Relapse

So I have finally received my computer after a month of repairs and a few trips to the MacStore, so I guess I am back on this blogging stuff.

So I have decided to just make this blog postings a chain of pictures with captions describing what is going on, since I have not really traveled anywhere recently I believe this is the quickest and most efficient way to get everyone up to speed with my life in BA.

First Iguazu Falls, our program flew up to Misiones to view these falls for a weekend. They were quite amazing and a whole lot better than the Niagara Falls. The first picture is taken on one of the many viewing platforms and the second is taken while on the boat which took us under the falls.
Next came my weekend adventure into the Cordoba area which is about 15 hours north-west of BA. We stayed in the town, where Che grew up during his childhood due to its dry climate, Alta Gracia. We visited, as day a trip, the village La Cumbrecita which had a few cascades of very cold water which we all went swimming under, it also had some nice local beer. From Alta Gracia we traveled to the second largest city in Argentina, Cordoba. There we just walked around the city and enjoyed our youth hostel, which included cooking up a nice bowl of Guacamole.

The last noteworthy event in my BA life in the past two months has been the visit of my college friend that took a 10 day break from his study abroad experience in Rio to see BA. We pretty much just wondered around the city for 10 days, taking in most of the touristy sites and making sure that Justin experienced as much as BA could offer in 10 days. These pictures pretty much sum up our week.

(full disclosure, this is Justin not me^)

OK, that's it. I am now in the midst of midterms and the last month and half of my stay here. My spanish has improved a lot since my arrival but I still have a pretty bad American/english accent when I speak it. I think I will be ready to come home when the time comes, especially with such fun events as the 4th...

My Sister`s Return to BsAs

I know, I know I am lazy. I should have had this posted, along with the following two, way before now but I have been kind of busy now that school has officially started.

So, Kate's return to BsAs was short lived but a lot of fun. She arrived on a Friday morning, March, 6th, and left the following tuesday night. The first day was spent wondering around my barrio showing Kate the sites, taking her to a very nice, cheap, cafe where we split a nice pizza and a liter of Quilmes. That night my friends accompanied us to a very nice, recommended, italian restaurant very close to my home in Monserrat. The meal was great, Kate wins the prize (as well as Ron?) for best recommendation. After dinner we all walked to a widely known secret bar called ¨La puerta roja,due to the only characteristic, the presence of a red door as an enterence, no sign, no way of telling that it's a bar without knowing beforehand.


Saturday Kate and I met up with my friends Kelsey, Sarah and Will to peruse the botanical gardens and explore the Palermo area of BsAs. We all had lunch at Kelsey and Sarah's restuarant in which they are infatuated with, called Cumaná. Kate and I, afterword meandered down the market street called Florida, which is more like an alley than a street due to the absence of cars. That night Kate took me to a well researched and well respected restaurant called La Cabrera which is known for having some of the best steak in the city. It did not disapoint, the restaurant pulled out all the stops, offering champaign while waiting for tables to cheap bottles of great wine and a mountain of french fries with scrambled eggs mixed in.



Sunday Kate and I wondered through the market of San Telmo which consists of local people setting up stands of goods ranging from maté cups to leather purses. The market is on Defensa street and runs for almost 2 miles (más o menos) and is only there on Sundays. During our search for the perfect maté cup we discovered something very unique, a bar that sold Duff beer, yes, the fictional beer created for the Simpsons. For dinner, Kate came to my house to eat with the motley crew that I call my host family. Kate got to taste some real home-cooked empanadas and witness three people struggling to converse in a foreign language.

Monday we walked down to La Boca, which is a very colorful neighborhood, so Kate could see the famous street, Caminito. It is a street where all the houses are painted in very brazen colors and tango shows are prevelant. We were coaxed into having a beer at one of the many eateries and we took in a tango show while we sipped on our brew. After La Boca we took the bus back to my neighborhood and had lunch in one of the many famous Ugi's throughout the city. It is famous for its 12 peso pizza (3.50 US) which is actually pretty delicious. I had to bid Kate fairwell for a few hours while I attended school and went to my first basketball tryout.

Long story short, I sprained my ankle pretty badly during the tryouts and when I met with Kate we had to search for a farmacy to get me an ankle brace. We walked around the city for a good hour before giving up and settling into a nice cafe on the widest street in the world, 9 de julio, and enjoyed a nice cold beverage.

The final day of Kate's visit was pretty short because I had class all day so we could only meet for lunch and some ice cream during my break.
The following weekend I traveled to the Iguazu Falls in Misiones, Argentina. That trip's synopsis will be up very shortly.

Mendoza

Okay, so the past few weeks have been pretty crazy and I have not really had the time nor the energy to create a new blog entry until now. That being said, Mendoza was amazing. There were eight of us that went together as a group; Kela, Kate, Jessi, Sarah, Kelsey, Sheree, Will and I. We all arrived on Saturday morning and left Wednesday afternoon. We stayed at the wonderful International Hostel, which was recommended by a fellow traveler and we were all very pleased by how accommodating the people were.



The first adventure that we embarked upon was horseback riding at Sunset in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. It was pretty cool, I had never ridden a horse before, nor am I reeling to go again, and I thought that it was quite fun but a little nerve-racking because at times we were trotting on trails with cliffs and valleys on both sides with only mere feet of path for the horse to walk on. I just hoped that my horse, Leonardo, was very content with his lifestyle because there was literally nothing I could have done to prevent him from taking both of us off the cliff, but he didn't so it was fun. Although, Leonardo was not quite Seabiscuit and he had an uncanny desire for eating the shrubbery along the path's edge rather than keeping up with the group so I was forced, on a few occasions, to strike him like I were coming into the last 200 meters of the Kentucky Derby. After the 2-3 hour ride in the mountainside, we sat down for an asado with our fellow ranchers and guachos until the early hours of the morning, enjoying the bottomless wine and lively conversations of fellow travelers and alike.


The next day, Sunday, we awoke bright and early at around 8ish to start a new day of adventure. We were going white water rafting at 9am so we had to hurriedly cram some scones down accompanied by a cup of black coffee before setting off. The rafting location was more than adequate, it had a swimming pool, bar and restaurant next to the river for some post-rafting cool down. As you can see from the picture we had to wear helmets, full-bodied wetsuits, windbreakers and of course life-jackets. It was my first rafting experience and it was quite thrilling, not quite movie-esque but still pretty awesome. The actual rafting was about an hour and yes, I fell out but not until the very end when it was completely avoidable and the water...was cold.

Monday we wondered around the town, bought some wine and had a sort of picnic/lunch in the huge park that is as big as the city of Mendoza, located north of the city. We left Monday open for relaxation and that was exactly what we did.
Tuesday we did what all must do when in Mendoza, taste wine. We went on an all day tour of four wineries, one olive oil vineyard, and one chocolate liquor factory. Mendoza is famous for its Malbec wine with I believe is a pretty niche market, thus making it one of the only regions supplying it to the world. At each Winery we were taught different techniques on how best to really appreciate the wines and how to savior the taste...whatever, wine is wine.

Wednesday was spent at the hotel readying ourselves for our 15 hour bus ride back to BsAs, which concludes this post but I am still behind. I will have a couple new posts when I receive pics, one about Kate's visit here and another about my trip to Iguazu!

Carnivale!!!

So immediately following a night of partying(my birthday), my classmates and I took a bus up to Gualeguaychu, Argentina for a full weekend of feasting, partying and letting loose, getting everything out our systems before the season of lent started this Wednesday.

The bus we took was awesome, very raucous with most people getting ready for the weekend with a few cocktails. I personally, did not partake in much of the cocktailing, perhaps because of the festivities that had transpired the night before but I will let the reader infer what they will. We left BsAs at 9pm on Friday and arrived at our hostel at about 1am, just in time to leave for a huge beach party! The beach party was pretty cool, tons of people grooving to the tunes of Bob Marley and various American pop and Latino hits. I ended the night early at around 5am heading back to the hostel to get a few hours of rest before hitting the beach at 9am the following morning.



Saturday was a tad bit overcast but that did not stop us from hitting the beach at around 10am. Upon arrival almost everyone laid out a nice towel and took a quick siesta before really starting the day of activities. Some had gone a tad too hard the night before and was not really showing signs of life until later on in the day. I, naturally, was not one of those people, I was up and moving about checking out the volleyball games and buying a few drinks to ease myself into the day. Fun was had all around but the real fun didn't start until that night.





Carnival is similar to what I picture Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street would be like. Craziness on all sides with a fantastic parade, showing off the years worth of work that had gone into each float and the floats, as you can see, were amazing. That night after we watched the parade we headed back to the beach to party it up until around 6am the following morning.


Sunday, it rained all day so we didn't get back to the beach but I don't think any of us really minded because we all slept until around 1pm. We left on the bus at midnight on Sunday following another great asado where we got to try all the different parts of the cow, including the kidneys, intestines, blood and all the other wonderful sections that you could probably think of. I still enjoyed the blood sausage more than I thought, which might really say something for my own Irish blood.

Well, that's all for a little while. I head off to Mendoza this Friday to taste some wine, ride a few rapids and maybe ride a couple of horses!! Don't worry there will be pictures.

My Birthday!

My 21st Birthday finally came! I am now officially permitted to drink alcohol in the United States, but since I am not in the states this fact was almost forgotten. Almost is the key word, my friends did not allow me to forget that this birthday was one to celebrate to its fullest, which is exactly what we did!

My party started with a nice wine and dine at my house with some of my friends that I have acquired in the past few weeks. You can see some of them in the picture above. My host mom made some very delicious empanadas for dinner and wonderful cake for dessert, which you can see me cutting in one of the first pictures above.

After we ate dinner, us youngsters went out to a club called Asia de Cuba. It's a Sushi bar by day and a raving night club by night. The night went well from there on out, a lot of dancing and a lot of partying amongst friends. The full crew can be seen above (minus the cameraman).

It was a great night for all involved, I believe, and I am glad that I was able to experience it in BsAs!

La Segunda Semana

It has been a good second week, I have accomplished many things already since arriving here almost three weeks ago. Since I last wrote, I have been to a football game (I have decided that I will now only refer to soccer as football and the other as American-football as to give it a hyphenated name, implying a deviation from the original and better.), which was awesome, went to a tango show and also to an authentic family asado (BBQ). They were all great experiences, but only the former and latter would be worth a second chance.

The football game was at the Boca Juniors stadium against the Newells Oldboys, located about 20-30 blocks south of my house. I went with the two other people living in my house, the 25 yr old American and the British guy. We sat in the general section, squeezed amongst the ever enthusiastic fanatics all jumping and singing in unison, cheering on their warriors. Last time Boca played against their arch-nemesis, River, 5 people died... Football here is amazing, I would definitely go again! (Boca lost 0-2 against Newells Oldboys....)

The Tango show was ehhh. The dancing was fun to watch, the food was good but the singers were a snooze-fest. There were three couples, two singers and a live band of old men playing various instruments. The best part of the show, hands down, was the helado (ice cream) that we were served for dessert, it was very tasty (for lack of a better adjective...).

The Asado was very nice, it was at a friend of a friend's house. The house was located about an hour outside of the city, in a nice suburban town. For food, we had sausage link sandwiches ( and remember this isn't processed Ballpark Franks either), pork tenderloin, and blood sausage. I was actually suprised by how much I enjoyed the blood sausage but I am still fuzzy on what exactly is in it....some things are better left unknown I guess.

Well, that concludes this week's adventure in Mi Vida Loca

Ps I don't have many pictures because these events haven't really been picturesque. Other people took pictures though so when i get them I will just put them on here.

Mi vida en BsAs

I guess the logical place to start my tale would be from the beginning, which for me, took a lot longer than expected. My itinerary was to fly from Buffalo to JFK then from there to BsAs, but unfortunately the shortest leg of the trip ended up being the longest. About 45 minutes into the flight from Buffalo, the captain of the plane announced that an indicator light showed one of the reverse thrusters on the plane being deployed and we were going to have to emergency land in Syracuse. He said that it was more procedure than true emergency, but it was still a little unnerving. I had effectively ended up where I had begun, which was very disheartening. Luckily there was another student aboard the plane in my program, which made taking the provided bus trip from Syracuse to JFK, arriving circa 4am, a little more tolerable. Delta put us up in the Romada next to JFK for the night but since checkout was at 11am we had to leave and stay at the airport from 1130am-10pm, which was not fun at all especially since we had not been given secured seating on the plane, just seat requests. So we sat around exchanged small talk for about 10hrs until finally the gate clerks showed up. They then announced to the crowd that the plane had been overbooked by about 20 people and Delta was offering $4,000 plus first class tickets to BsAs the following day if anyone volunteered to give up their seats. Since we didn't even have seats to give up, this wasn't an option and we had to patiently wait to see if were to be cleared to fly that night. Luckily for us Delta knew of our troubles and rewarded us by giving Caroline and I first class tickets! Yes, we did fly first class for 11 hours straight to BsAs! So, my journey from Trumansburg to BsAs was frustrating at times but as Niccolo argues, "The end justifies the means".

Now to the fun part, my family, my city and my daily routine. I am living with a very nice grandmother, who cooks for me every night a ridiculously scrumptious meal, and another American girl about 25 years old. They are both very nice, but the mother does not speak English at all so I must speak Spanish at all times in the house. After only 5 days here I think my speech has improved 10 fold. The apartment is located on Avenida Belgrano just north of the neighborhood of San Telmo and about 15 blocks from Puerto Madero, which is where my school is located. Here is a picture of my school, it's newly constructed and directly on the canal...
Right now I am taking my "intensive" spanish class in this building until Feb 20th. My class is 4 hours long every day starting at 2 pm, which makes site seeing kind of difficult at the moment.

In Argentina dinner is not eaten until about 9-10pm and is very formal, which means sitting down and talking for at least an hour about each person's day. For me, this means one-on-one convos with the host-mom, improving my spanish with every conversation. I have already tackled all the political topics with her, such as Che, Fidel, Hugo, Obama and I think I understood about 3/4 of what she told me. And since dinner doesn't get over until about 1030-11pm each night, going out is pushed back a few hours. It is commonplace for students/youth to go out until 5-6 am which is not so different than college(?) but as of yet I have not gone out for that long since it's during the week. Here's a photo of myself plus a few classmates taken outside a local pub in Palermo.
Well, I hope my first post has quenched the thirsts of most of you and I will try to update my blog every week, probably Saturday or Friday night, starting next week.