The third day we went to a reservation full of hundreds of penguins. We walked on a path that lead straight through the nesting grounds of the little penguins. We were able to see these small creatures very close, only a couple feet away from us. During this time of the year most of the penguins were sleeping so we could see many in their underground nests. Lead by a guide, we walked for maybe a mile along the coast and saw crashing waves. After we were lead back to the lodge where we had an informational tour of a small penguin museum. After this we ate lunch for a couple and returned to the bus. From the penguin reserve, we drove around 22 hours to our next city, El Calafate.
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The first day of the trip, Sunday, November 11th I drove with three other exchange students to my province's capital, Santa Fe. From Santa Fe, we drove around 24 hours to the next city, Puerto Madryn. In Puerto Madryn we took a tour of the city for the first day we were there and took pictures in front of the sea.We also went to an informational museum about rocks. On the next day we travelled to a different part of Puerto Madryn called Puerto Piramides. There we were able to look at shops for a couple of hours and after we were able to have an opportunity of a lifetime. We went on a whale watching tour and saw the incredible animals mere feet from our bout. We also saw them jump out of the water like they do in the movies which was amazing. After we took pictures around the small town. That evening we went to down town Puerto Madryn and went shopping. After we had a team building game on the beach.
Around two weeks ago I, along with my district here in Argentina, embarked on an excursion to the south of the country. We stopped in many cities and saw the amazing glaciers of Perito Moreno as well as the nesting grounds for hundreds of penguins. This journey is one that I will never forget and the friendships that I have formed on this trip will stay with me forever. Although returning from the trip to my city was refreshing, I know that I will always miss my friends from this trip and I hope that I will be able to visit them in the future. Over the next days I will give you more information about the trip and about what we did on it.
Ok so i use my school computer to blog and on it there is a software to block certain websites. My blog cite was blocked so I didn't have any way to access and add thing to my blog. I finally figured a way to unblock my website so I am able to blog again.
So in the time that has passed, I have started school, and am participating in various activities after school. My Spanish proficiency has increased very much and I can now understand most of what people say to me. I'm pretty proud of this because before I came to Argentina I knew absolutely no Spanish and was worried I wouldn't be able learn. I am really enjoying my life here, I made friends here very easy and all the people are very open and friendly towards the American. I also love the food here, they mainly eat meat so its perfect for me. Also I have to take in account for the time changes. I think that Dallas is an hour behind my time-zone, but Buenos Aires is an hour ahead of my time-zone. I hope that the clock on my phone switches automatically, because if not then I will be dunzo. I think it'll be pretty easy to fly, but I 'm worried that my boot will slow me down, but I don't think it will.
I have three days until I leave on Thursday and I am so stoked. My friend Dez left for Hungary today, and he said the flying was really easy, but I'm not too sure about that.
On top of that I have to switch airports while in Buenos Aires, and that is pretty terrifying, if I get off at the wrong stop then I am dunzo. I do however have the whole day to correct my mistake if I make one. I arrive in Buenos Aires at 7:47 am and I leave to Rosario at 5:45 pm. Today my little brother started fifth grade, which was crazy because I remember being in fifth grade, and now I am almost graduated from high school and going to live in a different country for a year.
My oldest brother also started his senior year of university at IU South Bend. Also my brother goes back to Ireland to study philosophy at Trinity University which is pretty cool. This is the same brother that did Rotary Youth Exchange and went to Chile. I leave in 3 days and I am so excited, I cannot wait. When I get there on the twenty fourth of August it will be an enormous pleasure to meet my host mom, host dad, and host brother.
My host sister will be on a school field trip when I arrive, so she will not be able to greet me right away. I wonder if I am going to be taller than most Argentines because I am six foot two and that is pretty tall. I have started to pack, and I pretty much everything I need which is good. I have a portable charger, an outlet converter, a fanny pack, and a lot more. My suitcases are are good and ready as well.
Today was a pretty uneventful day. After getting home at around 2 am last night I slept in till like 11 o'clock.
After that I went down to eat breakfast and I sat and talked with my family. After that I went swimming in my pool till around 2 pm. Then I went to get my haircut, which was an absolute disaster, the barber cut off all my hair and left me looking like a middle aged woman asking to speak to your manager. The actual flight wasn't bad, but my boot for my ankle was really uncomfortable. It only took around two hours, but while we were on the plane we had to get redirected because one of the other planes in the terminal ran over a coyote which caused a whole lot of delay.
The plane was small, so for me it was pretty cramped because I'm 6'2" so my leg room was limited. Other than that, it was a pretty enjoyable experience. When we got to the airport, our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:55 pm EST. We got to the airport at around 6:45 and we were in a good position. But then, it got delayed to 8:15. That wasn't that bad but then it got delayed to 9:10 which was a shame because we waited around 3 hours in the airport.
This was a good opportunity to learn, because while flying to Argentina I might have to encounter a similar situation and this somewhat prepared me for something to happen like this. Hopefully nothing does happen, but if it does i'll be prepared. Today we finished saying goodbye to my sister and then we left. First we got on the train to Charlotte.
Unfortunately there was 6 other stops on the way. On top of that we got delayed twice for about ten minutes. Luckily, we made our flight with a lot of room. In fact I will talk more about that on my next post. Fortunately, my injury won't impact my travel schedule or my exchange at all. I still have to bring the boot that was given to me. After I'm done with the boot, I have to wear a lace up brace for like 3 months which is a minor inconvenience but nothing too horrible.
Something very intense happened today. I was on the way to the barber shop to get these luscious locks chopped. I was running down flights of stairs and decided to jump the last few. This was not smart because half of my foot landed on the bottom step and the other half didn't so my ankle just completely rolled.
There was a big pop and I had to sit down. I hopped over to the car and we drove to the walk in orthopedic thingy. Thankfully, it was only sprained and didn't break, but there was a whole lot of swelling and it hurt like hell |
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