Los últimos abrazos

The last three days have been jam packed with tourist sites, hugs, goodbyes, and lots of reminiscing. Niall, Kara and Mel left today to go home, back to our "real lives", which means that this porteña life is officially coming to an end!

Above is my favorite picture I took at El Caminito en La Boca. Its a really dangerous area, but we heard that we HAD to see that street with the colored houses, so we took a cab there and back--just to be safe. It turned out to be sort of a let down--just like most hyped-up tourist attractions. It was fun to wander and see a different part of the city that we have lived in for so long.

After La Boca, we went to Plaza de Mayo to see Las Madres de los desaparecidos (Mothers of the disappeared). They are the mothers, and some grandmothers, of the citizens who were unrightfully captured and obviously killed during the dictatorship that ruled between 1976-1983. In many ways Argentina is still in a post-dictadura phase, and the country is still very much hurt by this terribly violent and oppressive rule. These mothers' faces are so sad, and many of them hold the picture of their lost child. Some people (like Niall's host mother) HATES them, even though they were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for all their lobbying. Its mainly because many of their sons/daughters could have been criminals and so many people don't see why everyone feels so sorry for them. I'll tell you why--there is NO REASON ever to kill another human being!

The day after was 9 de julio which is Argentina's Independence Day! We went to Tigre for our last hurrah. Above is a beautiful Van Gogh-y pic of the river!

Here is us (minus Sylvie the amazing group photographer) on our last night out. We were toasting all of our favorite, and many of our not-so-favorite memories, being silly, and expressing our love for each other. Mel said it well when she said "I'm really surprised that I like you as much as I like you." We really did get super lucky that we found such beautiful people to spend this adventure with, and I feel so blessed to have all these contacts and life-long relationships!!! This experience would've been so different without them!

And now back to reading and writing...

Iguazú Falls

This weekend was a whirlwind...Friday night - Saturday morning we spent on the bus, once we got there, we watched Germany beat Argentina :(, ate, hung out by the pool of the hostel and slept. Sunday was waterfalls day! We spent all day at the national park, taking in the wildlife, the falls and the jungle! Then Sunday night - Monday morning was more bus time!

It was all pretty surreal, but really beautiful. My thoughts are elsewhere, mostly residing in California, and so this beauty was hard to even understand.

Here are the pictures. I'm so lucky I found such awesome people to spend time with and share this magical adventure with!

Rosario

Last weekend the program took us to Rosario in the provincia of Santa Fe, Argentina. Above is the calendar garden that gardeners change every night to keep it up to date. Apparently its a tradition to get your picture taken with it every year on your birthday and for special occasions, like weddings.

This was at the Monumento a la Bandera (of the flag). We're all there except Mel! The little boy in the background was so silly, we didn't mind that he ruined our picture.

This was the 3rd course of our 6 course dinner the program provided for us. 1=Empanada de carne. 2=ensalada. 3=Cow brain, intestine, sausages, and blood sausage. 4=más ensalada. 5=steak. 6=ice cream with meringue. Delish (minus the brain).
Pretty sunset-ey bridge picture.

Overall it was just another city, and compared to my last weekend trip (patagonia) it was just another day in Argentina urban life. It is always nice to get a change of pace from BA and spend time with the group and not have to worry about our host families. The best part of the trip was watching Project Runway and Sex and the City reruns together in the Holiday Inn Express we were all staying at.

The next week and a half will be filled with finishing 2 final papers, doing my final art project, and preparing an oral presentation. After that day (June 29th) I'll be done with 2/4 classes, and everyone else in the program will be done with all of their classes. Wahoo. At least I'm writing about theatrical things. It could be worse!

Patagonia Adventures

Glacier Perito Moreno, El Calafate in the provincia Santa Cruz, Argentina

Patagonia is the general term for the south of Argentina that actually occupies the majority of the country. Patagonia is known because of the sport clothes store in the U.S. The logo is based on a mountain in El Chaltén that we would have seen on Day 2 if there wasn't so much fog!!!

My facebook album is finally complete and you can see it here, even if you don't have one! Its really hard for me to pick the best pictures and put them here, so check it out!

The whole weekend was a well needed break from the city life. It was so nice just to chill for a couple days and explore new things and not have to worry about how many pages of theory I have to read! Now I'm back to the grind and missing that peaceful place! I loved remembering what its really like to be a traveler, finding a hostel to live in with your stuff on your back and constantly meeting other travelers with the same passion for discovering the world as you.

I wish it weren't true, but I'm hooked on seeing the world. My next points of travel: India, Ireland, Greece, Finland, Finland, Finland. More practically, I'm going to the city Rosario next weekend with the program.

I hope you like the pictures! I simply can't explain the wonder we experienced there!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

So apparently there was some widespread worry about my safety this weekend while I was traveling in the south of Argentina.

I'm home and incredibly happy. In short this weekend was one of the most magical weekends of my life up to now.

I can't wait to share with you more details and epic pictures tomorrow. Special shout out to everyone that helped make this trip possible, especially Tutu, Auntie Cristina, Nana&Papa, Gramsey and my incredibly supportive muther and popper doodle. I feel so honored and loved to have been able to experience this weekend and that people worried about me while I was even farther away than I already am.

My friends always make fun of me when I say this but, what did I do to deserve this love? I just think I got lucky enough to be given such a beautiful family filled with love and support. So, thank you, and get ready for some majestic glacier pictures.

Tierra Santa

We finally made it to Tierra Santa. It one of the only religious theme parks in the world. There are probably 40 different statues of Jesus, most with some type of animatronic movements. There are 4 shows: Creation, The Last Supper, The Nativity, and The Resurrection--all equipped with booming narration, laser shows and smoke machines.

Callie, Niall and Kara blended in very well in these fancy get-ups.

Just like Disneyland! The workers are all dressed up like Roman soldiers, monks or scarved women.

Tierra Santa with its fake palm trees and the real city of BA in the background.

The 18 meter Jesus with many animatronic movements who rose from the mountain during the Resurrection.

Us in the Creation scene/Garden of Eden and Adam.

The Nativity Scene.

Us modeling by the Rio de la Plata.

When we first got there I was worried that the park could be offensive or making fun of Jesus, but throughout the day I realized that the purpose of this place is probably to educate about the stories of Jesus. The performance aspect of the place was incredible. Everything was decorated and set back around the time of Jesus even down to the trash cans. There were some historically inaccurate things, such as people of that time praying at the model of the Wailing Wall, and there were memorials for Martin Luther and Gandhi--all didn't fit into the supposed "model of the Holy Land".

When we arrived the place was close to deserted at 3pm, but then the park slowly filled with old people admiring the chapel and the shows, people our age giggling at the weirdness of it all, families, and children with a priest probably on a field trip. I can understand that it serves as a place to teach the stories of Jesus. I just can't imagine someone getting the idea in their head to create a model of Jerusalem and put animatronic Jesus's all around the park telling his story.

Obvi it wasn't weird for me to see images of Jesus, but in this context--a place that sort of felt like Disneyland and a church at the same time, with restaurants, kids, souvenirs and fake statues of random people all over. Sin embargo, I'm glad I went, and think this place is just an interesting phenomenon. If you ever go to BA, check it out!

To travel or stay home, that is the question.

Reminders of the goodness of home make me think about the pros and cons of this study abroad experience and the conscious choice I made to leave the comforts of Southern California. How do I know it will all be worth it? Sure the immersion in a new culture, new language, new university system is a great lesson to experience diversity and learn that the American way is by no means the only way. But when is leaving home not worth the pain? Is all pain growth? I do not regret moving to New York or Buenos Aires, but when you miss the last few months (I pray to God not days) of a loved one's life is it worth it?These thoughts are taking over my mind! If anyone has an answer, send it my way!

Yesterday I bought a plane ticket to go to Patagonia (so glad that process of planning is over!) Will seeing epically majestic glaciers be better than chilling on Valencia? Definitely not better, just different and without so many attached heart-strings.

These things are clearly out of my hands, so I'm just gonna keep reading about the Argentine Revolution and hope someone above will take care of it all.

Argentine Observations...

Dog poop. I'm starting to not like the dog poop that lines every single street of Buenos Aires. You're not only trying to avoid the fresh dumps, but the skids of previously stepped in ones as well. The smell and the amazing quantity of dogs that all poop on the street is becoming somewhat shocking.

Fashion update: I can't make my mind up about the fashion of low crotch jeans/pants. Men, women, children all wear them, and with the right bod, shoes and accessories many pull them off quite well. Some people in my program have bought them, and for some reason they don't quite work on North Americans (gotta remember to say norte when referring to americans because everyone here is american too--south american!) Check this out...would you wear these?

Speaking of hot Argentine bods--we've all been incredibly interested in discovering their secret to staying to crazy skinny and beautiful at all ages. We have learned the hard way that the secret is NOT in alfajores--these chocolate covered cookies with DDL (Dulce de Leche) in them that sort of rock my world--to our dismay. BUT...Niall learned that the drug in Mate, which is called "Mateina" instead of "cafeina", is an appetite suppressor. This weekend we are going to buy Mate gourds, yerba and bombillas (the special straw--see below) to start reaping the benefits of this Argentine ritual.

Knitting stores! I finally went to the city's "knitter's row" that is made up of about 10 huge knitting stores. They all have an incredible amount of inventory and were packed on a Thursday morning. Many of them had those number dispensers so that people could get help from an employee. Another thing that shocked me was that most of the employees were men! They were all incredibly attentive and knew everything. I bought 5 small balls of yarn for A$1.90 each which is less that 50 cents a pop. I also bought a larger skein to make myself a little purse and get my fingers moving in a productive way again, for A$15 = around 4 dollars. Sooo I bought 6 skeins of yarn for around 5 or 6 dollars. INCREDIBLE. I'm so excited to get really into my new project after my midterm!

Tomorrow we're going to buy tickets to visit El Calafate in the south of Argentina in the region of Patagonia! There is a large national park with glaciers and adventures to be had (see below). I figured, why not go to Patagonia and see the glaciers in one of the southern most parts of the world? I'm here right???

Aventura en Tigre

And again I have another awesome reason to be so glad I chose the study abroad program I chose. Last week we were told that there were 14 spots for an "Urban biking" day in Tigre (the natural Venice of Argentina!). I don't have class on Fridays (or Thursdays :) so Niall and I decided to go!

This is the train station Retiro:

This is a park we stopped at to drink mate (the Argentine social drink, their version of tea), eat alphajores (these layered cookie things people are obsessed with) and learn a little about the city we've lived in for 2.5 months now. It was beautiful and absolutely pleasant.

When I complain or realize how dirty BA is with dog poop and trash on the streets, I need to remember all the beautiful places in Argentina I have been to, and really what a beautiful país it is.

We seriously could not have been luckier with the weather today! It was crazy beautiful! This paseo reminded me of South Pas a bit...

Me and my best friend in Argentina with the city in the background!

We also kayaked through the water city of Tigre which was majestically beautiful. I wish I was at the point in my life to retire and just buy a house on the river and kayak myself to town whenever I choose. We are definitely going to come back to Tigre to walk around more and chill there for more time.

Interesting note on Machismo:

When we were mounting our kayaks, the directors of the group we were with told us that we should have at least one varón (man) in each kayak. That was impossible because there was a vast majority of women. Then I got to thinking, why is that a rule? I asked and the director said "Es mejor" (its better.) And then I continued asking and he just laughed and said that they are a machista society. Punto. The end. He did chuckle at my continued questioning, but just stated the fact as it is.

Yesterday in my UBA class my teacher used the verb "femenizar" (i guess it means to feminize) as a verb meaning "to lessen in social status" or "to become inferior". This professor usually is very respectful and awesome--so this usage surprised me!

Argentina may have its down falls, but its sure beautiful!

Colonia, Uruguay

The topic of my last real post (IFSA=Awesome) was totally appropriate. This weekend was filled with free meals, spans of beautiful property owned by Mario (our program director), and free wine--all shared lovingly and generously.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to get on the Buquebus--which deceivingly is not a bus, but a ferry that takes you from BA to Uruguay in 3 hours. We of course didn't score seats on the ferry that takes only 1 hour--just like CIMI! The 3 hours passed quickly with the awesome views of BA from afar, mimosas, and card games.

Once we arrived to Mario's house we were absolutely speechless. I had a moment of panic and I couldn't stop saying "why do I deserve this?" " why do we get all this special treatment?" I still really do not understand.

This is where we casually ate Argentine BBQ on a Friday afternoon and also a possibility for the location of my wedding:

After we sat by the pool, pondered the beauty of the lemon tree fields, we strolled to the playa that was not far and very secluded and private. The day couldn't have been filled with more beauty and poetry inspiring moments.

Our time at Mario's villa was soon over, and we went to the center of the city, Colonia del Sacramento. It was filled with charm and beautifully preserved nooks that reminded me of San Gabriel mission area and parts of Mexico. We were sleepy from our day of tomando sol, but we trekked through the city tour and then ate dinner before having deep conversations under the incredible starry starry night.

The next day we explored what we had seen at night, in the day light and just tried to relax. Here we are sipping Café y Té on the side of the Rio de la Plata (the river in between Argentina and Uruguay).

Oh right, classes started and I have tons and tons of reading to do. That obviously is second rate to eating chorizo sandwiches by the pool of Uruguay. Hopefully my academic motivation kicks in soon.

Por fin las fotos de Mendoza!

Here was my favorite picture of the weekend. So much love in such a beautiful place!

Here's our raft--we're wearing bathing suits, then wet suits, then those blue shirts, then the life vests, boots, and helmets. Extreme gear for extreme sports! Our Argentine friend Romina is in the front with Sylvie!
This is when Sylvie fell out of the raft. We were playing a "game" where we had to shift our weight from the different sides of the raft to stay aloft in the mini waterfall. So "fun".
Look at our backdrop. Gorgeous.
The group. We were so lucky that we got to fit in all our activities in one weekend.
I'm glad this weekend is going to be more of a break, since my mind has been so filled with class picking. So happy that's over. Get ready for the pictures from Uruguay on Sunday!

Mendoza

This beautiful weekend began slightly late, because Retiro (the bus terminal of BA) was packed completely full of people waiting for their delayed Micros (buses). We finally arrived to our silly hostel on Thursday afternoon, rested and had an amazing dinner at a "super fancy" restaurant named "Azafrán".

I ordered "Petit Filet" and it was delicious. It had bleu cheese and yummy sauces/flavors, which is rare to find in Argentine cuisine!

The next day we got busy. We were transported to Las Termas Cachueta on the outskirts of the city of Mendoza. We were in the Andes Mountains at hot springs. It was beautiful and looked like this:

Before we actually got in the termas, we went rafting. I would call it white water rafting, but there weren't many waves, so I feel like that would be an over-statement. It was still eventful and at times scary...some people did fall overboard! We had amazing tour guides, full gear (see below :), and one of the guides took lots of awesome action photos, that I will post soon! We had a great time and it was a really packed adventerous day compared to our last vacation!

While we were rafting we met a really nice porteña named Romina. She's super funny and her mom and aunt were so sweet they watched our stuff for us while we swam in the termas! She lives not too far from Niall so we're going to hang out with her a lot!

That night we were so pooped that we just chilled in the hostel, drinking some wine and telling silly Harry Potter jokes (our usual activities). The next day we woke up bright and early again to start our adventure in Maipú--a city on the outskirts of Mendoza that has lots of beautiful bodegas (wineries/vineyards). We rented bikes from a company called "bikes and wines" (see the logo below! Ate the "Biker Menú" at a magical restaurant and had a blast.

Below is Bodega Di Tommasino 1849!

After another packed day, this time we were starving and craving some Mexican Food! We went to a restaurant called "Cielito Lindo" and I was on cloud nine with the decor and familiar smells. This was as close to an Easter dinner as I got, and it was pretty nice! Check out our Fajita bar...

This was the really gorgeous church I spent Easter morning in. It was so peaceful and the art inside was incredible. Dad and Mom--you would've died for that mosaic behind the altar.

I missed being with people that celebrate Easter, but lots of things were the same, I ate chocolate and was with lots of people I love! This was an amazing weekend, but now that classes have started, I've got to do my work and choose which I'm going to stick with (ahhh decisions!!!) Hopefully I'll have a clearer idea of what to chose after this week. Off to art class!

Villa Gesell

I just got home from a magical weekend at the beach with my 7 MAPS (Mejores Amigos Para Siempre) or BFFS. We got on a 6 hour bus ride at 1:30am Thursday night and arrived to Villa Gesell the next morning. We checked into our hotel, napped and spent a glorious day at the beach.

Sylvie and Niall summarized the weekend perfectly: Sylvie called it the "Self-Esteem boosting weekend", since all everyone could say was how lucky we were to have found each other, how happy we were to be together and how beautiful/hot everyone looked all weekend (esp. you Kara, you pirate nouveau you!). Niall kept saying we were an "Octet" and we were!

I don't remember a time where I have felt more happy to be me, happy to be in my own skin, and happy to be where I was, when I was there. Villa Gesell has been added to my small list of happy-places, amongst my Grandma's house and Helsinki, Finland!

Empanadas on the beach!

Cuddle buddies for life.

Our view from our hotel window. The octet stayed in 2 quadruple rooms, for A$200/night (less than US$60!!!) There was a pool, medialunas in the morning (croissants), and TV's in the rooms.
Here are the 7 girls (Niall took the picture!). I will never forget what an awesome time we all spent together!

Even though I had a truly beautiful weekend with all of these new friends, I do terribly miss all of my readers, some watching from above, some in CA and some in NY. I'm so grateful to the internet so that I can still feel connected to all of you, because without the love and support I feel from all of you everyday, I could never have felt so confident or happy this weekend!