Monday, June 15th was completely unremarkable other than the fact that it marks the one-month mark of time I have left in my apartment. Weird. I spent the day doing homework, since I was still too sick to do much else with my life. Tuesday was similar, with the only difference being that I dragged myself out of bed to go to class and was miserable in the library all day, instead of on my couch. However, when I came home, Lauren surprised me with sushi for dinner, which was amazing a) because I love sushi, b) because I didn't have to cook, and c) because she refused to let me pay her back. Love her :)
On Wednesday Lauren and I decided that staying in the apartment all day and procrastinating was not the best idea, since we were both swamped with end-of-the-semester assignments, so we woke up early and headed to the UCA library. I had planned on spending the day researching for my second paper, but my computer decided to freak out on me and couldn't figure out how to access any of the wireless networks. I was then forced to work on my other paper, which I was not as worried about, but I managed to get a significant part of it done in a couple of hours, as did Lauren. Ben showed up and joined our paper-writing party until it was time for history. Sergio was almost an hour late for class, which was annoying since we all had things we needed to be doing, but he gave us a quick review of what would be on the final and we headed out. Lauren and I went to Cafe Suarez with the intention of grabbing some dinner and settling in with our laptops for another couple hours of work, but after we finished our food and sat there waiting for the guy sitting at the only table with an outlet for over an hour, we decided it wasn't worth it and went home. Thankfully we were able to focus and get some work done before bed, but definitely not as much as we had hoped.
Thursday involved giving a slightly delirious and incoherent presentation of the paper that I had yet to write- I don't remember what I said, which is probably not a good thing, but I lived through it at any rate. I came home in between classes to work on my papers/try to nap (unsuccessfully), went back for my 6-9 class, and went home to sleep as soon as possible after that.
Friday and Saturday were spent curled up in a ball on the couch because I was too sick and exhausted to do anything (at this point, I have been sick for almost three weeks- awesome. My mom suspects it might be the flu.) Sunday was the first day that I FINALLY started feeling better (aka could walk down the hallway without having to sit down and rest, could eat solid food, etc- THANK GOD) so I took it easy all day. I called my dad to wish him a happy father's day, and also got to talk to the Vaillancourts and Grandma and Grandpa, which was great. Later that night I went out to sushi dinner/girls night with Lis, Anne, and Robin, which was a lot of fun. After dinner, Robin headed home to get some work done, but Anne and Lis and I went to see Secretos del poder, which was really good. After I got home I watched part of a movie with Joe and Lauren and went to bed.
Today is officially 40 days until I'm home again- I can't believe it's going by so fast. (Some of my friends will be home by this time next week- that's crazy!) The next week is going to insane- finals, final papers, goodbye dinners, packing, getting all my school paperwork in order, etc. Less than a week until Peru!
Today
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Elizabeth comes to BsAs!!
On Wednesday, I woke up superearly and hopped on the subte/colectivo to the airport to pick up Elizabeth! The airport was freezing and full of people wearing masks (swine flu, anyone?) but I found Elizabeth without much trouble and we hopped in a cab home. We went to Mark's deli for lunch with Lauren and then I introduced Elizabeth to Modena. She took her first bite of Argentine ice cream and swore she was never going home. After that, we went home so she could rest/so I could write my history paper, and then I took her to class with me to meet everybody. After class and a very crowded/uncomfortable subte ride home, we made stir fry for dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed early. I figured dragging her to the dinner/show/club event that we had planned was not the best idea since she hadn't slept in about two days, which turned out to be a good decision.
On Thursday, I let her sleep late and went to class as usual, and met up with her in the school lobby later, where Lauren had dropped her off. We spent the day exploring Puerto Madero, where my school is, the Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada, and did the tourist thing and walked up and down Calle Florida. I showed her where I used to live and took her to lunch at Desiderio (hadn't been there in months but it was nice to go back.) We wandered around Plaza San Martin and I showed her all of the cool things that I love about Recoleta and Retiro. For the Mulligans: we also saw the Torre de los Ingleses and la Puente de la mujer. We spent a few more hours wandering around so she could see the ecological preserve, and got ice cream at the little stand near UCA. The guy serving the ice cream was so fascinated by Elizabeth's eyes that he asked her to take a picture of them so he could print the picture, cut out her eyes, and paste them over his. Slightly creepy, but we'll probably never see him again so it wasn't a big deal. After that, we both went to my Revoluciones class and were endlessly entertained by my professor, who translated things like "carne salada" (which actually means "salt beef" or "beef jerky") as "salad meat". Other than that, though, class was long and kind of tedious. We headed home and Lauren and I decided to introduce Elizabeth to empanadas, so we ordered some for dinner before watching a movie and going to sleep.
On Friday, we went grocery shopping and then spent the day cooking. We made meatballs, apple pie, and a chicken and pasta dish, and we had Lis over for dinner with us. After dinner, we got ready and headed out to the DiTella girls' apartment to hang out for a bit before we all headed out to Kika to go clubbing. I danced with one guy for a while who turned out to be really sketchy, but other than that it was fun. We stayed out til about four or five before we called it a night. The next morning, we were still too tired to do much, so we bummed around all day. Elizabeth and I eventually made it to the Botanical Gardens to walk around and explore for a bit, which was nice. We got back and made dinner, ordered a movie and Modena delivery, and had a lazy girls night since none of us were feeling up to going out again.
The next day, Lauren, Elizabeth, and I headed out to Recoleta for the day. We spent a few hours at the Recoleta fair buying presents for everyone back home, and wandered through the cemetery for a while as well. We got lunch at a tiny restaurant nearby, stopped at McDonalds for McFlurries, and went to see Angels and Demons that afternoon. After that we called it a day and went home. On Monday, Elizabeth and I went to La Boca for some more exploring and shopping. She got to see the Boca stadium and a few random tango performers in the street, and then we went back home for a few hours. I took her to Dada for dinner and dessert, both of which were awesome.
On Tuesday, I went to class in the morning and then headed back to the apartment, since my evening class was canceled. Elizabeth and I had lunch and then spent the afternoon wandering through Palermo. We found a really pretty park and sat next to the pond for a few hours and talked. It was so exciting to have someone from home to talk to- that might have been my favorite part of her visit. On our way back, we ran some errands, and got back to the apartment only to find that Roxana was still cleaning. We ended up sitting in the backyard eating Modena until she left. At that point, we decided to make banana bread and ordered sushi (and teryaki chicken for Elizabeth, since she wasn't a fan of the sushi) for dinner with Lauren. After dinner, we watched a movie that Lauren was assigned for her Cine class, which ended up being terrible.
Since I didn't have class until 4 on Wednesday, we slept late and made lunch before we headed out. In class, we had cake for Anne's birthday, and then afterwards we said bye to everyone and went to a little cafe for dinner, carrying all of our luggage with us. The cafe ended up having great food and our waiter was really nice and really attentive, so it ended up being a good sendoff. I made Elizabeth try the steak, since I figured it would be a crime if she left without having it. After dinner, I took Elizabeth to Sei Tu for one last hurrah with Argentine ice cream before we got a cab to the airport. I practically had to order her to get on the plane, which was sad, but at least I know she really did enjoy her time here if she didn't want to leave. I went home and watched another weird Argentine movie with Lauren and Joe before going to bed.
On Thursday, I woke up feeling horrible and skipped my classes. I spent most of the day catching up on my homework and my reading, so the day wasn't a complete waste. That night was Anne's birthday celebration, which included dinner, a bar, a party bus, another bar, and a nightclub. Since I was still feeling like death, I only made it as far as dinner, but it was still fun. Since I was also planning on going to Mar del Plata on the BC trip the next day, I figured getting some sleep was a better plan if I ever wanted to be healthy again. That didn't work out so well, since I had still not slept for more than an hour before it was time to get up for Mar del Plata, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I still felt horrible that morning, and decided to skip the trip, which was disappointing but necessary. Friday ended up being a recover-from-being-sick day and not much else, but was probably better for my health (unfortunately) than spending hours on a bus with no sleep and then partying all weekend.
Saturday was spent doing homework all day, and then Joe, Lauren and I met up with Anne, Robin, Lis, and Memo for dinner at a supposedly fantastic restaurant called Cumana. My dinner was actually pretty terrible, which was disappointing, but we met up with Kela after dinner and went to see "Los fantasmas de mis ex" (which translates directly to "The ghosts of my ex-girlfriends", but considering how bad some of the Spanish movie titles are, I have no idea what the movie is called in English). The movie had some funny moments and was entertaining, but wasn't that great. By the time we got home, it was almost 2am, so we went straight to bed. Today was spent working on my final papers, catching up on reading, and trying to recover from the awful cough that is currently controlling my life.
On Thursday, I let her sleep late and went to class as usual, and met up with her in the school lobby later, where Lauren had dropped her off. We spent the day exploring Puerto Madero, where my school is, the Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada, and did the tourist thing and walked up and down Calle Florida. I showed her where I used to live and took her to lunch at Desiderio (hadn't been there in months but it was nice to go back.) We wandered around Plaza San Martin and I showed her all of the cool things that I love about Recoleta and Retiro. For the Mulligans: we also saw the Torre de los Ingleses and la Puente de la mujer. We spent a few more hours wandering around so she could see the ecological preserve, and got ice cream at the little stand near UCA. The guy serving the ice cream was so fascinated by Elizabeth's eyes that he asked her to take a picture of them so he could print the picture, cut out her eyes, and paste them over his. Slightly creepy, but we'll probably never see him again so it wasn't a big deal. After that, we both went to my Revoluciones class and were endlessly entertained by my professor, who translated things like "carne salada" (which actually means "salt beef" or "beef jerky") as "salad meat". Other than that, though, class was long and kind of tedious. We headed home and Lauren and I decided to introduce Elizabeth to empanadas, so we ordered some for dinner before watching a movie and going to sleep.
On Friday, we went grocery shopping and then spent the day cooking. We made meatballs, apple pie, and a chicken and pasta dish, and we had Lis over for dinner with us. After dinner, we got ready and headed out to the DiTella girls' apartment to hang out for a bit before we all headed out to Kika to go clubbing. I danced with one guy for a while who turned out to be really sketchy, but other than that it was fun. We stayed out til about four or five before we called it a night. The next morning, we were still too tired to do much, so we bummed around all day. Elizabeth and I eventually made it to the Botanical Gardens to walk around and explore for a bit, which was nice. We got back and made dinner, ordered a movie and Modena delivery, and had a lazy girls night since none of us were feeling up to going out again.
The next day, Lauren, Elizabeth, and I headed out to Recoleta for the day. We spent a few hours at the Recoleta fair buying presents for everyone back home, and wandered through the cemetery for a while as well. We got lunch at a tiny restaurant nearby, stopped at McDonalds for McFlurries, and went to see Angels and Demons that afternoon. After that we called it a day and went home. On Monday, Elizabeth and I went to La Boca for some more exploring and shopping. She got to see the Boca stadium and a few random tango performers in the street, and then we went back home for a few hours. I took her to Dada for dinner and dessert, both of which were awesome.
On Tuesday, I went to class in the morning and then headed back to the apartment, since my evening class was canceled. Elizabeth and I had lunch and then spent the afternoon wandering through Palermo. We found a really pretty park and sat next to the pond for a few hours and talked. It was so exciting to have someone from home to talk to- that might have been my favorite part of her visit. On our way back, we ran some errands, and got back to the apartment only to find that Roxana was still cleaning. We ended up sitting in the backyard eating Modena until she left. At that point, we decided to make banana bread and ordered sushi (and teryaki chicken for Elizabeth, since she wasn't a fan of the sushi) for dinner with Lauren. After dinner, we watched a movie that Lauren was assigned for her Cine class, which ended up being terrible.
Since I didn't have class until 4 on Wednesday, we slept late and made lunch before we headed out. In class, we had cake for Anne's birthday, and then afterwards we said bye to everyone and went to a little cafe for dinner, carrying all of our luggage with us. The cafe ended up having great food and our waiter was really nice and really attentive, so it ended up being a good sendoff. I made Elizabeth try the steak, since I figured it would be a crime if she left without having it. After dinner, I took Elizabeth to Sei Tu for one last hurrah with Argentine ice cream before we got a cab to the airport. I practically had to order her to get on the plane, which was sad, but at least I know she really did enjoy her time here if she didn't want to leave. I went home and watched another weird Argentine movie with Lauren and Joe before going to bed.
On Thursday, I woke up feeling horrible and skipped my classes. I spent most of the day catching up on my homework and my reading, so the day wasn't a complete waste. That night was Anne's birthday celebration, which included dinner, a bar, a party bus, another bar, and a nightclub. Since I was still feeling like death, I only made it as far as dinner, but it was still fun. Since I was also planning on going to Mar del Plata on the BC trip the next day, I figured getting some sleep was a better plan if I ever wanted to be healthy again. That didn't work out so well, since I had still not slept for more than an hour before it was time to get up for Mar del Plata, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I still felt horrible that morning, and decided to skip the trip, which was disappointing but necessary. Friday ended up being a recover-from-being-sick day and not much else, but was probably better for my health (unfortunately) than spending hours on a bus with no sleep and then partying all weekend.
Saturday was spent doing homework all day, and then Joe, Lauren and I met up with Anne, Robin, Lis, and Memo for dinner at a supposedly fantastic restaurant called Cumana. My dinner was actually pretty terrible, which was disappointing, but we met up with Kela after dinner and went to see "Los fantasmas de mis ex" (which translates directly to "The ghosts of my ex-girlfriends", but considering how bad some of the Spanish movie titles are, I have no idea what the movie is called in English). The movie had some funny moments and was entertaining, but wasn't that great. By the time we got home, it was almost 2am, so we went straight to bed. Today was spent working on my final papers, catching up on reading, and trying to recover from the awful cough that is currently controlling my life.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Modena fiascos and Mendoza
After skyping for several hours on the 24th, I got all of my visitors' trips planned. Afterwards, Lauren, Joe and I started cooking, because Ben and Kela were coming over for Ben's Mexican birthday dinner. The five of us had an awesome meal and then sat around and watched Emperor's New Groove, which of course I was really excited about. By the time the movie ended it had gotten pretty late, so we called it a night.
Monday was a holiday, which was kind of a waste since I didn't have classes anyway. The only way it affected us was that basically everything was closed. I spent the day getting the rest of my homework out of the way so I could start working on my huge presentation for my Cuentos class (the presentation that counts for 20% of my grade, is an hour and forty minutes of me speaking Spanish, and being graded by the awful professor who hates international students and fails us more often than not. No pressure.) That night, we all needed a break (my research was turning up conflicting information and I was ready to tear my hair out) so the three of us decided to go to Modena for an ice cream break. We then headed home with our quarter kilos of ice cream and got back to the apartment, only to discover that Joe did not have his key in his pocket as he had thought. We had locked all three of our keys inside the apartment, which has no other key. After explaining to security what happened and trying unsuccessfully to pick the lock, we tried to call a locksmith. We found out that we would have to pay them double to come out at night, and double again to come out on a holiday, so when our new favorite security guard, Daniel, suggested that a friend of his might be able to help us out, we jumped on it.
We waited around for maybe three hours for his friend to show up, during which time Joe left to go to a party, and Lauren and I wandered the streets singing the Jonas Brothers, sat in Modena and flirted with the cute waiters, and sat creepily in the dark on the floor of our hallway. Finally the friend showed up, got our door open in less than a second, and hopped back in the elevator before the doors closed or we could offer to pay him. The rest of the night was spent frantically trying to finish my presentation and praying that I would not fall asleep in the middle of it.
On Tuesday, after about two hours of sleep, I got up early to finish the presentation, and headed to school. The presentation went fairly well- I think I was slightly delirious and my Spanish seems to flow better when I'm tired. Other than the fact that the professor kept interrupting and going off on tangents that I didn't want to discuss (she wanted us to teach her class- just let us teach it!) it went okay. After that, I went to run a million errands, trying to pick up my transcript at UBA, picking up my student visa, picking up my package from home, and bringing it all back to the apartment. The package was amazing- bagels, pepperoni, candy, an oven thermometer so we could actually cook, and about a million other things that made my day. As I was enjoying my surprises, Roxana (our maid) showed up to clean, so I had to head back to UCA and get out of her way. After a long, boring class, I came home and Lauren and I ran to the grocery store to buy cream cheese, before we each polished off about three bagels for dinner. Easily the best meal I've eaten here. After that I went to bed for some much-needed sleep.
Wednesday was a lazy day, thank god. We hung around until class time, which was at the Evita museum near our house and only lasted an hour. We picked up some groceries on the way home as well as a present for Daniel, our security guard, and made pepperoni pizza for dinner, which was amazing. After that, we sat down to do homework, watched some TV, and went to bed.
On Thursday, I went to Cuentos as usual, and headed home right after. The subte broke down halfway there, and I ended up having to walk maybe 35 blocks to get home, but since I didn't really have anywhere to be I couldn't complain too much. Once i got home, I made lunch, washed practically every dish in the house, did some hw, cleaned the room, took a shower, packed, and ate dinner. Then I headed out to the bus station to meet up with Lis and Robin to go to Mendoza. We had free entertainment listening to the two incredibly spoiled girls sitting in front of us- some of the things that came out of their mouths shocked us, and we go to a school full of spoiled rich kids. Our bus attendant, Matias, was really cute, and brought us candies and organized a huge game of Bingo for the entire bus. I tied for first place with another passenger, so we drew numbers to determine a winner. I lost, which was kind of upsetting once we realized the prize was a free bottle of wine. However, it was still fun. After an awful dinner and a terrible movie, we took our super-uncomfortable pillows and settled in for the night.
The bus crew woke us up far too early on Friday with bad nineties music videos on the TV and breakfast. The breakfast, at least, was decent, and we arrived in Mendoza shortly after that. We checked into our hostel, which was cute and clean although the walls were really thin and the rooms were definitely on the small side. It was rainy and freezing all day, so we found a restaurant called Giovanni's to have lunch- unfortunately, most of it was inedible it was so bad. We picked up hot chocolate mix at the grocery store to make us feel better, and went back to the hostel for hot chocolate and homework, since our other options were limited. We had a mediocre dinner at a different restaurant, and wandered through a local craft fair on our way home. We tried to go to bed early since we had signed up for an early excursion the next morning, but we could hear everything through the walls and didn't get much sleep.
On Saturday, we got up far too early and headed out in a bus with maybe ten other people for the Alta Montana excursion. It was freezing cold, snowy, and gorgeous. We drove for a few hours into the Andes before stopping at a little cafe for breakfast, and then stopped to take pictures at a few of the lakes and the Puente de los Incas, a natural bridge formed by glaciers and hot springs in a long complicated process that I can't explain. We saw some ruins from a distance and picked up a few things at an artisan fair in the mountains, but hopped back on the bus asap because it was so cold. We made friends with a girl teaching Spanish in Cordoba, a junior at MIT who was traveling with his whole family, and a group of girls from Brazil. After a long bus ride back, we said our goodbyes, and then Lis, Robin, and I went out to dinner (this time we asked for a recommendation from Joe, who had been to Mendoza before- we were getting really sick of crappy food). Fortunately his recommendation was good, and we finally got our good dinner with a bottle of wine. We made friends with three Spanish men, who were traveling South America on an extended vacation, and gave us some good travel tips on their favorite parts. After that, we wandered home and went to sleep.
On Sunday, (last day of May- wow!) we woke up and FINALLY had the beautiful weather we had been hoping for. We set off in search of the bike tours that they offer through the various bodegas (aka wineries/vineyards), only to discover that they are all closed on Sundays and we had missed our chance. After navigating the local bus system successfully, we found one place that was still open, rented bikes from a sketchy roadside vendor, and set off in search of it, accompanied by a stray dog with one eye that had developed an attachment to us. We ended up traveling most of the way with three boys, two from the US and one from England, who were doing the same thing we were. They named the dog Benny despite the fact that Benny was a she, but we think she learned it so quickly because "veni" (pronounced "Benny") means "come here" in Spanish. Just a theory. The six of us biked for what felt like hours down the main road of the town, passing various vineyards and getting some awesome pictures. Benny stayed with us the entire way, bouncing back and forth between our two groups. We finally got to the bodega and signed up for the tour, which we took while the owners tried to convince Benny to leave. We learned a bunch of things about how wine is made and stored, and what differentiates different wines in terms of quality, color, and taste, and then went into the house for our wine tasting. We got to try three or four different wines (including Octans, a wine invented by the owners of the Bodega that's a mix of red and white and is only sold there) before we headed out. A cop showed up as we were leaving and warned us not to leave the main road, because a lot of criminals lie in wait off the main road for tourists on bikes, who are generally easy targets for robbery. We ended up getting a police escort all the way back home, accompanied by Benny, who we defended from the various dogs that tried to attack her along they way. Once we got back to the bike rental place and returned our bikes, the boys and I were starving, so we all grabbed empanadas at a local cafe. Probably more than half of the empanadas went straight to Benny, since we felt bad that she had chased us all day and had not eaten anything. After that, we all hopped a bus back to Mendoza and went our separate ways from there. The girls and I stopped at a restaurant for dinner on our way back, and then went back to pack up our stuff. We got ice cream on the way to the bus and settled in for another long ride. Dinner was equally bad as the first time around, but the movie was better, as were the pillows. We were at the front of the bus by the huge windows, and froze all night, but we got back to BsAs safely and took the train home to Palermo.
I got home on Monday morning around 12, and spent the day bumming around with Lauren since I was exhausted and she didn't feel good. We ordered ice cream and sushi, watched a movie with Joseph, did some homework, and skyped our respective families before going to bed. Tuesday was equally uneventful, with class, homework, lunch, homework, and more class. It was, however, the two-month mark of my remaining time here. Kind of weird- I don't really know how to feel about that.
Monday was a holiday, which was kind of a waste since I didn't have classes anyway. The only way it affected us was that basically everything was closed. I spent the day getting the rest of my homework out of the way so I could start working on my huge presentation for my Cuentos class (the presentation that counts for 20% of my grade, is an hour and forty minutes of me speaking Spanish, and being graded by the awful professor who hates international students and fails us more often than not. No pressure.) That night, we all needed a break (my research was turning up conflicting information and I was ready to tear my hair out) so the three of us decided to go to Modena for an ice cream break. We then headed home with our quarter kilos of ice cream and got back to the apartment, only to discover that Joe did not have his key in his pocket as he had thought. We had locked all three of our keys inside the apartment, which has no other key. After explaining to security what happened and trying unsuccessfully to pick the lock, we tried to call a locksmith. We found out that we would have to pay them double to come out at night, and double again to come out on a holiday, so when our new favorite security guard, Daniel, suggested that a friend of his might be able to help us out, we jumped on it.
We waited around for maybe three hours for his friend to show up, during which time Joe left to go to a party, and Lauren and I wandered the streets singing the Jonas Brothers, sat in Modena and flirted with the cute waiters, and sat creepily in the dark on the floor of our hallway. Finally the friend showed up, got our door open in less than a second, and hopped back in the elevator before the doors closed or we could offer to pay him. The rest of the night was spent frantically trying to finish my presentation and praying that I would not fall asleep in the middle of it.
On Tuesday, after about two hours of sleep, I got up early to finish the presentation, and headed to school. The presentation went fairly well- I think I was slightly delirious and my Spanish seems to flow better when I'm tired. Other than the fact that the professor kept interrupting and going off on tangents that I didn't want to discuss (she wanted us to teach her class- just let us teach it!) it went okay. After that, I went to run a million errands, trying to pick up my transcript at UBA, picking up my student visa, picking up my package from home, and bringing it all back to the apartment. The package was amazing- bagels, pepperoni, candy, an oven thermometer so we could actually cook, and about a million other things that made my day. As I was enjoying my surprises, Roxana (our maid) showed up to clean, so I had to head back to UCA and get out of her way. After a long, boring class, I came home and Lauren and I ran to the grocery store to buy cream cheese, before we each polished off about three bagels for dinner. Easily the best meal I've eaten here. After that I went to bed for some much-needed sleep.
Wednesday was a lazy day, thank god. We hung around until class time, which was at the Evita museum near our house and only lasted an hour. We picked up some groceries on the way home as well as a present for Daniel, our security guard, and made pepperoni pizza for dinner, which was amazing. After that, we sat down to do homework, watched some TV, and went to bed.
On Thursday, I went to Cuentos as usual, and headed home right after. The subte broke down halfway there, and I ended up having to walk maybe 35 blocks to get home, but since I didn't really have anywhere to be I couldn't complain too much. Once i got home, I made lunch, washed practically every dish in the house, did some hw, cleaned the room, took a shower, packed, and ate dinner. Then I headed out to the bus station to meet up with Lis and Robin to go to Mendoza. We had free entertainment listening to the two incredibly spoiled girls sitting in front of us- some of the things that came out of their mouths shocked us, and we go to a school full of spoiled rich kids. Our bus attendant, Matias, was really cute, and brought us candies and organized a huge game of Bingo for the entire bus. I tied for first place with another passenger, so we drew numbers to determine a winner. I lost, which was kind of upsetting once we realized the prize was a free bottle of wine. However, it was still fun. After an awful dinner and a terrible movie, we took our super-uncomfortable pillows and settled in for the night.
The bus crew woke us up far too early on Friday with bad nineties music videos on the TV and breakfast. The breakfast, at least, was decent, and we arrived in Mendoza shortly after that. We checked into our hostel, which was cute and clean although the walls were really thin and the rooms were definitely on the small side. It was rainy and freezing all day, so we found a restaurant called Giovanni's to have lunch- unfortunately, most of it was inedible it was so bad. We picked up hot chocolate mix at the grocery store to make us feel better, and went back to the hostel for hot chocolate and homework, since our other options were limited. We had a mediocre dinner at a different restaurant, and wandered through a local craft fair on our way home. We tried to go to bed early since we had signed up for an early excursion the next morning, but we could hear everything through the walls and didn't get much sleep.
On Saturday, we got up far too early and headed out in a bus with maybe ten other people for the Alta Montana excursion. It was freezing cold, snowy, and gorgeous. We drove for a few hours into the Andes before stopping at a little cafe for breakfast, and then stopped to take pictures at a few of the lakes and the Puente de los Incas, a natural bridge formed by glaciers and hot springs in a long complicated process that I can't explain. We saw some ruins from a distance and picked up a few things at an artisan fair in the mountains, but hopped back on the bus asap because it was so cold. We made friends with a girl teaching Spanish in Cordoba, a junior at MIT who was traveling with his whole family, and a group of girls from Brazil. After a long bus ride back, we said our goodbyes, and then Lis, Robin, and I went out to dinner (this time we asked for a recommendation from Joe, who had been to Mendoza before- we were getting really sick of crappy food). Fortunately his recommendation was good, and we finally got our good dinner with a bottle of wine. We made friends with three Spanish men, who were traveling South America on an extended vacation, and gave us some good travel tips on their favorite parts. After that, we wandered home and went to sleep.
On Sunday, (last day of May- wow!) we woke up and FINALLY had the beautiful weather we had been hoping for. We set off in search of the bike tours that they offer through the various bodegas (aka wineries/vineyards), only to discover that they are all closed on Sundays and we had missed our chance. After navigating the local bus system successfully, we found one place that was still open, rented bikes from a sketchy roadside vendor, and set off in search of it, accompanied by a stray dog with one eye that had developed an attachment to us. We ended up traveling most of the way with three boys, two from the US and one from England, who were doing the same thing we were. They named the dog Benny despite the fact that Benny was a she, but we think she learned it so quickly because "veni" (pronounced "Benny") means "come here" in Spanish. Just a theory. The six of us biked for what felt like hours down the main road of the town, passing various vineyards and getting some awesome pictures. Benny stayed with us the entire way, bouncing back and forth between our two groups. We finally got to the bodega and signed up for the tour, which we took while the owners tried to convince Benny to leave. We learned a bunch of things about how wine is made and stored, and what differentiates different wines in terms of quality, color, and taste, and then went into the house for our wine tasting. We got to try three or four different wines (including Octans, a wine invented by the owners of the Bodega that's a mix of red and white and is only sold there) before we headed out. A cop showed up as we were leaving and warned us not to leave the main road, because a lot of criminals lie in wait off the main road for tourists on bikes, who are generally easy targets for robbery. We ended up getting a police escort all the way back home, accompanied by Benny, who we defended from the various dogs that tried to attack her along they way. Once we got back to the bike rental place and returned our bikes, the boys and I were starving, so we all grabbed empanadas at a local cafe. Probably more than half of the empanadas went straight to Benny, since we felt bad that she had chased us all day and had not eaten anything. After that, we all hopped a bus back to Mendoza and went our separate ways from there. The girls and I stopped at a restaurant for dinner on our way back, and then went back to pack up our stuff. We got ice cream on the way to the bus and settled in for another long ride. Dinner was equally bad as the first time around, but the movie was better, as were the pillows. We were at the front of the bus by the huge windows, and froze all night, but we got back to BsAs safely and took the train home to Palermo.
I got home on Monday morning around 12, and spent the day bumming around with Lauren since I was exhausted and she didn't feel good. We ordered ice cream and sushi, watched a movie with Joseph, did some homework, and skyped our respective families before going to bed. Tuesday was equally uneventful, with class, homework, lunch, homework, and more class. It was, however, the two-month mark of my remaining time here. Kind of weird- I don't really know how to feel about that.
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