New Bed

Today, my bed arrived! It's my first new bed, and I love it! Here's my room, cleaned up a little, with space for the bed:

And heeeere's the bed! Yay!

It's starting to feel a little more like home here now.

Settling In

Here's my new room, with most of my stuff in it:

And after a little unpacking and a million trips to Target, here's the bathroom:

There's my door!:

This is the courtyard of my building:

And the view from the street:

Californ-I-A (at last)

After a mediocre night near Reno, NV, we took a small detour through the Lake Tahoe area. Our little, overfilled car had some trouble on all the hills, but we finally made it to the (freezing cold) shore to take some early morning pictures:

We stopped in Davis to have lunch and visit with Mom's college friend Mebs, then went on to Carmel to see Mimi and Pete! The visit was much too short, but we got to relax a little, and meet Lola (who I didn't get any pictures of, oops)! We hit a bunch of traffic starting around Santa Barbara, but finally got to San Diego around 7 pm.

Near-Death Experiences and Flower Beds

Day Four started with a few hours of driving (surprise surprise), then a stop in Salt Lake City, UT. It was muy hot, even though it was early, but the city is so clean and pretty! Lots of construction too, so I bet it will be even prettier in a few months. Here is Mom right after we almost got hit by a car:
We were crossing at a crosswalk just like we were supposed to, but this girl didn't see us and barrelled right through. Traumatic!

We walked around a bit, then went to check out the Mormon Temple (when in Salt Lake...). It was gorgeous and there were about a million people working on the flower beds.

Here is a street sign left over from the 2002 Olympics:

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building:

This is the trolley:

The Beehive House:

Recycling This Way?:

The Public Library:

Later that afternoon, we pulled off the highway in Delle, UT to get some gas and snacks. Instead of being a real rest stop with food, gas, and lodging as the sign said, Delle turned out to have just one grungy gas station, and the only "lodging" we saw was a trailer in he back. We also met a nice guy trying to beg gas money to get to San Francisco with his U-Haul full of hippies. The littlest hippie had a pet pig! They were nice enough, but we still got out of there as soon as possible!

Road Trip: Day Boring

The next day we started out by crossing the border into Nebraska, and staying there for the next 6 hours. While looking for a quick midmorning stop, we came across an original Pony Express station in Gothenburg, NE. A cute little place, and you could tell we were in the midwest because there was a woman there offering us tea and snickerdoodles, and a tour bus of older people who seemed to have stopped there on purpose. Adorable.

After that it was hours of farmland with a few windmills, then hours of slightly rockier terrain and more windmills.

We stopped for the night in Green River, Wyoming, which was actually awesome, a cute little town set right in the buttes (?). We stayed at a super-new hotel with lots of free food- soooo much better than the previous nights.

Road Trip: Day Two

This morning we made the two hour trip from Elkhart, Indiana to Chicago. The plan was to spend a couple hours in the city, just because it was sort of on our route and I'd never been there. We saw Chicago-y things like the El:

Of COURSE, literally the moment we started walking down the street from the garage, it started pouring. We ducked into a conveniently located Starbucks (is there any other kind?) and waited out the mini-monsoon. The rain didn't last long, but it was still cloudy and hazy when we got to the Willis- Sears Tower Skydeck for a view of the city. On a good day, you can see four different states from the Skydeck, but we weren't so lucky. It was still pretty cool to stand on the glass and look out over the city. The levels below had interesting facts about Chicago and the Tower too.


Flags on the wall of the Sears Tower lobby, part of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics:

After we left Chicago, most of the scenery looked like this:

Illinois and Iowa were basically just a blur of farmland with the occasional rest stop or small town for punctuation. Of course, there was also an "Oasis" that I'm sure was mind-blowingly special:

We didn't stop at the "Oasis," but we DID stop at this Iowa 80 truck stop. It was just as cheesy/lame/gross as it looks:
We got into Council Bluffs, Iowa fairly early, and we're planning to head out early tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a LONG day, with no stops planned aside from rest stops/gas. The plan is to get to Green River, Wyoming, about 11 hours away. Whew!

Cleveland Rocks!

After a rainy morning, the skies cleared just in time for our arrival in Cleveland, Ohio. It was lovely right on the edge of Lake Erie.


We couldn't stay long (ok, we didn't really go into the city at all), but we got to walk around a little and check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was so much fun! They have great info, awesome music, and lots of really cool artifacts. Some of the outfits were completely insane, I can't believe what rock stars can get away with. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photos inside, so I can't share those with you.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We stopped for the night in a pretty gross hotel in Elkhart, Indiana. Apparently this town has a 22% unemployment rate, so Obama was on his way there to speak to the people. It was a sad place, but we didn't stay long.

Next up: a stop in Chicago and a tour of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa!

On the Road

Tomorrow I'm embarking on a six-day road trip across the country. Final destination: my new apartment near the University of San Diego. I've been thinking about this move and planning it for so long now, it's amazing the time has finally come. Since this is probably the only time I'll take a week to drive along the I-80, and since Mom is coming with me and sharing some of the driving, I thought I'd try to catalog the more interesting sights along the way. We're planning to stop in such fascinating places as Elkhart, Indiana and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Actually, I shouldn't be so snobby, maybe these places are awesome...

Here are some pictures of the car, packed to the gills and ready to start early tomorrow:



Anyway, keep watching for awesome updates from the road.

Hello Again

After a long long day of traveling, I'm back in Vestal. It's pretty nice to be home. Now, who wants to help me find a job?

Salir Time

There have been times when I wished I were going back to the U.S. Sometimes the adventure seemed to be too much. After a long day, or a SHORT day without enough work, when I was tormented by mosquitoes or eating only eggs and toast for days at a time to save money, I longed to be home, taken care of, living the easy life. There were times when I thought May 19 couldn't come fast enough.

But now that it HAS come, pretty much, and I keep thinking "it's too soon! Wait!" I've seen the touristy things, I've dome pretty much everything I wanted to do here, but I'm not ready to stop living the porteño lifestyle yet. My favorite thing to do in this city is just BE here, walk down the streets, sit in cafes, go to bars and talk to people. I like my students, my roommates, and my job. I have fun with my friends. My life here isn't always comfortable, but it's mine and I love it.

Am I really done here? Can I move on from Buenos Aires? Have I taken everything possible from this year? I'm not sure. The only thing to do now is enjoy the next couple of days, and get ready to take on the next adventure.

I probably won't blog as much once I get home, unless something fab happens or I get so bored I feel the need to subject you all to my special brand of rambling nonsense. We shall see. On the other hand, I'd be happy to blog about Starbucks, the library and Taffy for 2+ months, wouldn't that be entertaining?

Meditating on Medialunas

There's nothing like a lazy morning, nowhere to go, nothing to do, plenty of time to sit in the sun (or curl up somewhere cozy if it's cold and rainy, like today) and have breakfast. Argentines don't do breakfast the way we do in the states: they normally stick with very light fare, maybe some coffee or mate with toast or a little pastry. In my 9+ months in Buenos Aires, I have become a connoisseur of medialunas ("half moons"). Medialunas may not be unique to Argentina, but they have been perfected here: small, sweet, flaky little bits of heaven. Since I absolutely love anything sweet, unhealthy, and complementary to coffee, the medialuna has been one of the highlights of my stay here.

The perfect medialuna de manteca is actually pretty hard to find (and believe me, I've done my research). It must be soft and flaky, but have some substance to it. The top should be harder, with a sweet sugary coating that covers the softer sides as well. Since most medialunas are baked in bulk, they should have two "legs" that are sweet, a little crispy, and easy to pull off and dunk in cafe con leche. The dough itself should be sweetened but not TOO sweet, and have no other weird subflavors or aftertastes. The sugary glaze should take care of most of the sweetness. Fresher is always better, and warm from the oven is the best.Medialunas and cafe con leche from Sabatico, one of my favorite places!

There are about a thousand ways to mess up a medialuna. The most common problems are textural (and you know how picky I am about food texture): too doughy and mushy or too crispy. Unlike its brother, the medialuna de grasa, the medialuna de manteca should only be slightly crispy on the top, and flaky but soft the rest of the way through. Medialunas de grasa are not very sweet and tend to be more compact, like little crispy croissants. Some people prefer this kind, but they're not my favorite.

The best medialunas, according to me, can be found at:

La Piazza: Avenida de Mayo and Saenz Peña.

Sabatico: Cordoba near 25 de Mayo. (Only open on weekdays).

Cafe Parana: Parana near Corrientes. (These are a little hit-or-miss).

Facturas del Abuelo: Cordoba near Reconquista. (Not actually on par with the rest of this list, but reliably adequate AND there's a special- 3 medialunas and a cafe con leche for 6 pesos, any time of day).

Mataderos

Last Sunday I ventured outside my little Buenos Aires downtown bubble and visited the Feria de Mataderos. It's a pretty big street fair on the edge of the city, in the neighborhood where they used to slaugher cattle (hence the name- "killers"). It's so much fun because it's a lot less touristy than the other street fairs in BA- there are lots of tourists, sure, but also tons of locals just hanging out with their families, dancing, eating, etc. Callie pointed out that most people in the U.S. don't just drop everything and spend the day in the park- why is that? We saw so many families with picnic lunches, mate, and soccer balls having a great time on a gorgeous fall day.

The thing I really love about the Mataderos fair (as you might have guessed) is the food. Sadly, my favorite empanadas were not available this time, but I did get to have a delicious tamale, and this snack consisting of pieces of various fruits on a stick covered in honey and popcorn. Weird but delicious! The best was the strawberry at the top, second was the kiwi. Other food stands gave us samples of dulce de leche, olive oil, liqueurs, chocolate, and more. Besides selling food, the fair is chock-full of traditional crafts, jewelry, clothing, even knives. So many interesting, uniquely Argentine things to see!


As usual, we had a little issue getting home. The normal bus ride back takes maybe 40 minutes, but I (the genius that I am) got us on the wrong bus, so it took muuuch longer than that to get home. To be fair, we got on the 180 instead of the 180 route 155, and I was so excited to see a 180 that I didn't even look at the other number. The good news was that Callie used to live near the area we ended up, so it was pretty easy to grab the Subte back. Story of my lifeeeeee.


With only one week left in this country, it was nice to get to one of my favorite places one last time. It's weird to think I won't be able to go out there any time I want (I've only been 4 times total, but STILL).


ETA: Photos added!

ETA also: I forgot to mention that on this particular Sunday, everyone was celebrating some sort of festival from the area of La Rioja, and this required them to wear basil behind their ears and get covered in flour. No idea.