10 Años

Tonight instead of the main Vespers service, I attended the vespers/anniversary party for JABES (Jovenes Adventistas Brindando Esperanza y Salud (Young Adventists Bringing Hope and Health)), the missionary group I'm in. The room was decorated with pretty green, black, and white streamers, balloons, and a poster my friend painted yesterday that proudly declared, "JABES, 10 Años de Servicio". After a song service of music videos with lyrics (singing in Spanish, is a struggle) we prayed. Each person took a paper from a basket that had one of the letters of JABES and then formed groups that spelled the whole word to pray for each other and for the group.

After a little talk and a skit and a special music, people dug into the little finger foods and I dug into my Spanish speaking. I took pictures with the people who are becoming my friends, and I talked with people who love Jesus and it was fantastic. I understood more in this mini vespers than the normal vespers and that was just what I needed this week. Good thing God and I are on the same page here.

Each person took a cookie and found someone without a cookie in order to pray for them. 

Just a small part of the group of many.

Most of my sub-group in JABES.

Six Weeks

I've been in Argentina almost six weeks now, and I'm starting to catch myself settling in. Here are six things that have changed, that I've accepted, or that have become normal for me in the past six weeks.

1. I no longer have to repeat "toilet paper, trashcan" over and over to myself to get things right en el baño. It's now automatic.
2. I don't have to re-explore the Villa (this lil' town) every day.
3. I've purchased soaps and lotions here (living where I am) and know what I'm buying.
4. I've got the hang of doing laundry now.
5. All my pictures are up on my walls.
6. I'm an active part of the missionary group that I go with each Sabbath afternoon. That's right, I'm making the little memory verse cards to give to the kids. #crafttime #feelinguseful. (I know, I'm sorry, I promise I'll never use hashtags here again.)

I've come to realize a little bit about myself too. Things about my personality and how I relate to people that I like, and things that I don't. Most interesting of all however, is that my determination to learn Spanish has not yet waned. This is a surprise to me, and may be a bit of a surprise to those who know me quite well. See, I'll get excited about a project, an idea, a job, and pound out some work for it for a decent amount of time. But soon, my excitement and determination to complete the job, or complete it well, ends. I'll become lazy and just finish up quickly to say that I got it done and move on. Here, I haven't gotten bored of studying yet. I haven't become tired of trying and trying to learn. I'm still going strong. This is something that I haven't really experienced before so I don't know how it will turn out. Will I be annoyed with trying to learn a new language by tomorrow? Will I burn myself out?

What I do know is why I haven't lost interest yet. I'm still motivated to learn Spanish because it is the one thing in my life that I am sure I want to do. Being in college is a big enough challenge for people, but being in college without knowing what you want to do after you graduate is another. Visits home require a lot of stamina, positivity, and self-given pep talks. Everyone wants to know what you're going to do, why you're going to do it, and how you're going to get there. Last year, school was difficult because I had no goal for when I graduate. Honestly, I still don't quite have a goal. But right now, for this year, I do have something I am working towards. It is something I want to do, and I guess I'm willing to put in the work for it, because I'm still trying.

Last week I purchased "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" in paperback . Every time I open that little book to scribble translations and memorize words, I'm not reluctant or annoyed. I want to struggle through it. Just like Don Quixote (which I never finished. It needed to be returned!), I have been finding the headaches I get from struggling through my homework and reading in Spanish to be satisfying. That's how I know I'm trying. And I'm going to keep trying until I can speak without hesitating, understand without translating, and laugh at all the jokes that everyone else gets except me. I've got seven more months. I think I can do it.

"A Riot of Color*" (La Fiesta del Naciones)

I thought of my dad as I hesitantly reached a hand up to cover my ear. The prime seating of the third row came at a cost-- my hearing for the night. It's normal for my dad to sneak his way out of loud venues. He takes good care of his ears, as do I. But this moment was one to experience fully, and eventually, I just gave up. The cultural music of Chile, Argentina, and Colombia (among many others) refused to be blocked by the feeble skin and bone of my left hand. Plus, I needed it to clap along with the rest of the three or four hundred people seated behind me in the auditorio (gymnasium). We clapped and clapped as the reds and blues and greens and blacks flashed and swirled, guitars danced, and drums and other unknown instruments pounded.

Los Estados Unidos (the United States) stand I had begrudgingly agreed to help with the Thursday before the event of this past Sunday turned out a lot better than I'd planned. Yes, I did spend two days and a night of studying that I needed for the three tests I have this week on making banners for E.U. football teams and coloring E.U. flags. Which I am still a bit bitter about. But it was worth it. Our stand was a success, and the entire afternoon was amazing!

First of all, here at the UAP, it seems that things are done halfway. They go all out. There is no little mini-stand with a few pictures and some red carpet. Oh no, there are jungles and beaches and food. Such delicious food shouldn't be allowed to spread apart in so many different countries. With all the incredible creativity and action taking place, imagine Adele music blaring in the background, people in their traditional outfits dancing up to you, an entire train (non-working) made out of cardboard and dollies, and bamboo jungles to explore. With only two days to plan and put our measly little E.U. stand into action-- as well as come up with a presentation to represent our country-- the few ACA students who rallied together to make this happen did a pretty decent job.

The overall theme of the Fiesta this year was the history of your country. We decided to go with a Superbowl/ patriotic themed booth. One side of the booth consisted of banners with different football team logos on them, a TV playing football game clips and commercials, and a little couch. The other half of the booth showed snippets of our history through hand drawn posters (we discovered there are a LOT of talented artists in our ACA group) and then a game of Twister. In the middle was home-made macaroni and cheese and Orange Fanta floats for people to try. We even had a fancy little Statue of Liberty with the face cut out for photo-ops. Surprisingly, people loved it! There were always three or four people playing Twister, the floats were a hit, and the mixed Spanish and English in the air made the constant stream of people interesting to interact with.

Now jump back to the load music and bright colors. That was presentation time. Each country had a video clip play first showcasing their country, then a little act or song or whatever up on the stage. In total, each was about 5-7 minutes long. For our presentation, we sang the Star-Spangled Banner and then had a gymnastics routine to "Cotton-Eyed Joe". Success! I have to say, even though our ACA group is pretty diverse this year, we have some pretty amazing people in it. Singers, gymnasts, artists, leaders, organizers, and supporters alike made our booth a success and inadvertently helped with a little bonding as well.

Among the countries repping on Sunday were: Perú (they literally built the mountains of Machu Picchu into their corner of the gym) Colombia, los Estados Unidos, Curaçao, Canada, South Korea, Europe, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador. After the presentations came the annoyance of cleaning up, but it was quite easy in light of our simple booth.

If your not bored reading yet, here are a few other unrelated things I've learned the past couple of days:

- My Spanish is getting better.
- I've been writing my tildes (the little accents on Spanish words) wrong. The are written from top to bottom, not with a little flick up kind of stroke.
- I can go a full day without eating something deliciously sugary here.
- I need to study my vocab more if I want to learn Spanish faster.

Now it is off to an early bedtime for me! I still have two more tests to get through this week.


*The phrase "a riot of color" is taken from one of my favorite movies, A Knight's Tale and describes perfectly what the presentations were like. I've been waiting years to use it. Even if it is only in the title of this post, I am now content.

What My Afternoon Was Like

I scribbled this little blurb during class today. Your assumption is correct; I stopped paying attention. After having the class once in the morning for two hours, and then three more hours of other classes before this second session of my morning class, my brain was no longer hearing what the teacher was saying. So I decided to look around me instead. There were some angry faces, some bored faces, and some faces with their eyes closed, squashed to the desk.
-----
They sit. Each in a different state of attention and awareness. Some doodle on the desks making the chronic wobble more pronounced. Others highlight in their workbooks while the teacher grates his chalk on the board. Feet and pencils stretch and tap while the fans above attempt to free themselves from the ceiling. The murmured conversations of boredom or confusion skip around the room once again. And I dig a pencil into my leg to keep myself from nodding off. Phones mean either Facebook or a dictionary, but I've already looked up every word on the page. So I reach for my water bottle beside me to pass another three seconds of the class. A bug falls to my desk and I flick it across the room. I force myself to stare at the wall as Spanish verbs stare back at me. I heave a shallow sigh. One more hour to go.

El Sábado Pasado (Ayer)

Yesterday turned out to be a fantastic Sabbath. I debated on going to church or not because I was so tired from a late, late afterglow the night before. But, of course, my brain woke me up at eight so I was up and ready by 9:45. A little late for the 9:30 beginning of church but it was fine. As usual, I only understood about 1/8 of the service, and when it is over, I head to English Sabbath school to get a little more knowledge. During song service, someone was playing an ukulele. Of course, I went up afterwards to play it and made four new friends out of the deal. Winning. So that was my morning.

After lunch in el comedor I changed and got ready to go to JABES with my roommate. JABES is one of many, many little mission groups that go out each Sabbath into the nearby towns. Groups go to help with Pathfinder clubs (called "Conquistadores"), old folks homes, or just to play and spend time with kids. The group I went with (and plan to go with again) went to play games and tell a Bible story to a group of children in Diamante, a town about half an hour away by bus. Two other boys in ACA came in my same group, and we were worried we were going to be completely lost because of out lack of Spanish. But hey, guess what? I found someone in our group who speaks English! So when we were really having trouble understanding what was happening, my new friend would come and explain. It was a lot of fun, and made me really miss camp and surprisingly, Mexico. Here's why:

After singing a few songs with the kids, one of which I knew thanks to my mission trip in Mexico, we played tag. Then another version of tag. Then ANOTHER version of tag. Though at first one of little boys thought I was Japanese, by the end I had a couple little girls giving me hugs and trying to talk to me. Mostly I just said "que lindo" and "necesitas ayudar?" and they seemed to get the message. This is why I loved the day so much. I had missed giving back to others instead of just taking time for myself.

We got back on campus around 6:45pm and after dinner in the cafe, I stopped by my friends' room to say hi. We ended up going out for a walk to explore la villa at night. People were out drinking mate and chatting on the side of the street just like during the day! We stopped by the indoor cancha de fútbol (soccer court) and watched a game. I got to practice my Spanish a lot and even got a random stranger to pose for a picture when my phone flashed. I just wanted to sneak a pic of the fancy motorcycle cart, that's all! But a blew my cover, which actually turned out better in the end.

It's Been a Long Day (and I'm in the Mood to Blog)

I'm supposed to be studying for a Geografía test I have tomorrow on the 23 provinces of Argentina. However, I wanted to blog a bit instead. At this point, I've almost given up on journaling in my actual journal because of the time it takes to write a blog , write emails, and write letters to people (that I have yet to send). By the time I'm done with all that, I'm no longer in the mood to repeat the same story to myself with only the reward of a hand cramp from the work. So, here we go!

I can say with surety that this has been the most busy week of my time here so far. I have finally hitched my wagon to that of the choir's. I'm not taking it for credit, and there isn't a uniform other than black and white. To join, I literally walked in, told the assistant director (I assume that is what he is) that I am a soprano, and plopped myself down in a chair with the single sheet of music he'd hurriedly shoved into my hands. Quick reminder: the normal UAP students are currently in the last trimestre (quarter) of their school year. Normally, people wouldn't be allowed to join a choir whenever they feel like it right? Well, here, the ACA students who wanted to join had only to walk in and start singing. I learned one song in only three practices, and we will be performing on Friday evening as part of the current Week of Prayer.

That's another reason this week is crazy. The Week of Prayer (or Segunda Semana de Oración) meetings don't even begin until eight o'clock at night, and usually run until about 9/9:30. Then the choir practices after that. I usually don't get back to my room until 10:45 or 11:00. On top of the three practices we will have this week (Sun., Weds., Thurs.,), today the second group of ACA students had to travel two and a half hours to get our visas finalized. This required a 4:00 am departure from the bus terminal a block or two from campus.

My first day here (the second for everyone else besides Becca) everyone was fingerprinted and had their pictures taken for our visa applications. Unlike Spain, students traveling to Argentina are not required to have a visa to enter the country. We are only required to pay a "reciprocity fee" of $160USD. Once inside the country we take care of our extended stay visas. This is what I found myself doing today. 

Up at 3:20 in the morning to quickly brush my teeth, I watched in the mirror as about 10 or so ACA girls haunted the halls back and forth from bathrooms to dorm rooms. We all met down in the lobby and begin the 3-5 minute walk to the bus terminal, blurry-eyed and groggy. We had heard the stories from the first half of the group who'd gone the week before: "Prepare for a lot of sitting and doing nothing." Our breakfasts and lunches were taken care of, so I only needed to prepare to occupy myself for hours on end. That's what I did.

On the two and a half hour bus ride to Concepción de Uruguay (I'm still not clear on whether that was the name or not) I alternated between watching a movie with some friends, half sleeping, and trying to read through "Don Quijote de la Mancha" in Spanish.

I'd like to take a quick side note to discuss my relationship with written Spanish words. I thought we used to get along. Back in high school, we were better friends than I was with spoken words. Understanding simple shampoo bottle and chip bag translations was easy, and I was confident in my limited knowledge. I could have lived happily ever after.

But no.

Written Spanish is not all cotton candy and fluffy feather pillows. That stuff is hard. My homework is tiresome, and takes a long, long, long time to understand. I have to ask my roommates to re-explain things to me (also in Spanish mind you) and if I still can't get it, I have to find my friends who know both languages. It is the most aggravating, time consuming, frustrating thing I have experienced thus far in my life (besides math and the physics of diving). I thought reading Don Quijote would be different. Alas, it takes me about half an hour to read one page on my nook because I look up every third word I read. Even though it takes a decent amount of time to make it through so little (especially annoying to a voracious reader as myself) I find it extraordinarily satisfying when I am done with my page for the day. I may not remember all the words I've looked up, but I made it through. And with all the discouragement of not knowing the language fluently right now, that is enough.

Back to the visa trip. Suffice to say once we arrived it was all long and boring and mostly just us writing our signatures 15 different times. As the five or six hours in the bitty waiting room slowly passed, I saw a couple of funny pieces of life here that I want to share with ya:

-A man and two of his kids rode down the street in one of those horse-drawn carts again. The "clip-clop" of the horses hooves sounded just like in the movies.
-A travelling billboard. Literally a billboard pulled by a truck (decorated with the same logos and pictures of the billboard) complete with a loudspeaker announcing the product.
-A bazillion mopeds and motorcycles of all types.
-A garbage truck with the four garbage men sitting/standing inside, with the garbage.
-Once again, dogs everywhere.

After an eternity of butt-numbing seats on the tile floor and plastic chairs, we loaded the bus and headed back to the UAP, arriving at around 3:45 in the afternoon. Upon getting to my room, I promptly collapsed into my bed, pausing only to set my alarm for an hour before dinner. Of course, I slept through the alarm and woke up just in time to eat.

Needless to say, it has been a long day, and I am ready to go to bed and sleep. Good NIGHT!

And So it Begins . . .

. . . the growing up I mean. It started a while ago, but today (over skype) it got real.

My mom threatened today to turn my room into her craft room.

I guess not coming home for what will be two years gave her a little leverage in the brief, "civilized discussion" that took place, but what will she do with all my stuff? My room is the cleanest room in the house. It's the guest room. My loft is a haven for the weary. I have my own balcony, she can't turn it into a craft room . . . yet. I want to say I'm ok to sleep on the couch first. I want to sleep in my cozy bed (at least) one more time. If my room becomes a craft room, that means I have no place of mine in that house, which means I'm homeless, which means I'm a bum.

Ok, that's a bit over dramatic, but seriously, a craft room? Mom (I know you read this) just gimme a little more time, por favor!

Much love,
Elena

Oh Happy Day!

The title of this post will reoccur once more on this blog. That will be the day when everything magically clicks in my mind Spanish-wise. Because I can hardly spit out the proper conjugations for present tense, I can't even imagine what it will be like for everything to make sense. I'm told that it will be in few months. Until then, this post will share the title because it marks my first day of talking in Spanish (almost) all day! I'm not saying it was very good Spanish, but the fact that I went out with friends who weren't from ACA and who only spoke Spanish to me (though if I really, really couldn't get it, one of them would explain it to me in English) has made me one happy chica. I feel like such an adventurer! Even though our adventure was only to the park five minutes away.

The goal of the trip: to drink terere. That's it! After today, I have officially decided that I like terere more than mate. For those who don't know, terere is basically mate, but ice cold, mixed with something sweet. I'm very much a hot tea lover, so to admit that I like a cold tea is a little surprising for me. However, it is the truth. Here's why it was so good. Today, we used some TANG , lemon and orange flavored drink mix to sweeten the whole deal. I felt like I was drinking heaven. All five of us shared one cup and one bombilla (strainer/straw). Each person drank from the bombilla until the cup was empty when it was then refilled and passed to the next person. Mate (the herb) contains caffeine, and technically caffeine is not allowed to be consumed on campus. It was funny to look around and see half of the UAP sitting on blankets in the park, sharing terere as they played guitars or kicked around a soccer ball. And you thought Adventist schools in America were strict? Think again.

 Terere. (Yes, of course I brought my hammock.)

All in all, it was a good day filled with lots of learning, laughing (when I actually understood the jokes), and making friends. Perfecto, perfecto, perfecto.

I Get Laughed at for More Than Just My Spanish

A few days ago a couple of my friends and I went up to the roof of the girls' dorm to workout. When we got up there I was greeted by rows of laundry drying in the deliciously warm sun. While mis amigas were setting up the workout video on a laptop, I snapped some shots of these photogenic clothes as they laughed and laughed at me for doing so. Why is laundry drying on the roof anyway?

Because my dear readers, laundry here is an ALL DAY event. There is one laundry room with about 10 washing machine and 10 dryers. This is for all dorm dwellers on campus to use. It is open for very specific hours of the day and once closed, it is closed. If your wet clothes didn't make it to a dryer, you find another way to dry your clothes. When I did my laundry on Tuesday, I luckily did not have to wait for a washing machine, but did have to wait over two hours for a dryer. I actually didn't even get to put my clothes in myself, my friend had to for me while I went to class. All this time spent on waiting provides a great opportunity to do homework or talk to people. Both girls and guys use the room, making it a sweet hang out spot. There are usually at least 15 to 25 people in there at a time. A small downside however is that, just like when entering all other buildings on campus, girls are required to wear shorts that reach the knees or longer pants. This is not a flexible rule. They will make you go change. To end on a positive note; even though I only get to wash clothes once a week, I don't have to pay for the machines or the soap! It's a win-lose, but I've got enough free time for it anyway.

What My Momma Taught Me: Part 1

It is funny to see how different people react to the freedom of living on their own. I know that there a few things that my mom has taught me that will forever be ingrained in my way of life, but I must skip or disregard currently for good reasons. I'm not talking about the good solid moral rules. I mean those little bits of wisdom that moms around the world pass down from generation to generation. I will share two very important ones today that I currently don't follow: the purchasing of water and the separating of laundry.

The Purchasing of Water

I can't tell you how many times my mother has gotten on my case in regards to buying water. "It's free from the tap at home! Why do you want to waste your money, no, our money, on something we already have? Think of what else you can buy with that? Next time, bring your water bottle from home."

Now, if we were desperate for something to drink and there was no chance that we would be home anytime soon, of course she would buy me water. Unfortunately, here I find myself having to break the smart and worthy habit of not buying water. The water bottles in the cafeteria contain 140mg of sodium each. I didn't know this until someone brought it to my attention, offering the thought that maybe that was why I'd felt so stick my first week and a half here. We headed to the grocery store around the corner to purchase large bottles of water with waaaay less sodium and for less than one american dollar each.

Needless to say, spending $15 in pesos on two bottles of water hurt. I hate purchasing things that I have available to me for free. But, for the sake of my health and peace of stomach, I have been buying water. Fortunately, my roommate gets water in a big jug dispenser, and she shares! I don't yet understand if it is just hers or for the entire room (three of us) but either way, less sodium=happier Elena. I love my water and those of you who know me realize it is pretty much all I drink. I'm glad to have found an alternative, because I've definitely been rationing myself. I don't want hypertension.

The Separating of Laundry

Oh how to begin this one. There are three main types of loads in my family: darks, lights, and towels. If you want to get picky there are also nice work shirts, messy/dirty work shirts, rags and kitchen towels, sheets, sleeping bags, and delicates. But we'll stick with the first, main three categories that plague me the most.

When I'm at home, the clothes are separated. We have laundry baskets for darks and whites, and towels are done each week. In fact, I am in charge of the laundry for the entire household. For a family of four we seem to make quite a lot of laundry. With all the separation required, this adds up to more than just one load a week. These days when I'm home, that means I'm not in school, giving me less stressors on my time. We get our water for free because we are on a catchment system, so I'm not worried at all about wasting water. And, I don't pay a bunch of quarters each time to do the loads. I understand how both my washer and dryer work, and this makes laundry time easy, simple, and it doesn't use the money I need for toothpaste next month.

However, when I am away from home, laundry requires an entirely different system. Time and money are of the essence, and unless you are planning on paying for my multiple loads, everything will get thrown into one. I repeat, EVERYTHING. Once in a blue moon will I do a load of whites for those two silly shirts that I really, really want to stay white. Other than that, my quarters are precious, and so is my soap. When away from home, the separating of the laundry rule does NOT apply.

So there you have three things that I have carried from my childhood AND teenage years into the now.
Some mornings I just stop and think, "My goodness, I got myself ready for school and rolling on time all by myself. How on earth did I manage that?!" I still clearly remember when my mom would wake me up in the morning, tell me what to eat for breakfast and to take out the trash (oh wait that was during Christmas break). Then at times like now, as I watch the early morning sun sneak into my room through the curtains I remember, "Oh yeah, I can do all that on my own now, because that's what my momma taught me."