another week gone by

another week has gone by, and i don't even know what i did to make it go by so quickly! this upcoming week is going to be the first semi-stressful week i've had since i got here: i have an oral final exam in history tomorrow, a meeting to get my student visa in the morning, a spanish essay due wednesday for our 'midterm', and then two more essays due by wednesday as well. next weekend is our final excursion to san rafael to go white water rafting (via ifsa-butler), so i need to get my stuff ready for that! i'm looking forward to this week...i haven't really had much schoolwork to do here, but i think i'll welcome the few days of stress, although the thought of writing collectively 20 or so pages in spanish isn't my idea of fun....

one of the best parts of my week was bonding more with my host brothers. i was working on one of my papers when julí came up to me and asked what i was doing. i broke out the photobooth application and we fooled around, taking silly pictures for an hour, until my host brothers got into a fight because they thought the other one was hogging the camera more. they are also super interested in lacrosse (little bros in the making), so my next goal for this week is to break out the sticks.


other than that, this week was just like any other one. i woke up early on thursday and went shopping for gifts downtown. friday we played soccer in the park for a few hours and yesterday, we organized a frisbee game. needless to say my legs are a little tired, although i have new sneakers now! it has been so nice out this week...not too hot, and not too cold. it gets chillier at night but for the most part, it's great walking weather, so i've been trying to get more exercise and walk places. it's a great way to explore the city too!

commence photobooth shoot...

la primavera

finally spring has sprung in mendoza!! the grass is starting to stay green and flowers are blossoming. not to mention the montón of allergies. although this week would suggest otherwise (it was cloudy and cold today), it really has been nice out here. however, spring doesn't last for long here. my host mom said summer starts in november for them and that season lasts until february or so, when the heat finally starts to recede. so i guess it's the end of spring now. here are some pictures of just how beautiful and green it is:

outside my house. there is a pollería (literally "chicken shop") next door. it also sells beer, fernet, and other things, as well as meat

outside towards the capital region. there is a small bridge i cross to go into the region because technically, i live in las heras, a region north of mendoza

taking a stroll to the bus stop

flowers by an acequia, the aquaducts that run all throughout the city supplying water to the trees

verde

an old man in the background and his flowers

waiting for the bus. these are pretty typical looking houses.

what else would you find as advertisement here?

still waiting for the bus..

the acequias literally line the city. they are also known as "gringo traps". i have yet to fall in one.

this is the fruit stand i run/walk by every single day, multiple times per day. there is an old man that runs it and he always asks how i am doing as i either run or speedwalk by.

appropriate graffiti

weird fruit that hangs from a tree on the corner by my house

the clean patio!

with new flowers i bought with my host mom...mom, you would have LOVED the place!! it is like the outside portion of garden time but cooler. i will try to go back and take some pictures.

well look who it is. pancho limpio (clean pancho). he got a bath because it was my mom's party (my mom had a party, mom! a party!!) on sunday.

for your enjoyment...

The Riddle (Remix)

Danza Kuduro

Caraluna

Ven Conmigo

and for all y'all music lovers out there.

lessons

today i actually have done nothing. i have been picking at the remainders of three cakes we have in the fridge and trying to write an essay. however, while i was running, i came up with a list of things i felt like i should blog about to show how different life is here.

argentinos need to learn.... the mantra that the customer is always right. for example, in the grocery store. you'll be looking for onions, a general staple that most stores have. no onions? we don't have them today, you'll have to come back later this week, an employee will say to you. want that shirt in the window of the store? sorry, it's only in that size and we only have that one left. do you want this gift wrapped? no? well, i'll gift wrap it anyways for you. sorry, we don't have pizza tonight. we also don't have three-quarters of the menu available for tonight, we only have two salads and three sandwich options. these are some very real, very experienced things that are not uncommon in argentina. what i have seen is that there is no inventory or stock in clothing stores, what they have is what they have. there are no "back rooms" where they can dig out another color, size, or style for you. same goes with the groceries. no onions today? come back tomorrow and we might have some. the customer is never right and never will be in argentina.

americans need to learn... how to live humbly. i type this as i'm sitting in the dining room, looking into the patio. my host family's house is small, but cozy. there are three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, a den, and two areas to dine, yet the floor space is quite a bit smaller than my house in the states. there is no upstairs or downstairs, just enough room for everyone to have their own place. it takes my host mom a little over half the day to clean the entire house (all rooms) because it's so small. it keeps the heat out in the summer and lets the sun in during the cold winter. it's not unnecessarily large like most houses in the united states, and none of the houses here are like that. the houses are efficient and very modest.

argentinos need to learn.... how to dress for the summer. putting on a floral patterned sweater or long sleeved shirt does not mean spring is here. spring and summer are for cute sundresses and no sleeves. instead, people here wear jeans, even though it is 90 degrees out. argentinos also do not know what sweat is.  they will bundle up in sweaters and long pants and boots (boots!) in the morning when it's 80, and then "delayer" to their long sleeves by mid-morning when it hits 90.


americans need to learn... how not to be obese. i don't know what it is here, but i have not seen a plethora of overweight people like i do in the states. argentina has a very high rate of eating disorders (specifically anorexia), but most of the people here are pretty healthy looking. however, this condition must be genetic because all people eat is white bread, sugar, and salt. and alfajores. the women and girls here will walk daintily, or occasionally rollerblade, around the lake while i slog through my hour and a half running workout. it has to be genetic.

argentinos need to learn... how to eat properly! their body types do not match up with what they eat here. my host brothers will gobble down sleeves of cookies before dinner and then not eat dinner. julían doesn't eat vegetables, so his version of "pizza" is just melted cheese on bread (sound familiar...??). no tomato sauce. facundo is obsessed with mcdonalds, and my host dad loves to pile rice and potatoes on a large slice of bread and eat it. thankfully, my host mom likes salad (albeit, smothered in salt and oil), so we will have that sometimes. i am starting to really miss the options at the bowdoin salad bar.....

americans need to learn... that we actually are not the center of the world. argentinos actually don't really like americans because they think that we muddle in everyone else's business (true). on all of the buses i've traveled on and all of the tv shows i watch here, they choose to show the most prototypical image of america ever. like a movie about how to assassinate the president of the united states and launch a terrorist attack on the white house. or a history channel special about how much oil the united states uses every day. i watched the history channel episode with my host dad and he was disgusted. needless to say that was pretty awkward.


argentinos need to get.... better music. some of it is great. the music you hear on the main radio stations all sounds the same. you could definitely say the same thing about american music, but music in argentina actually uses the same instruments and beats. it also uses extremely inappropriate english words, but i guess that doesn't matter because people don't speak very much english here. for example: this song is popular in the boliches: Loca People. people will sing this in the boliches at the top of their lungs. they will also wear clothes with profanity on them, except they don't understand that the words are actually bad because they don't speak english. 

argentinos also need to get.... better vocabulary words. granted, their dictionary takes up two "dictionary" sized books, but the colloquial words are very repetitive. for example, the word linda/o can be used to describe anything "pretty". how was your day? linda. that hot guy on the bus? lindo. the lunch spread your host mom lays on the table? linda. the cute baby you see in the park? linda. however, in english, your day would be "good" or "fine", the guy "hot", the food "delicious", and the baby "cute". another popular word here is feo/a, literally "ugly". you had a bad day? feo. spoiled food in the fridge is fea. made a mistake on your homework? feo. if you're sweaty after a run you are  feo.

americans need to learn.... baseball as a national sport sucks. not only is it boring, it is made up of slightly overweight steroid addicts occasionally running around a diamond. soccer, or fútbol, is 100% better. as the national sport, it literally unites argentina. you are bound to see soccer games in the streets, in the park, and in my house with my brothers. whenever there is a big game, buses will drive around with people hanging out of them screaming and yelling support for their respective team. it can also be dangerous though; some teams can't even fans at their games because it gets too rowdy (people actually die i've heard), so they play in an empty stadium and the game is aired live on tv. soccer here is like sharing mate, anybody and everybody can play.

life on a rollercoaster

right now i'm sipping on mate, the popular tea stuff they drink here, just reflecting on life this week. today is election day here, both for president and gubernatorial. it's a big deal here because according to the primaries, cristina fernandez de kirchner (the current president) will be re-elected for another 4 years. i still can't grasp the fact that voting is mandatory in argentina and that liquor sales closed in the afternoon yesterday. bars stopped serving alcohol at 10pm last night and the alcohol aisles in the grocery stores were blocked off by caution tape. it seems odd because although it's required to vote, the politics here are still very corrupt. parties will "campaign" by gifting computers to 17 year old kids who will be 18 at the time of elections, going into poor neighborhoods and giving members of the villas miserias one shoe, promising to bring the other one after elections are over.  candidates will also wait outside the voting areas and give out money for people to vote for them.

my family has gone on another vacation, but this time it's barely for 24 hours. i got the invite (woohoo!) but decided to stay home because i have a final exam review session tomorrow that i figured i shouldn't miss. i missed the last session because i was in patagonia and just barely passed the midterm...whoops. in one week, i will be done with one of my classes here, and three weeks after that, i will be officially done with classes. i try not to think about it like that because i am finally out of my rut and have really come to appreciate mendoza.

yesterday i woke up at a decent hour and did some homework. i helped clean the house a little bit because my mom's birthday party was in the afternoon. my family and i had lunch together and then my host dad and brothers peaced out. my dad had been urging me to get out of the house because all of my mom's friends were going to come over for the party ("too much woman in the house" he said). i didn't believe him until i came back from my run and could hear the chatter of almost 30 women from three houses down. i walked in, sweaty and tired to the house full of middle-aged women, plates of cheese, cakes, cookies, and sandwiches, tons of flowers, all of my host mom's fancy china, about 20 bottles of wine and a lot of perfume and gossip. the patio had been opened into the house, so it was literally like one big outside party. like my dad said, there was demasiado mujer, literally "too much woman". i showered and managed to slip out again to give my host mom time with her friends. i went back to the park and a bunch of ifsa gringos and i played soccer until around 9pm, or until it was impossible to see the ball. when i got home, all but one of my mom's friends had left, so we sat outside with my host grandmother just chatting and eating the remainders of the food on the tables. my brothers and host dad came home soon after and we ended up just playing soccer with a mini ball inside the house in the dining area for over an hour. it was at this point i realized that i was bonding, really bonding with my host family. facundo broke out the digital camera and filmed julían and i volleying the ball and playing with pancho. this morning, julí ran up to me in the kitchen and insisted (three times) that i be a part of his magic trick show. i have never felt so accepted here before! as my family was leaving, my host dad gave me a flower and thanked me for being so entertaining and accepting (i assume he was talking about the previous day/night). i was surprised and didn't know what to say!! i have finally found my place here, and can't imagine leaving now.  what a ride.

three month anniversary

i've been in kind of a funk the past week or so. i've almost hit the 3 month mark, so i guess it makes sense that my emotions and feelings have been all over the place. right now, i'm firmly convinced that i want to go home. it's not like i don't enjoy mendoza, i definitely do, but i'm frustrated with my life here. how, you ask? i have a great family, my own room in the house, a nice park to run in everyday, barely any class, 4 day weekends, endless bodegas and wine at my fingertips, and enough dulce de leche to keep me satisfied until i turn 80. however, i've finally gotten to the point where i have been honest enough with myself to really see mendoza (and life in argentina) in both positive and negative ways. i'm not homesick per se, just really missing some of the luxuries of home and school. i feel as if argentina is such a tease...i am not in a third world country (hi emma) or in an extremely americanized/westernized place. instead, i am in the middle: living in a developing country with some splendors of home. i know that if i was to pack up today and leave, it would be sad to say goodbye to my host family and friends that i have made. part of me keeps thinking of home and school and what i'm going to be able to do when i go back. the other part is reminding me that i am already 3 months down, and have less than 2 months to go...so i should make the most of my time here! i can't exactly put my finger on what i miss from home (because let's be honest, i don't miss the workload at school..), but i do miss the simple ability to have conversations. everyday i come home, do some homework, eat dinner, go to bed. wake up, go for a run, go to school, repeat. i miss having friends constantly around me and i miss having seriously good conversations with people, while walking to class, in the union, at practice, at dinner, and before bed. i enjoy being independent here because it has definitely taught me a lot (ie, don't go running with an ipod or you'll get mugged), but i do miss the opportunity to surround myself with people i love to be around. i miss the college campus life, the camaraderie, and the school spirit. i miss being able to just walk into a friend's room or apartment without having to ring the doorbell and talk to their parents.

i'm getting frustrated with myself for feeling this way because i'm lucky to be here! i'm trying to remind myself that i will not have this opportunity again, so i may as well make it look like i am having fun and enjoying myself even if i'm not. some of my other friends here have been feeling the same way (as i found out today), so i guess i'm not alone.

final exams are coming up for me...maybe a contribution to the defeated tone of this post?? i have an oral exam on halloween (a holiday that they don't celebrate here...womp.), two papers due by the end of october, a final on november 15th, and then a spanish exam on the 23rd. the ifsa-butler farewell dinner is the next day (thanksgiving, how nice of them), and then i'm officially done. almost exactly 5 weeks til i'm done with the "study" abroad part. then i have roughly two and a half weeks to pack up or travel to buenos aires (i'll keep y'all posted on what the plans are for that), to fly out on december 11th, and arrive stateside on the 12th.


hope the autumn season in the states is treating everyone well....it's almost 7:30pm here and still 86 degrees out. happy summer from argentina!

documentation of día de la madre

the view from ale's (my host grandmother) house...i live 4 blocks or so away

other grandparent's house! they live in luján, about a half hour outside of mendoza. this is facundo (with the wheelbarrow) and julían, my host bros, playing outside

my host grandfather (my dad's father) was sitting outside when we came into the backyard. he was wearing linen pants, toms, a button down shirt, vintage sunglasses, a sunhat, and was smoking a cigarette. can you get more argentino than that?

 

i didn't get a chance to take pictures while we were eating....due to the fact the food was so good! we had choripans, grilled sausages (chorizos) on bread (pan). get it? chori-pans. we had all kinds of toppings such as mayonnaise with garlic, fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and a salsa-like tomato sauce. there was plenty of fresh bread to go around, along with several bottles of wine, and we ate ice cream for dessert. it was a beautiful sunday to celebrate día de la madre!

another embarrassing story

so this was semi-funny. about a week ago, as you all know, i was sick. i don't get sick very easily but i feel like when i do, i get something bad (ie, swine flu, strep throat, scarlet fever as a child, etc). so last week, i believe it was wednesday night, i went to bed before my family even came home. i was in bed by 9:30pm, and fell asleep by 10. i left a note on my door telling them that my sinuses (senos) were really bothering me and that i felt sick, but not to worry. the next morning i woke up and went for a nice walk. my note was gone from my door but i figured my family wanted to frame it or something because i used such good spanish. WELL. i came home and my family had texted me saying that we were eating lunch at my host grandmother's house, about a 10 minute walk away. so i get there late and as my family is eating dessert and i'm eating noodles while blowing my nose and trying not to sniffle every 30 seconds, my host mom tells me, "that was a very nice note you left for us last night" with a surprised look on her face. my host dad starts cracking up and obvs i was very confused. so in my fever-ridden state, i ask what happened with the note. apparently the word for sinus (seno) also means boobs. so without the context that i had been blowing my nose and sniffling all day, my host parents had thought that i had written that my boobs hurt and that i was going to bed early. so my mom is telling me that she was freaking out because she thought i had hurt my boobs or something but didn't want to wake me up if i was sleeping. meanwhile, my host dad is still laughing at my confused state. and remember all of this was in front of my host grandma and my two brothers. just to clarify, you need to be more specific when talking about your senos, or else people will think you're talking about your tatas. happy breast cancer awareness month everybody!

happy mother's day

happy mother's day in argentina! or as the argentinos say, ¡feliz día de la madre! or ¡feliz día mamá! i bought my host mom two bottles of wine yesterday at the second bodega (one red and one white) so that she could choose which she liked better. we are supposed to be going to my host grandmother's house soon to have lunch ("which will probably take all day", my host mom said). hopefully it won't be too long because i want to get up and attempt to go running tomorrow for the first time since i've been sick. i was going to today but i ended up sleeping for almost 12 hours again and figured that i could put it off for one more day. anyways, día de la madre made me think of my mom in the united states and how i miss her! love you mom, and hope it's just as beautiful this weekend in vermont as it is here!

vineyard vines...the south american way

today was a great day because we went for two free wine tours, tastings, and had lunch at a bodega, or vineyard. we all met up at plaza independencia and my host mom was kind enough to give me a ride to the center of town so i didn't have to walk or take a bus. i got there early so i ran some errands and took some pictures of the plazas, something that i have been meaning to do since day one but haven't been able to:

this is plaza san martin.i pass this almost everyday on the bus, but not from this angle

general san martin, who is like george washington to the argentinians. but he is argentinian.

plaza san martin

i also pass plaza españa almost everyday too because it's exactly 4 blocks from plaza san martin, with plaza independencia sandwiched in the middle.

this plaza is my favorite because all of the benches, fountains, walkways, etc. are made up of this tile

plaza españa

we drove to bodega lópez first. i had no idea where we were until we pulled into this parking lot (randomly) and got out. i will now let the pictures do the talking so i don't have to type thousands of words explaining them.

barrels of wine.... "young" wine will be kept in them for 5-6 months but the "older" wine can stay in the barrels for up to 5 or 6 years!

bodega lópez

that little door/spout thing is where the wine comes out of. that is also how you climb in the barrel to clean it and yes someone has to do that every time they make a new batch of wine.

i wasn't paying attention during this part but it's part of the wine-making process...more storage/distilling i think

random parking lot.. turns out we were in the middle of a town. this was not an actual bodega but just a place where they make wine without the actual grapes at hand? i wasn't paying attention during that conversation either so i'll just say that they have a vineyard 20 minutes down the road and import the grapes from there

3000ml of wine

massive wine bottles...too bad they were empty

then we had our wine tasting. "tasting" meaning they gave us 2 teaspoons of wine. you can't even tell if there is wine in the glass but there is (and it was champagne, not wine). and then we had to leave. that is also the correct way to hold a wine glass, by its stem so that your hands don't warm the bulb of the glass and change the flavor

then we went to this bodega....owned by la familia cecchin or the cecchin family

lines and lines of grapevines!

that is where we ate lunch

looking into the parking area/garden

yummmmmyy

their famous white wine (which yes mom and dad i bought a bottle for you to try)

the labels here are all hecho de mano or "made by hand". i think by this they mean all the wines are labeled by hand

the textured wall, an appropriate painting, a wine box

the line of wines that are "younger"

shopping time!

baby grapes

olives

olive trees were everywhere

little baby grapeys

everyone eating lunch in the vineyard

outdoor bar area

dessert was ice cream with dulce de leche (obviously), wrapped in a masa, or a thin, tortilla-like flatbread made out of wine and cocoa powder (excuse me, what?!), with chocolate drizzled on top

whattaya know. clean plate again