Mi Ultima Entrada- The Last Post

After being 5400 miles away for 4 months, I've composed some lists my overall experience of Argentina-what I expected, what I didn't, and what I liked or didnt.  I’ve truly had an incredible experience in Buenos Aires and I hope to someday return to my temporary home. I met people, had great experiences, and learned so much in 4 short months.  Well, here are my lists:

Things I’ve realized

~You are going to see or experience something bizarre every day. Today, I saw a sandwich factory washing their left-over leaves and tomato slices off on the sidewalk and into the sewer. 

~If you want to determine if a random stranger (has to be someone you don’t know at all) is a porteño or not, look them straight in the eye and smile. If they do not return the smile, it’s a porteño….this goes the other way around too. 

~If you see a porteño you know you MUST give them a beso and greet then enthusiastically, even if this means leaning over 3 people, interrupting a conversation, walking into a and interrupting the class (seriously this happened), or even if it’s just your teacher on the street. 

~I waste sooo much time waiting for busses, trains, and the subte. 

~Going out for dinner is fairly expensive. 

~You don’t need to get very dressed up to go out at night if you don’t feel like it.  You’ll see everything from stylish t-shirts to girls in short party dresses.

~Porteños very often donate to the beggars who come onto the subte. 

~Little kids will come into restaurants while you’re eating to beg at each table and the owners usually won’t say anything.

~Taxi drivers are some of the friendliest people. 

~It hasn’t felt like Christmas is close at ALL. 

What I’ll miss

~Seeing something strange every day. Even as I write this on the bus on the way to the airport, we passed cars out on the side of the highway in the triangle between an overpass and the connecting road.  Not only were there cars there though, they were 5 of them purposefully there and the people were sitting out on blankets in the grass. I just don’t think I can imagine people doing that next to the entrance ramp on I75.  Ha

~Alfajores-2 or 3 cookies with dulce de leche as layers in between…YUM

~Dulce de leche- this goes without saying if you’ve been following my blogs.  I brought home 3 containers of it J

~Mate conversation club

~So many opportunities to speak Spanish

~Riding the bus, subte, and train.

~Street/public transport performers and vendors.

~Grapefruit-flavored water.

~People waiting their turn almost always.

~Dessert after EVERY dinner.

~Being able to stay out till the sun rises.

~AND of course, all my Sol and UB friends, Porteño friends, our director, and my host mom

What I’m looking forward to:

~People speaking English

~Stores having change for a $20….or just paying with a credit card J

~Being able to throw TP in the toilet.

~Peanut butter

~American breakfasts.

~Skyline, Marion’s, Waffle House

~Drinking mate in the US

~American milk

What I feel like I would never get used to no matter how long I was in Argentina:

~Strangers not smiling back ever…it just bothers me.

~Women breastfeeding in public- on the bus, in shops, on the side of the street….just startles me for a second haha

~All the platform shoes and the pants that look like you have a sweatshirt on your legs

~Guys trying to kiss you half way through the first song you dance to….I have gotten used to dodging out at this point tho :D

What I have gotten accustomed to:

~Piropos: look straight ahead, don’t smile, and pretend like nothing happened.

~Throwing TP in the trash can.

~Eating at 9 PM.

~All the meat in the diet.

Argentina, you’ll always hold a place in my heart as well as everyone I’ve met along the way.  Thank you for everyone who has supported my journey and everyone who’s been reading my blog for the last few months.  The 1500 views has been flattering, even though half of these might be from my parents ;)  I would love to tell any one of you about my experiences in person sometime.  Un beso!

Traveling Argentina

My travels with my mom and brother were incredible.  It might just be the best vacation I’ve ever been on.  El Glaciar Perito Moreno was probably the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen and Iguazu was maybe even cooler than the first time. The pictures will truly tell the story of our trip but I’m going to sum it up for you.

            Joel and my mom arrived probably the craziest time they could. It was my last night with my host mom and so I arrived late to the hostel so they were talking to a man who spoke very little English for an hour. Woops.  On top of this, they arrived on the night of the largest anti-Cristina (Argentina’s president) ever.  There was also a garbage strike earlier that week so they were wondering why it stank and there was garbage everywhere.  If this wasn’t enough, there were power outages in large portions of the city so that people had started protesting the night before since it was 90+ outside.  This included our hostel so that night we had no air conditioning.  However, 3 bus lines run down our street and these buildings are old marble so the sound reverberates.  The effect was a sound like a jet liner taking off on our street.  I’m not joking: we had to stop talking when one drove past because we couldn’t hear each other.  It was so hot though I eventually had to open a window.  When I woke up for good in the morning though I first looked over to see the cords of earplugs hanging out my mom’s ears and then look at my brother and he is dead asleep with one finger still plugging his ear.  I still can’t believe I didn’t take a picture. 

            The wildness continued through the next day though. It started off hot but in the afternoon the temperature plunged and it started pouring.  Then the subways flooded and we waited out on a street trying to take any bus back to the house.  We were freezing cold and soaking wet in the rain and had to wait about 45 minutes.  

            When we finally did get on the bus though, everyone wanted on.  I sat on Joel and my mom’s laps and as the bus took off, three guys in suits start running after the bus.  The first one jumps in the open door, hanging slightly out, the second one somehow grabbed on and was hanging out more and then the third guy somehow jumps on and is fully out the door and we are driving down 9 de Julio (aka the widest street in the world).  The bus driver is yelling at the guys that it’s not safe and they’ll die and meanwhile we’re just hysterically laughing.  “Welcome to Argentina.”  Protests, flooded subways, garbage strike, power outages, and people hanging out of buses all in the first 24 hours. 

            The rest of the tour of Buenos Aires went much more smoothly.  We went to the Caminito, the famous street in La Boca neighborhood.  We saw Plaza de Mayo, famous churches, my host mom’s house, Recoleta Cemetery, Recoleta Fair, and so much more. 

            After Buenos Aires, we went to El Calafate, a cute little town on the edge of a beautiful lake with mountains in the background.  It is also probably the farthest south I’ll ever be.  Further from the equator than anyone in the continental US.  We stayed in a nice little bed and breakfast run by this extremely nice couple.  While here we went to see Perito Moreno Glacier and even went trekking on it and drank some fresh water off it.  It was fantastic and undoubtedly worth it.  The pictures really tell the story:

            We also rented a car for a day and traveled to El Chalten where we hiked to see an overlook of Mount Fitzroy.  This was also very beautiful.  The overlook was a gorgeous mountain lake from which you could see other mountains, Mount Fitzroy, and another glacier. This trek was extremely steep though….huge inclines for the first hour at least….easy way back though J

 The sheer rock faces below are mount fitzroy!

            Next, we traveled to Bariloche, the lake district.  And lakes it was!  Everywhere was more and more lakes!  We hiked around El Circuito Chico, took a boat around the lakes to a few ports and went hiking to see more lakes and waterfalls.  The last day Joel and I went horseback riding at a family-owned ranch. 

Feeding the seagulls from the boat!

            Our last stop was Iguazu.  I thought Iguazu was a great site the first time but this time was even better I think.  It was different in that this time, there was much less water and the water was so much greener rather than brown.  With less water, there was less mist and we got some spectacular views of the falls. We also got to go over to the island this time for more viewpoints and swimming since it wasn’t too flooded.  It wasn’t as powerful by any means and the sound wasn’t as impressive but I was glad to be able to experience it both ways because they were very unique experiences.

            I was so glad that my mom and brother came.  I was thrilled to have them to travel with me and experience some of what I have been experiencing for the last four months.  I’m glad they got a view of my life in Argentina and I will now be able to better share things when I’m home since they can relate.  This vacation was definitely a highlight of my trip to Argentina and I sincerely hope everyone has the opportunity and will to travel like I have this past year.  You won’t regret it.  

Iguazu- Part 1

            Well this is only part one because IM GOING BACK!!  And im so excited.  Iguazú falls was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen....it’s made up of 150-300 waterfalls depending on the water level and the whole thing together is pretty much a giant horseshoe of waterfalls with a cool island in the middle. 

          

 The sound of the falls was like deafening constant thunder and the mist made it difficult to take pictures at times.  There were boardwalks that were hanging over the falls practically and there was a boardwalk that was extremely close to being underneath one of them so that standing there, you got drenched head to foot within 10 seconds :D 

            Nothing compares to Iguazu like being there but take a look at some of my facebook pictures (coming up soon hopefully) and you’ll see what I mean.  And on top of that, the animals were really unique. I saw creatures that I’ve never even heard of before and got to see a bright blue bird do some sort of singing dance.   The butterflies were beautiful but what was impressive was the number of butterflies.  I swear, there were swarms of them at times… you would be walking and realize 6 butterflies on his back.  It was just a great experience and if you ever go to south America, this should be one of your pit stops without a doubt. 

            And if you make it to Iguazu be sure to visit the iniginous community while you’re there. We got to go on a tour and it was really interesting.  The age of the people was what really struck me.  I didn’t see anyone who looked over 30 although I know there had to have been and the parents in the community looked my age.  We did ask one guy how old he was and he said 19 and he’s married with a 3 year old daughter.  It was a very neat way of life with virtually no wasting of resources and they still trapped most of their animals with ingenious contraptions.  It was quite a different experience than most of what I’ve seen in Argentina but really cool!!!

Un Techo Para Mi Pais

            Last weekend, I went with a volunteer organization, Un Techo Para Mi Pais, to build a house for a poor family in one weekend.  We arrived in a huge warehouse to get together with our groups.  We were all split up, so I didn’t know anyone in my group, but it was a great way to meet some new people and DEFINITELY practice my Spanish! After meeting with our group of 35ish people, we packed up all the supplies for the weekend into an old bus and then preceded to all board the bus! Let me tell you though, I highly doubt that anything like this would ever happen in the US.  It would just be a lawsuit waiting to happen.  We packed a mountain of juice bottles, about 20 shovels, all our bags, sleeping bags, and some random building material and we just sat around in any space we could find.  People were on the floor with bottles continuously falling on them, sitting next to the shovels…..everything seemed a bit hazardous but that’s what happens in Argentina.

            We only drove about an hour, outside the city of Buenos Aires but still in the providence Buenos Aires.  We arrived at a school in the area and unpacked all the supplies assembly-line-style while a lot of the organizers ran around in ridiculous costumes (I should mention that everyone here was between 18 and 30 probably).  We then sat down and EVERYONE (about 75 of us) had to get up and tell a joke…either one of our own or we could pull from a basket. And, miraculously, I successfully delivered my own joke in Spanish in front of 75 Spanish-speakers…WOOO.  I was quite nervous though, needless to say J

            At this point it was getting late…as in after midnight.  So, we then ate dinner and finally got divided up into out six-person groups to build individual houses.  We had 4 girls and 2 guys in our group.  One of the girls was from Spain, but all the rest were from Buenos Aires, and everyone was really nice. After talking about what we were going to do the following day, we finally got to bed around 330.  Even though we were on tile floors in a classroom, I was so tired that I slept like a baby J

SATURDAY

            I woke up to the sound of shouting Argentines dressed in costumes and blaring wacky music.  I swear I felt like I was waking up to the circus raiding the building.  I just couldn’t help but laughing in disbelief as I laid there not wanting to get up at 7 am after three and a half hours of sleep and as a guy in a grim reaper costume poked at the girl sleeping next to me. 

            By the end of the day though I was completely exhausted.  We had a very light breakfast (Argentine style) of coffee, mate, and tiny crackers and then went outside to discuss the day and play some games.  We ended up waiting for hours for the bus that never came so we finally got on a mini bus/van to get to the villa and packed about 40 people with shovels and construction tools into a bus meant for maybe 20.  Seriously, someone sat on my lap the whole time. 

            The neighborhood reminded me a lot of Equador.  There were wood fenses and houses and tin roofs.  There were some nicer houses too but the same was true of Ecuador.  Our family for whom we were building the house was really nice, although I didn’t get to talk to the husband and wife much the first day.  I did get to talk to the grandma thought.  And I just love that everyone called her grandma even though she obviously wasn’t any of our grandmothers.  The family also had three little girls, all under the age of four and they were really adorable. 

            This first day, we managed to get all 15 posts buried (so the house is elevated for flooding) and only really stopped for an awesome lunch with the best chicken leg I’ve ever had.  By the end of the day we got most of the boards nailed on top of the posts so that we could set the pre-assembled floor on top.  It was great to see all of our work come together in the last 10 minutes to see a real-looking base for the house. 

That night we played some games, ate, and I got a great opportunity to talk to a bunch of Argentines about so many interesting things.  It was interesting hearing their perceptions of Argentina and its government, and their perceptions of the US.  The funniest part was when one guy asked me if people in the US actually think they’re the best.  It led to an interesting conversation about the US in foreign affairs and how they all see us as the number one economy in the world.  I then pointed out that we are $12 trillion dollars in debt. ha

SUNDAY

            We again woke up at the break of dawn, but thankfully had a little better breakfast since we had these fried pastries :D We got to the house earlier and started putting up the pre-assembled walls. We worked hard all day and finally finished after dark.  We had a “finishing ceremony” and gave the family some house-warming food and balloons. We were surprised that the mom didn’t come out for this part but we later found out that she did not want to cry in front of us.  It turns out that the reason they were getting this house was so that her three older children from her first marriage could move back in with them. Social services had come to their house and said that six kids could not live with them under one roof. 

It was a great experience but I was mentally and physically exhausted.  The stress of using so much Spanish, the extreme weakness in my forearms….all I could think was how are we going to make it back to Buenos Aires tonight when it has been dark for an hour already and we are still at this new house??  We finally did get back at midnight and I finally got back at 1AM.  I have never been so happy to not have a class until 4 :))

One interesting thing that we all noticed (everyone from my program I mean) was how much the Argentines share their drinks.  When we opened a bottle of juice to rehydrate, each person took a drink and passed it.  There really wasn’t such thing as “your” or “my” drink.  And we of course had mate at different points, just passing it around, even to the people working on the roof. 

The other thing I noticed here was how starved the families’ dogs were.  It was just so sad how one of our family’s dogs just laid there all day. Even when her skinny puppy came up to her to try to play, she just lifted her head to look and then put it back down.  The worst part though was that there wasn’t all that much that the family could do with as little as they had. 

Aside from the dog and her puppy, Un techo was an incredible experience and if you ever make the trek to Argentina, Chile, or one of the other countries that do this project, I highly recommend you join the trip. J

My Random Stories

30/09/12

Well, I can’t say I’ve had any particularly great blog-worthy events in the last few weeks, but here are some of the things I’ve been up to or funny things that have happened

First, dying my hair might’ve worked a bit at least for a while.  I think less people automatically decided I was a foreigner and there are still less looks now even though my hair is almost back to my normal blonde.  I think it’s because a lot of the looks and piropos we got came from people on the street we live on and now people realize we live here so they don’t wanna make it awkward?  That’s what I’m hoping at least. 

Also, I’ve gone out some nights recently with Porteños and even though I didn’t come with any expectation of what Buenos Aires would be like, one night I just realized that THIS is what I had expected.  We went to someone’s apartment first for a few hours and then at 2:45, the porteños said, “alright, let’s go out now!” So we walked for quite a ways down the streets, none of which had power, until we got to this warehouse looking club.  We got in and it was just a concert-like setting with all Porteños.  First time I felt confident that a place was not touristy at all J

            Pills: There are always some sort of people on the streets handing out pamphlets or free coupons, but it was definitely a first when I walked out of the university one day last week and what did I get?  A package of pills.  Yes, they were handing out pain pills to college students as they left the building.  I still can’t get over this….Only in Argentina…haha
            Bandoneon:  Whenever you're on the train or subway and sometimes even on buses, there will be some guys trying to sell stuff or telling you their life story to beg for money, but on the train this weekend, I felt like we got a very Argentine experience.  An older man came out of nowhere, seriously there wasn't even a recent stop, and started to play his bandoneon, a tango accordion.  If you've never heard one, let me tell you, they are LOUD but really pretty, and as we passed all different parts of Buenos Aires in this train, from the nice apartment skyscrapers to the shantytown villas of Retiro, it just made for a great train ride.  :D

Another strange thing here is that almost no one is wearing shorts yet here even though it has reached 80 once or twice.  Apparently it’s not hot enough for them yet.  It’s crazy though to see people wearing heavy winter coats with a sweater and long sleeved polo underneath even though it’s about 70 degrees outside and burning up in the city buses. 

Finally, people keep asking me if I’ve had any terrible language mishaps and I have to say, I’ve of course made too many mistakes, today alone, to write here, but as we’re learning, the funny thing is that everyone is realizing how much we keep using Spanish phrases, mannerisms, and words when we talk in English such as “more or less” or (I’m really bad about this one) “I’m going to ‘take’ some juice”…what I actually mean to say is ‘drink’ some juice but here they say “take,” AND a few times we just have problems recalling the English word: “what’s the English word for ‘carne?’” “Um you mean beef?”  “Oh yeah that’s it.” 

            It’s also always funny when you don’t realize that a word someone is using here is the exact same as in English, just a different pronunciation and accent.   One night our host mom told us she was making “Pan Pudding” except pudding is pronounced as “poo-ding” with an accent on the “ding.”  We of course asked what poo-ding was only to feel really dumb when she puts pudding out on the table.  (Might I add this was the best banana pudding I’ve ever had…or any type of pudding for that matter.  It was almost like cheesecake :D) Also, I will admit that I still have to say “¿Cómo?” a couple times and sometime wait for an explanation when someone here tries to say McDonalds here…I guess it’s just one of those words :P

            It’s also funny if you mix up Spanish words like when one guy from our program asked a lady on the bus “¿Quieres sentir?” (Want to feel?) instead of “¿Quieres sentar?”  (Want to sit?).  I’m happy to say that I haven’t done anything tooo embarrassing yet….at least not that I know of.  J

El piquete

13/09/12

Tonight I got to go to a protest against Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the president of Argentina.  And it was awesome.  Although in the last election Kirschner was elected with 54% of the vote, Buenos Aires is very anti-Kirchner, and to sum it up, she is popular with the lower class but not the middle or upper.  A lot of her policies in my opinion are semi-communistic and the impression I’ve gotten is that many people think that she thinks she’s a dictator.  Just a couple weeks ago she declared that September 24^th will be a national holiday so there is no work or school.  While this seems cool, my host mom says that there are already way too many holidays, “we have to work at some point!”  And most recently, Kirchner has supposedly suggested amending the constitution so that she could be reelected for a third term. 

So the protest tonight wasn’t for a specific thing, just to protest Kirchner’s policies in general.  I haven’t really been to a protest before, but it was cool to see how the Argentines did it.  If you ever go to an Argentinian rally, this is what you need:

1)      Most important of all, you need “caserolas” aka dishes to make the biggest racket possible.  This can be anything from a metal mixing bowl, which is what we had, to saucepans, to trash can lids, and I even saw some giant porcelain coffee mugs. 

2)      You of course must bring a spoon of some sort to bash against the caserolas.  

3)      You can bring a “cartel,” a poster with your message.  My favorite was “Diosa: No te tenemos miedo,” meaning “Goddess, we’re not scared of you.”  Haha

4)      Your singing voice.  The Argentines were very prepared with songs that they sang together and then even all started jumping at one point.  It was impressive. 

It was interesting to see all these people, but we were only in front of the president’s house.  The main part of the rally though was planned for the center of the city.  Just imagine thousands of people marching through Washington DC with pots and pans.  We saw it on the TV once we got home and that was all the news what covering our whole dinner which is saying something since they typically change stories practically every minute. 

Other random things I found interesting:

Ø  Planes were flying over the President’s house….definitely wouldn’t see that in DC

Ø  The property was HUGE… we must’ve walked almost 10 minutes down just one side of the property.  It was surrounded by a concrete wall though so we never saw much of the actual house, but I’m sure it’s huge too.

Ø  Although Kirchner’s house is outside the city, it doesn’t seem that far that she needs a helicopter to take her to work.  Although I’m not sure if she typically uses it or not, but I know it’s there for her. 

Ø  Cars all over the city around were honking like crazy.

Ø  Even if you don’t go to the actual rally, you can just go out on your porch and bang on some pots haha

Clowns, Prostitutes, and Llamas: Just do it the Argentian Way

11/09/12

So I just have a mixture of funny things that I’ve seen or experienced the last few days, and as I think of all these, I just think of the Argentines living by the lifeguarding phrase “Make it work.” haha

Prostitutes:      My friend Meigan had told me about the transvestite prostitutes in the Palermo Park and we even talked about it again today in my Spanish language class.  Still I did not expect to be seeing them tonight.  As I was telling my host mom about going running recently she told me that we should try out the Palermo Park and we could get a ride with her there tonight.  Being the curious person I am, I immediately was like “OMG this is where the transvestite prostitutes are isn’t it??”  …and then realized how strange it was that I had just asked my host mom that.  Thankfully, she knew exactly what I was talking about and I explained how Meigan had seen them in the park when she was running, one of them without a shirt even.  I found it strange that the fact that there are prostitutes in a main park is common knowledge because it seems like the police would stop this pretty quickly.  But my host mom just explained it that the police allow it to keep them out of the neighborhoods by all the houses where they used to go.  As shocking as it was to run past a group of three or four prostitutes in a giant running park, it does make sense to a point.  I’m just glad they were mostly clothed when I was there.  (Don’t worry though, there were TONS of people running in the park this evening and it somehow didn’t seem dangerous at all.)

Clown:  I MIGHT have a better story for this later, but now I would just like to say that they have a clown seminar at the hospital to keep the doctors more upbeat, etc.  I tried to go with the other volunteers but it had been cancelled haha

Llamas:  Someone asked me if there are a lot of llamas here.  While I do have a sweater with llamas on it, I live in the city so I really don’t know if there are actually lots of llamas here.  At a lot of the parks during the day they have miniature pony rides for kids, and yesterday as we passed a park (same one as above actually!) on the bus, I saw not only a pony saddled up but also a llama!!! I would love to say that I’ve ridden a llama…..

Una vista del hospital

05/09/12

            Today I went to start volunteering at a public hospital.  What you first ought to know though is that healthcare here is free, to quote my oral production teacher “Ab-so-lu-ta-mente gratis.”  The principle that if you’re sick in some way, you have to first show papers and fill out forms of proof of insurance, etc. just isn’t accepted here because you still shouldn’t have to “walk around with a limp your whole life because you don’t have the money to get a needed treatment.”  While I’m not saying that Obamacare is necessarily the right solution for us, she does have a point.  How cruel it must seem to them that we don’t have the compassion to care for people that are truly sick or in pain, especially since in a lot of cases, it’s no one’s fault. 

            Anyways, there are public hospitals here that are completely free and according to my teacher, people even come here by the busload from other countries in South America just to get free healthcare.  However, this makes for crowded hospitals and you must schedule appointments months ahead of time in the hospitals.  There are also private clinics that you can go to if you have the money to pay for them or if you have some sort of insurance.  I can’t say I’ve thoroughly researched how this part of it works, but all of what I’ve said before I’ve heard from my teacher and some from my host mom and her daughter, so I feel like that’s pretty good a pretty good source. 

            The hospital I went to is a public one, and walking up to it, I felt like I was going to a hospital in a tropical location, I think it was a mix of the trees in the yard and the slated windows on the building.  I can definitely say though it didn’t look like a massive US hospital, especially with a bunch of separate buildings.  The part of the hospital I went though was old but nice, BUT I think what set this apart from the US hospitals what it lacked: chemical smells, extreme sanitation, white walls, and thousands of beeping monitors, phones, and machines.  Maybe it was just the area I was in, but I guess I’ll find that out when I go back to actually do the volunteer work next week. 

            After meeting with the volunteer coordinator (who I successfully talked to and understood for half an hour maybe J), we went to observe a meeting between all the workers in the department.  I don’t know how many people work in the department, but I felt like everyone was there-doctors, nurses, social workers, coordinators-probably 25 people.  For the next hour or hour and a half we sat in a big room as the doctors presented patients’ cases, not just their medical conditions, but also their familial support, etc.  It was definitely different than anything I’ve seen before, but kind of cool to see everyone get on the same page and have a basic history of all the patients.  And as a side note, as we had this meeting the staff passed around a cup of mate and took turns drinking from the same straw….kinda cracked me up to see 20+ medical professionals “share their germs” as they say…it’s not something people worry about so much here.  Maybe it’s their somewhat lack of real winter that makes them not worry about getting sick here. Haha

            I actually also found this website with pictures of the hospital and it happens to be the department that I’m working in and a lot of the people I was with today in the meeting, if you’re interested.  J

http://paliativo-femeba.org/instituciones/ucp-hospital-tornu

¡¡Sorpresa!!

            So if you’ve read my blogs, you know “piropos” are pretty much a daily occurrence here.  (The funniest I've heard would have to be "Los Angeles"=the angels and "Mommy")  Since my roommate and I are both blondes, we attract a lot of attention walking down the street, but it’s actually worse when we’re walking alone.  And it’s more than just the piropos…women will look at us too.  I’ve had a lady shoot dirty looks at me, and I definitely wasn’t wearing anything super tight, short, or anything uncommon here.  Also, when people are on the sidewalks handing out pamphlets, they often will just switch over to English even though I haven’t said a word.  Finally, last week I reached my final straw as I was walking to school.  I was about to cross the street and a woman about 50 was walking toward me and just started staring at me, as I got closer, she came to a dead stop in the middle of the crosswalk and just stared at me as I passed and then turned her head to watch me even as I passed.  I understand that we are clearly foreigners here but there’s a difference between looking and being rude.  I just feel like a zoo animal sometimes.  So we made up our minds over dinner to finally do what we had been joking about doing ever since we got here……“Cheers to good decisions”….

 

After a week of shopping all over town for non-permanent dye, and the clerk asking us, “why would you want to dye your hair?” and just walking away….we finally found it!!!! (I was a bit excited)

   

Attempt #1:

Not as dark as we wanted…..

Attempt #2 turned out to be more what we were going for J

I'm still somewhat blonde and Kristen is definitely a redhead but we're hoping that people might think we went to that color on purpose.  Just an "experiment" to see if we can blend in a bit more with just a change in hair color....Now this is supposed to be gone in 6-12 washes…We’ll see!! :D

The "Open Society"

Well I guess my blogging has been slacking recently but I can’t say I’ve had anything crazy happen to me recently…or maybe I’ve been “Argentinized” and I’m out of touch with what is a crazy story.  Since I’ve been here though, I’ve obviously talked to my host mom, to her daughter, and in class about the culture, laws, and ways that Argentina is different from the US.  What I’ve found interesting is how I keep hearing about Argentina, the "open society."  There’s even a class offered at my university with that title, and from a lot of what I’ve seen, Argentina is definitely very open to some things other countries are not.

~People smoke pot here in fairly public places.  When we went to a boliche (late night dance club) a couple weeks ago, a complete stranger sat down at our table, got out some paper, pulled out a baggie of weed, poured a bit in, and rolled a joint  without even looking around to see if anyone was watching.  Also, we went to a small drum concert on Monday and people were of course smoking weed like in the US but when we went outside, there were street vendors selling bongs!!

~Gay marriage is legal here, and Argentina was the first (and I think still the only) South American country to legalize it.  There’s a rally coming up soon I think and I might have more to say about this then :)

~People drink in public…just yesterday I was sitting on the bus next to a regular-looking guy who was drinking a large can of beer.  Also might I add, beer is extremely cheap here!

~Several times a day, you will see some sort of wild clothing.  People here don't wear much bright clothing even though it's in the stores, but wildly patterned and bizzarre pants are very common.  My roommate and I just keep thinking some of the people have their old tights from the 80s or 90s.  

~Argentines don’t have the same ideas of personal space as we do in the US, and like most of the world they give a peck on the cheek to everyone unless it's very formal.   

~Piropos are a daily occurrence, as I've described, and it's not really frowned upon. 

With this “open society” though, what surprises me is how little people are to talking to strangers. If you’re on a bus or subway, people rarely are talking.  You can’t just start up a conversation with a stranger, and if you accidentally catch someone’s eye, don’t expect a quick smile…at least not in my experience…everyone here just looks away.  The looks (from men and women) that I get here on the streets are annoying, especially when people walking toward you literally stop in their tracks to stare at you.  BUT one of my professors brought up a good point as we were debating the “open society” that Argentina probably isn’t any more judgmental than most other countries, they just don’t feel obligated to be politically correct.  

Mendoza—A breath of fresh air

            Thanks to the holiday honoring San Martin (Argentina’s George Washington they call him haha), we got the chance to travel to Mendoza, Argentina.  If you look in any tour book, you’ll see that it’s known as the wine country.  It’s in the west of Argentina, close to Chile, and it’s a beautiful place to go to visit the Andes.  The entire trip was amazing, and I can’t count the number of times the expression “welcome to Argentina” ran through my head because that’s just seems like the best thing to say when something unexpected happens.

            First, Argentina has a complex bus system throughout the country.  Buses are much more economical than flights and based on the size of the bus terminal, I think more people use them than in the US.  We had in total a 14 hour bus ride each way, so sleeping wasn’t horrible but maybe not ideal.  In addition to Tea time, Dinner, and breakfast, the bus also included a game of Bingo.  As the “flight attendant” guy told us we were about to play bingo, we were all confused and Marco goes “En serio??” That was funny but not as funny as a couple minutes later, when he got a bingo and ran to the front of the bus screaming “Biiiiiiinnnnngooooo!!” only to find out that to get bingo here, you have to get a cover-all….We of course just had to laugh hysterically. 

            Friday Amy and I explored the city and slept while our other four friends went horseback riding.  Saturday, we got to go on our bike-wine tour which was beautiful. Even with all the vines completely bare, the vineyards looked gorgeous on the plains with the Andes in the background. J  We tasted wine at three wineries and I’d have to say it was the first time I’ve ever been able to taste the differences in wines, and I even could tell the difference between the different wineries we went to.  We got to taste Malbec (from a type of grape that can only grow in climates like that found in Mendoza) at each winery and got a tour of where and how the wines are made. 

            Sunday was an incredible experience: a 7 to 7 tour of the Andes Mountains.  I can’t describe most of the trip because the views are what really made the experience.  What I can say though is I don’t think any of us were expecting it to be so beautiful or to go up so high that it was snowing….we definitely hadn’t dressed for that!  We got to rent boots that came with plastic bags to put inside (“welcome to Argentina”).  We went to a small village with a cute market and got to see the hot springs with a natural bridge over a river, and finally the snow covered mountains where we went on a hour and a half hike/trek….i’d highly recommend looking at my facebook pics J

            Monday we decided to stay in the city of Mendoza and we went shopping and walked around the plaza.  The highlight of my day was going to the zoo.  The zoo was different than most of the zoos in the US in that you followed one specific path, so it was nice that you for sure got to see all the animals and you didn’t need a map to do it.  The zoo was different from ALL the zoos in the US in that you could definitely be mauled if you had a death wish.  First of all, what separated you from all the animals was merely a chain-linked fence.  Second, the animals here are dangerous ones. I’m not saying that only a chain link fence separated me from the llamas; I mean the chain link fence separated us from the 6 or 8 PUMAS at this zoo.  Again, “Welcome to Argentina.”  There was a single railing up to prevent people from accidentally getting too close to the fence but still, nothing like this would pass US safety standards.  The cool thing was that we got some great pictures.  In one I’m within inches of a sleeping puma…I swear I could’ve pet him if I wanted.  They also were selling cookies for the monkeys and I of course had to buy some.  It was a really cool experience feeding the cute little monkeys through the fence as they all reached out begging for a cookie.  It was sad though too since some of the males and larger ones were bullying the others.  Overall, it was quite different than any zoo I’ve ever been to but I’d have to say it was the best :D 

FAIL

I’m swallowing any pride and sharing these stories for all the world to see.  I hope you think these stories are half as funny as they were in real life J 

Finding the Medicine

This first story isn’t too embarrassing but shows a different side of medicine than you’d find in the US.  Since it is winter here, I of course got sick.  It was just a cold but I decided to visit Farmacity (like CVS) to get some tissues, antihistamines, travel tissues, and Zicam.  After standing in front of the cold isle looking at the shelves for 5 minutes, I finally found the antihistamines and went to the counter.  They looked at my English bottle of Zicam and gave me a packet that turned out to be something completely different but I was impressed that all together, my total was only $5 US!

The second pharmacy gave me the Zicam that I really had wanted or at least I thought that’s what it was.  I read bottle when I got home and it said vitamin A and Zinc with an orange flavor so sounds exactly what I already have from the US.  There were no instructions in the bottle or on the outside but the pills were wrapped up just like candy so I put it on my tongue and it just sizzled.  I accidentally shouted (only a tiny bit out of surprise), and was like no this can’t be right.  I mean the tablet in my hand was still sizzling too.  I finally realized it was to put in a cup of water and sure enough, it turned the glass into a sparkling orange Gatorade-like drink.  It’s just a good thing I didn’t try to eat it during class haha  I swear though, there are NO instructions on this bottle still looking at it now...In the US this would just be a lawsuit waiting to happen :P

Using the Bidet:

Before coming here, if someone had asked me what a Bidet was I don’t think I could’ve answered.  When I arrived and Lilian, my host mom, gave me a tour of my room, I looked in the bathroom and thought, “Oh crap, why are there two toilets?” but I definitely was not about to ask that even if I had known how to say it.  Thanks to my Argentine friend Nico in the US though, I was informed that the other toilet, the Bidet, was only a wash toilet so to say. 

So now, two and a half weeks in, as I talked to my friend Sarah on skype, I decided we needed to figure this thing out.  I promptly got onto Google and typed in “How to use a Bidet.”  And via WikiAnswers, this is what I found: 

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1.    Use the toilet first. The purpose of the bidet is to help clean off after toilet use. While some people believe that using a bidet is a hygienic substitute for toilet paper, many choose to use both.

2.    Straddle the bidet. On most standalone bidets you can either face the bidet's water controls or you can face away from them, as you would on a toilet. It is easier to control the flow and temperature of the water if you face the controls, but if you are wearing pants you will generally need to remove them in order to straddle the bidet in this manner. There are a variety of bidet designs, so the configuration of the jets and the area of your body that you wish to clean may dictate which way you need to face.

 Adjust the temperature and jet strengths for comfort.

o    3. Adjust the temperature and jet strengths for comfort. If the bidet has both hot and cold water controls, start by turning on the hot water. Once it's hot, add the cold water until you have a comfortable temperature. (In normally hot climates, such as the middle east, you should start with the cold water. The water will not need time to heat up and you may end up burning sensitive areas if you turn the hot water on first.)

Be very careful when turning on the water, as many bidets can produce a very high jet of water with only a slight turn of the control.

o    Be sure that you know where the water will be coming from ahead of time, or you could end up with a surprise shower. If your bidet does have a spray nozzle set in the bowl (unlikely in the UK due to regulations), place your hand above it to subdue any jet of water and then either press or pull the diverter lever between or immediately behind the taps.

o    You may find that you need to hold the control to keep the jets on.

3.   4

4.    Position yourself over the water jets so that the jets hit the desired area. For some bidets you can continue to hover above the bidet or you can sit down on it. Note that most bidets don't have seats, but are still meant to be sat upon; you just sit directly on the rim. Some bidets do not have jets, but instead simply have a faucet that fills the basin, as you would fill a sink basin.

5.    Clean anal area and/or genitals. Clean the desired area using your hands, as you would when taking a shower. If you wish to use soap, use only those that are unscented since perfumed ones are not recommended for use on the genitals. Rinse yourself well and turn off the water.

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6.    Dry your skin. Some bidets have a built-in air dryer that you can use. For others, simply pat dry with toilet paper. Many bidets have a towel on a ring positioned next to the bidet. This is for drying the genitals or the hands but sometimes it is used for moping up any splashes around the rim after rinsing it.

 Rinse out the bidet.

7.    Rinse out the bidet. Once you are off the bidet, run the jets at very low pressure for a few seconds to rinse the basin and keep the bidet fresh.

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8.    Wash your hands with soap and water, as you would any time after using the toilet.

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9.    If you sit on the WC you can wash your feet too

I laughed pretty hard reading this, imagining trying to do any of these things.  Still, I went up and told my roommate we needed to try this.  So we walked into the bathroom, and I just looked at it thinking, “Be sure that you know where the water will be coming from ahead of time, or you could end up with a surprise shower.”  I had no idea where it was going to come out, and Kristen and I were just hysterically laughing at the whole situation.  So I knelt out of the way and tried to turn it on.  The ending of this story is sadly anticlimactic, but it was still a good laugh.  I tried turning all the knobs different ways and we got water to come out around the rim and around where I thought the water would come up but nothing ever sprayed like in pictures.  We just laughed more at the idea of asking our host mom how to use it.  I’m curious though now so I have a feeling I’ll end up asking…maybe once I know her a little better.  Haha