Incredible Iguazu

We finally got to the hostel around 12:30p on Friday. The ride was actually an hour shorter than expected. So just 20ish hours. No big deal. The girl at the check in told us about the different activities we could do in Iguazu. There were some interesting sounding tours to go on apart from the waterfalls, but we only had a day and a half. That means I will have go back. I thought we wouldn’t be able to go see anything the day we got to Iguazu, but the park doesn’t close until the late evening. We went to the bus station to buy tickets for the Grand Adventure. The park for the waterfalls was very pretty, it reminded me of a zoo actually. We had to wait for the tour truck to pick us up. It was one of those safari type trucks where there are rows of seats in the back and there is no roof. The first part of the adventure was 5.5 kilometers through the jungle/forest with a guide telling us about different animals, plants, and spiders we might see here. We just had to make a special stop to take a closer look at some of the big gross spiders. He even touched the web to make it move. That gave me the chills…eeeh. *shudder* Then we got off the safari truck to walk just a few minutes to get on the boat to go look at the waterfalls. That turned out to be harder than necessary because the hiking trip tore up every muscle in my legs. When we got to where the boat was, we could see that Brazil was just across the river. I wanted to jump off the boat and just touch Brazil, but I don’t think the workers would have appreciated that. So I stayed on the boat like a civilized person. During the 6-kilometer ride up stream, there was about 2 kilometers of rapids that were awesome! Anything with rivers – I am happy. Then all of a sudden, I saw the waterfalls. It was the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. I taught the Water Oak 1^st and 2^nd grade class a lesson about the Iguazu Falls, so I had seen pictures, but actually being there was unbelievable! There are so many different waterfalls big and small. Sooo many. There are two sides of the waterfalls separated by the Island of San Martin. To the right, is the impressive collection of hundreds of water falls – the most beautiful sight you could ever see. To the left is Garganta de Diablo (The Devil’s Throat). This part of Iguazu is made up of waterfalls falling together from three different sides. There is so much mist coming from these falls, you can’t even see the water below it. This is the powerful and mind boggling part. The drivers gave the people on the boat a chance to take pictures on both sides of the island before we had to put all of our stuff in a dry bag to protect it for…going UNDER the falls!! I didn’t bring my camera on this trip because I didn’t know we were going to have something to protect our things. Luckily, Jacobo has this really awesome camera that also has a good waterproof case. He got great footage of us under the thousands of gallons of water. First we went to the side of the Garganta de Diablo and got absolutely soaked! Over to the other side and just as much water…maybe even more. On the way back to shore we realized that we have been almost sick for a few days now and that we might actually get sick now. Back on shore we dried off as well as we could without towels, and then walked around the park, got somewhat lost, checked out the tourists stores, and saw some Coatis. They are a cousin to the raccoon and they look like anteaters. If you have been to the zoo, you have seen one. They were really cute actually. The first two we saw we just had to take pictures because we thought it was cool, but then after seeing about 30 more they became more like the squirrels in Texas. We got back to the hostel, changed into dry clothes, looked at the pictures and videos from the day, and ate at an Asian food restaurant. It was about 32,489 times better then the sketchy one we went to a couple nights before. We walked around town to see what was there, but there isn’t really anything to do in Iguazu except for visiting the waterfalls. We checked out a few restaurants to see where we might want to eat the next night. Tired and fully aware that we had a full day ahead of us, we went to sleep.

Saturday we woke up, ate breakfast, and went back to the bus terminal to catch a ride back to the magical waterfalls. This time we took a train to the top of Garganta de Diablo. That was just as amazing. It looks like just a regular and calm river, then BAM! The ground opens up and swallows the river! I had my camera that day, so I have tons of photos and videos. (The pics will be on Facebook. For some reason I can;t get the blog site to let me upload pictures anymore.) We started walking around the jungle again, almost left, but then decided to take the short trip to go under the waterfalls once again. How many people can say they have been to Iguazu Falls? Several. How many people can say they went under them twice? Few, and I can. On the walk over to the boats, we encountered a whole family reunion of Cappuccino Monkeys! There is a movie called Monkey Business that Taryn and I watched over and over when we were little that had a Cappuccino monkey in it. I have always wanted to see one after I saw that movie. I was just beside myself for several hours after finally and accidentally seeing lots of them. I even made eye contact with one. We are friends now. He is going to try to come visit me in Texas. Back at the hostel we watched the videos and looked at the pictures, nap, changed clothes, and went to dinner at a hamburger place. We walked around town some more, and then hung out on the patio/kitchen area until we went to sleep. We are not too happy with the hostel compared to Link in Córdoba. The people at Link are so friendly and everyone knows the staff. In Iguazu, nobody talked to each other and the staff didn’t even introduce themselves. We were not too sad to leave. Give us Link!

On the bus ride back, we stopped at a drug check for like…ever. Other buses got to go by, but ours was the unlucky one that had to wait and wait and wait. We finally made it back to Córdoba, but Jacobo only had ten minutes to get to class on time. He didn’t make it. I went to Link to get my big suitcase and met Flavia for breakfast at my little coffee shop. I will definitely miss her! Then I went back to the bus terminal to head back to Bell Ville. I had the hardest time staying awake, but I didn’t want to sleep for fear that the Great Bus Adventure of 2012 would have a part two. (See first Córdoba entry) First thing I had to do was take a shower at the Fernandez house! It had been too long since I had a proper shower. After that was a heavenly siesta. I started to re-pack all my things in order to prepare for my bus ride to Buenos Aires. (When I arrive in Buenos Aires, I will have spent over 52 hours on a bus in the last week. Whoa.) The electricity got cut, so that made it difficult. So I quit…maybe I got scared too. Haha. Andres showed me how incredibly awesome the stars are at his house when there are no clouds. And I got to see where they work with the bees to make honey, so much honey!! Then we went to pick up Elisa from her hockey team practice. When we got in the van, I said something about how I haven’t driven a car in nearly three months and I feared I would forget how to drive. So he tried to teach me how to drive manual…in another language! That was pretty entertaining to say the least. I think I did ok, but eventually he said to switch back into the passenger seat. We got back to the house safely with Elisa. She entertained us on the way back as her own version of an English songs radio. It was so funny listening to her try to sing different songs in English. I am going to miss this family very much!! Dinner at the house, then we met with some of the friends at a house to have coffee, tea, and chocolate. I almost fell asleep sitting on the couch with all the people there talking. That played to my advantage when we were leaving because I was too tired to get emotional saying my goodbyes to my friends. I want to bring them all back with me!

The buses from Bell Ville to Buenos Aires only leave half after midnight. So I decided to leave the next midnight instead of rushing away after I just arrived back to Bell Ville. Therefore, I had a full day at the Fernandez house one last time. I spent most of the day trying to plan out my week in Buenos Aires. My plans to stay with different families started to fall through and my plan to go to Uruguay wasn’t working out, so I started to look into hostels in Buenos Aires. I think that it is better that I stay in a hostel because everyone is working or in class during the day anyway. During the day I found out that Jose and Jacobo might be going to Uruguay this weekend anyway, so I might still get to go! I spent most of the day trying to plan where I was going to stay, paying for bus and hostels, and packing.

The bus ride to Buenos Aires went just fine. I got around 4 hours of sleep. The hostel looks pretty cool, but everyone is still sleeping. I went into my room to put my suitcase and bag away. I was hoping to take a quick nap before I got the day rolling, but I think five of my six roommates are stinky boys. The room is full of back-packer backpacks, boy shoes and socks, and I think I saw some bobby pins. The bobby pins are my one hope that I won’t be the only one suffering from the smelly boy stench. The base floor doesn’t smell and has wifi. So life is good once again.  

Week in Link

It is tough to find a good chunk of undistracted time while living in a hostel. I will be on a bus for the next…oh, 20 hours, so I believe I will be able to right out this blog post. (Continue reading to find out just why I am, in fact, on a bus for nearly an entire day.)

Thursday last week was the day I was supposed to go to the river, but didn’t get to go. I ended up having different adventures instead, no thanks to the British girls. After I posted my blog, I went to have coffee at the same little shop I have gone to before. The guys there definitely know who I am now. I love it. While I was waiting on my café con crema to cool down, one of my friends from Mexico, José, walked by. I managed to get his attention through the window and convinced him to come in and sit down. We had a good long chat in Spanish for a few hours. We talked about our universities, soccer, etc. When I got back to the hostel, my roommate was there. I asked him if he wanted to go with me to Iguazu to see the famous waterfalls. I was expecting him to say “no” since José already said that he couldn’t, but Jacobo said he could! With in just a couple hours, all the bus tickets and hostel nights were purchased. I love the Internet because of how easy it was to do all of that. When I was finishing up the purchases, some people from José and Jacobo’s university started showing up for another exchange student’s birthday. While they were having some beers, Jacobo and I went to my little restaurant with pizza to eat dinner. When we were full we sat on the patio at Link with all of the exchange students to talk for a while. There were people from Colombia, Spain, and Brazil. I could understand the Colombians very easily and the Spaniards weren’t too difficult either. (Note: Brazil speaks Portuguese.) It was really cool to be able to understand the conversation without having to ask them to slow down. We headed out to town to get the birthday party started. Jacobo and I were feeling somewhat insecure about how we were dressed compared to the rest of the people in our group. Everyone had on a button up, heels, or some kind of cute outfit. On the other hand, Jacobo and I had on grey zipper hoodies. His had Pikachu on it. I also was wearing flip-flops, shorts, and no make up. Our first stop was a surprise though. We were searching for the address and looking for the “bar.” It was not a bar. There was a group of people with a makeshift table and chairs drinking beer and eating cakes. I was really confused, but felt better about what I had on since this was going to be some kind of street birthday party. Two guys from Brazil came over to say Hi to Jacobo and introduced themselves to me. Jacobo introduced me as his friend from France. I wasn’t sure why he was doing that, but I went along with it. Later on Jacobo told me that the two guys love European girls and he wanted to play a trick on them. I think they still believe I am from France. Haha. After a bit at the street party shindig, we headed over to a real club. Here there are lots of people who work for different clubs standing in the streets at night asking people to come to their club. They will give them a ticket to get in for free, cheaper, or some kind of deal most of the time. It also helps them to get people with the right “look” in their clubs. Still looking like we belonged in someone’s living room playing video games, Jacobo and I never got asked to go to a club. It was so obvious too! There would be a group of three or four in front of us, and a girl would ask them if they were interested in a club, not ask us, and then ask the couple behind us. This happened about three times. The group had decided on going to Studio Teatro, which I had already heard of before. It is an old theater that has been converted into a dance club. The stage sometimes has live music or people can get up there to dance if they want. And people can go up to the balcony seating to watch everyone dancing or have another drink. It is a very cool place. Since we were a group of over 15, some of the guys wanted to try to get in for free because they would get lots of drink sales from us. After about half an hour of trying, several of us still had to pay 15 pesos to get in. Less than $4, whatever.  We tried to feel cool in our hoodies for maybe 20 minutes, but just couldn’t, so Jacobo and I left to go back to the hostel. We agreed that we needed to come back another night thought because it was so cool…just with better clothes the next time.

The next morning, Friday, I slept in, checked Facebook and email, then Jacobo and I decided to go eat somewhere “fancy” for lunch. Aka – not a 3 peso miga. Migas are long white bread ham and cheese sandwiches that they sell here for suuuuuper cheap. There is really nothing to them, but they taste really good. They fill you up too. But we didn’t want to eat those, once again. Santiago, the owner of the hostel, suggested going to il Panino for lunch, just a few blocks away. It was pretty good. I had a soy burger that was HUGE!! I could only eat half of it. I got to put the other half in a to-go box. In order to de-full myself, Jacobo and I watched MTV for a couple hours. José came by and we all decided to go to Patio Olmos to have a beer and hang out. These guys are so funny. It is just constant fun and laughter hanging out with them. I really hope that we get to hang out some after Argentina. Monterrey, their city, isn’t too far from Houston. We went into the Patio Olmos mall just to look around. It used to be a really good old school, but they converted it into a mall. It is a really popular place for the hippies to sell their bracelets and other jewelry. When you go shopping with two guys, sports stores tend to be preferred over clothing stores. That is good though, I don’t need to buy the clothes in the malls here – pricey!!! Then José and Jacobo decided they wanted to eat at McDonalds. Uuuuugh! Why do I hang out with boys?!?! Haha. My phone was about to die, so we had to go back to the hostel so I could charge it before I went to watch a Flamenco show with Facundo. The show was beautiful! I loved watching the people dance like that. It is a very serious and kind of angry dance, something very different from what I am used to seeing. After the pros danced a few numbers, they let some audience members get on the stage to show off their dance skills. Love, love, love. I got back to the hostel around 12:30am. Just in time to finish my soy burger then go out! Jacobo, José, and I went to the Studio Teatro again. And this time we were lookin’ fly! During the walk, a girl from Argentina said (in Spanish) “Excuse, me, but are you Jacobo Wong?” And then freaked out when he said he was, got a picture with him, and everything. It was cool to see that happen. Especially since he is so far away from Mexico. We got to the club a little after 2am, and that might have been just a bit early because no one was really dancing. But we got the party going really soon. There was a live ska band playing, which was stinking awesome. I can dance to ska music. It just requires you kicking your legs around and acting really goofy. I guess they don’t do that here too often because people seemed to be staring. But Jacobo and I went up to the front and center of the dance floor next to the stage and brought party rock to the house that night. Once every got their boogie shoes on in the club, we went to the back to get a drink, and guess who we found!! Like…the rest of the hostel! An Israeli guy was having his birthday that day. So we hung out with the hostel people the rest of the night. We walked back to the hostel, some people stopped to get a hotdog, and then we went to sleep. Such a great night!

Saturday morning, I slept, but for lunch, I had Subway with Jacobo. I took a picture this time so you all could see how much it look like the one’s in the US. I just wish I could capture the smell some how! I wanted some coffee after eating, but my little coffee shop was closed for siesta. Sad face. So we went back to where Subway was because next door is a Starbucks! It is a little United States street right in the middle of Argentina. On the way to the US street, I just had to take a picture of the cruise ship we saw in a travel business window. There were several girls naked or topless. There was a naked couple chasing each other around the pool. I took a picture of the girl just striking a pose completely nude on the diving board with a girl behind her taking off her purple top. I just could not stop thinking about two things. What kind of company was this? And what was the creator thinking when he made the mini cruise ship? I got to Starbucks, and as usual, as soon as the employee hears my non-Spanish-speaker accent, he switches into English. It is so aggravating, but I continue to speak in Spanish. So there is yet another reason I don’t like Starbucks. International reasons. Also, the guy thought he was so good at his English, when he wrote my name on the cup, he wrote “Candle”! Haha. Wrong-o! We sat down at some couches and worked on some puzzles in a newspaper. It was nice to use my brain like that again. Back in the hostel, Jacobo needed to work on a video. He got asked by some people to go to the Olympics in London to do interviews about the games. He is up against two other Youtubers, so he had to make something like an audition video. He wanted to show that he is a better selection than the others by showing his ability to speak English. So I got to be the person he interviewed! The manager came to our room to tell us about the events that were happening in town that night. The newspaper was having a big anniversary so there was a celebration in a park. We walked around town, and then headed to the park. We saw a band playing some traditional sounding songs and people were doing some cool dances were they jumped high in the air and did kicks and spins. Over to the left and the right were some groups of people…slacklining!!! I think I freaked out a little bit when I saw that. We went over to a group and asked if I could slackline. I walked a few yards my first try and second. Then I told them it was my first time slacklining. Haha, they believed me for a second. Jacobo tried too. After I got my fix, we walked around the park some more. Saw some cool concrete egg-shaped chairs and people climbing up a giant red ribbon like they have in the circus. Next we walked over to the hippie fair so I could finish up almost all of my family souvenirs! During our outings, Jacobo and I talked about trying to stay out until the bars closed and kicked us out, then we would go to a park that all the locals go to after the clubs and eat migas. So we took a nap when we got back to the hostel in order to prepare for the night. We woke up a little after midnight, got ready, and went out. We couldn’t figure out where we wanted to go so we went to Buen Pastor and chatted for a bit. When we left to hunt for a club, people were practically begging us to go to their club. I felt famous.  We decided on a bar that was free to get into. It wasn’t that great but we had fun dancing and making fun of the music. Haha. However, we got tired around 4:30am and didn’t quite make it to the 5am closing time to get kicked out. So we went back to the hostel to go to bed.

Sunday was a pretty chill day. We filmed some for his next video, and we got a guy from Holland to join in. Then we set up the camera outside on the patio and I played my ukulele a little. That took pretty much the whole day, got some dinner, watched 10 Things I Hate About You, and went to sleep.

Back to the beginning of the week. Classes started for Jacobo again, and I got up early so I could pack and go my stay at my friend’s apartment. However, when I texted her to find out the plans, it turned out that I could not stay with her because there really wasn’t any room. More nights at Link Hostel! I decided to do an ab workout then shower to get my day going. I was going to work on my blog, but the roommie got back and we watched Youtube videos instead. The night before I had said, “Wouldn’t it be weird if we had other roommates here?” We had gotten so used to it being just our room. And guess what happened the next day? We got two new roommates! Two girls from Denmark. Jacobo and I took thought it would be a good idea to take a walk around town since our house just got invaded by new people, we needed to recuperate. That little walked turned into quite the adventure. We took a stroll down the main shopping street, got turned around, and ended up back at the street the hostel is on. My theory is that the intoxicating smell coming from the Adidas/Nike store confused us. So we went to grab a quick ice cream cone…that turned out to be a 15-minute walk away. I thought there was one closer. Since we were so close to Patio Olmos (the school turned mall), we went inside to just look around. We passed the movie theater in the mall and saw that a movie he wanted to see was starting in 25 minutes. So what else would we do but buy tickets, popcorn, and a soda, and watch the movie! We saw Project X. It is a movie about some loser-type high school kids throwing a huge party to become cool, and the party goes out of control! It was made by the same people as The Hangover, so it was really good. I just realized that you all might know about this movie since you are in the States. I haven’t heard about it though. Haha. I felt so happy sitting in that theater because I got salty popcorn that time! It is always sweet popcorn here, and it just doesn’t give off the right vibe in a theater. After the movie, we heard some kind of soccer celebration going on. There was a big group of people with banners, flags, and instruments celebrating the 107^th anniversary of the team Belgrano. Then farther down on the walk, there was a big parade that was probably three or four blocks long. It was really cool to see that. We weren’t quite ready to go to bed when we got to the hostel, so we asked lots of people if they wanted to go with us to get a drink. No one wanted to though, and our roommates said they were tired from their long bus ride. So we walked back to Patio Olmos to have a beer, walked back to a kiosk to buy migas and a KinderSorpresa. That is a hollow chocolate egg with a little toy or game inside. My egg had a little toy with a skiing girl. I thought it was too awesome! We hung out on the patio and went to sleep.

 Tuesday I was supposed to wake up to try to go on a hiking trip with the new roommates, but I felt like I had a cold, so we rescheduled for Wednesday. Jacobo wasn’t feeling too hot either, so we went to Disco, the grocery store, to buy soup and orange juice. While I was making the soup, José came to the kitchen to visit. There was a marker hanging from a string on the fridge, so he demonstrated his drawing skills on the side of the fridge. The drawing was really good and all, but he didn’t realize that the marker was permanent. Haha…why was a permanent marker hanging from the fridge? I felt even worse after the soup and juice, so I took a nap. Got to do some Skyping, then went to Buen Pastor to meet Flavia and Agu, two friends from Bell Ville, for maté and pastries. Remember when I went a couple weeks ago, and couldn’t figure out why people kept saying to go see the fountains? Well I found out why this time. On every hour, the fountains do a little dance to a few songs. It was a very nice surprise to come upon. After maté, we went to Agu’s apartment to have pizza for dinner. Nachi, her brother, was there too. The pizza was good and company even better. I came back to the hostel a little after midnight and got to watch Jacobo edit some of the video, had some more orange juice, then went to sleep.

Maybe drinking orange juice right before I went to bed wasn’t the best idea, or maybe Jacobo’s alarm going off for ten minutes before I got him to turn it off was the bad thing. But about 20 minutes after I got the alarm to shut up, I woke up again, but this time it was terrible. I was dreaming that I had an uncle named Uncle Tio. (Tio means uncle in Spanish.) And he was going to die unless I saved him. Somehow I didn’t save him and he died. Then I woke up, but I was in my room in Sulphur Springs. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t. I have had those dreams before where I tried to scream, but it never happens…except for this time. I actually screamed out loud in the hostel. It sounded like someone was trying to murder me! After I woke up and figured out what was going on, I didn’t know if I wanted to cry because I was so freaked out, or laugh because I just screamed in my sleep. Very strange feeling. Later the two girls from Denmark and I got ready to go on our hiking trip. It was shocking that the guide was at the hostel early. Normally in Argentina, if someone says we will meet at 8:30am, that means more around 9 or 9:30am, but he was there at 8am! Where am I? The hike was so refreshing. It felt so good to be able to breathe again without inhaling car or bus fumes. It was about 2 and a half hours to get to the beautiful waterfall. There was only one tough part because it was going almost straight down, and half way through that, the guide reminded us that we got to climb back up the hill on the way back. The hike was worth it. I could have sat at that waterfall for hours. It looked like something we would see on Pinterest that girls would post saying they would go there some day know that in reality they never would. But I did!! We got back to the hostel, and I was too tired to take a shower immediately, so I hung out on the patio with José and Jacobo. Some Quilmes beer was brought out. I am really starting to get tired of this watered down beer here. Gimme some good Texas beer! Ha. I took and shower, then told then went back to the patio. A guy from Australia had joined since I left. I told them about this Chinese food restaurant I saw the night before when I was walking back from dinner with Agu and Flavia. I have been searching for Chinese for a few weeks now. So went to go eat there! It was kind of suspicious looking and after we left we were all a touch worried that we would have food poisoning the next day. So more naps ensued. Then more orange juice just to make sure, and some Halls as well. We sat in the kitchen to drink the orange juice because there were a lot of people in the having a party. An Irish guy and a Scottish guy started to take to us. They were rather inebriated, and hilarious. They acted like they came out of a movie.

Thursday I got up to start packing and cleaning my room for check out. I am going to miss Link. It was my home for over a week! Jacobo got back from classes, packed, and then we went to eat pizza at my pizza shop. We put our big luggage in a locker room for while we are gone, then left for Iguazu. The adventure started off with a – bang – I guess in the taxi. Our driver was crazy! And that is saying a lot because all of the driving here is kind of nuts, but I have gotten used to it. But this guy…wow. He drove super fast, almost rear ended cars every time we stopped, and one time he was going around a car and hit it! Yeah, I have been in a car crash in Argentina! The guy just kept going like nothing happened! We got to the bus station on time and alive. The bus arrived, and we got on…for the next 21 plus hours. It was a bunch of sleeping, waking up to eat merienda, sleeping, waking up to eat dinner, sleeping, waking up to eat breakfast, blog and music in there too at times. Breakfast was kind of confusing because the guy said something to us that neither of us caught, and then skipped serving us coffee/mate or the pastries. We could not figure out what was going on. Then we got to a stop and almost everyone got off. So we figured that he was going to serve the people who were leaving first, then us later. That was somewhat true. It turned out that he overslept and had to rush through breakfast and skip us. Then we stopped at the company station of the bus to get more breakfast. We had to close the curtains on the bus because if people saw us eating breakfast late, the guy could have gotten fired. We got extra pastries, so it was fine that we had to wait 20 extra minutes. The last couple hours of the drive were beautiful. I looked so much like what I remember of Costa Rica. So green and so many different trees.

I will post more about my trip to Iguazu later. I feel like this post is plenty long for now!

My ukulele is famous!

First...I wanted to add pictures to this blog post, but the blog site isn't opening the picture page. So sorry. :(

My last couple of days in Bell Ville were very chill like expected. I got some good exercises in since I have been slacking lately. The gym is definitely missed by me and my flabbier muscles. The last night in Bell Ville several of us went to the center to eat pizza and have ice cream. Friday afternoon Elisa and I headed over to Córdoba. The bus company sold more tickets than it did seats, so we had to stand up for the first hour until we got to the stop in Villa Maria. Luckily I had my iPod and Elisa has never played the games before, so it was really fun teaching her all of the games I have. Naturally, Angry Birds was her favorite.

Finally in Córdoba I went to my friend, Facundo’s apartment. I made friends with the taxi driver on the way there. I love how everyone here is so friendly and not afraid to “talk to strangers.” There are so many more good conversations when you actually talk to people. I got to my Facundo’s apartment and we ordered a pizza and listened to Argentine folkloric music on his upstairs patio wile we ate. I felt so Argentine.

Saturday he had to work until 1pm, so I got to make lunch! I walked over to a little vegetable shop and bought carrots and broccoli. Then at a meat shop I bought some chicken. It was quite the adventure to cook not only in someone else’s kitchen, but also in a whole other country. First I had to figure out how to peel the carrots. I have never done that before, and it was really hard with an almost butter knife. After about 30-45 minutes I finally got the three carrots peeled and cut into small pieces. The broccoli was easy breezy. Normally I would use Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sea salt to roast the veggies, but regular olive oil and normal salt did just fine. Then I grilled the chicken. I had to improvise the seasoning with what I could find in the fridge: oregano and onion. Not bad I thought. Also, the stoves here are all gas. So I had the fun time sticking matches in the stove praying that it didn’t blow up. Facundo thought I was really funny being so nervous to use the gas stove. After lunch we watched a movie and that evening we went to the hippie fair that happens each weekend in Cordoba. There were so many things there that I wanted to buy. Luckily I only brought 50 pesos with me.  I am going back this weekend though…with more pesos. ;) After the fair, we went to one of his friend’s house to have an asado (bbq). I loved it when the guitar got brought out and we had a sing along.

Sunday we hung out at his house all day talking about how to save the world and so on. We spent about an hour searching for somewhere to eat dinner. The first place he wanted to go was completely full and so was the second. At the third place we went to he changed his mind once we got there, so continued on the search. We drove for about 15 minutes to a bowling alley where he though there was going to be karaoke. However, it was Sunday and there was no karaoke. We got to play pool though, so that was nice. I lost.

Monday I packed a smaller bag to take with me to the hostel I went to the week before. I immediately met lots of cool people. I put on a little concert on the patio with my ukulele. I tried to charge them 20 pesos, but no one wanted to pay. I went to have coffee with a guy from Austira that I met when I was here last time and a new guy from Germany. Sadly, the guy from Germany and two girls from…Ireland, I believe, were leaving that evening. However, one guy, Sam from London-ish was staying for that night. We went to eat some pizza and French fries (chips, as he calls them…and he said that cookies were biscuits) at a little café. When we were almost finished eating, a guy I recognized from the hostel walked by. I waved at him, but I don’t think he recognized me. Haha. I had to tell him that I was staying the Link hostel too. But we exchanged phone numbers so he could meet us later on that night. Sam told me all about his most amazing travel life, and I must say that I am a bit jealous. He met a girl from Argentina in India a while back, so we went to meet up with her and some of her friends for drinks at a place called Bonanza. We did end up walking around Cordoba for about 30 minutes or so semi- lost. We could not figure out where the correct streets were! The people here are so helpful and they helped us get pointed in the right direction, but we ended up just having to take a taxi to get there. It turns out, that at one point we were just one street over. All of the friends there were all really cool, nice, and funny. The girl’s boyfriend is from Australia, so there were some funny times discussing the proper way to say different words. For example: banana. Australia they pronounce it as bah-naw-naw. In London it is more like ba-nah-nah. And in the US it’s like…banana. ;) After Bonanza, Sam and I headed over to a cool bar type thing called Indi. It was all India themed and there were people smoking hooka, the decorations were awesome, and the music was really cool too. Basically, I wanted to steal all of the lamps and tables to put in my not-yet-existent-apartment. The guy that we saw when we were eating came to meet us at Indi. He is from Chile, and he brought his other friend from Chile with him and a couple from Australia. 

Tuesday, Sam and my Chilean friends left, but my friend from Austria told me about a thing called “English and Maté.”  It is an organization where people who want to practice their English meet up and just talk in English and drink maté. That night was joke night. So if anyone knew a joke in English, they were supposed to tell it. Of course, I told my favorite joke: What washes up on tiny beaches? Microwaves!! And I got the same reaction that I get every time I tell it – polite chuckles. Whatever, I love that joke. After “English and Maté” was “Espanol y Cerveza” which means “Spanish and Beer.” On the walk over to a little bar some of us stopped to get hotdogs. In my opinion, the hotdog looked way more like it belonged to the US. It was just so big! 

I had some good conversations at the little bar. I was even told that I speak very well. It was a definite confidence booster!! When I got back to the hostel, I met two girls from London who just arrived. I was also told that my request to go on a hiking trip the following morning wasn’t going to work out because not enough people signed up for it. I was the only one and they needed two people. Darn. However, the girls from London, Sofia and Lulu, said that they were going to go to Mariamaria later on that night because it was salsa night. So we sat around and chatted for a while then at about 1:30am we left to go dancing. It was super super crowded, but it was fun to watch the people dancing and listen to the music. Sophia and I both agreed that the singer was very cute, but were disappointed when we saw him later with his girlfriend. At least we assume she was his girlfriend, they were acting like it.

Wednesday morning I slept in, worked on this blog post since I knew it would be forever long, and bought a new swimsuit. Part of the reason I wanted to get a new swimsuit was because of the name of a store I saw: Kendall. Can you blame me? I asked the lady working there if I could get a discount since they used my name. It didn’t work. But it was less than $30, so it’s all good. She told me that they when the store was created they wanted to have US type clothing and so they searched for a US name. It is funny that they choose “Kendall” because it is so difficult for them to say it. A little while later my two London friends came back from exploring Córdoba. We went up to the patio on the second floor and then my roommate and his friend joined, the manger of the hostel joined, and a few others. It was probably one of my favorite times I have had here in Córdoba. The conversation felt like it was one between long time friends. My roommate, Jacobo, and his friend, José, and I went to Subway to grab dinner. I should have taken a picture when I went inside. It was one of the strangest feelings. I had a moment when I questioned if I was even in Argentina anymore. The place even smelled like the Subways in the States. There were a few changes on the menu. There is salami that everyone loves to eat that was an option, but I just stuck to my normal turkey sandwich. While we were eating we had a conversation about fútbol versus football. I still think football is more interesting, but I couldn’t convince them. When we got back to the hostel, Jacobo and I chatted it up in our room for the remainder of the night. He is a Youtube star in Mexico, so he told me stories about how he got started with his Youtube channel, how he makes the videos, and so on. He has 122,000 fans on Facebook too! My ukulele is going to be in one of his videos. He held it and tried to play it while he was talking for a clip. It was really interesting getting to hear stories from the other side of Youtube. If you want to check out his videos go to Youtube and search Jacobo Wong. Note: they are in Spanish, but they are really funny.

Today I was supposed to go to the river with two other girls I meet from London, but they changed their minds and decided to go look around town. Lame. But I got to finally finish my blog post of the century. I hope you enjoyed it!!

Adventures in Córdoba

Several rivalries remain constant here in Argentina. One is between the soccer teams. Another is between the provinces - mostly between Buenos Aires and Córdoba. I loved being in Buenos Aires. The big city life does not call me as much as it does here. My theory is I prefer the big cities in Argentina just because they are in Spanish. Buenos Aires is so exciting and different from my life in little ol’ Sulphur Springs. I thought I was a Porteña, a person that belongs to the Buenos Aires area, but now that I tasted Córdoba, I might be a Córdobesa. Maybe it is just because I found some fun people to tour the city with and got help from a life long local, but I really loved Córdoba – even with all my travel “adventures.” (See below)

Adventure #1: When the bus to Córdoba lacked about 20 minutes to the terminal, we stopped. My seat was in the very back, so when one of the drivers came up the stairs and announced something to everyone, I obviously didn’t quite catch the message. All of the passengers got up from their seats and took all of their bags downstairs. We all stood outside of the bus while people got their big luggage out from under the bus. Then people started getting back on the bus. I followed like a lost yet obedient sheep. We sat there for a few more minutes then the driver came back up, said something, and we all got off the bus again! This time there was another bus for us to get on. I am still not too sure why we had to change busses, but I eventually arrived in Córdoba just fine.

Agu met me at the terminal and we walked around a little bit then we took a taxi to the hostel. At first I didn’t see the hostel because it is just a front door. The concrete around the door is painted with all kinds of cool colors and the stairs inside are painted with “Welcome” in many different languages. It was very clean and my first impression was great! I got settled in my room then went to buy a lock for my locker and to grab lunch. It was nice to walk around just by myself. It has been a long while since the last time I have gone anywhere alone. (I am sure all of my “moms” prefer that I don’t do anything alone here anyway. Haha) I found a little café and got some pizza and a soda. After that I did a little sight seeing just in the center plaza of San Martín. I went back to the hostel to shower and met my two roommates – one girl from Holland and the other from Norway. We went to the store near by to buy food for breakfast the next morning. That night we had asado (BBQ) and I got to meet many of the people staying at the hostel. I made friends from Holland, Norway, Chile, Germany, Ireland, Austria, and New Zealand!

This is a memorial for the Dirty War. There were lots of people being tortured at this jail. The finger print is made up of the names of people who died.

Adventure #2: Wednesday was probably my least favorite day of the days I spent in Córdoba. I decided to go check out Córdoba some more on my own. I got directions and suggestions from one of the guys working at the hostel and I hit the town. I missed my first turn and just kept walking and walking down the shopping street. The clothes here are really inexpensive. There were some shirts for 35 pesos (about $8) that could be sold in the US for $35! The streets are really easy to navigate in Córdoba, so I always knew how to get back to the hostel. The problem was that I didn’t know where anything else was! I swear I circled around the same block three times looking for a museum that must be really well hidden. Then I tried looking for another museum or church with no luck. I did run into the Austrian guy from the hostel though. Haha. Anyway, I was beginning to think that there was nothing in Córdoba to look at and the maps were all wrong and told lies. I went back to the hostel defeated. Showered and took a siesta. When my two roommates got back that evening we decided to go find a bar to have some drinks. It was yet another rather unsuccessful hike around town. I got to be the person to ask for directions though! I felt very happy to be the elected Spanish-speaker in the group. We ended up eating at a restaurant on the same street as our hostel – literally a minute walk from where we started. It ended up being really nice and we had some good conversation.

Thursday morning things started looking brighter. I had breakfast in the hostel and made friends with the two new arrivals from Chile. I we ended up planning out a route to see a lot of Córdoba. Then two hostel-stayers from Holland joined the group. We went to an old house that has been turned into a museum that was pretty interesting. Then we walked father into town and looked at the outside of a church that we could not find the entrance into. Lunch for 10 pesos, which is about $2.30. I had a bottle of water and two nice sized empanadas. I love the prices here! Then we met with some other people and went to a museum of natural science. It was very pretty and interesting, but there weren’t any hands-on activities. Boo. Next we went to a really cool park that had 200 giant metal rings – one for each year of Argentina’s history. After a few pictures at the ring park we went to have ice cream. The same Austrian guy from our hostel I saw in town the day before was randomly walking by the ice cream shop! How weird is it that two days in a row on opposite sides of a big city I run into the same person?! He showed us where the entrance was into the beautiful church. Here are some pictures of it. I don’t know if I was allowed to take pictures there, but I did and I am not in jail. So I think it was OK.

 Some of the rings.

Me and the ring from the year I was born.

My Holland and Chile friends eating ice cream.

Outside the church. It only has one steeple because the people wanted it to have imperfections. 

Adventure #3: Friday I made plans with people to go an hour out of Córdoba to Jesus Maria to see some old buildings. I had plans at 4 o’clock to meet my local friend to hang out before I had to catch the bus back to Bell Ville at 7:45p. When we finally got everyone organized and headed to the mini-bus terminal, I had about an hour to check things out in Jesus Maria. However, the bus ride was more than an hour. It was more like and hour and 20 minutes. So that meant I didn’t have but 20 minutes in Jesus Maria, so I just bought another ticket on the mini-bus back to Córdoba.

Adventure #4: I met with my friend to go to an art museum, and it was absolutely wonderful! The museum used to be a HUGE house so it was cool to just see the house too. He really studied communications in the university as well so we were able to talk about the different texts in the paintings like I did in my college classes. I don’t think I have many friends who would want to stand in front of a painting for 15 minutes discussing what the artist was trying to convey. After the museum, we went to eat dinner at a little café on the sidewalk. The waiter was a little slow, but the conversation and food were very, very good. At about 8pm, I looked at my phone and realized that it was an hour after the time I was supposed to head over to the bus terminal. Awesome. I went back to the hostel and luckily the owner of the hostel is incredibly nice, and he said he could take me to the terminal to find another ticket to Bell Ville. I bought a ticket for 10:45p. I set an alarm on my phone to go off at 1:45a because the trip was 3 hrs and 30 mins. I woke up and then Andres calls me to find out where I was because he was going to met me at the terminal. He said I should have been in Bell Ville by then. My phone dies. I asked the driver when we were going to stop in Bell Ville, and he informed me that we stopped in Bell Ville an hour ago. The trip between Córdoba and Bell Ville is actually 2 hours and 30 mins. Oh. Cool. He makes some phone calls and finds another bus that is headed towards us going back to Córdoba. At 3am we meet the bus in the interstate, I cross the street, get on the bus, and head back to Bell Ville. One of the drivers walked with me across the street to make sure I made it ok. The new bus ended up taking me to the other terminal in Bell Ville, the one I have never used before. I asked the man working at the terminal if I could charge my phone so I could call Andres. The plug wasn’t so great so I had to hold the charger in the plug the whole time. I finally got in contact with Andres, and he told me to take a taxi to a certain location so he could come pick me up in his dad’s van. When I got to the location I found out that the van wouldn’t start back up, so we had to take the taxi back to his house. We finally arrived at his house around 5:30am. And we were leaving for the canoe trip around 9am. Whew! What a night! I am so glad the driver was able to find another bus. Otherwise it would have cost me another ticket and possibly missing the canoe trip!

The canoe trip was nice. I was extremely tired though, obviously. We got back to the house at 7:30p. I took a shower and then we had everyone come over for dinner a couple hours later. I opted to not have a glass of beer with the pizza because I am pretty sure I would have fallen asleep right then and there.

Yesterday and today have been pretty chill. I bet that it will be like this the rest of the week. So later on today I am hoping to go into town to buy index cards to I can study my Spanish textbooks like I am about to have a final. There are a few rules I don’t quite have as second nature yet and there are roughly 21,397,053 times more verbs in Spanish than there are in English. I am forever a Spanish student!

One last picture. This is me next to some fountians that everyone said I needed to visit. So I did.