I FOUND the password to my tumblr and all is well again!!!!!!! it has been quite a while since i last posted on this bad boy, so i have a lot of topics to cover. I have been brainstorming the topics to this blog because there is no way I could possibly right this without having organized my thoughts because there are so many things that have happened recently. we will start with chapter one.

Basketball:

I have been on the University of Belgrano basketball team for the last 2 months or so now. Made very close friends with all the players, Argentine, American and French.  All fun guys who like to go out and are always up for fun. We have now had 4 games, and we are 1-3, but don’t let the record fool you, we got off to a rough start playing the most physical team i have ever played in my entire life and we deserved to lose that game.  As for the 2 games after that, we should have won both of them, being up by 15 the second game and then losing in the last 3 minutes. And then the third game being down by 15 points and going up by 2 points in the closing minutes and then losing yet again.  We had a few meltdowns, but in the end we came out game 4 and played a strong game. But in order to win it, we had to go through a little mid-game scuffle.  One of the most fun experiences in a live game situation i have ever had.  I was at the left wing and Trevor, our starting 3, cut to the low block and i fed him the ball in the post, as he reached for the ball, his defender wrapped both arms around him and dragged him down to the floor out of frustration.  Trevor threw his leg off of him and tried to stand up, as one of the other teammatese threw him to the floor again.  I ran in and shoved the guy that pushed Trevor for the second time, and then i got shoved, this is where steve came in and started shoving and then everyone was in someones face.  It was like the scene of Semi-Pro when will ferrell says, “Somebody hit somebody!!!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhy-w4o0P70 (for those certain old people that read this blog, highlight the link that i just posted and copy and paste it to the URL link and watch the youtube video that it leads too). As that whole melee came to an end, we got 4 free throws out of it.  Trevor shot his two. And then i shot the technical free throws in front of the opposing teams bench, as they all screamed at me in vulgar Spanish, it made me laugh and realize how awesome of an experience it was for me to be in a foreign country playing basketball for a college team in a crazy environment.  When i am back home and i am surrounded with all my friends who all play basketball and are good shooters, i am a mediocre shooter at best. But when put into a position where a team relies on me to be a scorer, and puts confidence in me to shoot and score, it makes me a much better shooter, its bizarre, we’ll see if it carries over to back home.  Anyway, this whole tangent leads into me being the teams designated technical foul free throw shooter.  I gathered my thoughts and frustrations at the free throw line, and calmly sunk the first one, walking back to the three point line and looking at that whole teams bench and throwing up a little American sign the call the middle finger up, just to stir the pot a little bit more.  And then they started yelling a little bit louder, and luckily i made he second one and just laughed all the way back to the bench as we went on to win the game.  Great game. Great day. First game i started off scoring 4 points, and since then i have been scoring 15-19 a game, so i am not only having a great time, but playing well too.

Chapter 2:

As much as i love Buenos Aires, it is great to get out of the city for a nice weekend.  I went to the northeast province of Argentina, called Córdoba.  Seeing that Buenos Aires has 14 million people in its province and there are only 40 million people in all of Argentina, every other province is a mere fraction in population.  So Córdoba was a beautiful city with a great mix of old buildings and modern buildings and beautiful churches.  We did not know that we were going to go to Córdoba until 4 hours of getting to the Retiro bus station to purchase the tickets.  We got on the bus and took the 10 hour bus with my allergies being at probably one of the worst stages they have ever been.  Not only could i not breathe, but i could not sniffle either because i had air stuck in my head and my ears would pop every time i sniffled.  Needless to say, it was a painful 10 hours.  We arrived in Córdoba at 11 the next morning, and walked around until we found the hostel that could fit 6 people, it was a really big hostel and had a 6 person room, which was perfect for us.  When we got off the bus, it was hot and i was uncomfertable because my face was super itchy, so i realized it was time for a change.  I cut off all of my facial hair except for my mustache, it looked pretty gross.  Though funny and ridiculous, i left it on to go to Oktoberfest, i felt that i would blend in with the German culture a little bit more.  After getting off a 10 hour bus we got on another 2 hour bus to a small town called Carlos Paz with a pretty lake and hung out by the “beach” for a few hours, skipping rocks and getting color.  Overall, was a pretty productive day.  The next morning, we bought breakfast ingredients to make at the BEAUTIFUL HOSTEL KITCHEN.  Marble counter tops, big cutting boards, a really nice oven/stove top and unlimited plates and silver wear.  Made some yummy breakfast sandwiches to start off the day, and then back on the bus for another 2 hours to Oktoberfest!!!! It is in a small city called Belgrano (different than my school).  For those who don’t know, Oktoberfest is a fair that is German themed (I know, I know), and it celebrates German culture and all the different kinds of beer in the neighboring countries and what not.  So i bought a cool mug and a beer strap to hold my mug.  The set up was 30 pesos in order to get into the “jardin de cerveza” Beer Garden, and once you are in you can fill up your beer and pay as you go, all i drank was duper dark beer, like barley wine and the alcohol content was 10.5%, where as a normal beer is 5%.  But i only got 4 or so beers because i didn’t want to get too drunk seeing as i was going to be making dinner for 6 people that same night.  The “asado” BBQ that night was probably the highlight of my trip.  I went to the store, bought thin boneless steak, seasoning, green and red peppers, eggplant, pinapple, tomatoes, onions and we prepped everything for like 2 hours.  Heat up the charcoal and BBQ’ed up alllllll that goodness and and a freaking FEAST, it was probably one of my favorite meals in all of Argentina just because when i was done eating it, i didn’t feel that i was going to die of a heart attack because of so much oil or fattening stuff, because all we ate was thin steak and vegetables. Nothing fatty, nothing unhealthy.  The weather when we were there was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.  75 Degrees and nothing but blue skies, and now the rest of the kids in the house are going to Oktoberfest this weekend, and it is all rainy and depressing, SUCKS for them. ahahah. Overall, great weekend, and good company, of only 5 other kids from the house, which is a small group compared to normally traveling with 15 other kids.

Chapter 3

So being the grandpa of the group, being in Argentina for one month longer than most of the kids here, i have kind of been slowing down on going out because of me being tired, and because of me spending unnecessary amounts of money on alcohol and cover charges.  Not to mention, I just turned 20 years old, and i am already burnt out of going out to clubs and bars, just in case you didn’t know, 21 is the legal drinking age, sooooo there is something wrong with that statement.  Anyway, its nice just staying in and watching a movie, drink a beer or two and relax.  While i have been doing this, i have been starting to get more involved with reading about whats going on in the world today, just because i feel like living in another country interests me so much into what is going on in Argentina, that every country has the same kind of issues going on and it is all about the politics and economy and protests, all for the same reasons in completely different parts of the world.  It is funny, that though so many countries go through the same exact problems with its governments, you would think that there would be a formula to solve the problem, but unfortunately the world doesn’t like combining its brain power for the greater good.  So now when i am at home, i spend about an hour reading up on whats going on around the world.  I know, i am deep.

Chapter 4:

SOOOOOO, one of my closest friends in the house, Kelsey, is the girl version of me…she loves cracking jokes, she is rarely serious, she NEVER gets offended, and likes to be treated like a boy, i kid you not, decided that she wants to stay here in Argentina for another semester, so i am going to start looking into apartments to live here.  They are not cheap, but they aren’t expensive either, its about 500-600 dollars to live in an apartment to share with someone, in palermo/belgrano/reccoleta.  The three nicer neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.  As well as all that going on, i am also getting mentally prepared to see Machu Pichu, which is probably one of the coolest experiences i will ever experience in my entire life.  We are going to the back side of the mountains, the ruins are 500 years old, and we are going on a 4 day guided hike with 10 other kids.

Chapter 5:

I am starting to finally miss my family and friends and just being able to drive from point a to point b at my own liking without thinking, hmmm, what bus/cab/train/subway to i need to take, and how long am i going to have to wait for it?  It comes with the territory of living in a HUGE city, but it does get very frustrating.  Yesterday, i skyped with one of my good friends from university of arizona, benji, and we were talking a lot about basketball, and i don’t have anyone here to talk basketball with and it was a great talk because i missed i hadn’t had one in such a long time.  So i am definitely going to be back in Arizona some time late november early december to visit all of my good buddies.  I absolutely love all of my great friends i have met in Buenos Aires.  Argentine, or American, i am going to be close with a lot of them for life, i know this, and i am having a great time with all of them too, but if all of my close friends from home were here, like the core 4 (alex, max, greg) were here or xander, or my basketball group from arizona, i know they would have SOOOOOOOOO much fun here because it is the exact kind of life style that they would want to live at school, but its not available for them.  I miss my friends and can’t wait to get back to the month and a half of ‘MERICAN activities, and small house parties instead of going to bars and clubs.

i feel like i have touched on pretty much every single topic.  I hope this got you up to date with where i am at.  Love everyone who read this and then some….see you next time, in like 3 weeks, ahaha

SOOOO, i am trying to get into more of a tumblr zone and post more frequently because i wanna keep in touch with everyone at home and share stories with you guys, but its a pain in the ASS to do so individually.  this week, i went to all of my classes, which are a complete and utter joke.  They have a system where each student gets a I.D. card and you swipe your card in when you get to campus and it has to be within 10 minutes of the class starting otherwise you are tardy…and after you swipe your card in you are checked in for 7 hours, so any classes inside of that time period will check you in electronically. So what i am going to begin doing is swiping myself in and just leaving because all of the classrooms are belgrano, my school, have these HUGE windows that force you to do nothing but stare outside of them and tease you about how beautiful of a day it is.  And lately its been 70 degrees and nothing but beautiful blue skies. So i am going to start seizing the day. carpe diem.  There are a bunch of places that i want to visit still in buenos aires, i have been here for almost 3 months already, and still have yet to see even half of this bad boy.  

I have made really nice with the mac tech people across the street from campus seeing that i go to them every single day to see if they can fix either my computer or cellphone. Most recently i bricked my iphone becuase you arent supposed to update your iphone after you unlock it, as if i would know that. So that happened, and they said they couldn’t fix it until they downloaded a program to do exactly that. So i was walking to campus one day and they 2 guys who work there were waiting outside of the store to let me know they donwloaded this program that could fix it, and they were more excited about fixing my phone then i was about getting it fix. SUPER niice guys, guys like that in the states don’t exist, when it comes to technology repair.  So they fixed in and when i went to pay i realized i had no cash on me, so i was like i will pick it up tomorrow and it won’t be a problem and i will pay you then…and they were like, nooooo you are crazyyy, just take it and come when you have time and you can pay us when you have the money, Putting complete faith into a complete stranger.  I LOVE THAT about this country.

I am FLYING through money, because you think everything is SOOOOOO cheap until you realize that you are buying FOUR TIMES AS MANY of everything that is SOOOO CHEAPP until it is the exact same price as it would be in the states. soooo i am kinda fucked on that one.  that is the only thing that i think about here that stresses me out. School, ehh, i know it will come to me when i need to.  BUT i really need to start budgeting myself.  i have made it official that everyone in this house that i live in is super fun and easy going and i am so lucky to be part of it only because there is always that one kid who is the biggest douche ever and that doesn’t exist here. unless of course its me and i never caught on. awkward. anyway, i held out on 2 nights of going out during thhe week when everyone else did because i was too tired and kind of broke, and it felt good and did me well because the next two nights i stayed out with one of my two wingmen patrick till sun up. 

So on sunday i woke up too late too hit up the american breakfast place thats a few blocks from the house, in honor of 9/11, kind of, but that may be a disrespectful statement to some, sorry if that is.. yikes…so pierce and i, hit up Jumbo, which is the argentine walmart/costco/target all in one. THIS PLACE IS HUGE. its a bit overwhelming your first time there, but its pretty cool once you get familiar with it.  September 11, 2001 was not only a devistating day because of the twin towers crashing, but also because my homestay’s mom passed away the day the the towers collapsed and it was her 10 year anniversary today so she was really sad all day and kinda moping around the house all day. background story…Every saturday night is pizza night ,and she is always cutting her pizza with a butter knife and it is freaking frustrating to watch her struggle every time she cuts the stupid pizza. So i got her a pizza cutter at jumbo and a few other kids got her flowers and we ambushed her with gifts and hugs and kisses and hopefully that turned her day around.  She made us dinner on sunday night even though that isn’t part of the deal and she isn’t supposed to feed us on sundays. 

i haven’t had another game yet, but i think we should have one this saturday, even though i might not be able to make it because i am thinking about going to rosario which is only a 4 hour bus ride away from the city and it is known for having “the most beautiful people in the world”. so i kinda gotta be there. BTW, my boy PATRICK, is the man and got 2 tickets to the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS in BUENOS AIRES that are very very nice seats and is taking me to go with him, and i am very very thankful for them because my entire house is going to the concert and i was too late and they are already sold out, so patrick invited me.SO PUMPED for that. 71 days left in buenos aires. until i have round 2 and my second semester of heaven…yesssssssss and i am going to be starting off the day tomorrow with a bang and we will be watching entourage as a family in the downstairs living room.  And i am going to swipe into class tomorrow and depending on how beautiful  of a day it is i will or will not go to school. sorry mamma, love you…and love and miss all of my friends too..chau

and thanks to alberto, one of the other wingmen, i realized that i didn’t even talk about my birthday weekend. IDIOT. So i went to class on my birthday which was HORRIBLY located on a monday.  But stupid me, i forgot i was in Buenos Aires where everyday is a thursday friday or saturday and downtime doesn’t really exist.  So i went to school with total intention of going to classes, and i even went to the first one out of 2 for the day, and then i was like, ITS MY BIRTHDAY, ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY, i am leaving. So i stood outside of the belgrano doors and summonsed all the fun people that i saw walking in and out of campus and once we got to 10 people, we all took the bus to my house, went to the grocery store picked up a SHIT TON of liters of beer and bought a bunch of chips and avocado’s and tomatoes, and came home and went to the rooftop with speakers and a computer at 3 in the afternoon, and did not leave until 9.30 at dinner.  That was probably one of the best nights i have had on my birthday, my homestay mom made me and elizabeth, the girl who’s birthday it was the day before mine, paella, which is a seafood mixture with squid octopus shrimp and all that deliciousness and amazing rice that i love. I LOVE ELDA, SHE IS THE SWEETEST WOMAN ALIVE.  All of my closest friends in BA were all at my house and it was just an awesome amazing day.  the next day however, not so awesome. haha. just kidding, i never get hangovers.  Okay, now this bad boy is ready to be posted…see you next timeeee

okay, so i have been completely preoccupied with living in buenos aires argentina the last 4 weeks, which is why i have been lagging a lot for my blog.  BUTTT..i am here to make up for it.  So i have begun school at the universidad de belgrano, awesome.  School is w/e, i like my teachers they are all very nice and cool and accommodating. but i really just don’t like school. it is such a hassle and i feel like im kinda on vacation anyway, so its like just a hassle.  And the fact that i only need a 4 out of 10 in order to pass my classes is comical.  I am taking 4 classes.  Contemporary art, Cinemotagrophy, argentine economy, and tango.  Obviously everyone knows what my favorite class is going to be…TANGO…my teacher is AWESOME, and have a very cool dance partner..she is a sweet girl, and it doesn’t hurt that she’s super hot. haha…the day class started i was scoping out the class for the dance partners and i saw her, and was like, yup, thats who i am going to try to talk to first.  I love the first day of class and seeing what you are going to be working with for the next 5 months or so. off on a tangent, anywayyyyyyy….All of my classes are in spanish except for argentine economy. we had been practicing our tango skills everyday because we had a performance at the international night for universidad de belgrano. which was probably the most fun night i have had in my life.  My friend patrick and i pregamed at his house and we got BORACHOOOOOOOO..(drunk)…we walked on over to campus, with our flowers for our beautiful tango partners and just had a blast. We handed the 5th of vodka to our teacher and he took a big swig and everyone was in the zone.  IT WAS PACKED…but it wasn’t like a stage or anything, it was like a space they cleared out on the floor and everyone was watching us.  At one point there wasn’t enough room for us to dance because we were all bumping into each other, so i picked up my date and just moved to another spot where we had more room. but all of my friends were there and we got an applause like we just found a cure for cancer. for doing the absolute worst dancing that anyone had ever seen. But it was still a lot of fun.  that night ended at a boliche and was a great success.  i went to bed at 7 am, about..and had MY FIRST BASKETBALL GAMEEEEE for belgrano the same day and waking up was kind of a bitch.  It was amazing to play competitive basketball again.  Once again, my group of friends who all live in my house all came to my game…we had i’d say 25 people that were there supporting us, and 22 of them were either kids that lived in my house or people i harassed until they said FINE I’LL COME IF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP.  W/e, it worked.  so i was in the starting line up along with trevor and some argentine kids…trevor is our best player by far and is going to be buenos aires for about a year, same as me.  Playing basketball in argentina was a huge wake up call, i had absolutely no idea what i was getting myself into when i started the game.  i was chasing this kid off of screens on defense and their center stuck out his elbow and dug it into my ribs. i thought he did it on accident at first, but that was honestly the dirtiest game of basketball i have every played in my life. here, basketball is not played with skill, it is played with brute, and strength, i thought it was gonna be like a european style of like finesse and pussies, but its all about who can be the dirtier player.  So finally i was tired of getting fucked around with, so i had to bust out the..”la concha de tu madre” (your mothers pussy) and provoke a little reaction.  after i said that i started laughing because all my friends were on the bench and the kid i was guarding was on that side, so i just started yelling  it over and over and my bench was just laughing, and this kid was trying to back me down but he wasn’t moving because i had both my hands on his back, and every time he tried to back down, you are allowed to just push him back because they don’t call SHITTTTT here.  i played badly, but i wasn’t even mad because it was such an awesome experience that it doesn’t bother me. we lost by 2 points 60-62 and that apparently is the team notorious for being dirty, so its not a big deal. 

boogie has been my main man, he and his girlfriend flavia both come to my house and just hang out with me and all the americans and its not even for me anymore, just comes to kick it with everyone.  He is part of the family, and is north american at heart. pobracito. all my pictures are uploaded to fb so you all can see everything…see you soon.

SOOOOOO, i haven’t posted in a cool 3 weeks and there is no way im going to be able to get out everything that i have done seeing as i don’t remember what i had for breakfast, but i’ll get the main points out…The biggest thing i have done this last 3 weeks is go to Iguazu falls, which if you haven’t looked at my pictures yet is the most beautiful place on the planet…No human being can go to Iguazu falls and be in a bad mood or without a smile on there face because it is just overwhelming how many different things that one can find beautiful about it.  Obviously the waterfalls are the main attraction, but the trees, the landscape and the semi circle of 10 different waterfalls combining 2 different countries (brazil and argentina) was unreal.  A few of the people in my group went on the tour to go into the waterfalls with a speed boat which was one of the most fun things i have ever done in my life.  We challenged el capitan to get us closer and closer to the waterfalls, and he took our challenge well.  We kept inching forward to this waterfall that probably dispersed thousands of gallons at a time, and if put directly under it, your life would be over in a matter of seconds…i couldn’t open my eyes because the water was pouring down so hard, but my life was in the control of the captain who i just egged on to stop being a pussy and get us closer to the waterfalls…in hindsight, i should be nice to those who control my life with the flick of a wrist.  Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience and that will be one of my best memories i will have ever had in my life.  Not much else went on in Iguazu falls after the falls, just a few bars at night and usually ended pretty early, 2 ish or so.

Then, after that amazing weekend in iguazu, it was back to reality with school. bleh…It is easy, but just 10-3 everyday just kinda kills the mood, obviously that is the main reason im here, but not a big deal…I had 2 days to ditch school and i hadn’t used any of them yet, so on the following monday after iguazu, i decided to take the day off with my amigovia bree…we met up at Kentucky Pizza, (the spot, similar to the cafe that all of the crew from “friends” meets up at) which is centralized to all of our houses.  From there, we walked to the japanese gardens, which were really pretty and it was lightly raining but not pouring.  Right after i mentioned that to Bree, it started POURING. of course..so we power walked through the beautiful city, even though it was raining and went to the Malba museum…my second time there and my second time not actually going to the exhibits, just to the restaurant. Got the best creme brulee in the world for the second time and we finished the day at kentucky pizza with mara…good day.

Finals were coming around and while everyone seemed to be kinda stressed about homework and studying, i for some strange reason new that i was going to be okay? I really put zero effort into studying, because i felt very comfertable with the material and i know you are going to love reading that mom, but its the truth :/…i kinda let you know that already.  The night before my final we all went out till like 6 A.M. to the boliches (clubs) and bars and danced and had a great time.  Everything was a great time… then i woke up.  Not hungover, just tired as fuckkkkkkk…Btw, the only drink that i will ever drink in this country is called, “coke and fernet”. Fernet is a argentinean drink that everyone says tastes like yager? i wouldn’t know.  Its made by herbs and leaves absolutely zero hangover. no matter how much you drink of it, so its literally the only thing i drink…anywho, i rolled into class took my final in like 2 hours? i was one of the last to leave, because like my mommy said, “always double check your answers”.  The next night was the CEA Goodbye dinner for all the 1 month students, which was sad because i had to say bye to some of my best friends that i made on the trip, Bree, Izzy, Phil, MD, Charlotte Serby, etc…No one better get bad at that for not mentioning your name.  So now i have a place to stay in New York with Izzy, Chicago with Phil, and South Carolina with MD :)..not that i would ever want to  go to redneck land. hahaha.  After the farewell dinner I went out with a bunch of kids again and we had another great night. To wake up at 8.30 am and go out to take the oral part of our final…which was easier than i thought it would be and i didn’t study…School here is awesome.  Though i have learned more here an i have in any other spanish class and i’ve only been here for a month, and not to mention the best spanish teacher i have ever had in my life…Who is solely interested in the student learning, not on grades.  How every teacher needs to be…SERIOUSLY.  I had a meeting with my “advisor” last week too and she told me the classes that i could take and what not, so that went well, and im going to take a class with eugenia, the teacher i was just raving about.  4 classes, and none on fridays…my schedule will be from 12-5 monday through thursday…fucking awesome..

So a lot has changed since i first moved to argentina.  For example, my spanish has gotten much more advanced, due to the fact that i don’t just use the present tense and i know how to talk about stories in the past or things that will happen in the future, without sounding like a tool.  I have made a bunch of new friends that i am going to be keeping for a long long time. And i have moved houses from the one i originally started at.  Maria, “my mom” was an amazing woman and was always helpful in everyway, but i just felt that our personalities were conflicting in too many ways…for example, i’m a talker as you all know…but i am also a listener…It was difficult for this two way street to exist for maria.  She was a very passionate woman and i respect her for being a strong woman, and great with her kids, i was just the one pain in the ass that she was eventually going to have to deal with before her time as a homestay mom would end. Sorry Maria…So i have moved into the resedencia which is like a miniature dorm, that is centrally located, more-so than the previous house, even though that was a great location as well…I live 4 blocks away from my basketball practice that i have 2 times a week and games will be starting in august…So im REALLY REALLY looking forward to that…our team is looking pretty nice, not gonna lie, and the coach recently said in spanish, that our team is the best he has seen it in three years…So, NO BIG DEAL, but i play college ball overseas…I have also met a good amount of cool kids via basketball, and plan on hanging out / meeting more new portenos (buenos aires natives) because though there a bunch of americans on the team, there are a few argentines.  

SOOOOO, now that i have caught you up with all the old business….I began planning a trip with intentions to go to Mendoza for a few days because i have a week of vacation after my intensive month of spanish course…But, its freezing in mendoza, so we decided to go to Salta, which i had never heard of before i decided to go to it…turns out its pretty beautiful…but far as fuck…My friend noelle and I took a 18 hour bus ride down here together and stayed in one of the nicest hostel’s i’ve ever seen…it was clean the internet was great and i was a happy camper…Noelle, a friend that i met 3 weeks ago, and i decided to have the most RANDOM idea and travel together because no one else wanted to leave the saturday after finals because they wanted to go to orientation on monday, which turned out to be a complete joke anyway…thank god i didn’t let that hold me back.  And noelle was leaving on wednesday, so we got on the bus as quickly as possible…we came here with absolutely no idea what we were getting ourselves into, or what Salta had to offer or what trips we could take, it was probably the most spontaneous thing i have ever done in my life.  So when we arrived we showered and then i got some info from the front desk, and we took this gondala to the top of this mountain and had the most amazing view of this province we never new existed.  Then we waited 30 minutes just so we could get this corner table at the corner of the mountain so we could get the best view and be in the sun. So beautiful.  While we were up there, i ran into one of my friends who was in my class and told me that he was going to be in salta but we had never really planned on meeting up, and he asked me if i wanted to go to his hostel for dinner because they were bbq’ing…and im cooking deprived, so of course i agreed…we went to the supermercado and bought some delicious steak and some veggies and i bbq’ed the SHIT out of that meat, SOOOO good.  It felt so good to cook again, even if it was for one night, i just needed to keep in touch with my ONLY CREATIVE side i have in my body.  That night, they asked me and noelle if we wanted to go white water river rafting, and of course i was skeptical at first, being the chucky finster of every group, i thought about the risks of injury and safety before agreeing to it…but 5’2 100 pound noelle said yes without even blinking, so i  felt like my masculinity was YET AGAIN being tested…So i was peer pressured into saying yes, which turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.  I had SOOOOO much fun, the toughest one we did was a 3 star one which was not too bad at all, we got drenched and soaked.  It was honestly one of the most beautiful and calm quiet places i have ever been to in my life.  The water was refreshing the sky was gorgeous and it was like 80 degrees, life is good, could not have asked for a more perfect day.  The group of kids that we all met up with were all so friendly and down to pretty much do anything…that night, we met up with another friend that happened to be on the same bus as us going up to salta…so we met up with him for dinner at what turned out to be my favorite restaurant in all of argentina…The absolute best steak i have ever eaten in my LIFE…I took several pictures of it on fb, and if i can figure out how to upload photos of it i will.  Cooked to perfection, i savored every bite as it literally melted in my mouth.  After, we went to a bar and had a few drinks and just relaxed, ended the night kind of early at 1.30 because we had a LONG day. 

The rest of the gang came in on tuesday, coincidentally around the corner from the hostel that we were located in.  So we just picked up our stuff and moved on over to the new one…Noelle had to leave that afternoon in order to catch her flight back to the states…So, i gave all of the new kids a little tour of the little i knew about the center of the city salta, because that is practically all i did know.  The old buildings are really beautiful and there plaza is called nuevo de julio and has all of these great buildings that are really well lit and the cobble stone streets…i got a bunch of pics…After we ended up going to the same place for dinner, AMAZING..i would go there tonight for dinner by myself again because it was so good…i ordered the bife de chorizo, which is smimilar to a sirloin steak, with boiled veggies, beats, green beans, squash carrots etc…and a nice bottle of red wine to compliment the steak, and i paid 75 pesos…which is 20 bucks, with tip…HOLY SHIT, my mouth is watering thinking about it…so we went to bed on the early side again, because we had planned our long day for wednesday…cafayate…which is known for there wine/beautiful scenery.  They have mountains that are red/yellow/green and come in these crazy formations and deformaties, it was really beautiful…but, after the 5th or 6th mountain, the michael vanlochem in my came out, and was like, “they are all the fucking same, if we have to stop one more time for another fucking mountain im going to go crazy”…it was really retarded how many times we stopped for the EXACT SAME SHIT. We left at 7 am. and got home at 7 pm, and were in the bus for a good 10 hours…so i was a bit cranky…i would not really reccomend that adventure if you happen to be in salta anytime soon, especially after you just rode a 18 hour bus ride into salta, and a 7 hour bus ride to go to the rafting, and the day after doing this excursion…The wine we tasted didn’t really tickle my fancy either, but i did get a pet rock out of this excursion, he’s gonna travel with me now. i love rocky.and i did get my dad some bad ass red sand, i know he’ll like that. i’ll look for that wine that you sent me mom because i got the text after i left the wine region…i am still going to be visiting mendoza too, so there is plenty of time for me to stalk up on wine for you…So after this exhausting day of sitting in a goddamn bus forever, i went to the bus station and bought my ticket to leave a day earlier than the rest of the crew because im getting more tired and i really have been getting little sleep here because this new hostel is not too comfertable and im just ready to get settled into my new home seeing that i haven’t really spent more than a minute in my new home, or spent one night in the resedencia.  So after this, i went to the supermercado at 8.55 to buy some steak and veggies to have another bbq…I waited in line for 30 minutes before i realized that you need a “numerito” (number) that the butcher will call you when its your turn…fucking awesome…So i went to the butcher an he gave me the number, and i had to wait another 45 mintues for this meat…i was staring at one piece for literally 45 minutes and praying that he would give it to me for being so calm and patient and not wanting to take that meat cleaver to his skull.  FINALLY, “CINCUENTA” my number was called…AND HE PULLED THE PIECE OF MEAT I WANTED….I WAS IN HEAVEN. i watched him slice the meat and kind of learned a bit about the metric system because everyone was ordering in Kilo’s so i got an idea of how much meat i would need, seeing that i watched 50 people order before me.  So i ordered, “una kilo y medio” of this thinly sliced steak and when i got back to the hostel, the rest of the group had already sliced the veggies started the BBQ with the charcol and it was game time, i had my liter of salta cerveza which is delicious. Its a blonde brew and its sweet…really really good, i hope that have it in buenos aires.  and we ate like kings. all but one slice of meat was left and i finished my beer and literally went to sleep after that meal, around 12.  At 7 AM, the rest of the group left for the salt flats today, which is supposed to be an amazing sight, but i just booked my bus to leave at 4, which is way before they get back…so now i am at an internet cafe righting the longest freaking blog i will ever post in my life.  i miss all of you guys, and i will hopefully be more consistent over the next few weeks, i have skype, and would love for everyone to skype me…its the same as my AIM which i made when i was in 7th grade… 

whiteballa9591, or you can just search my name, which i know i am the only one in the world… David Vanlochem

so i met the family…my dad and i got in the taxi and i gave him the address…as we approached the apartment, i saw a bunch of tall buildings that looked similar to a GHETTOOOOOOO version of park labrea with crazy graffiti everywhere and tall fences with no street lights, and though to myself, this will be where i get murdered over my iphone.  Spoiled american i know, but this place was sketchy.  The cab driver for actually got out of the car to make sure it was the right address because he didn’t want the stupid americans to get out and check out the address for ourselves because even he knew that it was sketchy.  So he got back to the car and little do we know, it was the wrong address, HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF, and then off to the car back to the main street and 2 blocks farther up on a pretty street with nice trees and more street lights and a sense of safety. We arrived a few minutes early, and i was kind of walking up and down the block to see what i was working with…and i wasn’t scared, i was nervous to see if the family that i was going to be living with for the next few months was going to be fun, exciting, anal, clean, messy, annoying, pesky, if the two sons were going to be interesting, or shy or both or mean…and every possible positive thing that could have came out of the personalities of the family did.  The two sons are interesting, smart both speak excellent english and we already have a deal to help each other out with our opposite languages.i posted a few pictures of the house which is beautiful..from the front you cannot see any house whatsoever…so i rang the door bell and pedro, the 15 year old boy answered the door with a big hug and kiss, once on the right cheek (traditional argentinean greeting for men and women) and we walked down a narrow hallway to a open spaced court yard with a waterfall and a warm open house…Maria said it was about 2000 square feet.  My room is going to be shared with phil, who is from chicago. and we are going to share 1 bathroom between the two of us and the 2 other boys.  After that we went to an a really good steak house and continued good conversation, it was very easy to keep on going. to all of my friends that watched, summer heights high, please tell me that dick looks exactly like the dick that was jonah’s tagging sign….dick-tation

landed at 10 am, took the cab from the airport and drove the the land of the “squatters” never heard of that term…i can’t believe if there is an open space, the first person to see it gets to build whatever the fuck they want? what a system. anywayyyyy, we drove through the really run down apartments and tall paint chipped buildings.  really Put things in perspective.  We got the hotel around 11ish and relaxed for a half an hour or so took a shower and then we hit the town. of course i got a few empenadas…3 to be exact…as we walked through the awesome city it had a very new york feeling to it just because of the shops and people and cafe’s virtually everywhere we decided to stop by the place i am going to be spending the next year attending.  Its a giant building with a cool feel to it.  i met up with the coordinator that is going to be heading the international department and she answered all of my questions, i interrogated her with 203920 questions.  Then we went to the out-of-ground cemetery which was pretty funny to see the these caskets that were inside of a marble mansion with ceiling to floor glass and a hardwood floor and a down stairs…THEY ARE FUCKING DEAD. ahah, whatever, its obviously a cultural thing…after that i started fading so we got some snacks and went back to the hotel and knocked out for a couple of hours and eventually ended up eating dinner on the way to Sofia’s house with erin, and newly discovered friends boogie, chris, sam and sara, flavia and of course Wale…all whom are beautiful people. as my dad was getting in the taxi at 3 am to leave martin’s house a man approached me and said something along the lines of, “give me your wallet” and he didn’t have a weapon and was very small, so i just said “no” and brushed shoulders with him and that was the end of that story. he just looked at me like, shit, i thought that was going to work. not in my house boiiiiiiiii. Went to bed at 6 ish am and the faja and i went to the plaza where they have protests and riots every thursday infront of el casa rosada…so far, an extremely productive past 36 hours

If homegirl coughs on me again…

He’s completely dead weight. SOOOO cute

im peeing

figuring out how to work this piece of shit