For those of you not on facebook, i uploaded more pictures. Here are the public links for all photos so far.
Facebook Photos 1
Facebook Photos 2
New! From Mar Del Plata and Mendoza
Facebook Photos 3
Facebook Photos 4
Friday, November 7, 2008
Mendoza
We got back from Mar Del Plata on the 26th, and i was off to Mendoza on the night of the 29th arriving on the 31st. This ride in the micro was a piece of pie, only 10 hours. Plus, it was amazing and the chairs were wide and reclined all the way back and had leg rests. I was very impressed.
Marìa Emilia (Mimi),my host mom`s niece, met me at the terminal and we got into another bus to to Tunuyan. Tunuyan is basically a suburb of the capital city of Mendoza. It`s really nice, kind of Americanized. The first day was just hanging out at the house, we went for ice cream and saw some kids dressed up for Halloween but there were only like five of them. That night i went out with Agostina, mimi`s sister who is the same age as me, and her friends to a bar/boliche (club). The bad thing was that i was in no mood for fun because i was so tired, i was kind of a party pooper that night. We decided to leave around 4am, which is early for argentina, and called a taxi. I didn`t come, so we called again. Didn`t come. Fantastic. Agostina`s boyfriend bumped into a friend and he gave us a ride a long with a few other people. Finally got back about 5 am and i slept until it got so umcomfortably hot in the house i had to get up. Saturday was another day to hang out until we had to go to another quince (15 year old birthday party, for girls). The girl who turned 15- she was loaded. It was amazing. Behind the area where the party was there was a private small soccer field, volleyball court, and olympic depth swimming pool. what?!?!? i know. The food was good and so was the music. Mendoza empanadas are really tasty steep competition for Catamarca.
Sunday was a nother relaxing day in the burbs of Mendoza, we had an asado. The family has a really nice backyard with a grilling area for asados with a gigantic mate over it. Agostina told me that the mate (the cup that holds the tea mate is also called a mate) represented friendship. I thought it was pretty cool. The food was soo good, but almost the whole meal i had to hear about how asado is so much better than American BBQ because we cook our meat too fast. He thought we dumped coal and anything flamible under the grill and cooked our meat in thirty seconds. Esentially described a torching, i couldn`t convince him otherwise...im not sure why he didn`t believe me. Either way the food was good. After the Asado at about 4 mimi, ago, their dad, and i got into the car and drove to a town outside of Tunuyan called Manzana. We saw great scenery of the mountains and wine vineyards along the way i took more than enought pictures. Manzana is a little touristy place on the edge of the mountains. We went very hopeful to go parachuting they called it, specifically i think it was more base jumping. I wanted to go so bad, but we had to make an appointment before :( . So instead we went horseback riding. It was awesome. We went with a real gaucho. We were riding and he was telling me all about how he sees americans all the time and a whole bunch of itallians. Also he tried to convince me to go with his company to cross the Andes into Chili on horseback in January. Sounds cool, no?
Monday i went to school with Agostina. She goes to a really religious school they start every class with the sign of the cross and stuff. nuts. I liked the kids in her class though, we spent pretty much the whole day goofing off which is not uncommon here. I think what stood out to me the most is when one of the teachers let the students go over their party check list in during class. They wrote on the board all the drinks they wanted and how much they would have to spend. The funny thing is that it was drinks like... Fernet, Beer, Coke, Wine, Vodka. I was a little confused, but not surprised. I put a picture on Facebook. I was a good time, i`m glad i went.
Around three in the afternoon Tuesday Agostina, her mom,and i got on the bus for an hour and went to the capital city Mendoza. After meeting up with Gerardo, the dad, we went to a big sculpture on the top of a mountain. it`s called the `cerro de gloria` or the Hill of Glory. It signified the independence of Argentina from Spain. It was really big and elaborate...but, the view from that spot was even cooler. i looked down on the city and we could see all of the surrounding mountains. After we went to ... a mall. (?!?) but i came to realize that shopping is the only thing to do in Mendoza except for in the winter when people come to ski. So- yes. I spent the whole night shopping, it wasn`t bad though. When we got back to the house i turned on the Tv and didn`t stop watching until around 3 am after obama made his speech. I had to watch it in spanish though and raise up the volume to hear the drowned out english in the background.
Wednesday I went to the city in the morning with Gerardo and we went to the bus terminal to get my bus ticket to go back that night. After everything was settled i left my bags at his work and walked around the center of Mendoza for several hours. I started by going to a coffee shop and spending about an hour there eating chocolate, drinking orange juice, and writing in my journal. I did some more shopping while walking around the centre, bought some jeans (xaxira- yeah... they`re skinny jeans). While walking around the city i saw some pretty interesting things. One was a bank stirke. Nationally the banks were planning on going on strike on Wednesday and Thursday, but it was called off at the last minute except for this one i guess. There were guys in suits with flags and drums and were inside the bank throwing papers around and chanting and stuff. Things here are a lot more intense then things in the States, as in violently intense. For example... at a football game generally two fans of different teams can sit next to each other with no problem. Here, at a soccer game the fans have to be physically separated by a section of seats on each side lined by police. Also one section has to leave first, then the other can leave a half hour later. If a fan happened to be in the wrong section, the others would literally beat them with chairs or whatever they have. Speaking of violence, i walked into a store and saw a catfight. It was helarious. they were throwing each other into clothes racks and hitting each other with their flip flops. I left the store right away, but did so laughing. In my short time being in Argentina i`ve seen more fights then i think i have in my whole life in the states.
I went to lunch around one in the afternoon and spent a long time there writing and drinking my juice. Tried walking around again but everything was closed because everybody was sleeping their siesta. So i took a taxi back to the mall i had been to the night before and went to the movies. After went to mimi`s appartment and had some more juice and some alfajores. She walked with me back to the bus terminal and i took off at about 9 last night, getting back to Catamarca at about 7hrs.
I love Mendoza. It`s so green and the snow capped mountains are awesome! I prefer the outside of the city- if you`re ever in argentina you have to go.
Marìa Emilia (Mimi),my host mom`s niece, met me at the terminal and we got into another bus to to Tunuyan. Tunuyan is basically a suburb of the capital city of Mendoza. It`s really nice, kind of Americanized. The first day was just hanging out at the house, we went for ice cream and saw some kids dressed up for Halloween but there were only like five of them. That night i went out with Agostina, mimi`s sister who is the same age as me, and her friends to a bar/boliche (club). The bad thing was that i was in no mood for fun because i was so tired, i was kind of a party pooper that night. We decided to leave around 4am, which is early for argentina, and called a taxi. I didn`t come, so we called again. Didn`t come. Fantastic. Agostina`s boyfriend bumped into a friend and he gave us a ride a long with a few other people. Finally got back about 5 am and i slept until it got so umcomfortably hot in the house i had to get up. Saturday was another day to hang out until we had to go to another quince (15 year old birthday party, for girls). The girl who turned 15- she was loaded. It was amazing. Behind the area where the party was there was a private small soccer field, volleyball court, and olympic depth swimming pool. what?!?!? i know. The food was good and so was the music. Mendoza empanadas are really tasty steep competition for Catamarca.
Sunday was a nother relaxing day in the burbs of Mendoza, we had an asado. The family has a really nice backyard with a grilling area for asados with a gigantic mate over it. Agostina told me that the mate (the cup that holds the tea mate is also called a mate) represented friendship. I thought it was pretty cool. The food was soo good, but almost the whole meal i had to hear about how asado is so much better than American BBQ because we cook our meat too fast. He thought we dumped coal and anything flamible under the grill and cooked our meat in thirty seconds. Esentially described a torching, i couldn`t convince him otherwise...im not sure why he didn`t believe me. Either way the food was good. After the Asado at about 4 mimi, ago, their dad, and i got into the car and drove to a town outside of Tunuyan called Manzana. We saw great scenery of the mountains and wine vineyards along the way i took more than enought pictures. Manzana is a little touristy place on the edge of the mountains. We went very hopeful to go parachuting they called it, specifically i think it was more base jumping. I wanted to go so bad, but we had to make an appointment before :( . So instead we went horseback riding. It was awesome. We went with a real gaucho. We were riding and he was telling me all about how he sees americans all the time and a whole bunch of itallians. Also he tried to convince me to go with his company to cross the Andes into Chili on horseback in January. Sounds cool, no?
Monday i went to school with Agostina. She goes to a really religious school they start every class with the sign of the cross and stuff. nuts. I liked the kids in her class though, we spent pretty much the whole day goofing off which is not uncommon here. I think what stood out to me the most is when one of the teachers let the students go over their party check list in during class. They wrote on the board all the drinks they wanted and how much they would have to spend. The funny thing is that it was drinks like... Fernet, Beer, Coke, Wine, Vodka. I was a little confused, but not surprised. I put a picture on Facebook. I was a good time, i`m glad i went.
Around three in the afternoon Tuesday Agostina, her mom,and i got on the bus for an hour and went to the capital city Mendoza. After meeting up with Gerardo, the dad, we went to a big sculpture on the top of a mountain. it`s called the `cerro de gloria` or the Hill of Glory. It signified the independence of Argentina from Spain. It was really big and elaborate...but, the view from that spot was even cooler. i looked down on the city and we could see all of the surrounding mountains. After we went to ... a mall. (?!?) but i came to realize that shopping is the only thing to do in Mendoza except for in the winter when people come to ski. So- yes. I spent the whole night shopping, it wasn`t bad though. When we got back to the house i turned on the Tv and didn`t stop watching until around 3 am after obama made his speech. I had to watch it in spanish though and raise up the volume to hear the drowned out english in the background.
Wednesday I went to the city in the morning with Gerardo and we went to the bus terminal to get my bus ticket to go back that night. After everything was settled i left my bags at his work and walked around the center of Mendoza for several hours. I started by going to a coffee shop and spending about an hour there eating chocolate, drinking orange juice, and writing in my journal. I did some more shopping while walking around the centre, bought some jeans (xaxira- yeah... they`re skinny jeans). While walking around the city i saw some pretty interesting things. One was a bank stirke. Nationally the banks were planning on going on strike on Wednesday and Thursday, but it was called off at the last minute except for this one i guess. There were guys in suits with flags and drums and were inside the bank throwing papers around and chanting and stuff. Things here are a lot more intense then things in the States, as in violently intense. For example... at a football game generally two fans of different teams can sit next to each other with no problem. Here, at a soccer game the fans have to be physically separated by a section of seats on each side lined by police. Also one section has to leave first, then the other can leave a half hour later. If a fan happened to be in the wrong section, the others would literally beat them with chairs or whatever they have. Speaking of violence, i walked into a store and saw a catfight. It was helarious. they were throwing each other into clothes racks and hitting each other with their flip flops. I left the store right away, but did so laughing. In my short time being in Argentina i`ve seen more fights then i think i have in my whole life in the states.
I went to lunch around one in the afternoon and spent a long time there writing and drinking my juice. Tried walking around again but everything was closed because everybody was sleeping their siesta. So i took a taxi back to the mall i had been to the night before and went to the movies. After went to mimi`s appartment and had some more juice and some alfajores. She walked with me back to the bus terminal and i took off at about 9 last night, getting back to Catamarca at about 7hrs.
I love Mendoza. It`s so green and the snow capped mountains are awesome! I prefer the outside of the city- if you`re ever in argentina you have to go.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Mar Del Plata
So the trip started on October 19th. The sun was pounding down on the little city of Catamarca as about 200 kids all of either volleyball, basketball, soccer, and handball, etc. baked in their matching `Government of Catamarca` sweat suits waiting to load up in the assigned micro (coach bus). I was with the girls basketball and handball teams which was promising because I like the basketball girls and had no idea what kind of hell the handball girls would be during this voyage. The reason I use `voyage` instead of the word `trip` is because a) the distance between Catamarca and Mar Del Plata is km, which translates into mi b) all of that distance is translated into 20 hours of travelling, sorry- voyaging, ...in a bus...with the handball team (who insist that they sound just like the popstar they happen to be playing from their cell phones right behind my head for about 15 of the 24 hours). oh, and a micro broke down so it was really 24.
The most important thing is that we got there in one piece, the majority in one smelly unshowered piece- especially the boys. The hotel situation was crazy, my host brother had to organize it all and it turned out that there weren`t enough rooms so he had to go to another hotel. At first I was a little disappointed I wouldn`t be in the same hotel as him because I didn`t know anybody in the begining of the voyage. The thing is that it turned out better for me, since he and my host mom (director of sports in Catamarca) were extremely busy there was no time to worry about me. So what did i do without supervision? Anything I wanted, of course. (now they just didn`t abandon me, they just didn`t worry about where i was all the time so i took advantage of it)
The day we got there after showering and stuff i walked to the beach, only four blocks from the hotel, with my new friend Rodrigo. So we went to the beach but it was cold an cloudy. He filmed stuff while i walked around looking for sea shells and whatnot. We walked around looking for empanadas, bought two each and went to the plaza near the beach to eat. Just as we were polishing off emapanada number two there was this kinda fat lady standing accross from us and as she went to sit down she let out this enormous fart. All of my previous thoughts of big farts were slapped in the face with this one, auctually im surprised my cubs cap didn`t blow off. The best part was when Rodrigo sat with disbelief and just said `Incredible!`. It was helarious- i don`t care if you think i`m immature.So we got back to the hotel and walked around the city and whatnot with the rest of the group.
Other highlights from the voyage were:
I really got to know more people from Catamarca especially the basketball girls (my new basketball team) and the coaches. Now i feel better about being in Catamarca. Also I think i`ll auctually go to school tomorrow- i now have a little more motivation to make friends.
I love the independance i had. In Catamarca i always ask to go out and tell them when I`m coming back- also i always get rides... which is nice i guess but i don`t like it, i feel too dependent and afraid to ask to go out because i`ll inconvience them. With this independance I got to go out friday night with some younger coaches. The basketball players couldn`t go out (suckers) but i still had a good time. We left around midnight and walked around the whole city. Around six we walked to the beach and all watched the sunrise. It was so cool. I`m sad i didn`t bring my camera but i didn`t want it ripped off of me.
Otherwise the rest of the time was spent at the beach, writing in my journal, or going to basketball games. The U-14 basketball girls placed 14th out of 24 in the country. Not bad considering that Catamarca has only had girls basketball for about a year. Also the girls U-16 placed 8th. pretty exciting.
The most important thing is that we got there in one piece, the majority in one smelly unshowered piece- especially the boys. The hotel situation was crazy, my host brother had to organize it all and it turned out that there weren`t enough rooms so he had to go to another hotel. At first I was a little disappointed I wouldn`t be in the same hotel as him because I didn`t know anybody in the begining of the voyage. The thing is that it turned out better for me, since he and my host mom (director of sports in Catamarca) were extremely busy there was no time to worry about me. So what did i do without supervision? Anything I wanted, of course. (now they just didn`t abandon me, they just didn`t worry about where i was all the time so i took advantage of it)
The day we got there after showering and stuff i walked to the beach, only four blocks from the hotel, with my new friend Rodrigo. So we went to the beach but it was cold an cloudy. He filmed stuff while i walked around looking for sea shells and whatnot. We walked around looking for empanadas, bought two each and went to the plaza near the beach to eat. Just as we were polishing off emapanada number two there was this kinda fat lady standing accross from us and as she went to sit down she let out this enormous fart. All of my previous thoughts of big farts were slapped in the face with this one, auctually im surprised my cubs cap didn`t blow off. The best part was when Rodrigo sat with disbelief and just said `Incredible!`. It was helarious- i don`t care if you think i`m immature.So we got back to the hotel and walked around the city and whatnot with the rest of the group.
Other highlights from the voyage were:
I really got to know more people from Catamarca especially the basketball girls (my new basketball team) and the coaches. Now i feel better about being in Catamarca. Also I think i`ll auctually go to school tomorrow- i now have a little more motivation to make friends.
I love the independance i had. In Catamarca i always ask to go out and tell them when I`m coming back- also i always get rides... which is nice i guess but i don`t like it, i feel too dependent and afraid to ask to go out because i`ll inconvience them. With this independance I got to go out friday night with some younger coaches. The basketball players couldn`t go out (suckers) but i still had a good time. We left around midnight and walked around the whole city. Around six we walked to the beach and all watched the sunrise. It was so cool. I`m sad i didn`t bring my camera but i didn`t want it ripped off of me.
Otherwise the rest of the time was spent at the beach, writing in my journal, or going to basketball games. The U-14 basketball girls placed 14th out of 24 in the country. Not bad considering that Catamarca has only had girls basketball for about a year. Also the girls U-16 placed 8th. pretty exciting.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Im Sorry!
hey everybody i know i havn`t written anything in a while but right now im in mendoza and when i get back i`ll write novels about this trip and Mar Del Plata, i promise.
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