I found paradise.

Ok, so I’m a few days late. Apologies.

Friday evening I discovered the magic of a sleeping aid. With a 17-hour bus ride ahead of me to Puerto Iguazú, and no movies to watch besides All About Steve (which I ended up watching anyway and have to say is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, second to Material Girls), I decided to knock myself out. To be honest though, the bus ride was really not too terrible, especially when you had 14 other friends to keep you company. These omnibuses are also very nice- fully reclining seats, aka a “full cama”, TVs, and dinner/breakfast was served.

We arrived in Iguazú around 9 am Saturday morning and headed to our hostel, the Hostel Inn…by far the most American hostel in all of Iguazú. Can you tell? Considering that the word “hostel” screams anything but sanitary living conditions, I really can’t complain. For $17 a night we had pretty decent cabins and clean sheets.

We toured Iguazú National Park all day Saturday, which was great but quite cloudy. We went down one trail that was called La Garganta Del Diablo, aka the throat of the devil, which lived up to its name as we saw how massive the falls were. In the afternoon we took the “Grand Adventure tour” (lame) that took you through the jungle on a big truck until you reached the boat docks. I think the tour guide maybe pointed out 2 things, a endangered palm tree and a fruit that was in the same family as the papaya, and that was all. But then we got to the boat that was to take us under the falls. I didn’t actually think they’d drive us into the falling water, but they did, and we were soaked, and it was amazing. I highly recommend it for anybody planning a trip there sometime in the future, it’s a must do activity.

In the evening we had a $10 buffet meal at Hostel Inn which would have been great had we been there at 8:00 when it started, because by 8:30 everything was basically gone and the waiters were being sassy about giving more portions of meat…whatever, it was fine. After dinner began the Brazilian show…yes, we had a Brazilian show, complete with Brazilian girls with huge feather headpieces and bejeweled outfits. It was entertaining, except that both dancers were about 50 years old, which made everybody extremely uncomfortable.

The next morning, I wanted to go back to take better pictures because Sunday was completely clear blue skies and warm. A few of us went back to the park (you can get in for half price if you show your ticket from the previous day) and took some incredible shots of the falls. SO worth it. As you walk along the trails you find so many other little falls that are tucked away and are gorgeous. It’s a very nice walk and there is no intense hiking whatsoever. I apologize for my 200 pictures on facebook of these waterfalls, but I felt it was necessary to take that many. They were really that beautiful.

Sunday afternoon we came back to our hostel and relaxed until our bus ride home around 7:15, a little more eventful than the last, considering we had better movies like Transformers and Fast and the Furious, but nevertheless we went to sleep relatively early. We also had a team of 16-year-old boys on our bus, who apparently had just finished a volleyball tournament. They were attempting to convince us to hand them a few of the complementary mini wine bottles from the back of the bus. Really? One of their father chaperones eventually gave them one bottle to share between the, oh I don’t know, 7 of them. They thought they were the coolest kids of all time. This is when I decided to go to bed. Before I fell asleep, I was listening to music and pulled back the window curtains to see one of the most beautiful starry nights I have ever seen. There was nothing but miles of Argentine countryside. The next morning the weather was beautiful, and I snuggled up with my cup of tea and continued to look out the window for the last several hours of the trip. I feel like that sounds like some Indie film, no? Going on a road trip with friends and staying in a hostel, waking up to a sunny day and drinking green tea while admiring the miles of pastures out my window?…I seriously felt like I was in one. I loved it.

We arrived in Buenos Aires around noon on Monday, and went home to get our lives in order after a weekend away from civilization.

Today, Tuesday morning, was my first day of classes. I forgot that I actually have to be productive during my time abroad…so I went to my first Spanish class at 11am, however my second Spanish class of the week is on Fridays at 9am, which I need to fix pronto. Otherwise, I really enjoyed my first History of Argentine Cinema class today. It’s only once a week from 5-8. I think it will be a great class. My professor also seems great. His hair is out of control, like super crazy curly that sticks out of his head and it’s wonderful. I feel like we can relate somehow.

Later last night we went out to a bar called Sugar, pretty obviously a gringo bar. During one conversation with an Argentine, he asked an interesting question. He asked why Americans say “um” when we can’t think of something to say, while they say “em.” Great question. I had no answer.