Here I was working with one of the younger groups. We talked about primary colors and attempted to do a symmetry painting. They then had to tell what they saw in the pictures... yes, a bit of my psych background was coming through!
I went a few days to the public high school to give a few talks. One day was in English, and three other times were all in Spanish! I was very excited to be able to speak with other students outside of the language institute, and to give a talk all in Spanish!
They were very repsectful, for example when we were having a discusion about similarities and differences between the US and Arg, we got to the topic of food. I was explaining that a lot of the food in the US is processed and has "mas preservativos".... yes, I was attempting to say more preservatives, but I had forgotten that the word I was searching for was "conservantes", not "preservativos", which actually means condoms!!! They didn't laugh at all, I was very impressed:)
I only had one tango session, but attended a salsa class every week. Only ladies were present, so we worked a ibt more with choreography than with partner dancing!
Here is another group of students at the institute, it was a beautiful spring day so we had class in the patio.
Me with my friends Eli, Laura, and Gime in the plaza. Being a small town of less than 20,000 people, the plaza was the place to see and be seen. It was filled with people drinking mate, playing soccer, singing, playing guitar, and hanging out. This country has helped me get better at just relaxing and not having to constantly be doing something!!
This was an asado (barbeque) that we had with one of the five families I lived with during my 2 months in Carlos Casares. They are owners of one of the largest agricultural companies in Argentina... yes, they are loaded. We went to their farm and had a feast with the whole extended family. This picture doesn't fully capture the warm, energetic, chaotic atmosphere everyone was talking at once and I am sure I had a stressed, confused look on my face the majority of the meal, just trying to understand bits of the conversations!
This is Tracy, a kindred spirit that I met while she was doing an internship with my family´s company. She is from Seattle and we connected right away. This is the estancia (farm) owned by the family. The town of Carlos Casares is very dependent on agriculture, and the surrounding areas look like this. I learned a lot more about different agricultural processes!
Another part of my program is working three day camps on the weekends. They are English Immersion Camps and kids come from all over the country to attend them (yes, they will drive 16 hours to come from Fri. morn to Sun evening!!) The counselors are all native English speakers, and we organize different activities so that the students can speak English in real-life situations. They attend job interviews, work as bank tellers, shop assistants, radio DJs, waitstaff, etc. The goal is to immerse them in the language and give them the experience of going abroad.
Each weekend has a theme, and this one was "Hollywood". The students were assigned to certain movies beforehand and had to prepare costumes and scripts. During the weekend they worked with people from other schools to film a 5 minute film. We then had the Oscar Awards, and each student was given a specific award. It was great fun, and all the kids seem to gain a lot from the experience!
This was my group for the weekend... we performed "Grease" -complete with choreography, the Hand Jive, the works.
When in Argentina, you've gotta go to a football game!! (soccer, that is) The two main teams are River and Boca, and we went to a River game (they won this one, which according to the Boca fans is quite rare)
