Another Happy Week

Now there are officially only two more months before I go home! It's been on my mind a lot because when I make plans for the weekend, I keep realizing that there are only eight more weekends to make plans for. Only eight more Saturday nights, eight more lazy Sundays, eight more of each day of the week...and when I think about it that way, I start to feel like it's coming so fast! This whole year in general hasn't exactly 'flown by', but now that the end is coming closer, I want to be able to slow time down just a little. 

So every day, I walk to school and back home. It is definitely a walk, it's about a mile and a half, but I will do anything not to have to take the bus. I decided the buses gross me out, especially when they are crowded. And the people here are insanely crazy drivers, and I constantly feel like we are about to crash. So, to avoid that experience, I walk. It's really cold in the mornings, but it's right when the sun comes up, so it can be really pretty. It also wakes me up and when I get to school I don't feel super groggy and tired. Walking home after school is the best though. The sun hits the trees perfectly and brings out all the pretty fall colors, and it just puts me in a good mood :) 

One day after school, the street was shut off because there was a huge protest. These protests aren't too uncommon; I've run into plenty of them this year. They are always about something political that I don't understand. I think this one had to do with the taxes that farmers are having to pay. But anyways, I tried getting a few pictures. It was hard to take pictures because the people are so emotional about their cause and they would definitely yell at me if they saw me with a camera. It probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but I sneaked a few photos.  

 On Wednesday, I went with the AFS volunteers to an English school. My job was to speak in English about AFS to advertise what they do and try to encourage the kids to consider doing a year abroad or hosting an exchange student. I wasn't nervous or anything because I got to speak all in English, and because I would encourage people to be a part of AFS whether they told me to or not! So it wasn't like I had to make anything up. I went to a bunch of different classrooms and spoke to kids from 11 years old to kids my age. It was fun being so comfortable in front of a group of people. I was probably so comfortable because I was the only one speaking perfect English, so no matter what I said they would be amazed.
Before this year, I don't think I could have ever been so relaxed talking to whole classrooms of people. After doing that, I saw another way that I have matured. I have just become more confident overall, and it made me want to go out and tell the whole world how amazing this experience is and how everyone who gets the chance needs to take advantage of it!

Yesterday, I spent the day with Pedro and Ivan at Pedro's house. Now I can say that I honestly believe Argentinians will always be friendlier than Americans. Friendlier, more open, and just more excited and happy about everything! I'm sure there are exceptions, but I don't think I know of a family in America that would have treated me the same way this one did when I walked in the door. It was like I had gone away for a long time and they were greeting me as if they had really really missed me! Pedro's mom hugged me and smiled and I instantly felt welcome in their house. There were friends of their family coming and going as we were making lunch, and every single one of them put a smile on my face. I felt surrounded by love! 

One of Pedro's mom's friends stayed for lunch and helped make meat empanadas. She is a really good cook. She taught me how to fold an empanada and make the pretty little border, which is called 'repulge'. It is not easy! My first ones turned out super ugly, but then they started getting better. 

The sauce that is put in a meat empanada has diced meat, onions, peppers, and some other little delicious spices. I have an Argentinian cook book now, so I'll make them when I get home. They definitely wont turn out as yummy as these ones though!

These are the wonderful women I cooked with. Pedro's mom is next to me, and her friend is on the left.

After about six tries, this one was my best!

You can tell on the tray which ones are mine, They are way sloppier. The professional ones made by the experienced are the ones that are all rounded out and pretty. 

And they came out of the oven beautifully! I am very proud of this tray of empanadas. 

We all ate lunch at this very nicely placed table (I helped with that) ;)

First we ate 'picada' which is different meats and cheeses and bread, and then we brought out the empanadas. Which tasted SO GOOD! 

What a beautiful family! Pedro's dad, me, his mom, his brother, his sister, and Pedro! I will definitely spend more time over there now that I have met them. We've already planned another day where we are going to make pasta all from scratch! And then they said they would take me to the China Town of Buenos Aires. Yay!

Pedro, the awesome cook, his sister, me, his mom, brother, dad, and Ivan! Such a fun group of people!

8 more weeks in this amazing country, 8 more blog posts, 8 more skype dates...2 more months!

The Beautiful Season of Fall

So now I'm going to try and get around to doing one post a week. And this one is about my favorite season: Fall. Winter comes in at a close second when I'm at home and it snows a bunch, but here in Argentina Fall takes first place by far!
Last year I didn't get to enjoy Fall in Bend because I left right when it got there. And sadly, I didn't get to enjoy it here either because Spring was coming around the corner. So now that Fall has shown up on my side of the world, I am a pretty happy person :) La Plata is gorgeous with all the leaves changing colors and covering the ground, turning it yellow and orange. Running in the park is so beautiful...you would think that after so many months of running in the same park, it would get old, but as the seasons change, running stays pretty interesting. The types of people that show up change, the events that go on change, and of course, the weather and colors around me change. I will truly miss that park; it has been so much a part of my experience, and so much a part of me.

But anyways, my week was pretty normal, nothing too special. I went to school every day except for Friday. Friday morning I decided to skip school and go on a run. It sounds bad that I skipped school, but it is actually fine considering I'm not in the school's system whatsoever, so leaving doesn't effect any sort of record. And more importantly I didn't miss anything important. The kids took a test in Psychology which I don't have to take, and then I missed a choir class. It was definitely worth it because I went on the longest run I have ever done in my life! I started out thinking that I was going to run for an hour, but ended up having the strength to go for an hour and a half. It was crazy! I think it was a combination of the fact that I ate oatmeal for breakfast (which I now consider power food), it was 9 in the morning which is the BEST time to go for a run in my opinion, and I had gotten a lot of sleep the night before. Anyways, it felt amazing, and I now know the formula for how to feel great in my next race. Hopefully that'll be next weekend!




Then, that afternoon, Zac and I got together to prepare our 'food from our country' to bring to the AFS picnic on Saturday. I made muffins with banana and maple syrup. Maple syrup is something that you can't find in Argentina, so I figured the muffins would be American enough. Zac made 'Fairy Bread' which is a treat that is traditional at birthday parties. All it is is white bread with butter and sprinkles. You can imagine it probably tasted pretty good; there is no way that combination could go wrong. But since it was so easy to make, he had to help me with my muffins.



The kids that are living in Buenos Aires and all of the Buenos Aires volunteers got together on Saturday to have a picnic and then go to Plaza Moreno where the cathedral is and do some propaganda for AFS. It was a perfect day to be outside walking around. A little chilly, but the sky was blue and beautiful!

I love AFS more and more each day! They are such good people, the kids and the volunteers, and I always have so much fun with them! I hope one day I'll be able to be a volunteer...it would be such a rewarding experience. Probably just as rewarding as being an exchange student! 

Now off to start another week! Only 8 more to go...it's going to fly by :(

Really Overdue Post :)

This blog post is extremely overdue, so I'll do my best to cover everything...

We left off at the race. That Sunday was a super great day! We got up bright and early and drove into Santiago. In the car we ate bananas, drank Gatorade, and got pumped up and competitive! I was so full of butterflies and excitement that I didn't feel any sleepiness whatsoever. I had trained all summer for this very day! We got there just as the sun was coming up and the weather was perfect for running. Not too hot, not too cold. People were showing up all over the place and the crowd just kept getting bigger and bigger. There were 17,000 participants and there were 47 different nationalities...WOW. It was quite the crowd. We had a chip in our shoe that triggered when we crossed the start line because there were so many people that you could lose up to 5 minutes just getting up to the start. The countdown to the start was the most intense and motivating start to a race that I have ever experienced...there was so much noise and craziness that my heart was just racing with excitement! I don't think I have ever been that pumped about running. Anyways, I felt really strong the whole race and I finished the ten kilometers in 45:42. I got 11th out of about 300 women in my category, and 44th out of about 4,000 total women...I was pretty happy with myself:) The excitement of that race made me want to do every single race I come across! I love being in that environment surrounded my those kinds of people; it just feels like my crowd. 

After the race, Sebastian's family took me walking a little bit through Santiago and I saw the president's house...the White House of Chile. It is the same type of architecture that the Casa Rosada in Argentina has.

The next week I went to school, but we got Thursday and Friday off for Easter holidays. Thursday we packed up our things, and Friday morning we headed to the lake to spend the weekend there. It reminded me a lot of Lake Billy Chinook, and being in a wakeboarding boat blasting music reminded me a lot of summers at home. I had so much fun! The whole vibe of everything felt a lot like home. I think a lot of it had to do with the climate. The air was dry and we were in a lake surrounded by desert-y plants; it was Bend weather! 

We spent a lot of time in the water, and I learned to get a little air on the wakeboard! I had forgotten how much fun days at the lake are. It makes me excited to get home to summer weather. Hopefully I can get a few lake days in before going back to school.  

I went to church with the family at the church that is part of the school. It's newly constructed, and it is really beautiful. It has been a long time since I went to church, and it was actually really nice. I have to admit, it was quite strange in Spanish, but I understood most of it and I could get the message.







I LOVED LOVED LOVED my experience in Chile, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Chilean family. They are such amazing people, and they gave me some of the best weeks that I have had this year abroad. I know I will keep in touch with them, and we will never forget the beautiful memories we made together in the short time we had.

So I got home to La Plata and definitely had to get used to the Argentine Spanish again. I had just gotten used to speaking like the Chileans and the Argentine accent sounded sort of strange at first. It took me a few days to remember how to talk like that again. I went to school with my Maraton de Santiago running shirt on and got to tell everyone about it. As I heard myself talk and tell my friends about the week with my family and my trip to Chile, I realized that my Spanish had improved a lot. I think it had something to do with the fact that I had to learn how to understand a whole new accent of Spanish, and listen to the Chileans who speak a lot faster than the Argentinians. I came back to the Spanish I'm used to and it was all of a sudden a lot easier to understand and to speak. 

My host dad had a birthday, and since it was impossible to think a present to buy for him, I made him cookies! Homemade presents are always better anyways. I made peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies; I figured that was pretty American. They turned out really good, and I ended up taking a lot to school to give out to friends. Everyone tends to like my peanut butter recipes...whenever I cook a dessert of some kind, I always use the peanut butter that I get from America and make something peanut butter-y to show them how delicious it is. People here are deprived of peanut butter! 

I'm getting out a lot more these days and doing things with my friends on the weekends. I went to a big party one weekend with Zac, my New Zealand buddy, and it was so much fun! I had had the impression that going out here would always be just trying to avoid the old weirdos that try to dance with me, but after going to this party I realized how much fun it can be and why the kids love going out every weekend. I'm not saying I'm going to go turn into a party girl or anything, but after going to party with kids my age that I actually knew, I decided I wont turn down all the party invitations anymore.
I also love going on little outings with my group of friends at Bellas Artes. One of our classes teaches us all about theater, so as part of the homework, everyone had to go see a play, and we all went together one night. The play was amazing; I don't think I've ever seen such amazing actors live. It felt like I was watching a crazy good 3D movie or something. Those actors just blow Disney Channel out of the water. The picture is in the lobby of the theater. It was full of little antiques and old pictures of the theater.


We've also gone to 'McCafe' a couple times to get coffee, and it's actually not that bad. It's a cute little place and pretty comfortable to hang out in. The picture is of us in there before the play. We also went on a Friday before school because they give out free little coffees in the morning.


We all walked from the theater to a place to eat dinner...we ended up being a bigger group of kids than expected which made it fun to walk through downtown together. I like being in a big group of people because I feel safe no matter what and I always have someone to talk to and laugh with.

In Buenos Aires, there was a huge book fair that went on for a few weeks and ended just this weekend. There were famous authors doing book signings, people giving talks about their books, and pretty much any book you can think of was in there somewhere. There were stands of books from every part of the world, and the place seemed to go on for miles. 

The day we went, it was Emilio, Ivan, Pedro, and I, and we spent the whole day in Buenos Aires. First, we walked to a neighborhood called Recoleta, which is where I stayed with my family. Getting there was kind of fun; the day was nice and we got to be outside walking around. They don't go to the city much, and I was really familiar with that area because I had had to walk around there with my family, so I was actually leading the way somewhat. We kind of laughed because I was the only foreign one in the group and happened to know my way around a little better than they did. 

We ate lunch at T.G.I. Friday's. It was surely an American environment in there. There's not a T.G.I. Friday's in Bend, but it reminded me a lot of Red Robin. The food was really expensive compared to any other place we usually go to eat lunch, and I realized that food in general is cheaper here. I did the math, and T.G.I.F's was just as expensive here as it would be in America, but to them it was really really expensive. When I go get lunch at school, it normally costs about ten pesos, which is only two dollars. Anyways, we got two plates and shared them and it was super good! 

This was the United States section of the book fair :)

After we left, we went to Starbucks, because every time we go to Buenos Aires we gotta take advantage of the Starbucks! It's amazing how crazy they are here about things like Starbucks, and Subway, and McDonalds...things that are so 'meh' to me at home. I, myself, actually get pretty fanatic about going to Starbucks in Buenos Aires. I honestly look forward to it. When we went this time, I was super impressed with the guy behind the counter because he wrote my name 'Sophie' instead of 'Sofi'. He could tell I was American and wrote it the American way I guess. I had to get a picture because I'm sure it's the first time someone here had spelled it right on the first try without asking me. 

And finally, catching up to this weekend, I just got back from a 5K race that I did in Buenos Aires with Maite! It was called 'Ser' and it was a fundraiser for breast cancer. Only women were allowed to participate. It was actually a lot bigger than I expected; there were about 5,000 participants. Maite and I went to Buenos Aires Saturday night and stayed in her friends house overnight so we wouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning to make it on time. Saturday was really fun...we went to Starbucks! Surprise, surprise...and then we spent a few hours shopping at a really pretty mall, and then took a bus to the house. On the bus I met some guys that were studying a semester in Buenos Aires that all seemed like they were from America. It turned out only one of them was and the other two were from other countries but just spoke super good English. I was proud of myself because when I heard them speaking English I walked up and started talking to them myself. It made me realize how much I have changed and matured this year, because I know for a fact that before I left Bend, I would have never walked up to someone on a bus in a city and started talking to them. I was way too shy for that. Now I see that I am so much more confident and comfortable than before. But anyways, we got off the bus, went to the house, and for dinner we went to an Asado(barbecue). It was delicious, just as all the Argentine Asados are. 

Then, this morning we got up at 7 and headed to the race! It was a cloudy day, but luckily it didn't rain, and it was actually nice weather to run in. I finished 3rd in my category and 31st overall! My time was 22:29, which is pretty good, but I know I can do better. There are a few more races that are happening before I leave and I am going to try and do them all! 

So I got home from the race, took a shower, and made myself some 'terere'. I was proud that it actually turned out tasting really good. It's mate tea, but cold and served with juice! It's the way they drink it in the north of Argentina, mostly Misiones, where Maite and Ana are from. Whenever I'm over at their place we always drink it together, so when I was drinking it by myself, it definitely didn't seem quite the same. But, I feel more Argentinian every day, and every minute it becomes harder and harder to think about the day I'll have to say bye to this life. Agrentina, you have really grown on me. I only have 10 more weeks left...and I'll make the best of it!