I am home safe from my educational field trip! I haven't had time to update the blog, but I will do so next week. Sorry for the wait, but I have a ton of school work to catch up on.
Until then I will try to post some photos on kodak share for everyone to see. There are three different links I posted in my profile to the right --> where you can see pictures from my three trips so far!
10/30/2009
10/22/2009
Wednesday October 21
Last night we had convo at a nice italian restaurant. The food was very good! However, the best part of the night was playing "mafia" with the people at our table. We played telephone for a while, and then Ron made up a game which was kind of lame. Then we started playing Mafia, which basically involves everyone accusing each other of being in the mafia. It gets pretty heated, and it got a little rowdy! Afterwards, we went to Tyler's house. The architecture of his house was so weird. His room kind of seemed like a hospital, or somewhere a scary movie would be filmed. We tried to watch a movie, but all of us just ended up falling asleep, so we all went home!
I am leaving tomorrow for my educational field trip. We're heading to Salta, so I will update when I get back next weds/thurs. Until then!
I am leaving tomorrow for my educational field trip. We're heading to Salta, so I will update when I get back next weds/thurs. Until then!
10/21/2009
Tuesday October 20
Sorry I haven’t updated this in a couple of days! There hasn’t been a lot going on. Monday we had school and then I went to the American sports bar to watch the Broncos beat up the Chargers. We have a “Buenos Aires Broncos Club” That meets every week to watch the game. This week I met a few more kids from Colorado who new some of the older CA alumni. That’s always cool. It’s a small world!
Last night we decided to check out a bar called “Jobs.” It’s three stories, and it is insane. It has Playstation 2’s, fooseball, pool, table games like Jenga, and ARCHERY! I know, I was thinking the same thing…. Archery is probably not the smartest attraction to put in a bar. It’s pretty sweet though. I didn’t want to drop the coin to shoot some archery so we played some Jenga. Maybe next time I’ll hit the range. Then we went to a club called “Kika” because we could get in free, and they were playing American hip-hop from 1:30 to 3. It was pretty fun. They had a pretty good song selection and I snuck into the VIP for a little bit. Nice!
Last night we decided to check out a bar called “Jobs.” It’s three stories, and it is insane. It has Playstation 2’s, fooseball, pool, table games like Jenga, and ARCHERY! I know, I was thinking the same thing…. Archery is probably not the smartest attraction to put in a bar. It’s pretty sweet though. I didn’t want to drop the coin to shoot some archery so we played some Jenga. Maybe next time I’ll hit the range. Then we went to a club called “Kika” because we could get in free, and they were playing American hip-hop from 1:30 to 3. It was pretty fun. They had a pretty good song selection and I snuck into the VIP for a little bit. Nice!
10/18/2009
Friday October 16
Friday we wanted to watch final destination in 3-D. We went to a couple of different theaters but we couldn’t find it. By the time we were done walking around it was almost time to meet our friends to go to this club called Pancha. One of my friends is staying with a family that hooked a bunch of us up with free admission and VIP bracelets!
We all met at a little jazz club type thing where a band was playing, and then went to Pancha. The place was packed, and it was huge! They played all techno music which I didn’t like but it was still super fun to be a VIP!
We all met at a little jazz club type thing where a band was playing, and then went to Pancha. The place was packed, and it was huge! They played all techno music which I didn’t like but it was still super fun to be a VIP!
10/16/2009
Thursday October 15
This Thursday instead of going to lost for American hip-hop night I just hung out with TJ and Ron. We decided we’d rather not go out super late so we wouldn’t be dead for all of our class the next day. We went to Jackie O’s for a little while. It’s a local restaurant/bar that’s pretty fun. We watch the end of the Dodgers/Phillies game, which kept us out way later than we expected. What started out as not being a late night turned into me getting to the bus station at 3:15 in the morning and waiting 40 minutes for the bus!
10/15/2009
Wednesday October 14
Today instead of having convo we all went to a restaurant to watch the Argentina vs. Uruguay futbol game. The food was pretty good and we all enjoyed watching the game on a big screen together. My friend Niles’ family is all from Uruguay, so he wasn’t too excited when they lost. But everyone else was happy for Argentina!
After the game, a bunch of us went bowling. It was really fun, and we had a good time heckling each other. TJ bowled a 26. We made him laugh every time he was up, and I don’t think he had one good bowl the whole night.
After the game, a bunch of us went bowling. It was really fun, and we had a good time heckling each other. TJ bowled a 26. We made him laugh every time he was up, and I don’t think he had one good bowl the whole night.
10/14/2009
Pinamar! Tuesday October 13
Pinamar!!!
Friday:
Ron and Cole at bus station
Friday night we (Ron, Cole, and I) met at Casa Holden at 11:30 to catch our bus at 1. So we took a taxi to the bus station, and waited around a little bit. While we were sitting Ron glanced at the tickets to make sure everything was correct, and noticed that the tickets were for Friday morning at 1 am instead of Saturday morning! So, we talked to the ticket lady and she said there was no more room until 9 am. Awesome!
Saturday:
So we went to our respective houses until around 7:30 when we met up to try again. Success! We all passed out on the bus, and woke up when we pulled into Pinamar around 2. Unfortunately it was very raining and dreary, so we pretty much just lounged around and went out for dinner. Our room was sweet though. It was a “Hostel” but it was really more like a hotel. There were 3 beds, and we had our own room.
Pinamar
Our Hostel/Hotel
Sunday:
We headed out to the sand dunes for the day! We took a taxi out there and got to the ATV place to find out that they don’t take cards. None of us had our phones, so we walked to a nearby guard station and asked them to call a cab for us. We went back and got some lunch and then came back with cash! We had a great day on the dunes. We wore goofy baseball-looking helmets, so we looked pretty awesome. We had a good time launching off some dunes, and all of us had trouble at some time. Ron’s died and then we couldn’t get it to neutral to start it. Then Cole went up a hill, didn’t make it, and his ATV rolled all the way down the hill (see picture). Then we found this half-pipe kind of thing. I had a hay day fishtailing at the top and going back and forth doing that. But on one I cranked it, and my handle bars got a little caught on my jacket, and turn the wrong way. I bailed and my ATV rolled a couple of times. It was sweet!
That night we went to dinner and fell asleep pretty early because we were all pretty exhausted after our ATV day.
Me on my ATV rockin the helmet!
Catchin some air
Cole after he rolled his down the hill
Me doing a donut around Cole
Me doing the half-pipe thing
Me after I rolled
Me on the dunes
Monday:
Monday we had a beach day. It was a little chilly so we didn’t get in, but we had a great day enjoying the ocean and some rays. It was a very nice day, and we did some fun people watching on the beach. We went on a couple adventures to find lunch and dinner, and played a little air hockey. We were homeless after 12 or so. We checked out, and the hostel held our stuff. So we pretty much floated around and enjoyed the area. That night we went and saw inglorious bastards, but I had already seen it so I dozed off a bit. Then we hit the bus station to get on our 3 am bus!
Ron on beach
Ron and I
Overall, it was a super fun trip. Intense yet restful.
Tuesday:
We got off the bus around 9:30, and headed home. I didn’t have enough time to sleep before class, so I headed to Casa Holden and prepped for my Spanish in-class essay.
Friday:
Ron and Cole at bus station
Friday night we (Ron, Cole, and I) met at Casa Holden at 11:30 to catch our bus at 1. So we took a taxi to the bus station, and waited around a little bit. While we were sitting Ron glanced at the tickets to make sure everything was correct, and noticed that the tickets were for Friday morning at 1 am instead of Saturday morning! So, we talked to the ticket lady and she said there was no more room until 9 am. Awesome!
Saturday:
So we went to our respective houses until around 7:30 when we met up to try again. Success! We all passed out on the bus, and woke up when we pulled into Pinamar around 2. Unfortunately it was very raining and dreary, so we pretty much just lounged around and went out for dinner. Our room was sweet though. It was a “Hostel” but it was really more like a hotel. There were 3 beds, and we had our own room.
Pinamar
Our Hostel/Hotel
Sunday:
We headed out to the sand dunes for the day! We took a taxi out there and got to the ATV place to find out that they don’t take cards. None of us had our phones, so we walked to a nearby guard station and asked them to call a cab for us. We went back and got some lunch and then came back with cash! We had a great day on the dunes. We wore goofy baseball-looking helmets, so we looked pretty awesome. We had a good time launching off some dunes, and all of us had trouble at some time. Ron’s died and then we couldn’t get it to neutral to start it. Then Cole went up a hill, didn’t make it, and his ATV rolled all the way down the hill (see picture). Then we found this half-pipe kind of thing. I had a hay day fishtailing at the top and going back and forth doing that. But on one I cranked it, and my handle bars got a little caught on my jacket, and turn the wrong way. I bailed and my ATV rolled a couple of times. It was sweet!
That night we went to dinner and fell asleep pretty early because we were all pretty exhausted after our ATV day.
Me on my ATV rockin the helmet!
Catchin some air
Cole after he rolled his down the hill
Me doing a donut around Cole
Me doing the half-pipe thing
Me after I rolled
Me on the dunes
Monday:
Monday we had a beach day. It was a little chilly so we didn’t get in, but we had a great day enjoying the ocean and some rays. It was a very nice day, and we did some fun people watching on the beach. We went on a couple adventures to find lunch and dinner, and played a little air hockey. We were homeless after 12 or so. We checked out, and the hostel held our stuff. So we pretty much floated around and enjoyed the area. That night we went and saw inglorious bastards, but I had already seen it so I dozed off a bit. Then we hit the bus station to get on our 3 am bus!
Ron on beach
Ron and I
Overall, it was a super fun trip. Intense yet restful.
Tuesday:
We got off the bus around 9:30, and headed home. I didn’t have enough time to sleep before class, so I headed to Casa Holden and prepped for my Spanish in-class essay.
Photo Update
Here are some pictures of the Mendoza Trip from a couple weeks ago.
The hot springs
The canyon
Me in the canyon by the hot springs
Cole on the sketchy bridge (it doesn't look that bad but it's so wobbly!)
Me, Cole, Ron, TJ at the Hot Springs
The mountains in Mendoza
Our Hostel
In case any of you were wondering, here is what my room looks like in Buenos Aires. This is where I sleep every night. It's not huge, but it's comfy and I have a TV!
The hot springs
The canyon
Me in the canyon by the hot springs
Cole on the sketchy bridge (it doesn't look that bad but it's so wobbly!)
Me, Cole, Ron, TJ at the Hot Springs
The mountains in Mendoza
Our Hostel
In case any of you were wondering, here is what my room looks like in Buenos Aires. This is where I sleep every night. It's not huge, but it's comfy and I have a TV!
10/09/2009
Clarification
Yes, I am studying (Grandpa Ken!). Believe it or not, I have found time to study. It's rare, but it happens. I got a 99 on my spanish test today. See! I think I've found a pretty good balance between fun and homework. Almost every day I go home after school and get my homework done, and if I go out it is always later at night. However, I did find a pretty fun motocross game on my computer....
Friday October 9
Sorry I have not updated this in the last few days. I haven’t really been up to anything exciting.
Wednesday:
Wednesday night for convo we went to a greek restaurant. It was pretty fun, and the food was good. It went super long though! There were these greek dancers who would come out and dance between our tables, which was cool at first but they came out to dance like 8 times! We got to break our plates on the ground which was pretty cool too. But I was starting to get very antsy, considering we were there for three and a half hours! Then a bunch of us went over to TJ’s apartment and baked cookies and watched a movie.
Thursday:
Went to club Lost again to enjoy American hip-hop night. I live within walking distance, so four other guys came over before and we all crammed into my room to watch a movie on my computer. Then we walked to Lost and Ron got his wallet stolen. Nice!
Friday:
Tonight we are going to leave for Pinamar! Ron, Cole, and I are heading there for the long weekend. It’s a sweet beach town, and we have a hostel right on the beach. It’s a huge holiday weekend for the Argentine’s so hopefully there will be a lot of people! We are getting on the bus at like one in the morning tonight, and will be coming back overnight Monday night/Tuesday morning. I’ll let you know how it went when I get back!
Wednesday:
Wednesday night for convo we went to a greek restaurant. It was pretty fun, and the food was good. It went super long though! There were these greek dancers who would come out and dance between our tables, which was cool at first but they came out to dance like 8 times! We got to break our plates on the ground which was pretty cool too. But I was starting to get very antsy, considering we were there for three and a half hours! Then a bunch of us went over to TJ’s apartment and baked cookies and watched a movie.
Thursday:
Went to club Lost again to enjoy American hip-hop night. I live within walking distance, so four other guys came over before and we all crammed into my room to watch a movie on my computer. Then we walked to Lost and Ron got his wallet stolen. Nice!
Friday:
Tonight we are going to leave for Pinamar! Ron, Cole, and I are heading there for the long weekend. It’s a sweet beach town, and we have a hostel right on the beach. It’s a huge holiday weekend for the Argentine’s so hopefully there will be a lot of people! We are getting on the bus at like one in the morning tonight, and will be coming back overnight Monday night/Tuesday morning. I’ll let you know how it went when I get back!
10/05/2009
Mendoza Trip! Monday October 5
Well I guess I have a whole long weekend to fill you all in on! Here we go….
Tuesday:
We went to the train station and rode the train to the bus station. That all went fine, expect in our walk between the two stations, my friend Sara got her wallet stolen! Some lady bumped into her, and blocked her way while an accomplice took it out of her backpack. She didn’t realize what had happened until it was too late. But she handled it very well, and everything worked out.
I rode the bus with Sara, Macall, Constance, and Kendall. We were on a different bus than the rest of the group because we were the last to sign up. Probably 30 to 40 people from our program mobbed Mendoza!
When we got to the bus station it took a little while for us to find the right window to buy our tickets. At the bus station, the ticket says two different numbers, and there are a bunch of numbered parking spots. We could not figure out the system at all! But apparently the bus will pull up at a spot in the range printed on your ticket. We tried asking a bunch of people, but we never quite figured it out. Our subpar Spanish had us running back and forth. We got pretty worried considering we were out there only about 5 minutes before our train was supposed to leave. I thought there was no way the bus would’ve left early, but when it was 15 minutes after the scheduled time, somebody told us that it had already left. We were unhappy to say the least, until an employee of our same bus company told us that it would be there soon.
SO… we made it on the bus, and the rest of our trip was flawless. The food left something to be desired, but I still ate it all, and then some of the girls’ leftovers. After that I put on my ipod and slept all night! The bus is pretty comfy. It’s a double decker, and you get a seat that’s similar to a lazy boy. You can recline pretty far, and I had no trouble sleeping. We got into Mendoza the next morning.
Wednesday:
We arrived from the bus in the morning, and took a taxi to our hostel. It was a pretty nice hostel, I can’t complain. We all relaxed a little bit, and then we took a bike two of two different Wineries. It was pretty neat to see how everything works.
Some of my friends decided it would be a good idea to try this jump/ledge on the way back, and after Tyler stomped it, Damien went of and didn’t pop at all. His front tire went straight down into the ground and he flipped over the front of his handlebars. It was hilarious!! But we all made it back safely. Later that night we just rested up and hung out at the hostel. I feel bad for everyone else staying there cause we were in the courtyard area and were so loud!
Thursday:
Four of us guys just took it easy. We didn’t really want to spend a lot of money doing the excursions, so we trekked all the way to the supermarket and bought a bunch of food. We made it back and cooked up some eggs, bacon(?), and chorizo. All in one. It was SO GOOD! Then we just hung around the hostel for the day and made some pasta and grilled up some steak for dinner. Our adventures for Friday were cooking breakfast and dinner. That pretty much sums up Friday!
Friday: (pictures to come)
Ron, TJ, Cole and I went to the hot springs. We took a taxi to the bus station where we caught some public transportation to the mountains. We didn’t go deep into the mountains, but into this little valley. But we could see the big Andes on our way and they were pretty big and snowy. Some of the group went skiing, but I wasn’t ready to drop that kind of money for spring skiing. I kind of wish I did, but oh well.
We made it into our little valley and went into the hot springs. But first we walked across this little canyon on a pretty sketchy bridge. Oh, and then we went into the restaurant they had there and I had a burger. After that, we hopped in the tubs and chilled for a little while. There was a slide too which we had fun going down. The was a lazy river but it was super cold. So we were in the hot springs for a while and then we dove into the lazy river and took a whole miserable lap around as fast as we could. Except there was a fairly cool cave thing at the end.
After we got bored of that, we went down into the little valley and had some adventures.
Cole and I crossed the river down there (TJ and Ron wimped out) and sat on this little ledge and had a rock throwing contest. I lost. TJ and Ron were so jealous though. When it was time to come back we realized that the way we got there would not work to come back. So Cole walked up and down trying to find a spot while I just started throwing big rocks in the river to make my own path. Eventually my method worked, and we made it safely. (Except Cole had one wet shoe) When we made it back up to the hot springs we stopped and at a ton of “spaceships.” They were these flat, sugary bread things that we thought looked like UFOs. Then we went back and got in the hot springs for a little while. We took another lap in the lazy river, I have no idea why we kept doing that! Then we went to a little restaurant and ate some more food. I had the best quesadillas of my life, and also a Choripan Gigante. You can look up choripan, its pretty traditional Argentine food. There was also this huge dog that came up and freaked us all out. He looked like the monster dog from the Sandlot. His name was Oso…. Which means bear.
We got in the hot springs one more time before we left (We had all day!) and then dried off before we got on the bus.
The night was pretty tame, we just chilled at the hostel again. But Jack, Niles, Courtney, and Kelsey had been travelling on their own, and came to stay at our hostel that night. We did them a favor and let them stay with us, but Jack fell asleep in my tiny twin bed, on the top bunk. He was facing out so I literally wedged myself against the wall and tried to sleep. It was pretty uncomfortable, but I was trying to be a good friend.
Saturday:
Again we just kind of relaxed. We cleaned the place up, and got ready for the bus. We went on another search for food, and ended up at this place where I ordered a burger the size of my head… and I killed it. Then I showered and packed, and made my own pasta before heading to the bus. We rolled out and had a flawless bus trip. We made it home safe on Sunday, and I just did my homework! But overall it was an amazing trip! It was a ton of fun, relaxing, and we saw some cool sights. Most of all though, I got much closer with some of my friends here, and can’t wait for our adventures to continue!
Tuesday:
We went to the train station and rode the train to the bus station. That all went fine, expect in our walk between the two stations, my friend Sara got her wallet stolen! Some lady bumped into her, and blocked her way while an accomplice took it out of her backpack. She didn’t realize what had happened until it was too late. But she handled it very well, and everything worked out.
I rode the bus with Sara, Macall, Constance, and Kendall. We were on a different bus than the rest of the group because we were the last to sign up. Probably 30 to 40 people from our program mobbed Mendoza!
When we got to the bus station it took a little while for us to find the right window to buy our tickets. At the bus station, the ticket says two different numbers, and there are a bunch of numbered parking spots. We could not figure out the system at all! But apparently the bus will pull up at a spot in the range printed on your ticket. We tried asking a bunch of people, but we never quite figured it out. Our subpar Spanish had us running back and forth. We got pretty worried considering we were out there only about 5 minutes before our train was supposed to leave. I thought there was no way the bus would’ve left early, but when it was 15 minutes after the scheduled time, somebody told us that it had already left. We were unhappy to say the least, until an employee of our same bus company told us that it would be there soon.
SO… we made it on the bus, and the rest of our trip was flawless. The food left something to be desired, but I still ate it all, and then some of the girls’ leftovers. After that I put on my ipod and slept all night! The bus is pretty comfy. It’s a double decker, and you get a seat that’s similar to a lazy boy. You can recline pretty far, and I had no trouble sleeping. We got into Mendoza the next morning.
Wednesday:
We arrived from the bus in the morning, and took a taxi to our hostel. It was a pretty nice hostel, I can’t complain. We all relaxed a little bit, and then we took a bike two of two different Wineries. It was pretty neat to see how everything works.
Some of my friends decided it would be a good idea to try this jump/ledge on the way back, and after Tyler stomped it, Damien went of and didn’t pop at all. His front tire went straight down into the ground and he flipped over the front of his handlebars. It was hilarious!! But we all made it back safely. Later that night we just rested up and hung out at the hostel. I feel bad for everyone else staying there cause we were in the courtyard area and were so loud!
Thursday:
Four of us guys just took it easy. We didn’t really want to spend a lot of money doing the excursions, so we trekked all the way to the supermarket and bought a bunch of food. We made it back and cooked up some eggs, bacon(?), and chorizo. All in one. It was SO GOOD! Then we just hung around the hostel for the day and made some pasta and grilled up some steak for dinner. Our adventures for Friday were cooking breakfast and dinner. That pretty much sums up Friday!
Friday: (pictures to come)
Ron, TJ, Cole and I went to the hot springs. We took a taxi to the bus station where we caught some public transportation to the mountains. We didn’t go deep into the mountains, but into this little valley. But we could see the big Andes on our way and they were pretty big and snowy. Some of the group went skiing, but I wasn’t ready to drop that kind of money for spring skiing. I kind of wish I did, but oh well.
We made it into our little valley and went into the hot springs. But first we walked across this little canyon on a pretty sketchy bridge. Oh, and then we went into the restaurant they had there and I had a burger. After that, we hopped in the tubs and chilled for a little while. There was a slide too which we had fun going down. The was a lazy river but it was super cold. So we were in the hot springs for a while and then we dove into the lazy river and took a whole miserable lap around as fast as we could. Except there was a fairly cool cave thing at the end.
After we got bored of that, we went down into the little valley and had some adventures.
Cole and I crossed the river down there (TJ and Ron wimped out) and sat on this little ledge and had a rock throwing contest. I lost. TJ and Ron were so jealous though. When it was time to come back we realized that the way we got there would not work to come back. So Cole walked up and down trying to find a spot while I just started throwing big rocks in the river to make my own path. Eventually my method worked, and we made it safely. (Except Cole had one wet shoe) When we made it back up to the hot springs we stopped and at a ton of “spaceships.” They were these flat, sugary bread things that we thought looked like UFOs. Then we went back and got in the hot springs for a little while. We took another lap in the lazy river, I have no idea why we kept doing that! Then we went to a little restaurant and ate some more food. I had the best quesadillas of my life, and also a Choripan Gigante. You can look up choripan, its pretty traditional Argentine food. There was also this huge dog that came up and freaked us all out. He looked like the monster dog from the Sandlot. His name was Oso…. Which means bear.
We got in the hot springs one more time before we left (We had all day!) and then dried off before we got on the bus.
The night was pretty tame, we just chilled at the hostel again. But Jack, Niles, Courtney, and Kelsey had been travelling on their own, and came to stay at our hostel that night. We did them a favor and let them stay with us, but Jack fell asleep in my tiny twin bed, on the top bunk. He was facing out so I literally wedged myself against the wall and tried to sleep. It was pretty uncomfortable, but I was trying to be a good friend.
Saturday:
Again we just kind of relaxed. We cleaned the place up, and got ready for the bus. We went on another search for food, and ended up at this place where I ordered a burger the size of my head… and I killed it. Then I showered and packed, and made my own pasta before heading to the bus. We rolled out and had a flawless bus trip. We made it home safe on Sunday, and I just did my homework! But overall it was an amazing trip! It was a ton of fun, relaxing, and we saw some cool sights. Most of all though, I got much closer with some of my friends here, and can’t wait for our adventures to continue!
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