Back from Talamplaya in one piece :)

Hola familia!

This past Friday, we left at midnight to arrive in Talamplaya (sort of like the national park area here in Argentina...about a 7-8 hour drive) to start hiking for 2 1/2 hours at 8:30 AM. For breakfast, they gave us each a brown bag of pastries...like dulce de leche filled crossiants. First, a sugar rush is not a good idea when full energy is needed and second, all that sugar is nasty in the morning. Oh well.. but of course, knowing me my problems did not start there!ç

You will never believe what I did....on Friday night, before we left to go to school, I did a bad thing! After Ali and I ate dinner, our family´s favorite show, Justo a tiempo came on. I asked Dora if I could use her microwave (which she has NEVER used and it´s probably 10 or 15 years old) to heat up a heat pack I bought for my back (my back and left knee are wanting to kill me right now :( ). So me and her are attempting to read her Spanish manual and finally I figure out we have to set the clock time, before any heating can be done. So I set a random time (because as it turns out all of the center buttons, i.e. 8 5 2 0, were broken!) and then put my pack in to heat. I set it for 77 seconds, since that´s all I could do really. The next thing I know, the entire kitchen LOSES POWER! I blew their fuse, everything shut off. At first we thought it was the entire house, but fortunately it was the kitchen and their father´s old bedroom that no one goes in. They were scared I fried their refridgerator and TV, but fortunately for me (and my wallet!) nothing was damaged, except the momentary black out for the evening. Tita was really mad at me because she wanted to watch TV, but fortunately Dora was really sweet about it.

I later found out (after I returned and the power was fixed by an electrian) that the entire street lost power as well....ay yi yi!

Anyways, so once we were on our journey, I tried my best to sleep, but I was in the window seat so my knees felt paralyzed and i was next to a heater....basically I got second degree burns on my legs and sweated through all my clothing. Gross!!
Once we started hiking I was definitely nervous. We had a 2 hour hike UPHILL, completely up a mountain. Nothing prepares you for straight hiking. My knees were throbbing, but fortunately I brought my ice and heat pack. The view, partway (with knee brace and all!):

In the photo is my little, Lexie (left), me, and my friend Brittany, who is living with my little. This is us on top of the mountain, and here we are below it (including two other girls from Tri Delta):




The hike was definitely worth it, it was a terrfic view--lots of great photos to come! These were two from my friend Brittany´s camera.

After that hike, we ate lunch and then went on another hike-driving tour thing. We drove, then hiked for a little, drove more, hiked more, etc etc. Not as cool.
Then at night, we ate dinner at a GAS STATION. It was like a "nice" restaurant that shared space with the gas station, I did not enjoy it to say the least.

The next day, we were supposed to have a 5 1/2 hour hike. Fortunately this was mostly straight with some hills mixed in and some literal climbing up rocks. I scratched my sunglasses I bought here :( In all, we walked 8.7 miles and we were so fast it only took 4 hours 45 minutes. We hiked through a canyon or valley called "Valle de la Luna" or Valley of the Moon. It was pretty neat. Then, we ate lunch and did a forty minute hike through another canyon type place full of neat rocks. I was able to make three wishes at at "wishing rock."
And of course, for dinner we ate at the gas station again.

On Monday, we were able to sleep in until 9 and then went to a vineyard. It was an organic vineyard that only sold red wine. We tried a cabernet and a Malbec. I did not enjoy either, so sorry familia, no wine from there! We are going to one more vineyard, however, in Buenos Aires. After the vineyard, we went to a cemetary to see something really creepy. We went to the tomb of Miguel "Angelito" something... He died 60 years ago at age 5, and was dug up 15 years after his death when people noticed the toys left on his tomb were moving. When they dug him up, they saw that he was perfectly preserved and in tact. So they reburied him. Again, 15 years later, they noticed the same thing--toys moving. So they unearthed him again. And he was still preserved. So now his tomb is a shine and seen as a miracle. People come from all over the world to visit this shrine and pray to him for miracles. It was so creepy though because he was in a glass coffin, and he looked like a dirty doll. I still am unsure if it was real....

Anywho, after the cemetary we ate at....the gas station! for the third time.... :(

Then we finally started our journey back to Córdoba. On the ride, we watched the movie Australia, and then these things called "Classic Project 4" or whatever number it was whcih was snippets of music videos from a time period, like the 90s 80s 2000s, etc. Pretty entertaining. Then we watched 7 Pounds.

And now we are here!

As for yesterday, it was our first day back to classes. I also had my last riding lesson, we went on a trail ride! It was great and I was able to jump as well. :)

Today, after my class I went with Dora to a "cheap" mall to buy a suitcase for the US. I found the best duffle-esk bag, I can´t wait to show you! And I also found a great leather purse :) And it was all so cheap for us! Ahh It´s crazy the exchange rate :)

I now only have 2 more days left! We leave for Buenos Aires Sunday morning; i have to be at the airport at 7 AM.

Ciao, I have my culture class now, talk to you soon :)

Finally went to the mall!

Oh and I thought y´all may enjoy this. After classes yesterday, Ali and I went to the mall (called Dinosaurio, yes like Dinosaur) and bought some things for our upcoming trip to Talamplaya from Friday to Monday. I got some spandex capris...everyone is SO skinny here I was worried their biggest size wouldn´t fit, but fortunately it did! And then some sunglasses as well as a hairdryer and straightner that I can then use in Denmark because they have the same voltage and plugs.

Okay, off to lunch! Finished my second paper today and then I have tango tonight! And riding tomorrow! I will be cantaring, which I thought was good except that she has been even allowing first time riders to cantar and jump. So much for years of experience...oh rules abroad :)

A recap of the Northwest

Hola a todos! We just came back from an awesome trip to the "Northwest." On Wednesday, we met at the school at 11 PM at night to be greeted by our double decker bus! Imagine this image, but with Spanish writing. It was awesome! The first floor was half filled with I think 10-12 lazy boy style chairs. On the right side, there was 2 lazy boys (with GREAT RECLING abilities and a board you pull down from the seat in front of you for a bottom bed piece) and on the left there was a solo lazy boy. I choose that seat in the backrow. It was great, way comfortable. I attempted to sleep in a curled ball position, why I don´t know. I am not very good at sleeping on transportation things, no matter the comfort level. The upper level had probably 50 seats, very comfortable, but smaller. They also reclined well, had the board for your feet, and hugged your body nicely, I could have slept well there too. The coolest part was the front of the bus-- a panaromic view from the top (look to image to see). It was almost like being a part of a video game.

The reason we had this bus is because we had 8 hours to drive until we arrived in Tafi de Valle in the Tucuman province. We went to rock garden view and a myths and legends musuem and then arrived at the hotel and walked around the area at all their different shops. Before dinner, we all went to the only bar (it was a veryyy small puebla), and had a little too much fun before our dinner. But the dinner was great with our friend Michael, or Miguel here, making the different animal noises we told him. After dinner we all hung out for awhile and then went to bed. We had an early departure the next day for Amiacha del Valle and Quilmes/Tolombon.

In the morning, we left for a church and jesuit musuem (and I realized I left my North Face vest there! Que triste!...I´ve ordered a new one already (ON SALE), not wanting to part....). After lunch, we went to the Quilmes ruins, which was kind of like seeing a Mayan temple, but it was like rock walls, with grass floors...very cool! Again, great view! That night we went to an observatory . We watched an "Origin of the Universe" movie in SPanish...so a little complicated...and got to look at the moon and Saturn (saw the rings and all!) through a large telescope.

The next day was the day I was loooking forward too--the winery! We went to the Bodega Etchart in Cafayate (in the province of Salta). Unfortunately, this was the morning I felt really sick and nauseas. We did some wine tasting and I bought 5 bottles of wine, one for everyone in the family. After our lunch there, we had a four hour drive where I thought i was going to vomit the entire way...oh stomachs, how great they work! When we arrived in Salta (the capital of Salta), we visited a church and then more artisan markets. For dinner, we went to una peña, or show, at "La Vieja Estación." We got to watch "guachos" do traditional dances and chants and then women came and danced as well. It was really neat. I wish I could have enjoyed it more since this is when my sickness was full blown with fever and all. After the gaucho performance, the winner of Argentinean Idol came out to perform. He was cutee! and a good singer. Again, I wish I could have enjoyed it more. Salta was the biggest city we went to, so everyone was drinking and enjoying their wine and champagne that came with dinner and went to a beluche afterwards while I went home to take a bath and sleep. At around 4 AM when my room mates returned I realized my clothing was soaked through...sweated out my fever so that´s good! Unfortunately, my stomach was still doing flips.

On Sunday, we left Salta for Purmamarca-Tilcara. We saw the mountain of 7 colors and got to hike through its pathway for about an hour (great for my stomach!). Then we drove on and stopped at an all natural acoustic mountain crevice thing. It was a former waterfall and had formed the most perfect cave-esque place, I believe it´s called Pucara. There was a 3 man band who was playing and got everyone dancing. It was great to watch, I´m sad I wasn´t up to moving around too much :( Before dinner we went to an anthropological museum that had a cave we could enter. It had staircases about one foot thick and no railing and it was pitch dark. We followed each other in a line up and down these scary stair cases, I was sure I was going to fall off and crack my head on all the stones. After the museum, and shortly before dinner, some of us went to a little caféteria I found and drank "submarinos solos" as a merienda. The submarinos are like hot chocolate, but you recieve hot milk with chocolate powder on top and then you add a dark chocolate bar to melt in it. So good!

On Monday, we stayed in Tilcara but we visited Humahuaca as well. We visited a textile factory where they produce goods from llama wool. I bought a great gift there that y´all will have to wait and see! We also went to a mini musuem on indigenous cultures. It was pretty neat but freaky at the same time because there was a thing there that I had dreamed about a year ago! I dreamt about people making objects out of bread and there it was there--exactly how it looked in my dream! crazy!! My favorite part of the museum was there medicine room though, it was full of voodoo and a painting that depicted how you could go to a "doctor" and tell them to kill you if you were sick and didn´t want to continue on. Creepy! Although with my stomach still hurting it may not be that bad....just kiddiing! I would never give up, and I know it´s not serious :)

When we returned to the hotel, we had our final dinner full of a lot of wine (again, I didn´t drink any knowing my stomach). More animal noises from Mike and then lots of toasts, some drunk some not. We all went to bed and then woke up early (5:45 for me!) for our 20 hour ride back. Fortunately, some how it only lasted 14 hours, including an hour stop for lunch. We passed the time with sleep and charades. Definitely enjoyable :)

And now we are back to the daily grind and school work. Ciao for now! Pray for my stomach :)

Oh Collectivo

Today I turned in my first paper! It was great to be able to write a paper that "made sense" in full Spanish without my Mac Translator by my side. I had been worried about writing this, but I am glad I got it done.

As for the rest of my day Monday and yesterday and today...it´s been interesting! On Monday, we had to stay after our culture class to watch the movie, La Misción, with Robert de Niro as a young man--can you believe he used to have a six pack? Still had the mole though...

After class though, I ran to catch a bus (or collectivo) that I thought was what I needed...but boy was I wrong! I decided to get off when we went through a tunnel I recognized, but do not need to go through and hoped for the best. After looking around to get my bearings, I realized I had no idea about which direction to go towards. It was about 8:30 at night on a street that would be similar to Rockville Pike. I found a brightly lite baby store that looked safe and decided to attempt the lost puppy, somebody help me look. I went in (after repeated attempts at pulling the door open, when you had to push) and told the owner I was lost. There was a young, cute couple who were looking at stuffed animals who recognized my distress. It was clear the owners did not know where my street was, my fortunately the couple did (and they knew English as well!). They told me the would show me home so I just waited for them to pay. I thought they were going to walk me there, but instead they drove me! In the US I would have NEVER have gone in the car with strangers, but they were young, 5 months pregnant and I could tell they were great people. They drove me home and all was well.

Buen Suerte! Wow, I still shudder at the idea that I willingly entered the car of a stranger, but I´m glad I did. I love Argentina :)


As for Tuesday, we started horseback riding! It was great to get back on a horse after everything with my knees and back. Although I wish I could get an ice pack for them. I rode a beautiful black mare named Osa and she was great, needed extra leg, but a total sweet heart-ç.The instructors were impressed and said I could go straight to canter next week (while the rest are learning basics) so that should be good. It would have been embarrassing to be stuck at beginner considering I´ve been riding since about age 7. At the end of the lesson, they gave us mate and we went home.

Just to be brief, i then experienced Argentinean Wal-mart. I have to run to class now and then leave for the NORTHWEST! Ciao!

We finally did it!

This past weekend was quite an interesting one. On Friday, after our gnocci lunch, myself and two other girls went to explore the surrounding area of the school (after all, we have a 5 hour break in between our 2 classes UGH!). We wanted to go to a bakery, but everything they had was really dry and not fresh (as Ali and I found out later when we attempted to buy something and it was less than tasty). Instead, we walked around and went to a Grido Helado--they are everywhere! It´s a ice cream and what I think is gelato (it has a similar texture to it) store with a ton of flavors. I bought a dulce to leche and chocolate chip ice cream combo, pretty tasty! It was interesting though, because they had the cones stocked in front (like in the US), but then there was this one cone, that was a cone, and then had a semi circle on either side of it so to hold 3 separate ice cream scoops. I pointed to it and said, "¿es interestante, no?" And the 3 workers just laughed and said "aparece a un pene...jajajajaja" (jajaja=hahaha in Spanish). They thought I wouldn´t understand so the joke was on them! But yes, it really did look like one; I don´t know what self respecting person would eat one of those, but who knows!

Anyways, after we returned, we went to our Culture class, where we had a presentation on folklore instruments...for 2 hours! It was interesting and I wanted to try to play their amardillo miniature guitar, but I didn´t get a chance to :( Our teacher looked like he could be a giant; think Hagrid from Harry Potter, but gray hair, and in a ponytail. After Ali and I returned home, we tried to nap before dinner, which was....GNOCCI! I could not believe that we were eating gnocci again, it was such a random coincidence and I didn´t want to tell Dora we had it previously. But hers was definitely a lot better than the school´s gnocci. Then, we started to watch the TV show, Justo a Tiempo--think Price is Right had a baby with a stereotypical Japanese game show. They leave the TV on while Ali and I eat, and it has become a tradition to watch this show after we finish. On Justo a Tiempo, the host, Julian, mentioned gnocci and Dora said it was a tradition to eat gnocci on the 29th of every month! How interesting! Good thing I like it :) I guess it comes from the strong Italian influence in Argentina.

Ali and I originally planned on going on Friday, but after going out Thursday, we decided we needed to sleep, especially since we had to wake up early to meet at UBP for our tour Saturday.

Saturday, we visited una estancia (a farm owned by Jesuits), ate at a real argentine restaurant, and visted Che Guervera´s childhood home. The estancia was FREEZING! There was no heat on our bus, in the estancia or anywhere...I think the temperature must have been around 35 or 40. I definitely did not pack enough warm clothes! As for the restaurant, it was pretty good. It had a salad bar, so I filled up on a nice green salad, yay vegetables!, and bread. It took so long to receive our food since there was 24 of us, but I´m glad it did because I did not like what I ordered. I wanted to order something really Argentinean, so I got Matambre a la pizza, based on Jhonny´s reccomendation (one of our guides in Argentine, really cool, fun, young, goes out with us, buys us shots, convinces beluches (clubs) to let us in for free, without IDs). It is similar to our pizza, but instead of bread crust, the meat, matambre, was the crust. It was matambre with tomato sauce and cheese on top. It was a rectangle shape. I was hoping it would be good since I had eaten a matambre empanda here and liked it, but I was dissappointed. The meat was so fatty! And my first bite tasted like a salt mine had exploded in my mouth. Thank goodness for dessert too! :) We had a vanilla-chocolate ice cream ball covered in a chocolate shell with dulce de leche in the inner center.

While at lunch I heard some funny stories about people´s host families, the funniest came from Andrew and Michael. When they arrived, their mom did everything for them. But then, with each day she adds a new chore for them to do. Here are some examples: take out the trash, make their beds, make their beds with the comforter under the bed sheet SO THAT their beds match, their comforters are different, buy bread for dinner (she gave them a 2 peso, and it cost 5!), etc... I almost died laughing at this. Ali and I are so lucky to have Dora, she is such an amazing person!

Finally it was time to leave to go to Che Guervera´s house. It was interesting...when all took a lot of photos "on" (think people trying to push the leaning tower of pisa) the infamous motorcycle (from the movie motorcycle diaries). Then we saw a movie about how amazing and what a hero he was. My culture teacher, Roberto, had guided us here and kept interjecting. He would go on for 10-20 minutes at a time. Once, however, he went on a rant, on how awful the US is towards South America and I got mad. I felt like he was calling us ignorant, and we only listen to our parents and CNN and don´t care to learn or read books. I finally said something to my teacher because I think that is really unfair to say, considering we came on this trip voluntarily; we wouldn´t be here if we didn´t care. Especially seeing as I am optionally taking HIS culture class.....

Whatever. When push comes to shove, I had to forget about it, but I am not looking forward to seeing him today for class. When we got home, we decided it would be the ideal time to go out since Sunday was our ONLY free day during the trip. We met up with our group at Contender again around 12 and were ready to dance (beluches don´t open until at least 1 or 2 though!) We finally all shared remises (taxis) to go to Studio Theatre. It was definitely a lot of fun, there was this HUGE room with hundreds of people and a stage (that of course our group took over!). There was also a chiller bar room type place--it was great! We stayed out until about 330/4. I could have stayed out longer, but I think I would have started to drink more and I didn´t want to spend the money.

We took a cab home and went to bed. We woke up pretty early, since Dora was having an asado at her house for her sister-in-law, Blanca, Jessica (our friend from Clemson who "lives" with Blanca, Blanca´s daughter, husband, and new 8 month baby and her dog) as well as another woman. We ate good empandas, spaghetti, chicken, quiches (called tarta here) and desserts. I loved this thing Blanca´s daughter made, it was water crackers with chocolate and grounded oatmeal and refridgeratd...yummm! The meal was kind of awkward for Ali and I because everyone spoke so fast, that we were left silent until a question was directed at us. It was nice though to see so many people.

After we ate, Ali left for el centro for homework help while Jessica and I went on a walk around the area. We went to a playground and seesawed and swinged. It was great :) When we got back to the house I took a nap while she read. After my nap, Jessica left, and so had everyone else except Blanca. I went and talked to Dora and Blanca for 3 hours about just about everything--religion, politics, my life, my family, etc. Then Ali returned home, we ate asado leftovers and off to bed!

I had my first test in my Literature class today, and I hope I did well! I didn´t know one thing so I hope I got an A! That´s all for now, I need to go eat!

ciao!