Hola!
I thought I'd do a lil blogging before I head off for the Northwest tonight...Thursday was good, I had the usual classes and in the evening I went downtown to Nueva Cordoba, which is a part of the city that is mostly students who either go to my University, Blas Pascal, or the National University (which is public so it's free!).  My house "hermano", Neil, and his friends threw a party for exchange students at a bar called Shine in the Centro, so we went there.  It was a lot of fun and nice to meet some other exchange students, I even met a guy from Evanston who has been here all semester.
Friday was good, I didn't have much school work so in between classes I laid outside on the grass with the group...very relaxing. Friday night we stayed home because we had an early wakeup call the next morning to Alta Gracia.  We all met at the school at 8:30 and departed for Alta Gracia, where we visited a Jesuit Estancia that housed the Jesuits that were exiled from Spain in the 17th century.  It was really pretty, and definitely interesting.  We then walked around the town for a little; it was a beautiful day at around 65 degrees and sunny.  I bought an awesommme fanny pack and this little rock tree thing, everything is incredibly cheap here its hard not to sometimes.  However, I surprisingly haven't bought too much....yet. After eating a wonderful steak lunch, we drove to the house that Che Guevarra grew up in.  It was beautiful, and it had a lot of interesting items from his childhood.  The coolest part was his motorcyle, that represented his infamous ride through south america.  Although he was a brutal ruler, he has a lot of respect in this country because he fought for what he believed in.

Outside the Jesuit Estancia

Me and Che as a child!

After about an hour I we headed back to the city, and ate dinner at the house.  That night, we went to one of the tutor's houses (Tomas) where he made us homemade pizza and we drank beer. Because I can.  It was soooo good and despite the fact that he had 4 cats, I really enjoyed it.  I then went to another friends house, who has a ginormous dog.  He makes Riley Rosen look like a puppy. However, he thought he was a lap dog so he was all over the place, moving the table and knocking everything off every time he walked under it.  After hanging out there for a while, we went downtown to a Boliche which is essentially a night club.  It was ginormous, and I'm guessing there were at least 300 people there.  They even had dancers on the stage looking a little like NTDT.  Unfortunately, I didn't see Joanna (sorry Ian).
Sunday was very relaxed, me and my roomie Mary walking to the Mall and I bought a pair of Vans.  I also bought a skate board and some cargo shorts.  For those of you who don't know, Vans are skate board shoes but no worries I haven't changed too much, they basically look like converse.  I'm desperately trying to look Argentinian.
The foods been great, I haven't been disappointed, and my favorite part is how fresh everything is, especially the vegetables and fruit.
Recently I've been witnessing some pretty weird things on the bus.  It seems to be more crowded every time I ride it, and I end up being squished in between two people holding the bar on top.  Due to my severe lack of height, it ends up looking like I'm hanging on the monkey bars.  The most obscure thing happened yesterday, and while I was trying to get into an athletic position so I wouldn't fall on the baby sitting behind me, my friend elbowed me in the side.  I looked over to see a woman full on breast feeding her baby, boob out and all.  I obviously started laughing at the sight, but was still very taken aback by the r-rated action occuring in the second seat of the bus.   I understand it's all part of the circle of life and all, but to me that crossed some sort of line.  However, I totally understand on the babies part--if you're hungry, you gotta eat.
The last tid-bit of info I've been meaning to share with you all is the manner of which people greet one another.  Like many european countries, instead of hand shakes, hugs, or high-fives, their greeting consists of a kiss on the cheek.  What I didn't know until I came here was that EVERYONE does it, even if you have never met the person.  So needless to say, I've been getting a lottt of kisses down south.  I think it's a very cool custom though, and it makes it seem like people are actually interested to meet you.  Maybe I'll bring it back with me up north, and use it until I creep too many people out.  On the same note, this morning Laurianna, the 2 year old grand daughter, came over while we were eating breakfast and getting ready.  I've been trying to teach her how to high-five for quite some time now, but always forget the word so I end up just sticking out my hand, slapping it with my other, and motioning towards her to do it.  I'm really great with kids.  So this morning, I was hanging over the edge of my bunk like the monkey I am when she burst through the door yelling "HOLA!" I reached my hand over, and instead of slapping it, she gave me a nice, firm hand-shake.  She even said mucho gusto, which translates to "it's nice to meet you."  If her manners are that good at age 2, I can only imagine how awesome she'll be when she gets older.  Kinda like me.....
Tonight we're taking a bus overnight to the Northwest of the country, where we will be traveling, hiking, going on tours and going to vineyards.  I'm incredibly excited and will definitely will update you all once I'm back.  Now it's time for me to go get my tango on and look like a total fool. Chau!

Kris