Che Changos! (Hey dudes)

I hope you all are enjoying your nice weather in the states because it is rainy and cold here! (And by cold I mean 40s but it's still cold!) Anyway I didn't let the cold stop me from exploring the city, making new friends, and going golfing in the rain. Of course I'm a die hard golfer and a little rain and cold weather would never get in my way!

After a couple of weeks here in Tucuman I've managed to make a few friends out of people I know who go to my gym everyday and want to practice their English. So they were nice enough to take me to eat panchuques (Tucuman corn dogs) after the gym one day (yes I know the gym was useless after I went to eat panchuques but I have to try everything while I'm in Argentina which I why I'm going to the gym). They were also kind enough to teach me some essential Tucumano phrases such as chango/a (dude), Idiai (whatever), y bondi (bus). Which have actually been helpful in helping me to understand what people are saying at the hospital and joining into converstations. They were also nice enough to show me around the city a little bit as well as invite me to dia de la bandera celebrations (yes Flag day is a day off of work and classes here).

I've also been blending in more at the hospital. Some days when I don't have much work to do I've been inserting some of our questionaires online and learning spanish names, phrases, or medications in the mean time or I'll hang out with the med student and practices ventilating dumby babies. However, today one of the doctors in charge of all the med students told me to give them all the orientation of the room where we weigh, measure, and clean off the babies after delivery. I was actually able to give a pretty good orientation in pretty decent spanish.... cool.... I might actually be learning something here! I also kinda like when the patients ask me questions becasue they think I'm a doctor and I should know the answer. However, my answer is still usually wait and minute while I go get someone else to ask..... I'm getting really excited for the day I get my white coat and actually have the skills to answer them! Everyday I spend working in the hospital, I get more excited to be a doctor and just want to be given a white coat so I can keep working here. But unfortunately when I return to the states there is a lot of school ahead of me before that happens.... but I guess that's for the best. Because otherwise I'll never be able to answer all the patients questions even if they were in English.

I spent my 3 day weekend getting to know the city a little bit better and doing some Argentine things (minus cooking a coconut cream pie for Fathers day and going to watch Que Paso Ayer? aka: the Hangover 2 which were both very American things to do. The Hangover was even in English with Spanish subtitles so I really felt like I was back in the US after watching that movie) I went and watched a soccer match of some of my host sister's friends, had another asado (bbq) with my family for Father's day (the food and wine were even more amazing than my first asado I had with them), checked out downtown at night with some American friends, went to an Irish pub here and drank local beer, celebrated Flag Day with my friends from the gym, and went to another boliche (disco) to dance!

We went to the Santa Diabla boliche and I didn't really know what to expect. There were like 4 disco balls hanging from the ceiling with lots of flashing strobe and colored lights. I haven't been to too many clubs in the US but I don't think they usually have this many lights and disco balls. By the end of the night the club was really packed since it was a Sat night. There was one guy at the club who I thought looked familiar and I told my host sister that and she was like are you serious? You are in Tucuman you don't know anyone here..... 5 minutes later the guy came up and gave me a hug and kiss on the cheeck (no worries normal greeting here even with strangers). He is my trainer at my gym and I did know who he was! I wasn't crazy! lol It looks like Tucuman is just about as small town as IC if I knew someone in the bar after being here for only 3 weeks.

Anyway, since I now am famous and know way to many ppl in Tucuman I will be traveling to Salta and Jujuy (provices 5 hours away by bus) to do some sight seeing this weekend. Be sure to tune in next time to find out what awesome sights I will be seeing there!

Besos!