Mar del Plata :)

Well, about a week and a half before Easter weekend (yes, I’m going to talk about Easter weekend, that’s how far behind I am in blogging :/) Ana asked me, “So, I don’t know if you would want to or not, but I was thinking about going to Mar del Plata this weekend and I was wondering if you and Bailey would want to go with me.” Of course! Mar del Plata is another big city in Argentina about 4 or 5 hours from Buenos Aires but the difference is that it’s on the beach! So, Bailey and I packed our bags and got ready for a long weekend free from classes and chilling by the sea.


The trip started out on a fun note Thursday afternoon when we hopped on a convi (a type of van/bus) whose driver listened to 80s music from the U.S. the entire way there. (In that moment, I thanked God that I was born in ’89 and never had to endure that music when it was popular.) We arrived that evening/night and found out that the apartment that Ana and Cacho own there is about half a block from the water. Amazing!

The very next day, Bailey and I greatly surprised ourselves by getting up very early to go watch a sunrise over the water. Even though it was a little cloudy, the colors were absolutely amazing and the reflection of the sun on the water seriously left us speechless. Of course, we took a million pictures, but none of them really captured the beauty. After that, we turned back into our lazy selves and went back to bed for a couple hours :)

Despite our hopes of laying out all day and getting crazy awesome tans, it was pretty chilly the whole time we were there so we only really laid out on the beach once or twice. Instead, we spent a lot of time walking up and down the beach or the nearby sidewalks and observing what was going on. That first day, one of the sidewalks was absolutely filled with older people dancing tangos, milongas, waltzes, or pasodobles to the music pouring from the speakers that a group of musicians had set up. Let me tell you, some of those people that you would think looked too old to even walk well were dancing better than I could ever hope to!! Another time, we passed by a tango show on that same sidewalk that was run by a whole family of dancers, including the 9 year old girl who danced like crazy.

The next day, we went walking with Ana and went into the casino near the beach just to have a look around. There was a guard there who stopped us to ask our ages but didn’t even ask for ID to make sure we were lying! That afternoon, we went on a bus tour with Ana that took us all around the city. One of the main stops was a statue of the Virgin Mary where a lot of Catholics stop to pray or ask for a blessing. Also at that stop was a miniature of the city of Bethlehem. The next big stop was the port which is famous for the seals (lobos marinos) that hang out there. There were about 15 of them all piled up together, waddling, fighting, and roaring (I never knew that seals roared, but that’s what it sounded like to me).

Another afternoon, Bailey and I decided to go out for coffee at a famous café that is housed in a sweet medieval style building. There, we pulled out a book where we had recorded quotes and memories of our other two roommates at Grace and absolutely died laughing for about an hour. (If any other Americans happen to go to that café, I apologize…you will probably be judged in advance because we were so ridiculous!) That night, Bailey and I hit up a local theater to see an a cappella singing group and a group that danced some Chilean folklore.

Of course, one of the main highlights of our time there was…the FOOD!! We had: ice cream; empanadas; pizza (topped with garlic, tomato slices, and oregano); cow tongue; chocolate cones FILLED with dulce de leche; fresh fish; churros filled with chocolate, dulce de leche, or cream; and milanesa napolitana (a thin slice of beef slightly breaded and fried, smothered with pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese). I think I ate more delicious foods in that one week than a whole semester at Grace!! (No offense, Alpha Dining.)

Now for a couple random stories from our time there: First, one night we went with Ana to browse the shops that lined a pedestrian-only street in the downtown and stopped for a moment to listen to a saxophone player on the side of the street. I heard two male voices sing along rather loudly and looked up to see two flamboyant cross-dressers belting out the lyrics. Another day, Bailey and I went to sit/lay out on the beach for a bit when all of a sudden two guys came up right to where we were laying and starting laying out clothes on the beach that they had designed and wanted to sell to us. By now, we had learned to not make eye contact with any of the vendors but these guys were so in-your-face that even that didn’t deter them!

Last but certainly not least of the stories happened on Easter morning (for the first time in my life I didn’t go to church on Easter :/) when Bailey and I decided to go for a walk on the beach and look for shells, find cool rocks, etc. Out nowhere, three men started to talking to me and asking me what I was collecting (probably because it was cold that day and Bailey and I were two of maybe ten people on the whole beach). They started chatting it up with Bailey and I, asking a million questions that we were sure to give the vaguest of answers to all the while trying to find a way out of the conversation. Eventually, after finding out we were living in Buenos Aires, they said “Oh, let’s go out sometime and grab something to drink.” “No. We don’t go out.” “Well, just grab a drink somewhere.” “No. We don’t drink.” “What? How can you not go out or drink? What do you do?” [At this point, I almost said that we always are hanging out with youth group friends from our church, but then I realized we weren’t at church on Easter morning, so that would definitely look like a complete lie. I decided to go with the “We study all the time” answer.] Well, apparently these guys weren’t too skilled at identifying patterns because they didn’t get the picture by then that we were completely trying to shut them down. They asked if we had boyfriends, and I have never been more relieved to be able to say truthfully that I do! Poor Bailey, though, had no out and so the leader of the pack immediately pounced to ask for her phone number or email address. “No.” “Why not?” “I don’t give my email address to people I don’t know.” “But we could get to know each other!!” [The last time I heard that line was in junior high.] At this point I just started walking away even though they kept talking and threw a “Have a nice Easter” back at them as I fled. As we scurried away, Bailey and I spent the next 15 minutes coming up with a plan for the next time that happened and decided we’d pretend to speak French and not know any Spanish…Bailey can pull it off and I’m just hoping they don’t realize that I’m repeating the only three phrases I know, “I’m tired. I’m hungry. Where’s the bathroom?” Moral of the story: girls, walk away as soon as possible or speak an unidentifiable language; guys, if a girl says no several times in several different ways SHE DOESN’T WANT TO GO OUT WITH YOU!!

Well, enough of the silly stories. Overall, our time at Mar del Plata was simply a great time of relaxation and fellowship. My favorite times were the meal times when we sat for an hour or two afterwards chatting about anything and everything or when we stayed up until one in the morning playing SkipBo with Ana. It was such a blessing to get to know her better, to relax, rest, and recharge together without a schedule and without a rush.

God definitely used that time and that atmosphere to teach me a very simple but very valuable lesson. One night, God laid on my heart the conviction that I was always looking ahead to the next thing and never taking the time to enjoy the moment in front of me. He used the simple illustration of a dinner to prove His point: that night, I rushed through eating soup to get to eat fish; when I was eating fish, I shoveled it down because I wanted to eat my apple; when I was eating my apple, all I could think about was the chocolates we had bought to enjoy after dinner. But once I got done eating the chocolate, I realized I hadn’t really enjoyed it that much and certainly hadn’t taken the time to enjoy all the other great foods. It’s silly, I know, but God used that to show me that I worry and think so much about the future, about what is coming next, that I rush through life without taking in the joys and simple pleasures of each moment. Well, I wasn’t sure why that came to mind, but I went to sleep that night thinking about it. The next day, I decided to read a bit of the book The Rest of God that I had started but left off in the middle of a chapter and hadn’t read in a few weeks. I opened up the book and find nothing less than a chapter dedicated to EXACTLY what God had been showing me the night before – leaving behind a habit of worry and instead being awake, alert, and fully in each and every moment with eyes open to see the blessings God gives rather than planning or pondering the future we can never know. Honestly, it completely blew me away that God had prepared my heart to read exactly that, and I spent the rest of my time at the beach living with eyes more open to little joys of each and every moment.

Thoughts about Church

So, I think I shall take a break from my typical blogs that simply relate what’s going on here and write one about something I’ve been thinking about a lot here: the church. Some of you might know that last summer, during my time working with Mission Indy, I started to wonder what the church should look like and if the typical American church was even close to where it should be. Well, a lot of these questions have resurfaced in my time here as I’ve noted the differences between the church here and the ones I’ve seen back home.


My questions started when I realized I hadn’t seen obvious evidence of community outreach or service in one of my churches here. I still want to ask them what they do with subjects like poverty, homelessness, social justice, etc. And, since I started wondering these things, they have had an evangelistic musical for the community and I did find out that they have a type of food pantry. But more than that, I realized that there is a big difference in the way they do things here and the way we (generally) do things in the States.

In many American churches, if we wanted to do something about the needs of a person or group of people, we would set up an event to help them or maybe create a program/ministry to meet their need. But here, it’s much less about an event or a program; it’s about the relationships between the church members. I’ve heard several stories about when people in the church had big monetary or physical needs, and the members of their small groups or other church friends chipped in whatever they could until the need was met. That’s how it seems to work here: they take care of each other. The reason they can do that is because they have a relationship and from that relationship they find out about the needs of their friends and, in love, they meet the need.

Maybe they don’t have as many programs or events, but they do have a body of believers that (in many instances) provides for the needs within that body. The motive for someone to join their church wouldn’t necessarily be an event, a flyer, or a special program offered; it would be the love that an outsider would witness when seeing the believers interact. Besides, what good is an event or a flyer if behind that is simply a bunch of individuals that don’t necessarily have a deeper relationship than just going to church on Sundays?

Before I continue, I do want to give two disclaimers. I know a ton of awesome believers in the U.S. that show this kind of love and care, and I have many great relationships with people from my church that have been amazing blessings to me. And, on the other hand, the church here definitely isn’t perfect. In a small, relational church like the one I go to here, there is a fair share of church drama and gossip that comes with everybody knowing everybody else’s business.

Still, I think that we Christians in the U.S. have a thing or two we could learn from the church in this culture. I think we would do well to invest deeply in the relationships we have with our fellow believers, taking to heart God’s commands in Scripture to love one another, serve one another, meet one another’s needs, care each others’ burdens. I think we would do well to focus more on that than on events or ministries (but don’t get me wrong, those can be awesome tools for the Kingdom, too). But how amazing would it be if people came to our churches and were drawn to our God because they, too, wanted to be part of our community where they saw people who truly loved each other, who enjoyed spending time together, who selflessly took care of each other, and who simply shared life together? Like I said before, the church certainly isn’t perfect here, but I see more evidence of that community aspect here than I’ve seen in most American churches.

So I started thinking about how these concepts I’ve learned and witnessed here could be applied in my church back home, and U.S. churches in general. As I was thinking, I ran into two main obstacles: the cultural differences and the prominence of big churches in the U.S.

First, the cultural differences between Argentina and the U.S. are fairly obvious. A first small thing is that it’s culturally expected to greet almost everyone or everyone in the room with a kiss on the cheek when you enter. That automatically forces some kind of interaction and physical proximity of the people at church that often blooms into conversations that are elementary in forming relationships. But more generally, this is simply a more relational culture. In many instances, I’ve noted that time, schedules, and tasks to be done take a quick backseat when two people strike up a conversation. It’s simply a fact that a relationship carries more weight than a to-do-list. On the contrary, the life I myself have lived and experienced in the U.S. is much more task and schedule driven. To change a planned schedule, to start an event late, or to leave a task unfinished for the sake of having a conversation or building a relationship just doesn’t happen, or at least not NEARLY as much as it does here.

Again, such a relational culture can have its downsides (like my Argentine professor who literally told our class she was going to fail two students because they did something disrespectful and made her mad). But still, I think a lot of Americans, including the majority of American Christians, miss out on the richness of relationship and life lived together for the sake of following their master schedule or their to-do-list. I know I have. And, as I said before, those very relationships are the basis of our being able to care for each other and show the love of Christ to one another in real and meaningful ways.

The second obstacle comes with the big churches that seem to be fairly prominent in the U.S. Until I left for college, I attended the same church faithfully for 18 years straight. But because it is a bigger church, I know there are other people who had also gone to that same church all those years and I had never met them. What’s the problem with this? It’s way too easy for people to be able to slip into church, shake a couple hands, sing the songs, and listen to the message, then slip back out without every sharing even a minute of conversation with another believer. How can relationships be formed in this setting when members of the same congregation don’t even recognize each other? How can we know who is hurting and needs us, how can we serve and love one another, how can we “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn” if we go to a church so big we’ve never even met? The answer that my home church has given is small groups, or “Life Groups”, and I have seen some awesome things happen in those groups. I’ve seen groups that have become like families, that share life, that look out for each others’ needs and even call each other out when they are living in sin. But what about the other 50% (my estimate) of the congregation that doesn’t belong to a small group? Where do they fit in?

I don’t know. The truth is, I don’t know how to take what I’ve learned in Argentina from the relational culture and relationship-based church and put it into practice when I get back home. I don’t know how the obstacles of a time and task driven culture and the big churches can be overcome. I don’t even know exactly what it would look like for us to be the church God wants us to be. But what I do know is that I don’t want to stop asking these questions, I don’t want to stop looking for answers, and I don’t want to forget what I’ve learned in my time here.

So, feel free to chime in to the conversation or correct me or throw tomatoes at me or ask your own questions. I’d be happy to hear it all.

Cultural Randomness...

Alright, so I'm feeling too lazy to write a coherent blog, but I thought I'd throw out some random facts about Argentina...some might be myth busters, some I might have already said, and some might provoke the thought "Who cares?" So, in no certain order, here we go.

1. Argentine food is nothing like Mexican food. They don't eat tacos or burritos and in fact most of them hate anything spicy. (Hence the fact that one of the first things I will do when I get back is hit up at least one good Mexican restaurant and eat my fill of chips and salsa.) A while back, there was a very large amount of immigration from Italy, so they have a good amount of pastas and pizza.
2. Speaking of nationalities, Buenos Aires is a lot more diversified than one might think due to a large amount of immigration at various points in history. During my time here, I've met people from German, Italian, Japonese, Spanish, and French descent, to name a few.
3. Argentina currently has a female president: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. She almost always wears her hair down, which for some reason strikes me a little weird after seeing so many U.S. women in politics with short haircuts or pinned up long hair.
4. In Buenos Aires, they have people who work as knife sharpeners that a lot of times ride around on bikes playing a type of flute to let people know that they're in the neighborhood in case they need their knives sharpened.
5. In Buenos Aires, part of the rest of Argentina, and a few parts of the surrounding countries, the people use a verb form for the informal "you" that basically no other Spanish-speakers in the world use. It's called "vos" and apparently came from the people here misunderstanding the Spanish plural form of you - "vosotros". Basically, upon arrival, I had to re-learn verb conjugations that had been pounded into my head since first-year Spanish.
6. In Buenos Aires, they also have a dialect (basically a whole different vocabulary) called lunfardo. Most of lunfardo is derived from Italian and a lot of it sounds nothing like official Spanish.
7. Here, they say they don't speak "Espanol" (Spanish) but rather "Castellano" (Castilian). The funny thing is, my friend who lived in Spain for two years say that Spain Spanish is actually "Castellano" and Argentinian Spanish is a messed-up form of "Espanol".
8. Here, the typical greeting is a kiss on the left cheek, and it's usually polite to greet basically everybody in the room or at the even that you know, and anyone you don't know but happen to be near when you come in.
9. When saying goodbye, they say "chau" (pronounced like the Italian "ciao") instead of "adios". When talking on the phone or writing an informal email, a typical closing is to say "Besos" or "Besitos" (literally, kiss) which refers to the traditional kiss on the cheek they would give if they were talking in person.
10. In Buenos Aires, I'm pretty sure there is no legal "right turn on red".
11. The day has 3 meals and one "snack" - breakfast before starting the day, lunch around 1, merienda (tea-time) around 5 or 6, and dinner around 9 or 10. My family eats dinner around 8 or 8:30 but everyone else thinks that's weird and super early. The latest I ever ate dinner (at a friend's house)...well, we finished at 1 a.m.
12. When they say they "drink milk" they hardly ever refer to actually drinking a glass of milk. What they almost always mean is drinking tea with a little milk, coffee with a little milk, or hot chocolate made with milk. They also find it weird that we sometimes (in the U.S.) eat eggs and meat for breakfast.
13. Argentina is known for it's good beef and it used to be that steak or beef for dinner was more common than chicken because steak was cheaper. Now, there's some political hullabaloo between the president and the beef producing farmers/companies, so the price of beef has risen a lot :(
14. The tango actually started in the bad parts of Buenos Aires and was danced by the equivalent of today's gangsters or "tough guys". At one point, the music of the tango itself was illegal in Argentina.
15. Peanut butter is very rare here and most everyone I've met doesn't like it. That's why I am greatly appreciative of my parents who brought me two jars of peanut butter, three types of Reese's, Butterfingers, and Tagalongs :) :)

Well, I think that's all for tonight...I'm sure there's plenty more, but I think my brain just quit on me, so that's all the cultural randomness for the day. Until next time...

The Semester Begins

     So before I pick up where I left off, I would like to direct your attention to the top of the page where the description of my blog says that these are my random “but hopefully frequent” recordings... feel free to laugh at that. I had a good chuckle myself when I realized that “hopefully frequent” had turned into about once a month, if that! What can you do…
     Anyway, back to the “important” stuff. In my last blog, I mentioned that my new semester of classes had started while my parents were here. Unlike the intensive Spanish courses I took during January and February, this is more like a normal college semester in which I get to choose from a list of a decent variety of courses. For requirements, and just my general preferences, I chose Latin American Literature, Latin American History, History of Argentine Economics, Ethics, and Tango which consists of one class that tells the culture and history and the other class that actually teaches the dance. Of course, all these classes are conducted entirely in Spanish. So here’s the rundown on how all of those are going:

• My literature class I’m actually enjoying a lot. The professor is very reasonable in her expectations and knows how to teach students that still don’t speak Spanish all that well, and we’ve read some really some really good stuff that I actually enjoy reading.

• Latin American History…well, I think this is the epitome of a boring lecture course, plus the professor basically only talks about the economic factors, so I still feel like I know almost nothing about Latin American History.

• History of Argentine Economics - I thought I was going to enjoy the class a lot because the professor has a very charismatic personality, but it turns out her teaching skills are rather lacking. It doesn’t help that I didn’t know anything about econ to begin with, so I’m hoping to just make it through the class.

• Ethics is an extremely interesting class. We’ve studied different schools of thought about what “ethics” has meant throughout history, which has been really informative in that I can see in those schools the roots of many worldviews that are still present today. Plus, thanks to my background at Covenant and Grace, I’ve enjoyed analyzing all these from a Christian worldview.

• Tango…well, tango has been interesting. In the actual classroom part, we’ve had three different professors. I really enjoyed the first one and learned a ton from him, but the guy we have now is our dance teacher and he doesn’t know as much about the history or how to teach it. As for actually dancing, I’m having a complete blast, which is surprising because I had never before been interested in really learning how to dance. The only problem is the girl to guy ratio is at best 3:1, so most of the class is spent waiting around to see if a guy will ask me to dance and hoping that whoever that guy is at least somewhat know what he’s doing.

     The interesting thing about this semester has been my schedule. The classes only meet once a week for two hours, I don’t ever have class before 11 a.m. and on Mondays I don’t have class until 5 p.m. Plus, unless we have to make up a class from a national holiday, I never have class on Fridays. I’ve enjoyed this schedule in some respects because, if I actually get up on time, it gives me time to run in the morning, enjoy a longer time for devos while I eat breakfast (it’s amazing how much of a difference it makes when I take time to focus on God before I start my day!) and some days get some homework done before I head to the university. The only thing that I don’t like about the schedule is that it’s too easy to oversleep since I don’t have to get up for class, but then I just feel like I’ve wasted over half my day.

     Another thing I like about this schedule is that on some days I get to eat lunch or the ”merienda” with Ana and Cacho, and I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve had to talk to them and here stories about their childhood, Argentine traditions, and a myriad of other topics that come up at meal time. One day, I had had a really good talk with Ana after breakfast, and she asked if she could write down my birthday to remember to tell me happy birthday in the years to come, then said, “Because, you know, you are leaving such a beautiful footprint on my heart!” That totally made my day and made me so happy to have been given the opportunity to share these months with this sweet old woman that has become like another grandma to me! Then, the other day, Cacho just basically said out of the blue, “You know, when you leave, we’re definitely going to miss having you around here.” Again, it totally warmed my heart!

     Another change that has come with this semester is that all of us American girls have started meeting for “Life Groups” with Abi, one of the young women who helps out a lot with the youth group. Every Thursday we grab a snack to eat after class and then share in studying the Word and a time of prayer. At first, I thought I wouldn’t like being in a group with only us “gringas”, but it’s actually been a blessing and a really cool time we get to share together.

     The last big change with the start of the semester is that our times to play soccer have now been moved inside on a hard floor (about the size of a basketball court) and we’ve started playing with more of the guys from the youth group. Playing in small spaces has been interesting since my favorite thing about soccer is being able to run and I practically don’t have room to do that, but it’s still been fun. One funny story is the first time I played, someone had passed me the ball and I lost control of it so had to change directions, inadvertently making my defender slip and fall on his butt, then (again by accident) I nutmegged the goalie for my first goal of the game. The guys were all impressed but I just laughed to myself knowing I hadn’t done anything on purpose! Another funny fact is that someone told me is that one of the older guys that comes to play goalie once played rugby for the All Blacks, a team from New Zealand that is one of the most famous in the world! The last funny story from “futbol” was after the second time we played, this time only with Anne and I (two Grace soccer players) with a bunch of guys, and one of them looked at me and said, “Jugaste mal hoy.” (You played poorly today.) I just blinked and was like, “Um, okay,” then just had to laugh because of how nonchalantly he said it…oh gotta love the Argentine directness!

Before I end, I’ll just give you all snippets of a few other humorous or interesting happenings from these weeks:

• Not leaving youth group until around five a.m. one Saturday and getting to Bailey’s house where we would spend the “night” only to find her host dad already leaving for work.

• Going to Recoleta (a part of town with a famous and huge cemetery), walking the wrong way, not really caring because we got some good coffee, arriving 10 minutes before the cemetery was going to close, seeing a somewhat creepy “living statue” and ending the day with some delicious “facturas” (pastries).

• Going to a birthday party of one of the youth group guys, meeting friends who aren’t from the church who wanted to practice English, and getting in a discussion about religion with an atheist (who after a million complicated arguments on our part, got stopped dead in his tracks by the question “Do you believe in good and evil?”).

• Playing the game “Telephone” in Spanish with the youth group.

• Making s’mores with Anne’s host mom (something she had always wanted to do but never could because she could never find marshmallows until my parents brought them from the States).

• Making brownies for the birthday of Felipe (a guy from youth group) which we thought didn’t turn out amazing but he absolutely loved them.

• Going to see Mati (yet another youth group guy) play in his band which is called Remake (yes, in English).

• Having a youth group lock-in from 8 pm to 8 am, which made us laugh because that’s only a few hours longer than normal.

• Ana teaching me how to make tortilla (no, not for burritos – here "tortilla" is an egg-based dish similar to an omelet) and a little bit about how to make empanadas!!

• Walking down the street and seeing a bus driving sitting at a red light, head on the wheel, taking a nap.

Well, in the legendary words of Porky the Pig, “That’s All, Folks!”…at least until next time. We can all hope that next time won’t be a month away, but hey, let’s not kid ourselves… :)

The Parents Arrive! Part Deux

Hello again! Well, picking up where I left off, Thursday we took a ferry across Rio de la Plata to Colonia, Uruguay which has a small but very interesting old district that looks pretty much like it did in colonial times. We spent an incredibly relaxing day taking pictures, wandering the quiet streets, and enjoying the sunshine. For lunch, we headed to a hole-in-the-wall burger joint that served delicious burgers with just about anything on them – including ham, fried eggs, and corn! Then, we rented some janky old bikes and trekked about 20 minutes outside of town to a small beach that none of the tourists go to. (Way to go Mom with your website of random but very useful Colonia info!) I think I counted a total of five people on the beach – it was perfect. Mom and I took a leisurely walk along the beach and snapped about a hundred pictures, then we headed back to catch our ferry home. Oh, did I mention this ferry was like a wannabe cruise ship, complete with a TVs, a restaurant, and a duty-free shop? Guess I wasn’t expecting that.

Friday I had to head downtown to complete part of my visa process, but we made the best of it by buying some souvenirs in the nearby sidewalk markets. It was great to see the look on the vendors’ faces when I interrogated them in Spanish about their products after they heard us speaking in English and had expected us to be clueless tourists! That night we went out to eat with Rogelio and Ana and shared these huge platters of food that included steak, sausage, fried bananas, “pancetta” (pork belly, I think), a delicious warm apple sauce, and super-thin cut fries. While we gorged ourselves on that, we experienced the humorous struggle to communicate that involved Ana and Rogelio speaking a few words in English, Mom speaking a decent amount of Spanish, and me doing a whole lot of my best shot at interpreting. Again, I discovered I’m not too good at interpreting, as I realized when I got so confused that I turned to Mom and spewed off a couple of sentences in Spanish. Oops. It was definitely a fun night, but I was thoroughly confused the whole time as I felt that my two languages, two worlds, even the two different “versions” of me were colliding and felt like I couldn’t remember who or where I was.

The next day I didn’t see much of my parents as I went to the wedding of Flor and Sebi (a couple in the youth group). It was a beautiful outdoor wedding, and I noticed a couple of differences from weddings I have been to before. First, the ceremony probably started at least an hour late. Second, there weren’t enough seats for everyone, so pretty much the whole youth group just stood in the back. Once the ceremony itself was over, instead of a receiving line, the couple just went to the back and people mobbed around them to congratulate them with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. For the reception, instead of having a buffet line or a seated served meal, the caterers simply brought out platter after platter of food – starting with three different kinds of empanadas, then “choripan” (a sandwich with delicious sausage), next “lomito” sandwiches (delicious steak sandwiches), and ice cream. In addition to all that, they had a dessert table with everything from brownies to lemon meringue pie, then a few other things I wouldn’t know how to name. Throughout the reception, the couple was taking a lot of their wedding pictures and invited most of the guests to take pictures with them. Finally, there was the traditional throwing of the bouquet but also a basket with a bunch of ribbons coming out, and all the single women grabbed a ribbon. All but one ribbon was attached to a piece of candy, but the winner was the woman who pulled out a ribbon with a ring attached.

When I got back from the wedding, Mom and Dad proudly told me that they had gone out exploring on their own and even ordered dinner by themselves! I was quite proud of them. From Saturday on, our experience went winding down. Sunday, they visited both the churches I go to and in between we went out to eat to get some delicious pizza. After the evening service, we randomly stopped to get helado since Mom had quickly become addicted to it in her short days here. (Particularly dulce de leche helado. Dad’s drug of choice was the white chocolate helado.) Monday I had to head to my first class of my new semester, but it didn’t start until five so we were able to head downtown to pick up something and, of course, stop for some more helado. Tuesday was there last day here, and we started the last day right by buying facturas for the first time during their stay. Dad finished his last tasty pastry, looked at me and asked, “Why didn’t we do this every morning??” That afternoon I also had class, but I scurried back to ride with them in the taxi to the airport. After an all-too-quick goodbye, they took off and I headed back my house.

Although the time seemed way too short and it made me miss them even more when they left, I am SO glad that my parents were able to come. I loved all the amazing things we saw and experienced, but the best part was honestly the hours of conversations we spent talking about anything and everything. I also feel like they now understand me when I’m talking to them over Skype because for a short while they got a taste of my life here. It was such a blessing!! Besides that, Mom’s a great photographer, so I definitely used her to take a ton of pictures I’d been wanting to take for a while!

The Parent's Arrive! Part I

After finishing my last day of my second summer course, I hurried out of the university because I had places to go and people to see. Well, just one place – a hotel – and two people – my parents!! Mom and Dad came to visit for just under two weeks and it was absolutely amazing to see them. The first night they were here, we went to the “Despedida de Solteros” (~Farewell to singleness) of Flor and Sebi, a couple in the youth group. It was definitely an interesting experience, like a couple’s bridal shower for the whole church. It involved a worship time, some hilarious games, a message about marriage, a slideshow of pics, and pizza. The whole time Flor and Sebi were dressed as toddlers (I’m still not sure why) complete with adult-sized diapers. That first day with the parental made me realize two things: 1) it’s actually really hard to interpret and switch from English to Spanish; 2) I’ve grown quite accustomed to some of the things that were really strange to me when I first came. To my mom, however, these things were still very surprising, as evidenced by the quantity of questions she sent my way: “You travel over an hour to go to church? The actual event still hasn’t started? They’re not going to eat until 11 p.m.? Little kids are still out this late? There are people dining out at 1 a.m.? etc.” I have to hand it to them, though: both Mom and Dad went with the flow and did their best to do everything the Argentine way.

Saturday, the very next day, Mom, Dad, Vic, and I hopped on a train downtown and, after a short picnic in the plaza, boarded an overnight micro and prepared for the 15-16 hour bus ride up to Iguazu Falls. Once we got there, after a false start or two, we gathered enough information to get to the national park that (in my opinion) contains the most beautiful waterfalls in the world! None of them are the size of Niagara Falls, but there are over 250 individual falls of all sizes one after another. We took a little “jungle train” out to the biggest one and when we arrived we could do nothing but stand amazed. I don’t know that I have ever seen a better simultaneous representation of God’s power and His beauty. The roar of the falls and the sheer magnitude or water rushing down from the biggest falls took me aback while at the same moment the tiny trickling stream beside me held me captive with the intricate water patterns that formed around the rocks and plants that impeded its progress. It was simply incredible. We spent the rest of the day traversing the paths of the park seeing waterfall after waterfall, taking hundreds of pictures in a futile attempt to capture its majesty. In addition to the falls, we also saw a decent variety of wildlife – lizards, infinite amounts of vibrant butterflies, even some audacious raccoon-like creatures, one of which straight snatched an apple out of the hand of a surprised tourist.

After a full day of adventure, we checked into our hotel where Bailey (another roommate from Grace) and her family were awaiting us. (They had come to bring Bailey to for her time studying abroad but decided to do some traveling first.) We ate a delicious dinner of Argentine beef and potatoes, helado and fruit, then called it a day and rested our weary and sun burnt bodies. The next day we were going to head back to the park before catching our micro back to Buenos Aires, but Vic, Mom, Dad, and I were tired enough we decided to chill at the hotel – definitely the right decision. The hotel was actually a series of cabins tucked back in the forest/jungle, so my parents and I explored some of the paths which had a swinging bridge, a climbing wall, vines to swing on, and a rope ladder – needless to say I had some fun with that :) Then, we spent a few hours chilling at the sweet pool, reading, doing devos, chatting, and getting new tan lines (okay, burn lines). It was a much-needed day of relaxation before embarking on our second 16-hour bus ride in 3 days. [Side note: on the micro, I helped Bailey’s sister with her Algebra II homework and realized how much I miss math – go ahead, call me a nerd.]

Tuesday afternoon when we got back, I gave parentals a short tour of my university and we hit up a Bavarian restaurant that night (I’m not really sure why Bavarian in Buenos Aires, but the food was good). The next day, Wednesday, I did my best to show them some of the sights and sounds of downtown Buenos Aires, starting with a short stop at the historic Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo.

Next, we headed to La Boca, where we decided to eat at an outdoor restaurant and see a small show of tango and some other folk dances. The steak (smothered in a champignon sauce) that Dad and I ate might very well be one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten in my life!! The show was also very entertaining…that is, until one of the dancers started walking out into the crowd to invite women to come dance with him. I wasn’t going to have anything to do with it, but Mom, by accident, pointed to me and the man came over and made me get up on stage with him! After about 2 ½ minutes of missteps, blunders, and plenty of blushing, the man ended with one final dip and let me escape back to my seat. Of course, my parents were cracking up laughing and my mom assured me she had PLENTY of pictures to prove that most embarrassing experience.

Once we left Boca, we headed to our final stop of the day – La Plaza de San Martin – to let Mom take some pictures of the sweet eucalyptus trees that abound there. While there, we also stumbled across the filming of a TV show or movie, so we decided we sit and watch the action for a bit. Unfortunately, there was no action, just a lot of people standing and waiting for the directions and a couple people fixing the actresses’ costumes. After about 15 minutes of nothing, I thanked God I’m going into education and not the movie business, and we headed back to the hotel and called it a day.

Well folks, I shall end Part 1 here so that you can catch your breath before reading Part II. Hasta luego!

It's been awhile Part Dos

Welcome back to part two of my last blog: youth group and random cultural stuff. Let us begin:


Youth Group (and stuff with people from the youth group)

During this month, the youth group suffered through three birthdays – and by that I mean we had an absolute blast! First was our friend Cande’s birthday which was a huge ordeal – I’d guess around 50 people – and we ate some incredible food: homemade fried empanadas (my new favorite), tongue sandwiches (actually not too bad), homemade pizza, and a cake that Cande herself made that was layered with dulce de leche and might or might not be the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. The night was great and included writing and performing a birthday song for Cande, having pyramid-building competitions amongst the guys and the girls, and me having a really good conversation with some of the older youth (of course, I later realized I was the only individual sitting with three couples: one seriously dating, one engaged, and one married – I knew I should have brought JR along!) The next set of birthdays belonged to Vic and our friend Ana. At youth group we made them a cake and sang happy birthday and Cande and I attacked them with shaving cream  The next night, we were going to go out to eat at a Pizza Libre (all you can eat pizza for $15 pesos) but the cashier had a seizure right when we walked in, so that didn’t really work out. Instead we went to Burger King (have I mentioned the fast-food restaurants are really nice here?) and later to the mall to play pool.

Later on, Vic and I enjoyed a day of coffee, mate, medialunas, and chatting with Abi and Flor (two of the older “girls” in the youth group, who are now both married). Getting there was a complete mess, though. It was pouring rain; we missed one bus stop which made us go a couple miles out of our way; we had to walk in the rain, flooded streets, and mud for about an hour and a half before realizing that we were walking the wrong direction; and to add insult to injury, a colectivo driving past completely drenched us as it splashed through the puddle. In the end, I didn’t even want to talk to the girls at first because I was so wet, tired, and frustrated, but it was definitely worth it – we got to hear how both of them met/started dating their husbands, they shared their passions and talents for God, and asked us what our dreams were for the future.

Our last big adventure before Vic left came when we went to Boca with the Bachinis. (Boca is a famous neighborhood where many immigrants arrived; also contains the home field of my favored soccer team here). It was fun to see the colorful buildings, watch couples dancing tango and milongas (folk dances) in the small shows the restaurants offer, and admire all the Boca soccer gear. We were enjoying ourselves thoroughly and decided to take a picture of Krystal and Anne with their faces in a poster board of a couple dancing the tango. Bad idea. What we didn’t see was the tiny, 2x2 inch sign that said “Pictures $5 pesos”. As we walked away, this dude comes out of nowhere and starts demanding his money. We were clueless but Pablo starts arguing with the guy saying no way are we going to pay. I offer to erase the picture but by this point Pablo finds out the guy isn’t even Argentine and then he really gets ticked. He starts yelling stuff about this being his country and the guy threatens to call the police, to which Pablo responded, “Go ahead, see if I care!” I don’t know what happened next but somehow he let us guy but not without sending a threatening gesture Pablo’s way…oh boy. That night, though, things got better when Marcela made nine homemade pizzas for seven people – and they were the most delicious pizzas I have ever tasted in my life! I think I might kidnap her and have her open up a pizzeria in the U.S. Oh, but did I mentioned we didn’t get done eating dinner until one in the morning? I’m definitely in Argentina…

On that note, a small side comment: have I mentioned that going to the movies here might mean the movie starting at midnight? We went to a movie with a couple of guys, got out at 1 or 2 in the morning, and they laughed at us for being tired because it was “early”!

Random Cultural Stuff

The first tale I shall share involves a wedding. I went to my first ever Argentine wedding with Ana and Vic (didn’t even know the couple – awkward) and it was actually quite similar to most of the weddings I’ve seen back in the U.S. The first difference was that they didn’t have a wedding part. Apparently that’s not common at all here. The second is that they had a time when the couple kneeled and the parents came up to pray over them and give a blessing of sorts. The last is how much they talk about children, right there in the ceremony! In most U.S. weddings I’ve been to, the pastors wouldn’t dare assume that the couple would have kids and they certainly wouldn’t make that one of the main sermon points. Not so here! Basically the second point of the pastor’s message was about the family the couple would start and how they should raise their kids in the Lord. Oh, the other funny thing was that the ring bearer came buzzing in driving a little electric kiddie car, which was absolutely adorable! (I don’t think that’s typical Argentina, though). The funniest part, though, was after the ceremony. I call it “Miguel strikes again.” You all remember Miguel, right? The guy who unabashedly tried to set us up with his sons when he first met Vic and I? Well, he cornered us after the wedding and starts on a ten-minute discourse on how beautiful marriage is and how it can bring people from two different “worlds” together, and even goes so far as to say how Argentines respect marriage more and have less divorce than Americans (Dang, I think to myself, he must really be desperate for his sons to marry some gringas). Then he continues with, “Yeah, and it’s great how those two worlds can come together and create a wonderful new world to raise children in!” That’s when the light bulb came on – Grandchildren! That’s what he wants. The poor man is desperate for grandchildren. Unfortunately for poor Miguel, Vic and I didn’t even talk to his sons before booking it out of Dodge and escaping the wedding.

The next cultural bit involves an explanation I should have given long ago. Yoly (Vic and now Bailey’s sort of host mom/sister) invited us over for mate and a time to chat with Suzy, a young woman who went to Grace but the married an Argentine and came back to live in Buenos Aires. Well, the conversation was great getting to hear about her love story and just her experience in general that we could definitely relate to. But, what I want to explain is mate. Mate (pronounced mah’-tay) is the most popular and traditional drink here and it consists of some fairly bitter herbs and almost boiling water (and sugar for some). An individual buys a special cup (also called a mate I believe) and a straw-looking filter thing (bombilla) and fills the cup about half-way full with the dry herb. Then, they pour very hot water to fill it the rest of the way up, and each person drinking mate together takes a turn sipping it down before they add water and pass it down the line. A lot of people drink mate together basically as an excuse to chat and spend time together. The first time I tried it back in the States I absolutely hated it, but I’m proud to say I have grown somewhat fond of it and even prefer it amargo now (“bitter” a.k.a. without sugar). I’m going to try to buy some to bring back, so unless it gets confiscated since they think it’s marijuana, feel free to stop buy and try some with me!

My last anecdote is a short and very humorous story. After spending the night with Vic a few weeks ago, I had just finished eating breakfast and was heading off to class when Norma asked me “Estás engordando?” (“Are you gaining weight?” also translated, “Are you getting fat?”) Since I’m not gaining weight, I wasn’t offended by the question, but it cracked me up how direct people are here! I’m definitely going to have to re-learn tact when I get back to the States.

Well, that’s all for now, folks! Hopefully before too long I’ll get around to writing what I like to call “The parents arrive!”