Veintiuno.

Oh boy... what a great two weeks I just had! On June 20th "I completed 21 years" woohoo =) What a great birthday it was! Even though I couldn't be at home with all of you family and friends, it was a very fun day! I was able to hang out with Alicia and Devon all day, and then had a little birthday party that night with some friends and yummy food. Iit was also definitely made known by all of you that I was missed and loved and thought of on this day =) Thank you ALL so much for your sweet notes, letters, and gifts! You don't know how much of a blessing it was to receive of all of that that day.

  And...with all of these little notes and gifts, came a quite handsome messenger: Matt Brown!

My mountain man...

Matt was just here for two weeks visiting me, and we just went "por todos lados" of Buenos Aires... aka everywhere! I only uploaded a few pictures... it was so hard to pick which ones, as we took over 500 with my camera alone. Such a fun time!

Tourist Matt.

The first week he was here I finished my classes! I received 4 of my grades (I still have one more final) and was very pleased with them. Had I realized the teachers were going to be so nice, I might've skipped class more often! (= After my classes finished, our days were completely free to do more. We typically ate breakfast here at home, took our time getting ready for the day, and then set out to whatever random place we had decided on.
We did some of the touristy things, and went to the famous/historical parts of town... we went to the Casa Rosada (where the president works), Catedral de Buenos Aires, 9 de Julio, Cementario de Recoleta, La Boca, San Telmo... and lots more places. But I think just about every day consisted of stopping at a cafe for a bit to have some coffee and/or pastries =) We just couldn't get enough!

He loves me.

I took him to Tigre one day- a pretty suburb of BsAs...and because it was SO cold, we decided against a boat tour on the river. Instead we were our crazy selves and ran around Tigre making video clips... maybe one day it will turn into a full video that we shall let you all view. But it was SO fun just being fun and silly with him! After several hours of walking around the town, we sought refuge on a couch in McCafe and laughed for a long time at the pictures and videos we had just taken... just one of the many lovely days we had.

 
The clean cut Matthew.



 Mama sent me some real ingredients to make some real chocolate-chip cookies... so we tackled that one evening. They were quite delicious, I must say (=

Thanks, Mom!

 One day, we decided to make use of Matt's wonderful musical talents... we borrowed Katie's guitar, looked up a few song lyrics, and then made for the streets! Actually... we went to the subte for a bit, then sat outside a shopping mall for a while. Some boys that lived on the street accompanied us there, and they were so cute the way they were interacting with Matt. I was acting as translator, but they didn't really need me... communicated SO much with their actions. The boys, 13 yr olds, looked at Matt like he was famous. They did a little percussion on his guitar as he played and then showed him their own rapping talents...they especially liked when Matt played "Baby" by Justin Beiber =) Afterwards, one of the boys asked me about how to say pick-up lines in English haha

Another day we went to a zoo a little ways out of town... I think every time I've been to a zoo it has been miserably hot and with small children, so it was a different experience being cold and with Matt-although, that's kinda like being with a small child :)

can you see our Antelope friend?

Matt ventured out by himself one evening... and came home with these!

We also went to Barrio Chino (Chinatown) several times, and Matt got to use his Chinese skills! It was hilarious seeing how everyone reacted when they saw this blonde-hair blue-eyed boy speaking perfect Chinese to them! I was so proud =) He also found some legitimite Chinese food, so he got to share with me some of his favorite dishes from his childhood. Most of them were pretty delicious, I must say.

As for now, I have been in Argentina for FIVE months and have only three weeks left here..very strange to think about! I don't have too much planned for the rest of my time here, but I'm hoping God will continue to bless me by giving me a fantastic 21 more days. I hope you all are enjoying your respective hot summers... it is nice and cool (even COLD sometimes) here in the southern hemisphere! Love you all!

Besos,
Jessi