These are just some things I've been told along the way about studying abroad:
"Eat too much, spend too much, and learn how to make time stand still!" - MP
"Study abroad is like a W. Right now you're on the high. You'll hit a low. Something exciting will happen and you'll remember why you did this. Then near the end you'll be ready to go home again. But by the time it's actually over, you won't want to leave." - MG
"I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run into each other, I like the kissing and the crying , I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone." -JSF
Monday, May 16, 2011
For once it would be nice to wake up and pour some cereal without getting in a fight with the box of milk.
One would think, that after living in a place for three months, that a person would become accustomed to certain things about life in that place.
Clearly, that's the idea in a perfect world, because I will never EVER get used to opening milk boxes in Buenos Aires.
They look like this:
And at one end of the top, there's a little flap with perforated lines like this \ / that you're supposed to tear open to pour, but here's the thing... You can't tear it open because the container is too thick, so you only options are to take a scissors to it or hack at it with a knife. And no matter how careful you are, it will all of a sudden once it's open squirt out everywhere because it's literally filled right to the top. These containers of milk are honestly like the chicken and the egg mystery because I have no idea how they closed off the container if it's literally filled to 100% volume with milk. I imagine it to be a very messy and inefficient process, much like opening it is.
So, here I am, finished with breakfast and once again splattered with milk.
Continuing with the theme of this post, and seeing as how it's just past my halfway mark here, I figured it would be a good time to discuss some of the other things I have learned since I've been here as well.
+ On a faucet, the hot is still on the left and the cold is still on the right... The left is just labeled "C" because in Castellano, caliente means hot
+ The water in the toilets really does spin in the other direction South of the Border
+ It's an absolute necessity to locate the flusher before you use the bathroom or else you will be in there searching for about 17 minutes because it's never, ever in the same place and sometimes it's even a surprise like a cord hanging from the ceiling or a pusher so high up on the wall you can't reach it while you're sitting down
+ Elevators here are old school, so not only are you responsible for opening and closing the doors, you also can only go to one floor at a time. So if you live in my building and the numbers on the elevator look like this:
8
L (upside down seven)
6
1 (supposed to be a five)
4
3
2
1
PB (Planta Baja, aka ground floor, also labeled 0 in some instances)
SS (Subsuelo, or basement)
And you're like me and live on the quinto piso and often get confused when you look and see that there's no button 5, you spend a lot of time in the elevator waiting on the wrong floor.
+ The Guia T is literally the Bible in a map version of Buenos Aires and should never be left at home
+ Post offices are far and few between so scouting one out is a chore. They also don't sell stamps at certain ones, and they're packed from the time they open until the time they close so you have to plan your whole day around going there.
+ Cell phone service for everyone is a pre-paid, month-to-month system, there's no such thing as two-year-long contracts
+ La Cabrera is one of the best steak spots in town
+ Coffee and alfajores at Havana are a delicious but deadly combination
+ Forget beef, the best ice cream in the world is in Argentina. There's a competition between whether Freddo or Volta is the best, but the winner is obviously without a doubt Volta.
+ Taking up a minor in la lingüística has finally paid off since everyone here speaks using yeismo y voseo
+ Many men aspirate their s's so I'm often confused by taxi drivers, at FedEx, and at the deli counter
+ Shamrock, The Alamo, and Magdalena's should all just be named "The American Bars of Buenos Aires"
+ You can't leave Terrazas before sunrise, and if you do leave before then, you probably shouldn't have even bothered to go
+ If you go to Groove on any given night there's a chance you'll end up in the middle of a foam party
+ Congo is the place to meet a young professional businessman, so when you walk in with your twenty-something group of girl friends, you will get pounced on
+ Spicy food in Argentina exists exclusively at Indian restaurants and in the muy picante sauce at La Fabrica de Taco
+ La Fabrica de Taco has the most delicious daiquiris and margaritas you will ever drink in favors including but not limited to original, strawberry, raspberry, grape, passionfruit, kiwi, watermelon, cilantro, mango, and pineapple
+ 90% of women between the ages of 18 and 32 are a size 00 or 0 and their hair is down to their waist. They also wear heels all day every day despite the treacherous nature of Buenos Aires sidewalks.
+ In a given day you will probably walk close to 4 miles and sit, but most likely stand, on public transportation for at least 35 minutes
+ Hora pico (rush hour) lasts all day, yet no one ever seems to be in a rush
+ Children wear school uniforms that are either smocks that make them look like bakers or tiny lab cots that make them look like tiny mad scientists
+ The exchange rate is 4:1 in the favor of Americans, but the prices are so inflated most things are pretty equal in value (groceries, clothes, shoes), some things are a lot cheaper (manicures, public transportation, taxis), and other things are expensive for no reason (paper, pens, nail polish, makeup)
+ Gap sweatshirts with the GAP logo across the front are extremely popular
+ Lacoste is worn by just about everyone
+ Nike is extremely popular here and has a store on just about every block, the only downside of this is that the majority of people here wear those weird mary-jane like sneakers with the toe cut-outs on them
+ Breakfast is allusive here and it is essentially not a meal
+ Medialunas are a coffee pairing staple and it is easy to eat three or four at a time
+ Everyone here drinks mate 24/7/365 and that's the only way they survive their day
+ Hockey here is jockey and is for the most part played on grass and by girls
+ The drinking age here is 18, and if you are a girl you will never get asked for an ID
+ Radio taxis are about the only thing in Buenos Aires that are efficient and progressive
+ When you plan to go away, you will travel by a bus that takes 15-25 hours and you won't think twice about flying
+ At the Jesuit universities, there's a dress code, and naturally that's where I'm taking all of my classes
+ UBA is the Universidad de Buenos Aires, it's free, and it's home to more than 300,000 students (and no that's not a typo) so the class size ranges anywhere from 7 students to 450 students
+ Monedas are equivalent to gold
+ Feather accessories are all the rage, but my friends and I are the only ones with them in our hair
+ Empenadas...yum (favorites consist of caprese, tuna, and humita)
+ Tuna salad here does not come on a sandwich, it comes in a bowl of heavenly goodness and includes tuna, lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, olives, and rice
+ Everything here comes with olives, but 99.99% of the time they still have the pit in them so you either nearly break a tooth or you have to awkwardly spit the pits out at the dinner table
+ Beer comes by the liter, making 40 ounce bottles look like nothing
+ Coke is all the rage, and you can't get a Pepsi or Pepsi products if your life depended on it
+ Gatorade comes in glass bottles, making it unsafe to bring with you when you exercise
+ Water in a restaurant is not free, only comes from a bottle (even though the tap water is safe to drink) and may actually cost more than your meal
+ When you eat in a restaurant you get charged cubierto and still have to leave a 10% tip
+ You realize it actually is inefficient that the US is the only country in the world that doesn't use the metric system, and you had to learn the conversion factors all over again for Celsius, meters, kilos, and liters because you didn't pay attention in 7th grade science class
+ Everything from avocados to Fay Bans to earrings are available for purchase off the street
+ Eggs, milk, and yogurt are not refrigerated
+ Ziploc baggies, Tupperwear containers, and Saran wrap are impossible to come by, as food preservation does not exist
+ In the USA we have the White House, in Argentina, they have the Pink House or Casa Rosada
+ Americans (and by Americans I mean Juli and I) are the only people who go for a run on the sidewalk, or outside at all
+ Argentineans have their own vocabulary, and Porteños have one of their own, too
+ It is never safe to cross the street, so you always run across as if your life depends on it, you know... since it actually does
+ Applying to become a temporary resident takes the same amount of time as your trip does
+ The police are rarely ever the good guys
+ You can get anything your heart desires delivered to your house: ice cream, sushi, empenadas...
+ There is a store for everything and in order to get everything on your shopping list you must go to all of them; the salami and cheese store, the grocery store, the fruit and veggies store, the bakery, the paper goods store, the box store, the gift bag store, the school supplies store, the book store, the pharmacy, the hair products store, the beauty supply store, the perfume store...
+ Kioskos are everywhere and open 24 hours a day, but at night you have to order though the gated off door
+ I've lived here three months and finally found somewhere that sells Doritos, Pringles, M&M's and Snickers
+ There is a protest somewhere in the city just about every other day, and all the non-essential places you know, for instance, the bankers union and the public transportation union have no qualms about going on strike for an undetermined amount of time
+ It is possible to ask someone where the nearest ATM is and they give you directions to the casino because the person didn't know what a cajero was so you had to ask where the machines that give out money are
+ You will go into a café, a store, or a restaurant and order something, then the person taking your order will look back at you like you have three heads, then repeat it faster and with more emphasis as if that's not actually at all what you ordered the first time, and when you say "si" they look astonished at the fact that they got it right and that that's actually what you want
+ You have to take your laundry to the laundry mat, but for $7 a week you get 3 loads washed with perfume-less detergent, dried, and folded, and you only have to walk 1/2 a block to drop it off and pick it up (but you're convinced that somewhere in the city there's probably a delivery service for this, too)
+ A 3 lane road will be 6 cars/colectivos/motorcycles wide
+ There's exactly one Wal-Mart in the entire province
+ Easy makes Home Depot and Lowe's look wimpy
+ Women breast feed not only in public but also on public transportation
+ The Sube pass is the greatest invention of all time and if I were to ever get robbed it would be the one thing I would honestly be upset about losing
+ 50-65 degree weather is essentially winter in Buenos Aires and everyone in the city breaks out their down coats, scarves, gloves, and boots and looks at you like you're crazy when you're walking around in a dress or jeans and a t-shirt
+ If you walk down the street and men don't click at or call after you, you get worried and are convinced you look like Shrek
+ Super Panchos come with french fries on them and are like heaven on a hot dog bun
+ There's ham in/on/with everything, even if it doesn't say so on the menu
+ I still don't eat ham but I have expanded my pallet to enjoy mustard and coffee
+ You have to sell your soul for more than 3 ketchup packets at McDonald's, a large here is the size of a medium at home, you don't have the option for supersize, and the only sauce for McNuggets is BBQ
+ Everything is done backwards in Argentina, and once you think you've figured out the system, they change it to make it even more backwards
I think this is just about everything, but I'm sure by the time I leave, I'll have another list twice as long as this one with even more Porteño absurdities.
Clearly, that's the idea in a perfect world, because I will never EVER get used to opening milk boxes in Buenos Aires.
They look like this:
And at one end of the top, there's a little flap with perforated lines like this \ / that you're supposed to tear open to pour, but here's the thing... You can't tear it open because the container is too thick, so you only options are to take a scissors to it or hack at it with a knife. And no matter how careful you are, it will all of a sudden once it's open squirt out everywhere because it's literally filled right to the top. These containers of milk are honestly like the chicken and the egg mystery because I have no idea how they closed off the container if it's literally filled to 100% volume with milk. I imagine it to be a very messy and inefficient process, much like opening it is.
So, here I am, finished with breakfast and once again splattered with milk.
Continuing with the theme of this post, and seeing as how it's just past my halfway mark here, I figured it would be a good time to discuss some of the other things I have learned since I've been here as well.
+ On a faucet, the hot is still on the left and the cold is still on the right... The left is just labeled "C" because in Castellano, caliente means hot
+ The water in the toilets really does spin in the other direction South of the Border
+ It's an absolute necessity to locate the flusher before you use the bathroom or else you will be in there searching for about 17 minutes because it's never, ever in the same place and sometimes it's even a surprise like a cord hanging from the ceiling or a pusher so high up on the wall you can't reach it while you're sitting down
+ Elevators here are old school, so not only are you responsible for opening and closing the doors, you also can only go to one floor at a time. So if you live in my building and the numbers on the elevator look like this:
8
L (upside down seven)
6
1 (supposed to be a five)
4
3
2
1
PB (Planta Baja, aka ground floor, also labeled 0 in some instances)
SS (Subsuelo, or basement)
And you're like me and live on the quinto piso and often get confused when you look and see that there's no button 5, you spend a lot of time in the elevator waiting on the wrong floor.
+ The Guia T is literally the Bible in a map version of Buenos Aires and should never be left at home
+ Post offices are far and few between so scouting one out is a chore. They also don't sell stamps at certain ones, and they're packed from the time they open until the time they close so you have to plan your whole day around going there.
+ Cell phone service for everyone is a pre-paid, month-to-month system, there's no such thing as two-year-long contracts
+ La Cabrera is one of the best steak spots in town
+ Coffee and alfajores at Havana are a delicious but deadly combination
+ Forget beef, the best ice cream in the world is in Argentina. There's a competition between whether Freddo or Volta is the best, but the winner is obviously without a doubt Volta.
+ Taking up a minor in la lingüística has finally paid off since everyone here speaks using yeismo y voseo
+ Many men aspirate their s's so I'm often confused by taxi drivers, at FedEx, and at the deli counter
+ Shamrock, The Alamo, and Magdalena's should all just be named "The American Bars of Buenos Aires"
+ You can't leave Terrazas before sunrise, and if you do leave before then, you probably shouldn't have even bothered to go
+ If you go to Groove on any given night there's a chance you'll end up in the middle of a foam party
+ Congo is the place to meet a young professional businessman, so when you walk in with your twenty-something group of girl friends, you will get pounced on
+ Spicy food in Argentina exists exclusively at Indian restaurants and in the muy picante sauce at La Fabrica de Taco
+ La Fabrica de Taco has the most delicious daiquiris and margaritas you will ever drink in favors including but not limited to original, strawberry, raspberry, grape, passionfruit, kiwi, watermelon, cilantro, mango, and pineapple
+ 90% of women between the ages of 18 and 32 are a size 00 or 0 and their hair is down to their waist. They also wear heels all day every day despite the treacherous nature of Buenos Aires sidewalks.
+ In a given day you will probably walk close to 4 miles and sit, but most likely stand, on public transportation for at least 35 minutes
+ Hora pico (rush hour) lasts all day, yet no one ever seems to be in a rush
+ Children wear school uniforms that are either smocks that make them look like bakers or tiny lab cots that make them look like tiny mad scientists
+ The exchange rate is 4:1 in the favor of Americans, but the prices are so inflated most things are pretty equal in value (groceries, clothes, shoes), some things are a lot cheaper (manicures, public transportation, taxis), and other things are expensive for no reason (paper, pens, nail polish, makeup)
+ Gap sweatshirts with the GAP logo across the front are extremely popular
+ Lacoste is worn by just about everyone
+ Nike is extremely popular here and has a store on just about every block, the only downside of this is that the majority of people here wear those weird mary-jane like sneakers with the toe cut-outs on them
+ Breakfast is allusive here and it is essentially not a meal
+ Medialunas are a coffee pairing staple and it is easy to eat three or four at a time
+ Everyone here drinks mate 24/7/365 and that's the only way they survive their day
+ Hockey here is jockey and is for the most part played on grass and by girls
+ The drinking age here is 18, and if you are a girl you will never get asked for an ID
+ Radio taxis are about the only thing in Buenos Aires that are efficient and progressive
+ When you plan to go away, you will travel by a bus that takes 15-25 hours and you won't think twice about flying
+ At the Jesuit universities, there's a dress code, and naturally that's where I'm taking all of my classes
+ UBA is the Universidad de Buenos Aires, it's free, and it's home to more than 300,000 students (and no that's not a typo) so the class size ranges anywhere from 7 students to 450 students
+ Monedas are equivalent to gold
+ Feather accessories are all the rage, but my friends and I are the only ones with them in our hair
+ Empenadas...yum (favorites consist of caprese, tuna, and humita)
+ Tuna salad here does not come on a sandwich, it comes in a bowl of heavenly goodness and includes tuna, lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, olives, and rice
+ Everything here comes with olives, but 99.99% of the time they still have the pit in them so you either nearly break a tooth or you have to awkwardly spit the pits out at the dinner table
+ Beer comes by the liter, making 40 ounce bottles look like nothing
+ Coke is all the rage, and you can't get a Pepsi or Pepsi products if your life depended on it
+ Gatorade comes in glass bottles, making it unsafe to bring with you when you exercise
+ Water in a restaurant is not free, only comes from a bottle (even though the tap water is safe to drink) and may actually cost more than your meal
+ When you eat in a restaurant you get charged cubierto and still have to leave a 10% tip
+ You realize it actually is inefficient that the US is the only country in the world that doesn't use the metric system, and you had to learn the conversion factors all over again for Celsius, meters, kilos, and liters because you didn't pay attention in 7th grade science class
+ Everything from avocados to Fay Bans to earrings are available for purchase off the street
+ Eggs, milk, and yogurt are not refrigerated
+ Ziploc baggies, Tupperwear containers, and Saran wrap are impossible to come by, as food preservation does not exist
+ In the USA we have the White House, in Argentina, they have the Pink House or Casa Rosada
+ Americans (and by Americans I mean Juli and I) are the only people who go for a run on the sidewalk, or outside at all
+ Argentineans have their own vocabulary, and Porteños have one of their own, too
+ It is never safe to cross the street, so you always run across as if your life depends on it, you know... since it actually does
+ Applying to become a temporary resident takes the same amount of time as your trip does
+ The police are rarely ever the good guys
+ You can get anything your heart desires delivered to your house: ice cream, sushi, empenadas...
+ There is a store for everything and in order to get everything on your shopping list you must go to all of them; the salami and cheese store, the grocery store, the fruit and veggies store, the bakery, the paper goods store, the box store, the gift bag store, the school supplies store, the book store, the pharmacy, the hair products store, the beauty supply store, the perfume store...
+ Kioskos are everywhere and open 24 hours a day, but at night you have to order though the gated off door
+ I've lived here three months and finally found somewhere that sells Doritos, Pringles, M&M's and Snickers
+ There is a protest somewhere in the city just about every other day, and all the non-essential places you know, for instance, the bankers union and the public transportation union have no qualms about going on strike for an undetermined amount of time
+ It is possible to ask someone where the nearest ATM is and they give you directions to the casino because the person didn't know what a cajero was so you had to ask where the machines that give out money are
+ You will go into a café, a store, or a restaurant and order something, then the person taking your order will look back at you like you have three heads, then repeat it faster and with more emphasis as if that's not actually at all what you ordered the first time, and when you say "si" they look astonished at the fact that they got it right and that that's actually what you want
+ You have to take your laundry to the laundry mat, but for $7 a week you get 3 loads washed with perfume-less detergent, dried, and folded, and you only have to walk 1/2 a block to drop it off and pick it up (but you're convinced that somewhere in the city there's probably a delivery service for this, too)
+ A 3 lane road will be 6 cars/colectivos/motorcycles wide
+ There's exactly one Wal-Mart in the entire province
+ Easy makes Home Depot and Lowe's look wimpy
+ Women breast feed not only in public but also on public transportation
+ The Sube pass is the greatest invention of all time and if I were to ever get robbed it would be the one thing I would honestly be upset about losing
+ 50-65 degree weather is essentially winter in Buenos Aires and everyone in the city breaks out their down coats, scarves, gloves, and boots and looks at you like you're crazy when you're walking around in a dress or jeans and a t-shirt
+ If you walk down the street and men don't click at or call after you, you get worried and are convinced you look like Shrek
+ Super Panchos come with french fries on them and are like heaven on a hot dog bun
+ There's ham in/on/with everything, even if it doesn't say so on the menu
+ I still don't eat ham but I have expanded my pallet to enjoy mustard and coffee
+ You have to sell your soul for more than 3 ketchup packets at McDonald's, a large here is the size of a medium at home, you don't have the option for supersize, and the only sauce for McNuggets is BBQ
+ Everything is done backwards in Argentina, and once you think you've figured out the system, they change it to make it even more backwards
I think this is just about everything, but I'm sure by the time I leave, I'll have another list twice as long as this one with even more Porteño absurdities.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
I will never forget where I was the day the towers fell...and I will never forget where I was when Osama Bin Laden was pronounced dead. Talk about living through history.
It was all worth it. God Bless America.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Guess What? You Really Can't Be In Two Places At Once
Sad, but true, I learned my lesson today. I have been in denial for over twenty years, but today, thanks to SJU and it already being time to register for Fall classes, being in two places at once most certainly is a fantasy. It's hard to believe that the semester on Hawk Hill is one month from being over, when mine is only hardly three weeks underway. It only took a solid four hours of planning from thousands of miles away, but I have a first semester senior year schedule. SENIOR YEAR. Where the heck did that come from?
It's unfortunate because I can't work it out that I have a 4 day weekend, every weekend, in PA like I have in BA, but the course material seems interesting so my 5 day work week should be worth it. I realized I was getting old when I took a look at the Economics course offerings and realized there's only one class that I haven't taken yet. Craziness. That's why it took me 4 hours to do my scheduling...I had to work around and economics class and a Spanish linguistics class that I absolutely have to take or I won't scary word starting with a g and ending in a raduate on time. AAAHHHHH!
Now I just have to wait around until Wednesday morning and registration will really be over and done with.
And onto important things, and back to Buenos Aires!
This weekend I played in my very first Argentine tennis tournament! I have to admit, I missed my SJU tennis friends... a lot. There's no replacing TOES :)
It was a small tournament...only about fifteen kids. Which is so much smaller than I'm used to. But it was awesome because it was the perfect, intimate opportunity for my friend Ben and I to practice our castellano on some porteños. Everyone was muy amable and they were all SO good at tennis! There's always the one cocky one in the group, and this one was in the form of the blond version of Rafael Nadal, who came complete with a sweat-band-tying-ritual. He was the only anti-social tennis "god" of the group though, so really in the scheme of things, he didn't matter so much. I played singles (terribly) for the first time in a long time, but the girl, Lucila, that I played against was a sweetheart. Then I met this boy Santiago who's in his second year at la UCA, one of the schools I'm taking class at. And then Lucila and this boy Hernán played Ben and I in mixed doubles which was a ton of fun! And best of all, the tournament was in another provincia, La Plata, so we got to see what life was like an hour south on the Autopista of Capital Federal. The weather turned on Sunday so the second day was rained out, but it's postponed until this coming Saturday, so I'll get to see all my new friends again on another day!
Another cool thing that's going on down here South of the Border is that I've been meeting with the acesora in charge of intercambio students that want to volunteer. We're working to start a Habitat for Humanity program down in Buenos Aires! There's a Global Village affiliate here, so we're hopefully going to start working within Capital Federal on the weekends, and then hopefully plan a Collegiate Challenge style trip in July after finals are over to the affiliate in Salta. So cool! And it'll ease the pain of not being home for SJU Collegiate Challenge this year. I'm excited to get started, and I'm anxious to see how their build sites function here, what kinds of materials they use, and what kinds of families they build for. I also think it'll be another great opportunity to practice Spanish with the local community, and it's even better since it's the local community that's in need.
This was just a short post, to tie up the loose ends of all things new and exciting going on down here, especially since I have about another 200 pages of reading for this week that still needs to get done...yay homework!
It's unfortunate because I can't work it out that I have a 4 day weekend, every weekend, in PA like I have in BA, but the course material seems interesting so my 5 day work week should be worth it. I realized I was getting old when I took a look at the Economics course offerings and realized there's only one class that I haven't taken yet. Craziness. That's why it took me 4 hours to do my scheduling...I had to work around and economics class and a Spanish linguistics class that I absolutely have to take or I won't scary word starting with a g and ending in a raduate on time. AAAHHHHH!
Now I just have to wait around until Wednesday morning and registration will really be over and done with.
And onto important things, and back to Buenos Aires!
This weekend I played in my very first Argentine tennis tournament! I have to admit, I missed my SJU tennis friends... a lot. There's no replacing TOES :)
It was a small tournament...only about fifteen kids. Which is so much smaller than I'm used to. But it was awesome because it was the perfect, intimate opportunity for my friend Ben and I to practice our castellano on some porteños. Everyone was muy amable and they were all SO good at tennis! There's always the one cocky one in the group, and this one was in the form of the blond version of Rafael Nadal, who came complete with a sweat-band-tying-ritual. He was the only anti-social tennis "god" of the group though, so really in the scheme of things, he didn't matter so much. I played singles (terribly) for the first time in a long time, but the girl, Lucila, that I played against was a sweetheart. Then I met this boy Santiago who's in his second year at la UCA, one of the schools I'm taking class at. And then Lucila and this boy Hernán played Ben and I in mixed doubles which was a ton of fun! And best of all, the tournament was in another provincia, La Plata, so we got to see what life was like an hour south on the Autopista of Capital Federal. The weather turned on Sunday so the second day was rained out, but it's postponed until this coming Saturday, so I'll get to see all my new friends again on another day!
Another cool thing that's going on down here South of the Border is that I've been meeting with the acesora in charge of intercambio students that want to volunteer. We're working to start a Habitat for Humanity program down in Buenos Aires! There's a Global Village affiliate here, so we're hopefully going to start working within Capital Federal on the weekends, and then hopefully plan a Collegiate Challenge style trip in July after finals are over to the affiliate in Salta. So cool! And it'll ease the pain of not being home for SJU Collegiate Challenge this year. I'm excited to get started, and I'm anxious to see how their build sites function here, what kinds of materials they use, and what kinds of families they build for. I also think it'll be another great opportunity to practice Spanish with the local community, and it's even better since it's the local community that's in need.
This was just a short post, to tie up the loose ends of all things new and exciting going on down here, especially since I have about another 200 pages of reading for this week that still needs to get done...yay homework!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Karl Marx: una cosa más que no entiendo en español
My study abroad "vacation" is officially over. It's a Saturday night and I'm in my room, taking my second 5 minute break from my homework to post this.
I forgot how much school sucks, and I did not anticipate that I would be getting 300+ pages of things in Spanish to read a week. I wish I was kidding about the logistics, but I'm not.
This is what my homework load is like:
Economía Internacional: too many pages of Karl Marx and David Hune translated into Spanish to count, probably somewhere close to 250
Introducción al Derecho Latinoamericano: first 4 chapters (100 pages)
Arte, Arquitectura, e Identidad en América Latina: about 75 pages
Iglesia y Estado: if it were possible to find this book anywhere in the entire province, I would have to read the preface to every chapter
Castellano Mantenimiento: first 5 chapters (150 pages)
And to top that all off it's April so time to get back to studying for the one, the only, LSATs!!!!!!
I'm so excited about that one.
At any rate, I played tennis today in a tournament for college students, and there were only 11 people there. Thank goodness I made my friend Ben play in the tournament with me. Fortunately, everyone except the sandy blond Rafael Nadal knock-off ninja wannabe was really nice. But it made me miss SJU and Toes and the days of classes without dress codes (yes, my schools here have a dress code) and homework that didn't take up every ounce of my brainpower and that was for the most part, in English.
Oh well.
I finally bought a map of the city to map out my hour long class commuting routes, hoping that I'll look at the map and find a faster way. Unfortunately, I don't really think that's going to happen. But I really like la UCA y a veces, me gusta la USAL so I think the distance is worth it. I'm never going to complain about having to walk any distance on campus/in Philadelphia again. En serio.
Además, there isn't really anything else new or exciting... I'm finding that I can actually find my economics manuscripts to read online in English, so for now that will save me some aggravation, although I still need to read them in Castellano as well so that I can get the vocabulary down pat.
I'm excited for my second day of Argentine tenis tomorrow, but I'm not ready to brave the world of singles again, on a clay court, for a while after this I don't think.. But we'll see.. I'm sure I could get talked into playing tennis anywhere, at anytime. Especially like the place Ben and I found to practice at...it's only $5 for two hours of play time! That's about as free as it's going to get, and I'm more than happy with that!
Anyway, ta ta for now. I've got about another hour of reading ahead of me, then off to bed for another early, long day! Chau chau!
I forgot how much school sucks, and I did not anticipate that I would be getting 300+ pages of things in Spanish to read a week. I wish I was kidding about the logistics, but I'm not.
This is what my homework load is like:
Economía Internacional: too many pages of Karl Marx and David Hune translated into Spanish to count, probably somewhere close to 250
Introducción al Derecho Latinoamericano: first 4 chapters (100 pages)
Arte, Arquitectura, e Identidad en América Latina: about 75 pages
Iglesia y Estado: if it were possible to find this book anywhere in the entire province, I would have to read the preface to every chapter
Castellano Mantenimiento: first 5 chapters (150 pages)
And to top that all off it's April so time to get back to studying for the one, the only, LSATs!!!!!!
I'm so excited about that one.
At any rate, I played tennis today in a tournament for college students, and there were only 11 people there. Thank goodness I made my friend Ben play in the tournament with me. Fortunately, everyone except the sandy blond Rafael Nadal knock-off ninja wannabe was really nice. But it made me miss SJU and Toes and the days of classes without dress codes (yes, my schools here have a dress code) and homework that didn't take up every ounce of my brainpower and that was for the most part, in English.
Oh well.
I finally bought a map of the city to map out my hour long class commuting routes, hoping that I'll look at the map and find a faster way. Unfortunately, I don't really think that's going to happen. But I really like la UCA y a veces, me gusta la USAL so I think the distance is worth it. I'm never going to complain about having to walk any distance on campus/in Philadelphia again. En serio.
Además, there isn't really anything else new or exciting... I'm finding that I can actually find my economics manuscripts to read online in English, so for now that will save me some aggravation, although I still need to read them in Castellano as well so that I can get the vocabulary down pat.
I'm excited for my second day of Argentine tenis tomorrow, but I'm not ready to brave the world of singles again, on a clay court, for a while after this I don't think.. But we'll see.. I'm sure I could get talked into playing tennis anywhere, at anytime. Especially like the place Ben and I found to practice at...it's only $5 for two hours of play time! That's about as free as it's going to get, and I'm more than happy with that!
Anyway, ta ta for now. I've got about another hour of reading ahead of me, then off to bed for another early, long day! Chau chau!
Friday, April 1, 2011
The First Time I Rode a Vespa, The Time I Found 20 Pesos, and Other Tall Tales
Today I was "scolded" for not having posted on my blog for quite some time.
So my resolution to make up for my latent oversight is to write one entry every day this weekend. That, I think, should just about get me back up to speed.
The priority right now is to recount my recent excursions, through Argentina and beyond.
Two weekends ago, the IFSA-Butler program took us on a trip to Colonia, Uruguay. My first thought was naturally: THIS IS AWESOME I GET ANOTHER STAMP IN MY PASSPORT! Obviously, I wasn't quite seeing the whole package of the trip quite yet. Colonia is beautiful. It's just a hop, skip, and Buquebus boat ride (similar in idea to the JFK ferry ride...except cooler) across the Río de la Plata. When we all got to the Buquebus terminal at the butt crack of dawn, aka 9AM, which really is dawn in Argentina time, we found out that we had two options: hang out at the terminal for an hour to take the 1-hour speed ferry to Uruguay, or get on a 3-hour boat right away. Uh hello...obviously we all waited around, had giant breakfasts and muchos cafés con leche courtesy of IFSA, and boarded the Uruguay express.
This brings me to a point about life in South America. They don't quite have all the wrinkles of life ironed out quite yet. For instance, if you can motor to Uruguay in one hour, why even still do it in three? Not only is that a pain, but if they only offer one hour services, they can make more money off of every ticket, instead of still selling marginally less expensive tickets. This is also very similar to how I want to introduce Latin America to great shopping venues, like Party City and Target. Heck, I'd even settle for a Wal Mart or a Staples. Here's the reason why: at the intersection of the street I live on and a street 3 blocks east, there are three stores en la esquina: one that sells ONLY paper goods (plates, napkins, cups, etc.), one that sells ONLY gift wrap and bags and tissue paper, and one that sells ONLY boxes. Welcome to the idea of Fiesta Central: you can sell all of that and more, in bulk, and combine into one store and have to pay less Buenos Aires rent every month. Problem solved. Just like if they upgraded to selling packages of 3, 5, or 24 markers/highlighters/pens instead of having to pay 5-24 pesos A PIECE for stupid pens and pencils. This semester, I'm not lending a pen to anyone, not even for 5 minutes. And then there would be the great venture for Target to make its way down the long road south. Then I wouldn't have to go to one store for shower flip flops, one store for yoga pants, another store for tape, another store for greeting cards, and yet one last stop at ye olde Farmacity, where you can't walk around inside with your bags filled with your things from all the other stores, so you have to leave them in a heap in a locker by the door.
I think I'm going to become a venture capitalist in starting a wholesale business down here. Can you say gold mine?
Anyway, back to Uruguay. So after our speedy jet across the river, we were in a beautiful place. Colonia is essentially and old port city. And hundreds of years after the Spanish invasion, it still looks more or less exactly like it did back then. There are hardly any new facades on buildings, all the streets are still cobblestone, and there's one building that holds el jardín de infantes, colegio, y escuela secondaria. The people were all so nice, which makes since since 100% of their livelyhood depended on me, la tourista.
But before I get caught up in reminiscing about the city, let me tell you about our first stop in Colonia: Mario's estancia. Mario is the program director/head honcho/big shot at IFSA. He's probably one of the greatest people I've ever met. He knew everyone's name on day one...and there's 140 of us. He didn't get a single persons' name wrong. He's also loaded, and often forgets that not everyone has an iPhone, or a Blackberry, or some kind of smartphone in general. And when he talks about Argentine culture he often has a lapse in memory that us broke American college students can't afford swanky opera seats or fancy tango dinner shows. Or we at least can't afford it until Mom and Dad come pay us a visit..
But aside from his minor human flaws, he's a great man. Him and his partner have a townhouse in the city, and then they have their estancia which doubles, apparently, as a bed and breakfast. I told Mario after being there for a millisecond that I would not only be booking my wedding there, but I will also be retiring there so he has to be packed up and moved out by the time I'm really old, like 45 or something ;)
After our walk down a long, windy driveway, we found ourselves in front of a beautiful ivy-covered estate house. The house has an asado grill/fireplace built into the outside of it, so the first thing we smelled was our lunch, which consisted of freshly barbecued every kind of chicken/meat/sausage that you could ever imagine. With our lunch we got homemade Sangria, a million side dishes (literally), salad, fresh veggies, bread, and an assortment of fruit, followed by various tortas for dessert. I think I must've eaten enough to feed the whole SJU hockey team.
After we were sufficiently stuffed, we all disregarded Mom's "wait 30 minutes to swim after you eat" and jumped right into the pool. We combo swam and tanned for about 3 hours. What can I say, us study abroad kids lead a tough life.
Finally, after sunset, Mario kicked us out, but mostly just because we had a tour of the town planned that night. The tour was interesting, I learned a lot. I also learned I'm that girl on tour that I hate giving ours of SJU to...what goes around really does come around. Anyway, it was very informative, but the only bad thing was it wasn't like when you go on a tour of DC at night and it's so cool because all the monuments are lit up and it gives you a whole different perspective. This was more there aren't any lights outside anywhere in the whole town so you can't see anything and your pictures are all of just blackness so you have to come back in daylight.
After the tour, we had a girls night Italian dinner. Then we called it a night so we could make it to the beach early the next day.
The beach wasn't that big, but we were essentially the only people there so it was awesome. The water was interesting because since it's the Río de la Plata, the bottom isn't sand, it's clay. So during the day the water has this murky brown color that makes it look like you shouldn't go anywhere near it. But really it's totally safe and it was really warm, and it's not dirty at all. The clay doesn't even stick to you when you get back out! We spent the whole day getting our tan on, I tried riding my first Vespa, then we watched a beautiful sunset from the docks in the harbor, then went out for a group dinner with IFSA in a restaurant called Drugstore. We were the only people in the restaurant, mostly because we filled the whole place. But they even hired entertainment for us! It was awesome, and I got to have fish for dinner, and yes, yet more Sangria. This time though, the Sangria had kiwi and strawberry and bananas in it. DELISH! Fruit salad with a kick.
After dinner we went to hang out at the hotel that some of the IFSA kids were lucky enough to stay at. Oh, that's another think about Colonia. It's so small there isn't just like one big chain hotel. So we all had to get split up into tiny family owned hotels. Except for a few kids who got to stay at the same place the advisors stayed. AMAZING. So we hung out there, watched the Titanic, and called it a night.
Please don't be jealous of how cool we know we are.
The last day we were there, Monday, we walked around at the local Feria in the morning where I picked up a dreamcatcher and a sweet sweater. Then we hit the beach one last time. While we were there I collected some sea glass, the best free souvenir there is in my opinion. While we were at the beach we met this husband, preggo wife, and 18 month old baby who were from the states but travel the world for his job. I couldn't decide if I'd rather be him (his job sounded kind of stressful) or if I'd rather just be their traveling nanny, but I would love to travel as much as they did. Props to them for doing it with one, soon to be two babies too. We also met these fairly odd boys from Colorado, but fortunately Jimmy was at the beach with us, so they didn't stick around long. Then we caught a nice, slow, 3 hour Buquebus home back to Buenos Aires.
I would definitely consider going back to Uruguay once our Resedencia gets processed!
And finally, onto my second trip.
Last weekend I tackled Patagonia! I literally left my heart there. I'm for sure making it a point to get back there, and go further South than where we were in Bariloche, Río Negro. I want to see the glaciers. I want to climb a real Andes mountain (or maybe do that in Mendoza...but I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO SEE THE GLACIERS or else I will never forgive myself). It was absolutely stunning.
Bariloche is the land of seven lakes, so although the temperature down there (a casual 22 hour bus ride South of Buenos Aires) was a pleasant mid-50's scale, you never would have know it with the wind whipping off the lakes! I actually had a buy ear warmers and gloves. But we did so many things, it's definitely hard to pick a favorite. My only regret is that we didn't have more time.
We stayed at a hostel called 41 Below. I've never met such cool people in my life. I know have friends from Britain, Australia, and Holland. And I've decided I'm marrying a Dutch boy-they're all adorable, bike ride like fiends, and speak 5 languages. Oh, and they can cook, they know their beer, and they're part of 'social clubs' which are like fraternities, only bigger, cooler, and more prestigious and honors-society-esque in college. To me, that has husband material written allllllllllll over it!
The first day we were there, which was really a half day, we just took a walk around town and napped. And had the most delicious hot chocolate on the planet, from the #1 rated chocolate shop in Patagonia: Mamuschka. The second day though, Jess and I took full advantage of the weather and went on a 25K bike ride around all of Bariloche. That might have been one of the most physically challenging things I've ever done...you know, aside from throwing myself into the air and landing on ice time and time again. The views were beautiful though! Every lake view was picture perfect, and we ate lunch at the cutest little mountain inlet. While we were on our ride, we even found a mountain brewery! Too bad we got free samples and couldn't even finish them because they tasted like they had nature and sticks and twigs in them. The stream water we drank tasted a million times better than that narsty, grodie beer. Oh well, can't win 'em all. That night we got some good beer though with literally everyone from our hostel at the bar literally right next door. Yay bonding time!
The second day we went for a walk up to Cerro Otto, where we then took a gondola ride to the top and ate in a spinnng confeteria where we tested out the "best" cake in Bariloche. Boy, they were not kidding when they said it was the best. We downed our giant slice in under 2 minutes. Obviously we haven't acquired the ability to savor things just yet. Jess made fun of me for ordering a tall glass of milk with my cake, but it was once of the best decisions I've make in South America so far! Om nom nom!
Then we hiked around for a bit, found another scenic overlook to eat lunch at, and headed back down to the hostel. Two very interesting things happened on our walk back: First, Jess found 20 pesos on the ground in front of a packie. I made fun of her (mostly because I was jealous...$5 bucks is $5 bucks) saying she found it so now she could end her lame stories with "and then I found 20pesos." It was all fun and games until I looked over and saw, much to my disbelief, another twenty pesos on the ground! EUREKA! I was one happy camper after that. Then, after we became quasi-billionaires, we were almost back to our hostel when we heard music coming from somewhere not so far away. Naturally it was American rap/hip-hop/pop music so went naturally went to go see where it was coming from. Once we rounded the corner, we saw the most run-down, ghetto version of a Fast and Furious style car show! It had everything from the tricked out whips with big shiny rims, to music blasting, to the car owners' "hot" girlfriends soaking up the limelight sitting in the front seats of the cars. It was interesting, especially once we realized the "DJ" was a pimped out tractor-trailer cab. HA.
Only in Bariloche.
That night we came back, introduced our foreign friends to some quality American television...starting with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Then we weren't going to go out, but when my future 5 language speaking Dutch husband asked me to go, I couldn't say no (NOTE: he's actually a stand in for my husband until I find a real one, since Arthur has a girlfriend so he's off the market. But I'm determined to find his twin). It was low-key since it was a Sunday night, and we had fun!
Finally, Monday rolled around. We had just enough time in the morning to pick up some chocolate goodies and snacks for the ride, and then it was time for us to head back to BsAs.
That concludes the stories of two of the best weekend of my life. Or well, two of the best weekends until I go back to see the glaciers, to Iguazu, to Río de Janero, to Salta, to Mendoza, to Chile, or you know, just to Macchu Pichu...
So my resolution to make up for my latent oversight is to write one entry every day this weekend. That, I think, should just about get me back up to speed.
The priority right now is to recount my recent excursions, through Argentina and beyond.
Two weekends ago, the IFSA-Butler program took us on a trip to Colonia, Uruguay. My first thought was naturally: THIS IS AWESOME I GET ANOTHER STAMP IN MY PASSPORT! Obviously, I wasn't quite seeing the whole package of the trip quite yet. Colonia is beautiful. It's just a hop, skip, and Buquebus boat ride (similar in idea to the JFK ferry ride...except cooler) across the Río de la Plata. When we all got to the Buquebus terminal at the butt crack of dawn, aka 9AM, which really is dawn in Argentina time, we found out that we had two options: hang out at the terminal for an hour to take the 1-hour speed ferry to Uruguay, or get on a 3-hour boat right away. Uh hello...obviously we all waited around, had giant breakfasts and muchos cafés con leche courtesy of IFSA, and boarded the Uruguay express.
This brings me to a point about life in South America. They don't quite have all the wrinkles of life ironed out quite yet. For instance, if you can motor to Uruguay in one hour, why even still do it in three? Not only is that a pain, but if they only offer one hour services, they can make more money off of every ticket, instead of still selling marginally less expensive tickets. This is also very similar to how I want to introduce Latin America to great shopping venues, like Party City and Target. Heck, I'd even settle for a Wal Mart or a Staples. Here's the reason why: at the intersection of the street I live on and a street 3 blocks east, there are three stores en la esquina: one that sells ONLY paper goods (plates, napkins, cups, etc.), one that sells ONLY gift wrap and bags and tissue paper, and one that sells ONLY boxes. Welcome to the idea of Fiesta Central: you can sell all of that and more, in bulk, and combine into one store and have to pay less Buenos Aires rent every month. Problem solved. Just like if they upgraded to selling packages of 3, 5, or 24 markers/highlighters/pens instead of having to pay 5-24 pesos A PIECE for stupid pens and pencils. This semester, I'm not lending a pen to anyone, not even for 5 minutes. And then there would be the great venture for Target to make its way down the long road south. Then I wouldn't have to go to one store for shower flip flops, one store for yoga pants, another store for tape, another store for greeting cards, and yet one last stop at ye olde Farmacity, where you can't walk around inside with your bags filled with your things from all the other stores, so you have to leave them in a heap in a locker by the door.
I think I'm going to become a venture capitalist in starting a wholesale business down here. Can you say gold mine?
Anyway, back to Uruguay. So after our speedy jet across the river, we were in a beautiful place. Colonia is essentially and old port city. And hundreds of years after the Spanish invasion, it still looks more or less exactly like it did back then. There are hardly any new facades on buildings, all the streets are still cobblestone, and there's one building that holds el jardín de infantes, colegio, y escuela secondaria. The people were all so nice, which makes since since 100% of their livelyhood depended on me, la tourista.
But before I get caught up in reminiscing about the city, let me tell you about our first stop in Colonia: Mario's estancia. Mario is the program director/head honcho/big shot at IFSA. He's probably one of the greatest people I've ever met. He knew everyone's name on day one...and there's 140 of us. He didn't get a single persons' name wrong. He's also loaded, and often forgets that not everyone has an iPhone, or a Blackberry, or some kind of smartphone in general. And when he talks about Argentine culture he often has a lapse in memory that us broke American college students can't afford swanky opera seats or fancy tango dinner shows. Or we at least can't afford it until Mom and Dad come pay us a visit..
But aside from his minor human flaws, he's a great man. Him and his partner have a townhouse in the city, and then they have their estancia which doubles, apparently, as a bed and breakfast. I told Mario after being there for a millisecond that I would not only be booking my wedding there, but I will also be retiring there so he has to be packed up and moved out by the time I'm really old, like 45 or something ;)
After our walk down a long, windy driveway, we found ourselves in front of a beautiful ivy-covered estate house. The house has an asado grill/fireplace built into the outside of it, so the first thing we smelled was our lunch, which consisted of freshly barbecued every kind of chicken/meat/sausage that you could ever imagine. With our lunch we got homemade Sangria, a million side dishes (literally), salad, fresh veggies, bread, and an assortment of fruit, followed by various tortas for dessert. I think I must've eaten enough to feed the whole SJU hockey team.
After we were sufficiently stuffed, we all disregarded Mom's "wait 30 minutes to swim after you eat" and jumped right into the pool. We combo swam and tanned for about 3 hours. What can I say, us study abroad kids lead a tough life.
Finally, after sunset, Mario kicked us out, but mostly just because we had a tour of the town planned that night. The tour was interesting, I learned a lot. I also learned I'm that girl on tour that I hate giving ours of SJU to...what goes around really does come around. Anyway, it was very informative, but the only bad thing was it wasn't like when you go on a tour of DC at night and it's so cool because all the monuments are lit up and it gives you a whole different perspective. This was more there aren't any lights outside anywhere in the whole town so you can't see anything and your pictures are all of just blackness so you have to come back in daylight.
After the tour, we had a girls night Italian dinner. Then we called it a night so we could make it to the beach early the next day.
The beach wasn't that big, but we were essentially the only people there so it was awesome. The water was interesting because since it's the Río de la Plata, the bottom isn't sand, it's clay. So during the day the water has this murky brown color that makes it look like you shouldn't go anywhere near it. But really it's totally safe and it was really warm, and it's not dirty at all. The clay doesn't even stick to you when you get back out! We spent the whole day getting our tan on, I tried riding my first Vespa, then we watched a beautiful sunset from the docks in the harbor, then went out for a group dinner with IFSA in a restaurant called Drugstore. We were the only people in the restaurant, mostly because we filled the whole place. But they even hired entertainment for us! It was awesome, and I got to have fish for dinner, and yes, yet more Sangria. This time though, the Sangria had kiwi and strawberry and bananas in it. DELISH! Fruit salad with a kick.
After dinner we went to hang out at the hotel that some of the IFSA kids were lucky enough to stay at. Oh, that's another think about Colonia. It's so small there isn't just like one big chain hotel. So we all had to get split up into tiny family owned hotels. Except for a few kids who got to stay at the same place the advisors stayed. AMAZING. So we hung out there, watched the Titanic, and called it a night.
Please don't be jealous of how cool we know we are.
The last day we were there, Monday, we walked around at the local Feria in the morning where I picked up a dreamcatcher and a sweet sweater. Then we hit the beach one last time. While we were there I collected some sea glass, the best free souvenir there is in my opinion. While we were at the beach we met this husband, preggo wife, and 18 month old baby who were from the states but travel the world for his job. I couldn't decide if I'd rather be him (his job sounded kind of stressful) or if I'd rather just be their traveling nanny, but I would love to travel as much as they did. Props to them for doing it with one, soon to be two babies too. We also met these fairly odd boys from Colorado, but fortunately Jimmy was at the beach with us, so they didn't stick around long. Then we caught a nice, slow, 3 hour Buquebus home back to Buenos Aires.
I would definitely consider going back to Uruguay once our Resedencia gets processed!
And finally, onto my second trip.
Last weekend I tackled Patagonia! I literally left my heart there. I'm for sure making it a point to get back there, and go further South than where we were in Bariloche, Río Negro. I want to see the glaciers. I want to climb a real Andes mountain (or maybe do that in Mendoza...but I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO SEE THE GLACIERS or else I will never forgive myself). It was absolutely stunning.
Bariloche is the land of seven lakes, so although the temperature down there (a casual 22 hour bus ride South of Buenos Aires) was a pleasant mid-50's scale, you never would have know it with the wind whipping off the lakes! I actually had a buy ear warmers and gloves. But we did so many things, it's definitely hard to pick a favorite. My only regret is that we didn't have more time.
We stayed at a hostel called 41 Below. I've never met such cool people in my life. I know have friends from Britain, Australia, and Holland. And I've decided I'm marrying a Dutch boy-they're all adorable, bike ride like fiends, and speak 5 languages. Oh, and they can cook, they know their beer, and they're part of 'social clubs' which are like fraternities, only bigger, cooler, and more prestigious and honors-society-esque in college. To me, that has husband material written allllllllllll over it!
The first day we were there, which was really a half day, we just took a walk around town and napped. And had the most delicious hot chocolate on the planet, from the #1 rated chocolate shop in Patagonia: Mamuschka. The second day though, Jess and I took full advantage of the weather and went on a 25K bike ride around all of Bariloche. That might have been one of the most physically challenging things I've ever done...you know, aside from throwing myself into the air and landing on ice time and time again. The views were beautiful though! Every lake view was picture perfect, and we ate lunch at the cutest little mountain inlet. While we were on our ride, we even found a mountain brewery! Too bad we got free samples and couldn't even finish them because they tasted like they had nature and sticks and twigs in them. The stream water we drank tasted a million times better than that narsty, grodie beer. Oh well, can't win 'em all. That night we got some good beer though with literally everyone from our hostel at the bar literally right next door. Yay bonding time!
The second day we went for a walk up to Cerro Otto, where we then took a gondola ride to the top and ate in a spinnng confeteria where we tested out the "best" cake in Bariloche. Boy, they were not kidding when they said it was the best. We downed our giant slice in under 2 minutes. Obviously we haven't acquired the ability to savor things just yet. Jess made fun of me for ordering a tall glass of milk with my cake, but it was once of the best decisions I've make in South America so far! Om nom nom!
Then we hiked around for a bit, found another scenic overlook to eat lunch at, and headed back down to the hostel. Two very interesting things happened on our walk back: First, Jess found 20 pesos on the ground in front of a packie. I made fun of her (mostly because I was jealous...$5 bucks is $5 bucks) saying she found it so now she could end her lame stories with "and then I found 20pesos." It was all fun and games until I looked over and saw, much to my disbelief, another twenty pesos on the ground! EUREKA! I was one happy camper after that. Then, after we became quasi-billionaires, we were almost back to our hostel when we heard music coming from somewhere not so far away. Naturally it was American rap/hip-hop/pop music so went naturally went to go see where it was coming from. Once we rounded the corner, we saw the most run-down, ghetto version of a Fast and Furious style car show! It had everything from the tricked out whips with big shiny rims, to music blasting, to the car owners' "hot" girlfriends soaking up the limelight sitting in the front seats of the cars. It was interesting, especially once we realized the "DJ" was a pimped out tractor-trailer cab. HA.
Only in Bariloche.
That night we came back, introduced our foreign friends to some quality American television...starting with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Then we weren't going to go out, but when my future 5 language speaking Dutch husband asked me to go, I couldn't say no (NOTE: he's actually a stand in for my husband until I find a real one, since Arthur has a girlfriend so he's off the market. But I'm determined to find his twin). It was low-key since it was a Sunday night, and we had fun!
Finally, Monday rolled around. We had just enough time in the morning to pick up some chocolate goodies and snacks for the ride, and then it was time for us to head back to BsAs.
That concludes the stories of two of the best weekend of my life. Or well, two of the best weekends until I go back to see the glaciers, to Iguazu, to Río de Janero, to Salta, to Mendoza, to Chile, or you know, just to Macchu Pichu...
Friday, March 11, 2011
A Recap of My First Feriado Nacional
Saying last weekend was a whirlwind is an understatement. We don't really get spring break here (instead we get a 4 day weekend or "Feriado Nacional" almost every weekend...or every weekend if you planned your classes like I did) so we deemed the weekend Spring Break '11.
Needless to say, it lived up to it's name.
It all started with a birthday dinner for our friend Sarah at one of the best restaurants in the city, La Cabrera. Dinner was delicious, and all the girls were treated by her mom who flew in from CT to celebrate with Sarah. There was literally more food than I could ever have eaten. Juliana and I split "un medio porcion" of Bife de Lomo and "un medio porcion" of a hand made cheese stuffed pasta in a tomato cream sauce. I don't understand how the people in Buenos Aires are so skinny, except for how much they walk every day. But seriously, our half portioned meal could have made a NFL linebacker full. Not only was our half piece of meat bigger than any whole steak I've ever had in the US, it also came with a salad, creamed pumpkin, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and baby corn. The pasta was also to die for. And to top the meal off we complimented it with some authentic Argentine Malbec, my new favorite vino. After we finally finished eating, which took at least an ninety minutes, we sang to the birthday girl who's dessert came with a baby firework in it instead of a candle. Craziest thing I've ever seen at a restaurant birthday (or so I thought...stay tuned). Then we all got to pick lollipops of a lollipop tree!
After dinner, we met up with the boys to get ready to head out for the weekend. Oh did I mention we all had our luggage for the weekend in the restaurant with us? No, I didn't. The hostess almost didn't let us in because we looked like well-dressed vagrants living out of our giant backpacks. We were quite a sight, considering there were 6 of us hauling around our lives on our backs.
Anyway, we got to Retiro around 3 and waited for our 3:55am bus. It sounds crazy, but Mar del Plata is about 6 hours south of Buenos Aires, so we got on the bus at 4, and slept until we got to Mardel. The buses here are the most popular way to travel long distances, most people don't even think of flying unless they're trying to get to the very most southern points of Patagonia. They're decked out, and for the shorter trips you get a snack and a "semi cama" or a seat that reclines until it's just shy of being perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Sweeeeeeet. And for longer trips, you get a full cama, a legit bed on a bus. So really it's the least expensive (only about $75 USD each way) and classiest way I've probably ever traveled except for my one first class flight to California back in the day of Ice Castle.
So we all boarded the bus, or well everyone except for Jimmy and Shannon. We originally couldn't get 11 tickets on the same bus, so the two of them were left to beg and sell their souls to the bus driver, who eventually took pity on the two gringos who would've been left stranded without any friends for another 3 hours. The only problem with that is that it mean that one person didn't get a semi cama...and that person was Xima, who enjoyed her rest on the floor. HAHAHA poor Cheem, she was fine in the end though, and we made sure she got her pick of the bunks when we got to the hostel.
This was my first ever experience staying in a hostel and I have to say, for the price (just shy of $35 USD a night) I was impressed. Hostel Urbano was fit to serve. We each got a bed with clean sheets, we could rent towels for 5pesos, we were served a breakfast of coffe, tea, juice, and medilunas every morning, and the boys were in a room right down the hall, and it was conveniently located right in the center of town. I'm chalking that all up to the win column.
We got to the hostel right around breakfast time the first day, so we quickly got settled, changed out of our pj's and into our bathing suits and took our medilunas on the go. We were DYING to get to the beack, but we also just wanted to stay close to the hostel the first day, so we went to the beach right at the end of our street called Playa Popular. The name pretty much says it all, since it means the same thing in English as it does in Spanish. It was PACKED. But it was a beach, and we were happy to just be in the sun.
Once we were thoroughly fried, we headed back to change and get ready for the night. I would say we didn't "do it big" on the first night because we didn't really go out. But we had the biggest pizza I've ever seen for dinner, and it was delicious! We ordered salads to try and be healthy and they were really weird and lettuce-free (it's an Argentine thing to serve a salad with just the fixings and no lettuce) but who cares about the leafy greens when the pizza is bigger than a car tire.
Since we took it pretty easy on Friday night Jackie and I decided that we'd get up early (and I actually mean early...we were up and at 'em by 7:30) and head to a beach called Playa Alfar that the people running the hostel recommended to us. They said it would be about a 25 minute ride on the colectivo. The ride was great, we got some awesome sea views, passed the Navy base in Mardel, and got to see the most beautiful golf course that had greens right down to the shore. The ride was TOTALLY worth it! It's the most southern public beach in Mardel, right before the private beaches start. When we got there it was empty! We got an awesome beach spot and started our day in the sun.
As the day heated up, our friends finally decided to get themselves out of bed and got to joining Jackie and I sometime around 1230. They got there just as the area of Playa Alfar was picking up...hoards of people started coming from every direction but it was a better group of people than at Playa Popular. There were more young people on this beach, and people left a good amount of room between their umbrellas. There was also a boardwalk type deal at Alfar. Not a boardwalk like at the Jersey Shore, but various huts along the beach serving daiquiris and super panchos (foot-long hot dogs) and waters and all the fried beach food you could ever want. The daiquiris were 2 for 1...or at least that's what Nicolas the bartender told us, so the girls enjoyed our tropical celebratory beach drinks while the boys enjoyed their Quilmes.
Saturday night after a well deserved nap, we all headed out to a Mexican restaurant, Coyote Ugly, for dinner. The food was AMAZING and the first hit of spice I've tasted since I've been in Argentina. Don't get me wrong, the food here is beyond delectable, but these people think black pepper is hot. Anyway, Sarah, Jackie and I split steak, chicken, and shrimp fajitas and the table enjoyed orders of nachos and some delicious sangria. The restaurant also gave us all itty bitty complimentary margaritas as soon as we were seated! People here are all about things being gratis. That was the trend for the night, since after we ate we went to a bar around the corner where the bartender immediately whipped out 11 shot glasses, poured tequila in his shaker, and lit it ON FIRE! Then he poured 11 flaming shots that we were told to slam our hand down on top of (to put out the flame, causing it to suction to our palms) shake it up, and take it. Craziest bar trick I've ever seen! And this guy was all about his tricks; he even opened and poured a can of soda by suctioning to his hand! After we were thoroughly amazed, we went to this club on the other side of Mardel called Sobremonte. There's another Coyote Ugly at Sobremonte, so since we had already eaten there, our cover at the club was, you guessed it, FREE! Another 50 pesos back in my pocket. Since it was Carnaval the people there were WILD. There were dancers and drumlines and some of our friends even ended up joining in on a bachelorette party. We also met up with Juli, Bea, and Paola there, three of our friends from IFSA who were also in Mardel but at a different hostel. The night was awesome...we danced until way into the night to the best techno music, and even a little american pop/rap thrown in there! I would relive it again in a heartbeat.
Monday rolled around and we all decided we were too tired to trek all the way to Playa Alfar again (hence the "far" part of the name). But much to our dismay, it ended up raining at the beach we went to near us and never rained at Playa Alfar, according to our reports from Juli. Bummer. But it gave us extra time to hang out, start packing up, and to get ready for dinner and our last night in Mar del Plata. Naturally the 11 of us couldn't agree on a place to eat after spending every waking and sleeping moment together for the last 72 hours, so we ultimately decided to split up. Boy did Neil and Eric miss out on the dinner of a lifetime...I hope their McDonald's was good enough to make up for it. Thanks to Jackie's keen eyesight we found this little crack in the wall Italian place with a menu that was about 30 pages long and had everything from land, air, and sea you could ever want. Xima and I along with a few other people decided to go with some fresh Salmon, and Ben and I split an order of Calamari...which had the tentacles (my favorite part of Calamari) this time!! Everyone at the table was served their dinner except Evan; our moso forgot to put his order in. We told him how disappointed Evan was because it was his birthday and he was the only one without food. We figured it was okay to say it was someone's birthday since the original reason we were in Mardel was 1) because of the long weekend and 2) because it was supposed to be the continuation of Sarah's birthday weekend but her's and her mom's flight was cancelled twice so they actually never made it down and went to a beautiful estancia in Uruguay instead. Our waiter thought it was the greatest thing ever that it was Evan's big day, and our night immediately took off. Almost instantly in walked a mariachi band. They were actually there just to play to get the restaurant patrons to tip them, but talk about perfect timing. Before we could blink they were belting out lines of "que los cumplas feliz" and Evan was about ready to pee himself. Finally the mariachi guys left (we obviously tipped them for making our night and providing us with some great blackmail photos/video) and we thought the celebration had ended. Really it had only started, since there was the restaurant owner/manager with a giant candle for Evan to blow out while a recording of cumpleaños feliz rang out over the speakers, replacing the normal subdued restaurant background melody. Then as a toast to Evan the whole table got 2 gratis bottles of champagne, and the owner even cheersed a glass with us!
Monday night we just stayed local again, and a girl traveling alone from Argentina who shared our hostel room with us joined us. We once again were welcomed at the bar with bebidas gratis; OJ's and vodkas. Courtney and I ended up meeting a couple of young lawyer's from Buenos Aires who were in Mardel for a bachelor party weekend, but there were no sparks unfortunately.
I can't believe the weekend is over. I learned a lot traveling with 11 people all the time, but it was worth it. Now it's time to think ahead to my future viajes: Tiesto concert this weekend (Sarah's birthday present from her parents), Colonia, Uruguay from the 19th-21st, and Bariloche from the 23rd-28th.
¡Vamos!
Needless to say, it lived up to it's name.
It all started with a birthday dinner for our friend Sarah at one of the best restaurants in the city, La Cabrera. Dinner was delicious, and all the girls were treated by her mom who flew in from CT to celebrate with Sarah. There was literally more food than I could ever have eaten. Juliana and I split "un medio porcion" of Bife de Lomo and "un medio porcion" of a hand made cheese stuffed pasta in a tomato cream sauce. I don't understand how the people in Buenos Aires are so skinny, except for how much they walk every day. But seriously, our half portioned meal could have made a NFL linebacker full. Not only was our half piece of meat bigger than any whole steak I've ever had in the US, it also came with a salad, creamed pumpkin, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and baby corn. The pasta was also to die for. And to top the meal off we complimented it with some authentic Argentine Malbec, my new favorite vino. After we finally finished eating, which took at least an ninety minutes, we sang to the birthday girl who's dessert came with a baby firework in it instead of a candle. Craziest thing I've ever seen at a restaurant birthday (or so I thought...stay tuned). Then we all got to pick lollipops of a lollipop tree!
After dinner, we met up with the boys to get ready to head out for the weekend. Oh did I mention we all had our luggage for the weekend in the restaurant with us? No, I didn't. The hostess almost didn't let us in because we looked like well-dressed vagrants living out of our giant backpacks. We were quite a sight, considering there were 6 of us hauling around our lives on our backs.
Anyway, we got to Retiro around 3 and waited for our 3:55am bus. It sounds crazy, but Mar del Plata is about 6 hours south of Buenos Aires, so we got on the bus at 4, and slept until we got to Mardel. The buses here are the most popular way to travel long distances, most people don't even think of flying unless they're trying to get to the very most southern points of Patagonia. They're decked out, and for the shorter trips you get a snack and a "semi cama" or a seat that reclines until it's just shy of being perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Sweeeeeeet. And for longer trips, you get a full cama, a legit bed on a bus. So really it's the least expensive (only about $75 USD each way) and classiest way I've probably ever traveled except for my one first class flight to California back in the day of Ice Castle.
So we all boarded the bus, or well everyone except for Jimmy and Shannon. We originally couldn't get 11 tickets on the same bus, so the two of them were left to beg and sell their souls to the bus driver, who eventually took pity on the two gringos who would've been left stranded without any friends for another 3 hours. The only problem with that is that it mean that one person didn't get a semi cama...and that person was Xima, who enjoyed her rest on the floor. HAHAHA poor Cheem, she was fine in the end though, and we made sure she got her pick of the bunks when we got to the hostel.
This was my first ever experience staying in a hostel and I have to say, for the price (just shy of $35 USD a night) I was impressed. Hostel Urbano was fit to serve. We each got a bed with clean sheets, we could rent towels for 5pesos, we were served a breakfast of coffe, tea, juice, and medilunas every morning, and the boys were in a room right down the hall, and it was conveniently located right in the center of town. I'm chalking that all up to the win column.
We got to the hostel right around breakfast time the first day, so we quickly got settled, changed out of our pj's and into our bathing suits and took our medilunas on the go. We were DYING to get to the beack, but we also just wanted to stay close to the hostel the first day, so we went to the beach right at the end of our street called Playa Popular. The name pretty much says it all, since it means the same thing in English as it does in Spanish. It was PACKED. But it was a beach, and we were happy to just be in the sun.
Once we were thoroughly fried, we headed back to change and get ready for the night. I would say we didn't "do it big" on the first night because we didn't really go out. But we had the biggest pizza I've ever seen for dinner, and it was delicious! We ordered salads to try and be healthy and they were really weird and lettuce-free (it's an Argentine thing to serve a salad with just the fixings and no lettuce) but who cares about the leafy greens when the pizza is bigger than a car tire.
Since we took it pretty easy on Friday night Jackie and I decided that we'd get up early (and I actually mean early...we were up and at 'em by 7:30) and head to a beach called Playa Alfar that the people running the hostel recommended to us. They said it would be about a 25 minute ride on the colectivo. The ride was great, we got some awesome sea views, passed the Navy base in Mardel, and got to see the most beautiful golf course that had greens right down to the shore. The ride was TOTALLY worth it! It's the most southern public beach in Mardel, right before the private beaches start. When we got there it was empty! We got an awesome beach spot and started our day in the sun.
As the day heated up, our friends finally decided to get themselves out of bed and got to joining Jackie and I sometime around 1230. They got there just as the area of Playa Alfar was picking up...hoards of people started coming from every direction but it was a better group of people than at Playa Popular. There were more young people on this beach, and people left a good amount of room between their umbrellas. There was also a boardwalk type deal at Alfar. Not a boardwalk like at the Jersey Shore, but various huts along the beach serving daiquiris and super panchos (foot-long hot dogs) and waters and all the fried beach food you could ever want. The daiquiris were 2 for 1...or at least that's what Nicolas the bartender told us, so the girls enjoyed our tropical celebratory beach drinks while the boys enjoyed their Quilmes.
Saturday night after a well deserved nap, we all headed out to a Mexican restaurant, Coyote Ugly, for dinner. The food was AMAZING and the first hit of spice I've tasted since I've been in Argentina. Don't get me wrong, the food here is beyond delectable, but these people think black pepper is hot. Anyway, Sarah, Jackie and I split steak, chicken, and shrimp fajitas and the table enjoyed orders of nachos and some delicious sangria. The restaurant also gave us all itty bitty complimentary margaritas as soon as we were seated! People here are all about things being gratis. That was the trend for the night, since after we ate we went to a bar around the corner where the bartender immediately whipped out 11 shot glasses, poured tequila in his shaker, and lit it ON FIRE! Then he poured 11 flaming shots that we were told to slam our hand down on top of (to put out the flame, causing it to suction to our palms) shake it up, and take it. Craziest bar trick I've ever seen! And this guy was all about his tricks; he even opened and poured a can of soda by suctioning to his hand! After we were thoroughly amazed, we went to this club on the other side of Mardel called Sobremonte. There's another Coyote Ugly at Sobremonte, so since we had already eaten there, our cover at the club was, you guessed it, FREE! Another 50 pesos back in my pocket. Since it was Carnaval the people there were WILD. There were dancers and drumlines and some of our friends even ended up joining in on a bachelorette party. We also met up with Juli, Bea, and Paola there, three of our friends from IFSA who were also in Mardel but at a different hostel. The night was awesome...we danced until way into the night to the best techno music, and even a little american pop/rap thrown in there! I would relive it again in a heartbeat.
Monday rolled around and we all decided we were too tired to trek all the way to Playa Alfar again (hence the "far" part of the name). But much to our dismay, it ended up raining at the beach we went to near us and never rained at Playa Alfar, according to our reports from Juli. Bummer. But it gave us extra time to hang out, start packing up, and to get ready for dinner and our last night in Mar del Plata. Naturally the 11 of us couldn't agree on a place to eat after spending every waking and sleeping moment together for the last 72 hours, so we ultimately decided to split up. Boy did Neil and Eric miss out on the dinner of a lifetime...I hope their McDonald's was good enough to make up for it. Thanks to Jackie's keen eyesight we found this little crack in the wall Italian place with a menu that was about 30 pages long and had everything from land, air, and sea you could ever want. Xima and I along with a few other people decided to go with some fresh Salmon, and Ben and I split an order of Calamari...which had the tentacles (my favorite part of Calamari) this time!! Everyone at the table was served their dinner except Evan; our moso forgot to put his order in. We told him how disappointed Evan was because it was his birthday and he was the only one without food. We figured it was okay to say it was someone's birthday since the original reason we were in Mardel was 1) because of the long weekend and 2) because it was supposed to be the continuation of Sarah's birthday weekend but her's and her mom's flight was cancelled twice so they actually never made it down and went to a beautiful estancia in Uruguay instead. Our waiter thought it was the greatest thing ever that it was Evan's big day, and our night immediately took off. Almost instantly in walked a mariachi band. They were actually there just to play to get the restaurant patrons to tip them, but talk about perfect timing. Before we could blink they were belting out lines of "que los cumplas feliz" and Evan was about ready to pee himself. Finally the mariachi guys left (we obviously tipped them for making our night and providing us with some great blackmail photos/video) and we thought the celebration had ended. Really it had only started, since there was the restaurant owner/manager with a giant candle for Evan to blow out while a recording of cumpleaños feliz rang out over the speakers, replacing the normal subdued restaurant background melody. Then as a toast to Evan the whole table got 2 gratis bottles of champagne, and the owner even cheersed a glass with us!
Monday night we just stayed local again, and a girl traveling alone from Argentina who shared our hostel room with us joined us. We once again were welcomed at the bar with bebidas gratis; OJ's and vodkas. Courtney and I ended up meeting a couple of young lawyer's from Buenos Aires who were in Mardel for a bachelor party weekend, but there were no sparks unfortunately.
I can't believe the weekend is over. I learned a lot traveling with 11 people all the time, but it was worth it. Now it's time to think ahead to my future viajes: Tiesto concert this weekend (Sarah's birthday present from her parents), Colonia, Uruguay from the 19th-21st, and Bariloche from the 23rd-28th.
¡Vamos!
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