some pictures!

Kristiane and I drinking Mate!

My host family!
(again, mate!)

My friends, Ignacio and Kristi
(Ignacio works with project abroad)

Pedro...

I´m a surgeon... almost

Baby!!!!!!!!

muchas babies.

mmmm. The weekend was fun. except I don´t know how Argentinians can do it! They go out at like 4am and come back at 7 or later.. (earlier?) I felt like I was going to die. Then again, I didn´t sleep during the day at all. Anyway, I really really really enjoy what I´m doing here. I mean, I was super pissed at first because I really wanted to teach English. But this, I think, is so cool. Maybe even better. I could never get to do or see the stuff I´m doing here. I was at the really poor hospital in Unquillo today, and I noticed a couple things: for one, there was an ant crawling on the wall. Ew. Two, they wrapped their non-rebreather masks in latex gloves when they´re not being used. Three, I mean, I already noticed this one, but they never wear gloves. never! Not even the nurses giving shots or IVs. The other hospital in the center of Cordoba is nicer and way more sanitary. I´ve been spending a lot of time with pediatricians. Who would have thought, the two specialties I thought I´d never want to do, gynecology and pediatrics, are actually extremely appleaing to me. Hm, so, new news... let´s see. Quilmes, the beer here, is very good. Fernet, the "national" drink of choice, is absolutely grotesque. My spanish is getting way better because I have Argentinian friends now and go out with my host sister a lot. Hablamos solamente Español! I am still somewhat homesick, but I am staying busy and really enjoying it here. Last night my host sister, Ceci, and some other friends of mine went to a lake. It was gorgeous. You can see all the stars in the sky and there were mountains all around us. It was breathtaking. Anyway, that´s all for now. Thank you for all the emails and constant reminders of the love i´m so fortunate to have. I love you all and hope everyone is doing really well.

the end of week one

whoops, i haven´t been to an internet cafe for a couple days. okay most importantly, the medical program here is really awesome. The day after I followed the pediatrician, I went to Cordoba central and worked in a Maternity hospital. It was so awesome! Haha I watched gynocological exams, which doesn´t sound very fun, but it was so interesting. All pregnant woman, and I learned a lot about pregnancy. It is cool communicating with the doctors, and they love teaching. They constantly draw me pictures and show me things on the patient and make me look inside (yes, inside) and it´s all really exciting. Then the next day, yesterday, I watched TWO surgeries. I was literally standing right there, touching the surgeon while he operated. It was SO AWESOME. I saw a mastectomy (I literally have no idea how to spell that) which was painful to watch. The woman was so scared and was crying as they put her to sleep. I felt so bad. The anesthesiologist (again, spelling is horrible, I apologize) was playing music. He put on Queen, because I guess the surgeon likes rock. I don´t know if they do that in the states, but it was kind of funny. THEN I saw a c'section. so freakin awesome. I loved it. except, the woman was morbidly obese. so that was kind of gross, and i felt somewhat nauseous when they just cut and cut and cut away at her fat to get to her uterus. it was somewhat disgusting. One of the medical students that was watching fainted. so yeah, that was all really cool. I like the maternity hospital way way better than the one in Unquillo. Anyway, last night I went out with my host sister, her friends, and my friend Kristiane. The bars and clubs open at 2 am and no one gets there until like 3, so it was a very late night. We had fun though. And... yeah! That´s about all. Oh, i went shopping yesterday with Kristi... hehehe... I got such cool boots! Yay. So I´m making the most of it here. It feels like summer, too. Today is like 70 degrees. I don´t understand. Argentina is a CRAZY country, even the weather is schizophrenic. I miss everyone so much, I miss BU and I miss mi novio :) I´ll continue to write! hasta luego

oy vieh

okay, well needless to say, projects abroad is just NOT an organized program. ugh. i mean i´m still trying to enjoy (and succeeding.. kind of!) my time here. i really do like argentina. still don´t know it so well though. anyway. last night i went out with Kristiane. we just sat and had a beer (which is actually good here.. called Quilmes) and talked. it was nice to speak English and relate to someone. she´s from New York and goes to a small school in Long Island. Then i went home and hung out with my host family and drank mate and taught the sister some English verbs. And watched the mom and grandma play cards. Then I went to sleep early because I had to get up at 6:45 this morning. I took the hour long bus ride into the center of Cordoba... turns out someone was supposed to call me last night and tell me NOT to go there. Well, no one did. So i sat in the plaza for a while and called Ines and asked where she was. She was at the office, half hour away... said that Marianna (the woman who picked me up at the airport) was taking me to a hospital NOT in Cordoba, but in Unquillo, instead. At ONE THIRTY. Not 8 am. yeaaa so my host family got pretty upset and reprimanded Marianna when she came to pick me up. Oy. ANYWAY. she took me to a very very small hospital in Unquillo (oon-key-sho). It reminded me a lot of the clinic in Ghana that we went to. It was very small and had a bunch of different small rooms that were for specialities (i.e. pediatrics, surgery, sterlization, radiology.) No one there really speaks English so I followed around this pediatrician. It was actually really interesting because it was solely in spanish, so that was good practice. And he let me do some things, like look in little kids ears, mouths, and listen to their breathing sounds. I listened to a little girl who had bronchitis, sounded quite yucky. But it was still interesting. and hey, kids in Argentina really don´t cry that much at all. COmpared to United States, i guess. Ow okay my hands are hurting from typing and being cold, haha. So then I met three other volunteers that were really nice. They were with the Dentist. The dentist actually LET the volunteers inject anesthetics (sp?) and scrape out tar and all that good stuff. Ew, i really don´t like dentistry. When i went in there they were practicing on each other how to make molds, like for braces and retainers. Yuck! SOOOO then I left, and now I´m here. I´m meeting Kristiane again and we´re going to have dinner. At a reasonable American time! Not 10 pm. IM HUNGRY. okay love love love miss everyone.

hace frio..

Yesterday my desk officer from projects abroad, Ignacio, picked me up at the house at 9 am (actually, earlier... ah) and brought me to the office. There, a woman named Ines brought me to central Cordoba and showed me around the Plaza San Martin. It´s beautiful. It reminded me of the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca, Spain, where I spent the summer two years ago. It´s really pretty. I bought an adapter (because i left mine at home!) for 4 pesos, which is about 1 dollar. haha i love it. i also got a cell phone and a phone card to activate it, but i don´t know the number and i don´t really know how one would go about calling me. i´ll figure it out. i got really frustrated and upset last night and felt really lonely. it´s very very very exhausting trying constantly to communicate. Ignacio and Ines speak english pretty well, but I only met them once. And to top it off, Ines told me yesterday that I can´t teach. Whcih is what I came here to do... I think I am going to a care program which is basically caring for and somewhat teaching children in orphanages. But I prepared to come here and teach english. It really sucks that I can´t... they are all on vacation. Winter vacation. I still don´t know any volunteers, but one girl called me last night and i asked if she wanted to meet up tomorrow (today). so we´ll see how that goes. she speaks English.. YAYYYYY. Anyway, Ines is picking me up around 2 or 3 my time here to bring me out on a care project, so I´ll see how that goes. I miss everyone, a lot. I want to enjoy my time here but sometimes it´s really difficult because I am (never thought i´d say!) homesick.

Chile, the Andes Mountains from the plane

My Room!

Leaving JFK

dia dos!

Okay I got all your emails! I´ve been walking around the city of Cordoba (central) and it´s really nice. I mean, it´s kind of like New York. But I am alone and I don´t know anyone yet. I wanted to get out of my host family´s house for the day, so i took the hour long bus ride into the city. I´ve been walking around the mall (oh my god, everything is SO FREAKIN CHEAP here!!!! but don´t worry, i didn´t buy anything yet... hehe) and I just sat at a cafe and had some espresso and read. I like spending time alone and writing in my journal and stuff.. but as you all know, I am a very social person, so I cant WAIT to meet some volunteers. I called one today who lives near me but she wasn´t home. Okay, whoever said that the Argentinians speak slowly in Cordoba LIED. hahah ´but seriously, my spanish has already gotten so much better. My host family is so sweet, i really really really like them. I live with a dad, mom, grandma, and a sister. I swear the dad looks like G.W. Bush, not lying. But he´s really fat. hehe. I have to put up a picture, u guys will laugh very hard. THe grandma is so funny, but i can barely understand here. So here are some basic facts about the family and trip so far:
1. it is F*CKING freezing here. seriously.
2. no heat, no hot water in my shower this morning.... so much for spending time shaving my legs and so on. i couldn´t even stand under the showerhead.
3. I drink mate like it´s my job
4. last night the power went out for about two hours, which iguess happens often when it´s freezing outside. so i sat around the table with la familia and chatted and drank more and more and more mate.
5. ITS COLD, did i say that?
6. I showed my family pictures of my family at home - dad, stace, jenna, hannah, mom, PJ, milo, zo, mo, erik, rachel.. so on. they loved it and they think erik is a hottie, seriously. hehe
7. Jane, the English girl, left for Buenos Aires. I have been thinking about what she told me about and it seems like a really great city. she took an overnight bus there, it´s 10 hours and cost a whopping 10 american dollars. love the peso. i think i may go after my program, if i decide to stay. i need to decide within the week or two though, for plane info and stuff.
8. I MISS MY DOGGIES.
9. speaking of dogs, they run around everywhere here and i feel like they are all going to get hit by crazy drivers.
Okay that´s about all for now, i think. send a big hello to everyone for me
I MISS YOUALL A LOT
love love love love love

arrived

I got here! The flight was long, and the second flight actually turned out to be really short. The people so far are very nice, except this one lady at the airport who laughed when i said Cordoba wrong (I didn´t know to accent the ¨cor´´) oh well. My host family is really sweet and they made me this awesome pizza thing with onions. There is a girl named Jane here with me right now but she leaves tonight for Buenos Aires. She says she´s in love with it and needs to go back! She loves teaching in the schools here and says that I will really enjoy it. I have a host brother and sister but they´re gone for a week, I don´t really know where they are because I don´t understand my host dad. He speaks really fast. I´ll get used to it. They say all their double ll´s with a J sound and its crazy. ahhhh! okay well I really need to upload the pictures from the flight. When we left Chile from my connecting flight, the Andes looked AMAZING. I took some pretty pics :)