Sorry its been so long.

Culture things:

Everything is served with ham and cheese here: empanadas, omelets, pizza, dip for chicken nuggets, subway, sandwiches your host mom makes, milonesa (like chicken fried steak) is served with ham, cheese, and tomato sauce. EVERYTHING has ham and cheese incorporated.

Christmas-y themed leggings, long long hair, big stud earrings, and hipster scarves are all huge here. People also like to dress WAY warmer then they need to, to walk around the city.

Also, fernet and coke and Campari are the drinks of choice. Along with speed and vodka, or speed and champagne. (Speed is argentine redbull)

School:

I got a 94 on my midterm and I have my written final on Wednesday, then my oral presentation on Thursday. I took my Tango class final on Monday (it was eeeeasy cause we have been tango-ing so much outside of class). My classes aren’t hard and its fun to meet other kids who are attending university who live in Mendoza.

Tango:

Me and a few other kids in my tango class are obsessed with Tango. Last week I tango-ed twice on tues, once on wed, thurs, and Friday. I also watched a tango show on Thursday. We just keep learning new steps and improving our form and following/leading skills.  :DDDD

Being back at Baylor:

We are all planning on having an Argentina party some time during the semester. It will include: 8pm: empanadas/salad/bread and some wine and mate. 10pm: Asada, mate, wine 11:30pm: tango music begins and those who know how begin to tear it up 2am: boliche music gets turned on and fernet and coke is talked about, we mention how much we hate it and how we wish we had some for old time’s sake and then we dance the night away! probably till around 6 in the morning. Best Party Plans Ever!! :D

Food:

My favorite foods I have eaten here are:

Amazing Lasagna from this really nice Italian restaurant in Cordoba.

Empenadas! There are lots of different kinds. Like ham and cheese; beef, egg, onion, olive; cheese and tomato; “Arabe” is like beef and onion and spices (my favorite kind!)

Onion pizza!

The rice and chicken my host mom makes.

Alfajores!!!!! 3 layers of cookies with dulce de leche in between, all covered in chocolate.

Panchos!! Foot long hot dogs with tons of fixins! And tiny French fry-shaped chips put on top.

Asado! Tons of meat bbq-ed to perfection. So much meat…

Dogs

Dogs cross the street like pros. They will wait on the side of the road, and cross when the light changes with all the people. It's really impressive.

My boots are filthy because of all the dust! Stupid desert. I’m also constantly thirsty. I feel like a mermaid who used to live in water but now lives on land and can’t drink enough water. Yes I did just compare Houston to living in the ocean. I miss the moisture and humidity. But not the mosquitos.

Early Tuesday Morning

Tuesday: Had class at 8:30am for some unknown reason. But the bus I usually take just whizzed past instead of stopping at my stop like it usually does…so I had to wait for the next one and was 10 min late. But the other half of my class (read: 4 other people) didn’t come tile 9am so it was no big. Went over stuff I already know but felt bad for the kid who sits next to me cause he couldn’t understand the directions and was getting really frustrated. I know exactly what that’s like and I tried to help him out and be encouraging J.

Then I went to the cafeteria with David and Ma while they chilled before their 2pm class. I also gave David some vitamins and decongestant because he is sick and he may have gotten it from me somehow. We had cafeteria tortellini, soda, and the pizza the table next to us full of other Hawaiians didn’t want (you guessed it, olives were involved). David also showed me how to fix a broken cigarette. (He has so many skillz!)

Then I went to the bus stop and talked to Martin instead of getting on the multiple busses going by I could have gotten on. (In Argentina you are never in a hurry). But then once his bus came I got on what I thought was my bus. Nope. It took me really far away from the city up to like the hills, it was a bit scary but I just kept telling myself that busses go in a loop and I would be back at the university eventually. So 45 min later I got off at the University, walked down the hill a bus stop and got on the correct trolley after asking the bus driver if it was going to the Plaza de San Martin. Got home, ate lunch, took a 2 hr siesta and had some tea with Olga. She is sick and has this scary sounding cough like her lungs are coming out. But she went to the dr today and should be better soon. Then I went to Havanna and there were some Baylor kidos there who I sat by. I puttered around on fb and creeped all over people’s pics from the mountain trip.

Then new epic meal time is amazing. Maybe even better then the breakfast one I love so much, though that is quite a strong statement. I came home for dinner and because I couldn’t find anyone to go to and from Irish Pub with me.

"Spending Pesos Like its Monopoly Money"

-to quote a baylor kid who goes out all the time :P


omg i am finally on the internet! i havent been on since like wednesday and i have been tweekin! 
well i have gone out 4 days in a row. and here are the highlights:

on wed. i went to voodoo bar for sarah's 21st (UC Davis chick) with brandon (my new bestie). it was so much fun but we got home really late and i only got like 2 -3hrs of sleep before i had to go to class.

then thursday some kids came over to my house and cooked dinner. then best raviolli i have ever had! then we went to a boliche (a club) and got in at like 7am, slept for 2 hrs and had class at 10 til 11. then i had tango, lunch, a museum tour and got home at like 4:30. showered, slept for 3 hrs and met back up with people at irish pub for brandon's birthday. after irish we went to the chocras (an area outside of the city where there is just HUGE clubs and bars) and we drank champagne and speed (argentine red bull). its soooo good. 

soooo. we got in at like 7am after i fell asleep in the taxi. then saturday i went to this conversational partners picnic at the park. (convo partners is transfer students and mendoza students and we practice our span/eng together) its super great for meeting locals and everyone wants to be everyone's friend here. i love it! i know like tons of people already just cause everyone is ready to be anyone's friend and give you thier cell phone number. hahaha. its a totally different social dynamic.

also its considered improper to drink straight out of a bottle here. like any bottle. you either put it in a cup or use a straw in the bottle. I have been going to Irish Pub with people and trying different kinds of beers. I feel so grown up! But the one I tried that i love is this Red Ale I had on friday. The brand was "OtroMundo" but it was very yummmmy!

on saturday night i went to a birthday dinner at brandon's house and we had empenadas and pizza. we ended up on aristides (mendoza 6th street, tons of bars, restaurants, and clubs) at a bar called exxtreme. they have these giant tubes they put on the tables full of campari. which is a type of liquior with orange juice. its is a redish color though. well these tubes are huge and have a spout on the bottom. it was kinda magical. i have to go there again and ill take my camera. 

yea but everyone got tired and didnt want to go danceing so we ended up just going home early and i got home at lie 3:30 and slept til noon. then had wine with lunch cause thats what people do here.

Oh and the cali and hawaii kids keep makin fun of me for saying y'all. they just dont know what they are missin out on. its rhetorical magic! haha.


I missed my sister's graduation and the party. im really bummed about it. but im having an amazing time here and she knows i would have loved to have been there. 


hope all is well over in the states. BESOS! BESOS!

Lazy Sunday and First Monday

Sunday: Got woken up at 1pm for lunch and Olga’s grandsons came over. They are 15 and 14, so they are no longer young and obnoxious, but they aren’t quite old enough be social either. So with my minimal Spanish we did not converse very much. I decided to go to Havanna to see if I could skype my family and friends who are visiting for Sydney’s graduation party.

I was at Havanna for like 4 hours. I skyped, posted pics, fb chatted with kids, and some girls from Baylor came in and I hung out with them for a while. Next I went home for dinner and did my tiny bit of homework for the next day. Then I watched Get Him to The Greek and went to sleep.

Monday: Had class at 9am. Got very frustrated with my class being too easy and continued to talk to my teachers about moving up. I get cranky toward the end of class because I get hungry and that makes me tired. I need to start bringing a snack to eat during a break around 11am. Anyway, then we had a break till 3:15 when we had a tango class. They fed us at the cafeteria and somehow I ended up at the end of the table with the 3 boys who are in the class. Then suddenly all the other girls were gone and I just chilled with the boys till it was time to leave.

After the class we all made plans at the plaza. The girls wanted to go to Havanna and me and the other boys wanted to go to Aristedes. Which is the street with all the cool restaurants on it. (again with only boys) We ended up at a café/bar place and john and I split creppes con dulce de leche y ron. OMG! It was probably the most delicious think I have eaten yet here in Argentina. It was soooo good, you know that feeling you get when you eat a hot honey butter chicken biscuit from Whataburger? The one that makes you wanna yell and make obnoxious and suggestive noises because it is soooo amazing that our mouth is convulsing? It was like that, but more intense. Lol but since we were in a public place we tried to muffle out obnoxious.

Then we went to Havanna so everyone could get on the internet and there were some kids from UC Davis (California) with a Mendoza girl there studying. We know them from UNC. We chilled with them and around 9ish we went to have dinner at a all you can eat pizza place. It was all you can eat cheese pizza for 20 pesos a person. STEAL! I split the pizza/beer combo with Karina, but she only wanted pizza. A liter of beer ended up being more then I expected. Not in a “I’m going to be drunk/tipsy way” just in a “that’s a lot of liquid” way. But 2 other kids got liters so we just sat at that restaurant till like 12:30, sipping and munching pizza.

Side note: they put olives on everything here. It’s gross. They give you pizza cut into slices and stick an olive on each slice. Then even if you pick it off and give it to someone else to eat, you can still kinda taste the olive when you get to the contaminated area of the slice. Pretty unfortunate. I power though :P

Next we walked back towards the Plaza and passed a park and I insisted on swinging. Then 2 others and me got on the marry-go-round. BIIIIIIG MISTAKE! I was yelling for them to stop it cause I was going to fall off cause I couldn’t hold on any longer but John just kept spinning it. Terrible boys. Then josh and john caught cabs at the casino and Brandon walked me 4 blocks to my apartment cause he didn’t feel like going home quite yet. Pretty quite/successful night if I do say so myself.

A saturday full of activities

Saturday: We had to be at the Plaza at 8:30am to get on a bus to take us out to the mountains for a day of fun and asado(delicious argentine BBQ). We got there and had coffee/tea, these sweet bread circles with apple filling, and sweet croissants (media lunas). Next we all took some pics of the mountains, each other, and everything in sight. Then about half the group got on like 20 horses, I have never ridden a horse before but it wasn’t really that tricky. They guy who helped me up explained it pretty basically (in Spanish of course). Pull the rope connected to its mouth left to go izquierda, pull right ir derecha, and pull back to stop. We went along a trail for about half an hour then came back. I had a great time even if it got the laziest/most upset horse ever. He totally was not happy about having to be saddled up and walk that day. He walked slower then all the other horses and I kept trying to get it to go faster and yelling CABALLO PEREZOSO!! Ma (hawanii partner in crime) thought that was pretty funny and we took tons of pics of each other on our horses. Then she dropped her jacket onto the ground. Which isn’t a big deal unless you’re ON A FREAKIN HORSE! So I gave her my reins to hold and hopped off my lazy horse and grabbed the jacket out of the dirt and climbed back up like a pro. No big.

When we got back there were people climbing this large hill to see the view from the top. So we climbed it. We had to cross this river, so my shoes got wet, then we realized the whole hill was covered in spikey bushes and rocks. We came down afterwards a bit scratched up and sweaty. Empanadas and wine were waiting for us at the bottom though so it was made up for. Jeeze empanadas are delicious. Its like ground beef and cooked onions and spices enclosed a flacky tortilla that’s been folded over and the edged folded up to keep it all the deliciousness inside.

Next we all hung out and a couple of the guys who work there showed us this hand trick where you hold a wine cork in the crook of your thumb, in each hand. Then using your thumb and pointer finger, change the hands the corks are in. It’s A LOT HARDER then you would think. In fact I couldn’t get it but of course David did. I think its cause he has bigger hands and cause he has tons of skills and just seems to be good at everything.

Then finally the asado was ready and we ate SO MUCH DELICIOUS MEAT! There were ribs, goat, sausage (chorizo) and steak. oh and salad too. After some sitting and chatting there was dancing. First just the locals who were all dressed traditionally were dancing but then they grabbed some of the students and that was too much fun. Of course I danced with an Argentina boy and afterwards we chatted for like 20 min. In Spanish of course, but it wasn’t as aweful as I thought it was going to be. (I have been really anxious of talking to random people because of my poor Spanish sklls) but he was really nice and talked slow for me. Apparently one of the teaching assistants who are super cool took a picture of me talking to him and told me needed to ask him out for drinks later. HAHA.

While we chilled some more(there is tons of just hanging round here in Argentina) The older guy who is in charge gave some of the boys cigarettes in exchange for kisses from the girls. Such a player! Haha so of course I had to participate, it was really amusing. After some dessert of dulce de leche in a form I had not seem before and some champagne(so many cheers happened SALUD!!) we got back on the busses and drove the 2 ½ hrs back to the plaza. We got back at 8:30pm and I went home, ate dinner, showered, got dolled up and chilled for a bit.

Then around 11:30 we all met up at the Plaza to go to the Irish pub before going out for the evening. At the boliche (big argentine club) there was much dancing, laughing, and 90’s music if you can believe it. They love that stuff here! I got in at like 5am. An early night for a Mendocino!

Mas Actividades

Friday: I had class again and I did not feel well at all. I think I even had a fever for a while. Then we ate lunch and went to our Tango class. This was SUPER FUN because we learned the tradition Mendoza dance called the Folclore, I saw it on the holiday a ton and was trying to watch people and learn it. But I’m sure I had a fever during our dance class. I went home later and got on the internet at Havanna and chatted with Jerod and we planned a meet up at the Plaza to walk around and have dinner with anyone else who wanted to come. But no one else got the fb post in time so we just walked around. Later we stopped at a restaurant and I wanted cheese fries. But they only had fries alone and cheese separate. They brought out the fries and a place with 2 slices of cheese on it. I laughed pretty hard, and then stuck the cheese in the middle of my hot fries and it melted pretty decently. Deliciouso!! Later John met up wth us and we walked around some more and went to Havanna because he had never been there. (now he is addicted too) I had a tiny coffee and couldn’t fall asleep till like 3am. Que molestado!