Day 3 of the South Trip

Today we got up bright and early and had a normal Argentinean breakfast including a variety of pastries (croissants, toast, scones, cookies, ect), coffee and juice. Afterwards, we were left on our own for 2 hours in which time we had to find something to take on the bus with us to eat for lunch. We would be driving for most of the day. What the other exchange students and I found interesting with this is that back in most of our countries, the exchange students are very looked after and sheltered. Here, they expect you to be independent and work out a lot of stuff out for yourself. And so that’s what we did. Four other exchange students and I wondered around asking people if they knew if there was a grocery store close by until a very nice guy gave us directions to one.

            I guy names Andrew from the U.S. (who I already knew before the trip because he lives in my city) split groceries together. On our way out, the security guard asked us where we were from. I guess it’s not surprising that he found out that we were foreigners because there was 30 odd exchange students in the store all speaking in very strange spanish accents. Or it might have been the fact that Andrew is a VERY tall guy with blue eyes and blond hair… Either way, when we started listing off the places we were from, the look on his face grew more and more shocked with every country we listed. It kind of made my day haha!

            We then spent most of the day driving until finally, we got to the penguin sanctuary! I have keeping a bucket list since I was 12 and one of the things on it was to see a penguin! And I did! Hundreds of them! As well and wild llamas… who just so happened to be hanging out with the penguins! It was so cool!

The llamas hanging out with the penguins

Me all of a foot away from a penguin

All of those black dots? Yup, they're penguins

The Mar Del Plata exchange students 

I'M BACK!

Sorry for not updating sooner! Computer troubles! But they're (mostly) fixed now! Hope you enjoy my new posts!

Blog: On Hold

So for some reason my computer isn't letting me download the pictures I took off of my camera. I'm going to try to fix it by tomorrow but I don't know if I will be able to. I will update my blog as soon as possible. Sorry! 

Day 2: Museum, Beaches and the City of Trelew

So after a measly 3 hours of sleep on the bus, we dragged ourselves up and out of the bus and into a Dinosaur museum. We got to see all the Dinosaurs that used to live in Argentina before becoming extinct. After that we drove to the Hotel we were staying at in Trelew, where we all got to eat and have quick showers before going to the beach. After that we went to a small, cute town with a famous Tea Museum before heading back to the hotel. We then got free time to explore the city and rest before having dinner and then heading to bed. 

South Africa, Finland, United States

Oh silly South Africa.... (it's funny how a lot of the time we would just call

each other by our countries)

Crazy people... Let's just say there is a reason why he is running in, not walking

The crazies all swimming

"The House of Tea"

The tea museum

Beautiful sidewalk

The view from my hotel bedroom window

The view from my hotel bedroom window

Day 1: Driving, Meeting and Greeting

My first day of my trip to the South all we did was drive and drive and drive. All the kids from Mar Del Plata all got on a mini bus to meet up with the big Bus with everyone else on it. We boarded the bus at 2:00pm and met up with the other bus at around 6:00pm. From there we drove throughout the night. The bright side to this is that I really started to get to know the other 50 kids I was going to spend the next 10 days with. With how much time we spent on the bus, you got to know everyone really well. I don't think this would have happened if we weren't confined in a small space like we were on the bus. 

One of the highlights of this trip was not all the amazing places we saw (don't get me wrong, that was awesome too!) but all the different people I got to meet from all over the world. There is not many places where you can have a conversation in Spanish, then a minute later one in English and then 5 minutes later one in French. It got to the point that if a person said half a sentence in Spanish, and the other half in English, it was something perfectly normal. I was even guilty of doing that, except with French and Spanish. It's also not every day where you get to learn how to say "I love you" in 7 different languages (including languages like Africans, German and Finnish).

This is the bus that I called home for the 10 days. This is the upstairs of the bus where all the exchange students hungout, talked and slept. There is also a downstairs but that was the adults part of the bus. I spent 4 nights sleeping on this bus as well as another almost 2 full days here. 

This is exactly why I got to know all the other people on the bus so well. You can't even look out your window because all you see is never ending flatness for 95% of the bus ride. There is nothing else to do but watch movies and talk.

More never ending flatness. 

Don't worry, my second day was MUCH more exciting! 

I'M BACK

I'm back from my Rotary Bus Trip and I had sooooo much fun! The trip I went on was a trip to explore the Southern region of Argentina and even though there was a couple bumps on the road, I can honestly say it was the most fun I have had since arriving in Argentina. It was AMAZING. I also have an extra 900 pictures or so from that trip not to mention 50 or so new friends from all around the world. I won't be able to post all of the pictures but I'm going to try to post as many as possible. Unfortunately, there is too much to say and too many pictures to post to put it into one blog post so I'll hopefully be posting at least one blog post everyday for the next week or so. Enjoy!


** There are a lot of pictures of me, especially group pictures, that other people have taken with their cameras that I don't have. So I'll be going back to a lot of my posts about this trip and adding pictures as the days go on so make sure to check back once and awhile to see if I have added more.

Argentina's Version of Prom

La Fiesta de Egresados is the Argentinean version of "Prom". I went to prom with my friends a couple weeks back. It's very similar to the prom we have in Canada except for a couple key differences:


1. While prom starts at 5:00pm in Canada, here it starts at 10:00pm
2. The parents can go to the dinner with their graduating kids
3. The dance portion of the night starts at 2:00am. This is when the rest of the school and friends of the graduates show up (this is also when I showed up).
4. While Prom in Canada ends at midnight, here the party keeps going until dawn. Literally. They kick everyone out at around 7:30 in the morning.


Either then that, the prom in Canada and the Fiesta de Egresados is pretty similar. You'll see below that me and my friends are wearing "classy club clothes". This is because we're not graduating. The graduates wear long flowy dresses usually (and there are no puffy princess dresses like you see in Canada). 

All dresses up and ready to go!

This is exactly why wearing heels around Argentinean

girls is not a good idea. Look how tall I am

with heels on compared to the other girls!

Check out the shoes I'm wearing. My friend and I

switched shoes after she heard my dad

wanted me to start wearing heels like a girl.

There yah go dad.