Sunday, October 19, 2008
Off to Mar Del Plata
Yep, i leave in about an hour. send emails even though i don`t know what my internet situation is going to be.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Something left unsaid...
i forgot to mention in my last post that I WAS IN AN EARTHQUAKE!
well, auctually it was just a tremor, but equally as cool. don´t tell my mom.
This week I haven´t done much, mostly getting ready for my final exam in spanish and going to Mar Del Plata. The other exchange students are getting ready to go on their big south trip starting Saturday. Monday was Columbus day (or something like that) and we didn´t have school. There were teacher strikes today and yesterday. But hey, I guess two days of school during the week is better than nothing, and five. ;)
well, auctually it was just a tremor, but equally as cool. don´t tell my mom.
This week I haven´t done much, mostly getting ready for my final exam in spanish and going to Mar Del Plata. The other exchange students are getting ready to go on their big south trip starting Saturday. Monday was Columbus day (or something like that) and we didn´t have school. There were teacher strikes today and yesterday. But hey, I guess two days of school during the week is better than nothing, and five. ;)
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Bike Rides and Asados
So , it´s been a while. But that´s ok.
Last sunday, Federico and i went to an asado, but to get there we rode 40km (about 25mi) to a smaller town outside of SFVCatamarca. Suited in our snazzy shades and padded spandex shorts, we headed out at about 8 am. Leaving the city definately was not my highlight. We flew downhill on busy streets and here in Catamarca (or posibly Argentina in general judging by my few hours in Buenos Aires) the traffic laws, and laws of common sense while driving, aren´t exactly followed and much less enforced (they run red lights, don´t slow down at intersecions, and like to play chicken with busses who definately aren´t chicken). I almost got hit at least 3 times, but after the first encounter I happily turtled my way to the bottom. We rode the outskirts of the city for a while and then turned on this little gravel road (thank god for padded spandex). Other than the part that this road was gravel, it wasn´t that difficult. It was canyon like, mostly flat. The scenery was amazing, we cosed rivers and saw really cool flowers. We arrived at a little pueblo, it was so cute and very movie-like. There was one road with all of the houses, a church, and all the old men reading newspapers along the sides.Out on the road in front of us a horse a buggy were approaching us, and there was an old man in the front yelling “flowers, plants, vegetables!”. The town was so different and I really enjoyed riding through it even though it didn´t last long since it was tiny. Outside of that town was a lot of cattle and farms. Further along the road we encountered some horses, this was my favorite part. There were three horses chowing don on some foliage on the side of the road, two brown and one black. When one of the brown ones saw us coming he started to walk in the other direction, the others kind of watched us with little movement or curiosity. As we got closer to them the brown horse started to run a little (sorry, im not up with my horse jargin, posibly “trotting”), about the same pace as us. It was awesome, we were riding with that horse for about two or three minutes which is auctually quite a while. We continued and saw more scenery and finally intersected with a paved road with nothing around. Fede said “we´re here”. I was relieved and a bit confused, after all, it had already been 30km and alter a whole summer of being lazy and unconditioned (except for my huge biceps after hauling all of Matt´s crap from car to field, usually a few times, then back again.. But i´m not complaining! :D ) i was kind of tired. But, remember this was a 40km bike ride, not 30. The last ten was spent riding up mountians to a construction zone, where we pushed our bikes the rest of the way up the mountain. We were pretty high up, and then Fede told me he didn´t know where we were going, great. so we turned around and found a little path and of course took it. The thing about this path was that it was super narrow, covered in rocks, and steep. Of course, i didn´t ride it, but rather pushed and carried the bikes the whole way. I vaguely remember yelling at Federico telling him “te odio!” a couple times, hah. Eventhough the last 10km were hell for me, it was totally worth it. The dice (dee-kay), or the lake, was really pretty from our view (shown in facebook photos). It was also worth it because the whole way back to the asado was downhill and paved. I think my max speed was about 50km\h and that was turtleing my way down. Oh well, i still felt pretty badass.
Then-- the asado. An asado is a tradicional Argentine barbeque, but with more meat if you can imagine. The fire started up and the men started cooking the beef and mountain goat meat (they explained it to me as a little sheep). The food was amazing, not quite as much variety as an American bbq but still tasty. The food just kept on coming, which i guess is the best, and worst ( because i can´t say no), part about it.
The week that came after the asado I had Monday and Tuesday off of school because of teacher meetings. That was sweet because I mostly hung out and not gong to school was the best part about it. Oh, and i didn´t go school thrusday either because of teacher strikes. Definately different from Conserve School, but im making the most of it. I´m reading a lot more than i ever have, i bought National Geographic and Rolling Stones magazines with exceptionally long articules (in spanish) and i read them and scribbled all of my translations which really helps. Also, school helps with conversacional spanish. All in all, school is getting better, except for the learning part.
I started dance classes this week. The main instructor is pro in argentine folklore and tango and other tradional classes like that. He kind of reminded me of a mushroom (you know- small pants, big body). Anyways, this week we learned "el gato", it´s folklore. it´s hot. (not.) It´s a lot of fun though with the other exchange students.
Last week, my host sister Florencia´s basketball team won a championship and are champions of the province of Catamarca, so we´re all gong to Mar del Plata on the 19th for a week. That´s pretty exciting, and my spanish is geeting better.
That´s about it for now.
Last sunday, Federico and i went to an asado, but to get there we rode 40km (about 25mi) to a smaller town outside of SFVCatamarca. Suited in our snazzy shades and padded spandex shorts, we headed out at about 8 am. Leaving the city definately was not my highlight. We flew downhill on busy streets and here in Catamarca (or posibly Argentina in general judging by my few hours in Buenos Aires) the traffic laws, and laws of common sense while driving, aren´t exactly followed and much less enforced (they run red lights, don´t slow down at intersecions, and like to play chicken with busses who definately aren´t chicken). I almost got hit at least 3 times, but after the first encounter I happily turtled my way to the bottom. We rode the outskirts of the city for a while and then turned on this little gravel road (thank god for padded spandex). Other than the part that this road was gravel, it wasn´t that difficult. It was canyon like, mostly flat. The scenery was amazing, we cosed rivers and saw really cool flowers. We arrived at a little pueblo, it was so cute and very movie-like. There was one road with all of the houses, a church, and all the old men reading newspapers along the sides.Out on the road in front of us a horse a buggy were approaching us, and there was an old man in the front yelling “flowers, plants, vegetables!”. The town was so different and I really enjoyed riding through it even though it didn´t last long since it was tiny. Outside of that town was a lot of cattle and farms. Further along the road we encountered some horses, this was my favorite part. There were three horses chowing don on some foliage on the side of the road, two brown and one black. When one of the brown ones saw us coming he started to walk in the other direction, the others kind of watched us with little movement or curiosity. As we got closer to them the brown horse started to run a little (sorry, im not up with my horse jargin, posibly “trotting”), about the same pace as us. It was awesome, we were riding with that horse for about two or three minutes which is auctually quite a while. We continued and saw more scenery and finally intersected with a paved road with nothing around. Fede said “we´re here”. I was relieved and a bit confused, after all, it had already been 30km and alter a whole summer of being lazy and unconditioned (except for my huge biceps after hauling all of Matt´s crap from car to field, usually a few times, then back again.. But i´m not complaining! :D ) i was kind of tired. But, remember this was a 40km bike ride, not 30. The last ten was spent riding up mountians to a construction zone, where we pushed our bikes the rest of the way up the mountain. We were pretty high up, and then Fede told me he didn´t know where we were going, great. so we turned around and found a little path and of course took it. The thing about this path was that it was super narrow, covered in rocks, and steep. Of course, i didn´t ride it, but rather pushed and carried the bikes the whole way. I vaguely remember yelling at Federico telling him “te odio!” a couple times, hah. Eventhough the last 10km were hell for me, it was totally worth it. The dice (dee-kay), or the lake, was really pretty from our view (shown in facebook photos). It was also worth it because the whole way back to the asado was downhill and paved. I think my max speed was about 50km\h and that was turtleing my way down. Oh well, i still felt pretty badass.
Then-- the asado. An asado is a tradicional Argentine barbeque, but with more meat if you can imagine. The fire started up and the men started cooking the beef and mountain goat meat (they explained it to me as a little sheep). The food was amazing, not quite as much variety as an American bbq but still tasty. The food just kept on coming, which i guess is the best, and worst ( because i can´t say no), part about it.
The week that came after the asado I had Monday and Tuesday off of school because of teacher meetings. That was sweet because I mostly hung out and not gong to school was the best part about it. Oh, and i didn´t go school thrusday either because of teacher strikes. Definately different from Conserve School, but im making the most of it. I´m reading a lot more than i ever have, i bought National Geographic and Rolling Stones magazines with exceptionally long articules (in spanish) and i read them and scribbled all of my translations which really helps. Also, school helps with conversacional spanish. All in all, school is getting better, except for the learning part.
I started dance classes this week. The main instructor is pro in argentine folklore and tango and other tradional classes like that. He kind of reminded me of a mushroom (you know- small pants, big body). Anyways, this week we learned "el gato", it´s folklore. it´s hot. (not.) It´s a lot of fun though with the other exchange students.
Last week, my host sister Florencia´s basketball team won a championship and are champions of the province of Catamarca, so we´re all gong to Mar del Plata on the 19th for a week. That´s pretty exciting, and my spanish is geeting better.
That´s about it for now.
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