Reverse Culture Shock

    I cant believe I'm home. I saw my dog, saw my friends, handed out Argentine gifts (I'm saving lots for Christmas- I spent my last 200 pesos on Alfajores), and am quickly adjusting to normalcy. But there are some things that I'm not quite used to yet that just don't feel natural. For one, I'm in such a habit of putting the toilet paper in the trash instead of the toilet, that if I don't break this habit, my roommate at DU is not going to be happy with me. Second, although I've been saying I can't wait for the snow, I really meant I can't wait for the snow in the mountains when I ski, and not in town where I have to drive and walk in the cold. I'm coming from 100 degree weather to 20 degrees, and not Celsius. Third, I am used to talking to my IFSA American friends in English, and strangers in Spanish. For example, ordering food, or going through processes at an airport, or meeting someone for the first time- these are all times I would normally use Spanish. I need to remember to greet people in English now. Fourth, I've felt like an 8th grader the past 5 months based on the academic level of my classes. I start the accounting core in 2 weeks, which is going to be the biggest culture shock of all when I actually have to go to classes and study to pass my class.
    The past five months were the most adventurous times of my life. I traveled almost all of Argentina, and the two surrounding countries. I made some of the greatest friends that I am sure we will stay in touch and remember our adventures together forever. We already have reunions planned. I learned so much about myself and about other cultures, demonstrating to me what is important in life and how a society becomes successful and efficient. I appreciate so much more now. My life in Colorado is so much more fortunate than a large percentage of the Argentine population. Who knows if I will get an opportunity like this ever again.

Back to where I started

   I took my parents around Buenos Aires this weekend for my last two days of my five month long study abroad adventure. I took them to all the same tourist spots I've already been, including the Casa Rosada, La Boca neighborhood, the Recoleta cemetery, and Puerto Madero.
    However, this weekend, we went to a tango show, which I have never done before! Buenos Aires is the tango capital of Argentina, so we couldn't leave without seeing a show. There are so many different shows here, but each one has its own special theme. Carlos Gardel, the show we went to, had an emphasis on songs composed by Carlos Gardel, showing a video on his life and work. Other shows focus on tango related art, singing, or acting, in addition to the dance.
    All of the shows offer a transfer to the theater, so you don't have to drive, and will pick you up in a van and take you to the show. The dinner was better then expected, since its probably cooked in advance for so many people. It was three courses with unlimited wine, and we took cheesy pictures with the dancers that the company tried to sell us.
    The dancing was spectacular. There were a few different couples, and all did different kinds of tango. Some were more athletic, doing flips and twirls. Others were more traditional, with women wearing frilly dresses or a classy pants suit. Then there were the classic sexy couple in tight and revealing dresses.  A couple dances were preformed by multiple pairs, and other numbers were just a solo singer. The songs must have been quite famous because the women sitting on either side of us were singing along dramatically, and knew every word. The costumes and skills were intricate and beautiful.
    Neither of my parents are city people, and neither am I, but they handled the heavy traffic of cars and people very well in Buenos Aires. We took cabs a couple times, and did quite a bit of walking too, but oddly we experienced some rain, which I didn't think was very common in Mendoza or Buenos Aires. But I guess I haven't experienced this season yet in Argentina, and maybe it rains more in the spring and summer.  It also gets so hot in Buenos Aires during the summer that the electricity often goes out, leaving lots of buildings and homes without power for days. The apartment building we stayed at had half of the building without power (luckily not our half). I could never live in Buenos Aires, it's way too big of a city for me with too much heat, noise and people. I'm so glad I chose Mendoza instead of Buenos Aires for study abroad.
    Since we took cabs all weekend around Buenos, we didn't think there would be a problem getting to the airport for our flight back to the US. However, not many of the cabs like to drive to the airport, because it takes so long to get out of town and takes up so much time and space with all the suitcases, so we couldn't find a cab for 45 minutes on the street. We were waiting on a street corner for almost an hour, watching not only the occupied cabs pass by, but also the empty ones who's cab driver wouldn't even look at us because they didn't want to deal with the luggage or driving out of town. Many of them shook their fingers at us, or looked away. After we started to get worried, I had to ask a security guard for what to do, if there was a bus we could take, and he went and spoke to a cab driver and convinced him to take us. We paid almost 50% more than what it should have been, but at least we made it to the airport in time for our flight, after an hour and a half in traffic. We were lucky we left enough time.
    The security to get out of the country is more strict than traveling within the country. We had to get our bags checked twice; once at security, and once right before the gate. We couldn't even bring water onto the plane once we'd been through security. It was a major culture shock once we were in Houston and had to deal with American security measures again. I forgot what it was like to have to remove every article of clothing to go through the security. Twelve hours and 3 movies later on the plane, I was landing on Colorado soil, or I should say snow, because a light frost greeted us at the airport, reminding me that I was home, and that Christmas is soon!

El sur de Argentina

    My dad has always wanted to visit the Argentinian side of Patagonia, and finally we accomplished that goal in El Chaltén and El Calafate. These two mountain towns are 180 km apart, but you have to fly to Calafate, then drive or take a bus north to Chaltén. This is a tiny little mountain town known for it's location next to Cerro Fitz Roy, a massive mountain with towering rock formations. There are no other towns or civilization past Chaltén, only hiking trails and camping, so all of the natural water sources in the area are potable. All of the streams and lakes are made from uncontaminated glacier melt, allowing you to drink the water straight from the source. We found our hotel in Chaltén, a small town of maybe a couple hundred people, and where there are no elevators in the whole town. I'm lugging around a giant heavy suitcase with all my stuff from the past five months, so people probably think I'm the bratty teenager who overpacked for Patagonia, where the rest of the tourists are all just trekking with one backpack. I'm just glad I didn't initially pack more. Study abroad really makes you realize that rewearing clothes, fanny packs, and wearing your jacket around your waist is really the most convenient way to travel. There were lots of people camping in town, because you can trek straight from town for their two most popular hikes: Mount Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre.
    When we arrived to El Chaltén in the evening, it was pouring rain, and none of the surrounding mountains could be seen, so instead we just enjoyed a hot meal of lamb lasagna, with pisco sours and vino caliente for dessert while watching the rain. The restaurant and town were very homey and comfortable, and we were fortunate to receive bright and sunny weather the next day for our trek to Mount Fitz Roy. We started at 8:30 am from the town, and hiked 8 hours and 16 miles to come to probably the most breathtaking view I've ever seen.
    The first hour of the hike was straight up hill to the first viewpoint of the mountain. Lots of people turn around there because you think you've seen it all. But if you keep going on the trail, it gets flatter and easier, and winds through the valley and past a couple lagunas, across the Rio Blanco, and past a couple camp spots. The last hour of the hike is literally straight up hill, even more than that first hour, and the trail is made of big stone steps, but the steam runs through the trail at parts, making the stones wet and slippery, a treacherous task when already tired from the past ten kilometers. At the very top of this ridge, you find yourself at the base of Fitz Roy, which you could only previously see from behind the ridge, so it's a completely new perspective. There is a hidden lake you never would've known about, which is sparkling turquoise, and the towers of the mountain look even more massive, and the glaciers more blue. We couldn't help but sit and stare for about an hour. We drank the ice cold glacier water from the lake. I thought it was some of the most refreshing water I've ever had. The steep part on the way down takes as long as the way up because you have to be so careful on the wet stones. It actually hurt my legs quite a bit putting so much pressure in my knees, but the view was worth every minute of pain and soreness I've been experiencing the past couple days. We kept looking back on the way down, trying to get one last view. The lighting on the mountain kept changing throughout the 8 hours we were hiking, along with the clouds, so every view point was different.
    The next day we weren't as lucky with weather, or the status of our sore legs, and our hike to Cerro Torre got cut short. The clouds were not allowing a clear view of the Cerro. In fact, I didn't see it at all, because we found out, based on the map on the trail, that the mountain we thought was Cerro Torre was actually Cerro Solo (which was petty impressive itself), but Cerro Torre was completely covered in clouds. The rain came too, so we left for El Calafate earlier that afternoon to explore this mountain town, which is much bigger and more touristy. My mom and I convinced my dad to give us some time for gift shopping, so we looked at all the artisanal markets. I'm so glad I bought a lot of gifts on my spring break trip up north, because the things I bought in Salta and Jujoy are triple the price in Patagonia. This is because Jujoy is one of the poorest provinces.
    The Perito Moreno Glacier is 80 km out of Calafate, and unfortunately, we didn't get to do any full day excursions (like ice trekking on the glacier) because our flight to Buenos Aires was mid afternoon, but we still went to the national park bright and early (right when it opened) and glacier watched for 4 hours. This is one of few glaciers in Patagonia where the ice comes so close to land that people can access it by land rather than by boat. The ice comes within a couple hundred feet of the shore of the lake, so the national park has built balconies and walk ways all along the coast so people can see the glacier from really close. The paths are actually very intricate, with an elevator for handicapped, and the paths bring you pretty low down on the coast. They have areas with wind shields and benches too. The entire area was so cold from the wind.
    It's hard to tell just how massive the glacier is when you are watching it from the balconies, but it is actually 180 feet tall and 5 km across at the widest part, and it goes back 14 km into the mountains. We were some of the first people in the park today, when the balconies were empty. All morning long we watched pieces breaking off of the glacier and falling into the lake. It's spectacular to see the glacier calving because the pieces look small from a distance, but are actually the size of a house. We thought the first calving we saw was amazing, but then we kept seeing even bigger pieces break off. The ice makes creaking and cracking sounds right before it breaks, so we'd turn around at every sound, trying not to miss a good one. The ice falls so slowly too, it's hard to miss, but we went to the bathroom right when we felt the biggest rumble, and missed a huge chunk of ice fall to the water. We could see the build up in the water of that chunk afterwords and couldn't believe we missed it. It's crazy how much the shape of the glacier changes throughout the day. But then, at the very end of our stay, right as we turn around to leave, we heard the biggest crack, and an entire sheet from top to bottom of the glacier broke off, all 180 feet, making the biggest waves in the lake. We were so lucky to see that. We ended the day well, and headed to the airport to fly to Buenos Aires.

San Carlos de Bariloche

    After being a tour guide around Mendoza twice, I'm really excited to be traveling to new places with my parents before going home. My first stop was Bariloche in northern Patagonia. Bariloche is the lake district in Argentina, and after being there for four days, I couldn't get enough of the gorgeous views of all the lakes. Every vantage point was a little different of the sparkling lakes and foresty mountains, but the entire area was lined with yellow flowers called retamas that have taken over the sides of the streets and all the open space. There are hidden lakes in between the hills, and bridges that cross over the rivers. The snow capped Andes are in the background with uniquely jagged rock formations and glaciers on top melting into waterfalls. Some of the rocks on top of the mountains look like horns or spikes. And we saw some beautiful pink sunsets over the sparkling lakes. It's kind of a magical place.
    We arrived there Tuesday and rented a car to find the house we rented, discovering that our house, although 21 kilometers out of town, is in the most beautiful and popular part of Bariloche, on the San Pedro peninsula. We had a bit of a drive to find the house, but it had a deck overlooking the lake and the islands across the water, with full glass windows to see the view too. There is German and Swiss influence in the area, so the first night we went to a German beer garden to try artisanal beer from Bariloche, called Berlina. The restaurant sat us on the grass, picnic style, until a table opened up, from which we could see an open meadow of horses grazing and the sun going down. The next day we drove through the tourist circuits around the lakes, weaving through forests and past beaches and panoramic viewpoints. At a few stops we hiked a couple kilometers to reach a mirador, or a viewpoint. The forests were overgrown with the retamas, a bamboo type plant, and a tree with a funky orange fruit that falls onto the forest floor and dries up. The bosque de los Arrayanes, which consisted of unique arrayane tees, is actually the influence for the design of the trees and forest in Bambi. We walked through the trails, which were overtaken by dead branches of the bamboo type plant that were leaning in towards the trail, creating arcs we had to duck under.
    The road brought us to Colonia  Suiza, an old Swiss colony that is now a tourist trap with craft items and artisanal chocolate. The factory of the Berlina beer is located there, which we took a short tour of to see how the beer was made.
    My friend Carolyn from IFSA joined my parents and me for the next two days since our giant lake shore house had two other empty rooms, and Carolyn was traveling by herself throughout Patagonia. The four of us hiked up Cerro Lopez, one of the mountains in Bariloche with a glacier and snow still on top. The hike brought us straight up hill, hiking in sand while swatting away hundreds of horse flies. There is a restaurant half way up the trail that serves beer and snacks, with a patio overlooking the lakes. It's a bit crazy that in the middle of our peaceful and remote hike, there is a restraunt reminding us that civilization isn't too far away. The second half of the hike leads to a refugio on the top of the mountain, which is a lodge where hikers can stay the night and obtain more food in the middle of their trek through the mountains in Bariloche. Refugio Lopez is a little pink house sitting right above tree line on Cerro Lopez, with the glacier and snow melt waterfalls as a backdrop. It baffled my mind that there was a little house that far up the mountain. I can't fathom how it was built. However, I realized when closer to finishing the hike that there is a road that goes up the mountain too, so it can't be too hard to deliver supplies to the house. Reaching the refugio was so satisfying, after two hours of steep incline in the heat with so many flies. We were slapping and waving our hands all over the whole hike to avoid the flies. I was especially proud of ourselves because the previous day at an information both at another hike, the information lady told us about this hike up Cerro Lopez, and said she could do it in two hours, but "us tourists" would probably take three. We reminded her we are from Colorado and know how to hike, and proved her wrong by hiking up in almost exactly two hours. The refugio actually had a pool built into the stone behind the house, with some of the coolest and most refreshing, clear water. I wish it wasn't too windy at the top to want to swim. The hike back down was dangerous in the steep sand, but surprisingly none of us fell once. We ended the hike with a stout beer and artisanal chocolate.
    We hiked a few more miradores the next day to get some different perspectives of the views. It's all so amazing, but the same view every time just from different vantage points. We explored Cerro Catedral, the ski resort in Bariloche, even though it's summer and there was no snow. Pink and purple lupins had taken over the ski runs, creating meadows just filled with flowers; it's too bad those will just get snowed on and covered up this winter.
One hike near the ski hill took us to see another lake, but we didn't hike long. We explored the town of Bariloche in the afternoon, which has Swiss influence in the architecture of the old churches and a famous clock tower. People were outside selling pictures with their St Bernards and young puppies. Every corner of the main street in town is a chocolate shop, so we tried all the different samples, and bought fancy desserts to try.
    It's been really fun traveling with my parents. It's such a different mood than my other travels here. We've been sleeping in late, making full breakfasts with eggs and real juice (not Tang). We rented a car, which has been really helpful in seeing everything. Nothing is better than home cooked meals either, so my mom made a few dinners of roasted vegetables, chicken, pasta. It's been really relaxing just having a glass of wine with my parents or sitting on the deck in the mornings. My dad tried fernet and coke, and I was so surprised he actually liked it and wanted more. Having my parents here replaces my college kid budget, which means I get to do some of the traveling quicker and easier, meaning flying instead of taking buses. It makes traveling so much easier.
     I missed my parents so much, it's so good to be reunited!
   

The Firmins take on Mendoza

I had two days in Mendoza between Blake's trip and my parent's, so I packed up, took advantage of my host family's pool that had been recently filled, and said a bittersweet goodbye to my host mom while handing over my keys and heading to the airport to pick up my parents. I found a city bus to the airport that was easy enough to find, but took me almost an hour and through some poorer parts of northern Mendoza. My parents had been traveling for 30 hours, a little extra than expected because of delays, and were almost in disbelief that we were reuniting after 5 months apart. They did a great job getting around the Buenos Aires airports without any Spanish, but now that I'm guiding them through Mendoza, I keep forgetting they don't speak Spanish and get frustrated when I forget to help translate. I guess that means that Spanish is feeling more natural for me. I forget to differentiate. My parents are both trying to incorporate their high school French and German language skills to get by, and it actually is pretty relevant to help figure out what some things mean. My mom is really good at inferring things; she reads some signs and food labels without my help and I'm impressed she can figure them out. Although I've spent the last 4 months getting pretty sufficiently pissed off when people always speak to me in English and don't let me speak Spanish, it's easier just to let people speak English to my parents than try to translate every single thing. More people speak decent English in Mendoza than I thought.
My tour guiding in Mendoza with Blake gave me some good practice to show my parents around, this time without errors. I'm pretty much taking them to the same places I took blake, except for the restaurants.
Their first night, I took my parents to a parilla for some typical Argentinian asado. We shared goat (chivito), steak with mushrooms, and sausages, and I showed them how much of a "wine expert" I am now by picking a Malbec they both really enjoyed (my method involved picking the second to cheapest wine bottle of any brand I've heard of -because a lot of the time at parties us IFSA kids just drink boxed wine). The first night was a success, and I let them catch up on sleep before the first activity on the schedule the next day-the hot springs. My parents were champs dealing with the public transportation; our bus on the way to the hot springs had a high pitch alarm going off constantly for the first ten minutes until the driver poured a giant jug of water down into the engine. But they really enjoyed the scenery and we people watched all day. Argentinians are generally really skinny, but for some reason I've seen some really ginormous people at the hot springs, and a lot of them are wearing really revealing swim suits.
   My parents got to try their first Argentinian empanada. When Blake was here, he probably ate about 50 ham and cheese empanadas, but my parents were a little more varied and tried the vegetables ones. And they've been impressed with all the food so far. I'm taking them to all the best places I've been.
    I took them the Cerro Arco, which kicked their butts from the steepness, and ended our time in Mendoza with biking and wine-ing. My parents accepted the challenge of riding a tandem bike, even though my mom wasn't that thrilled. We went to a few wineries I'd already been too, but also to a new one that makes all sweet wines and champagnes, which were all great. My parents were impressed with everything they learned in the wine tours, and everytime I go to one, the tour guide will always comment on how young I am, assuming I don't drink wine much or know much about it.
    It was so nice to show my parents around Mendoza after they've been hearing about it for four months. My dad said it was a much bigger city than he originally imagined, and my mom has really enjoyed the pedestrian streets with outdoor patios and artisanal markets. I even kept my parents out at the bars till 3 am, just so they could experience the Mendocino night life before leaving.
My last night in Mendoza I spent enjoying a glass of wine with my parents.  This was the perfect way to say goodbye to the place that's been my home since July.
   

Chilean adventures of Blake and Rachel

This time going to Chile I got to spend a little more time in Santiago. Blake and I had to figure out the metro upon arriving at the bus station. We've been on the go so much, I didn't quite do all my research for how to get to our hostels after the bus terminal. I had a general idea, but we had to ask a couple people to point us in the right direction. We've been traveling with two rolling suitcases, because Blake is helping take some stuff home for me at the end of the trip, so we are lugging a lot of stuff around. The first place we stayed in Santiago was a fifth floor apartment we found on Airbnb for cheap, with a rooftop pool on floor 27. From the roof we could see all of Santiago, and everybody else's rooftop pools. It was hot weather all weekend, but actually a little windy all the way on the 27th floor, where there was also a sauna, gym and patio.
    I took Blake to all the places I went to last time in Santiago. We stayed near Santa Lucia, a hill in the city with an old castle and great view of the city. We hiked up the castle, exploring the different churches and parts of the castle that are part of the hill. We went to the historical district to see the Plaza de Armas, walked through a park towards another park San Cristóbal, which has an old tram to ride up to the top of another hill for another great view. So most of our activities in Santiago involved finding great places to view the city.         Unfortunately, the workers were striking at this park, so it was closed for the day. One thing I have learned about Chilenos is that they like to strike. They are often striking at the border, like when Blake arrived to Mendoza, I've heard that the students strike a lot of years to protest paying for universities. We saw lots of little bits of paper flying everywhere in the wind and when traffic passed all throughout the city, and realized this is from other protests too, because a lot of student protest groups parade around the city with banners and loud noises throwing paper in the air. There is about to be a presidential election in Chile in a couple weeks, so it's getting the people all riled up.
    One thing I didn't realize about Santiago last time was how mountainous it is. There are mountains on every side of Santiago. It's basically right in the middle of the Andes. There are little mountains right in the middle of the city too, like San Cristóbal. And the city is very hazy. We could barely see the mountains the first morning. But the mountains are so tall we could see the snow on top of the tallest one through the haze and it just looked like clouds.
    Blake coincidentally knew a friend in Santiago who he studied abroad with in Guatemala, so we met up with him for drinks Friday night,  trying some German beer. Blake was pointing out the German influence all weekend in the style of architecture and layout of Viña del Mar and Valparaíso. Blake's friend Nicholas walked with us to a bar crawl that his friend runs in BellaVista, where all the bars are, and on the way gave us some great safety advice. We crossed bridges that he said were safer than the ones closer to tourist districts, because people wait for all the tourists at night, and at one point, Nicholas felt like someone was following us, so we stopped by an apartment building to get away from the potential robber. Chile has a pretty high pick pocketing crime scene, as does Mendoza, but all weekend people were warning us about keeping our valuables safe. The pub crawl turned into more of a hostel party, but we played some foosball against other tourists and met a bunch of people in a program that Chile's government funds called Start Up, and a bunch of young entrepreneurs come to Chile to start a new business.
      Saturday we spent some time at the pool, making use of our apartment kitchen to make salami and cheese subs, and then went back to San Cristóbal to take the funicular up the mountain. The funicular is an old railway cart pulled by a cable that took us to the top of the hill, passed the zoo, and up to a giant statue of the Virgin Mary and a church on the top. We were higher than any skyscraper or surrounding hills. While enjoying the view, I tried one of Chile's most typical drinks, called Mote, which is a very very sweat peach tea (all sugary syrup), with soft corn kernels in the bottom with whole peaches in it. The concept kind of reminded me of boba tea, because the corn kernels are a similar soft and rubbery texture. It tasted good because of all the sugar, and I liked the corn at the bottom, but could barely finish one cup because it was so sweet. We found a bunch of mountain bike and hiking trails down the mountain in the trees, which is such a neat part of Santiago because you can hike right on the middle of the city.
    Saturday night we found dinner at a Peruvian place that looked good, but really was just an over priced tourist trap, but then we bar hopped through BellaVista, trying more of Chile's typical drinks. The most common is the pisco sour, with pisco alcohol, similar to vodka, with citrus and egg whites in it. Then there are terremotos, which is basically a giant cup of white wine with pineapple liqueur and ice cream. I'd heard about these, but didn't know they were wine, so I made Blake try one with me, and since he hates wine, I ended up drinking both myself, which was plenty of wine and ice cream for one night. My conclusion about Chilean drinks is that they love to experiment with adding unique ingredients to their drinks: corn, egg whites, ice cream. And they turn out pretty good.
    Sunday we headed to Valparaíso, getting on a 6 dollar bus to take us two hours to the coast. Blake loved the rolling hills and graffiti on all of the cerros. Especially because GoPro filmed a downhill mountain biking video in the streets of Valpo, and we found the exact spot they filmed where the biker goes off a mount and rides sideways on the wall. We could tell based on the wall art. We explored the streets and I took Blake to where we saw the sea lions last time basking in the sun, where we also watched the sunset. I basically repeated what I did last time in Valpo with Blake, and tried to take him to where we surfed and sand surfed. However, since we were there on weekdays, nobody was out renting boards to surf, and the waves were too tiny that day to try to surf, so instead we beach hopped while walking along the coast, then hiked to the top of the dunes anyway to get another great view of the ocean.  I dropped my camera in the sand and unfortunately it isn't working well now, and we got some intense sunburns even though we put on sun screen all day, thanks to a hole in the ozone layer above Valpo, but despite this had a great time in Viña and Valpo.
   Sunday night, we discovered one of the best restaurants of all time. It's called the Color Cafe and it was two blocks from our hostel. The tiny cafe has maybe 8 tables, and the walls are completely decorated in magazine cut outs, notes and drawings from past customers, paintings, comic strips and everything else artsy. They have two options for a 5 course dinner for $10: vegetarian or meat. We both got the meat, and were extremely impressed with all 5 courses. It started with olive bread with 3 spreads that they kept refilling, a fresh salad with queso fresco, peppers, carrots, lettuce. Then a cream of vegetable soup, main entree of pork and steamed vegetables, and a dessert of coconut pie with dulce de leche. The meal options change every day, and I could tell that the chefs had no recipe, they simply find what is fresh that day and make it taste awesome. We talked to the two chefs for a while, both guys probably 30 years old, cooking in a tiny little kitchen, and left great tips because we were so satisfied. Part of how great it was came from the fact that it was so unexpected. We'd had pretty bad food lately on the go, and this made up for all of the previous bad meals.
    Monday night was our night for a fancy dinner, and we were tempted to go back to the Color Cafe, but instead we walked around Valpo to find a nice restaurant, and were drawn into a rooftop patio by the sounds of a trumpet player. So we got a table looking out over all of Valparaiso at night, with all the lights sparkling on the hills, with some jazz music playing in the background, and it was the perfect setting. The drinks didn't start off great, nor did the service, but we were pleasantly surprised how great the food was. We ordered a meat platter with sauces and fried  palenta. We had rabbit meat, chorrizo, and caramelized chicken. Also we had three different types of bruschettas, and I was amazed Blake actually tried and liked the smoked salmon. The problem with sharing a plate with Blake is that I have to fight for my share of food; he'll eat it all so fast before I even get a chance.
      Our last day of the trip we walked around Valpo more, hiking to the top of one of the bigger hills, but we found ourselves in an area that was no longer meant for tourists, it looked a little sketchy and run down, so we quickly got out of there and explored some more markets, making sure Blake has plenty of sweets and treats to take home with him. We went back to the color cafe for lunch, and were just as pleased with the asado lunch.
    Blakes flight was early Wednesday morning, at 5 am, so I tried to find a hostel close to the bus terminal in Santiago so he could take a bus to the airport and I wouldn't have to go too far alone to get on a bus in the morning. But when I was booking the hostel, somehow the address pulled up wrong in google maps, and it was actually located in the main Plaza in Santiago. So we tried calling the hostel; the number didn't work, and the website was very vague. We weren't sure if it even existed after all. So after weighing our options and getting advice from Blake's friend in Santiago, we realized he'll just have to take a taxi and we'd stick with the hostel reservation. We had to lug our suitcases through the metro again and were bitter about the extra trek we were having to make, but when we arrived at our stop late at night, the entire plaza has been decorated with Christmas lights, and we found out that the hostel was located in a super fancy old building. The hostel had the top floor of the building with glass doors to view out and a giant patio. It was a shame we were only there one night, or just half a night for Blake, because it was possibly the nicest hostel yet.
    Blake left at 2 am, and I got on a 9 am bus back to Mendoza. There were only 6 people on my bus, but my bus driver raged past all the other buses to get first in line for the border crossing, making some pretty risky passes on double yellow with cars approaching. I had the front row seat up top, and I hadn't stayed awake for this drive before, so I did this time, and got an amazing view of the Chilean Andes. The pass through the Andes is pretty terrifying. There are barely any guardrails, and if there are, they are probably the height of half of one of the bus tires. We made it through customs in exactly 12 minutes, which is probably record time and made up for having to spend 5 hours there on the way out. But now I'm back in Mendoza, packing up, and getting ready to travel another two weeks with my parents!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, Blake and I spent 11 hours on a bus to Chile, spending 5 of those hours stopped at the immigrations office between 1:30  and 6:30 am. Last time I went to Chile it took 3 hours at the border, so I was shocked we were there so long, especially because there were only 3 buses total waiting to go through the border. This is the best example of how inefficient the government can be in Latin American countries. Most of the time we were waiting at the border, the workers were just hanging out doing pretty much nothing. At the point where we had to get our bags checked, we waiting about 10 minutes for one of the workers to finish packaging something, then one of them took their precious time to pick out music on their giant flat screen tv, picking a song from the soundtrack of Greece. It was definitely abnormal that it took 5 hours for only 3 buses to cross. When we were done with the process, it was already light out and we could see the sun rising over the Andes. It's actually a really intimidating drive down the Chilean side of the pass, because the double-decker bus is driving really fast around tight switchbacks right next to the giant mountains in the Andes. Some of the places where they have built the road are right next to 90 degree mountain faces, where you can see all the places that rocks have slid down the mountain. We were in the cama seats on the first floor of the bus, and you can feel the curves of the road so much more on the bottom floor. We had white bread sandwiches with one slide of ham and one slice of cheese for Thanksgiving dinner that the bus company gave us. Yum.

"Study" Abroad

As I've mentioned many times, the classes I took here were rather easy and often times a bit of a joke. It's a shame I wasn't challenged here more, but it made my time here more comfortable being able to focus on other things than school all the time. It's pretty much been like a 5 month vacation, and I've had lots of time to meet new people, travel the country, and experience a new culture.
    I'm officially done with the school portion of my program as of this morning when I took my last "final."  For my modern history class, we wrote a five page paper in Spanish on a book that our professor had us "read" in English. Mine was about Oliver Cromwell. For our final, we had to talk to our professor, one on one, about the book we read. The professor also said she would ask us a couple questions about the material from the semester. So I studied a good half hour the night before to prepare to say anything I possibly could about Europe been 1300 and 1700. If I didn't understand the question or know the answer, I was prepared to talk about something I did know, maybe Europe during the Renaissance, or just show the professor that I know how to talk in Spanish proficiently. Normally class is between 9 am and 12 on Thursdays, so I figured I would show up around 10 to take a turn speaking with the professor. I also expected a bunch of people from class to be there and a giant line, but turns out it was only the five of us foreigners there waiting to take the test, and these 5 showed up at 8 to take the final and took about 5 minutes each, so at 9, when I was still sleeping, Skylar called me to tell me that the professor was going to leave soon, and I better get to the university to the my final before she leaves. So I rushed into a cab and arrived right as it was my turn.
    Students here only take the final if they passed the other tests in the class throughout the semester. Not many passed all of the tests, so not many of them could take the final yet. They also get a lot of retries, so they can take the final multiple times and pretty much whenever they want. Most of the students in my class who did pass the other tests are going to take the final in December after having a month to study.
    In my final, the professor probably asked more about me than about the class, and we spent a few minutes talking about my experience abroad and where I'm from, then a couple quick minutes of me explaining the very basics of the life of Oliver Cromwell. She told me I passed, then after my turn, she fiddled around with some papers and stuff, then told all of us foreigners we all got 8s (out of 10), and all passed. So I guess it's a very fair situation: she put in about as much effort grading us and testing us as I put in to studying for the test.

Tourists in Mendoza

For the three days we had in Mendoza before Chile, I tried to show Blake all of my favorite spots to eat, drink, hike and experience the culture.
    Tuesday Mendoza was experiencing some aftereffects of Zonda wind, so it was rainy and gloomy. The Zonda must have been bad while I was gone this weekend, because I found a layer of dust coating my floor when I stopped by my host family's house. I'm not sure if a window was left open, or the dust just got through the cracks, but either way there must have been some strong wind. My suitcase on the floor was mysteriously wet too, but I guess some houses experienced flooding this weekend. That is super rare in Mendoza.
    We hiked Cerro Arco despite the weather, but it made the hike really neat because we were hiking into the clouds, and once we got up high enough, 5 feet to each side of the trail was just pure white clouds. It was the perfect temperature for hiking, with a little mist to keep us cool. One of the dogs, which I believe lives at the restaurant/home at the bottom of the trail, followed us up the entire mountain. He didn't want food or water, just company. Whenever we passed someone else hiking, he would start following them, but we persuaded him to stick with us each time.
    After hiking I took Blake to Club de Milanesa, an all milanesa restaurant that looks pretty fancy, but is actually pretty casual, and they serve plates of milanesa where the meat is as big as a normal sized plate. The milanesa for 2 was probably a foot wide. Surprisingly, we finished the whole plate.
     Wednesday we went biking and wine-ing, the classic Mendoza tourist attraction, but since Blake doesn't like wine, we went to the olivaria instead, where they make olive oil, tapenade, jams, vodka and chocolate. Blake was so impressed with the samples of jams and olives, we had a shopping spree in the gift shop after. We went to the beer garden too, to try their craft beers, and to two wineries where I had to drink the majority of the samples myself since Blake wouldn't partake. But he was impressed with one of the white wines, saying it was the best wine he's had (out of maybe 5 times he's tried wine ). One of the wineries had a self guided tour around the vineyard, which was beautiful to walk through fully in boom with all the green leaves and olive tees too.
    Mr. Hugo, from whom we rented the bikes, was the most enthusiastic and passionate Argentinian we've encountered. He gave us cheek kisses probably 5 times, had someone check on us on the bikes to make sure they didn't break down on us, offered us bus cards to get back to the city, and even rode with all the tourists to the bus to make sure they got on (even though I've done this three times).  Blake was very impressed.
    I took Blake to Antares, my favorite beer spot in Mendoza, and had to say more goodbyes afterwards and Thursday morning. The goodbyes don't seem real, since I'll still be here for 3 weeks, and it seems like we will all just see each other back in Mendoza after traveling, but that's not quite the case.
     Thursday we went to the hot springs. Blake loved the setting of the hot springs in Cacheuta, right along the river and in between mountains. It was so relaxing after walking around big cities for a week. Our feet needed a break.  Blake couldn't believe how many cacti were surrounding the hot springs. There are a bunch of cactus right next to the pools that you could easily fall in. It was a busy day there too because a school field trip of 9 year olds was in the water park, and the 9 year old girls loved trying to talk to Blake. We could understand a group of girls daring each other to say something in English to Blake, but they were never daring enough, but loved when he said hi at the end of the whole ordeal. Another young kid followed us around, shouting to his friends that there were "ingleses" by him, not thinking we could understand him. The kids were so interested hearing that we were from the US, they wanted to ask if we had Facebook and twitter and if we liked One Direction. Everyone here loves One Direction.
    It's been a little stressful traveling around Mendoza and living outside of my host family's house, because normally I eat most meals in the house, and now I'm having to find food on my own for me and Blake, and he needs to eat every two hours because he's 200 pounds. We've ran into a lot of issues with me leaving things at my host family's house that I needed, or no stores being open during siesta right when we want food. We've been eating on a US food schedule, which means dinner at 6 instead of 11, which is a nice change, but also weird because I've adjusted to the meal times here. It's odd living in my home city as a tourist this week. The hostel we are staying at gave us maps and tried telling us all about what we can do here, even though I already know because I live here!

24 hours in Uruguay

After a day of running around Buenos Aires to figure out how to get to Colonia, Uruguay, we finally got on a 7 o'clock boat to cross the Rio de la Plata, a small bay in between Buenos Aires and Colonia. Our ferry took about an hour to cross the bay; we passed through two very easy immigration checks, simply scanning our luggage and filling out a few forms. There was no reciprocity fee to get into Uruguay however, which saved some money after Blake had to pay two 160 dollar fees to enter Chile and Argentina. Then we landed in Colonia after 9, having lost an hour in time difference, and had to find a place to stay. What I didn't realize was that it was a holiday weekend for Argentina, so all of the hostels in Colonia were full. We walked to about 8 places before finding a place with room. But they provided a great breakfast, so it was worth the extra trek.
    Amanda and Megan were in Colonia already, so we met up with them, and went out for dinner. We had to compare Argentinian pizza and beer with Uruguayan pizza and beer, which was quite good, and had bacon, which I never see in Argentina.
    Colonia is a very small historical town right on the coast of Uruguay. It has old ruins from the Portuguese style city that used to be there, made with all cobblestone streets with old churches and an old  coliseum. There is an old lighthouse you can climb up too, which we did. The view at the top was amazing; we could see the whole town, the sandy and rocky coasts of Uruguay, and all the way to the buildings across the bay in Buenos Aires. The ocean in that area isn't swim-able because it's contaminated and very dirty. The water is brown. But the weather was a little over cast that day, which kind of matched the tone of the dark and rocky beaches.
      Since Colonia is a tourist town, they accepted Uruguayan pesos, Argentinian pesos, most credit cards, and US dollars, which was very weird to see, but made the trip easier since I didn't even have to take out money. However, the exchange rate between Argentinian pesos and Uruguayan pesos was the worst, because the Argentinian pesos is less stable than the Uruguayan, so things cost more that way. Food and hotels were actually quite expensive there, similar to US prices, since Colonia's economy is based on income from tourism. They were also super friendly to tourists, giving discounts to foreigners, and had a lot more connections to American culture than Argentina does. For example, I saw a Mac store right away, where in Argentina, Apple product imports are banned. Not many people have Apple products here. My host sister didn't even know the name of an iPhone, which in my opinion is the most well known phone in the world. And in Buenos Aires, whenever we asked someone to take a picture of us using the iPhone, many people didn't know how to work it.
    To explore the town more, Blake and I rented a golf cart for two hours, and raged it through the town to see the coasts, a couple foresty parks outside of the main town, and we found ourselves at the ritzy Sheraton hotel in town that was surrounded by an extensive golf course and very modern mansions. Downtown Colonia is so small that none of the intersections had street lights, and many lacked stop signs too. But the traffic there is much tamer than in Argentina. The drivers in Colonia have worked out a system of taking turns at intersections and graciously letting all the pedestrians cross safely without trying to run them over; the exact opposite of Mendocinians. The town is small enough that the car companies rent out golf carts for tourists to use, so we passed a bunch of other golf carts. We drove ours onto the beach, through the neighborhoods and along the coast.
    After an asado lunch and ice cream, we got back on the boat to Buenos Aires, and jumped in a cab to take us to the bus terminal to catch a bus 30 minutes later. We told the cab driver we were in a hurry, so he took that to heart and sped through the city, cutting in front of other cars parked at red lights, and passing aggressively. We filmed the whole thing on the GoPro because he was one of the most sporadic cab drivers I've had here. A quick 14 hour bus ride later (the bus rides really are starting to go by so fast), we were back in Mendoza. I had the weirdest coincidence on the bus, when I had my DU water bottle out, the guy behind us on the bus recognized it, because he goes to DU too, and was in Buenos Aires visiting his brother who was studying abroad. Small world.

Back to Buenos

    Thursday night, after finishing up finals and saying goodbyes, Blake and I got on a bus to Buenos Aires. After 32 hours of traveling for Blake to get to Mendoza, we were only in Mendoza for about 24 hours before getting back on a bus. At least it was a good way for Blake to catch up on sleep. He got to compare the semi-cama from his trip from Santiago to this trip in cama, with extra service, wine, and a hot meal. We took the bus with a few friends who were also going to Buenos Aires, but were going straight to Uruguay, but we might try to meet up with them Sunday.
    We left the terminal to try to find the apartment we rented for the weekend, and stopped by the historical district of Buenos Aires to see the Casa Rosada and the main plaza. Blake's been GoPro-ing our trip to make us a video edit, and we are getting some great footage of the city and our trip so far. 
     We were trying to go visit Blake's company, CH2MHill's office, in Buenos Aires, and thought that the apartment was very close by, but when we looked it up on Google, it ended up being an hour away by train, until the landlord of the apartment figured out that Google was mapping it wrong based on the fact that the zip code system had been changed recently here, and the office was actually just down the street a few blocks.
    So we didn't quite know what we'd be doing at the office, but Blake emailed a few people that he had talked to through emails before to come let us in, and we said hi to the accounting department, got a few recommendations for where to go in the city, and took a few photos.
    Then we walked to Puerto Madero across a river, and walked through an ecological reserve where we got a great view of the ocean, even though it is contaminated and you can't swim in it. From there we had more mojitos by the river, with a view of old sailing boats and cargo cranes all lit up with lights, and a buffet dinner that didn't quite taste as good as how it looked.
    Day two in Buenos Aires, Blake and I walked through the city towards the neighborhood of La Boca, where the home soccer stadium is for the Boca Juniors team, and the Caminito, a tourist district full of colorful houses, street venders and tango dancers. On the way we stopped at a museum in a park with an exhibit about General San Martin. The museum cost about a dollar and had a guard in every room. It's hard to know how they are making money. We walked past a market that ended up being all second hand junky items like at a garage sale, but someone was selling rides on a miniature pony too.  It was getting dark and we didn't want to be walking in neighborhoods we didn't know in the dark, so headed back to Montserrat, where we were staying, for pizza. I think I've already got Blake hooked on empenadas, maybe not quite as much as me, but enough that we are already planning on making them back home! Blake is obsessed with the pizza here too; we've had really good salami and cheeses and longaniza.
 

  It's interesting that some of the things that Blake has noticed here about the culture are things I never noticed, and are new comparing Buenos Aires and Mendoza because I haven't spent much time here before. We've noticed red ribbons tied on the backs of parked cars all around the city and we didn't know what they are for, but Blake asked a taxi driver who told us that they are a good luck symbol in Argentina. Of course everything Blake notices about the city is about cars, like that cars use natural gas here. Blake's also noticed a lot of hostility from people towards us here, probably because we are tourists, and we've both gotten frustrated with the common situation of people responding to you in English even when you ask a question in Spanish. There are a lot more homeless people here in Buenos Aires than in Mendoza, and I definitely feel more vulnerable walking around the streets here than I do back in Mendoza. I'm so glad I picked Mendoza over Buenos Aires for study abroad, I wouldn't have been able to live in this big of a city for so long.
    Day three had some errors, mostly on my part. I didn't research enough how to get from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Uruguay. First, we couldn't buy tickets early Sunday morning like we planned, because the boat company was closed because it was Sunday. No one in the bus terminal could help us out, and we ended up walking to multiple wrong boat ports based on directions off the street.
Another company sold tickets for double the price, which we decided against. Finally after walking so long with all of our stuff, we took a cab, who luckily knew where we were trying to go, but when we showed up, the company was closed till 4, which was an hour and a half away, so we left to go occupy our time in the northern part of the city by going to a Japanese garden, the biggest in the world outside of Japan. It wasn't as floral as we hoped, but served as a source of shade. Luckily we had found a bus to take around the city at this point, and went to take it back to the boat terminal, but then made the spontaneous decision to get off the bus to look around an outdoor market we saw on our way, cutting it very short to get to the boat on time. But we found fresh squeezed orange juice and empanadas as a very refreshing dinner/snack. We made it back to the bus terminal right in time to buy tickets, awkwardly holding up the entire line. But the boat was sweet, and we are getting to go to a new country for 80 dollars each, which is a pretty awesome deal.
   

Farewells and Reunions

A lot of people from the program are leaving Mendoza this week to begin their end of program travels. Because of this, we are starting to say goodbye to everyone since we all have different plans and are leaving on different days. Tuesday night we had an asado with a group of Megan's friends  (It seems like a trend that Argentinian boys always want to invite all the American girls over for an asado). The asado was in Guaymallén at one of the boy's second home. Guaymallén, as I've heard, is the poorer part of Mendoza, where it's a little more dangerous to be hanging out. So we had to all take taxis, and I was very surprised that none of the taxi drivers we found knew how to get there, so we had to wait a while for them to figure it out. If I was a taxi driver I'd have this city memorized. So about 15 of us IFSA kids went for our last asado  together, and had some really great chorripans.
   The next day those of us who hadn't presented yet for our final in Spanish class had to present in class, and afterwords, we took all our Spanish teachers from the IFSA program out for Mojito Miercoles; very refreshing in the 90 degree weather we've been experiencing lately. We all had to say goodbye to Dan, who was leaving for Bolivia that night. The rest of us were all trying to figure out when the last time we will see each other is, trying to delay goodbyes as long as possible.
     My sadness from saying goodbye quickly turned into excitement as I walked to the bus terminal to pick up Blake. Thirty two hours after leaving Colorado; Denver to Miami to Peru to Chile, then bus to Mendoza, I saw Blake walk off the bus right as I turned the corner, and we are finally reunited after four months apart!! I hadn't heard from him since Miami, and was hoping he would find some way to contact me, because you never know how long the immigrations office will take at the border. The day before he arrived, immigration officers were protesting their wages at the border, so cars couldn't pass, but luckily the protest stopped Tuesday, and Blake made it through with no problems and arrived in Mendoza right on time.
   I took Blake to another farewell dinner at Skylar's house because her host family invited a few of us over for a goodbye dinner. Her pool was recently filled, so we swam and had delicious lomitos. Afterwords I took Blake to PH for mojitos, the best in Mendoza! I can't believe Blake is actually here in Argentina!
     Thursday I finished up my finals. It was a bit pathetic how much of a joke these finals were since we are pretty much guaranteed to pass anyway. Our final presentation for our Regional Development class had no guidelines except to make a presentation or video over any related topic. And after those presentations I had to say more goodbyes to some of the people I've become closest with here. I think I'll be able to see some of these people in Colorado in the future, but it's easiest to just say a quick goodbye, not think about the fact that we are all leaving, and just remember the amazing times we've all had together this semester rather than dwell on the goodbyes.

Peso problemas

    With my recent visitors, Emily from Chile, and now Blake, I've taken them to the arbolitos to get money exchanged on the blue dollar rate to make their trip cheaper. The men who exchange your money are called arbolitos (little tree) because they stand there all day in one spot trying to exchange money. It was funny taking people to the arbolitos; they were so sketched out at first. But Blake has loved analyzing the politics behind the blue dollar rate and how the government must have some kind of benefit from allowing the blue dollar to happen illegally. We even successfully bargained with the arbolito to get a better rate. Blake tried asking them where the money goes, and the arbolito guy was very vague about it, saying it goes to all over the country.
    Before coming to Argentina, I only knew about the blue dollar rate because my dad and I had researched it a lot. But it was surprising how many people in my program had never heard of it. But if I wasn't using the blue exchange rate, living here would be twice as expensive. With the official rate, things are actually quite expensive. A fast food meal would be ten dollars, a nicer dinner would be twenty, drinks would be about 9 dollars. That's not what I expected before arriving here. Argentina is a developing country, I wouldn't expect to pay the same amount for things as in the US. Clothes too would be expensive on the official rate, costing about 100 dollars for a pair of jeans that would be available at target for 30 in the US. It's because a lot of clothing items are imported and there is a high cost on imported goods.
     In addition to this, Argentinians have to pay a 20% fee every time they use their credit card, which is why everyone uses cash here, and probably another reason the lines for ATMS are always so long. A lot of host families have been asking their students to buy things online for them from the states, like clothes and iPhones, to have their parents bring here when they visit. This is a great idea for the Argentinians to save money, but then gets confusing for how much they should pay you back for, the official rate or blue dollar rate.
    The blue dollar rate has actually gone up quite a bit since I arrived in Argentina, as the peso keeps becoming more unstable. When I arrived, I got 7 to the dollar, and now the rate is at 9.6 pesos to the dollar! There were elections in Argentina in the end of October, and there were rumors that the blue dollar rate was going to rise to 26 pesos to the dollar after the elections. It's supposed to raise into the 20s next year. But there has also been recent inflation. I've seen prices increase in lots of items, from empanadas to clothes and tourist activity prices and taxi prices.
     Sometimes I still can't believe that it's hard to make change for a 100 peso bill here, which is worth $12 (20 officially). But there is so much inflation, and then some food items still only cost 5 pesos, and not as many little bills exist to make change. When something costs 5 pesos and 25 cents, and you only have 6 pesos, the 75 cents in change is normally just forgotten. I'm always surprised when someone does have change though, like a 10 cents coin that's worth a penny. Normally salespeople just round up or down to whatever is closest. When you pay for something, the clerk will always ask you for one or two pesos just to make giving change easier, and if you don't have more change, and if they don't have more change, sometimes they will just give you a couple pieces of candy instead, which is actually kind of fun sometimes. At fruit stands I've gotten one fresh strawberry in exchange for lack of change, which is a good surprise. One time the guy gave me three extra tomatoes because he couldn't make change. But then in a taxi one time, the driver actually ripped me off a full 10 pesos when he couldn't make change. I'd always wondered what happens if taxis can't make change and they've already driven you around town. Another friend said this happened and they ended up getting a free taxi ride. 
    Being a foreigner, especially from the US, has a negative affect on prices. For example, at many restaurants there aren't written menus, and waiters often quote prices lower than they are to get you to buy the product. When the bill comes, those items cost just a little bit more than what the waiter quoted, and they always say they just said the wrong price but this is what it really is. This has happened at least five times, and it's purely them taking advantage of us. And it's hard to argue back in another language over a dollar, but it adds up every time. I need to remember to always get the prices written down.         Another way they take advantage of us foreigners is adding a table charge for the silverware, or they add a tip in to the total without asking, when tipping isn't obligatory here. It's socially acceptable not to tip, but what the servers do is add it in anyway, and if you don't want to tip, you have to tell them specifically that you aren't going to pay for the tip. This makes it seem optional, but sometimes the servers just make that decision for you.
    One benefit of studying abroad in Latin America is that it is so much cheaper than if I'd studied abroad in Europe. I've gotten by pretty well here, thanks to those arbolitos. I haven't felt too unsafe going there. I haven't had any problems with fake bills, and they are normally really nice. One of them even pointed out to me what to look for in a fake bill, and another made sure we had it all put away safely before leaving his shop. What is the problem though is if you go to the arbolitos to exchange a pretty high amount of dollars, I'm concerned that's when they send someone after you to rob you if they know you have all that money.  And if you jump in a cab right outside of the arbolitos, they might assume you just exchanged cash too. So they key is to get a little farther away, then get away as quick as possible.

One month left

    Here's my plan for the last month I'll be in Argentina:  I took another final yesterday. It was an easy presentation. On Thursday I have two more finals. One is presenting a video that Briana and I made interviewing one of her host brother's friends about a consulting business he helped found. It's about how the economy of Argentina has affected his start up and comparing his experience in Argentina to his business experience in more stable economies like Canada. The other final is for my economía class.
    The biggest news is that BLAKE SCOTT WILL BE IN ARGENTINA TOMORROW!!!!! After 4 months apart, we will finally be reunited and I CAN'T WAIT!!! We are going to be traveling to Buenos Aires Thursday night for the weekend. Blake's company, CH2MHill, has an office in B.A. and we are going to visit it, hopefully visit my roommate from last year, Natalie, and then also spend a day in Uruguay. Then we return to Mendoza for 4 days so I can show Blake all around Mendoza, take my last final on the 28th, then we get to celebrate Thanksgiving on a bus to Chile, where we are going to spend the next 5 days before Blake leaves and I come back to Mendoza to get to see my parents the next day!! This month is just full of visitors and visiting friends from home. The last two weeks of my stay here will be spent with my parents traveling south, where I haven't been yet, so I'm so excited to see some glaciers and penguins! Then I go home..... It's still a month away, but seems so soon.
    Living in another country has taught me a lot about myself, American culture, and Argentinian culture. I've struggled a lot with adjusting to the lifestyle here, the language, and living with my host family. But I think I've also progressed a lot as a person. I've been working on being more patient, more accepting and less judgmental of things I don't fully understand, because even after 5 months of living here, there are clearly many parts of Argentine history and culture that I don't understand because I've never experienced them. I've become better at handling awkward situations, because there have been many as results of not speaking the same language fluently.
My top two takeaways from the last four months here:
1. Family is the most important thing. Family is not only a huge part of Argentine culture, where family is more important than working, but has also been emphasized in my experience here while living with a new family, adjusting to their customs, and missing my own.
2. I am so much more appreciative of my home in the United States and all the privileges I have there.

How's my Spanish? Unfortunately, we spoke a lot of English within our IFSA group, and classes here consisted mostly of lectures. I didn't speak as much Spanish as I should have, so I still will need to practice before I'm fluent.
I will know I'm fluent when:
1. When I use the same voice for speaking Spanish as my normal voice. Right now it gets all high pitched like I'm talking to a dog or child.
2. When I start dreaming fully in Spanish.

In a couple weeks, I think I'll definitely be ready to leave Mendoza.  I'm really excited to spend the next month traveling with my boyfriend and parents, and see the rest of my family and friends when I get home in December!

Things my host family does

It's always interesting to live with a family that does things differently than your own family. Whether they are cultural actions, traditions in their family, or just odd habits, here are some things that confuse me, at times frustrate me, or things I've adapted myself. Most of these have to do with food.

The dishwasher in my house is usually my host brother! But normally after a meal we all just pile up the dishes in the sink. And if those don't get washed right away, the next meal's dishes get added to that pile, until there are no more dishes left in the cupboard. This is accompanied by a note that says to wash and store what we use, which obviously isn't followed.

Sometimes when my family locks the front door, they leave the keys in the lock. So when I come home from outside, I can't put my key in the lock, and have to stand there knocking until somebody lets me in.

Someone seems to always leave just a couple bites leftover after a meal, or just one piece of bread on a plate, and those sometimes just chill on the table for days getting stale.

They like to mash up everything into purée: Steamed vegetables... puréed, bananas and dulce de leche, puréed (add cinnamon, its the best).  The oddest is bread and cookies dipped in milk or tea and all mashed together.

My family refers to Tang as juice, and it drives me crazy because it's a pure sugar powder in water.  The other day my host mom told her granddaughter she could either have juice or water with our meal, but not soda, because gaseosa is not for ninos. I think I've already expressed how I feel about Tang, but in my opinion, soda is no worse for a nino than this fake juice.

Then the half drank pop was in our cupboard, instead of the fridge, which confused me.

My family also refers to hot dogs as salchichas, which makes me think we are going to have a delicious bratwurst or sausage for dinner. Imagine my disappointment when I get three hot dogs for dinner.

Since my host family does sleep a lot, I've become better at being able to take naps. Back at DU I always subconsciously felt really guilty about taking naps because my roommate never did, but now I fit right in.

I was told by my host sister that when I make tea, I shouldn't microwave a mug with just water in it, because the steam from the cup when I open the microwave door could hurt me. Instead, they put the tea bag in cold water and microwave it with the tea bag already in it.

When we have more informal dinners, sometimes we eat in front of the TV, and my host mom insists that everyone uses a tray to make sure no crumbs fall. So I have to carry a big bulky tray with all my food on it, which makes it probably ten times more likely that I would spill.

Family Time

    Yesterday my host family invited me to go to Potririllos with them for the day. I've got 6 days left in their house, and we've never really had a family outing together, so I decided to go with them.
    My family has a habit of never really telling me their plans; I'm never informed when people are coming over until it's lunch time and guests are over and I'm awkwardly greeting everyone in my sweat pants with no bra on because I didn't know to expect to see people. Sometimes it's a pain when they don't tell me they are going somewhere and just disappear and I don't know whether to expect meals or not, or if anybody is even home if their doors are closed. But I've gotten better at trying to ask their plans so I know what to expect. So yesterday I asked my host mom what they were going to do in Potririllos, and she told me they were going to eat lunch by the lake. What we really did was drive around the neighboring mountain towns to look at houses for sale because their brother who lives in Qatar is thinking of buying a cabin in this area.
    We left the house and stopped at a gas station to fix their car because it was overheating earlier. Then we went back to the house because my host mom forgot her phone. Then we went to the other sister's house to switch cars because they didn't think theirs was fixed. Finally on our way, we drove past the lake and into the same canyon I went the other day to hike Morro Negro. It's nice being able to go places in a car. It takes about half the time as it does in a bus. We started driving slowly past random houses, then we stopped at one and my family got out. Even while we were out together they didn't tell me their plans or why we stopped at this house. I had to ask about 3 times to get a straight answer of why we were stopped. I'm like a three year old asking why at the end of every sentence. The house was very small, a bit old and broken, but in a very pretty scenery. My family didn't really care for it too much. That was the only house we actually toured, but they snapped some photos of other houses for sale.
    We also stopped to see an old chapel in the neighborhood, buy empanadas and finally get to the picnic. But at that point there wasn't a very scenic place to eat except along the road, so we stopped in the middle of the road and had a picnic by the car. My host mom had us keep driving until we found shade; she must have forgotten that we were in Mendoza where there are no trees. When I've gone places by bus on the weekends, I've always seen people having family picnics in really weird spots, like on the side of the road. For example, I always found it funny when people are eating on the side of the road by their car instead of by a beautiful river 50 feet away.  So today I got to participate in that tradition. The empanadas were delicious, as always, and we had a rice, tuna, hard boiled egg, and peas combination for lunch too. I'm used to these types of odd mixtures, and actually really like them. I'm going to try to add eggs to more dishes at home.
    After the picnic I took a siesta in the car as the family took more pictures of houses for sale on the way back to the city. Then we picked up some pastries and had a delightful merienda upon returning back to the house.

Hounds for days

    Mendoza, and Argentina in general, is full of stray dogs. There are hundreds of dogs in Mendoza that wander the parks and streets and it breaks my heart every time I see one. A lot of them you'd have no idea how to tell what kind of dog they are because they are all mutts. There are also a lot of German shepherds, and poodle type dogs, and a lot of them are scabbed and bleeding and malnourished, but a lot of them are also really friendly. I don't pet them because I don't trust every stray dog not to bite me, but Jeanette pets every single one, and often shares her lunch with them too. Surprisingly though they quite often turn her down on her food, even if it is carrots (compared to my dog at home; he eats everything). These dogs will quite often follow us for miles. If you are friendly to one, it and all its doggy friends follow you through town wherever you go. At Aconcagua a few weeks ago, this poor skinny dog followed us for 4 kilometers from the national park to the bus stop. He probably makes that trek every day with new tourists. Skylar had two dogs follow her for 10 miles over two days during a camping trip, even staying the night at the camp ground. They are like a personal bodyguard through the city. I feel guilty having them accompany me and not give them food. The worst is when you walk past four dogs lying under a bench as the only source of shade when it's 90 degrees out. The amount of strays was even worse in Chile, in my opinion.
     You would think that being stray would give these dogs some common sense for how to survive, but I've actually experienced quite a few very stupid dogs, especially in regards to avoiding getting hit by traffic. The one at Aconcagua kept walking into the two lane highway as he followed us along the road, and would just stand in the road as cars approached, giving me and Amanda and Megan a heart attack every time it almost got hit. We kept trying to call it out of the street, but it just kept going back in the street. In Chile, there was a dog we saw that kept purposefully running into the street every time a car would come to try to chase it, and it would jump up on the car too, so they would have to swerve to avoid it every time. It was a danger to itself and to traffic! I actually saw a dog get hit by a car while we were in San Rafael; it survived, but damaged. I don't know how they don't learn!
    I've seen a lot of dogs here on rooftops or second floor balconies, because a lot of houses don't have lawns. I think a lot of people here have trained their dogs to be very protective guard dogs as an extra source of protection. I always have a panic attack when the dogs start barking at me from above, though, on the balcony where I didn't even see them. 
I'm pretty sure this guy would attack if we weren't separated by a barred window and the main floor.
There is also a house near me that leaves their door open,  with two angry dogs guarding the door. Then there is a sign that says beware of dog. So I have to remember not to walk past there.


   All this talk about dogs makes me miss mine at home!

Can't wait to see this guy!

   

Sismo fuerte!

Last night around 3:20 am there was another tremor near Mendoza that registered 5.4! So far, I haven't been able to feel any of the other tremors we've had here, which has actually been quite a few, maybe 6 or more times for tremors that are actually felt on the surface. But the one last night actually rocked the house a little. I was asleep, and I think I woke up moments before from a noise outside, then all of a sudden my bed was swaying back and forth. It ended after 30 seconds, so I wandered through the rest of my house and everybody was awake and had felt it too. I was pretty awake and shocked at this point, because I've never felt anything like that in my life before. Our neighbors on the 3rd floor of an apartment building had felt it too. There were a couple aftershocks after the tremor last night, but I didn't feel those. But all night I kept thinking it was going to happen again and any time I heard a car outside I thought it was another tremor.
My host mom has a ritual when there are tremors; she goes to the back door and opens it so she can see outside and have the option to either be in the house or outside the house if need be. I'm not exactly sure what to do in the situation of an earthquake, but I'll follow her lead. Three or four years ago there was a big earthquake in Chile that was felt all the way in Mendoza, and my host mom said when she opened the back door, the water from our pool was splashing 6 feet above the surface of the pool and all the way to the back door. This was also the very first day that one of her other host students had arrived in Mendoza. I can't imagine a more frightening welcome.