Mendoza, Argentina

OK, it’s been a while since I’ve written about what I have been doing (about 3 weeks or so).  Things have been picking up here and I’ve been a lot busier than the first couple months.  That and I probably don’t manage my time very well, so I keep putting off writing on the blog.  Anyways, part of the reason I am a little busier now is that I finally started my service learning.  Service learning counts as one of my classes—I get the same number of credits as I would for a normal class (4).  We choose from a list of service learning sites and document our hours and, at the end of the semester, write a paper about the experience.  For my service learning, I am volunteering at a private k-12 English school (St. Peter’s School).  I know, it sounds kind of ridiculous to say that I am volunteering at a private school—not really what one thinks of when talking about service.  We were able to choose from various different places to work at, one of them being a poorer school attended by kids from poorer families.  However, that school only had 3 openings and it involved working with early elementary age kids.  I wanted to work with older kids, so I was paired with St. Peter’s, where they had like 7 openings.  Anyways, I help out with the English classes (grade 7, 8 and 10).             

            When I first started a couple of weeks ago, it was really chaotic and they basically just put us in any class that they felt like (one day I ended up in a 7^th grade tech. class that was in Spanish and I just basically sat there because I didn’t know exactly how I was supposed to be helping—awkward!).  Then I went to one of the English classes and the teacher basically let me take over.  I started out just introducing myself and then I took up the rest of the class asking the kids questions and answering theirs.  That was in a 7^th grade class and now that teacher is having me come with her to her 8^th and 10^th grade classes also.  Now I prepare exercises and activities for the classes and I like it a lot more than I did at the beginning. 

 

            I’ve definitely noticed how different schools are here compared to schools in the US.  For example, I can literally just walk in St. Peter’s School with out stopping at a desk or getting a visitor’s pass or anything.  Also, the school is much smaller with about 30 students per grade.  Also, the school, since it is private, is family owned and operated more like a business.  Other private schools in Chile are considered corporations.  Another thing I’ve noticed is that the teachers are often late to class and, in general, very disorganized.  Often times the class will be completely nuts and the teacher won’t do anything.  Sometimes the teachers will just leave the classroom for a period of about 10 minutes or so.  I was really surprised that day that I “helped out” in the tech class when I saw that a student had brought a paintball gun to class and was showing it off to his friends after class had ended!  The English teachers I’ve been working with don’t put up with any bull crap, however.   

 

I go to St. Peter’s on Wednesdays and Fridays in the mornings.  Since I have class Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, that means no more sleeping in.  I’m somehow supposed to get 80 hours in before the end of the semester, but I don’t see that happening, since I’m limited to Wednesday and Friday mornings and will have to miss some days for traveling.  

A couple weeks ago our group went to a partido de futbol (soccer game) at the national stadium in Santiago.  It was Chile Vs. Argentina, their historic rival.  Argentina always wins—they’ve won every game in the past thirty-something years.  But, this time Chile won!  It was a pretty exciting game to see.  On the bus ride back to Vina people were honking their horns and waving their Chilean flags out car windows, it was wild. 

 

We got back to Vina at about one something in the morning after the game, a Wednesday night.  A group of us skipped our senior seminar class on Thursday and went to Mendoza, Argentina, about an 8-hour bus ride from Vina del Mar.  We drug our sleep-deprived bodies to the bus terminal at about 7 in the morning.  I slept a little on the bus.  The bus ride through the Andes was gorgeous.  Click here to see photos  We got to Mendoza in the

afternoon and found our hostel.  Mendoza, and Argentina in general, is known for having excellent food that’s reasonably priced.  The first night we were there I confirmed that popular belief.  A large group of us went to an all-you-can-eat buffet that was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!! Hands down, best buffet ever!  For those of you who have eaten at the Mystic Lake buffet, this one was better, and I love the Mystic Lake buffet.  The buffet was like 20 Argentinean pesos, which equals about 7 US dollars.  Since the buffet was so cheap, we decided to buy a few bottles of cheap wine.  We all ate WAY more that we should have and left feeling like we had bowling balls in our stomachs. It was awesome!  

We all went out that night and got back to the hostel late (like 4 am late).  We were all signed up with the hostel to go on a bike ride wine tour the following morning.  However, I decided in the morning that I didn’t want to go so I stayed at the hostel and slept most of the day.  I don’t regret that decision one bit.  On Saturday, a group of us went on a white water rafting and canopying excursion through our hostel.  Some others went paragliding, which I almost did but decided not to because I don’t really like heights, and it was expensive.  The white water rafting and canopying was super fun.  

 

On Saturday evening, we went to this really good Mexican restaurant.  Sunday, we walked around the city a little, well, actually a lot, checking out the main plaza.  Our bus back to Vina left Mendoza at about 10 pm.  I actually slept a little, but had to get up at 2:30am once we reached the border to go through customs.  That took about an hour and a half.  It took a while to fall back asleep, but I for sure slept because the next thing I remember was waking up from a deep sleep as we pulled into the bus terminal in Vina.  That was at about 6am.  I caught a cheep cab back to my host family’s house but I didn’t bother sleeping anymore because I had classes at 9:30 and I knew if I went to sleep, I wouldn’t be getting up for class.  I took a huge nap after classes to make up for lost sleep.   

 

When we got back from Mendoza we had a nice little present waiting for us: a midterm exam for our senior seminar class!  It was a take-home midterm: basically write two, three page essays.  Our profe emailed it to us on Thursday, but, since we left for Mendoza on Thursday and didn’t get back until Monday morning, we obviously didn’t have time to work on it at all.  I had to pull a straight-up all nighter to get it done, and I don’t feel like it was very good. 

 

Homework is starting to be kind of a drag.  It’s definitely the biggest challenge while studying abroad—it’s very difficult to focus.  Also, I’m getting kind of bored of having all humanities classes because all you do is write.  I kind of miss my psych. classes.  

 

            This coming week, our entire group is traveling south to Chiloe.  We are gone from Saturday to Saturday.  This is the one big excursion that is part of the program so we all go together.  I’m excited because it sounds like we’ll be doing a lot of cool stuff (like going inside a mine that goes underneath the ocean floor, and touring a brewery).  Also, we don’t have classes and no homework! 

 

We only have about 7 weeks left in Chile.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas time.  I’ll post the week I get back from Chiloe.  Hope those of you in Minnesota are enjoying the snow! Ha ha!