Laughter, love, and cake

The past few days have been absolutely great.  I feel at home here.  I feel like I have a family here, and I just love it.

This past weekend was busy, but super fun.  I volunteered at a school in an impoverished area of the city.  They were having a celebration for el dia del nino (AKA children's day; here they celebrate children's day along with mother's day, father's day, women's day, etc.), and my speaking partner and a few other students and I went to volunteer.  It was super fun getting to know the kids, see where they live, and play with them.  Also for this future social worker it was interesting to learn about the poverty here and see an impoverished area...heartbreaking, but good to experience.

That night I went with my speaking partner to the birthday party of a friend of a friend of her friend.  It's normal here to celebrate your birthday with people you don't even know; although everyone is treated like family.  And below is finally a picture of my speaking partner and I...meet Florencia!

On Sunday, we celebrated the birthday party of the sister of mi mama. Friends came over and we celebrated and ate so much meat and veggies and cake.  Listen, mi abuela made a GINORMOUS cake for the birthday party and there is still cake left.  I have never wanted a cake to disappear before in my life, but I seriously want this cake to disappear.  Don't get me wrong, it's good, but it's just a lot of a cake.  Anyways, we spent all of Sunday afternoon talking, laughing, watching movies, and of course eating, and it was great.

Sunday night I WENT TO CHURCH!!!!  My friend Megan met someone who goes to a church called Centro Crecer and she went a few weeks ago to their youth group and loved it.  She said she wanted to go to the actual service and invited me to go with her.  I went, and I am so glad I did. 

About five minutes after walking in, the pastor himself came up and introduced himself to us.  After hearing we were from the US and here in Cordoba to study, he immediately introduced us to his wife and they gave Megan and I their cell phone numbers and home phone number.  They made us feel at home.  And, as it turns out, they are both from the US as well!  The pastor's parents were missionaires in Argentina, so he grew up in both countries, and his wife is from Kansas.  They were so loving, so kind, and told us they could be our "padres" (parents) here in Argentina.  My goodness, I loved this church before the service even began!  I didn't htink it could get any better, but it did!

The service was absolutely wonderful, the music gave me chills, the message was powerful, and I understood everything.  After the service numerous people came and introduced themselves to us.  These people are the church.  They truly are the hands and feet of Jesus and they are embracing their callings to do His work.  It was refreshing to see a church so open and ready to love whoever walked through the front door, and even more comforting to know that I now have a church to call home here.  I'll be going back this Sunday.

On Monday, I just had the best day ever.  After class I came right home and skyped with Lauren and Meg (FINALLY) and it was so great to talk to them and see them.  I went to introduce them (via skype) to mi abuela (because she had said she wanted to meet my friends and family), but I didn't realize that she had her curlers in her hair.  Therefore, when I abruptly turned the computer in her direction, she screamed and threw her hands on her head and began saying a bunch of stuff about how she was not in the proper state for others to see her.  I lost it and she did too and mi mama walked in the room and lost it as well.  So there the three of us were, literally crying because we were laughing so hard, and Lauren and Meg waiting on skype confused. 

We are still laughing about this.  Mi abuela's reaction was just priceless.  It was also just a moment of feeling like I have a family here.  A family to laugh so hard with that I cry.  A family to support me and love me.  A family to introduce to my US family and friends.  There is just so much love and laughter here and I couldn't ask for anything more.

And to top of a great week, it's officially the weekend for me!  Yep, that's right, my weekend is starting today on Wednesday...because there is a national Paro (strike) tomorrow so everything is stopping.  There are going to be riots and protests in the city and nothing will be up and running, so obviously classes have already been cancelled.  Oh Argentina, how I don't understand you at all, but love you dearly.