¡Córdoba!

This past weekend, my family took me on a trip to Córdoba, which was a lot of fun!
My host dad was born in Villa Carlos Paz, a little touristy city outside of Córdoba Capital, and they still have the house there, so that´s where we stayed.
On the first day, after 10 hours in the car, we finally arrived at the house. We spent some time cleaning up, because after some pretty bad flood damage, the brick and plaster walls havea habit of shedding LOTS of dust. Then we passed some time walking around Carlos Paz, which kind of reminded me of Lake George.
We went to Córdoba Capital the next day, which is a really gorgeous city. There is a big man-made (I believe) river that runs down the center of the city, dividing two lalnes of traffic and the effect with the trees and bridges is incredibly beautiful.
In the next two days, we drove out closer to the Sierra mountains to get a good look at them. It was amazing to actually be there seeing them, because to me they were simply enourmous and seemed to go on forever. Every once in a while there would be a little village built into the mountains, tiny and picturesque.
We also visited Villa General Belgrano, another touristy spot famous for the fact that many Germans settled there after the second world war. The whole town center is based on that fact; all the shops and restaurants as decorated in a very traditionally German style and there are little gnome sculptures EVERYWHERE.
So it was a pleasant trip. We spent a lot of time in the car though, which is very different from teh vacations I am used to. I think if I had done something similar in the States, I would have been out of that car and CLIMBING those Sierras, rather than mostly looking out the window. It was so sweet of my family to bring me though, and it was great to get out of the city for a while and see some green.
That said, I was pretty happy to get back to Resistencia. I somehow just love the atmophere here and the people, even just looking out of the window.
Well, I´m off to get ready for a Rotary dinner! More later!

Continued!

Alright, I´m ready to jump back on the blogging horse!!

Well, as I said, I recently got pretty sick. It srated out as a lousy feeling and then became a full blown fever and tomach ache and awfulness and culminated in my fainting in the middle of the night coming back from the bathroom and then being brought to the emergency room.
It was not a good situation, but I did get to go to the hospital, which was kinda fun. The atmosphere there was very differnt from what it is in American hospitals. My view of a hospital is all white and clean, but here the floors were cement and everything that went on seemed fairly off the cuff. We walked in and instead of going to a receptionist to check in, a lady came over to us with a pad of carbon paper where she wrote my family´s name, signed her own and made a note that we had paid the 30 pesos for the visit. That was all that we had to do and then I went right in to see the doctor.
That part was easy and the doctor just told me to drink lots of fluids, but what really isn´t fun about being sick on exchange is that you get to have a lot of downtime. While this may be fun in the states (missing school, watching TV at odd hours) it wasn´t so great for me because it gave me a ton on time to think about home and with that my mom was with me to rub my back and generally know what would make me feel better. I got really down about being on exchange, but the whole experience served to show me that I have to take things in stride here.
I´ve already been here a month and I honestly don´t know where all that time went (an neither do you, dear reader, since I haven´t really been blogging!). There is no tie for self pity, there is only time to enjoy what a beautiful place I´m in and the wonderful family and friends who are here to share it with me. My host mom took brilliant care of my when I was sick. I had to spend a gorgeous day inside, but I could have spent it looking out the window, if I had know what was good for me. even though I got really sick, I feel lucky to be here and THAT´S what I need to concentrate on, instead of thinking about what I´m not doing in the states.
Up Next: El Día del Estudiante

Sickness in the South

I recently got very sick, it was not fun.
I apologize for not writing more, but i Have to write something for Rotary, so TO BE CONTINUED!!! SOON!!