La vida hermosa!

Hello everybody,

It has been a few weeks since my last post and a lot has happened over here. This week will be my 4th week at the university already, I’ve been on another trip and have learned a lot more about the Argentine culture. My Spanish is getting better, but I wouldn’t call it really good just yet. I am now able to have a small-talk without too much effort, but when people want to talk about something more relevant or about the past (including accompanying conjugations), it gets a lot harder… But the upside it that it cannot get worse, only better. So I just keep practicing with my roommates, fellow students and Argentines. The only bad part is that my classes aren’t always that clear, but fortunately my classes are very small and I have very friendly fellow-students and teachers that are more than happy to explain everything to me or –if necessary- translate some verbs. Those small classes were a bit strange in the beginning. Especially since one of my courses is with only 6(!) people. My university is very small, that is also why we only have 12 intercambio (exchange) students. On the one hand, this is a real shame, but on the other, it makes it a lot easier to make contact with Argentine students.

As I highlighted very brief in the beginning of this story, I’ve been on another trip a few weeks ago. This time we went to Iguazú; the most famous falls of southern America. They are located on the border of Argentina and Brazil with approximately 90% of all the falls on Argentine soil. With 14 exchange students I’ve met through the Spanish classes we went to Puerto Iguazú, a city in the north of Argentina that exists solely due to these falls. After a bus drive of 18 hours (which was quite comfortable I must say) we arrived in this small town at the end of the afternoon. We spend the rest of the day finding a hostel and visiting a viewpoint where you can see two countries that border Argentina; Paraguay and Brazil. This was nice to see, but not really special.
After a very good meal that night (I love group discount!!) we got up really early the day after to visit the famous falls. After being in a jeep and in a boot for a while (we took the touristic route :P) the falls finally caught my eyes and I must say, I was stunned! I am usually not really the nature kind of person (I like culture a lot more) but this was beautiful! I have never seen anything that comes only remotely close to this world wonder. The amount of water that comes down is at the same time rough, with a lot of noise and power, but at the other hand its very pretty and peaceful. Incredible!
This was before I saw Garganza del Diabolo (devil’s throat). You get there by walking on a very long bridge above the water, while walking there you get really close to the edges of several waterfalls, but this is nothing in comparison to the end of the bridge… I have never seen such an amount of fast running water in my entire life!! Wow! You could really feel the power of these falls. 1500 photos later it was honestly hard so say goodbye to this view…
Because the falls of Iguazú are stationed at the border of Argentina and Brazil, you can also take a look from the Brazil side. Here you have more the ‘overview’. You can compare the difference to a movie; on the Brazilian side you’re viewing the movie and on the Argentina side you’re the actor. The Brazilian side might sound a bit boring, especially after you’ve literally felt the falls, but that is definitely not true! When you’re in Brazil you’re able to see a lot better the size of the area and the amount of falls. Here it was again hard to say goodbye… Nice detail by the way; we smuggled to people across the border. Don’t worry, they weren’t drugs dealers or anything like that, but just two of my friends from the US and Australia that otherwise had to pay approximately E120,- for one day in Brazil. The funny thing is that it was really simple to get them over the border. Maybe a bit too simple actually…
The rest of my stay at Iguazú I went back to the argentine side and I’ve did some active work by abseiling and ziplining. A lot of fun!

Now I am living a more normal life again. I’m going to class and starting to behave more and more like a real porteña (citizen of Buenos Aires). But I still realize that I am in a totally different culture and on the other side of the world. The fact that the sun goes the ‘wrong’ way reminds me every day. I will probably leave for another trip within 3 weeks. This time I will probably go to Salta, a city in the northwest of Argentina where you have among others the highest train in the world. Nice detail: my teachers like the fact that I want to travel and therefore don’t really mind if I have to miss a exam because of that. They are more than happy to reschedule this exam ;) haha!

You can again find pictures when following this link!
http://picasaweb.google.nl/110288743403368342020/

I’ll keep you posted!
Besos, Joni