music: alejandro sanz - te lo agradezco, pero no
mood: adventurous

just finished up week two of orientation. on the whole, i´d say this has been one incredible waste of my time in terms of learning anything new. all of the exploring and learning of language happens on my own time, so all the other stuff is pretty much pointless. but i guess it has its good points as well.

on friday they took us out to an estancia, which is basically a psuedo-farm/country estate. i should have known the experience would be less than what i had hoped for. first of all, it was cold. not cold in the sense that i needed my winter coat and gloves, but cold in the sense that in any other situation, my ass would have stayed inside. second of all, we were supposed to leave at 8:45 in the morning, but didn´t end up going until somewhere around 10:30 - though i have to say such an occurrence is fairly typical with ies down here. then, while we were on the interstate, there was suddenly a moment when i was rudely awakened from my slumber by the screaming of idiot girls. turns out we had run over a very cute and cuddly dog. (is it wrong that i was mostly just annoyed that they had woken me up?)

all of these things should have been signs. though i must say, i really enjoyed it for the first hour. i mean, getting swarmed by mosquitos and mauled by low-hanging tree branches during the carriage ride was just peachy. things did pick up a little bit when we had lunch. i must have eaten 8 different types of meat. i had no idea what they were, but damn if they weren´t tasty. the desserts were pretty amazing as well. needless to say this was my favorite portion of the day.

during the afternoon, most everyone went off to ride bikes, go for walks, play soccer, and/or pretend that it was actually warm enough to go swimming, which it wasn´t. my girls and i decided to be lazy bums, so we pulled some lawn chairs into the half-assed sunlight and partook in the siesta. eventually, susana and i gave in to our alcoholic tendencies and split a bottle of chardonnay. oh yes, we´re ballers. i thought you knew...

so yes, while it was somewhat enjoyable, it reminded me of how much i don´t care for the countryside. apparently everyone else could tell as well. at least 4 different people told me that they were surprised that i went, considering how much of i city girl i obviously am. i don´t know if that´s a good thing or a bad thing.

ok, i´ve got so much more to talk about, including the night life, st patty´s day, and my adventures with learning how to tango. but it´s such a beautiful day outside, and i feel like i need to go do something with my life that doesn´t involve staring at a computer screen...

besos
t