Well, I´ll provide a brief update for the last couple of days. Ashley and I went to see The Producers on Wednesday night at 8:30, and it was really funny. I probably understood like 60-70% of the Spanish, but there were definitely some jokes that were made where the whole audience would laugh, and Ashley and I just kind of looked at each other not knowing what was going on. It was definitely much more popular than Jack the Ripper, and even though we got almost the cheapest tickets, there were still people sitting near us. In contrast, we had the only cheap tickets in the entire theater when we went to see Jack the Ripper. Anyway, the musical was really good, and it only cost us $10 each for tickets, so it was definitely worth the time and money spent.

On a less happy note, today was Argentina´s last game in the World Cup. They lost to Germany in sudden death, knocking them out of the tournament. For most of the second half, it actually looked like Argentina was going to win, as they were up 1-0. However, then their goalie got injured and a replacement goalie had to be put in- the next shot the Germans took on the goal went in to tie the game. Then in sudden death the German goalie blocked 2 shots while the Argentinian one didn´t block any. Sucks. It would have been exciting to see the team go further, but I guess top 8 is still good. Maybe now all those jerseys will go on sale and I can get some cheap souvenirs.

Being the dorks that we are, I think we´re going to play Bingo tomorrow night. Haha, I bet it´s going to be a happening scene on a Saturday night. That´s pretty much all I´ve got going on right now. I hope everyone is doing well. More to come later....

Since it´s been a week since my last post, I figured it was time to put something. Joel, Brock, Ashley, and I watched the Argentina game versus Mexico last Saturday in a cafe in town, and it was a really good game. Argentina won in overtime with an amazing goal by Maximiliano Rodriguez. Afterward, thousands of Argentianas poured into the streets to celebrate the victory. We walked to the subway to the beat of drums, car horns, people screaming, and confetti flying everywhere. When we got to the subway, it was packed full with people chanting victory songs in unison. We got off at the stop located at the heart of the city where the obelisk is located, and it was packed with people celebrating. It was really exciting and worth seeing. I can´t imagine how crazy it´s going to get if Argentina keeps winning its World Cup games. There´s another game this Friday, so we´re definitely going to be watching that. Plus, it´s against Germany, so it should be really good.

Haha, I bought a few cds this week in an attempt to find some good Argentian music. One cd I just had to buy because of the name. The group is called Tanghetto, and they play tango music with a bit of a techno twist to it. It´s not too bad if you like that sort of thing. I also got a cd of Charly Garcia, who is quite possibly one of Argentina´s most famous artists, but he was popular in the 80s and it´s definitely reflected in his music. I do like the cd though, and one of his songs I´d actually heard already from a tv commercial, which I found really funny. The other one was a shot in the dark- I wanted to get a cd of some traditional folk music, but it ended up being more classical than folksy, so it wasn´t exactly my cup of tea. Haha, I´m sure somebody will be happy to get that as a present.

I´m skipping my last week of Spanish classes. It´s not really helping out my conversational spanish, so I decided that I just don´t want to go anymore. It´s kind of nice, though now I need to figure out how to spend my time. I´m on page 475 in my spanish Harry Potter book, so I´m quite proud of that, but I´m going to have to spend some quality time looking up a lot of the words in spanish.

Tonight we´re going to see The Producers finally. I´ll post something about that later. That´s pretty much it for now. Most of you should have your postcards by now, but I had to go out and buy more, so both Matt Winslow and Matt Callahan should get theirs by next week. My bad. Anyway, catch you all later.

On Monday night, I went to a tango show at Cafe Tortoni with Ashley, Brock, and Joel. It was actually a lot of fun, as it was kind of like a mini theatrical production with a singing narrator. Haha, I had trouble following the Spanish in the songs, but I would catch a word here and there. There were definitely parts when he´d want the audience to sing along, but none of us had any idea what was going on, so it was kind of funny.

I finished part 2 in the Narnia books- the infamous The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They´re pretty quick to read, and I think it´s helpful in learning spanish. Yesterday was another Argentina soccer game. Ashley and I intended to watch it at 2, but apparently we had heard the wrong time because it didn´t come on until like 4. It was kind of a boring game, as it ended 0-0, and both of us definitely fell asleep. Haha. Oh well.

I´m not sure what we´ve got planned for the rest of the week. Ashley´s checking on getting tickets to some musical that I´ve never heard of but I guess is pretty famous- The Producers. I´ve got another week of Spanish classes, though my interest in going is somewhat waning. My guess is that I´ll probably skip out on a few classes next week and not take the final exam seeing as how I don´t really have any benefit in going.

Anyway, that´s about it for now. I hope everyone is doing well.

This was a fun weekend! On Saturday, Joel, Brock, and I checked out an arcade in the city, and spent over 4 hours playing games. Haha, it sounds really dorky but it was a lot of fun. We beat Time Crisis 3, which was a two-player game in the simplest sense. I also managed to get the high score in The Simpsons video game, and was quite proud of my accomplishment. We also played DDR though none of us were really any good at it, and had a couple of head-to-head matches of NASCAR racing, of which I won one and Brock one another.

We also watched the US soccer game against Italy, which was a little disappointing to say the least. We still managed to tie the game, despite being a man down at the end, but there were some really terrible calls by the refs. I don´t even know anything about soccer, and it was pretty obvious.

We had some really good pizza on Saturday night (supposedly the best in Buenos Aires), and on Sunday we went to some craft markets in Recoleta and met one of Elliot´s friends for lunch. Then Joel, Brock, and I went to a movie theater where you see two movies for one price. Haha, the selection was pretty bad, so we saw V for Vendetta and Scary Movie 4. The audience in Scary Movie 4 was really young (probably a median age of 5 or 6) which was kind of appauling, but given the intelligence level of the movie maybe it was understandable.

Today is a national holiday (Flag Day or something), so I have the day off from class, and Katie, Elliot, and Bryon are flying out this afternoon.

That´s about it for now. I hope everyone is doing well. Post some love!! Haha.

I just wanted to write to say that I watched the second half of the Argentina soccer game today, and they beat Serbia and Montenegro 6-0. Damn. I mean, I don´t know anything about Serbia and Montenegro, but that must hurt. Also, Ashley and I found some places to get take-out empanadas by the dozen, so we´re definitely going to be hitting that up. AND.... I finished The Magician´s Nephew, so I´m starting another book today. That´s all for now.

This week has gone by pretty fast. On Tuesday I bought two books from the Chronicles of Narnia series (the first two, The Magician´s Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). I´m already more than halfway through the first one. It´s a fairly easy read, given that it´s a children´s book, but what I´ve started doing is underlining words I don´t know, and then I go back and look them up later. In other words, whoever reads it after me will have the easiest time understanding it. It´s not a great story, but let me tell you, I was pretty excited about the purchase. At the same time I bought Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, so needless to say, there are some good reading times ahead.

Oh, before I forget, I got an email from Rez, and he was getting all up in my grill about already sending me his address. So, just to clarify, I did in fact have Rez´s address, though I didn´t mention it in my blog. Haha. Is that better Resbian?

I think I forgot to mention in previous posts that our landlord has a karoake machine in our apartment. However, there´s only one disc for it called Love Songs, and of course it´s English songs. Ashley and I almost died when we found that, and I must say, nobody can impersonate Barbara Streisand in Tell Him better than I can. That is, when I can keep a straight face of course. So last weekend after the world cup game, we busted that out for about a half hour, and I think everyone was horrified. I´m not sure if it was because of the disc or my singing. The jury is still out on that one. Anyway, that was hilarious and needed to be shared with the world.

On a completely random note, I got an email from Babsie Giddings with the Basic Nutrition Program in Guyana. I guess they´re meeting with some consultants for publishing materials about their supplement program in the next few months, and she wanted our final publisher version of our brochure. Hopefully that means it will finally be useful. Anyway, I was excited about that. If they opt to use the brochure that Rez and I made, it would be distributed throughout the entire country of Guyana to the clinics associated with the supplement program. Not too shabby if you ask me for just a couple of days work. Haha.

Alright, I need to get something to eat and head to class. I hope everyone is doing well. Let me know what you´re all up to!

This weekend we had 8 people crammed into our apartment, so I ended up sleeping on the floor. It sounds bad, but I brought a sleeping pad, so I used that and my sleeping bag and it wasn't too bad. I went to see Lord of War with Ashley, Joel, and Bryon on Friday. I wasn't really sure what it was about when I went, but it was the only movie that looked decent and that we could all agree on at the theater. So it ended up being about arms dealers and was kind of a downer, but on the bright side it was well-done and pretty informational, if that gets you going. Plus, after we watched the movie we had some awesome licuados (basically a fruit milkshake) and really good empanadas, so everything turned out alright.

On Saturday we watched Argentina's first game in the World Cup against the Ivory Coast. We got some cheap pizza and a few of us were decked out in Argentina jerseys and all 8 of us were in the living room of the apartment. I've never really watched soccer games ever, so it was interesting, though not the most exciting game. Argentina had 2 goals before the half and Ivory Coast ended up getting one before the end of the game, so Argentina was ahead the whole time. The streets were definitely bare about 20 minutes before the game, and we were lucky to find the pizza place open, as everything shut down because everyone was watching the game. I guess the US team was playing about an hour or 2 ago, but I was more inclined to come check my email than watch the game by myself in the apartment.

I'm actually skipping my spanish class right now. We had some boring homework that I didn't want to do and I've been sneezing a lot the past two days, so I felt that it would be better if I slept until noon and took it easy today. Haha, I'm such a slacker. Alright, I guess that pretty much summarizes the past few days. I've been on the internet for over an hour, so I'm calling it a day.

Oh, one other thing. If you're confused about how to post a comment, just click on the link underneath each post that says a number and COMMENTS. There's a box you can type in at the bottom of the comments page, and you can select 'Other' as your user identity and just write your name. I know at least one person who was confused, so I just thought I'd put that for anyone who isn't accustomed to using blogs. Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll post again at the end of the week.

Alright, I guess it´s time for another post. The weeks are probably going to be pretty uneventful while I´m taking my class, but that means I´ll have a lot of juicy stuff after the weekend. Speaking of my class, here´s the low-down. I´m the only person from the US in the class out of 11, which actually really surprised me given that the distribution of students taking classes at this place is 50% US. There are 3 people from Germany, 2 from Brazil, 1 from Norway, 1 from England, 1 from Israel, 1 from France, and 1 from Belgium. I think everybody in there knows at least 3 languages each, which makes me feel like I need to catch up, but also I´m pretty sure that they´re all older than me except maybe one of the German girls. I´d say like 75% of them speak English, but for the most part we only talk to each other in Spanish. This week was meant as a review week, so it all seemed very remedial, but what I´ve started doing is just writing down all the words that I hear and don´t know and look them up later, so it´s been helping out my vocabulary.

I bought 12 postcards yesterday, but I realize I have very few people´s addresses, so if you want me to send you some sugar, then email me (kevin.henderson@unc.edu) the address you´ll be at this summer. I´ve already written a few people emails, but I think the only addresses I have are my grandparents and the Voras.

Last night I went to go see an Argentian film, Cronicas de una Fuga, which starred one of the actors from the Motorcyle Diaries, Rodrigo de la Serna (I think that´s his name). It was $1.33 for the ticket, and a pretty good movie. I still have trouble understanding the dialect but I could still follow the movie pretty well. The backstory is that there was a military government in Argentina in the 70s and they would take people from their homes who were suspected to be terrorists (which they doubtfully were), and hold them in these secluded houses for months or years at a time. Sometimes the families never heard from them again, and the mothers of those that were taken started holding protests every Thursday at 3 pm in the Plaza de Mayo where the equivalent of the White House is located (Casa Rosada). They actually still hold their rallies to this day, but we have yet to stop by and see it. Anyway, the movie was based on the true story of 4 of the people taken, and was pretty good, albeit kind of dark and depressing.

Nothing to report other than that. Well, I did forget to mention a funny story from last weekend. Ashley and I were walking back to our apartment last Saturday from having dinner with everyone, and we stopped at one of the streets to wait to cross. Of course, there were like no cars coming, but the crosswalk had a ¨don´t cross¨sign flashing so we were just going to wait for it change to the walk symbol before crossing. Anyway, we stood there for about 15 seconds and this street dog comes up behind us and also stops where we´re standing. It looked once to the left and then to the right, and seeing that no car was coming, it nonchalantly hopped into the street and crossed. Of course, we´re watching the dog the whole time, and we just bust out laughing that we were just shown up by a dog. I just found it particulary hilarious the dog knows how to get around better than us.

So far, I don´t have anything planned for the weekend, though I imagine that I´m going to be getting a call sometime this afternoon from Joel, so we´re planning to just hang out with them for the weekend. I´ll post something on Monday morning if I wake up early enough. I hope everybody is doing well. Talk to you later.

Hey everybody! I thought it would be easiest for me to just keep a blog rather than try to write everyone individually, so here's what I've come up with. Yes, Ashley and I did make it here okay, though there was an initial setback with our American Airlines flight, so we had to be switched to United and transfer through D.C. instead of JFK. No big deal though, as we actually got here 20 minutes earlier than expected.

The first day we got here was a national holiday. It seems that I've developed a knack for arriving at inopportune times, as we encountered a similar situation in Guyana this past winter break. Anyway, it was the 25th of May celebration, basically their 4th of July which they call Dia de Patria. Government buildings and many stores were closed and roads were blocked off and people everywhere. Ashley and I were able to find a restaurant that would take American money and we had a fabulous lunch for about $5 each. Our apartment is nice- we each have our own bedroom, plus one and a half baths and a kitchen a living room. There's enough space for 5 people to sleep, so we're planning on having our other UNC friends over on the weekends who are down here working on the Nourish International project.

Some places we've been to thus far:
-Jack el Distripador- haha, that's right, Jack the Ripper the thriller musical in Spanish at Teatro Liceo, tickets-$10
-The Evita Museum- not the most exciting place, but we learned a bit about Argentina's most beloved first lady
-Plaza Dorega- we went to an antiques-craft sale in San Telmo, the district we're staying in. The market takes place every Sunday and is pretty popular.
-Cinema- we were able to see Ice Age 2 in Spanish, and also Xmen 3, but it was in English with Spanish subtitles
-The Planetarium- this was actually one of the most fun things we've done yet- since it was catered to the children, the Spanish presentation of our solar system and universe was very easy to understand

We've been to countless restaurants, all with very cheap food (we found a place that has large cheese pizzas for $1.60!) and have probably walked around half the city thus far. We've been to alll of the nearby districts, Palermo, Recoleta, Puerto Madero and Congreso. The most recent development is that Ashley and I are both taking Spanish classes for the next few weeks. I'm taking an actual class of a pre-advanced level spanish, with a final exam scheduled on June 30, while Ashley is taking a more expensive, in-depth course at another institution. She'll be doing 20 hours per week, while I have 12.

Other than that, we've been reading a lot of Spanish books (Ashley is currently reading The Witches by Roald Dahl in Spanish while I'm juggling The Two Towers and Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde) and watching a lot of Spanish movies (and some English). We're thinking about taking two trips sometime in July or August- one to northern Argentina to see the country and go camping, and another to the southern part to go skiing and see Patagonia.

I'll definitely try to post something once a week, so be sure to periodically check up on me. I hope everyone is doing well.

-Kevin