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RIP black ballet flats from Paris that Marissa gave me. You are completely destroyed, but you'll never be forgotten.

Things I Love

A few days ago, I was having a bad day, and started thinking about all the things I miss about the U.S. To get myself into a better mood, I made a list of good things instead. Thus, in no particular order, I give you all the things I LOVE about Buenos Aires:

-Empanadas
-Ferias (Mataderos and San Telmo)
-Calle Lavalle at night
-The fact that Calle Lavalle is pronounced "Ca-zhey Lava-zhey," and all "ll"s sound like zh (as in yoozh or zhuzh)
-Nights that end at 9 am
- "Como como?" "Que cosa?" and all the other responses I get when i try to speak
-Castellano, the "bastard child of Spanish and Italian," as Ethan says
-Cafe con leche
-Medialunas and other facturas (pastries)
-People-watching in cafes, on streets, in the subte, etc.
-Every neighborhood, and sometimes every few streets, looks like a different city entirely
-Golf Sauce
-la Bomba de Tiempo (drum show)
-Crossing the street amid crazy traffic and feeling like a badass
-9 peso wine (but NOT 4 peso wine)
-Ridiculous Spanish subtitles on American shows
-My slouchy boots fit right in! (esp + leggings)
-Porteños' fascination with beef and animal products in general
-Everyone between the ages of 5 and 30 wears Chuck Taylors
-Walking everywhere I possibly can
-Meeting interesting people (students and friends)
-Old ladies with pinky-orange hair
-Random words that are different here than anywhere else (gaseosa, frutilla, pedes/queres/tenes, colectivo, etc.)
-Dogs everywhere
-Old, Spanish-style buildings mixed in with modern buildings
-Quilmes
-Did I mention empanadas?


As you can see, most of my love is directed towards food. And sometimes shoes. This is not a mistake.

Teaching

Time for an update about work, and my wonderful students.  It seems like everything is still up in the air, even after a month, but I have started working a bit, and I have to say, I'm loving it.

I'm working with 3 different institutes right now.  As Marissa says, I'm basically a private tutor.  All of my classes are one-on-one, and many of them are "conversation" classes with advanced English speakers- I basically get paid to talk to interesting people about news, their lives, etc.  For the lesss advanced students, I have workbooks provided by my institutes, and we work on the lessons together.  My favorite student is a 10 year old girl named Azul (like Blue in Special Topics in Calamity Physics- shout out to Xtine).  She gets English homework from school, so we do that together.  She is ADORABLE, and loves High School Musical- we get along great! :-P

My amazing apartment fell through (of COURSE), but I think I found a different, almost as amazing one.  I'm trying to ENJOY having lots of free time in an amazing city, instead of worrying about the unknowns all the time.  Everything will work out one way or another.

Hope everyone's work/school/summers are going well.  I wish I were at Myrtle Beach with you family type people right now, the house looks awesome!  I miss you all, besos y abrazos!

Sometimes

Sometimes you hate life because you´ve been running around the city all day, and your roommate´s raw chicken juice dripped all over your delicious leftover pizza, and you don´t have internet in your house.

But then sometimes you walk down a city street at twilight, and it´s not too cold out, and your ipod plays the perfect song, and you forget all the bad things and smile at Buenos Aires.

It helps to be as Zen as possible about the whole thing, and to have a good book with you at all times.

More Pictures

Ask and ye shall receive.  Here are some pictures of our trip to Mendoza, wine country, over the weekend.

At the first winery on the tour, first day- Karla, Kate, Victoria, Day, Me, Jess.

View from the top of the mountain we trekked up, before going into the mines

Jess and me wearing our (very important) helmets
What's left of the buildings from the mining town

Rappelling into a mine!

Plaza Independencia in Mendoza.  So cute!

Menorah statue on Calle Israel in Mendoza, and people imitating it.

Finally, some pictures!

I haven't seen a lot of sights around Buenos Aires yet, because I've mostly been going to class/interviews and hanging out with awesome people!  Here are some highlights:

Here is a large portion of the residents of the Road House hanging out.  People in BsAs don't GO out until 1 or 2 usually, so that leaves a lot of time for socializing in the evening.

Clockwise(ish) from left: Charles, Blanca, Leah, Natalie, Roxanne, Dan, Juan, Thomas, John, Sam, Victoria.

This is the good food stand at the Feria de los Mataderos, a huge weekly street fair.  It's awesome, and the choclo (corn mixture) empanadas from this stand are deliiiicious!

Residents go to The Spot a lot, because it's a close, chill bar.  Here we have Dan, Caitlyn. Dayanna, Sam, and Victoria.

This church borders the famous Recoleta Cemetary.  It's gorgeous inside and out, especially at night!

The second time we took the hour-long bus ride to the Feria de los Mataderos, a man on the bus had a bag with something moving in it.  It was a dachshund puppy!  We all got to hold him- he was so soft and cuddly!

Argentines like their cow, and they like to use as much of the cow as possible.  This is a glass bottle fit inside a hoof.  Fill it with your favorite beverage and drink with a big steak, or tie it to your leather belt.

La Boca is a pretty touristy area of BsAs, but it's also adorable!  The little houses are painted bright colors (as you can see), and there are little shops, restaurants, and artists everywhere.  Even on a cloudy winter day, it's a cool place to see.  I don't know those people.

Mendoza and money trouble

My card FINALLY worked at an ATM this morning.  It was stressful in Mendoza, being broke and having to depend on the kindness of friends, but it was a great time too.  Matt, Jess and I all had money issues yesterday, so we (plus Sam) walked around the town instead of doing a tourist activity that cost money.  Ethan, Victoria, and Kate did the "Bikes and Wines" tour, which sounded like a great idea, but ended up being a lot of (somewhat sketchy) biking and not a lot of wining.

Sunday's activity was totally worth the money though.  We went on a trekking/mine tour.  This included climbing up a mountain in the Andes, then going INTO IT and wandering around in the mines of Paramillo for over 2 hours.  We rappelled down a hole from the first to second levels of the mine, then climbed down ANOTHER level.  It was cold and dark and dirty and awesome.  After all the adventuring, we had an "asado," which usually means "tons of meat," but since our guide was a vegetarian, he made sure there were also delicious grilled vegetables.  It was sooo tasty!

The rest of the time was fun as well.  We did a winery tour by bus on Saturday, visiting 2 wineries and an olive oil factory.  The rest of the time we hung out around the hostel or elsewhere in Mendoza.  If you have the time, it's a great little town to visit.

I have moved into my apartment, and it's fine, but the internet isn't working for me (OF COURSE), which makes it a LOT less convenient.  I'm going to start looking for a new place to move after this month, but I am DEFINITELY staying there for the month because I paid so much for it.  [For those of you who haven't heard, my apartment ended up costing a LOT more than I thought it was going to, primarily because I can't speak Spanish].  I have an interview tonight, and hope to start teaching as soon as tomorrow or Thursday.  It's winter vacation for a lot of people right now, so some of my classes won't start until next week.  One guy gave me a bunch of hours, but needs to get back to me to confirm.  I hope he does, because I want those hours!  I've been turning down other jobs at the same times because I'm counting on him.

Jason left on the third. :-(  I saw him on Thursday night, we went out to dinner and hung out at his apartment.  His friend Noosh was supposed to be staying here until December, but she changed her mind and left on Sunday.  Boo!  She was nice.  Maybe I should ask where she was planning to live...

I'm working on posting photos!  Stay tuned!

Love love love