Monday, May 16, 2011

7 weeks until...

Hey everyone, in 7 weeks I will be back in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! How sad and happy - this means I get to go camping with my whole extended family from my Dad's side, but it also means that I have to leave all of South America behind :( Two weekends ago I was at an AIESEC leadership development conference of the Southern Cone (aka Argentina, Uruguay and Chile) but with delegates from all over the world. When I had to say goodbye to all of the friends that I made over the weekend and the AIESECers that I met last November in my first AIESEC conference, I got really sad - realizing that I would probably never see the majority of them again in my life!!!! Really sad, I even shed a few tears, really not my style, but it happens sometimes. It was an amazing experience and I really learned a lot at the conference, plus AIESECers know how to party! Work hard and play hard is their motto.


The multi-cultural proof photo. This is from the AIESEC conference.
Germany (originally Kenya) - United States - Colombia - Argentina - Costa Rica - Belgium


My local committee in Buenos Aires, at the conference :)


The second party at the AIESEC conference I went to - dress as a famous person (I was goign to dress as Britney Spears and put a nylon on my head to simulate when she chopped all her hair off but I couldn't find to baby dolls to carry around by their ankles, so I nixed the plan and dressed as a generic soccer player.)


Punk costumes the first night


Again punk night

Since my last post I've turned 21, and survived the experience.

Doing a shot of tequila with my Mom over Skype to celebrate my 21st birthday.

Mendoza was a really fun Easter Week trip, I learned a little about wine, got to drink a lot of wine, and spent lots of time outdoors, which was really nice! Since then I've mostly been staying in the City, no big trips have been taken.


Horseback riding in Mendoza in the mountains!


wine and vineyards



School-wise I am hating life right about now. I put off all of my readings for my History of Art class, well, since it started..... so I will be doing all of those this week. (Seeing as our final exam is June 15th). Also, my Political and Social Theory class has been getting ahead of me as well, so I spent all day today doing the readings I had missed. I am still behind but at least I made up 1.5 weeks of the readings that I missed. I will also be keeping on top of those readings from now on! The real debbie-downer of the situation isn't the readings, because those don't make for a desperate situation, but the 10-15 page paper my Professor of ARt History just assigned me out of nowhere IS A DEBBIE-DOWNER!

Socially my life has been pretty great. The AIESECers and I go out a lot/have meetings all the time so I see them often and am always talking to them to do my tasks. Now that I am 21 I feel quite old, and I don't know what to make of feeling old, considering I am still a young duck, but hey, who knows! My other Argentine friends are pretty fun, I've been eating a lot of BBQ with them. Also, I've made some American friends that I can do touristy things with, which is a plus.


At my friend Vicky's birthday party last Saturday.

Yesterday I went to the Lujan Zoo, where you can pet the tigers and lions but not the bears, oh my! Its a 2 hour bus ride to the zoo but it was definitely worth the $5 round trip and the $12.50 entrance fee. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. What else, what else - I dunno.

Feeding a baby lion milk from a bottle/my palm.


Stroking a 7 month old tiger.


Staring down a 4 month old lion cub.


Getting in on the sleeping mass of lion cubs. All 4 or 5 months old.


The cathedral in San Lujan, famous because Pope John Paul the II went there.


Having elephants eat apples out of my hands. I went first so didn't know what to expect at all, the guy just yelled at my to turn around and put my arms out.


In the pen with the big boys. These were no babies.


They had a huge stash of old tractors at the Lujan Zoo, random but most of them were John Deere and I had to represent the Midwest.

This coming weekend I am going to an ecological reserve where they have black caimans and the following weeking I am going to the NorthWest of Argentina, Salta, Jujuy, the salt flats. Should be prettttty amazing!!! Love my life, just wish I were only 100% vacation instead of 75% vacataion.