trustmeimpremed

So I just finished volunteering in the Amazon for two weeks, and it was probably one of the coolest two weeks of my life. It was very intense and very hard work, but very very fun. The day was like this: At 7:30 sharp we start preparing food for the animals. Everybody is assigned a different round of creatures and we go and feed all their cages and give them food. This takes about 2 hours. Then we are each assigned a small chore to clean some area of the place. This is like clean the kitchen, or sweep the house, or (my favorite) collect grasshoppers and feed them to monkeys! Then we get assigned a job to do. This usually entailed carrying rocks and sand up mountains, or clearing ditches, or cutting things down with ... read more

Okay, so I took a 24 hour bus ride from Puerto Madryn to Mendoza. Unfortunately I couldnt spend any time there to look around because I had to catch a bus across the border to Santiago. So maybe I was tired or maybe I was just dumb but I really didn,t think about how to cross the border between argentina and chile you need to go through the Andes. So I took a nap on the bus and when I woke up instead of green vineyards and mountains in the background, there was literally snow flying through the window and landing on my face!! That was quite a shock but a cool one because we were at the border then and everybody had to get out and go through a ridiculous 10 million hour long process ... read more

I arrived in Buenos Aires after an 18 hour bus ride with a bruised tailbone. I spent 3 days in the city, exploring many many parks and streets and I EVEN took the subway all by myself which I was really really proud of. The city is quite beautiful which tons of colonial architecture and sooooo many parks. And theres fruit markets and dog walkers that walk 20 dogs at a time without getting the leashes tangled!! One day I went to see the Plaza de Mayo which I really wanted to see. In 1977, Argentina was under military communist rule and anybody who said or did anything against the government would just disappear. More than 20,000 people were taken by the government and tortured and usually killed. Sometimes their bodies were returned to the families ... read more

So this past weekend I went to São Paulo and I stayed with Douglas' brother, his wife Maristela, and their son Diego who is my age. In Brazil, people usually live at home while they go to college and don't usually move out of their parents' house until they get married. I can't understand why they don't want to get out and be independent. They can't understand why I'd want to give up cleanliness and home-cooked meals and free rent, and I.....ok I think they might be onto something. ANYWAY: I had an awesome weekend. Friday morning I got up early and explored downtown Campinas with Sonia (and the BEAUTIFUL cathedral that I forgot to take my camera to). Then I went to the hospital with the dogs and had to go back to the Mental ... read more

This past week has been good. A few days ago I went to work with Angela's sister-in-law Sonia, who is a social worker. She works for a foundation that organizes activities for old people who don't have anything....like arts and crafts, dancing, etc. It's right next door to a big school for children with disabilities and I think she does stuff for the parents of those children too. Anyway, she doesn't speak English, and neither did anybody there. We went to the school/hospital (its called APAE pronounced like "a pie"). I think she and I both just thought we could take a quick look, but the director came out and we ended up getting a whole tour. I went to every single clinical and class room, and met almost every single kid. A thousand kids go ... read more