Bariloche, Argentina

Tonight is our last night in Bariloche. Right now, we're all sitting on our beds (2 twins and a queen, yes they have different bed arrangements here), focusing our attention on our iPads or phones. Bariloche was a nice change from our last two towns because we actually stayed here for a while and had a chance to slow our pace a little bit and truly get a feel for the town. We spent a lazy Sunday afternoon walking through the city and visited an Ice Bar that night. Monday was our first outdoor adventure as we went white water rafting. It was Tiffany and Megan's first time rafting and they handled it like pros. No one fell in and no one got hurt, staying true to our 'no dying' rule. Tuesday we split up- Tiffany and Lula went on Canopy (zip lining) and Megan and I went kayaking. We all enjoyed these activities and Megan and I got some really cool pics. The lake we kayaked on was large and surrounded by mountains. It was a perfect day for our first time kayaking.

Athena - Argentina- The End of San Juan

It's the morning of my last day in San Juan and part of me is very happy to leave, part of me is a little sad. I was bored here, to be honest. I didn't know what to expect, but I thought it wouldn't be this small of a town. I mean tiny, like teeny tiny. For those of you from Michigan (my home) the airport here is smaller than the old MBS airport, which is to say it has less than 5 gates and is about the size of a large barn.

I guess I got bored because I couldn't find a tour to see some of the surrounding sites, I wasn't sure what to do here and I couldn't quite figure out the schedule of things here. Businesses kept closing when I thought they would be open. I was too late or too early for dinner. I couldn't get in sync with the rhythm of life here. So I ended up spending quite a bit of time in my hotel room, much more than I thought I would. My hotel was further away from the city center than I expected, about a 25 minute walk. And it's super hot here, like almost 100 degrees hot.

Athena - Argentina San Juan travels, riots and other misadventures

My travel plans for my last week in Argentina changed on a dime. I was reading lanacion.com (Argentina's leading newspaper) and saw that my first stop, Cordoba, was in the midst of riots. I asked my roommate what was going on there and after showing her the article to make sure. I understood it correctly (it was of course, written in Spanish). We quickly agreed that I should t travel there. The police were on strike, because they wanted higher wages, and some people began rioting and looting local businesses. I reached out to the hostel I planned to stay in and the guy said that no one was in the streets, everyone was staying inside. Nope, definitely not going there now. I thank God that I found all of this out, because I was literally ready to go there the very next day.

Waiting at the Buenos Aires airport at 3:30 am

Athena - Argentina & Brazil- Las Cataratas de Iguazu - Iguauzu Falls

Las Cataratas de Iguazu - Iguauzu Falls


   Then we got back on the bus for three more hours until we arrived at the town of Iguazu. After settling into our hostel we passed the afternoon by chilling in the pool and the a few of us left to walk around the small city. Our tour guides cooked an asado (barbecue) for us. The menu was literally meat (all kinds of beef and sausage), bread, wine. That's it, no side dishes. Must say the chorizo sausage was my favorite. Though it was a painfully slow dinner because there were 50 of us and the meat only came off of the grill bit by bit.

Sunday
  We spent our first day at the waterfalls on the Argentinian side and the falls were amazing. I won't even try to describe them with words...checkout these pics instead. We got really close to the falls and there were places were you could fall of the edge if you weren't careful. We also took a boat ride in the river and, of course, we went underneath one of the falls. It was both awesome and scary; I couldn't believe I was literally underneath one of the coolest waterfalls in the world. Oh, and while we were there we saw a proposal, and of course she said yes. None of us knew the happy couple but it was a wonderful sight to see.

Brazilian Side

Argentinian Side

Me on the boat ride, before we went underneath the falls

More Iguazu pics -Athena-Argentina & Brazil

Most of you know that I'm having technical difficulties on this trip (my laptop died) so please forgive me if some things appear put if place. Here are more pics from Iguazu Falls that I couldn't put in the first post.

Butterfly on my shoulder

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Athena - Argentina - El dia de accion de gracias - Thanksgiving Day

El dia de accion de gracias - Thanksgiving Day

In Argentina Thanksgiving Day is just another day, but I wanted it to still feel like Thanksgiving. At least to me. So I decided to treat the day like a holiday. I slept in, then mosy-ed around in my PJs. Since I couldn't have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner I decided to stuff my face (in true turkey day style) with all my favorite Argentinian foods. That meant lunch at my favorite pizza place, deserts from my favorite bakery, a couple of glasses of sweet white wine, and of course a steak dinner and more wine (channeling my inner Chantel, lol). Then I finished the night with some ice cream at home. Yummy...and super full. I'm sure that I ate about 4,000 calories in the day, but it was definitely worth it.

Athena - Argentina - 10 things I think about Argentina

In honor of one of my favorite sportswriters, Peter King, I've written a list of 11 things I think I think about Argentina. This is something that Peter often does in his blogs and is just a good way to gather a bunch of random thoughts. So here goes...

Athena - Argentina - Yummy for my Tummy

I think you all know that I love to eat. Well, there' say ton of great restaurants here in Buenos Aires and unfortunately there's no way for me to eat at them all (but I would if I could). So to try out a few new places I went on a 'food tour' with my friend Coral. We were in a group of about 25 people and had 3 different courses at 3 different restaurants. Everything was delicious! The company that put on the tour was fuddis.com.ar (I think) and our guides were friendly and lots of fun too.

Coral, a girl from Australia & me

   The tour happened in Palermo Soho. Our first round was appetizers at an Italian place. We're talking cheese, thinly sliced meets, some kind of fried potato and cheese concoction, bruschetta but with beef instead of tomatoes, fresh bread and white wine. Deliciosa! Everything was great.
   The main course was at the restaurant in the Evita Museum, which has a large outdoor patio (these are rare in BA). They served fish, but since I can't eat fish I had ravioli stuffed with pumpkin & cheese. A-MA-ZING! And of course there was more wine and bread.
   Desert was at a place that was more like a cocktail bar and it had a really cool atmosphere. The actual desert was some type of pudding with a dollop of ice cream on top. The pudding had mandarin oranges in it. I'm not a huge pudding fan, but at least I tried it. The ice cream was amazing. And we had champagne.
   The food on the tour was fabulous and the people we met were pretty cool. There were native

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Argentinians, Australians, people from other parts of Argentina, honeymooners from Spain, and two gay couples from the US, one of whom met my friend Coral's mom on a different trip. Small world.

Athena - Argentina - Marc Anthony Concert

This past Saturday I finally got to see an artist who I've enjoyed listening to for a long time - the famous Puerto Rican salsa singer Marc Anthony. And what made it even better, was going with a group of Puerto Ricans. These girls had so much passion and were so proud to be from Puerto Rico. They came dressed in Puerto Rico headbands, shirts and flags. I loved it! And watching them sing a long to every word, dance, and try to get Marc's attention with their Puerto Rican flags was amazing. I just love being around people who are completely enjoying the moment.

And yeah, Marc Anthony was pretty amazing too. In an era of voice box and fake singers it was great to see/hear someone truly talented. On every song his voice was amazing and he also danced a little. It to put on a great show. I was a little sad when he didn't play my favorite song (No Hay Nadie) but I got over it. And even though the stadium was packed with people and the floor covered with water & mud) we still had a phenomenal time. Marc is a great performer and I'd love to see him again.

Athena - Argentina - 1st World Problems

Yes, I know it's been a while since I last blogged, but trust me, I have lots of good stories to share with you once I catch up. This week I've been facing lots of first world problems, mostly related to technology. The keyboard on my laptop stopped working. For a few days I managed to get by using the onscreen keyboard (which I previously didn't know existed). Then the power button stopped working and I could no longer turn my laptop on. Yeah, that's going to be a problem. So I no longer have a laptop that works and this complicates things a little bit. Plus I was using my laptop to charge my iPad, as my iPad charger stopped working a week after I got here. And I also forgot to pack the charger for my camera so after that died 2 weeks into my trip I've had to use my cell phone for all of my pics. Technology hasn't been my friend so far. And I'm seriously, desperately hoping that nothing else breaks on my trip. I don't think I can take losing another piece of equipment! So forgive me as I get used to typing everything (term papers included) on my iPad.

The non-tech parts of my life are going well. This week I went on a food tour, bought tickets to see Marc Anthony in concert, and had a crazy late night 'adventure' getting home. More updates coming soon.

Un abrazo!

Below: Getting ready for the good tour

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Athena - Argentina -Singing in the rain

 Happy November! I can’t believe it’s already November…and that now there are just two months left in the year. Craziness! It seems like I say this every year, but time really is flying. Today it’s raining pretty hard.

Rainy day view from my apartment

 There was a thunderstorm that came in last night and hit some areas pretty hard, but that was just a warm up. A larger storm is in the area now, some flights at the airport were cancelled and now there’s lots of rain. It’s definitely one of those days where you just want to stay inside & curl up on your couch and watch TV or read a book. I would love to do that, but nope, I have to actually leave my apartment and venture out in the rain. I’m meeting with my Spanish tutor for 2 hours today. We’re working on some of my assignments for class (papers that are written in Spanish) and I’m sure she has lots of feedback for me. Learning a language is challenging but I like it. Sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes I realize how basic my Spanish is, and other times I get excited when I remember something that I learned. Overall it’s like a big bag of emotions, changing from day to day. I do feel like I could be working harder on at learning more and hope to do so in the upcoming month.

One other update from this week: On Monday evening I went to Chinatown after class for dinner with friends. The food was yummy and the restaurant was mostly authentic. It somewhat reminded me of my trip to China. It was so nice to have multiple dishes for dinner instead of just one, how we do in the US. And it reminded me of my team that I worked with in China and I have to say that I miss those guys. The best part was the dumplings. I LOVED these while I was in China and they were great at this restaurant. I want to go back to Chinatown in the daytime so I can see more stores & restaurants.

Dumplings at dinner. They disappeared fast!

Athena - Argentina - Heavy Hearts, the Tough Stuff

    My ever-cool and steady roommate Juliana is walking around on the phone with a harried voice and teary eyes. This is not the Friday afternoon that either one of us expected. I was bummed because I had to miss out on a trip to Igauzu Falls because I have class this weekend. Juliana had planned to work on a big art exhibit that was starting tomorrow, but now she is sad and red-eyed because her dear grandmother is now near death.

    Juliana’s grandmother (I forget her name & feel bad for doing so. We’ll call her Abuela) had a very difficult childhood- things were rough for her family. Juliana didn’t go into details but I know Abuela’s childhood molded her, in ways that those who have been through tragedies move on, but still keep a piece of the tragedy in her heart. Time passed and Abuela married, had kids and continued living life. She was the kind of person who was very supportive and who had a way of knowing exactly what a person needed. And this especially applied to Juliana. Abuela is one of the most important people in her life, Juliana once told me while we were talking one afternoon. Abuela always encouraged and supported Juliana in her break from family tradition to an uncommon and unsteady career in the art world. I get the feeling that Abuela was the Juliana’s rock, her safe place to land, the person who gave her hope and inspiration while others advised a change in plans.

    I can’t describe the sadness I felt watching her call the airline to book a flight, hurriedly back a bag, and make arrangements for her dog Cairo. Even when your world is falling apart there are still very mundane things that need to be done, which serve as both distractions from the pain and things that make it hurt even worse.

    “Me espera. Me espara (wait for me)”, Juliana said to Cairo, as she always did when leaving. And then with a hug to me and a quick grab of her bag she walked out of the apartment, knowing full well that she would not return as the same person.

Athena - Argentina - Running to catch the bus

This afternoon I was walking to the bus stop, when I saw my bus, or what I thought could be my bus, approaching down the street. Since there is no set bus schedules here - they really just show up randomly- I didn't want to miss this one. So I started running to "beat" my bus to the bus stop. It was a funny sight, I'm sure, because I haven't seen too many other people running on the sidewalks here. And while I was running Kris Kross' "I missed the bus" song started playing in my head. Thankfully I  made it to the bus stop before my bus (thank you traffic light & traffic).  But the real funny part of this is my running could've been running for nothing. The are multiple buses that use the same number but go to different places (example, I was catching the #29 bus, that goes to Olivos). Each bus has a small sign in the front window that clarifies it's route.  So while I could see the large #29 on the top of the bus I couldn't yet see the smaller sign that told where the bus exactly goes. What's the moral of the story- sometimes it's ok not to know what your running towards, or for. You just gotta have faith that you're headed in the right direction.

Other random thoughts... My trip here is truly turning out to be random. I have classes on the weekend so I haven't yet been able to take trips to other parts of Argentina or other neighboring countries. So stay tuned for more of my adventures around Buenos Aires.

I had my first session with my Spanish tutor. It went really well and I'm looking forward to learning a lot more from my teacher. I can already tell that she has a lot of experience and some creative teaching methods. For example she had me watch two short animated videos and describe what happened in them to her - one verbally and one in writing. Needless to say I have lots of work to do in both areas. In case you're curious, here is the link to one of the videos I watched, think James Bond vs. a pigeon. http://boingboing.net/2009/11/09/pigeon-impossible.html

That's all for now. Class starts soon.

Athena - Argentina - First Day of Class

First day of class… 3 things I learned

1.  Um yeah, about this class in Spanish thing. It’s doable, but I’ll have to concentrate. It’s not like classes in English where my mind can wonder off and when I come back I catch right up. Here if my mind wanders, then I’m just lost for a good while.

     

           2.0 The rest of the world is kicking our butt in education. Several of our cases are about U.S. companies. All the students in my class speak English (some may speak a 3^rd language too). The European exchange students pretty much speak 3 languages (their native language, Spanish & English). How many languages does the average American speak- 1. How much do we know in general about major companies in other countries? How often do we study them in detail? Not much. This is why the rest of the world is catching up and in some cases passing us.

2    2.5   We have snacks at school. This is the best thing ever. We left the classroom for a break (it’s a 3 hour class) and what do we find—tea sandwiches, cereal w/ yogurt (kinda weird but whatevs), coffee & tea…and a dessert tray. So much for my new philosophy of 1 pastry/sweet thing per day. Yup, that just went out the window.

      3.0 The goodness of people. I was saved from going to a subway that would’ve been closed when I got there. Thank the Lord. That would’ve have not been a good thing. Instead I walked to the bus with 3 other exchange students, who I became friends with tonight. It was great to make some friends and talk about things we want to do around town together.

Athena - Argentina - Museum Day!

Today was another museum day (and I spent some time studying Spanish of course). This post is mostly pics so enjoy...

Malba Museum

Malba Art Museum

Today I went to the famed Malba Museum in downtown Buenos Aires. It's mostly a museum of modern art which means there's lots of cool stuff and lots of weird stuff too.

Diego Rivera's Retrato de Ramon Gomez de la Serna

Athena - Argentina - Columbus Day Parade

This past weekend on Saturday I went to the Casa Rosada- the pink house, the Argentinian version of the White house. When I got off of the subway I found a parade going on. I could see the Casa Rosada at my right and the parade at my left. What should I do? I looked back and forth- the Casa Rosada did look kinda cool and there was a nice Plaza (Plaza Mayor) in front of it. But the music and the noise of the parade was calling me. I could come back to the Casa Rosada any time; the parade would only be here once.

  



(a band performs in the plaza in front of the Casa Rosada)







The first thing I noticed about the parade was that there was a lot of brown people there- both in the parade and watching it. My experience in Buenos Aires so far has been very whitewashed. The people here don’t look like what we would in general (heavy emphasize on in general) expect Latinos to look like. (And yes, I know there’s a whole different conversation about race & ethnicity to be had here, I’m just keeping it uber simple). So after a week of almost only seeing white people- and being able to count the number of brownish people I’ve seen on two hands- I was amazed to suddenly be surrounded by lots and lots of brown people. In this parade it was the ‘white’ people who stood out by leaps and bounds. 

Athena - Argentina- Sunday in Palermo

My roommate and I just got back from watching a movie (in Spanish of course) and it was quite the experience. We saw a comedy called La Corazon de Leon (The Heart of Leon). Evidently Sunday evenings are the most popular day of the week to go to the movies so the place was packed! We had to get there 2 hours early to buy our tickets…and when you buy the tickets here you get assigned seats. The ushers actually walk you to your seat in the theater.  At any rate, the movie was very good, thought it was hard for me to follow sometimes. The rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it very much.

I’m (mostly) loving how every experience is something different here, even something as simple as going to the movies. It seems like everything I do, or try to do, is some mini-adventure. Guess I’ll have to get used to a lot of things not going as planned. This morning I tried to find a park that is good for running and I got lost on the way there. Then I got lost on the way back. I still got a good workout in though, especially considering all of the extra walking I did. I think I’ll try and find the park again tomorrow.

This was my first Sunday without football. Yes, I’m very much going through withdrawal. It’s weird to not spend most of the day watching football. Congrats to the Lions for winning! I’m still sad about Michigan’s loss yesterday.  I did catch some tennis & rugby on TV while I was at a coffee shop so I guess that will have to do.  And I've never been so happy to watch highlights online!

That’s all for now. Classes start next week.

Athena - Argentina - Recoleta: The Rich & the Dead

Recoleta

Today I embraced my inner tourist and visited the well-known area of Recoleta. This area is the wealthiest part of Buenos Aires and is known for its famous cemetery, museums and shopping. I took the subway (see my post about cultural misunderstandings for a funny story about my first subway trip) and then had to walk about 15ish blocks to get to the Recoleta Cemetery.

 (Main entrance to the cemetary. The engraving reads: Rest in Peace)

Athena - Argentina - Oopsies! Language & Cultural Misunderstandings

This is my third day in Argentina so I’ve been here long enough to make several mistakes and get strange looks from the locals. Yeah, it’s been fun. Thought you might get a good laugh over some of my experiences here so far:

·         I go to a café and start to order at the counter. The lady looks at me weird and I’m thinking “Ok, this is simple Spanish, I’m sure I didn’t screw it up”. That’s when she tells me that here you don’t order your food & then grab a table, first you sit down at a table and a waiter comes to you and takes your order.  Oops. They definitely have better service in coffee shops here in Argentina.  Who knew?

Athena - Argentina- Hanging with the housewives y las abuelas

   Today, after a slow start, I walked around the neighborhood and had tea at a café- Café Martinez. Sitting outside was nice, almost like something out of a movie. There was a lot of hustle & bustle around me—people walking their dogs, others walking to work, delivery guys dropping off food, old couples walking hand in hand, a random guy on a jog. I loved sitting outside and just taking it all in. As I looked around me I noticed most of the other people at the café were housewives, usually with a small kid in tow or older ladies- abuelas (grandmothers) I presume. It was very funny that this was the crowd I was hanging out with because I’m neither a housewife nor an abuela, but for now these are my new friends.