Urban Expedition 2014!

Saturday, September 20

Today I went to the church because the youth group invited me to a scavenger hunt.  We met up at the church and got into groups.  At first I was nervous because I didn't know many people, but I recognized a couple of people that I met last week and I was getting to know new people. We were split up into groups and given a picture.  The picture was of a place in the city where we had to go to receive our first clue. I'm glad I was in a group of Argentinean people because I had no clue where the picture was taken! So all of us ran out of the church and made our way to the Plaza de Intendencia.  When we got there, we met Marcos (Hey! We've got the same name!).  Marcos told us that in order to get the clue, we had to ask a stranger to juggle 5 balloons! One of the girls with us boldly walked up to someone nearby and asked.  He said ok and we got our clue!  Soy muy pequeño, y paseo con los perros. ("I'm really small, and I ride on dogs..."). Paseo de las Pulgas! (the flea market where artisans sell their wares.) 

So we quickly walked to our next destination, while asking people to answer survey questions and doing silly tasks (these questions and tasks count as bonus points in the scavenger hunt.) When we got there, we eventually found Flor, who told us for the next clue, we had to be artisans and make something to sell here.  One of the girls made a bracelet out of wire and sold it for 25 cents! Yes!! Next clue went something like: Soy perezoso y me gusta la miel. ("I'm lazy and I like honey"). The answer was bear, so it had to be Museo Caraffa! (Caraffa Museum of Fine Arts has a statue of a polar bear in front of it.)

As we quickly moved towards the museum, we continued to do bonus tasks.  Like sweeping the street, giving free hugs, and other things. When we got to the museum, Mica was waiting for us.  This time we had to dance in the street at a red light in order to get the next clue. So after a little group discussion, we decided to do the Macarena during the red light.  The people in the cars were laughing and probably wondering what in the world we were doing!

After the dance, it took us a while to receive our next clue, because it was starting to get dark and we couldn't find it. As we looked, we continued to do bonus tasks.  I ate hot sauce.  Mati raced someone and gave a piggyback ride. And then we found the clue. John 10:11 Yo soy el Buen Pastor: el buen pastor su vida da por las ovejas. ("I am the Good Shepherd...") We had to go to Paseo del Buen Pastor (it's a place downtown where a lot of people go to hang out.)

When we got there, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE!!! Apparently there was a concert going on. Anyway, in order to get our last clue, we had to convince a group of people to sing a song for us. That was difficult. But we finally did it, so we got our last clue: telling us to meet up in Plaza San Martín.  We had to hurry! As we went, we kept doing bonus tasks, like making a human pyramid and asking someone to sing a verse from a love song. We finally made it to the Plaza. We were the 2nd group there. When all the groups came, we all went to the church together. 

At the church, there was an asado waiting for us!!! Good. I was sooo hungry! As we ate, the judges were looking at all of our photos and videos (that's how we proved we did what we did) AND OUR TEAM WON!!!!!!!!!!!!! We won some chocolates. I had a really good time.  Not only because we won, but because I got to get to know the city better and I made new friends. 

Some new friends

Viernes al pedo

*Note: In Argentina, al pedo means "not doing anything, unproductive, lazy, etc." en pedo means "hopelessly and ridiculously drunk."

Today I hardly did ANYTHING!!!
I slept in, I didn't even really eat breakfast, I did a little homework, I was on Youtube and Facebook...
Oh I also ran a mile and bought some meat for an asado tomorrow. I had lunch and dinner... That's pretty much all I did today- Tsk. shame on me!

Oh well. Tomorrow will be better.

Merienda with Carolina!

*Note: Merienda is an afternoon snack, between lunch and dinner.

After class, Elsa asked if I was coming, and I said not today. I waited on Carolina to get out of the HR event.  She and her friend from middle school, Bruno came out and we left together. We rode the bus for about an hour to get downtown, and the fact that Av General Paz was closed because of a protest made it even longer! But we didn't mind.  Caro and I were catching up and talking about our lives and future plans. Bruno is pretty cool, although a little reckless. Whenever the light was red, he would cross anyway while we waited for it to change.

Anyway, we went to a pastry shop called Lapana.  I met another one of Caro's friends from middle school- Emi. Emi had actually gone to the US to visit Caro for a week last semester, but we never met. She's nice. Bruno had gone to talk to a friend he recognized across the street.  We ordered and chatted.  Apparently Caro wants to go back to the US for a while. We had a lot of fun.

Merienda is just a "snack!"

Bruno joined us later and when we finished, he had to leave. So Caro, Emi and I went across the street to Paseo del Buen Pastor (Remember I wanted to visit here?) We sat on the steps to keep hanging out and chatting.  Carolina kept asking me all of the questions she was asked in the US: "How do you like it here? What's your favorite thing about Córdoba? What struck you as different here? Have you visited ____ yet? All of these and more! We were sitting in front of a statue of Rodrigo, an iconic Cordoban singer who tragically died in a car accident.  One of his best known songs was called "Soy Cordobés" (I'm Cordoban). We took a picture.

Took a picture with Rodrigo. Soy Cordobés!

After a while, we were planning on other activities when it started raining.  So we walked to the bus stop and waited for the bus to show.  When it did, I said goodbye and went home. I really enjoyed today.

Shopping again with French people! What a crazy day!

Today again, I decided to meet up with Elsa at the the Dinosaur mall. Today she was going to buy a cellphone and a present for Audrey, since it's her birthday today. Hiem came too. What would a French girl like Audrey want? They decided a scarf was a good idea. Elsa told us that there were scarves in the store she bought her flip flops in, and Hiem said she wanted some flip flops too. So we went. When we walked into the department store, Elsa was going directly for the scarves, but Hiem stopped immediately to look at a blouse. And a shirt. And some pants. Dépêche-toi Hiem! (Hurry up!) ;)

We arrived at the flip flop section.  Hiem didn't like them. Moving on. We found the scarves, and they started looking for one that was Audrey's style.  They found some good ones, but not at a good price. So we looked in other places, and they finally found one!

 

They were planning to go eat sushi with the birthday girl.  They invited me, but I was already booked. So we parted ways.  I went home, ate a quick lunch and went to UBP.  I was going to meet a professor from the architecture program. She had asked around if there was anyone willing to give English classes and my name popped up. So we chatted and organized for our classes that will start next week.  I also saw Carolina! She was on campus today because there was an HR event today. We started catching up, but when I saw my classmates walking by, they reminded me that I had class. Caro and I decided to meet up later and have merienda (afternoon snack).

After class, I was hanging out with my friends, when a bunch of journalists came to take pictures and interview Keisuke.  I have no idea why, but they were doing a story on him! It was so funny watching them take him aside, put him in poses and take pictures! What a crazy day! but it's not over yet...

Keisuke (his back is turned) "studying" for the journalists.

Test Prep and French Power!

Today in History we played a review game because we have a test next week. On Monday, the professor gave us a study guide and told us to look over it for the game. Today, we made groups and competed in a quiz show type of game.  The professor read us the question, and we had to raise our hand first to answer and gain a point. However, if we had the wrong answer, we would lose a point!

Elsa, Keisuke and I were a team.  We called ourselves the Napoleons (Elsa's idea!). We started out rough, but soon enough we were on a roll!  Elsa knew a lot of the questions and she got us in the lead! We had our usual class break and when we started up again, the professor said we couldn't use our notes anymore, but that there was no more wrong answer penalty. As we played on, I helped keep us in the lead.  The Napoleons won and we got a box of chocolates.  We split it among ourselves and class was over.

Professor Martinez is a really good teacher. I hate history, but he makes it interesting.  He's engaging and personal, objective and sincere. And he didn't leave the other teams just watching us get chocolate.  He bought smaller goody bags as "consolation prizes"so that everyone had chocolate. He's really good.

Tango Lesson Number One

Today was a good day at school.  I studied with Elsa (direct promotion, here I come!) and then I took an easy "quiz" in Lit. In culture we had a good conversation about the geography of Argentina. and then I went home.  Here's the good part.

I got ready and went with Sofia to a Tango lesson.  There's a place that gives free lessons! So I went, and I loved it! I met some of Sofia's friends, and I made some new ones of my own.  Since I'm such a novice, I went off to the side of beginners and we learned the basic step.  It was similar to what I learned in Buenos Aires, but different. Ẃe practiced and practiced and practiced the basic step.  I was the only beginning guy, so I danced with most of the beginning girls.  I was finally starting to get the hang of it when it was time to go! So I'm going to practice with Sofia and go back next week. It was so fun!

It's incredibly late, but now I'm finally caught up. Happy reading :)

I'm so happy :)

Today I had a really good conversation about Jesus.