Before classes start tomorrow (today) may as well remember some of the fun things from this past week-and-a-half.
One of the fun things is the prices. (Multiply prices by 3.06 to get the amount in pesos) Taking a colectivo (city bus) for 45 minutes costs about 26 cents, a tren to another side of the city only a few cents more. So going to church costs me about 52 cents every week. There are three very good ice cream places (Chungo's, Persicco, and Freddo) that give two nice-sized scoops for $1.63. Of course, one can get more by paying more, but the stuff's so richly good that two scoops are plenty (especially flavors such as chocolate amargo and dulce de leche con brownies). And the movies? Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays the cinema costs around $3.92; Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays it's a whopping $2.29, including IMAX theaters. That's less than I pay to rent a new movie at our local grocery store!
Speaking of movies, that's another fun thing. Sunday night I watched Pirates I... for only about the seventh, eighth, ninth time... on the Disney channel with Silvina and Emilse and Alejandro (Emilse's boyfriend)... It was dubbed into Spanish, which was interesting since I know nearly all the English lines by heart and could analyze the change in sense. And it was fun to explain parts of the plot to a first-timer. Not to mention we had some really yummy sweets from the birthday party of Silvina's sister-in-law to eat up...
Monday night last week I went with some people from church to see Pirates II for the second time. It had just come out down here, July 20, almost two weeks after the States. I think it was an IMAX theater. I'm not exactly sure what an IMAX theater is because I never bothered finding out, but it was a nice big screen and great sound. There were some people sitting on the steps, preferring that to the row way down front.
(warning -- movie spoilers ahead)
Now I understand the movie a little better, but I'm not sure if I could see it nine or ten times in three years like the first one. We had a great audience that broke into applause when Jack popped out of his tomb-canoe and when Captain Barbossa appeared, then again after the end. There may have been more clapping at one of the other high points, such as one of those rare victories over the kraken, can't remember now. Only thing was that we thought the movie started at 9:30 p.m., only to find it started at 10:30, so some of us didn't get to bed before 2:30 a.m. that night ... morning... that's what sleeping in is for.
Oh, that's right, we also went to see a movie Tuesday night... Silvina, Amy and I. We went not knowing what might be showing and ended up choosing Superman Regresa. Of course, since it didn't start till 10 p.m. and we got there around 9, we were forced to eat ice cream first. The movie's pretty good, but frankly, Superman is too perfect and too good. I prefer Spiderman.
Now back to real life and classes this week. All my classes are on Monday (3 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and Tuesday and Thursday (1 p.m. to 7 p.m.), leaving Wednesdays, Fridays, and mornings free.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Weird weather
Yesterday afternoon Amy came over to visit. After making those famous chocolate oatmeal things (no-bakes for you uninitiated) we started playing Phase 10. An odd banging noise. Another. Was someone throwing rocks at our windows? Then more and more, so we walked over and discovered it was hailing. Pretty soon it was making a horrible racket since part of Silvina's roof is some relation of tin. It was so loud we could just barely hear enormous blasts of thunder overhead. Afterwards a neighbor knocked on our door to find out if our roof was broken. No, just dented, with paint chip dust all over the dining room and almost on our precious cookies. Here are three hail photos in the little corridor in our apartment area. Three hands holding hail: the man sweeping it up, me, Amy.
This was the first time some Argentinians had seen hail in their entire lives!
This was the first time some Argentinians had seen hail in their entire lives!
Traveling tales
Ahh... tantas cosas a contar...
Oops, was that Spanish?
It was a very interesting trip. Saying good-bye at the airport was much easier this time, with no tears... at least on my part. After going through security I glanced back to see a man putting his shoes back on, wondered briefly, walked on in my own untouched footwear. The signs for my terminal number sent me down to a basement level. It would have been boring to sit where one couldn't see takeoffs and landings except that the doors were occasionally open to let in plenty of noise, especially when those two military jets zoomed past, almost too loud to bear! We passengers boarded our dinky Canadian jet by stairs, you know, like the president, except for some reason they forgot the cameramen. And I was going to include take-off videos, but some de-bug program isn't working at the moment. The flight from Des Moines to Atlanta was perfect, beautiful, scenic all the way. Here's what Iowa looks like from a couple thousand feet up. If you look hard enough you might find the blacktop road in that photo. Yep, those are clouds.
The Atlanta airport was a little bigger, even had a 'train', which was more like a subway, my first since Paris six or so weeks ago. As soon as we got to the international terminals there was more Spanish than English. The Boeing 767 flight from Atlanta to Santiago was very long, longer than from Paris to home, but seemed a lot shorter. Could be because – you're never going to believe this – I actually slept on the plane! - nearly THREE HOURS! Not consecutively, but it still deserves capitals. I had a window seat... here are the Andes, not sure if the white is cloud or sea. Two more.
Santiago was a long wait of around four hours, most of it spent sitting in Terminal 15 as directed, wanting to fall asleep without missing the flight, waiting for some flight agent to come around, till 45 minutes before departure I decided to check and was redirected to 16 just in time to go plead for a boarding pass and get on the waiting 777. This one was operated by Air France, since Buenos Aires was just a stop on the way to Charles de Gaulle in Paris (thought about stowing away... French was sounding pretty beautiful by then...). You could tell it was Air France by the trim hair-up flight attendants and the four-course lunch they served us plus bread offered twice. Too bad they didn't have time to serve us coffee because some pilot got us to Buenos Aires faster than intended.
The Buenos Aires airport was a little easier than Paris but with a super-long line for customs (why didn't we have to go through customs in Paris?), baggage much faster. Then I headed out to find the man from church who was supposed to pick me up and saw a sea of waiting people, many with names on signs. Thank the Lord that just before I began feeling very lost, Carlos found me. He drove me back on huge six-laner BA avenidas to Silvina's house in a bumpy little manual that refused to start up the two times he stopped (in town and at Silvina's).
BA is one of those places where our study abroad program arranges for students to stay with host families, in this case with members of the same church. Silvina is a single girl ('single lady' makes her sound too old) with a lovely little apartment which she shares with another girl, Emilse, and now me. It is all ground level with tall ceilings except for a little staircase up to a room just my size.
The first evening was tough. Everything was new (duh), I couldn't understand much Spanish and could speak even less. However, some friends from Grace came over to visit and we had a good chat. Next afternoon was better after sleeping extremely late. Speaking of sleep, I'm getting into some great habits. Bedtime averages around midnight, with past 2 a.m. twice in one week and till-noon sleep-ins when possible... the schedule probably won't change much because church is at 6 p.m. on Sunday and none of my classes are before 1 p.m., with Wednesday and Friday completely free. We're two hours ahead of Central in the States so I figure I'm just keeping to my normal Iowa schedule.
Well, what do you know... the first week here has passed. How did that happen?
Oops, was that Spanish?
It was a very interesting trip. Saying good-bye at the airport was much easier this time, with no tears... at least on my part. After going through security I glanced back to see a man putting his shoes back on, wondered briefly, walked on in my own untouched footwear. The signs for my terminal number sent me down to a basement level. It would have been boring to sit where one couldn't see takeoffs and landings except that the doors were occasionally open to let in plenty of noise, especially when those two military jets zoomed past, almost too loud to bear! We passengers boarded our dinky Canadian jet by stairs, you know, like the president, except for some reason they forgot the cameramen. And I was going to include take-off videos, but some de-bug program isn't working at the moment. The flight from Des Moines to Atlanta was perfect, beautiful, scenic all the way. Here's what Iowa looks like from a couple thousand feet up. If you look hard enough you might find the blacktop road in that photo. Yep, those are clouds.
The Atlanta airport was a little bigger, even had a 'train', which was more like a subway, my first since Paris six or so weeks ago. As soon as we got to the international terminals there was more Spanish than English. The Boeing 767 flight from Atlanta to Santiago was very long, longer than from Paris to home, but seemed a lot shorter. Could be because – you're never going to believe this – I actually slept on the plane! - nearly THREE HOURS! Not consecutively, but it still deserves capitals. I had a window seat... here are the Andes, not sure if the white is cloud or sea. Two more.
Santiago was a long wait of around four hours, most of it spent sitting in Terminal 15 as directed, wanting to fall asleep without missing the flight, waiting for some flight agent to come around, till 45 minutes before departure I decided to check and was redirected to 16 just in time to go plead for a boarding pass and get on the waiting 777. This one was operated by Air France, since Buenos Aires was just a stop on the way to Charles de Gaulle in Paris (thought about stowing away... French was sounding pretty beautiful by then...). You could tell it was Air France by the trim hair-up flight attendants and the four-course lunch they served us plus bread offered twice. Too bad they didn't have time to serve us coffee because some pilot got us to Buenos Aires faster than intended.
The Buenos Aires airport was a little easier than Paris but with a super-long line for customs (why didn't we have to go through customs in Paris?), baggage much faster. Then I headed out to find the man from church who was supposed to pick me up and saw a sea of waiting people, many with names on signs. Thank the Lord that just before I began feeling very lost, Carlos found me. He drove me back on huge six-laner BA avenidas to Silvina's house in a bumpy little manual that refused to start up the two times he stopped (in town and at Silvina's).
BA is one of those places where our study abroad program arranges for students to stay with host families, in this case with members of the same church. Silvina is a single girl ('single lady' makes her sound too old) with a lovely little apartment which she shares with another girl, Emilse, and now me. It is all ground level with tall ceilings except for a little staircase up to a room just my size.
The first evening was tough. Everything was new (duh), I couldn't understand much Spanish and could speak even less. However, some friends from Grace came over to visit and we had a good chat. Next afternoon was better after sleeping extremely late. Speaking of sleep, I'm getting into some great habits. Bedtime averages around midnight, with past 2 a.m. twice in one week and till-noon sleep-ins when possible... the schedule probably won't change much because church is at 6 p.m. on Sunday and none of my classes are before 1 p.m., with Wednesday and Friday completely free. We're two hours ahead of Central in the States so I figure I'm just keeping to my normal Iowa schedule.
Well, what do you know... the first week here has passed. How did that happen?
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Adiós
We're leaving in about thirty-five minutes. Goodbye. I'll miss you heaps.
Oh, did you think I was talking to you? No, that's for my computer. Last post from the Pinecrest PC home network till December. But this blog will be getting posts again by the weekend, Lord willing.
Please do pray for safe flights: Des Moines, Iowa to Atlanta, Georgia; Atlanta to Santiago, Chile; Santiago to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which arrival should be around 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, their time. Think of Daddy too, who's working long hot hours this week. Thank you!
Oh, did you think I was talking to you? No, that's for my computer. Last post from the Pinecrest PC home network till December. But this blog will be getting posts again by the weekend, Lord willing.
Please do pray for safe flights: Des Moines, Iowa to Atlanta, Georgia; Atlanta to Santiago, Chile; Santiago to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which arrival should be around 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, their time. Think of Daddy too, who's working long hot hours this week. Thank you!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Well,
this weekend Ardith and I locked ourselves into a dark dungeon to undergo self-experimentation on reactions to bright flashing lights and booming noises. If you feel like it, you can translate that into this: Ardith introduced me to the Firefly series (notice the user rating on the linked site? how could They cancel it?) and somehow we ended up watching the whole thing, plus the movie.
Of course, that's not all we did. Friday evening we had a yummy supper (actually, every meal was yummy!) and went to see A Prairie Home Companion. By the way, just to warn you, Garrison Keillor doesn't look at all like he should, from which we get the moral "Never try to imagine a radio person's appearance from his voice." Saturday we slept in (a little) and protected ourselves from heatstroke by relaxing in a darkened basement with said Firefly series, plus we got plenty of exercise by running up and down stairs for various things like food and drink. Sunday we went to church and finished the series and watched a movie. And of course every day involved Internet surfing and discussing the latest world news, especially Middle East developments.
Hopefully you got to read this before bed. It'll put you right to sleep.
(By the way, thanks for the comment guesses for the previous post - they were very funny!)
Of course, that's not all we did. Friday evening we had a yummy supper (actually, every meal was yummy!) and went to see A Prairie Home Companion. By the way, just to warn you, Garrison Keillor doesn't look at all like he should, from which we get the moral "Never try to imagine a radio person's appearance from his voice." Saturday we slept in (a little) and protected ourselves from heatstroke by relaxing in a darkened basement with said Firefly series, plus we got plenty of exercise by running up and down stairs for various things like food and drink. Sunday we went to church and finished the series and watched a movie. And of course every day involved Internet surfing and discussing the latest world news, especially Middle East developments.
Hopefully you got to read this before bed. It'll put you right to sleep.
(By the way, thanks for the comment guesses for the previous post - they were very funny!)
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Summer vacation
I'm at Ardith's for the weekend and we're having a blast. Bet you'd never guess in a million years what we're doing.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Skip two
Yes, I really did do that post on our trip. Only it was a draft started before the last post and I can't change the date. So skip these two shorties to get to it.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Overloaded
The computer room was rewired today and the power decided to shut down. You understand that I don't want to risk my computer.
There and back again
If a picture's worth a thousand words, I'll give the photos and get off easy!
Last weekend, as you might know from Mommy's blog (on which I'm developing an alarming dependency), Jason and Kendra and I went out to Indiana to visit friends - Uncle Rene, Aunt Vici, and Rachel, Isaac, and Hannah, who are roughly the ages of us three travelers. We kids have been friends since before we were born, before we were even imagined, since our dads "bached" it together. In the good old Hoosier days of Warsaw, our families lived five minutes apart and got together for Christmases, Thanksgivings, and lots of times in between.
So I figured that as long as I was going out to see Rachel, I might as well take Jason and Kendra along to keep me awake on the drive... then maybe they could have some fun too.
The driving was great fun. Jason drove through most of Iowa both times and I took the rest, including that exciting traffic on I-80 south of Chicago. Only they were doing construction near Chicago and our already finicky car decided to overheat. We took an exit and a little detour that let us stay above 40 mph, then got back on just in time to miss the rest of the stop-and-start.
We had heaps of fun learning card games like "Crazy Eights" and "Schwimm" and "Skip-bo", went swimming and bowling, ate good grilled food and lots of ice cream, made weird chocolate fructose cookies, dragged Jason along to Act II of Swan Lake (Isaac didn't get back till late that night so Jason was stuck with the girls, but he was a good sport), watched National Treasure (I'd always thought it was just another horse movie, till we saw it, shows how much I'm up on things)... etc. etc. etc.
Here are the six of us without flash and with flash - me, Jason, Rachel, Isaac, Kendra, and Hannah on the footrest.
Then Sunday afternoon and evening we headed up to Goshen to visit Uncle Doug and Aunt Cindy - real blood relatives this time - and some of their kids, and Grandma came over. More swimming and grilled food and laughing and ice cream. Some of the laughing was due to our traditional Dutch Blitz mini-tournament.
I got Jason to take some pictures for me (Can you tell he's standing on a chair?). Here's a game with Uncle Doug and Kendra and me - four photos in succession to let you experience the speed!
#1 - Calm start
#2 - Blur
#3 - Second lull
#4 - Uncle Doug and Kendra get ready to whap down and blitz out
(I don't remember who won that round.)
Then I snapped the others. These two of Kendra, Jason, Aunt Cindy, and Uncle Doug were just before I started a great video that got some glares from Jason when he found out about it... afterward. Sorry, that's personal family property for us to laugh at. Jason should be thankful to have such a kind sister.
So that's a synopsis of the trip. On the first gas stop en route to home Monday morning, I discovered I'd left the gas cap in Morris, Illinois. In Morris I went through the lost-and-found at the same station and picked out the closest I could find, which probably isn't ours but works great.
Jason had the bright idea to stop in at Ardith's while passing through Cedar Rapids, so after two calls to Mommy and some hunting around, we found it. Worked out great because Ardith had only just got home, so we tried the doorbell that didn't work and then went in and surprised her.
Here's Ardith's new couch.
Here's Ardith's new couch with her on it. Yep, that's her making faces.
And on that sweet note I bid you good-night.
Last weekend, as you might know from Mommy's blog (on which I'm developing an alarming dependency), Jason and Kendra and I went out to Indiana to visit friends - Uncle Rene, Aunt Vici, and Rachel, Isaac, and Hannah, who are roughly the ages of us three travelers. We kids have been friends since before we were born, before we were even imagined, since our dads "bached" it together. In the good old Hoosier days of Warsaw, our families lived five minutes apart and got together for Christmases, Thanksgivings, and lots of times in between.
So I figured that as long as I was going out to see Rachel, I might as well take Jason and Kendra along to keep me awake on the drive... then maybe they could have some fun too.
The driving was great fun. Jason drove through most of Iowa both times and I took the rest, including that exciting traffic on I-80 south of Chicago. Only they were doing construction near Chicago and our already finicky car decided to overheat. We took an exit and a little detour that let us stay above 40 mph, then got back on just in time to miss the rest of the stop-and-start.
We had heaps of fun learning card games like "Crazy Eights" and "Schwimm" and "Skip-bo", went swimming and bowling, ate good grilled food and lots of ice cream, made weird chocolate fructose cookies, dragged Jason along to Act II of Swan Lake (Isaac didn't get back till late that night so Jason was stuck with the girls, but he was a good sport), watched National Treasure (I'd always thought it was just another horse movie, till we saw it, shows how much I'm up on things)... etc. etc. etc.
Here are the six of us without flash and with flash - me, Jason, Rachel, Isaac, Kendra, and Hannah on the footrest.
Then Sunday afternoon and evening we headed up to Goshen to visit Uncle Doug and Aunt Cindy - real blood relatives this time - and some of their kids, and Grandma came over. More swimming and grilled food and laughing and ice cream. Some of the laughing was due to our traditional Dutch Blitz mini-tournament.
I got Jason to take some pictures for me (Can you tell he's standing on a chair?). Here's a game with Uncle Doug and Kendra and me - four photos in succession to let you experience the speed!
#1 - Calm start
#2 - Blur
#3 - Second lull
#4 - Uncle Doug and Kendra get ready to whap down and blitz out
(I don't remember who won that round.)
Then I snapped the others. These two of Kendra, Jason, Aunt Cindy, and Uncle Doug were just before I started a great video that got some glares from Jason when he found out about it... afterward. Sorry, that's personal family property for us to laugh at. Jason should be thankful to have such a kind sister.
So that's a synopsis of the trip. On the first gas stop en route to home Monday morning, I discovered I'd left the gas cap in Morris, Illinois. In Morris I went through the lost-and-found at the same station and picked out the closest I could find, which probably isn't ours but works great.
Jason had the bright idea to stop in at Ardith's while passing through Cedar Rapids, so after two calls to Mommy and some hunting around, we found it. Worked out great because Ardith had only just got home, so we tried the doorbell that didn't work and then went in and surprised her.
Here's Ardith's new couch.
Here's Ardith's new couch with her on it. Yep, that's her making faces.
And on that sweet note I bid you good-night.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Summertime is movie time
Okay, I decided not to go on strike after all, especially since I won't be able to sleep for a while tonight. Blame the pirates and the deer.
Jason and Kendra and Derek and I went to see Pirates II tonight. It was very intense - although that might change after five or six more viewings. I got several good jumps out of it, the hardest one hitting when the native popped out of the bushes. Yep, as Jason said, the same old trick, and it gets me every time. Trying to restrain a jump like that in mid-jump hurts. I think we were all pretty much glued to our seats during the movie, then spent the half-hour drive home analyzing it and arguing about it (and its prequel) up and down, till we spotted the deer crossing the road ahead of us. After that I made myself dizzy scanning the ditches the rest of the way back. Pirates and deer can make a person jumpy, especially in the same evening. Besides, I want to attain my goal of keeping the car from changing hood color for the next year.
That was today. Tomorrow you'll hear about last weekend, which I'm saving because my camera is in a room of three sleeping girls and the adrenalin is finally winding its way down.
Jason and Kendra and Derek and I went to see Pirates II tonight. It was very intense - although that might change after five or six more viewings. I got several good jumps out of it, the hardest one hitting when the native popped out of the bushes. Yep, as Jason said, the same old trick, and it gets me every time. Trying to restrain a jump like that in mid-jump hurts. I think we were all pretty much glued to our seats during the movie, then spent the half-hour drive home analyzing it and arguing about it (and its prequel) up and down, till we spotted the deer crossing the road ahead of us. After that I made myself dizzy scanning the ditches the rest of the way back. Pirates and deer can make a person jumpy, especially in the same evening. Besides, I want to attain my goal of keeping the car from changing hood color for the next year.
That was today. Tomorrow you'll hear about last weekend, which I'm saving because my camera is in a room of three sleeping girls and the adrenalin is finally winding its way down.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Home
Safely.
Post?
Maybe tomorrow.
Actually, I'm thinking about going on strike till readers start leaving comments.
Post?
Maybe tomorrow.
Actually, I'm thinking about going on strike till readers start leaving comments.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Oh, by the way,
we're traveling home tomorrow. I meant to post the night before we left. Thankfully, Mommy remembered. If you think of praying for our Monday trip from Warsaw, Indiana to somewhere-out-in-the-country-by-Ackley, Iowa, that would be very kind.
But hey, everyone needs a vacation, even from blogging.
But hey, everyone needs a vacation, even from blogging.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Good ol' Memomail
Memomail has started sending me titles like "Your complimentary baby carrier awaits!" or "Snatch a stroller and designer baby bag".
Of course, you can't expect Yahoo account junk mail to know that your youngest brother has recently turned four, been potty-trained, and really is past the baby carrier stage. He's even tough enough to walk around the fair a couple hot sunny hours - between backrides.
Of course, you can't expect Yahoo account junk mail to know that your youngest brother has recently turned four, been potty-trained, and really is past the baby carrier stage. He's even tough enough to walk around the fair a couple hot sunny hours - between backrides.
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