Iguazu

So if you do not already know, Iguazu falls are these HUGE waterfalls located in the upper tip of Argentina and partly in Brazil. And when I say huge, I mean they make Niagra falls look like a bucket.

We set off Tuesday afternoon on the 22h bus ride up to Iguazu. Yes, 22 hours. As crazy as it sounds, we have really gotten used to these insanely long bus rides and they aren't so bad anymore.  Especially when you have such great movies as Cats and Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore to entertain you. No im not kidding. 

We got there about noon on Wednesday and went to the hostel. As crazy as it sounds, staying at the hostel was maybe one of my favorite parts of the trip. Dont get me wrong, I absolutely loved the falls and you will see why in a second, but I love meeting new people at the hostels. I loved sitting at the table drinking my coffe and talking to people as they came to get breakfast. People from all over the world just traveling and enjoying life. I also loved listening to their accents, especially Ireland/England/Australia.  

 These were two of our friends that were always hanging around the hostel: Che/john and Catherine. They did not like each other very much.

The next day the other half of our group arrived and we set off for the falls. You will notice a new face on the left, our new friend Oli. When met him as we were entering the park and he ended up tagging along with us all day. I figured out that no matter what the phrase is, it sounds way better when said with a British accent.  My favorite thing he said that day was "she went over the fall in a barrel?" and I made him say it a few times. :)

 There is no possible way that I could accurately decribe how amazing the falls were. We all just saw them and got kinda quiet. It was pretty much all you could see for a mile and the part that amazed me the most was the magnitude of the water! I tried to get pictures, but they don't even come close. Google earth it- it's worth it.

Of course we had to get a tiger paw picture

 Jeff got really jealous of the huge tour group and tried to join but he stuck out a little.

The rainbows from the mist were breathtaking. 

One of the view points was really close to the waterfall and so you got soak from the mist. This was one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip. It pretty much just sums up Jessie. 

The butterflies were incredible. Not only were they gorgeous, but they were everywhere! this was my favorite, its wings had an 88 on the outside and the inside were a bright orange.

But don't touch! haha

an when i say there were a ton of butterflies, I mean a ton. Mira: 

There was a Sheraton Hotel INSIDE the national park. Weird.

These little guys are called coaties and the best way I can describe them is they are a mix between an ant eater and a raccoon. They were everywhere and really cute at first, but then they got a bit annoying. They kept trying to get our food, but there were tons of signs that said not to feed them. Signs that said if they get people food they get aggressive. This is one of the signs:

 That night we went back to the hostel and had a great time playing telephone pictionary and cooking dinner. The next morning we woke up "early" and got to the park to take a "monkey hike" as we called it. It was a nature trail in which we did see some monkeys and then ended up at this little waterfall and natural pool at the end. Of course Jeff had to get under the fall.

Then we did the coolest part of the whole trip. We took a boat ride pretty much into the fall! If you look closely in this picture you will see the boat we took. Luckily they gave us dry bags because we sat in the back of the boat and got SOAKING wet. It was amazing. The first round we were allowed to have our cameras because we didn't get that close- but round two we put everything up and went right up against the fall. My favorite quote was when we were right up against the falls and couldn't even open our eyes because there was so much water and the girl next to me goes "I want to look but I can't, it's just too beautiful!" haha  

We went right under this rainbow. The Lord is incredibly creative.

This is what we all looked like in our rain jackets. Thank you Missy for being my Vanna white. 

To get to the boat dock, we had to walk down the side of one of the falls and there was no railing. Thats pretty normal for Argentina though.

This is a video I took on the boat. It doesn't do it justice, but it's a glimpse!

That night I got a little sick, but luckily I had wonderful friends there to get my sprite and crackers in the morning. Half of the group left that morning and so Missy, Taylor, Jessie and I took it easy and walked to the three borders. Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay are all touching, and there is one point where you can see all three at the same time.

I am standing in Argentina, Brazil is on the right and Paraguay is on the left. A river separates the three.

Each country had an obelisque  (I had no idea what that was but Missy informed us it is the monument in the photo.) It was really cool to stand or Argentina and see into two different countries at the same time.

That night we went to this Asian restaurant and got REAL Chinese food. So good. I still wasn't feeling 100%, but it smelt so good I had to eat some. Worth it. The walls were covered with chalk writing and when we asked the owner he told us that they didn't let people write on the walls anymore. But 2 minutes later he came by with some chalk and just smiled. O and the chalk he brought us was orange and purple. What are the odds of that?!  

We left our mark in Puerto Iguazu :)

All in all, it was an amazing trip. The waterfalls were breathtaking, the town of Iguazu was precious and really fun, but once again it was the people that made the trip. The Lord has blessed me beyond belief with these people and I cannot imagine the past 5 months without them. 

Manos Arrrrriba

Ok I got a little behind so I might just do some sparknotes!

The youth at my mom's church invited us to come cook Chop Suey (how do you spell that?) and hang out. It was great and we really enjoyed talking about the bible, eating ice cream, and listening to one guy play his guitar. I love how nights usually end up with someone pulling out a guitar.

That week I was finally able to go to volleyball. There have a lot of intramural teams (mass o menos) that practice twice a week. I loved getting to meet other Argentine students at my school since all my classes are just exchange students. I discovered how rusty I truly am at volleyball, but they didnt care. They thought my accent was funny and so they just always laughed. O and when I intrudeced myself as Fran one guy thought I said "Juan" so he called me Juan for a while until someone corrected him. I was just going to let me continue calling me Juan- I mean how many girls do you know names Juan?

Andreas' birthday was that week and so we went to celebrate at Maracuya and had a great time just talking and eating their amazing pizza.  Esther spent the night and this is what my room looks like when you try to put another mattress in it. Love it :)

The next day we went downtown to do a little exploring of Cordoba. We went to the Eva museum and then to a church whos name i can't remember.... The art museum was pretty cool, but the building was what fascinated me the most. It was the old house of the governer, then it was owned by the Perons, and they recently turned it into an art museum. I loved the huge staircase and the gigantic rooms and the tile floors.  (this is a view of the church from behind the pulpit. There were no signs roping it off......) 

That night we went to eat SUSHI at Yuri's house. It was wonderful and all handmade by Yuir. She taught us how to do it and we made some ourselves too. My mom here was so jealous and insisted I get the recipe. Now I know how to make it so get ready roomies- next year is going to be fun.

After sushi Esther Taylor and I went downtown to hang out with Any. We played telephone pictionary (of course) and then went dancing. I love the dance clubs here because the dancing is actually fun! And the boys dance too- cumbia and corteta are the two most common and are really fun and pretty simple. But we still stick out. O well

Side note, Missy was gone this whole week back to the states to see her best friend graduate. (her mom works for Delta) so we wanted to secretly hate her for leaving us but we couldn't cause she brought us peanut butter.

Esther and I FINALLY got our visas! It only took about 10 times going downtown at the crack of dawn, pero por fin- las conseguimos!

That week in taller cultural we got to do barrel racing! I felt like I was in a rodeo, it was great! They really have no rules down here. They just stuck us on a horse and said ok go as fast as you can and weave in and out of the barrels. O and try not to fall. Chau.

Love it.

And then we went downtown and went to an art museum. We kind of had to for class. I really dislike modern art, but Missy and Esther helped make it more entertaining.

 

That saturday was epic. I can't really do it justice so I will just give the highlights:

It started with an organized pillow fight in the park

They we walked through the park and talked to tons of different people. We tried some rope/cloth climbing and then some tight rope walking. I love how open everyone is here. We saw some people doing it so we walked up and asked if we could try. They gave us a tutorial and said go for it! 

then we went to SUPER PARK! We have wanted to go forever and finally got to go. We rode two huge rides and then did bumper cars.  You are never too old for the fair. Charlie captured one of the rides on video. Every couple of minutes Esther would say "manos arrrrrrrriba" and it became the catchphrase of the trip. The best is when Any starts to accidently smush the small child next to her haha

After that I got my first churro- basically a dulce de leche filled stick of hot dough. Delicious.

After that we went back to Any's apprtment to cook pizza and play games. We decided to see what Ivan's hair would look like braided. Not so manly......

And after that. at 3 in the morning, we went bowling. It was in the middle of a bar and super loud, but worth it. Got home at 6:30 in the morning and slept until 4pm the next day. I don't understand how they do it.  Pero a la vez, me encanta. Todo ello. 

Far from home

4553 miles exactly.

Dang thats far.
But I have more or less found a second home here, so it doesn't seem quite as far :)

C. S. Lewis

Watched Chronicles of Narnia last night and I forgot how much I love this movie:

If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than me or else just silly.

Then he isn't safe? asked Lucy.

Safe? said Mr. Beaver. Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.

Never a boring moment

Last week was more tests so a bit boring/stressful. But we are huuuge procrastinators down here so the night before we study for a bit and hope for the best. No one tell the nursing teachers in Clemson- they would be so disappointed.
Tuesday we had a guy come to our culture class and give us a lesson on the all of the instruments of argentina. It was really interesting! He had about 10 different instuents with him: everything from a guitar to an armidillo bangoish thing. He also brought back our good friend PVC pipe horn from the north. That was entertaining to say the least.

 He brought little flute things for us to play, and of course Esther and I grabbed one. They tell me I have a bright future with PVC pipe flutes.

And this random mouth pick? no sé, pero bueno!

We also had culture class this week where we cooked DELICIOUS empeñadas and took the horses on a trail ride across the river. I love that class so much.

Wednesday was Taylor and Jeff's 21st birthday and we had a lot of fun celebrating it.

Thursday we went out for dinner and drinks and had a great time just hanging out with everyone. We stayed at Missy's house that night and the next morning Missy woke up before the rest of us to go get orange juice to make mimosas. Long story short, remember those dogs that chased her and taylor that one time and made Taylor jump the gate? Well yeah on her way back into the yard from getting the orange juice her dogs actually attacked her. Bad. They bit her legs about 6 or so times and took a chunk out  of her heel. This is one of the worst ones. Her mom felt so bad- and that was a bit awkward afterwards. Luckily I do not have dogs at my house!

To make her feel better, and to celebrate Taylor birthday of course, we made the coffee cake Missy's mom brought us from the states. Her mom here was so amazed we could do it from a box with just one egg and water!

We didn't bother with plates and it was gone in about 5 mins.

 That day we played soccer with a bunch of kids from school and even though I suck- it was still fun.

That night was the surprise party we planned for Taylor and Jeff. We wanted to have it on their actual birthdays, but they both had tests. The false pretenses by which we got Taylor there were pretty funny. We told here we were going to get sushi, and when we turned down the dirt road to the house of the party- she started freaking out that we were going to die and this taxi driver was not taking us to get sushi  that he wanted to kill us and was taking us to the middle of nowhere. haha We eventually found the house and told her what was going on- and she was obviously surprised! The party was actually at Jeff's house (his mom is really great and our culture teacher) so we went out to his room and he was extremely surprised to find 6 girls at his door all dressed up. But I think they both really enjoyed it!

Missy and me at the party

Last night the four of us went to a hang out with the youth at my mom's church. They invited us to make chop sui and have a bible study. We ended up staying til 3ish in the morning, playing the guitar, watching youtube videos, and talking. Love it. 

Today was a chill day with my family. The grandparents came over and we had an asado. I love Sundays. 

In good company

After Semana Santa we had out first round of tests. Not too bad. I could get used to only having 4 classes!

That friday night we had bunch of people over and cooked pasta and played telephone pictionary. It was really fun- especially since we had two ARgentine guys there so the whole night was in spanish and telephone pictionary was in spanish too- veryyy entertaining. The missy and Esther stayed over that night in my tiny tiny room and that was an adventure- but we did it! The next day we had planned to go to a cooking class to learn to make Locro (traditional corn soup thing) with Esther's tutor in el Centro. So we woke up early and headed downtown. We took a couple bus transfers and when we get there we learned that it was not in fact a cooking class, but instead a socialist political rally. Where they were serving Locro. Bueno. Any (Esther's tutor) might have left out that small detail, but no worries, we said we would try everything once while we were in Argentina. So we went in and it was an experience. There were drums, and flags and chants and pretty much everything you would expect from an argentine socialist political rally. 

At least we got to try the traditional Locro. If your wondering on the side of my plate is the cow stomach and bones that I picked out of my soup. Yup. Bread is my best friend here sometimes.

As we were leaving, we got caught in the parade when the candidate was walking in. We were literally in the middle of the parade. This is Argentina :)

Afterwards we went to the zoo with Any and her boyfriend and it was great! No matter where you are- the company is always what makes it fun, and the Lord has blessed me with great company down here.