The Last Entry?

Ok, I lied. I a. didn't update when I said I would and b. won't be talking about anything that I said I would be. I'm a bad blogger. In reality, I've just been really busy lately. We're trying to plan our month-long trip to the north of Argentina and Bolivia, and we're leaving next week. I'll have really limited internet access for all of July because we're going to be doing a lot of camping and hostels and such, so you probably won't be hearing from me too often during the next month. Sorry!

I'm really excited for our trip. We've got a general idea of where we want to go and a huge list of things we want to do, and we're just kind of picking a starting point and going from there. Eventually we'll make it up to Bolivia and then come back down and do more of the north of Argentina. This will be my first true backpacking experience, and the only thing I'm not stoked on is my lack of backpack. I'll probably end up borrowing my friend Olivia's old one, but I'm kicking myself for not getting a nice Mountain Hardware one from my sister before I left. That was dumb. Oh well, there's always the next trip to Argentina.

Expectations I have for the trip:
1. Cooking our own food!! (A staple of which will probably be rice)
2. Buying a sweet, multi-colored Alpaca sweater in Jujuy
3. Seeing some amazing natural landmarks in the North
4. Salt flats!! There's a REALLY big one in Bolivia that we're going to
5. Hot springs
6. Not showering
7. Being really grateful that my boyfriend insisted on getting a blowup mattress for the tent
8. Being cold.
9. Sleeping on a lot of buses
10. Meeting up with all my friends, and having the most amazing time possible.

I can't believe I'm almost done with my time here in Argentina. It seems like I literally just got here. While I'm really excited for my last year at Ithaca, I'm definitely going to miss the Tina and all the people I've grown to love here. Who knows, maybe I'll be back sooner than I think. I'll try to update again before I'm home, but if I don't I'll see you all very soon and I can tell you all my stories in person!

Loves.

sorry!

Just wanted to tell everyone that eventually I will actually update my blog. Sorry Lacey. Believe it or not, I actually have schoolwork this week. Keep checking back because I pinky-swear/thumb-print that I'll update by like, Friday at the latest (probably).
To tide you over, here's a quick list of some of the things I've been up to since the last time I updated (which was like a month ago, I know):

1. Rode more horses than I have in like 5 years.
2. Did a reforestation course in the Sierras
3. My family came to visit me!
4. Subsequently went to Buenos Aires and Mendoza with the flia
5. Ate a lot of asado
6. Climbed Uritorco, a mountain with UFO sightings and lots of "spirit presence"
7. Ate roughly 20 alfajores, but that's lowballing it
8. Bought a new mate
9. Oh ya, I'm dating an Argentine
10. Ate Endangered Species chocolate (Thanks, Mom!)
11. Am wondering if I will ever speak to my roommate again (Jess let's skype pleaseeeeee!!)

That's about it that I can remember. I'm guessing the highlights of my next post will be the flia and the reforestation course, so stay tuned.

Love and miss you all.

University Tests and Thoughts on Poor People

Sorry it's been a while, guys. In the past few weeks I've had a bunch of midterms, so I've been focusing on school for what feels like the first time in 3 months (probably because it is). Yesterday I took my very first Universidad test in my art history class, and it went HORRIBLY. But, fortunately, I feel like it went horribly for everyone, not just me, the foreigner. All the Argentines made extremely obvious sounds of displeasure as the professor read out all the test questions for us to copy. The general sentiment that I gathered before and after the test was "Dude, did you study that?" "No I had no idea that it'd be this specific." "Man I have no idea what she's talking about." "I'm pretty sure I failed that thing, how about you?" "Well, at least we have a makeup test."

Fortunately, the Argentine university system allows you to fail/miss one midterm and still be able to "recuperarlo," or make it up later. This is what I plan on doing, because I don't think I can even play the foreigner card at this point as I literally fabricated the answer to question number two entirely from what I was currently blowing out of my you know what. When we got out of the exam I asked my friend Brian if he knew what question number two was talking about, and he replied with, "I probably could have talked about purple elephants and bunny rabbits and gotten then same score." My speaking partner Paula is in that class too, and she just looked at me and shook her head. Oh well, at least I wasn't alone.

On a happier note, a couple weekends ago the whole CC-CS crew took off for an extremely short but fun trip to San Rafael in the Mendoza province. Mendoza is known for it's wineries, and for outdoor activities like white water rafting. We partook in both while we were there for a few days. The first day we hopped off the bus fresh from an overnight ride (during which we were all woken up to what was basically a bus on hydraulics. Sounds fun but really isn't at 3 am) and got right into the river for some rafting. Our raft guide man was adventurous and showed us all these fun tricks to get the best ride out of each whitecap. Here's our awesome equipo all nice and soaked with ridiculously cold water.



We also did some repelling and zip lining, and then ate some yummy food and hung out in a hotel room all night playing guitar and drinking some off the province's cheapest wine (still good!). The next day we visited a Bodega, or winery, and learned about the process of making wine. It was really cool (literally, because they have to keep the rooms cool and temperature controlled), but one of the areas had processing rooms that were distinctly reminiscent of a concentration camp. I was much happier when we moved on to the mulled wine and dried fruit tasting area. So happy in fact that I bought some of both.

This is random, but not really as it's something I live with every day. The more I see and learn about poverty, the more I realize how pointlessly cyclical it is. It could be stopped if someone would just address the underlying factors instead of trying to put a temporary bandaid on things. I know, easier said than done. Of the said underlying problems there are many, but I truly believe that if you give people a legitimate chance in life they will take it. Obviously there will always be inequality, but I just don't think the world has to be how it is.

I guess I've been thinking more and more about this the longer I stay here in Cordoba. Every day you encounter someone who asks you for money, and 75% of the time it's a child. I HATE giving money to people, not because I'm stingy but because I have no idea where it's going. So many children here are addicted to the very strong and very cheap drugs that are prevalent in the slums, and giving them even a few pesos is basically getting them high for the day. You normally wouldn't imagine that a 7 year old is asking you for drug money, but when these kids grow up in such misery it's really no wonder that they don't want to be with it all the time. What I like to do instead is give people food, so I try to keep something on me to offer up instead of cash. What's even more depressing than a kid who's begging, however, is a kid who's so high that they refuse whatever you're giving them with a depressed shoulder shrug as they slouch away. I'm obviously not saying that ALL kids in slums do drugs, because that's definitely not the case. However, an alarming portion of them do start huffing solvents and snorting the resin of whatever's left over after you make coke when they're 7 or 8. When I was 7 I was making rocket ship control panels out of scraps and playing AYSO soccer. It's just weird to think of the comparison.

On a lighter note and to prove that not all kids who grow up in slums are doomed to be dejected, unhappy people, today during our weekly Beer Wednesday gathering a little kid came around with homemade bracelets trying to get a donation. As usual, I didn't give him any money. However, a friend in the group had a bag of candies and I offered him one. While a kid before him had glanced at them and just kind of dazedly walked off, this little guy got the hugest smile on his big round face and went, "Really?!" Just like a normal 8 year old would do. He took one and happily walked away, back to what type of environment I have no idea. He pretty much made my day. I know that there are a crazy number of things that everyone needs to change before poverty is reduced in any country, and candy's certainly not going to do the trick. Still, I'm glad I could do something to make that kid's face light up, at least for a second or two.

Awkward Turtle Week

Well, I told you things wouldn't be boring. In the past week I've gone to a rockin' concert (I somehow imagine Lyndsay saying rockin concert, so I'm writing it how I'm hearing her saying it), the entire Polish government died, my friend was robbed while we were walking, a volcano exploded and all of my friends in Europe are stuck without flights to Paris, I went to basically an international party with people from every corner of the world and learned some French and German, imagined myself in a scene from Passport to Paris while I talked to 4 Frenchmen who sounded EXACTLY like the actor with the accent that I originally thought was fake ("when the rain comes, I am sad"), and I got homesick. Now I will go into detail on several of those occurrences.

The Polish government and Iceland's volcano you probably already know about. My only comment on both of those incidences is this: Sorry guys, that sucks. As far as Córdoba events, I'll start in chronological order and tell you about the rockin' show. We went to a club to see a band called Onda Vaga, which means lazy vibe, who are from BA and are REALLY popular here. The club was packed, but we got relatively close up to the stage and had at least 2 inches of dancing space each, which in Argentine terms is great. The band has like 8 members and has a super cool vibe, but what really made it a good show was that you could just tell how much fun they were all having up there. It set the tone for the whole show, and made it pretty easy to dig their music. Here's their myspace page if you'd like to listen to them:
http://www.myspace.com/ondavaga

So that was great. Moving on the to robbery. We were walking last Saturday night to a party that Olivia's host siblings were at, and we really shouldn't have been walking a.) because it was 3 am and b.) because we were in a sketch part of town. However, being Americans and not Argentines, our mindset was more along the lines of "it's only 6 blocks!" whereas it should have been "it's a whole 6 blocks in a sketchy neighborhood and we're obviously foreign." So, as we were walking some dude came up from behind us and just ripped my friend's bag off her shoulder (literally ripped off the strap) and ran away. He was FAST too. Like I kind of feel like boyfriend would make more money if he put his efforts into becoming the next Prefontaine (funnily enough, the movie Prefontaine was playing dubbed over on tv the other day. Jared Leto is just not as cute when he's not shooting up drugs and getting his arm amputated. Name that movie. The arm amputation is a dead giveaway.). Anyway, so the man ran away with my friend's cash, camera, phone, and credit card, but everyone was unhurt so we have that to be thankful for. Mostly it was just a good lesson, because while we're all super comfortable here, we need to remind ourselves that we're in Argentina and a lot of people have no money and will thus take yours if given the opportunity.

On to the international party and Passport to Paris. We went to a friend's appartment where she and her roommates were having a "fancy party." Everyone spiffed up and payed a ridiculously small amount of money for a ridiculously large quantity of alcohol, and as we mingled we realized that not only were there Americans and Cordobeses, there were also English, French, German, and maybe Spanish and Brazilian people there too. This made the night infinitely more fun, because like 80 different languages were being thrown around at one time in a room where you already couldn't hear because of the music. I found myself out on the balcony chilling with a group of French guys, and I kid you not when I tell you that I am now impressed with the kid in Passport to Paris. I totally thought his accent was super corny and fake, and it probably was fake, but that's actually how French people sound when they speak English! Low and behold. It also turns out that the French are very gentlemanly, and I had like 8 layers of coats around my shoulders when I got a little cold. I also made friends with a couple Cordobeses, which I'm very happy about because I've been lacking in the Cordobes contact for a while (friend wise anyway).

I've also been homesick this past week, probably just because things were weird with the robbery and stuff. I'm getting over it, but I think it's definitely normal to feel this way when you can't just pick up the phone and tell someone you miss them. So on that note, I'd love to skype with as many of you as possible this week. Let me know what works for you.

Basically this is an entirely random blog, but it's been a random couple of weeks. Next weekend is Mendoza with white water rafting and wine tours, so stay tuned for something a little more interesting to read (and possibly some pictures). I'll be spending my week preparing for and taking my midterm exams, and probably watching a little classic MK and Ashley as well. Let's hope they have "Winning London" on youtube.

A Weekend at the Zú

As most of Latin America practices Catholicism, Easter is a pretty big deal down here. Therefore, at the university we get a long weekend to celebrate or go home to see family. For study abroad kids, this means taking off to travel somewhere and "aprovechar," or take advantage of, the extra time. A wide variety of Argentine provinces were visited by the CC-CS students over the holiday weekend, but my friends and I chose the province of Misiones, home of red dirt, tropical forests, and Iguazú Falls, a very large ring of waterfalls that stretches across the border with Brasil. So, Wednesday morning we prepared ourselves mentally and physically (aka by buying lots of snacks) for the 22 hour bus ride and started the journey off to Jurassic Park incarnate.

Funnily enough, we didn't quite make it there on time because our bus "se rompió," or broke down, for two hours in what we thought was the middle of nowhere Misiones. When I woke up it was still dark outside, and I groggily thought it suspicious that the air conditioning had turned off. Before even opening my eyes, I heard the woman behind me saying, "se rompió, que bárbaro," which basically means, "It broke down, what shit!" Upon hearing this I said a few choice words in English, still without opening my eyes, and promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. Two hours later I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and the realization that we had not in fact had any type of mechanical problems, we simply ran out of gas and were waiting for a little man in a pickup truck to come manually pump some into our tank. We then proceeded to drive 5 MINUTES to another bus station. Such is Argentina.

When we finally got to Puerto Iguazú, we discovered that our hostel was basically Cancun Spring Break MTV style, so we threw on our suits and hopped in the pool for the rest of the afternoon to wash away the filth of what turned out to be a 26 hour bus ride. The hostel had a great kitchen so we cooked every day, which saved us a TON of money in the long run. Saturday, our last night, we went out for an asado to splurge, and Olivia got the waiter's email (brownie points Liv, brownie points). Darío, our friend from Buenos Aires who met us in the Zú, told the waiter that she was leaving the next day, to which he responded, "Yes, but she might come back!" Again, such is Argentina.

So back to the actual falls. We luckily used our student ID and residency cards to get ourselves some mad discounts on tickets to the parque, which also saved us a ton of money. The nice people who took our tickets told us we could get them stamped for a discount the next day, which we did, and he remembered us when we came back to him. This was the Friday before Easter, which is THE busiest day in Parque Nacional de Iguazú. That means that this man had seen over 12,000 people at the ticket line that day, a very large portion of them foreigners, and yet managed to remember who we were and where we were studying. This is one thing I love about Argentina. They're so centered around relationships that they always remember you, always greet you by name, always make you feel extra welcome. This has been a huge reason why I feel so at home here I think.

We walked in and started out our hike to the falls, and were instantly reminded of several scenes from both Jurassic Park and the Land Before Time (Janie, I was expecting Petri and Ducky to jump out at me the whole time, or on a more unfortunate level, the T-Rex who ate that dude off the toilet in Jurassic Park, which if you recall I saw for the first time on your surround-sound tv at the age of 5 and had nightmares for like a week). The contrast between the red dirt and the incredibly lush, green tropical foliage is amazing. And then there are the falls. The jungle itself is impressive, but the falls are something else entirely. You cannot fathom how much water pours down them every second, or the power they have. We walked right up to one at a lookout point and got absolutely drenched from the mist. Here's a photo of part of the falls (yes, there is more. We didn't even see the Brazilian side).



Ridiculous, right? And then there's La Garganta del Diablo, or Devil's Throat, which I'm not even going to put a picture up of because pictures just can't do it justice. It's a HUGE fall, just this complete gurgling madness, and you can't see the bottom because there's so much mist. You can see the mist that it produces from the other side of the park, and it looks like smoke coming up. For those of you who have been, these falls put Niagra to shame.

All in all, Iguazú was one of our best trips so far. The scenery alone was so completely incredible, but as always with our crew there was tons of laughter and fun times as well. I would say that I think the next few weekends will be pretty quiet, but knowing Córdoba I'll have some other grand adventure to tell you all about in roughly 3 days. As much fun as I'm having down here, know that I'm missing you all and that I'm sending more love than there is water in Iguazú Falls, Brasilian side included. <3 Besito a todos.

Will Smith Hits the Hiking Trails

When we first got here, our program director gave us a list of possible volunteering opportunities. All of them sounded great, but my friend Olivia (also an environmental studies major) and I asked if there was anything we could do involving the outdoors. A few weeks ago, Vicky came back to us with information on a trip to Los Gigantes, a mountain range in the Córdoba province which is roughly 3 hours away from the city by bus. We eagerly signed up, not really even sure what we were signing up for, and this weekend the two of us and two other guys from our program packed up our mochilas and headed out for some down and dirty time with nature.

When we arrived at the Los Gigantes bus stop, I was reminded of my kindergarten days waiting for the bus (which I would inevitably end up puking all over through most of that grade, as well as on Jimmy, the quiet boy who was in the wrong place after a particularly unfortunate lunch involving cheeze-its. ya. gross.) at my friend Jane's house, in the little hut of a bus stop that the neighbors had built. Except there is NOTHING around this bus stop except a few houses that you have to walk a good 15 minutes across the Pampas to get to. We said what's up to some cows as the bus swerved around them, and then hopped off to be greeted by our guide, Ivan. This kid was pretty cool, as he was still in high school and had been coming up to do work in Los Gigantes long enough to know the way up without hesitation. From there, we hiked up, and up and up, until we reached a hiker's refuge at what we calculated to be roughly 7,000 feet. While my mind said "That was awesome," my legs and butt said something akin to "I will get you back so hard in the morning, you just wait."

After meeting the rest of the volunteers, all of whom were thankfully Argentine and very cool, we got to work restoring "el medio ambiente" (literally the half environment, which our project director Ricardo laughingly pointed out). A lot of erosion has occurred because the cows that somehow make it to the top of the mountains (they just wander everywhere, there aren't really any boundaries) eat all the Tabaquillo plants, which naturally maintain the soil structure. Because the land has become so eroded, it's getting inhospitable to Tabaquillo. After resting por un ratito, we got to work digging up Poa plants, which are big grass clumpy things. While the guys planted the Poa in an eroded hillside to reconstruct the integrity of the land, Olivia and I dug. And dug. And fell down. A lot. Mostly because we were laughing too hard.

That night we had an awesome asado in the refuge (which has lights and water because of a solar panel on the roof. very cool.) and played Chancho Va!, which is a card game that is translated to Pig Go! We played that with the guys in Tanti about a month ago and were very pleased to continue. The next morning we leisurely awoke around 9 because Argentina is awesome and not concerned with schedules, and I brushed my teeth outside with some extremely gorgeous nature around me. Needless to say, I felt pretty lucky to be there.

Before we headed down the mountain we moved a bunch of buckets of sand and rocks, which is about as physically fun as it sounds but was made infinitely better by some awesome conversation on Argentine and US environmentalism. This is Olivia and me (I used correct grammar, Dad. I think.) in front of the refuge, nice and dirty and loving Los Gigantes.

The title of this blog comes from the backwards hat Fresh Prince in his prime look that I rocked all weekend with Martha's prized Bodega hat from Mendoza (which I returned a little dirtier than it started out as, but otherwise unharmed). After the Great Flood passed (it rained REALLY hard for about half an hour) we started the hike down sporting the latest rain gear, trash bags. The hike down was quite a bit easier to swallow than the climb up, let me tell you. At one point when we were walking across the plains and could look out for miles and see nothing but cows, Olivia turned back to me and said, "We're in Argentina." Sometimes we have to remind ourselves just how fortunate we are and how amazing this experience is, because Argentina already feels like home and we're so comfortable here. However, I fully appreciate that I spent my weekend giving back to the land that's supporting me for 6 months and basically walked across a scene from National Geographic for two days. But just to emphasize, I'm in Argentina. It's fairly cool or whatever.

Cool Contest: Brasil v. Argentina

So the past couple weeks have been pretty quiet here in Córdoba. I started some of my classes at the program center on Monday, and will start my university class in April (the art department is having building issues, so they just decided to chill til next month). So far I've made a couple new friends who are from different parts of the world, but I'm still waiting to really hang out with Argentines. I'm hoping that when I start my art class I'll make some new contacts, because I feel like part of the point of my being here is to make Argentine friends! However, it's hard to do this when you're constantly hanging out with American kids (all of whom I love, however).

Fortunately, we ARE in a foreign country and are therefore forced to have contact with Argentines on a regular basis. While I've not yet made any long-lasting Argentine friendships, some very cool Argentine people have made guest appearances in my life here. We usually end up chilling with some locals in whatever place we go, which has been great. I think part of our appeal is that we're foreign and therefore new, but I also believe that Argentines are just incredibly friendly and genuinely curious and open people. I'm grateful for that, because it's made my life in Córdoba so much more interesting.

Last night, for instance, we went to a place called Casa Brasil to listen to live Brasilian music. The Casa Brasil is kind of like a community center for Brasilians abroad, and unless you know exactly what you're looking for it's kind of a Diagon Alley-type situation to find it (three taps on this brick, four to the left). The only distinguishing factor that tipped me off to its existence was the distinctly Brasilian beats coming from inside as I passed the door. I kind of slinked inside, still unsure as to whether I was actually entering someone's home, and thankfully saw my friend Olivia waiting by the door. Man, am I glad I didn't get sketched out and leave! The music was awesome. I adore Brasilian music. The beats, the instruments, the Brasilian men who play them, I love them all. We drank a traditional Brasilian drink that involved a lot of lemon-lime deliciousness and generally soaked it all in.

The show was great, and afterwards we hung out with the band for a while and shared some Quilmes and conversation. Things at the Casa wound down but it was still really early (only 3 am!) so we all headed back to the band's hostel. Low and behold, our friend Hendrix was there playing the guitar in a jam sesh with the band! The whole night turned into a singfest with half the hostel, Argentine guys, hostel employees, and British man included. The British man more just sat on a couch by himself, but he still counts.

It's random nights like these that truly make my time here special. You never know where you'll end up at the end of the night or who you'll meet. It's an aspect of life that I've never really experienced before, this spontaneity. Sure, I've definitely had a lot of random nights with my friends back home, but here everything is new. There's a 90% chance every day that I'll go somewhere I've never been before or do something I've never in my life done, which is something I'm growing to truly appreciate and love. I'm learning a lot of life lessons down here, which is kind of the point I guess. Who knows what tonight will bring. Whatever it is, I'm down for the ride.

Bright Lights, Big City

Last Thursday our month-long intensive language and culture course ended, and after taking our finals and a language placement exam for the universidad we hopped on an overnight bus bound for the BIG city, Buenos Aires. The overnight buses here come in levels of luxury, starting with your normal bus and ending with a full blown bed chair that reclines and has a foot rest. We were in a semi-cama, meaning semi-bed, which was still pretty freaking comfortable. I don't sleep well on various modes of transportation, including buses, because I'm a side sleeper with a preference for the fetal position. But, low and behold, you can actually sleep that way on semi-cama buses! Big points for Argentine travel.

We got into town Friday morning around 7. I say town but I definitely mean that metaphorically. Buenos Aires is the biggest city I've ever been in, and I was only in a tiny section of it. We took a city tour on our super American tour bus, and this tour took us roughly 4 hours. We didn't even cover half of the city. What we did see was some beautiful arquitecture, lovely gardens, happy looking people, and major landmarks like the Casa Rosada (instead of a white house they have a pink house) and the Plaza de Mayo. What we didn't see was the southern part of the city where all the poor people set up shack. I understand that we couldn't go there, as it would be very dangerous and stupid for a group of American college students to go gallavanting around a Villa Miseria (literally village of misery, which is the name for slums). However, I wish I could have visited somewhere without manicured parks and a bazillion tourists buzzing around. The Villas are where I want to work, the people I want to help. Therefore, I kind of feel as though it's important to actually SEE a villa miseria for myself. Unfortunately, there's just no safe way to do that while I'm a student down here. Next time I'm back I'll hopefully be working with an NGO, so I guess I'll just have to wait to see what I'm up against.

We also visited the museum of Evita, or Eva Perón. Having taken many Latin American history and politics courses I was familiar with the story of Evita and Juan, but the museum was a great way to learn more about her story and the reason she is both so beloved and so disliked by many here in Argentina. Saturday was also the day I lost my voice, due to a cold I seem to have picked up somewhere. I still don't have it back, which makes it difficult for people to understand me as I already have an American accent. I'm assuming the collective 15 hours of sleep over the whole weekend didn't help too much, but I've been doing my best to catch up these past few days (11 hours each night!). The picture here is with Evita and Juan's awesome auto, which is currently parked in the museum.

One place you need to visit in Buenos Aires is La Boca. This barrio has such an interesting history, and is reknowned for its multitude of both boats (it used to be the main port in Buenos Aires) and colorful houses. Artist Juan Quinquela Martín grew up here and painted the shipyards his whole life, and we visited his home/museum to view some of his beautiful work. The colors in his paintings are ridiculous, but I guess that comes from the ridiculously colorful backdrop that is La Boca. Unfortunately we had to stay in one very small section of the barrio as it's pretty poor and relatively unsafe. I would have liked to see more of it, but at least we got to see the Boca Juniors stadium from afar. No fútbol game that day, but still pretty cool to see the place that many Argentines equate with church.

Sunday was my friend Olivia's 21st birthday, so Saturday night a bunch of us took her out to celebrate Argentine style, aka with a lot of Fernet. It was a fairly awesome way to spend your 21st in my opinion, because we also went to an amazing live dinner and Tango show on Saturday. The main dancers were incredible. I cannot fathum moving my legs so fast and with such precision, expecially when you're kicking all up in somebody's man parts (they did this backwards between the legs kick thing that I was just waiting to see go terribly, terribly wrong). However, girlfriend's face was SCARY as the result of too much plastic surgery at far too young an age. A couple of the other girls looked like they hadn't eaten in the past 2 decades, but that's Argentina for you - plastic surgery and eating disorder capital of the world. I'm assuming it's worse for the dancers.

Overall, Buenos Aires was a great weekend and I'd love to go back for another. However, we were all very happy to come home to Córdoba, where things move a little slower, the people are a little friendlier, and you don't hear as much English. I'm about 80 times more greatful that I'm studying here and not in BA or another huge city. It was also pretty cool to realize that when I got homesick this weekend it was for Córdoba and my life here. I think that's a pretty good sign.

Our Friend Stanley

This weekend a big group of girls from my program hauled off to a little town in the Sierras called Tanti. It was a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of the city, especially because we're going to Buenos Aires this weekend and will be truly overwhelmed. Tanti is situated roughly 20 minutes from Carlos Paz, a city smaller than Córdoba that attracts many tourists who want both city and country life. Tanti, however, consists mostly of a few houses, some little shops, and 4 different heladerias (heladeria: ice cream shop. A staple in all of Argentina.). All I can say is, Tanti is perfect.

To the right is a picture of some of the countryside that we hiked through on our first day in town. We stayed at an incredibly picturesque hotel that was built in 1918, and cost us only $10 (US) a night and included breakfast (you have not tried croissants unless they're homemade by a little old lady in a population 2000 town. Or I guess if you go to France or whatever). From our hotel we walked along the river to a small waterfall, and then continued on to the hills. It was beautiful. Also on this walk we made an important new friend - Stanley. Stanley is one of the many street dogs that live free in Argentina. This is a phenomenon that we've all had to get used to, because there are dogs literally everywhere. Stan found us half way through our hike, and accompanied us thereafter. He also led us back when we weren't sure which paths to take, so thanks, Stan. We pretty much fell in love with this dog and were quite sad to say goodbye.

The people of Tanti are some of the nicest I've met so far, which is saying a lot in Argentina, country of nice people. To be "simpatico" (an agreeable, generally good-natured person) is highly valued in this country, and in most places it shows. However, the people of the mountains are famous for their friendliness and I'm pretty excited to meet some more of them in the near future.

Saturday we had two very cool (and attractive, but that's not surprising as EVERYONE in Argentina is attractive) guides take us into the mountains to hang out in the river, do some rock climbing, and ride a zip line. They also gave us some of the best salami I've ever eaten and bread made by a very old woman up the road. I managed to get a pretty awesome sunburn, and by awesome I mean not, but this is my only complaint. Thankfully, there were aloe plants everywhere and we all snagged some leaves to rub all over our painfully red appendages.

That night we made some new friends at a bar. Juan, Tomás, Nacho (Ignacio) and Mariano hung out with us until 7 am (standard) until we finally stumbled back to our hotel to sleep for a few hours before we met back up with them at Tomas' house for the best asado I've eaten to date. It's kind of ridiculous. Here's a picture of what you're missing in the US:

And yes, those are eggs cooking in those red peppers as they roast. These people come up with the best uses for eggs, but unfortunately none of them include breakfast foods. To make the trip complete, guess who found us in the street as we were walking to the asado? Stanley! It pretty much made my life, and that is not an exaggeration. All in all, these were some of my best days in the Tina so far. Next weekend is the big B.A., so that should make for some interesting stories as well. For now, it's nice to know that whenever we're feeling a little overwhelmed, we always have Tanti to go back to.

Eureka!

Today something pretty cool happened. I realized halfway through the day that this morning I managed to properly convey my thoughts and have a fluid conversation with my mom regarding the trash/recycling problem in Córdoba. There had been something on the news about trash, and that sparked a nice breakfast conversation about recycling, landfills, and the many uses of compost. While this was all very interesting and enjoyable to talk about, the trash problem is not what I got excited about as I was sitting in class today. This morning marked one of the first times that I had limited problems expressing myself and only had to look up one word during our conversation (waste: desperdicio). After all of the frustration of the past few weeks, this was fairly comforting to me.

One of the hardest aspects of being in a foreign country is simply the fact that it's hard to get to know people or show others your actual personality when you can't speak properly. You don't know the local colloquialisms, you don't have your signature catchphrases, you don't even move the same way when you speak. This makes adjusting to a new country with new people and customs very difficult. It's exhausting.

However, today made me realize that no matter how bad I think I am at Spanish right now (and I'm still pretty bad), I actually am improving. Today I thought back to last semester when I was taking a conversation class at Ithaca, and it's kind of amazing how bad I ACTUALLY was at speaking then. The difference between December and now is huge, so I can only imagine how much I'll have improved by August. I've been fretting recently (due mostly to my frustration with the language barrier) that I won't really have made any strides by the time I leave Argentina. I see now that this is impossible, as I can really only get better from here on out. Ya, I'll definitely still have work to do, but just being around native speakers is making me better in itself.

I still fully expect many frustrating moments in the next 5 months, and many more "I CANNOT SPEAK SPANISH" freak outs. However, my Thomas Edison light bulb moment today has helped me realize that I just need to take it in stride. So here's to being one step closer to fluency. Everyone raise your alfahores. I'll explain those in another entry. They're too ridiculously delicious and full of dulce leche and beef fat to go into detail here.

Cough Cough, Wheeze Wheeze

As many of you know, I'm an environmental studies major. Part of the reason I'm down here is because my concentration is Latin American culture and agriculture, and my minor is Spanish. Therefore, it makes sense for me to study in a Latin American country and learn a little bit more about the environmental problems down here.

Well, there are quite a few. For instance, when I go running through the city it's much akin to running through a smoke-filled bar, with a spritz of noxious car fumes thrown in. As you can imagine, I get a little wheezy and feel a little LESS healthy than when I started out. Now imagine that you're a child who grows up in this environment so doesn't know anything different, and the slew of health problems that will inevitably result from constant contact with carcinogens. They simply don't have the same regulations we do. Even with those regulations the US still has nasty air and does a fabulous job of polluting the air of everyone else, so imagine air quality where city buses regularly spew out black diesel fumes.

A lot of the environmental problems down here closely mirror our own in the US. Argentina has become a very big fan of monoculture crops grown solely for export, namely soy. No one here eats soy. Ever. The expansive fields that we pass on the way out of the city will be harvested and shipped off to other parts of the world. This not only hurts the local farmers and food economy, but also the land on which these monocultures are grown. In a few years, the soil will be infertile and farmers will have to plant somewhere else. As we're seeing in the US, this is not a particularly effective strategy as there is only so much land in one country and many, many people to feed.

Still, in many ways the Argentines have us beat. Energy costs are pretty high down here, so lights are turned off whenever possible and electric appliances are unplugged while not in use. The houses and apartments are usually spacious enough for the family that lives in them, but space is not wasted. Yes, you're forced to be a lot more comfortable with the people you live with because you're physically closer to them, but from what I've seen this simply encourages tighter-knit families who get used to sharing early on. This is reflected in the general culture of sharing down here, which not only brings people together on a human level but also saves resources.

Additionally, instead of going to big supermercados (which they unfortunately have down here, along with many other American installments) people generally walk two blocks and buy their groceries at their local tiendas (small stores). Our verduria (vegetable and meat shop) is one block away, and my host mother goes there every day to pick out ingredients for the days meals. In this way the food is very rarely prepackaged, which again saves resources.

Overall, Argentina's got some serious steps to take before it's environmentally sound, but so does every country (except maybe Costa Rica, who rocks at everything. No military? Good job guys). The first step is education, because no one really seems to be aware of the issues or what they can do to fix them. There is no recycling program here, so teaching people to separate recyclables and compostables will be essential. For now I'm just trying to take note and learn so that some day maybe all Argentines will care as much about the earth as I do.

"I will keees your tattoo."

As I've mentioned before, people take their time here. You're 10 minutes late to class? "There was congestion in el centro" is the standard excuse, used for everything and always presumed to be a fib but accepted anyway. You see a friend at the mall? You sit and chat "por un rato," or a little while. People stop in to see you unannounced all the time, and it's just expected that you'll hang out for a while. And to add to this general relaxed nature, you have a beautiful thing known as the siesta.
The siesta is usually taken between 1-5. Many businesses close down for a few hours, as this is also the time when people eat the biggest meal, almuerzo (lunch). After eating to your heart's content, why not take a nap? And this is what we do. While I'm at school it's a bit different, because I don't get home until the middle-end of the actual siesta, but there isn't a time limit on things. If you want to take a nap at 6 p.m., more power to you - there's always the night time to get whatever you need to done. As a veteran and champion napper, I am definitely in my element here.
The weekends prove to be the most essential time for napping, as people have a habit here of staying out until 6 a.m. This Saturday we went to a boliche, which is the word for dance club. People here start going out around 11:30 p.m., and the night starts with a "previa" (which is what we call pregaming) at a bar or someone's house if you're trying to save money, and then around 2 you head to the boliches. Things don't really get started there til 3. The music in the boliches is far superior to American club music, because it's all very upbeat and easy to have dance parties to. I particularly liked the Brazilian music, as well as "el cuarteto," which is music from Cordoba that requires you to find a partner and do lots of twirls and turns. Needless to say, when I poured myself into bed at 5 a.m. (which is early here) I was tuckered but very excited to have passed my first night out in such a fun way.
I also had the pleasure of tasting Fernet this weekend. Fernet is basically the drink of choice for Argentines, and it is always served with coke. Fernet negra has a more mild flavor than Fernet verde, which basically tastes like pure mint cough syrup. Fernet negra is loved by all Argentines, but usually hated by foreigners. I, however, grew quite fond of Fernet negra over the course of the night. Between that and the cervezas, which are HUGE and so cheap, I have happily found my Argentine drink of choice.
Again with the theme of sharing, in the boliches you buy a drink (which is always served in a massive plastic cup), bring it back to your group, drink some, and then hold it up in the middle of the circle of your friends. It is subsequently passed around until everyone who wants a sip has safely deposited their germs on your drink. This continues all night. It's a big money saver, makes for fast friends, and generally guarantees that you will one day catch the plague. Needless to say, they're not germaphobes here.
All in all, my first real weekend here was a success. I made some new friends, learned some new customs, and spoke in broken Spanish all weekend with some very forgiving locals, a few of whom really enjoyed trying out their English on us (hence the title of this blog, which is a direct quote from a very happy and very short chico who seemed fascinated with the Oregon tattoo on my back). I'm looking forward to many a weekend like this one, and of course, more Fernet!

The friendliest people on earth

Hey guys!
So, after a ton of random troubleshooting things I actually got my internet to work in my house! I'm actually very proud of myself because normally I make computers die, not fix them. But this is extremely good news on the communication front. On the weekends it's hard for me to schedule exact sessions to ichat and skype and stuff, because we tend to just decide to go do things without really planning anything here. So this is what I'll do: As much as possible, whenever I'm home and available I'll try to be logged on to ichat and skype. That way if you've got a free second you can check to see if I'm logged on. On the week days we can schedule stuff just fine, because at night I'll usually be home getting ready for school the next day. 10 pm my time is 5 pm west coast, 8 pm east coast if that's helpful.
I haven't really talked about actual Argentina yet, so that's what I'm going to do today. Right now, it's RIDICULOUSLY hot. I think it's just kind of the last dog days of summer type thing, but since no one has air conditioning you're just constantly sweating. The weather is much akin to Iowa in the summer, if I haven't already said that. And we all know how I feel about Iowa's weather.
I think what I like most about Argentina is the people. They're some of the friendliest, most welcoming people I've ever met. I expected to get some negative reactions every time I had to say I was from the United States, but people mostly just seem to be excited that we're down here to study and learn about Argentina. They're eager to share their country with us. And they're all so helpful! Every time we have a map out someone comes up and asks if we need help getting somewhere. The bus system here pretty much requires insider knowledge because there are no routes posted and no "the next stop is such and such" read outs, and each time I've ridden it I've had to ask someone how far away my stop is so I don't miss it. Each time I do this they give me a big smile, take me to the back of the bus, point out when we're getting near, and press the "I want to get off" bell for me. Then they make sure I know which building is the Central Policia (that's just the landmark I use to get off because it's right by my house) and send me on my way. Everyone's curious and asks us questions about what part of the US we're from, how we like Cordoba, and how our Castellano is (that's the type of Spanish they speak here). It makes you feel better about things when everyone is so gracious and helpful.
There are several things, however, that are different from what they told us to expect in the program manual we got in the United States. Here are a few lies of the CC-CS handbook.
1. People dress very formally. While this may be true (to some extent) in the professional sector, people really wear whatever the crap they want, including belly shirts. All the nicer clothes I bought were entirely unnecessary.
2. The men are all obnoxious and will cat-call you at all times. I have had maybe one cat-call, as have my friends, and it was just an "hola chicas!" which is not uncommon to hear in the US from some random guy. Most of the men here are very polite, and even more pay zero attention at all (and if they do they keep it to themselves).
3. No one carries big bags or purses. This is just a flat out lie. I left my big school purses at home for nothing.
4. Ipods and things are never used. While actual ipods are certainly less common (the real product is incredibly expensive here), people definitely use mp3 players on the bus and stuff. Cordoba is a city full of students and professionals. It's not uncommon for people to have nice cell phones and computers and stuff.

There are a bunch of cultural differences, but these are not some of them. In a few days I'll write about all of the changes I've encountered like the food and the sheer lack of any environmental consideration, but that's a post in itself and this one is already too long. Love and miss you all, and hope we can chat soon!

I'm alive! Argentine drugs are strong, apparently.

Ok, so here are some things that have happened to me within the past several days:
1. Ate my first asado (it was delicious)
2. Drank my first (and second) mate (it was also delicious)
3. Went to the paseo de los artes. It's basically an open air market that happens every weekend, and people sell crafts and trinkets and stuff. A lot of it's really beautiful stuff, and it's all SO CHEAP! Which is awesome.
4. Had my first day of school, technically. All we did was take placement tests.
5. Got a stomach bug and subsequently missed my first real day of school.
6. Recovered thanks to a potent shot and some antibiotics, courtesy of Pablo, my house-visiting doctor.
7. Actually had my first day of school. My teacher's name is Fanni, and she's very nice but sometimes I think that she gets frustrated with how we butcher the language. I got placed in the intermediate class, for which I'm very grateful because I skipped a level at Ithaca and was really really nervous when the program tried to put me in advanced.

So, aside from Montezuma's revenge, It's been a good first few days. The story on my internet sitch is that I have it at school, but so far not at home. This complicates how often I can skype with you all, because the time change from here to the west coast is 5 hours (I'm ahead) and to the east coast I'm ahead 2 hours. So basically it's only complicated with the people I want to talk to on the west coast. Sorry guys. But my dad has been diligently working on finding an update for my computer, as have Martha's son and his friend. So hopefully we'll find something soon and get it going en casa.

Anyway, that's all for now. Miss and love you all.

Montezuma´s revenge.

Hola a todos,
Sorry I´ve been MIA. It looks like I won´t really have internet in my house because my computer isn´t compatible with the wireless or something, so I´ll be bringing my computer to school most days and hopefully we can all chat then. Lots has happened in the past few days, but unfortunately I have a stomach flu and had to miss the first real day of class. Call it montezuma´s revenge. anyway, this is a terribly short post but I´m trying to figure out if I have homework and I also want to go back to bed. More later!

also, lyndsay, they have a badet. or however you spell it. I will not be using it.

Estoy aqui!

Hola a todos! Well, after a VERY long and not at all restful trip I´m finally in the Tina. The flights all went fine and my neighbor kindly shared some tylenol pm on the long leg to Buenos Aires from Atlanta. We got through customs (there were several of us from CC-CS on the flight) and headed off to Cordoba, where we were greeted by our host moms. My mom´s name is Martha, and she´s incredibly nice and sweet. And funny. She has two middle-aged kids, Marcela y Martin. Martin lives in the Dominican Republic and Marcela lives in another city in Argentina. She´s going to visit with her son soon, so that´s exciting.
So far we´ve run some errands in the neiborhood, such as buying me hangars for my inordinant amount of clothing. Martha laughed at all of my shoes, but that´s ok. Oh and as far as the internet situation, we have it in the house but my computer won´t connect. Hopefully we´ll get that figured out soon, but until then I might be a little bit MIA.
Everyone here is incredibly nice. I´ve met some of Martha´s neighbor friends (we live in an appartment) and some of the little shopkeepers. They´re all very patient with me and dan muchos besos (the custom here is to give one kiss on the cheek when you see someone). I was incredibly pleased to see that one of the tiendas had an entirely gluten free section, because the owner has kids with allergies. So we bought some cereal and crackers for me to snack on, and Martha felt a lot better because she didn´t know what she was going to feed me for breakfast. I´m ridiculously tired but I´m about to take a bath and head to bed. We´ve got an early wakeup call for orientation tomorrow. Hopefully we´ll figure the internet situation out relatively soon, but until then I miss you all and hope everyone is well!

And I'm off! Well, almost.

Hi everyone! Well, it's the day before I head off to the Tina and I'm almost ready to go! For those of you who know my sister and are confused by my referencing Argentina as the Tina, I'm sorry. I tried to make the Arg happen, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue.
Well, after making a very long list, many Target runs, and a mishap with a lost cardigan (which I'm still kicking myself over), I'm officially almost packed. I'm a little concerned over how much closet space I'll actually have and whether said closet will be able to accomodate my excessive shoe collection, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now I'm focusing on getting everything in my two duffles and keeping it all under 50 pounds, which is difficult when you're dealing with massive shampoo bottles and a bag that already weighs 20 pounds by itself. However, I have full confidence (more or less) that by 4 a.m. tomorrow morning I'll be packed and ready to head off to Seatac for my first official trip out of the United States.
Here are some things I'm looking forward to experiencing during my 6 months in Argentina:
1. Yerba Mate. Those of you who have spent any amount of time with me know that when I die, my heaven will probably consist of a tea shop (much akin to the one you found in Rome I'm sure, Jess). Mate is a green tea that they're obsessed with drinking in the Tina. I am very excited about this.
2. Getting as close to fluent as possible in Spanish.
3. Asado.
4. Finding the note that my friend Samhir left for me in an unknown shop in Valparaiso, Chile.
5. Finding out how it's possible for the food portions to remain so large and the Argentine women so small.
6. Meeting a real life gaucho.

Keep checking back here to see if any of these things actually get done. For now I've got to get back to packing, leafing through my guidebook, and getting incredibly stoked to be in Argentina in less than 2 days!