Mom and Dad come to visit!

Whew! I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long! My life has been crazy! Last week and the week before were midterms, (Priase God, I got 9s and 10s on all of them!) so I was pretty much constantly studying for those, preparing two projects, and getting ready for my mom and dad to come to visit! We had a great time! Read below:



Wednesday I picked them up at the airport at about 12pm. I couldn't believe it was really them when I saw them for the first time! It was like I was dreaming! Right when they got to the house, we had empanadas for lunch--it's safe to say that they are pretty big empanada fans now! That night, my mom made her home-made spaghetti and sweet tea for the whole fam and it was delicious! We also had salad--though that may not sound like a big deal, it was. Here, salads consist of lettuce and tomato with oil on it--pretty different from our salads in the States. My parents brought Ranch and Thousand Island dressing and my Argentine family couldn't get enough of it! They also loved the spaghetti, but weren't too sure about the sweet tea. They couldn't believe it when we told them a lot of people in the southern part of the States drink it every night for dinner! :)

Thursday I had a huge presentation due for my geography class, so a lot of that day was spent hanging out with my parents on campus, introducing them to professors and friends, and leaving them in the computer lab to practice my presentation. :) I think it went pretty well though! Also, I got my midterm back for that class, my hardest one, and I got a 9 out of 10! I was so excited!!

Friday I gave them the grand tour of the city of Córdoba, and man did we do a lot! We went to a café for some delicious Argentine pastries and coffee for breakfast; ate lunch at one of the most famous restaurants in Córdoba to try the famous Argentine dish, locro (basically it's corn chowder with cow intestines--wasn't our favorite, but at least we can say we tried it); and went to all the important monuments, parks, and locations in the city. On our way back home, we even stopped by the one Walmart in Córdoba--it really does feel like you've stepped back into the States when you walk in the door! That night we took my Argentine parents out to El Arrabal for a tango show and dinner! Even though they're from Córdoba, they had never been, so it was a great way to thank them for letting my parents stay in their home and for taking care of me here. My US parents loved it too! It was such a great taste of the tradition of tango, a very important influence in the Argentine culture today!

Saturday was a completely different change of pace as my Argentine parents drove us out to the country surrounding the city, so that my parents could get the feel of that part of the culture as well. We ate lunch at my Argentine family's country home, which was so gorgeous and relaxing. Then we toured around the grounds of a local bed and breakfast that has a gorgeous restaurant and several beautiful log cabins spread out in the woods. We saw horses, donkeys, and even llamas! From there we took a car-tour through the small, but beautiful town of Alta Gracia, somewhere I had already been, and ended our journey in the town of Villa General Belgrano, a small, touristy village started by German immigrants who moved to Argentina after WWII. We ate chocolate and ice cream there and even bought me some new tennis shoes, something I needed very badly, considering I used my other ones to walk 45 min one-way to school almost every day! That night we ordered some good ol' Argentine pizza, which both of my parents loved!

Sunday we had an asado, or an Argentine BBQ, (so delicious!) with my entire extended Argentine family. They went all out--this asado included pork, beef, and chicken! Of course, it was Mother's Day in the States, but Mother's Day in Argentina isn't until October 17th, so my Argentine mom wasn't expecting anything! My mom brought from the States some lotions for my sisters, a card and a present for my Argentine mom, and a web cam for the whole family, so I gave those to them after we ate. My Argentine mom started tearing up when she read the card! (It was funny because Mom just got a Spanish Mother's Day card in the States and had no idea what it said haha, but it eneded up being fine!) I also got to express (in Spanish) my thankfulness to God for my real mom who is such a great example of a true lover of Christ in my life. I told everyone how she is so unselfish, loving everyone with the love of Christ, and that when I am a mom one day, I want to be just like her. My little speech had one of my cousin's crying! :) It was neat to be able to express my love for my mom on Mother's Day while talking about Christ in her life at the same time. Ater lunch, we headed off to go downtown to shop at the feria there. I bought a few gifts for friends as well as a Mother's Day present for mom, and mom got a few things to take back for family as well. Afterwards, my parents got to come with me to my church and meet my pastor and some other people there who have made a difference in my life here. After that, we went out to eat with some of my Christian friends here and with the missionaries who work with Commission International, a group in which I've gotten involved here.

Monday my parents got to come with me to campus and get a taste of that part of my life here. We had lomitos for lunch (which my dad loved, comparing it to some type of burger at Waffle House that also has ham, lettuce, tomato and egg on it) and then they came to my Spanish and tango classes as well. My tango teachers even did a demonstration for them after class. They were just as good as the dancers at El Arrabal for sure! That night my mom made chicken fingers, macaroni & cheese, green beans, and sweet tea--a good ol' southern meal! Everyone loved it! Afterwards we had smores, which was a lot of fun. It was so much fun to see my Argentine family's look of shock as they saw and tasted marshmellows for the first time!

Tuesday morning we went to a shopping mall, with the intent of buying an unofficial Argentine soccer jersey for Brandon, my brother, (as opposed to the official ones that cost 100 US dollars) but we couldn't find one, so we just walked around and enjoyed the last of our time together. My Argentine mom took them to the airport that afternoon and their plane took off around 4pm.

It was hard to say goodbye, but I know I'll see them in 6 weeks! I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to leave my Argentine family, not knowing if I'll ever see them again. At least they have a webcam now, so I'll be able to talk with them that way!

I'll post pictures soon!! Chau!!

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!

Centro Crecer y la marcha de 24 de marzo

Here are some pictures from the march we went to last Tuesday. Very interesting!

See the communist symbol on the flag? There are a lot of communists in Argentina.


Me with two of my friends from Germany
Anyone recognize the name Evita in the background?---"Don't cry for me Argentina"


Not sure what these young people were protesting specifically...


A group of young people were dressed up and dancing in the march







This is a video from Centro Crecer, my home church in Córdoba! Anyone recognize the tune of this song??

Ferias are my favorite!!

Hola todos! Espero que todo esté bien con ustedes y sus familias y amigos! (Just thought I'd throw that in there to get you practicing your Español!)

This past week FLEW by! With every week that passes, the realization that this whole trip is going to be over before I know it becomes more and more real in my mind. It's scary! I'm enjoying it so much here and I don't want it all to fly by before I know it!

So, I guess one of the biggest pieces of news is that I'm going to drop my history class because 1) I don't need the credit and 2) I want to have more time to get involved with my church here and to do a volunteer job with Anna, one of the girls from Clemson! I'm so excited! This idea was actually started last year by my friend from Clemson's Campus Crusade, Abby, and I'm so excited to continue it! What will happen is once a week Anna and I will go to a place that helps underprivileged kids by giving them many things they need, one of which is academic help. Some people come and volunteer their time as tutors to help the kids with their homework, and we could do that too, but what we're going to do is actually plans lessons and activities that correlate with different Spanish stories (for example a kids version of Don Quijote) to teach these children to love to read. I think their ages range from around 6 to 12 and Abby told me they are so sweet! I can't wait to start! It's going to be so much fun to do this with Anna too, instead of doing it solo!

Let's see, yesterday the group of exchange students (which has grown from about 14 to like 30 now) went to the local city of Alta Gracia, to tour the house of Che Guevara there. If you do not know who he was, he was a friend of Fidel Castro and a huge Communist leader in Cuba and in many of locations in South America. Many people are communists here and still worship his ideals. This is because the people here feel as though democracy has failed them, so they think the only other place they can turn is communism. Very sad. Anyway, after that, we went to a lake nearby and had a picnic, shopped, and played fútbol (soccer). It was a beautiful day! Please pray for one of the girls in my group though. I talked with her on the trip and she is having a really hard time with an illness she's been fighting since before she came to Argentina, but now it's gotten a lot worse. Please pray that the doctors here will figure out what is wrong and that she will not be stressed about it.

Tonight, I went to the feria downtown with sometime American and Argentine friends from my geography class! I loved it! I'm a sucker for handmade anything! Everything there is so beautiful! After that, I went to church where we talked about the meaning of baptism and then baptized around 10 people! Very exciting! I´ll put up a video of my church soon! That place is such a God-send. I love those people :) Tonight, I also found out about a college group in my church that goes to a park downtown every Saturday and plays sports with whomever is around, aiming to get into spiritual conversations with them! I'm so excited about going! I'm hoping to go next Saturday! We didn't have school Tuesday because of a holiday (look at next paragraph for details) and there's some holiday this Thursday, so I have a 4-day weekend next weekend and then the weekend after that is called Semana Santa (Holy Week) and so I'll have another 4-day weekend then too! Lots of time off school! I like this place! :) My classes haven't been too tough yet, but midterms are at the end of April (time is flying!) so I'm sure it'll get a little more challenging as we get closer to those.

So, Tuesday, March 24th, was sort of a day of sadness, as Argentina remembered the day that the Dirty War started in their country on March 24, 1976. This day is dedicated to the 30,000 people who were abducted, tortured, and most of whom were killed by the military government at the time. There was a march downtown for it and our culture professor invited all of us to come and participate so I did! Very interesting! There were all sorts of political groups represented, as well as different social activist groups. The news stations said there was a total of 20,000 people there! I'll put up pictures soon! The coolest part was, at the end of it, one of the main news stations in Córdoba interviewed me and one of my friends from Germany about what we thought about all of it! We didn't make it on TV the next day, (my family and I watched!) but it was still a neat experience! I talked about how I thought it was great that high school students were so involved and concerned with politics here. There were a lot of high school students in the march! The voting age is 17 here, which is high school age, so that might contribute a little.

I had an asado today with my parents, one of my sisters and her boyfriend, my mom's sister and her daughter with her boyfriend, plus my mom's mom! Lots of people! I just can't get over how good their meat is here! I always get so excited when Sunday rolls around because we almost alwasy have family asados for lunch! My family is so amazing. I have been able to get to know them even better recently as I can understand SO much more of their Spanish now than when I first got here and had the "deer in the headlights" look on my face when they talked to me :) I am really blessed to have such a big family, because many of the exchange students live with one or two people. There are definitely advantages with smaller families too, but with more people in my family, I have a lot more opportunities to practice my Spanish with them as well as listen to them speed talk to each other, as I try to keep up!

Well, I think that's all for now! Thanks for reading! God bless you!

Bringing the South to Córdoba!

Happy Primer Día de Otoño! (First Day of Fall!) Yep, fall has officially started here in Córdoba even though it was a balmy 33 degrees today! (In Celsius of course!) I'm still have a wonderful time (shocker!) and enjoying getting to know my new classmates! Before coming here, I didn't think I'd have the opportunity to meet people from Canada, Japan, Germany, Austria, Colombia, and Brazil, in addition to Argentines! The new exchange students are a lot of fun and I've really enjoying hanging out with them and practicing our Spanish together! The nice thing with the Japanese girls is that there is no temptation to speak English because they can't! So the only way we can communicate is through Spanish!

Last night I had my second argentine geography class (it's a thriller, let me tell ya...) and we worked in groups, so I and some others exchange students got to meet a few really nice argentines in there! We've exchanged cell phone numbers already and we're planning on going to hang out Sunday downtown at an art fair, where there are vendors who sell a bunch of amazing handmade treasures, like jewelry, clothes, purses, pottery, etc.! The argentine people are so open and friendly! It's so easy to make friends with them!

I know you're just dying to know where the title for this post came from, so let me tell you: I made a good ol' southern apple pie for my family a few nights ago and they loved it!! I had so much fun making it and my family couldn't say enough good things about it! My mom here definitely wants the recipe! My parents from the US are coming down to visit at the beginning of May and my family here and I are already making a list of food that they want my parents to bring and for my mom to cook here! Some of the things on our list are fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, smores, spaghetti, and tollhouse chocolate chip cookies...yum! Can you believe that they've never had any of these things?? I can't wait!

MY APPLE PIE! YUM!

So, yesterday, my first female cousin on my dad's side of the family was born in Virginia so I have been so antsy ever since then to meet her via webcam! My parents got my aunt and uncle a webcam, so I've talked with and seen them a few times already, but now I can't wait to meet the new addition to their family! Her name is Margaret Roxburgh, she was born at 3am weighing in at 9lbs. 1 oz., 22 in. long! She's so beautiful!

ROXY!

Please pray for me as I try to work out what I'm doing for the rest of the summer when I get back to the States. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to do some type of an internship with Jackson-Dawson Marketing Solutions, a marketing firm in Greenville where I helped out for a few weeks in January before I came here. I loved the people and the work environment there, and I learned so much! I'm hoping that I'll be able to work with them again when I get back. I'm not sure how I'll be able to find anything else from Córdoba, so please pray it works out!

Well, I guess I'd better go! I'm meeting some of the exchange students tonight at a girl's house to make dinner! I have to buy broccoli and garlic! I can't wait! Chau!