FIRST WEEKEND IN QUILMES

Author: Pauline Pauwels

The first weekend with the Quilmes kids was amazing! On Saturday, I spent a very chill day with Cande at her house. We woke up really late, around 11:30, and made some popcorn while watching Gossip Girl (with Spanish subtitles, yay practice!) Her parents came home around 1:30, because they had left earlier that day to buy the necessary provisions for the party they were preparing to host on Sunday. They came back with a box full of piping hot Empanadas, which have become my newly found addiction(along with coffee). My favorite kind is probably Empanadas con jam贸n y queso. So delicious! After lunch, Cande and I hung out, did a refreshing facial treatment, and she painted my nails. Around 7:00, Cande started to get ready for Cata’s 15th birthday party, which a majority of the CA kids were not invited. Because of this, all the CA students (plus three guys from Quilmes exchange who didn’t want to go to the party) gathered at Manuel’s house to hang out. We played ping-pong, ate empanadas, and learned to play a new card game which was extremely fun. At 11:30, Michael and Buda, Mac and Tomas, and I all went to sleep over at the house Katie is staying at, and watched two horror movies, which was terrifying and fun. In the morning, I was directly brought over from that house, to Cande’s “country home”, which is about 30 minutes from where we are in Quilmes. I was in AWE of the whole place! It was like a little paradise. The house itself is gorgeous, and the surroundings are even greater and picturesque. We spent the whole day there, with Cande’s dad cooking meat on a grill, boys playing soccer, and girls hanging around talking and chilling. Later on, I went on a walk on a with a group of them and it was wonderful. Lots of pretty pictures were taken 馃檪 We stayed until the sun settled and the moon rose. More people started leaving little by little, and the group shrunk聽to just a select few who hung around chatting, and munching on what was left of the food. It was a perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

WEDNESDAY IN QUILMES

Tuesday blog post… pictures coming soon

 

Marisa Bishop
Wed 6/3/2015 9:30 PM
After the park, all of the Cary Academy students and a few of the QHS students visited the Quilmes nursery; the students that we visited were under the age of two. We mostly talked with the teachers because the kids were shy and did not fully understand us. After we took a tour of the school, we sang a few songs to the kids. The Cary Academy students sang The Wheels on the Bus, Frosty the Snowman, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. After our song, the little kids sang a few songs that they knew. Directly after school, we went to have the daily “tea time” at Chino’s house. As we ate a variety of聽 delicious pasteries and crepes with dulce de leche, we listened to music and hung outside. After we finished our snack, we watched a horror movie titled Ouija. Essentially, Ouija is a board game that will answer the questions of its players. Also, the answers that are provided are allegedly from dead people. As you can imagine, a girl and her friends want answers and they get themselves in trouble. To my surprise, the movie was not too scary. After we left Chino’s house, most of us had dinner with our host families. At dinner, I ate a milanesa with mashed potatoes and water. Basically, a milanesa is a very thin piece of breaded beef. As of now, I can’t think of a food that we have in the United States that is similar to a milanesa. As I asked the family how it waa prepared, they explained how the beef must be pressed until it is very thin before it is fried. The family also explained how it is one of their favorite foods and how they eat them very often. The mashed potatoes were very similar to the ones inside the United States except they were a little smoother.

Last Thursday in Buenos Aires

On last Thursday (refer to photos on earlier post) we got a tour of El Teatro Col贸n, which is a beautiful and antique building in the part of the city called Col贸n. In this theater, the acoustics are the best. There’s a hollow box under the stage with holes in the floor and facing towards the audience, which acts like an amplifier of sound like the holes in a violin or guitar do. Also in the middle of the ceiling there is a big gold circle which hides the secret of the theater–more musicians hide and play in the ceiling to give the affect of their music coming from the heavens! These great acoustics allow every sound to be heard perfectly from every seat, so all the notes played by the musicians must be absolutely on key. Talk about pressure!

After visiting El Teatro Col贸n we went to a big metal flower which is a work of art that is a symbol of the city. The flower is made of about 250 tons of metal and closes as the sun sets at dusk and opens back up at dawn. Later, we went to the rose garden of Buenos Aires. The roses there won awards for being so beautiful! This was our last day of touring Buenos Aires. We loaded into the bus for the last time and left for Quilmes. We got to see our buddies finally in front of the school, where lots of kids were waiting to greet us. After the hectic meeting, we left with our families to see our new home!
-Katie Baker

Monday – Snow White, Hands, and Freda

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For the first part of today, we shadowed a literature class for the 9-10th graders. We discussed (in Spanish!) thematic ideas of and differences between Disney movies聽and Brother Grimm stories, and watched a few segments from “Mirror, Mirror”, an adaptation of Snow White. We also learned that Snow White was originally named Snow Drop by the Brothers Grimm, who were German. That certainly shocked most of us! At least her name isn鈥檛 a complete tautology now. I found it very enjoyable to be learning about English literature using Spanish language鈥攊t really combines my interests very well, and I think all of us enjoyed it because we learned something new while practicing our target language skills.

During this class we also celebrated Esra’s birthday.

Next, we socialized during breaks with the Argentinian students in the courtyard and played sports and games. We also met lots of students who weren’t part of the exchange. After that, we went to lunch at a cozy restaurant, where we had stir-fried food, raviolis, pizzas, and more! The food was terrific, and it was a great experience to talk with our exchange students during their least busy part of the day.

The students actually had a test on accounting today, for which they had been studying frantically the night before. No worries鈥攈alf said it went well, and half said they got the equivalent of a 10% mark using US grading scales. Hopefully, it went well for them!

Today, we also completed the milestone project that has taken place for every exchange trip between Quilmes High School and Cary Academy鈥攖he handprint tree. Each pair of exchange students put ink (color of their choice) on their hands and positioned them together on a canvas to keep our experiences together locked in our memories (and on a canvas in QHS). To me, the canvas signifies something more than just memories we鈥檝e made here, but also how each of us has grown by partaking in this trip鈥攂y traveling abroad, trying new things, and meeting new people, each of us has matured and grown in some way, and this tree, paired with the names of all of us involved in this journey, really provides a wonderful snapshot of what this exchange trip is really all about: opening yourself up to others and learning something meaningful about ourselves and each other. We took a group photo in front of the canvas as well to commemorate our trip thus far.

After lunch, we headed straight onto a bus headed for MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.

[Caleb part here]

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Last Day in Buenos Aires; First Day in Quilmes

Despite how tired I was from last night’s tango show, I was able to wake up today without any alarm clock. Although we were told to be at breakfast somewhere around聽8:00am, I decided to wake up around聽8:30, bring my bags downstairs and grab a quick breakfast before we left for our day trip. The first place we visited today was Teatro Colon. It was absolutely stunning! I have never seen such intricate architecture. I’m the first room we walked in there was a case with three tutus that had been used in previous performances at the theatre. When we finally walked into the theatre after most of the tour, there were dancers warming up on the stage to practice for their performance of Swan Lake. I was easily distracted from our tour guide by the detailing and the dancers in the theatre. After we left Teatro Col贸n, we visited a plaza and then went to Cementerio de Recoleta. The graveyard was very interesting. It looked like a mini village with street signs and houses; you would never know it was a graveyard unless you read the signs. We visited the grave of聽Eva Peron and learned about her history. We then went to Plaza Naciones Unidad. In the center of the plaza was a metal sculpture the shape of a flower. According to Mr. Seeley, the opening of the flower changes its position depending on the location of the sun. After we walked around the plaza, we went on the bus for El Jard铆n Campones. The garden was beautiful. Although it was winter there were many flowers in bloom and all of the Ducks were swimming in the water. In the entry way of the garden, there was a walkway with water fountains, where we found a great location for photo opportunities. Once we walked to the other side of the park it was time to go to Quilmes High School! It was about a 40 minute drive to the school; however, it seemed very short as I took a nap on the way to the school. When we got to the school, the school day was over so all of the students were standing outside looking up at us on the bus. I found Sol rather quickly聽given聽聽the large crowd of people! Directly after school, I went to tea with Sol, her mom, Caty, Alisha and her mom. It was delicious. I ordered a submarino and an apple crisp. After tea, her mom took us to a restaurant to make a reservation. It was then time to move into the house! My room was perfect! Lying on the bed was a poster and snacks and play-doh. I then gave Sol all of the presents I brought for her family. When I went downstairs I met her brothers, Juani and Octavio, they were very nice and spoke very well in english. Later Sol’s dad came home from golfing and I said hello to him and spoke primarily in Spanish to him. By then it was around nine and it was time to go to dinner. I ordered calamari and rice, which was very good and we went for ice cream afterwards. We didn’t get home until 11 and then I sat with Sol while she did her homework. I am now exhausted and need my sleep! Goodnight 馃檪
-Tori Banks

Introduction to Quilmes

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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.聽 It was nice to see all of our exchange partners interacting together.聽 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, Se帽or 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’茅tats! After the presentation, we headed home to relax or attended sports practice. Then, at night, we drove over to the stadium of Quilmes Atl茅tico 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.

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

Weekend 1

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聽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聽the San Telmo antique market.

Wednesday, 5/27/15

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 alongFullSizeRender聽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. 聽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! 馃檪

– Mac Harman

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