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.