Monday, January 31, 2011

Mi Familia Argentina

Yo vivé en Recoleta, Buenos Aires por el mes pasado con Susanne Singer, Sarah Meany y Señora Ana Gallardo en apartamento de Ana. Hay cuatro cuartos de baño, tres dormitorios, una cocina, un comedor, una oficina y una sala de familia su apartamento. Tengo mi propio cuarto y Sarah y Susanne comparten un cuarto. Mi cuarto también tiene un balcón con una vista hermosa de la calle de la ciudad. 
Mi Cuarto

La Vista de Mi Cuarto

Usualmente, Ana vive soló porque su marido se murió hace dos años, y sus niños se casaron y se mudaron. Su hijo vive cerca de Recoleta y ella visita a sus nietos a menudo. Ana era profesor en una universidad durante muchos años. Enseñó  la literatura. Su marido era un famoso poeta. Su apartamento tiene muchos libros. Ahora está jubilado, pero ella pasa mucho tiempo con sus amigos. Ella le encanta ir a museos y al cine. Ella nos cocina cena cada noche. Ella hace generalmente muchas papas y pan, y algún tipo de carne.
La Cena

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Tango

El Tango es un baile hermoso y seductor.  Es interesante porque originalmente fue un baile entre dos hombres.  Sin embargo, el baile fue menos seductor y más como un deporte.El tango originó en Argentina, cerca de Rio de la Plata. Es una combinación de Europea y la cultura africana. Es el baile nacional de Argentina y el asunto de orgullo para las personas de Argentina.  Fuimos un concierto de  tango en jueves pasado.  El teatro estaba muy lujoso y el concierto incluyó tres platas y vino y agua. Para un aperitivo yo comí salmón, para una comida comí pollo y papas y para el postre yo comí helado con dulce de leche.


Todo fue delicioso y estuve muy llena después de todo eso. El concierto misma fue diferente de lo que esperé. Fue más como un juego que bailando sólo. Había poco complots y temas por fuera su baile y muchos cambios de disfraz y fuera cambios de ritmo. ¡Había aún una parte donde un hombre bailaba con escobas! Fue muy diferente.

Mis Excursiones

Fuimos a mucho lugares en Argentina.  En el fin de semana pasado, fuimos a Mendoza.  Mendoza es una ciudad hermosa y divertida.  Mucho vino se hace en Mendoza.  Entonces el vino de Mendoza es rico y delicioso.  Fuimos a viña y probamos tipos diferentes de vino.  Usualmente, no me gusta vino rojo pero me gusta Malbec.  Malbec es un vino rojo de Argentina. Fuimos a las montañas también.  Montamos a caballos y no me gustan este parte de la excursión.  Después del almuerzo, fuimos entre los Andes.  La vista de los Andes fue hermosa.
El Parque de San Martín en Mendoza

Mi Caballo, llamdo Alegre

Nuestra otra excursión fue ir a Iguazú.  Es muy calor y o soleado en Iguazú porque es en la selva tropical.  Vimos monos y tucanes mientras caminamos en la selva tropical. Vimos las catarateas también.  Las cataratas estaba lindísimas.  Me encantan las cataratas.  En nuestro hotel en Iguazú estaba una piscina.  Me gusta tocar el sol y nadar.  La comida de Iguazú due deliciosa pero caro también.  Me encantan las excursións.
Las Cataratas

Un Mono

Friday, January 28, 2011

Mendoza Continued..

The next day in Mendoza we went to San Martin Park in the morning and walked around.  It was full of beautiful fountains, gardens, and lakes.  In the afternoon, we went wine tasting.  I was obviously very excited for this.  However, the tours turned out to be a little boring, plus it was extremely hot that day and that didn't help matters.  The actual wine tasting part was fun.  We tried Malbec, a traditional Argentinean red wine, it was very good.  I usually am more of a white wine person, but I could make an exception for Malbec.
 The day after that we went hiking and horseback riding in the mountains.  The hiking part I loved! The horseback riding was a different story.  You see I had a bad experience on a horse before when it started to actually gallop and I had no idea what I was doing and I was terrified.  So I wasn't very excited to begin with, and then I ended up on the horse with the shaky back legs who slipped half way up and down the mountains.  It wasn't fun.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Mendoza

Now that I am officially a twenty-one year old, I feel that it is safe to admit that I love wine.  The wine that I am used to drinking often costs less than twenty dollars and comes from a box.  Therefore, when I heard we were going to wine country, I was very excited. For the first time in my life, I was early for the airport.  The flight was quick and simple and the view of the Andes mountain from above was spectacular. As soon as we arrived, we were asked if we wanted to participate in an adventurous excursion. I chose white water rafting because I had already gone ziplining this trip and I don't have the guts to go paragliding.
I'm so glad I decided that because it was the time of my life. The instructors were absolutely out of their mind and the six of us girls weren't the best paddlers in the world. Even the ride to and from the white rafting place was beautiul.  We all couldn't stop staring at it.  It's a shame they don't have a view like that anywhere in america.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Daily Struggles

Most of the time I have at least a vague idea of what the people here are saying, but there have definitely been some instances where the language barrier caused some confusion.  For example, last monday both of my classes were canceled because my teacher wasn't feeling well, so my friend Jackie and I decided to venture to a huge public pool that one of her friends had heard about.  Jackie asked her house mom and found out it's only a bus ride away.  So we met Monday morning at the bus stop and waited for the 37 bus to arrive.  Luckily, it pulled up within 5 minutes. Jackie climbed up the bus steps and asked the bus driver "vas a Parque Norte?" and he replied "no" and slammed the door shut almost before Jackie could even hop off.  That was a little disheartening, but we continued to get on each 37 bus that pulled up and asked every one if they were headed to our desired location.  Finally, one of the bus drivers said they were headed there. We scurried on the bus so fast that we forgot to stop at the front and pay, no one said anything though, so we got a free ride to the pool.
Once arriving at the pool, we were expecting to just relax and take in some sun.  We didn't realize there was a whole process you had to go through before you could enter the actual pool itself.  Parque Norte is actually a huge public place with tennis courts, soccer fields, pools, restaurants, etc.  The first couple pools we tried to enter were strictly for children or camps or private parties.  Eventually, we stumbled across the main entrance to the pool. When we tried to enter the woman rambled something in the least-comprehensible spanish I have ever heard in my life.  We asked her to repeat it a few time but she didn't slow down or change any of her words so it wasn't very helpful.  Finally Jackie said she understood and we walked away.  "I have no idea what she said..something about going to the middle pool" Jackie informed me.  I was confused because she insisted that she had heard the word "medio" and I hadn't heard her say that word at all.  After a few jumbled spanglish conversations with other guests we came to the conclusion that she said "medico" and we found a building that also said medico and walked in.  We were immediately creeped out.  We wondered around in an all white room looking for a sign of life.  Then we turned the corner and there were dressing rooms with "doctors" in them and Jackie and I were quickly ushered into different dressing rooms.  We had no idea what was going on.  It was a struggle but they managed to explain to us via hand gestures that they needed to check our hair (presumably for lice) and then they looked under my arms and between my toes.  I'm not really sure what they were looking for with the second parts but apparently we passed the test and we were given a pink pass to enter the pool.

These struggles don't even include the time we rode the wrong bus for an hour and a half before we realized it was the wrong bus, or the time we got locked in our apartment/stuck in the elevator for 45 minutes. I'll save those stories for another day.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Comida en Buenos Aires




A mí me gusta la comida en Buenos Aires.  Sin embargo, no me gusta bistec, pero encontré otro tipos de comida que quiero.  Yo como muchas verduras y pescos. La gente de Argentina comen mucho bistec y papas y toman mucho vino y agua con gas.  Yo tomo agua sin gas usualmente y refrescos a veces.
Yo como pan y mantequilla para mi desayuno pero el pan es muy pequeño y yo siempre estaba hambre después del desayuno. Para almuerzo, you como un empanada usualmente.  Mi favorito tipe de empanada es jamón y queso. (Argentina tiene mucho cosas con jamón y queso.) A mí me gusta empanadas con tomate, queso y albahaca también. A veces, yo como una ensalda o una pizza para almuerzo.
empanadas<3

mi desayuno

Mi “madre de Argentina” prepara la cena todas las noches.  Ella generalmente hace algo con carne, y muchas papas, las zanahorias y los tomates. Por un gran parte del tiempo a mí me gusta la comida que ella prepara pero yo nunca como “suficiente” y se enfada.