"you're an american and your life in argentina is like a fight"

so, mom, you would love this: my 8 year old brother is blasting "my humps" by the black eyed peas (dad....) and dancing around the kitchen to the lyrics. but they're in english, so obviously he (and the rest of my family) doesn't understand that the song is all about dirty sexual things. great way to start off the week!

second of all, i just facebook chatted with an argentine friend that i met two weeks ago. people here are very funny with facebook, they all use it and are obsessed with it. i met him (name: diego. dora the explorer anyone?) at the bus stop and literally 30 seconds after we met, he asked in english "how is your facebook?" well (pues), it's good, thanks, i got a friend request this morning, but you don't want my name? so after that was all cleared up (he helped me on my spanish, i helped him out with the "how is your facebook" phrase), i had a new friend request the next day! when people speak english here, i can't help but to be so fascinated. the way they have to manipulate their mouths to say the (honestly) ugly sounds of the english language is so cool. they always seem to have little problem with the language (idioma) but i can't help but ask them "inglés es una idioma más difícil, no?", or english is a bitch to learn, isn't it? i think everyone who has answered this has only had positive things to say, but i think they're just being polite. it's really amusing to hear simple phrases in english, yet some things don't translate over just quite right.....

yes, i hope i will. this was really funny. 

yes, i fight like a dog in argentina. 

 diego wanted to make sure that by chatting on facebook, we were "real friends", not superficial ones! he made sure to tell me that he was very invested in all of his friends. but he's not conceited. humble, he told me. he also made a "wright" joke. i had to say that i sighed out loud, because it's not like this is the first time. but he thought he was incredibly witty (ocurriente, in spanish) so i pretended that was the first time i had ever heard someone say that i was "wright" and not "wrong".

when i told him that people compare me to "hannah montana", he said que feo! (how ugly) and he doesn't like the lifestyle of hannah montana. dang. that means that when we talk the next time i will have to cover up my superficial obsessions of bachelor/ette/pad drama, people.com reading, and all things celebrity.

but this story has a moral (or sort of). it showed me that people here really do go above and beyond to make you comfortable. the people here are just plain nice. diego told me several times that if i ever need help to just ask him. he even corrected me a few times with my spanish writing, as we were chatting in both languages (him in english, me in spanish). it makes sense, if i want to learn spanish and he wants to learn english, why wouldn't we help each other out? two argentine students talked with me and mark (another ifsa student, we're in the same social history class) for the entire break time, about 45 minutes, in the middle of class. they were intrigued by our experience of "college" back home. i told them that college in the united states was much more fun because we live with our best friends in dorms and don't have parents (their reaction was so funny, they both couldn't believe that we don't go home after school everyday and have dinner at home!) and there are parties every weekend. it's so different, but it made me realize that this culture is not completely insane. the college kids here may still live with their families and commute to school, but it reinforces the familial bond. it's the reason why my host grandmother lives 3 blocks away. it's the reason that grown adults will still live with their parents. family is really important here. in the us, it's not a complete opposite, but by the time you're 18, your parents push you out of the house to try and live on your own in college. independence is encouraged and striven for. however, i'm glad that i'm living here and getting to feel a different  sense of family. it may be weird to grow old in the same place you grew up in (literally), but it makes argentina feel more authentic and home-grown. i think both cultures could use a little bit of each other's wisdom, something i hope to bring home in (exactly! sorry, i had to make a countdown..) 3 months! ah.

on that note, we leave for patagonia on wednesday. i'm super excited and can't wait for my ipod to die on the first 8 hours of the 20 hour bus ride. we're going to see some ballenas, or whales, and penguins in puerto madryn. then we have to get down to pata-patagonia, or balls freaking far down there. it's another 20 hour bus ride to the southern part. woohoo. can't wait to play some driving games with my friends. except we all booked random seats because we were facebook chatting while booking the tickets, and accidentally booked seats that are not next to each other. can't wait to sit with a rando, and knowing me it'll be some obese, smelly person who takes up the entire window. yahooties.