It's almost that time again...

HOLA AMIGOS

Today is the 8th of January which means there are...21 days that seperate me from Argentina! I wanted to restart this same blog but I hope that this go around will be a little more telling... meaning: I want to write more than once every other month! Additionally, since I'm somewhat of a veteran to this country, I know what it offers and what I missed out on before. That being said, I've thought up some goals that I WILL accomplish while down in the Cono Sur. So far I have 10 but I'll probably add to them! (These are in no particular order)

10. Travel to Brazil

9. Become absolutely fluent in spanish

8. Explore the province of Córdoba

7. Visit the zoo

6. See penguins in Patagonia

5. Make at least 10 Argentine friends (this will help with fluency)

4. Volunteer in a social setting that could help with my future career

3. Join a gym

2. Form a really good relationship with my host family

1. Marry an Argentine (LOL GUYS!)

So I might post again before I leave but that's not likely. I was inspired to recommit to this blog by my friend Genevieve who just returned from Buenos Aires and blogged like a champ while away--- Thanks and keep me accountable if I start slackin'

Hasta luego muchachos!

-jes

Iguazu

Has it really been almost a month? My gosh how the time flies...
Let's see, where should I start? Waterfalls?
We embarked on our adventure at noon on a Tuesday armed with snacks, books, and tylenol PM. They gave us dinner at 12:30 PM, which was fun for our digestive systems, I guess...and then we arrived in the tiny little town of Iguazu by 10AM on Wednesday. I traveled with 3 other girls and 1 boy, but a bigger group was supposed to meet us there on Thursday, so we just relaxed in the AMAZING weather all day and then made a good cheap dinner that night. On Thursday after the other group arrived, we got on a bus to head to the park with the Argentine side of the falls. There exist 2 trails, an upper one that leads to the "garganta del diablo" (the devil's throat), and a lower one where you can close to the bottom of the falls and also take a maid of the mist type boat. On Thursday, we went on both trails, but the it was cloudy, so we decided to return the next day to do the boat and some ecological tours. Here are some of the views that I was able to capture even through the fog!
































Thursday night was so fun! We got back to the hostel and cooked dinner and played cards and other really lively games. 2 of the best games I will definitely play again because we laughed so hard during them, I'm very surprised no accidents occured (haha, gross). One was called "telephone picture" and everyone sits in a circle and writes a phrase on a little bit of paper and passes it. The next person has to read the phrase and draw it and then pass that, then the NEXT person has to see that drawing and write the phrase they think it's depicting and so on...it was outrageous some of the things we came up with. On the bus ride, they played a bunch of movies one of which was a weird bollywood style "memento" movie, and another was called "Cats and Dogs 2: The revenge of kitty galore", so both of those were the subjects of many drawings. Especially because the hostel in which we were staying had a resident ADORABLE kitten that I fell in love with....haha. So the next game we played was called "fishbowl" and basically there are 2 teams and 3 stages: catch phrase, charades, and word. Everyone writes a person, place, and thing on 3 different bits of paper and throws them into a bowl of sorts then in each phase, the teams see how many they can guess correctly. It's stressful, but some people put the most random things so it's hilarious. For example, we played with another girl from the hostel who put "Salome" from the Bible and noone really knew who she was. Another person put a noodle (which was really fun to see acted out), and someone else put the royal wedding...Anyways, I'm teaching everyone when I get back!
Friday, we woke up early-ish to go back to the park (2nd day you get 1/2 off!!!!) to walk on this ecological trail where you can sometimes see monkeys and pumas. We saw a few monkeys!


COOL, RIGHT!?















At the end of the trail, there was a beautiful baby waterfall with a little pool that I suppose is amazing to swim in during the summer, but then it was a little chilly! It was cool to just relax and soak up our surroundings because Córdoba is pretty, but this was like a semi-rainforest that reminded me of a prettier version of the North Carolina mountains. Seeing green all around was so refreshing...it was so nice to be able to breathe deeply again!
After this trail, we went back to the upper trail to see the devil's throat because the sky was clearer and my gosh, it made such a difference!


Here's a picture of the little waterfall





























We went on an ecological boat ride that was really uneventful, but we did see a mother crocodile and some neat birds...haha sorry I couldn't really get the gator because it was far away.
One of the coolest things was the maid of the mist ride that we did right before leaving the park. We went so close it was hard to see! This is basically the only picture I got before we had to put our cameras away for fear of ruining them:

what a great rainbow, right?












Missy, Francie, Taylor, and I "under" the falls













Ugh, the dog is in my bed again, but I can't even make her leave because she has the cutest sweater on! But she smells. hmmph
Friday night, everyone went out to dinner, but I stayed at the hostel and read because over the few days there, I went on this weird green tea cleanse because I was feeling nasty from the chicken/bad air/lack of exercise I had been experiencing in Córdoba. When everyone got back, we just hung around a bit, went on a walk, and then crashed early. During the night, 3 people got sick and we still don't know why, it was so weird. Saturday, the group that joined us later, left to go back and the 3 of us girls explored the little town and ate chinese food. It was SO GOOD (my cleanse lasted a solid 2 1/2 days...that's a long time without food when you're walking as much as I was)!
On Sunday we woke up and packed our stuff and headed back to Córdoba...20 more hours of stale air and bad food, yay! We made it back in time for our classes Monday, which were miserable, but that's school for you.
The weekend after Iguazu was decently uneventful, because the next week we had FOUR tests. FOUR! 2 Monday, 1 Tuesday, and 1 Thursday. Fortunately, I wasn't toooo burnt out on studying, and made it by with 8s or 9s on all of them. That being said, I have to take one exam, but it's in culture so I already knew that. It stinks, but there are people who have to take them in all of their classes. This week, I only have the oral exam on Thursday, so I'm going to go explore more of Córdoba and get all of my affairs in order to come back home. I have a flight for the 25th of June so I can get back in time to make money at soccer camp (gosh the shopping here has killed me).
Obviously I'm sad to leave, but sometimes I get really excited to come back home!
This past Friday, one of the girls in the program was robbed on her way home from school. She was walking on a nice street in the middle of the day when 2 guys rode up on a motorcycle and jumped her. She says they were hitting her and just by instinct, she clutched her bag which turned out to be a terrible idea. Eventually she thinks she passed out a bit because she woke up while she was being dragged on the street as they tried to get her things away from her. At that point, people heard her screaming and tried to help, but it was pretty much too late...they got away with her ipod, cell phone, camera, and wallet along with her expensive purse and dirty gym clothes. Although I try to avoid walking around with things of value, I often have my ipod-now I know that that is a really terrible idea...I've been hearing about a lot of pickpocketing and robberies lately and I feel so blessed that I haven't been put in any really dangerous situations (knock on wood).

Wow I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go. I plan on trying an asado with my family this weekend, because I've gotten myself up to eating a little beef.......

later gators

Catherine, the totally adorable kitten that lived at the hostel..gonna miss her awww

Mid week post

It's unbelievable to think that in less than two months, I will be back in the USA!

I had a full-ish week since I wrote last, I'm just trying to live up the rest of my time here by doing simple, important things...

On my history test, I made a NINE which was about 4 points higher than I had expected. I still am not sure about the culture test; on one project in there I made a 9. And then another one I made a 9 (but technically did not because now I have to do it over because...well, it's obnoxious but I understand). So hopefully I did okay on the actual parcial.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time speaking spanish with the natives between my family, my tutor, and a boy I met here (ooh). It's great practice, BUT (I don't remember if I said it before), I'm not going to be fluent by the time I return...I hope that's okay, haha.

On Friday, I went with some girls to the bus terminal to buy our tickets for the waterfalls (Iquazu). It's a 20 hour bus ride and guess how much our tickets are for "coche cama" (beds)?

$125 USD. Yeah, that's normally how much ONE way is, but there was a promotion with the company, so now we can put that other $125 towards food, hostels, and park entry tickets. After that, it was hard not to have a great day. We went to a beautiful palace that was converted into a modern art museum. Just about all of the art displayed was by Cordobes painters, and I was able to recognize a lot of the names because they are now street names here...haha, what great connections! After the art museum, we walked down a little while to this AMAZING church that we just went into and explored a teeny bit. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, but it's near that place called "Buen Pastor" that I mentioned in my last post, so I'll get photos later.

OMG this is important: I've been eating meat!

Okay, so not like steak and stuff...but I've tried chicken and on Friday night, one of the Japanese girls made sushi with tuna, so I ate that! Then on Saturday night, some girls and I went to our friends apartment and we cooked pasta primavera, chicken parmesan, brownies, and garlic bread. It was soooo delicious and I hadn't been THAT stuffed since I had chipotle last. [PS I miss Chipotle, my parents have already been informed to greet me at the airport with a veggie burrito bowl in hand. ]

Anyways, the dinner was a "buena onda" (good time) because a) sometimes I really miss cooking and b) it was relaxed and very home-like.

On Sunday, I made brownies (again!) for my family, because one of my sisters had yet to try the American recipe.

Then yesterday, I found Arg. box brownies in the grocery store, so I'll for sure be cooking those up sometime soon!

-Oh! I've been running again...sort of. I started on Thursday and went 10 min brisk walk, 5 min run, 15 min brisk walk. Friday I did 1o min brisk walk, 15 min jog, 10 min brisk walk, and then 5 min fast run. So basically I've had to start of REAL slow because a) the air here is thin, b) the air here is DIRTY, and c) I'm super duper out of shape.

I lost the one jacket I brought here, and now it's getting cold. This wouldn't be a problem at all except for the fact that I'm verging on broke, and "una campera" (jacket) will cost me at least USD$60. They're retarded expensive.

Still don't have a student visa...the process got really messed up when I left/returned to Arg. The technology here is not awful, but for some reason, our entrance still is not online and for that, they can't give us any credit. Which is fine, but it's just annoying that I've woken up at 5:30 on 4 different occasions to get it, and I still have had no luck. The last time was the best though...Lauren and I got sent to BORDER PATROL, and there we had to tell them basically to get their stuff together. They don't joke around at border patrol, if you can imagine.

Alright, so I'm going to go eat pizza and blue cheese dressing ( i taught my mom how to make it and she's O B S E S S E D ) so I'll blog later about the rest of my week (maybe). But for sure I'll have a blog post for after the walls...I CAN'T WAIT!

chau

PS look at this picture of my dog vacqui (like a cow)...she thinks MY bed is HERS.

semana santa

Because Argentina is a fiercely catholic country, they take easter very seriously and give students a lot of time off from school. My friend Lauren and I planned a trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Uruguay during the holiday because they are very close to each other. We left Tuesday night and got to Buenos Aires early Wednesday morning. The bus ride was HORRIBLE; we sat in the front because those seats have the most room, but it was storming that night so we got to listen to pounding rain on the windshield the entire night. Also, our bus driver had a weird "running into trees" fetish and at one point we slammed into something so hard, it cracked the glass. It was so loud, and of course it happened during one of the few times I was able to sleep. This wasn't just a small crack either, it was probably the size of a softball with a ton of spider webs attached. Once we arrived in Buenos Aires, we cabbed to our hostel, but it was like 8 am so we couldn't check in just yet so we dropped our bags off and romped around for a while. It took us forever to find a place to eat because nothing opens here until 9 or 10, but we finally managed to get our hands on some pastries and then we walked around and found a sweet mall and some gardens. Unfortunately, it was cold and drizzly, so we could enjoy the nature very much. After a while, we went back and checked in to the hostel to clean up and then we talked to some of the others staying there. We found a place for dinner and then when we got back, we went to the balcony and chatted with some American guys staying there. One of them actually lived in Buenos Aires, and told us about this cool rooftop bar, so we went with them there. The scene was so trendy! We were staying in this area called Palermo, which is supposedely really hip...the bar was like something you might find in New York. Everyone was wearing plaid and glasses and skinny jeans. I did not like the clientale one bit, they all had this attitude of superiority that sucked and ruined any fun possible. I did like the place though, and as long as you could ignore their upturned noses, it was really cool.

The next day, we had to get up early in order to check out. We took the subway into the center...well, we took it the wrong way at first, but then figured that out, ha ha. So in the centro, we walked around Plaza de Mayo (which I posted pictures of before), and calle Florida, which has a ton of shops and tourists. We killed the day there, and then grabbed our stuff from the hostel before getting a cab to the boat terminal. Our boat left Buenos Aires at 6:30 to cross into Colonia, Uruguay. From there, we got a bus to Montevideo where we checked into our new hostel! Arriba hostel was SUCH a great experience; it was clean and the concierge guy (Juanchy) was soo friendly. Right away, he took us into the common area and introduced us to everyone gathered in there. We stayed up until pretty late just talking with the other people staying there. There were people from Ireland, England and Australia...all just taking time out of their lives to travel. On Friday morning, we woke up and it was soooooooo nice outside so we went to the beach for a little while with one of the British guys. Unfortunately, the sun only hung around for an hour or so, but it was still nice to get out in the fresh air without a sweater on! After the beach, we took a bus into the center in order to see "La Ciudad Vieja" (the old city), but we walked the wrong way and by the time we figured it out, it was starting to get dark and rainy so we headed back. Once at the hostel, we ate dinner and hung out with the Irish couple and other floaters. That night, we went to a club with some of the British guys and Juanchy...the girls in Montevideo can dance like no other, I was so jealous of their moves!

Saturday we woke up to and went in to see the old city and the point (Montevideo is on a peninsula). Between the old city and the point, the neighborhood is kind of poor and we definitely shouldn't have been walking there alone, but we thought that it would be okay...Well, no. On our way back to find a bus stop to go to the hostel, we were walking along talking casually when all of the sudden we heard the sound of someone running. Both of us turned around and saw a small boy (14, but malnourished to the max) coming up behind us. Both of us thought he was just running to his house, but then he grabbed Lauren's bag (she was on the outside of the two of us). Thank god it was an across-the- body bag and she was holding on to it so he had a really hard time getting it. He was tugging and tugging and it finally broke, but the the strap in HIS hand, and the bag in HERS. He looked down and realized that he had lost, so he ran away. It all happened so fast! All I could do was raise the shopping bag I had in my hand to try and hit him, but by that time, he was gone. We got really lucky that a) he was so little and b) he didn't have a weapon and also c) that he didn't try me. Lauren had just gotten pickpocketed the previous weekend, so the only money she had, had been wired from her parents...I, on the other hand had my entire wallet, our bus tickets, my camera, etc. etc. The sad thing is that there were people around and they didn't bat an eye. And of course as we're scurrying to get to a safer area, a police car passed us.

We were super cautious from then on...like, we put our bags inside of our jackets!

We returned to the hostel and hung out for a while until we needed to go to the bus terminal. For the ride back to Córdoba, we got tickets for a nicer bus that had more vertically reclining seats and it served dinner. Well, I couldn't really eat the dinner, but it was a nice thought. On Sunday, once back in Córdoba, I took a little nap and then I had to commence to studying because we had a test on Monday, how cruel right?

All in all, it was a really great trip. We really got out of our comfort zones, but in a good way. We met some really cool people with awesome stories and experiences under their belts.

In my last post, I talked about all of the birthdays, right? Well this past weekend was fun...very relaxed! Friday night I went to the surprise party and then I went out with my tutor. She is so great, and really a blast to go out with! Saturday I woke up and went into the center to see this place called "Buen Pastor" which is basically this area where people go to be outside, hang out, and drink maté. We didn't stay for very long because it started to get dark, but it's definitely a place that I want to visit again! Last night, some of us decided to be low key and we went to this really chill place called "Don't Worry" bar and just hung out.

Luckily, this upcoming week is really low key for me...finally. Those tests the last few weeks really stressed me out and I don't normally get anxious so it's great to be able to relax. I need to come up with a plan for after my program because it's about time. I guess I can come home, but I really do love it here in S. America and I don't feel like it's my time. I might as well stay for a while longer, since I'm here and all. If anyone has any suggestions, PLEASE EMAIL ME!

Also, my skype name is hijessieboss if anyone wants to skype with me, I love to skype! My internet connection isn't all that great but sometimes it's sufficient!

chauuuuuu

random demonstration we saw while in Montevideo.The main plaza in Montevideo
Street art in Palermo

Botanical Gardens in Bs. As...there were sooo many cats!Botanical gardens in Bs As

more mendoza pics

My new parrot friend and I (there was a zoo, but it was expensive so we just peeked in from the outside)Lauren, Racheal, and I before whitewater rafting
The river...how pretty
The girls at the hostel party
Malbec grapes (the grapes Argentina is so famous for)

photos of mendoza

My friend Amanda and I modeling Clemson colors at the organic bodega. She's very photogenic

The organic bodega, where I bought three bottles!
A vineyard at the first bodega we visited
Gracen, Lauren, and Tori at our very first wine tasting!

These wall vaults are where the nicer wines are stored in order to age better

MENDOZA

prrrrrr soo sorry for my absence. Now I don't even remember what I've done since the last time I wrote!

So we went to Mendoza. There was a group of maybe 12 of us exchange students that went with two of the younger international office (CRI) workers. We left Thursday night around 10 and arrived in Mendoza early-ish Friday morning. The bus ride was "semi-cama", so the seats reclined pretty far back and I slept surprisingly well! So anyways, we got to Mendoza and checked into our hostel (which was super nice, by the way) and ate breakfast. Then we had some free time, so my friend Lauren and I kind of explored the city and shopped :) and ate lunch. Mid afternoon, we went on a brief romp around 3 different vineyards. The first one we went to was cool and modern and really new. Walking in was such an experience, just the smell was enough to make you want to move in. I'm not that much of a wine gal but I thought the process was so neat. The tour group consisted of us exchangers and 2 british guys who didn't speak spanish, so we really were able to understand what was going on since the guide had to talk in english. This is a picture of the vineyards of the first bodega we visited

The second bodega we visited was one of the most important organic vineyards in Mendoza. They said that they don't use pesticides or chemicals on the crops, but most of the wines did contain some sulfates to preserve their shelf-life. I bought 3 bottles there, one for my family here, and two to bring back home. They did have a no-sulfate added wine, and that is what I bought. Now I'm no expert, but I couldn't taste much of a difference between the wines with and the wines without sulfates. The third bodega we visited was an old traditional bodega with really expensive and specifically made wines that were of no interest to me, so I'm not going to detail that anymore.

That night, our hostel got together with 3 other hostels to hold an asado nearby. We all went together and waited with the other exchange students for what seemed like FOREVER to eat. I ate a ton of potato salad, which was bomb, but everyone said the meat was super good...I don't care. Anyways, afterwards, they moved all of the tables out of the bar area and the party started. There were free tequila shots, where they held your head back and poured...this was a disaster for some people (they drank way too much), but it was only troublesome for me when the bartender poured it IN MY EYE. Yow, didn't go back for more after that! The whole party was really fun, we got to meet people from Holland, Israel, France, and a ton of guys from England. I met one boy who I still talk to currently; he's really cool because he teaches me all of these popular british phrases and because him and his friends are travelling all around S. America before they start University in the fall.

Saturday we had to be up pretty early to eat breakfast and then head out to the mountains for some good old fashioned whitewater rafting! Our guide was by far the coolest and most fun. We arrived just as the season was ending and so the water was lower and FREEZING, but I'm so glad we went. We got to wear these really fashionable wetsuits and jackets like we were pros, it was awesome! Afterwards we hung around and tried to warm up before going back to our hostel. Once back, everyone showered and ate and then we tried to find a club to go to but had little success, so we cut our losses and just went to sleep. On Sunday, we had literally the whole day to kill because our bus didn't leave until late so Lauren, Gracen, and I walked to the big park and found this giant monument of and Argentine national hero (San Martin). On our walk back to the hostel, we grabbed and early dinner and while eating, we met this girl from Australia who told us she was taking a year to travel the entire world. Listening to her talk about the places she had been/was going to made my head spin; I was so inspired! Once I get back to the US (if I ever do...), I'm going to start hoarding my money so that I can experience the world like she is.

We finally got on the road, and I was able to sleep up until the point when a baby started crying. Oh but this wasn't just any baby....this baby was sitting right. behind. me. It was kicking also, that was fun. Oh what a disaster, and it just really stunk because we had class the next day basically only few hours after we got back.

I would say that Mendoza was my favorite trip to date. In my next entry when I have more time, I'll blog about Semana Santa when I went to Uruguay and my friend and I almost got robbed!

In the meantime, here's a funny story:

For our culture class, we had a group project and I was working with two guys that constantly tease me...I'm like the little sister. For one part, I had to email a document to one of the guys, his name is Jonathan. He ended up not needing it, so I assumed he just saw the body text that I put, "shut up and leave me alone", and simply deleted it. Obviously I forgot all about it until the next afternoon I cam home to check my email and I had this in my inbox:

Jessie –

Could you give me a quick call about your message sent yesterday to President Barker?

My cell # is 864-650-5502. I’d like to help.

Joy

Joy S. Smith, Ph.D.

Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students

202 Hendrix Student Center

Clemson, SC 29634-4001

w 864-656-0471; h 864-646-2899; fax 864-656-7241

AND this one:

Jessie –

This is the email message that went to President Barker about which I wrote you just now.

shut up leave me alone

--
Jessie Phillips

Sociology Major

Clemson University '13

Is everything OK with you? I am guessing it just went to the wrong person.

Please reply so I know all is OK in Argentina.

Joy

Obviously, I was super duper embarrassed so I responded right away how I was sooo sorry and I must've just started typin a "j" and "james barker" came up and I clicked without thinking. Luckily for me, the administration at Clemson has a good sense of humor and President Barker personally emailed me to ask if I could use the story as an anecdote about the "perils of email". So, basically I'm famous (or a laughingstock, not sure which)!

This past week, we got back 2 papers and 2 tests and I made 8s on all of them so that's good...they could've been better, but like I said before, with a record like that, I won't have to sit the exams!

There are lots of birthdays around this time...Tuesday was my tutor's boyfriends birthday so I went to their apartment to snack and play "mimica" (charades), which was surprisingly hard considering we were doing movie titles and they have different translations here. For example, "the hangover" (shout out to mom) technically means "la resaca", but in spanish, they call the movie ¿Qué Pasó Ayer"...so even if we knew the english equivalent, it was really dificult to guess the spanish translation. It was a really fun time though, great to practice my spanish. Last night, a bunch of us went to a chill bar to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and the birthday of our friend Taylor. Today, I went shopping with my tutor because HER birthday is tomorrow and wanted a new outfit to wear out! SHEESH and then TONIGHT there's a surprise party for Taylor and another boy called Jeff. How exciting!

Anyways, tomorrow the weather should be nice so hopefully I'll be outside and not indoors blogging, but I will try to get everyone updated by the end of the weekend.

How's America with all of this Osama stuff? I'm kind of glad I'm away because I feel like things are about to get really bad. Many people here don't believe he's dead, and I have to admit that I'm a little skeptical as well but I only watch the Argentine news, so maybe some details are getting lost in translation....

¡Hasta luego!