School!

Ok so it has been almost a week since i have updated my blog, its about time i sit down and update it. wow ok so much has happened since last week. to start off, the ankle is doing much better. im not able to walk around pretty well on it and actually fit it fairly comfortable into my work boots, which are way more comfortable to wear than the plastic one. there is still some color to it and i have pictures but being the intelliegent person that i am i didnt get a cable for my digital camera and no one that i know has a cable that will fit or has a memory card reader that is working. i tried using Jon's and for some reason it doesnt want to work on my computer so i need to go to his room and try it on his computer and see if i can get them to his computer then transfer them onto my external hard drive then on to my computer. i will see if i can get that done tomorrow afternoon after class. that brings me to the next thing, classes. classes are going well so far. i think i mentioned before that im in the Advanced I group. and so far the only Advanced I class i have taken is my Composition class. i really like the teacher for that class, she seems to know what she is doing and doesnt talk super super fast, so i can usually keep up pretty well. the other classes i have taken are ortografia (spelling) and geography. ortografia will be hard. the teacher talks pretty fast and is sometimes hard to follow. that class covers things like where to put accent marks and all that fun stuff that you never want to think about but should. geography i think is going to be a good class. i really like the teacher, he talks slowly and even in english sometimes :) (espically when the class gets the glazed look on their faces). tomorrow i have class from 830-1230, 2 two hour classes, conversation and grammer, neither of which im looking forward too. im also thinking of adding a history class but i want to see how dificult these other 2 classes are before i take on any more classes. ok i think that covers all of that. so back to last week. thursday, friday, and saturday were normal days. i went to vespers friday night with my room mate and they had a presentation on a mission program they did in nothern brazil. it was ok, from what i could understand and from what my room mate was able to translate into simplier spanish. saturday was fun, they had an english speaking church for us ACA people to go to if we wanted to, which i think we all did. then saturday night was fun. there is a bowling alley here about a 3 minuet walk from the campus, and that is the place to go on saturday nights! the place was packed. it has about 13 or 14 pool tables and about 5 bowling lanes and they serve food there too (by the way, their steak quesadillas are amazing!!!). i was there until curfew at 1145. so i took off at about 5 min before we had to be back and crawled into bed and died. sunday afternoon was crazy because i was getting packed to go to Rosario! 13 of us loaded into a bus and took the 3 hour drive to Rosario. when we got off the bus we left the terminal and started to walk.....where we were walking i dont know. we ended up leaving out of the wrong end of the terminal and walking like 10 blocks in the wrong direction. and let me remind you im still wearing this stupid plastic boot! so after we get lost in some random part of Rosario we find out that we have a 25-30 block walk to get to the main part of town!! gah!! i was so glad that i had taken some pain killers before i got off the bus. when we were walking we found this great little resturant to eat at called The Rockfeller Bar. we all sat outside to take a much needed rest and ate some much needed food. from there we walked into the main part of town in search for the hotel the Jon had picked out for us. after seeing the rooms at the hotel we decieded that a different place would be better. so we checked out another hotel and settled on a hostil. it was a nice hostil. they were having some party when we were there and they had mate and empanadas and other goodies to eat and drink. after relaxing for awhile we went out to look at some of the beautiful things the town offered for us to see. we went to a cathedral and enjoyed seeing its enormous size. from there we went to the flag monument, which at night is beautiful when they light it up. from there we hit up a few other places including getting some more food from a local vendor on the river......best sandwhich i have had to date. so lets see, the next morning we got up and all of us needed to exchange money so we found a combio and got money then at that point we all needed food (because the bite size pieces of bread we had for breakfast didnt stick around long) and we found a little cafe called Victoria. it was a lilttle over priced for what i wanted but the steak was amazing!!!! we spent a good amout of time there, talking and enjoying our food. at about 2 we all took taxi's (because none of us had before and with 4 people splitting the cost its really not that expensive) to the bus station to take off for the school. while there we ran into another ACA guy named Reed, who was there on his own. he was not as fortunate as us to get on the bus we did. we got the last 13 seats on the bus to San Martin, he had to take a bus to Parana about 2 or 3 hours away, then get on another bus to San Martin another 2 or 3 hours away. but we all made it back safely. so i think that is it. i need to get to bed now because i have class at 830 tomorrow and its almost midnight now. i love you all and i miss you. i did post some pictures on facebook for you guys to see. hope you are all doing well.

lars

The Ankle

well the ankle is doing good. i have the boot now and i have been taking anti-inflammatory's and ibuprofen to help with the pain and swelling. but its doing ok. its raining outside now pretty good. today at lunch we had some amazing thunder that shook the entire cafe, it was very awe inspiring. having to wear this boot is very annoying. its helping me get around better but my toes stick out at the end and with it raining and puttles being everywhere i have to change my sock all the time. i think im on my 4th sock or something like that. we had our placement test today. there are 3 different levels that you might make it in. intermediate, advanced I and advanced II. im hoping i can get into the Advanced I place and then hopefully push into advanced II by 2nd quarter but we will see tomorrow. its still raining outside and its smells amazing. we have a party tonight at the ACA building which is good because all this hobbeling around on my foot takes a lot of energy and makes me hungry. well this one is going to be a short one i think i might try to take a nap and catch up on some lost sleep from last night!! love ya all


lars

The Hospital

Before i left for here Nils gave me a good bit of advice, dont go to the hospital. well i did. the evening of the 16th i had just arrived at the gym. some people were playing 21 so i thought i would join....bad idea.... no more than 2 minuets after i had joined i landed on Anthony's foot and twisted my left ankle. so i walk/crawl/hop to the wall and lay there, with everyone around me making sure im ok. so with my ankle throbbing in pain (i mean this really really hurt) i sent Rubin to go find some ice. while he was gone some guy from the gym came and gave me so icey hot for my now almost softball size ankle. this helped for about 1o or 15 minuets then the pain came back. now i have a decent tolorence of pain but this almost made me throw up. about 20 minuets after i got the icey hot Rubin came back with no ice. he went to 3 or 4 different places to get ice and no one had any. by now the pain had subdued to a constant deep pain, no more of the pain spikes. so with no ice and a softball sized ankle, Rubin, myself and a few other guys slowly made the walk back to the dorm. for those of you who know the campus, its a dang long walk back to the guys dorm from the gym, especially on one leg or on someones back or hopping or something like that. after getting to the guys dorm i was able to get some ice in the form of a frozen water bottle, nothing has ever felt so good in my life. while at the deans office they all started filling out paper work and chatting and looking at my ankle. me, not knowing enough spaish to know what was going on, just sat there with a dumb look on my face, finally figured out that they were sending me to the hospital. ugh i really didnt want to go nor did i think i needed to go, just give me some ice and let me go to my room and baby myself. so i go to the hospital and get put in a wheel chair and rolled all around. first we had to go to the front desk and check in, then it was off to a room where they checked my pulse and blood pressue....the usual. then back to the hallway where there was a soccor game going on between Boca and some other team. then upstairs to the x-ray room where i sat and waited for about 25 minuets for the x-ray doctor to show up. all the while trying to talk to the kid that has been pushing me all over the place (we actually had a pretty good conversation.....i think). after getting 4 pictures of the ankle taken we sat in the x-ray room for another 20 min waiting for something.......i dont know when. then the x-ray doctor came in asked a few questions then i was wheeled back downstairs to the hallway where the soccor game was going on, to find out that Boca had lost 1-0 in the 40th min. then i sat in the hallway for about another 15 minuets to wait for a different doctor to come and read the x-rays to tell me that my ankle wasnt broken. then he gave me a picece of paper saying that tomorrow i need to go to the pharmacy and get a leg brace for my left leg and to wear it for 3 weeks!!! this did not make me happy, i see no reason in wearing it for 3 weeks. all i really needed was some ice to keep on my ankle and some crutches to get around faster. and i have a check up with the doctor on tuesday to make sure everything is ok.
over all im happy that nothing is broken and that in a few weeks i will be able to run and jump and play volleyball! im sure there is a lot that i didnt mention but i am tired and i will try to add more tomorrow and get some pictures up by this weekend.
other than the hospital thing everything is going fine. i have my spanish placement test tomorrow and i think im going to a Chilain (spelled it wrong but i dont care) party saturday night i think. hope all is well with you guys. love ya

lars

Travel Day 2 and Arrival

Hey all,

Sorry it has taken me so long to be able to write back but I wasn’t able to get internet in Dallas or at the airport in Buenos Aires. And now that I am at the school I can’t get on there because I need a login and a password to get in, so I writing this in Word so I can copy and paste this when I get internet.

My travels have been good. It was a long flight from Dallas down here and I wasn’t able to sleep much. I sat next to a nice lady who was from some town in northern Argentina and fortunately she spoke pretty good English so we were able to talk some (I know I’m supposed to speak Spanish but I was to tired to think in Spanish). I did meet a girl in the Dallas airport who I did know. She was a girl who was in my Spanish class winter and spring quarters, her name is Rebecca. There are a couple of other people who I know, Jon, Nadia, Anna, and Rebecca are the people I know. Nadia and Rebecca I didn’t know were coming and it was a nice surprise to see both of them. I have gotten to know a few more of the ACA people, all of whom I have forgotten their names, except Mike who I talked to on the bus from the airport to here.

When I arrived in Buenos Aires, I was part of the first people to get there. Our plane was late lading so I didn’t have as long of a time to sit there and talk to people. After everyone had arrived we all took off to head into downtown and go to an Adventist restaurant and eat some non-airplane “food”. It’s a buffet place right downtown by a couple of the main plazas, all vegetarian and vegan foods. The food was ok, it was nice to actually eat something that had some substance. After that we made the 6 hour trip to the University. Once arriving we were taken to the cafeteria and given some food (yay for good ‘ol peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). While there we were given the keys to out rooms and an I.D card. Although some of us, myself included, did not get I.D cards because for whatever reason they don’t have all of our information so they can’t give us one. But right now I’m too tired to really care about it, they said we could fix it in the morning. After handing everyone their I.D’s and keys we were led to our respective dorms. They had some problems with getting my room, because when we were at the cafeteria they gave me two different rooms that I needed to go in, both of which had other ACA people assigned to them. So ultimately I ended up in a different room on the second floor (room 28, just for the record). I have two roommates, one is from Uruguay and speaks a little bit of what he calls “British English”, and his name is David. The other guy is from Buenos Aires and his name is Matias and he speaks no English at all.

I think I have figured out what David is trying to tell me. I think I am going to transfer this word document over to his computer then use his to post this on my blog. Then I’m going to take a shower and try to go to bed. I slept for about 4 or 5 hours on the bus so it will be hard for me to get to sleep for a bit. So if you are reading this tonight then I was able to get on David’s computer and post this, if you are reading this tomorrow then well I got my internet to work.

Good night everyone, if you have any questions feel free to post them on my blog page of my facebook! Love you all

Lars

Travel Day 1

I am now sitting in the Portland airport waiting to board my plane. In this short time I have realized how attached I have become to my cell phone. But since I don't have a cell phone any more (thats right people you can't call me!!) I did what any technologically savvy 19 year old would do, I pulled out my laptop to update my facebook and blog. :) I am looking forward to traveling. It has been awhile since I have been on a plane and I am actually looking forward to getting on one again. From here, it's a short hop to Seattle then a hour and a halfish layover then off to Dallas/Ft. Worth where I have about a 5 hour layover there. So I will have lots of time there to Facebook people and update my blog (not like there will be much to update). Well it's time for me to shut this thing off my plane boards now. I will let people know when I get to Dallas. Love you all.


Lars

Day 1 Portland

Well I guess this isn't really day 1 because I haven't left the states left but I figured I would at least get the word out that i have a blog going. Right now I am in Portland, I leave tomorrow at 7am from the Portland airport and fly to Seattle then Dallas then down to Buenos Aires. I get in to Buenos Aires at 7:30am local time, so I get the wonderful time of traveling for about 24 hours! Well i think this will be it for this post, I'm still trying to figure everything out on this website. If you have questions Facebook me, I will have internet down there so I can keep in touch. Thanks for all your prayers!


Lars