Lions and Llamas in Lujan

November 1^st was a weird day. It marked the beginning of my last month in Buenos Aires, and that was terrifying. I decided I needed to start seeing the things I hadn’t gotten a chance to as of yet, so that day I went to the Museo de Armas, which was a museum of old military weapons, filled with every kind of sword, bayonet, dagger, pistol, cannon imaginable. I even had a private tour guide who gave me all the fun facts about the museum and the country’s military history.

The day before I had been down in San Telmo for the weekly Sunday fair, and as I made my way towards home I passed Plaza de Mayo, where the entire plaza was covered with flowers, banners, and cards for the president Kristina Kirchner after her husband’s passing a few days before. Former Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner died of a heart attack just before we left for Mendoza. Over the weekend there was a massive march of people in honor of Kirchner that stretched for probably about 20 blocks from Plaza de Mayo and the Pink House. I happened to be with my tango group practicing the morning that it happened, and I was very surprised to see how much people’s reactions to this news differed. My Argentine friends, for example, just shrugged and said “Oh, well” and we continued practicing. Some, I heard, even went out for celebratory lunches, while others were deeply affected by his death and took it very hard, watching the news on tv and listening to the radio all day. It was very bizarre. They are just as much of a controversial family as the Perons were back in the day, of which I was unaware.

On a less interesting note, with the first days of November came the first few, huge doses of reality, with registration for winter quarter classes approaching several days later. This was accompanied by calls to Chicago regarding my living situation for the year, considering that until that week, it was very possible I would be couch hopping or living in a box this year.

That first Friday I spent my day at the Lujan Zoo. A city 2 hours out of the city, it has, what I came to find out minutes before leaving, the most dangerous and controversial zoo in the world. I googled it. As interesting as it was to experience it, it was definitely a very shady place. The zoo was literally just off the highway on an unmarked dirt road. The entrance was nothing more than a single sign on a wooden post, and as we entered we received a zoo map, which looked like somebody had made it this morning on Microsoft word and added clip art. The main attraction of this zoo is that the visitors are allowed to enter the cages and hang out with the animals. I’m pretty sure that all these animals are given an offensively large amount of drugs to keep them tame, which is extremely sad and makes me a hypocrite for going to see them, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy myself. Not only did I get to ride a camel, and feed the elephants (who loved me, naturally), but I got to feed a lion and play with a lion cub. Not many people get a chance to play with Simba, so I had a great time. In addition to lions they had tigers, bears (oh my?), sea lions (whose Spanish name actually translates to “sea wolves”), goats, emus, and my favorite, llamas. Oh, and they had a tractor museum, about a hundred old tractors lined up out on the lawn. It was one of the main attractions.

Saturday morning we had another one of our tango practices in preparation for the final presentation. That day was especially enjoyable because after we were invited to stick around for lunch at our porteña friend Melanie’s home. We had homemade pizzas and chatted about the differences between the States and Argentina in terms of their education systems. Their system is really interesting in that their public schools are actually much better than their private schools. However, to get into the best public school, which is in fact Unviersidad de Buenos Aires, or UBA for short, you have to pass a very difficult exam. For this reason, many aren’t able to get into UBA and go to private universities. Counterintuitive? Certain universities require you to do a variety of classes before you start anything related to your career, unlike us when we get to pick and choose and take care of graduation requirements as we go. To make things more difficult, many times a class that you have 3 days a week will be held at 3 different times, which causes lots of conflicts with other classes. If you can’t make it to those classes and you end up not passing it, you can’t take it the next semester, you’ll have to wait a full year until that class is offered again in order to fulfill that requirement, which as a result, sets you back in terms of time for graduation. Lots of differences and very interesting to hear their opinions.

The following Monday, we had our last practice before our final tango presentation. Marcelo, not to our surprise, did not give us much direction, sat down, and proceeded to fall asleep in the middle of class in his chair. Really?

The next several days were spent registering for classes, catching up on TV shows, and writing papers in order to free up my schedule for Mom and Dad’s visit! I even sent them a word document with a detailed itinerary a week before their arrival.

Mendoza

Wednesday evening we headed out to Mendoza! Finally. It had been such a long week…Somehow something had gotten mixed up with the buses, no surprise, so we actually got upgraded to the first class seats, which meant huge, leather la-z-boy type seats. I slept like a child. This bus did have some entertainment, however. We played bingo. Correct me if I’m wrong, but bingo means you get all 5 numbers in a line, and then you yell bingo. So, I got 5 numbers all in a row, and I yelled. Apparently, this version of bingo required you to get all the number on your mini number board. So that became awkward, and the bus steward looked at me, sighed and shook his head, as if it was just one more bad mark against my being American. I don’t know what this new version of Argentine bingo is about, but I do know that wine bottle should have been mine.

To make things even more interesting, the bus steward puts on the movie for the evening…The Witches of Eastwick, with an all-star cast of Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Cher. Shoot me. It may be one of the top 5 worst 80s movies of all time, which is an achievement in and of itself. But you know those things that are just so awful that you just can’t look away? It was like that. For those of you who haven’t seen it, don’t. You may never be able to eat cherries again.

Thursday morning finally came, and we dropped our things off at our hostel, Mendoza Inn. We realized that pretty much every hostel that we stayed at was part of Hostel International. The best advice I could give people looking to study abroad is to get a Hostel International membership card. Though paying the whole $11 USD is not really an issue, you could still be paying something more like $2.75 per night, which is just absurd. That afternoon we signed up for a “wine and bike tour.” Yes, we rode bikes from vineyard to vineyard. We were shocked when asked to sign a waiver, because to be honest, that is rare in South America. Our trip began at an organic, family-owned bodega, or winery, called Familia Cecchin. Our tour guide, Andrea, showed us around the fields for a bit, explaining that the variety of trees they had planted around the land, among them peach, orange, olive, and nut trees, was to block the vines from bacteria in the wind. She later took us into the buildings to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the wines are made and taught us how to correctly taste wine. My father would have been so proud.

We had a beautiful, sunny bike ride to our next destination. Though I thought we would be riding on some smaller path, we drove alongside the main road, which had miles of big trees lining each side. Beyond the trees were endless fields of grapes. Our second winery was called Vistandes, a much more modern-looking set up. It almost looked like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory at first, because when you first walk in, the lobby is a gigantic room of white and black tile with a huge wall of windows that faces out into the fields. Our tour was again informative, describing the different methods of preserving wine, whether it be in barrels, tanks, or cement chambers; it all depends on the type of grape. This winery was particularly interesting, because there was a room in the basement that seemed to be carved out of the ground. The walls were made of actual dirt, so when you walked in you not only did you feel like you were an ant living below the ground or something, but it had this very strong smell of earth. It was very bizarre. There was a large table set up where people could rent out the room for a dinner party.

Starting to sway a little on our bikes, we trucked along to the third winery. This was very much California-esque with more modern architecture and a restaurant on a beautiful terrace overlooking the vineyard. Here we were allowed to look around on our own without a guide and enjoy a large glass of rose. Because of the distance, and probably also for safety reasons at this point, our guide loaded up the bikes and we took a van to our last destination, a chocolate factory. We were all pretty content at this point, and on the ride over we spent our time singing all the American songs on the radio, which is about 95% of what’s played, and passed around wine bottles that were provided our very generous, new Argentine friends.

This chocolate factory made chocolates (obviously), a variety of liquors, marmalades, and many different kinds of dulce de leche. We were able to try some chocolate and one shot of a liquor of our choice. I chose dulce de leche with banana and it was delicious, it tasted like a banana split. They also made absinthe here. So, just for the sake of trying it, I took a sip. Besides the fact that I almost passed out, it burned the roof of my mouth. Like, as if I had been drinking a hot cup of coffee. THAT strong. It was also green. Never again. Before I left I grabbed a container of dulce de leche mixed with chocolate; I couldn’t resist. And with that we headed back to the hostel, staying up long enough to have some empanadas and chips and guacamole at the Mexican restaurant across the street.

Friday morning we had a 9am start for our trekking/repelling/mineral baths adventure. Though very pretty, the morning was cold and the trek was HARD. From the top we took a few pictures and strapped ourselves into our repelling gear. Unaware to us, we had to go down half the mountain before we started repelling. The land there is very desert-like, so cacti were abundant. You already know how this is gonna go. We all took turns sitting on a cactus, losing our balance and falling into a prickly bush, or getting a mild concussion after wiping out because of rock that had gotten loose from the dirt. I had some really pretty scratches. We finally started repelling which was very fun. We repelled 3 times, the last one being the tallest, around 150 feet.

After repelling we headed to the mineral baths. Perfectly situated in the mountains there’s a really pretty mineral baths/water park. There were probably over 20 different baths of different temperatures, along with a lazy river running along the outer edge of the cliff. We relaxed in the baths for the rest of the afternoon until we headed home. That night we went to an outstanding restaurant called Praga. Seafood was their specialty, a nice break from all the meat in Buenos Aires. After dinner we stopped at a local bar that was having a Halloween party, of sorts. Everything was very well decorated, and the staff was all in costume, however the people in the bar were kind of all over the place. Some were dressed, others were not, and others had awkwardly thrown on a pair of cat ears for the hell of it, I guess. Anyway, it was great people watching, and after an hour or so we turned in for the night.

Saturday morning we hopped in a van and headed to the mountains for paragliding! We spent a half hour going up the rockiest, most dangerous road I’ve ever been on. It didn’t have railings, naturally. We met our guides at the top of the mountain at an altitude of about 4,800 feet. My specific instructions from Hermán, my guide, were to run off the mountain when it was time. After asking him if he knew what he was doing, he answered, “I hope so, because if I die, you die.” Sidenote: I didn’t sign a waiver for this one. So when he told me to run, I ran. Once we were in the air, everything went silent, and all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride. I was in the air for probably 20 minutes in total. After some bonding with Hermán, he suggested to try some acrobatic exercises. I agreed, though not quite sure what that meant. I came to find that it basically meant a rollercoaster ride in the air. He started maneuvering the parachute around and making huge dips, and at one point my parachute was below me, as opposed to above me, where it should be. It was SO fun, I wish I could have been up there longer! I’ve found that the best strategy for doing extreme activities is to tell your parents about it after you get home, because they can’t get mad at you when you come home alive.

That afternoon we walked around the city, which is so beautiful and quaint, yet still very lively, especially at night. We walked around to one of the parks and took a stroll past the venders at the usual weekend street fair. In town I had Ferrero Rocher flavored ice cream. HEAVENLY. Later we went to a wine bar to do some more wine tasting before we decided on bottles to buy. For $20 USD we tried 2 Malbecs and 1 Sauvignon Blanc and got 2 big platters of bread, olives, and an assortment of cheeses. I’m personally not a big fan of olives, but they had one kind that was green olives with an almond in it that had been soaked in sugar. It was unbelievable, so I bought myself one container to bring home along with my wine. Our great waiters gave us a free bottle of champagne before leaving and wished us a safe trip home. The people of Mendoza are extremely generous and friendly, even more so than Buenos Aires. The mood was always carefree and they were always willing to help when asking for directions or recommendations. I would love to retire there someday. After the tasting we headed back to the hostel, packed up our things, and headed to the bus station happily full on wine and cheese and ready for an overnight ride home.

Graffiti, Castles, and the Census

So, it’s November…and I’m officially freaking out. My program officially ends in 22 days and I am boarding a plane home in 29. Cold, harsh reality is slowly coming back. What I thought would be an incredibly long time to be abroad has absolutely flown by. Thus, these next 4 weeks will be my effort to soak up the last days in sunny Buenos Aires and to visit the many places that are still on my list.

Since I last wrote, life has been great, per usual. Going back to the week of October 18^th, classes went normally as usual, starting the weekend on Wednesday evening, as usual.

Wednesday afternoon our urban history professor took us on a tour of Palermo Viejo, a neighborhood farther west. Palermo actually has 4 different areas because it is so huge: Palermo Viejo, Palermo Hollywood, Palermo Soho, and Palermo Chico. If you’re young and hip, you live here. The variety of restaurants, especially in Palermo Viejo, is incredible, along with great shopping in Palermo Hollywood/Palermo Soho. Palermo Chico is mostly a residential area with extremely nice houses. Possible retirement destination? During our tour we were able to see the first residence of famous Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges, who spent most of his childhood reading books in his father’s massive library in Palermo until he began writing on his own. I know this because I learned it in my Argentine poetry class- proof that, regardless of what you think, I am using my brain here. Palermo is also really interesting because of its large amount of street art. It’s essentially graffiti, but it’s not illegal here and very much accepted as a form of expression. Many use it for political expression as well. In fact, many well-known graffiti artists from all over the world periodically come to Buenos Aires to make creations on the walls of restaurants or certain buildings for different occasions, or for no occasion at all. There are daily walking tours of the many areas in Palermo that have interesting street art. I’ve added a few pictures for your convenience.

Our tango professor, whom I’ve somehow forgot to mention before, has assigned us a final project that requires us to create a 5-7 minute choreography including tango, milonga (a faster Argentine dance, similar to tango in some ways), and waltz. Thus, Thursday morning our group met for our first practice. As much as I’ve come to love tango, our professor really puts a damper on it, because he’s a terrible teacher. It’s remarkable that I’ve found this one, recurring type of professor in so many of my classes in the past: one who is undoubtedly good at what he does, yet is unable to affectively teach the basics of it to beginner students, because he is too far advanced to dumb it down. And on top of that, though he has been teaching college kids for over 20 years, his dislike for them is blatantly obvious. This is something I will never understand. But nevertheless, we have been making progress, and considering I have a wonderful group with 2 friends from IES and 3 very fun porteños, I really can’t complain.

I spent the afternoon eating lunch with some girlfriends at a great restaurant in Palermo that had quesadillas and guacamole, 2 things that I’ve been DYING without here. Mexican restaurants here are limited, so when you find one, it’s a great day. After lunch we walked around to burn off our food in order to have more food. We found a bakery that sold cupcakes. Mine was cheesecake with peanut butter. Need I say more?

On Friday I had the pleasure of meeting a lietuvaite, Agata, my first contact with Lithuanians in South America. We met at the main square, Plaza de Mayo, and from there we walked through the streets, until we reached a café and sat down for a long conversation. It was a very strange dialogue, because it wasn’t Spanglish, nor was it a mix of Lithuanian and English which I do when I get lazy at home (which I know my mother loves), but instead a mix of Lithuanian and Spanish. It was the most bizarre conversation I have ever had, but it was great. I had gotten in contact with her through friends that had met her in South America this past December for Jaunimo Kongresas, a.k.a. Lithuanian Youth Conference. I found that we had much in common, and we spent much of our time telling each other about our lives, what we plan to do in the future, and how much we love being Lithuanian. She is incredibly sweet and very interesting, and being able to speak lietuviskai was a little dose of home that I had really needed and missed. Before we knew it, we had been talking for over 4 hours, and the sun had already set. We decided that another hang out session was necessary, so I look forward to seeing her in the coming weeks before I leave.

Saturday morning was an early start, as we had a day trip to another “estancia” named La Candelaria in Lobos, a small city outside of Buenos Aires. The weather here has been getting more beautiful by the day, and this day was no exception- sunny and mid 70’s. Like any other estancia, we didn’t do much. With so much noise and smog in the city, it’s nice to get away and enjoy some fresh air and Argentine countryside. We were greeted with empanadas, quite possibly the best welcome ever, and from there we could wander around as we pleased. There was a pool, soccer field, and volleyball net if you wanted to be active, or you could be like me and simply lounge around on the many cushioned lawn chairs and sip coffee. Polo practice was also taking place, so many of us went to watch the players and to hang out with the ponies. Before lunch, we headed through the forest to see the main attraction of the estancia, the castle. This beautiful, French-inspired castle was built in 1894 and sits on a 245 hectare plot of land. Unfortunately we were only allowed to see part of the castle, because the upstairs was roped off, but nevertheless, it was very pretty.

After the tour of the castle, we sat down for a big lunch, and as we ate we watched a traditional, Argentine gaucho performance. Certain dances were with couples, however others consisted of either swinging swords or just fancy footwork. Some of our friends were lucky enough to be pulled up from their tables to dance in front of everyone with the gauchos. After lunch we wandered around some more, drank wine, ate dessert, and in the evening headed home.

The next week was rather pointless, because by Wednesday night we were out of BA and on our way to Mendoza, Argentine wine country. However, we did do some things before leaving. Monday I bought my ticket for Mendoza at the bus ticket counter and made friends with the man working there. Though he was very entertaining, I realized that we had been standing in that store for over 35 minutes while he continued attempting to crack strange jokes in English and guessing my nationality (which he guessed was Greek because of my last name, surprise). I have to say, one thing I will NOT miss about Argentina, is the unbelievably slow service. This ordeal should have taken 6 minutes, tops. Luckily I got a giant alfajor (one of Argentina’s delicacies- a dessert consisting of a thick layer of dulce de leche in between 2 cookies), or else I could have gotten sassy with him. Before leaving, my friend realized her name was misspelled on her ticket and asked if he could reprint it for her. He responded with, “I really wouldn’t worry about it. The people who drive those buses can’t read.” Whether or not this was actually true, I couldn’t help but feel slightly anxious as I handed the driver my bus ticket to Mendoza two days later, hoping we wouldn’t find ourselves somewhere in the middle of Patagonia the next morning.

Tuesday morning we had a mandatory tour of Jewish sites in the city instead of grammar class, which I thought would be really interesting, considering there’s an entire barrio/neighborhood known for its flourishing Jewish community, called Once (as in the Spanish number). Unfortunately we had a painfully dull tour guide who, though was a really sweet, old man, had an extremely dry presentation. Even our Spanish professor who had come along on the trip was struggling. Instead of seeing more of the area, he pointed out obscure buildings as we drove by and made us get out for several, very anti-climactic sites. So anyway, that was too bad. But we did get to see a very pretty Jewish temple at the end, which I enjoyed. Needless to say, I could have visited more and more interesting places on my own time instead of killing half the day. Oh well.

October 27^th was the national census. Did you know that literally EVERY, single establishment is closed? That was a fun surprise. Even the kioscos were closed. I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned them before, but there is at least one kiosco (kiosks), sometimes 2, on every block. They are God’s gift to Argentina. They have everything you may possibly need during the day. They are the one place you can buy a beer, a granola bar, more minutes for your cell phone, a sandwich, and glue in one place…I needed glue for my tango shoes…