Hello all, and welcome to a day in the life of Cole. Don’t worry parent readers, I will try to keep this in as much English as possible, and translate it back from the fluent Spanish I have 100% been talking in this trip so far. We started our adventure the same way we did yesterday, in the library. Five ornately decorated shields surround us, promising guidance and protection in the day’s journey. The first challenge of our journey approached us at the very beginning. Four Argentinians entered the room, 2 seniors, and 2 kids of the grade that are hosting us. They say words I didn’t think I would have to hear on my ventures in this foreign country, “today we are going to do math.” Luckily, my pre-trip mentor Mr. Shepherd prepared me well. We dashed through all the questions and finished them all in the second fastest time. We then split up into smaller clans and studied the Fibonacci’s Sequence, and how it appears in nature. Each clan gave a 4 minute PowerPoint presentation on their findings in Spanish. After a break in which we found a ball and played an Argentinian version of soccer four square, we returned to the mission. We went back to the library and started our third activity. One class of the kids we are staying with entered, and we had a lessons on Argentinian Spanish slang. We listened to songs, and read popular poems that contained unusual words. We then worked in small groups to define these words as best we could. At the end of the class we created a small dialogue with the Argentinians and presented them in front of the everybody. Midway through our day we stopped for lunch. A nice assortment of pasta and beef had been laid out for our enjoyment, and we feasted like kings. After the hearty meal, we played a variation of soccer with some of the students that came to the United States with the earlier exchange program. Finally, we stumbled across our hardest challenges yet: kindergarteners. They taught us how to dance the chacarera. We spun, jumped, went low, then heigh. We ran around the room following energy I’d never seen before. Before we were defeated, we left to join the other class. There we played charades, pictionary, and did a word search. After the more relaxed activities, they invited us to eat assortments of sweets all with some variation of dulce de leche in them. Once full again, we set ourselves aside and rested for the rest of the school day. At 5 o-clock the school day was over, but we still had some juice left in us. I went back to the house with Juani (my exchange student), where we met up with Will, Vini, Nicole, Helena, and Agus. Together we all went to the Tortugas Open Mall where we met up with Jose and Martu. In the mall there was a Cartoon Network section, that was basically a mini amusement park. There were rides, areas for bungee jumping, mini-carousels, and a cornucopia of arcade games. I first wrecked Juani in air hockey, and then we played some ski ball. After showing off my skills, we went to Starbucks to get the true Argentinian coffee experience. At the end of our mall extravaganza, I bought some gifts for my family, and we took the long ride home.
–Cole
Over and out,
Cole Spector