Closing Remarks…

Well, my trip to Argentina has come and gone.  And so I’m left with my thoughts and memories of an excellent first experience abroad.  I figured it appropriate to collect my thoughts and reflect on the experience.

First and foremost, how has my perspective been changed?

I know at one point I discussed the fact that what I imagined people to think of Americans was completely different than what it was really like.  Just about everyone in Argentina was so nice, and very helpful.  I can only think of one instance where people tried to take advantage of us as Americans, and it all worked out in the end.  Maybe I just wasn’t aware of anyone’s distaste for our group as a whole, but I really don’t think that was the case.  From what I gathered, they were excited that we were there, and they were happy that people had come to their home to see what it was all about.  I can think of specific conversations where I felt like I was complimenting the locals for the beauty of their country, and from what I could tell they really enjoyed the fact that we were enjoying their home.

Before I left the U.S., I was pretty intimidated to speak Spanish to anyone in South America.  I felt like I was going to be butchering their language and they would have preferred me to not even try.  Once again, I was proved wrong.  Strangely enough, I got a good perspective of the reverse side of this on our bus tours.  Our tour guides were all pretty decent with English, but struggled at times and were very apologetic about it - but I was really excited that they were so good, and were trying to learn.  From my experience, me trying to speak Spanish was pretty similar (except I wasn’t nearly as good at Spanish as they were at English).  I was encouraged, and helped along and pushed to learn more.  Having taken Spanish as a class, I was not really all about learning the language - it was difficult and frustrating, and I didn’t really like it all that much.  After having been in a Spanish speaking country for a month, I have a strong desire to know and understand the language more.  Maybe getting graded for it made it less fun, but it was cool to be able to communicate at least a little bit with some people, and it was frustrating when I couldn’t, which made me want to be able to … weird, I know, haha.

This isn’t so much a perspective change so much as a gain of perspective and understanding but I really learned a lot about how people in Argentina live life.  I think I more clearly saw how people are a product of their environment as a result of this.  The people in Argentina do things differently than the U.S. and it isn’t worse or less sophisticated … it’s just different.  I was able to appreciate their lifestyle more as I succumbed to dinner at 10 o’clock at night, crazy (yet efficient) driving, mate, agua con gas, ham and cheese on EVERYTHING and the dance party not starting until 2 AM.

Secondly, how have I grown from this experience - what have I learned?

I’d say that changes in perspective are signs of growth in and of themselves.  But aside from having gained a new understanding of another culture, I think other, more personal learning, took place as well.

Anyone who lives in such close quarters with 21 other people for such a lengthy period of time is bound to get frustrated at one point or another.  I am no different than the average person in this regard.  The personal learning I gained from this is that I’m prideful and selfish (which really isn’t a new lesson, more just a new form of it).  Frustration set in as a result of me counting myself better or more important, and selfishness kind of fits those criteria as well with the addition of not really caring to try and help people or act lovingly toward them.  Towards the end of our journey I began to be irked and bothered by seemingly obnoxious or rude acts (like people singing loudly in public or just being loud in general), public drunkenness and the general behavior that followed, teasing and pointed joking, and simple things like going to dinner in large groups because the results seemed to link to the other things that bothered me.  I don’t think that it is necessarily wrong to be bothered by these things, but as they become a catalyst for being short with people and the like, this is where the problems begin and I need to examine myself a bit.  And maybe it is indeed bad to be bothered by these things because by shunning them, I put myself above that kind of behavior, when in all actuality, I’m known to act the same way from time to time.  So what did I learn from this?  Well, when frustration sets in, odds are I need some “me” time, or I need to be in prayer that I’d get over myself.  There’s no doubt in my mind that things started to get to me more as a direct result of spending less time in the Bible and in prayer, which brings me to my next point…

I learned that being challenged is a humbling experience.  This trip was a challenge to my faith and dedication to God.  And as is typical with lessons I learn from Him … I failed (which is where that oh so wonderful humility comes in).  I had several opportunities to talk with people about my faith and what the Lord has taught me, and they went great - I was really enlightened about other people’s outlooks and I think I was able to verbalize mine sufficiently.  But while talking with others was good, my personal relationship with Christ suffered, so praise God that I was given the words and attitude to share about Him without the nourishment of the word and prayer that I so desperately need.  That said, it’s obvious that I was not in the Bible or praying nearly enough.  I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I really sat down and prayed and read the Bible intentionally … during a 35 day trip, that’s pretty sad.  But again, the Lord is faithful to teach me when I fail.  For the millionth time He has shown me how I NEED Him and His word to nourish me.  That without prayer and being in the Bible everyday not only will I not have an understanding command of this scripture that I embrace as the truth, but I will become a bitter, unloving, and selfish person.

Based on the conversations I had with people, I’ve learned that I need to read the Bible more (which is a good lesson to learn, and I think it applies to everyone).  I thank God that people challenge my faith, because by being challenged and trying to understand and explain the truth to them, I get a better grasp on it myself.  I said that I was able to share my faith with several people on the trip, and that did indeed happen, but often times when I was asked more pointed questions I had little to say.  I’m trying to ditch my pride here in writing this, because I feel like I more often than not had some kind of answer, but it was never well backed up or supported with specific scripture, and this is why I say I need to read the Bible more.  And with reading the Bible more comes memorizing more scripture.  The Word of God is powerful, and really needs no human interpretation for it to speak to people; my summary of it’s contents will never speak as loudly as the Word itself.

Lastly, other than growth and perspective changes, what kind of miscellaneous things stick out in my memory about the trip?  What were some of the highlights and things other than events?

I am very thankful for the diverse group of students that were on the trip.  We had 3 or 4 different majors represented, 3 or 4 different religions, different races, different walks of life, and certainly 22 different personalities.  Everyone added something unique to the group dynamic and made the experience what it was.  Going in I think I actually knew maybe 2 or 3 people, but it was certainly a pleasure getting to know each and every one of them.  They have shaped a little piece of me in my getting to know and understand them - and I can thank them for some of the personal and cultural growth I experienced while away.  You always see that there is so much more beneath the surface of a person when you get to know them over the course of time, and I’m glad that I got past that surface with everyone on the trip.  It really was an amazing group that moved from pretty much perfect strangers to friends over the past month.  So thank you Dan, Dan, Ron, Adam, Adam, Rob, Brian, Emily, Norberto, Paul, Dom, Jane, Sam, Kait, Steph, Shelly, Heather, Amit, Mohamed, Kasey, and Meredith for an excellent time.

Next to the people I got to know and the awesome experiences with them, other things seem pretty insignificant, but to name a few I’ll say the wine in Mendoza, cow stomach, hiking the Cerro de Gloria twice (and getting lost the first time), asking tour guides to come out to clubs with us but them never showing up, the road to Aconcagua (the tallest mountain in the Americas) and singing all the way up the road of the year (with 365 turns), the best steak in the world, just about pooping our pants before jumping off of a cliff to paraglide, hanging out with Sebastian at the Santa Claus cafe in Córdoba, hitting on Sam at dinner followed by getting our waiter Claudio to do the same, hanging out with Claudio at his birthday party and learning salsa dancing on the roof, meeting and talking to Claudio’s friends and family (including his cousin Analita), ultimate frisbee all the freaking time, hiking in the Parque Nacional del Condorito and the 8 million horseflies that we had to swat at for hours, going to Che’s house and thinking I actually learned something in Spanish class, experiencing the beauty in the mountains and lakes of Bariloche, finding out how out of shape I really am hiking in those very same mountains, trying the beer at Antares brewery, eating at a delicious vegetarian restaurant and thinking maybe being vegetarian wouldn’t be so bad, remembering that Argentina has the best steak in the world and rethinking the fact that being vegetarian wouldn’t be so bad, the delicious chocolate at Fenoglio, visiting Chile after whitewater rafting, mountain biking and passing cars as we flew down the roads, how much my butt hurt after mountain biking, hiking to the Refugio Lopez in 2 hours when it was supposed to take 4, seeing the most stars I’ve seen in my life at Refugio Lopez and laying out staring at them with the whole group, sleeping in the most uncomfortable hostel bed ever at the Refugio Lopez, kayaking in the lakes and skipping rocks for entirely too long, eating at the best Mexican restaurant ever and realizing we’ve been lied to about Mexican food our whole lives, seeing Buenos Aires from the airplane (it’s huge), hanging out with Justin my Spanish TA in another country, visiting the Boca Juniors stadium and seeing how much they worship Diego Maradona, getting solicited every 10 seconds at the Plaza de Mayo, watching an Argentinean tango show in amazement, eating at a TGI Fridays and Hooters in another country, hanging out at a Marine’s mansion for the Super Bowl, taking artsy pictures in Recoleta cemetery where Evita is buried, eating both Thai and Indian food for the first time in Argentina (what the heck?), buying Cuban cigars …….. just to name a few.

Seriously, it’s hard to put into words an experience like this, so this has really been a vague attempt.  How could you possibly sum up an entire month of new sights and experiences in words?  Just know that it was definitely worth all the money and time spent and more.  Thank you Argentina for an awesome time, and I hope to be back again later in life.

Oh airplanes …

Interesting circumstances have lead me to be writing this on a plane ride roughly 9 hours after my anticipated arrival at home…

The rest of my afternoon yesterday was spent doing pretty much exactly what I had intended to do.  I went to the Plaza de Mayo to see the Madres march in their protest of the Dirty War, came back and napped for about 2 hours, packed all my stuff and headed out to the airport with the rest of our crew.  We checked our luggage, went through security, showed our passports about 400 times, and were waiting at the gate for our plane to board.  After waiting for something like a half hour or so at the gate, there was an announcement … our plane would be leaving at 12:15 … no big deal, a little delay, we were supposed to leave at 11:15 and we could all deal with hanging out for an hour.  Wrong.  12:15 PM the following day.

My attitude towards circumstances like this is usually pretty lax … there really wasn’t anything the airline could do for us - something on the control panel wasn’t working, and it couldn’t be repaired in only an hours time.  Frankly, I’m glad they found it while the plane was still on the ground.  So despite the subtle inconvenience of having to do an 11 hour flight during the day (making it silly to try and sleep on the flight lest I desire to worsen my jet lag), we did get a free extra night in Buenos Aires, and they put us up in a pretty nice hotel.  By the time we got to the hotel after retrieving our bags and whatnot, it was already pretty late.  The airline had agreed to give us 30 pesos each to get dinner, since it would have been provided on the flight, but I opted to go to bed, because I was tired and we had to be ready to leave at 9:15 AM.  It was nice to have a big bed to myself (our rooms had 2 doubles in them), so I got to sprawl out … excellent.

Woke up in the morning, went to the airport, did all the security and customs stuff again, and now here we are, 4~ish hours into our flight.  I’ve been able to get a lot of reading done.  I can catch up on my blogging, maybe edit some photos depending how long my computer battery lasts.  We’ll probably be back in New York at JFK by 8 or 9 PM, which should get me home by 11 PM … enough time to unpack all my dirty clothes and put them in the laundry before bed, haha.  We’ll see how the jet lag is, though.  Argentina was 3 hours ahead of the typical EST, so odds are I’ll be tired a lot earlier than is typical at home (which is probably a good thing).

That’s really all I have to say about that.  I’m going to go enjoy the remaining 6 hours of flying and probably finish my book.

The Last Few Days…

Not really a ton has been happening in the past couple days.

After my last writing I ended up going to Recoleta cemetery to scope out all the rich dead people, including Eva Perón.  It’s actually listed in the top 5 things to do in Buenos Aires, but frankly I wasn’t overly impressed.  I mean, it was crazy to see how elaborate all of the above ground tomb things were, but I think it’s a bit overrated.  And Evita’s grave was definitely hyped up.  Maybe I was expecting too much from a cemetery, but they make it seem like a pretty big deal place.  Despite being a little let down, I was able to use the opportunity to try and get a little artsy with the photography, so that was fun.

After Recoleta I don’t think we really did much.  We all met up for dinner at a place that was apparently known for its seafood (as per some people on our trip’s recommendation).  I don’t really like seafood, but the steak was pretty good.  But as far as I heard from those who did get seafood, the fish was pretty bland.  Kind of a let down meal, but it was taken care of via our program fee money, so I can’t complain too much I suppose.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel and I went to bed shortly after that, which was probably 2 am~ish.

Class in the AM followed by a pretty relaxing afternoon of not a whole lot.  We went to a Hooters for lunch - while I’m not a big fan of the establishment, we wanted to get some hot wings, so we figured it was a decent place to go for a taste of home.  Unfortunately I don’t think they know what buffalo sauce is here, because the buffalo wings were definitely lacking the buffalo.  Regardless, it was a pretty cheap meal, so it was all good.  The afternoon was another uneventful relaxing kind of day.  I went and took some pictures of the Tango bridge in Puerto Madero (which is like 2 blocks away from our hotel). The bridge was designed by this big architect who said that it represents two people dancing the Tango;  it’s pretty simple looking, but I guess if you think pretty abstractly you can see it.  After documenting the bridge, headed back to the hotel and hung out a bit, then ended up going out to dinner with like 5 other guys to an Indian restaurant called Katmandu.  It’s funny that while in Argentina, I had my first Thai food and Indian food experiences … definitely not something I was expecting, haha.  Amit is Hindu, and his parents are from India, so he was able to give some good suggestions for things to order, and the waiter was very helpful too.  The food was great.  Nothing much going on after dinner.  I finally took some pictures of Luna Park, which is next door to our hotel.  It’s got some fun neon lights, so I was kind of surprised at myself that I hadn’t taken any shots of it before.

Class in the AM again, and some shopping after that.  Rob wanted to go buy some cigars, and there was supposedly a nice little shop close to our hotel, and some others wanted to buy wine at a winery also near our hotel.  The cigar shop was pretty cool, and the lady was really nice about letting us browse.  You can buy Cubans here, so that’s fun.  I bought 2 for Drew to bring back … actually now that I’m thinking of it, I should probably take the labels off before I pack my bags … After the cigar place we went to the winery, where I decided to buy 2 bottles of the stuff from here for my Mom and Dad (since it’s so cheap here, I figured it would be the best decision).  My Dad seems to be a big fan of cheap red wine, so I hope he enjoys these.
After our shopping spree, we headed back to the hotel where I just kind of relaxed again for the afternoon.  Had some mate and read for a little while, caught up on some emails, etc.  We were supposed to take a Tango lesson at 8, but there was some miscommunication so it never happened.  The whole group met at 9:30 for our last dinner all together in Argentina.  We went out to a nice place at Puerto Madero that was a recommendation from a local.  Let me clause this with the fact that eating at the restaurants at Puerto Madero isn’t exactly cheap.  By this I mean, I ordered a 14 oz. Filet Mignon that cost 51 pesos.  In the grand scheme, that’s pretty darn cheap, but considering we’ve only been paying in the upper 20’s for the same thing during the rest of our trip, it was kind of pricey.  The steak was delicious, and we celebrated Adam Konneker’s 22nd birthday at midnight while we were eating, haha.

After dinner, a good number of us went out for our last night of dancing in Argentina, and to celebrate Adam’s birthday.  We went to a club that we had tried to go to before, but was closed for renovations.  It was a little expensive, but it was definitely a cool place, and it was a fun time to hang out with the group and dance.  Plus I wanted to stay up really late so I would get not so much sleep and actually be able to fall sleep on our 11 hour plane ride tonight.  We ended up leaving at around 5 AM (which isn’t super late here).  I grabbed a quick shower because I was gross and sweaty, did some reading for a bit, and then hit the hay.

We woke up a little late for class today, but it was all good.  My ears are still not recovered from the music at the club last night either.  Today was our last day of class, and it was very laid back.  The last 2 presenters went, and Norberto was pretty lax on the lectures.  After class we went out to eat at a place called California Burrito.  The owner used to live in California and moved down here to open the place.  I think the whole idea of moving to other countries and starting businesses is so cool.  I also thought it interesting that somewhere so like California Tortilla in Newark existed, haha.  Now lunch is over, and I’m just hanging in my room.  I need to pack at some point, and I think I will head over to see the Madres de la Plaza del Mayo do their Thursday march thing in protest of the Dirty War.  I still have an hour before that starts.  Other than that, I have no idea what people are up to the rest of the afternoon.  I guess we’ll see what happens.

We’re leaving the hotel at 8 PM to head to the airport.  I honestly have no idea what time our flight leaves, but we’re expected to be back at JFK at 7:30 AM on Friday morning.  But in the meantime, I’m going to go enjoy my last drags of Argentina.  Ciao.

Your Taxes at Work: Paying for Marines to Live in Mansions

It certainly has been an interesting couple of days since my last writing…

First of all - shortly after my last writing we all went out to one of Buenos Aires’ famous Tango dinner shows.  It was pretty stinking awesome - the dancers were crazy good!  The food was decent, I got some steak that was ridiculously fatty.  But either way, the show was great and I really enjoyed it.

After the show we headed back to the hotel - I was planning on just chilling out, relaxing and watching a movie, but ended up going out to go dancing with a bunch of others on our trip.  It was pretty fun - we ran into a bunch of students on the other study abroad from UD (the FLLT program that Justin is the TA for).  It was awesome to meet up and hang out with some other English speakers that aren’t on our trip.  So we hung out and did the dancing thing until really late because Argentineans are crazy and eventually went home.  The taxi ride back was interesting - our driver was a cool dude, and we hit every red and yellow light along the way.  By that I mean something that is entirely different than the US … When you stop at a red light, it flashes the yellow light right before it turns green so that they can start accelerating … so when we hit every red and yellow, we really pretty much hit every green.  Good times.

Since we were out so late we all ended up sleeping until something like 1 or 2 in the afternoon (with the exception of some crazies who were up at like 9).  We pretty much missed lunch everywhere, but a few of us found our way to a little restaurant and grabbed some eats.  After lunch not a ton went on for the rest of the afternoon.  Kait from our trip organized for a bunch of us to go out on the pub crawl thing, which turned out to be more interesting than I initially thought.  It turns out that the guys who run it are recent college graduates who moved down here and started a business that’s geared toured English speaking tourists … not a bad idea.  So we met a bunch of people from Australia, a dude from Germany, and a Marine named Steve who works at the U.S. Embassy here in Buenos Aires.  It was a good time, again, hanging out with other English speakers.  Steve ended up inviting us out to a Super Bowl party at his place (where he lives with the other Marines who work at the Embassy), which I was all about because I wanted to watch the game and hang out with some more new people, though I didn’t really know what to expect there.  So we got his number and yeah, that was that.  As far as the pub crawl thing goes, we ended the night at another dance club, so yeah, that was that - more dancing. haha.

The next morning a few of us decided we should hit up the Feria de San Telmo, which is this HUGE street vendor market that they shut down a good kilometer or more of streets for the market.  On our way we stopped for lunch at the most American place I think I’ve seen here … TGI Fridays … that’s right.  It was the first menu in Argentina I’ve seen with refills on soda, so that was great even though we only got one refill.  After lunch we headed out to the market.  It was really fun - there were all sorts of street performers and nifty little tents with interesting stuff.  A LOT of antique-type stuff … so not quite my style, but still interesting.  I got attacked from behind by these two girls dressed as tango dancers who pretty much just ambush people, make you take a picture with them, and then ask you for money … so that was interesting I suppose.

After the market experience we made our way back to the hotel and discussed the Super Bowl party plans.  We had some trouble getting in touch with Steve at first, but eventually things worked out and we figured out how to get to his place.  We walked for freaking forever to the train, and then took the train out to Vicente Lopez, which is still part of Buenos Aires, but it’s more suburby and people actually live there.  Holy crap, some of the houses were HUGE … and let me tell you - our tax dollars are at work taking care of the Marines who work at the Embassy - they live in a freaking mansion.  Huge house, huge screen TV’s, swimming pool, tennis court, basketball court, tens of thousands of dollar gym, just overall ridiculously nice place.  It ended up being a pretty decent sized party - lots of Americans who work at the Embassy and whatnot, so that was interesting.  We got a little taste of home getting to watch football and eat wings - it was great, haha.  Though I can’t say that I’m pleased with the outcome of the game, simply because I’m an Eagles fan and therefore hate the Giants, haha.  But the end of the game was pretty awesome, I must say.

After the game we headed back to the hotel by a different means.  We took the bus, that cost 1 peso to ride … transportation that isn’t taxis is so cheap, its ridiculous.  Got back to the hotel, and went to bed pretty quickly - I was pretty wiped.

Woke up to a phone call that class was starting - hooray for sleeping in until 15 minutes after we’re supposed to be downstairs! haha.  Class this morning in the oven that is the conference room in this little hotel, and then grabbed some lunch at the cheap Chinese place again, just because it’s quick and easy.  The plan for the rest of the day is to do the little bit of homework that we have and then most likely make our way over to the Recoleta’s Cemetery (where Evita is buried) - it’s supposed to be pretty awesome.  And then maybe hit up a museum or hang out and play some frisbee at one of the plaza/parks.  So I guess we’ll see what happens.  After that another dinner on the house at some seafood~ish place … I love not having to pay, haha.

3 more days in the city, then back to the U.S.  As I said before, I have mixed feelings.  I’m excited to come home, but I don’t know if I want to leave - it’s really been a great time.

The Beginnings of Our Stay in Buenos Aires

Hola from Buenos Aires!

Our last day in Bariloche was a good one.  It was mostly spent just hanging out and doing some shopping.  We didn’t have to leave until 2 pm, so it was a nice change from the early mornings of travel.  Did all the travel stuff and ended up in Buenos Aires at about 6 or 7 pm on Wednesday night.

We had a few hours to get settled in, but we all met for dinner at 9:40~ish.  We went to this really nice Italian restaurant, where rather than the menus being in Spanish, they were in Italian … lovely - a language that I can’t even read poorly … haha.  I got some chicken alfredo and it was delicious.

After dinner a bunch of us went out to go meet up with the TA’s from two other UD study abroad trips that were in Buenos Aires - one of whom I had for Spanish 107.  My ex-TA Justin, gave us a crossroads to get a taxi to, and we were off.  When we first got there I thought he was pulling a prank on us, because I think we were just about in the Red Light District … haha.  Seriously though, as soon as we got out of the taxi a bunch of guys were walking around soliciting for clubs and stuff - it was crazy.  The whole group finally got there and Emily called Justin so he and Bill (the other TA) could come get us.  We finally met up, and it was cool - we just kind of hung out and went to a bar and talked.  I enjoyed hanging with Justin not as my TA.  In class we were always kind of like - he’s cool, we should hang out … but he’s our teacher kinda sorta … it’s stupid, I know.  But regardless, it was good times.

We were out pretty late - I think I got back at like 4 or 4:30 … this crazy schedule is still not normal to me … haha.

Class in the AM, then the whole group went out on a bus tour of the city.  But Buenos Aires is ENORMOUS, so we didn’t really get to get see the whole city.  We hit up some cool places, though - the square at the center of the town where the Casa Rosada (kind of like the White House in the U.S., but the president doesn’t actually live there - just works), La Boca and the Stadium of the Boca Juniors (soccer club - Maradona’s ex-team), Caminito (which was a neat little section that had lots of street vendors, shops, and stuff) … it was cool to hear so much about the city.  There was just too much to retain it all.  After the bus tour we came back to the hotel and I passed out for about a 3 hour nap.  I got up in time to work on some homework for a bit before heading out to dinner.

We went to dinner at this Thai restaurant that was awesome.  We ordered 4 dishes and an appetizer to split between the 5 of us, and it was excellent.  I’ve never had Thai food before, so it was a new experience.  Dinner took a little longer than expected, so we were a bit late to meet up with others from our group and from the Economics study abroad group from UD - we were supposed to go dancing.  By the time we got to the place we were supposed to meet up at everyone had left, but we didn’t know where they went so we decided to stay and hang out for a bit.  We asked the waitress where they may have gone, and she suggested an Irish pub kind of place, so we walked there but had no luck in finding anyone, so eventually we found our way back to the hotel.  It was another pretty late night.

This morning, more class.  After class we got some lunch at this Chinese restaurant a few doors down from our hotel.  It’s really cheap, really greasy, and really good - haha.  After that we had a little downtime and then a few of us went out for a walking tour of the city.  They had this map in one of the tour guide books, so we were planning on following that, but we didn’t get very far.  We stopped at a suggested cafe for lunch, and then just ended up going back to the hotel after that.  So I worked on uploading the last of my Bariloche pictures and here I am, giving this update….

In terms of photos, POD is falling a bit behind because I have to get one from my roommate that I took on his camera because I didn’t have mine at the time (when we went kayaking).  Once I get that from him, I can finish the rest and be all caught up.  And all my Bariloche photos are finally up.  It took a while because I kept getting errors with my Flickr uploader thingy, but it’s all good now.

Tonight we’re going to a Tango show, which I’m pretty excited about because it’s supposedly one of the best things to do in Buenos Aires.  So we’ll see how that goes - dinner is included, so at least I get some food, haha.  As far as the rest of the time here goes, I’m not really sure what I’ll be up to - I guess we’ll see what happens and who’s plans I can piggy back onto…

But that’s all folks - ciao!

Camping, Kayaking and the last days in Bariloche

Once again, my updates have been lacking because of business in Bariloche … lo siento to all the “old people” who are living vicariously through my trip - I quote my mom almost directly, so don’t hate, haha. 

In my last entry I know that I had aspired to do a short hike after writing, but it ended up being hazy out so I figured the view wasn’t worth it and I ended up just going to chill at the lake with Shelly.  We both wanted to do some reading and just chill, so that worked out well.  I got to spend some legit time with the Lord and do some reading - it was great.  Mate, Bible, and beautiful scenery … good combo.  Anyway, we were there for like 2 hours or so and then headed back to the hotel.  At this point I can’t remember where we ate dinner, or what we did afterwards, but odds are it was pretty uneventful if I can’t remember.

Saturday was the beginning of our hiking/camping trip to Cerro Lopez.  We rented some sleeping bags, got sandwiches and stuff and were all set … caught a bus to the trailhead and headed up.  The hike was supposedly 4 hours and easy … not quite.  It was a pretty intense uphill for the better part of the journey but the group I was with pushed it pretty hard and did it in about 2 hours.  Another group took the 4 hours … so I imagine if we actually took our time it probably would have taken as long as the sign said.  So difficult yes, but the views were great and it really felt good.  Along the way I had to keep reminding myself where I was - it’s so easy sometime when you’re hiking or biking or running or whatever to lose sight of the beauty around you, and all I had to do in this case was turn around and see the big beautiful lake and mountains behind me.  Anyway, we got to the top and chilled out for a while.  There was a refuge/hostel at the top that we had reservations to stay in for the night and there was a pool-type thing that was kind of dirty and more like a pond than anything else, but it was nice to get in and wash all the dirty off my legs.  Seriously … so much dirt, if you looked at my legs alone you may have mistaken me for an African American …  But yeah, it was fun, and beautiful - as per usual in my Bariloche experience.  Plus, there was snow at the top.  I know the northeast has gotten their fair share, but it’s summertime here, so that was pretty cool.  So after some hours of just hanging out, reading, throwing a frisbee around, and just enjoying the view, we had dinner.  They cooked us some steak and vegetables that were delicious, but not quite as filling as everyone probably would have liked.  After dinner we went outside and just laid out and checked out the stars as they came out.  The sky is so clear up in the mountains away from city light pollution - it’s really great!  I’m a sucker for stars, so maybe I’m partial, but it was really cool.  And I’m in the southern hemisphere, so I can see the southern cross here and that’s cool.  I saw Mars the clearest I’ve ever seen it in the sky, and we thought we saw the international space station as well, amongst some satellites and other stuff.  It was really relaxing and nice.  After that bedtime … I was waking up wayyy early to watch the sunrise and make the second climb to the very top of the mountain…

So I was planning a wake up at 5 am for the sunrise because when I tried to do it at our hotel I woke up at 6 and I swear that I saw red outside and the sun was already coming up … it turns out the sun rises closer to 7 … so we woke up at 5 and were awake for almost 2 hours before the sun came up … my bad.  And on top of that, the stinking mountain was in the way, so we didn’t even get the full view.  Still pretty, but not quite as cool.  After the sun rose we took a little nap outside in our sleeping bags and then headed up the top of Cerro Lopez.  It was such a difficult “hike” … more like a climb.  Really rocky, not the best marked trail, and it was pretty much scrambling a rock face the whole way, but it was worth it.  There was a ton of snow at the top and a little lake thing and the view was great (as per usual, haha).  The hike down was interesting … almost harder because we had to scramble down a rock face.  And very shortly after getting down we proceeded back down the mountain.  The hike down was a little more interesting in that we blazed our own trail at some point and got lost a few times, but we still made it down in an hour and a half.  We then waited for the stinking bus for an hour and a half and just about went crazy.  But we passed the time guessing what color car would come next, throwing rocks at signs, and dancing and being ridiculous, haha.

The bus finally came and we went back to the hotel and I took the most refreshing shower ever after being soooo dirty.  After that we grabbed a late lunch and I was in bed by 10:30.  I got about 10 hours of sleep and it was wonderful.

Class Monday morning followed by a kayaking adventure.  One of the guides from our whitewater rafting trip has a smaller business with kayaking, and he was really cool so we went out with him and 2 other guides out on the lake (which lake, I’m not exactly sure).  We had double kayaks, so that was less than ideal, but with a large group it makes the most sense.  Paul and I worked quite well together in the heaviest freaking kayak ever.  We stopped in the middle and hung out on a beach for a while - had some snacks and chilled out for a while.  After our beach time we headed back in … it was probably a good 4 hours or so out though, so it was fun.  Kayaking is great … and going out on the lake is such a relaxing thing.  It was nice to rest my leg muscles after all the hiking and biking.  Unfortunately I didn’t bring my (slash Vicky’s) camera because I didn’t want to ruin it in the lake, but I got my POD from my roommate Dan’s camera, so it’s all good.  After we got back from kayaking the whole group went out to another dinner.  Paid for by CFIS and our program fee … Norberto said we hadn’t used up our Bariloche budget, so we all got another free meal.  The place we went was awesome, and I think the steak that I ate is my new number 2 since I’ve been here.  Towards the end of the night I was getting a little frustrated with some people because they were being kind of loud and obnoxious … just frustrating because I won’t want to be the ugly Americans.  But I think everyone is starting to get a little fed up and homesick.  Only 10~ish more days till we’re back.  Anyway, after dinner I went back to the hotel and went to bed shortly thereafter.

No class today because we went on a trip to the Centro Atomico of Bariloche.  It was pretty much the equivalent of their physics and engineering college (but only about 400 students).  We had a chance to meet some of the professors and talk to them about what they are researching and whatnot, and I thought it was pretty cool.  It was really awesome to see people who were so excited about their field and research.  Again with the frustrations with some people and rudeness, but again I say I think everyone is starting to get a little fed up. After the Centro Atomico visit, we went to a local brewery tavern type place for lunch.  We ordered some of their beers and pizza … what an American meal … haha.  I got this raspberry beer that seriously just tasted like raspberry juice … it was awesome, haha.  The rest of the day was pretty relaxed … I worked on homework for a while (since we got so much of it this week) and then 3 of us went to get a quick dinner at the Mexican place again.  A bunch of people seem to be all about going out tonight, but I’m pretty tired, so I’m not all about that. Tomorrow we leave Bariloche … :-\.  This has totally been my favorite city we’ve been to - I’m definitely going to miss it.  But on to Buenos Aires and that should be cool too, I’m sure.  We aren’t leaving until 2, so I’m hoping to do some souvenir shopping and get a last walk around.  It’s nice to not have to leave way early in the morning like we’ve had to do in Mendoza and Córdoba.

Like I said before, I’m just about ready to come home.  I kind of miss being able to speak English everywhere and eat food that doesn’t have ham, cheese, and eggs on it (seriously - they put it on EVERYTHING).  I want to have a nice big juicy burger, and a belgian waffle or pancakes for breakfast … little things, haha.  And not that I don’t like people on the trip, but being in such close proximity with the same people for an extended period of time will get on anyone’s nerves.

So Buenos Aires, here we come.  I’m excited - Tango bars, museums, and hanging out with my Spanish 107 TA. And 8 days later I’m excited for home (but not so much the 11 hour plane ride to get there …)

Buenos Noches.

Chocolate and Rafting and Biking, Oh My!

I haven’t updated in a few days - so I apologize to those who are on the edge of their seats wondering what I’ve been up to … hahahaha.  Riiiiiight.  Well - the last few days have been pretty busy.   It seems like there is always something to do in Bariloche and on top of that I had to give my second presentation yesterday, so I’ve spent a chuck of time working on that as well.  But I’m pretty excited that I’m done with my presentations.  Now the only work I have for my classes is little homework assignments from class (which don’t tend to be very long or difficult).  So, lets recap a bit….

After my last entry we all went out to dinner for Jane’s birthday.  We went to an Irish pub of all places, but it was a really nice place and food was pretty good.  You can guess what I ordered - it starts with an s and ends in teak.  We all ate and hung out for a bit and some people hung out after dinner at the bar and danced and stuff.  I actually took care of collecting money and stuff from everyone to deal with the check … I will never do that in a group of 22 ever again.  Anywho - a bunch of us went back to the hotel after dinner and played cards for a bit.  Bedtime shortly after that.

Tuesday was a pretty relaxed day.  After class some of us decided to go do a tour of a chocolate museum.  Apparently Bariloche is known for its chocolate???  It’s pretty darn good, but I had no idea that they were known for it.  Before we went to the chocolate place, we decided to go to this vegetarian restaurant for lunch - this guy Adam on the trip is a vegetarian, so it’s been interesting for him considering the amount of red meat people consume here.  Vegetariano was the name of the place - they ended up only having a 2 dish menu … you pretty much ordered the lunch.  But it was very good!  And we had some fresh squeezed juice that was great as well.  I got fish - which is pretty atypical for me, but I wasn’t all about having soy, so yeah … it worked out.  After lunch we proceeded on the super long walk to Fenoglio Chocolates.  On the way we picked up a buddy … I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that in Argentina there are stray dogs all over the place, but there are, and one of them followed us the whole way to the chocolate museum.  We got there and paid for our tour, and then got a cup of hot chocolate, which was more like melted dark chocolate.  It was so thick!  We eventually got the tour of the place - it was kind of like a history of chocolate thing, but during the tour they gave us some free samples that were delicious.  A bunch of people ended up buying a box of assorted chocolates that they got to pick out and then we started walking back - where we were planning on scoping out some of the other chocolate places along the way.  Unfortunately at this point it was about 5:30 or so, and I had to be back at the hotel by 6 to meet with Dr. Mulders (aka Norberto) about my second presentation.  So I went back and everyone else went and did some more of the chocolate thing.  After working with Dr. Mulders for a while and going to the local mall for a bit, a few of us decided to try and get a small group to go get dinner.  It’s cool being with the large group of students and all, but it gets kind of annoying trying to go out to eat with so many people - it just ends up taking forever.  So we walked around for a bit searching for somewhere to eat and decided to go to the authors choice from one of the guidebooks.  We walked there and found out that it was pretty expensive, so we opted not to try it out.  So we went to this little pizza place that we saw on the way … it was great!  I think it was one of the quickest and cheapest meals I’ve had here, but it was still very good.  When we got back everyone pretty much went to bed immediately, we were all pretty tired.
Wednesday we had a group scheduled excursion to go whitewater rafting all day!  Everyone was really excited, and it turned out being sooo fun!  We met downstairs at 9 am, which was normal class time so that wasn’t so bad - got on some vans and drove for about an hour or so to the river.  Before we went out they provided a small breakfast for us, which was pretty darn cool.  They gave us all wetsuits and got everyone ready after breakfast, and we headed out.  They claimed that where we were was Class III and IV, but it turned out more like III the whole way - still really intense and fun at times, but not as crazy as it would have been if there were more rain.  Our guides were all hilarious - they’d joke around and pull people out of the boats and get us to have celebrations after a difficult part of the river.  It was great.  The water was pretty cold even in a wetsuit, but it was refreshing to swim the 1 or 2 times that we did.  It wasn’t the longest trip I’ve ever been on, but I think we were out for something like 2 hours … I guess the time just flew by too quickly.  At the point where you get out of the river, you are actually on Chilean soil.  So I visited Chile for about 30 minutes - pretty cool.  We got some pictures by the sign of the border and all got changed.  We hopped on some vans again and went back to the main place where we hand lunch provided for us.  It was a pretty good BBQ … lots of meat, of course, and some pretty rockin’ potato salad amongst other things.  We got the CD with our pictures on it, and then headed back to the hotel.  After some showers and getting ready, we went out in another smaller group for dinner.  The plan was to eat at a little chocolate store that had a restaurant in it, but it ended up being more like a café, so we opted not to go there.  The others had seen another nice restaurant earlier in the week, so we went there and it ended up being great!  There was a guy playing guitar outside (he played Guns and Roses … what the heck?!), and the food was good.  Our waitress was actually on her first night, so there was some clumsiness associated with the meal, but totally understandable.  After dinner, the group split up - some people went to take a walk in town for a bit and myself and 2 others went back to the hotel to do some work.  I finished my presentation and got to bed at like 2 am.  I’ve been here 3 weeks~ish and I’m still trying to get used to this late schedule that they run on.

Class in the morning - gave my second presentation, and that’s all there is to that.  After class we went out to lunch at this little Mexican restaurant that was awesome.  We were joking that some of us were upset that we’ve been lied to about Mexican food our whole lives.  I got some enchiladas that were superb, but may not have been the best idea considering we were going mountain biking shortly after lunch.  No worries, it ended up being fine.  So like I said, after lunch a group of 9 of us went mountain biking.  We had to catch a bus to the place, and we ended up overshooting it and having to hitch the bus back 3 kilometers or so.  Anyway, we got there eventually and got our bikes.  The guy gave us the rundown on what a good loop to ride was, and we were off.  I don’t know that I would have classified it so much as mountain biking because we were on roads a lot, but it was certainly up and down mountains.  In the middle we stopped at this lake where we all went swimming - very refreshing after some uphill biking.  We met a girl from Alaska and her family.  She was on vacation and said she went to school in Michigan.  After swimming we dried off a bit and proceeded on our ride.  we had to do the most challenging uphill of the ride shortly after our stop, but the view was amazing.  I got some pictures and video, but I don’t know if they’ll do the view justice.  Another downhill, some more uphill, and then back to home base.  By the time we got done it was like 9 PM (and we left around 5 or 5:30).  So that was fun, but we were supposed to be meeting as a group at 9:30 back at the hotel … so that wasn’t happening.  Emily (our TA of sorts) called to let them know we’d be late, and we caught a bus back to the hotel.  We discussed our weekend plans - Norberto needed to know where we planned on being because there’s a camping trip that a lot of us are going on which would be away overnight.  After the planning we all went out to dinner together to a place that some guys on the trip deemed a “5 fork restaurant” prior to going there.  It was a pretty fancy looking place, and my food was pretty good (it’s tough to mess up spaghetti and red sauce), but some people had some issues with their steaks.  Other than that, though, it was a nice place.  Dessert was delicious - I got this banana mousse thing that had fresh bananas in it with dulce de leche and strawberry sauce … sooo good.  I just about passed out at the dinner table, I was so tired, so as soon as we were done I went back to the hotel and went to bed.

All this leads up to today.  Class was cancelled because some people wanted to go sailing, and they only do it early in the morning, so Norberto gave us the day off - nice.  I slept until probably 11:45, which was disappointing when I woke up, but considering that I didn’t get to bed until about 3 I guess that’s not too shabby.  I don’t really know what my plans are for the rest of the day.  I’d like to do a short hike that Norberto suggested to us - the view is supposed to be great, and you only have to take a bus and walk something like 30 minutes, so I think that would be nice.  Other than that, I’m just relaxing a bit.  My butt still hurts from the bike seat yesterday, and we’re camping tomorrow, so I figure rest is probably not a bad idea.

As far as pictures are concerned, I’m still not impressed with the internet here.  It’s barely sufficient for sending email and updating the blog every so often.  So I’m going to have my work cut out for me once we get to Buenos Aires, but I guess that’s what has to be done.  Just know that I’m keeping up with the P.O.D. and I have been taking lots of pictures of the beautifulness that I keep talking about. 

Bariloche = Gorgeous

So … Bariloche is stinking beautiful!

After all the traveling stuff we arrived at the Bariloche airport. It was a pretty cool airport - different than most I’ve seen. It almost looked like a ski lodge or something on the outside. But as soon as you walked out the doors you could see that this was a beautiful place - mountains, lake, yeah …

We got a bus to our hotel, which is a little less sophisticated than the previous hotels we’ve stayed in. The rooms aren’t super nice, but they have beds and bathrooms, so I guess they serve their purpose. Don’t get me wrong - we’re not staying in the ghetto or anything, but as compared to the last 2 hotels, it’s not the greatest. We had the afternoon to do whatever, and a bunch of us were hungry so we took about a group of 6 exploring to find somewhere to explore, eat and drop off laundry. It turns out that the street that our hotel is on has a laundry place about 4 doors down, and has a nice strip of places to eat as well. We went to a little restaurant that is very similar to Iron Hill in Delaware, from what I can tell. They brew their own beers and whatnot - it was a cool little joint. After our lunch we went to walk around and see what the scoop was around Bariloche and the lake. The lake and view itself are gorgeous - and seeing a giant lake with water as clear as this is pretty rockin’, haha. There’s a little rocky beach down the street from our hotel that we went to just to check it out and take some pictures. On the way down there was a cool little row of like street vendors - almost like a market. They sell some interesting hand crafted stuff. Knives with crocodile claws for the handle and things like that.

After the beach and market adventure we headed back to the hotel. By this time it was about 8 PM, and we were meeting in the lobby at 9 to discuss some stuff, so we just hung out for a bit. We met at 9 to discuss all the things we can do here and the necessity of organizing ahead of time so as to maximize our fun here. I feel like there is so much to do that I won’t really be able to do everything I want - plus, I don’t have an infinite money supply, so that probably won’t work out either, haha. So everyone decided on what they were going to do the next day, and we all went out to eat. We went to this really nice place that also reminded me of a ski lodge inside. I got some chicken - I’m trying to give my stomach a break from red meat - and it was delicious. After dinner there was a gorgeous moon over the lake, so I wanted to go grab some pictures, but the people I was with didn’t really wait up. So I hurried to take some pictures but lost them anyway … so I got a little lost on my walk back to the hotel, but it was all good - I found it eventually. Then bedtime - I had to rest up for our hike.

A majority of the others wanted to go do this Canopy zip-lining thing, but it was something like 120 pesos, and I’ve been zip-lining several times in the past, so I decided to save some money. So a group of 8 of us went on a nice day hike, but it was much harder than I was expecting. 4 hours up - but the view was beautiful. The top was actually called Emilio Frey (hahahah), and there was this big lake there - so interesting that a lake is situated on top of the mountain. The lake lead down this big stream that ran all the way down the mountain (I guess that’s normal, right? haha), and there was snow at the top! It was pretty windy and chilly, but it was really nice. By the time we got to the top, I was exhausted - we didn’t really eat much of a breakfast and my stomach wasn’t in the best shape ever that morning. It was really funny, because this girl Jane totally kicked everyone’s butt all the way up - which I don’t think anyone was expecting. She has gained the nickname Terminator as a direct result. I think she said she got up there a good 15 minutes before anyone else did. Craziness. Anywho, when I actually reached the top I fell asleep on top of a big rock looking over the lake - it was amazing how form-fitting a rock could be - so comfortable, haha.

The hike up took us about 4 hours - the hike down took about 2. I guess that’s about what you’d expect. We met a woman who was originally from California while we were hiking - she had just quit her teaching job and was just doing some traveling, which I thought was pretty awesome. So we got to talk to her for a bit, and then caught the bus back to our hotel.

As a result of hiking on the dustiest trail ever, my legs looked as though I had become half African American, and my socks were crusty black - so bad in fact that I had a nice layer of black dirt all over my feet - gross. I took a shower and washed my feet twice and some of it was still there - so nasty. I ended up just throwing the socks out - I don’t think they were worth redeeming, haha. We were all pretty hungry at this point - I think we got back around 7 PM, and we hadn’t eaten all day, so after some antics with room changing and getting showers we went out to an early dinner. After dinner we went straight to bed after watching 5-10 minutes of the Packers/Giants game (I can’t believe the Giants won, by the way … yuck).

So I think I got the first solid 8-9 hours of sleep since I’ve been here. We had class at 9, and my roommate and I managed to sleep in until 8:50 … nice. So we got ready in hurry and went to class. I had some major paying attention issues today, so hopefully that gets better. After class I picked up my laundry, and two other guys and myself went to get lunch. After lunch we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some water, and I got a thermos for mate purposes.

All this leading up to now as I sit in the hotel lobby writing. I’m forced to write in Word and upload it to the internet later because the internet here is quite unreliable. I don’t think that I’m even going to try uploading pictures unless something more reliable comes along - I think it would take a good 3 hours given the current situation, and I don’t really feel like sitting in the lobby that long. So for the lack of photos, I apologize, but know that it really is as beautiful as I claim, haha.

Tonight I believe we are going out for Jane’s birthday (which is tomorrow), and the rest of the week is unplanned as of yet. I’m hoping to get some mountain biking in as well as some kayaking, hopefully. I guess we’ll see how far my wallet can feasibly get me. I know there are possible plans for a camping-type thing next weekend, so that might be cool. We’ll see what happens.

But that’s all I have to say for now. Ciao!

Salsa on the Rooftops

So … it’s approximately 4:45 AM as I write this … tonight was awesome!

A few nights ago, we went to a restaurant and had this running joke where a few of the guys would go sit next to this one girl in our group and say ridiculous pickup lines. It turned into a big funny thing, and eventually we tried to get our waitor, Claudio, in on it. At the end of the night, he ended up talking to her and gave her a flower and everything - it was great. Anyway, I guess we got kind of friendly with him throughout the whole ordeal, and he ended up inviting us to his birthday party tonight at 11 and promised some salsa dancing…

So tonight we had an early dinner in the hotel restaurant. The menu was pretty skimpy, but the food was pretty good. After dinner, we headed out to go to Claudio’s house, but stopped by the Santa Claus restaurant one last time. It turns out the guy, Sebastian, who I had become pretty friendly with since I was in there so often, is the owner. So he and his friend Santiago were outside having drinks with some other people on our trip. We talked for a few minutes, but we had to get over to Claudio’s, so we said our farewells, got some pictures, and that was that. Here’s me and Sebastian…

So after that run-in we made our way to Claudio’s house, not really knowing what to expect, but it ended up being amazing. When we first got there we met some of his friends and family and just had an opportunity to talk with some of them. His cousin is actually studying to become and English teacher in Argentina, so it was very easy to have conversation with her - very nice girl. It was another one of those awesome chances to really have good conversation and get to know some people from another culture - I was floored. It just seemed to work out really great that we met Claudio by chance at the restaurant and he was kind enough to invite us out after knowing us for such a short time. All the people I’ve met here have been so kind to us - it’s really different than what I guess I was expecting with the reputation America seems to have around the world. Anyway, eventually everyone started dancing, and we all got some personal lessons in salsa, which was really cool even though I’m not the world’s greatest dancer. I also failed to mention that the party was on the top of the roof (hence the title of this blog). It was a great view, and the stars were really clear (you can see the Southern Cross here, yay!). It was a really cool atmosphere. After a bit of dancing, the numbers at the party seemed to die down a bit and we figured it would probably be rude for us to stay much longer, so we all headed out. Here’s a bunch of us with Claudio, and me and Adam with his cousin and her friend…

Somehow we ended up stopping by a bar to hang out for a bit on the way home. We only stayed for something like 30 minutes, but got to sit down with some more local guys. Didn’t really have super elaborate conversation, but they were nice.

And now I am finally back in my hotel room. It’s almost 5 AM at this point, but I needed to get one last blog in before we leave tomorrow morning (at 7 AM … yeah, 2 hours). As it turns out, we are unsure how the internet situation is going to work out in Bariloche. So I may or may not be without it for a week and a half or so. I mean, I’ll be able to check from time to time, but it may have to be from an internet cafe that I have to pay for … so yeah, I’d like to minimize the paying thing. But yeah, I had to talk about tonight, because it was just really great. A personal invitation to a private party as opposed to going out to a public club … totally different experience, and I liked it a lot more.

So yeah, that’s all I’ve got at this point. I’m going to go pack my bags and try to get an hour of sleep or so before we leave. Hasta luego!

Embalse and Alta Gracia

So I’ve been pretty bad with keeping up on the updates every day or every other day (and I’m definitely sucking it up at getting POD stuff up every night) - but things have been busy the past couple days, mainly because I had to give my first presentation today in class. So I’ll try to recap the last couple days.

Tuesday was a pretty uneventful day as far as I can remember. Class ran a little overtime so we didn’t really get out until 1:30 or so, and then a few of us went to get some lunch. After lunch we ended up just hanging out in the lobby and playing cards for a while. It was a nice chill day. After our card playing I had to meet with Dr. Mulders to go over my presentation. It was really helpful, but I ended up having to do a bunch more work afterwards, so yeah … I did that. Another guy on the trip, Amit, had to work on his and present the same day as me, so we had a little homework party down in the lobby for a few hours and then went to get some ice cream. Post ice cream I just hung out with the card players for a bit before going to bed. I was getting sick of doing work, and I had a few hours after our excursion to the nuclear power plant to make the finishing touches to my presentation. So to bed I went.

We had to wake up crazy early to go to the Embalse Nuclear Power Plant - 6 AM … yeah, that was a blast. But I was pretty excited, because, yeah … nuclear power plant. So after a 2 hour bus ride that consisted of nothing but sleeping we arrived. We couldn’t bring any cameras - so no pictures, sadly. But honestly, the tour left a lot to be desired for me. When we first got there we were in this little conference/lecture room where we watched a video straight out of the 80’s on the plant. A PR woman explained some specifics of the plant to us and gave us a little rundown of some nuclear physics that we already knew about. After that we went out to tour the plant - but we didn’t really see a whole lot. We got to look in the control room from the outside - I was assuming it would be a little more sophisticated than it was. The 80’s video said they had state of the art equipment, which I figured would have been updated since the video was made, but it didn’t really look like it was. After that we went up on the roof and she showed us where they store the containers of used fuel. 140~ish tall concrete cylinders in a field. Then after that we went into the reactor room - or what appeared to be the reactor room. It was so loud that we had to wear these ear-muff things, but that meant we couldn’t hear her explain anything that was around us. This made for me making assumptions about much of what I was seeing. I mean, I guess it was cool to be in the main chamber with all the huge mechanical devices, but I guess I was expecting more from a nuclear power plant when there really isn’t all that much more. The Uranium heats water, turns it to steam, the steam powers a turbine, turbine makes electricity … yeah.

We left the power plant and went to a nice local place to get some lunch. What do you think I ordered? Steak, or course. And once again, it was great. I sat at the end of the table with our tour guide and bus driver which was fun because I got to chat with them for a while. It’s really cool interacting with locals and people from Argentina because there are so many cultural differences and whatnot.

After lunch we headed out expecting to go back to the hotel. From all the excursions we’ve been on I’ve realized that we are kept in the dark a lot about everything we are going to be out doing. As it turns out we made a stop at a closed down hydroelectric plant, which was more like a scenic outlook and we just walked around, hung out and took pictures for a while. Back to the bus again …

We made another stop in the town of Alta Gracia, which was actually really awesome. We stopped at this Jesuit place - I think it was like a commune or something, but it was interesting. They had this room with a bunch of different Christ statues and crosses which led to some great reflection for me. I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time in the Bible while I’ve been away because of the business of schedule, late nights, and early mornings. So if you’d like, pray that I am able to better schedule my days to include some time with the Lord. Anyway, yeah … Jesuit commune. It was nifty. We hung out around the little plaza for a while and I ended up buying a mate (pronounced mah-tay) mug and a bombilla from a street vendor lady.

I think I may have mentioned mate before, but it’s a kind of tea that they drink here. It’s kind of a thing for friends and family to do - sit around, pass the drink, talk and whatnot. The bombilla is the straw that they use to drink it. The way the tea is made is the leaves are poured directly into the cup with the bombilla in it. The bombilla is sort of like a strainer straw so you can drink the tea without sucking up all the leaves. So you put the leaves and bombilla in, add hot water, and drink it. Given my newfound love of tea, it’s pretty rockin. Our tour guide, Victoria, had some and let us all sit around and have some, and then she helped myself and another guy on the trip to pick out cups and bombillas. It was pretty cool. Here’s a picture of what I bought:

After the mate purchasing experience we got back on the bus and headed out again. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the house where Che Guevara lived as a child, which has been turned into a small little museum. It was an interesting stop. I was interested because we watched a little bit of the movie Diarios de Motocicleta in spanish class this semester which was all about Che and his motorcycle journey through Latin America. He really is an icon in Argentina.

After the museum we headed back to the hotel. A bunch of people went to the pool and I went to finish working on my presentation, which didn’t take super long, but I wasn’t outrageously focused so it took a little longer than I would have liked. I finished that up and a bunch of us went out to dinner. The city of Córdoba is interesting because it seems to have little nooks all over the place where there are different restaurants and shops and things like that. The restaurant we went to was in one of the little nook/alley things. It was the first place that I saw Chinese food on a menu in Argentina - but it wasn’t like cheap Chinese food, it was good stuff. We had a large enough party (like 12) that they put us upstairs where we kind of had our own little space, so that was pretty cool. I ordered a filet mignon that was wrapped in bacon … it was delicious, not so filling, but still great. We hung out for a bit and had some drinks. The travelers guide said that they were really good at this place, but I disagreed after finding that they put the salt in the margarita and not on the rim of the glass … gross. Maybe I just don’t know the whole alcoholic beverage thing well enough, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to be.

Again, the whole schedule of things around here with dinner starting at 10 or 11, and 3 hours of eating put us back at the hotel at about 2 AM. I went to bed pretty much right away.

Woke up early~ish today. Went and grabbed breakfast downstairs, and then went to class. Did my presentation - I think it went pretty well, but I guess I’ll see once I get grades, haha.

After class a bunch of us went out to do some shopping and get lunch. We ate at a little pizza joint and got some hamburgers (so Argentine, right? haha). Interestingly enough, they are pretty Argentine … they put ham and eggs on their burgers. We had a little discussion about how we’re going to miss that when we go back to the states … like I’ll go to a restaurant and order a burger and be like “Where’s the eggs?” when it comes out with just meat and cheese.

We went to this little soccer shop and I bought an Argentina soccer jersey … I said I wasn’t going to do it because I can easily buy the same thing online, but it was 105 pesos for the jersey which translates to something like $30 American dollars … so yeah, that’s a significant discount from what I would pay anywhere in the U.S. After the shopping we headed back to the hotel and worked on our homework for a bit. And now I’m just uploading some pictures to try and get everything up to date. We may play some ultimate frisbee in a bit, and then I have no idea what’s up for dinner. I guess we’ll see what happens.

I can’t believe that the trip is almost halfway over. We’re leaving Córdoba on Saturday morning to head to Bariloche. I’m really excited because I think Bariloche is the city I was most looking forward to seeing, but it’s weird that we’ll have finished visiting 2 cities - I feel like we just got here. But we are staying in Bariloche for a week and a half as opposed to the 6 days here. I’m looking forward to it.

But yeah, that’s about all I have to say for now. I’ll catch up again later.