We just sat and talked... like true Argentines.
Saturday:
UCEL had a big meeting with all the professors, some alumi, and the exchange students on Saturday morning at 9am
There is nothing worse than going to boring meetings about curriculum changes and new teachers on a SATURDAY MORNING! Add in that this meeting was in another language and its REALLY BORING!! ;) It really wasn't that bad, but it was a bit tiring. :)
Kelsey Tulon and I in front of an UCEL sign in the hall way.
UCEL made this sign with all our names on it to welcome us!! Jesse Kuttler is posing with me!
After the meeting we went out for some cáfe while we waited for lunch!
From the left Amy, Sarah, Exchange Student from Germany, Taylor, Myself, and Jesse
From the left: Cassie, Kelsey, Robyn , and Eric
After our coffee break we headed back inside UCEL for LUNCH!! We at Choripan! ITS MY NEW FAVORITE MEAL HERE!! It's short for chorizo, which is like sausage, and pan is bread. So it's just like sausage in a bun, but its DELICIOUS!! :) At this lunch, they just had tons of tables lined up with glasses and pop, napkins, and orderves set on them. There was no seating, but instead everyone just stood while eating and talking.
Jim, our professor, introduced me to some professors at UCEL. The picture below is of Angel, a management professor at UCEL, and me! He's been teaching for 34 years!
After the UCEL meeting and lunch, Eric and I walked to "Mini Iowa" and I did my homework while he listened to music. We sat for about 1.5 hours then Sarah, Taylor, and Jessie came and we all went shopping at the Alto Shopping Mall just across the street from "Mini Iowa."
I left around 8 to go home for dinner, and Anna called to ask if I wanted to come to Nick's house for Dinner! His house was very nice! It reminded me of my house in Rosario,because of the place we ate in but the kitchen reminded me of home! :)
Here is a picture of Devin and one of Nick's dogs! Devin Loved them! The brick little structure to the left is the "la parrilla" or in English is the grill, however the chimney of this grill goes outside, and there is no roof over this part of the house. The wall beside the parrilla was covered in vines. My house has the same grill and wall, but there is a garden instead of vines. I think this is fairly typical of most houses here.
Dinner was great! Nick cooked us pasta for our big race on Sunday, and afterwards we played two games and one was Spanish Bingo :)
Sunday: RACE DAY!!
Today, Nick, Anna, Efran (a professor at UCEL), and I participated in a 10K. It was across that HUGE BRIDGE that connects Rosario and Argentina. It was the first time they had ever had this race, so that was pretty cool to be a part of.
We could see the city in the distance and the cost of the river was Beautiful! You can kind of make out two REALLY tall white buildings in the skyline of the city... those two building are REALLY close to my house and "Mini Iowa" :)
Efram picked us up around 7:30 am and the race started at 9:00? I think? We started "shuffeling"/ jogging at a fast walk pace, at 9:00am, butI dont ever remember walking over the starting line. Now this could have been because to get on the bridge we were supposed to walk on the street, but as you can see in the picture below, everyone scratched the road (and order) idea and just started climbing up the hill! It reminded me of Living History Farms and their STEEP Hills!
There were OVER 3000 people in this RACE!!! (This is OVER double the size of Living History Farms) I looked at results, and through my broken spanish "I THINK" I got 1809th overall place, 49th in the 20-29 age group, and I was 231st of the Women.
It was rediculious though!! My splits were all over the place as at times I could barely walk! I took me 10 mins to get to the first 1k!! This is like .62 of a mile. It was totally worth it though! The view was BEAUTIFUL!!
These pictures were my attempts to show JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE were running. In the picture with the bridge the line goes ALL the way up to the arch of the bridge!
Anna and I midrace:) Taking pictures while on the go is quite an art! HAHA!
The sun was really bright, but the picture is kind of cool :)
Another difference in races here and at home, here EVERYONE wore the green shirt we received in the Entry Fee. This made it VERY difficult/ IMPOSSIBLE to spot anyone in our small group.
No one really walked during the race, which kind of surprised me, but everyone cheered for everyone. I've decided that Asics shoes are NONEXISTANT, and Nike, and Adidas are the shoes of choice.
Even after and before the race everyone was really relaxed and "chill." What is not more Argentine than drinking MATE before the race!! In the picture below, the little cup in the guy's hand is mate ...
Mate is basically like tea that is drank from a special cup and straw. The tea sits in hot water and it littarly looks like pot. My host parents told me they went to a wedding of an England Man and and Argentine Woman, and the Father of the Groom came up to them asking what they thought they were doing bringing pot to the wedding! :) Haha!
But even after the race, everyone brought mate and chairs and just sat and talked. It wasnt like at home were after races we hurry home to finish or start our next activity for the day... :)
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