The Hostel Andes Way

It's our fifth day here in Buenos Aires...

In these past few days we've seen an exponential growth of residents in this house. I call it a house because we live in a large house that used to be an orphanage for the NGO we're going to work for (Mensajeros de la Paz) and now they're turning it into an international volunteer hostel. The hostel has been a work in progress for Mensajeros who are doing a fantastic job at fixing the house up. I've seen the before and after pictures of some rooms and all I can say is "THANK YOU!". It seems that it has been an effort from some international volunteers, AIESECers (They call themselves AIESECos here), and other Andes Way interns.

It's interesting living in a hostel. Neither Nic or I have lived in one. Everything is communal. Eating...hanging out...sightseeing...cooking...and more. It's not easy to get used to living with some many people (27) who are all culturally different. Sometimes the toilets don't work, the heater is not set up yet, the walls are thin, we don't have shower curtains, the wifi only works in certain areas of the hostel, and some beds have broken. However, we've come to realize that us interns are all in this together and we are each other support group and it's an amazing feeling and the quality of this house improves everyday. There are 13 countries represented, y somos una familia feliz :)

Buenas noches,
Diego

PS We start work tomorrow!!!!

Buena onda!

After the one day excursion from Chicago to San Salvador, Lima, and final Buenos Aires...with a cold...we are in Buenos Aires. Or as it's spelt in the house here, Buenos Aieres ;). We are in the middle of our second day, relaxing before going back for Colombian Night tat the bar at the hostel we hung out at last night. As Diego pointed out, in the first twenty-four hours we both celebrated Argentinian Revolution Day (25 de Mayo) in the square outside La Casa Rosada and celebrated the first night of our new friend Lucia's birthday. And still managed to eat and sleep quite well. The 25 de Mayo celebration was like if the White House hosted an Obama-fest, decked out for a Super Bowl halftime show on the Fourth of July. Or something like that. It was amazing. Today we went to Palermo to find a phone. So far, no go. But the empanadas were great, as is the maté is all great.

Gotta run. It's Colombian night.

Nic

First Day

Thanks Diego :) I hope you guys have a safe trip!

Today was very exciting, but first a quick recap of the weekend:
Saturday was very tiring, but it was great to get to know my new roommates and explore the city a bit. Yesterday we climbed la catedral (113 m high in a city that is ~2500 m above sea level). Amazing view!!



Back to today. It was the first day of my internship, and I met a lot of new people. Angela, my program manager, is very nice. She showed me around the Centro Colombo Americano, which is important for the community because they can learn English from native speakers there. This is where, for the next weeks, I will prepare for the lessons I teach at ENAE (an all-girls school). After noon I will make my way over to ENAE, which is a short walk from Colombo. The kids were all very fascinated by me today, with my blond hair and blue eyes. Tomorrow I will introduce myself to many of the classes and talk to the teachers.





Goodnight,
Vanessa

Packin' n Leavin'

Hola amigos,
Nic and I have had a hectic past few days and we haven't even left yet! We had finals, friends to host, moving out of Milwaukee, packing for the trip, seeing family, and last minute errands have taken over our time. However, as of today we officially started out journey to the great land of Tango.

Today, we said goodbye to Nic's parents and grandparents who came and visited us in Milwaukee. We had a blast showing the city to his family but it felt rather surreal. We were showing them the city we are not going to see for the next almost 3 and a half months. Anyway, it was a fun weekend and we are definitely going to miss them.

After saying bye to Nic's family, we took the train down to Plainfield, IL to visit my parents before leaving this Tuesday out of O'Hare. It's going to be hard saying bye to my family but I know they're really excited for us :)

By the way I want to give a shoutout to our very own Vanessa Radlinger for being our first intern to go abroad for this summer! Have fun in Colombiaaaaa!!! (my country)....

Next time I write on here we'll be in Argentina.... Can't wait!! XD

Diego

Hola todos :)

Hey everyone, I got to Manizales, Colombia, today! So far it has been great - great fligh (despite some language barriers), great people, great apartment with great roommates. I've already seen quite a part of the city, exchanged money, and gone dancing. Hope everyone else has the same great time wherever they go :)

xoxo Vanessa

Launch of Where's AIESEC Milwaukee?!

We've been talking about getting this blog up and running for months and now that the semester is wrapping up I finally was able to create it! It'll be really exciting to use this to keep in contact with each other from Milwaukee and beyond and to have a common place to tell and hear of our stories. Also, Blogger is awesome enough to let us upload pics and videos, so please tell us and show us your stories!

For Diego and me, it's just a little over a week now until we head out to Buenos Aires (with a couple scenic hour-long layovers in San Salvador and Lima). We're getting really excited and I hope this experience will be all it's cracked up to be. My personal goals are to become the greatest tango dancer and wine connoisseur in all of brewtown. We will see how that goes. Since I have work tomorrow early this will be a short first post. Goodnight, so long, keep it real.

Nic