the altibajos of life

one of the altos: an asado with my amigas!

the word altibajo has come to be one of my most favorite words in the spanish language. it is a combination of alto, which means high/tall, and bajo, which means low/short. combined, the two become alti-bajos: the highs and lows. it's a word that simply embodies my experience in mendoza. i have lived through so many altibajos since i arrived in more than 4 months ago in july. to fill you in on the highs: my host family and pancho, my week long excursion to patagonia, rafting in san rafael, and planning out my last few days here. and the lows: getting robbed at knifepoint (rip ipod), not seeing my real family, and having a miniature mental breakdown last week. and the fact that i have to push the "l" button really hard when i type, probably attributed to the amount of dust and dirt that has accumulated on my laptop from the desert-y dust that floods mendoza.

not only does the word sum up my experience as a whole here, but my day to day life (or so it seems in the past week or so). i go through daily, even hourly, phases when i am conflicted about how i feel here. some parts of the day, i can't wait to be home in vermont, sitting on the couch with my family and watching really bad reality tv. other parts of the day, i have a strong urge just to stay here in mendoza. it's difficult because feeling either way makes me feel slightly guilty. when i say i want to go home, i feel as if i'm being selfish: i've had this once in a lifetime opportunity to spend a semester completely immersed in a different culture, and here i am wishing to go home?! however, when i feel the desire to stay i can't help but feel as if i'd be leaving my life which i have already established at home and at school, which makes me even more conflicted. can you see why the word altibajos has so much meaning now?

this past week was one of the altos: last weekend, bri and i took the bus to shopping, an american-style mall just to explore the outskirts of the city and get out of our houses. when i told my host mom we were going to the mall, she corrected me and said that the place we were going is called "shopping". she actually said "shopping" in english. then she tried to explain the difference between a mall and shopping. what i got from it is that "shopping" takes place in an enclosed building, while a mall is an outdoor facility that you walk around outside to get from shop to shop. on sunday, my friend mariah's parents came to visit from the united states. she invited us all over for an asado, or an argentine style barbeque, where you eat meat...all kinds of meat. thankfully, i got there late (she lives on the opposite side of the city), and missed eating the cow gland and blood sausage. dang. it was really nice to chat to her parents and hear their opinions on mendoza and argentina in general. it reminded me of my own parents (a slight bajo), but it was a good way to start my final week of academics here. this past monday, i had my spanish presentation. on tuesday, i had my final exam for my music class, which was a 4 page paper in class...with notes. for a final. as you can see, school here is completely different from the united states. today (wednesday), i relaxed and went for a nice walk because it is too hot to run here now. the past week has been really nice: 60s and 70s with some great cloud cover. today was over 90 and this week is supposed to be brutal. i'm trying to drink more water, and less soda products, which the argentinos think is so weird.

another one of the altos: spending more time with people from the ifsa-program! (this is sarah. she is from mount greylock, ma and plays squash at brown!)

bri and i are finally making our travel plans a reality! iguazu falls was just named one of the new 7 wonders of the world, so we are excited to head over there. it's coming up soon... we leave on december 1st! i just started a huge load of laundry to figure out what i should pack away for good and what i should leave out for the rest of my time in mendoza and argentina.

the container our water comes in. it makes the water slightly carbonated. you push the white lever down (veryyy gently, unless you want the water to go all over the table and you...which i have done), with your cup under the red spout. the water goes up the white straw in the middle of the container, becomes carbon-dioxide-ated, and into your cup.