien' (it's good/okay) and 'si' (yes) very often because I am so overwhelmed with the constant Spanish. Dinner went well; pollo (chicken), puré (mashed potatoes) and ensalada (salad) with white wine! (Yes mom, I had wine with my dinner tonight). After dinner we had some fruit for dessert while watching a Spanish game show; Minuto para ganar (A minute to win) where the contestant had to do random tasks in order to win 1 million pesos.

Lilly, Ricky & Marcella left a little while ago, and I'm just taking a quick breather before I have to finish my Spanish 'exam'. Prayers are welcomed, especially tomorrow as I have to take my oral language test. But we will also be taking a walking tour of Buenos Aires & more orientation workshops! Then we have un día libre (free day) on Sunday and Monday! Well amigos y amigas, ciao ciao for now (Yes, they say ciao here due to the Italian influence-shout out to my Italian bffs: Lyss, Getz & Drey).

Un beso,
-C

Aquí

Amigos!

I have arrived!
After many, many hours of flying, we're finally here! My friend Bot and I flew from Newark Airport last night to Canada, then from Canada to Santiago, Chile, and from Chile to Argentina! Luckily, we got a few hours of sleep on the flight from Canada to Chile and we are well (enough) rested to take part in our activities for the night, which only includes a dinner to meet the rest of the students here.

After going through customs and immigration and all of that, Bot and I grabbed a taxi (un remise). When we got outside, it was beautiful; probably around 75 degrees! The taxi drove us from the airport to Hotel Lyon, where we'll be staying for the night. The drive over was fantastic. It was green and lush and what surprised me the most was that all along the highway, there were stretches of grass where cars were parked and people were just out lying around.

Another nice surprise that Bot and I learned about is that there is an automobile maker here whose logo on the back of their cars is....a FIGHTING SCOT! Exactly like the one from Gordon. We had a good time laughing and joking about that.

Since the taxi ride, we've gotten to our hotel and met a bunch of other people from the program. Taken showers and brushed our teeth too, of course, since it had been quite the trip over here on all those different planes.

Tomorrow we'll move into our homestays with our families and begin orientation with the program (CIEE) in Buenos Aires.

Can't believe this is actually happening! It still feels surreal!

Well, adios for now. I've got a spanish test to finish! :/

-C

TODAY

Hi friends,

Today is my day! I depart at 8:50pm from Newark, NJ airport to fly up to Canada, then a 14 hour flight down to Buenos Aires, Argentina!!

I still don't think it has hit me that I'll be gone for the next 5 months in a foreign country! BUT I am super excited!

Just a post to give you all my mailing address in the event you want to make my day and send me some mail :)
Beware: mail from the US usually takes a week or two (maybe more) to reach me in Argentina!

Christa Coners

CIEE Program - FLACSO 

Ayacucho 555 

(1026) Ciudad de Buenos Aires 

ARGENTINA 

Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Adios amigos

-C


'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.' Joshua 1:9

I CAVED!

Confession--I never thought I would blog while studying abroad!


Yet here I am...blogging


T-minus 3 days until I set off for my adventures in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 5 months of Spanish-speaking, mate-drinking, tango-dancing MADNESS, and I'm gonna jump right in! 


I can't wait! 
Join me as I submerse myself in this craziness!!


-C

Psalm 121

 ¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

   where does my help come from?

² My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

 ³ He will not let your foot slip—

   he who watches over you will not slumber;

⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

 ⁵ The LORD watches over you—

   the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

⁶ the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

 ⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—

   he will watch over your life;

⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.