Argentina Statistics: Argentina means the land of the rich and vast lands. It is the 2 nd largest country in South America. It is the 8 th largest country in the world. Argentina is bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay on the north and Uruguay and Brazil on the east and Chile on the West side. Argentinians descend from Europeans, mostly of Spanish and Italian.
Buenos Aires: Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina and also the largest city there. The population is mostly of European descent.
Our exchange group, 5 students and a chaperone, went to a soccer stadium. The stadium is called La Bombonera, Club Ateltico Boca Juniors. The whole stadium was covered in medium blue and bright yellow.
In Buenos Aires, there are lots of statues, parks, street vendors, cafe s with outside seating, and clothing stores.
Iguazu Falls: Iguazu Falls was a gorgeous place. It is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. The Iguazu waterfall system makes up 1.7 miles of the Iguazu River and consists of 275 waterfalls. The height of the falls is 269 feet. Iguazu Falls are waterfalls located on the border of Argentina and Brazil, dividing the Iguazu River into upper and lower levels.
On our adventures to Iguazu Falls, all of us got eaten alive by mosquitos. We were all covered with bites. We stayed in the Jardin de Iguazu Hotel. This hotel had a beautiful swimming pool, with a mini waterfall that had rainbow colored lights. After living in someone else s house (homestay), it was nice to be with American friends.
Lincoln: Lincoln My homestay in Argentina was in Lincoln. It is a small agricultural town. The town does not have a lot of money. The northwest section of the town was where the poorer people live. The center of town is where they have many shops to buy clothes and all your necessities. Lincoln is not a touristy town but it is mostly a working class town.
My Host Family: My host family consisted of 3 members; the parents and my host sister. They have a medium-sized house in the countryside. They keep it extremely neat and tidy and the furniture was well made. My host mom, Griselda. My host dad, Fabian.
Gatherings of Family & Friends: While I was in Argentina there was always some type of family/friend gathering. When there were gatherings, there was a lot of shouting and the television was usually on to a soccer game. There were more than a dozen people in the house often.
Comparing young people in Argentina and the United States: In general, the Argentinian children are less respectful than American children to their parents. The elementary aged kids didn t have electronics like the American children do. The Argentinians do exercising for fun unlike Americans who exercise for competition. The Argentinian teenagers did group activities instead of solo dating like Americans do. In the Argentinian schools, the teachers moved from class to class and not the students.
My Favorite People: My host sister has two little cousins in elementary school. I went over to their house a lot because I love kids and they were so adorable.
Activities: Most everyone in Argentina plays soccer. It is the main activity that is done there. In Argentina, not a lot of people go exercising, so when I went running, with the family s four dogs, I got a few stares. There are a lot of stores where we spent a lot of time shopping.
Food: The food is different from American food but very delicious! Beef, empanadas, and dulce de leche were popular foods.
The Farm & Animals: My host dad owns three farms, but I only went to two of them. He has a soybean farm, sheep farm and a regular farm that has food and animals. The two that I went to were the soybean farm and the regular farm. I stayed a few days on the animal/food farm. I rode the horses with my two little host cousins and went kayaking on my host father s little lake. In Argentina, its common for families to go to their farms for vacation time. Here in America, we do the total opposite. We want to get away from our farms to go vacation.
Fruits in Argentina: They have different types of plants there. The fruit is so delicious there. It has almost a different flavor from the American fruit.