I have officially been here in Argentina for two months now...which, sadly, is ONE THIRD of my time here. On one hand it seems to be going by fast, but it also feels like I have just been here forever and life in the US is slowly becoming more of a thing of the past.
I do apologize for not writing for SO long, I have been one busy girl! I don't even know where to begin... I guess with the fun stuff:
A couple of weeks ago (March 24th-ish) was a holiday here in Argentina and we got a couple of days off of school. So Annika and I decided to take a trip to the famous wine-country at the base of the Andes Mountains called Mendoza. There ended up being 7 of us altogether, most of the other girls I hadn't met before, but it was AWESOME! I would put up pictures, but there's a story that goes with that, too... First day we got there, on our way to the wine tour, and I realized I left my camera (and phone and iPod) in the lobby of the hostel. When we came back, of course they had been taken.... so that was a huge bummer. But the vineyards were beautiful and the wine was really good! -I don't normally like wine, but can tolerate it, but most of the wine that we tried I actually
liked =) The next morning God kindly reminded me of Psalm 34:1 (I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth) So, I decided to get over my little pity party at the loss of my things, and I had the BEST day! We went on a tour through the Andes and I saw some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. Don't worry, my friends took pictures and will share them with me soon, so they're on their way.(This picture I stole from the internet and I'm pretty sure it's exactly where we were) We hiked around a lookout spot and saw the tallest peak in South America- Aconcagua. It was just amazing! The next day we got to go rafting, repelling, and trekking all through the mountains. Despite it being the coldest day I've had here in Argentina, and me being the coldest I have been in my life (no exaggeration) the rafting was incredible!! I just looked up at the mountains that I was surrounded by and was like- I am rafting in the ANDES! I have only read about things like this!- it was just so cool... all that too say, Mendoza was amazing, and I hope I can go back someday. We got to spend Sunday afternoon just riding bikes/running through a huge park there in town and it was also very beautiful. A GREAT weekend! Probably ranks up there with being on of the best, ever.
Last week I came back from Mendoza and had a crazy, not so great, week of classes and homework and life. Kinda like what always happens when you come back from vacation... but, God is good, and I went to my first "servicio de jovenes" (youth group- youth in the sense of young adults.) And oh it was SO awesome! (It was my first weekend home in BsAs for a long time, so my first opportunity to go to church in several weeks) It was just a fun group of crazy kids that reminded me a lot of my own youth group when I was in high school. There was a band and we just had worship for a long time. Then broke up into groups and got to share how our weeks were and prayed for each other. It was SO good to not only be part of a group, but to have fellowship with believers and to feel the Spirit of God in this place! So, yay praise Jesus!
Sunday, I ran in my first Argentine race. It was just an 8km, but I enjoyed it. It was a race honoring one of the "desparacidos" (people that disappeared during the military dicatorship in 1970s), so it was cool to be part of the history that I've studied in classes back home. Later that day I went to a museum for my art class(the class I decided to take in place of Tango) and I really enjoyed it. I liked getting to see the works that we studied in class and knowing the history behind them. The part of town the museum is in is a really cool area, too, with a couple cute parks and historical buildings... going to have to do some more exploring over there!
This week has been wonderful. I gave my first presentation in one of my classes- a group presentation, so not too stressful. And turned in a project for my art class... In general classes are going alright. This week has been 10x better than last week. Somedays I can just understand my teachers better than others- last week I felt like I understood nothing, and this week I feel like I'm understanding everything. (praise Jesus!) I think as time goes on, though, I'm liking my classes more and more..
I guess that's about it. I will try to write my next entry before another month passes by =) I hope you all are doing well! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!
Besos,
Jessi
