hmm so that was frustrating, i just wrote a very very long entry and the internet died at the crucial moment, my nerves cannot take an experience like that again so this entry will not be as long as it would have been, perhaps that is a blessing. I have a few things to say first, questions and what may be referred to as a 'shout out' if i were a radio station. firstly does anybody know if i can vote in the general election while in Argentina? i really would quite like to. secondly, does anyone happen to know if sitting on your glasses, snapping them and the necessary eye appointment and purchase of new glasses is covered by travel insurance. Now to the important stuff, Grandma, how was your concert? I have no credit and you have no email, so if you see this text me and let me know how it went. Today is a very special day, it is my parents Silver Wedding Anniversary, I think that deserves some respect, 25 years is a really long time, as Hermione said 'wow jess, that's like, longer than you have been alive' haha. so anyway, parents i salute you. celebrate in style!

Im going to summarise very briefly my antics of the last week or so because genuinely, another internet spasm may tip me over the edge. i went to stay with a friends grandparents in their farm just outside the city of San Rafael, it was so beautiful. we helped out making salsa de tomate which very nearly cured my obsession for tomatoes and after 4 hours of squeezing them lovingly, i almost never wanted tot otuch a tomato again. their veranda had huge grapes falling down in bunches, absolute heaven. they also make prunes (dad you would have loved it!) i swear to god they had enough prunes to keep the whole of the americas with regular bowel movements until the next ice age (which may in fact be very soon given the level of awareness of climate change out here). We did white water rafting through the Valle Real which is very famous in Argentina i believe. It's like a very small version of the grand canyon and incredibly beautiful. we bought the professional photos so i will put those up pronto! the rafting itself was terrifying, i clung on for dear life and succesfully managed to be the only person sitting on the left side to stay inside the boat when we collided with a boulder, only to be pushed in moments later when i told the instructor i didnt fancy argentine men. never damage an argentine man's pride ha! we also went to the mother of all bodega's. this place was the Taj Mahal of all wineries, it had marbles statues and looked like someting out of James Bond. They even had a jazz pianist playing beautiful music (sadly to a bus load of argentine women who spent their whole time fighting over the free wine), when they all went for the tour we had him to ourselves and he was so lovely. he had toured all over europe and could play anything we aked him perfectly and with love! not quite sure why he was working in a bodega in San Rafael. He tried to get Martin to teach me some tango moves, that was a fail! the next day we returned to mendoza and hen went straight back out again to a lake in the countryside for our roomates birthday. she was in a regatta there and she won! it was a very argentine day with lots of mate, two asado's and cards in the evening. we went to the prize giving at the mendoza yaucht club and our host woman was whipped up into a frenzy of boyfriend searching for us. they have to be 'buena gente' and where better to find them than a boat club. she can't understand why Hermione and I haven't found boyfriends yet, by now she probably thinks we are covered in scales or something hahaha. how we laughed.

Next came every extranjero's dream. the one night you can sing and drink and shout in english and blow whistles and take your clothes off and run down the street without anyone thinking badly of you.... St Patrick's Day. Thanks be to the Irish for making such a day! Every foreigner in the district piled into the one Irish pub in town and while the Guiness was a huge let down it didn't stop the fun. We were all pretending to be Irish and I think i got away with it pretty well. I had a few conversations lasting about 30 minutes before we figured out that neither of us were genuine Irish. I accidentally entered into a 'we hate the english chant', all i did was tell an argentine i was Irish from where he started shouting 'the english did to you what they did to us, damn them!' all got a bit out of control and i had to keep my accent to perfection whenever i saw him. I didn't think he would appreciate so much knowing that where i come from we call the malvinas 'the falklands'. It was a night of raucous fun with lots of beer spitting and singing 'tell me more when i go home, the boys won't leave the girls alone, they pull my hair they stole my comb...' etc. coupled with that was the terrential downpour which occurred on our way to the pub. the monsoon in India would have felt inferior, i have never seen such rain. we hid under a doorway for half an hour while i swear the entire contents of the atlantic ocean was poured into the streets of mendoza. every road we had to wade across was a fast flowing river, shin deep. it was fine while we were at the tope of the hill but the closer we got to the bar the more down hill therefore the more water therefore the drains overflowed. i dont feel i need to explain the colour that my feet were when we arrived! so after our night of pure irish fun we got up very early the next morning to go camping with our american roomies. in terms of fulfilling our intentions for the trip, it was a disaster but in reality it was pretty fun. in brief summary the only trekking we did was in search of the campsite which turned out to have been next to the bus stop (my feet were pretty pissed off by that point as i was wearing Doc Martens and 2 hours unnecessary walking had started the blister process.) we intended to do an evening trek after setting our tents etc. but our 'power nap' accidentally lasted so long the sun had almost set. anyway we strolled round the lake and took in the beautiful scenery. we intended to have a full day of trekking the next day... we slept in, again spent almost 2 hours walking in the wrong direction in search of the trekking office. when we thought we had nearly found the office, Hermione took a pretty spectacular fall and banged her head and badly cut her knee. after that we decided to play cards for a few hours and then take an early bus home, in fact we nearly missed the early bus as the american guy tom had an unexpected bout of travellers diarrhoea at the crucial moment. unfortunately it was in a poor old ladies 'rent a loo' shed which had no running water. anyway all in all the trip was fun and hermione has sufferred no major injuries other than the embarassment of everyone discovering that she wasn't beaten up, it wasn't a major mountaineering accident, it was just a roadside trip, not even over a stone, just feet.

in regard to work, after weeks of meetings and interviews at the school, we have finally begun working. i dont know if it can really be called teaching, it's more like standing in the corner and having questions fired at you but the kids are so sweet. if anything, it serves as a firerocket to the bottom to make my spanish improve; 'why do you speak so weird' may become embarassing after a while. they also seem fascinated by my hair, my new nickname is 'la rubia'. i dont mind so much them asking why i have yellow eyebrows but it was less thrilling when one boy told me i looked about 60 because of my hair. hahaa. the orphanage also is looking promising, it's such an incredible organisation and at our training day there were over 45 volunteers all completely passionate about the cause. we got split up into groups to discuss a case study and as the only foreigner it made me want to crawl into a box and never come out again, i survived the experience. personal growth i suppose. well i didnt really grow, i didnt say anything but that was more because i felt it would have been pretentious to try and involve myself in a heated conversation about argentine social problems and the technicalities of the law in relation to children out here when i understand so little of restraints. anyway i am learning and i can tell that this orphanage is a really fantastic place. purely the fact that 45 university students were out of bed and half an hour outside of town for 9am on a saturday morning showed me that. I am very excited to start working there and i hope with time i can learn more about the laws here and what the problems are and maybe take part in a heated discussion without having to borrow an Invisibility Cloak.

Finally, football. anyone who knows me (which is probably everyone reading this because it would be a bit weird if you didn't know me) will know i don't really have any interest in football. however, that phrase does not translate into spanish or indeed into argentine culture. therefore, on sunday i went to a football match, actually it was pretty fun, the argentine men get so heated and before long i was jumping up and down shouting 'hijo de puta' at the ref. i still have no interest whatsoever in football but going to the matches are so fun, there's a big game next week so im going to try and get standing tickets. thats where all the fun is, they set off fireworks and have drums and flags etc. my host woman was horrified at the prospect of standing 'thats where the dangerous people go, the poor people'. as far as i could see, they seemed to be having fun, also i refuse to believe they could be as bad as drunk football fans in london on a friday night.

anyway ENOUGH. i always think i can just write a small blog and then i get verbal diarrhoea flowing though my hands. keep safe everyone and send me your news. i like hearing it.

love y'all xxx