Mi ultimo dia

The last day here...

First of all, Happy Anniversary to my parents (yesterday), Happy Birthday to Abuela(today) and Happy Birthday Mom (tomorrow).

Today is my last day here, I leave for the airport in 6 hours. The past 5 months went by fast! I remember the day my plane touched down 5 months ago, on a rainy day wondering to myself how the next 5 months will go by. I have really enjoyed my stay here with my host family, taking classes at the Universidad del Salvador and meeting new friends from all around the world. My Spanish has improved and I now have a lot more respect for international students. I am eager to get back to the States but at the same time I am really getting comfortable with going out on my own and holding conversations with people in Spanish. If I could stay another 5 months without having to do things with a program and without being able to use English as a crutch to fall back on.

I am also really blending in as an Argentine now. When I first arrived, as long as I didnt speak, nobody could tell I was an extranjero. Once I opened my mouth people could tell. Now I can go through the ferias or the streets and not get hustled by the tourist trappers. I used to meet people and they would ask me where I am from, now its how are you doing and what do you think about the last cancha de Boca Juniors. If people can tell Im a foreigner they usually guess I am from Puerto Rico or Brazil.

When I get back I will want to tell some stories about my time here so feel free to find me and we will talk. If you ever want to come to Argentina, well Buenos Aires, let me know and I will offer some advice on where to go, what to see, what to eat and when is a good time to come to the city.

Well I guess this is it for my last blog post in Argentina. I still have some stuff to post on the blog when I get back to the states and have a steady internet source so keep an eye out on the blog, and hopefully I will be able to return to Buenos Aires and update you guys with some more neat things around the city.

Chau

Last Thursday in BsAS

Hey guys,

I just wanted to write to you informing you what I have been up to as I sit here and enjoy these last few days in the city. This past Sunday I went back to the San Telmo feria to look around and see what they had for sale and see what kinds of entertainment they were offering. I saw some of the same tango shows and puppet shows from three months ago but also saw an art exhibit in the street. One street was broken up ready to be cleaned and repaved and I guess the workers decided to finish up the job on Monday so they left it there. Some guy decided it would be a great opportunity to make it an art exhibit. It was pretty neat.

I then walked down to Plaza de Mayo where the Casa Rosada is located and found out that the Casa Rosada was open for visitors to walk through! The government put on an art exhibit inside of the building, celebrating the 25th anniversary of democracy in the country and beginning the bicentennial countdown for 2010. The Casa Rosada is a very nice building inside and I was glad I could see parts of it. Now only if I could get a tour of our own White House that would be great!

Monday I said goodbye to two friends. We all went out to eat at a pizza spot in Palermo. They had what are called pizza boats, which are pizzas, in the shape of boats with a sail and fries. I dont have pictures of these boats but some friends do so I will post them once I get them.

Finally, today I finally saw a graduation celebration. I had always heard of celebrations here for college graduates in which their friends throw eggs at the graduates to celebrate. (Its an Argentine thing) I saw 8 people lined up outside of the University of Buenos Aires today, covered in eggs, chocolate syrup, flour, sprinkles, pretty much any cooking product you can think of was thrown on top of them. Weird right?

Zoo

HOOOLLLAA!

Im now in my last week here in Buenos Aires! I leave in 4 days. I am a excited to leave and get back home to see my family after 5 months but at the same time I really enjoy the nice summer weather here. For the past few months I have wanted to go to the zoo here in Buenos Aires and finally got my chance on Friday, and it was free! You can get into the zoo for free if you take your passport to a small side entrance located almost in the back of the zoo. Show your passport and student ID and you can get in for free. The zoo was nice to see, I cant remember when the last time was I went to the zoo. I was actually impressed by the zoo and how well kept it was. I put the pictures up online in Picasa, the link in the top right corner of the blog

Argentine Oreos

When I arrived here 4 and a half months ago I searched for some snacks I enjoy eating in the States and ran across Oreos. Oreos dont come in large packs here like they do in the States, they come in individual packs of ten but arent as good as the ones in the States and can not be found as double stuff. Within the past few weeks I have ran across some other forms of Oreos here which are delicios, haha. My host mom bought me some Oreos covered in chocolate and they were very delicious. Then I ran across some Oreo Alfajores and decided to try one. I was amazed, three large layers of Oreo cookie covered in chocolate. I will definitely miss these two versions of Oreos when I return to the states. Less than two weeks to go

Futbol!

Yesterday I went over to Belgrano to a futbol game put on by the church I go to down here. I dont know who the teams were but they werent the big teams down here but it was fun to watch the game at a soccer stadium that held a little over 7000 people. Entrance was free as long as you brought some non-perishable items for the people in Formosa, Argentina. There will be a group from the church going up there in the next few days to give all the stuff to some people up there for Christmas. I took a couple shirts and a sweatshirt over to donate and had a blast. It was hot yesterday but fun and I enjoyed it. Now I cant say I never saw a soccer game while here. Next time I visit I will make sure I see a professional game although from what I hear they are very dangerous to attend which would probably make for a good story.

Restaurantes sin carne??? no puede ser

This past Friday I met up with a Venezuelan friend from one of my classes down here. My host mom wasnt cooking so she gave me 20 pesos to eat that night. All of my COPA friends were out of town so I decided to see if my friend wanted to go out. I met up with her in Palermo Soho, a nice area of Palermo where you can find just about anything to eat for decent prices too. She asked if I had tried Hindu food before and I didn't believe I did so we went to a spot called Krishna, un "pequeno restaurant vegetariano". We arrived at Krishna and sat down in one of the two rooms they had. The spot was decorated with various religious artwork and the tables were very small with small chairs. The waiter made a comment on how small the table looked with me sitting there. We got the menus and I immediately realized there was no meat offered, at all!!! Sure, they had tofu and all but no real Argentine carne. After a few minutes of asking what some of the stuff was, I settled for a typical Thai plate called Plato Thai. It consisted of beats, white rice, some sort of rice mixed with vegetables, a spicy sauce, fried zucchini and a tortilla. To my surprise it was verrrry delicious. For drinks we had some sort of lemonade concoction, real lemonade with I believe ginger mixed in, I could be wrong though.

I just wanted to let all of the veggie lovers out there that there are places to eat in BsAs that caters to everyone. Krishna was packed and the food was great but if you are tall make sure you stretch because sitting down on the small chairs at a small table can hurt after a little while. The pictures of the food and restaurant will be up on my link to Argentine Photos in the top right hand corner of this blog in the Palermo album

Chau

Lomo a la mostaza

Above is a picture of the delicious mustard steak I wrote about in a post a few months ago. A couple weeks ago, one of my friends invited a few of us out to eat with her parents and we decided to grab some food at Desnivel, the spot with the most delicious steaks in the city (my personal opinion). Just like last time, the steak fell off of my knife as I cut it. VEEEERY delicious :)

Siga la vaca

I found the Golden Corral of Buenos Aires the other day. It's called Siga la Vaca and can be found in the barrio Puerto Madero. I went there to celebrate the last outing of a German friend of mine before he went off to Chile for a month. I really shouldnt compare Siga la Vaca to Golden Corral because the meat at Siga la Vaca is a hundred times better. Above this post is a picture of the grill with all of the various meats offered. It's definitely a place you should go to if down here for a week or more, actually Puerto Madero is a very nice spot to visit, especially at night.

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I know Im a day late with this post but we just got our power back after 27 hours without it! I sure was thankful for a lot of things while it was out, things like a fan, cool air, a tv and elevators were at the top of my list yesterday. I left the house around 2 to go to our program directors house for a Thanksgiving "dinner" made for 60 people. Lets just say it was nice to see some people in the program who I havent seen since our arrival here. The food was ok but it wasnt like at home. First of all Thanksgiving here was hot, 91 degrees. Second of all there were no White House Rolls, not a Thanksgiving without them. Third of all, NO FAMILY. Fourth, no gravy, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, green vegetables (not a single one, you wouldve been disappointed mom), stuffing wasnt real, no cranberry sauce, and no random concoctions by any aunts, grandmas, or mom. haha

I got back to my building around 5 pm to discover there were no lights/electricity. I had to go up 7 flights of stairs in the dark, so dark I couldnt see my hand right in front of my face. Come to find out only our block had lost power and random blocks in the city lost power. My host mom, her sister and I played UNO for a few hours, until it got dark. Then they couldnt walk down 7 flights and up 7 flights to get some food so we cooked some burgers on the gas stove. Then we all crashed for the night and I had a visitor in my room, a mosquito, which proceeded to have a Thanksgiving feast on my body as I sweat away in the 80 degree night. I woke up with tons of bites on my body. Today the power came back on around 8 and I took a shower and had dinner.

I hope Turkey day was great for all of y'all and I shall see you soon. 3 weeks until Im in the US of A.

Done with classes!

Today I finished the last of my classes with a presentation on typical Argentine dineer foods. I talked about the meats from the asados, locro (a wintertime soup), empanadas and milanesa. It was a great topic to present on being that I have sampled every one of those foods. :)

Colonia, Uruguay

Hola
On Sunday I took a day trip across the river to Colonia Uruguay. My program bought us tickets to ride the Buquebus Rapido an hour across the river. The purpose of the trip was to see the old city of Colonia, which at one point was twice the size of Buenos Aires, and to eat at the house of our program director.

We arrived two hours before the bus showed up to take us to Mario's house (program director) so we took a little walk around the little city. Colonia is a completely different city than the hustle and bustle of BsAs across the river. Colonia is nice and quiet, with cobblestone roads and huge trees along the sidewalks providing much needed shade. We were shown a street named "De los Suspiros" which was a street where the marines would go to when they came from sea and they would be able to find a prostitute there for their services. It was hard to imagine that things like that went on in Colonia because of the tranquility of the area.

The bus arrived and we got on for a 15 min ride outside of the city to Mario's house. We pulled up and got off and I felt like I was back in Virginia. The area reminded me of the landscape of central VA. I loved it. Our directors house was huge. The house is used as a bread and breakfast and for COPA events. There were trees everywhere, with blueberries and lemons in the backyard, a pool and two lakes. For lunch we had a piece of steak with chorizo (sausage) and rice, salad, potatoes and different sauces for the meats.

After we ate we had free time to go back to little Colonia to do some walking around and eat dinner before we returned. I took some pictures which can be found on the link to my Argentine pix in the top right hand corner of this blog. For dinner we found a spot to eat something called a chivito. It is a typical Uruguayan sandwich consisting of the bread, a piece of lomo (thin steak) with a fried egg, cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise, bacon and ham. It was a very filling sandwich. Colonia was a very nice spot to visit, especially if you want to get away from the city life in BsAs.

Basquet en un pais del futbol

I found out three weeks ago that I could finally play basketball in this country. After a little over three months here, I could finally exercise in Argentina. You know I was elated to find out I could play. I went out two weeks ago to Club de Amigos to play with a DJ from California who I met while here, a German guy who I met that day and another Californian. I took a couple shots to warm up and missed EVERYTHING, my shots weren't even close. I probably would have had better luck shooting with my eyes closed, but I shrugged it off and figured it would be no big deal to have an off shot. Then we played some two on two for about an hour, I was drained, my whole body hurt. 3 games of two on two and a game of one on one to 11 made my whole body hurt.

I then went back last week with some friend from COPA (my study abroad program) and we came across some Argentines playing full court so we joined them, and got whooped. Im convinced Argentines can run forever, oh and they are also huge cherry-pickers on the court. After the games last week I felt better than the previous week but my feet still hurt because I didnt have the right shoes, my bball shoes were sitting in Argentine customs.

I then went to Club de Amigos today for revenge. I finally received my shoes 3 weeks after they were sent from the US and I was ready, so were my friends. We only had four so the Argentines gave us un viejo, an old guy, to play on our team, so we basically played 4 on 5. We came out pretty strong, both teams trading baskets then the fatigue factor for us kicked in while the never stop running factor kicked in for the argentines. They went up by 4 points on us and had 2 more to go to win the game, then we finally played some defense and started cutting to the basket on offense. We completely frustrated the other team and ended up winning. Americans/German/Old Argentine: 1 Young Argentines who run forever without taking a breath: 0. We should have left the court with our perfect record for the day but we decided to take on a much more talented team because we had to defend our court, winner stays on and losers leave. We stayed close with them until the end and they beat us by 4. No defense nor offense on our end and we ended up 1-1 for the night. Not too bad.

What do do?!

So guys, its a little after 3 pm here, and I'm sitting here in my room, sweating a little because there is no air conditioning in my room and its pushing 90 degrees here. I just got finished eating lunch at my usual Thursday afternoon spot right next to the cemetery called Puerto Mont. I enjoy going there because for 26 pesos we get the hook-up from our camarera (waitress). A Coke, plate of the day, bread, dessert and ICE. Sure ice may not sound like a big deal until you come down here and they dont give you ice for your drinks. It usually doesnt matter that ice is not included because the drinks are pretty cold, but on days like today it matters.
But I was wondering, what would you guys like to see pictures of in Buenos Aires. I have some free time on my hands to go around the city and take pictures of things to put up for you guys to enjoy. I will tell you I will only go around the barrios or neighborhoods that I have been to or that I know are safe. So do some research/googling on Buenos Aires and let me know what you would like to see or hear about down here.

PS...here are a few things I have forgot to mention to you guys. We changed time here about 2 weeks ago putting me two hours ahead of EST, on Sunday, the States changed time so now I am 3 hours ahead of EST.

October 30th marked the 25th anniversary of Democracy in Argentina

Also if any of you guys know of anyone offering internships this summer for a rising senior from HSC with Speaking skills let me know!!! Im searching for interships.

And if you know of anyone willing to chip in some dinero $$$ for me to go the DR in Jan for a service project with Rivers of the World let me know! Its the same trip I went on last January. If not please let me know if you would like to donate either $$, baseball gear, clothing, or school supplies for the trip. As of today I am not going on the trip bc I cant afford it but I would still love to be able to send some stuff with the guys for the trip!

email me: HSC02010@gmail.com

My first asado

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to go to an Argentine asado. For those of you who don't know what an asado is, it's the Argentine equivalent of a cookout. I went out to a friend of mines parent's house out in Pilar, a colectivo ride of about 40 min. Pilar reminded me of an area in Florida with the heat and palm trees. I arrived at the house and for once I felt like I was home because I wasn't packed into an apartment to eat. We had the asado outside, with the three dobermans which protected the house. Pilar is an area where the wealthy people of Buenos Aires live outside of the city. The asado began with potato salad and some sort of cold meat, almost like roast beef but layered with vegetables, and some bread. After that came the first round of meats; choripan and blood sausage. I had a few pieces of choripan but refused to eat the blood sausage because I've had it before and hated it. After that we had the big slices of meats from the cow and some huge ribs. By this point I was done, finished, couldn't eat anymore and there was still enough food for everyone to have at least one more piece of meat. The one thing that distinguishes Argentine asados from other asados is the fact that there will ALWAYS be plenty of meat at an asado. After we sat around a little bit to watch the tennis match between an Argentine and a French person and let our food digest the mom brought out two dessert dishes. The only one I could find room for was a huge brownie dish which had a six inch layer of whipped cream in the shape of a Hershey kiss baked on top of it with a layer of dulce de leche in between. It was the perfect ending to the asado. After the asado all I could do was lay out beside the pool in the sun and hope that I wouldn't explode!

Bariloche

Last weekend COPA, my study abroad program, took half of the students from this semester to Bariloche, Argentina. Bariloche is like a Swiss city in Argentina and is famous for its chocolate. There are chocolate stores on every corner in Bariloche and I wouldn't be surprised if the city melted if the weather was warm. We left for Bariloche last Saturday morning and flew out to the city, a plane ride of 2 hours. When we arrived we got on a tour bus and began to travel around Bariloche and ended up on top of a mountain where we could view the lakes and mountains from above. It was a great view on top of the mountain and was very windy. The lake water had a cold look to it but was very clear. All of the people that live near the lakes receive their water from the lakes and drink it unfiltered.

Later on that day we went out to eat at Blest and had a huge dinner, buffet style, with a large platter of meats and cheeses, some meatballs, pizzas, nachos, bread, some sort of meat stew, salad and chicken. I took full advantage of this "free" meal and ate everything that came within three feet of me. haha.

The next day we went out on another tour to see the desert area of Bariloche. We got to see different rock formations that looked like various animals or people. I have one photo of a rock that looks like a side view of Jesus with the crown of thorns. We also went to a park and saw a waterfall, miniature when compared to Iguazu, which was from the snow melting in the mountains. We didnt do too much Sunday because Monday was the big hike.

We woke up early on Monday and set out on an optional climb up a mountain, and boy did I not know what I was going to get myself into. As you all know, other than walking I get very little exercise here. There are no such things as intramural sports or anywhere I can go and just play some bball with people at any time of the day here. Because of this, the hike up the mountain was not only breathtaking because of the view we had. haha. We got about an hour into the hike and the tour guide pointed up to the snowy part of the mountain and told us we would be going there, we thought he was joking but about 45 min later we were in a meter of snow! It wouldnt have been so bad if the list for clothes to bring that COPA gave us didnt include items such as sunscreen, bathing suits and shorts, items for WARM weather. We got about 30 minutes into the snow and stopped for a while. The tour guides then told us to turn around because there was a lot of fresh snow and little shrubbery on the path we would have to take to the top and they were afraid of possibly starting an avalanche. We turned around and began the hardest part of the hike for me which was to climb down. I dont know why, but I felt like the ascent was much easier than climbing down. We got to the bottom, had lunch, then drove to the airport, two hours later we were back in the nice and warm city of BsAs!

Pix are already up, the videos will come shortly!

Bday!!

Feliz Cumple Nathan!!!!!

Enjoy your day!

O

Where'd Olander go?!?!

Hola,

If you've been wondering where have I been over the past two weeks the question is in my room doing work. Yes, I know what y'all are thinking, "oh my he is finally doing work" and how I've been fitting classes in with my adventures. Well the truth is that there is no such thing as tests or quizzes here in Buenos Aires and because of this I haven't had too strenuous of a schedule. The students here take a parcial every once and a while and I had my first one the beginning of September and nothing since then. Well, now I have the bulk of my work this month.

This week I have been writing a paper on the Presidency of Yrigoyen, the first true president elected by the people in Argentina in 1916, for my Argentine History class. I have 7 out of my 10 pages done (the paper is due Thursday) and all I need to do now is write my bibliography, do some editing and add a cover page and I'm at the 10 page mark. Historians say Yrigoyen was a president for the people here and I looked into whether or not this was true and politically speaking he was. I didnt look into the economic aspect of his presidency because that would have taken an extra week which I dont have. The only thing I know about his economic success is that Argentina was economically its strongest its EVER been in history, # 4 in the world. Argentina has never regained that status.

Last week I was also stuck in my room comparing and contrasting an article by Ricardo Rojas on Sarmiento and his book Facundo with another article written by Maria Lojas. This paper was 6 pages long for my Argentine Literature class.

Once I finish my 10 page paper, Im going to begin either studying for a parcial in my Spanish Lit. class on Don Quijote, which I really need to study for if I cant move the parcial back, or I will begin my 6 page paper for my Art class.

whew!

Enough food to feed a village!!!

A couple weeks ago three other friends and I went out to eat at a Parilla near my house. Its the same parilla I wrote about about a month ago that seemed a little "mobbish". What do you eat at a parilla? Grilled Meats! We went there not only because we wanted meat but also because we wanted to order the Parilla Mixta Completa. A tray of meats made for 4-5 people to sit down eat. The picture above is what they brought us. I had an empanada, bread, a couple steaks, a pork chop and a piece of chicken then had to call it a day, and we still had food left over!!! Honestly if this meal is ordered with side items you could feed about ten people (this is what the table behind us did, only they ordered two parillas because there were 10 guys) The parilla is ridiculously cheap, 108 pesos split between 4 people = 27 pesos = 9 USD, and they are great cuts of meat. Not the cheap stuff you would usually get for 10 bux in the States.

Day 3 Iguazu: SUN!!!

Iguazu Falls on a sunny day will leave you speechless. I woke up early on Sunday to take advantage of the nice day and see the other half of the park that was closed the previous two days because of high water levels. I arrived at the park and began my walk down the path to the lower trails. I turned one corner of the path and came across a view of La Garganta in the distance. The view was AMAZING and I was speechless for a few minutes. I continued to walk around the trail and eventually made my way down to water level. I hopped on the boat and took it across to the island then hiked alllll the way up to the top of the mountain. It was a very long climb up and all these steaks I've eaten while here didnt help at all, haha.

I got to the top, walked around to see the different waterfalls and I was left speechless once again. It was just amazing how nice it was up there. During my day I saw a variety of animals, including some relative to the racoon. It looked like a mix between an ant-eater, monkey and racoon. After I finished up I realized Iguazu Falls is definitely a spot where everyone should visit just to take it the beautiful waterfalls only God couldve created. Words just cant describe how magnificent the waterfalls were.

Also moving on to another topic. I added to the right the links to my pictures and videos. Im not posting videos on the blog anymore because of the frequency of errors when I try to upload. If you want to see any of the pictures and videos I put up you will always find them on the links to the right.

For the pictures from the sunny day at Iguazu you will need to click on the link to the right for pictures and find the album labeled day 3.

Flowers and the rest of the day

Day 2 finished up with looking for some flowers around the hostel. By the time we got back it was sunny and all the rain that had soaked our clothes was gone. I went flower hunting because I have had some requests to look for flowers while here. I dont know what the flowers I have pix of are called but here ya go!

http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/PuertoIguazuFlowers#

That night the friends I went to Iguazu went to some friends cabins 20 minutes away and I decided to hang around the hostile. At first it was a little boring because I was reading through Facundo for class. Then I ventured out the room over to the common area and met some cool people. I ended up meeting and hanging out with a couple french people, an argentine, a couple brazilians, an australian, a new yorker and a british person. It was a very interesting group.

All of the people were in Iguazu just to visit and they were either taking a break from school to travel or had recently graduated. I thought the australians had the neatest idea for traveling. They recently got married and decided to do a 4 month tour of South America together. They each had one backpack and started in Chile, the day I left they went off to Paraguay. The next night we all went out and ate a parilla completa and added a guy from Poland, a Californian and three more French girls, one completely french, the other a mexican-french mix and the other a bolivian-french mix. A variety of languages could be heard at the table.

Day 2 Iguazu: RAIN

After the Triple Frontera we ventured over to the falls. We arrived and it began to pour down raining. We went straight to La Garganta to see what it looked like in the rain and it was quite impressive. The water flow was intense and the sound of La Garganta was amazing. I dont have too many pictures from this day because I didnt want my camera to get too wet but the little I have are amazing.

Triple Frontera

Day 2 up in Puerto Iguazu was a busy day for me. We woke up and ventured over towards La Triple Frontera. It is the spot where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet. Spanish settlers found this area in the 1500s. While standing on the Argentine side I could see the marker for Paraguay and Brazil and Ciudad del Este off in the distance. It began to rain when I first went so I went back on Sunday with some Australians and it was amazing. Sunday was el dia del estudiante and the whole city was also celebrating the change over to spring so there was a concert right beside the marker for La Triple Frontera in Argentina.

http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/TripleFronteras?authkey=l9TJozIb7U4#5249797121379004802

Day 1 Photos

Here is the link to Day 1 Photos of Iguazu:
http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/IguazuFalls#

First view of La Garganta

El primer dia de las Cataratas de Iguazu

Hey Guys,
Last Thursday I left Buenos Aires for Puerto Iguazu in the northernmost point of Argentina, a place famous for Las Cataratas and La Triple Frontera. I left Thursday evening for a bus-ride that lasted 20 hours. The trip wasn't too bad. We arrived to a sunny and warm tropical Iguazu, put our bags in the hostel and left for Las Cataratas, the waterfalls. Iguazu Falls is a series of over 250 waterfalls in one area where Brazil and Argentina meet, the highest point of the waterfalls, La Garganta del Diablo (the devils throat) is about four times the size of Niagra Falls. By the time we got to the park where the falls are located clouds began to roll in so we were unable to see the falls on a sunny day.

We took the train to La Garganta and then walked along a long and narrow bridge to the falls. As we got closer the noise from the water falls became louder and louder, and we finally saw some mist rising up but the falls didnt look like anything impressive at first. Then we finally got to the end of the path and the massiveness of La Garganta left us in amazement. We saw hundreds of thousands of liters of water rushed over the sides of the falls. I cant even think of words to describe what I saw. It was just amazing to see that large of a waterfall, pretty much in the same form as when the first European settlers discovered it hundreds of years ago. As the mist rose from the water falling I could easily see how one could think that they reached the end of the world. The mist makes it seem as if the water is falling into space and there is no land below.

After we stood in amazement looking at La Garganta we decided to check out the upper circuit of the water falls. The walk along the upper circuit was amazing because we were able to see most of the waterfalls from the top of where they began to fall. As we walked down one path a monkey jumped across the path from one tree to another. I was amazed and tried to take a picture of it but I was too slow. As we came across the spot where it crossed we looked up and saw that there were about 20 monkeys hanging around. The experience of live monkeys in the jungle was pretty neat. Well, that was my first day there. When I get some more time Ill let you guys know about my second day there and how it went.

Hair Cut

The last time I cut my hair was eight weeks ago, the week before I arrived here. Over the past week I figured I had to do something about it so I looked for barber shops that would somewhat know how to cut my hair like I want it, short on the top with a fade on the sides. I couldn't find anywhere on the web so I asked my host family and they told me to go to this spot on the next block where they go to get their hair cut. I went to look up words for how I wanted it cut because I've only had to get my hair cut once in a foreign country and the lady knew how to do it just right.

I went in to the spot after class today and asked to get my hair cut and see if the lady my host family told me to talk to was there, she wasn't there so I had to settle for this guy who knew no english and I didnt remember the words for what I wanted. I guess you can see where this is going. I asked him for my hair to be cut short on the bottom and longer on the top, like a fade. So he did and the end result was a line that separated the long hair from the short hair on my head. There was no fade at all. So I asked him to make the line disappear, thats what I wanted. He attempted to do that and the line was still visible to me and he said it couldn't be fixed because he cut the short too short. So for the third attempt to please me he left the top like it was and cut it short all the way around to the top where it was long, sort of like a military cut but in an odd way. I didnt like it, so I just told him to cut it all off. After he finished I began to describe how I wanted to be lined up on the edges but after five minutes we got nowhere so I raised the white flag and called it a day. 6 hours ago I had the shaggy off of Scooby-Doo hair and now I'm sitting here typing to you looking like Mr. Clean.

What an experience.

Rural Videos

Cow getting its tail dried off..haha

Videos from the Defensa Mercado

Just some of the videos from when I went to the Defensa Mercado last month. As you can see there is a little bit of everything on this street. Sorry about the puppet show, I cant flip it around.

Bumpy Horse Ride

The sidewalks are shrinking!!!!

Haha, Friday was a warm day here, and as I walked to my tango class I realized the sidewalks were more crowded than before. The sidewalks seemed to have shrunk. The sidewalks haven't literally shrunk but because it is getting warmer, restaurants put more tables outside for people to eat at. Its really nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the warmth. Most of the restaurants here were built for warm days and eating outside so I cant wait until we have some consistent warmth here.

Speaking of tango classes, I finished my last one yesterday. I can officially dance like a like a five year old when it comes to tango!! At the end of class yesterday, our instructors invited us to a tango club where we could dance in public. Being one of only two guys in the class I felt like I had to go because the girls would have to dance with pros and I couldnt let that happen, plus I sort of wanted to check out the tango spot. We went to a spot off Scalabrini Ortiz (a street) and paid 12 pesos to get in, not too bad. Unfortunately for you guys I forgot my camera so I have no pix but Ill try my best to describe the room.

It was a huge square room, with the wooden dance floor in the middle and tables surrounding the dance floor. The DJ plays 3-4 tango songs then plays a random salsa or pop song in between as sort of a break. There is nobody on the dance floor as the next segment of tango begins. Once a few seconds of the tango begins every one who came with someone gets up to go dance if they want to. Now the most intriguing thing for me was what the single's did to find someone to dance with. While sitting you begin to stare at who you want do dance with, once you get the person to look back at you the male nods with his head and they both get up and meet on the dance floor then dance. When I saw a guy do this I was amazed at him, every break he had someone different he danced with and it was the coolest thing just to watch him just look around, give a nod and get up and dance. The age group of the people there was around mid-thirties and up. I didnt see that many young people there and we stayed until 2 but from what my host mom was saying is that the tango is something you learn and develop over time.

Now for my experience dancing. The middle of the dance floor is for beginners and the outside is for the more experienced. When I first danced I went to the outside because I didnt know that the outside was for advanced tangoers (if thats a word) and there were less people. I didnt have to worry about bumping into people. I felt like everyone was looking at me and at first it was very intimidating to dance in front of people that have been tangoing for years. But as the night went on I became more comfortable with dancing and ended up having a lot of fun with the 3 moves I know :) Im going to definitely go to more tango spots to continue to practice and depending on how much it costs, I might continue with the class to learn a couple more moves.

Tango

Hey guys. I made it through my first parcial here for my Literatura Espanola II class. It went pretty good but was tough because I had to answer 5 questions about the Renacimiento/Garcilaso in 4 pages with quotes from the fotocopias we have for class. I had un monton of reading to go through in order to find quotes for the paper also. The whole photocopy thing for me is a whole lot more complicated than just buying a book but makes much more sense because we are able to look at a variety of opinions on topics without having to buy multiple books.

Today I went to my first of 4 tango classes. Yep thats right, tango. My program offered to partially pay for 20 people (10 guys/girls) to take tango classes. The spots for girls went quick and only 3 guys signed up including myself. We learned the very very basic tango moves today mainly just walking and how to step. It is a dance which the man leads and the woman follows but the man can do whatever and the woman just has to feel or learn to feel where to go. The posture for tango reminds me of my marching band days, straight upper body and the way we step forward is the whole heel-toe step I learned in band. Going backwards isnt much different either. When you move your foot is supposed to slide just barely over the floor. I have pt.2 of class tomorrow. Ill also be learning some salsa within the next few weeks. I have a friend from class who loves to salsa and invited me to come learn from her and her friends one weekend. On top of that I learned how to dance a little cumbia last weekend from some local argentines. By the time I get back to the states I should know a little about each dance here!

Festival Okinawense

Every week the head of COPA (the program I study through down here ) sends out an email with information about different cultural events which take place during the weekends. This past Saturday I went to a Festival Okinawa-Japon. The festival took place on la Avenida de Mayo right in front of the Casa Rosada. The festival took place because the Okinawense celebrated their 100th anniversary of their arrival to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The parade included karate, two Japanese percussion groups, a color guard and many people dressed in their native attire doing dances. I had a great time and really enjoyed the percussionists. Hopefully more interesting cultural events come up while I'm here because I love learning about other cultures in Buenos Aires, and the best thing about it is that its completely free!

It's beginning to get warmer here, the temperature today was around 72 and tomorrow is supposed to be almost 80 degrees but then a front is going to come through and drop the temperatures to the 50s.

My first paper is due this Thursday for my Spanish Literature II class. I have to write no more than 4 pages on Garcilaso and el paisaje in the poems we are reading and also relate it to el locus amoenus with reference to the Egloga I we read in class. Fun stuff! Everything else is going well with classes, this week we continue to talk about Facundo in my Argentine Lit class and talk about the radicalists of the first half of 20th century Argentina in my history class, talk about the next five chapters of Boquitas Pintadas for my COPA class and finish up our discussion on art from the Spanish Golden Age in my art class.

Heres the link to my photos from Saturday: http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/FestivalOkinawense#

Feliz Cumpleanos

While its still Aug. 27th in the states and its Aug. 28th here in Buenos Aires, I want to say Happy Birthday to my grandfather Aye-Aye (Aug 27) up in PA and my grandmother Nerma (Aug 28) in VA.

Right now Im reading up on the history of Argentina and cant really write too much. Im in the 1930's right now and need to make it another 25 years before I can stop!

Villa Carlos Paz

I'm back!!!!

This past weekend a couple friends and I took a trip to Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina. It's a little west of Cordoba and the bus ride was around 12 hours long! We left friday morning and arrived that night and stayed in a Hostel for the weekend. We went out to eat and had some delicious lasagna at a restaurant then watched the gold medal game for the Argentine soccer team. there wasnt a place to sit the place was so packed. Carlos Paz reminded me a little of Farmville at night because nobody was out in the streets and there was pretty much one main street in the villa and there was a brigde with lights very similar to the bridge in F'ville.

The next day we went on a trip with Aventuras El Oso. The first thing we did was ride horses. It was my first time ever on a horse(that I remember, I think there is a photo with my dad and I on a horse) and I was a little freaked out at first. But after a while I got used to it and could see myself as a cowboy. If I could use a horse as transportation over a car I'd definitely do it. During our horse ride the tour guide pointed out little stone walls on the hills and explained to us that those were the territorial markings the tribes used hundreds of years ago to divide up territory. The pix are under the link ill put up. After the horses we went on the zipline. Also a first, but it was very fun. After the zipline, we went on a walk down the river. The guide showed us some neat stuff like mortars scraped out of the boulders. The tribes would use the mortars to make food and instead of having a portable one it was like they had their own kitchen on a rock. We saw a mini waterfall and an area where iguanas come out and swim during the summer. Another thing I liked about the area was that it was warm!!! The trees were already blooming there and I cant wait until the warmth comes this way.

Later on that night we took advantage of the grill on top of the hostel. Of course yours truly was in charge of the cooking of the meat. I bought two steaks for myself to eat (for a whopping 3 USD) and we had our first asado in Argentina. It was fun.
On Sunday we woke up and went to see the cu-koo. Villa Carlos Paz is famous for their clock. Then we went up to the top of a mountain and had the chance to see the whole city from on top. It was amazing. That area is definitely a part of the country one should see if given the opportunity, especially if you like the outdoors. We might go back one day in the summer because we heard that Villa and another one near it are the best spots to go to when green. We got back early this morning and now I'm off to bed for another week of classes! Until next time.

http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/VillaCarlosPaz

Random information from the dinner table

Over the past month...(cant believe its been a month!!!) I have found out some interesting random facts/gossip from the dinner table. I figured I would share it with you.
The first item lasted about a week and a half here, and from what my friends said, it was the topic of many dinner discussions in host families homes. It was a rumor that Condoleezza Rice and President Bush had an affair together. A little off the wall but the news stations carried it and people believed...

Another topic of discussion was about the original Zorro star Armand Joseph Catalano, aka Guy Williams. He retired here in Buenos Aires and died here at the age of 65. My host mother said he lived a couple streets over from where I live and he died in his house right here in Recoleta. I googled the new rumor and it turned out to be a fact. Hmm, just found another website that says he lived off Ayacucho (my street) six blocks up. I'm at 1385 and he was at 1964. Sounds like ill have to take a little walk there soon. Guy also starred in the original Lost in Space as Professor John Robinson. That was something new to me (maybe not to those who have reached the age of twenty before I have though)

A topic from tonight's dinner was about Hitler and his escape from Germany. This one my host mother admits is a rumor but its fun to consider. The rumor is that Hitler escaped Germany and traveled to Argentina. He retired and died in Cordoba, a big German about a 9 hour bus ride from here. They say he took a submarine up the river to land and fled there. I don't think that one has much behind it but it's interesting.

Another random fact, my host mother told me about a building approximately 5 blocks away where the Pope stayed on his visits to Argentina. We went by to check it out yesterday but I couldn't confirm what she said so I'll leave that up in the air. I don't know if its true or not but I took a picture just in case. If it is true, then I live in a pretty decent neighborhood. Who else can say they live in the same spot where Zorro died, Evita is buried and the Pope stays during his visits???? oh and did I mention the Alvear Palace Hotel a few blocks from me? other than housing royalty and other heads of state it really isnt that important...haha

Hope you guys enjoyed this. As I remember and encounter more stories from the dinner table I will be sure to inform you guys back home.

Which pigeon doesnt belong with the others???

We were waiting for some friends in the park and came across a parrot hanging out with the pigeons. A little random because it was the first parrot seen here but neat to see hanging around.

MIA pt. 2

I decided to walk around on Saturday and explore the area south of where I live so I could get an idea of what was around me. I came across a HUGE building with amazing architecture. I couldn’t get a good picture of it because I would need to zoom out more than I could so I took pictures of what I could fit in the picture. I found a little strip of teatros where I hope I can check out some shows while im here. COPA takes a group of 9 out to the theater every Wednesday but I have class at that time so it doesn’t work out for me. I walked a little more and ran across the Washington Monument of Buenos Aires El Obelisco which was built in a little over a month. You can’t go in it but it looks pretty cool.

Later that night a group of my friends from COPA ventured out to Belgrano (barrio near me) to eat at a Chinese food restaurant. The food was great because we all craved some Chinese that day.

Yesterday I checked out the tango festival which will go on all week. We missed most of the shows but stumbled across a couple dancers in the streets. We went into the main building for tango week and saw some vendors which sold everything you could possibly imagine that had to do with tango. I also stumbled across a restaurant yesterday and had a bife de chorizo with papas fritas, a Coke, 2 empanadas, and pan for 40 pesos~13 USD and that included the tip. The only weird thing about the restaurant was that it had a Mafioso feel to it. The people in there looked like they could be part of the mob and everybody knew somebody there.

Good news, I found a pizza place a block away from me where i can go to upload pictures and vidoes a little easier. Over the next week or two I hope to have everything upto this point online for you to see!

MIA

It’s been a few days since I’ve updated. All is well down here. Let’s see, what have I done since the last update?

Last week was my second week of classes and I’m starting to get the hang of a quicker tongue in the classroom. I’m beginning to understand the professors a little better now which is good. Now all I have to do is develop a quicker hand or abbreviations for note taking. In one class we are reading Facundo, a book on the history of Argentina written by Sarmiento, in another class we are reading Jorge Luis Borges.

On Friday I finished up my visa process over at immigration. I had to be there at 7:45 am only to sit and wait for three hours before they called my name, I signed some papers paid 200 pesos and was told to go to another room where I waited for another hour and a half. They called my name again, took my thumbprint and had me sign another paper and I was done for a grand total of about 5 hours. I’m glad I was scheduled to be part of the first group because I would hate to sit around that building on a warmer day. The other groups are scheduled for next month.

Later that night my host mother took me out to eat with a friend of hers to a little restaurant one block over. I ordered ravioles there and enjoyed them. The pastas here are great; they are my second choice for food outside of the steaks. Nate and Sam (little brothers) would have loved the restaurant because of the wall lined with seven soccer jerseys from Argentine teams that are big here. It’s interesting to see the different sponsors on the jerseys like Wal-Mart. A little random because I believe there may be on Wal-Mart in the whole city and I’ve never seen it but there is a bus that stops there, it’s a long drive from where I live.

Speaking of food, I had a traditional Argentine dish last week. The meat is called milanesa (a breaded sirloin) and placed on top of it is an egg sunny-side up. Put some mustard on it and you have yourself a very delicious meal. I’ve never placed eggs on my meat by this was delicious. The milanesa was followed by a bowl of vegetable soup, salad and one more round of milanesa, without an egg though because we ran out. After that I ate a torta made of chocolate with a layer of dulce de leche in between. Pictures will be up soon!!!

El Ateneo y La Boca

Yesterday I went over to La Boca, a barrio southeast of where I live. It is known for the very colorful houses/buildings it has in some areas. The whole barrio isn't colorful, just a few select places. The area is a huge tourist attraction and is very beautiful on a sunny day, unfortunately for me I was only able to see the area on a cloudy day, but the pictures still turned out decent. This place is in a bad part of town and it is recommended not to go alone or at night....at all. The link to the photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/ElAteneo

I also went by El Ateneo, a huge bookstore which used to be a theatre. I went there to purchase the book Facundo for my Argentine Lit. class. It is a very cool place to visit and see. Here are some photos from inside: http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/LaBoca

I’ve also uploaded two pix from at the Plaza de Mayo from this weekend while I passed through. Check that album out to see them.

El Sanjuanino

I forgot to mention El Sanjuanino which is a restaurant where my host mother took me to eat on Friday. They specialize in empanadas. Great place. The restaurant has a gaucho theme to it and made me feel like I was out in the midwest during the 1800s. The website to the place is www.elsanjuanino.com I took a few pics, they can be found: http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/SanJuaninos
After dinner, I was treated to ice cream at Volta. The best ice cream in the city. It is very very very delicious.

Dia del Nino

Feliz Dia del Nino!!!!

Today was Children's Day, a day where every child receives(or should receive) a present from their family. Its sort of like Mothers/Fathers day in the States. A different idea for a holiday. There have been sales at stores here since I've been here just for this holiday.

Today I found a great steak spot 4 blocks from me where the steaks are great. I got a bife de chorizo steak for 33 pesos and it took up over half of my plate! I'm still stuffed from the piece of meat. This is not good that the spot is so close to me...

I've also been watching the Olympics since Friday, the opening ceremonies sure were pretty cool. Most of the time I watch the Argentine teams play in various sports but I did have the opportunity to see our men's Team USA in basketball put a beating on the host China team. Go Team USA. I'm also shocked to hear about Georgia and Russia and Bernie Mac. What an eventful weekend.

I've started to meet a lot of Argentines my age through a friend of mine who is also in the program with me. He was involved in a program in High School which he stayed here for 2 weeks and I've been hanging with him meeting new people. I've found it a little harder to understand the people my age speak at first but after a little while I get used to their speech. Its a lot quicker and slurred than the adults.

Friday, I went to the Jardin Botanico Carlos Thays in Palermo. Neat place but I bet it will be even nicer in the spring/summer when more flowers bloom. I was still able to find some pictures of some flowers and they can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/JardinBotanicoCarlosThays?authkey=NTIqjUX0IyE
I don't know what flowers I took pictures of so good luck in trying to figure it out!

Tomorrow I'm going to try and figure out how this whole books and notes system works for homework. Some classes we buy books from, others we go to the bookstore and get photocopies....very confusing.

Class...

Good Afternoon,

Here is the link to my adventure to San Telmo, or at least the pictures of my adventure: http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/DefensaMercados?authkey=fYvu36zLE1o.

I had my first class last night from 6-8 and absolutely hated it. Classes here are annual, meaning they last the whole academic year which begins down here in February. The class I attended was The art and culture of South America and Argentina and they were in the second half of the class so I've missed the part about Argentine history and culture and now they are on the South American part. The classrooms here don't have any heat in them and we are in the midst of winter down here and on top of it the class is at night so I had to bundle up. It sure was a different experience. I didn't like the way the professor taught because she spoke very fast, she had the lights completely turned out for her PP Presentation and there are no windows in the classroom for us to use light from so everyone in the class used their cell phones for lights. It sure is a different way to use a phone and I thought it was rather hilarious to see everyone using them for light. At the end of class our professor told us it was her first time teaching with foreigners in her class because she just started teaching this year. I don't want to be a guinea pig in Argentina. The class consisted mostly of people in their 30's and above and there were only 5 people from the US in the class but that is 2 people too many. The older crowd also threw me off because I'm not used to anyone being older than 24.

My second experience in a class was this morning. The class was in a different building about 4 blocks from the other building I went to last night but the same university. I went to a Spanish Literature II class and enjoyed it much more. I have some knowledge of what we are talking about in class with the Renacimiento and Siglo de Oro in Spain. The professor also spoke at a comprehensible speed so that's always a plus. The age group is majority college age with the exception of three or four people over 50. I think I'm going to stick with this class and not continue with the first one.

I also have some videos of different things around here and when I have some time to figure out how and where to upload them Ill post a link to them to give you a better feel for life down here.

San Telmo and more

Today I had the chance to go to the San Telmo mercado (market) or at least one of the many. There is something for everyone there. The market attracts thousands of people each Sunday from all over the city, country and world. It truly is a sight to see. The link for pictures will be up soon. I also had a huge steak along with some rice tonight for dinner. It was great. On my second serving I opted to have a traditional Argentine serving of rice. I had rice with an egg sunny side up on top of it. Contrary to what I believed, the typical Argentine plate was delicious. Ill have to have it again.
I also went to San Telmo last night for dinner. One of my friends read about a restaurant with great steaks for a cheap price. I had the best steak of my life at that restaurant. Hands down, sorry everyone back in the states who has cooked me a steak. I just won't be telling the truth about your steaks being good without lying. Sorry! The steak was doused in a mustard sauce and was served along with potato slices. I could barely finish my plate it was so filling. To top it all off it was only 37 pesos for the plate~13 USD.

I found a mall near my house here in Argentina. Its ten blocks away yet took me two hours to get to because my friend and I took the colectivo (bus) for the first time here. there are so man buses and routes here that it gets to be very confusing. On top of it change for the bus is hard to come by in this city because the prices are made out so that everything is even and the change given back is only in bills. I also went back to Plaza de Mayo. Here is a little wikipedia link to some info on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_Mayo. I also have the link to some pictures I took while there : http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/PlazaDeMayo?authkey=3K9W5bJdxCQ. I've also put up the picture album to the Rural and the photos can be found here
http://picasaweb.google.com/HSC02010/ExposicionRural2008?authkey=LYiY4ABxNNw.

La Rural

Yesterday I had the chance to go to the Rural. The Rural is a display of the top farm animals in Argentina. These animals are the best of the best and are owned by gauchos or cowboys. I enjoyed attending the rural because I had the chance to see the different horses, pigs, cows and sheep from Argentina. Oh and they are huge!! It was interesting to see how well maintained the animals were. One cow had its hair on the tip of its tail blow dried by its keeper, then they put a bag on the end so the cow wouldn't mess up its tail hair. The blow drying of the cow's tail reminded me of my sisters Court and Cece (haha) and all of their dangerous hair equipment back home.

There were also restaurants at the show, some of which sell the best meat in Argentina. I had a great steak sandwich from ARGNaturalBeef. Eating the food was a little cruel because the restaurant was located right across the aisle from the live cows. Hopefully my pictures will show it. If you want to know more about the meat I had you can visit www.unitecagro.com.ar
After the Rural I had the chance to see American soil, the US Embassy. Its located right beside the area which the Rural is located. It was nice to see the American flag flying high.

Today I found out more information about Universidad del Salvador, the school I will attend down here. Classes begin Monday but I don't sign up for them until two weeks after they begin. Then I can drop any unwanted classes anytime before September 1. The largest classes will be at the University reach about 40-45 students. For the most part they will range from 15-30, around the same size as HSC. I'm considering taking a class at another university here, Universidad Catolica because my counselor down here said it wouldn't be bad to see how another University operates here but I'm unsure of that right now.

First Week

Hola!

Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I've been here for a week now and I'm just starting to get used to the area. I live off Ayacucho in the Recoleta "barrio", a 5 minute walk to the famous Recoleta Cemetary where Evita is buried. I stay in an apartment with my host mother Elena. It's not too bad here, she prepares everything for me for breakfast so all I have to do is wake up and put it together. Breakfast for me consists of a granola and yogurita mixture with fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee and toast. Breakfast is always ready for me no matter what time of the day it is. Lunches are on my own, I have found a couple spots over the last week which are decent to eat at, especially if I'm looking for empanandas. Dinner is provided at my host apartment, usually around 8-10 pm. At first it started out with nothing but vegetable dishes like eggplant and artichoke tarta (ugh) and spinach and cheese tarta ( a little better), then I pushed for some meat and got chicken and last night a slab of meat. It was great.

Life is pretty laid back here, my host mother makes my bed for me every day. When I want to wash my clothes I take them to the cleaners and they charge 11 pesos ~ 4 dollars. They wash and fold my clothes for me so all I need to do is bring them back and put them in the dresser. I bought a jacket here and fit right in with the locals. Really as long as you don't speak English you will fit right in here.

I went to the Recoleta Cemetary briefly on Sat. just to see Evitas grave because the day marked the 50 something anniversary of her death so there was a line of people who flocked there to pay their respects. I just wanted to see what the big deal was. It's actually kind of creepy in the cemetary because it houses a lot of cats. The only cats I've seen here have been in the cemetary. I've also had the chance to see the goverment area of Buenos Aires but I forgot to check my batteries in my camera before I left and ended up taking a dead camera so I have no pictures from the visit but I have more than enough time to take pictures before I leave.

Ill try to update this blog as frequent as I can, pretty much when I have free time and internet. My host mother doesnt have internet in the apartment so I have to pull it from other sources. Next week I start classes at Universidad del Salvador but I dont sign up for them until 2 weeks later so I can try them out to see how I like them before I commit.

Ciao!