Hola familia y amigos!

I know it's been a long time since my last update. My last couple of weeks in Tucuman were spent trying to finish everything with work and spend as much time with my family and friends that I made here before I had to go. Also mi novio Anith came to visit for a week in Argentina as well! Right now I'm in Buenos Aires for a couple of days finishing up some work I need to do here and I fly back to the states in two days. I don't even know where to begin to tell you all about what I've done, learned, and experience over these 2 months here in Argentina so I guess I just begin with the highlights of what I've done over the past couple of weeks.

For the past couple of weeks La Copa America (a soccer tournament for South American countries) has been going on here in Argentina. So I had the opportunity to learn more about the soccer culture here and watch the Argentina games with locals from Argentina (if you look at my pics you'll see they allowed me to borrow all the right clothes so I could be a true Argentina fan) I learned a lot about what everyone thought about Messi, pecho frio (heartless), coming back from Spain to play for Argentina and a few new malas plabras during the games. I also got a chance to travel to San Pedro (a small town an hour away) with some of my friends to have an asado (bbq) as a birthday party. I was impressed with how much better I could understand and participate in conversation with this group as opposed to the beginning of my time in Argentina. (apparently I had learned a lot living here). I was also plesantly surprised to learn that there were country and Taylor Swift fans in Argentina! And I'm sure I created a few more fans as well. :) yay!

I then spent that Sunday (the 3rd of July) cooking Yankee food for my host family to celebrate the 4th of July. Since I had already made them my Richman's Cafe Style Coconut Cream Pie, I decided to make them my other Richman's specialty, brunch. But of course since they eat eggs for dinner I made brunch for dinner without oj or coffee. I made Western omlets, American fries, french toast (without syrup bc there was none, my host father ate it with cheese....eww I ate them with sugar) The brunch was a success even for supper lol. The following night I celebrated the 4th of July with the other girls from the US that I knew in Tucuman in what place better than an Irish bar. We had burgers and beer and talked in English. The only thing missing was the fireworks, well and the Dingleberries of course but some American songs came on in the bar and although it couldn't compare to a Bellevue 4th of July, it was still fun.

The following week was my last week at work in La Maternidad (the hospital in Tucuman) as well as Argentina's Independence day. Although they don't really celebrate their Independence day like we do (I was very sad to learn that they only shoot off fireworks for futbol games and not for the 4th of July) I managed to pack a lot of different things into my last week. I triend out a cheto boliche (night club) in Yerba Buena, went to el dique del cadilla (check out the pics it was beautiful), went to a fiesta of a friend in a rented lodge and learned how to dance cumbia, salsa, cuarteto, ect, and the weather even got nice enough to go mountain biking with my two fav twins in Argentina. (FYI mountain biking in Tucuman is quite an extreme sport...the mountains here don't really compare to Potters hill the worse hill on Ragbrai) However, I only had 2 ramiows (wipeouts).

Then the week ended with quite a few bittersweet moments. I had to say goodbye to everyone at work (which of course I did with 7 layer bars (mom your coconut bars) that I made for everyone). The nurses at La Maternidad helped say goodbye to me by bringing me the best empanadas, sfijas, and pizza I had ever tasted. They were made in a stone oven in the basement of one of their mother's. Of course it was amazing! The lab techs and Dr. that I work with gave me great going away gifts, an engraved Mate with my name on it, a nice scarf, and a going away dinner. It was really sad to say goodbye to the people who I had worked with everyday for the past month and a half and who had helped me so much, taught me so much and even made me a part of their family. The only thing that made it kinda ok was knowing that I would be coming back for a short visit with Anith in 4 days to say hello.

Knowing that I would get to see my novio soon and not have to say goodbye to everyone for the last time made it a lot easier to deal with. Even though my host sister Ani and all my best friends Julia, Flor, and Matt Guirad came to the airport to say goodbye to me, I knew it wouldn't be the last time that I would see them. But it was great to have such a great farewell. It really made me feel loved and it was great to know that I had made such great friends while I was here that they cared enough to see me off.... Until I discovered that my flight would be delayed two hours, then four hours, then cancelled all together while Anith was already waiting for me to arrive in Buenos Aires. For the past month there has been a volcano erupting ash into the air in Chile with has been causing problems with flights in Buenos Aires when the wind is blowing in the correct direction. Flights were canceled on Thursday and back on again on Friday so I figured that my flight on Sunday would be ok.... but of course.... for some reason there were issues again on Sunday and I never had my flight.

Since this is already a really long blog... tune in next time to find out if the volcano in Chile is still erupting, Lindsey's friends still like her enough to see her the next time she comes back to town, and to found out if Anith survived Argentina without being able to talk to anyone....

hasta pronto!