Top 5: The friends in Murphy.

Third from bottom: A piece of art given to me from a friend.

Second from bottom: The flyer for the distortionados show. (Santi's band)

Bottom: Rodri after rugby practice.

Things have been going much better the last couple days with my family which makes me extremly happy. Yesterday I decided to go running for the first time which was great, the dirt roads through the farms are very beautiful.

Ive really started to make friends in Murphy which is good because Amelia isnt too fond of driving to Venado with gas being expensive. Since being here Ive thought that Murphy is a nice quiet pueblo and everybodys nice to each other, which is true but theres also a surrprising amount of violence. Two nights ago I was woken up from the noise of two gangs fighting in the plaza. Fights here rather serious because theres only one police unit in the pueblo and they don't have near enough power to stop the chaos.
I´m starting to talk in class! Taking part in classroom descusions is starting to become easier and easier, I might actually do all right in school.

School finally started last week which at this time is surprisingly good for me. Life around the house has been getting fairly boring so I´m starting to enjoy school more and more. Homework is starting to pick up and is extremly difficult.

I´ve come to know my classmates better after a week and my spanish has improved dramatically, its the only thing I´ve learned so far. Class is crazy because the teachers come around to you instead of you going to them so your in a room with the same 20 or so kids everyday, this leads to nobody paying attention and alot of throwing stuff at people. Staying focused is shown to be a difficult task but I´ve found good people to sit next too that will help me understand the material. The course schedule is fairly rigorous as well, unlike the US you dont have every class every day. This means Im taking 13 classes and I have 3 classes a day for 2 hrs each. I don´t know the names of many of these classes but they include computers, another computers course (we make web pages), god and life, ethics, psycology, chemistry,math,literature, english, history. In literature were supposed to read the short story el fin del juego by julio cortazar which is interesting . I read the story in spanish and english so that I could understand it but my host mom thinks I´m stupid due to the fact that she spent thirty minutes explaining a story to me that I´ve already read twice. Rodrigo does no work and never scolded which pisses me off because I´ve stayed completly organized and on top of my work (one assignment in the last week but its starting to pick up).

I went to rodrigos rugby practice today because Amelia wanted me to at least try it, to say the least its not my favorite sport. After 10 minutes the coach just told me to sit down which was fine by me since I didnt know the rules or any technique to the game.

Top two photos: Rodrigos birthday asado.

Bottom: Santiago

On friday night (rodrigos bday) all of the guys went to a soñado. Dancing here is great because you dont get started untill late but you go until the morning. We arrived at the soñado at 3 30 and drank and danced untill 6 which seems to be completely normal. I was amazed at how crowded the streets were in Venado Tuerto at 5 in the morning, more crowded than spokane at 5 in the afternoon. Last night once again we went to the soñado but arrived a little earlier, this time we started off the night by drinking a glass of fernet in the plaza. The soñado was really fun and I saw alot of people I knew. Dancing is an amazing way to meet people, Rodrigo introduced me to alot of kids from our school and alot of girls! At 4 the soñado closed and I was kind of confused because the night before it had been open much later but I soon realized it was closing because the night disco was opening. We took a taxi to the night disco where we drank and danced untill 8 30. I don´t think I´ve ever been so exhausted in my life. The disco is quite large, as a comparison for people in spokane its an indoor/outdoor club about 9 or 10 times bigger than the knitting factory.

Tomorrow is Rodrigos b-day! Lots of fun, we spent the day with Santiago and I got to listen to his band practice which was awsome, they´re surprisingly good. They were happy I enjoyed it and they made me sing some Pink Floydd and play a little bass. Santiago gave me a full tour of his house today (including bathrooms, showers in the bathroom, and closets) which I figured was a custom once you become their good friend, he told me that I´m welcome which made me happy because I´m actually making friends, Rodrigo and I are planning to stay the night there tomorrow.

Amelia took Rodrigo, Santi and I to school today and I met some teachers and assistants, I´m still very nervous for monday but Amelia seems to think I´ll do fine because my spanish took a big jump towards improvement today! Pictures will be up in a few minutes and the next blog post in about a week. chau!

Yesterday was my first full day in Murphy with my family. I went with Rodrigo in the morning to visit his dad at work on a farm and met his dads friend and work partner who seemed nice even though I couldn´t really understand anything he was saying. I met more of Rodrigos friends a few of which play in a rock band, Santiago the singer of the band wants me to go listen to them practice today and then go to the concert with Rodrigo this weekend.

I experienced my first Asado! It was great fun alot like American barbeques except the amount of food is rediculous. Angelos family runs a Carneceria so we picked all of the meat and bread up from their store which is attached to their house, a common layout in Argentina. The grill that the meat was cooked on was made out of brick and hard to explain but once I get the camera cord I´ll be sure to post some pictures.

Arrival

I´ve finally arrived to my family which is an amazing feeling since the journey was so long. The orientation in Miami was absolutely terrible since we couldn´t set a foot outside (except once for five minutes) and the activities were boring. The Buenos Aires was much better since all of the students got to start practicing their spanish with the Argeninean volunteers and the food was good. All of our meals seemed to be authentic Argentinean cuisine but only one of them I recognized which was empanadas con carne. The second day of the orientation was fantastic due to the fact that it was just a tour of Buenos Aires, we went to the graveyard in downtown Buenos Aires which is considered a social activity, we walked through an open air market, visited la casa rosada, and lastly went to la boca. I would go into detail but I don´t have much time. La boca was fantastic though the builings are all very colorful and it´s an incredibly up beat neighborhoodwith people dancing in the street and artists selling their latest work.

I´ve already noticed many changes between Argentinean culutre and American culture for example eating four meals a day instead of three! People are always outside as well, groups of boys and girls will just sit on the sidewalk to talk and lots of people go for evening walks or just sit out side their house observing people pass by. It truely amazed me how many people were just in the street at ten in the evening.The last thing I have already noticed is that Argentineans are always watching television, my family has one in their dinning room which is on all day including during meal time.

School is going to be rediculously hard and I´ll be taking senoir classes, I would love to post pictures but I must wait for MOM to send me my computer cord.