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Published: March 27th 2006
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Rio Paraná
This is just before we left for our day on the beach. The water may be brown, but it's still beautiful! Well, here it is Monday, and I'm back at school... not that I did any studying this weekend. I spent the whole weekend having an absolutely wild time. My friend Randi and I went out on Thursday night expecting to meet up with some more of the kids from the program, but ended up spending the evening at the bar with a bunch of Stock Brokers that were having a birthday party for one of the guys from the office instead. It wasn't as wild as it sounds, more just a conglomeration of people that could speak english, but we wandered the streets as a group for a long time, and I eventually took a taxi home at about 4 am. That's one thing that I love about this city, you can find a cab anywhere and anytime, they're efficient, cheap, and fairly safe (as safe as driving can be in the city).
On Friday we all had an excursion with the program, and took a boat ride out to one of the islands in the Paraná River, where we had lunch and went sun bathing for the afternoon. It was amazing. I'm in love with the river here, even if
Día de la Memória
This march was huge, and everyone there was proud to share their beliefs with the Americans. It was definitely a learning experience, and this march definitely out did the ones in the U.S. it is a little bit brown (silt from the river bed). After that, a group of us went to a march that was going on for the commemoration of the 30 years since the last dictatorship. It was great to see so many young people politically active, they were all very dedicated to the causes that they followed and were willing to discuss their beliefs with me. It was extremely interesting, and extremely helpful. After that, I met up with Cristian for dinner and we went to see a movie before meeting the other kids from the program at a concert at a club called Willie Dixon. We saw The Descent, and the movie was great, not because it was a good movie, but rather because it was in English. I'm not normally keen on Horror movies, but I was willing to make an exception in this case. We went to Willie Dixon and realized that 1. the place was packed, and 2. it cost 20 pesos to get in. Well, mi amigo Cristian is a poor waiter, so we decided to listen outside for a little while and then take off for another place. I realized later that I should have just paid for him, since 20 pesos is like 6 dollars or less, but it didn't matter. We were both really tired and went back to his place and just chilled, drank maté, watched TV in Spanish, and had an English lesson for him so that he could understand some of what the lyrics of his favorite English songs meant. I got home around 6 am. And just think... that's normal.
On Saturday I started wandering around town for a while and ran into Jake, one of the guys from the program. We went and had lunch, and then headed over to get me a cell phone. Communicating inside the city is really difficult without a phone, and I realized that if I was going to continue to go out at night, I should get myself a phone for safety reasons. Well, it took about 2 hours, and was a pain but I think that I'm going to be glad that I have it. After the phone, we walked over to Cristian's café and for a little while. I made plans with Cristian to come back at closing time because some of his friends were coming into town and they wanted to get to know the Americans. Jake and I walked over to the park and met up with two of the other guys from the program. We went for a drink before going to the birthday party of one of the guys' - Joel's - host sister. The party was great, costumes with all of the women dressed as men and all of the men dressed as women. I walked back to meet Cristian and then he proceeded to explain to me that he couldn't just take me along with his guy friends, because they wouldn't like having just one girl along in their group of guys. He was upset because he wanted to hang out with all of us, but they were only in town for one day. In the end I just went home (it was 2 am and I had been out all night the day before).
On Sunday I met up with Randi. We just hung out for a little while, and then went to get Stephanie to eat. After we had had what was basically dinner, we ended up going to the apartment of one of the guys that they had hung out ith during the weekend, and just hung out for a little while. I ended up going home at like 11 pm and watched the end of a movie with my family before going to bed. This morning was horrible. I had class at 9 am, which means that I have to leave home around 8:30, and there I was at 8 am with no one else awake in the house, wandering the streets close to my house looking for a laundromat that I could drop my clothes off at (they wash them for you and let you pick them up like a dry cleaners, except they only charge you a few pesos). I couldn't find one, and my mom ended up telling me that she would call to have them picked up, and that they would drop them back off when they were finished. I think that I need to find a place where I can wash them close to my house though. We'll see.
I've had a wild few days, what with all of the nights out, and all of the drama with just learning to live everyday life here. I'm sure that things are going to get harder before they get easier, but I wouldn't trade this for the world.
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Katie
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I miss you
I've had the most boring spring break ever and I'm so jealous of your adventures. I am now officially living through you and you will need to make me broaden my horizons once youir home. I miss you be safe and come home in one piece I need a roomie! I LOVE YOU!!!