Hello everyone!!
Welcome to my blog from here in Rosario, Argentina.
I’m really exciting about this opportunity to share my experiences here with all of you back home in Portland. My goal for this blog is to give you all a bit of incite into the culture, the people and the geography of this beautiful country where I’ll be living for the next few months. Although before we get into it, I want to take some time to share with all of you a bit about myself.
First off, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, my name Is Erin Michael Wellock. I’m 25 years old and I’ve been living in Portland for about 4 years. I live in a big purple barn with all my best friends and two cats named Mama and Shama. I named neither of the cats. I’ve been going to school to learn Spanish for about three years now. Last year I decided I wanted to duel major in Spanish and Criminology (which sounds really fancy but is just the study of crime in a very broad sense.) so I started attending Portland State University.
Aside from all the time I spend at school, I also work at a restaurant in the northwest. When I manage to come across a day off from school and work my favorite hobby is riding my bike. This summer I took part in a group ride from Seattle, Washington to Portland over the course of two days. It was over 200 miles and took about 20 hours all together! The first thing I did when I got back into town was to eat half a jar of peanut butter.
I’m going to wait to drop too much information about this amazing city but I want to give you all an idea of the place I’m living and where I go to school.
First off, here’s a lil’ map of Argentina. As you can see it’s divided into 23 provinces and 1 city, Buenos Aires. Argentina has a history of conflict between the all of the provinces and Buenos Aires which has the largest port and therefore the center of commerce for the country.
North of Buenos Aires and just a bit to the west you can see the province Santa Fe. Rosario is the largest city in Santa Fe and the third largest in the country. (Although depending on who you ask, it’s the second most important.)
The city is located right along the Paraná River which connects our much smaller port to the Atlantic.
Rosario has about twice as many people as Portland. It’s not exactly bustling but the big-city feel is certainly prevalent.
Here’s a map of Rosario. Can you see that giant park right in the middle? That’s where I live! Well not exactly in the park, but right on it’s border. It’s really convenient because I love to run and the park is really peaceful.
This is my host mother Graciela. She’s retired and now regularly takes in students studying abroad. She’s the best! She makes me breakfast and dinner everyday. There’s nothing quite
like a home cooked meal to make you feel at home (especially in someone else’s house.) We live on the 12th floor of a condominium building on a very busy street. Here’s the view:
Neat right? If you want to see more check out this panorama I took. (via Flickr)
Graciela also has a very sweet dog named Tina. As far as I can tell Tina is also retired, she spends most of her time sleeping and I’ve yet to see her leave the house. What she lacks in ambition she makes up for in being adorable and friendly.
Here’s a couple pix of my school:
It’s quaint and cozy and the classes are a lot of fun. There are only 25 students here studying culture, business and language so my classes are very small. My history class only has 2 students! In between classes we all like to hang out on the patio outside. It’s such a nice old building, I really enjoy spending time “on campus” with everyone here.
Okay, now that you know where I live and go to school I’m going to take off and go run some errands. I need to find some dancin’ shoes for a tango party we’re having next week!
Hasta Luego (until next time.)
That’s Anália in the middle there. She wanted me to clarify that she gave us a ton of grammar homework to make up for this class. Ok, ciao chicos!
Reporting Live from Rosario, Argentina 