3 months!

I have been here three months now, which is hard to believe. Time passes differently here for me because I know that I only plan on being here for 10 months. On the one hand, I feel like I've just begun, but on the other hand, I feel like I've done a lot already. I feel like I finally have my feet on the ground. I know my way around. I know how things work, well, most of the time. I can have general expectations of what things will be like. Because these things are settled for the most part, and I don't have to worry about them, it allows me to focus on the more important things, like relationships. I have several Argentine friends that I've become very close to and there is a small group of us that hang out together at least three times a week. My core group of friends includes Edy from Mexico, Sergio from Bolivia, and Aline from Brazil (and she's also lived in Argentina, Venezuela, and the US). It's funny because none of us are actually from Argentina. Sometimes there are others that join us as well and then sometimes there are a ton of us that get together for birthday parties and special occasions.

There are two girls from the US that have come in the last month. Stefanie is from Idaho and Elaine is from Kansas. They are volunteers as well and they live right down the street from me in one of the missionary houses! They are both in their twenties and both went to Nazarene colleges as well, so we have a lot in common. It's been so awesome to have them here! I go over to their house all the time! I kind of feel like we're a little family sometimes. It's so nice to be able to share our culture, language, and way of life! It's also nice to have them to talk to about living here in a different culture, the challenges we face, and share in our adjustments to life here. We have dinner together every Tuesday and we switch off who cooks. Then we usually watch episodes of "The Office" because they have season three and four on DVD. We have Bible Study on Wednesday nights with our friend Cindy, so we usually end up eating dinner together and hanging out after that too. Stefanie brought her dog with her. His name is Tucker and he's a minature Schnauzer! He's really sweet and fun to play with! Stefanie calls me Tucker's Tia Angie, which means aunt. It's nice to have a dog in our little family, since I am away from mine.

My visa to be in Argentina is only good for 90 days and then I have to leave and renew it again. My 90 days was up Sept. 20, so Stefanie, Elaine, and I went to Uruguay to "check out" of Argentina so we could renew our visas. The girls would have had to renew theirs sometime in November, so they just decided to come with me and renew theirs too because then all of ours will last until Christmas, when we all plan to go home to the US. We took an hour-long boat ride from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Uruguay. Colonia is a really cute town. I think we were in the older part of the city, which was very quiet and quaint. One of the things that I loved was that all the buildings were different colors! We found a spot right on the coast where the water met the land and their were tons of rocks. We walked on the rocks for a while and looked at the different rock formations that the water had formed. It was very peaceful and relaxing! We walked around the city, visited several souvenir shops, ate lunch, and rested a few times on park benches in the plazas. It was really nice to get away from the in's and out's of our every day lives and step into a peaceful, carefree day of exploring a new place. We took the boat back that night and returned home with 90 more days, a couple souvenirs, a few photos, and the enjoyment of spending time in this charming little city! September 21st was the official first day of Spring here and it's beginning to warm up! The afternoons warm up to about 70 degrees, but then it cools down at night to about 45. Today, Sunday, it has rained all day and been a little chilly. We went to Sunday School this morning, ate lunch, and have just been hanging out at Stefanie and Elaine's house. The main church service is at 6pm, which is right now, but we're not going because we don't want to be out in the rain. I've been sick with a cold for the past week and am trying to rest and recuperate.