More about Mendoza

 

 After living here a month there are still parts of the city I haven't seen and I notice new things everyday walking through the streets. I try to take different routes sometimes to see different parts of the city, hopefully without getting lost. One thing I've noticed a lot is the huge variety within the city.


    All of the buildings and houses are unique here. They are all different colors, shapes, with different landscaping or no landscaping, sometimes rooftop patios, sometimes pools out back. Its really hard to tell though because a lot of the houses are located behind the walls and gates along the sidewalk.

Behind the walls and doors out front, there is often a front patio or porch and then the actual front door of the house. You can walk a couple blocks and find houses that are 4 times the size of other houses within the same neighborhood. Each house is different too, some are tiny, (mine is pretty cozy) and others are huge with stained glass and three levels. I really started to notice this when I've been inside some of the other IFSA kids' houses here lately. One house had a art studio and aquarium. Others have huge patios with spaces for asados (barbeques) I'm always surprised when I see a dishwasher, because I didn't know they were used here much, and my family washes all dishes by hand. It amazes me that all of these houses are hidden away behind walls and gates and you wouldn't even realize they were so different unless going in them. Some have really intricate details out front and some just have really plain walls.
    There are some really nice parts of the city, too, where there are modern looking apartment buildings. These always stick out because there aren't many tall buildings in Mendoza, because of the earthquakes. These apartment buildings are found in random places too. You'll be walking through a neighborhood with all houses, and then all of a sudden there is a taller apartment building right in between two houses.
    I've seen a lot of religious displays throughout the city, too. They are in parks, neighborhoods, and my front porch has one too.

Some of the houses are made into businesses too, and people will sell products like honey, pizzas, or empenadas right from their house. This is an example of a house near me that sells honey. The sign says to ring the door for honey.

    










There are fruit stands every couple blocks where you can buy fruit for really cheap, and usually its really good fruit. I like to get avocados or bananas sometimes on my way home from school for a snack, since normally an afternoon snack here is only coffee and crackers.

     There are a lot of kiosks and convenient stores all around too where you can recharge your bus card or phone card, and buy alfajores and all sorts of candies. This is the sketchy place where I go to exchange money. A lot of these kiosk type places have gates or doors like this and the workers have to buzz you in. At some of them, you have to stand at the gate and tell them what you want and they go get it for you; you can't even enter the store.
   




This is some neat street art along my walk home, which is on the wall next to a high school. There is a lot of graffiti like this all over the city, and a lot of the written graffiti is about politics in Argentina.
   
The acequias are usually full of trash, but the one along the park near me has some really pretty landscaping around it. This is one of the bigger acequias, one that has water in it and it seems more like a river. But the bridge and plants around it make it look really pretty and add a nice change to how they normally look.

My neighbor's dog

    There are a ton of stray dogs here that wander the streets. All the ones I've seen have all been very friendly. They follow you around in the parks and cities, and quite often will follow you for miles around the city, and always in packs of a couple dogs, like they are keeping you safe. There are a lot of German shepherd type dogs, and a lot of poodle looking ones. I get confused sometimes though because within the packs of dogs wandering the park, a few of them have collars and seem like they are owned and well fed.  I've seen some very beautiful and well taken care of house dogs as well. A house down the street from me has a German shepherd that hangs out outside of the house all day. The family has built him a little shelter outside on the sidewalk for him to sleep in. For a while I thought he was a stray but recently realized that he lives at that house. It's sad to see so many dogs on the street; they probably eat all the trash in the acequias. But there are some programs here to help care for them. That is a volunteer opportunity through my program, too, that I plan to help with one weekend.
    A lot of the city is under construction. A major street near me has been doing construction on the Portones Parques, which is a famous gate in the park by my house, but this has caused detours in traffic the whole time I've been here, which makes bus routes confusing. A lot of apartment buildings are under construction too, like this one near my house. All of the construction sites have big temporary fences along the sidewalk to block of the construction from the public. The fences are normally covered in ads.

On a lot of street corners there are guard stations, and a security guard will watch the intersection at night. This is one next to my house. They look very similar to porta-pottys. But sometimes I forget there are people in them and freak myself out walking along next to one and all of a sudden I see a person.


Hopefully this explained a little bit more about my city! These are just some of my observations in the past few weeks.