hollyshess

UGA legend- Dr. Armitage

2010-04-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

You can find him rushing to and fro between the Miller Plant Science building, the greenhouse and the UGA Horticulture Trial Gardens. If you catch him in between one of these places, which is very hard to do, he will most certainly be wearing his large brimmed beige hat from Tiley Endurables.

Dr. Armitage, if you don't already know, is a legendary horticulturalist that the University of Georgia is proud to call their own (for now that is).Originally from Canada, Dr. Artmitage attained his B.Sc from MacDonald College of McGill University, Quebec, his M.Sc. from University of Guelph, Ontario and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

Dr. Armitage's list of accolades goes way beyond his schooling.Most recently,Dr. A, as his students call him, published a new book on vines called "Armitage's Vines and Climbers: A Gardener's Guide to the Best Vertical Plants". This is just one of the many books he's written on plants.A horticulturalist with writing skills is hard to come by but Dr. Armitage has bridged the gap between master gardener and beginner for many readers.

His motive behind writing 13 or so books is simply his love of sharing information with those who want to know it. He comments,"writing a book is unlike anything I’ve every done." He went on to explain the difficulty of finishing a task such as writing a book with a quote from Confucius. Some of Dr. A's other books include Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens, Herbaceous Garden Perennials, a Treatise of Identification, Culture and Garden Attributes,Armitage’s Garden Perennials, Armitage’s Manual of Annuals, Biennials and Half Hardy Perennials to name a few. To view a complete list of his works take a look here.

In addition to being a wonderful author of horticulture books, he is a world renowned speaker. He's lectured all over the world on various topics within the horticulture arena. Another form of speaking he participates in daily is teaching. Dr. Armitage teaches a herbaceous perennials ID class and a greenhouse management class (both of which I happen to be in). He used to be a high school teacher and "was very good at it" he says. He continued with "what I do here is share information with you guys, most of whom want to learn it." He challeneges his students to dive and learn this information. A common plant axiom said by Dr. A is this "the more you know, the more you know you don't know." I've had the privilege to meet, learn from and work with this wonderful man. His love of plants is infectious, that's for sure.When asked why he does this, Dr. A commented simply, "I enjoy sharing."

As mentioned earlier, D. A is an author, a speaker, a professor, and a horticulturist with his own lines of plants, Athens Select. Dr. A's baby, the UGA Trial Gardens, has featured many plants specific to the hot and humid Athens climate. He's taken the best species and cultivars, according to his research, and made a plant line of the top performers for the Athens area

Dr. Armitage is not just a career minded person either. He recently participated in Dancing With the Stars- Athens style, where he was partnered with Liza Pitts. They competed together to raise money for Project Safe, a program benefiting abused and battered women. He proudly took the stage, a much different setting than he's use to, and performed for a great cause.Have a look.

Can you understand why Dr. A comes and leaves in a hurry now? Aside from all of these activities, Dr. A is a loving husband,a father of three, and a proud grandfather. Within all aspects of life, his outlook is the same- spread the joy you've been given. "I still have some juices left" was Armitage's statement about juggling all of his beloved activities. He's truly one of a kind and when you leave his presence, you take a little of his passion for life with you.

What did I tell you?

2010-04-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

So if you've been reading my posts, you would've learned the other day about how useful and beneficial houseplants are- they help you stay focused, clean the air, and put you in a better mood. Well apparently, there's a new book out "How To Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home Or Office" about all this and a wonderful article explaining it....take a look. Go ahead, get up and go buy a houseplant, you know you want to.

Aquaponics..yes please

2010-04-27T19:37:00.001-07:00

Aquaponics- the new thing to do apparently. You may be familiar with an up and coming form of agriculture called hydroponics but this is taking it a step further.Basically it's the growing of fish and plants together in a soilless environment. The fish waste provides nutrients to the plants and the plants filter the water for the fish- sounds like a simbiotic relationship to me. Check it out at the Garden Rant blog Garden Rant.

A couple of things you might not know about rosemary - Fresh Dirt - Sunset.com

2010-04-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of things you might not know about rosemary - Fresh Dirt - Sunset.com

plants =therapy

2010-04-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

The Ability Garden at the New Hanover County Arboretum is a one of a kind place. Horticulturist Phyllis Meole uses her love of plants to bring joy to people. As mentioned int he earlier post, greenery brings joy, at least more than "brownery" does :) Phyllis commented that horticulture therapy "brings people and plants together, and puts that connection together for those who may not already make that connection.”

I know in my experiences as horticulture minor, people love and I mean LOVE plants. Another reason to keep them by your desk or in your house is not just for the color, but the benefits. Not only can plants be used to provide therapy to others, but therapy to yourself!

Seeing as how World Health Day was on April 7th, you should know a thing or two about helping yourself out, which ultimately helps the world. What I'm getting at is this: plants help everyone. Check it out- a study in Holland was done concluding that surrounding your workspace with plants will clean the air which helps keep everyone more alert. Also, if you happen to be stuck in front of a computer for four hours or more a day, having plants in a close vicinity will help keep your concentration focused.

So because plants help you focus, they help you to be more productive, which makes everyone happier. Plants can also increase your creativity according to another study done in the States.

The researchers found that pulse rates and blood pressure – two of the physical signs of stress – were both reduced for delegates working in planted surroundings. Green is the number one calming color, so why not surround yourself in calm.
The press release on creating a green oasis says this, "plants also help to clean the air we breathe indoors which can be more polluted than the air outdoors. How? Well all those plastics used to make electrical equipment, soft furnishings, carpets, cleaning commodities and even personal hygiene products omit VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) some of which are recognized as carcinogenic. Plants absorb these pollutants and turn them into food for themselves." Interesting stuff huh?

What more reasons do you need to put plants in your workplace/house?? You will improve the over-all well being of those who come to visit and yourself.

I'm convinced...as if I already wasn't.

pack trials introduces new products into the world

2010-04-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

well sad to say, pack trials is over. But many cool things happened at this wonderful "conference" of horticulture companies. For one, Proven Winners introduced their new calibrachoa Superbells Blackberry Punch.

Some of the most memorable products launched according to attendees, were: Black Velvet petunia from Ball FloraPlant; Magnum New Guinea impatiens from Dummen; the “heirloom hybrid” patio tomatoes from Floranova’s Vegetalis division; Gryphon begonia from PanAmerican Seed (grown for its foliage, not its flowers); Superbells Blackberry Punch petunia from Proven Winners (women were telling them, “I wear that color!”); the Dragon series of vegetative snaps at Ecke; a crisp white iberis called Masterpiece from Jaldety; and the Garvinia perennial gerbera series at Northern Innovators to name a few.

so who cares about all these new plants? chances are the average joe wouldn't know the difference between a brand new plant and one that's been around for 20 years. While that my be true, plants have a huge impact on us every day whether we realize it or not. A recent study done by the Dutch reported that "People living near gardens, parks and other green spaces have lower rates of anxiety, depression and poor physical health than those living in urban areas."

Think back to our recent winter days of brown trees and cold temperatures, was that not depressing? But now that you can go outside and appreciate all the greenery, if nothing else in life, makes it ten times better for most.

spring has sprung..and that means PACK TRIALS!

2010-04-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

spring is here if you haven't noticed..with everything being yellow, how can you not notice. Crazy things happen in spring when it comes to flowers and it's just awesome. Also with spring,comes the Pack Trials. Every year, growers from all over the world get together in California to peruse each others greenhouses and chat about what's new in the horticulture world. The trials are in California but are broken up into 3 categories due to its large following : northern, central and southern. Participating in the Northern Trials are: Goldsmith/Syngenta Flowers, Headstart Nursery, Pacific Plug & Liner, Speedling, Inc.,Golden State Bulb Growers, American Takii. In the Central Trials are:Dümmen USA, Inc.Greenheart Farms,Floranova, Imagination Canyon Greenhouse, Ball Horticultural Company, GroLink Plant Company, Inc. , Island View Nursery, Fides North America. Lastly but not least, the Southern Trials include:Proven Winners, Plug Connection, Ecke Ranch.

Here's Grower Talks suggested agenda for this one of a kind event:

Friday, April 9
Fly from Chicago O’Hare to San Jose (closer and generally cheaper than San Francisco).

Lodging - Gilroy (two nights)
Dinner - Central Texan barbecue in Castroville. Our only chance to eat here, so we aren’t going to miss it!

Saturday, April 10
8:30 am Golden State Bulb Company
10:30 am Pacific Plug & Liner (Agrexco group of companies)
2 pm Goldsmith/Syngenta

Sunday, April 11
9 am Danziger/Oro Farms
10:30 am Speedling
2 pm Takii

Drive South to the central trials area.

Lodging - Pismo Beach

Monday, April 12
8 am Dümmen USA
10:30 am Greenheart
1 pm Floranova
4 pm Island View

Lodging - Ventura (two nights)

Tuesday, April 13
8:30 am Imagination Canyon
11 am Fides
1 pm Ball

Dinner - we’ll play it by ear.

Wednesday, April 14
8 am GroLink
2 pm Plug Connection

Lodging - Encinitas (two nights)

Thursday, April 15
8 am Proven Winners
2 pm Ecke Ranch

Friday, April 16
Fly home from San Diego or Orange County.

All this in six days - 18 stops, and at least 45 displaying companies/divisions ... “What could possibly go wrong?” - from Grower Talks Magazine

So bascially what happens at these Pack Trials is growers debute their new products, new varieties, new plants and brokers or buyers from other companies take note of that new product so they can offer it to their customers. I'd like to compare it to say a debute party. Everyone invited gets to see what's new before anyone else in the world. They also can buy what they want of it and start to offer the new product before anyone else does. So this is a really exciting week for the horticulturists of the world! Get your sunglasses and hats and head out to CA to see it unfold.

i want to be retired...

2010-01-21T09:24:00.000-08:00

ok so i went to my grandparents place this past weekend...they live in a active adult community in st. augustine fl and its amazing. I went to work out at their gym and it was silent, complete with one other person. Beautiful facilities...but no one to use them. i guess they were too busy relaxing :) it made me think how I want to impliment relaxation in my life everyday. I'm not very good at it so far as this week has been SUPER BUSY. oh well, maybe tomorrow?

bariloche.. swedish wanna-be town

2009-07-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

so, after seeing the beautiful view from the bus terminal, we could only imagine what else bariloche had to offer us. After a long trip, we arrived at the hostel run by an Irish couple, PUDU. Pudu is actually a super small deer looking thing only found in southern argentina. We relaxed and pretty much just went to the super market the first day since we were so wipped..oh and the laundromat. That night was ASADO night and the hostel was hopping. I cooked up some sausage, broccoli and pasta while everyone else paid 40 pesos for loads of meat. We enjoyed reuniting with our friend micheal from our program in BA and his friend Nico. THere were also some guys from switzerland who had awesome accents. WE ended up just watching TV that night and taking it easy. Going to bed while a full fledged shin dig is going on...is quite hard..an ipod helps :) the morning brought clouds and the thought of snow, but really just cold weather. It was nice to catch up with the family on skype that morning while enjoying the amazing view. We decided to do a little "hiking" and headed up Cerro Oto. The 2 hour walk up was on a dirt road that switched back and forth about 12 different times. The views just kept getting better even though it was super cloudy. The sun penetrated through the clouds in one spot and highlighted a little island in lake Nahuel Huapi. At one point, i ripped open a massive pine cone and filled my nostrils with the burley scent of pine...it was amazing. so much so i brought the pine cone with me to continue sniffing it haha..katie followed suite. We FINALLY got up to the top and wouldnt you know, we couldnt see a darn thing. This was supposed to be one of the best views and the lowlying, thick, white clouds was all we could see. Cold, hungry and tired, we sat for a minute in the revolving restaurant thinking about whether food could even cheer us up..no was the answer. So we took the cable car down in silence and luckily got a free bus ride back to the hostel. I decided to act on my newfound infatuation of chocolate by making a submarino..hot chocolate. I went to the nearby kiosk with dylan (the dog named after bob dylan who looks like a golden retriever but needs to grow a foot). The sweet owner proceeded to debate about which chocolate would do a submarino justice and came to the conclusion that none would, but i bought some anyways. There was some tension between katie and i as we were both frustrated with our somewhat waisted day and for that, i bought her a chocolate milk. This was pretty much a low point out of the whole trip. For the rest of the afternoon, i watched TV and katie hung out downstairs for a while. IT came time to cook..chicken, cauliflower and potatoes were on the menu. It was a little hectic trying to cook everything at the same time in a small space..as usual. I enjoyed talking to jim saturday night before he took off to South Africa for a week and 1/2. Sunday morning, we were rudely awoken by the same family screaming at 7 am. Enduring the chaos until about 9 30, we got up and got ready for church. You know how they say when in Rome, well when in South America, you have to go to a catholic church, so we did. It was a very tastefully decorated church, unlike the rest we've seen. The mass was very good and I enjoyed being in church for once..its been 7 weeks almost. Hugo, our mexican friend, accompanied us there as well. On the way back, all I could think about was getting into some warmer clothes.. it was about 40 degrees F there..but they go by celsius. After dilly-dallying some, katie came in and asked if i'd like to go get a choripan for lunch, 5 pesos..deal. I didnt know what that was or who was going but it was one of the best decisions we've made so far. A dutch guy, Eddie, is the one who got everyone excited. Hes in argentina with his friend Mariska doing volunteer work and hanging out. Hugo is just traveling around and like I said, he's from mexico, super nice guy. There were some swiss snow boarders at our hostel as well, and they just looked like they're ballers in the snow. Our other friend micheal from GA and his friend Nico from Mar del Plata came along on this adventure to get choripans (sausage with chimichurri). Unfortunately, the choripan man wasn't at his spot and we searched some some other food. Before that though, we went in all the chocolate stores and tried to get free samples and then leave without buying something :) haha it was fun. After lunch, hugo and i continued to walk around the town alittle as i needed some time away from the group. He told me alittle bit about some theories he's been thinking about..how most of your problems are all mental and can be changed..somewhat true. I had the most rich hot chocolate ever..tasted like straight up melted chocolate but it was perfect for this freezing day. When we parted ways with the others, we decided we'd make our OWN choripans and have a big hostel dinner together. I was in charge of the salad, Eddie and Hugo the choripans and Katie, the entertainment. THis was the beginning of what we like to call "the choripan clan"...we had so much fun together we decided to recall our adventures in story form:

Chapter 1 Choripan clan forms

Once upon a time in a Swiss-looking village called Bariloche there were two American chicks, a Mexican, and a Dutch guy. These foreigners stayed at the fabulous, luxurious 5 star hostel Pudu overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi. One rainy Sunday afternoon they all got hungry. The Dutch guy, named Eduardo had had a religious experience the day before when he met The Choripan Man. “Guys, this sandwich is delicious. You got the chori, you got the pan.” “Mehhhhhh.” The others said. “And there’s a show! It’s only one euro! Which is like five pesos.” “Ooooooo! Yeah! Let’s go have choripan.” So the new friends got bundled up to venture outside. While they waited for Holly, they accosted arriving hostel guests, trying to convince them to join the group for a delicious lunch of choripan. But no one else understood how awesome the sandwich would be.

Holly soon arrived and the group began to walk. They were all so excited – their empty bellies would soon be full of choripan! But when they got to the plaza, The Choripan Man was so where to be found. “Unbelievable! The Choripan Man should be here. The fact that it is Sunday is no excuse,” said Katie. “What are we going to do now?” asked Hugo. “My tour guide will take us to another place,” said Eduardo, coming to the rescue. The group followed Mariska to Rock Chicken and they had a delicious meal of lomito and Sprite. But it just wasn’t the same as choripan. “I know what we can do! We will have a choripan party tonight. Everyone is invited! We are the Choripan Clan!” “That’s a great idea, Eduardo!” said Holly. Katie was bent over laughing and unable to speak.

Holly and Hugo went off to find Milka chocolate while Katie went with Mariska and Eduardo to the supermercado to buy supplies for the choripan party. They bought some chorizos and some pans and went back to the hostel Pudu to get everyone excited about choripans.

At 8 PM Hugo and Eduardo got the BBQ started and they were ready for some entertainment. That’s where Katie came in and she gave a great show with her choripan song and dance. Around 9.30 PM the BBQ was hot. The choris were on the fire, the pans were cut and the salad was prepared. So it was time to enjoy the choripans and they were f’ing great.

Chapter 2 Signing the contract

The choripan clan went on an adventure today. At 10.30 AM they were looking for car rental place and fortunately found one. They paid 300 pesos and the got a white fiat punto. After seeing the car they had to sign a contract, which scared them. The guy from the rental place told them that if they hit somebody with the car they had to pay 2000 pesos and if they are flipping over they had to pay 6000 pesos. That scared the clan a little bit. But there was no way back and the got in the car.

Chapter 3 The map

The Mexican was the first one, who got into the car and got behind the steering wheel. They actually didn’t have a lot of good tunes, only one cd with reggaeton music. That’s wasn’t an option for them, so they tried to find a nice radio station, which they found. Unfortunately when they got out of Bariloche there wasn’t any signal anymore, so there wasn’t any music.

The plan they had was to see the 7 lakes in the area. So they found the map in the car and went in the right direction. The way up to the 7 lakes was real nice and they stopped a couple of time for some pictures. ‘PPPOOOWWWWWWW’ ‘POOOOWWWWWW’ Eduardo screamed. This was because they were playing the game buffalo and they had to shoot us much animal as they can. During this trip they were talking a lot. They were a lot things to discuss and be talked about.

For example about the stereotypes of there countries. When they discussed that subject, they had to make the decision which road they should get. They took this crucial decision very quick, they kept on talking and laughing. After 40 minutes of driving they still haven’t seen a lake and they start worrying. So they parked their car and looked at both map they had of the area. The maps were completely different from each other and that was real confusing. They decided to turn around and the Dutch guy was up to drive.

Chapter 4 The bridge

They were speeding to get back to the point where they had to decide which road they had to take. The guy from the car rental mentioned they had to take a dirt to get to the lakes. So they took one of the dirt roads they saw. Entering this road there was a massive sign that said the bridge was closed. But the clan just ignored that sign and went on. It was a real dirt with a lot of holes and puddles. All of a sudden Katie screamed ‘EMOEEEEE!!!!!’ Eduardo stalled the car and the rest of the clan saw to emoes, which ran away when we finally got all our cameras ready. Fortunately Holly was able to make one picture. They kept on going on this road and they were just ignoring the signs. After 3 minutes of driving the saw a boar and they called him Pumba and they were also looking for Timon, but they couldn’t find him. They took some pictures and continued their safari. They were waiting to see an elephant or a lion, but instead they saw a whole family of Argentinean cows. So they said ¡Hola! and drove on. So we drove on and there was fork in the road, which leaded the clan to a house or the bridge. They took the road to the bridge, while they were driving the road got bumpier and more watery. They drove till the point the bridge was supposed to be there, but actually it wasn’t. So they had to turn around and almost ruined the car with that trick and went back. The clan decided to go to that house to ask for some directions to the lakes.
(written by eddie with his dutch-english phrases)

Chapter 5 Nazis

So they drove on for 5 more minutes and they got to a little sketchy village (more like a farm). What could this be? A village where the Nazis are living. Hugo got out of the car to ask for some directions. They told him to get off their property, if not they will kill us and have us for diner. So Hugo jumped back in the car and Eduardo pulled an U-ie to get the F… off the property.

Chapter 6 Chased!

On their way out they saw 3 gauchos, so Hugo asked them for directions. The gauchos didn’t know and we had to get of their land. We figured we had to get as fast as possible of their land, so, with a bit of speeding they took off. On their way out they saw the cow family again. The clan said goodbye to them and drove on. After 5 minutes Katie just screamed: ‘LLAAMMAAASS’. On the top of the mountain there were a couple of lama’s. They couldn’t make a good picture of them so they started chasing the lama’s. But lama’s can run pretty fast, so actually the run was useless. While chasing the lama’s they saw the gauchos again and they didn’t look so happy. They pretended to make pictures of the lovely land, but the gauchos weren’t that pleased. The clan got escorted of their property. If they had guns, they would definitely killed the clan. But fortunately they didn’t have the guns on them.

Chapter 8 The drop off

After this scary part of the day they decided to sing songs with each other. All the all-time favorites were sang. For example beatles, rolling stones, queen etcetera. There isn’t a song they didn’t sing. Unfortunately they had to drop off Eduardo at the Mercado de la Estepa, where he had to do some volunteer work. But the rest of the clan went on.

Chapter 9 Chilean border?

Earlier Eddie mentioned how the map was just a little bit below par..that fact comes into play now. After dropping off our beloved dutch friend, we scarfed down lunch, filled up the tank with gas and started on another adventure. This time we were headed north along the coast of lake Nahuel Huapi to see some other lakes (because we'd only seen about 2 or 3..instead of 7). After driving for a while, we stopped to make a few pictures. After chatting with a man at the view point, he told us mirror lake was up the road just a bit. So we continued on..and on.. and wouldn't you know we come to a security checkpoint. Since they are randomly all over argentina, we didn't think anything of it until the woman said "why are you going to Chile"...we laughed, looked at the map and realized where we had gone..OOPS. Hugo pulled a UUIIE and we jetted out of there. THis part of the adventure um poco mas tranquilo because we were so whipped from earlier in the day..or maybe it's because we'd been laughing constantly??

Chapter 10 Teresita

Katie and I developed strong feelings towards the hitchikers here in bariloche..and because we had a male with us we decided it was ok to act on those feelings. Our first hitchhiker was Teresita, not Teresa, but teresita. She had a brother who was going to the Paul McCartney concert in New York..Hugo caught this info because he's a native speaker but Katie and I just picked up on that we were taking her to work :) After she hopped out, Hugo mentioned it was quite weird she introduced herself as Teresita..the equivalent is, say, me hopping in the car and saying, "oh just call me hollybear" haha the "ita" in spanish is diminutive and usually just used among friends.. i guess she was pretty comfortable with us :)

Chapter 11 If you AIN’T Dutch, you AIN’T much

After a great day of following their hearts they got real hungry. A real good friend of the clan Mariska made a Dutch dinner for them and the rest of the hostel. The dish is called Hutspot met gehaktbal. They all real enjoyed the dinner and partied after.(by partying, Eddie means we taught them how to play nertz and the others played Jenga)

Chapter 12 Bring the coffee in the car

at 6:00 we heard the alarm go off. I don't think we've every not wanted to get up so bad..the thing that did get us up though was the pure excitement about seeing LAGO HESS.. hollys lake. The girls tried to coerce Eddie and Hugo into coming with them the night before and sure enough it happened..except Hugo. HOWEVER, he was sweet enough to get up at 6, explain to Eddie that he was going skiing, then went downstairs to send his regards along with the girls on their adventure. The rental car was due at 11 and we left at 6 45. Holly began the drive with her somewhat jerky stick skills but it worked fine. Eddie meanwhile was still waking up in the backseat accompanied by coffee all over his lap :) sorry Eddie. The clan decided to stop on the side of the road to check out the amazing array of stars..it was FREAKING MONKEYS outside though, so they quickly hopped in the car and continued. Katie thought for a split second that the light dusting of white on the road was indeed the salt that had already been put down...yeah right! Holly agreed and they both realized their american mindset was WRONG. Once again, the maps were sketchy and it was hard to decide which road was the one the clan was in search of. Katie acting as the navigator, and Eddie the backseat driver, were arguing whether the road we found was correct...the wager was a Choripan. The seemingly thick snow postponed the clan for just a few minutes seeing as how their fiat hadn't won much trust. The need to see lake hess as the sun rose was imenint and they decided to test the waters. The views kept getting better and better as the night sky brightened to welcome the new morning. The radio of course didn't work and gave the clan a chance to test their vocal cords this early, frosty manana. "sha la la la la la la la la la la ti da" Eddie then took it away with "They're my, blue eyed girls"... some songs that debuted were: man, i feel like a woman, save tonight, ive got friends in low places, roll black water and it's a marvelous night for a moondance. The best was when eddie broke out in song with some outlandish and somewhat offensive words that katie couldnt place with a song. Singing to the tune of the snowflakes, we quickly forgot it was only 8 30am. The sun doesnt really rise until about 8 45 which allowed the clan to marvel at the sun's daily job unfolding. Lago Hess was just splendid..the mirror image of the mountains was breathtaking. Eddie and Holly were engolfed in capturing the moment while katie had found some energy and went running to a boat on the edge of the lake. After some silence, eddie decided to taunt katie with a snow ball of fresh powder.The clan took one last picture..eddies camera, paired with hollys tripod, and an extra arm for hugo. Katie and eddie patiently waited for holly to wrap up her nature photo shoot which left all three not able to feel their toes. Eddie wanted to drive, Holly wanted to take pictures and katie wanted to sing so we did all those things. The things that weren't allowed was: smoking and throwing up..which we didnt do!

Ch 13 We almost died!

Eddie got a little excited about the agility of the car and almost made the clan take an adventure down the side of the hill..almost. Once arriving to the beginning of the one way street (until 10 am its either way, from 11-1 its IN and from 2-6 its OUT only)..holly realized she had left her tripod right there in the prestine snow.. The clan was in a pridicament.. they needed a phone to extend their car rental but didnt have signal..There was no way they could go in a retreive the tripod: holly decided it was best to lay it to rest at the side of her lake anyways. As we approached the security gate, something went wrong in eddie's head. He figured since there was no one coming in the left (in) side that he'd go through that..mid decision though katie and holly hollered at him to take the right path. Instead of choosing one way, he came to a sliding hault right in front of the security gate (meanwhile all three woman security guards in the other hut watched with crossed arms). After scolding the indecisive dutch, we explained to the ladies he was just a little confused..we then proceeded to ask for a phone to use. They didn't have a phone (or at least thats what they told us) and so we headed on our way back to bariloche in hopes of finding singal. Again holly and katie wanted to act on their hitchiker passions, and because it was pouring snow, the clan stopped to pick up a man. Oscar was his name and he had a phone! Katie quickly put it to use and extended our rental car one hour to allow for our return. Oscar informed me that his son was a ski instructor at Cerro Catedral (the famous ski resort in barilcohe) and that if we wanted lessons, he could get them for us. Eddie contiued to be somewhat of a skatterbrained driver and when oscar told me directions, i tranlasted them to eddi and then he got flustered :) We said goodbye to oscar and searched for the rental car's home. By this time, eddie had not smoked ALL morning and was getting to be a little grumpy. The girls enjoyed teasing him and testing his patience. After finally finding the rental car garage, eddie pulled in with much regret. He began to pull forward, and as a family sternly watched he began to scrap the side mirror on the wall.. the girls screamed and he viered away from the stone barrier. After hearing the words "todo bien" (meaning we were cleared from the rental) the clan headed to get some ice cream (not sure why because it just finished snowing).

Ch 14 Ice cream the night before

The actual reason they went to get ice cream was that eddie and holly had ventured there the previous night. They were sent on a mission to buy ice cream for the hostel patrons and could only find expensive gas station ice cream. Emma, the hostel owner told them all the ice cream shops were closed and so they believed her. After searching bariloche up and down, they consented to buying the expensive dulce de leche cones at ESSO gas station. BUT, right after that, they passed an ice cream shop that was OPEN. THey had to go in.. and shared a wonderful mixture of bariloche chocolate and americana. When holly suggested americana flavor, eddie replied with "just becuase its american doesnt mean its good.." and ongoing joke between the clan. The hostelers didn't even notice they'd been gone for 45 mins and scarfed down the pre-made cones.

after our adventures we grabber some lunch :choripans and empanadas. The day kind of just slipped away as we worked on uploading pictures and what not. That night we enjoyed a nice dinner at Parilla Tranquilo. Katie, Eddie and I shared lomo, patagonian lamb, and tomato ravioles. For dessert I had my own chocolate fondue and it was AMAZING. Tom, our english friend accompanied a Mariska, Eddie, Katie and I to dinner and he is hilarious. His speech is rough to the ear but accompanied with his accent, his "french" words seem harmless. We rallied up our sleeping friends to enjoy one last night with the americans. Our last day in Bariloche, we headed up to Cerro Campaniero which is decalred one of the top 10 views in the world (according to National Geophraphic). Indeed, it was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.. We enjoyed the presence of a magnificient bird and captured some great pics of him. Eddie and I shared a wonderful peice of dulce de leche cake at the top of the mountain while the girls enjoyed some rich hot chocolate. It was there I decided I want to be a nature photographer..or rather take postcard pictures :) I found some amazing ones but will wait to send them from the US becuase argnetina will loose them! We reluctantly left bariloche and headed for puerto madryn. The bus worker offered to share mate with me and you never turn that down..we chatted about all kinds of differences between america and argentina..he was the first person that, even after I told him to talk slowly, didn't so there was alot of repeating. That brings me to Puerto Madryn, patagonia technical which I will recount later!

houses on a hill

2009-07-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

So Valpariso is a great place...except when you arrive just after dusk to a place you've heard nothing but bad about. We jumped in a taxi and quickly arrived at a staircase leading to the darkness above. The taxi driver told us our hostel was just up the stairs...catch is there were 2 staircases, one of which was about 60-70 stairs (only a problem when you have ALLL your valuables on you) We hiked up those 60 stairs to find an iron gate and nothing else, except of course a pounding heart both of exhaustion and fear. In a calm panic, we walk back down and take the stairs that veared to the right. The only sign we could see was a WIND AND SURF hostel sign..not ours. THen i walked up to the door and above it, etched in iron said MILLENIUM HOUSE..ah hah! ours indeed. The place was wonderful, we showered (which was more like a game that i'll explain later) and headed out to eat. Eduardo, the son of the family running the hostel, told us to go to a place just across the plaza so we took his word for it.. absolutely no one was in there and they had videos blaring american 80s music. Katie and I both opted for the shrimp seeing as how we were on the ocean.. it was quite amazing! Our dinner cost 1100 chilean pesos which is a shocker when you're used to argetine pesos (80) much less american dollars. It was a nice treat to eat out because usually I do the cooking of the meals :) The first glance as i slowly awoke one one filled with bright sunlight bouncing off the orange comforters. THe comforters were a treat because typically they give you coarse wool blankets. I was filled with joy in the morning and it only got better beacuse teresa (house mom) brought out fresh baked bread, homemade strawberry and peach marmalade and great coffee. We took the morning slow and katie chatted with our finnish roomates while i took some alone time. We changed money, headed to the laundromat (suprisingly they aren't on every corner here like in BA) and walked to the main plazas. We also headed down to the terminal for cruise ships but couldnt cross the railroad tracks that was acting as our barrier. So instead we turned around and walked the length of the tracks hopping to find a crossway...didnt happen. The weather was BEAUTIFUL..t shirt, jeans and flip flops. we took a bus up to pablo nerudas house (the poet) and the bus was crazy! First of all, the houses are built right up on the hills and are stacked one on top of the other. So you can imagine a bus climbing up all those switchbacks at breakneck speed :) it was fun though. The musueum house was closed so we meandered through the vendors. We both found some great jewelry for relatively cheap. The decision not to actually see inside nerudas house was made and instead we sat on the balcony and peered over the city..i tried to offer my advice to katie as she was thinking about some decisions. After a while, we got up to leave. I offered to take a picture of a solo traveler and it ended up he wanted photo shoot :) haha it was hilarious because he kept asking me, una vez mas (one more time) and would pose differently. I suggested a flash because of the shadows and he proceeded to tell me differently and show me examples. I responded with quite the same showing him examples on my camera..vs his 4 year old kodak point and shoot. WE came to agree on disagreeing about the flash. The walk down Cerro Bellavista was magnificient. So many colors and niches. One old womans door was open and she was knitting fervently in front of the tv. There was an amazing church as well but it just happened to be closed (probably the siesta that lasts from 12-4). In search of the open sky museum, which is painted houses, we only found the arch saying museo cielo abierto..no luck. The rest of the night was spent taking care of things like money and laundry..and eating :) I cooked us up some pasta and soup and we enjoyed it while watching Night at the museum with an Australian couple. I was frustrated because i couldn't get my computer to work or connect to the internet and finally just gave up. The next morning was early indeed..We headed out at 7 and ended up taking a shared taxi (great concept!) to the bus terminal. The ride back was similiar to the one there..beautiful scenery, so beautiful you get a headache haha THe border control was a bit past the chile control and for just a minute i thought we escaped that process.. not so lucky. It is a dreadful process, getting stamped out, stamped in, and waiting forever! Thankfully i bought a ham and cheese sandwhich while waiting because lunch was pimento cheese..hardly my favorite. After arriving to mendoza we searched the bus terminal for a bus to barlioche. Finally we found the one we were looking for and booked the next 21 hour ride (making for 29 hours on a bus in about 32 hours) for just an hour and 1/2 later. Andesmar is who we rode down with and they do a wonderful service. We had reclining leather chairs and hot pot roast for dinner. Not quite the same as winning bingo and having wine with dinner, but enjoyable none the less. The ride ended at 2 and from 8 until arrival, the view was amazing. WE drove through the northern lake district into bariloche..the bus terminal is right next to the lake, backed by snow covered mountains.

past few stops..

2009-07-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

ok so i admit, i've lost alot of the details of our last few stops because i didnt write them down on here... GOOD news is i have them, just somewhere else. What that means to you faithful readers :) is that when you ask for stories, the unwritten ones and the details come to face so get excited. Anyways, what you SHOULD know is that we went on a long tour around the vicenity of salta which i will expand upon in a minute. Afternoon one, we took a teleferico (cable car) up to the san bernardo look out and it was great, but the city has a lot of smog. We ended up watching the sunset over the mountains to the sweet tate of a submarino (hot chocolate). We met some isrealies on the way up and kept running into them on the tiny mountain outlook. What we didn't realize was that when the sun goes down, so does the temperature by about 15 degrees..in line, a sweet old man offered katie and I his jacket: I first refused because thats what you always do, decline once and then accept.. when i declined though, he replied with "i am with my wife" haha so then i had to take it. We met some really awesome girls on the way down in the gondola, one from Missouri and one from New Jersey (Misa y Ariel). WE convinced them to go on the tour the hostel offered in place of "el tren a las nubes" which is one of the highlights of argentina. I also need to mention that in between all of this, we wrote our final essays for our class and turned them in with about 5 minutes to spare, but they got done :) The tour left at 7am and lasted until about 9 30 pm. Basically we took the same route as "el tren" but went alot faster, paid alot less, and met some great people. In our camioneta (bus/van) there were girls from spain, our friends, bri from ohio, Niels from germany and a super sick girl named paris from france.. Our first stop was in the Quebrada del torro which was awesome.. cacti covers the mountains like a sheet. the jagged mountain tops are a sight especially combined with ancient power lines at the base..gosh its just pretty. Our guide fede told us about pacha mama (the pre-incan God or something in which you find various shrines on the sides of the roads..people leave half empty bottles of water so "she" wont get thristy and they (truckers and other argentines) also leave trash inside the shrine. To me, it was an excuse to litter but to them it's custom. So after purchasing the softest alpaca scarf and some 1 peso empanadas we continued on our way. The stop for lunch was interesting because the menu was in our waiters head..always a dangerous thing. I asked for pollo and they brought a whole rotissery chicken to me.. not quite what i was expecting but it was good. We got scammed with the price and so when katie and i left, we took all the bread possible off the table and stuck it in our purses..because we had ultimately paid for it and then some. Anyways, I was pretty darn tired so i managed to fall asleep. Funny thing is that we were on the bumpiest road known to man, but it wasnt just for 30 mins or so, it was about 2 and 1/2 hours. At one point before falling asleep breifly, i had to go to the bathroom SO bad. I asked if we could stop and we did.. only problem was there are NOOO trees..so i found a medium size bush and made it work. after i broke the ice by asking to stop, many other enjoyed the break as well haha..anyways, i awoke to a world of white..the salt flats! possibly one of the coolest terrains. Its like when you're in colorado looking at the beautiful rockies and then you arrive to the massive sand dunes..kind of random. Fede told us that the salt planes (also some in bolivia and chile) were not from the ocean, but from the volcanoes..and that every year they get covered with water ( a big lake forms) and then they dry up again. Pentagon-ish shapes covered the earth as far as you could see to the mountains around you..I tried to think of a reason why while applying my chemistry and I came up with this: maybe salt NaCl has a traingle shaped crystal and that after the forces act with the other crystals, they all together form a large pentagon shape! Also in the salt planes, you can take crazy optical illusion pictures, which we did. Neils the german guy got a little out of line with his creativity but it was funny none-the-less. We passed through Jujuy on the way back which was a really cool little place. It also is the home of the rock of seven colors. It was there i bought my beloved alpaca sweater and some other super cheap dessert empanadas. That night we decided to eat out and possibly to go check out a pena (a spanish folklore show popular to salta)...but we were too tired. We felt like true argentines because we ended up eating dinner at 11 30. I had the best meal out of my entire stay in argentina.. it was lomo (the best cut of meat) covered in onions, peas, bacons pieces, ham and a fried egg, surrounded by circular potatoes at the perfect hardness..it was heavenly. One of the most interesting things about eating with katie is that she is SUPER slow..i mean like SLOW. Every time i sit down to eat, i have to pace myself with katie and make sure i dont get too far ahead because if i finish too much before she does, i'll still be hungry and want more JUST because she's still eating. The balancing factor is the same when it comes to drinks..You only get one and it doesnt matter if its coka, pepsi or water..all the same price and all small. This is one of the only things i REALLY miss about the states, no free safe water and no free refills..they also dont use ice :( but back to salta. The next day we walked around town a while, saw some quirky latin american churches and took a bunch of pictures.
MENDOZA
Then we headed to the bus station and hopped on..it was the smoothest transition from hostel to bus that we had experienced yet. Our bus to mendoza left at 3:45 and was supposed to arrive at 9:30 am. During this wondeful ride with Andesmar, we played bingo. Now i love bingo and so does katie, so we were trash talking to each other about who was going to win. It didnt even occur to me, rules could be different in argentina. Also, katie has a problem with understanding numbers so everytime he called one out, i translated it for her in english. I got a whole row across so I yelled out BINGO!.. he then proceeded to call out all my numbers and told me i was missing one..41 in the corner..that would link 3 edges together for a triple bingo in american standards. YOu know what happened next, katie was about to win and then he called 41.. i was so pumped..and my gift was a bottle of white wine from mendoza, perfect welcoming gift to our next desination. Our guide friend Pablo from our previous mendoza trip made plans to pick us up from the bus terminal and go from there. Apparently he got confused as to when we were arriving and went there at night, therefore he wasnt there when we actually did arrive in the morning. I ended up walking around the entire terminal searching for a very argnetine looking pablo and wasnt successful. This man tried to get us to go to his hostel and it was actually the one we had already planned on going to. We couldn't get a hold of pablo and so we used this mans knowledge of dialing in argnetina to check to see it pablos number was valid. It was indeed and we heard from his after we camped out in a cafe for a while. He picked us up and we crammed our things into his car only to go, as the crow flies, across the street. However, by road it took about 30 mins with traffic and a confused driver :) it was good time to catch up with him though and we enjoyed the brief reunion. As we walked in our hostel room for the next two days, we were met with a horrible smell. We realized later it was our roomies that hadn't showered recently. Ryan, from san diego, more specifically 2 blocks from where drew and I surfed alot, and his traveling parter Charlie from argentina but residing in Spain. We chatted with them a while and then headed out to do our own thing. We were on a mission: find me a towel! I had been using katies towel after she showered up until this point because we hadn't run into any towels...and i did not want to "hire" or rent a towel from the hostels we'd been at. Anyways, we were successful only after a wonderful lunch of hamburgers! I eat almost exactly twice as katie so when she didnt finish hers, I did and continued to have 2 alfajores as well :) I am in love with milka..its a chocolate here and i usually am not a HUGE chocolate lover..but now i am addicted..thats right addicted. I also have taken a strong liking to pepsi. You may think, well holly, you already had a huge liking...but now its much more strong. Word on the street, or in the hostel lobby, is that they make pepsi sweeter here, with real sugar and in the states they make it with sweetner..not sure if thats true but it sounds good :) Afterwards, we did indeed find a towl like i said, and also a really great argentine jersey type shirt that i'm very attached to. We decided to walk down and see the main plaza and it was beatiful. When we were in mendoza about a month ago with our group, we saw a very different side of the city so it was good to see the other part this trip. Katie wasn't feeling well so we headed home after taking a look around. I of course had to get a pepsi and some chocolate on the way home. Everyday I think about the amazing sale we found on this chocolate in puerto igazu..6 pesos for a huge bar and now everywhere else, its double that :( I'm even a bargain shopper in argentine pesos. Anyways, i tried to catch up on uploading pictures for a while and chatted with some girls in the tv room. Later Ryan and i headed to the supermarket to grab some things for dinner. Katie and Charlie weren't eating so ryan and i put our food toghether and charlie cooked it (bc his brother is a chef and hes knows how to cook well too). I broke open the bottle of white wine that I won on the bus and shared it with our newfound friends. I still however don't enjoy the plain taste of white or red wine and always taint it with sprite. People mince at this..but thats fine with me. We had a wonderful meal, chatted with a guy from france and a woman from chile for a while, and then continued with adventure stories. The stories lead to showing pictures and that lasted for a while. Ryan and I talked about aspirations with our majors and what not and he told some pretty funny stories about how life goes in california. Charlie was educated after the night on what he needed to go see in the states. That night was pretty rough..katie was doing things in the bathroom that aren't considered fun..meaning she had water sickness. Ryan was moving around alot... and i woke up suppper hot. Needless to say, morning was a welcome sight. We jumbled our things together in 30 mins and headed to the bus station. The 8 30 bus to chile was full so we got a ticket for 9 30 and drank coffee in the cafe once again. Katie and I always have nice chats at the coffee shops. It amazes me however how many people eat solo here. I mean maybe i just never analyzed that at home but i have taken notes here..and i will soon compare :)
VALPARAISO CHILE
Oh dios mio...thats equivalent to "oh my gosh" Pretty much this day was the longest day ever. the drive was splendid but we'd actually already seen the first 3 hours before when we went trekking at aconcagua. The difference though was the snow slopes were open and teeming with people. The andes look soo much more spectacular dotted with white powder. For whatever reason, katie and i were feeling pretty lousy for the whole ride up until the border. Before we know it, we're headed through a tunnel and see a "welcome to chile" sign! I high five the man sitting next to me and we do a little victory dance. Katie was on the opposite row next to the sweetest middle aged woman. Well we shouldn't have done that little dance yet because the border control took FOREVER. First we waited in a line for about 45 mins..then we were allowed to get off and walk around a bit. The only piece of comic relief here was we could see the ski slopes running across the way. So, after we wait for a while, we all get in line to get stamped out of argnetina, and then stamped in chile. During this process we met our new friends Elizabeth and Russ who have a sheep farm in Australia. They didn't speak a lick of spanish and had been travleling all around..quite an inspiration but not what i prefer. The next thing was to get all your things off the bus, have them look through then, and also pass ALL the luggage through a screen. IN the mean time i met one of the detectives and his dog nino..just in case we needed some help :) haha Passing the time in conversation was much appreciated as it took about 1.45 to finish all this. Well wouldn't you know some stupid woman tried to bring eggs across the border and instead of just throwing them in the trash, they have to go through a 2 hour long process of who knows what...scolding?? Anyways, our bus waited another 2 hours for the woman to get on and then we continued to valpariso. The andes continued to stand with dignity, looking majestic. The road we took to decend from the frontera (border) had about 12 switchbacks. Because we were sitting on a two story bus in the front seat, going around the corners just about gave us heart attacks. Chile had much different terrain than argentina. It is SOOOO green.

half way through week 2..

2009-07-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

sorry for the long delay in updates..its been a crazy few days. We ended up missing the 9th of july party in san ignacio because our bus left too soon. We actually had to go to Tucuman which was about a 20 hour drive and then hopped on a bus to Salta 10 mins later making for a full 24 hour trip. We met some cool kids on the bus and we talked about donald miller books. I had just finished "through painted deserts" and it was AWESOME. I was one, proud i finished it, and two, happy i liked it. We enjoyed talking with those kids from NC about their volunteer activities in Peru and what God's been showing them. When we got to salta, our real adventure started. We couldn't find the address for the hostel we were planning on staying at so we found the tourist representative and asked him. He said he knew it and took us out to the taxi. Mistake one: he told the taxi driver the address and not us. The taxi took us to a ridiculous hotel and tried to drop us off there. I got frustrated with him and told him he needed to take us where the other man told him. I finally found the address that wasnt supposed to be in my purse and read it to him. He FINALLY understood me.. "backpackers hostel" no wonder he didnt recognize that word...its always a bad idea to name a spanish place an english name. So we got to one of the 3 backpackers hostels and got out all our junk..leaving him with a pretty nice tip...only seconds later to find out that it was the wrong backpackers and we needed to walk 7 blocks with ALLLLL of our stuff..can you say prime target? It was super hot at this point and in addition to our packs, i had on pants, boots, a long sleeve and a feather vest. I was fully sweating when we finally got to the right hostel. A hot shower is always the first thing on the list after a long bus ride.

stop 2- san ignacio

2009-07-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up, got ready and hoped on the bus to san ignacio. The bus ride was rough and stopped SOO Many times. We were literally dropped off in the middle of the street and walked 2 blocks to our hostel now. Its very nice, a tiny little city though. We went to various different places to get groceries for a tasty dinner in tonight. We aslo saw the jesuit mission ruins which were interesting. THe main roads are paved with sidewalks but all around are muddy streets to the houses.. the transportation of choice is a dirt bike which i like.. im just waiting for someone to let me ride theres :) haha jk Thats all the updates for now, we're headed to salta tomorrow probably but FIRST, we were invited to a july 9th party (their july 4th) and we shall enjoy with the locals, celebrating their independence. chau chau

stop 1- Igazu Falls

2009-07-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

so its definitely a task to pack for 3 weeks when you´ll be experiencing all of the climates possible on your trip. we packed the best we could and headed to the bus station. we were so excited to go we mistook the departure time an hour before it was actually leaving :) rookie mistake not to be made again. we boarded onto a bus reeking of foot smell, but other than that, it was very nice. While we waited we met some other kids from America and chatted with them. Throughout the night we went to the 1st floor of the bus and said hello. The meal...we were served a airplane quality meal of a sandwich, some crackers, and some other little stuff so we scarfed it down thinking that was our meal. THEN he comes around with a hot meal of rice and pork in gravy. We also were served wine. When done with dinner, he came around and gave everyone champagne..typical protocol for argentines. anyways, it was just funny. One of the guys we met just graduated from a college in Tennessee and is a mechanical engineer. They didnt have any champagne left, so he got a cup of whisky...i just think its so strange they give that out on a bus but whatev.. they do alot of things in argentina i dont understand. The ride wasnt too bad.. about 18 hours but we slept alot of it and they had movies playing all the time as well. Breakfast was the typical argentine breakfast of a medialuna, some toast and cafe. I was super excited though becaus the cafe was black, and i drank it.. i dont have to tell you that somehow it was super sweet.. it was black and thats all that matters ;) once we arrived in igazu, a beautiful, tropical, warm city, we jumped in a cab and came to our hostel..puerto canoas.. Its awesome! there's hammocks hanging all over, very colorful, the owners are friendly, there are hummingbirds all over..its just great. The city itself is very small and friendly. After katie and i showered, ate our peanut butter sandwiches, and took a rest in the hammocks, we headed out to see the tres fronteras, where the rivers converge. It was pretty sweet to look across the river and see paraguay and brazil. We walked down a muddy trail and saw a little waterfall but the trail tetered off into nothing. At this point i was sad i didnt have my chacos, but they didnt make the cut because the purpose was minimal here and they're clunky..i still love them though :) On the walk back to our hostel, we got whistled at, BARKED at, hissed at.. haha at one point I hissed back and gave an "are you serious" look. We usually just ignore it and keep on but I felt compelled to give a response at that moment. We encountered a man trying to sell his companies boat ride but we regretfully declined as we had just walked the entirety of what we would've seen from the water. IF he would've said you can stop and get out in paraguay and brazil, then it would've been a deal! haha we tried to find el gardin de los picaflores (gardin of the hummingbirds) but it was closed.. a huge bummer :) but on the bright side, we were experts at the city. When we stopped to find this other museum of the forest, it had apparently shut down and moved.. haha The little town of puerto igazu was very friendly and everyone knew everyone. When we were just around the corner from our hostel, we saw some teenagers playing soccer, they said Hola chicas which gave us the perfect opportunity to respond and ask to play. They said yes and we changed. There was actually an older man out there (Netti was his name and he was 52) and then 3 younger boys (Jose, Jose and Johnie). We were aprehensive at first but took off our flip flops, and jumped on in. 2 other girls from down the street came to play in regular clothes ( they were 14 year old twins) and then before you know it, we had a game of 4v4. My team was up for a while and then the others came back, I was focusing on not busting my but because I had on stark white shorts, and the ground was bright orange, kinda like GA. THe highlight was the teamwork between us even though we weren't really talking.. and then of course my header goal :) haha thank you ernse for all your patience (an old high school coach). Afterwards, we sat around and chatted a while. The boys had run across the street and brought back a pitcher, a tin cup with a straw and were passing it around. I declined at first for many reasons and kept to my water. Then katie tried it and was amazed so i had to. It was mate (the herb they are crazy about here thats usually mixed with hot water) and pear juice..gosh it was good! We continued chatting for a while and then the boys asked our plans for later. Katie and I had met some kids on the bus the night before and texted them but hadn't heard back. We're always up for a safe cultural experience so we decided to meet them for dinner.. We went our seperate ways and met back up later. We went to this little ourdoor resturant called Carrito 5 and they had a promo going on.. cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and a drink all for 10 pesos (like$ 2.50 am) and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! gosh i was soo relieved to have a solid american meal :) haha afterwards we hung out at the tres fronteras and just chatted. When i would get frustrated at my lack of vocab, i reminded myself we'd been communicating and hanging out all afternoon and they had been understanding, and i had been too. THey boys were somewhat younger and knew we weren't interested in their romantic sides so it was just a cool culturing time. The moon was beautiful and we had contemplated going on a moonlite tour of the falls but it was a little too pricey for us. We went back to our hostel later, had a quick chat with the guy who worked there (Diego) and headed to bed. Breakfast was great, a slow nice wake up with coffee, medialunas and strawberry jam!! exciting because thats never offered. we got ready and headed to the FALLS! We caught the bus and arrived about 20 mins later. It's tropical here so the temperature as perfect..about 77 and sunny. we checked out the visitors center, took the green trail and started then on the superior trail. The feeling while walking out the bridge to the overlook is similiar to that when you're about to see the grand canyon.. you dont know quite what to expect but its gonna be good you know! and it was good.. we actually ran into that kid chris there and chatted for a bit. We later decided to join him and his friends at another hostel and make dinner. But before that, alot of exploring happened. we hit up the inferior trail next and saw coaties (koo-A-ties) tearing up the trash cans.. they look a bit like racoons but have long snouts like ant eaters. The butterflies were flocking all around.. all types, some orange and brown, some red white and black, some camo.. just lots! The view of the falls was amazing, just so much water. APparently there isnt as much water as there usually is and for that we couldnt take the ecological tour. BUT we still got to get in a boat that took us up into the falls and got pounded by the freezing water! haha it was great. We were about 15 feet from brazil..and definitely on the brazilian side of the river :) My favorite part was after this though.. we asked about the train and some workers told us we better run to catch the last one out to DEVILS THROAT...la garganta de diablo..so we ran. WE took a rickety train about 15 mins out to see where all these falls originate from..and it was AWESOME! the multitude of water falling ever so delicately into the midst..and mist..you cant see where it goes but you know its going far down there. it was absolutely breath taking. once again you could see brazil on the other side which is just cool. WE were kicked out after about 30 mins because the park was closing and the train needed to go back. We passed some people staying at our hostel and some kid we'd met on the bus a couple days before..its funny that igazu felt small because of this. The 20 minute bus ride home was a rough one.. my feet hurt SO bad from walking a ton and the guy in front of me smelled so bad! there were couples all around kissing and its just ridiculous.. they have no filter for PDA! anyways, we showered, hit up some supermarkets, and tried to find the bus stop. funny thing, there are no bus stops..the corner is just it..definitely insider knowledge needed. We got that knowledge and then the bus never came. So we got a taxi :) he said 12 pesos but i told katie to just give him 10 and he was happy. IN reality it was like a 5 peso ride but taxis are few and far between here unlike BA so whatev. We were like an hour late according to our prior plans with CHris and for that, our dinner was waiting for us. THe pollo we brought to contribute was then cooked by me and added to the meal made by the boys. Edgar and brett, two other guys were at the hostel and we all chatted for a while. THe hostel was like an american resort..not for me. I'm in another country, i want to meet locals more than other americans.. really a mix of both is best we had a nice time playing pool (which my team won haha) pool, and foosball.

wrapping things up

2009-07-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

so, unexpectedly, on thursday we had a meeting. we all walk in joyous that we get to hang out again as a group and then betina dropped a bomb.. she explained how gripe A was a big deal.. as we all knew.. and then said our program was ending..like saturday. a full week early which is a huge bummer because we had so many fun cultural activities planned! (including a futbol game). However, the city of buenos aires has considered this gripe A an epidemic and is in an emergency state. Basically when you have thousands of people commuting on the same dirty buses everyday, living so closely and breathing the nasty air, you have to be careful.. SO, besides the disappointment of everyone scattering starting saturday, there is good news..katie and i's adventures start a week early and last for 3 weeks now instead of 2.. But before i can clear my head and focus on my future adventures, i have to finish, finally, explaining uruguay. brevity is where im at now, so yeah. So i mentioned all the people we met at the hostel and their stories.. While we were eating breakfast, i went to get an apple and it was almost completely rotted on one side but conveniently sitting next to another apple so one could not tell the severity of its nastiness..i grab it and show the hombre running the place.. he makes a joke to ease the situation.."we like to eat them like that here" haha polite way of dismissing it and i join and just toss it in the garbage. we headed out to see the city a little including some cool plazas, an old church, a fountain with hundreds of locks locked on it, and a super interesting building with about 20 resturant inside (all of which claim to be the best but the one right next to it..has the same menu) Outside this chaotic eatery katie and i invested in some sheep guantes (gloves) that will be much appreciated come time to hike in bariloche. The man was soo sweet who was selling them and once we paid, he randomly went in to talking about the meaning of life and how it was short so you need to enjoy it (in spanish of course). The city was feeling a little, no a lot, desserted because it was cold, windy and elections day. THey take elections serious so much so that from sat night at 12 am to sun at 12 am no alcohol is sold and none is really consumed..because you need to be aware and vote coherently. anyways, when we were walking through the city, 2 out of the few people we saw told me to be extremely careful with my camera (nikone d200 is not easy to hide).. i was being careful but decided that i had enough warnings and would suspend my pictures for the rest of the tour. next: grabbed our luggage, bus to the bus terminal, bus to colonia. On the side of the highway were people playing soccer..this country LOVES soccer. after a wonderful 2 hour nap on the bus, we arrived in colonia. apparently the bus ride was somewhat strange because we kept stopping in the middle of nowhere and people were getting on and off..this was weird because we were on an intense motor coach, not just a city bus. Anyways, hostel viajero welcomed us and we were excited to be there. We met some girls there later on, Joanna and Sabina who had been traveling for 4 months because they just graduated college and there were no jobs..so they went traveling! There was also another woman, uanna who is a teacher in france who was meeting her friend in brazil. One of the girls on the trip with us, jenny, had randomly started speaking with a boy in french earlier at breakfast so she did it again with this woman.. I was just thinking how cool it'd be if, when hanging out with my friends and we came across someone of another language, say chinese, all the sudden i just had a full blown conversation with them..then i'd be cool :) hostel viajero was very nice, had a balling fire and spacious lobby to watch tv..not to mention the plethora of movies to chose from. My time there I watched more movies than i have in the past 1/2 year probably..Wall E (which i thought i'd seen, then realized i had fallen asleep the first time, and then feel asleep in the last 10 mins this time) Tropic Thunder (dont waiste your time!) Australia (somewhat cute) and thats all. For dinner we headed to the USA supermarket, bought some pasta and spinach sauce complete with sprite and chocolate for dessert. I was the cook and it was challenging to read directions.. i just hoped i knew enough to wing it. Jenny and I succeded and feed the 5 of us with just the right amount. we went to bed satisfied and tired..i wish i could say warm but that wasnt the case..the place was very very chilly but luckily i used an alaska trick (laying your clothes on top of your blanket for extra warmth). When we awoke, we had an awesome breakfast of dulce de leche and pan! as always, extremely healthy :) it was rainy outside and still very cold so we weren't in a hurry. thats when we experimented with tropic thunder and australia.. after, we headed to the market for lunch. On our way, we saw a shoe store and you know me, we had to go in. I've been itching for some converse like shoes so i could fit in while in buenos aires (running shoes or hiking shoes do NOT cut it). anyways, we found some knock off brand for about $16 US dollars and called it a deal. 4 out of 5 of us got shoes, i call that successful :) We waited the rain out and then braved the wind. The little town of colonia was even more desserted than montevideo the day before. We continued being tourists none-the-less and it was SOO windy, bone chilling really. We saw the town lighthouse and climbed up to the top for 20 pesos (not even a US dollar). It was super super windy up there but a nice view! on the way back to the hostel, we stopped for some coffee and baileys to warm us up. The hot chocolate here is funny because they warm up milk and then put a stick of chocolate in the bottom.. inovative. We decided to be on time for the ferry this time instead of late so we headed on at about 6. There were 2 indian guys at our hostel hanging out who hadnt stayed but were waisting time before their ferry. We said goodbye and ended up seeing them later on the boat. SO now heres the fun part.. the buque bus (ferry). We were seated and ready to go, i just wanted a nice hot, constant shower and my own bed. At about 7 45, 45 after planned departure, a woman speaking spanish rapidly came on the speaker. We all gathered about the same info, canceled, leaving tomorrow...crap. I need to mention that because we were leaving uruguay, we spent all our uruguayan money. We asked if we could sleep on the boat and originally they said no. they ended up letting us stay and we moved to first class..along with the rest of the boat. We were chatting away with the indians from texas when another group of guys started chatting. They were a band from holland but made up of very different people. They were all between 30-35 and some of them had real jobs, but they all looked like punks. Anyways, we started chatting, they were drinking their wine, offered us some and i gave some reasons as to why i declined. Religion was a small mention in there and that started it.. the door opened and stayed open for about 4 hours. THere we were: 11pm, in the uruguayan port, on a boat, and they started asking about religion. I always like to see where other people are coming from after i tell them my perspective so i returned the questions to alonso once i had answered mine. We decided this would be a full blown, very civil and calm conversation as religious conversations are usually not carried out that way. I went first, and told my beliefs, then jenny who is also chrisitan. we ended up answering questions for a while. THen some of the boys went, Alonso told us how we was criticized as a boy because when he was going through catholic school, he started asking questions about why things didnt match up and parents got made. For this, he decided to denounce all religions and actually write against them.

uruguay continuted..

2009-07-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

this morning was one of those, when you just want your mom to kiss you and tell you that you don't have to go to school today..i dont know why, it just was. too bad that didnt happen to me :) I went to the supermarket yesterday so this morning i had a great breakfast and was prepared foodwise for the rest of the day! Anyways, I want to continue with uruguay adventures so that you all can know our about our great moments there. So, I started to explain about Leila, the woman saturated in politics..quite the interesting character-she is divorced, doesnt have a lot of money, is older, and super mad about the US being the way it is..therefore she moved, and is trying to decide where to live, uruguay or argentina..she picked uruguay because the politics "are stable there" haha i mean they are somewhat but its just funny reasoning. We also met a man named matais who was from Germany but has been living in Cordoba for seven months now. He wants residence but doesnt have it so he had to take a leave from the country just to be able to renew his tourist visa. He works with the German INstitute about culture or something..i guess germany needs to make their culture known to south america?? anyways, he was nice to chat with. Then we met another american to the mix, Andrew, who spoke almost no spanish who was there in montevideo working on the computers that all the school kids have. Apparently every child in school has one of these alien looking labtops that are theirs to keep and they always have internet because they can grap it from another one of their friends laptops whose near..sounds strange but they were funny little things. The idea behind this is, well its a non profit organization who funds it, and when the kids cant make it to school because buses dont function or something tragic, they can just read their books and submit things via their notebooks.. this organization is called something like one computer for every child.. interesting. One other thing interesting about Andrew is that he went to a boarding high school and lived there..its called north carolina school of sciences..a magnet school but basically he just lived one big party for high school..a strange concept for me...i wouldnt dare want to LIVE high school! One of the owners was brazilian who was in uruguay studying spanish..very nice guy. WE also met 3 other girls there, hannah, kelsey and maggie who had just graduated high school and were touring south america..talk about being brave..man! Quinten was a new comer as we were heading out for the day but he was from france traveling all over studying various countries politics. WE had a nice breakfast in which most of the people jsut mentioned ate and chatted.. some of the interesting conversations were about: woofing- working on organic farms all over for free!, caretakers.org is a website to find out where you can watch peoples houses all over the world and get paid for it..

Uruu-why as they call it.. ..urugay as we know it

2009-06-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

well its been a very interesting past couple days. Saturday morning i woke up to head out to the Buquebus (the ferry) and grabbed my phone that had been charging to call me friends...it was completely dead. I had no choice but to keep on heading out the door and just hope that I'd run into my friends at the boat place. I was nervous because i was actually early and for those 5 minutes before they walked through the door, tons of possibilities were running through my head. Moments like these are the only times when i get really nervous about my spanish speaking abilities..when it really matters and you need to convey a serious need to someone.. THankfully though, as i was just about to ask the lady when the boat was scheduled to leave, my friends walk in! hooray... katie gave us our tickets that she had previously purchased and we sat down to have a little desayuno (breakfast). I think i've mentioned before, but breakfast is hardly a breaking of a fast.. they eat one medialuna (crossiant) and a cafecito (the smallest coffee you've ever seen!) and thats all! That doesnt cut it for me especially since my stomach has been acting funny.. so i got some cappuchino, a yogurt and ate the other goodies I brought from home. After taking it slow, we realized we should've just hoped in the boat immediately.. katie and I did a good job of NOT freaking out but quickly got on board..brittany, one of the girls with us was the last one on the boat and within 1 minute of boarding, we were off :) haha not how i usually like to do things but it worked out. The buquebus was very nice.. you could stand on top and watch buenos aires dance off in the distance, or stretch out on any of the unoccupied seats 4 chairs long..i did a little of both. I thought they drank alot of mate (tea like drink) in buenos aires, but i was wrong. They don't do it near as much as those uruguyans. There was a lively group of older adults who were enjoying their mate (the drink) and had their flag up.. a lively journalist came over and started to interview them about their whereabouts.. i listened for a little while, contemplated where I wanted to pose as a journalist for practice, and then decided to forego the opportunity for the time being. After we got to Colonia, we figured out how much money to change..23 uruguayo pesos to the dollar! and 6 UR to AR.. alot to keep in mind when decided how much money to take out..We mozied around the town into a little resturant and had a great meal. THe bread was to die for, so soft and moist, unlike the bread here in AR. We had a glorious pepsi and kept the bottles afterwards because they were so cool/antiqy. They had a fire in which they cooked our meal over and thankfully I got to warm up by it. Colonia was definitely much colder than buenos aires and I wasnt ready for that. We hoped on the bus to montevideo soon after our meal and it was a nice calming ride through farm land. katie, my travel partner, and I had a nice chat about various things..one thing i noticed while looking out the window was cows on leashes! haha what a funny concept. there were palm trees everywhere..kind of strange as there are none in BA..and also we saw the first 2 pigs i've seen in argentina because they dont really harvest them here like in the states. THe bus terminal in montevideo was happening and somehow we found our way to the taxi line. We arrived at our cute little hostel stuck right in between two buildings and got buzzed in (they have to let you in). Pocitos was the name and there were super friendly guys running the place. Pretty much from the get go we started to chat with the other visitors there. There was leila, an older indian woman super saturated in politics..very cynical i might add. I shall continue the description of the rest of our newfound friends luego! long day means i need some good rest. only 1 1/2 more weeks of school left!

unexpected..

2009-06-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

so i havent gotten to adequately document my thoughts lately because things have just been a whirlwind here. I'll try and recall as much as i can but you won't get the juicy, long, excessive details like usual :) (I know someone is thankful about that). ANYways, I have finally begun to feel better with the exception of some small stomach problems but I will take that over what it was. I went out on tuesday morning and felt like a new person..sickness just plays with your mind and your outlook on everything. I admire those who are really actually sick and still have positive outlooks because that's one of the hardest barriers to pass..the bad outlook barrier haha SO i've really grown to enjoy my 30 minute bus ride both to my internship and back from school..the days are long.8 to 5 Or 8 some nights. At my pasantia (internship) we just chat and do whatever we want..most times we slightly work and mostly chat but its a great environment to learn. The kid who works with me from my group is a huge jokester and even does it in spanish..bold. I just shake my head and stick to what i know..we love to share music and favorite artists with the boys we work with..its fun to show them what we like and where we live via google photos. I have gotten my routes and more importantly STOPS down pat..earlier this week i wasnt thinking, went and got on bus 92 when i was supposed to get on 110.. my peso wasnt working so the guy didnt make me pay and that was lucky because i got off 4 mins later and switched buses.. i caught myself walking to bus 110 yesterday when i needed 92... i just have gotten all mixed up but i think now..finally..after 3 weeks i'm confident with stops and such. WE had tango this week and progressed some in our abilities..basically theres not enough boys so the girls dance with the girls and thats just silly..they also dont play music that matters so its more or less just a basic "getting the steps down" kind of thing and i'm ready for some MUSICA! The other day on the bus, a lady next to me randomly did the catholic forehead to chest, arm to arm thing and I felt compelled to say something to her.. so i said "tu estas catolica" which means "you're catholic?" and she didnt understand i guess because of my accent, so i repeated it a couple of times and then she understood. I thought maybe she had just seen someone with like a bad outfit on and was like Oh Jesus..and did the sign BUT gabriel at my pasantia told me that when they pass a church you do it.. makes sense now :) Gabby says he's religious and Omar said he's definitely not. Adam is a strong non-beleiver and there's been some intense convos among him and the gay-christian he rooms with. There's an extremely interesting dynamic of people on this trip..two outlandish yet classy black girls, one crazy very confident girl black girl who was a stripper, some feminine males, a couple regular boys, adam who you cant beleive one word as true bc its always a joke, david who is a smooze and is exactly like JOhn Paul, and then the rest are pretty regular characters. BUT i have to mention this one kid.Justin..from jefferson or something..like an hour south of augusta. He has the funniest laugh ever because it sounds sooo nervous..he also says ridiculous things like..when theres hurt dogs in my town we call them ray charles..thats not to be offensive but that is what this kid says.. "My family just calls them this...." there are many justin moment when we're all in awe of the crazy things that come out of his mouth, not meaning to be entertaining but that are so very funny. On monday I went to the dr. and taught the dr. a new word.. stuffed up because he didnt know what that meant and he spoke english. The moneda crisis is getting worse and worse for me because i can never keep enough on me to last a day..because 3 buses a day is a lot of monedas... also, one must understand that NO ONE besides a legit store like a supermarket will break 100 pesos..which mind you is only like $20 american dollars.. they dont even like 50 peso bills or $20 peso bills.. i mean its ridiculous.. you want to buy something thats $2 pesos and you hand them a 10 and they ask for something smaller.. or you buy something thats 3 pesos and instead of giving you a moneda back, they hand you a piece of candy and send you on your way.. i mean reallY?! anyways, for this, i've walked strategically into the kiosks and looked at what is very oddly priced so i can get as many monedas as i can.. problem with this is you have to buy stuff everyday and constantly spend money!
man.. lets see what else has happened..some of my friends have gotten skype so i've enjoyed talking to people other than just the regulars :)..which i love talking to but to hear a good friends voice is just awesome. I am at a loss of memories for wed and thursday but i'm sure they will come at some point. We had our first test this week.. as well as a paper due everyday we didnt have a test so thats probably why i havent posted in a while. Fridays are fieldtrip days though so today we went in the city. First though, on our way from the internship, we were waiting on the bus at a light and i could see down the road ahead that people were gawking at something..looking up at an apt and down at the road..up and down.. we passed by on the bus and noticed a shape that looked strikingly similiar to an outline of a person...on the ground.. put two and two together, the guy apparently jumped out of the apt and was muerte (dead) on the ground.. the police walked over and grabbed his shoe that was a couple feet away and put it with his body...man it was a strange feeling to walk by and experience that.. one block from my school however everyone was just carrying on with their business right there and everywhere. that shook us up a little and adam and i were talking about ways to go and what leads you to that point..its just sad. We got some good food today, not empanadas, not chinese but i got a chicken panini!!! it was great just a little burnt :) we walked to abasto, and toured some museum about someone gardel, one of the fathers of tango.. it was cool and then we went to the abasto supermarket which is now a really fancy mall. we went to freddo, to get ice cream and it was awesome.. chocolate suizo con americana is the best! so after our class ate (our professor didnt come bc she had hurt her leg so one of the TA's came and another professor from GA named Gary) I was asking gary about a good place to shop and he needed to see my map so i got it out. Gary, Anita and I were at a small circular table and gary had his computer case in a chair that was touching his leg. We were talking about where a street was and about 30 seconds later, looked up and gary started to FREAK out.. his computer was GONE! hes a professor here so all the students stuff was on there and now its adios. Seriously though i dont know how the ladron (thief) did it because we weren't face down in the map.. just looking at it.. the comp case/brief case was in all of our periffiel visions but whatever..crap happens and I was paranoid after that. I went to the atm, got some sweet pesos out, and took my position waiting at the bus stop. I started talking to a sweet old women and we chatted for a while. She talked really slow in spanish and i dont know if it iwas just because i look like i need that or what.. it was fun though! I got home and was able to relax for a while which was great after a crazy week. I'm headed to URUGUAY tomorrow..colonia and then montevideo. I hear that uruguayan pesos are like 7 times the amount here...not in worth but amount needed to buy anything...so a meal is a couple hundred pesos.. ahh another coonversion to master. but, its time for bed and i gotta pack! chau for now

el lio...chaos

2009-06-23T17:04:00.001-07:00

well its been quite a while since i've gotten a chance to write.. i've been living the lavish life of someone sick.. but the end is near! saturday i got out for a little while. i was headed to the clinic "ER" since it was saturday but it was going to take way too long and cost more than need be so betina and i just went to the pharmacity and got medicine. im pressed for time now.. as always so i will continue this I HOPE tomorrow! CHAU

You do not have any friends. Once you find some friends, they will appear here.

2009-06-19T17:52:00.000-07:00

this is what facebook tells me.. it lies.. Right now i feel somewhat friendless because I haven't got very far from my house in 2 days. My sickness has escalated into something more and now it's just a pain! I'm gonna head to the hosptial tomorrow to try and get some antibiotics for this crazy sickness..started with a headache and stuffy nose, then escaladed into light-headedness, intense body aches, stomach pains, soar throat and a loss of voice! gah what a welcome to argnetina. I'm trying to see the good in this but its hard when i see all my other friends pictures from study abroad and they are in sunny flowery fields and i'm here..in a concrete mall and can't go anywhere. I dont really know how I got to be such a "country mouse" but i'm pretty positive i NEED to live on a farm, with at least one goat, and hopefully a horse or two at some point..and Of course a border collie. anyways.. the city is nice its just hard to see the lord at work here. People i feel like are so focused on going out at night and moving up in the world that it just makes me feel stuck. i just feel like theres alot of people searching here..i felt like i came to a nice reminder the other day while playing soccer..the whole reason I camer here, have invested so much time in spanish is to be able to communicate and be joyous with people of other cultures. I suppose I wasn't ready for the culture shock of the large city and was envisioning my cute little towns of Nicaragua and Honduras. Unfortunately I feel like I haven't bettered my spanish that much yet and am hoping that changes very quickly. The pace they speak at is just ridiculous! I honestly think I will just need to move to central america for an extended period of time and that will fix my language barrier :) maybe one day. i miss my friends and the comforts of america..fresh fast food even though that sounds like an oximoron.. Here they just have empanadas, pizza and meat..and its not usually on the go. I am beginning to appreciate being an american.. everyone is striving to learn OUR language because thats the one that matters. GOsh try and wrap your head around that. When I get discouraged about speakin spanish, i just remember I've already got a huge head start on alot of people. The other day while working at my pasantia where we read through newspapers and look for clients, i was reading an english newspaper and Adam was like.. why dont you just do that for a job-live in a spanish place and work at a spanish newspaper that writes american news..and be the editor or writer..interesting thought.anyways its time to get to sleep while i can still breath out of my nose and my throat isnt killing me. besos

city mouse..

2009-06-18T19:53:00.001-07:00

city life is an interesting one. Unfortunately I've been sick almost my whole time here and it's gotten progressively worse. THere are some funny things that happen here. ONe day i went to 6 bookstores looking for a bible (because i left mine on the plain when i got here 2 weeks ago) and every place told me a different place to go..then i went to this nice mall called alto palermo and was 1 step away from the bookstore when i felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to a young man rambling off spanish words and all i caught was linda y hermosa (beautiful). I didnt understand the last part so i said "como" and he was like i'll just talk in english. He was like I need to get your info so we can talk again and i was like.. umm thats not gonna happen becuase i dont know you. He asked for my email and again i said nope..sorry. and then asked for facebook and i just told him my first name. FInally he got the picture and accepted the reality and headed on his way. I am flattered he was so caught by my outward appearance but he also needed to realize i can only expect the worse from people here. I have run into a lot of friendly people but thats been during one on one conversations. The other day on the way home I was sitting on the bus and we were stopped at a light.. i was sitting backwards so facing the oncoming traffic when i noticed a boy trying to get on the same bus behind us.. he couldnt so he came to ours.. and they didnt let him on.. he went back to the first one, was obviously mad and then judo chopped the door and took off! haha crazy kid. my internship is going well and thats where i think i'll learn the most spanish. we basically look through newspapers searching for one of their 30 clients and when we find it we mark it. Today i didnt get to go to class or my internship because i woke up and felt horrible. I took a nap from 8-12 and then from 3-7.. im hoping i'll get better quickly because this is no fun. we had our second tango lesson last night and it went well however the tango here is equivalent to the waltz in the US.. ancient. I got my laundry done today for the second time thus far (bc i didnt bring enough socks or underwear and have yet to find some cheap ones) When i went to pick up my stuff.. i only brought enough pesos for one load which i though it was.. the guy was so nice and just told me to bring it in the morning.. my favorite strangers are the ones who work at the lavenderia! tomorrow we're going to eva perons grave and the zoo and im pumped! One thing i forgot was that we played soccer tues night! i knew there was a team but didnt know how it worked. kasey accompanied me and we went to club de amigos where we found the girls team about to practice. it was fun to goof off with them and be active for once. They played so daintilly there i felt like a monster on the field haha i wasnt playing too hard i am just use to being physical. We have practice again tues and then a game on sat (if i'm here). Thats all i can think of for now..i want some updates on things back in the states!!

the details of mendoza..

2009-06-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

wow.. this week has been so busy i havent gotten a chance to catch up so i'll try and remember as much as i can.. basically we got up super early on sat morning (greeted by our drunk house boy who was talking super loud and woke up the other one.. funny people come in at 4 30 from a night out) we arrived a the airport at 5 and again on the way saw tons of people out like it was the middle of the day or something...the flight to mendoza was quick and i even got to lay all the way down in the back of the plain. Our breakfast was some cookies that amounted to 1000 calories.. something i realized after the fact! we dropped our things off at the hotel once in mendoza and headed straight to the rafting place. the bus ride was beautiful and even more refreshing than the sights was the air! i could definitely notice a difference in the air quality going from the enormous city where i feel my lungs being blackened to the prestine wine countryside..it was good for the soul. Anyways, while on the bus we met our guides.. Pablo or Caru, the other Pablo (the "professional photographer") and later the 3rd Pablo.. haha they aren't too inventive with names here. We were given an awesome neoprene wet suit with boots and gloves to top it off.. the water was freezing! Our guides name was Crusty..and he was interesting. ITs funny becuase alot of the people i've met thus far speak english and you just dont know it.. that was definitely the case with 2 of the pablos and alot of the other tourist people..i suppose they have to know english bc thats who comes here to visit. Wouldn't you know half way through the meandering river.. i had to go to the bathroom. We had stopped for a minute on the side and i decided to run up the hill and go. However i didnt want to take off my neoprene suit because it would take a while and the air was COLD..so i just went in it haha It didnt really occur to me that nothing would be able to escape my jumpsuit which was kinda nasty but just made me laugh. I was nervous everyone would see just what i did because all the boats were waiting for me as i can running down the hill.. oh well mission accomplished and only 1 person asked how i did it so fast...and i told them :) By the time we finished our escapade down the river, we were cold and hungry. Everyone was able to rinse off and put back on their warm clothes. After a little while we were seated a large table and the food started to come! Whenver they eat lunch here... they eat! Breakfast and dinner are miniscule and lunch is huge.. (too bad back in the city we eat lunch on the go making the amount of food i eat in total not much). It started with empanadas, then salad, then bread, then papas fritas and then a mystery plate.. This man with a sick mustache came out and started to cut into something that looked like a huge bread casserole..but of course inside it was a TON of tender meat.This guy was proud of his cooking and everyone could tell :) so we're enjoying this beautiful meal all the while looking out the glass windows at the andes, the clear river and the beautiful blue sky when all of the sudden I CHOMPED on my tongue. Talk about ruining a moment.. this hurt SO bad I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, all i could do was sit there and tears started running. NO one knew what had happened and with the sun beating on me.. i was literally in the hot seat with my friends wondering what happened. It was so stupid.. but i gathered myself.. informed everyone what had just happened and that i was ok.. and continued to try and enjoy the moment. Later i went to the bathroom and i've never seen such a mangled tongue from one chomp..not to self.. eat SLOW and carefully haha. Once finished (a couple hours later) we loaded up to head out..however I was in the bathroom when they started pulling out and ran out there just in time (they said they were simply backing up but i dont know :) ) also there was a super cute little mut running around and he brought so much joy to me! all the dogs here just bring comfort because they remind me of mine and how much i love animals. We headed an hour away to the canopying place and the 1st guy we met was NORMAN! haha we were signing waivers and what not when all the sudden a bench these girls were sitting on just split and they went falling to the ground.. haha it was really funny because they had noticed it rocking earlier and enjoyed it. We got the run down on how to do our caribeaners and then hiked up to rope number 1. The view was somewhat contrasting but still beautiful. We were on mountains made of a bunch of little rocks, and dirt and twiggish bushes.. not very eyecathching..but when you looked out, there was a beautiful blue/green lake that backed up all the way to a pretty mountain in the back. I loved the air rushing by, sounds of excitement, the whizzing of the cable and the silent movements of the guides telling us to slow down. This activity was one of the first that got my hear rate up in like 2 weeks.. climbing up to the ropes that is. I dont get to work out or run much in BA becuase people just dont do that here. It was funny that i was enjoying the view so much and talking about it with my friends when all of the sudden one of the prissy black girls says " I dont know why yall like this.. they're just a bunch of big rocks"...which is a ridiculous description of the freakin ANDES. after we finished the 8 zip lines including on HUGE one over the lake.. we all gathered on the porch and got to sit for a while. Will and I were just taking in the beauty accompanied with some smooth spanish songs when a hip american song came on and put a whole new spin on the view. the ride home was enjoyable but everyone was exhausted. We showered and went to dinner where we got the special "malbec" wine of mendoza. I dont know what it is but wine by itself is just too much so i mix it with sprite and its perfect. Luckily we were planning on going to bed right after the meal because the wine made us all soo tired. That was one of the first nights since arriving to argentina that I slept soundly. Breakfast was a large one thank goodness as we had a long day ahead of us. the picture on the left is acongagua which is where we went sunday. it was a long 2 hour ride there but enjoyable still. we stopped a little touristy shop and i got a mug to use for my tea here since they're cups are the size of a little girls tea party set. we walked around a little loop for 45 mins or so and that was our activity for the day. One of the coolest things though was that bonnie brought andes mints... so we had fun eating andes in the andes! we were kinda bummed because the walk was cool but not a replacement for skiing. However they couldnt really do anything bc we stopped by the ski place on the way.. and not a drop of snow was there. Instead of telling us theres not enough snow to ski, they should've said NONE. haha it was a cute little village though that looked somewhat like vail without all the stores and resturants. we stopped at a another little place on the way home that had some cool hats made of alpaca fur. There was an old spa that was closed because some huge rocks fell on it and killed 7 people.. the rest of the people that were there got out but it has been closed ever since. It was a spa with natural hot springs and since its been closed for a while.. the hot water has discolored the rock to orange and green slime looking stuff..it was really weird looking. I was bummed i didnt get to buy anything there because it was all hand made and good quality but i'm sure i'll have plenty of other places to get things. From there we headed to eat lunch at a small little place. We got empanadas, salad, papas fritas and then meat. ONe of the choices was intestine and i tried it.. NASTY. another choice was goat and even though i love those little guys.. i tried it.. and it was good. We went back to the hotel and i just needed to work out.. so i got my stuff on and went down to the hotels little gym. I on one of those machines that has the weights and you can sit facing them and pull the bar backwards to work your triceps or pull the bar from above to work your biceps. Well i tested both bars before sitting down and then pulled the bottom one to get it working.. wouldnt you know the top one feel off on to my head and gave me a huge welt. It most definitely could've knocked me out but thankfully didnt. Again an unfortunate event that hurt!! After that i just needed some fresh air so we went on a brisk walk around the town.. we didnt make it too far before we ran into a festival. We took a look and found some things we liked and wanted to go get some money. The last table was a group of old men that knew a few words of english like beautiful and come back.. haha and they said them to me. We came back with our money and got a cool journal, some earrings and some other people got wine holders and stuff. The men starting singing to us an english song when we were leaving and it was just funny. We showered and went to subway afterwards and one of the same old guys who had told me his favorite resturant came up and was like.. umm this isnt where i told you to go and we just said we needed to american food. After that, the boys wanted mcdonalds ice cream so we went there! We got back around 12 and a group was getting ready to go out to the club with one of our younger guides (about our age). I decided i was only in mendoza once and went with them. We went to apeteco and it was aweosome! we got in free and only the boys had to pay. It was a classy place with blue lights and it was happening. We sat down and everyone got their drinks of choice and at about 2 30.. it started getting crazy. The table of boys behind us was super rowdy and when they started to bang their cups on the table in a rythm it was time for us to join :) That entertained them for a while and then one of the quietest girls got up on the table and was dancing..unfortunately the club owners didnt like this and it came to an end.. but only for a minute. The tables started to disappear and it got super crowded. Our little group was staying closely knit because its so obvious we're foreigners. There were some interesting run ins but nothing too weird. I think everyone had a good time and half of the group left at about 3 but some of us stayed until about 4 me included. We were so tired and our ears were ringing after 4 hours of dancing! I loved the music there and the fact that the dancing there wasnt the same type as in american clubs. I liked this club much better than the one in BA because it was not sketchy, the music wasnt american and overall feel was much safer. Im glad i went but dont envision myself frequenting clubs like the rest of the argentines do. THe next morning came quickly as we headed out to horse back ride! it was kind of a last minute decision but i am supre glad our group leaders worked it out. We went in the opposite direction this time and it took a while to get there. The horses were so old and just a bunch of followers but it was great to get up into the mountains and then see out over the city. We went in two groups and ours was the first. I was on a beautiful tall horse that i spotted immediately and asked to ride it (gringo was his name). When the next group went, i got a chance to wonder up the hill and just sit admiring the beauty of where i was. It was some much needed quiet time as that is few and far between thus far on this trip. I also got to chat with Marcela who is one of the cordinators here.. she speaks english but we chatted in spanish for about 20 mins just about alot of Afterwards, Gary (one of the professors) and I realized that over the hill offered some good shots and we took off to do that..while the rest of the group went to see the guanacos (llama like animals) Apparently my friend and traveling partner katie was enjoying the animals and went to take a picture when all the sudden he let it out on her and covered her in spit! My other friend bonnie was laughing at her and he turned and got her toO! haha they were covered and it was gross. They had little goats and i was so glad to see animals. From there we went to a quaint little wine place and had a spread that was unbeleievable. There were like 30 little trays of everything you could imagine. It was beautiful and we were all served some wine to go with it. we soon learned that the spread in front of us wasnt even our lunch and thats what empanadas started coming. Then other little things came and it was great. We had a pretty intense conversation about religion with one of the boys and we tried to keep it friendly but this particular kid is an intersting character. We had a wonderful dessert, took some pics and headed to the winery for some wine tasting. Unfortunately at this point my big camera's battery was just about gone so i didnt get as many pics as I would've liked. It was also really funny when we were on the bus to the winery because everyone was feeling a little something from the wine. The tour was nice but I didnt really listen because I was busy taking the few pictures i could. We tasted two different kinds of wine after walking through the underground cellars.. they are SOO huge! The first one we tasted was a combo of 3 diff types and was 2005 i think.. and the second was a 2000 something malbec that was super bitter. Then of course everyone got to buy stuff and be a tourist. We headed back to the hotel, got our things together and then headed off to the airport. I would say i had a wonderful time on this trip because we were in the outdoors and the whole group was together. During the week in BA we dont really see everyone besides our group lunch and tango lessons. ONe of the black girls danielle was fed up during the hiking trip and said "alright I'm done being dora the explorer for the day".. i thought that was hilarious. So thats a wrap.. so sorry for the long post but i just gotta get it all down somewhere!

mendoza.. la mejor cuidad

2009-06-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

mendoza was AWESOME!!! theres SOO many stories to tell.. i definitely dont have time to tell everything now but some food for thought.. there was a guanaco (llama like animal) that the group was looking at (i was away taking pictures of the mountains) and apparently my friend was being a tourist, taking pictures, and all the sudden she was covered in spit! haha el guanaco escupo! i started working this week and i think this is the week that spanish will come to me :) ojala ( i hope)... more stories to come tomorrow! hasta luego.

lost..what happened and where we went

2009-06-12T18:54:00.001-07:00

ok i'm trying to do this in recall form..which is very hard to do after 2 full days of BA life. yesterday was simple for the most part..we just got up and went to school, kasey, me and the 2 girls upstairs from our program. Kasey and I had our usual lunch in pelli bar next to our school where we met manuel y miguel. We also met a nice argentine boy who likened himself to a country boy as he was explaining he was from a small town in BA...a strange concept to me since BA is a city and they're are tons of small towns within it! He told us he was working on making some videos and working on his english... nice guy..Class was just another learning session about the slums of south buenos aires. We had to read a regular argentine article which is pretty hard to interpret. Towards the end of class we started hearing a strange squawking and turns out it was just a funny sounding bird somewhere outside. After class my friend adam and I got on bus 92 thinking it was taking us home..wrong. I thought we were in the same building as we did tango but that wasnt correct so we got on the IDA route.. which is going.. and not the vuelta route.. returning and make no mistake. they are NOT the same by any means. After about 4 mins we realized this, started chatting in english about where we were and then a nice woman helped us on the bus.. in english which is very uncommon. So..we take a seat on the bench as to keep ourselves out of the obvious lost tourist category and put my knowledge of the guite to use. we were going to try and find a bus that took us back to where we wanted to go...then we decided to hop on the subte..well we walked the wrong way on the one road and then were too fed up to work any more on getting home that we just split a cab. its funny because you can be "lost" in your terms but theres always a radio cab driver that knows how to take you anywhere you want to go so you're never REALLY lost. Once home, i jumped in my long awaiting bed for some much needed rest. the head cold i've had since monday is taking a toll on me! a nice 3 hour nap did me well since we were plannin on going out last night. We had a nice dinner of chicken and rice and peaches for dessert. Afterwards i caught up on some skype convos and kasey took a nap too. Around 12 we got our plans together and headed to palermo to meet our friends at Post Street Bar. I had written out some directions from the original bar..sugar to the dance club..LOST but since the location of the first meeting changed, my previous directions were slightly off. Good thing i have a massive map of the city and figured out we were really only 1 block off course. ANyways, we had a really cute old man named JUGO drive us to the place and we talked about his dog PANCHA because he had a picture of her up in the front of his car.. he was so sweet. back to the night, we hung out for a while til about 1 30 at the bar and then got a cab to Club Araoz...aka LOST. Supposedly break dancing ended at 2 but that wasnt true. The entering process was something i'd never experienced as we were waiting in line for a while not sure where to pay. we got some direction, paid about 8 us dollars to get in, walked through a metal detector, got patted down, my purse got searched, and THEN we went in. Turns out some guys from atlanta were right behind us haha small world. so the dance battle went for a while and it was sick..something from those dance battles. And kasey the movie goo-roo tells me that the same song on zoo lander during their dance off was played during the dance off in the club. at the end of the break dancing these 2 men come out and do a coreographed dance to end things and begin the regular dancing. THankfully the boys from our group were pretty protective of us to the argentines and we appreciated it greatly. WE americans definitely got some interesting looks and comments but since i couldnt understand them, i really didnt care :) SOmething super interesting was when we entered the bathroom, a woman was handing our pre-portioned toilet paper!!! haha it was crazy but they didnt have any just laying all around the ground like waisteful american toilet users :) so the club kept us entertained for a while considering they played soulja boy as the first song and continued to play all of OUR rap songs... about 3 30 we called it a night and headed on home via taxi. este manana, we arose, ate, showered and headed to class but of course that includes stopping at pelli bar for some epanadas. Class was intense today as we listened to an interview about the politics of BA..super hard to pick up anything. I think my spanish is just hiding right now and I need to dig it up :) I can't remember if i included in my post the other day that our teacher taught us cuss words.. haha she was just talking and then all the sudden dropped the f bomb in english and then spanish.. haha part of the culture i suppose..not mine though. after class i had to run errands, the pharmacity, the ATM, the ferreteria (to get an adapter) y to get more phone minutes. Funny story about the adapter, i got one from this man and then came home needing to charge my camera battery before our trip tomorrow. I couldnt fit the plug in and was soo sad.. I got the house boy to try and he couldnt do it either. I went upstairs to our friends room and was complaining and as i was ssaying "see look it wont go" it slipped in!! so great. we took a big step and took our dirty clothes to the lavenderia today and picked them up tonight. The cutest and friendliest younger man i've seen this whole trip works there and it was good to see one smile for the day..because you dont see many! I need to go to bed so here are just a few more random thoughts.. while eating mcdonalds ice cream tonight, my friend was looking at his bag and realized someone had slit a huge knife throught it in hopes of stealing something. they didnt but its just scary to see a huge slit in your bag! also, when i was preparing my sentence for the pharmacist today i was going to say "necesito medicino para mi naranja" which says i need medicine for my orange.. good thing it didnt make it to my mouth before realizing that was super wrong but really funny! When adam and I took the bus line and got lost, it was one thing, but we didnt realize we told blake to get on the same bus, and he did later! He ended up in the outskirts of town, went through the slums, it was dark and well.. hes gay so he was very nicely dressed....and this was all my fault :( He ended up getting off the IDA route and on the VUELTA... then walked to his address on the pueyredon street..only to find out it was a totally different street with the same name.. in which case he got in a taxi.. 4 hours later, he was home! haha man... thats the kind of thing thats super scary while happening but if you get out safe, funny afterwards. im hoping this doesnt happen again to anyone. thats all for tonight, i'm traveling to mendozA for the weekend and will return late monday night! chau chau..pics to come soon!

swimmy..

2009-06-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

today was good. a man go on the bus, shouted some words in spanish, gave everyone candy...i thought he might just be a nice man.. then a few stops later, he took it away and off he went...strange. i had a great hamburguesa cooked on a charcoal fire and i tried to ignore how unsanitary they were. I have a head cold and i dont sleep well at night because the old wood bed creaks everytime i move. I'm so starving in the morning I have to get up and eat and use the restroom at 8 even when i dont have to get up until later... these are all negative things but i am enjoying it more and more by the day. we had a wonderful coffee break today minus the 5 blisters on my feet from these stupid old navy flats...i will never purchase shoes from there again, they two purchases have failed miserably. i sucessfully took out money from an ATM in spanish and got my sports clearance. tonight was fun with the girls after a hour of TANGO lessons. buenos noches..or chau

adventures on the collectivo and elsewhere

2009-06-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

well the trend continues..chaos is eminent, for me at least. Yesterday we walked to school..about 30 blocks which equates to an hour total. The Argentinians are up early, spraying the sidewalks in front of their stores and doing business instantaneously. The men here are typically dressed very nice, at least the ones out at 8 oclock am are. Once arriving to the Universidad de Palermo, we went on a city tour which lasted about 3 hours. We went to the extremely coloful barrio, La boca where its just as touristy as Hilton Head...but also very dangerous at night or by yourself. The houses are painted with old yet very bright shipyard paint to give it a new feel. I'm not sure when this all happened but its awesome as the rest of BA is a concrete mall. We also drove through the slums and it was very, very disheartening but every big city has them. The highlight of the day was probably lunch in which we feasted on a gourmet buffet FOR FREE and got free refills (something thats super hard to come by here since everything is in bottles). When I say free, i mean we already paid for it in the program cost :) Anyways, after about a 3 hour meal/hang out, we continued back to the school where we had orientation. We were all dozing off by then as it had been a super long day already. After orientacion, we went looking for adapters and "transformers" so we could charge our electronics without melting them due to the different voltage. We also stopped by a fruit stand and the supermarket for some cheap wine and sprite (that we have yet to have time for).All that took about an hour and 1/2 and then finally, we hailed a radio taxi, the safe ones, and a nice man named Oscar took us home. A nice hot shower was super welcomed after a crazy day in the city and Isabel's gnochi and tomatoes hit the spot. She made us a great salad and dessert was vanilla pudding with oreos. Something strange I've noticed is that we never see her eat and she will sit down with us, but doesnt eat! I asked her about it and she said she usually just has some tea or something small. The crazy part is they dont really eat breakfast either so I dont know how they do it. After dinner I decided to read and ended up falling asleep super early and then mozzied (I've never spelled this word before..) on back to bed. This morning kasey, my roomate, needed the keys and after my eyes had seen the light, I couldn't sleep. Maybe it was the fact that I was sooo hungry so I decided to get up and eat and then a little later, went back to sleep. Today I didn't have class until 1 and so I took it easy with Isabel (our mom). A testament to how smart our subconscious is: I had a dream that I was in my exact room now, and woke up to check my watch and it was 1... so i was scrambling to get ready and thought I would have to take a taxi.. basically I was freaking out about missing my first day of class.... well then I really wake up and its only 11 and I was fine! So I figure out how to call my moms patient Lily who's here studying as well and finally get in touch with her. It was time to go so I threw my things together, got directions and headed out to catch the collectivo solo. I walk 3 blocks away and get on bus 92...but it was going the wrong way, so I get off immediately and cross the street and do the same thing, this time going the right way. Thankfully a student got on behind me and noticed my destination and motioned it was his too. So when he saw me getting nervous near time to get off, he motioned when the right one was.. then walked me to the universidad and I was so greatful. HOwever, once going up the elevator to my floor, I realized it was the wrong building (since there's 5 to choose from) and went down to the street again. I was SOOO releived to see my friends outside the building eating emapanadas and didn't care that I was already 10 mins late. I decided to eat some lunch and chill for just a minute after such an exhausting ride. Class was good, we basically just talked about where we live and how we got to school. I think it'll be a super enjoyable class especially since we have field trips every friday (educational of course). After class, Adam, Carrie, and I met Anne to go to our internship (pasantia) at Colombo Pashkus. Business's are so strange here becuase they hid behind beaten up garage doors but inside they're super nice. So we speak to a box who someone lets us in :) were we met a stout little man dressed very nicely who let us up to the interviewing room. We chatted a little while in spanish (which got our heads spinning) and then one of the executives came in dressed to the nines. He chatted with us for a little while about our majors and past experiences and then decided it was time to talk in english. Anne stood up for our spotty spanish saying that we'd only been there for 3 days and mostly what we've studied is how to write and read. We got a nice tour of the place and Patricio explained that there are 2 branches of Colombo Pashkus: one is showbiz (like opening night, management for actors and actresses, models ect.) and one is for corporations. We met all 30 of the people who work there and then went to the first floor where we will reside (in clippings). He explained this to be similiar to going through magazines and picking out where the companies have been represented and cutting them out..sounds great :) ANyways, we tried to find our way home and it wasn't working, so we just took a cab. Dinner was great tonight, Eggplant, tomatoes and sausage..and of course bread salad and dessert. I had to do some homework about how to get from my school to my internship and then home and tell her multiple ways to do so. Basically I have to take the crazy bus everywhere or walk. ANyways, thats a wrap form the past two days, i apologize for the length of these posts, theres just so much to tell! They talk with such a thick accent its hard to understand but I'm working on it.
Chau for now!

day 1 in BA

2009-06-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

wow is the best adjective i can use right now.. i've seen so much in 24 hours its ridiuclous. The fairwell was a nice one as I waited patiently and was accompanied by Jimbo for a while. After security, we waited for even more time but thankfully I was entertained by Bear Grylls and Will Ferrel scaling ice walls on Man vs. Wild. Our flight to Miami was delayed an hour but made for the most beautiful sunset that shed just enough light to read by. By the end of the hour and 1/2 flight, it was storming and I saw lighting bolt horizontal to our plane just minutes before landing (all I could think about was that plain from Brazil and what they might've experienced).We arrived to Miami and waited around for another hour delayed flight to ARGENTINA! We were feeling somewhat anxious about dinner as it was 11 45 and we hadn't eaten since lunch. That served as an early welcome to Argentine eating schedule which I will explain later :) and SO we boarded..2-5-2 is how the seats were arranged and thankfully mom knows I like the window and thats where I sat..32 J next to Ernesto who spoke 5 languages! I decided to check our the situation before taking some medicine to help induce sleep..I decided I'd rather sleep than eat and began to drift off only to hear DINNER vaguely out of one ear, which quickly got my attention..it was 1:30am..dinner time! Suprisingly the "poscho" (pollo or chicken with argentine accent) was great, accompanied with mash potatoes, green beans, a roll and small salad..I was definitely a member of the clean plate club and will be for the duration of my stay. I chatted with my seat partner Ernesto and learned many helpful things before drifting back off to sleep. Apparently it happened pretty fast because when I woke up this morning, my tray was still out and trash cleared :) I got a good 5 1/2 hours of sleep sitting upright..and thankfully when I had to go to the bathroom, Ernesto did too and had already gotten up..perfect timing! At about 7:45 we realized it was morning and could see the ice crystals all over the windows. They served a nice breakfast of a crossant, orange juice, yogurt, and cafe (coffee). One strange thing I saw out the window was a lake that looked like it was covered in snow. Ernesto informed me that it was indeed salt and other minerals..so strange. He said you can swim in it in the summer but if you open you're eyes you're a dead man! I wonder if you can float in it like the dead sea though becuase that'd be cool. One other thing I was talking to Ernesto about was the greeting becuase I saw two men kiss checks outside the our plane once on the ground. He quickly explained by example how to do this and leaned over and kissed my check.. I was utterly shocked and all I did in return was to make a kiss noise. He quickly informed that this would be considered rude and you have to kiss back! haha Better not even think about the face germs while meeting people! So To leave we had to put on face masks check out with customs - I now realize in the midst of this I left my bible on the plane :(.... Then came my first crucial encouter..the customs women saw something missing from my form but I couldn't understand what..my friend Katie finally caught what she was speedily saying and worked it out. We waited a while for our luggage and I got some good suggestions for resturants from other passengers waiting. At this point we weren't sure if someone was going to be waiting for us or not becuase the other group had arrived at 7 and it was now 11. We gathered our things, and headed out through a door that closed up to look like a wall..and there was David! He introduced us to Angela and went to get the two other girls who had been waiting for us..our roomates, poor kasey and caroline. We enjoyed the 35 min ride into town and got a little view of the poor outskirts of BA. We met our madre at the Universidad de Palermo which is where our classes will be and stuffed our things into a radio taxi for a squished ride to our apartment. Isabel (the mom) has a family but they aren't here. INstead there are two other boys from other programs, Ian from Idaho and Tommy from LA. We live in Recoleta which is the ritzy part of BA comparative to the east side of NY (so i'm told). We have a door man and the keys are so old timy its riduclous..not to mention the elevators! We live in a high rise right off of Montevideo on the 4th floor. Now..the elevators, the smallest ones you've EVER seen..they have two old criss-crossy iron gates you have to close and there's two ways out so you must close 4 doors to get anywhere..the side panels of the elevator are non-existent so you can exit either door..so you go up past staircases..anyways, it's just weird. Our apartment is pretty big..small kitchen and study area, huge family room, 3 rooms down a long hallway with 2 bathrooms right next to each other (including biddays (sp?)) and Isabel's room is on the other side of the house. We really havent seen much of her as she went to the supermarket and then left for the evening. Today we showered quickly after our arrival, met up with our 10th floor friends in our program and headed to the mall. We stopped to sit at an outside table for a minute to look at the map to keep us from looking too turisty and a man immediately came out to give us menus. In spanish I told him we were looking for a place to eat and get empanadas and he insisted we were in the right spot (but it was super ritzy and we didnt want it). So the girls and I got our game plan together, and i went in to hand him the menus and told him we didnt have pesos becuase that was true. So...stop 1..get money form the mall (patio bullrich) Stop 2...eat something. Before either of these could happen, a nicely dressed older man came up to us motioning at his car and insisting he was trustworthy. I felt bad for him because he really did look reliable and wanted to help but I told him it was our first day and we couldn't take any chances..aren't you proud mom :) SO.. the mall was about 7 blocks away and it was chilly about 52 I'd guess outside today. THe mall was very nice and everyone was out dining. It was basically like all of these resturants were just gathered in the main plaza but they still had waiters and stuff. Our meal of a simple TINY salad and quesadilla with water was 24$ (pesos), a bit on the expensive side because its about $7US. We napped for a while after this escapade and ate pizza with our house boys. WE reunited with the 10th floor girls and their house boy (who has been here since march and is very helpful) and met up with Will and David. We found a nice resturant and it was quite the struggle ordering and paying and all of that but we did it! They gave us peanuts, bread and fried potatoes while we were waiting but you dont get a drink until you order..and then its bottled and only one (a struggle for me because I usually get a refill about 3 times). I got an empanada, cheese and ham, and it was great. An interesting fact is that they charge sitting fee regardless of what you get, and then add tip on top of that. So far things have been on the expensive side but to put into perspective, my meal tonight- a coke, empanada and lots of free bread, plus a sitting fee and tip was $18..about 6 or 7$US..way better than lunch. I expect to find much cheaper things outisde of the confines of Recoleta. Its definitely time for a good nights sleep though and we have a city tour tomorrow at 9. So buenos noches!

minimester...as auburn calls it

2009-05-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

so this may, i'm taking a religion class..thank you Grady which needs all my core classes COMPLETE to apply. BUT THEN.. i'm headed to Buenos Aires Argentina for 2 more spanish classes. One spanish class will be in the classroom, 4010 Advanced conversational and written Spanish, and the other is a practicum in service learning which means I'll be working at a company, non-profit, or school and get credit for it. Basically I'm super excited about going but, like everyone, am in a pinch for money. During exams week, I got an email about a scholarship stipend program that allows study abroad students to work for 50 hours at 10/hour to help out with the program cost (or whatever else you need it for). Thankfully, I got this job and all the paperwork is done! I start monday working at the immigration services office in DT athens..WOO. So, For the next 3 weeks, I will work hard for tha money, and study hard for an A... then off to ARGENTINA! keep up with me if you'd like :)

work life

2008-07-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

So this summer, I set out to make some money. I'm working as an office assistant for my neighboor. I love to dress up and have the "office" look going on even though this setting is pretty casual. I have, however, realized that this type job is definitely not for me! I've also come to the conclusion that I'm the type of person that needs immediate or quick results. I don't like repetitive computer work that I personally never see results from. However... I'm told that I've ordered over 1/2 dollars worth of plants in the past week, so sometimes you just have to have blind faith that you're doing something worthwhile..that's all for now, back to work :)

Getting Started

2008-07-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

So here it is.. the beginning of my sophomore year already here! Time goes by incredibly fast..I've been realizing more and more the ever presence of this little thing we call death. LIFE is so short... and i want to be one who embraces every second that I've graciously been given to live..