Argentina --- Uruguay

Hello!

Sorry I have not written in a very long time. Wednesday marks my half-way point here (4.5 weeks of 9 weeks). The problem is I am still without computer and my phone is broken so to do anything I have to borrow a computer for someone.

It is pretty amazing to me that I have been here 4.5 weeks. I feel at once as if I had lived here forever and also as if I had just arrived. I feel like I haven't done enough touristy things (although I have done many). I think my favorite place in Buenos Aires is Puerto Madero, which is an area by the water (a port) with nice shops and restaurants. It is a nice place to walk and sit. One of my favorite things is when everyone goes to a choripan stand there and we all eat outside together by the water.

I have introduced everyone here to peanut butter. They are not as impressed as they should be. I really like cooking in the hostel though as a group (I especially like it because it is so cheap. US$1 or $2 for a lot of food). It is cool to try everyone's favorite foods from home. We have had 2 international lunches where everyone makes a plate from their home country.

It is strange being here for so long because I have now seen a lot of friends come and go. It is weird because the group who is here now is so different from the group who was here when I first arrived. Not better or worse, per se, but different. It is so cool now though because I have friends in pretty much every country so now I have so many people to visit.

I have been really into soccer/football here. I just learned how to spell it actually (I thought it was futbol like in Spanish but apparently no). By really into football I mean I have watched 4 games. I like going to bars to watch Argentina's games with everyone. There is one other American in the hostel so we cheer for the US together (although sort of half-heartedly). I am rooting for Argentina because I want to be there for them to win.

I went to Uruguay last weekend because it was flag day in Argentina and we had the day off on Friday. We took a boat for one hour into Uruguay and stayed for 3 days. We visited Montevideo and Colonia. Colonia was very quaint and tranquil and it was nice to walk around there. Montevideo was interesting. It has a very different feeling than Buenos Aires. I liked walking around the old part of the city (we went on a free walking tour), but it felt a little bit more dangerous to me than any other city I have ever visited. I am not sure why. One thing that was really cool was in places where the sidewalk tiles had broken, some mysterious person has been replacing them with colorful mosaics (no one knows who). All are abstract except for one which is in front of the civil registry place where you get married. It is a heart there. I thought that was cute. Both cities had so many wild dogs everywhere, which scared me because when I went to Iguazu and went for a run, wild dogs chased me (it was probably the scariest moment of my life. Like for real. I thought I was going to get rabies and die).

Working is a weird experience. I am not doing at all what I thought I would be doing. I work in a soup kitchen for 2 hours a day to help prepare food. It is a good way to learn Spanish but it is pretty tough going because my Spanish is not good enough to keep up with the women there, who all have very strong accents. I also am trying to organize the fundraising efforts for my NGO. It is really difficult and overwhelming because there is really no structure and I have no clue what I should be doing. I have been trying to contact different organizations with which we may be able to partner, so far to no avail. I have a new coworker now and I think we are going to try to start setting up a fundraising platform. I am sure that I could do more than I am doing if I had more information about the specific projects they want to do and their existing budget but the time tables here are very lax. I have been asking for the information for 4 weeks and I always hear yes yes yes but never actually get the information. Hopefully I will find out more by the end of my internship so I can make some sort of meaningful impact there. I am trying to make the best of the situation but it has been very frustrating for me.

I am really loving Buenos Aires and I will write more when I can! I am very excited because tomorrow I will go to see a bookstore that is inside an old theatre and I will also visit the famous Teatro Colon.

In other news, my Spanish has improved a bunch (although I never realized just how weak my Spanish was). The people in Uruguay were much easier to understand than in Argentina. My Spanglish is really reaching its prime. I don't speak normally in English anymore. I even have a funny accent. It is real weird.

Okay. Adios for now.