Interim Report ...

I´ve mucked up my settings somehow on this particular post and couldn't get my text or photos right... so I´ve started all over again! Grrrrrr! Hopefully it makes sense.

The river beach at Parana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OMdqMo5iWw This is a Youtbe video of Parana... you might like to check it out and get an idea of wht it is like here.

Wednesday 15^{th April}

Feliz Cumpleaños to God Daughter Rhianon in Broken Hill, Australia,and to brother Dean for the 10th and sister-in-law April for the 11th. Anyone else I´ve foergotten?

All of a sudden my time here is nearly over and I have a dizzy social calendar for the rest of the week… even with a few double bookings. I have not been able to get near a computer recently and when I have... the internet wasn´t cooperating.

It was great to catch up with “mi mejor amiga”, Viv, at 8 am my time and 10pm her time this morning, especially as the 15^th of April is a special day for her for the anniversary of the passing away of her dear friend, Chris. Every 15^th of April we have a coffee together to remember her and this year, in Argentina, I was lucky enough to be having pastries and coffee for breakfast with the class of computer software graduates and to talk with Viv at the same time. So, to remember Chris and to share the moment with Viv, I waved the plate of pastries in front of the computer and by the miracle of Skype... she could see them. And, the students were able to help Viv with a word she needed for her Spanish assignment that she was doing at the time so, again, a spontaneous intercultural moment was had. I have been having an English conversation class with these people two mornings a week from 7.30 -8.30am for the past month. To start with, I talked to them about NZ or showed photos and for the last few times they have each brought photos of their favourite places in Argentina to tell me about. Mathïas brought photos of some of the fish he had caught in the Parana River and we all joked that he had more photos of fish than of his girlfriend.

I was also able to catch up with sister Lynn , on Skype, this morning my time, and she was able to say hi across the world to the class too and we late had abit of a catch up on family events.

A summary of events to date:

Easter was spent quietly and mostly indulgently. I decided I didn’t want to go on another travel jaunt as I wanted to see a bit more of Parana and just have a bit of a break, as I will go pretty much straight back from here into preparation for school when I get home. Also, much as the purpose of my stay here is to be “immersed” in the language and culture, it is really difficult relying on people to help you out when they are not expecting to find a non-Castellano speaker on a bus tour planned for Castellano speakers.

Interestingly, even though so many people here can speak some degree of English, I have only met one English-as-a-first-language speaker in Parana during my whole month here. There is an AFS student called Peter, from Iowa, at the Escuela a del Club Athletico Estudiantes that I have been going to for part of the day since last week.

On Friday Mélisa and I walked along the Costanera (the river front) Well, Mélisa jogged and I walked. There are several private beaches along the river side and other places where you can cook your own asado and have family picnics. Because it is a river beach, trees grow in the sand beside the river. I have difficulty getting my head around trees growing in the sand on a beach but I am used to ocean beaches, not river beaches. The water is quite brown and it almost looks as if the boats are sailing in milk chocolate as in the Cadburys ad on tv. A lot of soil comes down the river from Misiones where the earth is quite red so the river is always a brown colour.

Check out the chocolate river.... It´s not like beach sand at all. Couldn´t resist another sleeping dog photo... These guys clip clop around the city picking through the rubbish...and I think they might collect stuff for recycling. They do not appear to be well-liked or trusted.

On Saturday afternoon I visited one of the girls in one of my English classes and her friend. They wanted to practise speaking English with an authentic speaker and I was happy to oblige… there was a home-made cake and a cup of tea involved and Agustina, Luisina and her family were, typically, delightful. Agustina and Luisina both study international relations and political science at university. Luisina’s mother is an obstetrician at Parana hospital so we had some interesting conversations in a mixture of English and Spanish. They were able to demonstrate mate drinking for a film clip... see below and then Luisina’s friend, a medical student from university in Cordoba, dropped me back home in time to go out to another basketball match with the family.

How to drink mate.....

The basketball match was won bny a wide margin by Sionista (home team) and then, at 11.30 I went with Daniel. Mirta and Blanca (Mirta´s mother) for dinner. I could not, at that hour of the night, eat a large meal and I was tired so had a salad and chips. The town was full of people and, interestingly, quite a few really young primary school age children out and about.

First thing on Easter Sunday, I opened my little parcel from Viv, which she had left me with strict instructions not to open until Easter Sunday.... Joyful Day! Lindt Easter Eggs! I resisted temptation to demolish them there and then and put them on hold for the next family dinner.