Hola! So sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve written. With only five hours a day occupied by school, it’s amazing how busy I stay with odds and ends.

Had a great weekend! Friday I went to an Irish pub with tons of CEA peps. They have 2 for one drinks until midnight, so the drinks (beer or mixed) come out to less than $1 U.S. each. Not a bad deal. I ended up having a great conversation with a local, entirely in espanol. So, I felt very good about being able to communicate so well. Must have been the local beer!!! Anyways, made it in around 3. Then was up for the bus ride at 7. Headed to Gualeguaychu (for the biggest Carnival celebration in Argentina) on the 9 a.m. bus with four gals in my program. It was a 3 ½ hour bus ride each way. The buses were amazingly plush. They were much nicer than any airplane I’d ever been on. The seats were huge and they folded back and out to create almost an actual bed. There was a movie on tv, but I mostly slept on the way there. We arrived around noon with no real idea of what to expect. It turned out that the official carnival didn’t begin until 10 at nights. So, we explored the town. It was a really pretty little town – much more poor and less built up than Bs As. Mixed in with the old, run down buildings were beautifully colored flower trees and more modernish, tourist restaurants/cafes/bars. There was also a beautiful harbor that we sat by for some time. We basically sat around chilling, eating, drinking, and wandering for the afternoon.

Once it got later we headed back to the carnival grounds still without much idea of what to expect. They had it set up so that it was like a really long street, set up with large bleachers along the sides. The “carnival” was a long, beautifully elaborate parade. The idea is that the different neighborhoods work on their floats and dances for the whole year and then compete in the carnival. I have never seen such beautiful floats and the dancers (mostly naked) and costumes were amazing. Of course there was lots of loud music, dancing, and beer. Oh, we also got feather hats to wear. Watched the carnival for a long time and then ended up socializing with some locals. We had to leave around 2:30 to catch our 3:00 bus back to Bs As. I think that the real party really started in the clubs after the parade ended at 3, but we didn’t know what to expect, and there were limited buses back, so we’d booked our tickets for 3. It would have been awesome to stay out and party, but we were all pretty exhausted by 3. I passed out on the bus even before it left, and I didn’t wake up again until we were half an hour from home.

I got in the door around 7:30 and went to sleep until Ben called me at 11:30. Then, I got up, showered, and put myself together and went and had dinner with Ben. He got two weeks holiday from work, so he left for Peru on Monday morning.

As I had my big Spanish test today, I grounded myself Monday through Wednesday night only leaving the house for school and to work out (only once). I feel like I did fairly well on the test. There was only one section, out of eleven that I know I totally bombed. Anyways, I will find out if I made it out of Basico Uno and onto Intermediate Uno tomorrow.

I also found out, to my surprise, that I have no classes next week. So, I am planning to go to the south of Argentina for some hiking and nature stuff. I have a meeting this afternoon to see about doing some volunteer work. Then, I am going to the travel agency with a couple of gals to see about planning a trip for next week. Ben will be back next Wednesday, but as I’ll be out of town then, we will be apart for two weeks. That feels like such a long time, but it’s really been flying, and I think it’s good for us to keep doing our own things.

So, that’s most of the news. As I was done with class very early after the test, I went and had lunch with some classmates. Tonight, I am meeting people to go to a Tango club. I’m excited to go out since I’ve been grounded all week! Will try to write again soon.