Week 2 & still alive.

So far so good, I'm able to keep up with myself!

B.A-town

We went to downtown Buenos Aires, Saturday. It was really fun. We started out in the tourist plaza place, where all the government building are. Their "white-house" is actually pink because back in the days, they used milk and beef blood to have waterproof paint. One of their presidents even went through this gorey rampage killing all the natives... and he used their blood one year (with milk) SICK. Anyway... after that we went to this restaurant called Siga la Vaca (litterally Follow the Cow) where there was a MEAT buffet. The fat old chef would put meat on a grill (any (ANY) kind of meat.. intestine, gorge, ribs, ...) and grill it over fire. bueenno (for those who love meat. HA.) After that... we headed to Walmart for 3 effing hours! It was good, I was able to get a bunch practical (and unpractical) stuff for quite cheap. The Walmart wasn't that different from North American Walmarts. Maybe a bit smaller, but still quite interesting. The alcohol section was ginormous. I don't remember quite well, but I don't think we even have wine in our Walmart.

Routine, routine, routine

This week, we've started the regular routine: orientation is over. A normal day consists of :

6:30 - Wake up

7:00 - Breakfast

8:00/10:00 - Class

10:20/11:00 - Chapel

11:30 - Class

1:00 - Lunch

2:30/3:45 - Study Hall

4:15/6:00 - Work or sports

7:00 - Supper

8:30/9:45 - Study Hall

10:00- In rooms + lights out at 10:30

Classes, Work & Sports

Spanish classes are good. It's still quite easy, but at least it's fun! We do grammar, and vocab and games! Somehow, you learn a lot more in the commedor (dining hall) and in the cuarto (dorm) than in the clase. Our teacher is really nice though. Her name is Sylvia and she's really down to earth, but her English is quite limited. I think that it's just an advantage because it makes you have to learn to listen & understand faster.

We've also had an evangelisation class everyday this past week. They're showing us to use the "evangecube" as a method to share the gospel on the street with basically anyone. It's interesting. We're going to have the chance to try it out Monday when we all go out into BA for "Dia de la Primavera" (Spring Day). No one has school and all get drunk and high to celebrate spring. I'm guessing that it's kinda like our June 24th.

The whole student body has to participate in a sport and a work assignment twice a week. My sport is handball, Wednesday, they had this whole welcoming "let's-get-to-know-the-new-English-girls" time. It was nice bonding time. So sports Wednesdays and Fridays sports... and Tuesdays, Thursdays are work. My job is gardening. It may sound a little lame, but it's better than cleaning toilets. Plus, during the summer, I'll be working out in the sun, getting a nice little taaan, it'll be good.

alright. The end for this week!

New post after Monday. Street Evangelism for the first time... in a drunk crowd. It'll be good!

p.s: Pictures are up on FB.

It's been a week.

Hola friends!

Weather
I have arrived safe and sound in Argentina. It is so nice here, except for the weather. Supposedly, last week was beautiful weather, but since we arrived, it has rained basically every single day. It’s spring in Argentina… so I suppose that this is normal. People say the weather will be getting better and better, warmer and warmer. Hopefully.

Arrival & PBB
What better way to start a letter than by talking about the weather! Ok. Now for the real deal.
After about 14h of plane I arrived in the country. Got to the airport and had to find the people with the Word Of Life (WOL) sign. No luck. I stood there for about 30 minutes waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally a girl came up to me and was like: “ Are you American? ” (phhht!) anyway, it was the right person (without a sign). A couple of the PBB (Programa Biblica Bilingue) were already there. I recongized a boy from the plane. The other PBB’s are nice. A couple of the boys are hilarious and others try to be. The girls are girls… and are really nice too. I got to know 3 of them pretty good. We’re a good bunch.

Monte & Palabra de Vida
We got to Monte (about 45 minutes from B.A) and went to a restaurant! Good steak was served… and for me to say it was good steak, it was really, really good steak (I’ve always disliked steak). Then, with tummies reaaal full, we went back to the BI where we got installed.
I met the chicas in my cuarto. We are 7: Lavinia (24, from Romania), Melissa (19 or 20 from Colombia), Celesta (20-ish, from Argentina), Lisa (21-ish, from USA), Teresa (20-ish, from I don’t remember where) and Émilie (20, from Montreal). The hardest thing for me was the language. Surpriiisee. No, but seriously. I felt so lame: I wanted reaaaaaal hard to communicate but couldn’t as much as I wanted to. That’s the hardest part. But things are going better… I’ve decided to be like what the heck and just talk “Spanish” even though it doesn’t make any sense. Surprisingly enough, latinos look at me with confused eyes when I do so and say: “Hablas español?”. I’m like oooh no buddy! Just a little. But it’s really encouraging.

Orientation
Slowly, we are getting used to the routine here. We're still in orientation week, so no Spanish classes until tomorrow or Friday. Orientation-ing is starting to get old. But if we didn't have it... we wouldn't be orientated... right?!

U.M.E

Every Wednesday night there is this thing called U.M.E. Basically it's a whole 2 hours or so taken to pray for different countries. Every student picks a country (Argentina, Gaza, Asia, Chilie, Mexico, Italy are a few) and commits himself to pray for it. Then, during UME they have a special presentation, some songs and a prayer time... It's really great

Show Infantil

Tonight, there's going to be a musically theatre presentation or something. It's an outreach for the kids of Monte. They will be able to hear about the Gospel and see a pretty cool show at the same time (seriously, I saw a bit of it... it will be amazing!)

That's basically it for now.
I think I'll try updating once a week or so.

Much love.

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Prayer Requests

1. LANGUAGE. All that's need to be said. I've been put into the beginners class... but I'm hoping to be able to move up to the intermediate asap. (There are only 2 classes)
2. Purpose. That I may see it. For real and intensly.