Dog issues

So here I am, getting ready for tomorrow. Making sure I've packed as much as I can in advance so I have as little as possible to do tomorrow morning when I wake up at 5 am to take the bus to a Rotary capacitation in another city. It's already 11pm so I go and brush my teeth leaving my door just a crack open behind me. To my unfortunate surprise, when I come back into my room after 2 short minutes, the dog is on my bed. OH NO! I thought! I swear I started praying right there and then that my bed wasn't wet.. Which it was. Yes. The dog peed on my bed. I took her off right away but it was too late. My host mom helped me clean it up and put new sheets on she even asked me if I wanted a key for my room. I said no to the key because I'm sure I'd just loose it, but lesson learned.. When living with a bed peeing wiener dog REMEMBER TO CLOSE THE DOOR! 

4 months later

Today I was really happy. For no reason really, just the little things I guess. Also a classmate of mine, this sweet girl named Martina, randomly gave me chocolate as a gift because she knew I loved that certain brand of chocolate. It was a super sweet gesture. (No pun intended). This morning it was raining cats and dogs, a Kamloops flash flood type of situation. Actually it's been raining here everyday for about 2 weeks but not as heavy. We've been having lots of storms. Today it was my teams turn to do our debate. It's was really awesome because they two teams took it really seriously and the two top guys in the class (you know the ones that are leaders and want to be class president) were on opposite teams. Now these two guys are kinda enemies so it's a big deal on who wins. One of them is a really close friend of mine and was on my team. The subject was abortion and we were debating against it. Both groups were super prepared but let's just say we left them with their tales between their legs. It was a good fight but when it came to the class vote they only got 3... #sorrynotsorry

After school we went to Clem's house (which is my first host families house) to make pizzas. It was really nice catching up with my first host mom again. Anyways cooking pizzas with my friends in this house again brought me back to a moment that happened 4 months ago (more or less). If you go back in my blog to my 3 month update you will see a picture that looks a little bit like this one... 

So this is us. The same friends. The same couch. In the same places. 4 months later. 

The rest of the mar de tuyu trip

Ok I didn't take any more extensive notes on my mar de tuyu trip. But I can tell you that we spent a lot of time at the beach, we got to try banana boating, we went to 2 different night markets which were really cool and interesting to see and we went one day to the hot springs and took a tour around the park while we were there. It was a really lovely expirence getting to know not only my third host family and developing a relationship with them but also being able to see more of Argentina's coast. 

I also got to try bombas de dulce (not in the picture) and got to eat more churros! Yum!! 

Mar del Tuyú day 2

Mar Del Tuyu day 2

Last night the lights went off because  there was a big storm with lots of lighting. At least we are assuming this was the reason for it. In the middle of the night I felt a little tap on my bed, then all of the sudden I was being cuddled my the dog. Now I wasn't going to kick her out. I was way too tired and she is way to cute. She started at my back and ended at my knees. When I woke up the little traitor was sleeping with Clement! It turns out she went for a morning walk first so I guess she didn't just move beds. Anyways, we woke up and drank very odd peach yogurt and ate more Dulce de leche snacks, then we played a game where we play music and the other person has to guess the song. We were waiting for our host dad to come back so we can prepare lunch. 

Our host dad ended up having car troubles.. Again.. So we prepared and ate the food without him. The pasta was a little undercooked but it was ok. Then we drove to a really nice beach but the wind was horrible so we left in a hurry and went to another. Now usually I'm pretty good at finding the fun spots in the waves where you can ride them with ease. Unfortunately after a while I got to a bad spot and got trampled by a major wave. Of course as I came up gasping for air much further down the beach when another wave hit me pulling me further and further away from the family.  This happened three times. I was just trying to keep my bathing suit on my body and eventually stand up. My family saw me halfway down the beach flapping like a whale in the sand trying to get up and they all burst out in laughter. (I already can imagine my parents back home knowing this is something only I can pull off) We drank terere, ate more dulce de leche snacks. Later we got this really cool milk shake that was banana and dulce de leche flavour. It was delicious!!! We went for another walk and saw the banana boats being pulled by jet skis. The host parents told us that one of these days we will do that and we were very excited! There were also many suffers and since I've been dying to learn how to surf I asked how much it costs to rent a board and everything. The only problem was if you didn't have previous experience surfing than you need an instructor and I didn't bring enough money to pay for one. Right now I'm a bit stuck with money. It's difficult because we only receive 650 pesos and every day if you want to do anything where it's going "camping" or going out dancing at night it's at least 100 pesos and almost always more. For example I was invited to got to a really nice spot tomorrow but it's 300 pesos for the day. I have a big bus trip to pay for soon so I can't take money out of the bank right now. I guess Argentina is teaching me some serious budgeting skills. Anyways, the city where this beach was, was beautiful! I would have loved to live there! The houses are stunning and very close to the beach. At around 7 we went back to Mar de Tuyu, bought empanadas and had a lovely dinner with great conversation! Lots of laughs! The boys went to buy empanadas while the mom and I stayed home to set the table and wash the bathing suits. Mine happens to be full of sand that won't come out from being bashed around in the waves. The boys only had to go to the corner so we though they would only be 15 minutes max. 40 minutes later they return because there were no empanadas so the lady had to make them some right there and then. We also took showers the only thing is that there isn't really a hot water tank so the first person that showers gets warm water and everyone else takes freezing cold showers even if you wait the 20 minutes. I have taken the quickest showers of my life here barely getting the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair because it's just so cold! 

So far this has been the best trip in of my stay in Argentina.. Especially since there hasn't been many others.. My city (San Nicolas) seems to be isolated or our host families just don't have money to take us anywhere. At least I have good friends to keep me company. I'm already really enjoying this family who will one day become my third host family. 

There is no wifi here so we are totally disconnected this week which is kinda refreshing! 

Mar Del Tuyú day 1

Today we arrived in Mar Del Tuyu. 

I woke up at 4:30 am to be ready for 5 am when my third host family was supposed to pick me up. Of course this is Argentina so they were 15-20 minutes late. I didn't mind because it gave me more time to eat more cereal. Unfortunately last night i couldn't get any sleep, it was crazy hot even with the fan and I left my window open so I was swarmed by mosquitoes. I was notified when i got in the car that this was going to be a six hour drive. I was so tired but I couldn't sleep. I got to see the amazingly beautiful coloured sun rise. Before I continue I should probably tell who is all on this trip. Yesterday my soon to be host sister and her boyfriend already got to the beach house and today it is my host parents, Clement the Frenchie and I on our way to meet up with them. Hours later, with Dulce de leche snacks (absolutely delicious by the way)  we, of course, have car troubles.

(Dulce de leche snacks^^) 

By this point in the day I was dying of heat and trying so hard to sleep since I was so tired. I got some winks in but it was really too hot to sleep comfortably. Because of our unexpected car troubles, our 6 hour trip turned into a 9 hour trip. Either way we got here at 3 pm. My sister and her boyfriend with stay in the house next door while my host parents in one room and Clement and I in the other. We have a sick living arrangement! Even though the house is very small we have 2 bunk beds all to ourselves. We both decided to put our belonging on the top and to sleep on the bottom. We call ourselves cell mates because with the bunk beds, Clement's hat and him playing the harmonica, it kind of reminds us of a nice prison.

Soon after arriving we went for a quick drive to get some groceries to make sandwiches. Next we hit the beach! Our house is one of the closest ones which is awesome! We set up and ate our sandwiches and then went straight into the water. Even though the water was quite dirty it was still really fun splashing and jumping through waves!

We had a great time! Clement and I raced in the waves and I tried to get him to go out further were the waves were more fun. He was a little nervous at first but I used the "your only in Argentina once" line and he finally got out of his comfort zone and admitted I was right, the waves were much more fun where I was. The French boy was the whitest person on the beach and needed a lot of sunscreen! It was hilarious to see everyone looking at him so strangely. Something rare started to happen, the whole beach started clapping. We saw a life guard caring a little girl and learnt that when someone is lost everyone starts clapping to notify the others and to find the family. It was a very interesting strategy and something I've never seen before. The rest of the family wanted to take a little break and sit down so we went walking down the beach to see what we could find. We found some drummers and comedians but mostly just good conversation and funny games. Next we decided to play paleta which is kind of like beach tennis. Unfortunately this game got us covered in sand. I decided to go back in the water a second time with my host sister and it was really fun! We spent the whole time laughing and getting knocked over my waves. We came back to our umbrella and everyone sat down to eat the corn on the cob that we bought right there on the beach! It started to get quite windy and cold after that so we slowly made our way back up to the beach house and took turns taking freezing cold showers. At least we got the sticky sand off our bodies. The rest of the night we spent chilling on our bunk beds talking and listening to music. Look at the dog! Clement says she looks like a sock! Her name is Venecia.  

They fell asleep together.

 

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Wow guys I'm so sorry that I've been gone for such a long time, I can't remember if I told you guys that I changed families but I did and then yesterday I changed again to my third and final family. So I guess you guys have missed a lot and I haven't been doing a good job of keeping you up to date. I'm not quite sure where to start because I don't know where I left off but I think that I still haven't told you guys about my Mar de Tuyu trip (back when I was still with my first host family!) Therefore in my next blog update which will hopefully be today or tomorrow I will start telling you all about my vacation 

Where have I been?

I have a load of things to update you on! My vacation in Mar Del Tuyu! Wow that seems like a while ago! And also my recent trip to the north of Argentina! To be honest I don't even know where to start! 

Since vacations are lengthly, I'll tell you about a couple things I've done since I've gotten back.

All of you have surely already heard of the many "campings" we have around town. Well my new host family actually has a sort of house thing in one of these campings. 

Oh by the way! I've changed host families, if I didn't already let you know! My new host mom's name is Gabby, my host dad's Dario, I have 2 brothers, one that is  23, his name is Alvaro and the other will be 17 at the end of this month and his name is Augusto! They are the Lluch family! They are very nice and welcoming! It's interesting to see another's family way of living as it is definitely a bit different from my last host family. I'm still learning how to do things their way. 

Anyways, let me introduce you to their camping..

They are right next to the river which is quite beautiful! As you can see there is always lots of kids running around! 

One of my friends from school goes there too! It was really nice to walk in and have a friend because there aren't so many teens my age. 

I'm sure I've talked to you at least once about the Asado. Asado is usually with red meat but in the picture above you can still see how they are cooking it (not the same as BBQ) This was the biggest Asado I have ever seen! It was for a special dinner in the camping site. They cooked 72 chickens and 200 sausages! That is a lot of meat!!! 

Since I haven't seen my friends in a while I spent the day with one of my best friends Rocio. Then later Tuesday night went to my friend Leti's house to celebrate her birthday! 

This night quickly got complicated when it was 4:30 and people needed to go home. 

As a young girl it's not safe to take whichever taxi back home alone in the middle of the night. Before I always traveled with my friend Simon as we lived 2 blocks from each other. Now that I have changed houses it's more complicated since none of my friends live near me. My parents have the number of a secure taxi company that I'm allowed to take but I didn't have the number or batterie to call my parents and ask for it. So instead my only option was to sleep at my friend's house. This turned out fine with my host parents. I made a new friend at the birthday party and the next day we went shopping in the centre together. 

Next update I will tell you about one of my trips! 

I hope my blog makes sense! It's hard when I'm thinking in Spanish! 

Lots of love!

Talk to you soon! 

Hannah