Blog Relocation Time!

It's time. I started out my little blog with the wonderfully simple Google Blogger. Probably the easiest way to begin a blog, Google Blogger is a straightforward platform for blogging that I have suggested to many of my friends over the years for starting their own blogs. But, as I've seen happen to other bloggers, Google Blogger's simplicity reached a limit for me, and I wanted to learn more and do more on my blogs. So, like the brave adventurers before me, I am moving to WordPress. You're always welcome to read old blogs from here and some might make a re-appearance on my new WordPress blog. 

WordPress can do so much more and I am slightly overwhelmed. But because I'm majoring in Communications, Emerging Media, I figured it's time to become familiar with what loads of businesses use to blog or even run entire websites. So, here we are.

For a while, my blogs have been fairly straightforward-- simple updates about my life, pictures, a cool video here and there. But I've found that the blogs that I love reading are blogs that tackle difficult issues, contain more stories (more than mine usually do at least), and just interesting things in general. With that in mind, I am going to try to incorporate all this into my blog. If you are still reading it, friend, thanks, because all this blog really contains is me splattering my opinions and thoughts in a public place. If you are reading this, perhaps you find them (my thoughts) interesting. Perhaps funny. Maybe dumb. Either way, you're reading it, which gives me motivation to continue to improve it and therefore myself. The world is a big place, I want to understand it better. Here goes. Continue reading at www.veggielocomoco.wordpress.com

Anticipation

Sunday we leave for Iguazu Falls and I'll tell you I'm ready to go! Yesterday, we finished up finals for our second trimester, so from now until March 10 I'm (basically) on break. One week travelling up to the north of Argentina, and the next week being Spring Break. Yes, I'm feeling better, and yes, I am still learning Spanish.

In fact, next trimester, we have the option of taking an internship (pasantía) for one credit hour (7.5 hours a week) in one of a few options. There is the teaching English internship, one for business, and one for translating letters, among others. I chose to do the translation one because of how much I think I'll learn. I haven't been doing very well at retaining the vocab from the books I have been reading. Perhaps because my dedication to studying this past trimester has been up and down like a 6 year old's yo-yo. With that in mind, I hope that the repetition of new words that is sure to occur in these letters will help them stick in my mind better. Also, I'm waaaay better at writing in Spanish than I am at speaking. Who knew?

Happy Sabbath to all. I'll leave you with this beautiful poem to let you think. Click the link to go to the poem.

YOU

All the Tired Children

I think I can officially say that I'm . . . almost ready to go back to the United States. Nope, I can't do it. I am ready. I try so hard to seem tough and flexible when it comes to being an independent person, but I think I have to admit it all now. I've said it enough over skype calls with friends and in passing in the cafeteria-- the U.S.A. is GREAT and I REALLY miss it. So onward through finals week, and then too fun trips to keep my mind on Spanish and enjoying the here and now.

Primer blog en español!

Estoy escribiendo este blog para practicar mi español. Por supuesto mi preceptora lo ha corregido antes de ponerlo en  internet.

Hola!! Qué tal gente bonita? Hay unas cosas que necesito decirles. Primero: HACE CALOR. Nunca en mi vida tuve tanto calor. Hoy hay 111 grados fahrenheit y no puedo decribirlo. Siempre estoy sudando, y recueden, no podemos llevar shorts en nuestras clases. Entonces, ahora soy una chica de vestidos. Segundo: No puedo dormir con este calor.  Quizas logro tres o cuatro horas de sueño cada noche, nada más. El calor es horrible.

Bueno, suficiente lamento. Qué es lo fantástico sobre mi vida en Argentina? Estoy acá! Nada más ahorita. Mañana voy a levantarme a las cuatro para ir al Concepción del Uruguay para renovar mi visa. Tengo exámenes la próxima semana y todavía estoy sufriendo en Gramática Avanzada 2 y Literatura. Me faltan horas en el día para completar todo lo que necesito!

Pero, no importa. Ahora, voy a caminar para mi ejercicio y después a dormir. Extraño a mi familia, los Estados Unidos y Union mucho está semana. Los amo mis amigos!


In English:

I'm writing this blog in Spanish so that I can practice . . . my Spanish! Of course, I had my dean correct it before I posted it on the internet. I don't want you guys to see my bad Spanish.

Hi! How are you beautiful people? There are some things I need to tell you. First of all: It is HOT. Never in my life have I been this hot. Today it was 111 degrees fahrenheit and I can't describe it. I am always sweating, and remember, we can't wear shorts to class. So, now I am a girl of dresses. Second of all: I can't sleep in this heat. I get maybe three or four hours of sleep each night, none more. The heat is horrible.

Ok, enough complaining. What is fantastic about my life in Argentina? I am here! Nothing much else right now. Tomorrow I have to get up at four in the morning to go to Consepción del Uruguay to renew my visa. I have tests next week and I'm still suffering in Advanced Grammar 2 and Literature. There aren't enough hours in the day to do all I need to!

Anyway, now I am going to walk for my exercise and afterwards, sleep. This week I have been missing my family, the United States, and Union a LOT. I love you my friends!

Four Month Mark

Alriiiiiight! This past Thursday marked the completion of my fourth month in Argentina. I am officially halfway through my time here. Considering that I have finally started to miss the United States, I would hope that these next four months are going to pass by very quickly. At the same time, I need the time to pass slowly. I still don't have my Spanish down yet! At this point, I can now almost always communicate what I need and have basic conversation without too much trouble. I still pause a lot and have to think through the conjugations of verbs or whether the rest of what I am about to say is singular or plural. My ACA director told me my Spanish has gotten better, so that is really encouraging to hear too! I think that by the time the normal UAP students return in March to start their classes again, I'll be ready to have some seriously fun conversations with them.

But even though I'm feeling so much better about my Spanish, my classes this week have been incredibly frustrating. I am only taking 14 credits, but I decided to advance to Advanced 2 for this trimester in Grammar and Conversation. Conversation has been fine; we actually talk in class as opposed to Advanced 1, where we were talked to. Grammar however, is an entirely different story. In Advanced 1, we had only learned the conjugation of present tense in verbs (already knew that) and Imperative (command form). That's it. I and my friends in Advanced 1 were so annoyed that we were learning things that we needed to communicate in normal conversations around the town. So, when our first trimester ended and we found we had the grades to do so, we advanced to Advanced 2.

First of all, I am definitely now learning almost more than I can keep up with. By our second time in class, we were expected to know the six conjugations that Advanced 2 had already studied the trimester before. Not a problem, except that we have quizzes every class period, of which half is verbs. The second half is over the lesson. For some reason, their quizzes were behind from the lessons they were studying, so a good two or three quizzes that I took-- and completely failed-- were over lessons I had never been taught! SO frustrating. I am good student, as are the other Advanced 1 students who advanced with me. But we were ALL failing. and this isn't like, "Aw shucks I got an 85% instead of a 99%" failing. No, this was 53% or less failing. You may be able to imagine the frustration and utter hopelessness of the situation. Plus, this trimester only lasts until February and we miss a lot of classes because of all the holidays here. So we had to options: continue to fail miserably and learn but adversely affect our GPA's or return to Advanced 1 and learn how to tell time. Not kidding.

Long story short, our professor gave us some extra classes over the lessons we missed from last quarter, and I implemented some new study techniques. This week was our final week to decide if we were going to stay in Advanced 2 or return to Advanced 1. I decided that my quiz on Thursday morning would decide if I stayed or not. In fact, I prayed that if I got an 85% or higher, I would remain in Advanced 2. If not, I'd return to Advanced 1. I wasn't sure if at that point I was only wanting to stay in Advanced 2 to say that I was in Advanced 2.  I studied for Grammar class four hours straight that night. The next morning after our quiz I asked the professor to grade it right then so I could decide. After a few minutes he handed it back to me with a big 89% on the top!!! So, I'm in it for the long haul guys. Between that class and my Literature class, this trimester will be nothing but studying, but now I know what it takes to get the grades I want!

Life is still an adventure here, even though it gets a little slow or hard. I'm learning so much about how to keep myself motivated, what I need to study effectively, and talking even though I know I'm probably saying something wrong. It's worth it.

New Year, No Resolutions

Today marks the beginning of the second full week of 2014. It's about the time when New Year's Resolutions begin their downhill ride to extinction and all the letters you wrote and planned to send get stuck under "stuff" on the kitchen table. Whewee. The high of a fresh start can wear off so fast if you don't have any motivation. That's why I don't do resolutions.

I am making actual changes.

No one needs a New Year to make changes in their life. We do it all the time during the year. Whether in March, July, or November, people start up or end projects all the time. For example, the government's fiscal year starts in October and ends in September. That's not the normal calendar year. But they still make it work. And because they can make it work, you better believe I'm gonna make it work too.

Recently, I decided that besides working hard on studying more and really learning this language, I'm going to choose one new thing to learn each month. For example, this month I have chosen to learn how to solve the Rubik's cube. No reason, other than I've always wanted to learn how. Now, I have a month to do it! Next month, it will be a different thing, and the month after that . . . now you're catching on.

Another new thing I've started is 20 minutes of free time before I go to bed. Normally I'll do homework straight up until it is time to sleep. I'll procrastinate throughout the day, leaving a small amount of time at the end of the day for homework. I decided to really change that around. This school quarter is going to be really hard for me. I've advanced in all of my classes, and the ACA students are the only students here. The rest of the UAP is on summer vacation. With all of that in mind, I know I need to buckle down and pull it together. So, that's what I'm doing. The 20 minutes of my free time before bed I can use to read, draw, write, work on my Rubik's cube--whatever. And on top of all that, it's a computer-free time. So far, it has been amazing, and I'm loving it. 

Overall, yes, I'm excited to start this new year (though I don't really know where 2013 went. It all happened so fast). As I diagram sentences in Spanish and take ice cold showers to combat this ridiculous heat, I plan to better myself. No, it's not a plan, It is happening. I want to do things in life and learn about random stuff that I happen to think is interesting. I want to be happy with me and not disappointed in me. The fact that this all coincides with the beginning of a new year happens to be a convenient coincidence. 

The Overview of My Christmas Vacay (Vacation)

Just like my journal, this blog has been gathering dust over the past three weeks. That doesn't mean that I've been sitting around for three weeks. Nope, in fact, since Peru, I've also been to a couple of other provinces in Argentina, as well as Chile. Since blogging isn't my job, I didn't try to hard to keep you guys updated. Sorry, but the 7 hours of walking a day and 27 hour long bus rides really take a toll, you know? So now, I get to make it up to you here. But instead of detailing every leg of my trip as my mother would like, I'm just going to hit a few highlights.

Peru- Amazing

Mendoza- So chill and sweet that I hardly took any pictures. Sorry.


Santiago, Chile- Has the best ice cream IN THE WORLD, the tallest mall in South America, and the only subway/metro in South America. Quite modern. Also, they have really cheap scarves.

Chaco- Adopted a family there. Rather, they adopted me. I may or may not have cried when we got on the bus to head back to school. Leaving Argentina is getting harder and harder.


Now I can say I have backpacked Argentina and survived! I was with one other girl, my friend Lauren. And we did it. We lived, we didn't get hurt. Yeah, we lost a little money here and there, yeah we found some neat stuff and barely avoided some not so neat stuff, but we learned from it all. Our Spanish wasn't too shabby either. I can't wait to see what it is like in just a few months!