Ham, Cheese, Beef and Leather!

Hey Team,

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I haven't forgotten about you all. I was having a complicated time, but I'm back with some updates.

This past week was my first week of full classes, so I was exhausted most of the week running around and everything to different parts of the city to attend classes. Most of the classes are once a week for about three or four hours, then with volleyball, I'm just out and about and up late. Volleyball practices are definitely the highlight of my week though. That's probably the best decision I could have made. I asked this girl from the residence to go with me at first, but I'm glad she ended up flaking, because it's cool having the experience on my own. The girls are super cool, and we have a tournament coming up soon in Uruguay. That'll be fun.

Today, I went to the ecological reserve with Juicy Jose, Fariggs, and Jack. The residence hall guys have given a lot of IES students nick names. It's pretty hilarious. The ecological reserve was not beautiful at all. It was weird how it wasn't. It was a bunch of low trees/shrubs with the city in plain view behind it and the water was brown. It was extra weird. But if you capture things from the right angle, they can appear beautiful. I'll show you guys both.

As the time goes on, it's funny how people's concerns have changed. At first, we were worried about how to get to school without getting lost or how not to get robbed, but now it's more along the lines of, where can I get a good haircut. "Where da party at?" hasn't really changed from the beginning, but, you know what I mean.

Overall, I don't miss home. I miss my family, obviously, but that's not the same thing to me. My family could get on a plane, and that would be solved. As far as Michigan is concerned, I'm not pressed to go back, although Buenos Aires is not somewhere I would want to live for any long period of time either, but I've never really understood how people are attached to places. Perhaps I just haven't fallen in love yet, but more likely, it's due to having moved around so much. Apparently, others share the opinion that Buenos Aires is not the place to live. I talked to some others, and they say generally that once you've seen it, you've seen it. Things don't tend to change much, and it kind of creates the illusion of paradise, without actually being. I think though, that that probably adds to a person coming here and being able to experience the culture uniquely. I would say, if you want the South America from TV, it's probably in Brazil, Ecuador, Chile and maybe the southern part of Argentina, because they have mountains, beaches, and that natural beauty from the brochures. But I'm more of a nature/culture person than a landmarks person anyway. I'd love to confirm that South American beauty for you all. Hopefully I'll be doing some light traveling coming up soon. I decided to skip out on Lollapalooza, but I have trips planned for Iguzu falls, Uruguay and I'm hoping to squeeze Brazil in sometime.

I'd love to hear some updates from you all. Here's my emial again: ajohn2800@yahoo.com

Things that are luxuries here:
*Orange juice
*Ice Cubes
*Quenched Thirst/water

Updates:
*Ham and Cheese is everywhere. It's ridic. They sneak ham into everything it's so weird.
*Everyone carries their babies. Rarely do I see a stroller.
*Police cars always have their lights on.
*I tried some chocolate with rasins in it. Ew. It wasn't bad. It was actually good. lol
*I got an Internship

TB