en el dario y "Desafios a la Creatividad 2011"

http://www.lavozdelpueblo.com.ar/

 

So, before the newspaper interview, I spent the day at  E.A.T.A. school with Carolina and some of her friends for Desafios a la Creatividad.  The E.A.T.A. school, or "farm school" as I like to call it is about 20 minutes on the outside of Tres Arroyos and it's on a farm.  Their school has chickens, cows, fish, crops, tractors and other farm things.  The students have the option of focusing on farming in their school curriculum which includes how to drive a tractor and milk a cow, but most of the students take regular classes and are in the science tract, social sciences tract...etc. Peter, an exchange student from Denmark, though for example is in the farming tract.  The E.A.T.A. school has a longer day than most of the schools in Tres Arroyos, from 8 to 4pm, and is bigger because it has a cafeteria for students to eat at since it's too far away from the city to go home for lunch and come back.  Most of the students take a bus that takes them to and from school everyday.   

Anyways, the farm school holds class competitions every year called Desafios a la Creatividad with competitions in different areas.  First there's a dance competition where each class is assigned a different prop to choreograph into their routine, the last year's prop was a hula hoop.  Since I have friends in the last year I spent a lot of time with them when they were learning their dance routine, and it was really good/funny.  The other main events was a replica of a popular game show here in Argentina, sort of similar to Jeoparty.  The funnier events were the farm ones--lassoing a cow, for example, and doing this thing with chickens, picking them up with a wire and putting them into a bag.  Then there was one were one person drove a tractor to move a huge bale of hay to another group of people who had to physically move the hay bale by rolling it over.  What was even funnier was watching some girls do this competition while still wearing their costume from their dance routine--a pleated hot pink skirt, white blouse, and a pink tie to match.  Somehow the girls representing the senior class beat the guys representing the younger year in that competition...

It was pretty fun watching all of these activities, and since a lot of other schools had the day off for 'students day' a lot of kids came to E.A.T.A. to watch this and I guess it's kind of an event every year.  

E.A.T.A. last year girls

Pilar and I

German 'Chuten' and I

Josefina and Manuela

Chuten played the nerd in their dance routine

Chuten, Carolina, and I

Coni and I

People from Peter's class, Peter's in the back

en la radio

Carolina, Martin, and I were interviewed on one of the local radio stations last Saturday in Tres Arroyos.  They asked Carolina about going to the US and Arizona, and they asked Martin about his exchange year in Canada that he got back from about a month ago.  Carolina translated for me since I can't really speak Spanish...yet.

We are doing two more interviews, one for the newspaper and one for the other radio station.  Also, Martin's family might also be my second host family sometime during the year.


http://www.diario3.com.ar/nota.php?id=15660

Martin Santini y Carolina

Mi casa

This is the backyard of my house through the view of my bedroom.  The skies here are always really clear and beautiful.  From here you can see the parilla (grill) for asado and the yellow thing is a kyak my family owns, but I haven't used it yet because it's winter here.  On the right is the door to the dining room and another one to the living room.

There is another parrilla inside the house, in the garage actually, and this is an asado my host dad made the first weekend I was here.  It's sooo good.  We ate leftovers for days.

Belgrano

I went to Belgrano last Wednesday with my host family on the way to La Plata and Buenos Aires so Carolina could get her visa to leave for the US soon.  Belgrano is where my host mom is from.  It's smaller than Tres Arroyos with about 18,000 people and is an hour away from La Plata and about 4 hours from Tres Arroyos.

 

"The beer train"  Beer used to be made in these train carts.

An abandoned train station from when a train went through Begrano.  There were also old train tracks that ran through this city center.

A theater.

Stray dogs.

A light shop that their uncle owns there.  My host dad Roberto on the left, their uncle, Carolina, and their cousin on the far right.

claromeco y el campo

On the morning of august 31, I went with my host  mom to Claromeco and the countryside because she needed to go for work.  She's an architect and a house she designed is in the process of being built in Claromeco, and she built a house in the country on the outskirts of Tres Arroyos and the client wanted another building done by her.  Claromeco is the closest beach to Tres Arroyos, and it's about 45 minutes away and it's the beach that everyone here goes to.