Well, it's my last night here and I don't want to go to bed because then my last night here will officially be over. I'm ready to go home...I miss my family and friends back at home, but I just wish there was some way to know that I can come back soon. It's really hard to say goodbye. I said goodbye to Laura and Vicky tonight and I almost cried because it just sucks that they came so late in my trip and that Laura and I ended up hitting it off so well. I'll have to say bye to [View Full Entry]

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Today I went to watch the mothers of the disappeared do their weekly walk around the Plaza de Mayo. Apparently there are two factions, one that simply wants an answer as to where their missing children are, and the other that wants justice to be served to those in the military dictatorship. It was a very moving thing to see because these women are now so old. The oldest one is 91 years old. Some of them walked, but many stayed inside a van that drove around the plaza because they were just so old. At the end of the march, [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's officially my last full week here. Hard to believe. Really hard, actually. I'm trying to see everything I missed before I go. Sara and I went to the Japanese Garden on Sunday, then San Telmo. It was really a beautiful day and surprisingly warm. The events at the garden on Sunday were cool...there were some dancers with drums and the garden was really pretty. We had some sushi afterwards at the restaurant there, which was a little pricey, but delicious. It made me want to travel more and visit some other places to see other beautiful traditions and cultures. [View Full Entry]

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It is currently noon and I just woke up about an hour ago. Yesterday I started a new book called "The Geography of Bliss," written by a journalist who had decided to embark on a world-wide journey to discover what the key to happiness was. I am over half-way done with this book now, and I am realizing a lot of things. Climate is not a determining factor in whether or not a nation can be happy. National identity is. Wealth is not. Having enough to eat is. Failure is important. Success is not always. He says that Iceland is actually [View Full Entry]

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Swine flu is amongst us, ya'll! Yesterday we found out that the (new) health minister of Buenos Aires has called a state of emergency. The old health minister resigned because she suggested holding off elections until after the flu went away, and disagreed with the amount of action the government was implementing. Well, now it's bad. Public schools are shut down, borders are tightening up, hospitals are collapsing, and we're just trying to stay away from the masked people! The city is in a panic right now, and rightfully so. Nowhere to run, either. 110 infected countries. Jamie was rig [View Full Entry]

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Well, I now have 23 days left in Argentina. Just typing that made my eyes well up with tears. I am writing this entry in tears. How can you not love this country? Ryan and I went to Mardel with Camila and stayed with her family this weekend, and it made me so sad because I had to say goodbye to Camila this morning since she's staying at her house until the end of July for winter vacation. After a very tearful goodbye at the bus station, we were off. Camila said she wasn't going to cry because she was sure [View Full Entry]

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Well, today was officially the first day that I went to LIFE and left feeling a little bit down. There were soooo many kids today, and it was incredibly hard to give everyone the attention they needed with the 6 volunteers we had. And then there was this one girl who was probably around 8 years old or so and didn't know how to read or even write numbers. I did a math worksheet with her which took sooo long because she just didn't understand simple things, like 1+5 or even 0+1. I explained to her over and over that "nada [View Full Entry]

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First of all, LIFE stands for "Luchemos para una Infancia Feliz y con Esperanza," which means "fighting for a happy and hopeful childhood." Friday and Saturday were my 2nd and 3rd days. Next week, I am signed up for 4 events. I have met some pretty cool people. Yesterday was the cooking thing again, and man, it is not a pretty house that we work in. First of all, bad news, the milk we brought for them went bad. I mean BAD. It was chunky. So I had to throw it away...down the toilet. The "sink" was merely a faucet (no [View Full Entry]

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Well, looks like I'm finally going to take that trip to the small town of Colonia in Uruguay. Not necessarily because I'm dying to go there, but more because my 90 day tourist visa expires at the end of the month. That means that either I pay a 300 peso fine at the airport when I try to leave the country or that I pay a 300 peso fine at the dreaded migrations office. So, 300 pesos for absolutely nothing or a little less than 300 pesos for a lovely day in a little town in another country? I think I [View Full Entry]

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Today was my first day at L.I.F.E.! We met at the office then took a giant van to the villa (slum). And I mean giant van. There were 12 of us in it! Anyway, so yeah, people don't leave or go into the slums, except for volunteers. Not even the police. It was exactly what you'd picture a slum to be. Houses that were made out of aluminum, stray dogs running around everywhere, lots and lots of dirt. The weirdest thing was this huge cement builiding that looked creepy. I asked one of them what it was and they said that [View Full Entry]

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