Long time since I was here last! Let me catch up all up.

Wednesday was a pretty low key day. Not too much happened until Elisa and I went to the camp to help prep for the kids camp that was this weekend. It was dark when we were walking back, and as you may have seen in some previous pictures, the walk back is through as pasture. When it is dark out there...it is very dark! The moon was completely not there either so our light was the stars. Those little guys aren't too much help. During that little adventure I learned that I really dn't like walking through pokey pastures in the dark. Elisa was leading the way and sometimes would walk straight into a bush. Haha. Comic relief! We got lost for a couple minutes.  And one time we went under a wire fence only to realize that it was the wrong one. But after we corrected that mistake we were well on our way back home. That night Psycho was on TV. I had no idea that it was made in 1998! I thought it was a 80s film. And Vince Vaughn is the lead role! The movie was terrible too! How did it get so popular?? If a scary movie didn't even scare me, you know it was no good.

Thursday I went to Villa Maria for the second time. I visited my new friend Lali this time. We made a cake at her apartment. I was amazed at how she would just pour the ingredients in the bowl without measuring anything! And she let me add an extra egg just because she figured I wanted to crack one too. How did she know? We went into the center to shop a little, and then we visited Andres and Marcos at the coolest house ever. Here are some pics!

Torta!

The view of the awesome house from the street

It was difficult to take a picture of the front, but here it is!!

Around the left side is the entrance.

Isn't this awesome! Oooold books still just there!

Old typewriter

Old Argentine flag that I want!

These are the old books in Spanish. 

Friday and Saturday I helped at the kids camp. Really I was more like the entertainment for the kids. They would crowd around me and ask me all kinds of questions like "Are you really from the US?" "Can you speak English?" and the classic "How does you say _____ in English?" I also love it when they would ask me what my name is, and when I would tell them they would just kind of stare at me then walk away because my name is difficult to say here. haha. I slept in a cabin and the girls in that cabin were so sweet. They would actually get jealous if I talked with another cabin or ate with someone besides them. I had to leave Saturday night before the camp ended and they did not want me to go! They gave me little gifts and a millions kisses!! It took me about 15 minutes to get out of the camp because the kids kept giving me kisses! It was so cute and I felt so loved!

The sign the girls made for our door. "The Mermaids"

The cabin

My Good-bye party! haha

Sunday and Monday I went to Leones to visit Lali in her home town. Leones has just 10,000 people. So it would be more like Sulphur Springs I guess. We went to a fair type thing...like Fall Festival with rides and things to buy. Then we visited some of here friends and drank maté. That night we went to a concert of Abel Pinto. I didn't understand all of every song, but I understood enough to get a little crush on him now! It was very romantic. He could be like the John Mayer of Argentina - tall and skinny and just about every song would make any girls heart melt! Monday Lali gave me a little tour of her town.

Lali and I ready to go out!

Abel Pinto

Cemetary

House

Ice Cream Shop

Hospital

Sorry for any errors! I am getting ready to leave for Cordoba and I still need to take a shower!

Getting buzzed in church

Saturday, yesterday, and today Elsia and I are house sitting for one of her older brothers. On Saturday one of her friends came to stay with us for the weekend. They made pizza for dinner, and Elisa told me that around 11pm people would come over to have a hangout/party. One friend arrived before we ate, but at 11:30 still nobody else had shown up. An hour later people finally started to arrive. Just an hour and a half late, whatevs. I will blame part of it on the waterfall that was coming from the clouds and the other part on the much more relaxed pace of life here. I think I am almost used to it now. The girls painted nails and the guys went outside to play Fooseball I think. Then some of us got to show off some of our piano skills and typical party tricks: being double jointed, little jokes, and (my personal trick) being able to lick my elbow.

The girls painting nails

 

 Agu and I

  

A dessert unique to Bell Ville. And my hair is done in a way that a lot of girls do their hair. 

I was trying to look as Argentine as possible that night.

 

Yesterday we stayed at the house until time to go to church. This was my third time to go to church here. They take communion every Sunday...and it is a tad bit different. We stay seated and people pass arounds plates with the bread on it. We take a bit for ourselves and eat it then. Someone prays. Then the, er, grapejuice is passed around. First time I thought, "This grapejuice is kind of brown. Maybe it is handmade grapejuice or something." I drank it. And it burned!!! That was definiately NOT grapejuice. The next Sunday I am prepared for the wine. I thought it would be ok that time since I knew it was alcohol. I thought it only burned because I was expecting sweet grapejuice and not tart wine. I thought wrong. It burned the second time going down too. I am convinced it is whiskey and not wine. I have never seen brown, Jack-Daniel's-colored wine before. Yesterday I was ready for my Jesus Juice shot, and after that I felt I was ready to go out and hit the town! haha.

After church we went to the river to go to Aquarama 2012. It was like a weekend long concert with different acts for the whole city. First we saw tango. It was so awesome to finally see people in Argentina doing the tango in real life. I have looked up tango in Argentina countless times on Youtube. I wanted to cry, take pictures, and pee in my pants when I saw it for the first time! Then there was a comedian. Even though I couldn't really understand him, I could still tell that he wasn't that good. After he was gone we waited and waited and waited for the next act to set up. We shared maté, chatted, and I got sprayed in the eye with the Argentine equivalent of Silly String. It is just water foam that looks like fake snow, but it wasn't so fun to have sprayed in my eye. The next group to go was a folkloric band. They, were, awesome!! They actually had talent too! They didn't need crazy outfits, insane lights, and mind-blowing stunts to have the crowd go nuts. They just sang their freaking hearts out! (Disclaimer: I love the outfits, lights, and stunts too...it had just been a while since the last time I saw real talent like that.) I want to get their album so I can learn the lyrics and sing like them in my car on road trips. After they were done, there was something like the Dairy Festival. Instead of floats in a parade, the contestants decorated canoes and floated down the river. So they were floats..literally!! Each girl was sponsored by a different group or company and the floats had different themes. A weird thing was that along with her interests, school, and life dreams, they would tell how much each girl weighed. I can just imagine the protests and madness that would happen if something like that was to happen in an event like the Dairy Festival.

 A portion of the people that were there.

 The view from where we were sitting. Lots of people!

The current queen's canoe. 

Amor y paz! Love and peace!

The sky cried a lot

Yesterday I woke up suuuuuuuper early - 8am. I went to the bus station to go to Villa Maria to visit Andres, Esteban, and Marcos in their college city. Andres was waiting for me at the station and told me that we had a 25 minute walk to get to his house. I think "No big. I am an Aggie and walking long distances with a backpack in 90 plus degree weather is nothing." I tried to stay strong and not put my hair in a ponytail during the walk because I miss getting to wear my hair down, but eventually I had to cave and bun the locks. During the trek, Andres tells me that the house is really big and old...uhhh, their house was probably the coolest place to live I have ever seen in real life. There have been a few houses on Extreme Cribs that beat it though. When we stopped in front of it I didn't believe him when he told me to go through the gate. It had a sign on the sidewalk marking it as a historical building. I didn't want to fall for a joke so I just kept standing there until Esteban walked around the corner of the house with his bike, and then I believed that was really the house. I forgot to take pictures of it, but I am hoping to go back sometime next week and I will take pictures then.

So what does this house look like? It was built in 1915 (yeah nearly 100 years old) then converted into a Evangelical School of some sort in 1965ish, and then back into a house sometime later. The front part looked like it belonged to the Tower of Terror in Disney World! The front door isn't used, so we went around the corner Esteban appeared from and went inside what seemed like an extension. This part was a bit more normal house-like. Marcos was inside chopping up some veggies. (Side note - lots of guys here know how to cook.) Andres gave me a tour of the magical, Tower of Terror, probably ghost-inhabited house. There were so many just straight up old things in there: a type writer, a card catalogue for a library, a safe, and lots of wardrobes. I think I saw a snowy lampost in one of the wardrobes.  When we got to one door Andres said that the room inside was his favorite room. So I was pretty excited to see what was inside. He opens the doors and announces that it is a library full of old books! We had to wait a moment for him to find the lights, but once he turned them on it was a like a delayed Beauty and the Beast library scene moment except a lot smaller and the books are in Spanish. It was so cool. Then we went into another room that had bunches of old books in English.One was titled something along the lines of "Modern Science and Christian Beliefs" and it was first published in 1954 - modern science. I can't wait to go back and check out all of those old school gems. Literally - oooooold school. Upstairs were some bedrooms with chalkboards, a mainroom, and a bathroom. The upper floor kind of reminded me of Water Oak with the school/house feel to it.

That afternoon Andres and I went to the river. I love love love the river and all of the waterness and how it makes a hot day so much better. While we were walking to the river I saw that there were some dark grey clouds in the sky. I said "va a llorar?" which means "Is it going to cry?" I meant to use the verb "llover" which means "to rain." So of course Andres thought the Yanki was funny mixing up the similar sounding words. So I tried to recover by asking if the sky was going to cry. Kind of worked.

The river was awesome and the current was a bit strong. It was strong enough to give me a hard time to stand/sit my ground in the shallow waters, but not strong enough to push Andres around. Sexist river. The sky continued to appear as though it would cry at any moment. Eventually we went back to shore to have cookies and maté. A few tears fell from the sky, but I thought we could tough it out. Apparently that offened the sky and it started to bawl. We rushed to gather everything and run under a covered sidewalk type place with lots of other damp people. We waited and waited while the sky let all of its feelings out. And the wind decided to join in too and blow the rain under the cover at times. Finally I said, "Let's just go." I wanted to prove that I am not a Barbie. (A term here for the girls that are kind of prissy, don't like to get dirty, go camping, etc) So we braved the storm. I had a towel wrapped around me, but my shirt underneath was completely drenched within 5 minutes. It was an adventure through the giant raindrops, slippery sidewalks, teeny tiny hail for a few seconds, and streets that were more like rivers.  Here is a pic of Andres and I after the adventure.

Once we dried off and I got some new clothes from Marcos, it was about time to start making dinner. I made (helped, really) pizza!!!! So yummy. Here is proof.

After dinner was a quick walk around the park then back to Bell Ville. Marcos told me when we were supposed to get off the bus, and I had no idea where we were. There is a lot of trust required in this trip. We stopped at a relative's house to get a car to drive the rest of the way back, but it wasn't there. So Marcos asked if I was a Barbie and wanted a taxi, or not a Barbie and wanted to ride a bike back. So naturally I picked the bike. We kind of stole a bike from his grandparents and I rode on the back. At one point we had this typical Marcos conversation while riding the bike through the dark forest out in the country: (naturally, the following in translated)

Marcos: Are you uncomfortable?

Me: No.

Marcos: Me either....Can you see anything?

Me: No.

Marcos. Me either! hahahaha

Very reassuring considering he was the one driving the bike. Haha. 

Chau chau!

Fotos!

I forgot to tell you all about something that I did on Thursday after the Great Bee Stings of 2012. A very traditional meal type thing in Argentina is called “picada.” Basically it is finger food used as an appetizer or meal if you eat enough. There is a special type of tray that the “picada” goes on. I really want one now, but I don’t think it will be very easy to pack in my suitcase…sigh. However, I do have photos!

Picada

Esteban, Kendall, and Elisa

Friday during the day was pretty normal. In the evening I was talking with my dad on Skype and then in walks Andres through the front door! It was so crazy to see yet another person I have only seen through Facebook in real life after two years! He is trying to learn an English song on his guitar and I helped him with his English pronunciation. It felt kind of like I was back at Water Oak helping the kids learn to read. It was a challenge to explain words like “better” pronounced “beddur” and “would” pronounced “wud.” Oh English and your crazy spelling.

Lots of friends came over for dinner Friday night. I had so much fun showing off my mad ukulele skillz and teaching ukulele. I love it when someone who has previous guitar knowledge ends up being waaaaaay better than I am on the uke after about five minutes. Whatever. Haha. I also got to explain some Aggie traditions to a few people. I think I have created some new Aggies. Whoop! And at one point I walked back into the living room and Marcos was there! He doesn’t have Facebook so it was super nice to finally get to see him again. The night consisted of some fooseball (of which I am quite terrible at here), more ukelele, dulce de leche ice cream, and some random costume changes.

A brand new music duo. Soon to be famous.

Hot, hot, hot maté even if it is hot outside.

Explaining Aggie Ring traditions

Crazy girls playing dress up: Agu, Elisa, Emi

Saturday night we went to a birthday party for Agu’s sister, Lucia with alllllll the family there. All the cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and their perros were present. We had hamburgers like the ones in the US. In Buenos Aires I had some hamburgers with ham on it. We also had some beer that night too…it felt like the 4^th of July! Haha. One of the moms came and talked with me one-on-one for a while because she likes to ask questions. Perfect, because I like to answer questions. She told me that I am very good at listening and talking in Spanish. Yes, one-on-one, I am an all-star. I just wish I could follow along with the 3,000 dinner conversations that happen in the big groups. Someday. After some music jams, I went to a store on the corner to get some chocolate. One of my friends, Juan, asked me “Would you like some chocolate?” in English.  I explained to him how that can almost sound creepy, especially if you add “little girl” to the end. So now when he sees me he asks “Would you like some chocolate, little girl?” Yay for jokes. Then we played Skip-Bo and all watched Water for Elephants.

Just some folks talking.

Birthday girl, Lucia and her dad.

Elisa and I with some major photo bombers.

The Roth family: Mom, Agu, Dad, Lucia, and Nachi

Twister!

Sunday we went back to Agu, Nachi, and Lucia’s house for lunch. Siesta at the Fernandez house, then pool time! It was a hot day so it was nice to cool off and soak up some rays. The camp that I got to work at when I first got to Bell Ville is just walking distance away from everyone’s house, so the pool is a popular hang out. Church in the evening and dinner at the Roth house again. Then we went on an adventure trying to find an ice cream shop that was open at 1am. We ended up walking all the way to the center to eat at the same place we went my first night here. The walk was definitely worth it. Anything for ice cream J

Chatting by the pool.

Esteban, Elisa, and Kendall

Elisa, Kendall, and Andres

Chau y besos!

Bye and kisses!

Abejas still sting

In case any of you were wondering...I do miss you guys back in Yanki Land. I know I haven't said it on my blog anywhere so I am sorry if you are feeling unloved. I miss you Yankis!  ---Wait, Kendall. Just what is a Yanki? Well it is pronounced "janky" and it means Yankee. That is what all US people are called here, in Argentina. I tried to explain to my friends here that only the northern people in the US are Yankees and in the south we are...Hicks? Rednecks? Hillbillies? haha. But no, I am still a Yanki.

This week has been very relaxing. I have been tanning some, working out with Jillian Michaels, and reading my novels in Castellano. (Spanish, I have been told, is only spoken in Spain. Here and in any other country, Castellano is the language.)

Tuesday I spent most of the day at the home of one of the campers from the church camp. I met her mother at church Sunday night and she said I could come over for lunch and pooltime if I wanted. Their house was beautiful like all of the house here. Around 2:30 pm we got in the pool. We hung out, talked, and played a few games. After what I thought was just two hours I asked what time it was, and I was shocked when they told me 7 pm! Who knew hiding a pear from two 14-year-old girls in a not huge pool could be so entertaining? That night all the girls closer to my age were supposed to have a "fiesta de pijamas" (slumber party, to any of you slow folk) but serveral people couldn't stay the night because they had work the following  morning. Then the whole thing got canceled because of a big storm that was coming in. The storm here was just a big rainfall luckily, but other parts got hit pretty badly. Now it is kind of chilly here. 21 degrees Celcius. ;)

Today, after tanning, drinking maté, and working out, I went with Elisa to watch her hockey team work out. First we had to stop by her brother's house to say HI. Her sister-in-law said anytime I wanted to come by and hang out or drink some maté, I could. I just love that. Anywhere I go people are always so willing to have me over for a bit. It doesn't have to be some grand event and the house doesn't have to be cleaned from floorboard to the ceiling like I am some foreinger guest. It just seems more like I am a friend coming over.

When we were walking to the park I saw a whole bunch of bugs flying around a bush/tree/thing in someone's front yeard. I pointed it out to Elisa when we got closer to it and said "Ay! Muchos bichos!!!" (Ah! Many bugs!) And that is when we realized that they were bees! Elisa got stung about 6 times. I got stung on the hand once and once on my back. One was stuck in my shirt and I had to take it off so I didn't get stung again. Luckly I had another shirt on under. And luckily, there were some boys (one I knew from the camp) there to help us make sure they were all off us.Yay first bee stings!!

At the work out I sat at a picnic table to read my book. I finished my first book in Castellano today! Charolette's Web. The book I am reading now is very sad "El niño sin nombre" or "A Child Called 'It'". While I was reading the coach started to talk to me and then asked me were I was from. :) He didn't know I am not Argentine until after he heard me talk. I look like I could be from here. :) You all know that makes me happy. Now you might be thinking (Dad) that my goal should be to speak Castellano so well that people wouldn't know I am not from Argentina unless I told them. Sadly, I don't think I will ever get there. Fluencey, yes, but I doubt I will ever get rid of my Yanki accent. It's cute right? haha.

Goodnight to you all. I MISS you and love you!!

Summer Camp in February

On Wednesday I went to work at a summer camp put on by the church of all my friends here in Bell Ville. The beginning was a little awkward because I didn't really know what to do to help. To begin the camp everyone stood in a big circle and the director introduced all of the staff people. When he introduced me everyone wanted me to say something. Haha, so it was my first speech. All I said was something along the lines of: "My name is Kendall and I want to help everyone here. I also would like to practice my Spanish." At "merienda", snack time between lunch and dinner, I helped pass out the food. Everyone was in a big circle and some staff would walk around with baskets for the campers to take food from. It was pretty weird for me at first because I have never done a snack time like that, I was the new/foreign kid, and sometimes I would make an entire lap around the circle without hardly anyone wanting anything. But later in the week it got better. That night the campers played games and I took pictures. Then there were a few minutes of freetime before we went to bed. Some of the campers talked to me finally. They had been just staring at me like I spoke another language or something, but when they figured out I could carry on a converstation in Spanish friendships finally started to form.

The second day of the camp, Thursday, started off with a staff meeting and prep for breakfast. I cut the biscuits in half so we could put tons and tons of dulce de leche on them. MMMMmmmm!! Then quiet time, freetime, and talking in Spanish time. I got to practice so so much at the camp. I know for a fact that I improved my listening skills. After lunch I took a siesta. When I woke up the campers were playing water games out on the field or swimming in the pool. A popular thing to do at this camp was for the guys to find someone who was too mud-free, pick that person up, carry them to the muddiest spot on the field, and then completely cover that person in the mud. I was a little nervous that they were going to do that to me. I think they didn't do it because they weren't too sure how I would react, but I did get a few threats that it would happen to me the next day. hahahaha....I got in the tiny pool with about 30 people. As a former lifeguard, I nearly had a heartattack watching the campers and counselors do flips off the side of the shallow pool so close to other people and just inches away from the concrete edge. Merienda after the pool. That night we had a night of dances from around the world. A big bag of costume pieces was put out for everyone to dress as someone from a different country. I dressed as Katie Perry with blue hair and my swimsuit top over my tshirt. I think they all thought I was knd of weird, but that funny kind of weird. ha. We learned a dance from Russia, England, and the US. I did NOT know the dance from the US. And I am pretty sure that know one else in the US would either. It just got me to thinking about what we say is "typical" of a country and is actually completely not typical. After the country dances we dances to some Wii game that has dances to follow kind of like GuitarHero. I can't remember the name. I slept very well that night.

Friday morning was just like Thursday morning. After lunch we had freetime then water games in the field. I joined in this time. We had to partner up by tieing our arms together like a 3-armed race. First we had to army crawl across a tarp covered in soapy, muddy water, go through a hula hoop suspended in the air, crawl under two benches, balance walk across a log, jump in a muddy pit to find two rings, then run back the the start with our legs through a tarp with holes. Then we did it all again in a group of four. After all that, the mud fight began. And I got captured and mudded. Everyone was chant-singing "Ar-gen-ti-na!" Pictures to come sometime.

The last full day, Saturday had a super super funny and fun dinner. I got to learn some slang from the Cordoba area of Argentina. There were tons of campers around my table telling me different things to say. I felt like a parrot. haha. I loved it all. Everything in Spanish. So great. It was cool...chetasooooo! jeje

The last day, yesterday, was pretty simple. Breakfast, freetime, lunch, then photos with all me new friends, and they left. I went to my friend, Flavia's, house until time for church. I got to hang out in her pool, play a card game just like Skip-Bo, shower, then go to church. I got to see my friend, Jose, from 2010 at church. It was so exciting to see him because I wasn't expecting to see him there! Surprise!! Later, Elisa, Flavia, and her sisters with their boyfriends, and I ate pizza. Have I mentioned how awesome the pizza is here? Well, it is...sorry Papa Johns. While we were eating, Esteban, one of the Fernandez siblings, showed up! I was totally not expecting to see him either so I got two awesome surprises yesterday! Then we went to Emi's house to hang out and meet back up with all the people from church/camp. There were about 15 people there. Sometimes I would understand what was going on, and sometimes I wouldn't. I am catching on to some of the jokes here which is good. I like being funny, you know? It is difficult in another language.

Love you all! Te quieren!

Made it to Bell Ville

Hello Y'all.
Man, I have missed saying "y'all". haha
Anyway, I am now in Bell Ville at the Fernandez house. I got on the bus Monday night and rode for about 8 hours. At 4am Elisa and Agu, friends from two years ago, picked me up. I could not believe that I was in Bell Ville, and I think it just now sunk in. Yesterday Elisa and I walked around her house. It is out in the more country area, so there was lots to explore. Afterwards we took a siesta then met up with some of her friends to hang out in the river. Yep, I was pretty darn'tootin happy hanging out in a river in Argentina drinking maté. After that we went up to where the camp is going to be that we are going to work at this week. We filmed videos for a rules video. It was pretty fun trying to figure out how I could be a part of the video. I had a line I was supposed to say in Spanish, but I think I said it to early and it turned out to be really funny. They ended up no re-shooting it. So I guess it worked out. haha. After that Elisa and I sat on the porch at her house while I played my ukulele and we drank more maté. Last night everybody met back up to go eat ice cream downtown. It was difficult to here what everyone was saying because there were so many loud motorcycles passing by, but everything was in Spanish. :) (Mom, don't read the next part) After everyone was done I got to ride a motorcycle back to Elisa's house. Another moment that I was thinking -Yes Kendall, you are actually doing this right now. (And Mom, I know you read that anyway. We drove slowly and carefully, I promise.) Love you all!