A Taste of Europe

     That is exactly what Argentina felt like. I had the chance to go to Argentina for five days with Brie and my mom to visit the church there and just to see the city! We stayed in Buenos Aires the whole time we were there and I feel in love with the city. It is so beautiful. Growing up in the north, the city reminded me a lot of New York City, but surprisingly a lot cleaner! We stayed with a couple from the church in Buenos Aries who lived right in the middle of the city. It was the perfect spot. The couple, Pancho and Cecilla, had three beautiful children who I also fell in love with. Their first kid was Benjamin, called Benji, who was ten years old and so mature for his age. But of course he was still a little boy who loved to be mischievous and adventurous. Their second child, Tommy, was seven years old and one of the sweetest little boys I have ever met. Both Tommy and Benji spoke English as well as Spanish, which made life a lot easier. Their last child was a little girl named Mia. She was three years old and was a completely diva. She loves everything that is pink and will only wear pink. She did not speak any English, but her Spanish was about on the same level as mine so I could easily communicate with her. But they were so precious all of them and loved us being there.

A few of the teens from Buenos Aires!

     After getting to meet the kids when we got in, we all went straight to bed. After spending thirty-one hours in either an airport or on a plane, we were all dead tired. The next morning Brie and I were picked up at eleven am to go to a birthday party for some of the girls from the church in Buenos Aires. The party was a small, low-key get together but it let Brie and I meet the teens from the church and spend time with them; also time to work on our spanish of course! At the party we sang some karaoke, had a little dance party, and got to try some Argentinian food. During karaoke we encountered some songs we knew but that were in Spanish! That was fun to be able to sing along to those. The dancing in South America is obviously much better than America as well. A lot more rhythm and a lot less random jumping and fist pumping. But I got to Bernie and Dougie a little, at which they all laughed at me when I did both. But a little mixing of cultures is always good! The food in Argentina is amazing! They raise their own cattle so all the meat is very fresh and delicious. After the food, we had cake... four of them! But that was because we were celebrating everyone's birthday in August. Instead of candles though they put almost a sparkler on the cake that shoots up and it looks as if the cake is on fire. It is so much cooler than boring candles.

     After the birthday party, we met up with my mom and Sarai, the minister's wife. Sarai has a fifteen year old daughter that we had met that morning and who came to the party with us. Her name is Camilia and she speaks English!! Once again, this was very helpful. After we met up with my mom and Sarai for a minute they sent us out into the city by ourselves! This was very
surprising of my mom but it was incredible! Brie, Cami, and I took the subway (I don't know if that's what it's called there?) near her house and then got to explore the city for our own! We went to a coffee shop called La Havana which was so classy. All of the restaurants and coffee shops in Buenos Aires were extremely nice with waiters that all wore like white aprons and treated you like royalty. It was so different from the American Starbucks where you go up and order your drink and then they holler your name when your drink it ready. After the Havana, we got to just go and walk around the city. All down the street there are shops on either side of the road and little places to eat. Tons of people are on the sidewalks too; Cami told us that no one really drives anywhere unless they need to. All the people dress so European though and so many of them look American! Brie and I were hoping that we fit in at least a little bit but Cami told us that we both dress very American and even our Spanish is very American. I guess we aren't as European as we thought we were. But it was all made up for when we got to go to the bookstore near Cami's house where we got to see all our favorite books and movies in Spanish! We took a ton of pictures of course with all our favorites and those that reminded us of our friends back home. It was so weird to see all my favorite things in a completely different language!
    That night after our adventure in the city Brie and I went back to Cami's house to spend the night with them. Brie and I got to learn a little bit more about the Argentinian culture from Cami. In South America, because the seasons are switched, they start school in March and finish for summer break in December. They have their winter break for two weeks in July! Their hours of school are also very different. There are two sessions of school everyday. One from about eight am to noon and another from about one to five. Cami and her brother Sebastian both did the first session and got to come home for lunch everyday. But two days a week they had to go back to school after lunch for gym for two hours. Cami's youngest brother Esteban attended the afternoon session everyday so he would be around until one and left for school every day after lunch. Needless to say, I was pretty jealous of this schedule. That night we also got to have Cami's favorite dinner, Milanesa Napolitana. It seemed almost like a chicken parmesan but then you cut up the chicken and but it into a fresh baguette and eat it almost as a sandwich. This might be my new favorite food. It was delicious.
     The next day we had church in the morning and that was so incredibly encouraging to see everyone and get to worship together. Even better I understood most of it too! Which was a major accomplishment because it was all in Spanish. After communion and contribution though, the men and women split up and my mom got to speak to the women. She spoke in Spanish of course but from everything I understood it was amazing and so incredibly convicting! After she spoke, Brie and I had the opportunity to speak to the women for a few minutes each about convictions we have made as teen disciples. We each had about five minutes, but ended up taking twenty minutes each. But we had a lot on our heart and  having to have everything we say be translated takes up some time too! Those are my two excuses. But it was so encouraging to share our hearts with the women and after to hear how God worked through what we both said to impact the women. God can do amazing things!

     Sunday was no doubt my favorite day that we were there. After church Brie, my mom, Ceci, Pancho, their three kids, Sarai, her husband Sebastian, and their three kids, and I got to spend the whole day together. First we all went to get pizza at the best pizza place I've ever been too, even better than New York Pizza. That was so much fun to spend time with everyone. Oh also there were three guys just on vacation from Australia that spent the day with us too after church so that was of course was so cool to talk to them and hear about the other places they had visited in South America on this vacation. After lunch, we all went to this huge park area that was absolutely beautiful. The park had some restaurants on the edge but mostly a bunch of little stands with people selling their own merchandise. There were tons of people sitting around of the lawn and just enjoying the beautiful weather. We also got to catch a glimpse of some tango dancers that were performing on the street. Inside the park was also the Recoleta Cemetery, which is incredible. First of all it was huge; I had never been in a cemetery so big and also so beautiful! It wasn't made up of small tombstones but all huge mausoleums that were very elaborately decorated. A lot of the mausoleums were for entire families so there would be many caskets inside. This cemetery was also the one where Eva Peron, more commonly known as Evita, was buried so we got to see her tomb and there was a plaque about all she had done for the country of Argentina.

     After the cemetery, we got ice cream at a popular spot Freddo and got to just sit outside and enjoy the beautiful view. After ice cream everyone else went back home while Brie, my mom, and I got to shop a little bit in the merchants area and see many authentic Argentina jewelry, bags, and little trinkets. That night Brie and I got to babysit Pancho and Ceci's kids while they had a date night. This ended the day perfectly, getting to spend time with our favorites chiquitos.




     After these long two days, the next two were a little more low-key. Monday Brie, my mom, and I all went over to Cami's house so that my mom could spend time with her parents and we could spend time with Cami. We got there just in time for lunch which was Argentinian meat and mashed potatoes, delicious of course. Unfortunately I was feeling sick so I spend the afternoon sleeping but after I woke up Brie, my mom, Cami, and I got to go walk around the city a little bit  more and get some cafe con leche, our new addiction. I loved being able to see the city once more. Our last day Tuesday we got to go to the historic places of the city, the old university of Buenos Aries, and old monasteries of the city. This was our last adventure until we got back on another plane to head to our new home - La Paz! But leaving I knew this would not be my last time in Buenos Aires. I love it way too much.