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!