Jan 18,19,20

Friday Jan 18, I woke up and had breakfast. Joanne and I got a transfer to the bike and wine shop where we rented bikes. We took our bikes and went through the most amazing park. The trees in Mendoza are so beautiful, so many different varieties. We stopped and got lunch, then traveled to up a large hill where we got a gorgeous view of Mendoza on one side and the Andes on the other. After about four hours in riding we returned our bikes. I had to go straight back to the hostel to get my luggage to go to the airport. I said my good-byes to all my new friends and made my way by taxi to the Mendoza airport. After about an hour and half plane ride I was back in B.A. I took a taxi back to my home stays house. Come to find out I gave the man the wrong address and got us lost. At that point I was scared, because I cannot speak good. Luckily we found a man that could speak both spanish and english. I guess I was 12 blocks away from my home stay apartment. After I got home I was starved so I made some dinner and went to bed
Saturday Jan 19, I woke up early and ate breakfast. I decided to go to palmero and rent a bike for a couple hours to explore some more of B.A. After cruising around for awhile I got some lunch, then rode back to the bike rental shop. I then took a taxi back to the home stay apartment. I took a shower and packed up my bag, because I knew that I would be going over to the residence apartments and wouldn't have a lot time the next day to pack before I left for the U.S.A. After packing up, I packed a bag for staying the night with friends. I went to the subte and walked to the residence. My friends and I decided to go see a movie and have dinner, my choice since it was my last night. We went and saw encantada, which turned out to be hilarious!! Around 10pm we had dinner at my favorite restaurant in recolta. I had the tenderloin and mashed squash, so good. After dinner I was tried and feeling really sick, so I went back to the residence and fell to sleep
Sunday Jan 20, my last day in B.A. We all woke up late. I had some breakfast and then a group of us girls got into a taxi and made are way to La Boca. A place by the water that is really dangerous at night, because many people are poor and steal. During to day it is safer. The cool thing about La Boca is that many years ago immigrants came to La Boca with a lot of paint and painted many of the buildings with all sorts of different colors. La Boca is also famous for tango dancing in the streets. When the girls and I got to La Boca, there was a street fair, with vender's selling art and jewelery. I got some tango coaster for my apartment back in SD and a small piece of art. After shopping for a bit, we ate lunch, then made our way to an antique fair. I unfortunately had to leave the fair by 4pm to get back to Belgrano to take a shower and get ready to go to the airport. Around 6pm a remise came and picked me up to take me to the airport. As I drove away I was sadden to have to go:( I made it to the airport and got on my 10:15pm flight to Atlanta, Georgia where I then got onto a connecting flight to LAX airport. Everything was right on time and I was happy and sad to be back in U.S.A. Matt's mom Melody came and picked me up. We ate lunch and had a great talk about my adventure. I had one of the most incredible adventures that I have even been on. I am defiantly going to go back to south america in the future. There is so much I have not seen. This trip made me grow as a person and see what I really want and need in life. I found that life is short and many people in the world have very little. People in America have so much, we are so fortunate. I saw in Argentina that even though the people are working to pay the bills, they still had smiles on their faces and love for their families. I will never forget this experience and look forward to future travels with friends that I have made from my trip. :)

Jan 15,16,17

Tuesday Jan 20,
I took a taxi to the airport for Mendoza. Come to find out I read my ticket wrong. I was supposed to leave at 630am, not 630pm. Luckily I got one standby and got on the plane. I ate some delisicous dulce de leche candies and crackers... I was starved... After getting to the airport I changed my ticket for coming back to BA on Friday instead of Thursday evening. As soon as I walked our of the Mendoza airport I saw a beautiful vineyard and the huge andes mountains with a bit of snow on them. SO AMAZING!! I took a taxi to a hotel...wish I stayed in a hostel instead. There was no AC and I didn´t really meet anyone. When I got settled in the hotel I made my way down the street to a bike shop where I made reservations to do a bike-wine tour to some of the wineries. I also got recommendations to eat at a great restaurant a block away. There I had a great chicken and beet salad with bread and really good butter. After dinner, I went to a grocery store and got some treats to take back to the hotel. It was so hot in my room that it was hard to sleep. I decided to wet some towels and put them around my head. I finally fell to sleep.

Wednesday Jan 16, I woke up and had breakfast down be the hotels pool. After breakfast, a person came to transfer me to the bike shop in maipu, where I would be doing the tour. Along the way we picked up three people from a hotel called largares. The three people David from Canada, Joanna from Scotland, and Dorothee from Germany and I became instant friends. We all travelled together on our bikes to the different wineries. First stop a historic wine museum, where we had a tour about the facility. Next stop was a chocolate shop and jam shop. The liquors were really good, so many different varaities. Next stop was lunch at a gas station, then onto a boutique winery with lots of almond trees outside. My had a great tour about the wines and the facility. This winery was built in like 1916 crazy old. Our last stop was a winery out in the vineyard. The tour guide told us all about the vineyard and the fermentation process. The vineyard was 60 years old. After the tour we had some delicious malbec wine yum!!! Then back to the bike shop. We rode bikes about 24 kilometers that day. I must say something about the trees in mendoza before I forget. There are so many different trees its amazing. If Mendoza did not have the trees it wouldn´t be as beautiful. With the trees, vineyards, and andes in the back it is gorgous. Mendoza reminded me a lot of Napa but not a touristy. After the bike tour I went back to my hotel and checkout. I was moving to the hostel that my new friends were staying in. The hostel was really nice and a much better deal. For a bed with AC, free internet, free kitchen use, any movies I wanted to watch and a good bathroom plus breakfast eat morning was only 35 pesos. Cannot bet that! I got a bed in a room with 4 bunk beds and co-ed people. I didn´t mind it everyone was really nice and I felt safe. Plus the room included a locker to put all my stuff. By the end of the day I was so tried that I made dinner and went straight to bed.

Thursday Jan 17, Today I woke up and ate breakfast with my friends. Then I was picked up by a big van for some hiking. Well that is what I thought I had purchased from the hostel. As I was getting into the van the lady asked me if I have a jacket because she said that it gets windy. I went and got a jacket and then got back into the van. We picked up other people on the way up to the Andes. The other people were caring huge backpacks. I was getting a little scared because I didn´t know if I was on the right trip. Come to find out the trip was trekking for 5 hours up to a peck and back down. I was thinking to myself ¨Oh god what did I sign up for¨. The others were going for 3 days and I was going for the day. As we drove up to the Andes mountains it was so beautiful. I saw a lake that was the most blue/turqouse color I have ever seen. We reached a hostel and got ready for the trekking. I was with a guide and two other women, both from Ireland. We started going for about 45 minutes. The heat and altitude started to get to me. My legs started to really hurt too. I worried amount my hips and didn´t wait to risk damaging them. i told the other ladies and the guide that this was to hard for me. Luckily there was a road nearby the trekking road. I told them I would make my way back to the hostel, which I did. After an hour, I found my way back and watched tv and ate lunch that they provided me with. After resting a while. I went back outside and did a little small hike not trekking around the properties. It was gorgous. A could see a little snow on a mountain peek and a steam that was going down the mountain. There wasn´t much vegation, just some shurbs and a few flowers. I also saw a lot of birds. After my small hike, I met a guy from Argentina on our transfer up to the mountains who offered me some Mate. Mate is a bitter tea drink that EVERYONE drinks in south america. It was a little to bitter for me, but I had a few sips. After that it was already around 5 pm and my guide and the others got back from the trekking. I said my good-byes and was transferred back to my hostel. There I went to the store and got dinner and watched the movie man on fire and then went up to my bed. I was starting to get sick some I wanted to get a good night sleep. Before bed I met some guys from Brazil who were super nice. One was becoming a doctoe. We talked alot about there medical system in Brazil and compared it with ours. There system is universal. Everyone has the opportunity to get care. We also talked a lot about nutrition as well! After or talk, my friend Joanna from scotland came to talk to me about our plans for the next day. We decided that we were going to rent bikes and travel around Mendoza for the day. After we set our plans we all went to bed. I will blog more later..

January 11, 12, 13, 14

Friday Jan 11, We all made it safely to Iguazu. After a 15 hour bus ride which was not bad at all. I sat with my friend Sarah in extremely comfortable sits. We watched a couple movies without being able to hear the movie, due to the fact we both forgot our headphones. After the movies we were given a really gross meal, some vegetables that smelled and tasted like fish and weird beef. Good thing we both brought our own meals that we prepared before hand. After or gross dinner we had wine, coffee, or champagne. Both Sarah and I were exhausted and fell right to sleep. We must have slept 11 hours. Our bodies really needed the sleep. We arrived in Iguazu around 11am. All of us (Jared, Krista, Sarah and I) got off the bus and went straight to our Hostel by taxi. Our hostel was incredible. It had a huge, beautiful pool in the center and the inside (kind of like a rec center) had ping pong tables, pool tables, a place where you watch tv, a lounge area, restaurant, a community kitchen, a place where you could talk to a travel agent and a down stairs that had bathrooms and showers. Our room that we slept in had 3 sets of bunk beds (6 beds in all). We were given fresh clean sheets. Our room and town house like building was really nice. I got lots of pictures. The town house had an up stairs and downstairs, with the same amount of bunk beds. We also had a bathroom. After putting on the sheets we went into town and sat at a cafe. It started raining really hard, to the point where the streets were flooded. We stayed at the cafe for a while (all the others had quite a few beers). We also went to the store to get some food, everyone wanted me to make dinner. After the cafe and supermarket we went back to the hostel and the others rested while I played ping pong and swam in the pool. Our friends from the residence, Georgia, Lauren, and Georgia's friend swam with me. They were staying in a different hostel in town. After swimming, we made a delicious dinner in the community kitchen, chicken with wine, lots of veggies and potatoes. We also had delicious wine. That night I must of had 3 glasses. The others went through 6 bottles, talk about a lot of fun!!! I must have gone to bed around 1am. The others decided to stay up until 4 am.
Saturday Jan 12, I got up at 8:30am. I woke the others, who were all hung over. We ate breakfast and took a taxi with a girl in our room named Shannon who was from Australia, and studying in Chile to the waterfalls. We payed 40 pesos each. We walked for about five hours and saw the most incredible waterfalls and butterflies I have ever seen. The waterfalls are massive and unbelievable. I got some great photos, cannot wait for all of you guys to see. After being in the heat almost the whole day, we went back to the hostel, rested and swam in the pool. We all took showers and got ready for an all you can eat Brazilian show at the hostel. The hostel offered lots of good side, bread, rice, salad, beets potatoes, and of course beef and chicken. We were all starving after all our hiking all day. We ate then went straight back to our beds we were exhausted. Jared and Krista decided to take a nap and then go out around 12am. I went out for a bit but I was to tried. Sarah, fell right to sleep and stayed asleep until the morning.
Sunday Jan 13, We all woke up early, except Jared and Krista, who got in at 4 am again. Sarah, Krista and I got breakfast. We all check out, Krista and Jared hung out by the pool while, sarah and I went to town to look around and do some shopping. All the stores were pretty much closed so we went to back to the hostel to have some lunch. Then jared and I played ping pong while Krista and Sarah were e-mailing their families back home. After ping pong, Sarah and I walked across the street and went to a rescued bird sanctuary. The birds were so beautiful, we saw Tucans, eagles, so many that were miss treated by humans and rescued by the national park. After the park, we went back to the hostel and said our good byes to everyone and went to the bus stop. Sarah and I got on the bus and had seats right next to the bathroom. Oh no we thought, this is not going to be a fun ride home. Fortunately, we were so tried that after engorging ourselves with gross food, because we were so hungry from all our walking we fell to sleep.
Monday Jan 14, After 15 hours we arrived back to Buenos Aires. What a fantastic trip!!! I took the subte back to Belgrano, while the others took a taxi back to the residence, because they had class at 1pm. I took a shower and ate some lunch. I rest for about an hour. After resting I packed up some clothes for the night and left a note for my home stay mom, asking her if she could take me to the airport. Tomorrow, I leave for Mendoza. I got to the residence and now I am writing this long blog letting everyone know about my wonderful weekend. I only have a week left but I am going to make the most of it, with going to Mendoza for 2 days and spending quality time with new friends. Tonight, the girls and I plan on making dinner and hopefully taking it easy. Hope all is well back home. I am looking really forward to Mendoza. I will let everyone know all about it!!

Jan 10 and Jan 11

Wednesday Jan 10, so I satyed out until 6 in the morning and went to school at 930 am. The clubs in Argentina are amazing!!!! Everyone dances to techno which is really awesome. I think I danced for about an hour and a half. The cool thing is that nobody cares how you dance!! The club my friends and I went to are really nice. Before the club 4 other girls and I have a nice prefixed meal at a restaurant in Recolta, which is a nicer part of buenos aires. I had a glass of white wine, chicken and a salad, and fruit salad for dessert. Plus, I had tea and two small cookies for 14 US dollars. What a deal!!! and it was really, really good even the wine!!! After dinner the girls and I took a taxi to the club and met up with some other guys in the house Martin, palbo, dudely, and jared. We all danced and talked the night away or should I say the morning. I am making so many friends and some are leaving soon. I am going to miss them alot... we are now leaving for Iguaza so I will write more when I get back. We are all so excited!!! It is Thurs jan 11 600

Jan 7 and Jan 8

Hola,
Monday Jan 7, I went to school, I am now being tutored by myself. After school, I ate lunch at the student apartment complex then walked around with a Norweign guy named Martin. We walked around for quite a while and talked about life. I took Martin to a mechanical sunflower, that is located at the University in Palermo. The sunflower is pretty amazing because it opens when the sun comes up, moves with the sun and closes when it gets dark. Its huge and silver and has red lights as pollan. After the flower, Martin and I went back to the residence apartments, where I met up with Krista, Jared, and Sara to take serval subte's to get our Bus tickets for Iguaza waterfalls! All of us were sweating like crazy and there were so many people on the subte it was pretty ridiculous. When we reached our destination an area that looked like TJ Mexico we all walked to the bus station. The bus station is huge, you can definatly get lost in the place. We bought our tickets 400 pesos each, round trip on (first class). We are all looking really forward to it!! We leave Thursday Januray 10th in the evening around 6:30pm. We will be staying in a really nice hostel with a pool. This Thursday is my last day of school. After our adventure to buying our bus tickets we went home and made dinner. Many of the girls and I sat around and talked about our lives and played some cards BS. After a round of Bull Sh** that took forever we went to get lollypops and went to a resturant where a group of us got food and alcohol. I had my candy so I was content. After the restaurant some of the girls and I went back to the residence and went to bed, so tried...
Tuesday Jan 8th, in the morning I had breakfast with alexa who is also from San Diego and Dan. After Breakfast I walked to school and talked in spanish with my professor for a long time then got to buisness with learning new vocab and grammar. After school I went and had lunch, banana and peanut butter sandwich (yes I finally found peanut butter at the store, thank the lord). This lunch is now a staple of mine! Then after lunch I got my bag together and went and got another massage, because my shoulders and head have been hurting from the heat and my huge bag. After the massage I went to Belgrano and picked up my laundry. I got to the home stay apartment had a snack, took an amazing, nice cold shower and got ready for the evening. By evening I mean dinner at 10pm and I am supposively going out at 2am. Wow this is going to be a crazy night because I have class at 9:30am. Oh well, got to live it up Argentina style!! You only live once or 5 times in my case. Tonight I am going to dinner with some awesome girls I met and a few of the guys in the residence. I am having a blast and meeting so many new people. I will be safe and let everyone know how things go. I figure I probably won't go to sleep until 3 or 4 am even if I weren't to go out because its so incredably hot, so I might as well experience Argentina's night life with fabulous people. Hope the rain isn't too crazy, and hopefully no flooding. Even though its really hot, its nice that its summer. I love the sun!!

The weekend Jan 4th-Jan 6th

Friday Jan 4th, went to class, where caroline and I played guess who in spanish soooo fun. Then went back to Belgrano to do some laundry. Then went back to the resident apartments and had dinner with Dudley, Ashlan, and Kim (the people I went with to Uraguay). Then to bed because we had to wake up at 6 am for our ferry ride to Uraguay. We took to subte to the ferry station and got our passports stamped!!! Then onto our first ferry ride, a luxury ferry that had plane like that fold back. The ferry was two stories and had a resturant, so cool. We landed in Uraguay has an hour later. We walked to the river (20 blocks) and all got sunburnt. The river and Uraguay are very beautiful, it actually has grass and lots of historic buildings, beautiful streets and cafes. It was a very European place. After the beach we had lunch at a pizza place. I had a sandwich with probably a pound of cheese, no joke... But I took it off too much. Then, we walked to through the historic streets and decided to rest our legs at a cafe. I sat next to a friendly dog and had tea. Then, we walked more throughout the town and meet some women from Boston and Minnesota. Super nice. Then back to the ferry for a 3 hour ride back (the slow ferry) and reached Buenos aires around 11:30 pm. Then back to the residence, so tried. Went right to the shower, then ate a peanuter butter sandwich and a peach with some crackers (good thinking to Kim and Ashlan for bring Peanut Butter sandwich , Argentina only has it in some remote stores!) Then to bed, finally a bed to sleep in!!
Sunday Jan 6th, woke up and vegged. Then went to the store and got breakfast. After making lunch, I talked to a Argentinan guy named pablo about the economy and its crash and how it has impacted there society, but he feels that its just second nature now. After lunch then went to the subte and traveled to plaza italia and walked with the gang (Dudley, Kim and Ashlen) around the beautiful park. So many families out and people selling calling out *Helando* *ice cream* Argentina and really family oriented. I really like that about Argentina, family is always first
. Then walked to Plaza Serrano, and met up with 3 girls in the residence, Caroline, pauline and lauren, walked around and saw a lot of hand crafts. So far I really love plaza Serrano the best, so beautiful and more affulent. Then went to a cafe and hand drinks, then to the bus to go back, where I met 2 people from Isarel and an nice Argentinan lady with a really cute baby. She spoke great English. Then to the market to get dinner. Made dinner and had a great time with new girls in the house, Sarah, Krista, and some others. Now writing and staying the night again at the residence, to tried to go back to Belgrano, plus the residence is close to school. Tomorrow, I am going with Sarah, Jared, and Krista to buy tickets for Iguaza Waterfalls so excited we will be leaving Thurs and getting their fri, sat and coming back sun. We are staying in a Hostel and doing lots of hiking and activities. I am meeting so many new, amazing people. I am really enjoying my time. What an experience I am having. I will let everyone know about my experience soon. Love to all car

Dec 31, Jan 1-3

Greetings and Felicas de nuevo anos!!!
Argentina is beautiful and very hot right now.
Dec 31st My new years went well. I had some of the best champane I have ever tried. I am making sure I bring some home. It was champane with a varital called Doluce and if people know me I love sweet wine. Due to the fact people go out at 2am and all the stores were closed all day for new years I went to the student apartments and hung out with all the students where we celebrated until 4 am. We wanted to go to a disco but there were no taxis avalable. Only 4 of the students were able to get a taxis and they said it wasn{t all that fun because they were all so tried. In the morning we found out that one of our friends was robbed of her camera and money by four men right outside the apartment. This was probably due to her coming home drunk, by herself and not having keys to get in. From this event it made us all aware to keep a good watch on our belongings and keep our purses in front of us.
Jan 1 I woke up late and went to breakfast. From all this walking I have been soooo hungry. I they went back to Belgrano and watched movies for the rest of the day, plus walked around Belgrano. I went to a grocery store and got some hambuger meat, pototes and butternut squash. Yes dad I have been eating more carne then I usaually do, you would be proud! Nilda came home and we talked about our days in spanish and english. Then I tried to go to sleep, but it was so hot it was hard. I found that if you take a cold shower then go to bed you can sleep alittle better.
Jan 2 Yesterday, I had breakfast and walked to the subte then to school. I was tried so I made sure to have some cafe with a banana at break. Then to a cafe to have a huge salad and some bread. Then it was back to the subte to Belgrano were I tried to add my classes for school at an internet cafe. For some reason, I am still pre-major. Until Dr. Patterson receives my e-mail about my transcipts I cannot add the classes I want. Kind of nerve racking because I don{t want the classes to fill up and be left with nothing. If I need to I will have a friend help me from back home, so I will think positively, right matt! After e-mailing I went to get my nails and toes done. They were so dirty. Then went home and had some delicious dinner, chicken and veggies with potatoes and for desserts some incredible nectrines. Then I took a nice cold shower and fell asleep to a movie on the tv.
Jan 3 Thursday, for breakfast I had some incredible quince jam/marmalade on rice cakes. I am going to bring some of the jam home for sure, they are really big on their jams! Then I walked to the subte and then to school where we learned about gutar and some new vocabulary. I had a big jamon (ham) and queso (cheese) sandwich. I e-mailed my department for my major to help me with my classes, so hopefully they will e-mail me back. Now its back to Belgrano for a massage, definatly have been needing one for days. Then dinner with Nilda and I plan on doing some spanish homework tonight and maybe a movie. Mainly just going to be relaxing for the night.... Tomorrow{s friday so it will be more eventful. Still having a great time! Love to all!!