Pictures of Mar Del Plata (Part 2)

My host mom (Adrianna), my host dad (Daniel) and me!

The Port in Mar del Plata

Sea lions taking a nap in the Port 

Sean lions and a dog taking a nap together

They're cuddling! 

Mmmm.......

Chocolate and Mango.. It was amazing

Beach by Downtown Mar del Plata

Sea wall

Colegio (School)

I know I haven't said much about school or how my school days work so I thought I'd explain my daily routine a little:


 Every day I get up at 6:20 and get ready for school. We leave the house at 7:20 and I car pool with two other girls. School starts at 7:45. We have 4 subjects every day and our first 3 classes are about an hour and fifteen minutes long while our last class is 45 minutes long. I'm in the science branch in my school. Even though I'm technically a science student, all of the students still have to take: Spanish class, Ethics Class, Philosophy,  Literature, Geography and History. Seeing I'm a science student, I also have Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Our academic classes end at 12:45. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have Basketball after school and on Fridays I have Yoga class and Art class. 


 I've been at school for a couple weeks now and I really like it! Mind you, I still don't understand most of what is said in class but by next semester I think I will be able to participate more. 

Book we're reading for Literature 

Literature Class. It was a beautiful day out 

so we ditched the class room and 

took to the grass instead

My Literature teacher. She is so nice! Seeing I don't understand, 

one day she came to class and gave me a chocolate bar saying,

"Here. Seeing you don't understand you can entertain yourself

by eating chocolate"

I officially love her. 

Some of my classmates reading

Our school yard

There are a lot of tress and pick-nick tables; I love it. 

Me and the chicas! 

Me and the chicos

hahaha... yeah they have graffiti on everything in the class rooms. 

The desks, chairs, walls, board, ceiling, everywhere.

Doodles one of the guys made to escape the boredom... 

Oh good old high school.

Most of the graffiti is lyrics of songs 

and half of them are english songs

We don't have a lot of money,

All we need is love...

- Free by Zack Brown Band

I recognized this one! 

I guess the students we're a little bored today...

Closest thing you can find to a doughnut in Argentina

Apparently, some things are universal 

Name tag that Macu made for me

Arte Joven

Last week was Arte Joven week. Like I explained before, it's a week where the students get to showcase their artistic capabilities: whether it be in art, music, dance or theater. There are also workshops that you have the option of going to. My favorite part of the week was listening to all the music performances. They were so awesome! I'll let you listen and see for yourself how awesome my week was!  

Student Day!!!!

For all those wondering, Student Day lands on the first day of Spring and it's a day where all the Students get a day off school. A couple of people from my class invited me out to the beach because apparently that's what everyone does if the weather is good.  I thought it would be like everyone going to Gyro beach after school.... and it was. Except there was an extra 1000 people there all between the ages of 15 and 18.

So my day consisted off walking on the beach, getting ice cream (I scream, you cream, we all scream for ice scream! - Never ever teach that song to anyone named Benve), drinking mate, playing with puppies, eating touros (type of food - whose name I probably spelt wrong), and just hanging out and talking. 

Needless to say, it was a fun day!

See all those people? Yah? They're all under 20...

.... it was crazy

Hello, Atlantic Ocean

Here's a picture for you dad! There are quite a few sailboats

sailing around Mar Del Plata. My friends tell me there will be a 

lot more in the summer. It was also funny to here Mar go 

"Oh no! They're going to tip over!"

When the sailboats mast got to be a couple feet away from hitting the water.

If you look to the right of the picture you'll see a flat spot full

of people. It was packed like that all afternoon. Not to mention the

huge beach. This beach is apparently the one all the 

young people hangout at.

Benve, me, Marti and Mar

Martu, me, Marti, and Mar

The girls drinking Mate. Seriously, people bring and drink

mate everywhere: at home, on the street, on the beach, at school, 

in the car, everywhere. If you can think of a place in Argentina,

I guaranty they drink mate there.

(By the way, that weird looking cup that Marti is holding is what

they drink mate out of and the thing pointing out of the cup is 

a mettle straw which you drink from)

Benve's golden retriever puppy!!!!

Touros (A delicious Argentinean dessert/food - its like a 

sugar coated, deep fried pastry with Dulce de Leche or chocolate inside)

And yes... there is a straw coming out of my coke bottle. 

Apparently that's how they do it here. Seems kind of like a waste of plastic

to me but who am I to judge! 

When in Rome, do as the Romans do

One thing I forgot to add! My friend was giving me advice on what to wear to go to the beach. She told me to bring pants and a sweater because it would be cold and not to bother bringing my bathing suit. I swear for the first couple of hours we were out I was dying. It had to be at least 26 degrees out and all the Argentineans were all wearing sweaters and I was dying from heat! I swear if I had brought my bathing suit I would have done the polar bear dip into the ocean to get some relief from the hot weather. When I told my friends, they all looked at me like I was crazy and then firmly told me I was crazy. I've never felt so Canadian in my life! 

School

So, I've had two weeks of school... And I have yet to find a similarity between my old school, K.S.S. and my new school, Illia.


It all started my first day. You know how at KSS, the principal gives the exchange students their schedule and says "Good luck finding your first class in our huge school" and sends them off to fend for themselves? Well my first day at Illia couldn't have been any more different. I arrived at school uncharacteristically nervous (mostly because I couldn't speak any spanish) and met up with my Rotary Counselor, Mr. Fenucci, who then took me to go meet the principal. Upon meeting the principal, I go to give him a hand shake but end up getting kissed on the cheek instead leaving my hand held out kind of awkwardly... All I have to say is I wasn't expecting that. I knew that complete strangers kissed you all the time in Argentina but principals? And teachers? It's safe to say I was a teeny tiny bit weirded out...


Then for awhile they all talked in spanish around me while I sat there wondering what they were saying about me. It turned out that I got put in the Science department. I know all of my friends and family at home are probably laughing right now... For those who don't know, Math, Physics and Chemistry are my worst subjects.


So when we left the principals office, I fully expected to get pointed in the direction of my class and then be on my way. Instead, I get met at the door by some nice girls who speak fluent english who tell me they are so excited to have me in their class. They then brought me to their class (which was right in the middle of a Spanish lesson), stood me up in front of everyone and introduced me. Back at KSS, something like this never happens. As an exchange student your expected to find your first class on your own and you never get brought up in front of the class to get introduced.


What happened next also would never ever ever happen in Canada...


So after being introduced, every single person in the class (including the teacher) got up to give me a kiss on the cheek and welcome me. There was at least 25 people in the class. That's like 25 kisses on the cheek in the space of 2 minutes. Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a large group of people who are all kissing you from different directions. As a person who never got kissed on the cheek back at home, it was kind of surprising. Also it was a new record: 25 kisses in 2 minutes. That's one I don't think I'm ever going to be able to beat.


I learnt a lot on my first day. For instance, I learnt that everyone stayed in the same class for the whole year and the teachers were the ones who moved. Not only that, the students in my class had all been in the same class since last year (Grade 10) and they were now all in Grade 11. They also would be with the same students in their senior year too. This had taken awhile for me to get used to seeing how at KSS  you moved for each class and were constantly meeting new kids. So far, I'm not quite sure what system I like better. On one hand, meeting a lot of new people is great but on the other hand, my class in Argentina reminds me of a big family. They all know each other well seeing they spend 6 hours a day, 5 days a week together. I don't know which is better: A couple of good friends and many acquaintances or  a classroom full of people you know very well.


Over the past two weeks I've really gotten used to my new school and I find I really like it. The students are great, I've made some awesome new friends (I'll give a little shout out to some... Marti and Martu (the two Martina's), Macu (Macarena), Mar, Benve and Karu) and everyone is so so nice here. I also really like how they serve full dinners sized meals for lunch at the school cafeteria. Not only that, the food actually is good (and healthy!). I haven't ate at the cafeteria much yet (either then for coffee seeing my host family only has the instant stuff) but I plan to more in the upcoming weeks. I'll make sure to take pictures of the food I get so I can make my sister jealous back at home haha! My classes are good but to be honest, I still don't really understand any of them... I guess it will just take time.


For extra curricular activities I'm taking Basketball and Art. I've had one class of each and I can already say I'm really going to enjoy them. Especially Basketball. I will also be taking Yoga at the school on Fridays.  


Also last week was Arte Hoven Week . I'm going to post a separate blog post about that as soon as I can get my videos up and running. To give you a small hint to what Arte Hoven is, it's a week where students get to showcase their talent, whether is be art, music, theater, poetry or creative writing.


To sum it all up, I love Illia school and I'm having a lot of fun!

My first day of school I got offered some cake... I 

actually have no idea why there was cake in the first place 

but I wasn't going to complain!

Me + (Martina X 2)

Marti (left) Martu (right)

Benve (left) and Mar (right)

on their Birthday!

The amazing cakes they brought to school 

(Sometimes I think the students here will use any excuse 

to party and eat cake!)

Marti, Benve and I with the piñata full of candy 

Me and Hano with a string of ballons behind us which

we're put up by the students for Mar and Benve's Birthday

Learning physics while eating cake 

Me and my class! 

(some of them are missing because they are on a ski trip with the school)