Navigating the city...

Yesterday we didn´t have community service so a couple of kids from AFS decided to meet up in la plaza. One girl, Paige, was going to walk to my house and then we would make our way to el centro to meet up with another guy. The walking to my house was successful, however, making our way to el centro was a failure. We ended up in the town next to San Juan, Santa Lucia! We didn´t exactly know when to get off the bus so we just kept riding it until we got to the end of the route and had to get off...in Santa Lucia. But I called my host sister Ago, and she called a cab to come pick us up. Finally we made it to la plaza but 1 1/2 hours later than planned and the other guy from AFS wasn´t there, and all the stores were closed for siesta. But we had the best fries with ketchup and cheese drizzled on them. Tomorrow we are going to try again right after our community service with all six of us when the stores will be open.

Today however, we had community service and we went with the school to a ¨zoo.¨It was a lot different than the zoos in the US because it was less showy and more natural. That´s the only way I can think to describe it. But it was much smaller and we were the only group there. The six of us Americans were interviewed by a guy from the newspaper, ¨El Diario Zonda.¨And tomorrow, a television station is coming to the school...we´re gonna be on TV!

What else...I learned that a characteristic of San Juan is the wind that comes down from the mountains. It´s called ¨viento zonda,¨or, zonda wind. The zondas are the mountains near San Juan, part of the Andes. This weekend I am going to a party with my host sister. They have tons of clubs or discos for the teens to go to on the weekends. It´s common to go to them around 12:00 and leave around 5:00! We´ll see how I hold up!