Visas, First day of Class, and Homework

I apologize for my lack of communication over the last week or so. Last week was rather uneventful until Thursday. Students with the last names beginning with A-H had to go to the Oracion de Uruguay. We left at 4 am from the bus depot and didnt get back until after 5 pm. It took us a good three hours to get to this tiny little arm-pit of a town. It had a Shell station, a creepy hostel, and this cute little pastry shop that had coffee and WiFi. We had to wait for a long time for the office to process our paper work. I had to retake a picture for something but I'm not sure what. Not everyone that came with us was able to pick up their visas. I have mine and don't have to go back, that's all that matters.

There is a basketball tournament going on at the gym in the villa (town outside of the UAP gate). The ACA girls and the ACA boys formed teams and are competing in our respective sides. I'm on the ACA girls team and we won both our games Saturday night. There was a buy in of $80 pesos. We all contributed and there is supposed to be a small cash prize if we win. It's been fun so far. I've been pretty sore the last couple days but other than that it's been pretty good.

On Friday we got our class schedules. I have class 8:30-4:30 on Monday with an hour break for lunch, 1:30-6:30 Tuesday, 10:30-1:30 (I think) Wednesday, nothing on Thursday, and 8:30-11:30 on Friday. Not a bad schedule. I'm in the intermediate level which right now is seeming to be too easy and stuff I already know. I have 2 weeks to decide whether I should move up a level or stay where I am. I can't decide which I should be doing. Composition class was very easy today. Our professor is actually the grandmother of one of my classmates from highschool which was cool. The grammar teacher was nice, I liked her. But everything we discussed today, I already knew. My elective classes were a whole other story. I don't know if it was because I was so tired from being in class all morning, or because I'd just had lunch, or what the issue was, but I didnt understand anything all afternoon. I have two classes in the afternoon on Mondays: Current Events and Folklore. Current Events was very confusing and I have no idea what we're doing in the class. I do know that I don't have any homework. I think we're supposed to be keeping journals about something, but I dont know what. But Just incase, I picked up 2 journals from the supermercado when I went to pick up a few things this afternoon. Folklore was frustrating. The professor talked too slow. I can't understand spanish if it's very fast, but if it's too slow I end up getting lost with trying to remember what she said at the beginning. By the end of the class, everyone was annoyed and frustrated with her.

After class, a few of us went to the supermercado and the post office. I mailed a letter to WAU and will hopefully have time to write a few more to some people soon. I came back to my room and did all of my homework that was assigned today. I've been really bored so I was glad to finally have to real work to do. However, all of my classes I had homework in only meet on Mondays. And as we have another holiday this coming Monday, I won't have to turn anything in for 2 more weeks. This is good because I won't forget, but expect for Grammar class I won't have anything to really work on for 2 weeks. I'm thinking about doing the beginning exercises in the Composition textbook we skipped over but I'm not sure how far ahead I really want to get.

Tonight I'm just relaxing, reading a little, and will probably go to bed early. We have another 2 games in the basketball tournament tomorrow night so I'll need to be well rested and hydrated for them. The gym was really hot on Saturday night and I felt kind of sick after our first game. Since I don't have class on Thursday I'm planning on doing some laundry and going to the library (where the internet is hopefully faster) and upload my pictures from the last 3 weeks.

Until something else exciting happens, God bless.

Week 1 Down

It has been exactly one week since I left my house in West Virginia. To be perfectly honest, despite having traveled to a foreign country, it's been rather uneventful.

The church on campus runs the Divine service first and then Sabbath School. Yesterday, my roommates and I over slept and didn't make it to church so we just went to Sabbath School. We went to the one in the Medical Building which was nice. I didn't understand most of the lesson study but if I could read the slides I could figure out parts, small parts, but parts none the less. Afterwards, we went to lunch and then didn't really do anything else all day.

My parents attempted to Skype a concert from my home church that a few friends from WAU were doing for them. I only got to see the first part before the internet did something weird and cut out.

It's been several days of not really doing anything, so I've been able to observe some differences in how this school operates.

1. toilet paper rations- No joke, once I got here either the dean or an RA (not sure which) handed me a large roll of toilet paper. That's what I have to use for the month. Everyone gets one roll of toilet paper that they keep in their rooms to use in the dorm bathrooms for the entire month.
2. No flushing toilet paper- I already knew this but some other people may not. The pipes here aren't equipped to be able to handle the toilet paper. You put it in a trashcan in the stall.
3. Pizza- I don't like their pizza, and it's not at all like our pizza. There's barely any sauce, the cheese is thick and weird, and they will put either tomatoes, green olives, or eggs (yes scrammbled eggs) on top with lots of oregano.
4. Dorm rooms- I have two roommates in a room smaller than the rooms at WAU where you only have one roommates. It's really cramped in here which I don't like at all.
5. Greeting- I knew this as well, but in Spanish speaking countries when you meet/greet someone you do so with a hug and a kiss to the cheek. Very different from the US where we do handshakes. I sometimes forget.
6. Juice- their fruit juice is strange too. I tried their apple juice, tasted like green apple Jolly Rancher. I tried their orange juice, not bad but not really orange juice. I tried their fruit punch, it wasn't bad either but not like fruit punch.

There are more things that are different but I can't thnk of them right now. I know I keep saying I will be posting pictures soon, but the interent hasn't been very fast so hopefully it will speed up tonight and I'll be able to upload some.

Tomorrow is apparently a provincial wide Catholic holiday, so there is no class. Wednesday is a local holiday so there is no class again. Not that this affects me much because I don't have class until Friday I think. We were supposed to go to the office on Tuesday to pick up our student visas but that didnt work out so we just have a meeting Tuesday morning. Since I don't have to be up at 4 am on Tuesday, I'll be going with my roommates and some of their friends to Santa Fe. Santa Fe is an hour away from here by bus and is a big enough city to have a Walmart. It will be interesting definitely.

Until something slightly more exciting happens, farewell.

And the Verdict Is....Intermediate

Two days ago I attempted to lock one of my two closets. The key fit so I assumed it worked in both locks. I was sadly mistaken and, unfortunately, locked myself out of the closet that had my towel and toothbrush in it. Thankfully the dean was able to call someone to come open the door since she didn't actually have a key to the closet either. Last night, a different dean came into my room and decided to try a different key, which also didn't work, so I got locked out again. This time it was much later at night, so I had to wait until this morning for the guy to come back and fix the lock. I had a meeting at 9 am. He didn't come until after 8:30. He changed the lock so I could have a key and be able to get into the closet, however I was late to the ACA meeting. -___-

This morning was pretty boring. We had the handbook read to us and a few things explained. By 10:45 we were done. One of the missionaries here, Chinedu, took Rhondi, her mother, Drea, and me to get some money exchanged in town and to show Drea where to purchase calling cards. It was a nice little walk and eat up some of the free time I had until lunch.

Lunch was actually good today. They had rice but they also had pasta. The pasta sauce was a little strange but instead of regular parmesan cheese, they had a different type of cheese for the topping. There was also baked zucchini. I  liked the cheese they had for the pasta so it was actually a decent lunch. The water in the water bottles has an odd taste, so today I added some lemon juice and it was a good idea. Last night I tried their apple juice which tasted like liquid green apple Jolly Rancher. I'm not going to be drinking any apple juice anytime soon.

Our meeting today at 3pm is to tell us our class placements and allow us to sign up for classes for the first quarter. I did really bad on the placement test so I'm in intermediate Spanish learning courses. I have to take Conversation, Grammar, and another class each quarter. Then there are electives I have to take to fill out my schedule. Because of my financial aid at WAU, I have to take 18 credits each quarter. This quarter, only 18 credits are offered so I didn't have a choice in my classes. I'll be taking Orthograhy (a class to help with spelling), a religion, a history, a geography, and a few other classes. I'm not terribly excited about any over them but I don't have a choice in taking them. Haraldo, the ACA director here, told us that if we feel a Spanish learning class is too easy/hard we can switch to another class within two weeks of beginning those classes. If Intermediate is too easy, I can move up to Advanced 1. Or I can stay in Intermediate this quarter and if I have an A or an A- in the class at the end of the quarter, I can move up to Advanced 1 next quarter. I'm not sure whether I want to much up or not. I obviously want to advance and get better at Spanish. But some of my classes are 300 level classes and I'm not sure how I will do in them since I don't really understand Spanish very well.

Hopefully this won't mess up my GPA too much.

Tonight is going to be a special dinner for the ACA students. I think it's supposed to be our "Welcome" dinner. Also, the school is working on getting us student visas. We (students in the first half of the alphabet) will have to travel to a place 3 hrs away from here on Tuesday if all our paper is in order by Monday night. We have to leave at 4 am. Hopefully I will be able to wake up that early and not make my roommates angry.

Anyways, I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the rest of the afternoon since I have nothing to do until 8 pm, I'm going to have to get creative.

I Made It!

Buenos dias! That would be about the extent of the Spanish I have learned so far. Although that is not entirely true. I already new "buenos dias." We haven't started classes yet. From what I hear we won't be starting them until next week. Today I took a placement test. I did ok on the first page I think but the rest I'm pretty sure I did bad on. I tried to figure out the words I didn't know or find a pattern, but I don't think that really worked. I'm guessing I'll be placed in the Intermediate level, but I've been told that shuffle people around depending on how quickly they progress. So if I study really hard then I might move up a level by next quarter or the last. But enough about that, I'm sure you would like to know about my traveling here and the last few days.

Sunday, I packed the last remaining items and my dad loaded up the car. Since I was flying out of Reagan National Airport, we decided to do one last lunch together at my favorite Thai restaurant, Thai at Silver Spring. A few of my friends came, as well as my grandmother, Aunt Marilyn, and one of my favorite professors, Mr. Grant. Lunch was awesome and then we went off to the airport.
Since I already purchased a round trip ticket, my stay in Argentina is technically longer than what is allowed by the Argentine government for tourists. This flagged in the Delta computer and it took 30 minutes of explaining to the guy behind the counter and showing him the letter from the school for me to get my ticket and be able to check my bags. He was really nice about everything too. Once that was done, we headed to the security line. My family waited until I was all the way through security and they couldn't see me anymore before they left.
I was about an hour early for my flight from DC to Atlanta, but I new that once I got to Atlanta I was going to have to be really fast to make my connecting flight. I only had an hour before the flight was supposed to take off and the ticket indicated that boarding was to begin just 10 minutes after I landed in Atlanta. Thankfully, my first flight landed a few minutes early. I collected my things really quick and figured out where my next terminal was. I half speed walked to the train and made it to my gate a few minutes before they started boarding passengers. That gave me enough time to call my parents and talk to them again before my flight.
Once on the flight, I met a girl from the ACA program named Tiffany. She sat across the aile from me. We talked a little bit and ended up decided to get through the Buenos Aires airport together in case we didn't meet up with anyone else. It was a long flight but it wasn't terrible. The food wasn't good but I did get to sleep a little bit.
When we landed, Tiffany and I met Megan. She had organized the Facebook group for all the ACA students in our program. We waited in this long line, but finally an airport representative came and asked whether we were Argentine citizens and, since we weren't, directed us into an different line. The customs officers took our passports and our $160 for our tourist visas. We had to wait in another line to give our thumb prints and to have our pictures taken for them. Megan and I got through at about the same time so we waited for another girl, Vernee', Tiffany, Brittany and her mom.
I found my bags in the baggage claim area pretty quickly. Vernee', however, didn't find one of her bags so a few of us waited for her to talk with the airport people to figure out what happened with her bag. They decided that someone mistook her bag for theirs. She ended up finding her bag later.
When we finally got out of baggage claim and into the airport, we met Haroldo, the ACA coordinator. He had us wait for a few minutes for somebody to take us to the other terminal where the rest of the ACA students were. His wife came to take us there a few minutes later. We had to wait a really long time before we left for the airport. There were some students that were delayed or had later flights. We didn't end up leaving the airport until almost 2 pm. Stephen, a guy from Andrews, started doing card tricks. Some students fell asleep. I stood around and talked to some people, watched Stephen do some tricks, and almost started a game of Kames with Kyly, Khelsea, and Jason but then they told us to go get on the buses.
Of course we thought we were going to leave, but that was not the case. We sat on the buses for atleast 30 minutes before we headed to the mall where we were going to eat lunch. It was a nice mall. I ate with Marvin and Jane, we all got some strange version of Chinese food. It wasn't the worst but definitely not the best.
The bus ride from the mall to the Universidad was about 5.5 hrs. It was a really long trip. We got to the school after dark, waited for the drivers to unload our suitcases, and walked to our dorms.
I have two roommates, Karen and Andrea. They are pretty nice. They know English so it 's hard to force myself to speak Spanish. I have the top bunk, which I don't like because the beds are really small and they don't have rails. However, I can't complain too much because I think I may have more storage space than they do. I unpacked my stuff and went to sleep basically as soon as I was done.
Just for some perspective: my first flight from DC to Atlanta was at 6 pm on Sunday (9-16). Atlanta to Buenos Aires was at 9 pm (9-16). I landed in Buenos Aires at 8:30 am 9-17 (which was 7:30 am East Coast time). We arrived at UAP around 10 or 10:30 pm 9-17. It was a really long day.
Tuesday we had a brief orientation. It wasn't the most exciting thing and since they weren't really telling us much important information I played Sudoku. Later in the afternoon, we were finger printed. The school is going to get us Student Visas this year which I think is really cool. The fingerprinting took a really long time. It started at around 2 pm and ended closer to 5pm. After that, a missionary from the US who is teaching English to the faculty and staff here spoke to us about culture shock.
Chineydu has been here for about a year. She told us lots of things that we may or may not know and the best strategies to adapt. It was a nice little talk,but I was glad when it was over.
Lunch and dinner yesterday weren't terrible but not good either. It seems that they have rice and beans at every meal, but I was told by Andrea that that is not an Argentine thing. Lunch also had a weird mixed vegetables thing but I'm not sure what it was. It didn't really have any taste. Dinner was pizza but it didn't have much sauce so it was more like bread and cheese. I'm definitely going to have to find some hot sauce. Hot sauce can make just about anything be ok to eat. If anything you put enough on so all you taste is the hot sauce and nothing else.
Last night I had a little issue. I didn't realize the key to one of my closets doesn't actually work in the other closet. The key fits and locks the doors but it doesn't unlock the door. I don't have much in there except for one suitcase, my towell, and my toothbrush. The dean didn't have a key to the door either. I was pretty upset because I didn't know how I was going to get in to get my towell or toothbrush. Thankfully they called somebody and he came to open the door.
I finally got the internet to work on my tablet computer last night. I was having problems with it but it's working pretty well right now. The internet is very slow but it works so that's all thaet matters. I have google voice so I'm able to text my family and friends still. I also got to skype with my sister and my parents last night. I was really glad for that.
Today I took the placement test that will determine some of the classes I will be taking. I'm not sure when we begin classes but I hope soon. I heard that the end of November is when we are going to Machu Pichu. I haven't seen a calendar yet so I'm not sure. I think that's all for now. This afternoon we're supposed to go on a tour of the campus and town so hopefully I'll find the store so I can buy full bottles of shampoo and stuff.
Anyways, I hope all is well in the US. Farewell for now.
Oh by the way, I will be posting pictures soon, probably tonight once the internet speeds back up.

1 Week... a short 7 days

Wow! Exactly 7 days from now I will be on my flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. I have a 6 pm flight from Reagan National to Atlanta, a 1.5 hour layover in Atlanta and then a 9pm flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. When I and it will be one step at a time: Customs, acquiring my visa, claiming baggage..praying it all made it, and finding the UAP reps that are meeting us there. I will be meeting up with several other ACA students in Atlanta so I won't be entirely alone, wandering aimlessly around EZE airport trying to find the UAP people. I'm extremely nervous and stressed with the amount of things I need to do between now and next week. I have to finalize banking things, insure my expensive electronics, change the oil in my car, sell my car, buy the remaining items I need, figure out what clothes to take and which to leave behind, and pack! This is going to be one heck of a week. It's going to go by so fast and I will suddenly find myself at Reagan, in the terminal, waiting for my plane to board.
The excitement, the anxiety, the anticipation is intense. I'm so blessed to have family and friends that have been supportive, financially and morally, the last few weeks. It's time to get this party started!

The count down is almost over. The wait is near an end. My dream is quickly becoming my reality!

12 Days and Counting

Well, I'm less than 12 days away from take off. I still have sooo much to do! I have to pack! I need to pay my tuition..still. I need to speak with a couple professors to make sure the classes I want to take in Argentina will be equivalent to the classes I have left for Gen. Ed. requirements. I'm still hanging out at WAU, seeing people and slowly saying good bye. There are a couple of events at the end of this week, mainly the Honor's Presidential Dinner and Singspiration on Friday that I'm really sticking around for. While I do need to go home and pack and prepare for a year out of the country, I want to be around for these events. I keep having waves of nervousness but that's normal. I always get anxious before I travel and this is unlike another international trip I've been on.

I'm concerned about the bugs that are going to be down there. I don't do bugs! I hate bugs! Especially spiders! They are the worst! I will be so blown if there are giant spiders just chillin in my room. I'm not about that life. It's not cool at all.

Anyway, as I get packing and readying to leave, you shall be kept posted on my progress. Keep me in your prayers!!

20 Days and Counting

The time is getting so close now! I have all of my tuition, plane ticket paid for, new tablet computer, medium sized backpacking backpack, camera, suitcase.. now I just have to pack. The next 2.5 weeks is going to be filled with finishing up things at my school here in the States, actually paying my tuition, saying goodbye to my friends, packing (HUGE challenge), and finally hopping on that plane! There's so much to do, not very much time, but I'm so excited! One of the ACA students got a lot of us connected on Facebook. I found out there's 4 or 5 students on the same flight as me out of Atlanta. :) Now I don't have to worry so much about finding my way around the airport in Buenos Aires alone. Hopefully we'll find each other prior to boarding in Atlanta and make our way through the BA airport together (fingers crossed). I'm so thankful for all the help my friends and family have given me so far, financially and mentally. This has been a process to get to this point, actually preparing to go. My dream is finally coming true!!