49 days Update!

Yesterday I passed the 50 mark and now its 49 days until I come home! Its crazy November has gone by incredibly fast and next week it will be December... Over the last 3 weeks or so I have been really busy!
I got to participate in the Torneo Nacional for basketball. I was asked to play in the Under 20s team for my club so it was a whole new team. We played against teams from Chile as well as teams from Neuquen and others from different regions. It took place over two days but I couldn't go to the second day. The day I went we had 3 games and though we didn't win we came within a 2 or 3 points in the last game. The day was made even more tiring by the 37 degree heat for most of the day! At the end of the day we got souvenirs towels as well.

The Tickets, and no i didn't come up
with that saying, they came up with it
on their own!

Another big event was the Despedida for my school. As I've mentioned before a Despedida is an end of year party that each school hosts. The year 'cuatro' (year 12) organizes it all for the leaving year 'quinto' (year 13), and everyone that goes from the school 'Cemn 107' has to dress up! It is a really great event and the majority of people dressed up which was great! Ours started at 12.30 and went until 5am. As it was our despe we got the next day off which was great! Then the Friday when we had school we did a breakfast for quinto as well.

I dressed up as Minnie Mouse if you can't tell..

All of the girls from my class

NEWS FLASH It's starting to heat up! We have had consistent days of 29-30 degrees and this is just typical spring weather they tell me... The hottest I've experienced is 37 so far, but as soon as we hit December the temperature rises again and then it's at it's peak through the end of Dec and the month of January!

Here are some photos of the food here and others I haven't posted!

Sad life of just watching highlghts of the All Blacks vs Wales game. What a second half!!

Panoramas from my AFS Trip

Alfajores ♥ Biscuits with Dulce de leche 

Food package from NZ :)

My Host mum Graciela and my host dad Eduardo. Obviously Eduardo had been working hahaha

My host Sister Brenda and I

Milanesa's with home made chips and bread of course!

Mini Pizzas I made at my Abuela's house

Yummy slice here! Basically tart base with jelly, peaches and cream

Just a short post today, but more coming soon!

Chau :)

¡Che, Boludo! Argentinian Slang

Like every country, Argentina also has their own slang and common sayings, here are a few that I hear frequently!

Che: Used as 'Hey' or as an interjection, basically doesn't have much of a meaning but is just a common thing they say!

Boludo: Used either as an insult (idiot) or casually between friends as a joke so ¡Che Boludo! can mean "You idiot" or "Hey bro", it's all in the context!
Mierda: shit, damn

Viste: used in a conversation like, "you know?" 'See!'

Ojo: literally means eye but is an expression meaning 'Be careful' or 'Watch out' and is with this gesture

Tranquila: Chill out! or it's Ok

Viejos: translates to olds but affectionately means Parents

No pasa nada: literally means nothing happened, but actually is 'no problem' or 'don't worry about it'

No te preocupes: No worries

¿Que te pasa?: What happened?

La Cultura de Argentina!

The Culture of Argentina!

I don’t know if it’s just my school but just about everyone is good at sport, especially the older they get! We had a tournament day at school with volleyball, basketball and football. Everyone in my class played in at least one sport and I played mixed volleyball. I had such a good game, so many long rallies it was amazing! 

P.S Ms Hanley if you are reading this I’m getting some good practice here and learning some new formations!

A comment especially for Uncle Hayd ;)

Here in my province there is no talk of hunting at all. My host family were very surprised when they saw this photo of my brothers and were like "is that common in NZ?" "How can your brother carry that?" haha  They told me in a few provinces they hunt but only because some wild pigs come down from the mountains and eat peoples animals and damage properties! 

The meat here is so different to New Zealand. They have special places in the supermarket which are basically like butcheries where you pick a meat and they carve and cut it for you. You can imagine how long the wait is when it is busy! For me looking at the meat, the standards and the way it looks are not as good as NZ but the way they cook it makes up for that!! Another thing is I haven’t actually seen any chicken breast here.. All the cuts all have bones and fat or skin with them.

The attitude about school isn’t really there. As I go to a Public school I can’t say this is the same for private schools as well so I’m simply making an observation. Here teachers miss classes often so there is a lot of free time where we play sports in the gym. Also absences are very common; some days people will decide not to come or will not go to school but turn up for gimnasio (p.e) after school. Often when there’s heaps of people in class it means there’s a big test or something haha. A very weird thing I found is that no one knows when school ends for the year, not even some of the teachers! Funny since people in New Zealand are counting down until the end of school!

Boliches are a very important part of the social life here. They are essentially a club where they serve alcohol and play music until about 6am or so in the morning. Lots of young people go because they don’t seem to really care about the 16-18 year olds going. Here they mostly play cumbia music Como Me Gusta la Noche, Mueve El Toto and a wee bit of Reggaeton La Nueva Y la Ex

Also at this time of the year they are starting to have Despedidas, which are like parties schools have to say goodbye to the older students and ‘to end the year’. If it is your school you get the day after the despedida off.

 I went to a Despedida on Wednesday night in a boliche and it started at 1am and finished at 5am (luckily I was allowed the day off school) It was really cool and so unlike anything I had ever been too in NZ. 

Two of My Friends and I before the Despedida

Something I also haven't mentioned is the price of technology here! The level of technology is not like New Zealand because it is just too expensive to buy. For example no one has dishwashers because of this and if you do, you are considered pretty rich! Any apple products are scarce as well, an Iphone here costs about $21000 pesos which is about $3200 nzd! This is just because of the massive tax that is put on electronic products coming in. Another example is a scientific calculator, here they are about $400 pesos which is $60nzd, almost 3 times more expensive than in NZ for the same exact brand!

2 months!

Empanadas!

So today marks 2 months of living in Argentina! I thought to celebrate I would go through some of the things I have done and haven’t done in that time!

Things I've done in 2 months

-Gone to an Argentinian high school for 8 weeks

-Drank lots of mate and Terere! (and really liked it)

-Trained in a basketball team and played games in the league

-Went to a Despedida (end of school party) in a Boliche (club)

-Named as a prefect for Kaikoura High!

-Made empanadas with my host mum and Abuela

-Went on my first trip around Argentina

-Visited the Iguazu Falls!

-Brought an Argentina Soccer top finally

-Made Argentine pizzas

-Abseiled down a waterfall

Things I haven't done in 2 months

-Driven anything! (car, truck, motorbike or scooter!)

-Eaten Argentina Lollies

-Eaten fish n chips (or any takeaway)

-Had or seen any type of seafood!

-Had toast for breakfast…

-Eaten broccoli (a similar thing about the food, its so different!)

-Had fresh milk. Here my family drink long-life milk and I haven’t seen any milk like good ol' anchor here

-Worn bare feet outside. For some reason it’s a ‘no no’ and I always get told off if I’m wearing bare feet inside!

During the trip we had a conversation about why we all chose Argentina. And I was quite stumped by that question! I had to really think why but I cannot remember how I originally decided ‘yup I’m going to go to Argentina’ That decision was so long ago now, more than a year ago now and I wish I had written somewhere my reasoning for it! I think the initial reason was because I wanted to learn Spanish.  But why not Spain you ask? Well thinking now Spain could have given me some awesome opportunities to travel around Europe but it always felt a bit common. Europe is just about the no.1 destination for OEs and I would have a lot of time to visit there later. But Argentina was very foreign and far away, and not a general place I would choose to go on a holiday. It also could provide me an awesome learning opportunity. For example, when I first chose Argentina I literally only knew it for the Tango and Iguazu Falls… Thinking now I still don’t know what drew me to Argentina but I am so happy I chose it. I love the people and everything else that comes with this beautiful country!

AFS Iguazu trip

This trip was possibly the absolute best trip I have been on! Not just because of the cool things we did but because of all the amazing people I shared it with! I was even lucky enough to meet two other kiwis! I had no idea any would be going so that was an awesome surprise! Oh how I miss the Kiwi accent... They also said there is about 6 kiwis in total in Argentina, and I will be flying back with them in January!
Along with them there was about 30 of us in total, from all over Argentina. A lot of Italians, girls from Thailand, people from Scandinavian countries, Germany, France, USA, Japan and the Czech republic. Every day everyone got a lot closer and by the end it was quite sad saying goodbye! It was amazing how I went only vaguely knowing someone, but by the end I made so many close friends! Definitely the best part of the experience!
So it all started on Friday the 24th. After a day of school I got ready and left Roca on a bus with Alessandro to Neuquen at 3.30pm. We got there about an hour later and met with all the students from Neuquen or those further south. Here is where I met Rosie! She introduced herself as a New Zealander and I was a little bit in shock, I was like huh? I was so stoked! Then I met Sanami from Japan and they turned out to be some of my good friends on the trip!

The first Bus sunset

Selfie with my fellow kiwi Rosie!

Petrol station breakfast #classy

The Bus trip to Buenos Aires was very fun! We basically met everyone and chatted about random things until we got tired and attempted to sleep. The bus had 'semi camas' which are pretty much like lazy boy recliners in the bus! Pretty comfy until it came to sleeping for many hours.. The bus was Double Decker and all the students were on the top level :) The trip was around 16 or so hours, we stopped quite a bit for meals so it broke up the time a bit luckily.

25/10 Saturday

We arrived at about 11ish in Buenos Aires and went to the Victory Hotel! This was quite a flash hotel so that was a bonus :) After lunch we had free time so we explored the centre of Buenos Aires. First stop was obviously starbucks, were we had Dulce de Leche Frappachinos! Ultimately a white iced chocolate with delicious caramel swirled through! ♥ Then we went shopping at Galerias Pacificas a beautiful 3 story mall

Galerias Pacificas ♥ Such a beautiful building

Starbucks! Even got to write my name on the cup!

Florida Street in Buenos Aires

After that we went on a city tour that was about 3 hours with 3 stops. We stopped at 'La Boca', a big park where there was a massive market and another just to walk around.

Buenos Aires!!

Some of our group, walking towards the 'TRAVEL' bus at the back of the picture

La Boca

Tango Show

Amazing gift shops here!

So colourful

26/10

After a night in the hotel recuperating, we woke up early and had breakfast at 7.30am to have Media lunas (croissants) and hot chocolate. A standard breakfast we would have on the trip. We had a free morning again so more shopping and starbucks! After lunch we set off again to Puerto Iguazu on a 17 hour bus trip… Out of bored-ness we tried to learn Japanese from Sanami and she wrote our names on our arms in Japanese!

Sanami!

Tish and Sanami in Japanese

27/10

After another night in the bus we arrived in san Ignacio at 10ish, where it was soo hot! 35 degrees at least, the heat there was like an oven. It was like a smothering heat! We looked around a cave where there were mineral formations and got a tour around the mineral pools as well. After dying of heat we left to Puerto Iguazu and finally got to our hotel! It reminded me so much of Rarotonga. The hotel, pools and just the feel of the place was very ‘Rarotonga’. After swimming in the beautiful pool we went into the centre and explored while eating the ice cream! So cheap here, only about $3.50NZD for a 3 scoop ice cream, step up your game NZ. 

San Ignacio

The Lobby of Hotel Carmen

28/10

Today was by far the hottest, full on, best day of the trip! We went to the Argentinian side of the falls! This involved 36 degrees of humid heat most of the day, keeping our faces nice and sweaty! We walked around so many different tracks and areas to see all the different views of the falls. I have so many photos but these are some of the best ones. It was so breath taking. I never thought it would look that good in real life! Looking at photos online or in tourist books you think of course it can’t be like that in real life but it actually is the same if not better! There were very cool lookouts that were so close to the falls that just by standing there you would get drenched! I also did the ‘Aventura Nautica’ which was a 30min jet boat ride in the lake and under the falls. Yes under the falls. They called it the Baptism of the Cataratas. It was amazing and so powerful that we couldn’t see a thing when we had our ‘shower’ but so wonderful! Such a great way to cool off J Also Iguazu have these animals called Coaties which are very vicious and have no fear of humans. Here we were eating ice creams when a whole mob of them came over trying to climb on our seats and bags! They just wouldn’t leave us alone, so freaky!

A Police Motorbike

Hoy (Thailand) and I 

THE KIWIS

Mara (Germany) and I

Coaties, disgusting things...

These signs were everywhere!

To finish the day we went to the 3 fronteras, where we could see the coast of Paraguay and Brazil. Such a spectacular sight! I couldn’t believe how close we were!

29/10

Today we to the Brazilian side of the falls! So in doing this we crossed the border into Brazil, I even have stamps in my passport to prove it! It took such a long time at least 40 minutes going in and even longer going back into Argentina. The city was called Foz do Iguaçu. Here we could see the whole view of the Argentinian side as well as the waterfalls located on the Brazil side. This side was a lot more commercialized, with buses running to different parts around the park. This meant there was so much more people! At times there would be people literally pushing you out of the way so they could get through. You can imagine we got sick of that very fast! There was a lot of walking on one single track that zigzagged down a hill taking us closer to the panoramic views of the falls. We also got to go on a platform where we got drenched by water which was really refreshing! For me the Argentinian side was better because there was more things to do and see but I guess it depends what its like on the day or what you like doing!

The Border crossing

New Zealander in Brazil!

Looking back to Argentina 

30/10
The adventure hadn't stopped just yet, today was the day we went to Iguazu Forest. Here we got a Jeep tour of the back roads of Puerto Iguazu, walked through the forest (while being annoyed and bitten by so many insects!!), ziplined and abseiled down a small waterfall! The Ziplining was so cool, even if the view was only forest the height and how fast we went definiely made up for it! It was amazing! The abseiling was awesome as well, we basically jumped off the small cliff then abseiled under the waterfall, covered in water, while slipping and sliding down the side of the waterfall into the lake below! Unfortunately I don't have any photos but another student took some, so you might see some soon!
Then that night we went to a show in brazil of traditional Latin American dances! Such a fun show :)

Start of the Ziplining platform

The third platform, so high!

31/10 1/11 2/11

The last few days were mostly travelling and getting ready to say good bye to everyone! We had a long bus ride to Buenos Aires overnight on the 31-1. Then we chilled there and did our last tourist shopping where I brought an Argentina top at last! We left early on the 2/11 to have a full day on the bus, taking photos and saying our last goodbyes until everyone meets again in January! It was sad saying goodbye but I made such good friends that it was all worth it!

Our last proper meal together! This is milanesa a traditional meat of Argentina. Could not eat it all, it was massive!

The Thailand girls and Litizia from Italy

Rosie!!

Thank you if you managed to read this far, this was a massive post so congrats! This trip was honestly so amazing, thank you to everyone I shared it with and all the people that made it all possible :) Chau!