El Fin de Semana

So I probably should have updated this blog a few days ago. God knows I actually had the time this weekend. I just didn't realiz how much time had passed since the last update.
Well, I'm in the intermediate class, and let me say, for an intensive period, this class isn't all that intense. The hardest assignment we had was to prepare a 10 minute presentation about an Argentine Province, which we had to present today. I had La Rioja, and basically, there isn't much there, and it's not that heavily populated, but it has El Nacional Parque Talampaya, which is a bunch of giant red sand canyons left behind by the River Talampaya. Kind of like the Argentine version of the Grand Canyon.
And I have fast learned that the typical University school week here in Argentina is four days long, versus the five in the United States. And I need to learn how to better spend my time here in Córdoba and keep myself busy. There were a lot of students that went different places, like boliches y bares. Even Taylor went to a bar. He went with some other guy, and didn't invite me along. I think he needed some Guy Time because so far we've been going EVERYWHERE together. But still . . .
Basically all I did this weekend was stay at home. I did my homework, read some of El Principito and watched what I could of the Olympic games on TV.
There was bad thunderstorm on Saturday, and it cut out our electricity for over 8 hours! The storm started around 3:30, our power got cut around 4, and didn't come back until 12:30 am!
Also, last week, Mimi bought an illegal DVD of Avatar. I thought it was funny. The cover slip is totally printed computer paper, and the DVD inside is obviously one of the burnable ones. Whoever pirated it didn't even bother to make it look all that professional, the actual DVD just had AVATAR written on it sloppily with a sharpie. I tried watching it on my computer, and compared to REAL DVD's the image quality was pretty poor. But the funniest part is, the DVD was set up to have both English and Spanish audio and subtitles, but whenever someone started speaking in the Na'Vi language, the subtitles were in German!
I was going to do a video review of the disc to post on here, but Mimi's son Pablo took it home with him yesterday to Buenos Aires.
Anyway, while I was watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics on TV, I started getting homesick. That's actually kinda hard for me to admit, because I've been to so many places around the world, that I like to think myself being above homesickness. What got to me was all the "Canadian-ness" and all the Pacific Northwest references. I was watching it thinking, "That's home. That's where I live."
Today was much better though. After class, a big group of us went to a Grido Helado en La Plaza España. (Grido Helado is a chain ice cream store here in Argentina.) Somewhere in that trip, Taylor and I split up. I stayed with some girls to eat my ice cream, and one girl talked about possible going to visit Mendoza one of these weekends, via omnibus. She said she'd check all the prices first, and then get back to us. The plan is, if we can pull it off, is to leave by bus the Thursday night before, and spend time in Mendoza doing a lot of wine-tasting! (Because that's what Mendoza is famous for.) And then come back Saturday Night, or early Sunday morning. If I can do this, why would I pass it up while I'm living here?
Tomorrow, instead of meeting class at UNC, we're all meeting at La Manzana Jesuítica at 9:45am tomorrow. We're touring through the place as a group, and then walking back to UNC for a quick afternoon class session afterward.
The only thing that irked me about today, was that it rained this morning. It wasn't the rain itself though. The rain this morning wasn't as bad as it was during the weekend, it was kind of like Seattle rain. But in Argentina, when it rains, the taxi's and Buses don't function as often. Normally Taylor and I can catch the A10 bus around 8:40 am, and it's usually never later than 8:50, and we usually reach school by 9:15. But because it was raining, the bus didn't show up until 9:00 and arrived at school around 9:35. Taylor and I were able to make it inside before classes started though. And the excuse for the buses being late here, is that it's raining, and that's a good enough excuse for them. Now I understand, if it was raining like on Saturday, because in some places, the water got waist-deep! But as a Seattle-ite, I find that unexcusable! Now I know it's part of the culture shock for me, but I just shake my head. It's like the Argentines are just like my friends at Hollins that refuse to drive in a drizzle because the "roads are dangerous." I'm sorry, but that's close to the only condition we have at home to drive in, and knowing how to drive in the rain is an important life skill!
Well, that's all for this rant. I'll try to be more regular updating my blog in the future!