Difunta Correa

Well, I just finished translating my notes from my Biology class. I feel like in every class I am one day behind everyone else. I sit in class and copy my clasemates notes and answers and then go home and translate them to the best of my ability so I can atleast know what we are going. But before I get into school, let me tell you about an adventure I went on on Monday....

My family has gotten a new red car. For all you car lovers out there, I am sorry but I don´t know what type it is. Anyways, when people get something special brought into their lives whether it be a call, a child, or a wedding, they travel to the Difunta Correa to give thanks. The story is that this woman Difunta went in search of her lost husband in the desert with her baby. But when she ran out of water, she died. Amazingly her baby was found by cowboys (gauchos) days later still alive. We give thanks to her for bringing things into our lives. The city (Vallecito) is about an hour drive away from San Juan and we left for it in the late afternoon. At the memorial site for her, there are buildings filled with gifts. Each building is thanking her for a different miracle. One room was completelly filled with photos of family members, some that were born and some that were found after being missing. Other rooms were filled with replicas of houses or wedding dresses. It was really a beautiful place but in honor of the people visiting, I chose not to take any pictures inside the buildings. On the outside, all of the walls were imbedded with placks thanking her and the name of the family and date. Some dated back to 1927. Each plack cost atleast a thousand dollars to get imbedded and there must have been thousands of them. At the top of a hill, there was a life size replica of Difunta and her baby. All around her were gifts of water to help her survive in the desert. Here, people who came also put up their liscense plates all over the posts holding up the roof. I found ones from Oregon and California! In giving thanks, we each lite a candle for Difunta and put it in this giant pit that was filled with burning candles. The whole thing was trully amazing and I was very happy I got to go.

School is another story. I have finally gotten my schedule figured out and I have a total of eleven classes in one week. Each day is a different mix of classes but each week is the same. I have Math, Law, Economy, SIC (which I would best describe as bookkeeping), Theory and Management, Literature, Religion, English (the language), Biology, Geography, and another class which I think is like Computers but because I was sick last week and we had a holiday on Monday and Tuesday, I have yet to have had it. Over all, it is a lot of classes and it is hard for me to keep up. I understand Math very well and I have a handle on Economy and SIC but all the rest are nearly impossible. Not only is there a HUGE language barrier but I also have never studied a lot of these subjects to begin with. It can be frustrating some times in class when I start to get worried when I really have no idea of what is going on. Thankfully, in most of my classes we have tons of notes and I am able to go home and spend hours translating them. I know that it won´t do me much good when it comes to tests because although I will know the material, I will have very little idea of how to write it in Spanish. I just keep reminding myself that since I am doing all this in another language, I don´t need to hold myself to the high standards I have at home because I have a sinking feeling I won´t be getting all A´s. :) School begins at 7:30 everymorning (Monday thru Friday) and on Mon. Wed. and Fri. I get out at one and on Tues. and Thurs. I get out at two. Right now, I am staying that extra hour because I have English. After today though, I am going to talk with the school teachers and see if I can take a different class or go home early. English is obviously really easy for me :) and that class is the kind of class that nobody gets anything done anyways. Then again, with all these other classes that are really hard for me, I might like to have a class that is easy and I can just relax in. I guess I will have to decide soon because this weekend I need to buy my Total English text book if I am going to keep taking English!