The Begining of the end

So today is basically my last day in Argentina. Its really quite sad. I am going to miss catching the bus early in the morning and going to class (seriously). It has been quite fun.

Today I went to the zoo with my friends.

I was supposed to go on my special adventure (which, this is the 4th time I have tried to do it,) but the weather was not sufficient. So it basically looks like I will not be able to do it. My special event was to go Parapente (Paragliding) but the first time I made it up there, they did not have the right size harness, so I was not able to do the jump. The other 3 times the weather has been bad. I still have an album on all my pictures I took of others while I was up there that day and many videos (which can be found on the photo & video sites). So there you have it, my special adventure has been foiled. However, I start an "new" adventure tomorrow, when I travel solo to Puerto Madryn.

Tomorrow I get on a bus to travel to the Patagonia region of Argentina. I am going to visit Puerto Madryn & Valdez peninsula. The whales are down there right now so I am very excited about what I will be doing there. The bus ride is about 24 hours one way, so I am definitely going to be ready to get off the bus once I get there. I arrive there on the 4th at 9:30 am and I leave there 7th at about 11:30am, returning to Mendoza about the same time on the 8th. I basically have a little over 24 hours to spend in Mendoza, until the 9th, from which I fly out of Mendoza and leave Argentina at 6:30pm.

So this is the beginning of the end of my blog for Argentina. I however have decided to put a book together of all the things I have learned while being here, so even after I return to the states, I will have to upload the rest of the photos and videos and finish putting the book together (I have already started.) So stay tuned as I travel to Puerto Madryn.

P.S. I am currently uploading the pictures for the zoo today, so some of them are up, but not all...at least for now. :)

My Speech for My Oral Exam

For my oral final I had to write a speech in Spanish to present in class. This is my speech, given I knew very little Spanish before I came to Argentina, there are mistakes in here, some of them probably becuase I missed spelled it when I typed it in here:

Durante estos tres meses, yo viaje por Argentina. Desde Mendoza a Uspallata a Parque Nacional Aconcauqua a Buenos Aires.
He estado en Mendoza por 3 meses. He comprarado a Mendoza con todos las ciudades que he visitado.
Visité Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires es una ciudad muy grande y ruidosa y la gente en Buenos Aires no estan amistosa como en Mendoza.
Su discurso es diferente que Mendocinos. Allí ¨"sh" en vez de "j" acá, por ejemplo "llama" (shamo) allí y "llamo" (sjamo) acá.
Despues tres días allí, yo quería regresar a Mendoza. Para mi parace como se fuera "casa" o extrañaba Mendoza.
Durante mi viaje a Buenos Aires tuve expiriances interesantes, por ejemplo visite La Boca. Fue a negocio para turistas. Quise decir a una chica. "Busco remeras para mis sobrinas y sobrino." Pero dihe "Busco remeras para mis novias y novio." La chica trajo una remera mas grande que para niños. Luego me di cuenta del error y me disculpé y dije: "Lo siento es para mis sobrinos, no novios." Y ella rió. Entonces yo compré las remeras y me fuí apurado.
En Buenos Aires hay siempre algo interesante para ver. Me gusta Buenos Aires pero poco tiempo.
Cuando regrese a Estados Unidos, creo que tendré un choque cultural pero tengo mas fotos que me recoraran mi familia y amigos de Mendoza.
Mismo Jorge Luis Borjes dijó:
"Vivo en Estados Unidos pero mi corazon está en Argentina."

¡Hola!

It´s been ahwile since I have posted a blog (a true blog) so I felt that it was time to do so. In my classes we have been screming through the material, with a mid-term this friday and my written final next Wed.

My last day of class is the first of August, and soon after that I will travel to either Perito Moreno or Peninsula Valdéz (area) for a few days.

After which I´ll return to Mendoza, and ultimally return to the states.

Recently I have not been doing a lot (other than school that is). I am hoping to do a wine tour this weekend. Every Monday the local english vine magazine hosts a wine tasting at a resturant called The Vines. Everybody that is there puts $90 (U$D 30) in the pot and they buy the tiop shelf wines, and nobody leaves until everything is gone. So I am thinking about doing that this monday or the next.

On Julio 9th, it was Argentina´s Independence Day, and I went with my host mother´s sister to some of the event. Before we got there, we had to stop to get gas. What intrigued me (and why I am writting about this) is that the gas system is quite a bit different here. If you ever come here, you may notice that some of the cars have yellow tanks in them or in the back of trucks, these are their gas tanks. And I mean gas, like as in not liquid. Many of the cars have been "upgraded" to this (as there is also the liquid version here). I was told that it was a little less than half the price of the liquid gas. So anyway that is a little more for you to read about concerning Mendocinos.

I haven´t really uploaded that manypictures nor videos recently, but I may have the chance to do dome tonight. It really slows down the internet when you upload them, and frankly, it is just tiring after ahwile. (not a joke, files are huge!)

I have been wanting to mention a group of friends from Baylor (now somewhere in Canada), that started the Alive Campaign. It is an organization that was created in order to bring awareness to suicide prevention. They told a friend that there was more to life, like riding on their bikes from Waco, Texas to Ancourage, Alaska...and that´s exactly what they are doing...biking something like 9000 miles this summer. Take a look at their website here to see more info about them. Their blog is very intresting and can be found here as well.