Fiesta de Egressados COLEGIO HOLANDES 2011 !!!

Last night was one of the best nights I've had here so far.  Three days after I got back from my trip was the date of the graduation party my class has been planning and fund raising for over a year.  It definitely lived up to expectations.  This party is kind of like an equivalent of prom in the US.  But the party includes family and friends, and the dinner starts at 9 with the dancing at 12:30 and went until 6 am. 

The Party: 
The party was held in our school gym but it was decorated well that it was unrecognizable.  The tables for family and friends were on the sides and down the middle was the red carpet for the egressados (graduate's) entrance.  The carpet led to the table for the egressados.  Everyone enters as a couple and chooses 30 seconds from a song they want to enter too, then at the end the boy twirls the girl, gives her a rose and a kiss and the photographer takes a picture.  After everyone enters we ate dinner at our table,  We had asado, beef and chicken, ice cream for dessert, and to drink--unlimited wine.  After dinner to start the dancing is the traditional waltz.  First we walzed with each other, and then our parents, and then friends and whoever else.  At 12:30 more people who couldn't come to the dinner come for the dance part.  The red carpet is moved and the lights start and everyone dances until 6am.  That's pretty much how it worked... Halfway through we brought out party hats, glowsticks, and foam. 

PATAGONIA

    It's been a long time since I've posted, but I've been really busy enjoying life here.  So many things have happened since I last posted, but I'm going to talk about the big things, like this trip.
    On the 14th I got back from a 10 day trip to the south of Argentina and Chile with about 50 other exchange students on a bus.  It was the most amazing trip I've ever been on and I will never forget the beautiful glaciers we saw, the clear blue skies, and the blue lakes and oceans.  Patagonia is the most amazing place in the world. 

Itinerary:

Day 1: pick-up at the Pringles bus terminal at 10:30pm for a night on the bus.  In the morning we arrived in Trelew where we first went to the MEF paleontology museum, and then we went to our hotel. After getting lunch we went to Playa Union about an hour away, and went in the ocean and saw the town.  Spent the night in Trelew.
Day 2: Spent traveling to El Calafate, but on the way stopped in Camarones where we saw beaches and penguins.  Night spent on the bus.
Day 3:  We arrive in beautiful El Calafate, not the southernmost place in Argentina but farthest south we went on our trip.  It's still further south than any other continent except Antarctica.  Our first day in Calafate after checking in to our hotel we went to the city center to explore and eat lunch.  We relaxed in the hotel for the rest of the day.
Day 4:  We got up early for one of the best days of the trip--Lake Viedma and walking on glacier El Chalten.  Spent the night in Calafate.
Day 5: Went to the Glacier National Park and saw Glacier Perito Moreno.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at  a glacier museum, and then went to the Glacio Bar underground the museum.  Spent the night in Calafate.
Day 6:  CHILE!! We got up early, drove to Chile not too far away.  After crossing the border we switched into two smaller tour buses to go through Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.  We stopped at various places in the park, then made our way to Puerto Natales.  Spent the night in Puerto Natales.
Day 7: Another long day and night in the bus traveling back up to Puerto Madryn.
Day 8: Arrived in Puerto Madryn, at our beautiful beach hotel.  We got lunch and went to the beach.  Spent the night in Puerto Madryn.
Day 9:  Spent the day in Puerto Madryn, rest of the day spent traveling home.
Day 10:  Arrived back home 




 

Reunion de Rotary en Olavarria

Last weekend I went to the first Rotary meeting for my district.  It was in Olavarria, a town that is about 2 hours away from here close to Tandil.  The meeting was for the host families, Rotarians,former exchange students, and of course all the current exchange students in District 4920.  The meeting gave the exchange students a chance to meet each other and compare our experiences so far in Argentina.  We were split into groups with exchange students, Rotarians, and host family members to talk about how to be a good exchange student, our home life etc...  Rotary also went over some of the rules again and gave us information about the trips we can take to the north and south of Argentina.  The south trip is Dec 6 and is an 11 day bus tour throughout Patagonia and the bus trip to the North will be sometime in February and will last 16 days going to  Iguazu Falls in Brazil, and northern Argentinian towns.  At the meeting all the exchange students were given a Spanish test for an assessment and we were told that we will be tested again in 6  months and if we don't pass we will be sent home.  Exchange students also have to do a community service project.     

Most of the exchange students were from the US, Canada, Germany, France, and Belgium.  And there were students from Denmark, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Mexico.  In D. 4920 there's about 50 students.

un dia hermoso en Tres Arroyos

Steve Jobs--How to Live Before You Die

I remember watching on TED videos Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford University about a week before I left for Argentina.  Since I've watched that speech his words really stayed with me and remind me of some of my own motivations for taking a gap year and doing something that I believed in.

In his speech he told three stories about his life that essentially gave his three rules of how to live before you die.

The first story he tells is about how he dropped out of college and audited courses.  Without having to take required classes for a major he enrolled in a calligraphy class at Reed College that ultimately led to the beautiful interface for Apple computers.

• "You cannot connect the dots going forward only looking backwards. You have to trust the the dots will connect in the future, you have to trust in something because that will give you the confidence to follow what is in your heart even when it will lead you off the well worn path. "  

 The second story he told was about being fired from Apple:

• "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again and allowed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. When life hits you on the head with a brick you have to have faith in what you love. The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe to be great work; and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. Keep looking and don't settle."

The last story he told seems eerie now.  When he first found out that he had pancreatic cancer and had to face the fact that  he would only have one month to live.

• “If you live each day as if it was you're last someday you'll most certainly be right... If today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I'm about to do...No one wants to die even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. Death is the destination we all share no one has ever escaped it, and that is as it should be because death is the single greatest invention of life. It's life change agent it clears out to make way for the new... you're time is limited so don't waste it living someone elses life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other peoples thinking. Don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become, everything else is secondary."

• Stay hungry, stay foolish

Tandil--full post coming soon

This weekend I went to Tandil with my family.  It's less than two hours away from Tres Arroyos.

 

Primavera

So, last week was primavera, or basically spring break.  Even though schools only gave one day off on Wednesday, everyone goes on vacation from Friday through Wednesday and they go to Claromeco.  Literally since the second day I got here and I started meeting people one of the questions they always asked me was, "Are you going to spring?" or Claromoco, or Primavera?   It's one of the major events that goes on around here and almost the whole town of Tres Arroyos relocates to Claromeco because most people own houses there or they rent a house there.  I went to Claromeco for one day and night because that weekend my host sister (who is fluent in English) was leaving for her exchange year in Arizona and we went to La Plata and Buenos Aires to take her to the airport.  Also that week I was really sick, I had laryngitis but I started to feel better and made it to Claromeco for  a night.

The beach towns here are really different than what I'm used to.  Claromeco seems really desolate, the houses are far apart from each other most of the roads are dirt except in the city center, roads go through the beach & cars are allowed to drive on the beach.  I stayed with one of Carolina's (my host sister who just left) friend's family in an apartment they own right next to their house.

Chuten is the name of Carolina's friend and his dad is an architect (like my host mom) who designed their Claromeco house and this apartment and in the summer they rent out the apartment.  This is their house:

and the street it's on:

So, this is what I did in claromeco.  Since I got there early and everyone was sleeping from going out every night before, Chuten gave me a walking tour around Claromeco because even though I'd been there once before I hadn't seen a lot.  Then we went to the house where some friends were staying, woke them up and ate with them.  Then we walked back to our house (by the lighthouse) then got ready to meet up again.  We took mate and croissants with us and walked to the park with his friends from the E.A.T.A school (farm school). 

We walked back to one of their houses which is downtown and three blocks from La Barre (the nightclub everyone goes to that's on the beach) to hang out a little.

From there we went to La Barre for the predance from about 8 to 9:30.  We went home for dinner, then around 12 went back to a friends house to hang out before going out again.  At around 3 we went to La Barre and it was packed.  It was the last night of Primavera and everyone has been partying hard for a whole week so the last night was pretty crazy.  It was really fun, I don't have any pictures from that point on really.  We were there until 6, and then walked home and watched the sunrise, ate breakfast at home and then went to sleep around 8:30.  Around 4pm we drove home and that was my Primavera.

Driving home the next day, this is the road that winds through the beach.

flamingos.