Learning the Lingo

It's getting cold here. Really cold. Far too cold for this poor Australian. In truth it's probably not all that bad, but in contrast to the pleasant, shorts and t-shirt weather of the north from which I recently returned, this is quite a shock to the body. My body's immediate reaction was to come down with a pretty uncomfortable case of the flu. I'm slowly recovering but I'm still a little under the weather and have been able to mooch a day or two off school from my (mostly) sympathetic family. Elsa's natural tendency as a mother and doctor is to take every possible precaution and check up on me several times a day, but they have all found my reaction to the weather to be quite amusing. Yesterday my host family was joking about sending me off to a warmer climate e.g. Brazil, in exchange for a slightly more accustomed exchange student, e.g. a Norwegian.

I find that sometimes even  the car trip to school in the morning can be quite a way out of my comfortable temperature range. Perhaps watching the reading on the outside temperature gauge drop to -5oC doesn't help. However, I gained a greater appreciation for the luxury of the car when my host father had to leave early this morning to get to a course in Neuquén and my host brothers and I had to layer up and brave the icy roads on foot. Thankfully when I arrived at the school library, the staff were ready and waiting with some nice warm mate. I'm currently awaiting a care package from home containing some extra clothes so that I can get some more layers happening as the weather cools off even further. I can't say I'm super excited about the mercury dropping a further 10 degrees over the course of my stay, although it will be a new challenge for me and I look forward to the promise of snow, quite likely in the next month! For someone who has, much to the amazement of the locals (and probably most overseas readers of this blog), never seen snow falling from the sky, this is a new experience that I will willingly endure the cold for! Already, a light covering of snow can be seen atop the mountains towards San Martin and our friendly local volcano, Lanin, has taken on more of a stereotypical 'volcano-y' look, with the top half covered in a thick layer of white. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Lanin sporting this look.. I do however have some of it bearing a bit of a snow-covering. I took these pictures on my latest 'walking group' expedition with Luis. 

This walk wasn't anywhere near as spectacular or challenging as my first two experiences, but having just returned from our trip to Iguazu, I happily welcomed the light weight trek to get me back into the swing of things. This time we didn't have to drive to begin our hike, simply setting out from town. We covered a great deal of terrain that I had previously covered on runs with Luis earlier in my stay and it was quite interesting to see the dramatic changes in the scenery. While many of the spectacular greens, blues and brilliant yellows have now been replaced by oranges, browns and a far more pale shade of yellow, in my opinion, my surroundings have not become any less beautiful. I look forward to seeing what else the landscape has in store while I'm here.

At about the half way point in our walk we stopped by the river to have a nice asado lunch - chori-pan - the Argentinian equivalent of sausage sandwiches. However I feel that this description probably does them a bit of injustice, they were delicious!! Everyone was of very high spirit and it was lovely sitting around by the river sharing mate, stories and a few laughs. Our group had grown quite considerably since the last hike - I think we numbered around thirty. Whether this was due to the promise of a less demanding walk and a bbq lunch or simply word of the group spreading, I cannot be sure. I like to think that I have had some effect on the growing numbers, with people eager to meet the lovely Australian boy with his stilted yet creative take on the Spanish language.

My Spanish (they prefer if I call it Castellano here) is coming along really well. Before leaving for the north, I was feeling that my language had come to a bit of a standstill. Motivated by the progress of my fellow exchange students, on my return, I endeavoured to make a greater effort to participate in conversation in Spanish. This I am modelling on the English of some of my friends who speak it as a second or even third language. They just throw themselves into it, unafraid of whether they use the right tense or correct grammar and unperturbed if they are not fully understood, simply learning from each conversation and making rapid progress. While we sat to eat our lunch on the walk outside of Junin, I made the effort to chat with some of my fellow walkers, but was soon overwhelmed as those nearby moved in to ask questions and share their own opinions. On the return leg of the trek, however, I walked alongside my host mother and eventually decided to strike up conversation and see how long I could keep it going for. We ended up speaking non-stop all the way back to town. I was always able to convey my intended meaning and maintain her interest in what I was saying. My grammar was probably quite poor and I didn't feel all that fluent but I felt a massive improvement in both my speaking and understanding in the hour that we conversed for. Who would have thought that the best way to learn to speak a language would be to talk..

It appears that my Spanish teacher also got the memo about me wanting to practice my speaking. When I sat down for my first lesson since returning to Junín, she said something along the lines of "I think we've done enough grammar for now; it's time to put it into practice!" So we chatted for the entire duration of the lesson and then continued on for a half hour afterwards . By the time I leave Argentina she's going to be an expert on Temora and Australian history and culture. I've been trying to carry this conversational ability into daily life, but still prefer situations were I am speaking with only one or two people. It's a bit of a challenge after spending the first half of my time here preferring to simply listen and learn but, now that the words have started to flow, I doubt there'll be any stopping them. I guess it was inevitable that someone who likes to talk as much as myself would eventually tire of not having a say. I have to be patient though - now that I'm conversing more with people I've learnt the first unspoken rule of conversational etiquette when it comes to talking to foreigners like myself - the native speaker always gets the first say and right of way. In general, the Argentinians love to talk and I often just have to sit and wait for them to stop for a breath before I can have any input. I guess that's how people feel when they're speaking to me in English.. They're almost always very entertaining to listen too though and I'm finding that speaking in Spanish is now less of a chore and something that I really enjoy.

I've also had my first instances of not being understood in Spanish simply because of my accent. Even if I know that the sentence I've formed makes perfect sense, if I'm a little lazy in toning down the Australian accent I'm likely to get the same bemused expression as if I'd just spoken a phrase of Aussie slang. Thankfully Agus, who is much more accustomed to my accent, is often on hand to 'translate'. An improvement in language has also led to an improvement in my joke-making ability, much to my delight and I'm sure to the delight of my host family.

I am still encountering the occasional person really eager to try out their English, particularly younger people. Some, like the occasional kindergarten-aged kids that I meet when we go to get-togethers, are content just hearing me speak in English - even if it's something as simple as telling them my name and where I'm from.  The usual response is wide smiles and a few giggles, but every now and then there will be a wide-eyed child sitting in stunned disbelief that someone can so easily rattle-off some English. I had one amusing encounter at the CEF where I play futbol, when a twelve-year-old refused to believe that I was from Australia and that I spoke English as a first language. 

I often wonder to what point my language will progress before I return to Australia. While being 'fluent' is currently far beyond consideration, I've already come a long way and hope to make much greater improvements before my time here is up - a point in time that doesn’t feel all that far away now that I've passed the half way mark in my little adventure. I'm struggling to come to come to grips with how quickly time has passed and how much I've managed to see and do so far! I'm sure I'll be heading home before I know it, however I can also be certain that I have plenty more awesome experiences ahead of me here in Argentina.

Viaje a Las Cataratas del Iguazú

On the 30th of April I set out on what was to one of my most enjoyable experiences of my exchange so far. I was bound for Rosario to join ten of my fellow exchange students on a trip to the Iguazu Falls in the province of Misiones in the far north-east of Argentina. 

My journey didn't start out all that well. I managed to miss my first bus due to an error in departure times by my coordinator. We went in pursuit of the bus, however once we had made it half way to Neuquén (where I would be changing buses), my coordinator decided she might as well drive me the remaining few hours to the province's capital. There I was met by one of their friends who is studying at university in Neuquén. She is fluent in English so we chatted away for the next few hours while she listened to the announcements to make sure I wouldn't miss my bus to Rosario.
The bus to Rosario took around twenty hours, but thankfully most of this was overnight travel and I was able to sleep most of the way. Due to a dodgy train system, buses are the most popular method of long distance travel in Argentina. For this reason, the companies are in hot competition and all possess top quality, super comfortable double-decker buses. If you're wanting to see the country, one of these buses is an ideal way to do so!

I arrived at the WEP offices several hours before most of the other students, so I was taken to the lovely home of the WEP Argentina director (conveniently located just around the corner from the WEP offices) where I could shower and sleep before spending a little while having a wander around Rosario.
When everyone had arrived we spent a while catching up about our adventures so far. While everyone's experiences have been unique, there was general consensus that mine has been particularly different. My life here contrasts greatly to almost everyone else's - not surprising considering that most are centred around the big city of Rosario, while I live in a relatively tiny town on the opposite side of the country. Many were very jealous my beautiful surroundings and said that they would love to visit me here if it wasn't such an insanely long journey to get here.

We then loaded our gear into the minibus that would be carrying us the rest of the way to the Falls. This would later be dubbed "The Bus from Hell". Twenty-four straight hours in a cramped, far from comfortable minibus on long, straight and mostly very boring roads would never be my preferred method of travel. This being said, I would be hard-pressed to find a group of people I would rather share the journey with. The travelling was already half over for me, so it wasn't quite as daunting, and through all the complaining, freezing night hours and numb back-sides, the trip wasn't all that bad. Once we got a fair way north, the scenery started to get really cool - very different to anything I had seen up to that point. The dirt turned a deep red (reminding me a lot of the dirt in Temora) and everything slowly became more 'jungle-looking'.

Having had very few opportunities to speak English for an extended period of time since our orientation week, I was loving being able to regain my voice! The irony is that my vocal chords weren't all that prepared for the onslaught of language and ten hours of nonstop talking resulted in the loss of my voice for the next few days.. Not wanting to waste the opportunity to speak English however, I kept on talking (much to the delight of my fellow travellers) and slowly gravelled my way back to full health. 

Our first stop as far as the major attractions went was the San Ignacio ruins - the remains of a mission set up several centuries ago in an attempt to convert the natives. Our guide gave some pretty interesting talks in both English and Spanish and I quite enjoyed wandering the ruins. While we were all glad to be free of the minibus and regaining feeling in the parts of our bodies that had fallen asleep, our exhaustion and hunger put a little bit of a damper on things.

After a few food and rest stops, we finally arrived at our accommodation at Puerto Iguazu, much to everyone's delight. Puerto Iguazu was a nice place to set up camp - quite touristy but with a very small-town feel to it. 

The next day we set out for Iguazu National Park. We spent our first half a day with a tour guide who gave us a brief overview of the best way to experience the park and a bit of extra info on some of the sites. We got to see heaps of monkeys! I don't know if you could class them as wild though - they were freely roaming the park and really comfortable with human presence (except for one of our Germans who got a little too close with his camera). We also saw an armadillo, some sort of large reptile that resembled a crocodile, turtles, butterflies of every colour and size and an abundance of coatis. The coatis - little brown racoon looking things - were possibly the most annoying animals I have ever come across. When we stopped to have lunch we were having to physically fend off the swarms of them looking to snatch away our sandwiches. One of the particularly sneaky ones made off with the lunch of our Dutch comrade. To their credit they were pretty cute and at times I was torn between picking them up for a hug or laying a boot into them. I'll admit to giving a bit of a kick to some of the more persistent critters.

While the wildlife and jungle atmosphere was pretty cool, the main attraction was always the waterfalls - "Las Cataratas del Iguazu". I don't know how to begin to describe them. The view got better and better at each viewing point we reached.  At first I was thinking "Yeah they look nice, but are they really worth all the hype?", however I became increasingly amazed the more time I spent there. The nicest views of the falls were from a long distance, but the best experiences came when we were able to get up close, hear the roar and feel the spray of the natural marvels.

On the first day, the best example of this came when we ventured out to "La Garganta de Diablo"  - "The Devi's Throat". To reach this particular section of the falls, we had to walk along a seemingly never-ending trail of metal walkway across small islands and large masses of open water. When we reached the viewing platform, standing right on the edge of the Argentinian side of the falls, I was lost for words (and that wasn't just because I had destroyed my voice on the trip there). No matter how hard I tried I could not find the words in English or Spanish to describe what I was feeling. My companion, a giant German boy with a very thick accent and interesting use of the English language, thought he might give it a go. Amongst the soaking spray of the falls he grabbed me by the shoulders and yelled above the roar of the falls "Have you ever seen anything so amazing!? I cannot believe it! It is so awesome man!".

I lost track of how much time we spent at La Garganta, taking countless photos, yelling to each other above the roar and just standing in awe, gazing through the spray at the beauty stretched out before us. Some of the photos turned out alright, but it really is something that needs to be experienced. The sound is incredible and the incomprehensible surge of water creates a spray so thick that you cannot see the bottom of the falls, and when the wind is right it rises up to soak those staring in from the top.

As amazing as this was, it wasn't to be our most up-close encounter with the falls. The next day we entered the park again (at a discounted rate because we went two days in a row (I still can't believe how cheap entry into and activities within the park were - we paid no more than the equivalent of AU$150 for entry and all activities at the falls!)). We then went on a little safari tour, learning a bit more about the park and its wildlife. Apparently there are pumas and other big cats that venture out during the night! The safari concluded at the entry to a boat ride that would take us closer to the falls for some picture opportunities and then into the base of part of the falls! If you ever have the opportunity to visit Iguazu, this boat ride is a must! We got back to shore thoroughly drenched and unable to wipe the smiles from our faces. I was one of the lucky two in our group to possess a fully waterproof camera (the girl from Holland that lost her lunch to the wildlife being the other) and was able to get some great pictures before, during and after the repeated drenchings.

After this we spent some time on San Martin Island, basking in the sun, having a bite to eat (safe from the coatis this time) and simply relaxing with out awesome view of the waterfalls. We then trekked up to some over viewing points. I chose not to take my camera for these, and while the views were again spectacular, it was nice to just stand and reflect on God's creation without having to worry about getting a picture from every possible angle. From there we headed back to the entrance, purchased some souvenirs (unfortunately not quite as fairly priced as the entry fee) and heading back to our accommodation to recover.

Over the course of the week we also visited a precious stone mine and the place where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, as well as a wildlife park. Here we got to see toucans, monkeys and various types of eagles. The park also keeps some of the cooler animals like the native big cats, but unfortunately they don't have any at this time of the year because it is breeding season and the have too many issues with the wild animals trying to get in. At one point we had to hurry out of the way of a large, jealous and rather aggressive female monkey that was making her way through. 

When we weren't busy seeing the sites we enjoyed our time relaxing at the hotel. Many of us had purchased mates (the cups for drinking yerba mate) and were eager to try them out so we spent a lot of time feeding our yerba and 'mafia' addictions. For the uninformed: 'mafia' is a card game in which each participant is given a card unknown to the rest of the players. During the 'night' everybody falls asleep and those with the cards signifying 'assassins' wake and chose a person to kill off. During the 'day' everyone wakes to discuss who they believe to be the assassins and before going to sleep again someone is executed. The assassins win if one of them makes it to the end of the game, while civilians win if they are able to pick both assassins. I think it is a testament to how close our group was that we could play the game to its full potential - lying, backstabbing and furiously debating - yet come out of each game with no hard feelings.

On Sunday it was our coordinator's birthday so we all went out for dinner on Monday night. Following this, we returned to the accommodation for one last game of mafia before our trip home. During the 'night' someone ran and grabbed a cake that we had purchased earlier, lit the candles and placed it on the table in front of the coordinator so that he could 'awake' to it. After we had finished several repetitions of the of the Spanish birthday song he was still looking a little shocked but was very appreciative of the gesture. He said that he had felt the warmth of the candles yet had not suspected a thing. Thankfully the organisers of the cake placing managed to avoid lighting his hair on fire.

We began our journey home on Sunday afternoon. We were all dreading having to spend another full day in the bus but the return trip ended up being quite enjoyable. We spent a massive portion of it playing mafia - turns out it's even more fun playing in a mini-bus! By this point my voice had all but returned to normal and was better conditioned to extended periods of talking so I employed the tactic of talking non-stop. I'm sure my companions were all very fond of my voice by the end of the trip. We returned to Rosario very well travelled, quite exhausted but very much thrilled with the week that was. It was a week that I will never forget!

We gradually parted ways as people made for their respective modes of travel back to host families, a couple of us with further to travel sticking around over night. While we were all smiles, it was a little sad to be saying goodbye - I have formed some amazing friendships and feel very close to the whole group but it may have been the last time that I will see some. (The last time in Argentina anyway - we have all formulated plans to travel the world and visit each other in our respective home countries when our time in South America expires)
Either way, I very much hope that I will get to meet up with many of my intercambio amigos again during my stay in Argentina. To have such strong friendships and to be able to share my feelings with people that are taking part in the same life-changing experience is something very special to me.

My apologies for taking so long in posting this update - hopefully the extra photos make up for it! 

Hiking and Haircuts

I took part in my second trek with Luis' walking group over the weekend. This time we had to travel a fair way so we stayed overnight in some simple facilities below the 'hill' that we were to be climbing. This made for quite an entertaining evening. First they had me play the guitar and sing a couple of Australian tunes to a rousing applause. Then one of the hikers grabbed brought out his traditional drum - hand crafted from wood and animal skins - and they played and sang an enormous array of Argentinian music. Some of the less serious hikers and consumed a reasonably large quantity of alcohol by this point and were rather boisterous in their renditions.

The trek itself was to be quite different to my first endeavour. It involved a far greater range of terrains and while it did not involve any dangerous rock-climbing-ish sections, it still proved to be very challenging. I took the lead through the bottom half of the hill - mainly forest terrain. Covered from the elements and with many steep sections, I found it suited my physique quite well and at times found myself quite a large distance in front of the rest of the group. Once we broke free of the trees however, I found that I was breaking free of my comfort zone. The top quarter of this particular hill was very open to the elements and at some points the freezing wind caused a great deal of discomfort.  Wrapped in several layers of jumpers and jackets, making slow progress through the more rocky sections, I felt (and most likely resembled) a reluctant toddler trudging along with the group. However, the expressions on the faces some of my fellow hikers indicated that I wasn't alone in my discomfort. The views were quite different to those experienced on the first climb, however very much worth enduring the cold for. This time we were treated to the brilliant reds and oranges of autumn.

I don't think we reached quite the same altitude as the previous hike, however the summit brought more of a sense of 'reaching the summit', with full 360 degree views of our surroundings. (Half of which was Argentina and half of which was Chile). Also, my item bucket list item that previously read: 'see a volcano', now reads: 'see three volcanoes at once', and has a very large tick beside it. And a smiley face.

The descent was also quite enjoyable, the whole group very motivated by the prospect of returning to the cover of the trees. At one point the spread out again, so those of us at the front had stopped to allow the dawdlers time to catch up. Then there was some very urgent cries for help from behind us and some of the men (who were a little more heroic and competent in the language than myself) ran back to help. One of the female members of the group had had a fall and needed to be carried for the remainder of the trek. The makeshift stretcher that they were able to whip up out of the materials lying around was quite impressive however it proved to be of quite a large hindrance, so the larger men (ie not me) took turns in piggybacking her back to camp. This was a pretty impressive effort considering we still had a fair distance to cover and at times it was hard enough staying on your feet without the burden of someone on your back.

Our resident medic, Elsa, made the diagnosis of a sprained ankle and other than that the group survived the trek in relatively good physical shape. I was feeling the effects the next day however, sleeping until  two o'clock and hardly able to walk when I first ventured out into the rest of the house. I got some laughs when questioned by Luis "Tenes dolor?". My response was simply, "Tengo dolor en mi cuerpo" - translation: "My body hurts".

My body has now recovered however and my biggest challenge is braving the increasingly cold weather. Luis' English translation of the forecast for tomorrow is 'snow-water' - I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Given the weather, this week probably wasn't the ideal time to be going for my first haircut in Argentina, however I was very much in need of a trim. Elsa dropped my off to a local barber shop thinking that a 'trim' was all I was after. She nearly died when I returned home with my head shaved, a number four all over. The look on her face said it all. Apparently she's not a big fan of short hair. Nico cracked up laughing when he saw me, whilst Agus merely shook his head. It's been a couple of days now and I think they're beginning to get used to it. Either way, it's beginning to grow on me.

It seems that with the coming of the colder months, the drinking of yerba mate increases an enormous amount. I had a little scare the other day when I was watching an American movie and the translation chosen in the subtitles for 'weed' - in reference to marijuana - was 'yerba'. I made a dash for the computer to make sure that the addiction I have been developing was not to an infused marijuana drink. The internet kindly informed me that this is not the case and that I yerba mate can be legally purchased in Australia so all is well!

Luis' parents are currently staying with us and will be looking after my host brothers while my host parents go holidaying in Peru. Luis' father is hilarious, one of those older-people with far more spark than their exterior would suggest. He's always ready with some quick humour and doesn't let my lack of Spanish stop him. When I came home with my head shaved he merely leant forward in the rocking chair by the door and reintroduced himself. Yesterday afternoon he joined Nico and myself kicking the soccer ball around in the backyard. It took him a bit to get the old joints warmed up, but soon enough he was jogging around, juggling and displaying a deft touch on the ball that took both Nico and myself by surprise. To see an old bloke getting around with that much energy was quite inspiring. EDIT: This morning I woke up to find him out in the main area of the house whistling away and doing some sort of old man shuffle/dance walk. My willpower is sure to get a bit of a workout over the weekend- my 'host-grandmother' loves to cook so we are treated to a pretty much endless supply of amazing food.

After this I will be heading off to Rosario and then on to the Iguazu Falls with a bunch of my fellow exchange students. I am very excited to see them again and catch up on everybody's experiences so far and, hopefully, speak some fluent English! This is something that I get to do very rarely as most of the people here that speak English don't cope all that well with my accent or slang and I've been doing my best to stick to Spanish wherever possible. I have had fairly regular phone calls with my family at home where I can speak some free flowing Australian English which is very refreshing. (It's also nice to be able to chat with my family and catch up on the happy-haps at home).  I got another chance to let my native language flow earlier in the week when I was walking home from football and encountered a couple of American backpackers. They were walking past chatting away and I decided to say hello and ask where they were from. Their stunned expressions were quite amusing, taking a second to respond as they registered the fact that someone had just spoken to them in English. I had some time to spare and enjoyed wandering the streets and chatting away with them as we attempted to find them some accommodation. 

Road Trip!

As promised, here is my post about my travels around the countryside with my host family. Last Thursday morning, Luis, Agus, Nico and I set out for the north of the province, with Elsa to join us the following day. In less than half an hour I was able to get myself ready and gather what I would need for the four days away - a handy skill that I have picked up from the Argentinians.  Considering it used to take me at least twice that time just to prepare for school each morning back home in Australia, I think it's pretty impressive. We were heading for Andacollo and Huinguan-Co, a couple of small towns where my host family used to live, located about 450km to the north. I spent most of the trip staring out the window as the landscape slowly changed,  taking on a more brown and dusty feel, though still very impressive.

One of the coolest parts of the trip was seeing the migrating horsemen bringing their herds down from the mountains before the cold weather sets in. The sheer number of animals that could be moved by only one or two horsemen was incredible. As we slowed to make our way through the animals (usually goats or sheep but sometimes cattle) Agus and I opened the doors and the windows so that we could lean out and get some pictures.

This (on the right) is one of my favourite photos so far, partly because I was leaning out of the side of a moving car to take it. Immediately after I captured it, the man's smile broadened and he chuckled "No fotos - estoy feo, feo!"

Every herdsman that we passed gave a smile and a wave and often rode by the window for a brief chat. Andacollo was formed as a mining community, so there were some pretty cool scenes happening - winding dusty roads in the mountains and large mining trucks passing through the migrating herds. This was quite a different experience for me that I am very glad to have had.

We were to be travelling backwards and forwards between Andacollo and Huinguan-Co for the duration of the four days, seeing as they were only five kilometres apart. Apparently when the family lived in Andacollo, Luis would walk to work every day in the smaller community of Huinguan-Co.  The latter was our first point of call, as the school Luis used to work at was celebrating it's 90th birthday and Elsa's sister in law was celebrating 25 years of teaching in the area. Elsa's brother was an absolute character and is certain to make an appearance in fictional stories that I write in the future. Carrying quiet a large belly as well as a large grey beard, he spoke English quite well but liked to answer every question with "Because it's raining" - something that he claims to have done in an English test one time. He enjoyed quoting The Taxi Driver, which was very amusing with his Argentinian accent. When he was speaking his native Castellano I could have listened to him for hours on end. He had a soft yet deep voice and spoke to a distinctive beat - almost as if to the beat of a heart.

He also gave me my favourite gift that I have received over here so far. At one point it was being discussed that I had not yet chosen an Argentinian football team to support - so he decided to try and sway me to his favourite team by giving me one of there old playing jumpers. Needless to say I am now an avid Independiente supporter! The following day I sat glued to the telly to see my first match as a supporter - a local derby against their rivals, Racing.  Independiente came out on top, 4-1, with un unusually large number of players receiving yellow and/or red cards. A great match all round! Elsa's brother (whose name I cannot remember) was thrilled to see me later on, proudly wearing the red and white.

I lost count of the number of times that we travelled back and forth between the two towns, never eating two meals in a row at the one house. Agus, Nico and I slept at the house of some of their very close friends. They were really lovely and told me several times that they have a relative currently living in Melbourne. The surroundings differed greatly between the two communities and were (once again) very beautiful. While the places looked quite lovely, I'm not sure I could live there - they were a little too small for my liking. A couple of residents said that while the places are lovely to look at, they aren't the best places to work or live. Nethertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and would happily return for another visit if the opportunity arises.

View from the streets of Huinguan-Co

Returning to the more familiar surroundings of Junin, I felt the sense of returning to the comfort of 'home' - probably a good indication that I've settled into life here reasonably well. After waiting out the week long period that I had decided to wait before hopping on a bike again (see last post), I decided to brave the wind and the cold and ride my regular path the Monday after we returned from the north. As I rode back into town, I was treated to a private march past at the local military training facility. At first I was only able to hear the sound of the marching music and men yelling something in unison, however when I rounded the corner I was greeted by  the majority of the military contingent here marching by in formation, their leaders wielding large swords and barking continuous orders. Hopefully I can time my bike rides to coincide with this in the future.

I've been lucky enough to get many days free of school over the last few weeks. We don't have the two weeks off school for the Easter holidays over here, however they might as well have. With all the public holidays for various reasons and our trip away, I think I only attended school for two days in the weeks leading up to and preceding Easter. On the Wednesday of Easter week I was supposed to have classes in the morning so I got out of bed at the usual 7:30 to be at school by 8:00 only to find the teachers hadn't thought it worth coming to work for half a day. So I returned home and slept until lunch time. I recounted all this to my Spanish teacher and she just laughed and said "Welcome to Argentina!".

My Spanish is coming along really well! I'm starting to feel a very noticeable improvement in my understanding. I am almost always able to understand the general topic of conversation in my host family and sometimes feel that I am understanding everything. I am even able to understand some of the mumblings of my peers at school and sport! My speaking still needs some work when it comes to conversation, however I am able to communicate necessities, make simple jokes and participate in some banter with my host brothers so I figure if I could get by with that. It's been a good experience for me to not be the one doing all the talking. When I get the opportunity to talk to people in English I find it very difficult to stop talking.. It's as if I'm trying to make up for everything I haven't been able to say in Spanish. I even find myself thinking in Spanish quite a bit! Although this can be a tad frustrating considering my vocabulary is probably equal to that of an eight year old (at best). 
Many people have commented on how much my understanding has improved and my host family seem quite pleased that I am doing so well. They like to attribute it to the "Che Boludo" Argentinian slang guide that they bought me for my birthday. While it has helped me to cope with the copious amount of 'jerga' and unique gestures that they use, the main source of improvement has definitely been my Spanish lessons. Without them I'm sure I would be improving naturally simply by living here, however the lessons have sped up the process dramatically.

I'd like to finish with a quick story of a near death experience that my host brother and I had on Sunday evening. Everyone else had gone to bed and Agus and I were happily watching the movie 'Due Date' (Spanish title: 'Todo un parto'). Suddenly there was a very loud bang in the room and I felt something small and sharp hit my left shoulder with a fair bit of force. For a split second I thought that I had been shot! My next reaction was that maybe the light-bulb hanging behind us had exploded. As it turned out, a cigarette lighter had been sitting on the top of the fireplace and the heat had gotten a bit much for it.. Thankfully we were both facing away from the fire at the time, otherwise we would have been at danger of losing an eye! It took Luis about two seconds to make it from his bedroom, down the hallway and into the living area where we were sitting in a state of shock. Once we had recovered, determined the cause of the explosion and made sure that nobody had sustained any injuries, we all burst out laughing at the whole situation; Agus and myself white as ghosts and still quite flustered, Luis standing there in his underwear and the shards of green cigarette lighter spread to every corner of the room!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now - once again thank you so much for the support, this blog is nearing 1500 views! I hope I've managed to keep your interest and that you're enjoying life in whatever part of the world you find yourself in.

Hittin' The Hills

Sorry that I didn't get a post up over the weekend, I was busy travelling the hills and valleys in the north of the province with my host family. I had a lovely time, however in an effort to keep these posts in something resembling chronological order, I might leave that until another post. This one is going to focus solely on a bike ride I took part in a week or so ago.

Mornings here are getting very, very, very cold. It usually warms up quite well by lunch time, however, as far as I'm concerned, the temperatures between 07:00 and 08:00 in the morning are far colder than any temperature I have ever experienced back in Temora. Not the ideal weather for this inexperienced Australian to go mountain biking through the hills with his host father and two of his host father's insanely fit amigos. I have come to learn that whenever I take part in exercise with Luis, I am going to be physically, mentally and linguistically challenged to a fair degree. This was no exception.


The original plan was to hit the hills near San Martin - "no matter how bad the weather is". However, upon assessing the torrential downpour occurring as we neared San Martin, we decided to turn around and try the other side of Junin - towards Chile. Incredibly well layered in biking apparel, yet still somehow feeling the cold, we set off at a fairly steady pace. We passed a couple of Swiss touring bikers (Swiss accents sound awesome in Spanish) on the way up the first climb. I recall thinking to myself at the time, that this would be an interesting occurrence that I could talk about in my next blog post. As it turned out, this meeting would fall into insignificance in comparison to the physical and mental onslaught that lay before me in the hills. A misunderstanding in translation on my part had me thinking that we were merely climbing to the peak that they indicated and then riding back down to the ute. I was sorely mistaken (very sorely come the next morning). I did quite well on this first climb, thinking it would be the only hard part. I managed to gain a considerable gap on Luis, who is not all that comfortable with steep accents. At times I felt that I was going nowhere, however I kept powering on, impressing the other two when I wasn't far behind them in reaching the peak. The shorter, stouter companion merely looked at my legs and said "Rugby, no?".

It was then that I was to learn of my misunderstanding. When Luis arrived, we almost immediately set off down the other side of the hill... in the complete opposite direction to what I had been expecting. The others soon left me behind as they flew down the winding dirt tracks. I have never been comfortable with riding a bike downhill at speed and was doing my best to be cautious. I soon realised that I had no choice but to let the bike pick up speed as use of the brakes was causing more harm than good, causing me to lose control of the bike. On top of this my fingers were so cold and the road so rocky that attempting to use the brakes was causing a great deal of pain. So I had no choice to learn to ride fast and  came to thoroughly enjoy the downhill sections of the ride (despite occasionally fearing for my life with the steep drops, narrow roads and passing cars!). We rested at the bottom and had a quick snack and a chat and then set off again. This is were things started to get really tough for me.

Unaccustomed to the cold or long distance bike riding in general, the extremely variable gradient of the trail became torture. Luis thinks that we rode a total distance somewhere between the 60 and 70 km mark - a far greater distance than I have completed before, even at a more leisurely pace. The two friends, very accustomed to the landscape, soon left Luis and I in their dust as we fell down to a gruelling crawl, dreading even the slightest of up-hills and striving just to reach the splendid relief of the down-hills. I am still of the opinion that I had never before been physically tested to such an extent for such an extended period of time. To some of you, I may seem like a bit of a wimp, however to me it was a very big deal. It took every bit of mental and physical strength for me to stay on the bike and continue to battle the cold, the undulating slopes, the exhaustion, and the wind (the kind of wind where you have to lean into it just to stay upright). My only energy source was the sugary lollies that Luis handed me every now and then. I also got some helpful adrenaline rushes when, on three separate occasions, we were chased by packs of dogs. When we weren't being chased by the wildlife, it was very tempting to simply roll from the bike onto the edge of the road. On the one occasion that my feet came from the pedals, it took every bit of will-power to push off and go again. At times Luis would ride beside me and place his hand on my back, helping me forward. In a humbling and strangely liberating way, I felt like a young boy learning to ride a bike for the first time.

Somehow I've managed to make it this far into the post without even mentioning the scenery! You guessed it - beautiful, breathing-taking, splendid, and all the rest of my usual scenery describing adjectives. To prevent myself launching into further detailed paragraphs I will give you the short version - just think winding, steep, dirt roads in the hills, the crystal clear river and luscious green banks, giant rock formations and circling eagles, lonely farms and beautiful horses of every kind you can imagine. I would love to have some photos to share, however I chose not to take my camera on this occasion. I didn't want to hold up the others, which I most certainly would have if I had had it with me - there seemed to be a perfect photo opportunity every hundred metres or so! Hopefully I will get the chance to ride the same path again by myself or with Luis so I can get some pics - the memories of that bike ride are ones that I want to preserve as best as I possibly can. It was another incredible experience in every way. To be tested to such an extent is always going to provide a massive amount of satisfaction and sense of achievement. Add to that the outstanding surroundings and friendships formed and you have one very fulfilling and rewarding bike ride.

Via Christi

Given the season, I thought now would be the right time to finally post about possibly the most moving experience I have had during my adventures so far - walking through the Via Christi, a series of statues nestled in the hills. They depict the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I begin this post knowing that, as I am becoming quite accustomed to with my Spanish skills, I am not going to be able to find the words to come close to describing my feelings towards this experience and the depth to which it moved me.

Seeing these statues was something that I had been looking forward to since I was first notified that I would be spending the period of my exchange in Junin. Although I had had the opportunity to do some research into the structure on the internet, nothing could prepare me for the wonder that I would encounter.

Walking up to the hill, my attention was immediately drawn by the giant white cross standing proud above the town. Upon seeing this, my thoughts are always drawn to the words of Psalm 121 - these ones in particular:

"I life up my eyes to the hills

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord

The Maker of heaven and earth…"

This chapter is one that I seek regularly for comfort during my time here. When I reached the beginning of the walk I was greeted by a lovely lady who gave me (what I'm pretty sure was) a brief description of the Via Christi and some general directions.

The entire walk was beyond beautiful - both the nature and the sculptures. Those that constructed the marvel sought to blend the story of Jesus' life with the indigenous culture as well as modern themes. They have done this in a stunning and deeply moving way. Every statue had me gripped in a stunned silence, standing still and staring at the beautifully detailed depictions. The love and attention to detail that has been poured into the construction of the site is obvious in every single figure Their faces seem to glow with life, as if the moments in history have been frozen in the stone. I could have sat for hours marvelling over each individual sculpture, struggling to hold back the tears at every station. At some my jaw would drop and a soft gasp would escape my lips, words of glory spilling forth in both English and Spanish. At others a broad smile would stretch across my face at the joy that they evoked. Others still would cause me to bow my head and utter a short prayer of thanks and praise. It would be impossible for me to choose one individual sculpture that was the most moving. Even now as I think back to each of them I am hit with similar sensations as I was at the time.

After some meditation at each point I was able to bring myself to take some pictures. Unfortunately photos are never capable of fully conveying the beauty of moments such as these. I understand that while these photos may evoke a great deal of passion in me, it would be impossible for someone that has not taken part in the walk to feel the same way. The Via Christi is something that simply needs to be experienced to understand the entirety of its wonders.

I returned to the start of the journey shaking my head ii wonder, a giant smile across my face, trying to find every Spanish word that I could think of to attempt to convey how much I had loved my time there, how beautiful it was and how grateful I was to have experienced it.  I would recommend it to any person, whether avidly Christian or not so strong in faith. If you are ever lucky enough to be given the opportunity to partake in this walk, take no hesitation in grabbing it. I recall, at the time, feeling that even if my exchange was to go horribly wrong from that day forth, it would be worth it for having experienced la Via Christi. It is something that I will forever remember and feel blessed for having had the opportunity to experience it.

I have been extremely blessed to be able to be having such an amazing experience here in Argentina. However, all of these experiences amount to nothing when compared to the blessing that we received when Jesus Christ died on that cross for our sins.

An Argentinian Birthday

This week hasn't been quite as eventful as the few that preceded it, however I have many random tid-bits that I can hopefully bring together in a slightly entertaining and informative way.

I'll start with the birthday seeing as I named the post after it. No biggie, turning 18 isn't all that important is it? I spent my Australian birthday (remember, we're 14 hours behind Australia over here) chilling at home, kicking the football around with my host brothers and going for a run with my host father. My Argentinian birthday was very Argentinian indeed! It began at around 11:00 am with the drinking of mate, a dulce de leche cake and my host family laughing their way through the present they bought me - "Che Buludo?" - a book of Argentinian slang . It's a very entertaining read and certain to come in handy when it comes to conversational Spanish. This was followed by a trip to the beautiful lake for an asado lunch, some frisbee and football. I also had the opportunity to test out my little digital camera's underwater capabilities and caught some pretty cool images of water splashes. This may sounds like a pretty boring eighteenth birthday to some, however it suited me just fine!

Football has come to form a central part of my life, with many hours of the week dedicated to the sport. Virtually everywhere I go here, I am reminded of the strong football culture. Every patch of grass, dirt or otherwise suitable surface large enough to host a football match bears goalposts. Shortly after my last post, Agus and I were having a kick around on the little fields on an island in the middle of the river. We'd only been there for a few minutes when a few younger kids playing nearby yelled out "Amigos! Futbol?". So began a game between us and the three kids - no older than fourteen and sharing a cigarette between themselves. The islands are also home to various horses at different times so we had to contend with random patches of horse manure. This brought back memories of playing rugby league on the paddocks at Tumut. We also had to take care not to kick the ball into the strong current of the river as it's now far too cold for swimming to be a pleasant experience. However, these things only added to the atmosphere and with the fading light, sparkling river and lonely moon cradled above the mountains, it was just bliss - a real sense of calm and joy. We lost the game but had a great time with plenty of laughs.

I feel that my football is coming along in leaps and bounds and am able to fit in reasonably well with the very skilful Argentinians. I still get outclasses regularly, however I am fairing far better than I did at the beginning. I practice four hours a week with an Under 16s team on the multipurpose courts. Some of them are significantly younger than myself, however their level of skill is extraordinary! I also have two hours a week of Physical Education comprising entirely of football. This is with an assortment of boys my own age from the school. It's given me the opportunity to play on the dirt fields that I mentioned in an earlier post. This makes for a very different style of game with the ball travelling at a much faster speed than on grass fields and with grip far harder to come by. I find these games very challenging but very very enjoyable, with jokes always at the ready when somebody makes a blunder. At the end of the game I find that my skin is significantly darker due to the thick layer of dirt covering every  bit of exposed skin on my body.

I have started taking Spanish classes three days a week, one hour per lesson. The lessons mostly comprise of grammar - something that I have very limited knowledge of - so my brain has been getting a fairly intense work out. I am learning a massive amount and I feel that it makes conversational language easier to cope with. It also allows me to see far more of the town, being about twenty minutes from the house by bike. On my first trip over there I spotted a little 'Artesanias' shop on one of the corners, and on the way home stopped for a look. There is an abundance of beautiful handcrafted items that would be perfect to purchase as gifts or for myself, however I would be a little concerned about getting some of the wooden items back into Australia. That will require further investigation and contemplation so in the meantime I am happy just having a look around and talking to the owner, a lovely lady that is very patient and helpful with my Spanish.

On Saturday I was treated to a trip to San Martin for some sightseeing and to get some more cash - a fundamental resource that I was running a little low on. I successfully refilled my wallet and loved the trip up into the hills to get a stunning view of the city and its surroundings (another lake). Wandering the shops with my host family, it was very interesting to see how different the place was despite being less than 50km from Junín. This could be attributed to its population being around twice the size and the fact that it is nestled in a valley. Apparently part of the city is permanently in the shade because the giant hills surrounding the city. It was also evident that San Martin is more of a tourist location, with souvenir and artesian shops everywhere and a large English speaking presence (though thankfully not to the same extent as Pucon in Chile). I enjoyed my time there and look forward to further visits to further explore.

Mum suggested that I give a general rundown of my school hours in case anyone was interested in how my day works. It's really different to at home! Most days I am there from 08:00 until 13:00 (everything is done in 24h time in Argentina). This is broken up into four classes, with the students staying in the one room and the teacher's coming to them. I then head home for lunch, usually followed by a siesta or school football. One day a week I return from 15:00 to 18:00 for further classes in the 'laboratory' which are usually practical science lessons. Unlike my school in Australia, none of the students have choice over which subjects they take further than choosing whether to be in 'Alimentos' - mainly food stuff, or 'Electro Mecánica' - which kinda speaks for itself. The school has been very flexible with me and, seeing as I do not understand enough to complete more than basic worksheets in class, they allow me to stay for the classes that I enjoy and head to the library to study Spanish and work on a project about Australia to present at a later date. I heard the year under myself takes classes in Literature. That being my subject of choice at home, I asked if I could join in and they were more than happy to take me. This allows me to get to know a new group of classmates and, being literature, my Spanish gets a really good workout. I understand very little of these classes, however I thoroughly enjoy them. As part of the class we are required to read novels so I was able to borrow a couple of books from the library. I mostly have simple books, however as a personal challenge I decided to grab and Agatha Christie book and work my way through it. As I have read some Christie books before, the style is familiar and I can understand a surprising amount! In some ways it is no more difficult than reading a Shakespeare work without simple translation - the general idea is quite easy, it's just the details that require more extensive use of my Spanish-English dictionary.

There are plenty of other random bits of info that I could include, however I'm struggling to find a way of cramming them in, so hopefully they'll find their way into later posts. For now, thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes on facebook and otherwise from various places around the world. Spain, England, Germany, Argentina and Australia were all represented in one way or another (sorry if I missed anyone). We're enjoying a very long weekend at the moment for one of many Argentinian holidays. I don't go back to school until Wednesday and I only have to be there until 09:30 so I'm making the most of the opportunity to get some rest and do a bit of reading and watch all the TV specials on Easter and the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking. While I'm busy chilling out here, my thoughts are with everybody slaving through everyday life in your part of the world, particularly my class mates in Australia enduring the half yearly exams! Stick with it, good luck, God bless!