My name is not Maggie...

I have some things I'd like to discuss about Argentina. Not adventures, but things.

This post isn't going to have pictures, sorry.  Not much has happened since we got home from Mendoza, at least nothing picture worthy. We had class and a weekend of doing absolutely nothing and that's it. I wish I was lying, but it's been a lazy week and a half. The most excitement of this week has come from standing in line at the place to finally apply for our visas, which is basically a DMV on steroids filled with lots of miserable people. I was a pathetic excuse for a human being when we went this morning, but that was mostly because we were up too early for my taste on a day without school. We all made it through the process in a reasonable time, and went to lunch and to La Calle Florida (Florida Street) to window shop.

But back to the point of this post... strange things about the city of Buenos Aires.  And boy, there are a bunch.

1.  Napkins  

I wish I could properly explain to you what napkins here are like, but I'd never be able to truly do them justice. Is the thought of using wax paper to wipe crumbs off your face or hands appealing? No? How about computer paper? Still no? Well, then you're out of luck. Napkins here are anything but helpful for  their intended purpose.  Obviously I'm not expecting cloth napkins, but I'm at least expecting them to be foldable without a noticeable paper crease and a glorious waxy coating.

2. Sidewalks

For the love of God, we've talked about this already. These people need to get their act together with the sidewalk situation. Is it really THAT difficult to get one material for all the sidewalks? Is it even more difficult to rope off sections so that people/birds/dogs don't step in it? 

3. My name

Apparently my name is somewhat of a challenge for the people of Argentina. A usual exchange goes something like this: 

- "¿Cómo te llamas?" (What's your name?)

- "Meagan, ¿y vos?"  (Meagan, and you?)

- "¿¿¿¿Maggie????"   (Self Explanatory)

Without fail.  I don't know what it is about my name, but nearly everyone here at first thinks my name is Maggie.  I then go on to correct them, and they can say my name perfectly. I have to agree with my roommate's theory that people don't choose to actually listen to us speak because they assume we're bad at talking based off the way we look.  I'm clearly too pale for this place.  

4. Eating at a Restaurant

Don't expect to be seated, and don't expect to be rushed in and out of the place.  This is one thing I can actually appreciate about weird stuff in Argentina. In the US, restaurants are all about turnover and getting meals out quickly and new people at the tables, but here it's perfectly normal and accepted to spend 3 hours at a cafe and only ordering a cup of coffee and some medialunas. The check is never brought directly to you, and you have to flag down your waiter or waitress if you want it.  It's also not unheard of for them to just tell you the amount and not give you a receipt at all.  It's a very laid back mindset, and something I'm learning to appreciate.  

5.  Getting Change...

Do you want change for that 100 peso bill? Too bad.  I'd like to preface this section by saying that currently, a 100 peso bill is the equivalent of handing the cashier $22.50 USD, so for the sake of this example, we'll use $20 dollars as the comparison.  Are you kidding me? I'm trying to buy 50 pesos worth of groceries, and naturally I hand you a 100 because those are the only bills that ATMs give out, so please do not look at me and ask me if I have anything smaller. You really can't make change for the US equivalent of 20 dollars? There is NEVER change here. I could even buy something for 80 pesos and they'll ask if I have smaller bills.  No, I don't.  And coins are an entirely different issue. From what I've learned there is a coin shortage here, so if something comes to 15.50 pesos, they will almost always ask you if you have the 50 centados because they almost never have the right change to give you.  I just can't wrap my head around the denominations of money that they have and how little they are actually worth, but the same goes for the penny in the US. 

On a related note to that, if the total comes to some strange number like 24.68, cashiers in normal stores will usually just round it to the nearest .25 because there are barely any coins smaller than that.  So strange.  

6. Cat Calls

From a young age, boys are trained to yell and whistle at virtually any woman who walks by or near them. It's unavoidable in this city, but it's just a part of the culture.  Even though they do it to everyone, I'll use it to make me feel a little bit better about myself, but still ignore them because it gets old, fast.  

7. Walking

I thought Americans were bad walkers until I came here.  I have to add at least 10 minutes to my daily commute from simply dodging people on the sidewalks.  The porteños just walk without any regard for the people going in the opposite direction, or even the same direction! I also feel like many have the attention spans of goldfish, because it's like they've never seen a store before. I cannot tell you how many times we've been walking, when suddenly someone in front of us just stops dead in their tracks and looks at a store window. Or how people cross a huge group of people just so they can go look at some pair of shoes in a window. I once saw an old woman walk slower than molasses in front of me, and then stop suddenly in a store window aimed at teen girls. I'm sorry lady, you are definitely not in the market for a pair of metallic leggings, please let me pass.  

8. Street Happenings

This goes for most cities. I don't want to take your flyers, I don't want to buy your counterfeit subte cards, and I definitely don't want to buy bras and underwear off your blanket on the ground. Believe me, some of the other items sold off blankets on the ground are pretty awesome (like bags and jewelry) but what could possibly be sanitary about buying bras and underwear? Someone PLEASE tell me.

FIN

Well, I digress.... I felt like this post was a long time coming. Believe me, I really enjoy the city, but there are always going to be things that are strange no matter where you live. This city has a lot to offer (including Dulce de Leche, and that's all I really need in life) and for every bad there is a good.  

Besides today, I have a pretty busy weekend ahead. Tonight is La Noche Internacional at our University and I will be participating in a TANGO presentation with my tango class, so look out for pictures of that soon! The International Night should also have lots of food from all over the world, including some adult beverages (Because the school actually allows and encourages that so we can share "culture" with our fellow students) from each of the participating countries. Tomorrow we have a trip to a really old book store which is inside a theatre, and then we're going out to dinner to celebrate one of the girls' birthdays at a restaurant which is apparently delicious.  And then finally on Sunday my roommate and I are heading to San Telmo (a neighborhood in the city) to go to the Sunday market and to buy our Mate gourds! I've been looking forward to this for a while. 

I think that's enough ranting on my part for today... I miss everyone very much, and I cant believe it's already been 6 weeks!

¡Ciao!

- Meagan

Long Weekend in Mendoza!

This post is going to be long and picture happy, so I apologize in advance.

Long weekends are different here than in the states.  On any given week, we don't have Friday classes, so it's always a "long weekend" by american standards. However, this week we also had Monday off so it was actually a four day weekend.  As a group we decided to take a trip on our own because we didn't have anything planned with our program.  So 12 of us headed to Mendoza, Argentina!

Our weekend started off with a bus leaving from the Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires around 7:15 on Thursday night. Classes ended for most of us around 5:30 so it was an interesting adventure to get there. The bus had two levels, and the top level was all seats. It was really cool because there were seats right at the front that just had windows in front of them. Also, the seats reclined pretty far and had foot rests, so it made the 14 hour overnight bus ride moderately tolerable. We got dinner on the bus, which was a nice surprise too. We ended up arriving in Mendoza round 10 on Friday morning, and we got picked up by a van at the bus terminal, who took us to our hostel in the middle of town. Once we got there, we discovered we couldn't check in until 2:00, so we had a lot of time to kill on a rainy day. We ended up exploring a little and found a hole in the wall restaurant where I got a delicious burger that ended up being the size of the average dinner plate. It was so nice to have a bigger meal after being stuck on a bus for the entire night. Mendoza is definitely a pretty sleepy town. It has a very slow pace of life and felt similar to home. I liked it, but I don't know if it's somewhere I could permanently live.

Once we got into our rooms, it was obvious that we were in a hostel, not a hotel. We had three rooms of four people with two sets of bunk beds in each room. Not only that, but I could reach from one wall to the other in the bathroom. It was a tight squeeze, but it made for some interesting stories. I had enough time to get a shower before our city tour at 3, so I was thrilled about that.

I could have done without the city tour, to be honest. It was raining, and we were on a bus (again) so it was pretty boring overall. We drove around the city (and it was cold!) and would stop every now and then. I guess one of the cooler things we did was we stopped at the monument on the top of Cerro de la Gloria and got to take some pictures.

The monument to the army of the Andes

Unfortunately it was a pretty crappy day overall. Afterwords I just wanted to take a nap, but we headed out for dinner as a group, which was a really good time. The next day we had an excursion planned for horseback riding! Originally we were all a little stressed because they were 45 minutes late picking us up, but it was absolutely worth it! The name of the excursion was The Gaucho Experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Mendoza. You can find information about them on their facebook page here!

The building where we ate lunch and hung out

We started off by meeting Javier and his brother Danny, who work on the ranch. We talked for a while and were told that we had to wait for some extra horses to arrive. We took the time to enjoy the scenery and to pass around a mate. And I have to admit, I hated mate the first time I tried it, and it has absolutely grown on me since. I really loved it that day, and once I told my host mom last night, she made it again for us this morning to have with breakfast! We also got to enjoy the scenery, which was incredible looking towards the Andes.

Part of the view!

So we got to talk with the guys, and finally it was time to head out on our horses! I don't have much horse riding experience so I was a little nervous but definitely excited. My horse's name was Nejo, and as I came to find out later in the day, Nejo is extremely stubborn and doesn't like to take direction. But he was pretty so it was good.

Nejo!

I trotted on a horse for the first time and it was fun, a little intimidating, but definitely worth it! But I have to admit, I'm still sore and it's Wednesday! We took about an hour and a half ride beside the mountains and it was SO beautiful! A few members of the group went running with their horses, but I think I'll wait until I have a little more experience for that. After we got back from our ride, we had lunch with everyone! They made us a traditional meal of beef and chicken along with roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions with a tomato and onion salad. We watched them cook it in the oven outside, and the smoke filled the air. They also served us some fresh wine. The afternoon was perfect, and I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Some of us with Danny and Javier!

We got to take lots of pictures too, which was awesome. Later the guys told us about a BBQ party that another hostel in the city was having that night, and that we should go. We did, and we got to see them again later that night! The party at the hostel had fresh BBQ and food, and it was incredibly delicious. It was nice to see the guys outside of horseback riding and getting to interact with more locals and other international people traveling that weekend.

We had an early morning on Sunday because we had a wine tour starting at 8:30 am! We got picked up in a bus, and we had a pretty adorable tour guide who was really enthusiastic. The first place we stopped at was an older bodega called Don Aruto that used traditional methods for making their wine. The winery was over 100 years old, and it was awesome to get to see the giant barrels and here about their processes.

Barrel!

Argentina is known for the malbec grape, so a malbec wine was one of the first things we got to try at our first wine tasting! We tasted three different ones at the first winery, and the malbec was definitely the best in my opinion.

The first tasting!

The second bodega we went to was a much more modern winery built in 2007 named Vistandes. Or literally, view of the Andes. It was an absolutely beautiful facility with lots of modern machinery and processes. We got to learn about the different types of wood barrels and the flavors they can give to the different wines.

The modern winery

Finally, a white wine! (All reds, all day)

View at Vistandes

We got to try more wines at the second bodega, and I finally got to a white wine! Argentina is mostly known for it's red wines, so finding a white was definitely a treat. During the tasting we also go to learn about how wines start as closed, swirling them, and how they become open. And I have to tell you, the smell completely changes! I'll never actually understand how it works but I'll definitely keep it in mind for at home. After the last bodega we headed to an olive oil factory, and that was great! It was called Pasrai, and we got to learn about how olive oil is made, and how it can be altered in different ways for flavor. Finally at the end we were able to taste a bunch of different ones with bread, and it was awesome because we were all starving by this point. After the olive oil factory we headed back to the hostel and then off to explore the market in one of the plazas in the city.

On Monday we decided to go for a hike on Cerro Arco... you think that would be an easy thing to do on your own when you're at the foot of the Andes, but it was definitely a process. We finally were able to call three taxis to take us to the specific mountain we wanted to climb, and they ended up taking us to the completely wrong area of the park. After they drove away, we then figured out that we were pretty much screwed. We ended up asking a man working at the desk at the zoo (where we were dropped off) how we could get there, and he said it would take hours to walk, and that we should catch the bus. Naturally, none of us had change for the bus. The guy then proceeded to tell us that he was going to call his brother to see if he could get us a ride (in what we thought would be a van). After about an hour of waiting, we see an old pick up truck arrive, and as it turns out, that was our ride. We negotiated a price and we all piled in the back of this guy's truck and he drove us to the foot of the mountain we wanted to climb. It was definitely an incredible experience to ride through the park in the open air and experience the scenery!

Once we got to the mountain, we got to climbing. It started off pretty easy, but by about 1/4 of the way in I was struggle-bussing HARD. Luckily I had a great group of friends hiking with me who were willing to not go quite as fast so I wouldn't get sick and die on the trail.

Hannah and I less than halfway up!

Right after this point is where it started getting pretty difficult. There were a lot of very steep sections that didn't quite agree with my lungs. One girl in my group was actually scared that I had asthma or something, but I then just reminded her that I'm out of shape and need to get my butt in gear. I stopped taking pictures until we got to the second highest point and people were going paragliding off the mountain. It was really cool to watch and I wish I could have done it.

Last stop before the final ascent! What a view!

After we watched the paragliders I contemplated giving up and walking down with a different group, but we were less than 10 minutes from the top and I told myself I would regret it if I didn't make it all the way there. In the end, it was completely worth it! My legs felt like jello, but the view was spectacular. All in all it was about a 5 1/2 mile hike round trip and a 2000 foot elevation change. About halfway up the mountain we met two guys named Germán and Leonardo, and they became our coaches and friends to get us to the top. They were really funny and would physically pull us up the mountain if we started slacking. I'm so glad I made it to the top!

The view from the top of the mountain. Breathtaking!

Part of our group with our new friends we met on the trail

Our group and the guys then walked down the rest of the mountain taking a few short cuts along the way, which was fun! When we got to the bottom we realized that the bus stop was really far away, so the guys actually offered all of us rides to the bus stop, which we ended up doing in two trips in the car. It was definitely an experience I'll never forget.

The mountain from the bottom where we started. 

In the picture above you can get kind of an idea of what we hiked. The mountain that's back in the distance has radio towers on top of it, and that indicates the highest point on Cerro Arco. I was really proud of myself for making it all the way to the top without dying, but I did fail on my goal of not falling on the way down. Oh well, close enough I suppose.

We then had another 14 hour bus ride home. We never got to shower after the hike so we all smelled terrible on the bus, but at least we were all together. Unfortunately I wasn't able to sleep on the bus because of how sore I was from horseback riding and hiking combined. We arrived back in the city on Tuesday morning and I had classes from 1-5:30. It was definitely a struggle to stay awake and alive but I did it!

Something pretty interesting happened when we got back to the city. Once we got off the bus and we were back into the craziness that is Buenos Aires, it was the general consensus that the city felt like home. After an incredible weekend in a town with a much different pace of life, it was almost nice to get back to the hustle and bustle of the city. I was so excited to get back to the apartment and see our host mom so we could finally have a home cooked meal for dinner.

Overall, it was an amazing weekend. There is no way that I'm ever going to forget about everything that happened in Mendoza. If you ever have the opportunity to go there, you should go in a heartbeat!

On another note, I've officially been in Buenos Aires for a MONTH (on the 21st)!! How crazy is that? Time really does fly... I miss everyone at home, and I apologize for making you read all of this. I just loved Mendoza.

Until next time, ciao. <3

- Meagan

Oh, the City...

So, here's the thing. I've never been much of a city person. I've lived in a smaller town my entire life, and I love having the space and serenity associated with that. Living here has been a completely different and eye opening experience. It's loud, dirty, and I have to rely on public transportation. But here lies the problem, we are currently on day 9 of the subte (subway) strike. Seriously, it's incredibly annoying. Because of the subte strike, a lot of plans from the past week had to change, and it turned out to be relatively uneventful.

Classes were classes, I suppose. Nothing to write home over. Our classes finally take attendance starting tomorrow, so we have to swipe in before each class to make sure we are counted.  I picked up a new class because my argentine culture class was cancelled due to low enrollment, so I'm taking latin american history during the 20th century. It's in spanish, so I'm having a bit of trouble comprehending, but luckily it seems that a lot of the other students are in the same boat as myself! Over time I'm sure it's going to become easier over time.

On Friday we were supposed to have a little day trip to Florida Street, which is a pedestrian street full of shopping and excitement, but due to the subte strike and the incredibly overcrowded buses, we had to postpone that to another day at some point in the future.

Saturday was an absolutely miserable day. It hailed for a while, and was thunderstorming and pouring all day.  We decided we would try to hit a museum since it was an indoor activity, but naturally as we stepped outside it immediately began to downpour. We managed to stop into a café and have some snacks, where it cleared up as soon as we sat down.  My roommate and I eventually made it to the Museo de Arte Español- Enrique Larreta, which was about 10 blocks from where we lived.  It was pretty small, one floor, but it had a lot of interesting art and artifacts.

Inside the museum

The best part of the museum though was DEFINITELY the gardens! We managed to find a break in the rain to head outside and explore the garden. I can only imagine how beautiful it is when it's sunny! Our host mom told us that during the summer, they have concerts in the gardens under the lights. I'd love to see that!

The beginning of the garden

In the corner of the garden

The gardens really were beautiful, and for a 1 peso entrance fee, I'd definitely go back again!

Today we headed to the Japanese Garden of Buenos Aires! It's one of the largest japanese gardens outside of Japan itself, and it's about 5 acres in total. Today was a beautiful day and perfect for exploring a setting like that. It was amazing to see how just scenery around you could transport you to a different place.

Incredible!

Kyla, Jenn, and myself on the bridge in the garden

While we were at the Japanese garden we ate at the restaurant on location and had some seriously delicious food.  I was really craving something flavorful. After that we did a little more exploring and decided to head out and walk home. It was a very long walk, but on a day like today it was great! We stopped at the Monumento de los Españoles, which was HUGE! It's also located in the center of a one way street with 11 (!!!!) lanes. It's also surrounded by a roundabout with no crosswalks to the monument itself, so getting there was a real-life version of frogger.

El Monumento de los Españoles

I was surprised when we got there as to how big it actually was (Over 80 feet tall). Standing next to it make me feel pretty much obsolete. But it was great to climb all over the statues that surrounded it and spend time sitting and watching the cars and people go by. After that, we continued on our walk home and stopped for some snacks at a cafe. My roommate and I arrived home just in time for dinner, and now it's time to catch up on some school work.

In more exciting news, my group is heading to Mendoza next week! This trip is on our own, and not paid for with our program, so it's our first real adventure outside the city. We have a long weekend because we have Monday off along with the normal no-class Friday. So we'll be heading out Thursday night and taking an overnight bus to Mendoza and staying in a hostel until Monday night when we will return in time for classes Tuesday morning. Mendoza is wine country, so we have a wine tour as well as horseback riding planned! I can't wait to see the snow-capped peaks of the Andes and experience life outside the city. It's going to be glorious! I'll probably be updating again once I'm back unless something crazy happens between now and then. :)

¡Hasta luego!

- Meagan

Classes and Adventuring

I don't understand the necessity of the "study" portion of study abroad. I wish I could just spend the next 3 1/2 months just traveling and exploring the city, but unfortunately that wouldn't go well for my GPA...

We started classes this past Monday, and let me just say, this school is incredibly unorganized.  First off, we had to register for classes Monday at 8 AM (apparently) and classes started that very same day! Not only that, but none of us were able to register until after 11... and many people weren't able to register on their own at all. Once we got to school, we discovered the "faculty only" couches and elevators. Are you effing kidding me? There's this huge area of couches that are super comfortable and great for lounging before classes, and we were immediately kicked off said couches because they were meant for the faculty.  Because it clearly makes sense that the students can't sit on one of the completely empty couches untouched by professors.  I digress.

Classes have been pretty good so far. My professors are all really interesting people, but I'm definitely terrified of one of them.  My Argentine culture professor is insanely eclectic, and there's only 5 of us in the class, and he's definitely not afraid to get in our faces, literally. I can't decide if I'll stay with the class because frankly, I'm pretty scared.

Last friday we went on an extremely boring bus tour of the city, but we did get to get off the bus in La Boca for about a half hour, and it was beautiful! I definitely need to get back there because it was so colorful. La Boca is a very poor area of the city, but it's marked by its colorful buildings and street performers in some of the more touristy areas.  It's extremely dangerous at night, but I get to appreciate the scenery during the day and that's all that matters.

Definitely going back to get some artwork there!

The main touristy street

Traditional colorful "La Boca" 

Other than classes, we didn't do much this week. We had planned on celebrating the end of the first week of classes Thursday night (no Friday classes- glorious!), but we actually all just fell asleep instead.  We celebrated on Friday night and ended up at some insane club, and that's a story in and of itself.  We spent the day on Saturday lounging around and watching the Olympics, but rounded off the night by going to see The Dark Knight Rises... and it was AWESOME.  Like, seriously awesome.  It was in english with subtitles in castellano, so it didn't make much of a difference in the movie watching experience. I recommend it to everyone.

Today we had a little excursion with our program director into the Recoleta neighborhood of the city.  It's one of the oldest and most well-estabilished neighborhoods, and it's home to the craft market on the weekends, as well as the Recoleta cemetery. The cemetery was breath-taking, and hauntingly beautiful.  You could spend days going through the little "streets" inside.

An example of a "street"

As you can see, this isn't an ordinary cemetery.  Its compromised entirely of intricate and beautiful mausoleums (in no particular order by date), and in a variety of different styles.  Many of them are adorned with statues of angels, or with statues and carvings of the individuals entombed inside.  Each one is completely unique and has a compelling story to tell. Some of the ones I found to be most beautiful were the oldest... those that were deteriorating but still stood amongst the more modern ones from the 20th century.  I heard that it's actually more expensive to be buried in this cemetery than it would be to live your entire life in the city... That's the kind of people who are buried here. It could take days to go through and examine the entire cemetery, through each street and alley, but I absolutely plan to return at some point! I'll add some of my favorite shots from the cemetery below.

Many of the various toppers on the mausoleums 

My favorite shot of the day, looking down one of the alleys of tombs

A sign of love placed on the steps of a mausoleum

One of the coolest things about some of the mausoleums in the cemetery is that you can see inside them.  Actually, you can see the caskets inside many of them because they are in plain viewing sight. Some of the older mausoleums are falling apart, and the caskets are actually exposed to the outside (not behind glass or bars like many). It's really interesting how it's different everywhere. It's almost reassuring being able to see the caskets. It makes you feel part of their story, and makes the person behind the inscription and statue seems so much more real. Finally, we visited the tomb of Eva Perón. If you don't know who she is, look her up. She's very important (but also EXTREMELY controversial) in Argentine history.

Evita's Tomb

All in all it was an awesome day. We headed to the craft market afterwords which happens every weekend, and I got some great ideas for gifts for people back home. I'm a sucker for craft fairs so I was totally in my element.

We have a pretty standard week coming up. Classes start back up tomorrow and go until thursday. Then we have an excursion down to Florida Street on Friday, which is mainly shopping! I'm in the market for a leather jacket so I cannot wait to go! I miss everyone at home and I hope you guys are having an awesome summer! (Because it is cooooold here!)

¡Ciao!

- Meagan