Well…I have a bit more time, lately, so I ought to get my blog 100% up to date. This isn’t a blog about some amazing trip to a place in Argentina with wonderful sights and crazy adventures; sadly…this is more like what my life actually is here. So far I manage to blog about the highlights mainly. Now…well it’s not that I actually have more time at this actual moment. In reality, it’s 3:48 and I can’t sleep. This has been happening a lot lately…it’s because my schedule was (as a result of writing essays till real late/other stuff) having me go to bed around 4 and get up fairly late. Well, I need to adjust back to my regular schedule. Yesterday I made a big stride in that area…fell asleep at ONLY midnight. But I woke up about an hour later and was up for a while…same sort of thing happened tonight, except with me falling asleep at 1 and waking up about 30 minutes later. And staying awake. Trying to sleep. Staying awake. Grrrrr.
What’s up in Luke’s life lately? Well…I miss home. That’s a pretty strong feeling. In fact, on the last blog, I talked about my trip to Jujuy. I’m not sure if in the post that I mentioned just HOW much I started missing home around then. When I came back, within a few weeks I was realllllllllly feeling it, like every night. Well things have gotten better since then, that was about a week and a half ago…but that said, I still miss home. If you’re reading this, I miss you, it’s about that simple. I miss SO much.. And when I think I don’t miss home, if I just THINK about it for a minute, think about anything to do with home or the people there, wayyyy back in Oregon…I miss it a lot. Or just look at a picture or two.
Classes are kind of the same, but they’re winding down. I never really believed in that terminology though…when classes are “winding down” in college they’re usually taking it up a notch (BAM!) with big tests, big assignments due, and the like. Well, I’m there, but since the busywork is down a little it feels like things are getting easier. In reality, I still have a midterm for my UCA class, the final for that class, a big presentation for my verbal production and comprehension class, a final paper for my fiction class, and a dance final for my tango class. Things that I’ve already taken care of include: written Tango final (bigger deal than it sounds like, probably), smaller paper for fiction class…regular busy work. Not a lot, it seems like. Save for a few figures, I’m fairly confident in being ready for the dance final…but those sacadas, how does one do them?! Hrmm…not much else to say about school. It’s not easy by any means. By no means.
So one needs ways to deal with it. I recently found out (in the last three weeks, the last two Saturdays before this last one to be exact) that there is Ultimate Frisbee in Buenos Aires. Not a lot of it, but it exists. Like this:
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| One of the Buenos Aires teams |
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| Talk about lots of foreign people...countries represented here: Canada, USA, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia |
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| Yeah, he missed that disc. |
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| But he definitely did not! |
That said…the majority of the players are foreign. Oh well. The biggest percentage of players comes from Colombia, interestingly enough…apparently they have some pretty good leagues of Frisbee in Bogotá. Sweet deal mayne. I want to visit, haha. Since I’m not actually supposed to play…I played it pretty gentle. I still played too much, so I’m officially stopping and probably not going more than one more time before I head back home. As much as it was a relief to throw around and then play, it’s too much movement. I can’t really half jog the whole time because I end up making split-second decisions and picking up a lot of speed. I haven’t hit as full a sprint as I can, but I’ve definitely got into decent sprint range. I can’t be doing that with a foot injury or I’ll send myself back into the dark ages! People couldn’t walk because of foot injuries in the dark ages, right?
Also, on two Sundays ago, I got the opportunity to watch a River Plate fútbol game. If you’re too gringo for my taste, that would be SOCCER. Ugly word, that one. Anyway: River and Boca are the two biggest professional teams in Argentina. One of the first Argentines I talked to told me he was a River fan (I believe…I didn’t know the teams then, nor did I understand him very well at all)…and proceeded to show me multiple tattoos of his team’s emblem. And this guy was like 16. So people get INTO it here. I don’t really know how to describe it…or rather I’m too lazy to. Briefly: the game was River Plate vs. Colón, a big game, at River’s stadium (also the national stadium, and as such it’s BIG). Ask me about it when I get home, please, I’m too lazy to explain it all. Until then, just look at the pictures (ask for my videos when I get home…oh man. It’s just of the fans, but they screeeaaammmmm some interesting things):
This was actually the second game I got to go to. I had the opportunity to attend a fútbol game through the program that didn’t cost me anything. But that was only to see a much more minor game in a smaller, albeit nice, stadium. That was Velez-Sarsfield vs. Gimnasia. Velez Sarsfield made it to the quarter finals of the Copa Libertadores, one of the two biggest South-American championships just recently, and I’m pretty sure they hold the top spot in the AFA (Argentine soccer league, noobs!). So they played really good fútbol, but the real experience was with the other game that I saw later, with River Plate (see above).
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| Coke. Oh yeah. |
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| Velez=Mostly white uniforms |
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| They've had some success. |
About 2 and a half weeks ago I met up with two great friends from my study abroad program, on a Friday. They’re also Christians, strong ones at that, and we talked and read and prayed and worshiped together (with a super out of tune guitar. See: Winter in Buenos Aires and being outside in it late). It was absolutely wonderful, and it really turned my missing-home-a-ton-blues around. Or rather (O sea, Argentines say) God heard the prayer and has given me comfort with all of the difficulty. I go with that option. Anyway…we met up again last Friday, this time we had less time but we laughed together, had fellowship in that sense, and read and prayed. And it was good. That last Friday, I got to finally go to “Casa Amistad”, which is what the small groups at my church are called. They just get together, have fun doing something, watch a video the pastor puts together, discuss it, hit up some scripture sometimes, and pray. But it was the first time I’ve been able to make it, what with a million other commitments with classes meeting extra times and just STUFF. In any case, it was really awesome. I hope to develop relationships with the believers I know there as much as possible in the time before I jet off to the You ESS of EEEEEEHHHHHHH. Well…what else to say. Boring post, most likely, but it feels nice to get this stuff out there. I’ll mention my plans for the time when my classes are like mostly over and I have free time: Get on the trains of Buenos Aires and head to the ends of them. I want to go as far as possible on train. I say that because MUCH earlier in my time in Buenos Aires, sometime around the 1 month mark, I took a train to “El Tigre,” which I believe I blogged about. It’s part of the Buenos Aires province. The point here is that the ticket was about 1.25 or so (can’t remember exactly…fairly certain that’s what it was though). That’s what a long bus ride costs in Buenos Aires, which translates to about .32 (rounded up a centish) USD. So that’s rather cheap, no? Cheap travel, see more of Argentina than just this humongous crazy city? Deal. I’m in. Make it a series of day trips, no overnight even necessary? DOUBLE deal. That’s how I think I’ll end my time around here, in general, with these day trips. I want to mix that in with spending plenty of time with friends (we’ll probably go on these trips together, however) and making a big point of hanging out with Argentines all that I can. I must say…I love it here. I’m from Oregon, the big USA, and that’s where I belong for a while longer, but…I do love Argentina, I love the people and the places and the language and the atmosphere. So I’ve already decided someday to return. Not sure when that’ll be…the plane tickets are not exactly cheap. So quite a while in the future, possibly. But…I’ll be back (/Arnold voice). Way before all of that though, my loving friends and family…
I’m coming back, dudes, in a month and 3 days (not counting that I’ve already passed midnight by 4 hours).
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| Pear (pure, get it?!) contemplation... |
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