Craziness of Life!

So we have now been back from Argentina for almost a month and life has been busy, busy, busy! We both went back to work the next day. Preston is working at West Lake Junior High's summer camp, working security at different events, and coaching football with a new coach. We were told while we were in Argentina the head coach resigned and we now have a new coach at Hunter High. We are looking forward to an awesome season! As for me I am back to work at Meier & Marsh, working in the office for a construction company, and coaching cheer. We are enjoying everything that we are doing.

As for today, we are leaving for California tonight to go on vacation for the weekend to Disneyland! We are so excited!! We get to go have fun with the Woods!

Disneyland here we come! :)

Goodbye Argentina, we will miss you!

So this is officially our last blog post in Argentina. We cannot believe how fast this vacation went! We have had so much fun down here and we will miss it very much. The people here are so amazing and it was so hard to say goodbye to them. Miguel and Natalia have become like family to us. We will miss them dearly, but know that we will be able to talk to them still. This has been such an amazing experience for me to actually get to see Preston´s mission. I know so much better what it was like for him here and what the people mean to him and what he means to everyone here. We have been so lucky and blessed to come here! We are very thankful for everything that we´ve been given.

We are excited to get back home and get back to doing our regular schedule and of course see our families again. :) We have lots of pictures so that we can look back at our trip. So long for now, we´ll be back home in about 24 hours!

Vicente Lopez & Baradero

Yesterday we spent the morning in Vicente Lopez. Preston drove us out there in a stick! He did so good. He drove in the crazy traffic of people, even when he was getting honked at by crazy Argentine drivers! It was so much fun! We walked along the coast line a little bit and had the best restaurant food we´ve had all trip! Preston had a steak and I had pasta. We both had Flan and it was homemade and delicious! The houses there are so amazing as well! It´s where most of the Americans that live down here are. It´s also where the mission home is. It was very nice!

Today our day started bright and early in the morning. We took a train and a bus to Baradero. I finally got to see Preston´s first area. It is out in the middle of nowhere! It was kind of nice though, for a change of pace and feeling. It is a very low key, easy going town. We went to the Family Sosa´s house. They are so nice! There are a ton of kids that live there, but they were such a nice family. After we visited them we went out to eat and got GIANT milanesa sandwiches. I could barely finish half! We then went down to the river for a little bit. We had a dog follow us all the way down there too! We were getting VERY annoyed!! We luckily got him to go away. We had so much fun and are enjoying the last days of our vacation. We´ll be very sad when it´s over, but happy as well that we´ll be able to go back home!

Rio Gallegos and El Calafate

So we have been in Rio Gallegos since Saturday. We had some awesome food down here! Lots of Asado which is pretty much a BBQ, but better. I got to meet one of Preston´s converts and his family. They were the nicest people I´ve ever met! I learned how much of an effect he had on the people down here and it just makes me feel so blessed to have him in my life. On Sunday, we got to speak again. It was very last second, but luckily for me I got to do it in English this time while Preston translated it. The people here have been so nice to us! We´ve been very lucky!

Sunday night we headed to El Calafate. We left Rio Gallegos at 8:30 and arrived there at about 12:30. We stayed in a Police Station. That´s right, except we were in the dormitories they allow police officers and a few other people. Preston knew someone in Gallegos that knew a member that worked for the police department in Calafate so we were so lucky and were able to stay there. It was only about an hour from the Glacier. So we went to the Glacier yesterday. It is so big! You don´t truly understand until you see it for yourself. It is sky blue! It was so amazing. You couldn´t help, but just want to stay and look at it for hours! The only downside to it was that it was pretty chilly! We have had so much fun down here! We are excited to go back to Buenos Aires though. We have a few more things we want to do including going to Preston´s first area, a fiesta for us on Friday, and a swap meet (a huge one from what I´ve heard). This next week is going to fly by!

Well we´re now getting packed so we are ready to go catch our plane this afternoon!

Dinner with the Villas, Lunch with the Camposanos/Dolores, and Rio Gallegos

So the past couple of days have been a lot of fun for us! It´s given us more of a chance to visit with people that Preston taught and spent a lot of time with.

We had dinner with the Villa family! It was so delicious!! We had what are called canelones. There were two kinds, one filled with meat and the other with spinich. After we had ice cream! It was by far the best ice cream I have ever had! The dad is an ice cream maker so it was homemade!

Lunch with the Camposanos/Dolores was so much fun! They are Peruvian so it was different than the food we´ve been eating. We had potatoes, chicken and rice! I was in heaven. There was also ceviche. It is a seafood dish so I of course didn´t eat it. Although Preston made me try a little piece and I ended up spitting it out into a napkin. Dad would have loved it! It´s cooked, but only by lemons so it´s unlike anything I´ve ever seen. Preston says it´s the best he has ever had!

                                                                               

I did not like this dish at all!

 

We are now in Rio Gallegos for the next couple of days! We arrived safely and where we are going to be staying is very nice.It is definately a different feel down here than in Villa Ballester! It is a lot more open, not so many houses and buildings. It´s a bit chiller down here than Ballester, but we have coats to keep us nice and warm. The Vega family that we are staying with are very nice and quite funny!

 

Our plans have changed for the vacation after we get back to Buenos Aires. We are no longer going to the Falls. We decided we didn´t want to take that long of a trip this time around. there are still people we are wanting to visit and we don´t have the time to do the falls trip and visit them. I guess we´ll just have to come down and visit again so that we can go see them. :)

We also want to tell Mike and Lauryn Happy Anniversary! We love you guys so much and hope you have a wonderful day together!

Rosario

Went to Rosario yesterday and it was such a fun, but long day! We got to see the Monument of the Flag in downtown Rosario.

It was a perfect day there! We did a lot of walking around the monument. We learned that it was built in the 1950´s and that there was a contest for what the monument would look like. By the monument is a huge river called El Río Paraná that boats use for traveling. There was an awesome bridge crossing it.

We went to the mission home where we took a package for Tanner. The Missionaries at the Mission Office were very nice. I also had the opportunity to talk to Tanner on the phone! He is doing great! He is loving his mission so much and he really likes his new mission companion! He is very grateful to be getting those things. I know exactly why he wants sour and spicy, there is none of that down here! It is all about the sweets! We also got a picture from the past Christmas Card for the mission that has a picture of all the missionaries that were in the mission. Below is also a picture with the missionaries that helped us.

After dropping off the package at the mission home we went and ate at  Miguel´s sister´s restaurant. It was such good food! I have ate some of the best food down here! On our way back we stopped at a city called San Nicolás. They built a new Catholic Church there about 10 years ago, that still isn´t done yet.  There were thousands of people at the church for Mass. It is the last big church they´ve built in Argentina. So that was our day yesterday, and we´ve spent today just relaxing a bit, which was much needed!

Adventure in Capital!

So today we went all around Capital. We took lots of pictures!! One of our favorite things we got to go in and take pictures was a Catholic Cathedral. It was so pretty! The architecture here is so amazing!

Most of the building here have been here since the 1700´s! We saw the Presidential Palace. Instead of a white house, it´s a pink house. :) We saw La Bombonera, It is the stadium of a soccer club called Boca, and it holds 40,000 people! There is a place designated for ¨the crazies¨and it is said to be one of the loudest stadiums in Argentina! It was way cool. We got to go inside and look at the stadium and then look at a museum they have completely dedicated to Boca!

 After the stadium we went to a place where all of the buildings are bright, fun colors called Caminito. It was so pretty. We also took a picture with a bridge that is famous down here. It was a very fun day!

 Since about four it has been raining and hasn´t stopped yet. I thought we had escaped the rain, but instead we brought it with us. The traffic to get out of Capital is horrible! I can honestly say that it is as bad, maybe even worse, than L.A. Traffic during rush hour! Luckily tomorrow has a lot of fun in store for us! We are going to Rosario! It was earlier than we originally planned, but it is going to be so much better. Tomorrow is kind of like Flag Day for Argentina and Rosario is like the center for everything! We are going to go to a fair and do some shopping! Ah I´m so excited I can´t wait!!! That´s all for today! Hope all is going well with everyone!