Category: 2015 Exchange Trip

Today was our first full day at Quilmes High School! After arriving at school, we gathered outside in the courtyard and participated in the school’s morning assembly, where the school officially welcomed us. We were called up in front of the entire school and we then told the school what our names were. Then we met as a group in the video room prior to seeing the primary school across the street from the secondary school. After a short meeting, we headed over to the primary school where we were overwhelmed with the enthusiasm the young children showed at first sight. The group was greeted by the principle of the primary school who then brought us in to classrooms of 6th graders to talk to us about the United States and our different cultures. They were ecstatic to talk to us, ask us questions, and gather our signatures as well. During our time with the kids, we were surprised by both their English and dancing skills. After, we went back to the video room and had a welcome breakfast with our host students and some of their teachers as well. They had lots of delicious and interesting food to eat. Some of the food would not be typical American breakfast fare, like cookies, many baked goods typically found in Argentina.  It was nice to see all of our exchange partners interacting together.  We stayed to hangout with everyone for about an hour before leaving for our next activity. We toured the city of Quilmes with the principal, Señor Pauni. We went outside, and he showed us important places close to the school. We went to the center of the city, and he told us about the past presidents of Argentina. Then, we visited a public school and a administrative building of agriculture. After the tour, we headed back to our host family’s houses for lunch. After a delicious meal of rice with beef, as well as a break to kick around a soccer ball, we walked back to the school to meet more Argentinean students, as well as converse with our American counterparts. Then, we walked over to visit the kindergarten and played with the children. We introduced ourselves to the children and talked to them in English and Spanish. Even though the children are very young, they speak very fluent and quick Spanish! We then sat down in little chairs and drew with the children. Afterwards, our sumptuous pieces of artistic genius were hung up on the wall, and we received all of the cute drawings that the young kids made for us. We then headed back to the video room and watched a presentation on the history of Argentina. In the presentation, we learned about the basic history of Argentina, which proved to be quite interesting. The United States and Argentina have many historical similarities, such as their shared origination from colonies and having respective civil wars. On the other hand, Argentina also has some very unique history as well, including the fact that between 1930 and 1985, there were six coup d’états! After the presentation, we headed home to relax or attended sports practice. Then, at night, we drove over to the stadium of Quilmes Atlético Club, where we are now watching them play San Lorenzo. It is a very exciting game; when Quilmes scored, the stadium was absolutely electric! Now, the game is tied, and it is very intense. The fans are very passionate, and it’s safe to say that we are learning plenty of new Spanish words to use to express mild displeasure.

¡Chau from Argentina!
Jimmy M. and John P.

Students, please post a few lines about your individual weekend activities here as comments replying to the blog. (FYI, they will not appear until Ms. Gooding or Mr. Seeley has an opportunity to approve them, but we’ll be looking for them with anticipation!)

We have enjoyed our weekend thus far! We went shopping in downtown Quilmes and touring a nearby zoo where we got within inches of a lion! because of a behind-the-scenes access granted us through a family connection to the zoo. And we’ve enjoyed several relaxed dinners in the home of our host colleague, Fer, as well as Ms. Gooding’s first ronda de mate. We can’t wait to share this most Argentinian experience with you on Thursday at the school’s sports fields. Tomorrow we’re headed to Buenos Aires to visit the San Telmo antique market.

Hello everyone. We have updated the trip itinerary linked at the left by the weather forecast to include the activities scheduled by Quilmes High School.

Today is May 27th which is a Wednesday. This morning we woke up early and had a delicious breakfast in the hotel. The plan for the day was to do more touring, visit the Naval museum, do a boat tour and more that Alisha will blog about for the second half. The Naval museum was very interesting and it was nice to see it from another country’s view. The museum had many replicas of ships and they even had an old submarine in one of the rooms; as well as, large bullets used for explosions. After that wonderful tour, we drove to a dock where we went on a boat tour. The boat tour was really fun because we got to see all different kinds of houses along the river. I found it interesting that people have “named” their house. Every house we passed, had a sign that had a name on it which they of course chose for fun.  For example- somebody named their house “The Chocolate Lovers” – it was definitely not in English though. The boat took us to this island where we could hang out on swings, chat, and have lunch. I cannot forget that there are MANY stray dogs in Argentina, which is very hard for us because we of course want to pet them all (don’t worry, we haven’t touched them). The first half of the day was super fun as well as everything apart of our experience so far.

Much love to all the families and we miss you! 🙂

– Mac Harman