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!