The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round

All through the night. Living with a five-year-old has made nursery rhymes and songs a daily occurrence in my life and I love it.

Lindsey and I leave for Bariloche very soon. It's a 16 hour bus ride. But it'll be fun. We'll be in northern Patagonia for 5 days. Here everything shuts down starting tomorrow until next Wednesday for Easter. It's our longest break, so we are traveling. Our group is going to a variety of place, and I'm excited to hear about everyone's adventures. When we return, Lindsey's and my week will be documented (with a ton of pictures) here.

Don't Fall on a Cactus

My host mom and I left the house at 6:20 this morning to be at the bus terminal by 6:45. There, we met Lindsey, our Canadian guide, and the rest of the group to spend the day climbing up and then back down a mountain. There were two guys from France, a guy from Mendoza, a French couple that moved to Canada 26 years ago, and another woman from Mendoza. It was beautiful. 

Good Morning, Sunshine.

We hiked the ridge in the center and then came down the back, around, and out through a dry river bed.

The English, French, and Spanish speaking group. The only language we all had in common was English, so the day was a mix of the three. It was really cool.

We came down this.

Coming down this stuff was worse. There was no traction. You just slid down.

The wettest part of the hike.

PS. I did not fall onto a Cactus.

Birthday Party!

Birthdays are a BIG deal here. Yesterday was the third birthday party my host sister attended in the last week. Lindsey's host nephew and my host cousin was turning 8. It was so much fun. Basically all of the adults sat a tables and talked while the kids played for hours. I really felt like part of the family; I knew a little less than half of the adults there. We all gathered for cake. Another tradition that apparently appears at the majority of birthday parties is a piñata. At this party, the Mexican tradition was altered to be a giant balloon filled with candy that the kids popped with forks. 

All of the kids gathering candy.

My host mother, sister, and I.

This Whole Learning Spanish Thing

Studying abroad has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time. Being able to speak Spanish has been something I've wanted to do for just as long. Naturally, these goals combined and I ended up in South America for six months. Both to experience new cultures and come away with better Spanish skills.

Twice in the last two days I have realized that my Spanish has markedly improved. I am still not good at it. I make mistakes ALL of the time. But I am getting better. On my very first night with my host family in Ecuador, my host mother and I went to eat dinner with her friends from college. I understood very little and could say even less. For the last hour, I sat there so overwhelmed that I could feel the tears getting ready to fall. I could not wait to leave, so that they could. Today I spent the morning at a party celebrating the baptism of a cousin. Once again I found myself seated at a table for hours with people that I didn't know at all in a new place. This time, however, I could follow the conversation and participate in it. And instead of wanting to leave so I could cry, I was excited to go to a different cousin's eighth birthday party this afternoon and do the whole thing again. I'll write another post in the next few days about the birthday party.

Last night was the other example. My first time taking a taxi anywhere ever was in Ecuador. I have never lived anywhere big enough for taxis to be necessary. Lindsey and I took the taxi together, because we lived close to each other and I had no clue what I was doing (not that it's hard, but I was nervous). Thank goodness we did. The driver had no idea where I lived. And I had no idea how to tell him. Lindsey figured it all out. Last night I got in to my taxi home and told the driver my address. He very clearly did not have any idea where my street was. This time, I could tell him.

These things may not seem like they're a big deal, but I am so happy to have these parallel experiences to show me that my ability to communicate is, in fact, improving. 

Yesterday

Yesterday was a lovely day.

On the days that I don't use my bike, I take the "metro tranvia." It's a two and half blocks from my house. I stay on it for three stops (five-ish minutes), get off and get on a bus to school. This sounds fast, but I promise it isn't. It takes me just as long to do this as it does to ride my bike, between 45 minutes and an hour. Mendoza does have a really great policy where after you pay for one ride, if you take another with in the following hour and half you don't for the second. This is transferable across various modes of transportation. So I pay for my train, and then not for the bus.

Our university is in the middle of this beautiful (an massive) park. 

Yesterday I saw this on my bus ride through the park. I believe they were mounted police training their horses.

Yesterday was the  welcome lunch for all of the international students at our university. There were probably 150 of us. Before we ate we were broken into two teams (a red team and a green team) to compete in fun, spirit building type games. One example: we all had to fold paper airplanes and through them at a circular target on the floor. The team that got the most won. After this we all had lunch. It was really awesome to be sitting at a table with people from Brazil, France, Mexico, Columbia, Korea, Chile, and probably more that I am forgetting. Also, I met another girl from Maine!

After lunch, a few of us took a bus into the center of the city, walked through the main plaza (pictured above), and found a cafe to spend the after at.

In the plaza, Thursday-Sunday, there are rows of artisans. I love walking through and looking at everything. 

Ice cream! On the Peatonal, which is three blocks of restaurants, cafes, and shops just for pedestrians. 

Inflation. The government says it's not real.
This menu, with the multiple price increasing stickers on top of each other, says that it is.
There are several people on this program who were abroad in Buenos Aires last semester. The exchange rate has gone up since then. We're all getting really good at dividing any number by five.

More deliciousness.

To the left in the background, you'll notice a man getting his blood pressure taken. It is common for doctors to make house calls here.  I don't think cafe calls are that common, however.

Choir Update

Choir is one of my favorite parts of the week. This week we stuck to Spanish songs. However, there were some great moments. As per custom, when we leave we say goodbye to everyone (a slight exaggeration, we say goodbye to most people). Goodbye includes a kiss on the cheek (only one) and a few words. This week Lindsey and I were told that we simply had to fall in love in Argentina, because Argentines are the best. It was funny. I don't really foresee that happening. I was also told by a sweet old lady how much she loved to watch how happy I was the time. Her comment only made me happier.  

From My Backyard

One of my favorite parts about my host-home is the backyard. I took the time yesterday to take some pictures.

Bianca.

My bike lives in the backyard. Yesterday was the first day I rode it to class. It was a very enjoyable ride. I plan to use it most days.

Professors Go On Strike

Here's something new: show up to your 8:00am class with a lot of Argentine students. Wait. Wait. Wait. Ask questions. Realize there's no class. Do some research. There's a strike. This fun.

Happy Birthday!

Today was Lindsey's birthday. Her 21st birthday. It was also Saint Patrick's Day. As she likes to say she "turned 21 in country where it neither matters that it's Saint Patrick's Day nor that she was turning 21." We celebrated anyway. Here's some pictures.

Saturday Night:

All 17 of us met at Taco Box, a Mexican chain popular in Argentina.

Cat, Cat's host sister, and I made her a cheese cake. This was more challenging here than it would have been at home, because not all of the typical ingredients were readily available. But it turned out well. We also bought raspberry preserves and chocolate sauce to put on top.

You can't see it here, but her free shot was on fire. There were beautiful blue flames.

After a bit of encouragement and some how-to tips, it was gone. 

We then made our way to an Irish Pub. It was, after all, Saint Patrick's day. Here she's listening to the bag pipes and other music coming from inside.

And then they came outside.

And then they came to our table and played Happy Birthday.

Sunday Morning: 

My gift: An American style breakfast.
No one here would dream of eating eggs for breakfast, so this meal is something Lindsey has been missing during her year abroad.
Yes, that is bacon. No, I did not eat any. Yes, I did cook it.

We relaxed a little after breakfast and then went to her host brother's house for a huge lunch with his family. It was a lot of fun. We spent a long time talking about little things that are very different in our two countries. These are the things that you kind of assume are true most places, because that's just how life works. It's all you've ever known. For example, they have and carry with them at all times a national document of identity. And they need it to buy anything with a credit card and in many other situations. Yes, we have our driver's licenses, but they're really not the same nor do we use them with the same frequency. In our experiences here, the best example of this is the way that the university works. Schedules aren't set until a week before classes start and it's not the same schedule across the university.  At home, you know on what date classes will start and stop and on which days and at what hours classes will meet months in advance. That's how universities operate. In actually, that is just our system. Other places do it differently.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Lindsey! And Torie! I thought about you a lot today, too, I hope your day was all you hoped for.  

Books

I love to read. During the school year I rarely find time for it. I have sort of made of point to finding time here, however. I have enjoyed every minute of it. The first book I read was a simple distraction book; a follow up to a series I read in high school. For those of you who don't know, there is a fifth sisterhood of the traveling pants book. That book is not what this post is about. Instead it's about the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I saw the movie. I liked the movie, but didn't love it. I read the book. I picked it because it was about a woman's journey traveling the world. I loved it. It was about so much more than that. Regardless of whether or not you are traveling, I highly recommend it. It was great to see the way this woman saw herself and the world. I read it on my iPad, something I would never do at home. However, it allowed me to easily underline quotes that stood out to me as I read. There were a lot. I suppose that if I were to sum up what I took from it briefly (and you will probably find you take away something completely different) it would be: Focus on what's around you right now. Be thankful for it and trust that everything will be the way that it's supposed to be. This is true, because you get to choose to be happy.

I'm currently reading Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom. I'll tell you what I think when I'm done. It's another book that I am thoroughly enjoying.

A New Pope

And he's from Argentina. Which is where I am. People here are very excited. There have long new specials. When I talked to my host mom about it she was said that she foresaw many changes coming under Francis. In addition to being the first Pope from outside Europe, he is the first Jesuit pope. She is also happy about this, because she says that Jesuits are generally more modern. I have heard that the new Pope is very charismatic and very down to earth (the example being he doesn't own a car and uses public transportation).

I can assure that if I were in the US, I would not care as much. I would still read about it and what not. But being here is just exciting. The vast majority of people are Catholic so it's a big deal to almost everyone. A serious reason for national pride in a way that it wouldn't be in the US. People are happy about it. I can't help but be happy with them.

Here's a NYTimes Article




 

The Week and Half Long Sleepover

In between moving here and living with my first host mom, I had a wonderful time living with Lindsey and Monica. Here's some pictures. 

Our very, very small and cozy space.

We got magic mud masks every night. They made it impossible to laugh, which was a huge problem. It was so much fun to scrape them off our faces after they dried.

 Lindsey decided to use my Photo Booth. I decided to publish her creations.

What a Day

I bought the wrong textbook (actually a stack of photocopied articles and such) yesterday. Today, the other Dickinson student and I asked the girl sitting beside us where she bought her's. After class we went down to purchase the correct stack of photocopied pages. We went up to a counter and paid our 20 pesos (4 US dollars) and were handed little receipts to go exchange for our books. We asked where and were told go down stairs and it will be obvious. Well...it wasn't. So we asked someone else and were told to go down to the next floor. It wasn't obvious there either, so we asked again and were told to go to the photocopy room. We stood in line and handed them our receipts. Wrong place. This time the directions were back to where we paid. Well, we knew that was wrong so we asked someone else. Oh...just follow the signs to the editoria.

After that little adventure, I went to the bus stop. The campus is a circle, so theoretically every bus must pass each stop. Fine. True enough. But...and this is a big but...they can also leave said circle early and go for a lovely tour of the mountains. It's only like an hour. In the middle of nowhere. In the desert. Guess who got a tour of the mountains? This girl. I was incredibly grateful that a gentleman came up and asked where I had wanted to go. And then told me that I would eventually get there. He suggested that I get off and wait for a bus going the opposite way, but when I tried that the bus driver was nice enough to let me know he was the last bus. So I stayed on and did eventually get to where I needed to go.

But not on time. Remember how everything closes at 1:00? Yeah...That includes the bank where we have to pay a processing fee for our criminal back ground checks for our student visas. AND IT DOESN'T RE-OPEN. That was supposed to have been done by tomorrow. We then found out the bank was open until 3:00. So Lindsey and I walked there to be told that it was the other location that was open until 3:00; this branch was closed. Time for a taxi. Just before we got up to the window we got a text from Carrie saying we didn't need to pay today, our meeting had been moved to Thursday. Thank goodness, because apparently the paper we were paying for spontaneously combusts at 1:00. Even though the bank was open, we could not pay because they didn't have the paper work after 1:00.

There's a Dickinson Professor here this week, and we all had a lovely meeting with her. With food paid for buy Dickinson. We were informed that we would be getting reimbursed for some costs of the program. Great news. I also can complete a Spanish minor. Sweet. 

All of the things that went wrong today are things that people who live here would know. But are so ordinary no one thinks to explain. It's completely part of being in a different culture. And all that we can do is treat each event as a learning experience and create a new plan with our new information.

Also on the plus side: I get to sleep until 8:00 tomorrow.   

Getting Pooped On

First I left my house at 6:45 this morning. It was still dark. After class came the visa meeting.  A brief summary of that: aeiruh;usd;higeiruh;uaegrag;hoho;ageao;ghiGAHHH. Then this afternoon while starting the visa process a bird literally pooped on me. Here’s a photo: 

I decided it was fitting for the day. It also made me laugh.

That said, my first class was enjoyable. My professor seems very nice. It was most of the students’ first class in university and they were all majoring in Geography (perhaps in a later post I will attempt to explain the Argentine University system). Therefore it was a lot of “Why are you here?” “Why spend the next four years studying Geography?” “What do you hope to gain from this course of study?” One guy responded to that last question with, “To finish it.” Not a bad goal.

I am also settled into a new, wonderful host family. My host mom is in her 30s and has a five-year-old daughter. They are both so nice. It’s good to finally have all of my stuff unpacked. I’m in a cute little neighborhood outside of the city. My commute is about an hour by bus (including wait time) and by bike (I bought one yesterday).

A Concert and Food to Share

 On the final night of Vendimia, there was a concert (Alejandro Sanz) in a beautiful amphitheater nestled in the hills. We didn't get tickets.  Instead we sat ourselves in the hills and watched from above with everyone else who didn't get (or didn't want to pay for) tickets. It was great. In order to get a spot big enough for us all to sit together, we got there hours early and had a picnic. Lindsey and I found a pintrest recipe for zucchini sticks and decided to make some to share with everyone. To get the ingredients we rented bikes. Here's the picture version of our adventures. 

All of the bikes were this awesome teal color. We didn't think to check what time it opened, so Lindsey, Carrie, and I met there at 9:00; one hour before we would be able to do anything. So we walked to a bike rental place in the park, that was way way more expensive. In the end we came back to this place.

We biked to a grocery store. And bought all of our ingredients.

And then this. That would be a VERY flat tire. I don't recommend trying to bike with a tire like this. It's friggin hard work. We walked it back to the rental place.

After lunch, Lindsey and I commenced the creating processes for our zucchini sticks. 

Bread crumbs (Molly, you don't have any of those. Do you?), Italian seasoning, and parmesan cheese. 

Cover the zucchini in egg, then the bread crumb mixture. We got a nice little assembly line going.

Bake. Ovens here are gas. Which means too things: 1. You start it with a match 2. It's one temperature.

They were so delicious. I was so happy that so many people loved them.

The view.

Mendoza from above at night.

The Vendimia show.

Alejandro Sanz.

And fire works. It was incredible to be so high up watching them. They seemed so close.