September 18:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (I forgot to tell you on the phone but my host family sends saludos, felicidades and lots of besos!—direct quote from my host mom)
Started the day off with a happy birthday call to the birthday girl in Portland Oregon. Then I headed to class, hoping that there would be class. I chatted (my goal or challenge is to make small talk with anyone I can) with some girls before my class who were saying how frustrating the system is with the strikes and everything. They were laughing that my first impression of the school was a very bad one. I actually understood a lot of it. I also said hello to the girl I talked to when we were waiting for the class that never started…she seems nice so I hope I get to talk to her more. I had class, which was long…and impossible to understand. I almost drifted off several times. It was even harder since the professor speaks softly. I asked him for some good recommendations for books that relate to the floggers and he said oh…this is a good book I wrote about the floggers. Ha. I guess he is kind of a big deal in the youth tribe scene. I then rode the bus to my Spanish class, which I arrived late to since one of my classes ends at 2 and the other one starts at 2. this class wasn’t as hard, since I had a roll of cookies to keep myself entertained and happy. I took the subte to FLACSO where I put up some posters about my host sisters event (the oldest one works for the ministry of trabajo and she is organizing a seminar/conference thing about globalization or something). I chatted with some other flacsitos about the pilgrimage to Lujan, a small religious city outside of Buenos aires. I think I am going to participate. It is the first weekend in oct. and we walk 18 km o 18 hours approximately to the town. It should be quite an experience. I also got an email from UO about summer internships. AHHH summer internships! Occasionally I find myself thinking, oh what am I going to do when I get back, what are my summer plans, what are my after school plans…but then I have to remind myself that I am here, and only for a limited amount of time, so I should try and not plan things for when I get back. As much as I tell myself this, I am a planner, there is no getting around it. So far some ideas for summer: internship w/ the state department, volunteer with heifer project (run the educational programs on their farms), internship with mercy corps, or world affairs council of Oregon, go to spain, or just find a high paying job and work.  so far I am liking the heifer idea the best. I was going to go to tango tonight and try out my new shoes but I was in such a BLAH mood, I decided to stay home. I also was a bit nervous about being sick or dead tired for my trip tomorrow morning. I have been going going going all week, which is okay when you go to bed at 11 each night, but here I do not do that. I am going to Rosario, Argentina tomorrow. I will be visiting a friend from UO who is studying down there. It seems like a really neat city, comparatively I think it is the Querétaro of Argentina where Buenos Aires is the Mexico City (DF). Also Che was born there. I am planning on going to his birth house and soaking up a bit of the revolutionary spirit. I probably won’t write until Monday or Tuesday. And then I take off on Thursday for Northern Argentina, Jujuy with my program (which also should be very fun). Hopefully I won’t speak barely any English, which is super hard to do when you are surrounded by English speakers.