Whew! I'm done!

Hello to you all, from a very relieved, but exhausted study abroad student! I just finished my last mid-term about 30 minutes ago, and I am so happy! I haven't gotten much sleep these past few days though, so I can't wait to get in my bed tonight! This has been a very busy week as I've studied for my 3 mid-terms, worked on a project for my hardest class (Geography), conducted an interview for another project due next week, prepared for my first day at my volunteer job (which is tomorrow), and made plans for my parents when they come visit me next week! Please pray for tomorrow that everything will go smoothly with the kids with whom I'm volunteering. I want to have fun with them, but I want to be able to teach them something too :) The ages range from 5-12, so it's very hard to plan activities that are engaging for kids of all of those ages!

Also, I met three Argentine girls in my Geography class (my main connection to the Argentine world haha) and I'm doing this huge project with them. They are really sweet and have been so patient with me as I'm trying to keep up and not be an obstacle to them! Pray as I get to know them more that God would present the opportunity to share my faith with them. Usually, it's just as easy as, "So what kind of music do you like?"--"Well I like country music, broadway music, and christian music too."--"Oh, so you're a Christian...like Catholic or Protestant?" And when I tell them I'm protestant, they almost always want to know what I believe and what the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism is. Please pray that I'll be able to share what I believe as well as show them by my actions that those beliefs make a difference in my day-to-day life.

Thursday until Sunday, the Clemson group has an official trip to Northern Argentina, and a bunch of the other exchange students and our professors are going to! Pray for safety as Dengue, a disease carried by mosquitos, has been a problem in the area recently. We'll all be wearing lots of Off spray!!

Thanks again for checking my blog to see what's going on in my life here! Until next post!

Mendoza--where it's at

Here are some pictures from Mendoza! Enjoy!


Just across the Chilean border with the nation's flag

In the middle of the Andes Mountains on the Chile-Argentina border--so breathtaking :)

Getting ready to jump of this mountain and go paragliding!

In the air!

Sitting, floating 100s of feet above the ground! Crazy!

All 4 girls at one of the vineyards, underground where the wine is fermented

**I WROTE THE FOLLOWING A WEEK AGO, BUT I'VE JUST NOW HAD TIME TO UPLOAD THE PICS...SORRY!**

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Easter with your family and friends! I know I did! We didn't have school Thursday and I never have classes on Fridays (yes!) so I went to Mendoza, Argentina, only a 9-hour bus ride away, to spend Semana Santa there with three of my exchange student friends. We toured vineyards, an olive factory, and a chocolate (yum!) and liquor factory; we went paragliding (so fun!!); and we traveled into the Andes Mountains to see some famous locations and even went to the Chilean border!

Paragliding was so much fun! I was a little nervous at first, but the ride in the 4x4 up to the top of the mountain was a lot scarier than the actual flight! We got pretty close to the edge at times! I just prayed the whole way that we wouldn't roll down the mountain! Once at the top of the mountain, they strapped us onto the paragliding kites and each of us were attached to one man who was our guide! Then they told us to just run of the top of the mountain into thin air! That was the scariest part! But you immediately go up because the wind catches underneath the kite and it's all so incredibly amazing from there! It was so calming, except for when I looked down! I couldn't believe I was just sitting there, floating 100s of feet above the ground! At the end, my guide asked me if I liked roller coasters and he pulled on one side of the kite and we took a spinning dive towards the earth! It was pretty much like sky diving! SO exhilerating! When he stopped I asked if we could do it again, so I got to do it twice! Haha :) The landing was so smooth too! We just walked right onto the ground! It cost $55 US, but we were in the air for about 20 minutes, so it was worth it!

So, we traveled to Mendoza through the night Wednesday, did the wine, olive, and chocolate tours Thursday, went paragliding Friday, and then took a trip through the Andes Saturday! The landscape was breathtaking. We went to a famous point at the top of one of the mountains, called Cristo Redentor, where we took pictures on the Chilean border! It was freezing up there! We also saw the tallest mountain in the Andes, Aconcagua, and we visited Puente de Inca, where there is a massive bridge that was built by the Incas so that their princess could cross over the river there. Overall, we had a wonderful time. It was relaxing, yet we took advantage of the trip and did a lot of things in while we were there :)

We came back Saturday night, so I had all day Sunday to do some things I wanted to do in Córdoba. The best part of the day was when I got to skype with my ENTIRE extended family on my mom's side because they were all in Greenville for Easter! My grandparents were shocked to say the least when they saw me on the computer via skype! :) I even got to bless the food and thank God for all the people there and for the difference they've made in my life. What a blessing! Then I went to Córdoba's yearly international fair that was closing after Sunday! I was so glad I got to go! I bought things from various parts of Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and even Senegal, Africa! Rocky Creek, my home church in Greenville, is partnered with missionaries in Senegal, so it was so neat to be able to buy something from there!

Then, that night, I was able to go to my home church here for Easter. It was such a sweet time of fellowship as we shared in the Lord's Supper and Pastor Sam preached on the relation between Easter and the Lord's Supper. I am absolutely in love with the people in that body of believers!

Well, I have one midterm that is due Thursday, two next week, and one the week after that! Please keep me in your prayers!

Oh yeah! And I have two praises! One is that my parents are definitely coming to visit me May 6th-12th! I'm so excited! Also, I just found out that I got a Travel Grant from Clemson to help pay for my study abroad costs this semester! God is so good!

**THE FOLLOWING IS AN UPDATE FROM THIS PAST WEEK!**

So, I guess the biggest news is...the trip is halfway over!! Can you believe it?? Thursday marked 10 weeks since I arrived! That's a long time! It really doesn't feel like I've been here that long, time is flying!

Thursday we had an international fair for the students at UBP (the university I attend here) and it was great! Holly (another girl from Clemson) and I made about 200 snickerdoodles as the representative food from the United States! :) Everyone loved them though! There were several different stands set up, representing the different countries where the international students at UBP are from. I sat at the Clemson stand for a while and answered a lot of questions about the university and the exchange program there. The students couldn't believe how huge Clemson was! I hope more students from UBP decide to study in Clemson, because right now, per year, only 20 UBP students study in Clemson and 200 Clemson students study in UBP! That ratio is not fair to Clemson, so if it doesn't change soon, the program might be terminated. Hopefully this fair gave the UBP students the information they're looking for so that they'll want to come to the amazing Clemson, SC soon!

Also, keep me in your prayers about what I'm going to be doing this summer when I get back. I just found out that Jackson-Dawson can't use me as an intern this summer, so I'll be looking for something else to do. It'll be especially hard to do this from Argentina, and I don't want this to add a bunch of stress to my life here, so really pray that I'll find a job or/and be able to help out a few of my parents' friends who have their own marketing businesses in Greenville.

Again, thanks so much for your prayers! Keep them up! This week and next week are midterms so pray for the stress levels here! :) Adios!

6 things that our Argentine friends really should know...

For your entertainment :)

Six pieces of information that have yet to reach our friends here in Argentina:

1) A person having one foot on the city bus does not give the driver the permission to gun it (so scary!)
2) You really don't have to walk around with a unibrow...it's actually a very solvable problem
3) We would all appreciate it if you mothers would at least TRY to cover up while nursing in public
4) It's probably healthy to occasionally attempt to return from going out with your friends before 6 am every weekend...lack of sleep will catch up with you eventually...
5) Fruit does NOT equal dessert. I don't know who started that lie here, but it's not true...
6) Drinking Coke like it's water might be nice now, but you can't keep it up your whole life...your body will hate you...

So, nothing much has happened since my last post, so I thought I'd throw in that list for your enjoyment :) Classes were pretty normal last week, nothing too special! We did have a four-day weekend though, which was really nice! I went downtown to an Argentine friend's apartment Saturday to work on a project and it was a lot of fun! It's really cool because here there is a section of downtown Córdoba where all of these skyscraper apartment buildings are, where most of the hundreds of thousands of college students here live! Therefore, that part of downtown is always covered with students! Lots of fun!

Last week, my Argentine cousin, her husband, and two little girls (3 and 5) came to visit and that was a lot of fun! We had 15 people total for dinner two nights in a row! I had so much fun interacting with the two girls, especially the older one, since she's learning English in school and thought it was so cool that I spoke English :)

This weekend I'm pretty sure I'm going to Mendoza, which is about a 6 hour bus ride away! I'm really excited! I'm sure I'll have a lot to tell you about that trip! I hope you and your family have a wonderful Easter! Chau!