A sort of normal week

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Well This week has been sort of Normal. I unfortunately can{t seem to get the school to figure out things. They seem to want more money for the switch. I, however will stick to it and say no!! After being here for a while it appears that there is someone who is very greedy on this end. This school cost more than any of the other schools in the area and seem to pay the teachers and the home stays next to nothing. The teachers at the school only make 400 pesos a month. which works out ot about 125.00 US dollars. They also tend to lack experience, nice people, but they do try. At any rate, I hope the switch works out. I only requested it about four weeks ago. I have gotten no reply. What a damn pain in the ass.

Outside of the school situation I have been working on the details to move on. I will be going on a trip to Brazil with a friend Lorenzo we paid for the trip. and I brorrowed a lonely planet guide from one of the other students. It said the place we were going was one of the most expensive n Brazil but that is ok. Most of the trip is paid for in advance the only thing we need to buy is dinners. We will be spending four days in a beach town north of Rio, and Three days in Rio. In Rio we will focus more on the city then the beach. These arrangement have taken several days to make, like many things nothing is totally simple. I also purchased a trip on the bus to Bueanas Aires for wednesday night. I full "cama" instead of a "SemiCama", which basically means a full bed and No one next to me.

In the afternoons, I have been meeting up with some of the students for Lunch, which has been nice. On friday night there was a free concert some very famious person Mercedes Sosa. She is an older singer. and Supposely eats and drinks alot of liquieris and Wiskey and cuban Cigars to maintain. her voice strong voice. The place was totally packed and there were fireworks. There was no possible way to get anywhere near the stage. There were about fifteen in out group and we quickly turned into half that amount. We then proceeded to the rear of the stage and listened to music as it bonced off the buildings. I think there was a reason why no one else was sitting there but it was fine which me because The music was ok but not my style. It most certianly was not worth the crowd situation. We left there around 10:30 and went to a place to eat. The concert continued without us.

I spent much of the evening talking to two new students from Britain, they were taking classes for two weeks then were going to travel around South American for six months. They are a bit older and it is interesting how you find that the topics of conversation are different when the people you are speaking with are older. They took leave from there work. I also spoke with a Italian girl who is going to be here for one year. She said that she was having issues with being here. She really missed home, and her language. A friend of hers was visiting her for two weeks from Italy. At around 1;30 we departed the restuarant and the British couple headed home. I was thinking in that direction as well. I was with Nina and Cara and they were trying to talk me into going to the dancing place. We walked there but I opted to go home instead. It was about 2:30 and I was getting tired. I said good bye to them because they are heading out of town at this point and going to Mendonza.

On Saturday I wanted to do something, So I contacted Andrian and he was organizing a horseback riding trip for a few hours to a place I had been to before. This was fine with me the place was pretty and it was out of the city. I met the group at 1:30 it was three other students from other schools in town. There were two women one from switzerland and one germany they were the only students in their school. There was also an older man in his 50{s who was German but was living in California. He worked with Visa until recently, and had the same perspective I had about the ecomonics of this country. He feels that something is going to happen like an uprising of sorts. In general people are not happy with the government. Time will tell.

The horse ride left from a ranch. The people who owned the ranch were interesting. The place was sort of a dump. The people who lived there seems all of about 25 years old. They had four daughters the oldest was seven. We had to use the bathroom and the house was so dirty, sadly so were the children. It was obvious they were not living well. He farmed sheep, and had about twenty horses. The horses looked well fed. But all of us could see how difficult life was for this couple. The ride was up a steep mountian trail, I think it was a hard trip for the horses. We went to a waterfall I went to before It was the prettiess one. The route was different. The day was really perfect, the weather was about 75 sunny and clear. Totally beautiful. The horses were also well behaved and the group was nice fun and interesting to talk to.

When we returned, the family had prepared mate to drink. The German guy had a look on his face that was priceless he just siad he did not care for mate. I knew however it was the number of flies around the place that put him off. It truth it put me off too. However, I could see that they were trying to be social so I took it and drank it, so did the swiss girl. The water is boiled and very hot. I have not felt badly since then, so I guess it was ok.

We left there and the German guy stated that he wanted to go to a nice BBQ. He had been here three weeks and had not really been out to one. Ardian recommended a place. I was not having dinner that night so I asked him if he wanted to go there. He said great. I however, was very shortsighted. The german girl got out of the car and the Swiss girl stayed with us. Because of my experiences with the people at my school, I did not think to asked her. She was younger and I assumped she wanted to do something with the younger folks ahse was gong to school with. Turned out she did want to go with us. I made a wrong assumption. That was when I found out that there were only two people in her school and that she really had not done anything socially here yet she had been here one week. I felt badly. We had a very nice dinner and three bottles of wine. The conversation was really interesting and the food was some of the best for the price. The Swiss girl and I shared a ride home and she told me that it was her best day in Argentina so far. She will be here for three months and will be going up to a town north of here to volunteer at a school. I need to be more aware of the invitations I make.

The next day I slept in. The day was filled with the family and a big lunch. Everyone was there but there was not much I could add to the conversation again. I headed out and took a walk around the town and read. I ran into the couple from Britain at a resturant and we visited for a while. Then around 8:00 I headed to the artistans market again. Since it was my last weekend here in cordoba. I got some nice things.

Today monday, I finallly picked up the vouchers for our trip and made reservations for other places. Got laundry done and will start packing for part two of the trip out of Cordoba. Stil have not heard boo from the school about my changes. Well That is all for now Hope life is well at home. rebecca

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