Lions and Tigers and Bears!

Wow I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything, it's been a busy week! I got my first paper assigned on Monday, which was a definite wake-up call that I'm actually in school! Luckily t's short and should be pretty easy. Other than that classes are going pretty well, but I think assignments and things are going to pick up in the next couple weeks. I'm loving that it's getting warmer here (it's been high 60s low 70s lately) and I've been finding some really great parks to run in with friends. I'm also joining the University of Belgrano running team, which I'm excited about because hopefully it will motivate me to do some sort of exercise every day (which is much needed because my sweet tooth has definitely grown since I've been here)! I've been getting along with my host mom really well lately, and we sometimes watch the news together and chat, which is fun and helps me with my spanish.

Last Wednesday my friend and I went to check out this graffiti art exhibit, which turned out to be pretty cool. I don't really know a lot about urban art, especially since I've never lived in a particularly urban area, but he's from around San Francisco and so was pretty in to it. The next night we went to a concert, which was also a blast. It was at this little hole in the wall place, but the band turned out to be pretty good and we ended up meeting some other people from the states who are also studying here.

Friday was probably one of my favorite days I've had here. A group of us went to Zoo Lujan, which is said to be one of the dangerous zoos in the world! Although I didn't know this beforehand, it took us two hours to get there by bus, and it turned out to be a type of petting zoo. However, by petting zoo I don't mean goats and dogs and bunnies (although there were all of those animals there), I mean lions and tigers and elephants! We all went into the lion and tiger cages, while they were pacing and prowling, to pet them and even feed milk to the tigers out of our hands! We also held an adorable baby lion cub, fed elephants, rode a camel, and watched monkeys, bears and exotic birds play around. It was such a wild experience unlike anything you can ever imagine! It was definitely a little nerve-wracking to walk into a tiger's cage!

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I went out with some friends on Saturday night, and Sunday was spent attempting to work on that paper although with little success. I hope the semester is starting out well for everyone!

As some of you may have already heard from my parents, I traveled to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, this past weekend. It was such a fun weekend, and luckily we had a three day week (and really four days because we never have friday classes) since we has Monday off. I arrived in Montevideo on Friday evening after a hectic day of traveling. I had my last Rabies shot on Friday morning and then was supposed my friend, Amna, to catch a 12:30 boat. I ended up getting to the boat terminal at 12:15, at which point Amna told me she had forgotten her passport! Luckily the boat was delayed because of bad weather, so I told her she could probably still make it if she took a taxi home and came right back. Unfortunately she had gotten locked out of her house, and her host mom didn't get back in time for her to catch the boat I was on (that left at 2:00). She ended up getting on a 4:00 boat, and we both got to the Hostel safely around 8:00 that night. It was lucky that The other group (who went on a earlier boat) gave us the address of the hostel before we left, because it was really nerve-wracking being in a new country all alone with no idea where anything was! Anyway, we all out for dinner that night, and I had the best steak of my life (it's slowly becoming one of my new favourite things)m which made up for all the stress of the day. Later that night we went to an Irish Pub, which had some awesome live music, including an amazing Beatles cover band (which is saying a lot because there are so many of those, and we were all expecting them to have South American accents).

On Saturday we took a tour of Teatro Solis, which is one of Montevideo's historical theatres. It was huge and beautiful, and there were a couple of random actors who would do cameos throughout the tour. Then we ate lunch at El Mercado del Puerta, which was an old train station that has been converted into a ton of Parillas (which are like grills). The food at this place was so amazing, we had some of the best chorizo, sweet potato, and grilled vegetables, and with all the people, the smell of grilling and the general atmosphere it almost felt like a market scene of a disney movie! After lunch we walked down a pier along the ocean. it was so windy and freezing, which made it all the more fun. When we finally got back to the hostel we all sat by the fire for a bit and then had a nap before the night began. We had dinner again that night and then most of us stayed at the hostel for the night because we were so worn out.

Sunday we did some more walking, and we found the biggest street market I've ever seen! It was more like a flee market, with some of the most random stuff in it, and it went on for at least 20 blocks (and that's a conservative estimate). Needless to say, with nine people it was a little stressful because everyone was going at different speeds and there people everywhere so it was hard to stay together. After that we found a place to have lunch by the water. It was so beautiful, and I can only imagine how much more pleasant it is in the Summer. We walked home along a kind of boardwalk along the ocean. After another fireside nap, my friends Nick, Amna, and I went to see a play at the Teatro Solis. It was definitely an experience because the play was in spanish, and they spoke so fast, so it was pretty difficult to understand all the words. Although, I'm pretty sure we picked up most of the story line, which we were all proud of. It was kind of a bizarre, dark comedy mostly about incest, adultery and the like. It was definitely entertaining and worth seeing. That night Nick, Amna and I went back to the Irish pub from the first night where there was more great music, though this time it was more Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin covers.

This morning we got up early and got on a bus to head home. Montevideo is a very interesting city because it seems to be a mix of dirty, sort of poorer areas, and then there are beautiful, seemingly more well-off parts. I know that sounds like most cities, but the difference here was that they were right next to each other. One block you would see half torn down buildings, and neighborhoods that looked like they were falling apart, and then the next block you would see really nice restaurants and apartments, and palm trees by the beach. All in all it was an amazing, adventurous weekend and I'm hoping to have many more experiences like it.

I hope everyone is well. I am going to try to upload more pictures, but my computer has been having a little trouble with that lately, so bear with me!

It's been an interesting couple of days. It's been a little lonely here lately, but I know school is going to pick up and as long as I keep busy I usually don't get bothered by the loneliness too much. Yesterday my roommate and I went to apply for our student visas. On the way there I think my roommate was worried about being late so she ran to catch the bus we needed (even though another one would probably have come in plenty of time). She ran without me however, and I ended up having to grab the handle on the bus door and jump on after the bus had started driving! I the bus driver looked at me like I was crazy, but at least I made it on. By the way, we were 25 minutes early to the appointment. Although the immigration paperwork takes a while at least now it's done. Friday night was pretty quiet because I hadn't been feeling well Thursday and Friday.

This morning I decided that I needed to get up at a decent time and I thought running would make me feel physically and mentally better. it was a beautiful morning for a run, and i was planning a significant loop, but a loop nonetheless. Unfortunately, the streets here don't exactly go in squares, so you don't always end up where you think you will to say the least. I stumbled upon a park and a little outdoor market, so I stopped to check that out and then kept running in the direction I though my house was. I ended up getting a little lost and then got chased and bitten by a random stray dog in the street. An hour and 15 minutes after I left for the run I finally found my way home and called my director to ask if the bite was anything to worry about. It was a pretty small bite, but it had broken the skin and there was a painful bruise around it. Alfredo, my program director, ended up taking me to the doctor where they gave me antibiotics I have to take for seven days, and then referred me to a rabies clinic. It turns out that in order to take precautions against rabies you have to get 9 different shots, so I got one shot today, and have to get 8 more over the course of a couple weeks. Needless to say, I had quite a long adventure with Alfredo today in a bit of a sketchy hospital. Everything luckily turned out to be fine, and even though it's going to be a pain to get all the shots I'd rather do that than risk getting rabies!

Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet weekend that has passed by rather quickly. I hope everyone is soaking up the last weeks of Summer!

It's been a busy couple of days. Thursday before my classes my friend Miles and I went La Rural, which is a huge annual agriculture expo. There were horse and cow shows, sheep judging, hundreds of different food and drink products to sample (including delicious Dulce De Leche), and any other things you can associate with agriculture and farming. It was almost like a county fair, but 10 times bigger! I was amazing and there were people everywhere. We had Chorizo sandwiches for lunch, called Choripan, and it was by far my favorite thing I've eaten here so far. Tomorrow is the last day, and I'm planning on going back with Amy for one last go around!

Friday it was terribly cold and rainy, so I visited the Museo de Bellas Artes with Amy, her roommate Brittany, and a couple other girls from their program. It was a amazing! There was a room that had colonial tablets, which were about 10 pieces of art that told the story of the Mexican conquest. There was also an entire room with a Berni exhibit. I don't know if any of you have heard of him, but these were some of the most amazing pieces of art I've ever seen. They're huge, first of all, and they are also made of all kinds of recycled materials, which adds amazing texture to them. A lot of the pieces paint pictures of injustice, one specifically about the injustice between the government and the masses. The government is portrayed as all different monsters on the bottom half of the painting, and the top half is a chaotic mess of people, which I assumed was "the people". I can't even describe how amazing this room was! Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures there. That night I was going to go out, but instead stayed in and watched a movie with friends.

Saturday I finally made it to the Recoleta Cemetery (where Evita is buried) and to the huge open craft market outside. Recoleta is a bit of a ritzy neighborhood with a lot of French and Italian influence what with all of the outdoor coffee shops, ice cream places and restaurants. I think this is so far my favorite part of the city. There are usually tango dancers on the street displaying their talent, and this is also where the church is in the pictures at the bottom of the page. The cemetery, which is behind the church is massive and elegant. It looks almost like a small town, only instead of houses there are tombs! The ground is all concrete, the mausoleums are enormous, and I could see into most of them where there are coffins, and various adornments. This is definitely the kind of place that you could spend all day in and still not see everything, and also get lost because it's such a labyrinth. Outside the church and cemetery there is a huge open air craft market every weekend. You can find all sorts of painting, photography, mate gourds, jewelry, leather products, food, anything you could ever think of! I had lunch with a friend in one of the many restaurants near the church. However we didn't realize when we sat down that it was an all you can eat place, so we both ended up eating a small pizza and then leaving. Although it was some of the best pizza I've ever had! I know that beef is supposed to be the big thing here, but as one of my professors put it in class today, Pizza is another of Argentina's national foods.

Today marked the beginning of my second week of classes. I'm liking them pretty well, but I can't seem to quite figure out what all are the important parts of the class. Most of my professors tend to ramble on about admittedly interesting subjects, but then at the end I'm not sure what the main was supposed to be. I'm hoping that will come with time. Today I had a substitute in one of my classes, and he was so much more interesting than my usual professor. As I was saying earlier, he talked about pizza for a good 15 or 20 minutes, and told us our homework was to go to his favorite pizza place! I can see that this semester is going to be pretty exciting! Anyway, I'm having a pretty great, even if there are still some lonely days. I guess there are bound to be those when you're in a new place. I'm trying to fill all of my time with activities so I don't think about being homesick, which has seemed to work so far. My sleeping, eating, and just general schedule is completely opposite than it was at home because everything here happens at night, and most people sleep until late morning, and take a ciesta in the late afternoon. With my love of naps I've become accustomed to this lifestyle quite easily! I hope everyone is well! Pictures coming soon!!

Ciao