Equestrian Show Jumping! Gran Premio "Sol de Mayo"

Hi there everyone!
Today I went to an equestrian event I read about on another blog, it was a Show Jumping competition. I went to the last event which was the Grand Premier of the whole Sol de Mayo competition and it was a World Cup Qualifying competition. Aka really good horses & riders were in this competition. This event usually is held in May but there was some kind of equine virus going around in May and the event was suspended until now. Lucky me right?!

So, I decided to go to this event but really didn't have much of a clue where it was or what to expect. I hopped on my ever trusty bus (ha) and took it close to the River Plate stadium, I knew it was near there and knew what street it was on but not exactly where it was. So after walking around a bit I saw a horse trailer and figured it had to be close. When I found it I wasn't exactly sure where the entrance was because most people were arriving in cars. (This should have been my fist clue as to the type of people attending the event.) Well I saw a group of people walking in through a car entrance so I just followed, the guard asked a question but the other people I was walking with dealt with him...I definitely felt like I was sneaking in, even though I knew the event was free. When I got there there was some kind of band playing, they were fun but I was trying to figure out what I was doing and where I was first. I'm so glad I wore my boots & my collard shirt because otherwise I would have felt more out of place than I was. Think of ritzy equine people back in the states...pretty much the same group of people here in BsAs. Lots of people were wearing real riding boots but there were others wearing fashion ones as well. There were lots of little kids, babies, & pregnant women...I always take note when there are a lot of pregnant women around, I don't know why but it seems to say something about the people I'm around. So yah, at first I felt like I sneaked in to some rich club but as the afternoon wore on I realized some of the families were just there to enjoy the sport, but most of them were rich.

After the band played a Vaulting group came out as an exhibition group. Vaulting, if you don't know, is like gymnastics on horseback. I've done some of this at Cedars but only at a walk/trot and nothing as difficult as what these girls did. It was a lot of fun to watch. I took a video & some other pics which are up on my Photobucket account.

After watching the vaulting I walked around a bit and realized not only was there a restaurant but there were also wine samplings and and a VW car expo. There were also a few booths selling food...but I'll get to that a bit later. I went to the warm up ring and watched the horses and riders get ready for the event and then found a seat. My camera only lasted through the first jumping course but I think I got some decent pictures, given the type of camera I have. I moved around some too and didn't stay in one spot. I also took a couple of videos of a few horses running the course. Those are on my Photobucket account as well. I wish my camera had lasted to the second jumping course because they used more of the jumps that were along the rail. I was super close to two jumps and it was and amazing thing to be so close to!

Not all the riders were perfect so there were a few horses that practically ran straight though the jumps and a lot that made contact/knocked a bar off the jump, but no one was hurt thankfully. During the first course there were 8 or 9 out of the 15-20 or so that made it through the course with out a fault. The second course was much different! Only one rider made it through the course cleanly, he did the same in the first course and was the winner of the whole sha-bang. Funny thing, when a rider finished the course cleanly they would play Bonanza-esk song.

There was a break after everyone ran the first course so they could get the second course ready & by that point I was ready for a snack. So, I looked at some of the little food tents that were there and realized one was making crepes! They were making some that were sandwich-like but they also had the every plentiful dulce de leche and for the first time nutella! I thought about getting a nutella one but it seemed wrong seeing that I'm in the land of Dulce de Leche. Dulce de Leche y Bananas por favor! It was sooo good but SOOO sweet! I couldn't eat the last few bits of it because it was a.) so sweet and b.) it was getting everywhere: my hair, hands, purse.....it had to go! lol

Like I mentioned before, the second round was really cool because the horses and riders were jumping so much closer to us!

After all the riding was done I stuck around for the awards and ended up standing next to an older couple from New York that live in  Buenos Aires half the time. The gentleman loved talking to me....just to talk I guess. He told me that the guy who won was actually coming back from an injuring in his Achilles tendon and this was his second win since coming back to the sport. I hung around a little longer while they handed out awards to the riders so I could watch some of the very attractive guys there....I couldn't help but notice! Eventually I headed back home but all in all it was a GREAT day! I can't wait to go to a Polo match now!

Check out my Photobucket account to see all my pictures and the videos I took from today! There's a link to it at the top of the side bar on the right.

<3 Amy

WOOO PIG SOOIE!!

Alright, so for those of you that miss the game...Arkansas beat Georgia 31-24!! My favorite song during times like these:
Oh, Lord it's hard to be humble,
when you're perfect in every way!
I can't wait to look in the mirror,
I get better looking each day!
To know me is to love me,
I must be one hell of a fan!
Oh, Lord it's hard to be humble,
when you're an Arkansas Razorback fan!


Ok maybe that's over doing it a bit much but this game really was exciting. AND I got to watch it! Live! Not just read the play by play but actually see what was happening! This was all thanks to a friend on twitter who sent me the link. The reason why it was so exciting was because Georgia tied it up at 24 within the last 5 mins of the game. Within the last 30 sec of the game Ryan Mallet pulled out all the stops & got us another touch down!! Thank goodness my host mom had already left at that point because I was jumping up and down like a crazy person! It was great!

Now Arkansas is 3-0 and 1-0 in the SEC....but don't worry after next Saturday we'll be 2-0 in the SEC (Bama's going DOWN!) Unfortunately I won't be able to watch the Bama v Arkansas game because I'm going to Rosario for the weekend. Its a trip through my study abroad so I'm not exactly sure what we're doing but I doubt I'll be able to find out what's going on with the game until its over. Sorry Jeremy...the Razorbacks are ready for you guys & there's no stopping us! Oh and if I hear any Arkansas Alums (Mom, Dad) cheering for another team....I may just stay in Argentina or Arkansas for the winter! Ashley, just don't tell either Jeremy or I who you're really rooting for. I expect you will say to me: Go Hogs, and I'll understand if you say a few Roll Tides to Jeremy. But we all already know who Bo is rooting for!
This was sent to me today BY JEREMY entitled Go Hogs! Notice the RED bandanna...if he were a Bama boy he'd be wearing Crimson...not red! Nice choice Bo! Joe I expect you will be sporting the same color.

Oh and this was me during the game cheering on the hogs with the little hog I brought with me! Woo Pig Sooie!

Other than Football, I've been working on the take home mid term that's due Monday and I need to study for my other mid term that is Wed. Hopefully I'll finish my take home mid term today because tomorrow I'm going to an equestrian event I found out about today! Its a jumping competition and the finals are Sunday and, from what I read there will be some 'family activities' and some vaulting exhibitions (gymnastics on horseback). So I'm super pumped about that.

That's all for now!
WOO PIG SOOIE!!
<3 Amy

Swimming Swimming In the Swimming Pool

Alright, if you didn't go to summer camp you may not understand the title but it was one of my favorite camp songs. I've never actually been super fond of swimming....ask my swim teacher or my scuba instructor...but its one of the few exercises that doesn't murder my pathetic feet. So, some friends told me about a pool that I can go to through the school for super cheap and I figured that would be a great way to FINALLY get some good exercise. I actually bought the pass & a swimsuit & gear last Wed. but my lovely sinuses decided to get in the way so today was my first chance to go to the pool.

I wasn't sure what time the pool was open but I brought my swim stuff just in case and found out before my first class that one of my friends was going to go to the pool during our lunch break! I was so excited...I've been needing to work out for a while now and it was so good to finally make it happen. The facilities are pretty nice, well I couldn't  exactly see because I can't wear my contacts yet so the blurs that I could see were nice! But all in all it was a nice kinda beginning work out. We grabbed some empanadas
 from a bakery on our way back to school  for lunch which was convenient because as soon as I sat down in class I realized I was STARVING. I'm ready to go back tomorrow for a longer work out seeing as I don't have class until 5:30 tomorrow.

Other than swimming & upcoming midterms the only new development is the trip me and a friend are planning to see the South of Argentina and then end up kinda in the north for Octoberfest! Its all very exciting!

Love you all!
Amy

Doctor's office & a day in the countryside.

Before I get into what the title is all about I'd like to say that this weekend I've been reading a bunch of different blogs, some by friends studying/interning abroad and others by peace corps volunteers. Well, any way, it just made me realize how cool these things can be and I guess has motivated/reminded me that I should be updating this more often even if its just a short update. And thanks to those who actually read this! I hope its not too lame :)

Alright, so remember that head cold I mentioned I had during my Peace Corps interview? Well, I woke up Thursday morning unable to open my right eye and feeling like I had gotten punched in the face. It was pretty disgusting so I'll avoid the gross details. Needless to say, this was more that a head cold. I figured it was a sinus infection that had spread to my eye or something, which meant I probably needed to see a doc to get some antibiotics to get rid of this crap once and for all. After much debating and whining to my family & Lexie, I gathered all the documents I would need and headed out to first talk to my study abroad directors and then make my way to the hospital. My study abroad directors made it sound easy enough and in fact, it was!

When I got to the hospital all I had to do was say I needed an appointment, tell them what was wrong with me aka point to my eye & sinuses, and then hand over my credit card. I waited maybe 10 min to see the first doctor who was really nice. I successfully talked/listened to him in Spanish and was able to get everything across! I was proud of myself, but that didn't last long because when I had to go back and get another appointment with an eye doctor the nurse was not having my broken spanish. Apparently if your eye hurts, its an emergency. The eye doctor I saw wanted to speak to me in english so I was ok with that, expect for when he didn't know some words, so I don't exactly know what was wrong w/ my eye but he gave me eye drops to treat the symptoms. I was also prescribed by the other doc some antibiotics, Allegra, and a nose spray. All pretty obvious drugs for a sinus infection so I was happy. I'm already feeling MUCH better so I'm glad I went ahead and saw a doctor.

Moving on...
Yesterday I went on a trip through my study abroad to Lujan. First we went to the Basilica de Lujan which is built in honor of the Virgin de Lujan, the patron saint of Argentina. Cool church, much more like something you would see in Europe so it seemed a little odd here.



Then we went to an Estancia, La Mimosa, basically it was a place out in the country where they put on dance shows and horseback riding events to show you what traditionally the country side of Argentina was like. The main attraction though was the massive amounts of food we were fed for lunch. TONS of meat!! I mean HOLY CRAP there was a lot of meat. I had my fair share of it, but I found that a good bit of it was pretty fatty. There was also chicken, salad, bread, and ice cream for dessert. It was a beautiful day so it was nice to spend the majority of it outside in the unpolluted air of the country side. I haven't posted my pictures yet on Photobucket but I'll be sure to do that soon.

Other than all that, I have mid-terms coming up this week and next so I've got to start prepping for those. But for the rest of today, I need to go get something to eat & read for my classes.

Love you all lots!!
-Amy

Peace Corps Interview / Fútbol Match

Tuesday Sept. 7th was a big day!

First thing on the agenda for that day was my Peace Corps Interview at 2pm. I got some rest and ate a late breakfast while I prepped some for the interview. As some of you may know, this was my second attempt at an interview. The first scheduled interview didn't end up happening because I couldn't hear my recruiter over the land line I was using. So this time my recruiter called me on my cell phone. I think the interview went well, it only lasted about an hour but I think as far as phone interviews go it was sufficient. I have to say I was pretty worried ahead of time because I had yet another head cold and I was worried I was going to be snotting all over my phone while trying to talk. It ended up being just find and I didn't even really have the sniffles during the whole thing. I should find out if I will be nominated in the next week to 3 weeks. A nomination basically means they accept my application and they will give me a general location and project I could be assigned to. That however, is subject to change due to a number of things. Obviously as soon as I find out I'll be letting people know!

Right after my interview I headed to the Argentina vs Spain Futbol match. This was just a friendly game, but how friendly can it be when Argentina was a World Cup hopeful and Spain ended up the champions? I took the bus to the stadium and waited around outside to try and meet up with some friends. I couldn't ever find them so I went ahead and made my way into the stadium. After my ticket was checked and I went up the first flight of stairs I found a giant crowd of people trying to get to the seats. OK but when I say crowd I mean more like a moshpit, these Argentines were pushing their way through no matter if there was a mother with an infant and a young kid. It was insane eventually I gave up being apart of the crowd and saw a small passage way between the stadium walls and the stair case that some people were squeezing through to get out of the crowd. I followed and was amazed because there wasn't a crowed on the other side. I took a little time to try and look around the crowed to find my friends but I wasn't even sure what specific section they were suppose to be in so I found a spot on the railing and stood by some Argentines to watch the game. The game was a ton of fun but it was actually hard to cheer because even the "oooos" and "ahhhs" mean something different here. The chants and songs were fun to hear and try to be apart of though! Oh and Argentina whooped Spain's butt 4-1!
Some random observations from the game:
-To get a medic you have to get an entire section to chant "MEDICO! MEDICO!"
-There's not much high-fiving after your team scores
-There's no half-time entertainment...really....nothing happened.

It was tons of fun, but everyone here has told us that the national team games are nothing compared to the local cub team games, Boca & River Plate. I can't imagine!

Awesome Weekend

Well this weekend was pretty amazing once the rain finally decided to stop. On Friday I headed out to pick up the Argentina vs Spain soccer tickets I bought online. I had a bit of a walk but it was really easy to get them. That night I was planning on going to a dance hall for Salsa & Tango lessons but I didn't have any coins for the bus, and the easiest way to get change is to buy a subway pass...Coins aren't easy to come buy here, its really obnoxious. Anyway, I figured since I had until 7pm to do something I might as well take the subway down to the Evita Museum. It kinda drizzling so it was a good day to spend some time in a museum. I forgot to bring my camera but if you go to the museum's website you can see almost exactly what's there. If you didn't already know, Eva Peron was the wife of one of the most famous Populist Presidents, Juan Peron, in all of Latin America. Eva Peron herself was adored by her people & is viewed by many in a similar way as Princess Diana. The museum focused on her life before Peron and the works she did rather than the specific populism politics. It was an interesting museum to visit while taking the classes I'm enrolled in because most of my professors are very anti-Peronist/anti-populism.


After the museum and after getting enough coins for the bus I headed home for an early dinner. I had to eat early, at 7pm, so that I could get to Salsa and Tango lessons at 9pm. I successfully got myself there via the bus, which not an easy thing to do. This dance club, La Viruta, is in the basement of the Armenian culture center and has a bar & food. Half of the people there were Argentinians and the other half were tourists wanting to get the Tango experience. So, during the classes we switched partners multiple times and got to talk with lots of different people. The salsa class was first and was tons of fun, very up beat. After salsa there was a short tango show performed by the instructors and one of the instructors had just won 4th place in a world tango competition. The tango class, that being my second class, was fun as well & I think next time I'll take the intermediate class! After the classes the dance floor was opened up and they played salsa and tango music. Argentine men, especially the older ones, have a very particular and peculiar way of getting a dance partner, frankly its kinda creepy. They basically stand across the room and stare down a girl, if the girl wants to dance she meets him on the dance floor. If not she looks away....weird huh?

After some dancing and chatting with friends we decided to find a more up-beat club, and one with some more people our age. We found out some other friends of ours were at a club called Crobar. I'd heard of the place but never been. Once we got there (via cab) we found out it was a $50 peso cover charge, $12.50 USD, so really its not that much but in comparison to most other clubs its a lot. Well, let me tell you...it was WAY worth the money! This place was HUGE and had a pretty great DJ. It was mostly electronic music, and there was a special light show that night. We got there around 3am, which is when it starts getting good at clubs here, and stayed until 6am. It was crazy ridiculous but tons of fun! There's a picture below of the club...I think it explains a lot.



Needless to say I slept a good bit on Saturday. But, I did get up in time to join my host mom and her friend for a little tea time. It was a fun way to practice my Spanish.

Sunday was a beautiful so I headed out to find The Immigrant's Day Festival. I took the Subte (subway) and walked through a couple of parks filled with people running/roller blading around and other drinking mate & hanging out. I started hearing some loud music & followed it to find a stage with people performing traditional dances. It was fun to watch but eventually my legs fell asleep so I got up to look at the tents that each country had. They were all selling food & trinkets related to their country. I had already eaten lunch but I found the Scotland booth and couldn't pass up some ginger bread. It was soooo good! I hung around until the end which was another dance to tango and then to Argentine pop music. The grand finale was sparks shooting up from the stage & then confetti blown up and out to the crowd. It was so much fun!



Sorry it took so long to post this!
Amy

Chill Thursday

Hey all!
So I haven't done too much since my last post but there have been some changes this week. My roommate and my host mom weren't getting along too well and everything kinda escalated this week so my roommate moved to a different host family on Wednesday. My host mom and I get along just fine, I'm pretty flexible with living arrangements so I'm comfortable staying where I am. But today being the first day without a roommate went just fine. I didn't have class today and I went out last night to celebrate a friend's birthday so I just hung around the apartment for most of the morning. My host mom was actually really sweet and made me a sandwich since it was so cold, windy, and rainy out. I guess she didn't want to make me leave the house to get lunch. (She's only suppose to provide breakfast and dinner) Eventually I headed out to print some things at the study abroad office and study at a coffee shop. All in all though, I'm optimistic that living without a roommate will be a good thing. I think with it just being me and my host mom I'll have more conversations with her which means I'll be practicing my Spanish more.