You know you're in Argentina when...

I had another great weekend with many funny memories that could only happen in Argentina. My friends and I have been talking about things that make you realize that you're in a foreign country. For example, when you get cat-called on the street by really creepy men or grabbed by strange Argentine men in a bar or club. Or, for example when I attempted to purchase a plastic knife and spoon for my lunch I had brought to the school cafeteria with me on Wednesday. My friends and I had all brought food with us while we were studying for our Globalization exam later in the day. I bought a block of cheese, avocado, bread, and yogurt at a grocery store before thinking it would be easy to get plastic silverware at the school. I was so wrong! I asked the people working at the cafeteria for the plastic spoon and knife and because I did not purchase food there they said no. I asked if I could pay for them and they still said no. I then then decided to go to the cafe in the other part of the building. They too said I could not purchase plastic silverware for food purchased outside of the building. So, I bought a coffee and took a spoon to stir it with and figured I would just use the other side of the spoon to cut my cheese with and save my avocado for another day. An Italian guy from one of my classes then came into the cafe and I told him what had happened. He figured they probably just didnt understand me and then asked if he could have a knife. They told him they cant give a knife to anyone who doesnt have food that requires a knife. He had just bought medialunas (crossaints) and asked if he could have a knife to cut them. They said yes, so he cut his medialuna with a knife and then gave it to me. What I would have done for better customer service in that situation! There really is no place like the U.S. when it comes to customer service. Unlike the U.S. here. when you order food that is bad or do not like it, they will not take it back and give you something else without charging you. Or in another situation... When I was in Mendoza and went rafting and canopy gliding, we were supposed to receive breakfast which was included in the price we paid. We met for both trips at a hostel/hippy camp that had tables a bar and small cafe for people to go to between excursions. We arrived late due to Dia de los Esudiantes where ever student in Mendoza just happened to be camping and blocking the highway and for some reason we couldn't go around them for about 30-40 minutes. So, we did not receive breakfast but they asked before we left to go rafting if we wanted empanadas when we got back to have before we went canopy gliding. We said yes figuring they were providing us with lunch since they didnt serve us the breakfast we were supposed to have. When we got back, they had empanadas and pizza waiting for us and also provided us with drinks. Since, we were already running behind we had to leave for canopying shortly after, so they rushed us to eat. As we were about to leave, the man from the cafe/bar chased after us to tell us we owed 20 pesos each for the lunch we didnt even get to finish plus 7 pesos for the drinks. We didnt have time to argue so we just paid. It was pretty aggravating, but I just accept the fact that seriously nothing is free here! Anyways...you can the idea that things are never perfect when your studying abroad.
This weekend was a great time! Thursday I had to buy a new cell phone to replace the one I had lost that of course didnt work until Friday because the lady put the wrong sim card in it, and I thought at just wasnt activating. When I went back to the store where I bought it the man working apologized for the mistake and had my sim card waiting for me. I really wasnt shocked by the situation. Its another part of being in Argentina, assuming that your cell phone will be guaranteed to not work at least once every couple weeks. Thursday night I went to another intercambio with Argentines at the same mate bar I went to about a month ago. I was trying to explain something in Spanish to one of the Argentines I met last time and he made fun of the way I was speaking...which I was not too happy about, but I just let it ago. At one point we were talking about words in English that sound the same but are spelled differently, which are homophones. When we figured out the word, one of the Argentines who is in charge of our program here said to me that he thought we were talking abour phones for homosexuals. I was laughing pretty hard. I guess it made up for all the times I was laughed out for mispronunciations in Spanish. After the intercambio, I went to dinner with my Argentine friend Brenda and Liz. Brenda has helped me so much with ajusting to Buenos Aires. If I ever have a question about anything or want to know where to find things in the city she always finds our for me. She has been a really great friend and we always have fun when we go out together. Friday was a beautiful day. I ran to a park in Palermo and ran around a lake there called Lago de Palermo. I met a brother and sister from Ecuardor who gave me advice about getting to Peru which was very helpful. I also went to El Museo de Artes Plasticos which was pretty neat and was only a peso to enter. Friday night I went to Brenda's to watch the Soup which apparently is popular in the U.S. but I haven't seen because I hardly ever watch t.v. here. Saturday I went to Colonia which is an old historic city in Uruguay which was included in my program. Its only a three hour on the Buquebus which is basically just a ferry that goes from Buenos Aires to Uruguay. My friends here and I always laugh because everytime we go on a trip with our program they tell us its a day that we can relax and everything will be "tranquilo" (relaxing), which in reality means less work for the people who take us there. There was a city tour that was offered but my friends and I just decided to go off on our own and explore. We had lunch at a small cafe and then headed to the beach that runs along the river. We spent pretty much the rest of the day there relaxing and actually had a great time. Of course, we couldnt make if through the whole day without something funny/strange happening. While we were laying on the beach a skinny old man in a speedo came up to us and starting talking to us about "Christiano Apostolico" and attempted to convert us to his religion and told us his name was Char. He kept asking us if we learn about God in the U.S. and kept telling us we need to go to his church. Eventually we had to just ignore him so we didn't have to talk to him anymore. When we were leaving, my friend Tess decided she would change back into her bathing suit behind a tree on the beach so she didnt have to feel bad for changing in the nearby restaurant without buying anything. As she was changing, a man on the top of the cliff above where she was "hiding" starts cat calling her, and of course she started freaking out. I attempted to guard her and when I looked to my left I saw Char peering behind a rock trying to watch Tess. We were obviously creeped out and the rest of us decided to just change in the bathroom of the restaurant. Another girl Jessica and I were the last two out of the bathroom and the rest of the group was waiting outside with Char who had decided to sit with them while they were waiting. When we walked out my friends were very anxious to leave. They told me as walking away that the creepy old man kept telling them his name "Char" and then proceeded to dig through his back pack and just happened to pull out a condom and set it on the ground in front of them. We were all really creeped out and got away as quickly as possible. He has become the joke of our trip now and gave us something to laugh about on the three hour boat ride back to BA. Sorry this entry is so long...turns out I had a ton to write this week. I hope everyone enjoys it...my life here can be pretty comical. I finally found a way to upload pictures more effectively through picasso. They should be up this week. Chau!

So, I made it back from Mendoza safely this morning, but it was a pretty adventurous trip. Last night on the way home someone through a rock through the window of our bus and nearly hit this girl in the face. We then had to stop and switch buses which added about another hour and a half to the already 14 hour trip. However we did make it back to the city safely after that. Sadly I lost my cell phone at a party in the hostel we stayed at this weekend. So, I am now contemplating buying a new one or just trying to make it without a phone for three more months. Other than those two things, the trip was a blast!! My roommate Liz and our two friends Lizzy and Rachael arrived to Mendoza on Thursday which was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. We explored the city which is so much cleaner and seems to be safer than Buenos Aires. We sat in two different parks and enjoyed the nice weather. Mendoza has tons of shops and one of the main plazas is located on a pedestrian street. It was nice to walk around without having to worry about getting hit by cars. That night, we went to dinner at a restaurant called Palenque and drank wine from penguin shaped mugs which was pretty cool. Later in the night, we went to a bar with some Argentinians guys we met at our hostel. The boys were in Mendoza for a philosophy convention through the University of Buenos Aires for the weekend. The next day we went on a biking tour through three different bodegas (wineries) and olive oil factory and a chocolate factory. We met a girl from Canada, another girl from Holland, and also a guy from Austrailia who was staying in our room at the hostel with us. We learned the correct way to taste wine. I ended up buying four bottles at the organic winery which was my favorite. We were all pretty tired after the wine tour, so decided just to make our own dinner at the hostel and relax the rest of the night. Saturday morning, we woke up early to go paragliding. We went paragliding from on top of a hill. We were harnessed onto an instructure with a parachute and ran and jumped off a hill and glided around for about a half an hour. We had such a beautiful view while we were in the air; it was incredible! Later that day we paid $50 pesos for a party with our hostel that included a wine tasting, asado (bbq), and a night out to a club. It was supposed to start at 1 but the majority of the events didnt start until around 8 when we went to a different hostel for the asado. After the asado the argentinians who worked at the hostel insisted on pouring tequila down our throats and we danced the rest of the night at the hostel instead of going to the boliche. Sunday Liz and I went rafting for the first time while Rachael and Lizzy went horseback riding. Our guide was pretty crazy but we had a good time and no one fell out of the raft surprisingly. We met Lizzy and Rachael back at the campground that we left in the morning, had a lunch that was supposed to be included but had to pay for and had to hurry to eat it because we had to leave to go canopy gliding. Canopy gliding is the same thing as zip lining where you are harnessed to a cable and you wear special gloves to glide across. We trekked up a hill and then glided down several times. The final two times we glided across a huge river. Two of the girls went upside down with an instructor. After a long day of activities we stayed in and had dinner at a taco place which was good but way more salty than normal. Yesterday before we left Liz and I shopped a little bit and went to what we though was going to be a good restaurant for an earlier dinner before getting on the bus. I got something called Sorrentino which the waiter told me was like a big ravioli. Liz ordered a salad but apparently the wrong one. My so called ravioli like pasta had ham and melted cheese in it. I hate ham, but I ate it because I was hungry. Liz's salad did not even have lettuce in it. It was bad tuna and gross canned vegetables. My meal included dessert which the water said was Alemendrado which means almond ice cream. He brought me a backed square of ice cream that actually had peanuts on it. What if I was allergic to peanuts?! After that, Liz and I decided we just needed to get back to BA. In all, the good things we did outweighed the bad and we had a great trip. I have to go now. Chau chau!

This weeks here have been flying by. I cannot believe I have been in Argentina for almost two months! Friday night I went to a salsa club with two other girls. It was fun but there weren't a whole lot of guys to dance with because most of the people seemed to be couples only dancing with each other. Saturday I went to a soccer game for the first time. It was so crazy!! The beginning of the game reminded me of my high school football games. A marching band came out and then there were dancers all over the field. Then there were these people twirling umbrellas and then random cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Spiderman skipping around the field. It was really funny to me, but something that is completely normal here. Once the teams come out, the crowd gets really routy and throws these rolls of paper onto the field. It is kind of hard to describe; it is kind of something you have to experience for yourself. The Argentines have tons of chants that they yell at their teams during the game. The one that I learned is "Ponga huevo que ganamos." It literally means "Put the egg in the goal so we win." It is commonly used when the game is tied meaning "kick the ball into the goal so we win." It ended up being a pretty unexciting game. The game ended in 0-0. That night I went out with Brenda, her friend Jenny from Tucuman (a province in northern Argentina), and Juan Manuel (my host family's grandson, who is my age). I had a midterm yesterday that I studied for most of Sunday and I have another one tomorrow and next Wednesday. Based on my test yesterday, I think the rest of my exams will be pretty easy. After being here for two months, I am noticing a lot of differences in the culture here compared to the U.S. One thing that people from the United States are constantly criticized for here is calling themselves Americans. Technically, Argentinians and the rest of South Americans are Americans too. Also, in the U.S. I pretty sure everyone learns that N and S America are separate continents. Here they learn that N and S America are one. I have gotten in several disputes with Argentinians over this, and they think people from the U.S. are arrogant because we consider Canada, US, and Mexico to be separate. I tried to explain that it is just a different way of categorizing but it never goes over well. I usually just accept that I am wrong about 90% of the time in most cases here. The other night at dinner was pretty comical. We were eating dinner and my host mom, Virginia, has been putting out ranch dressing that my friend Griffin brought for me from the U.S. I told her that in the U.S. a lot of times we eat raw vegetables with ranch. We were eating cooked cauliflower and I told her I usually it it raw with ranch. The word for raw is "crudo," which is what I said. She did not believe me for some reason. She was just like "No! You can't eat that raw." I didn't feel like arguing so I just changed the subject. It is funny how some differences in culture just do not translate. Virginia also asked Liz and I exactly what kind of meat we eat. We tried to explain to her the first week that we do not eat a lot of red meat but we will try it. To her, that really meant we dont eat it at all. So she freaked out when Liz said she ate milanesa (a type of breaded steak), and was just like I dont understand you crazy girls. So I tried again to explain to her, but I still think she is a little confused. For the past two weeks also, Virginia has been confused by my name. Liz's real name is Elizabeth which is obviously pretty common in the U.S. For some reason, all of a sudden she is calling me Elizabeth and Liz- Liz. I told her grandson about it, and he said he would tell her, but she still is calling me Elizabeth. I feel like it is too late to correct her, and she might get mad at me. Liz did say the other day that Vicente referred to me as Elise. So, I think I might just let it go. I am still working on getting pictures up. It just takes so long to download photos here because its not the best internet connnection, and I do not have easy access to internet all the time. I will get some more up asap. I am leaving for Mendoza tomorrow and returning on Tuesday. It is located in the wine country about 18 hours from here in the northwest part of Argentina. Can't wait!!

Hola,
This past weekend was good. I was super tired all week after coming back from such a long trip to Bariloche. Thursday I met up with Griffin and some friends for lunch. Griffin goes to Cofc with me and just got here last week for the semester. THat night we went out to a bar that had just opened that was a bar on the first floor and an art gallery upstairs. It was really cool and we met some really nice people there. Friday Jared and I went to downtown BA to a street called Avenida Florida. Its basically a street with a bunch of shops that no cars can drive down. THe downtown area reminds me a lot of NYC. That night I went to a concert at a club. An Argentinan band played called the Babasonicos. They were really good and I really liked the music but was so tired and went home early. Saturday I went to the Evita museum which was really neat. I will post pictures soon to show what it looked like. The museum basically followed her life and had her biography written on the walls. It also displayed some of her clothing which was beautiful and really stylish for the 50s. We then went to the Malba which is a really famous modern art museum with the works of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. That night was the Argentina vs Brazil soccer game. IT was a huge deal here! It reminded me of the super bowl. PEople were getting to bars hours ahead of time to reserve tables to sit at and watch the game. Unfortunately Argentina lost but they still have one more chance to make it to the world cup. YEsterday, I went to the feria in Plaza de Mayo which is near the Casa Rosada (equivalent to the White House in the U.S.). This part of the city looks very European and is also very expensive. I bought antique Givency sunglasses for about $15 which was pretty exciting since I broke mine. The feria actually connects to another part of BA called SAn Telmo where there a lot of tango dancers in the street and the buildings also look European. Its very pretty. LAst night I went to a birthday party for my Argentine friend Franco. It was just a few people; we just hung out at his house and ate and talked. I am starting to plan some of travels in a couple weeks because its a long weekend due to a holiday. I am pretty sure I am going to Santiago and Vina del Mar/Valparaiso! Suerte!

Elise

Bariloche!

Hey everyone,
I just got back from Bariloche this morning, and it was so awesome! Three other girls and I left on what is called an omnibus on Thursday night and what was supposed to be a 20 hour bus ride ended up being about 24 hours. Just when we were about three hours from Bariloche, there was a strike of teachers requesting higher pay in the middle of the highway. It ended up being a pretty fun three hours. We got out of the bus and took pictures of the surrounding landscape and made friends with some girls from Mexico who are also studying in Buenos Aires for the semester. We arrived in at our Hostel in Bariloche around 7:00 Friday night, went to dinner, and made friends with some other people from Buenos Aires that were also staying in our hostel. We ended up drinking wine with them and I attemped to teach everyone in Spanish how to play an American card game. It was difficult to explain but everyone ended up getting the hang of it. I went to bed pretty early instead of going out to wake up early for skiing the next day. Saturday was rainy and really windy up on the mountain; so not the best for skiing. Because there was no snow on the lower part of the mountain, we had to take a chair lift all the way up to the top. By the time we got up there, it was snowing like crazy and really hard to ski. I got pretty freaked out at the top of the hill because it was my first time skiing in seven years since my ACL surgery. I ended up skiing down the hill just fine with a couple of instructors and a family that was taking there little kids down and easier route. After one run, the other skiier Allison and I ended up just hanging out in the lodge most of the day at the top of the mountain. We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day and went back to the lodge, ate dinner, met some more people, and then called it an early night again. Sunday was a perfect day for skiing. It wasnt windy at all on the mountain, it was warm, and the snow was perfect to ski on. I was actually sweating by the end of the day because the snow was so thick and difficult to ski in. I got some incredible pictures that day. They actually had photographers on the mountain who stopped us as we were skiing down the hill and took our picture. We chose not to buy the pictures and just took our own instead. Bariloche is also known for having some of the best chocolate in the country. That night, we walked around the town sampling different chocolates. I ended up spending about 100 pesos on chocolate (about 25 USD). That night we were even more exhausted and chose not to go out. Instead we decided to wake up early to go on a hike up a hill nearby called Campesario. It took about 40 minutes to hike up the hill and was so worth a somewhat exhausting hike. We could see the best view of Bariloche. At the top you we could see out to the mountains which are surrounded by several lakes. I have some really beautiful photos. I will work on getting them up when I can. I still have not figured out a way to put pictures up on the blog. After the hike down the hill, we stopped back at the Hostel, checked out, and got on the final 20 hour bus ride back to BA. On the way back we passed a river that weaved through the hills we drove through. I had never seen water like that. It was a really pretty seafoam green color. Absolutely beautiful! It was a great trip and I would love to go back again to try some of the summer activities Bariloche offers. Im looking forward to this weekend. My friend, Griffin who also goes to Cofc just got hear over the weekend and I am planning to meet up with him this week. Chau!!

Elise