Jesus Coming Soon!

A few weeks ago Gav, Losida and I went to "Tierra Santa" which is a Christian theme park here in Buenos Aires. There are no rides at "Tierra Santa" (translated to "Holy Land", but we refer to it as Jesus-Land), but instead there are replicas of famous scenes from The Bible. I pretty much know squat about The Bible, so I can't really go into details over this. (I really wish JL was there with me so he could explain everything to me.)

We took a collectivo (public bus) to Jesus Land. It was a 80 centavo (28cents USD) ride from our house to the park's location near the domestic airport. We were right under the path for the ancient Aerolineas Argentina's Boeing 737-200 (those jets are so old and loud!).

Everything in the park was made of fiber-glass and the people working there were dressed in middle-eastern garb. We saw a re-enactment of The Creation, The Birth of Jesus, The Last Supper and at the top and bottom of every hour, Jesus rises from the giant fiberglass mountain. Gav took a video of it. Check out the youtube video below the fold.

One of the best parts of the park was that they served beer in the restaurants. If that park was in the US, there is no way in hell (no pun intended) that any form of liquor would be sold. That's one of the beautiful things about Argentina: Abusing Alcohol is just not in their culture. (This needs to be written about in another post, but I rarely see drunks here. It's amazing.)

Our day at Jesus Land ended up being a whole lot of fun. We had a riot posing with the fiberglass people that populated the park. Oh good times.


Jesus Loves Us!



Jesus and the air conditioning unit

More Pics!

E.S.L (English As a Second Language)

One of the most rewarding (and definitely frustrating) parts of this trip has been learning a new language. Gav and I have been in Buenos Aires for over 6 months now and I am impressed by the amount of Spanish that he and I have learned. When I got here, I could only say a few words (which I only knew because I memorized them) and order another beer. I am by no means fluent or even conversational at this point in time (my problem is understanding Spanish when I hear it), but I am no longer scared to venture out by myself. I can now go shopping and enjoy a day on the city by myself. Talk about a liberating feeling!

I can't believe how many years I spent learning the Japanese language. I thought that I had a small grasp on the Japanese language, but after trying to learn Spanish and actually living in a place where you are forced to learn how to communicate, I realize that my Japanese was complete crap! Yes, I could read hiragana and katakana pretty well and I knew a bunch of kanji, but I could never survive in Japan. (Granted, if I lived there I'm sure that I could pick it up in a few months). Being thrown into a new surrounding is a giant kick in the pants. Furthermore I have this incredible urge to "feel normal" and thus communicate with my peers, so my drive to learn the language is pretty intense.

We've been taking language classes and I have various ways of practicing my nearly learned skills (I can hold my own in a chat room!). I am going to focus on spending this last month in Buenos Aires on trying to better myself.

I'm going to complain for just a second now and complain about why I don't want to blog. The answer is fairly simple, but its rather difficult for me to articulate my words into English because I've been really busy trying to think in Spanish all the time. Overall, I'm not too worried about this because I know that when I return to the US and get a job, everything will come right back. It's kinda like riding a bicycle, right?

Well, it's been a bit difficult for me to compose my thoughts and put them online, but I'm going to try really hard to do that right now. Besides, won't writing in my blog give me a great chance to practice writing?

Oh the hardships of living in a foreign city and trying to learn a new language.