Estoy enamorada con Salta, la linda

Ooh, Salta. Where to begin with trying to describe the beauty I have seen...

I packed up my bags and was ready to venture out on the road alone!
It didn't last long though because as I was waiting in the bus station, I met up with a girl named Ryan who had been in 2 of my classes, and surprise, surprise! She was going to Salta alone too. So we ended up being together the entire time. She wanted to go to Salta and travel around, but instead we stayed in Salta (capital) and did 3 different day excursions.

Day 1: Jujuy - Las Salinas Grandes y Purmamarca

Jumping in the salt flats!

On the first day we started out by following the path of El Tren a las Nubes (Train to the Clouds). We bought coca leaves to chew on to help with the altitude sickness, as we made the ascent to 4,170 meters above sea level. I wasn't much a fan of the coca, so I stuck to chewing gum and drinking a lot of water to keep the sickness away, and I really only noticed that I was slightly dizzy when I was walking around a lot (which didn't happen much because we were in the car). We stopped a few times just to take pictures and other times we stopped to visit specific towns and sights. The highlights were the Ruins in Tastil, which apparently used to house 3,000 people in 14th century AD. From there we stopped in San Antonio de los Cobres to eat lunch, and then we headed to the salt flats. The salt flats are just SO big, I can't even begin to imagine how large they actually are. We visited an area that had mounds of salt that they had dug up, and an area that they were digging the salt and reaching the water - there are rectangular pools, and the water is under the salt in all parts, but it's just so dry above that! After that, we headed to Purmamarca. I was SO excited to see the Mountain of 7 Colors, and we barely saw it! We didn't stop for pictures because it's colors are better in the morning, and then from the town, you can't really get a good view of it.
Instead I bought some gifts for my friends and family!
We got back in the car without the young Germans because they planned on staying in Purmamarca for the night before heading into Boliva the next day.

Day 2: Salta - Cafayate

Wisdom amongst the mountains.

To go to Cafayate we were picked up bright and early. On this day we shared our car with two girls from Holland and a couple from France. This was just such a spectacular day, I can't even put it into words. We started by seeing a natural amphitheater that the Salta Orchestra actually performs in once a year. Then we headed to Cafayate with minimal stoppage and visited a winery before lunch. On the way back to Salta from lunch  we stopped to take pictures at La Garganta del Diablo, Los Castillos, Las Ventanas, and more. Apparently the lighting is better in the afternoon for these specific sights, and so it was very nice of our driver to consider that for us.
Our driver on the second day was definitely the nicest. He remembered all our names and he also spoke English, but he made sure to translate everything that he said so that everyone in the car could understand the entire conversation.
On our way back to Salta we stopped the Cabra Corral lake, which is manmade and used mainly for hydropower (got that, US?). Here I decided to be the entertainment for the afternoon and I BUNGEE JUMPED!
It was  27 meters, almost a dollar per meter, haha. Looking back, it probably wasn't the safest, but I wasn't that worried when I was doing it, and I really enjoyed it. It was probably the fastest 2 minutes of my life... I got a cute little diploma, a little bit of a rope burn on my one ankle, and some abdomen pain (I think maybe I pulled a muscle?). But it was definitely worth it. It's definitely not that big of a deal and my poor roommate, Caitlin, is still nervous for me even thought it's all over!
I got home from Cafayate, talked to my Dad for a few, and then fell asleep about 8pm and didn't wake up until my alarm went on the next morning at 6:15.

Day 3: Salta - Cachi
I thought this day was going to be so spectacular because we were going to Cachi on La Cuesta del Obispo, which you should google image, but it was cloudy! Which is apparently quite common, but that means that the drive was slow and you could barely see any of the scenery until we were at the altitude about the clouds (which is really strange to think about - we were ABOVE the clouds). On the way, we stopped at a little cafe for some tea and coffee to warm us up, and I met people from Connecticut! They are the first Nutmegers that I've met here in Argentina, and of course it happened to be at just some small roadside restaurant in the middle of Salta. That's just the way this world works. Anyway, they were really sweet, and I got to speak some English with them! Haha.
We made our way slowly up the mountain and arrived at Nacional Parque Los Cardones - aka Cactus National Park! Who ever knew there could be so many cactus in one place... I have some very fun pictures for there though.

Fun fact: Cactus flowers only bloom for a day.

We continued on our way until we made it to Cachi with occasional photo taking stops. Cachi really is not a big deal, like my friends told me, but it's just a quaint little colonial village. We ate lunch and Ryan and I laid out for a few minute and tried to enjoy the warmth before we made our decent back into the clouds and felt the temperature significantly drop. The ride back to Salta is one that I swear I will never forget because we were driving through the clouds and had seriously, seriously limited visibility. We didn't know cars were in front of us until they were right there!
When we returned to Salta, Ryan and I went out to walk around the city a little bit, and I enjoyed some night photography of Salta's gorgeous Cathedral and Church.

The next morning, I woke up, found out that my amazing friend Stephanie had registered me for my classes (thanks, Steph!), and I got on a bus to come back to Buenos Aires.

It was a long bus ride back, but I passed the time talking to a nice woman who was traveling with her young son, and a man who is full blooded Argentine-Indian. He told me that because I have the cleft in my chin, he knew that I would grow up to be una mujer fina (a 'fine' woman, or something pure, affectionate, true, or excellent, depending on the definition), and a lot of things about living life by what your heart tells you to do - for that is how he became the person that he is today with children and a wife he loves. He was a very nice older man and kept pointing things out to me from the window of the bus and explaining things.

I'm really sorry that this post is actually kind of lame to read. I'm so tired, still, after a long nap. And I know that there's no way that I can adequately describe what I saw these past very days, so I'm annoyed with myself for even trying...


But, it's only a few hours until my Mom's plane touches down! So I'll have a busy next week with her and her friend Miss Valerie!

Endings always bring beginnings...

I've officially finished my first semester of my junior year. It's scary to think that I've now finished 5 semesters and only have 3 left to do! What am I going to do with my life?!
The past week of classes was quite uneventful. I had some written exams and an oral exam in Spanish. And on Wednesday and Thursday we had to go to each of our classes and receive our grades, and then hand this formal document into the University. It's just such an antiquated system of doing things, I'm assuming it's really going to slow down the transcript exchange process. I made two 8's, two 7's, and a 6. Normally, at USC, I would panic with those kind of numbers, but they actually are equivalent to a 3.66, 3.33, and a 3.0 (although, really, at USC, I would still probably be a little upset...). Now I'm just worried that the University here reports them as 8, 7, 6, and I won't get credit for the class I got the 6 in because it appears to be a D instead of a B, and I need C's for my pass/fail credit.
I guess I'll just work it all out when I get back on campus, if I have problems.

Saying Chau! to Jen at the Farewell Dinner.

Last night we had our Farewell CEA dinner at this really nice restaurant called Siga La Vaca. It's in Puerto Madero, which is the newest part of the city. It was sad, and at the same time, kind of funny. About 50 of us showed up, but only 5 are leaving in the month. So when December 3rd comes and we have a SECOND farewell dinner (for the intensive Spanish and Latin American/Integrated studies [my program]), I'm sure many more tears will be shed.
It was sad because the great people who are leaving early happen to be Jen, my friend Dan, and Aeri. And I love those three.

But with so much ending in the past few days, so much is beginning too! It's the part that I've looked forward to for so long, and it starts in just a few short hours (when I get my lazy butt into the shower and then to the grocery store).
And this part is: TRAVELING & VISITORS!
I leave tonight and will be taking an overnight bus to Salta province, in northeastern Argentina. There I'll recorrer (to travel through) the Salta and Jujuy provinces. The highlights that I'm looking forward to seeing the most are: El Cerro de Siete Colores and La Garganta del Diablo (not the same as the one in Iguazú Falls, of course). The most exciting part about this trip is that I'm traveling alone! It's a bit scary at the same time, but with the way technology is, you'll probably know if something goes wrong at the same second that I do. Haha. And I'm actually betting that nothing will go wrong because it's an area that's based off of tourism, so they probably try to keep things really safe.
I'll return home on Thursday (the 11th) in the morn', and on the 12th in the morning, my mom and her best friend land! I'm so excited that they are coming to visit. Ever since they've decided to come, I've been thinking about what the greatest things to do are, and what I have to share with them. It's always great to visit someplace new, so I hope they have a great time, but I'm so excited to be able to show them all that I've learned and show them where and how I've been living for the past 4.5 months. I hope they enjoy it here as much as I have!
Then, they will leave on the 20th - the same day as Jen - and a day or two later, I will promptly leave to go to Patagonia! (I do believe I'm saving the best for last!) I plan on glacier hiking on the Perito Moreno glacier in El Calafate, then heading to the town of El Chalten to hike and see Mount Fitz Roy, and after that I will head to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego -- THE END OF THE WORLD!

It's amazing that I only have a month until I'm back home - actually, in exactly a month, I'll probably be sitting in the car on the way home from the NYC airport, or close to getting in the car. A month is such a long time, but with so much planned, it feels so short...

Anyways, I need to pack and buy some things for my viaje. I'll write when I get back, of course! :)

How much do you understand?

Today I went to watch my homestay sister, Elina, in her tela (which literally means 'fabric') class. It's like Cirque du Soleil acrobatics on the giant pieces of suspended fabric.
Why wasn't that an option when I was growing up? or maybe it was was where I was growing up...
It doesn't really matter, I don't have the upper-body strength for it anyway.

The real point of this was, I was in the car with my homestay family and my roommate. And a DJ on the radio was talking. And I was SO impressed with myself for how much I understood. Sometimes, my Dad jokingly puts on a Spanish station when we're driving in NYC -- like when I was getting dropped off at the airport to come here! -- and asks me how much I understand, which is usually like ... a word here or there.
I can't wait for him to do it when he's picking me up for the airport so I can say, "everything."

Welcome to Finals Week, where you will perform more work than you have in the past 15 weeks.

I'm an amazing procrastinator and wish I could major in it.
It is currently finals week. Yuck.
I've gone and entire semester without doing any work, or barely any work. And now it all comes crashing down. I guess the majority of professors are making things kind of easy and trying to get us not to stress - probably because they realize we have no work ethic. But just the idea of finals has put me into a semi-panic mode, although I haven't done anything about it yet.

So, I didn't end up going to the Plaza de Mayo to see everyone mourning the death of President Kirchner. I did decide that it would be okay for me to do, especially because I knew I would be respectful about it, but more because I didn't have the time to go unless I went after school which would mean I would be trying to go during the rush hour, and I'm just not a fan of that commute.
However, my presentation in my culture class, on how the Kirchners are view through "modes of communication" (graffiti and newspapers) went SO well. Jen and I changed it a little bit at the end to discuss how the media had changed and was fully supporting Cristina Fernandez now that her husband had died, when originally they had been bashing her. And I mean, the fact that our presentation was well thought out went really well because I feel like the other groups that presented that day didn't put as much thought into theirs. But we had to prove to our teacher that our presentation was worth it because she originally didn't want us to do the Kirchners because she wanted the presentations to be on Argentina's "legends" and the Kirchners aren't really a legend, especially because they're still in power.
So if I have to look back and say, "yes, I did do work this semester" it will be because of this presentation.

Today I bought my bus tickets for my tip to Salta and Jujuy (northwestern provinces of Argentina). I'm so excited for this upcoming trip and month. I'm going to be on the move the entire time, and that's the way I like it! So, I'll post a finalized calendar later, after I book my flights for my second trip.

Los Kirchner

Today has been quite a strange day in the city of Buenos Aires.
First, the nation was shut down because today was the day of the Census. My roommate, Emily, and I were discussing whether or not the United States or Argentina has a more effective form of taking the Census. In the United States, you're mailed something, and you mail it back. Or they come to your house and ask you the same questions that you could have answered yourself. In Argentina, they shut down everything, all of the trains and buses run infrequently, and almost everything but hospitals and the occasional pharmacy. Someone comes to your house (between 8am-8pm) and they fill out a piece of paper. So Argentina isn't any more environmentally efficient because they still use paper forms like we do in the USA, but they get it all done in one day?
Anyway, I didn't have to wake up early and go to class, but I will have to make my classes up on Friday instead because this was an unexpected, once every ten years, type of a holiday.

Second, the ex-President and current President's husband died this morning. My homestay family, who I know does not like the current President, and many other families were deeply saddened today. The city is in a 3-day period of mourning, but I'm not sure how that will affect anything in the city other than the government. And a lot of people are planning on visiting the Plaza de Mayo and other public areas to mourn together and stand together to help strengthen the President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as she tries to handle the passing of her husband.

Nestor Kirchner's passing comes at a strange time because I am working on a presentation for my culture class about how the media portrays the Kirchners (especially Cristina), and right now all the media attention is focusing on what a good man President Kirchner was and how much he did to help the nation in a time of suffering (he served for two terms after the 2001 Financial Crisis, also know as just "the Crisis").
It's said that Cristina is just a "placeholder" for Nestor until he could run again (you can serve two consecutive terms, and then take time off, but run again later), and many, many people thought that Nestor was actually more like the real president and Cristina was just a pawn. Especially with economic issues. Now, I wonder, what will happen in the time that I am here? And the time after I leave? Will the economy go back down, perhaps not quite as low as where it had been, but will it drop without Nestor to help out?

I'm trying to decide if it would be severely inappropriate as a visitor to this country to go to the Plaza de Mayo and see the activity that is going on. I clearly have no idea how important Nestor Kirchner was to the nation because I was not here during the financial crisis and didn't have to learn what it was to live with only $1,000 a month/family, or any of the hardships that the people suffered that time. But at the same time, I'm intrigued.

Mendoza la Bonita

My trip to Mendoza, the western "wine province," of Argentina was wonderful! It came at such a good time because I hadn't been out of the city in a month and a half and was starting to get stir crazy from all the concrete. At the same time, it was horrible timing because I arrived back in the city at 7am and had my first part of a final exam at 1pm. That's right, I'm officially finishing my semester (I'll be done on the 4th).

View from my cabaña

The trip to Mendoza was all paid for and organized by CEA, and they did such a spectacular jobs. We stayed outside of the city of San Rafael in the Valle Grande area of Mendoza. Our cabins were along with Río Atuel in the middle of some lovely desert mountains. We left Thursday evening from Buenos Aires and had our own private bus (another part of our group left before us and had a shared bus). It was going smoothly to begin with, but then our bus broke down. The steward kept many of the students happy though by providing all the wine the bus had to offer.

We arrived in Mendoza in the morning and got to the cabañas in time to eat some breakfast. We had a few short hours before we had to regather to go on a group hike. The hike was pretty easy, yet I still managed to hurt my thigh a little bit (probably from goofing off). I loved the views from the hike though. It's so interesting to look around and see only desert and then a patch of super-green trees along the edge of the river. Also during the hike, the guides pointed upward to white sediment resting on the mountain and asked us what it was. Turns out that it's volcanic ash from a volcano that erupted forever again, and over 200km away!
That afternoon I went around taking some photos and playing with my camera, and along the way I met some new Argentine friends! I'm not quite sure how these things happen to me, but I was called over by a group of 20-somethings who were on a bonding trip before they all finish their University program this year. They were on their last day in Mendoza and having a party that night, which they invited me and my friends to go to. After dinner, I stopped there for a little bit but didn't stay long as I was tired from a night of barely sleeping on our bus ride.

Just some of my goofy roommates...

I woke up the next day bright and early! (haha 8:30) to eat breakfast and get ready to go zip-lining and rappelling! This activity was optional, and of course I was going to opt in! It turns out "zip-lining" really isn't anything special in Mendoza, or at least the place we went, because it was seriously one-30-yard-long cable. However, rappelling was interesting! When I've "rappelled" before, it's always been down rock climbing walls, and the rappelling part is just you letting go and bouncing down the wall. Here, it was you stepping your way down 75 ft. of rocks while feeding a rope through a carabiner at your waist. It was difficult to relax enough (and to take short steps), and at one point I lost my control and swung around the side of a rock. Thankfully there was a trusty guide waiting at the bottom of the cliff to pull my rope tight and keep my from plummeting to an untimely death...

That afternoon we had our wine tours! They... were... not very interesting? We went to one bodega (winery) that is large and international and one that is only a family business. I'm not very into wine, so for me the most exciting part was the room in the internationally winery that had some interesting acoustics. If you stood in the center of the room and spoke, it sounded like you were talking into a microphone. But if you stood to the side of the room and talked to the walls, the sound would end up on the other side of the room. People loooved calling my name and seeing my gullible reaction. The family-farm winery also produces organic dried fruit and raises some of the largest pigs (probably) known to man.

That night, I called it quits early and tried to go to bed, but I had a hard time falling asleep, so instead I laid outside on our balcony and took in some fresh mountain air...

The next morning we woke up again, "early," to eat breakfast and get ready for our rafting adventure! The rafting was exciting, but the trip wasn't as long as the two others I have done.  The rapids we did were only level 2, so they were pretty relaxing, and it was just fun to be in the boat. The water on Río Atuel was SO cold, but I jumped in anyway. They actually gave us boots, like those for scuba diving, and jackets that kept our body heat in.
After rafting we had some time to lay out in the sunshine and tan before we needed to pack up all our things and head back to Buenos Aires on the buses. I actually got a little tan! After going a year without summer, having some color seems like the best thing in the world!

However, now I'm back in the great city of Buenos Aires. My exam schedule is in full swing and I'm SO ready to be done with my semester and just have free time every day for a month.
I had the written part of my culture exam on Monday and handed in my Tango paper on Tuesday.
We had today (Wednesday) off for the National Census.
I still have my Gender studies, Political and Social Change, and Spanish written exams. And I have a dance practical for Tango, a presentation for Culture, and an oral exam for Spanish. Then I will be completely done with the Universidad de Belgrano and officially *gasp* a second semester junior...

A Mother's Love = 3 Hours in Correo Argentino

I received a package from my mom! It's so exciting, and yet, is such a pain to try to get a package here in Argentina. They aren't allowed to deliver international packages to residences or other buildings, so you just get a slip and have to go in between 10-5 (but before 2 or else they won't give you a number...) and wait, and wait, and wait. They call your first number to find out which package you're there to pick up, and then you wait and they call your package number for you to get your actual package. Unfortunately, the package numbers are 6 digits long, and they call about 20 at a time. So with my Spanish level, and they way they didn't consistently call the numbers in the same manner, I missed my package being called! I arrived at Correo Argentino at 10:45 and left at 2. It was an experience to say the least. I know now that I will never dismiss the slowness of mail in Durham anymore. It took 17 days for me to get my package here in Argentina. Nothing takes that long in the United States. Yet, it's all part of the experience. And I would have waited longer if I had to because I love Reese's!

4 H's, and I don't mean Agriculture.

Before I left for Argentina, I had to go to study abroad orientation at the University of South Carolina. In the orientation they taught us about the "4 H's of Cross-Cultural Adaption" which are: Honeymoon, Hostility, Humor, and Home.

Okay, well, maybe a little agriculture...

I'm not exactly sure if my H's went in the proper order because I was pretty distressed about leaving my mom behind when she'd just had a surgery, so I'm almost certain that I skipped the "Honeymoon" stage and went straight into Hostility. Although I tried to keep an open mind about my surroundings, I was easily frustrated with the language, especially because of the accent difference, city life, and my class placement at the University of Belgrano. Now, though, that I look at all of my time here, I know that I'm in the 4th and final stage: "Home."
With exactly 7 weeks until I land back in the United States, I'm starting to panic. Yes, 2 months is a long time. It was a long time when I realized I'd been here for two months and I hadn't been half way. It's a long time for my friends back at home because they still have 2 months until they're on winter break. And I know it's a long time for both my Mom and Dad who constantly remind me that they're excited to see me again (and I'm excited to see you too!). But it just doesn't feel like a long time anymore. I think it's probably because I finish school this month and have finals the first few days of November. And then I have a month off, but it doesn't feel like a very long time because MY MOM WILL BE COMING TO VISIT! and there are still so many places for me to try and see before I return to the United States.

At the same time, I'm really excited to come home. I'm so excited to see my family and celebrate Christmas with everyone. It appears that my friends might attempt to make a roadtrip to Connecticut to see me during winterbreak. And, this always gets me excited for the future, I'm planning my classes for my next semester, so I'm excited to be back on campus and taking new classes.

Don't worry. I'm continuing to try and live it up here in Argentina as the time plays tricks on my mind, but I also can't wait to be home where, as my friends and I talk about, things will be "normal" for us. Although, right now, things in Argentina seem "normal," so who's to say what normalcy really is anymore?

Diferencias

Hola familia y amigos!
Sorry I haven't written in more than a week! I just started thinking that I was probably boring you to death with my weekly updates about classes and the like, so I had to think about something interesting to write about.
Anyway, I came up with it! I'll write about some of the different things that I've noticed between our culture in the United States and things here. Granted, these are going to be generalizations - not EVERYTHING is going to be as I say it is, but this is just for you all to have a better idea of what some things are like in Argentina.

I guess I'll start with... the mornings and work my way through the day, and then just throw in some extras that don't really have a place? I just need some kind of way to order it. Haha.

1. People around here really don't eat breakfast. To us, it's the most important meal of the day (doesn't mean I usually partake in it), but here they normally have coffee/mate and some toast. Also, they use dulce de leche on their toast. Dulce, if I haven't told you before, is like a more liquidy version of caramel.
2. People have different ideas, than me, probably, of what makes a person "old." On the bus (colectivo) you're supposed to give up your seat for old people, pregnant women, people with disabilities, or women with young children. When I have a seat, I'll give it up for anyone because I don't want them to think that I'm some punk 20-year old. But when there are people who are probably 40-50 and a 60 year old gets on the bus, they don't always give up their seat unless they're asked. I don't know if it's just that they aren't sure of ages or anything, but to me, anyone older gets my seat...
3. There, apparently, is no time where it becomes 'safe' to leave if your professor is late (I found this one out today). We waited for 30 minutes for class to begin, and when a staff member came and locked the classroom door, we thought it was safe to leave. Apparently our teacher had called the school to say he'd be late, and no one bothered to tell us. So when we left as he was walking in, only 7 of us (including me) returned to the class. In the class he informed us that there is never a time when you're allowed to leave without being penalized for it; you have to wait for your professor the entire time. At USC, you're safe to leave after 15-ish minutes, in general, so it was a bit of a different experience. I think, though, that I get extra credit for being there...
4. They eat lunch later than we do. On Mondays and Wednesday, I have a 10am class, so when I get out and am sitting around waiting for my 1pm class, I always eat something. I think it shocks people when I order lunch-like food instead of medialunas (breakfast croissants). And their soda consumption has got to be much less than that of the United States because all their cup sizes are much smaller. Our McDonald's medium (that normally comes with a meal) is their large. When you upgrade to a large, you also get bigger fries, which is also equal to our medium size fries... a curiosity.
5. They eat dinner so late! (I guess I'll just stick to the topic of food because it's what I know best...) Here, in my homestay, we eat dinner at about 11pm each night. It's a struggle for me because I always do my homework after dinner, so I'm generally up late (if/when I do my homework. Other than that, I just watch movies/talk to friends). Lunch, for me, is the biggest meal because if I don't make it that way, I have to have a meal in-between my lunch and dinner.
6. At restaurants, they come and take your order, and then, generally, they deliver you food as it's finished being cooked, so people get food at all different times. Also, someone just told me that it's not really true and it's more appropriate to wait, you're allowed to eat right as you're served without asking the permission of the other people. If my meal's last, I always shoo other people on because they should eat when they're ready, but really? I don't understand the concept of serving one person at a time...
7. Argentinians are really proud of their country. It's not like in the United States where we're proud to be from our country but also have moments where we're a bit ashamed of the Nation's actions (at least I've noticed that with many of my friends). Argentinians all hate their government (which I'm always like, "yeah, but only like 30 years ago, you were living in a dictatorship, so do you really hate it?"), and they will curse politicians up and down, but other than that they all LOVE Argentina (which I can understand; it's quite the exceptional country).
8. Here in Argentina, they don't speak Español, they speak Castellano. As far as I can tell, the only difference is vocabulary, and even that differs from country to country. I was always taught that gasolina was gasoline, but here in Argentina they call it nafta (Nahuel laughs at this because NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement was then named after something highly flammable). Also in Argentina they use the vos form instead of tú (for 'you'). It's also interesting because they use the vos for everyone except people like doctors, lawyers, etc. Then they use the formal version usted, but in Bolivia (to the north of Argentina) they refer to everyone as usted and only use tú for friends. This, I guess, is comparable to calling everyone Miss/Mrs. in Connecticut and thinking that ma'am is really formal, but moving to South Carolina where even 40 and 50 year-old's call me ma'am. Also, the vos form, which I love for it's simple present-tense conjugation, is "Río Platanese" Castellano, aka it's only in the "river plate" of South America, which is Argentina and Uruguay. So outside of the city, they don't even necessarily use the vos form.
9. My roommate brought this one up last night when I hugged her goodbye. To greet people here, you kiss them once on the cheek. But you rarely see people hug each other. It's interesting because it's not like they're very conservative about showing feelings (i.e. parks, buses, subtes, the hallways, ANYWHERE is make-out central). You shake hands when you're meeting someone for the first time or when it's a business deal type thing, but other than that, everyone kisses. But friends don't hug. I think it's probably the thing I miss the most, too. Clearly, they aren't conservative people, but they generally dress more conservative. I've worn shorts once and was told that no one wears them in the city, and even now people are wearing layers of clothing. I'm starting to wonder how they aren't all dying from Vitamin D deficiency...

10. According to some, Argentinians are supposed to be very healthy. True, I have not noticed very many obese people, but really, this cannot be true. When I told Argentinians my story about tripping while running, everyone asked me why I was even running in the first place ("estaba corriendo y --" "¿Por qué estabas corriendo?" "...Para hacer ejercicio" OR "estaba corriendo y tropecé en una porta-bicicletas." "¿Estabas corriendo de la policía?" --- Why were you running? ... for exercise. // Oh, were you running from the police?) Then, the late eating hours make me believe that it can't be all it's cracked up to. But my other favorite thing is that EVERYTHING gets doused in oil. I frequently have tomatoes covered in oil at dinner. "Soups" can be cooked noodles with just an oil broth. And, my favorite moment, I was already biting into my pizza when Pipa walked over and dumped oil on the top -- as if pizza isn't fatty enough to begin with?

There are plenty of other different things, but I thought I'd make it a nice round-number list at 10. I'll keep my eyes peeled for other difference to report, or just for other things to write about in general.

I hope you all have a fabulous Columbus Day (it'll be celebrating 'Race Day' here), and good luck to the Gamecocks this weekend as they take on the #1 University of Alabama. My Dad, brother, uncle, and cousins will be at the game along with all of my best friends, I'm sure. So I hope you all have a great time! I won't be traveling this weekend (everyone is going to Cordoba for Oktoberfest), so I'll be watching along with you! :)

"Sieze the Day, boys! Make your lives extraordinary!"

I've been trying really hard in the past week to really do everything I can to fill my time here in Argentina. I don't want to miss out on anything and risk the chance of never seeing it again.
I'll just go through the week, as always:
Monday - I went to my classes, which were pretty barren, because we had Tuesday off of school for the First Day of Spring/Student's Day!
Tuesday - We had wanted to go to the Lújan zoo, but a bunch of people ended up not wanting to go that day, and instead wanting to do what all other Argentine students would be doing... sitting in parks drinking beer/coke/mate (mah-tay). So I slept in, like any normal college student would do, and then I called up my friends. Jen and I decided that we would go to our favorite pizza place and then meet up with Michelle and Roxanne at this park later on. When we got to the park, there was a giant concert! I had no idea that it was going to be there, but it was. I missed the first two bands, but I got to hear the last one, so it was fun.
Wednesday - I had my Spanish midterm, and I'm exactly sure how it went. I studied with Jen for it, and I had already been asking the professor a ton of questions and doing my homework with my Argentine friend (he can't explain concepts, but he knows when things are right and wrong), so I thought I would do well. The test wasn't hard, but it wasn't the type of test I had been expecting, which threw me off a little bit.

There was nothing eventful about going to school on Thursday. But I did get 3 midterms back - I got two 6s and a 7. To me, a 6 feels like failing, but here, it's a straight up B (3.0) and a 7 is like a 3.5. So without much effort, lenient grading on the part of the teachers, and a strange grading scale, I am now confident that with my P/F I will not destroy my GPA at USC and have to beg my mother and father to make up for my lost scholarship. Holla!

Our cute little sampler

On Thursday night Jen and Sydney and I decided to go out. We were going to "celebrate the end of midterms" (actually, this was the reason we came up with while we were out). We went to this brewery that I had read about that's really close to my house. The meal was pretty expensive, which is why we're calling it a celebratory meal, and it was annoying because Sydney is vegan, and they were kind of rude to us about her special dietary requests. Anyway, we did this beer sampler and then shared a pitcher of the beer we all agreed on. I didn't really like it that much, but I didn't like any of the ones that Jen or Sydney also had in common, so I just went for it. After dinner we went to a bar in Plaza Serrano and met some Brazilians, and then we went to a club that was actually kind of lame (I'm really not a fan of most clubs). So, all in all, it was a pretty good night.

On Friday we had been planning to this bus tour that is Hop On, Hop Off, but we woke up too late and didn't want it to not be worth the money. Instead we went to the Japanese Garden and got lunch and walked around for a little while. It was so beautiful, but it isn't very "peaceful" because it's in the center of the city, not far from a huge avenue, so you can see the really tall buildings and hear all the cars while you're walking around inside. Also, they have coy fish that are so big, they're creepy. They had like bites out of them, probably because they fight for food with the other fish, and they started like following us around. So if you leaned out to look over the pond water, they would be there looking at you with their overly large mouths...

Jardín Japones

After the Gardens, we all went our own ways so that we could get ready to go to Tango and onto our respective nightly plans. Normally our nightly plans are the same, but this time I had a date! I went to Tango and learned a new move. I was getting a bit frustrated with the one instructor because she makes it out like it's our fault that there aren't enough men who want to learn tango and it's horrible that she has to have people switching partners. The other instructor, however, told me that I was "muy bien" and I was so happy!
My date went well too. It's funny because we went to a restaurant that I'd been to before, but he had wanted to surprise me with somewhere that has typical Argentine food. Oh well! We also got ice cream, and I out-ate him which I'm not sure is something I should brag about, but I'm pretty much a champion at eating, so I will.
Yesterday I woke up, and I got together with Jen for pizza, again, at our favorite place. They now have our order memorized down to who drinks the Coke and who drinks the Light Coke. Embarrassing or good customer service? After that we had planned on going to a park to lay out and read/do homework, but it was a little bit chillier than we had originally thought, so we tried to go find a movie to see. We went to two theaters and didn't see anything that we wanted to spend money on, so we just went home with plans to meet up later for my nerd-fest. Last night, Jupiter was really close and the Planetarium normally has telescopes set up on weekends for people to use, and they were doing a special thing for Jupiter. I wanted to go and a girl from school, named Abby, said she wanted to go too. When we completed our walk to the Planetarium, and took in the immense line, we decided it wasn't worth it to wait that long and we would go eat instead and just go to the Planetarium for a show some other time. There were literally 1,000+ people in line to use one of like 3 telescopes. I'm sad I missed it, but I also saw Jupiter without a telescope because it's was that close (I say it was that close because it is not physically possible to see a single star in Capital Federal, but I could definitely see this one...). On our walk back to civilization (aka through a park) we realized a bondiola place was open, and we went there to eat instead. It was so delicious and cheap! The owner of the bondiola place was really nice to us, and I'll definitely go back to eat there some other time. After we ate we played on see-saws for a few minutes, and then just walked into the main roads to take our buses home.

I stayed up really late, even though I didn't have to, watching my favorite songs on youtube with Spanish subtitles. It all started thanks to my friend Matias deciding that he liked the Taylor Swift that I played for him the other day, and wanting to know what all the words were. After that I started watching Taylor, Carrie Underwood, John Mayer, etc. It was awesome and I feel like I learned a lot, but it's also a lesson in how there's this gap in translations. You can really lose quite a lot from reading a translation of something than reading the actual thing...

Today we had, again, planned on doing the bus tour, but no one could do it, except me and Sydney, so we decided to wait it out for more people and instead we went back to the Feria de San Telmo and walked around. Sydney bought some things, I wish I bought some things, and we surprisingly found our friend Cameron in the throngs of people. We spent a lot of time there, and I loved it. San Telmo is such a beautiful part of the city, but it's really not safe to wander too far from the area of the Feria (if you're not Argentine). But after being there for a little bit we decided to walk to Plaza de Mayo and sit in the sun. While we were sitting and just talking I decided that I should just take the tour of the Casa Rosada like I'd been wanting to do, and we actually got in the last tour of the day! The building is really pretty and ornate inside, but I don't think it's as impressive as our Capitol building is. It also feels much, much smaller than our federal government buildings, but I'm not sure how they compare in size...

From Plaza de Mayo to the Obelisk

Now I'm just about to call my Mom, eat some dinner, and sleep a good night's sleep before the week starts all over again...