Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A School Tour, Uruguay & A New Season

Awesome sunset in Uruguay!
So to catch up on the last 2 months since arriving back after our amazing trip to Brazil (and now in October- my heart tells me I should still be playing and having fun in Brazil! haha)
Driving on the bus through beautiful wintery Cordoba

August was a month of the blues- not blue skies but hard work at school which was much more stressful than it ought to have been and also no sunny days. It rained or was overcast here in Buenos Aires for the whole month! Everyone was walking around dragging their feet- I thought I would have been refreshed after the holidays, but work and school hit everyone pretty hard. It was busy busy and cold. Doesn't sound like the exotic latin life does it? But that is life and the seasons it brings.
Life now here is very normal and all the travel we do it the exotic part!

So I have named this post 'A school tour, Uruguay and a New Season'- I will highlight these three areas below:

A School Tour- La Gira de Musica - Cordoba, Argentina  
(The Music Tour to Cordoba Argentina)
My beautiful students for the Junior Music Tour- At one of our school concerts in Rio Cuarto, Cordoba

So last year I had proposed to St George's College to organise a Choir and Music Tour within Argentina. This was approved and this year has been big efforts to pull off a successful trip! As I was planning and getting students signed up- I realised all the other tours on at the same time across the secondary school. It meant that during the week I was given to take the students on tour, only the ES1 and ES2 (years 7 & 8) students were available to go. All the other years had things on. So I changed the idea to a 'junior music tour,' which was awesome! I rounded up a talented group of 26 students (12 and 13 year olds) who Chris and I had trained up in bands and as soloists. We also joined all the students together to form a choir and we rehearsed after school to learn contemporary style music that young kids have fun listening to and singing along to. And given the limited amount of time we had to prepare the music, the songs had to be well known and relatively easy. 
I pull the funniest faces when conducting!

The school promotions officer has also helped me out by connecting me with schools that were linked with St George's- these schools were in Cordoba, a province (or state) in the centre of Argentina. So on a big big bus, we all went on our Music Tour- performing and singing and having fun activities! We drove 10hours on a saturday night, and returned home to Buenos Aires on the Thursday- It was a short tour with only 4 days to do performances.

The tour was a huge success and a real highlight for the year for me! I am so so proud of these students and it is such a big milestone for a music department to host something like this when we began with nothing- and I literally mean nothing! It is a big fulfilling feeling seeing where Chris and I have brought the music departments in both the primary and secondary within less that 2 years. Not meaning to blow my trumpet and pat ourselves on the back- It feels good when we have worked so hard and to have students engaged and loving music at the school is a be reward to me! yippeee
If you want to have a fun look at what we got up to, here is the link to the video I made about the trip:
Showing the kids how the Flying Fox is done! haha

Uruguay- Holiday to Punta Del Este  


The famous hand in the sand at the main beach of Punta
After the tour was our week off school holiday period. We had booked the ferry and bus to take us over the rio (river) and into Uruguay! We have friends of the school who let us use their apartment in Punta Del Este and their little vintage car and we made the most of it! 
It really had been our first holiday in ages where we just stayed in the one spot for a week and did nothing. 
Beach strolling and mate drinking
It actually stormed like crazy with ferocious high speed winds and hail and rain.. which kept us inside the warm cute apartment for like 4 days.. the final 3 days it was still pretty cold, but we had walks on the beach and sunsets and even a bit of lying in the sun at the very end which was rad!! 
We were both sick and slept so much- it was a total week of respite... out of Quilmes and by the sea. A much needed break!
Punta Del Este is a very interesting place! We were there in September which was coming into the shoulder season- but hardly anyone around. There are sooooo many crazy big apartment blocks that front onto the Atlantic sea.. I don't like it... other than smelling salty water and enjoying the blueness of the sea... it was so built up at set up for the summer season. And the prices of shopping or eating out were CRAZY! we bought 2 pieces of cake (only pieces) for over $30!?! Didn't know that until we got the bill.. dang!! hahaha
Conquered the thumb!
strolling the beach and smelling the salty air and catching up together after
some very busy weeks was the best!!
So we cooked in the apartment all the time and enjoyed being really simple- the cake was splurge enough! haha!!
Of course we saw the famous mano (hand) sticking up out of the main beach! It is THE tourist attraction. My favourite part of the whole trip was strolling the beach with my man at sunset, sipping at mate as the locals and collecting seashells.
It was this part that made Punta so beautiful and memorable!
I actual think we were pretty out of it for the week- just sleeping like bears in winter- but being refreshed by sunshine and sea salt!
Tick- another destination seen and done! (yippeee)
Beep Beep! As we drive along the coastal road!

A New Season
So the final chapter of my early morning blog- Spring has arrived- it has been a mix of cold rainy weather and then sunny blue sky warm days- which give me too much excitement I just can't handle it!! haha- So looking forward to summer!
The green has arrived again on all the trees and Quilmes is looking prettier- I think even the birds are singing happier songs! 
I can't wait for the jacaranda trees to be in full bloom around Buenos Aires! There are small shrubs that are falling over they are soo full and heavy with the brightest blossoms- Hot pink and red flowers! gorgeous!
Since being back at school the weeks are literally FLYING by!!

It is now only 8 weeks till we fly to NYC!! We can hardly wait!
Lots to do before then- but it is exciting!!
We are saving our pennies like crazy so that our trip the the USA can be awesome!

Well until next time mis amigos!
Nos vemos y besos grandes 
xo

~Miki


Happy together- free to be me- love

2 comments:

  1. El sol se acerca Miki! ¡QuĂ© lo pases bien en NYC!

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  2. Wowwwwww.... Awesome blog over here....nice photo shoots...Love all your designs.
    International Tours and Travels

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