Cordoba

In mid August, I had a long weekend from school. I went to Cordoba with my housemate, Rachel, and some friends. The bus ride was 10 hours. We took an overnight bus and got into Cordoba around 10 am. We took a bus to tour the countryside. The mountains must have been beautiful in the summer but in the winter everthing was brown so it wasn't as pretty.

On the way we visited the resort town of Carlos Paz. In the summer it is very popular with Argentines. It was still cute in the winter with a big lake. We went to a factory that makes alfajores, which are an amazing Argentine cookie. They have two cookies with dolce de leche (its like caramel) in the middle. We also saw the town from the mountain. Carlos Paz is touristy enough to have ski lifts even though it doesn't snow, for summer tourists to "climb" the mountain. At the top there is a cafe and everything.

Below is a picture of the street of Cordoba. It is university city, with lots of students.

The next day we went to Alto Garcia. The boyhood home of Che Gueverra is there, along with a 17th century Jesuit estancia. The estancia was restored as a museum and was very well done. Estancias are similiar to ranches or plantationa. Below is La Poderosa, the motorcycle used in the Motorcycle Diaries.

Dia del Campo

Dia del Campo was an excursion with my program, ISA. They first took us to Lujan, a city outside of Buenos Aires with a famous basillica. I was not overly impressed by the basillica as in Spain I've seen enough cathedrals to last for a while. I was more impressed by the coffee shop beside the basillica as it was 9 am, which is early by Argentine standards.
Next we went to a 1860's estancia, complete with gauchos, horses and most importantly, peacocks.

First we walked around the estancia, which is similar to a ranch. The estancia house was preserved from the turn of the century and showed how it would have looked at the turn of the century. As cattle has long been a central part of the Argentine economy, landowners of estancias similar to this one had lots of influence. This influence declined under Peron. The gaucho culture is central to Argentine identity, presenting a contrast to the cosmopolitan Porteno (resident of Buenos Aires). All of the estancia workers were dressed as gauchos, of course with the infamous gaucho pants.

We got to ride horses, which was in itself a let down as we just went in circle. It was great to at least be around horses though.
Afterwards, we had an asado. This is Argentine for BBQ and directly translates as 2.5 hr banquet with about 4 courses of meat. They gave the vegetarians (my roommate and me) pretty gross pasta. For a bit, I was worried that Argentina was finally going to fufill a long held worry of me not liking what was served. Then they brought out grilled veggies, which were amazing! The grilled red pepper was almost like candy it was so sweet. Argentina definitely does not deserve its reputation as a vegetarian wasteland.

The gauchos demonstrated traditional gaucho dancing, which consisted of a lot of foot stamping and twirling. Then, completely stuffed, we went outside to watch gauchos perform games on horseback such as jousting a canter to put a spear through a little ring. They brought along the five year that had been running along all day. He was fine on the horse, mainly because he did not want to be left behind.

Winter in Buenos Aires

This week I had several presentations so I didn't get out much. Most of the presentations have consisted of interviews with Argentines, which is harder than it sounds. We are learning about immigration to Argentina, which is crucial to understanding the culture.
However, on Wednesday I went to Fuerza Bruta, which is like Argentina version of Cirque de Soleil. The scenes were incredible, including a pool with a glass bottom that was suspended above us with swimmers. There was also a guy running through things such as walls of paper on a huge treadmill. It was very unique.

Afterward we went and got crepes. In Argentina crepes are called panqueques. The restaurant had over 100 different varieties of fillings. It was amazing.
Lastly, as it is still cold here I broke down and bought a coat. I'm on the terrace of my host family house with my housemate Daniel (a fellow vegetarian).

Its a long weekend so I'm going to go to Cordoba with my other housemate, Rachel, for the weekend.

Universidad de Belgrano

Classes have begun!
Between not having a break between my exams, Spanish classes in Spain and it being winter here, I feel like I haven't had a summer. After some changing of classes, I am taking Latin American Cinema and Latin American Cultural Studies(both completely in Spanish), Intermedio B, Latin America in the Global Economy and a literature course on Borges.
Every afternoon I take the bus for about half an hour to school. Argentine universities are interesting in that they have three shifts, morning 7 am-12pm, afternoon 1-7 pm and night 7 pm to midnight. Argentine students normally take classes in the morning and evening so they can work during the day. University is normally not the main focus but is a supplement to their lives. Thus, classes for international students are usually in the afternoon.
So far my classes have been good although its difficult to pay attention for an hour and a half in Spanish. You really have to pay attention the whole time in classes in Spanish cause you can't pick up the lecture based on the context.
Last night I went to a concert. It was very nice and in the back of a cafe. The opening act was blues guitar and piano. The main act was called El puchero misterioso (the mysterious pot) and was a mix of tons of different instruments. At one point there was a saxophone and trumpet. The link to their page is below.
http://www.myspace.com/tomilebrero
The cafe was really cool so I'm definitely going to try to go to more concerts there.

First week- El Tigre/ La Boca

Unsurprisingly, I am no better at keeping up this blog in Argentina than in Spain. The first week before classes began, there was orientation. I also did some of the touristy things and went to La Boca and El Tigre. It rained the first few days, which curtailed the sightseeing somewhat.



My host family is great. It is actually just a single woman but she is a law professor at Universidad de Buenos Aires and has testified before the Argentine Congress. I have a single room but there are two other American students. The cooking is great, much better than Spain. For instance, last night we had beat salad with chickpeas and eggs. The guy I live with is vegetarian and the girl only eats kosher meat so all the food is vegetarian. Below is my house. The house is also very cool cause its brightly painted and filled with art and books. I have begun reading Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal.


Lastly, I went to see El Tigre with my program. It is a region north of Buenos Aires with many rivers and waterways so instead of roads they have waterways, complete with boat-buses and boat stores.


Then we stopped at a cafe and took pictures of Buenos Aires from across the Rio de la Plata. There were some guys that took windsurfing to the next level and did kite surfing. Dad, I don't recommend this as it was about 50 degrees and freezing.


on a side note, I love the graffiti of Buenos Aires. Some is political, some is typical graffiti and some is just pretty.

What's new Buenos Aires?

I arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday. The trip went seamlessly except for the ending, in which I decided to attempt to save the US$35 dollar cab fare from the airport to Buenos Aires by taking the public bus for 2 pesos or 50 cents. Big mistake. The hostel had been very helpful in giving me directions and noting it would take over an hour and a half. I asked the information desk where to catch the bus. The lady wrinkled her nose, which should have been an indication. The crowded and unheated bus took nearly 2 hours and went through some rather interesting areas of Buenos Aires. And missed my stop, resulting in me having to drag my 70+ pd luggage 12 blocks in 40 degree weather.
The hostel wouldn't let me check in until 1 pm but kindly let me store my suitcase.
I went to get lunch at a cool cafe that looked straight out of SoHo in NYC. I have been worried about finding vegetarian food but they had over 10 things on the menu that were vegetarian, and 3 that were vegan, which is more than most American resturants. They also had good coffee and Argentine jazz music in the background. The whole meal was 48 pesos, or roughly 12 dollars. I am quickly falling in love with Buenos Aires...

Espana wins El Mundial!

I am so grateful to be in Spain when they won the world cup for the FIRST TIME. The streets were filled with Spaniards celebrating.

I watched the game with Holly, Jenny, Andra, and Julia. Here we are waiting for the game to start.

Spaniards celebrating in the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca.

Me with vuvuzela... which created a constant buzz on the TV and were super annoying when blown nearby