mi familia y actualiciones

it hasn't even been a week since i arrived in mendoza...it has literally felt like a month has gone by. these past 2 or 3 days have been nice but i feel lazy because i just hang out with my friends from the ifsa program. for the most part, we speak english because it's so much more convenient. however, i do feel as if my spanish speaking ability has been dormant  for the past few days. obviously it has gotten better just being around it all the time, but it's hard to talk in spanish with people who are on the same level. mendoza is beautiful!! it is winter here now, and is cold as balls. it snowed last night. and because there is no humidity, it's just bonechillingly freezing. so going out into the city is a pain because it's so cold and hard to motivate yourself for a night out...but taxis are a great help! other than that, life is good. i'm starting to miss mi familia en vermont, but having a good group of friends here definitely helps. having some free time is nice too, today (as in at 4pm) a bunch of us went to the peatonal, similar to church street in burlington. no cars, just people and cafes and shops. really nice. we sat in 2 cafes for an hour and just talked and drank cafe con leche. the coffee is reaaally good here too, argentines are all about the quality over the quantity. we also walked through plaza independencia, the biggest plaza in mendoza. not quite sure when classes start, but i signed up for 8 classes for our "shopping period": we get two weeks to go to classes and try them out to see if we like them before our official classes start. pretty sure that period starts on monday, but not positive. 

 my family making HOMEMADE pasta...what?? 

 plaza independencia. yes, the water is dyed blue. and yes, it looks that disgusting in real life. 

another thing about mendoza. there are dogs everywhere. stray dogs are like squirrels. there are dogs and PIGEONS everywhere you look. el doctor was not kidding about being careful with dogs and rabies. it's so cold here too, these two dogs were curled up together in the plaza. it's so weird to have stray dogs just walking around in the plazas and parques. they also tend to follow people around, begging for food, i swear i have seen the same dog in the park at least 5 times. it's sad, but interesting that dogs are equivalent to animals such as squirrels or bunnies here. 

EL PANCHO

so this is pancho. he is literally like the baby of the family; always jumping around, giving kisses, following people. he also likes to bite his nails just for fun, as i witnessed last night when he was rolling around in the living room with his paws in his mouth. pancho actually means "hot dog" in spanish/english, i saw a sign with a picture downtown that offered "un pancho y un gaseosa" (a hot dog and a soda) for lunch. my family often calls him "el pancho", which translates into "the pancho". the pancho does this, the pancho does that. it's precious.

house, room, plaza, and art

 

pictures from my room and house! the small plaza borders my room...there are french doors that open to the outside. the kitchen table and study area and more formal dining table also border the plaza. the painted terra cotta was made my my "grandmother", with whom another girl on the program is staying. she is a ceramics artist and makes a living by selling her beautiful art. my room is very cozy, and it doesn't help that my bed is so comfortable! i have enough space for all of my clothes, etc, with room to spare. today, it is 36 degrees fahrenheit out and i'm about to take on the city again, this time dressed in more appropriate running gear. last time, i ran in shorts and a t-shirt and got a lot of strange looks, because it's technically winter here. hope everyone else is enjoying their summer...i'm starting to miss the warm weather! besosss a todos

mi media semana

so my computer died last night because i did not buy an adaptor (in south america, the plug/electricity is way different, you need to buy a small converter...for 8 pesos, which is approx. $2). lovin' the exchange rate here, but i need to make a budget, you can spend pesos all day long here...a few here, a few there and they can add up quickly!! i also bought minutos para mi telefóno today....for 30 pesos, about 7 dollars. however, texting and calling is semi-expensive (and by semi, i mean not really), but can add up. it's good to know that i am connected to the world again with a working phone and computer! these last few days have been crazy!! my host mom, erica, took me by car on the bus and trolley route two days ago. it's really confusing here but she told me what lines to take instead of trying to explain the whole complicated system to me like most other host parents did. we toured around mendoza en auto. the next day, i went for a run (by myself-yikes!) in parque san martin, much like central park in new york. i met up with some girls from my program after a nice jog and we ran around some more. it takes about 20 minutes to run to the park from my house, so it will be nice to run there, jog around the lake, then jog back. there is also a gym in the park (in the boat house--how nice!?) that we want to join-- for 140 pesos a month (you do the math....comes out to be about 35 bucks a month...) how can our pesos not be flying out of our wallets?! it'll be nice to be in a gym and get motivated again; my host dad likes to remind me that other students have gained a ton of weight while in argentina (he calls it the argentinian "expansion") however, he also told me that no other student has ever run alone here, it's completely safe, he said, but the others just liked to chill at the house and eat food. no expansion for me!...the people here bond over food the way americans bond over their cell phones. breakfast is the smallest meal of the day and the meals get larger as the day goes on. for example: it is almost 10:30pm and we just finished dinner....which is very early for the argentines. my two host brothers, facu y julí, have school this week and need to get up early tomorrow--6:30am! so, this week, we are eating earlier than most families. i have friends who don't eat til 11:30 or midnight! i am lucky to have a mom that cooks delicious food as well- i told her i eat everything (true story) and she didn't believe me. speaking of food, the desserts here (maaajor danger zone) are delicious. i am trying, reaaaally trying, to limit myself to 1 per day. they sell cookies here called alfajones. it's basically like 3 cookies stacked on top of each other with creme or dulce de leche in between and a chocolate coating over the whole thing. they are so good but rich, i can barely eat half. however, i went on a 2.5 hour run yesterday--after running to the park an hour earlier, then running with my friends, then running back, it turned out to be around that much. i am going to try not to "expand" as my host father has said!!

que más..... we took our spanish placement tests today at the universidad de cuyo, the public university (almost 40,000 students, aka more than 2 times the size of rutland). the university is located in the el parque de san martin, so there are trees everywhere. trees are really special here too, because mendoza is located in a desert. there are small canals everywhere next to the sidewalks (also called "gringo traps", for the tourists who do not heed caution and fall 3 or 4 feet into the ground) that collect water for the trees lining every single street in the city. it's a cool concept and really amazing that the government instituted that manner of technology for the aesthetics of mendoza.

tomorrow i have a free day to do whatever because my interview for my spanish placement test isn't til friday at 4 (efff alphabetical order). every night at dinner, my host dad asks what i did today and what i am going to do tomorrow. it's funny. so, tomorrow i will go for a run at the other park in the city (parque central, apparently it is closer to the house) and then buy stuff for school! our "shopping time" for classes begins monday (eeekk how did i not get a full summer vacation?!) and i need to get notebooks, paper, and a bag to put it all in! it's exciting, but i am enjoying my free time to explore the city, the language, and the people.

i realize i need to post pictures of my room, family, and dog.... my room i will do soon, when i go to bed. pancho, the same. i feel awkward asking for my family's picture because i do not how to say it en español, but maybe i will try anyways. okay. bedtime in the boonies. besitos a todos y nos extraño muchoooo

estoy seguro en argentina

finally i have pictures for you all!! these are the first batch from buenos aires. we flew into the city on friday morning after a killer red-eye flight out of jfk. we began our tour the next morning, so here it begins...

these two pictures are from a church in buenos aires. the church is sacred (obviously?) and is right next to the governmental palace, aka la casa rosada. famous people are buried in this church. doubly as obvious, i have no idea who. 

one of two diagonal streets (or calles) in buenos aires that points toward an obelisk in the middle of the plaza de mayo. this area is very similar to times square in new york city. the obelisk is very similar to the washington monument in dc. 

la casa rosada, the government palace in buenos aires. the president, cristina kirchner works here. 

la plaza de mayo, right in front of la casa rosada

la boca. the houses in this part of the neighborhood are painted different colors. when people a long time ago wanted to paint their houses, the went to the docks and asked the captains of the boats if they could have the bottom of the paint cans to paint their houses. they would collect paint and paint their houses all different colors with the various colors used on the boats. the colors in la boca were so vibrant and there were markets everywhere. 

crossing over a bridge..

la tomba de evita perón, in a HUGE cemetery. this cemetery is also like a musem, there are paths everywhere and tombs in neat lines. the cemetery is so big you can see it as you are flying out of buenos aires. 

mmmm argentine sweets are the best. and there are markets and vendors that sell them everywhere.

these are from la zona norte (north zone) of bs as. like i said, there are markets everywhere. vendors sell anything from fresh fruit and vegetables to jewelry to photographs to antiques. we stopped in a market where people were tango dancing. 

these are from san telmo, a bit like the hamptons in new york. we drove 45 minutes north of bs as and had lunch right on the rio de la plata, which looks like an ocean. however, it is the mouth of a river and is fresh water; yet it has tides and waves. is that even possible, despite what i learned in geology?? from this part of the city, you can see the hazy skyline of buenos aires--it's beautiful. i think here it hit most people that we are here to stay for 5 months!! from here, we were bussed to the airport for our flight to mendoza. we got in around 6 and our families were waiting in the airport for us!! 

i have two host brothers, a mom, dad, some fish, and pancho, the dog. pancho is like the third son. i will make sure to post pictures soon because he is so friendly and adorable! he slept on my bed last night and loves to give kisses. he will be a great companion when i start to miss my dog!! i have my own room and will make sure to post pics of that as well. other than that, i am starting to communicate with my family with hand signals and spanglish and broken spanish. today, i went running with some other girls in the ifsa program in the huge park (much like central park in nyc). it took me 20 minutes to run there, lots of exercise to come!!