wonderful weekendd!

Ohhh Buenos Aires. I've had so many ups and downs with you. I felt like I was winding down in my time here. I had passed my one-month-left mark and was pretty sure nothing would realllly pump me up again until I was on my way home. Hah. Oh how God loves to prove us wrong<3>

My weekend was INCREDIBLE. It started out last friday, waking myself earlier than normal to travel all the way across this giant city. My friend (the one who studied abroad in the states and teaches english here) invited me to be a special guest speaker from the good USofA in one of her classes! Despite getting turned around on my way there (that was quite an adventure, ask me to tell you that oneee), I walked in only like 5 minutes late to her class. The students did an activity where I rattled of, very slowly, in english a bit of personal data about myself. "My name is Danielle. I live in Indiana, a state in the northern-middle part of the country. I am studying to be a teacher. My favorite food is chicken wings." Haha.. they didn't know what chicken wings were. They don't have spicy food down here! It was funny too because my friend told them that I didn't speak very good Spanish so they would have to use English with me hahaha. After going through the answers on the worksheet, she told them the truth and I spoke to them in Spanish about my time here, howed them some pictures of the US, and answered an onslaught of awesome questions. Let's see... the first several were as follows: Do you like Justin Bieber? Do you like Taylor Swift? Do you like One Direction? Do you like Katy Perry? (But in spanish keep in mind so I had trouble deciphering the name of the American celebrity, ahaha.) But they got better, with the guide of my teacher-frand. Like: What's a day in your life? Do gringos really eat around 5-6pm and wake up around 7-8am? Have you tried (insert Argentine food here)? Have you been to (insert famous Buenos Aires place here)? What are normal foods from the US? Have you been to New York? What are the suburbs and what are they like? etc. It was SUCH great practice of my teaching-skills & spanish! What an incredible experience!

That night my friend took me to the meeting of the Vida Estudiantil of Buenos Aires... which is basically campus crusade of this city. It was a lot different than the cru I've experienced in the states. Fist of all, there aren't really "campuses" where people live here, so instead of having one for each college, they have a location in the city where all the different college students from different universities come to meet. And the meeting was based around a dinner, with looots of social time (typical Argentinialll haha). I got to meet so many new people and practice spanish and feel totally out of my comfort zone. Me cuesta en el momento, pero siempre cuando miro atrás me encanta. I just conveyed my emotions better in spanish, so boom. After that, a group of us went out to a jazz club and hung out til lateee. And my friend and I and another girl ended up crashing at one of the intern's apartment. (Which was another gringa btw. There were a handful of gringo interns from the states that worked at campus crusade). En fin, I loved it. It's great to break out of my routine here. Makes me sad I don't have that much more opportunities left here to do it.

Saturday, I spent recouping and talking and talking with my friend:) I don't think she realizes how much of a blessing she is to me!! She made me a heavenly Argentine lunch of milenesa & papas & ensalada:) And we drank mate and ate alfajores while watching Modern family. After that, it was the son-in-law of my host mom's birthday party. So I made my way to a bar in the fancy part of BA (in Palermo) and had a grand old time. I don't have latin rhythm, but cool Argentines danced with me anyways:) ALL NIGHT pretty much! Absolutely wonderful.

Sunday was chill, sleeping in majorly and going to church. After church though, I had another adventure by going out to eat at this Argentine buffet and trying cow tongue! It honestly was pretty good but I still almost tossed my cookies because it was all in my head what I was eating and it grossed me out. And that was it. ADVENTUREEEEE!!!!

This week was super chill. Doing a lot of studying and projects lately wrapping up my classes. WOW, I'll be glad to get those over with! This weekend is looking more low-key too, but who knowwws? Maybe I should get in the mindset of winding down so I'll be blown out of the water again? ;) I am realllly going to miss this place. Sure, there are things that can't end fast enough about being here. But also, there is so much awesome! I had a dream sunday night (after my weekend of wonders) that I was hugging everyone goodbye here and crying....<3> Ahhh the sweetness of bittersweetness.