Zoo Day

We went to the zoo Saturday and it was awesome! 

 It was built in the early 1900's and it was really one of the coolest zoos I have been too, which is only a list of maybe 4, but really this was number one. As we walked in I kept seeing signs saying "Don't touch the animals" and I think, "well thats kind of excessive. I mean its a zoo how close can you really get to the animals anyway." -- But then as we start walking around I realize.. you get SUPER close to the animals. We literally could have reached out and touched a lot of them. This monkey was holding out his hand and I could have held it!-- But I stayed obedient, Mercedes helped me on that by saying I would get a monkeys disease and end up on House, (but I still wish I would have held his hand). 

See super close. I could have hopped right over to that elephant. Or better yet he could have charged. I kept seeing a Madagascar situation where all the animals escape. 

I mean the super dangerous animals were in big pits, like the lions, tigers, and bears. (oh my?) But the rest where just right there.  

Another cool thing is that it is right in the middle of the city, our apartment is literally across the street. But then you walk in and its a jungle. And the pathways are super old, cobble stone, and the cages all look like they were made in 1900s. I felt myself going back in time seriously, and imagining this european style argentina in the 1900s. Random argentine fact-- it used to be a 1st world country, but has rapidly declined to 3rd world. One of the fastest country declines in history. But seeing this zoo really showed its 1st worldness. This is one of the older cages. Pretty. 

There was also a really cute marine show. When I see marine shows I think that it would be fun to be a marine biologist and work with those animals. But then I think about it and realize I don't really like animals.... 

There were also animals that I have never seen before in real life! Like a Toucan, and a camel! And animals that I didn't even know existed and still not sure what it was. 

And Bambi! Weird how deer and elk were deemed zoo worthy. (not to mention buffalo and bison)

I love to see what Cordoba has to offer! I think this is one of its hidden treasures. 

Frustrate Comfort Zones

So one week in Cordoba and I have fallen in love. When we were training we were taught that we were going to have to help people frustrate their comfort zones, not totally jump out of them but get close. We constantly need to be changing to progress, and change comes through frustrating comfort zones. I feel like this internship will help me frustrate my own comfort zone, but I love it!

This week was quite eventful. We taught our first workshop. ie the reason we came here. We had spent 4 days in Salt Lake before this getting taught how to teach this workshop effectively. It was pretty awesome being in church headquarters and getting to meet all these guys that work for church welfare and church employment. I fell in love with the workshop and everything it teaches! Seriously you should all go to ldsjobs.org and find a workshop and go. Especially as students the things you learn will help a ton in looking for a job. 

So anyway- first workshop went alright. There was 12 people and it was kinda hard to get them to open up and talk but when we started playing games it went a lot better. Now we are just thinking up fun activities to do for every section we teach. For example, one of the sections we teach called "Continuing Success" so we talk about how to prevent problems. So mercedes and I made this dice of misfortune they had to roll, one said what happened, (like an event), and the other said how it affected them. Then they had to come up with a way to explain it to their employer. They really just ended up being funny sentences and the class LOVED it. This was our favorite grouping.. "Your cat died, so you had no one to leave the kids with" bahah..


We will teach a workshop every week and we will be traveling all over Argentina to do it which is way cool! 

We also go out and explore Cordoba every day! For one of the classes Mercedes and I are taking we have to do different culture activities so we have been working on that. For example, last week we went to a catholic mass which was interesting. At Mass we noticed that there was a ton of people are age, and it kinda surprised us so we went up and talked to them afterward just to know more about mass and everything. They were cool and invited us to hang out with them sometimes! They get together and do service multiple times a week which is awesome, we will probably go help them sometime. That is the catholic church we went to, called Los Capuchinos, which we just thought was funny, haha capuchino.. maybe not?  

Also we went to the movies to study mass media. Again we talked to people in line asking questions about the movies. Anywhere we go we try to talk to as many people as we can. It's pretty fun to use the "so we aren't from around here......... " and then get them to tell us all their secrets.

Well that's about all for now. Here are some more pictures for your enjoyment. and so I can brag about how cool Cordoba is. ; )

 The sister missionaries that served in the Employment center. They left the weekend after we got here which is sad cuz they were really sweet. 

 Area reforested so no dancing? whaaat? also no running. honestly this sign was just hilarious. look at that mans body!

 This is a park where they train for the Olympics... haha. joke. But no really, it just has a bunch of rings and I;m not sure why. 

 The mall!. isnt that the prettiest building ever. 

And the view from my balcony. The city of Cordoba. We live right downtown with all the college students. It's a party. ha. 

M.I.A

Hiiiiiii!

So I have been M.I.A from the blogging world for so long. At the time I didn't really feel like anything "blog-worthy" was going on in my life, but now looking back over the past few months I probably could have had some bomb posts. Oh well... mostly I was just studying, reading, writing, and studying some more and getting AWESOME grades as a result. I am proud to say that I have finally found my calling -- after 5 majors, (or maybe make that 6) we are sticking with Psychology, and I LOVE it! Not sure in what direction I want to go with it yet, but I do know that I want to help people and change the world (or at least the lives of a few people).

Mostly today I decided it was time to start back up again. I mean its January 1st. A new year. How many people are doing the exact same thing as me right at this moment. "This year I'm going to -------" (fill in the blank).  But hey the first step is letting others know your goals so that you have someone to be accountable to. So here goes... Looking back at 2012 it wasn't the best of years. It was full of change, and adjustments, and and starting overs and it was kinda rough. But I am excited to take all that I learned, put 2012 in the past, and move forward to make 2013 the best. 

So after thinking a lot my main goal for 2013 is to get out of my bubble and meet more people. So I want to try to meet at least one new person a day. This doesn't have to be like best friends status but just meet someone, learn at least one fact about them. I'm excited about this! Get out of my comfort zone, know more people, feel more confident, etc. Plus this probably will lead to some pretty good stories! 

So that's the first big news,, and the second.... I am going to Argentina next semester!! I am leaving January 11th and I will be there for 12 weeks. I am going to be an intern for LDS Employment Services. I am making my dream of helping people come true! We will be teaching classes to help people know how to prepare for job interviews, look for job opportunities, gain more confidence in themselves and their skills, and its going to be great! (plus this will make my getting to know a new person every day super easy for 12 weeks, to my knowledge I don't know anyone in Argentina). 

So that is why I have returned from hiding-- stay posted for all my new experiences in Argentina and meeting new people!  

Happy 2013!