Sunday, March 20th, 2011

This morning in church there was a special presentation....to kick off the start of Sunday School for 2011 the kids of all ages (and a few of our friends who volunteer in the kids ministry) put on a "Pirates of the Caribbean"-inspired drama. It was fantastic with songs, videos, and a pretty spectacular set. Joy and Steph also signed up for one of the adult Sunday School classes...pretty psyched :)

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

After a relaxing afternoon in the plaza we met up with one friend for ice cream tonight and then our friend Brittany from the US at a cute little restaurant/cafe near Plaza España that, albeit a bit pricey, had one of the cutest and most elegant atmospheres we've seen in Córdoba. We just ordered tea, and it was served to us in the little teapots on the candlelit tables....quality.

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Happy Birthday, Dani! Today we celebrated our friend Dani's 20th birthday. She had a party at her house with delicious pizza, foosball and ping-pong, and a large group of good friends from Alpha. Fantastic night :)

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

Happy St. Patty's Day! Before our small celebration at home, Steph headed to check out the Feria happening at our church. Since arriving here with only 1/1.5 suitcases of clothes, we both have been in search of used clothing, which is always cheaper and can be awesome when found in good condition. It turns out that Argentina doesn't really have many used clothing locales, so we had content ourselves with what we had brought and do the very occasional shopping. So imagine Steph's surprise when she went to the Feria and found a huge used clothing selection, most things priced around $1-2 each item. A few sweaters, t-shirts, and a dress later, she was set for the coming months.

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Week 2 of English Talk 2011 went down today. Our theme was "Family", so we did a "Family Feud" type game show in team format and learned a lot of vocabulary for family members. We also dug out our chalkboard to use with the beginner group which was VERY helpful...Here's Joy with our beginner group!

Monday, March 14th, 2011

We were almost in the Plaza Intendencia today when we heard a strange yet familiar sound...a military marching band was playing the middle of the nearly desolate plaza. We didn't even know they had any sort of bands like this here, and it made us wonder who this group was and why they were playing.....we may never know.

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

At church this morning a few of our guy friends were chilling around this huge book...we're not really sure what it's about, but it looks pretty massive and significant.

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Tonight we enjoyed a relaxing night in. At the beginning it was just girls; Joy and I shared our Chilean wine with Heather and she shared her US chocolates with us. When our guy friends arrived we finished the night with one of our favorite movies, Disney's "Enchanted", which the boys agreed was a great movie to see....one time.

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Today Sarah had to head back to the States after an awesome week of having here in Argentina. Before she left we got a pictures of the ladies of the house (minus Eva, plus Sarah), and then Sarah and I said goodbye at the airport....thankfully, it's "see you soon!", at some point this summer!

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Today was our big day out of (and in) the city with Sarah...we went with a group of friends back to Playa de los Hippies, where we had been in mid-December, and loved. We enjoyed a peaceful afternoon swimming, eating, lying out, and had a pretty intense game of ultimate frisbee, boys vs. girls (of course).

Later that night we dined at "Un Lugar", a restaurant our friend Javier took us too...it has a crazy but cool atmosphere, lots of candlelight, and you're allowed/encouraged to write or carve on the tables!

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Today Sarah and Steph did some more sight-seeing around Córdoba. At the Manzana Jesuítica we ran into a whole little ditch full of Sun Cats!

After a Luz Urbana meeting at night we went out to get Sarah some legit Argentinian meat at Betos, a parilla close to Luz Urbana, while Joy and Steph and the boys had the best lomitos in Córdoba. Sarah also interviewed Pablo as part of her project on Argentina...one of the most entertaining parts of the whole week :)

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Today we kicked off English Talk, 2011! And then afterwards Sarah and Steph went to a typical Argentinian restaurant, Alfonsina, to hear folklore music and give Sarah a better look at the Argentinian dining culture. Here is part of the 2nd set of empanadas for the day, and Gancia with Sprite :)

Monday, March 7th, 2011

Steph's sister-in-law Sarah arrived to Argentina today for a 4-day visit during her Spring Break! After a brief rain shower we headed down to the center to catch the lights and water show at Buen Pastor, and then to el Parque Sarmiento to eat choripan at the Dante, followed by a brief walking tour around Nueva Córdoba! Sarah, despite her lack of sleep, still had energy by the time the rest of us were ready to call it a night :)

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Today we literally spent all day on a bus from Caldera, Chile to Santiago and then across the border to Mendoza, Argentina...and eventually back to Córdoba, although we didn't arrive until Saturday! But amidst the ridiculously long time on the bus, we had a pretty amazing view of the Andes!!

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Today we ran around Caldera (literally) and tried to see some last spots and last familiar faces before heading back to Argentina. As we left the house only hours before our bus would leave, we caught a glimpse of this sunset and were stunned by God's beautiful creation.

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Today we arrived in Caldera and Joy was reunited with her host family! Shortly after settling and dropping our things at the house, we all went to Bahia Inglesa, a beautiful nearby beach. In August 2008 when Joy arrived to Caldera, Bahia Inglesa was the first place that she went with the family :-) It's amazing how much each of the three kids (Gigi, Patricio y Mario) have grown!

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Today we made a couple monumental stops in Copiapó. The first was at Cerra de la Cruz, which was one of Steph's favorite spots in the Po back in 2008. Due to a host of inexplicable occurrences, Joy had never climbed the towering hill with the cross on top. But today all that changed. After the exhausting trek up the sandy hill, the view over Copiapó and the incredible Atacama Desert made it all worth it. Steph was pretty stoked (and Joy, too, naturally), so this picture seemed fitting :-)

Other stops today included the main plaza and the school where Steph taught back in the day!!

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Today we arrived in Copiapó and Steph was reunited with her host family for the first time since December 2008! We relaxed after our long journey, ate and drank our favorite Chilean things, and Steph got to play a game of Monopoly with her host sister, Montserrsat, before she left later that night for Santiago!

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

Today we got to Santiago and before hopping on another bus, we went over to a nearby shopping mall and enjoyed some sweet reminders of home that we hadn't had since August! One of these was Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)...yum!

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Today we set out on our journey for Chile! But before leaving we got to see our friend, Javier, who came to the bus station to send us off on our adventure!

Monday, February 14th, 2010

Today Joy and Steph spent most of the day apart doing various things in different parts of the city, but they both randomly happened to read a bit from this book that they're reading together, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ. Also, they both separately happened to decide to start reading the book of Genesis from the Bible. Not sure if those things are coincidental...seems more like some awesome God stuff going on.

Wednesday, February 9th, 2010

Today marked the final day of our OM team retreat at the gorgeous monastery outside of Córdoba. This picture was taken right before the final talk given to us by Don Hamman, an OM veteran from the US who is in the area for a couple weeks. Eva (left) is our sole Argentinian house mate and Keila (right) is our teammate, Ezequiel's, girlfriend who was just visiting us from out of town. We love you, ladies!

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

Today we celebrated Joy's birthday!! Steph wins "the best sun cat birthday planner" award for the awesome job. The day consisted of a picnic and water fight in the park, playing BASKETBALL (been so long, Joy loved it), eating cake at home with friends, and finished with bowling! This pic was taken at the park and it really sums up the day...awesome.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Today, after many days of struggle and toil, Joy finished untangling Steph's big ball of yarn so that she could continue on her knitting project...what a great friend :)

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Today we spent our first day in Chaco. It was very hot, very buggy, and we were exhausted. Thankfully, one of Joy's friends had sent us this cool passage from Psalm 121 regarding standing firm and turning to God for help to keep us focused and encouraged during some of our tougher struggles.

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

At 5am this morning we left Córdoba to head to the northern province of Chaco and spend 2.5 weeks doing programming at a camp and working with a local church in the city of Sáenz Peña. Joy, Steph, along with roommates Sharayah and Sarah and teammate Ezequiel, piled into the team car for the 12 hour journey. One of the most exciting parts of the day for Steph was her reunion with the Grido Frutal de Limon - a lemon flavored popsicle from the ice cream chain Grido that have been sold out for weeks in Córdoba! It was a beautiful, blissful moment of reunion, and assurance that the Grido Frutal de Limon do still exist in Argentina.

Saturday, January 8th, 2011

Tonight was our last night in Córdoba for almost 3 weeks, so we invited our friends over for a choripaneado and movie night at the house....Pablo cooked us up some delicious chori and we enjoyed the Legend of Ron Burgundy (aka "Anchorman")...and stayed up until 5am when our teammate Ezequiel came to pick us up to leave on the 12 hour car trip up to Chaco!

Friday, January 7th, 2011

This evening we went to celebrate our friend Gime's birthday with a backyard late-night gathering. We saw a lot of our friends from Alpha, met some of Gime's family and friends, and played some adrenaline-filled foosball (which of course, Team Sun Cats dominated....a few times) :)

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Today when Steph came back from her night run and walked into the house she encountered a hip hop class! We've been helping our housemate Heather get things worked out for our friend Jose (with another friend, Celex) to come and take hip hop classes from her, and their first one, which went late into the night, was a great success!

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Today we ran some errands in preparation for our trip to Chaco coming up on Sunday, one of which was to a wool store! Steph figured there's no better time to start knitting again than on long car trips and the trip to Chaco will be about 15 hours or so. Yikes. She is already taking advantage of, or "aprovechando", her new purchase!

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Today was a cool, rainy day...perfect for chocolate! Our house mate, Sharayah, shared some of the Dove Promises from her dark chocolates with Joy that seemed relevant. After reading many a Dove Promise through the years and especially after coming across these two treasures, the question is this: WHO WRITES THESE THINGS?? Hilarious. Sharayah, thank you for sharing the...Joy. It is indeed contagious.

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Happy Birthday, Mariela! Today we took a trip to a recreation club in a town outside the city to celebrate the birthday of our new friend Mariela (the sister of Pablo, who we've known most of our time here). We swam, played volleyball, foosball, ping-pong, and ate delicious choripan. Here's a picture of the siblings, Abel, Mariela and Pablo.

Monday, January 2nd, 2011

Late night on the 1st/Early morning on the 2nd when Joy came back we ate a sandwich dinner out on the patio and enjoyed playing and singing worship with friends until the wee hours of the morning. We've learned that nothing's lacking when you've got friends, food, and a guitar or two :)

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Happy New Year! We spent the first part of New Years Day in different places...Joy still in the hills with Pastor Ariel's family, and Steph at the pool and playing volleyball with friends. We are so thankful for everything we were blessed with in 2010 and so excited for all God will be doing in 2011!