MY LIFE IS AVERAGE

Life has been pretty eventful here…

I will start off by saying that today I was locked out of my house for about half an hour. I went to swim practice…we are swimming in an outside pool now so I am getting tanner faster! The pool is not very clean and sometimes has a green tint but it is cheaper than swimming inside. The one day the water was below my knees in the shallow end and I banged my head off the bottom of the pool doing a flip turn. Thankfully, the water was higher today so I was able to do flip turns! Anyways, I came back to a house with only one car outside and music was blaring inside. My mom, dad, and brother all were gone in their cars. I hoped that my younger brother was inside but I knew that he probably went to play paddle. Also, another clue is… every time music is blaring, they are trying to pretend someone is home. I was not very happy… I wish that I had a house key but I know that will never happen.

On a happier note, I got a letter from the post office today that I have a package to pick up tomorrow! I think it is from my parents… I am pretty excited!

Also, I would like to say that I miss my chiropractor very much! My back has been hurting pretty bad so I cannot wait to go visit him when I get home. My knee has been hurting pretty bad too… It sucks getting old! Just kidding.

This past Friday, we said goodbye to my oldest brother. He is going to the USA for a few months to visit all the exchange students that used to live in his house. My mama was really emotional and we were able to watch him get on the plane and watch the plane take off! I wish we could still do that now but after 9-11, they stopped that. But, I guess it is a good thing because then it is a lot more secure! Two nuns were on his flight… one in white and one in black. He called us when he got to the capital of Argentina and told us that he helped the one nun and carried some of her bags because she wanted to stay with him. My brother is so helpful! Anyways, I do believe that he is having a fun time. He was really excited about going to NYC and going to the huge toy store there. He knew about that giant piano that you could play with your feet… I forgot about that until he reminded me. I find it funny that foreign people love NYC, Florida and California so much! I enjoyed the drive to the airport because the highway had traffic going on the right and traffic coming on the left… but, cars on the right would pass and pray to God that they would not crash into cars coming on the left. I cannot wait to go home and have nice paved roads… I miss them. The bumpy car rides and bus rides hurt my neck.

So… the next upcoming school year, I will probably not be switching schools like I wanted to. My friend is going to stay at the school that I planned on going to and he says that it would be bad for our Spanish if we were in the same school since we would just speak Spanish. It kind of made me mad because I was planning on transferring and he was going to transfer as well… but now, I cannot because the school is so small and he is not changing. I really wanted to go there because it is a private school but exchange students do not have to pay. Now, I go to a public school but it is one of the best in Argentina and like I said before, you have to take a huge test to get accepted into it. So, it would be in my best interest to not switch to another public school because they are not as good and they are a lot poorer. I just hope that next year, I will like my school more…

I am convinced that endangering the welfare of a child is not important at all here… I wish it was a law here! Haha… I see too many infants and toddlers riding in the front passenger seats with someone or alone… no cars seat or seatbelt either sometimes. I especially love when I see a toddler in between his parents on a motorcycle with NO HELEMT! Sometimes the driver is wearing one, but the rest of his family isn’t. I get really mad when I see a guy with a helmet and a girl behind him without one.

Also, I am sick of Mama saying how medical care here is equal to back home. IT ISN’T! The medicine is not as strong here… I have nothing against their medical care, it is wonderful for them. But, it is not the same as back home. Mama says that we do not do enough in the states for prevention. Everyone here has those scars on their arms from shots. My real mom said that they used to do that many years ago back home. I feel like I am living life that my grandparents would have lived when they were younger. I still have those marks on my skin… some have gone away but some new ones have showed up. I need some hardcore medicine! Haha… I am sick of using multipurpose medicine because it is not working for me.

I bought chapstick the other day… it was made in New Jersey in about 2006! It made me laugh… haha also, there are many shirts here that are written in English. Sometimes, my friends have shirts on and they ask me to translate it for them into Spanish. I wonder… why would you buy it if you do not know what it says?! I read two shirts this past week “New York is my only friend” and “I am Hip Hop” haha… it is really funny when the shirts are not grammatically correct!

I met some Mormons on the street the other day… there were a few from the states. They were walking by and speaking English so I said… Hey you speak English?!… and we started a conversation. They preach in Spanish and have been here for about a year. They have about 6 months to a year more! There were about 6 guys and 2 girls. The girls are not allowed to cheek kiss guys anymore because they had problems of guys grabbing onto them and not letting them go! Also, the guys can only do handshakes to everyone. God bless them for their service!

Well… my friend is an aspiring model so I went to her modeling school’s show thing? There were girls modeling their bikinis and some other clothes. There were a few guys too. Beauty is viewed differently here! They really are into natural beauty here. The girls were very skinny and some were pretty tall. But in my books, they did not have model faces. Also, they had butts but no boobs. The standards are completely different!

Well… I hung out with my two friends from school. I gave them little Christmas gifts and they gave me a bracelet so now all three of us have matching ones! As we walked through the park, I heard these high-pitched, little screams. I guess there is a type of bug that screams at a certain time of day when it is home. They normally scream in the late evening. I saw them attached to the tree at my house before and they look like big cockroaches…. Lovely.

It is almost Christmas time… we still do not have the tree up! I think that we are going to put it up in two days when my host sister comes home. Christmas here is VERY different. Only the young kids get presents and people do not really buy gifts for other people? Christmas Eve, families usually go to church and have dinner at midnight. Then, all the young kids go out to the clubs until about 6am or later. Christmas, the family has lunch again and I am pretty use that they each leftovers from Christmas Eve. New Years is another time for clubbing. Sometimes, so young kids stay with their family but it is very common to go to the club for the night. I bought myself a Christmas gift… it is a new bikini. But, the bikinis here cut a lot higher in the bottoms than at home. I plan on wearing it only at my pool at home… haha. Thanks Mom and Dad for the Christmas gift… it is a really nice swimsuit!

My brother showed me how to illegally download movies? Haha… He got me Christmas Vacation so I am going to go watch it to try to get into the Holiday spirit!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!
Remember the reason for the season…
Also, be thankful for all of our military men and women that
will not be able to be with their families this holiday season.
They are real heroes and work hard everyday to keep our beautiful country safe!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!