Time for a Update!

Whew! its been a couple days, a couple days of getting into the groove here because classes started this week!!! Man real life, kinda haha. Ok but first--so y'know that parilla i was telling you guys about at the soccer club last week- definitely one of the highlights so far. It was a couple days ago but worth telling like it was yesterday.
After convincing Silvia that the guys whose BBQ it was were nice and didn't have "malas intenciones" as she put it, my friend Mette and I walked down the street to go check it out and roped in two of our other friends to come with us. We walked in through the gates of the soccer club looking around for Letu and Matias while a bunch of people were playing soccer in the little canchita. We told someone we were looking for the parilla and he walked us to the back where 20 people all in soccer warmups were just hanging out cooking chicken, chorizo and other carne on the grill! We found out it was some guys birthday, so we met him and kinda stood awkwardly for a while trying to break our way in to talk to people. Of course Argentines make that easy, they were asking us where we were from, what we study, and showing off all the English they knew, haha while we did our best in Spanish. I serisouly felt like we walked into a family- on friday nights these guys probably ages 22-35, who love soccer, all get together at he club and BBQ! We moved inside to eat at this big long table that is in the restaurant attatched to the club. There were little kids playing soccer in there (at 10 45 at night aka the normal dinner time) and drinking wine and beer and passing around the asado! To me this is the epitome of the Argentine people- you meet someone once, they invite you over, feed you and you are instantly friends. When i was leaving to go meet some friends later they were asking- do you know where you are going? do you need someone to drive you there? when are you guys coming back?- gosh these are the experiences i just love- random things with great people who are just living life in Argentina!
So thats a favorite from the week. Other than that lots still exploring lots of great cafes 2 new favorite argentine eatings 1) submarinas aka make your own hot chocolate they serve you steamed milk and chocolate bar and you drop it in-viola! 2) milaneas (might have to check the spelling) honestly so good, its breaded veal sometimes with tomatoe sauce (that's called napoliana) and lemon sqeezed on top- super good.
Hmm other things im realizing; that its interesting living as a guest in someone elses home, especailly in a different culture where there are different expecations and a language barrier. Slowly i'm figuring out Silvia and what she expects of me and figuring out how to love her but not get in her way while i'm living here. Honestly i think she wants me to eat more which i don't know if i can do haha- but i think that's a cultural thing too, you show that you love and appreciate someone by eating lots of their food! And just figuring out what to do here! What kinda of night time activites there are, besides going dancing or to the bars every night because in Argentina that is an option every night of the week. This city is kind of overwhelming there is literally so many things to do its hard to 1) know what they all are and 2) to take initiative to just do it! I'm kinda finding myself getting tired of mustering up the energy and intiative to get people to gether- get the energy to go out and explore new things every single day, and its draining on my brain speaking spanish!
Classes: whew lots of spanish! Argentina Lit, Art, a spanish grammar class and my favorite...tango!!! While i'm sitting in class soaking up as much as i can i'm realizing that i really want to understand and so i constantly have to focus and engage. But i am more motivated than usual to do homework- because its like every single conversation and every single class i have chances to improve my spanish- every experience in a learning experience. Gosh but the tango class had my attention the whole time 1) i love music 2) i love dance 3) the teacher is seriously such a suave guy. -Jose- i don't know he's probably in his 40s, he is a tango dancer and i could listen to him talk forever. haha But i'm excited to start dancing!
Another adventure- on Tuesday Mette and i got to experience the medical system and test out the health insurance because while we were messing around playing soccer, she hurt her leg, was in serious pain and so we took a cab to one medical clinic only to find out they don't have "muscle doctors" and then to another clinic--to find out she tore her quad pretty bad :( so her soccer playing days are on hold. But we're hoping to join the universities club team which practices once a week, pretty low key. But i good thing i've been in the soccer zone since playing intramurals with the Jaycee Jags (our team name)- where would i be with out that team!
I know its only been a week and a half that i've been here although it seems like such a different world and lifetime, but its crazy how much its starting to feel like normal life. At the same time i don't want it to be like normal life- i want to take advantage of the culture and the people and the language. Although it feels normal sometimes, sometimes its so overwhelming -i feel like i've been putting myself out there, constantly meeting new people and doing new things, i find myself wanting to shrink back and draw into myself. I don't know i guess i've just been feeling tempted to be tentative- in relationships with people, in activities, when i know that what i really want to do is be fearless and jump into all these new experiences and new relationships with all these people around me. Lately my prayer is that God would give me the courage and energy to trust him, forget my nervousness and fears and just live! I catch myself saying- am i taking advantage of this experience to the best that i can? Yes i want to be soaking in all the culture and the people and everything about this place, but none of that is worth anything if Jesus isn't the center. --He is what makes life valuable and worth it and so that's what i want to see here. I just want to see Him move. That's still what I want to see but its getting tougher to trust the Lord. I don't know if that makes sense- i just have a lot of thoughts and feelings about every thing going on haha. But i am realizing that sometimes i just gotta get out there and do it! whether its exploring, talking to people whatever
Jeremiah 29:11-14 is popped up again today and is becoming one of my favorite passages
" For i know the plans i have for you' declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you , plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all you heart. I will be found by you' declares the Lord."--love that.

ps. today i also learned 1) how to serve mate -that stuff they drink our of the gourd- and just you guys wait, i'm bringing it back to CA so you will definitely get to experience it with me!
and 2) how much Argentines love the soccer player/ coach Diego Armando Maradona. Tonite we watched clips from his 183 best goals haha. Gosh listening to Pamela, one of the CEA program coordinators talk about him and how much represents Argentina was beautiful. -Another thing i love about Argentina- everything has such much culture and passion behind it- especially their love of futbol. -Hey some hot news Maradona is resigning from being coach of the Seleccion, national team of Argentina.-i'm sure more will be on the news tomorrow

Anyways i feel like im just rambling, but i want you guys to know I am seriously in constant pray for you all at home. I'm kinda becoming a facebook fiend and all the pictures, comments or messages i get just remind me to pray for you guys. love love love you all. ciao!