El mercado negro

So apparently the micros were supposed to go on strike today, but I had no trouble getting to or from school so that is good!!  Hopefully nothing like that happens, but that would be some experience huh?  Once I got to school, there were so many gringos (foreigners) there!!  It must be that a lot of the other international students arrived today on campus because a lot of students were on campus today.  It was funny though because me and the people in my program were calling them gringos as if were not gringos ourselves. :)

Today in class we talked a little about movies and we watched a very short clip from the film "Los abrazos rotos" (Broken Embraces (or Hugs)).  It is a Spanish film and it stars Penelope Cruz.  We watched a short clip just to test our comprehension and to practice listening to different accents.  It was pretty interesting to here the Spanish accent and it made me think "how in the world am I ever going to pick up the Peruvian accent?," but I am here for over four more months so there's hope. :)

I still can't get over the deer on campus!!  I petted (here I am studying Spanish and I don't even know English..I had to look up if "petted" was a word) one today!  It was so cool!

This afternoon for class we went to the mercado negro..yep, that's right we went there for class.  Oh, I guess I should tell you what "there" is..it's the black market or better know as Polvos azules (Blue powders).  It was huge and it's not really completely a black market, some places are legal, but of course others are not.  Anyway, it was packed full of shoes, clothes, electronics, dvds, cds, purses, jewelry, etc.  It was crazy!! I am pretty sure they had every movie ever made there from all different countries!  So if anybody needs or wants anything let me know. ;)  I mean I have NO idea how I'll make the weight limit for my suitcase on the way back home, but that's okay, right?  Anyway, it was pretty fun and I learned some new vocabulary (which was the point of the trip..you know so it's educational).  It really is huge though and you could spend at least a month in there and probably still not see everything.  Also, on the way to the black market, I saw the Argentinian embassy.  I'm sure this doesn't sound that great to you, but it just struck me as funny because the building was pink.  For those of you who don't know the President's house in Argentina is pink as well.

Once we arrived back at the school I had a meeting with people who want to volunteer through our program.  I'm pretty sure I am going to end up volunteering at a place called Deporte y vida.  It's kind of like an after-school program.  It's a place where kids can go and play, draw, do homework, eat, etc.  I'm pretty excited for it and it will be fun to work with kids.  I did something very similar to this last year in Costa Rica and it was always a good time!!

Tonight, I spent a majority of the night working on another presentation I have tomorrow.  I can't believe that my second week here is almost over and I will be starting classes next week!  Time is really going to fly here!!  Back to tonight, I had the TV on while I was doing my presentation tonight.  Yea, I know that's a bad distraction, but it was only the music channel so that's not as bad, but I've been trying to figure out if I like the fact that they play American music here.  Everytime an American music video came on it threw me off a little, but at the same time, I loved every song they played and I knew the words.  Also, they put a smile on my face (I mean, come on, Katy Perry's "Firework"). :)  Although I do like these songs, I do want to learn some of the popular songs that are played here, but we'll see.  Buenas noches!  Hasta mañana!