Well, Well, Well

I'll be surprised if I've never used that title as a title before. It's been a long time, friends and fiends. I was vaguely inspired and a lot intimidated into trying to write another post by Jade and Maddy, who inadvertently made me feel guilty about going nearly a year without writing anything on here. Last you heard from me, I had one week left in Argentina, and I was having a great time. Well, now you could be thinking that something happened and somehow I got stuck in Argentina and I misplaced my access to the internet, and for some reason I could not update my blog ever at all ever.

That is not the case. The truth is, I am a snerb who disregards all responsibility in favor of doing things like playing Stardew Valley and watching too many seasons of Grey's Anatomy. So I am here now, in my own personal shame, to give you a brief life update, which will include some pictures into ever day life. Here we go.

July 2017: Returned home to the United States of America, and immediately turned 21 years of age. Here is me on my birthday with some of my good good friends: Just kidding, facebook changed its rules and I can't steal the pictures off of it anymore. Oh well. Just imagine me and some friends.

August 2017: Returned to school to train as a student manager for the last time. Also started my final year of undergraduate college school like a cool kid.

September 2017: Nothing remarkable ever happens in September? I guess I did some work and generally was a student.

October 2017: Again nothing? There was fall break in there somewhere, and I did some school work and did some student managering? I guess this is what happens when you leave your updates to months past when they should have been happening.

November 2017: Learned about Nicaraguan dystopian fiction, and wrote a paper (in Spanish) about masculine utopias being feminine dystopias.

December 2017: Christmas?????

January 2018: Went to EUROPE! I got four more countries on my passport although only two of them are stamped there. (Also, just FYI, I just spelled "more" like "mour" and I don't know why.) I studied the Holocaust for a month, and we traveled to Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Denmark. It was cool, but very fast, and very different from my experience in Argentina.

February 2018: Returned to my last semester of college?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

March 2018: It was very cold.

April 2018: Wow it was still very cold, and there were definitely many days of a lot of snow all the time. That was cool. But also EXTREMELY NOT COOL, and I w:as mad.

May 2018: Graduated from college??? I think a lot of other things happened in May too, with classes and work and school getting over and there being some awards and saying goodbye to friends and making life decisions and trying to create a new reality of adulthood after school is over, but really the important thing is that I graduated.

June 2018: It is currently June, so we've caught up to where we're supposed to be. I'm currently working at a camp in Ely where I am some sort of health professional, despite the fact that I have exactly zero qualifications, but here I am. It's kinda weird, but you know, Argentina was kinda weird, and I ended up loving it there, so this is just one of those things that takes time, probably. I'm sitting in a weird coffee shop typing this because we don't have very nice internet at camp, so I have to be one with nature most days. Except that I work in an office with a lot of medical supplies and a very fancy copier, so I guess it's not always that nature-y.

The Future????: (I tried really hard to make the "TM" sign in order to be cool and meme like, but I am not that technological apparently, so just pretend it says "The FutureTM" but in a cool way.) I'm going to the U of M next fall to do a program in Translation and Interpretation, which is cool, and I'm looking for good jobs to be a real adult. Let me know if you find anything to do with Spanish for me!

Okay, since there weren't very good pictures even though I said I would have pictures, I'll try and put some in now. Wish me luck. I have like three or four maybe.

The lake where I currently live, although I don't live in the lake, I just live by the lake, so don't worry. 

My favorite snek, who got this drink that is almost as big as her head at one of our favorite establishments. 

This is from Europe, one of my professor's said this quote, which I thought was a fitting explanation of our travels. (I don't know why.) Hopefully you can read the snapchat caption because I don't want to type it out anymore. 

Hey, one time, my entire house was consumed by an opera pit, and also one time, they all wore their pajamas to rehearsal.

So that is a vague, not very detailed (which is what vague means, I guess) update of my life for the past year. Maybe with any luck, I'll get back into the habit of writing more things on here. We'll see. It might be hard because of the no internet situation. Also I am writing right now to avoid human interaction and because I am mad, but that doesn't mean I can't also write stuff when I'm not mad and not purposely avoiding the humans I live in close proximity to. Maybe the key to getting me to write stuff is making me feel guilty. We'll never know (except we probably will, because I could study it.) Anyway, that is all I have for right now, I hope you aren't the most angry, because then I will never write anything else ever again. It's fine. I'll see you all soon.

A Brief Overview, and Only a Week Left!

Hello friends! It's been an exciting time since I last told you about my life. I finished school, so I have either been doing nothing, or been travelling. I think it's been a good mix of both of those things. But anyway, as of today, I only have one week left in Argentina! I mean, I guess even less than one week at this point. Wow. Some days, I feel like I've been here for 19,000 years, and other days it's like I got here yesterday and I have learned nothing. Unfortunately, neither of those things are true. Or should it be fortunately? Unknown. But either way, I have almost been here for five whole months, and in general, it has been a good time!!

So for the exciting parts of my past month, I went to Uruguay, and I spent time driving around the provinces of Salta and Jujuy, which are in the northern, desert-y, mountain-y part of Argentina. Uruguay was a nice change of pace from the big city I usually live in, because it is smaller, and also we went to a very tourist town called Punta del Este, which has a beach! Believe it or not, I had to go all the way to another country, and then from that country to another country before I stepped into an ocean. But, the important part of this is that I have now been in the ocean! Wow!!

Also, just so you know, if you're planning on going to Punta del Este, be prepared to spend a lot of money on foods. Because it's a tourist town, they think they can charge ridiculous prices for things. One time, I ordered a meal that was supposed to include two hot dogs and some french fries. And then the hot dogs came without hot dog buns. I was not a fan. And also it was very expensive. Like, bread is the least expensive thing in this country. Why would you take the bread out??? I do not understand. 

Oh, also, in Punta del Este, the main attraction is something called "La mano" which means "The Hand." It's just a giant hand partially buried in the sand on the beach, and it's full of tiny children trying to climb up the fingers, but it is definitely too tall for climbing, unless you are a fiend. Also, mysteriously, they shine a bright green light on it if you go bright and early in the morning. Look at how scary this is:

(Also featuring me, if you look close enough.) But why would they decide to make it green? It's like the buried the Green Giant Bean Man, but they didn't have enough sand to cover the last part of his hand. I am not a fan. 

But anyway, Uruguay was a good time, and I got a lot more stamps in my passport, which is my ultimate goal of being here. Not learning or anything. Just getting passport stamps. 

And then just a few days after that, I went on a cool trip where some people and I basically took a road trip through the mountains of northern Argentina! We started out by flying to Salta, which is the capitol city of the Salta province. We stayed in a hostel for one night, and waited for the last member of our travelling party to arrive. And then we rented a car like cool kids and drove all the way through a bunch of mountains to a pueblo called Cafayate. 

The most exciting thing that we did in Cafayate, probably, was going on a hike through the mountains. But it's not just what you think. We didn't just walk along a nice path through the mountains, like we did when we went Mendoza. Instead, we pulled up in our car, and there was just this guy there. And he was like, "Hello, I am a guide. Would you like me to guide you?" And we were like, 'Mmmmm, I mean, what could go wrong with following this stranger-- who met us at this path unannounced--into the Andes mountains? Really. What could go wrong?" So we went with this guy into the Andes mountains. 

AND THEN. 

We were like, scaling rock walls. And shoving our bodies through crevasses in boulders. And jumping over rivers. And using trees to hoist ourselves in a vertical direction just to see a simple waterfall. There were times when our guide was holding our feet in place so we wouldn't fall. But I mean, that's what study abroad adventures are for, right? It's a good time, and we all survived, and now we'll have a good story to tell all the people who asked us what the scariest thing we did was!

Look! Here we are, all still alive!!

From there, we drove up to the northern-er direction to Cachí. We just stayed there as our stop between Cafayate and Tilcara. The most exciting thing that happened in Cachí was our attempt to become real, live people of Salta, when we tried hojas de coca! Now don't worry. Just because these leaves are the precursor to cocaine does not mean we did drugs. People in Salta and Jujuy uses hojas de coca (which means coca leaves) to combat altitude sickness. (Did I mention that we were in the mountains and at some points it was like 15000ft high? It's fine.) So hojas de coca basically just make your head not hurt, and make you not have motion sickness while driving on curvy mountain roads.

Me, the coolest kid

Isabelle, AKA Isa, the resident Super Food and Long-nosed Dog Expert

Emily, a beautifully indecisive fiend

Will, the most Porteño of all of us

And then we drove up more mountains and finally got to our final destination, Tilcara! We spent two(ish) days there, but actually we did driving to other areas to see the cool geographical features. First we drove way more far away to go to the salt flats! Those were super cool, and we got some interesting pictures.

What are you

Salty handstand/cartwheel

This is an accurate depiction of our frustration during this trip

Devoured

Literally the cutest nerds

So that was a good time, and we had a lot of fun, despite having to once again pay a mysterious guide to guide us along the dangerous pathway that was the fragile salt flats. Also, we wanted to take a lot of pictures and have a good time, but our mysterious guide was impatient. Because of unknown reasons I guess. He probably just wanted to get him money's worth out of us, which means guiding us as fast as possible. 

And the we made our way to a place called The Hill of 14 Colors! That's translated from Spanish, just for you, just for your ease of access. Aren't you glad? Anyway. We got there, and we were vaguely lost for a while, because the road up the mountain was very poorly marked, but in the end, after driving multiple minutes, we found our hill! The view was pretty good from where we were, but THEN some people decided to hike a little ways, which was fine until we had to come back up the hill of death. Literally I stopped five or six times to make sure I hadn't died. Good thing I live in Iowa. 

But I will probably admit that it was worth it, I guess. Because the 14 colors really were spectacular. 

Like, I know pictures don't really count as the real thing, but look at those mountains. Can you see all the colors? I don't know. I didn't count. I should have. That's my one regret in my life: That I didn't count the number of colors in The Hill of 14 Colors. I am a failure. 

So those were the most exciting things that have happened in the past month or so! And now I have only 6-ish days left here to enjoy! I'm excited to go home, but also I think I'll probably really miss my weird life here. Also, I have my last final exam on Friday, the day before I leave to come home, so that's still hanging over my head, and even though it's going to be fine, it still feels like something I have to think about a lot. 

But anyway, I will probably see some of you in person before I write the next blog post, and maybe some of you I will have had to say goodbye to, because you are my Argentina friends, but I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures here in and around Argentina! I know I've enjoyed having them, and sharing them with you all. 

Fiends, I will talk to you all later! Good luck out there!!

PS: Foods??

Lol I honestly can't remember if I've eaten anything new, I am a failure.

PSS: Xander was excited for more international travel!!

By Popular Request: A Gentleman Called Sam

On our last installment of the Argentinian Adventure, you might remember that I was just missing the bus to Córdoba! That was kind of a while ago. But now it's all good; I have gone on many trips (and/or only two trips), and I have explored more of the city, and I have almost completed my classes! This week is finals week! Wow! The excitement cannot be contained!

So we did manage to get to Córdoba, and we had a really good time! On the first day, we got into the bus terminal very early, at like 7:30am. There was still no sun out, because it's winter here, remember? So my friend and I ate some foods in a cafe and planned our lives. We decided that this day would be a good one to venture out into the outskirts of Córdoba, so we some how magically poofed into existence in a small, mountain-y town called La Falda. I'm sure if we had driven there, the drive would have been beautiful and we would have seen things like giant stairs made out of rocks that Ellen tells me were actually some kind of drainage system, or we would have seen beautiful plains stretching far out into the mountains, the baby mountains of the Andes, and we probably would have seen cows and horses and birds. But alas, we just simply randomly teleported to La Falda, and didn't see any of those things. But, because of my amazing photoshop skills, here is an example of what it might have looked like if we had seen them:

Wow, what beautiful stairs, that I imagine we could have seen if we drove to La Falda from Córdoba, but we sadly did not do that. What a sad, yet beautiful day.

We did find a certain hotel in La Falda that may or may not be related to Nazis, though, so that was cool. I mean, as cool as a Nazi hotel can be. It's called Eden Hotel, and it's basically a giant museum full of old things, but it used to be a hotel. Also, there is a random statue of Albert Einstein somewhere on a balcony. I like that. It's probably because Nazis were mostly German, and Einstein was German, I think, probably, I don't know for sure, because I never met Einstein because he's dead. Aren't there theories about Einstein being an alien? Okay, I don't know, this got off topic, sorry let's go back.

Okay also, not yet going back, sorry I lied, my apartment has not had water for like a week and a half, because the pipes are broken, and currently there is a giant hole in the wall of our kitchen, and also currently, there is a man smashing things in the kitchen, and it is very loud. So if this blog has more mistakes than usual, just know that it's because I am vaguely distracted by THIS HORRIBLE NOISE.

Anyway, we went home to our hostel after our trip to La Falda, and we decided to use some of our skills to cook. And by cook, I mean we made guacamole. And did you know it's basically impossible to find nacho chips (I mean like those ones you use when you have tacos in the United States, that are like tortilla chips, I can't even remember what they're called I've been in this country too long) in Córdoba? We went to three or four different stores looking, and yet we found nothing, so we had to eat our guacamole with cheese Doritos. But it was still good.

The next day we went exploring around the city. We found some good architecture, and some weird stew (that I will tell you about later) and then, the most exciting part, we accidentally found a zoo!! It was kind of sad, because the animals were kind of sad, but also it was a huge zoo, and we kept finding random more parts. It was like an unending maze of caged animals. But we saw seals doing tricks, and also a hippo, and I stared an ostrich in the face, and we basically scared each other. It was all good.

And after that we found THIS PARK:

This picture is of me, being very bad at balancing. I was trying to stand on the green ring, but I am literally falling off like a fool. This park is very cool, and full of these little rings! Also, something very interesting happened to my friend Ellen, (who will remain nameless), while we were in this park. But unfortunately, I cannot reveal the story because of copyright laws, and also because if I tell you, I will be exposing myself to potential scandalous stories involving myself that I cannot risk having out in the world for anyone to read about. So I apologize for the inconvenience.

Also we cooked more this evening in our hostel, where we made tomato soup and tiny grilled cheeses. We should probably go on a cooking show. But most importantly, we made an entire cake. Remember how there were only two of us on this trip? We did not really think this through. Actually, it was probably mostly my fault. Ellen has no blame, except for not trying to stop me from purchasing an entire box of cake mix. Then, on our way home, we ate our cake out of a plastic bag in a bus terminal as our dinner. It's fine. But we didn't miss our bus home, which is the important part!!

So that was a good trip! And mere days after that, I got on a plane and flew to Iguazú! Which, for those of you who don't know, is the giant waterfall system in Argentina, and also kind of in Brazil and Paraguay, I think, but the best part is in Argentina. I'm not biased. We stayed in an AirBnb, which was a nice-ish change from staying in hostels.

We got up the first day to start our exploration adventure. We walked the trails of the waterfall and saw cool things like birds and animals and coatíes that tried to eat a man's pizza right out of his hand. But mostly, we saw the waterfall. It was so good. I have over 100 pictures on Facebook of the super cool waterfall, and sometimes I still look at them and think about how lucky I am to have gotten to see that.

On the bottom trail, we saw most parts of the waterfall as if the water was being dumped on us from above, which was really cool. The best spot was when we got to go up close to this giant sheet of water falling from the sky. Do I have a picture of that? Hold on:

Ah yes. Terror and fear and awesomeness. I am a fan. We also did some other walking that first day, and we saw real live wild monkeys right up close to our faces, which was very cool. I was a fan of that. 

Then, the second day, I think was so cool. It was amazing. We got up early and started off the day at the trail called La Garganta del Diablo. Or, The Devil's Throat. Sounds terrifying, right? It was. But also spectacular. I am so amazed by it. Like, still amazed, and I'm not even there anymore. We took good pictures there too, but it was also hard, because the water would be so forceful against the rocks and other water that there would be giant clouds of mist and water spraying up all the time and getting everyone soaked. So that's why even though it was a beautiful sunny day, almost everyone was wearing their little plastic ponchos. Not that I think those helped very much. But still. They were trying. A- for effort. 

After that, we ate lunch and walked the bottom trail again, where we saw SO MANY RAINBOWS. It was so beautiful. The water mist and the sun just create colorful arches across the river and waterfall, and it's amazing. Oh also we saw butterflies. They liked to land on me, and everyone else was jealous. Take that, you fiends. I am the butterfly queen. 

And for our last adventure of the day, some of us decided to get on a boat that would take us under a couple waterfalls. That was scary. Because boats are scary. But also it was a great experience. There was a lot of screaming involved, probably mostly by me, sorry to whoever had to sit by me (I think it was Ellen again. Wow, poor Ellen has to deal a lot with my weirdness. I apologize.) But we all survived, and it was a really good time! 

Here we are, ready to not die. (Also PS: There's me, and Chelsey is the one with the brown hair, and the other person is Isabelle, and then Ellen is a good selfie taker and has her mouth open. That's how you know the selfie is going to be a good one.)

Our final morning was spent quickly going to visit the border point between the three countries of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. You can't actually go there, because it's in the middle of a river, but we looked at it and took pictures! So that was a good way to end the trip! 

Now this week as I've mentioned, I still have some finals to do, but mostly from this week on, I'll just have free time, and I'm planning to go on some other trips too. Some friends are leaving this weekend, going back home to the US, and I will miss them! You fiends, why are you leaving me?? But I know my time here is slowly approaching its end too, so I'm ready to enjoy whatever this next month and a half throws at me! Let's go, fools!

PS: FFFFFFFFood

• Locro - the stew I was vaguely mentioning previously. It's a traditional stew that people eat during the celebration of Independence Day here, which is like May 25
• Dulce de leche churros - amazing
• Amaretto and coke - more of the alcohols
• Real Mexican tacos and quesadillas
• Arepas - Venezuelan food, basically a corn pita pocket with chicken and avocado and cheese and hot sauce if you want it

PSS: Xander likes traveling, but he's not really that big a fan of packing....

How To: Miss the Bus??!?!!??!!?!?!

Wow hello friends, this is a surprise post that comes to you very shortly after the last post because I have some wisdom to impart, maybe. Or maybe it's just an example of what not to do. Who knows. But either way, read about our misadventures into Omnibus territory!

So, as I previously mentioned like two days ago, my friend and I were planning on taking an impromptu trip. We booked our bus tickets to Córdoba, and it was going to be a super exciting time! And so I printed out the tickets like a good little person, and we packed up all our stuff and took the train to the bus station.

Our bus was supposed to leave at 9pm, and we got their early at like 8pm, so we had plenty of time. And then we waited. The way it's supposed to work is that they put your bus company up on the screen, and then you find out where the bus comes in to the terminal. So we found some seats and watched patiently for our bus to appear on the screen. But it never did.

We waited and waited and I went to ask a security guard if she had any information for us, but she wasn't very helpful, and then we saw a bus with our company name on it pulling away from the station. At first we joked, like, Hey, what if that was our bus? And what if it's leaving without us?? But then the panic set in. WHAT IF THAT WAS ACTUALLY OUR BUS AND IT ACTUALLY LEFT WITHOUT US???

So we went upstairs to where the ticket offices are, to try and find the company that sold us our tickets. There are over a hundred of those little booths up there, and we ran around them trying to find the right one, only to discover that it was CLOSED. WHO DID THIS.

So I went up to this lady at a booth close to the one we needed to see if she could help. And I was like, "Hey so I know this isn't your company, but do you have any information about this bus?" And she responded, "This isn't my company." LADY. I TOLD YOU THAT. LITERALLY THOSE WERE THE FIRST WORDS OUT OF MY MOUTH. So she told us to go somewhere else, but I think she was lying, because she just told us to go further down the hall to find a booth that was open, but there were not any more booths for our company. So we asked another random booth for help. And they sent us to another company. And they sent us to the information desk. And the information desk guy said, "This bus left."

And I hate him.

But then he directed us back up to another booth that he said could help us, but they said they couldn't help us so they sent us back to a previous booth and by this time we were 6000 mad and also tired and sweaty from running up and down this gigantic hallway, and we got there to this booth and IT WAS ALMOST CLOSED AND WE WERE SCREAMING. (Not really, but I'm trying to add more excitement to this. We would have screamed if it was socially appropriate, but we didn't want to draw more attention to ourselves than we already did.)

And the people in this booth were like, You fools, we're trying to leave, it's like 10pm and we want to go home and you don't even look like you belong here but fine we'll help you you can have tickets for tomorrow night at the same time for free, because it's technically our fault that you missed your bus because we call our bus something completely different from what your ticket says, and since tickets are completely void of any useful information we might as well not lose all our business by alienating the international students who come here to have a good experience. That's not really what they said, but I know that's what they were thinking.

But so the good news of this story is that we're hopefully leaving tonight at the same time. So we only lost one day of our trip, but hopefully we'll still have enough time to do a bunch of fun exploring and stuff! So we took the train back to our homes and stopped at a bar where I drank my actual first alcoholic drink and we made up scenarios in which this evening could have been worse. That was good and therapeutic.

In other news, the best test of your Spanish abilities will come after you've had this evening, and you end up back in your room in your apartment, and your host mom wakes you up at 7:30am demanding to know what happened, and you're in your pajamas and you can't really see because it's dark and you're not wearing your glasses, and you can barely explain what happened to you English because it's been a very long day. "Hello brain, what even is conjugation in the Spanish language? I think I just said that we got ran over by the bus, but I'm not even sure about that."

PS: I guess food

• All I've tried new is this drink, that is apparently Malibu with orange juice and cherry flavoring

PSS: Here is Xander, excited for his train ride to the bus terminal. We'll try again today Xander, we'll try again

What Day Is It?

Buenos días, amigos y amigas y amig@s???? Okay, I'll stop writing in Spanish now. So you don't have to complain about not knowing things.

Time is going by very fast here, and in the last month or so, I've done a lot of things! I'm really enjoying the Argentina life, and the big city, and the adequate public transportation. I've tried some new drinks, I've tried some new foods, and I've gone to some new places, and my time here is already more than half over! Wow!

Nothing super major has happened since the past about my exciting trip to Mendoza. I've just stayed around Buenos Aires exploring and finding new things to do with my friends. But this week I'm going on a trip to Córdoba, and then next week I'm heading up north to the giant waterfall called Iguazú. So I should have more exciting stuff to write about then!

For speed-reading purposes, because I know you are all busy and doing important life things, I will create a list here of all the new things that I've done, with maybe some small elaboration. Ready, set, go! :

• April 29: Went to get real person pizza and found a giant graffiti portrait of Frida Khalo, the artist, and then went to a polo game! Uruguay vs Argentina! (Argentina won, it was like 14-3)

• April 30: Went on an adventure to a club where there was supposed to be this interesting musical thing, but we got there too late, and the line was too long and we didn't go in, but I stood in line for a very long time and watched people get drunk, so that's an accomplishment
• May 3: Discovered that if I tell people at restaurants my name is Mia instead of Jen, I get a lot fewer weird looks and people don't have to ask me how to spell my name, and then spell it wrong anyway
• May 5: Saw 37 dogs on my way to school. Also, in less exciting news, I went to a play at Teatro Nun for my literature class, which was pretty fun! I mean, not fun, because the topic was very sad and hard to think about, but important and interesting is perhaps a better way to put it. Then we went out for drinks at the cool bar with no ceiling
• May 7: Traveled to La Boca, a very tourist-y part of the city with cool, colorful buildings and walls, and lots of handmade stuff to buy, and also just regular stuff to buy. Also ventured out to the Mexican Heritage Celebration to get yummy tacos, despite the pouring rain

• May 9: Visited the planetarium where there was supposed to be a Full Moon Party, but alas there was not, and we sat on a rock and talked to this really weird guy speaking a mixture of English, Spanish, and Portuguese
• May 10: Went to an "orchestra" performance, but the performance actually consisted of four accordions, five violins, a cello, a bass, a piano and fancy lady singer
• May 11: Went to the giant book fair and received a copy of the Argentinian Constitution for free!!
• May 13: Went to an orchestra "performance" but it was actually a rehearsal, but it was free so I can't complain very much, but I can complain a little. Also ate ice cream, so that is important
• May 17: Went to Teatro Ciego, where they put you in complete darkness and then play a musical album through surround sound speakers. We listened to Queen, and I was a fan. We're probably going back sometime!
• May 19: Ate fancy ramen in a restaurant in Chinatown, then took the most terrifying bus I've ever been on to the Parque de la Memoria, or Memory Park, that is a memorial for all the people who disappeared during the dictatorship. There's a giant wall with many missing names, because people still haven't been identified. Took an equally terrifying bus home

• May 21: Went to the giant bookstore that used to be a theater! We found many exciting books, but we're going back at some point to buy coloring books, because we're not real adults. I'm not 21 yet. I can still buy coloring books if I want to
• May 22: Decided to go on an impromptu journey out of Buenos Aires this weekend. Leaving tomorrow, it's fine

Okay, wow, I think that's it! So many things that I did! Hopefully I'll have even more exciting things to share with you guys after my trips coming up. And hopefully I get some good pictures, because my good camera is feeling sad about not being used very often. It'll get better, I promise camera, I promise. 

PS: Comida (That means food in Spanish) (Also, it's including many beverages this time too)

• Seafood ramen - new because it included crayfish and scallops, neither of which I've had before
• Mexican chicken tacos
• Rye bread
• Lemonade vodka
• Fernet - a kind of minty alcohol that is very strange
• Rum and coke
• Apple moonshine
• Mint and ginger mojito
• Rapiditos - Matilde makes these because she bought a bunch of tortilla shells. They're basically a tortilla shell plus whatever else she feels like adding to it, it's a weird time
• A hamburger with bacon and eggs
• Asado chicken

PSS: Here is Xander with my new best friend, and probably his new best friend too:

Two Months!

As of last Tuesday, the Tuesday that just past, because today is Friday, I've officially been in Argentina for two whole months! Wow! I sometimes feel a lot like I don't belong, but there are times when I fit right in, too, and it's been an interesting time. One of the hardest things to get used (I mean there are probably a lot, but this is what I'm thinking about right now) is that people here are a lot colder than I'm used to. Like temperature-wise. Like, it was 75 today, and everyone had their jackets on. I'm so confused. And this is like a warm fall kind of, so it makes even less sense to me. Also, we were watching the news tonight, and there was a full 15 minute segment about mosquitoes. Like, I know they're annoying, but how is this news?? But it's going well.

Many things have happened since the last time I updated you, so this will just be a post of me going through my magical journal and seeing if anything interesting happened.

Starting about three weeks ago: my host family celebrated Passover! I did not know they were Jewish, but they're at least Jewish enough to celebrate this holiday, with interesting food and family time. I will tell you about the food in the food section later. My host mom's son took a lot of pictures with his good digital camera, because I don't think he has a phone? But that's okay, no judgement here. Mostly I spent the night entertaining the one-year-old, who I love. She is my favorite. And she also like actually likes and trusts me now? And she always wants to feed me her tomatoes, because Matilde never gives me any because she thinks I don't like them, which is not true, but I can't make her understand but it's fine, but the baby feels bad that I don't have any tomatoes apparently. She's very considerate. But also, they just gave her a whole plate of tomatoes for dinner one night, and I was very confused, because if I were a baby, I would not be a fan of this arrangement, but she just stabbed them with her fork and shoved too many in her mouth at once. So I guess it's fine.

That same week, I went on my first real trip! Some other people from my group and I took a bus to Mendoza, Argentina, so that was really cool! Our bus was supposed to leave at 5pm, so we got to the bus station at a reasonable time of like 4pm. But our bus didn't leave until 7pm. No. It arrived at 7pm, so we probably left at like 7:30. But we had some fun bonding activities, such as buying beer and drinking it? And buying wine and putting it in water bottles to smuggle it onto the bus? So that was fun! And then it took like 2 hours to go what should have taken half an hour, and we were all starving, (I told Emily, my seatmate, that I was hungry probably like 18 times in two hours, I'm sorry Emily), and they were making us watch weird, terrifying movies, like The Last Witch Hunter and Jorge Curioso so it was a bad time. And I didn't really sleep that much, because buses are hard to sleep on. And the drive that was supposed to take 14 hours took 18 hours, but when you add in all the waiting it was like 21 hours, but you know what? We all made it there and didn't die. So that's good.

We stayed in a hostel that wasn't super great, but it was very cheap, and also it had a turtle mural on the outside wall, and also we had some very VERY good asado (which is like barbecue, basically just meat, yes, Dad, you can call your grilling asado if you want.) So it wasn't all that bad! The shower was a little cold. A little is probably an under exaggeration.

On the Friday when we were there, we decided to go for a hike! So we got up early that morning so we could get to the bus station to take a bus up the mountain to another mountain path where we could eventually reach a waterfall! I think the bus ride was very interesting itself, and was full of good mountain scenery. It was like an hour and a half, and then they just dropped us off at the mountain trail and said, "Yo we'll be back in like 10 hours, try not to get lost" and then left.

It was really nice to walk through the mountains and stuff and feel like I was actually doing adventuring, but also, this mountain hike I think was literally the hardest physical thing I've ever tried to force my body to do. I, the small infant from Minnesota/Iowa, apparently do not do well at high altitudes. After like two hours-ish of hiking, I had to tell the rest of the group that I couldn't do it anymore. Like, that's not even a lie. I would know if I were lying to myself because I would feel bad about it, but I was not lying. I could not go any further up that mountain. And I was disappointed, but I really did try my best. I took my time on my way back down, because the rest of the group still had about 5 hours of hiking to do, so I was in no hurry, and I wanted to catch my breath, and make sure my legs weren't permanently damaged.

As a reward for you still reading what is inevitably going to be a kind of long blog post, I will now share some pictures of the scenery that I took on my way down:

 Wow here are some good mountains! (I'm experimenting with where I can put words and text I guess? I kind of like the aesthetic of this. It's nice and not so many words all the time. Why do I talk so much?)

Above is one of the streams that I had to cross both up and down the mountain path. I was not a fan, because in traditional Minnesotan fashion, I was unprepared in the clothing department. I wore shorts on this hike, because I was hot when we left the hostel, but that was a poor decision. Good job me. So walking through cold running stream water was not a fun time, and my feet probably caught hypothermia.

This (above) is the nicer part of the path. By that I mean we didn't walk directly through trees. But it was still full of rocks and danger, but it was nice and pretty. To the right is a great view of a mountain, along with the first sign of fall that I have really seen my whole time in this lovely country. Quite scenic.







Also, I have some ponderous, contemplative videos I recorded of myself coming down the mountain. One is kind of long (like 5 minutes) and the other is a short follow up video to the other one. I kinda want to put them here? But I'm not sure if anyone wants to watch me ramble about weirdness for five minutes. We'll see. I'll think about it, and you can try and convince me.

At the bottom of the mountain, I found a hut to eat lunch in, which was good, but scary. It was made of stone and had graffiti all over it, and I called it home, because it kept the wind off me, when the wind blew only from one specific angle, so it was good. Yeah, good.

The rest of the trip was spent hanging out with our friends, and partying at the hostel with the hostel "peeps" as is the vernacular. They were very nice, if not clean, and as I mentioned above, they made us some good meat. So it was all worth it. The other people in my group went on a wine tour, but as I am not a fan of wine, I didn't really want to spend a bunch of money on tasting things that are like drinking the elixir of death itself, so I stayed home and probably napped and hung out. There were also many journeys to find milkshakes in Mendoza, brought on specifically (as I understand it) by the weirdest fast food chain I've seen called Kingo's which advertised 30 peso milkshakes, but failed to provide. So we had to settle for more expensive milkshakes, and also it was raining, which was good? But overall we had a fun time!!

The bus ride home was less eventful, although it still took a very long time. I did not get home in time for my class, which was actually okay with me, because I had not written my essay for class. Remember the last post in which I mention avoiding writing an essay by instead updating my blog? Yeah, it was that essay. That I still hadn't done. It's fine. This school doesn't really count, does it? I don't think so.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful, apparently, according to myself, who keeps my own journal? I've been sick for a while with a nice cold. I went to four pharmacies the other day to find some sort of Kleenex and I failed in my quest. I was the saddest. Also, I hurt my knee doing something (I keep saying it was the hiking, but I'm not actually sure, but we'll keep going with the hiking idea.) I think it's mostly getting better, except when I have to climb stairs. It only vaguely hurts now. (Also, unrelated, people here have made fun of my for how I say "vague" and I'm not even sure how I'm saying it weird. It must be that Minnesota accent coming out now.)

And I've played with a baby a lot, because we are friends. My translation professor thinks I am cool because I speak English and actually come to class, which is nice. I think he only knows my name and no one else's. I'm basically the teacher's pet and I don't actually have to be good at school because he knows I don't know Spanish as my native language. So that's good.

Tomorrow I'm going to a polo match again, so that will hopefully be fun! Matilde warned me to wear sunscreen and bug spray because of all the sun and mosquitoes that will apparently accompany me everywhere I go. And I think that's all the exciting news! Wow! So many things! I hope I didn't forget anything. The next trip I'll probably be taking is to the giant waterfall called Iguazu, so I will be sure to tell you all about that adventure when it happens! Bye forever!!

PS: Fooooooddddd?????:

• Two new kinds of wine, both red, both terrible
• Matzá - unleavened bread for Passover
• New torta with fish, cheese and egg
• Literally raw fish in a cream sauce - the worst
• Quiche of fish? (Why was there so much fish??)
• Matzá balls in chicken broth (still not a fan, good thing I'm not Jewish)
• Knish - kind of like empanadas but specifically Jewish, they have potatoes and onions, at least the ones we had here!
• A new pizza flavor with beef slices, bacon and olives (we gave all the olives to Benji because is the fiend who likes them)
• A drink called Suizo, that was apparently supposed to be like a mocha, but it still tasted too much like coffee for me
• Mente chocolate - a different drink that was cold and delicious and had no coffee!

PSS: Here is a picture of Xander in Mendoza, hanging out on the window sill, listening to some chill guitar music played in the open air

Okay also PSSS: Sorry I never do this and I know this is so long, but I'm putting this at the end so you can skip it if you want. But here are the videos of me rambling like a fool. The first one is long, beware!

Ha okay sorry, apparently the file is too big for Google to handle? So I lied. Maybe I'll send the videos to you if you specifically ask me. Sorry fiends. I tried. 

How To: Rain

Hello friends! It's been a while, but here I am, back in traditional Jen style, writing a blog post when I should actually be writing an essay. Don't worry about it.

So, it's been raining here for like three days straight, which is a fun time. It's hard to do things while it's raining in a city where most of the transportation involves walking. Like, you can take a bus or the subway, or the train, but it's a little hard to get to the specific point where you need to be when everything is on a schedule and fixed route.

I'm not like a huge fan of rain, mostly because I have to walk in it, and then everything I own gets wet. I finally remembered to bring my umbrella on Sunday when we went out to brunch, but previous encounters with rain have been less fortunate.

Walking here in this city in general is an experience, ranging from interesting to downright dangerous. (Usually not that dangerous, don't worry.) But when you add in the element of rain, I feel like it gets to a whole new level of chaos. All of a sudden, the traffic "laws" that were barely followed in the first place are completely neglected. It's like rain makes it impossible to see out of windshields or something. Pedestrians wander aimlessly through crosswalks, even when there are cars coming, people jump out in the middle of the street to avoid puddles or holes in the sidewalks, and children fight each other with their overly large umbrellas.

Also, there aren't super good drains here, so like water pools quickly and easily. The streets where people actually drive are usually okay, but by any curb, or any slight dip in the road, there can be nearly five inches of water. And like, cars aren't really that considerate, so if you're standing by a curb, patiently waiting to cross the street, like a good pedestrian, cars will zoom right past you and spray the water all over your nice legs. And then you will be cold and ANGRY.

I kind of always didn't believe that cars spraying water at people was a thing that actually happened. You see it in movies, where the scene is super sad, and some person has just been broken up with by their one true love, and it's before the part where the other person realizes that they've made some huge mistake and they have to rush back to their ex-lover before they realize they're too good for the other person, and so the one person is just standing on the corner of the street in the rain, because of course, if it's a sad scene there's gotta be rain, and in order to distract from the heteronormativity of the scene (because there have been thousands of these scenes in movies before this one, obviously, and the producers have to make sure their love scene stands out from the crowd) a car will pass by screeching its tires and inevitably add insult to injury by splashing gallons of sad rainwater upon the unsuspecting distraught abandoned person. And are you just so upset by the loss of your true love that you can's see a car zooming past you? I mean, to be fair, it's usually dark in these scenes, and also you're probably already soaking wet from the heavy downpour, but really though. You should be able to avoid this problem altogether.

But now I feel more sympathy, because it's hard to know whether or not a car will actually hit the puddle that is directly in front of you, or if it will glide gently past into the rainy abyss. It's all a mystery.

One of my favorite things about walking in the rain is counting how many little old ladies have gone out of their house without their umbrellas, and instead just tie a plastic bag around their head like a makeshift shower cap. I mean, I guess if the thing they're worried about is their hair, getting wet, they've solved that problem! I've seen like five or six of these ladies, and all their jackets are soaking wet, but their hair is perfect and fabulous, so I guess they know what they're doing.

One of the weird things about rain and living in an apartment is that it sounds a lot different from rain landing on a house. In my house, the easiest way to know if it's raining is to go into the hallway or bathroom and LISTEN FOR THE RAIN ON THE SKYLIGHT YES WE HAVE SKYLIGHTS THEY ARE COOL AND YOU'RE JEALOUS. But here, I'm on the fifth floor of an eleven floor building. But my window in my room goes to the outside, so I can hear the rain. But it just sounds like someone is inconsistently pouring a bucket of water down a metal slide. And sometimes it sounds like hail. It so hard to tell how much it's actually raining. Unless you stick your head out the window, which I could do here, because there are no screens. It seems kind of dangerous. Someone could fall out of one of those things.

I hope it stops raining soon, because I'm getting tired of all these puddles, and having to watch out for people who aren't paying attention to where they're walking because the rain has covered their glasses in tiny little drops of moisture, and now they can't see (usually that's me it's fine). And also, I'm leaving on Wednesday to go on a trip, and I really want it to be nice weather! But also the trip is like 14 hours away by bus, so there is a possibility that the weather there is not the same as it is here. But also also, with all this rain and humidity, my clothes that my host mom washes for me are not drying, and if they don't dry, I won't have anything to pack for my trip, and therefore will not have anything to wear, which could probably ruin the experience more than a little bad weather. Who knows.

PS: Foods? I don't even know what I eat anymore. I'm sorry.

• Unidentified food from a sketchy grocery store - they looked like onion rings, but were definitely not onion rings?
• Dulce de leche with brownies ice cream
• Mashed potatoes + "goulash" - does it count if I've had these things separately before, but this time they're mixed together? And have weird vegetables? It's like a hot dish. Don't worry
• A waffle with cheese - surprisingly good, despite my distrust of cheese in general
• A chocolate candy shaped like a turtle filled with what tasted like a new and interesting form of the cream in those delicious Cadbury Creme Eggs that I miss super a lot, especially because it's almost Easter
• Remember how I'm going to spend all of Easter riding a bus home from Mendoza? What a good way to celebrate
• Bon-bons - I probably have had something like this before, but I'm going to count it because they were very weird and I don't remember anything else that I've eaten in the last two weeks

PSS: Here is a picture of Xander sharing a tiny chair with my host mom's granddaughter's doll, whose name is Bebé. (Which means Baby for anyone who couldn't figure that out). Bebé is even worse at looking at the camera than Xander is!