Miriam’s Birthday

Thursday was Miriam’s birthday (my host mom).  A ton of people came to our house to celebrate.  Around 5:30 women from her work came and stayed til around 8:30, eating sweets and drinking mate.  Then for dinner was the more “intimate” crowd, the people that always come over for asados, Amber and Jenn’s host families, Patricia (neighbor friend), Vivi’s in-laws, etc. and we had hamburgers (very mediocre, which is the norm for hamburgers here.)  Miriam’s mother and sister also came (Susana, Miriam’s sister is Javier’s mom).

 

I am a terrible host daughter and did not get her a birthday present.  First off, I am generally late on getting presents, ask anyone I know.  Second I am not exactly sure what to get her.  I also am supposed to live in a couple weeks and wanted to do a really nice “goodbye” present.  I haven’t told her this yet, so she probably just thinks I suck as a person…

 

Javier’s family arrived on Thursday night as well, his mom, dad, and sister.  Claudio was right, Javi’s dad is impossible to understand, he mumbles and talks fast…and he likes to talk, so I missed a lot.  It is unfortunate I didn’t understand him very well, because he seemed to have interesting answers to a lot of the questions I asked.  Karina, Javi’s sister was very nice too, she is a clothing designer and getting ready to open her own store.  She brought some of her clothes, which were very cute, but didn’t fit me right L  And I love Javi’s mother, Susana, Miriam’s sister.  She was more “tranquilo” or calmer than Miriam.  She also seemed to understand the whole international thing…I am not stupid, but if you talk slower I can understand, and you have to explain expressions or look for others words to explain things.  I very much appreciated her.

 

On Saturday, Javi’s family, minus Javi, took me to Buenos Aires and we toured the La Boca and San Telmo areas.  I really liked it.  I think I would enjoy living in Buenos Aires….maybe that will happen soon.

Monday, August 04, 2008 – Halfway Done :) :(

So I am officially half-way through my Argentine internship.  I arrived six weeks ago and have six weeks left.  I have finally settled in and gotten used to living here and have some sort of routine with my work at the comedor.  I also have finally decided the direction I will go with my FSD projects (maybe a little late) – which further outlines how I will be spending my remaining weeks here.  I am also excited to start traveling and seeing parts of the country and feel slightly crunched on time.  At the same time I am really starting to miss my family and friends….and a clothes dryer, QuikTrip, and med red (that is my car for those of you unaware – I hope you are taking good care of her Jean). 

 

The other day I finally took time to read through an Argentine Lonely Planet tourist book to see which places I want to visit while I am here.  We will see what I end up having time to see.  Places include:

• San Antonio de Acerco – area of “las pampas” fairly close to Buenos Aires, has museums of gauchos (famous Argentine cowboys) and model estancias (ranches); Parque Nacional de Ernesto Tornquist – about 10 hours from Buenos Aires, there is a big hill/mountain there, if you hike to the top you can supposedly get a good view of the pampas, it also happens to be very close to the town of Tornquist, where my host parents are from, I am hoping I get to visit it with them;
• Iguazú Falls – in Missiones province, in northeastern Argentine, partially located in Brazil as well, I believe they are the some of the largest waterfalls in the world, I would also love to cross into Paraguay and Brazil (unfortunately visa is needed for Brazil) while I am up that direction, but am not sure if that will happen, as of now I am planning on going in mid-August when there is a three day holiday weekend, I will probably take more than 3 days as its about a 20 hour bus ride;
• Mendoza – province in western Argentina along the Chile border, famous for its wineries, also about a 20 hours bus ride from Buenos Aires, I would like to cross into Chile if I am going that far, but not sure if it will be possible;
• Tierra del Fuego – I am pretty sure this will not happen as it is extremely far, but I would really like to say that I have been! 
• I would also like to go to Colonia, Uruguay, which is about a two hour boat ride from Buenos Aires.  Technically I am not supposed to leave the country while under the FSD internship, but I feel since they didn’t tell us that rule before hand I am going to disregard it – seriously if I am two hours from Uruguay I am going to want to cross the border!  I also mentioned it to my host mom who has also visited, and she suggested that maybe we go this weekend when her son comes in town from Tornquist – I hope we go! 

So that’s where I want to go.  I am fairly certain I won’t get to most of it, but we will see.

 

In the last week I have learned how to knit.  I have knitted myself a very long, fluffy blackish/purplish scarf.  I have also bought yarn to knit a baby blanket (CONGRATULATIONS JULIE!!!!)  And have made a list of several other things I would like to make while I am here.  I get a kick out of it, as does my host mom who has been basically begging to teach me.  Mary Andrews (another intern) also came over last week to learn, and Amber (another intern who already knows how to knit) also came and we had a little knitting party – it was quite amusing.

 

I also tried my first shot at cooking for my host family.  I tried my specialty, spinach artichoke dip.  It turned out subpar for my standards, but they seemed to like (though sometimes I wonder if they just say that.)  I had to be creative as I couldn’t exactly find all the ingredients – and dairy/cream products are slightly different.  Everything is called “crema” or cream and I couldn’t quite figure out what was sour cream, also couldn’t find the cream cheese I wanted, so used mayonnaise (found in abundance here – it is there favorite sauce) as a replacement that I have used before.  However, I asked Ana, with FSD and she told me that cream cheese can be found, so I might try another round.  I need to make an actual meal for them as well, unfortunately all the real typical American/Kansans type food I don’t actually know how to make, I personally prefer Mexican food, but they don’t like spicy stuff.  We will see what I can come up with that will taste good and I can find ingredients for!

Thursday, July 31, 2008 – Buenos Aires

I finally went to Buenos Aires to actually see the city.  Florencia, my host sister went with me.  We saw the “Casa Rosada” or the pink house, equivalent to the White House.  However, the President actually lives there but is rather executive offices and a place for meetings.  In front is the “Plaza de Mayo” named commemorating the month in which they declared independence.  The Plaza de Mayo has also been come to be a traditional location for protests.  Every Thursday, the “Madres de la Plaza de Mayo” march on the plaza.  The organization formed to protest the torture and disappearances occurring during the “Dirty War” in the 70’s, which frankly takes much more explanation than I care to go into, however, there are plenty of books than can more thoroughly explain.  Anyways, they were there on Thursday, as well as another group of protesters whose cause I couldn’t quite figure out.  Until a couple weeks ago, the “campo” or collaborative “countryside” were regular protestors in Buenos Aires and the Plaza de Mayo regarding extravagant export taxes (I believe this gained international news attention – another interesting topic to look into J ).  The problem has since been “solved” and export taxes have been lowered to 35% as opposed to the proposed 48% (for soy only, other products have lower percentages.)

 

We walked down Avenida Florida which was a large pedestrian street with tons of stores of all types.  We were there around mid-day and frankly there were too many people there for my taste.  I tried to enter a few stores to look for a leather purse and shoes, (Argentina is well known for its leather products) but became exhausted by the over helpful employees and soon gave up.  We also walked up to the obelisco a huge monument similar to the Washington Monument (I think, is that the one that is a tall tower that comes to a point at the top? – I know it is bad I do not know….)  I asked my family here what it was a monument for, they said something about the Foundation of Buenos Aires and it was for an anniversary of some sort, but that is all the could come up with, so I will assume it is not that important.  However, it is a fairly prominent marker in the city.  It is located in the Avenids 9 de Julio (named for Argentina’s independence day.)  My host sister told me it might be the widest street in the world…maybe 20 lanes?  She didn’t tell me until afterwards, so I didn’t count while I was there….the two directions were split by a large median/plaza so its width didn’t occur to me while we were there. 

 

While in Buenos Aires we went to Puerto Madero which is kind of like a boardwalk type place with lots of fancy/American restaurants along the river.  They also had a museum in an old navy boat.  I toured it with Florencia which was actually probably the highlight, mainly because I had lots of questions and since she is in the military school she could answer most of them – it definitely helped facilitate the conversation.  We had a long lunch at a fairly expensive place – lunch cost almost $25 which is a lot here…it should have been like $5 each L  oh well we survived, we returned home tired.  I am glad I went and glad Florencia took me, I am not sure if she actually enjoyed it or was just doing it because here parent made her, but I appreciate all the same.  

Sunday, July 20, 2008 – Friendship Day

My host sister, Florencia came home on Friday night.  This is the second time I have seen here in the four weeks I have been in Argentina.  She attends the naval academy and they have spent the last several weeks on a “voyage”.  On Saturday she invited several of her friends over, all of which also attend the naval academy, for dinner.  I assumed the occasion was to celebrate that they were done with their trip.  However, when the clock struck midnight, everyone circled around the room giving everyone kisses, saying “Feliz Día” or Happy Day, marking the beginning of “Día de Amigo”, friendship day.  The holiday is fairly important to Argentine’s.  It seems as though everyone celebrates it with their friends – even the news reported on the “Friendship Day” festivities – mostly composed of friends either having get-togethers at home or going out to dinner. 

 

Dinner consisted of hamburgers…which my new Panamanian friend commented that he missed American hamburgers (a friend of Florencia’s from school – he spent his senior year of high school in Delaware, he appeared excited to meet me and talk in English.)  The hamburgers here are definitely lacking.  They are the premade kind so they are small and not very thick.  They put them on dry buns that are too large for the meat, never include cheese, and you are lucky to find ketchup to top them with (however mayonnaise is easy to come by as is mustard.)  After dinner we sat around for an extremely long period of time waiting for an appropriate time in which we could go out – some of her friends wanted to take me dancing.  The appropriate time to go out here is 3am….so we waited awhile.  By the time we decided to leave we couldn’t find a taxi – after calling several companies where there were hour long waits, we started to walk towards a major road about 12 blocks away to try our luck. 

 

Once we made it “Quo”, we all got in the huge line outside and one of the guys went to ask how much the cover charge was – it ended up being free for ladies, but 30 pesos for guys, which is about $10.  However, that is very expensive here as most cover charges are about 8 pesos, and the taxi to get to the club only cost 10 pesos.  So we decided we were tired and all went home.  So much for my first night going out with my host sister. L

 

So Sunday was friendship day.  I woke up to several visitors in my house.  Apparently we were having another asado (barbecue) to celebrate Friendship Day.  Today we had about 16 join us for lunch – four of which were interns (me, Amber, Jennifer, and Kelly).  Of course the asado consisted of homemade empanadas (delicious), chorizo (sausage), and various varieties of other “carne”.  Luckily today I got by with just eating empanadas and chorizo and passed on the other various meats. 

 

After lunch they taught us how to play “tejo” which consisted of throwing wooden discs to see which one lands closest to a target point.  Then we got some live music and dancing from Vivi, her husband and others.  Then Vivi did a funny skit and song she had written about her friends who were in attendance.  All in all it was pretty funny.  Another long day of entertaining!

Saturday, July 19, 2008 – Vivi’s Party

Primo and interns at Vivi's party.

Last night was “the party”.  Amber’s host mom, Viviana, turned 50 on Tuesday, so they had a big blowout party for her.  “Vivi” is a super outgoing, funny, and crazy lady, so of course any party for her will be fun.  It also just happens that nearly all the host families of the interns in my group have some sort of relationship with Vivi: my host mom works with her, lives near her and they are good friends; Jennifer’s host dad is Vivi’s brother; Kristen’s host mom is Vivi’s aunt; Samiron’s host dad is in a band with Vivi’s husband.  The only person not related was Mary Andrews – but we made sure she was invited anyway – it was Vivi’s party, how could Mary Andrews not come?

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really nice party, they rented a really nice salon – food was catered and there was plenty of wine.  Dinner started with an assortment of cheese, meat, and other “munchies”.  “Dinner” itself was strange, as we were never given plates or served a complete meal.  Rather, waiters walked around every so often with a new plate of goodies serving them to each table – we had empanadas, hotdogs covered with bacon (not so yummy), pizza, chicken bites, meatballs, and a variety of other foods.  Music was played throughout the night, but the highlight was a skit put on by Vivi’s husband, brother, brother-in-law and my host dad.  They came out dancing dressed as painters then proceeded with a “striptease” each wearing a plastic “six pack”.  It was quite entertaining.  The party lasted until 3am, which I figure is not bad for being 50!  Afterwards, I went out with Javier (my “primo”) and Mary Andrews.  All-in-all a fun night!

Thursday, July 17, 2008 – Tango

Tango Cena-Show

 

The show was really fun, it was a very dramatic series of dancing and singing.  There was probably a story line, but I didn’t quite catch it.  Very entertaining overall.  I even had my picture taken with one of the dancers – not really by choice its one of those things where they walk around and take pictures with everyone….I felt bad because no one at my table would take the picture.  I even got suckered into purchasing the photo, not really a great depiction of me – but a fun memory nonetheless.

 

*Funny side note:  I have to share (I am sorry Samiron.)  So Samiron is the one lonely guy in our intern group (the group that came before us had no guys.)  He is a good sport about everything and fun to hang out with – though I think he is missing fellow male company.  Anyway, the majority of our families here overfeed us and are constantly concerned we are not eating enough – except Samiron’s family.  He lives with a young couple that works all the time and are rarely around and so he is not quite getting his full share of food.  One weekend when his “host parents” were out of town he was hungry and couldn’t find anything to eat in the house so ended up eating two containers (probably pint size) of dulce de leche straight from the jar with a spoon.  We all found the story so funny most of us shared it with our host families.  Mary Andrews host fathers now refers to him by name and constantly asks when he is coming to her house to eat.  It is just ironic  that the one guy in our group gets the only family that isn’t constantly trying to shove food down them!  Now every time my host primo (cousin – who lives with me) sees him he points and asks if that’s they guy who ate all the dulce de leche. 

Weekend, June 12 – 13, 2008 – El Tigre

My intern group minus me...

 

Saturday morning we boarded “El Tren de la Costa”, the touristy train that goes from the center of Buenos Aires to El Tigre, ending at the “Parque de Diversiones”, largest Argentine amusement park.  There are nine stops along the way that offer a variety of activities.  Our boarding passes allowed us to partake in as many of the stops as we wished.  I stuck with the group of six interns that started at the same time as me and we got off any the first four stops.  The first stop only offered a cute café, so we started to hop back on the train and try the next stop.  The second stop was at a park with a nice view of the river and another café, so we stopped and had coffee before continuing the trip.  The fourth stop was a “fería de antiguos” or an antique fair.  The sidewalks were lined with stalls with varying antique artifacts – interesting to breeze through, but not really my forte.  The next stop was San Isidro, which had the most activity going.  There were various restaurants (this is where we decided to eat lunch – it was already 2pm!), shops, and a hug artisan fair, including various live entertainment.  We stayed at San Isidro until almost five o’clock and then hopped back on the train and went straight to El Tigre.  Each train ride was absolutely packed and we ended up standing for most of it, but since each leg of the trip was so short it wasn’t really a big deal.

 

Once in El Tigre, we looked for hostel, which actually ended up being a fairly nice hostel.  We then went to the famous “Puerto de Frutos” which is actually just another artisan fair.  The thing about artisan fairs, is once you have seen one, you have basically seen them all.  I think I have had a good taste of what Argentine has to offer in terms of “authentic handmade” souvenirs. (You should all know that I only bought a $2 pair of earrings and some olive oil.)  That night we went back to the hostel and had a short “taller” or workshop, talking about what needed to be done before leaving the country (the first group of summer interns will be leaving in two weeks.)  Marcela (FSD director) and her friend made us pasta for dinner.  I crashed early.  I had a head cold which is no fun at all and was not in the mood for hanging out.

 

Sunday we went on a boat trip.  The area of El Tigre is surrounding by various interlocking rivers, creating islands all over the area.  Apparently, people live on these islands, they have some normal amenities including electricity, telephone, gas (via propane tanks) and water (filtered from river for use, potable water must be bought.)  It was pretty interesting to see, there is no vehicle access to the islands, they must be reached by boat.  However there are schools, churches and stores, including “floating” medics, supermarkets, and boat “omnibuses”.  Children also get picked up by a boat to take them to school.  It was pretty interesting.

 

We had a typical Argentine “asado” or grill out on Sunday afternoon at a park on one of the islands.  The meal consisted of meat, meat and more meat (and a little salad and some bread.)  We started out with carne empanadas, and then each were given a chorizo (sausage) and morcilla (blood sausage – which I tried but do not think I like.)  We were then give the “main course” which was meat with bones (they eat so much meat here, I am not sure what the English equivalent is), seconds of meat with bones and then meat without bones.  Luckily we had ice cream for dessert!  I am a little sick of the meat here…I can handle a little, but a meal that consists of four types of meat is not exactly my favorite.

 

We had the afternoon free, in which we went to the “El Tigre Museo de Arte” which is in the historical casino building, which was beautiful (can’t say I am much of a fan of the actual art, but the building was pretty cool.)  We then met back up at the hostel and headed home.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 – Dia de Independencia

Today was Argentina’s Independence Day – my host family had a get together to celebrate.  My host mom is good friends with another family that hosts interns through FSD, who is related to another family and friends with even another family that hosts FSD interns, so it was a huge network of friends and family that host interns – about 30 friends of the family in total at my house.  We all ate a super-extended table for the noon meal (which didn’t really happen until about 2pm, I was starving!)  We ate a traditional “criollo” (def – traditionally Spanish American) meal of Locro, which is a very thick stew like food that includes beans, rice, meat (beef perhaps), bacon, and I am sure various other things I am leaving out.  We also had freshly made empanadas that were cooked outside in a Bolivian brick oven (if I ever get around to it I have pictures of the over, it was left by the previous Bolivian owners of the house that I live in.)  The food was all delicious and accompanies by some very tasty “postre” or desserts – including of course a pinwheel cake smothered in dulce de leche!

 

Unfortunately I was super tired and all I could think of was sleeping after lunch, but everyone stuck around until after 5pm.  I did attempt to play “trucco” which is a very popular card game that they play here – I am still not exactly sure how to play it, but am trying.  After everyone left, I crashed for a few hours and didn’t really accomplish anything the rest of the night.  My throat hurt all day and I could tell I was getting sick so I pretty much lay low the rest of the day.

Sunday, July 6, 2008 – Buenos Aires Zoo

Gross...my host dad says they are good to eat :/

Mary Andrews (another intern) invited me to go to the Buenos Aires zoo today with her and some co-workers.  Marcelo and Vicky (a couple that works with MA) took me, her, and Kelly (anther intern that also works at the same place as MA.)  We road the train to Buenos Aires.  Train transportation is considered less than desirable here, it cost about $0.50 and we have been advised multiple times not to take it at night as it is not safe.  However, Marcelo and Vicky said we should take it once during the day for the experience.  We took a bus back to La Plata (larger travel size bus), which costs an outrageous $2 for the one hour ride!  The zoo was fun, (though I am not necessarily a huge zoo person).  I tried to take pictures, but the batteries in my camera died after the first 30 minutes or so.  The most interesting thing I saw at the zoo were these huge rodent things that were wandering around everywhere (like ducks would at a US zoo.)  They looked kind of like beaver but had long skinny tails like rats.  I can’t remember what she called them, but Mary Andrews says that she thinks it is an animal native to Argentina, but it was somehow brought to the US and is now infesting the swamp areas of New Orleans and people are now hunting and eating them!  Other than that I would say it was your average zoo – for all you KC people it was way less walking than the Kansas City zoo, which was nice, but also means animals were probably not given a very sufficient amount of space.

 

 

 

Unfortunately it started to rain by the end of the day so we got kind of soggy.  We took the subway or subte (short for subterrano) back to the bus station.  I mistakenly chose that we take the bus that does not take the highway but rather makes various stops and takes longer – because then MA could get off closer to her home….but unfortunately we had to wait an hour for that bus to even arrive despite the fact that three buses “por la autopist” (highway) arrived first. L  oh, well my mistake, but I will not make it again.  So my first trip to Buenos Aires was short.  I didn’t really see much of the city as we took the subte straight to the zoo then straight to the train station.  I am excited to go back and see more of the “big city”!