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.

The start of finals

I had my first final exam tonight for my music class. It was supposed to be next Tuesday but got moved to this Thursday because of personal travel plans of the professor. Classes are ending quickly here. I'm never quite aware of the schedule for my classes at the local university; the last class for my history class was last Thursday, and I didn't even realize this until after class. We have a couple weeks to "study" before that final. And my finals for the classes I'm taking with the program are next week, both are presentations, and I'm not too worried. Today when I told my host family that I had a final tonight, they were shocked I was so calm about it and not madly studying. But my final for music was to write a four page essay in class over any Latin American music related topic we have covered. We'd already done two of these essays outside of class for homework, and we were allowed to use notes. So pretty much everybody picked the same topic, wrote notes down from wikipedia, and hopefully our essays will all be a little bit different. Our professor didn't even check our note sheets or anything. He just sat and read while we wrote. If only every final could be that easy... I wouldn't learn anything.

Parque General San Martin

    Parque General San Martin is the biggest park in Mendoza, but has a lot of random qualities. The park is 50 feet from my house, and I walk through it every day to get to class, but there are some weird features to the park that I've noticed. I take the route to class that isn't very populated because it's faster, but I've seen a lot of odd things on my walks (this is where the flasher incident took place). However, this must be noted: my host mom is the most paranoid person I've ever met, and she's warned me about a lot of things in the park, such as that if I was wearing headphones in the park, two rollerbladers will come up from behind me, put their arms around my shoulders as if we are friends, and casually demand my iPod, in a way that nobody else will notice. So even though the park is probably more harmless than she makes it sound, my host mom has put some crazy stories into my head, and I have to remember to take them a little less seriously. But here are my thoughts on the park:
     First, random cars often park on the side of the street in the most secluded parts of the park, and one person is just chilling in the car while I walk past. I don't know what they are waiting for. Sometimes the people are outside of the random parked car, wandering in the trees nearby. I don't know what they are looking for. Sometimes I think they are young couples meeting up in the park to "hang out," or it's just somebody on the phone. Either way I get more cautious because walking past these cars often involves more piropos or engine revving.
    The other day I was walking to class with Briana and one of those random tree wanderers kind of cut in front of us in the road, and somewhat moved towards us, and I'm pretty sure he was eying Briana's purse. But when he saw we noticed this, he backed away and gave a weird greeting and he wandered back into the trees.
     I've come to the conclusion that people here just like to hang out in their cars. I even see some people parked along the lago in the park, drinking mate in their cars. I guess this confused me because why would you want to sit in your car and drink mate when you could sit outside in the beautiful scenery of the park and drink your mate. 
     Second, a lot of student drivers practice in the park, and I'm so used to crazy Argentine drivers zooming past me, that when the student driver slowly pulls up behind me, I get all freaked out until I realize that it's just a student driver.
    When I went to the soccer game in the park a couple weeks ago, my host mom warned me all about the muchachos in the park, even though I felt safe. Last week there was another game in the other stadium closer to my house, and there were all sorts of precautions set up; fences, police, police on horses. One kind man told us to walk around the area to avoid any trouble. We saw a huge truck full of fans with probably 20 guys hanging on the outside of the truck cheering. I was shocked my host mom forgot to warn me about this game!
    Sometimes in the park I see really odd construction going on, like a team of people in full body suits spraying the tops of the trees with some kind of liquid hose, or a man examining the leaves of a tree very in depth-ly, or another man digging up dirt and putting it into small containers that look like milk jugs. They did construction on the lake, and on the entrance gates into the park for months, and now that those are both finished they look really nice. There was a fashion show being set up in the park a few weeks ago which blocked off the entrance into the park. The entrance to the park has been pretty much closed the whole time I've been here for some sort of construction. I've also heard marching bands practice in the park. I've never seen them, but I can hear them quite often.
     There are often races going on in the park too; I saw a marathon going on a couple weeks ago, and of course the aerobics classes. The park is super crowded during these events, and especially on Sundays. But then during siesta, there is nobody in the park.
    I have to write a paper for my final in one class picking a place to represent Argentina.  Despite the couple weird encounters I've had in the park, I picked San Martin Park as my symbol of Argentina, because I think it represents four key points about Argentina. First, it represents family, because this is where people go on Sundays and after siestas to share mate and have asados and picnics. It shows what families do to connect, and when is the most important time to spend together (for example, not during siesta). Second, it represents the youth or Argentina, because this is where teens go to party on weekends, drink mate, and "hang out" with their significant others. I see lots of teenagers selling artisan products in the park. Third, the park represents the outdoor activities that you can do in Argentina and the focus that Mendoza has on health because the park is full of gyms, soccer stadiums, and work out stations (this is contradicted by the unhealthy eating habits of Argentinians- salt, mayonnaise, Tang). Lastly, the lake in the park represents the procrastinative (and maybe a bit lazy) nature of the Argentinians' work ethic because it wasn't maintained for 20 years, and immediately after the massive cleaning project, there is already a bunch of trash floating in the lake.
     The first night I arrived in Mendoza, my family brought out a map and showed me how to walk to school through the park. I hadn't even seen anything yet in the daylight. I had no clue about anything that was going on at that point, so overwhelmed with emotions, but their warnings about the park made it seem pretty terrifying to live next to it the first few nights. Now I could pretty much walk through the park with my eyes closed I've walked there so many times.

On ineffective processes

    In the first weeks here, IFSA gave us a document stating our status as Argentine students so that we could get discounts around the city, mostly for bus tickets. I think it's funny that after all these trips I've been going on, it has failed to work for me every single time, and I've never been able to use the discount. When I went to Cordoba, I didn't know the document existed, so clearly I didn't use it. I got the document right before spring break, but when I went to buy tickets I was so excited about spring break I forgot to use it. I've been kicking myself in the butt about that because it could have saved me 40 dollars. During spring break we tried to use it to get a discount into the Iguazu national park, but they said it wasn't official enough since it was only from our program and not from the government. When I went to Malargue, I bought tickets with two different companies for each way, so one company told me I can only have the discount if I buy a round trip and the other told me they would need a copy of it, which I didn't have, and they didn't have a copier. When I went to Chile, they also used the excuse that it wasn't official enough. And when I just bought tickets today to go to Buenos Aires in a week, they said that I can't use it because it doesn't say when my status as a student ends, so she didn't think it was legit. So I've come to the conclusion that I shouldn't be mad I lost that 40 dollars because it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.
    It's too bad, because our student visas probably would have been sufficient enough to get a discount, but we didn't get our visas right away, so we couldn't use them. None of the visa process was under our control; IFSA managed all of it for us while all we had to do was supply the money and finger prints. Some people in our program still don't have their visas and are now technically living in this country illegally because it's been more than 90 days. I can't say who's fault that is, whether it's IFSA not getting forms in on time, or the Argentine government just being slow, but there were numerous problems for ten or so students where their finger prints were lost and forms were expired, resulting in multiple trips to the immigration office at 6 am, and still no visas. I was lucky; I think I was the first one to get my visa done, just by chance, so I already received my official visa. And its too bad I'm only thinking about this now, but I probably could've brought my visa today to get a discount on my tickets to Buenos.
    But what is more unfortunate is that some people who didn't have their visas yet wanted to go to Chile this weekend, because if they leave the country in their illegal status, they have to pay a fine to get back into the country. So they are being punished for something that was out of their control. It shouldn't have taken three months to get our visas. So two of my friends had to pay a 300 peso fine to go to Chile this weekend. I think IFSA is going to make up for it by not making them pay for their visa. But they better hurry up and get those done soon because we need our student visas to transfer our grades, and finals start this week!

Mendocinamericana

No matter how long I live in Mendoza, my foreignness always sticks out. Sometimes I'm mistaken for a European, but most of the time when people question where I'm from, they are genuinely curious what I am doing in Mendoza all the way from America.  I dress like a foreigner (t-shirts and gym clothes), talk like a foreigner (still working on that accent), and eat like a foreigner (eating and walking at the same time is the biggest clue you are foreign). These are the top five reasons I will never be a true Mendocinian no matter how hard I try:

1. No matter how lazy I am, I couldn't live my whole life based on the Argentinian work ethic of never wanting to work.

2. Even after walking down the sidewalks here for years, I probably still wouldn't be used to the piropos enough to be able to ignore them. They piss me off every time!

3. I prefer to drink a lot more water than the Argentinians.  I just can't drink that Tang like they can.

4. I'd rather spend my afternoons doing something productive than taking a siesta from 2 to 5 everyday. I'm still confused when the stores are closed at 4 when I wanted to go shopping. You have to plan your whole day around the siesta.

5. I've enjoyed being able to live on my own during college, and don't think I would want to live at home until I'm married, like the Argentinians usually do (I doubt my parents would want me at home that long either!)

However....
Top 3 reasons I could live here forever:

1.  EMPENADAS!! I'm planning on eating these every day for the rest of my life.

2. The genie pants; I may never have to wear real pants again. I need to buy about 10 more pairs before leaving here.

3. The variety of beauty I've seen in Argentina's nature: I didn't realize before coming here how big the country really was. I've been all the way north to see amazing waterfalls, mountains of 14 colors, salt flats, jungles, and the desert of Mendoza, and the ocean in Buenos Aires. I haven't even been south yet to see the glaciers and lakes. This country holds some of the most varied, and beautiful sights I'll ever see.

Morro Negro

Today I went to a new place to hike outside of the city with Andi and Carolyn. We left the bus terminal at 8 am, took a bus for two hours past Potririllos and Cacheuta, where we've already been, and then drove through a lovely little canyon full of wood houses and actual trees on our way to Piedras Blancas. Probably every single tree in the city of Mendoza is planted. They are all in patterns and lined up perfectly along the roads. But this canyon was full of natural looking trees, and actual green plants. What a refreshing sight. All of the houses were little wood cabin style, and in the middle of a remote mountain town. I can't imagine the life living this far out of the city, with one bus a day that can take you into the downtown, a couple stores to buy food, and living on the rolling hills where most families are probably cattle farmers. It would be such a remote life. But this is probably closer to how I pictured the Argentine country side before arriving here. I didn't know Mendoza would be such a desert. And although Piedras Blancas was just as dry, with the mountains filled with thorny bushes and no trees, this little canyon was a very pleasant sight.

Quaint little mountain town of Piedras Blancas

Our hike was very similar to the rest of the hikes we've attempted in Mendoza. Trails just aren't marked here, and barely exist as they get mixed in with cattle trails, and disappear with dried up river beds. We followed the directions that we had from online, but got deterred right away as we couldn't find the trail head. A kind man who lived nearby showed us how to get on the trail through his property, so we ducked through his fence, passed a small creek, then got stuck at another fence he didn't tell us about. So I think we were lost from the start, but just started walking towards the mountain we knew was called Morro Negro. This involved more river crossings, and wading through a very swampy grassy area where horses and cattle were grazing. But our options were to either wade through the muddy water, or walk on a trail where the thorny plants are attacking us. Andi befriended a horse, missing her 25 horses and 500 cattle at home on her farm in Whyoming.

So we spent the next couple hours climbing to the top of a ridge that was in front of Morro Negro, trying to avoid more swamp, but electing thorns over swamp. Our legs are sufficiently scratched up, just like from all the other hikes we've done. Somehow we always end up just picking a hill to climb because the real trail is lost. So we followed cattle trails in a zig zag up the ridge, until we made it to the top, and walked along the ridge until we came to a really neat group of rock formations on top of one of the false summits. We explored these for a while, then headed down slowly as some darker clouds were approaching and it started to get chilly. Our descent was more difficult that the ascent. It involved a little more rock scrambling. But in the last 20 minutes or so we found the trail again and used that to get down.

It was a pretty full day adventure since we left at 8 am and got back at 7 pm. We were craving empenadas, and Andi told us about this place near her house that has 17 kinds of empenadas. We took a bus directly there for our post hike snack. They had all different kinds of carnes, verduras, quesos, tunas. I'll probably have to go back. Then I arrived home to find out we have no water again! Jose had warned us this might happen again this weekend because they are still fixing the pipe that broke, but I had hoped the water cutoff wouldn't start until tomorrow. And surprisingly, my host mom didn't know about it, so once again we weren't prepared. It's going to last at least through all of tomorrow. Turns out my host brother was showering when the water got shut off, so that used up a lot of the reserve water in our tank at the house, so we are being extra stingy about the reserve water this time. My house as been a victim the past two times, but a lot of other people's houses in the city haven't been cut off, so looks like I might be headed to Andi' to shower.

Health, Hygeine, and more culture shock.

1. Going barefoot is unacceptable in Argentina. People wear shoes or house slippers at all times in their houses. I think this is because people in Argentina consider feet dirtier than shoes, where as in the US, a lot of people consider shoes dirtier. Other explanation: my friend Briana was doing laundry the other day in her house without shoes on, and was getting shocked by the laundry machine when she touched it. Her host mom explained that she got shocked because she wasn't wearing shoes, and it didn't happen again once she put shoes back on. She said you always need to wear shoes when using heavy electronics.... since electronics in Argentina aren't safe enough to use barefoot.

2. Argentinian women wax instead of shaving. Shaving is considered for men. So it's hard to find shaving cream and razors for women in the store, but the waxing salons are really cheap. It costs like ten dollars for a wax, where as back home that costs like 80 dollars

3. Argentinians are pretty clean people, they shower everyday. My host family actually spends a lot of time in the bathroom getting ready. The three of them share one bathroom in the house, and they take really long showers then spend hours in there blow drying their hair or listening to music or doing who knows what!

4. Bidets are really common in Argentina. I've still never used one because the bathroom in my room doesn't have one. They are supposed to be environmentally friendly because you use water instead of toilet paper, but I think most people still use toilet paper after the bidet, so it really just wastes water. A lot of my friends have said they've made better use of them in their bathrooms, such as for washing off feet or shaving your legs in.

5. Argentinians in my opinion are contradictory in their health habits. It's pretty common to work out and stay fit in the park, by running or rollerblading, and there are quite a number of gyms and people who go to my gym and work out, but Argentinians also don't like to drink much water (they prefer Tang, and nobody carries water bottles with them), and don't eat that much, or the healthiest food. The meat is normally really fatty, and people load up on salt and mayonnaise and bread. I've actually heard that Argentina has one of the highest rates of eating disorders. I read that 1 in 10 women have eating disorders and after Japan, Argentina has the most eating disorders in the world. Along with this, 1 in 30 have had plastic surgery here. There is a lot of pressure in Argentina to stay thin, and being overweight is really frowned upon, and not as often seen as in the US. I've definitely noticed this when shopping for clothes; there is pretty much one size for clothes, and it's size skinny teenage girl. This health mentality, combined with the typical work ethic of Argentinians, means that people sometimes just don't eat if nothing is prepared. One friend's host mom described it as "cuando no hay, no hay!" which essentially means that when there is no food in the house, that means that there is literally nothing to eat and you might as well just not eat all day until somebody else makes food.

6. Teenage pregnancy and having kids out of marriage is prevalent in Argentina. Abortion is also illegal in Argentina. I think sex education is more of a taboo subject here. One of our Spanish professors told us that is normal for mothers not to teach their daughters about menstruation until after it happens for their daughters. It seems to be part of the religious culture that families don't discuss these kind of topics, which in my opinion, only causes more problems for teenagers.


7. The way people hand write here is very odd. On a lot of the numbers or letters that have a stem and a loop (such as a 9), people write these characters with the stem in the opposite place as we do in the US. So peoples' 9 here look like a line with a circle on top like a lollipop. g, p and q get really confusing in lower case letters because they put the lines in really odd places. Then one of my professors writes his d like a circle and a line that aren't connected, so it looks like an o and an l.

Taxi!

There has been an increase in inflation in Argentina lately, which means a lot of prices have increased. I've noticed this in the prices of empenadas, clothing, and recently, taxi fares. It used to cost 5.10 pesos to get in the taxi during the day, and like 6 to get in a taxi between midnight and 6 am. The companies have raised their prices recently, and it now costs 10 pesos just to get in the cab during the night, and they increased the amount of time at night where it costs higher; now between 10 pm and 6 am the price is higher. The rate you pay per kilometer also went up. This has angered a lot of people, and last week there was a violent assault on a taxi driver outside of the main city. Because of this assault, the taxi drivers in Mendoza are now on strike to protest the lack of security in their jobs. They are asking for more safety measures to protect them as taxi drivers. So yesterday when I wanted to take a bus home, I couldn't, because a bunch of taxi drivers have parked their cars in the middle of the street in front of the main plaza, where is the only place I know how to take a bus home safely without getting lost. They've also parked a bunch of cars in front of the bus terminal to protest.
    Not all of them are on strike; I still took a cab home last night, and paid the extra 4 pesos or so that it normally doesn't cost. There are a few different types of cabs in Mendoza. The yellow ones are the typical cabs you can flag down on the street. Then there are Remises, which are the more sophisticated taxis, which are just normal looking cars. These are the ones my host mom always calls for me because she thinks they are safer and they won't take advantage of you by driving you around random extra streets to make you pay more.
    However, I've actually had worse taxi experiences in Remises.  Once, I got in the car with a Remise driver and I'm pretty sure he was drunk. He kept turning up the music, started singing along, was speeding in and out of traffic, then took a long swig from a coke bottle, which I'm pretty sure was not coke. At this point, we were at my stop so I left the car as quick as possible. Another time, I got in a Remise car, and the driver was just really rude to me. As I told him the name of the street, he handed me his walkie talkie thing they use to get directions, and asked me to speak my English into it so someone could translate it for him. As I responded in Spanish, he just kept doing the same thing, not knowing where to go, as I gave him directions, but he wouldn't listen to me. And when we finally arrived to where I was going, he rudely told me to pay him in Argentine pesos... as if I was going to try to pay in some other currency. Another local explained to me that because the Remises are a smaller company, they have less regulations and safety checks by the company, whereas the yellow cabs are more popular, so they have to follow stricter regulations, which keeps the drivers in check.

Oh... Now I understand

A couple things that recently have been explained to me:

1. For the entire semester, our "advanced Spanish" class has not had a set classroom in the building where we have classes. The other two levels of Spanish classes for our program do, but we are always wandering around the building for half an hour trying to find our professor, or just waiting for her to find us, because the classroom is never the same. We've lasted for maybe two weeks in the same room in the way back of the building, but our classes normally get interrupted by another professor asking why we are in her room, or this is a conference going on and we can't use the room. It's ridiculous; we waste half an hour of class every day.
   Our professor, Marisol, finally explained to us that this happens because she is a new teacher with less experience, and only the more experienced professors have their own classrooms. Since Marisol is the newbie, she doesn't have the power yet to claim a classroom of her own, so we just get put wherever there is space for the day.

2. Pop bottles and beer bottles here are returnable and reused. The two liter pop bottles are made of really stiff plastic, and the liter beer bottles are glass. I've never bought soda here, but when I've bought beer in the past, you get charged an extra 4 pesos or so, and you get this money back if you bring the bottles back to that store with the receipt. So I thought I understood this concept of "envase retournable", until the man at the kiosk refused to sell me and my friends beer, and kept telling us something I didn't understand. I was so confused why I couldn't just bring the bottle back the next day. It sounded like he was telling me I needed to put the beer in a cup to be able to buy it. But the reason is that some kiosks function a little differently, and you need to bring an empty bottle to the store to be able to trade that empty bottle for the beer you are buying. So you can't buy beer unless you already have an empty bottle.

However, this is something that confirmed my previous beliefs after a moment of doubt:
     My history professor pretty much said that if she can see we are trying in class, she will pass us.  But then on our second partial exam, two of the IFSA students in my class received failing grades (I passed, luckily). However, my test and the other two passing grades out of the 5 of us IFSA students in that class, had nothing written on the test except "Aprobar" and a couple random squiggles to make it seem like the professor read it (she probably saw the "intercambio" I wrote really big on the top of my paper and just passed me automatically). Whereas the two failing grades were actually all marked up, with comments and a percentage grade. The two girls went to talk to the professor in charge of the class, and turned out that one of the other professors for the class graded them instead of the one in charge of the class, and didn't grade them as foreign exchange students. And easy enough, she changed their grade to passing. It's almost like we can do no wrong in this class. But next week is our last week of classes anyway before our final, so there isn't much left to do anyway except take the final.

San Rafael

    Our last program excursion was this weekend to San Rafael, in the south of Mendoza. We left early Saturday, and after three hours arrived on Valle Grande, a canyon in the mountains where we stayed in cabanas, dined on three course meals and felt like we were 12 years old in summer camp again. The tour agency our program used for the weekend treated us like middle schoolers on a field trip, and regulated everything we did, including prohibiting us to climb the mountains nearby, go into the river, climb this one hill that we went to at the beach, and pretty much to cross the street without holding hands.
    Despite this, our meals were amazing, including a salad bar full of meats and cheeses, empenadas, asado, pasta and milanesa. Each meal lasted probably two hours, followed by a dessert of either fruit or dulce ice cream. Of course each meal was right before we all had to get into swim suits to go to the beach on Saturday, and to go rafting Sunday, so our food babies got to go to the beach too. It was a really beautiful weekend to go with 80 degree weather and so much sun. We had a pool to hang out at, which was nice even if the water was freezing. And every 5 of us had a cabin to ourselves which was a very generous amount of room, with a kitchen and second floor balcony.
     The beach was a hidden sandy beach located on the bluest lake in the valley in which to get to we had to take a catamaran across the lake. The water was freezing, but laying on the beach and having no obligations was very relaxing.
    Saturday morning we went on a hike with the group in the valley to a very small and anticlimactic waterfall, but the surrounding mountains were gorgeous and full of color. The mountains here remind me exactly of the mountains in Grand Junction in Colorado; desert, bushy, no trees, but so many layers of color in the rocks and ground. The hike was a couple hours, and ended with us climbing one of the smaller hills, but the trail was all sand, so our tour guide thought it would be easiest to get down the mountain by everyone running down the sandy trail that curved throughout the mountain, and this was really fun running down the side of the mountain one by one.
    Saturday afternoon we had the option to either raft or do a zip line over the lake from the day before, but everyone chose rafting. We did an hour guided raft tour down the Atuel River, which was more like floating down a tranquil river with a few rapids here and there. I went rafting last summer and it was pretty tame, but this was even calmer, but we kept playing bumper boats with all the other IFSA kids in other rafts and got soaked by splash wars and even Dan jumping from raft to raft trying to take us into the water.
   We headed home late Saturday in the two vans that the tour agency had. I was so mad because one of the buses was really uncomfortable, and I got stuck with that one one the way to San Rafael, so I was trying to switch for the way home so I could sleep better, but we had to ride in the same van as the day before because they had a list of our names in case the van were to be pulled over by police and needed a passenger list. Argentina has many internal controls like this where police will pull you over to check everyone's identification. 
    It was a very relaxing weekend. We needed this as a break before realizing how much we have to start doing for finals and final projects.

Photo cred to Kaylee Schwitzer

Lad Cabanas: Photo cred to Kaylee

Lago in Valle Grande

Hiking up they valley

Another DU reunion in Mendoza

    After my friend Emily was such a great tour guide for us in Valparaiso a couple weekends ago, I got to return the favor this weekend by showing her around Mendoza when her and a friend visited from Chile. They left from Viña Del Mar Thursday morning, and instead of taking the normal 8 hours to get here, it took them 14 hours by bus because it was a holiday in Chile and thousands of cars were making their way over to Mendoza for the weekend. We also had some heavy wind for a while, so they had to wait two hours just to start up the pass, then waited five hours in immigration. I thought a three hour wait was bad during our trip to Chile! They even closed the pass at 11 that night, so it was good they made it over in time. My host mom says you can spend up to nine hours at customs during the day in the summer, which I'm not looking forward to for my next trip to Chile in later November.
    I took Emily to some of the bars on Aristedes, our street with all bars, and specifically to my favorite beer tasting bar, where Emily was so impressed because apparently they don't drink much beer in Chile, only wine and a lot of Pisco.
    Then on Friday I took Emily and her friend, Kari, biking and wine-ing in Maipu, where I'd been before but we went to some different wineries this time. We rented the same junky bikes as last time for 3 dollars; the ones that are so old you get a work out just from the resistance of the metal, which also made weird noises and the chains kept falling off.
    The first place we went was a cervezaria, where we tried a blonde beer and a red beer, and the red beer had a smokey aroma to it, which I really liked. We went to the same winery I went to last time that gives the very in depth tour of the old winery that is no longer in use, and the tour guide teaches you to find the aromas and colors and flavors in the wine. We ate lunch there next to the rows and rows of grapes. Last time I went to Maipu for the wineries, none of the crops had been in bloom, so this looked very different this time with all the green rows of vines with the Andes in the backdrop. Last time I went here I had the tour in Spanish, but this time it was in Spanish and English because there were some Australians in the group who didn't speak Spanish.  I learned a lot more this time because my Spanish has improved, but the women also had a really funny way of translating the tour into English. Her English was really good, and after a while she started favoring English, forgetting to say one part of the tour in Spanish, or the two languages blended together and she would switch every other sentence or sometimes in the middle of the sentence. It really kind of messed with my mind since I could understand all of it, no matter what language, but the switches between English and Spanish made me all confused for what language was being spoken.
     Another winery we visited was artisan wine and a champagne that were quite good. I've really started to like wine here, but I'm not quite the wine snob that our tour guide was; she was teaching us how to select the third or fourth wine on the shelf to prevent choosing one exposed to a lot of light, and how to do a proper wine tasting by not brushing your teeth right before, wearing strong perfumes or smoking before. She was also critical of Chilean wines, obviously favoring the Argentine Malbec over anything made in Chile.
    The last place was a chocolateria, where we sampled two dulce marmalades, two olive tapenades, an assortment of chocolate and dulce de leche with banana liqueur. I couldn't not buy some chocolate for the bus ride home.
    I wish I could have been a tour guide all weekend, but I left Saturday morning for a program excursion to San Rafael. Seeing other DU students is reminding me of how soon it is until our program ends.

Maipu in August

Maipu in November