Jennifer meet Argentina

Hello World Wide Web, I believe this will be there very last blog post I will do at least for a while. As most you know Ian Breunig is here and we will be traveling for a week or so.  Which I am beyond excited about, the end of the program is very bittersweet. I am excited that I am getting to spend sometime with him but sad that the program is coming to an end. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel at the end of the program and if I was going to be ready to come home. I think by the time it will be to come home I will be ready, not to say I haven’t enjoyed my time here to the fullest but I am excited to come home and see all my lovely friends and family.

            My experience here has been amazing to say the least.  Before coming I tried my hardest not to have expectations about what my experience was going be like. But I couldn’t help it and I did have some have some. But most of them didn’t turn out like I thought they would. Even though things turned out to be different they shaped my experience, which I wouldn’t change for the world. My experience with my host family was nothing like I was expecting it to be. Before coming I had this idea that I was going to come, stay with a family and spend a lot of my time as part of that family doing activities with them and so on. Being there was going to be just as an exciting experience for them as it was for me. Of course my situation turned out to be nothing like that. I wasn’t with an actually family with kids like I had envisioned, just a woman and her 32-year-old daughter. I didn’t spend as much time as I thought I was going to with them. I was just one student out of the many my host mom has had over the past 5 years. (12 to be exact). Even though things turned out this way I have nothing to complain about, it was fun living with an older woman. I enjoyed watching the familiar interactions between her and her daughter. And she had the enduring mother thing going for her.  Sure I didn’t do everything with them but I think this was for the best. Because of this I spent way more time with the group. I don’t think that me being one of the many students was a bad thing either. Because of this she was experienced with students and knew how to welcome me into her home and make me feel comfortable. Even though I was one of “many” I think I was one of her favorites. (But don’t tell anyone I said that)

            I was also not sure how it was going to go with the group. Before arriving I knew that there were only 8 people in the program with me and honestly this made me nervous. I was afraid because it was such a small group friends were going to be hard to find. I think that the small group actually made me closer to everyone, because instead of just getting close to a few people I was able to spend time with everyone. I think I became better friends with them this way then I would have other wise. My only complaint really about the program is the lay out and structure of classes. I was picturing taking classes in a local university and being around other Argentine students all the time. But instead our school was separate from the university, which made it hard to meet local people. The only thing I really wish I had had an opportunity to do here is meet more local people and students. We weren’t really presented with many opportunities that made this easy to do.  Once again this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing either, because we were in our own building for school we were able to access and get to know our teachers much better, and it was easy to find help.

            The same goes with my process of learning the language and improving my skills in Spanish. I had this very idealized view that I was going to come here and leave being a fluent speaker. I now realize that that is way easier said than done, learning a language is simply not that easy and it takes years and years to be able to master it on that level. But I do defiantly think my skills have improved huge amounts during my time here, I had an epiphany the other day while watching TV. I realized that I could understand most of what was being said on the show, which I could not do when I first got here. I also can understand pretty much everything my host mom and sister say to me, and in the beginning this was not the case, and I believe a lot of smiling and nodding was done.  Even though I am not fluent I think I have improved a great amount, and I also realize that the language is only part of the experience and learning about another culture and being apart of that is also a huge part of the experience.

            There are just a few of my final thoughts on my experiences here, I of course couldn’t sum it up completely without writing an entire novel, but don’t worry I wouldn’t put you through that.  Incase you didn’t get from what I just said my experience here although nothing like I had imagined it was going to be all the same amazing. This may be the last post for a while or for ever, I’m not sure. I leave on Monday with Ian to do some traveling around the country before we come home. We are going to be traveling at least partially with a friend from the program and her boyfriend. We are first heading north to Tucuman (the garden province of the country) and then to Buenos Aires for a little while. Thanks all for reading and I hoped you enjoyed.

This past weekend we had our last trip of the program and with the group.  We were fortunate enough to have this trip be to Las Cataratas de Iguazu (or Iguazu Falls).  One word to “sum” up the falls: incredible. The rest of the trip was fun, but the falls stole the show by a landslide.

            We left for the falls last Wednesday afternoon at 4pm planning to make our first stop at 7 am the following morning.  Ugg so much time in a bus, 15 hours (with stops) to be exact. But unlike the other trips this was in a little van only big enough to fit the group.  So after a night of pretty much no sleep we arrived at our first stop. First we ate breakfast at a classic tourist stop, complete with gift shop out side the restaurant along with a handful of tourist buses. After eating a typical Argentine breakfast of bread and coffee we moved on to our first activity. The first stop was Las Ruinas de San Ignacio. Which are a ruins from missions established by the Jesuits in the early 1600’s, it is always weird seeing something that old. They were restored to what they are today in the 1940’s. The missions were built to help the local indigenous people, the Guarani. As pretty and cool as it was to see something with so much history, part of me does not morally agree with the fundamental idea of a mission. This mission was built to help the Guarani people get protection from the Portuguese slave hunters, which is great but I can’t ignore the fact that like all other missions the indigenous people are taught to abandon their personal tradition and beliefs to practice what they were told to. Any way that’s enough of that for now it was cool and the ruins were beautiful. All in all I liked seeing the ruins and learning about some of the indigenous culture, especially because there is practically none in Rosario. After our excursion it was time to get back on our lovely little bus and continue to PuertoIguazu.  We ate lunch in town, wandered around for a little bit and then headed for to the hotel. We spent the rest of the day hanging out by the pool, tanning and swimming was kind of pushing the weather. 

            The following day we got up at 7 and ate breakfast, preparing for possibly the most activity packed day of my life. (Sorry Grandma Sandy but I think we broke your record.) First it was off to our jungle excursion: which included repelling (down a 20ft cliff), zip-lining, and a jungle hike.  Getting ready to repel!

 All very fun and adventurous of course. The dirt in this part of the country is extremely red and after hiking my shoes and clothes were all slightly tinted red. Even the dogs are slightly tinted red along with everything else. Any way for a normal traveling group this would have more than enough activity for one day but not for us of course. We went back into town to eat lunch I was happy to see something different on my plate that was not pizza, pasta, or breaded meat, grilled chicken! Which I do not think exists in Rosario. The day was just getting warmed up, and we still had a handful of activities to do.  Next stop: El Centro de Rehabilitacion de Aves (Rehabilitation center for birds). It was really cool to see some of the native wild life, even though it wasn’t in the wild (there was no chance that was going to happen due to the touristyness of everything). They had some really cool birds that we got to see up close and personal. Tucan at the park.

 They even had talking parrots who were bilingual! We were talking to them then my friend started laughing and a parrot mimicked her laugh which was extremely funny so we all starting laughing and then all the parrots starting laughging which made us all laugh even louder, ended in us the humans and the parrots all cracking up together. Some of the other animals included monkeys, coati (south American raccoon more or less), and a capibara (worlds largest rodent uggghh). Capibara

 The majority of the animals they had, were injured and couldn’t be released into the wild or had been kept as pets.  Being the animal lover I am I loved this excursion. Still more activities for this day: next stop a Guarani cultural center which was interesting but kind of just a touristy thing. There were huge building build from old trees which were really cool, and they had a tree trunk that was really old. They had traditional music, crafts and food.  Included yerba mate ice cream, which tasted like green tea ice cream.  It was nice being in a part of the country with an apparent indigenous influence, which I find much more interesting than the European influence of Rosario and the other big cities we have visited. After hanging out here for a little bit we headed to our last stop for the day, Hito Tres Fonteras (or The point of three borders). This part of Argentina the north eastern point borders both Brazil and Paraguay. We got there at sunset so it was really pretty.

 Paraguay is on the left and Brazil on the left, and Argentina obviously where I am taking the picture from.

 It was very weird to look across the river and know that I am looking at a different country. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn it was all the same. After this we went back to the hotel for dinner and another relaxing evening.

            Saturday was by far my favorite day and made the rest of the trip seem almost unimportant. First entering the el Parque Nacional Cataratas del Iguazu I was a little bit disappointed, I felt like I was in Disneyland or something. W walked down a concrete path and then we got on a train which took us to the path to the first view of the waterfalls.  This was not what I had imagined or hoped it to be, I was imagining it being the less touristy and more natural but none the less the falls were still beyond amazing. Iguazu has the second greatest average of water flow after Niagara Falls. There are two different sections you can see falls, on the Argentine side (the falls border Brazil). We visited the upper part “The Devil’s Throat” or Garganta del Diablo. Walking up to the falls was an experience in its self. You could hear the roar of the massive amounts water, and when I saw the falls for the first time I got chills and I was literally speechless. The only word I can really use to describe it would be INCREDIBLE!  ”Garganta del Diablo”

 Another view of the Garganta del Diablo.

 After spending a good amount of taking emmense amounts of pictures, and taking in the incredible views we moved on. Next stop lunch, another buffet, but just as good for me because there was more grilled chicken. After this we walked to the second part of the falls, my first thought was how can something out do what I just saw. The second half was not the same experience but equally cool.  Instead of there side of the mountain side was literally lined with huge wonderful waterfalls and rainbows. We spent the majority of the rest of the walking along this side and looking at the rest of the falls. Each view was more extraordinary then the last. 

 The was some unusual wildlife in the falls park but all was very much used to people being around. The butterflies were amazing and the next one prettier then the last. There were also the raccoon type things called coati. They were everywhere like squirrels and were trying to eat people food and stuff.  Coati

All in all I would say that the falls themselves were probably if not the best place I have visited in my life, at least in the top five. After this extraordinary day went back to the hotel for the routine dinner and bed.

            The next day we got all packed and ready to head back to Rosario. First stop some “semi-precious” stone mines, which were cool but also a very touristy thing After wandering around the mines and going into the “mines” which was basically a little cave with some crystals in it.  It was cool and fun to make another stop but, nothing too special especially after the falls the day before. After this we got back in the lovely van and headed back to Rosario, to arrive in Rosario at 5 pm the following day. “Ready” for the last week of classes, oh how the time has flown. I have the rest of this week of classes then I have finals next week.  I can’t believe it!! I am going to try and enjoy the rest of my time here as much as possible.

            I would like to dedicate this blog post to my Grandpa George. I was lucky to have you as part of my life and you will be greatly missed. I know how much he enjoyed reading my blog and I feel as though something is missing writing this one knowing he will not be reading it.

This past week Wednesday we had off of school, because of this we decided to take this opportunity to travel. Since I am staying pass the time that my visa allows me to stay (90 days) I “needed” to leave the country in order to renew it. Since there are two other girls in the same situation as me we decided that this weekend would also be an excellent opportunity to do this. Of course when teachers, host parents, etc. found out that we were going to be going to Uruguay they all insisted that we head to Montevideo especially this time of year. Uruguay is known for its beaches and coast but of course, this time of year is way too cold to even consider going to the beach (according to most Argentines) once again following the masterful advice of Frank (Von Hipple) we decided to stay away from Montevideo and travel to some of the more relaxing and less busy parts of Uruguay. 

            The only down side of the trip was the different modes of transportation we had to take to get to Uruguay and around the country but it was ok and I think was vale la pena (worth it). So first we left Rosario mid-morning Wednesday, and took a 4 hour bus to Buenos Aires, then once in Buenos Aires we took a taxi to the Ferry Terminal, where we took a 2 hour ferry across the river to La Colonia, which is a smaller town then Montevideo.  The river is so wide that you can’t even see the other side, and if I didn’t know better I would have said I was on the ocean. We arrived in La Colonia in the evening, found a hostel, went to the grocery store and bought fixings for supper, after this we hung out for a bit and went to bed. 

In the morning we got up and took a bus first to Montevideo and then to La Paloma (our final destination) we got into La Paloma also in the evening, after once again heading to the store for food and to our cabana. Frank had told us when he went to Uruguay with his family they stayed in cabin/tent things near the beach, which he highly recommended we do. Of course Frank is never wrong so we decided to do the same. We stayed in a camping ground which had cabana(cabin things) which turned out to be way cheaper than staying in a hostel. So we got to La Paloma Thursday evening and spent the rest of the evening cooking (curry yum! Its had been too long) and hanging out. The following day headed to the beach, which we could literally see from our front steps.  If you know anything about me you know how much  I enjoy the beach, the water, and swimming so naturally I was beyond excited to be on the beach. Because it was the off season there was literally no one at the beach besides a couple of people walking by (fully dressed I might add) and some kids rode by us on horses, but we were the only people spending the day at the beach.  The fresh air of course didn’t keep me from swimming in the ocean. The water was actually warmer than I thought it was going be for winter time. My of my goal/wishes in life is to see a penguin in the wild, especially coming to Argentina in the south they have them so I was hoping that I would be able to see them. And we found two penguins on the beach!!! But the were dead, but I think this can still count for seeing a penguin in the wild. After the beach we spent the rest of the day wandering around the very dead downtown due to the off season. Made another wonderful home cooked meal and got ready to head to La Colonia.

            We got to La Colonia the following the evening (again). And spent the evening hanging out in the hostel, another wonderful multi-national experience. It was so much fun hanging out with people that I would probably never meet in any other situation. The next day we had enough time to wander around the downtown of La Colonia. It was a very cute, old town and a nice calm break to the bustling daily life of Rosario. After spending a couple hours exploring the small town. It was easy to tell it was defiantly a tourist destination but still fun to walk around. After we spent a couple of hours walking around it was time to make the journey back to Rosario- Ferry then taxi then bus then taxi and home. All in all a great trip! I think it would have been more relaxing if we had had one more day with all the traveling but it was still way worth and nice to have a relaxing weekend. Two days till we go to Iguazu Fall with the program, which  I am beyond excited for, the program has organized a ton of awesome things for us to do. (all already paid for another plus). 

I thought that it was time that I mentioned something about my home stay, and host mom. I realized that I have barely talked about her, which seems weird because she has been such a big part of my life here. So I thought that she deserved her own blog post (or at least part of one). All right Monica Ripari to describe her in one word I would say A-dorable for oh so many reasons. First of all she has the best voice ever its kind of quite and high pitched but she speaks Spanish super clearly which is good for me because I can understand everything she says for the most part. She is such a mother too! Everything I do or go to its always be careful and so on. The adorableness does not stop there, first of all she tells me every day that mother is going to worry when I get back because she is convinced that I have lost weight here, and thinks that mother is going to think she didn’t take care of me. First of all this is impossible seeing as every dinner I am practically forced to eat till I can no longer even look at food. She regularly calls me flacita (basically little skinny thing).  She also I convinced that I have a boy friend here, which could not be any less true seeing as I spend almost all my time with the group. One night at dinner in mid-conversation she stopped talking and looked at me really seriously and asked me if I had a boy friend, because I am always busy, this caught me way off guard because I thought it would be the last thing she would think. But then last night some of my friends from the program were over and she told them that I must be in love because I’m always busy.  Some more examples: this morning I asked if I could have an apple and she looked at me and got super serious and almost mad and said, that I never should ask her for permission to eat something because this is my house too. She also NEVER lets me wash the dishes and gets super mad if I try and help, although I am now allowed to help set the table.  She is also extremely social and just this weekend she has 4 separate birthday parties to go to.  I also had a little cold this week and she was convinced that this was because I had worn flip-flops on Monday. (it was at least 65 on Monday which to everyone here is cold). As I mentioned before my friends from the program came over last night to watch a movie here. As you know there is only one boy in our group of 8 and my host mom thinks that’s not only the funniest thing but she has a thing for him. She always tells me to say hi to everyone for her but especially Graham. These are all just examples but I hope you were able to understand what I meant. I not only live with her but I live with her daughter who is 32. I have not spent as much time with the daughter because she works a lot and very much has her own life. But she is also extremely nice and fun to talk to, but nowhere as near as cute as my host mom. 

            These last couple of weeks have flown by, I have not really done much of anything but some how the time seemed to fly by. I’ve been pretty busy with my classes and then relaxing and hanging out on the weekends. I can’t believe that it’s actually been almost two weeks since my last post it certainly does not feel like it has been that long!  Friday we had one of our other program facilitated activities: The Gaucho Party.  I was really excited for this because the word on the street was that were we’re going to get to ride horses! I had this vision of riding through the Argentine campo (countryside). But it turned out to not be that at all. We literally got to ride threw the parking lot of the ranch, which was still fun, but it wasn’t what I thought at all. I envisioned myself galloping, with my hair blowing in the wind. Instead I spent most my time trying to get the horse to not eat the grass and even just walk around. Me and little Hipple getting ready to go out on our “big” adventure. 

We also got fed a traditional “gaucho meal”, Asado traditional Argentine BBQ basically, which in my opinion was just ok. I have barely eaten any meat here, so I was excited. But as I put it the meat was a little too rugged for me, aka too fatty and resembling animal. I mostly just felt kind of gross after the meal.  We were also supposed to dance traditional campo dance: folklore. We first saw a Folklore show which was cool because we got to see a couple different styles and dances. We were told we were going to learn how to dance it as well, which we did dance, but we’re never really taught anything and kind of just ran around. So in all in all it was a fun day, just not what I had expected leaving me a little disappointed (incase you didn’t get that).  Feo(Ugly) a dog on the ranch this picture was too good not to post.

 Humedades (wetlands) just outside of Rosario on our way to the ranch.

As I said I can’t believe that the program now has less than a month left. It is beyond amazing how quickly the time has flown by! This coming week we are headed to Uruguay for a long weekend. Wednesday is a holiday and we don’t have school so we thought we should take Thursday off and take it as an opportunity to travel.  Since I am also staying past the time of my visa I “have” to leave the country to renew it, another reason we are choosing to go.  Then the following week we are headed to Iguazu Falls with the program! Which I am really excited for!!! Then Ian is coming on the 15^th of June and we are going to travel around for two weeks. I am very very excited for all these things to come but it is a little bitter sweet, because the closer it gets to Ian coming etc. the closer it is to the time I come home. 

Buenos Aires…….. first of all keep in mind while reading this that we were there for less than two days. It is amazing how much we were able to pack in in such a short amount of time.  The trip was facilitated by the program so along with the 8 students in the program we had two girls/ladies who work with the program to come and facilitate everything, along with von Hipple (Frank Alaska professor) and his three kids.  There were things I really like about traveling with the program and things that I really didn’t like. It was super nice traveling and not actually having to worry about itinerary because everything was already planned out for us.  It was also really nice having the two girls with us to not only facilitate everything but they are fun to hang out with, and also nice to practice Spanish with. I also really like having the von Hipple family with us. It was nice for lots of reasons, mostly because he of course is awesome and his kids are all very entertaining. The kids are 4, 10, and 14 all of whom are way to smart for their own good and for the most part this was extremely interesting.  The little one is so cute and he was keeping us laughing all weekend, he knows the Hebrew alphabet and can make some of the characters with is body, he also is getting his English and Spanish confused so he speaks both at the same time which is very cute.  The other two are very entertaining as well mostly because they are both way too smart for their age and own good. Frank of course is an endless pit of useful information about pretty much everything.

            Anyway back to the trip, we left Saturday morning bright and early at 6 AM. Luckly the bus ride is long enough to be able to get some rest during. The first stop we made when we got into the city was the La Boca, which is a neighborhood originally for the port workers because it is on the river, but now it is kind of a touristy place. The buildings are all painted extremely colorful and there’s these kind of creepy sculpture things on the building obviously put in as a tourist gag.  It was a cute neighborhood but a little too tourist orientated for me. After walking around there for like 20 minutes we were loaded back onto our lovely little bus and on to the next location: the hotel. We got settled in at the hotel then went to the near-by mall for lunch. The program gave each of us $50 pesos ($13 USD) to eat lunch there we were all shocked by how much money they gave us because in Rosario this would get at least two if not three lunches but to our surprise the food was much more expensive there and that pretty much goes for everything in Buenos Aires. So after lunch and a stop at Starbucks (we had to). We were gathered and relocated, for the first “real” stop for the day was the MALBA. Buenos Aires’s modern art museum, which I think was one of my favorite stops of the entire trip.  Musuem had a lot art that I have read about in my Spanish books over the years, so it was really cool to see in the flesh and……. well canvas. This included art from Diego Rivera, Frida Kahol, and Antonio Berrni.  After the museum of course not wasting a second we moved onto the next location. La Recoleta, not only Buenos Aires most expensive neighborhood, but home to one of the most famous cemeteries in Argentina at least. The cemetery was not what I expected at all, I thought we were just gonna look at some tombstones and call it a day. But no, the cemetery was really cool! Every grave was basically like a little stone house, most beautifully carved with sculptures and stuff. The cemetery is home to some of Argentinas most famous politicians, and important people.  This included the grave of Eva Peron. I of course completely missed Eva’s grave site and didn’t realize that I had seen it until after the fact. Ha ha. After this we walked through the feria (outside market) outside of the cemetery. It was weird walking around the feria because people would speak English to us, even when I spoke Spanish to them. It was also extremely weird walking by people and hearing English, it was almost shocking to hear it. I’m so used to the only people I’m ever around who speak English are the people in my group, because in Rosario very few speak English, well a lot less than in Buenos Aires. I got very excited every time I heard English being spoken ha ha. After wandering around for an hour or so we went back to the hotel and got dressed for our Tango Spectacular. The program set up a tango show thing for us to go to. It was cool not only for the show, which had some amazing dancing, but the food was really good, which was a good fancy meal which I haven’t had in a while period. 

            The next day we woke up bright and early for the next very busy tour day full of  basically all of Buenos Aires’s most touristy attractions. First stop was the plaza 25 de Mayo which is basically in the middle of three very important buildings, la Cabilo the old government building, la Catedral (first one in Buenos Aires), and the la Casa Rosado (the presidential building equivalent) fun fact for the day the president (la presidente because Argentina has a women president) does not live there. Group in front of the La casa rosada.

La Catedral (cathedral) is home to San Martin’s tomb, San Martin is Argentina’s George Washington and helped them gain independence. After learning about the these building and some of Argentina’s history we continued on our tour, walking to San Telmo the neighborhood most famous for its tango and street fair. Here we were able to get lunch. Falafel!, a pleasant change to the usual Italian food.  After eating and wandering around for a little we got back into our lovely bus and on to another neighborhood.  La Palmero another neighborhood with another street fair, but it reminded me a lot of Portland’s Hawthorne district which is pretty cool. We were able to wander around here some more and then after a couple hours got back on the bus and headed back to Rosario.

            My impression of Buenos Aires was quite mixed, we first of all didn’t really have much time in anyone place to really enjoy it. It was also hard to get a sense of the city because I paid no attention to where we were ever because we were all moving together which was nice but I feel like I didn’t really get to know the city at all because of this. All in all I did have a good time, I’m just excited I have an opportunity to go back and explore more. 

A comment learning a language. I have thinking a lot lately about language and how it all works. Learning another language in a classroom setting but it is a completely different ball game living in it.   I am just starting to realize that trying to directly translate things isn’t the way to go. There are just too many things that can’t be done with this way.  I have realized that you cant really ever think of things as a literal translation, that just is more work than its worth. I’ve gotten to the point where I am no longer thinking like this; literally translating everything I have realized just doesn’t work. Sometimes while listening to someone speak I’ll stop and kind of think, this is so weird and yet I kind of know what they are saying, how do I do this?  I’m not sure if I’m actually getting better, I feel like I am but it is kind of a hard thing to judge for yourself. I know that I can definatley understand more than when I first got here but I’m not sure if I’m more used to the accent or I actually can understand more. I think I can, I feel like my vocabulary had grown too which i think has helped.  The lanuage part has definatley been the most difficult part about being here.  I am constantly wondering if I am getting better, if I am speaking enough, and hoping that its going to get better. Whether any or all of these are happening I don’t know. I feel like I am here for the experience but a big part of that is learning the language I just hope that I am. I also feel like I have gotten to know the city a lot better. Walking around this weekend I realized that Rosario no longer feels like a foreign city, it almost feels normal to be here. I remember how I saw everything, for the first week and no everything looks different, seems different. I actually feel like I am somewhat part of this city now, I am no longer a guest but a member in a way.

    This past weekend was great……except for the rain which I really didn’t need more of thank you very much. It was nice to have a relaxing weekend as much as I’ve enjoyed traveling it was nice to not do anything. Like I said it was rainy Friday which, here has a different meaning than Oregon rain. It only rains every once in a while but when it does its no whimpy Oregon rain it is some REAL rain. Walking you get soaked and the drainage for the city has something to be desired.  I found myself almost walking a whole block to avoid a puddle on the curb.  Anyway besides the rain Friday it was a great weekend. On Saturday we headed out of the city for an Asado(BBQ) at the director for our program, Beba’s house. The BBQ was for the wife of Hipple (the professor from Alaska) who is returning back to work in the states. I was very excited because Asados are the one kind of traditional Argentine food that I hadn’t really experienced yet, and it is one of the few traditional Argentine foods, period. As you probably know Argentina is known for their steak which I have actually not eaten that much of, being friends with mostly vegetarians. Never the less I was excited to have this experience. All in all the BBQ was a lot of fun, the director Beba, has a “weekend house” outside of the city. Basically in the suburbs, I felt like I got transported to the US her house was along side a golf course and it was easy to forget that I was in a different country being there.  Seemed like a summer BBQ in the burbs of Chicago, not really but reminded me of that. Anyways we spent the rest of the weekend watching movies and studying for mid-terms. Yeah I actually do have school here incase you forgot. Not to say that I am particularly stressed for them but I do have tests this week. And next weekend we have our school trip to Buenos Aires! I’m excited to finally get to the “mother” city. But don’t tell any Rosarians I said this because they have issues with the Portenos (what the people from Buenos Aires are called), and as far as the Rosarians are concerned there city is just as good as Buenos Aires if not better.

Hello world its been a while! I just got back from a very long weekend in Mendoza! The Catholic influence here as officially worked to my advantage.   The week of Easter (last week) is called Semana Santa here and everyone gets Thursday and Friday off.  This worked to my advantage because we were able to almost get an entire week in Mendoza.  We left last Tuesday night after classes, and skipped classes on Wednesday.  We got back yesterday morning at 6 am.  So if your wondering I did have to go to school after that and had one of the longest days of my life. But after an excellent night of rest I am fine today (incase you were wondering). You also may be wondering those are weird times to travel, well not when you are on a bus for 12 hours you want to try and occupy as much time as possible with sleep. Ok so back to Mendoza, Mendoza is pretty much directly west of Rosario, and the last big city before entering into Chile.  (The red area is the provence) Mendoz is the 8^th largest region for vineyards and winerys in the world. They are also known for their malbec (wine). We were still 7 hours away from Santiago which I really would have liked to visit but I’m really glad we didn’t because it was really nice to be able to relax and get to know Mendoza and I think we got to do cooler things because of it.

            So since we left on Tuesday night we ended up getting in on Wednesday morning.  The trip got started off right; we were greeted as soon as we got of the bus by one of the owners of the hostel complete with sign and everything. She walked us to the hostel we got settled and then decided to go wander around the city. Our hostel was a little ways from the downtown but it was never that big of a deal just a little bit more of a walk.  At first Mendoza didn’t seem that different from Rosario, just another city with plazas, and all that jazz.  But once we entered into the downtown area, I started to realize that the differences out weigh the similarities of course.  As soon as we entered into the downtown we were chased down by a guy speaking English who works for the city’s tourism department.  This would never happen in Rosario so it was weird.  He was from Minnesota of all places, at first I was a little mad that this random guy was approaching us and I was sure he was going to try and sell us some kind of tourist thing; 8 Americans together is a goldmine for those type of things. But he ended up being the nicest guy, and told us a lot of useful information I don’t think we could have gotten anywhere else, and it was completely unbiased because he worked for the city and not a company. After chatting with him we continued our walk around the city, the main square out did any square in Rosario in size, and maybe in beauty.  We were still all frustrated about the lack of good food we were able to get in Salta so we decided the best way to go was to buy food from the market and have picnic in the square.  Fine by me! After eating lunch we wandered towards the big park in the city.  Which reminded me a lot of Golden Gate park.  Fountian in the park. Of course once again our group tends to attract attention we had a nice conversation with a guy rowing by the us in the lake. After wandering around the park, we were all pretty exhausted, having enjoyed the home cooked meal so much we decided that cooking our meals was the way to go for the rest of the trip.  We headed back to the hostel whipped up some pasta and spent the rest of the night hanging out, drank a little wine from Mendoza of course, and playing cards. (I learned how to play hearts!) It was nice to just be able to hang out with each other like this because in Rosario, its hard to organize this kind of thing and find a place to do it.  All and all a great first day!!

            Thursday after a nice relaxing night and a great nights sleep ( it was nice just to not have to sleep in a sitting position on a bus). After talking the day before with the women who runs the hostel we kind of narrowed down the activities we wanted to do in Mendoza. One thing of course was wine tasting. There are two ways people tour the bodegas (winerys) on a bus tour, or renting bikes.  We decided the bus was the way to go for our first wine country experience.  The first bodega we visited was a bigger one and seemed very touristy.  It was still really cool and since it was bigger the “tastes” were a bit larger which none of us seemed to mind much. We also got to try our first real Malbec wine which was good. The second place we went to was an olive oil factory, which was also very cool.  It was kind of hard to understand our tour guide so I did learn/understand as much as I had hoped but still good.  And full of free samples which of course is never a bad thing.  It was still interesting to see the machines and the process.  After the factory we went to one more winery, this one was an organic winery and much smaller and personal than the one before. We were actually taken through the winery opposed to room set up for tourists, which is how I felt at the other one. The lady was really nice and the whole experience seemed so much more real than the first place. ACecchin (the organic winery) You could indeed hear the birds. The wine here was also very good, but I think I could say that about visiting any winery, due to my lack of wine tasting experience.  Its so funny looking at the prices at these places because the most expensive bottle of wine at these places is like $20, and it is easy to find a good bottle for $5. Crazy. After the wine tour we headed back to the hostel relaxed for a little and made dinner. As I mentioned before I am starting to really ern for some spicy food or e food with any spice. So in this spirit we decided to make a Mexican feast complete with guacamole and pico de gallo. Granted nothing was that spicy due to the lack of anything but bell peppers, with the help of Tabasco we were able to put something a little spicy together. I love the hostel life style we were just hanging out after dinner and a group of people we hadn’t even really talked to yet invited us to go out with them. I also love the diversity of hostel life, we ended up going out with 4 Chileans, a French girl, and a German girl. A girl from my group who goes to UO has a friend who is studying in Chile decided to meet us for the weekend, so we had him with us too.It was a lot of fun and I spent the entire night speaking Spanish even with the Europeans which was weird but also great practice.

            After only 3 hours of sleep that night we had to get up and be ready for our outdoors adventure day. I don’t know if I will ever get use to the nightlife here, staying out past 3 in the morning is not only normal but expected. Anyways, outdoor excursion day! Mendoza is super close to the Andes and the highest point of the Andes and in South America is near Mendoza.A lake we passed driving up. (Taken from the car hence the crookedness)  We were also told that the rafting and other outdoor experiences were cool. We decided to sign up for a package, which included rafting, trekking (hiking), and repelling. We took a minibus/van up to the spot where all this is done. The first activity on our agenda was trekking. I’ve done my share of hiking but not like this. We had a guide who basically took us up some of the hills and then kept us going, we barely had time to take pictures on our breaks.The group (during a short photo break). But it was so beautiful it was awesome just being there.After about a 2 hour “trek” we headed back down ready for the next excursion: rafting!! I was really excited to go rafting, I’ve only gone once before in my life and I remember it being really fun. We got all suited up helmet and all, and as were in the van on our way to the rafting location the trailer pulling the rafts which was being pulled by a bigger bus full of people flipped over.  It was really windy and the wind got hold of the trailer. Everyone was ok and it was only the trailer part that flipped over.8 of the guides were able to flip it over eventually, it was interesting to watch them do this because it was apparent safety was not their main motive, and there were guys under the trailer while they were trying to flip it back, but the eventually did. They decided to put two of the rafts on our roof, as a guide and our driver were trying to put the raft on our van the wind caught it and blew them off. The lack of safety concern it wasn’t a surprise this happened.  The guide that fell of looked as though he dislocated his should but the show goes on, and we continued to the rafting location. After waiting like a half hour for the other bus and rafts to come, the guide told us that there was bad juju and they didn’t want to risk it by taking us out.  I was a little disappointed mostly because I really wanted to be on the water, by this but also kind of felt the same way.  We ended up not repelling either because of the wind, so trekking turned out to be our only activity for the day. Which was fine by me especially because they didn’t make us pay for either. After the rafting incodent we got back on the bus and headed back to the hostel, made dinner, and hung out for a little.    Saturday we (our last day) we decided to go on a bike/wine tour, I think we were all more excited to bike than we were to wine but the wine part definitely wasn’t a bad thing. We had to take a bus out to the country to the place were we were going to rent the bikes. I have been kind of bragging/ joking with the group about my African drum skills. ( I took a class in Oregon this fall). Well, on the bus a guy walked with a djembe some how another not really how sure, I ended up playing it on the bus.  It was funny because he was the classic Argentina hippy complete with dread mullet and everything. After a very entertaining bus ride we got to Lujuan (the small town with the vineyards), we decided to go there because we heard is was way more countrysideish than where we went before. We got our bikes and headed on our way to the first winery.  The first bodega we visited was much smaller than the other ones we had visited, but it was by far my favorite. It was a family owned winery, and we got an tour from one of the owners/founders.  It was only our group so the guy talked slowly and was super nice.  The wine once again was really good, and cheap. I now also know more about wine than I think most adults (so if you need to know anything feel free to ask) I learned such useful facts as that real cork corks are the best because they allow air molecules to enter the bottle and help ferment the wine even further.  After this tour we were suppose to go to another winery for tasting but decided to buy some bottles instead because it was the same price. We had a lovely meal of left over’s in the guys yard who rented us the bikes, who also brought wine to try from his uncles winery.  After the picnic we headed back into town and back to the hostel to make dinner and some how conjure up the energy to go out. Which we did for a little but we were all to tired and had to call it an early night (3am). Walking home with my friend from the program and her friend from UO (the one studying Chile) we got stopped a couple people outside of a restaurant, they wanted to take a picture of us. In Bali this happened to us a couple times but there is so much American and European influence here I wouldn’t think people would be shocked enough to take a picture of us. Anyway the ended up being the nicest family and we got to meet the whole family. I mean whole family baby, grandma, and all. Still don’t know why they wanted to take a picture but it was funny, and they were nice people so it didn’t really matter. 

            Sunday (Easter) some of the group went to church, I not having any interest or obligation to go to church spent the morning doing homework, eating brunch, and making friendship bracelets and getting a hair wrap with the other non-church goers.  That’s what I call my kind of morning!! After the relaxing morning we headed to the bus stop to head back to Rosario, not too excited to get in at 6 am right before classes, but it was worth it to say the least. I would say my favorite trip on the trip so far. I could get used to living life in wine country, but don’t worry mom I’m still in school and probably wont drop out at least until I’m 21.  Now its back to “normal” life in Rosario, continuing with my studies and such. Man, reality is tough here in Argentina! (not really) Coming soon, the hair styles of Argentina, and much, much more!!

The last couple of days have been filled with non-stop school, studying, and activities. Today has been the first day where I feel like I have been able to sit and relax and not run all over the place (not a bad thing). School this week was interesting for the most part.  I learned that all the public universities here have way more student involvement than typically in the US.  All of the public universities are free for everyone and are run by a panel of 20 people, 8 of these 20 people are students. When I first learned this I thought it was awesome and such an Argentine way of running things.  Soon after learning this information I also learned that it is not all rainbows and flowers as I originally thought.  In my environmental science class we went on an excursion to the local public law university.  I noticed last time I was there how run down it was, the von Hipple (the visiting professor from Alaska) my professor explained to us that it is so run down because of the way they run the school.  The building is in horrible condition and it would never every pass as a university in the US. Especially because there are bats living in the ceiling and several of the classrooms are filled with well bat poo,some of the ceilings are literally falling down because of the bat poo.  But the university is something they are proud of and cherish, its just interesting to take note of these cultural differences. Different is nessicarliey better, it’s a good reminder to look at the world through someone else’s eyes, what I see as right and wrong is not the same for someone else.  Another note on Argentine culture, as I have mentioned before the stray dogs here are so cool. I have noticed that they are way different than any other stray dogs I have encountered in other countries, they not only are more friendly but seem more happy than most other dogs. I found out yesterday that there is in fact an explanation for this, the city every month goes around collecting the dogs and they feed them and take care of them, no wonder they are so happy. A HAPPY well taken care of Argentine pup.

            In other news on Thursday night we had a tango lesson, I was unsure how it was going to turn out mostly because there is only one boy in our group and he didn’t even go to the tango lesson.  It was a lot of fun and interesting to learn the dance of the region.  I had a lot of fun but its a Tango if I would go running back to Tango, it’s a very ridged and technical dance, not very loose. It a very dancy type of dance requiring a lot of grace, and technical proper body language. In the world I of dancing I would not consider any of these things my strong points. Not that these things have ever stopped me or will ever stop me.  I just like to move how I move, and I have never really been one for ridgid techniques.  This also made it hard for me in terms of a pair dance, it was hard to have to move how someone else wanted me to, when I dance I usually just go and what ever happens happens. The pair part probably would have been more enjoyable, but all the men there happened to be old man wanting to rekindle their youth through learning tango.  There were NO strapping young Argentine men there to sweep us off our feet through tango, which was also disappointing.  As much as I have been complaining I did in fact enjoy myself, and I made a couple “older” friends. I would even tango again if I was given the opportunity,  Tangoing, great picture of me HUH!? ha ha  THe group tangoing. Take not of all of the lovely dance partners. 

            I also had my first day of volunteering yesterday which was beyond amazing.  Me and three other girls from the program are going to be volunteering on Fridays at a local school.  Getting there we automatically attracted attention, our jobs were to help set the tables, and serve lunch to the kids.  As soon as one kid was brave enough to strike up a conversation with one of us it was like a free pass for the rest. Before we knew it we had probably half the school standing around us, asking us questions, showing us the English they knew, and flirting (mostly the little boys).  We did get a lot of shy looks, and who the hell are you, in general everyone was extremely nice and excepting.  It was fun for me to get to use my Spanish and hang out with kids, as much as the kids seemed to enjoy us being there I think I enjoyed it more.  During their lunch time I sat a table with several boys, all they wanted me to do was tell them jokes.  I don’t think I could have been that successful with this in English but in Spanish was a whole other thing.  The one joke I was able to get out, didn’t get a single laugh except from me.  After that I spent the rest of lunch talking about their favorite foods and subjects in school. The best part was probably getting kisses good bye from the class of 5 year-olds.  As much as the kids seemed to enjoy having us there I think we enjoyed it even more.  I am even more excited because we are also going to start to help in the English classes.  It was fun to hang out with the kids but I think it is going to be even more fun to do something a bit more constructive such as teach in a class.

Hello all!  Its been a crazy busy last couple of days but I finally have had a chance to relax and share with you my adventures of this past weekend.  So the entire group decided to go which was awesome (but traveling with 8 very different people is not the easiest at times) and all and all it was a ton of fun and a great experience.  I think most importantly it was fun to get out of Rosario and experience some different parts of the country.  I was getting to the point where I needed to get away for the city for a little bit; the hustle and bustle of the daily life here in Rosario was getting to be a lot. Salta is known to have more traditional culture, and as much as I have enjoyed my time in Rosario I was looking forward to find something not only more Argentinean but more South American as well.

            In case you are wondering where Salta is it is way north and west of Rosario, close to Chile and Bolivia.Looking at a map it doesn’t seem that far but maps are decieving, because it was a 16 hour bus ride to Salta. Since the bus ride was so long we decided to leave Wednesday night (skip classes on Thursday) so we could arrive in Salta but Thursday afternoon.  You might think 16 hours on a bus sounds like the most horrible thing ever, and I’m not saying it was amazing but way better then I expected. First of all travel by bus is way more popular here, and for some the only option because flying can be pricey. The buses are way nicer than any bus I’ve seen in the US.   The buses are double-decker which is cool enough, and you can purchase a full bed seat.  We all bought the semi-beds because it cheaper.  Not only were the seats probably more comfortable then most airplane seats, but they also fed us.  I shouldn’t make this sound like too good of a think because the food was not something I wanted to venture into eating, but at least I got a couple free cookies and teas out of the deal.  They were also extremely good about keeping the movies rolling not necessarily good movies but entertaining to say the least. Since it was over night the 16 hours went by surprisingly fast and semi-comfortable.

            When we arrived in Salta we walked straight to our hostel. We stand out enough as a group walking together but add suitcases and we might have shouted, “hey we’re tourist!” as we walked through town. Salta has way less of a European influence, and a large indigenous influence so large group of white people walking together good sign for tourist. After settling into the hostel we wandered around the city a little and got some food.  After eating we discovered a market/bazaar type thing, at first it looked like a tourist trinket kind of market, but as we wondered deeper we found meat, fruit, and spice stands.  After our little bit of wandering we headed back to the hostel all of us exhausted and ready for a real nights sleep.

            I woke up refreshed after finally getting a good night sleep and ready to explore Salta! Of course one of the first places we stopped in were some touristy shops yay! I normally would have been opposed to this but it was kind of fun to see what the local swag was. After that we decided to get some lunch seeing that the breakfast provided by the hostile was literally croutons, with jam.  We decided to eat the market we wandered into the day before.  Our size defiantly didn’t work to our advantage in this case.  Walking through the food court with a group our size was not easy; every single restaurant employee chased us down.  Not only were we clearly a group of tourist “with money” but a fairly big group. We eventually decided to eat at the place that wouldn’t leave us alone. Which turned out to be the best decision ever, I decided to try a homite which is basically a tamale complete with spicy salsa. Which was amazing, maybe because it had flavor and spice something I have been missing so much!  Besides the fact that the waitress was adorable and so nice, we even ended up taking pictures with her.  I would argue it was one of the best meals here so far, good food and a nice people. After eating we spent the rest of the day wandering around Salta.  The local tourist attractions we visited included a museum children sacrifices from the Incas. Sounds more gruesome than it was, the Incas would sacrifice these children to their Gods and it was seen as an honor be chosen. The museum had one of the children on display. After the museum we walked to a gondola type thing.  Its such a weird feeling watching a city from above like that, its kind of surreal. It was not only awesome to get to see the city from above but to see the mountains surrounding the city as well.   After the trip on the gondola we stopped at another craft fair on the way home. Man Argentina makes Eugene look bad with all they’re craft fairs and weekend markets. I did learn something going to this one. In the spirit of my brother and father both master bargainers I thought I would give it a go, unfortunately the vendors were not as willing and gave me dirty looks when I tried to bargain.   That night(Friday) we ended up meeting the other people staying in the hostel. Never having stayed in a hostel before this was such a cool experience we ended up meeting and hanging out with quite a worldly group. Including two French guys, a guy from Italy/Slovenija (I didn’t even know that was a country), a guy from Argentina, and a girl from Australia. This didn’t give me much opportunity to practice my Spanish, it was still so much fun.  In good Argentine fashion we left the hostel at 1 in the morning we ended up first heading to a Pena a traditional Argentine bar complete with folklore music and llama empanadas. I dabbled in both, the people we were with ordered llama empanadas and as much as I was against it I thought I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to try llama, at least so I can say I did it. The crumb that I ended up trying wasn’t bad but the concept is just a little to weird to me. Trying to dance traditional folklore dance was a little less of a moral dilemma for me. An older Argentine gentle was kind enough to show us how it’s done, and I’m guessing he had a good night. After the traditional Argentine experience we decided to hit up a nightclub.  Which was fun if that’s your cup of tea, I of course enjoyed myself, but was glad to be with a large group because I think we managed to find the one club catered to the younger crowd.  It was weird but I felt old there, I think I felt old for the first time in my life.  After heading back to the hostel at 4:30am ( an early night according to locals) we slept for well not enough, because the next morning we were headed out of town for the day and the bus left at 7am.

            Lack of sleep and an all day trip was well worth it. We decided to get out of the city and travel about 3 hours north and west into the mountains.  We had heard about the 7 colored mountains in a town called Pumamarca that were supposed to be amazing. Watching the country-side go by my window on our bus ride to the mountains I felt like I finally had seen the real Argentina, we passed little pueblitos and there was an obvious indigenous influence in everything.  The mountains were amazing!  Besides the fact I fell in a hole. Trying to be like my father and set up a timer picture, I was strattling a hole and forgot I was over a hole and I’m too much like my mother to be successful, I guess. I was told it was a perfect American Home Videos moment. (don’t worry mom I’m fine)  There was something so calm and serene about the mountains that was breath of fresh air (literally). I don’t know if there we 7 different colors but the mountains were beautiful.  I had a blast climbing and wandering around them all day, and the of course drinking mate on top of one.  After the third dissatisfying meal in a row ( cheap food is not good in Argentina) we got back on the bus to Salta. Exhausted from wandering and climbing all day I slept well on the bus back to say the least.  After arriving in Salta we spent the rest of the evening hangout out with our worldly friends.   Sunday morning we got up after a night of much need rest. After striking out on so many meals we decided the only way to eat something good is to make it, and since we were missing having good breakfast. So my friend and me went to the store bought eggs, and a plethora of veggies. (Which is all that sounded good after not seeing a single one in a couple days) We whipped a great breakfast in anticipation for the lack of any on the bus back to Rosario for the next 16 hours. Arriving backing in Rosario on Monday morning at 9:30am we were supposed to get in a six in the morning but we had a flat in the middle of the night), I had less than an hour to get changed and head to school ready to start the week.  Even though I am exhausted now I would say all and all and amazing first weekend trip. 

The first part of this week I have spent settling into my classes and trying to establish some kind of routine. It has been great getting to know my instructors over the last two days (and last week), but I finally after a week and a half I am just starting to grasp the concept that I am here for school.  Its been hard realizing that and staying focused along with motivating myself to do my homework.  I mean I can talk about it in the way that it sounds like I actually have a lot of intense work here, which is not true for the most part. Yeah, sure I’m here for classes but so far the classes here have been way more laid back that my normal class schedule in the US. Part of this is probably because the program tries to take it easy on us at first and in general (because we are here for more than just classes), but I think the other part of this is a comment on laid back Argentine culture.  Everything here runs a little late, and is nowhere nearly as rushed as our daily lives in the US.  Not to mention that half of my classes so far have been “class excursions”, I don’t remember the last time I had a class excursion, or even left campus during class time. It is awesome that we have been able to see and learn about the city, and local culture while in class. Some of these excursions have included visiting and Environmental Law class at the local Law School, and visiting a local LBGTQ.  Both were interesting, especially the LBGTQ it was interesting learning about local gay culture here along with acceptance, which is way more open than I expected. I also learned that last year Argentina legalized gay marriage, something very shocking for a country almost entirely Roman Catholic.

             The instructors also have been extremely understanding and helpful.  As a group we are planning on traveling to Salta this coming weekend. Salta is a smaller town in the Northwestern part of the country, it is known for having a uniquely Argentine culture.  Buenos Aries and other cities like Rosario are known for having huge European influence, but Salta is suppose to have less of this, and more of indigenous and traditional culture.  I am excited to get out of the city and have a chance to see something truly Argentinean.  It surprised me how excited the instructors were that we were going, and how accommodating they were with rescheduling class for us.  In the US this would never fly.  Next post after my adventures in Salta!!