A trip to Merlo

Two weekends ago i went to a town called Merlo in the province San Luis. Its a 2 hour drive from Rio Cuarto but the drive is very pretty. We left my two younger brothers at their grandmas house so it was my parents sisters and me. We stayed in the house of my host mothers sister, she has two boys. 


The town is smaller than Rio Cuarto but its a very tourist friendly place and a lot of people from Buenos Aires and other big cities vaccion in Merlo. There is a little carnival in town with rides and we could ride them for free because the Aunt works there! There was one ride called Zumba that my sisters liked a lot is was a cirlcle that spun around and when up and down, it was fun but it also hurt my bac from slamming into the seat. 


The first day we drove up to a area called Mirado el Sol, there are hikes that start there, a beautiful view of the city, people selling crafts, and cross canyon ziplines! we went on the zipline! it was a lot of fun and not that scary even though the second one was 80 meters high!!!


We also went on a hike! We walked along side a river all the way up to a beautiful water fall! we also swam in the water but it was freezing cold, so we didnt actually swim! At the falls there were wild peach trees and the ripe fruit was very good! 

This is the ride, Agos is standing in the middle, i tried it too but it was really difficult to balence!

At the water fall!

My host mom and dad!

A special food in Merlo is goat! We didnt eat it but it smelled delicious!

School!

School started just 2 days after i arrived, on march 1st. I am going to San Buenaventura it is a catholic private school. The school is just a 10 minute walk away from my house so we walk to school in the morning and back home after school. School starts at 7:30 and ends at 1:20. In the morning we all gather in the courtyard in the middle and the Argetina flag is raised and a bible verse is read, and then we can go to class.
Here we stay in the same class room for all the subjects and the teachers move around instead of the students. This way you get to know the other kids in your class well. We have 16 subjects and there are 4 blocks a day, but sometimes there is two sujects i one block. In between each block there is a 10 minute break were we have to go out to the courtyard. Also 2 times a week we have class in the afternoon from 6:30 to 8 pm and twice a week we have gym from 4-5pm.
we also have to wear uniforms, they arent very pretty but it makes getting dressed each morning a lot easier!


A lot of the classes i dont understand beause the teachers talk really fast so its boring for me a lot of the time, My classes are:


Matematica- math, its one of my favorites because i understand it!


Mercadotecnia- marketing, i havent had this class yet because we havent had classes on moday yet because of holidays


Seminario- Argentina Laws, its very hard to understand!
Pscicologia- psychology havent had this yet either


Artistica- Art, im not sure if this is art history or if we get to do art i hope we get to make art though


Practica- we dont have anything like it at home, its really odd. i dont understand it at all, the teachers gives us situations about buying things and there are all these calulations that you have to do and i´ve never heard of it at all so its a bit impossible.


Economia- economy, we have only had this class once so far and it was reviewing this flow chart about economy it made a little sense to me but not much.


Biologia- Biology, i liked this class because i understood it, the words were really simular to those in english so i knew what was going on, we review the vital body fuctions.


Historia- history, we read something about Argentina´s history and i didnt understand a thing.


Tecnologia- technology, the teacher assigned me the first page in the text book to translate into english! it wasnt to bad...


Ingles- English, i love this class! i feel so smart in it! But is is english for business which i thought was interesting.


Lengua- translated it means language but its literature, i dont know what i´m going to do in this class because there is no way i can read a book in spanish....


F. Cristiana- religion class, the teacher just talks the entire time and i dont know whats going on.


Geo- Geography i understood a tiny bit in this class....


Gestion- management for businesses we wrote about services and brands and i was able to do it!


Sistema-systems, this is like practica its with paying and were the money goes i think


Quimica- Chemistry, so far in this class all we have done is oral testing were the professor brings and student up to the front and asks them questions to see what they remember. in this class i was chewing gum and the teacher said somthing when i blew a bubble, i guess you arent allowed to blow bubbles..oops!

Schdule!

So those are my classes! its a lot or subjects and its really different from school at home!

My host sister and i in our uniforms!

The first day!!!

Hello, i´m Audrey Wheatcroft i´m 16 and this is a blog about my 5 month exchange in Argentina! i hope you like it! 

first there was a 1.5 day orientation in Miami with all the people from the US going to Argntina, Chile, Panama, Brazil and Honduras. there is 21 people going to Argentina from the US. the Orientation was a little boring but the hotel was really nice and it was fun to talk to everybody during freetime. 

Next the kids going to Argentina flew to Buenos Aires, it was about 9 hours i think. the orientation actually kinda fun in Buenos Aires, it was outside except for the cabins! it was fun to meet the people from all the different countries that were going to Argentina. 

to get to our host cities we took buses, my bus ride was 7 hours! that sounds horrible but it was fine because the seats are super comfortable, and they recline so you can sleep and it was overnight so thats what i did. And there was a girl from finland and a boy from New Zealnd going to rio cuarto aswell and a Swiss boy and thai boy going to a nearby city, so we were all on the same bus. 

My host parents and my oldest host sister were there to meet me when the bus arrived! They are very nice and excited for me to be here! we then drove home and had some breakfast and then went back to sleep until 2 pm! then we had asado (meat) it was grilled on the fire in the back and was really good!!! in my family there are two girls 14 and 16 and two boys 7 and 11, and of course parents. 

that aftrnoon we went down town, its just a 5 minute walk away from home, and there are people every where! its a lot of fun it feels like a big city compared to Corvallis! After dinner about 20 of Anto´s (my house sister) friends came over and i got to meet everybody! they all asked me what type of music i liked and about dancing and parties in the US and if i had a boyfriend and if i smoked, etc.....they were very curious! the party went on until 4 am i think but i went to sleep around 2! 

my first day was a lot of fun and so have been the days following and more about those later!