Last week I promised to tell you about my first adult English class, so that´s where I´ll begin. The students are extremely friendly and teaching them is so much fun. Most of them are related, so the class is like one enormous family. We played Taboo with their vocabulary words and shared mate, the most popular type of tea in Argentina.
On Saturday the weather was horrible, but I didn´t let that prevent me from exploring. I went to the town of Unquillo where I toured a tiny art museum and bought a scarf and warm socks. I was freezing all day, and when I returned home, my room was icy too. It wasn´t until three days later that my host mother admitted that my room DID have a heater and she had just forgotten to turn it on. The following day I went to a village called Mendiolaza. It is extremely small and quaint, and I took some artsy photographs. Ironically, Mendiolaza is so tiny that I spent more time waiting for the bus home than I did walking through the village.
On Monday I was excited to get back to work. Unfortunately, I took the wrong bus and arrived half an hour late. There are four buses that run to Cordoba (where I teach) but I accidently took the one that goes to the AIRPORT in Cordoba. After conversing with the driver and realizing my mistake, I got off and waited on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere for another bus. It was a looooooooong wait, but at least I had a nice view of the mountains. Finally, the bus came and I took it back to Villa Allende (where I live). Then I had to wait for another bus to take me to work. I was terrified that I would be in trouble for being late, but my boss didn´t mind at all. Nothing ever runs on time here, so it was no big deal. The students and teachers were just happy to see me.
I´m sorry to say that my host mother, Cecilia, hasn´t been quite as sweet as she was when I first arrived. Her husband works in the States, but he came to visit this week and the two of them took off for Buenos Aires. They left me with the three kids to play babysitter/maid. Fortunately, I like the kids and I´ve been enjoying some time away from Cecilia.
Since then, things have gone pretty smoothly at work and at home. Teaching is always the highlight of my day. It´s not always easy, but the younger students are super cute and they kiss me goodbye at the end of class. The only downside of my week is that I´ve had a bad cold. Ignacio (my host brother) came home from school yesterday and said that his friend has just been diagnosed with swine flu and his school is closing for ten days. Now I´m worried that my cold is really swine flu. If it is, I´ll have trouble getting back into the U.S!
The most fascinating news from today is that all the bus companies have gone on strike. I had no way to get to work, so I´ve had a pretty low-key day. I hope the buses start running again so I can explore some new towns this weekend. Strikes are quite common here, as are power outages. Our power went out three times this week (once while I was taking a shower at 10:30 PM). Apparently, people shut off the electricity as a form of political sabotage.
My host parents are returning from Buenos Aires tonight, so I´m sure I´ll have new stories about them for you, and hopefully some tales of my weekend adventures as well.
Feliz junio!
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