La vida facha.

I finally made it into capital during the day.  Victory!  I took a bus to San Telmo, a neighborhood that hosts a “fería” on Sundays.  It’s kind of like a flea market or a smaller version of El Rastro in Madrid.  I picked up my own personal mate, a scarf, and some great boho earings.  Such a buyer...

Hard at work making orange juice.

There was also this cute little old couple selling freshly squeezed orange juice and I couldn’t pass that up.  I managed to snap a photo of them at work.

The head girl from St. George’s, Mary, met up with me and showed me around a bit.  Then she took me back to her home in Recoleta which is another neighborhood in Buenos Aires.  I had tea with her family and they showed me some places I need to go visit while I’m here in Argentina.  So much to do!  After that, we caught a bus back to school with the other boarders from capital.

Cricket is a sport that I’m not very knowledgeable about because it’s not very big in the U.S.  I think my previous experience with it didn’t go very far beyond a brief scene of it in Bend It Like Beckham.  But, being a British style school, it is very big here at St. George’s and I got the chance to watch a match.  Never again.  I’m kidding, it was fun, it’s just that the matches are a bit lengthy.  I’ve heard that some games can even take as long as 5 days.  Rugby is also popular here.  I didn’t realize how big it was outside the UK since our sports sphere in the USA are dominated by football and basketball.  There's even a rugby world cup.

St. George's cricket match.

I’m trying to remember what else I forgot to update yall on since I was sick last week.  Oh, apparently when you’re sick, there is a specific diet here that is a cure all for I dunno, umm, everything.  They told me to eat cheese, meat (which means beef here), chicken, and apples, no potatoes!  I followed it until I overheard them telling that to about 12 other people with completely different calamities.  That was comforting.  But I did discover that antibiotics are ridiculously cheap here.  Plus, you don’t need a prescription.  I think it cost me $4.50 for mine.  Well done, Argentina!  Too bad they made me throw up. 

Had some awesome gnocci last night.  It's tradition here to eat it on the 29th of ever month, although no one seems to know why.  So I did the bus/subte/train combination up to San Isidro last night (quite a feat), and met up with Manu and his cousins for dinner.  His cousin is a chef and made what might possibly be considered the best spinach gnocci in the world.  I just wish it wasn't so difficult to get there and back during the workweek.

Still not used to the night life here.  We usually hang out at someone’s place until 3:30am and THEN go to the discotecas.  We leave those around 6/7am and head back to someone’s house to continue on until 10 or 11am.  Because of this I am proud to say that I have now mastered what I like to call the night nap.  I sometimes fall asleep between 12am and 1am and then have the boys wake me up before they leave.  It’s very hard to get up at that point, but so far the night nap has proven successful.  Well, only if you ignore all the crap I have to take from the guys for falling asleep and being lame.  Now, it’s the mid-morning nap that's a toughie (8-10am nap).  And as far as music goes here, they listen to pretty much the same stuff we do, plus lots of Reggaeton.  Mmmm Reggateon...

Some early morning rockband.

And lastly, I get made fun of a lot.  So I guess not a whole lot has changed since I moved down here.  They're more used to having people from the UK, South Africa, or Australia here, so my "American accent" is deemed horrendous…and apparently very fun to imitate...y'all.  And also, everyone calls me a yankee.  Of course I correct them because I'm more of a redneck (thank God?).  Yankees are from New England.  Like my mom. Nobody likes Yankees, sorry mom.  Also, the Argentine people get pretty offended if someone from the USA says they’re American because Argentina is also part of the Americas.  Fair enough.  I try to cut us sillies some slack and tell them that while they can say they’re Argentine or Argentinean, we can’t really go around saying we’re United-States-of-American because it sounds absolutely ridiculous; so we shorten it to American.  They don’t like that either.  So I always try to avoid it and say I’m Texan or from The States. But Barrett made a fabulous point the other day: While Argies can claim to be from America, us staties are the only people from ‘Merica, the one and only.  Born and raised.


Here are some more pictures from Argentina:

Plaza del Mayo

La fería in San Telmo

Scarves, or bufandas, at the fería.

walking to the beach in Pinamar

La playa

And I’d like to give a quick SHOUT OUT TO JOE WELSCH!  Again.

Food. Warning: it's a long one!

Sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve updated everyone on what’s going on in Argentina.  I wasn’t feeling well all last week so I wasn’t too keen on sharing the details.  But there’s nothing a long weekend at the beach can’t cure!  I went to Pinamar again because it was probably one of the last weekends it will be warm since fall is now here.  It’s a bit weird for me since it’s usually getting warmer this time of year in Texas.  It will be a bit of a shock when I leave winter here in July and head on back to good old 100 F Dallas. 

Anyway I realized I haven’t really shared much about the eating habits here which are quite different then the U.S.  First off, they don’t really eat breakfast like we do.  A cup of instant coffee and a banana or some bread is pretty much the extent of that.  While I don’t mind the coffee, I would kill for some scrambled eggs and bacon, but I guess I’ll manage.  Actually, it’s probably best since they eat more than 3 times a day here, I don’t want to surprise my parents with “a little extra Bridget” like I did when I came home from Spain.  Oops…

Here’s a typical eating schedule:

Breakfast 7:30AM: Coffee and a banana or yogurt.

Staff Break 10:25AM: Coffee or Mate and usually some alfajores or some sort of pastry.

Lunch 12:25PM: they’re pretty good about only letting the students have water here, unlike the US which feeds them milk and cokes.

La merienda (afternoon tea):  Either tea or mate and some banana milkshake!

Dinner 8:00PM: They eat much later here than we do in the states, and I think 8PM is even a bit early for them. 

So as you can see it’s really hard not to have gained 20 pounds at this point, and that’s even with me skipping the second staff break in the afternoon! I guess that’s why I go to spin class.  Well, sometimes ;)

Here's some traditional stuff:

Beef, or lomo, is very common here.  And they cook it quite different than in the U.S.  It’s also very common to have “un asado,” or barbeque here.  But you’ve got to pace yourself because they bring you all these delicious sausages (morcilla, etc.) and so of course, you put it on your plate and eat it, but then they bring you another round with pork and you want to try it, even though you’re getting pretty full.  And then they bring another round, yet again - Café de Brazil style - and it just doesn’t seem to end.

Some other popular things are Alfajores which are a type of cookie.  They’re like a dulce de leche sandwich with a chocolate coating on them.  Dulce de leche is also huge.  They put it on everything: bread, cookies, cake, bananas, ice cream, etc.  Tasty.

A traditional drink here is yerba mate, which is almost like a tea, but it’s more of an herb that everyone drinks.  I think it gets its name from the cup they drink it from which is called "a mate".  It has this straw that has a spoon shaped bottom.  They put in the yerba, add some hot water and pass it around.  Not the most sanitary thing, but it can’t be worse than communion at a Catholic mass. 

Looks a bit like you're drinking pot doesn't it?

Fernet is also very popular.  It’s an alcoholic drink similar to Jagermeister but not quite as gross because it doesn’t taste as much like black licorice (sick).  They usually mix it with coca cola to dilute it a bit.  It’s pretty good, you just have to be careful how much you drink though because Fernet used to be used as a cure for digestive problems.  My favorite drink here though, don’t laugh, is their Manzana flavored Gatorade.   The best.  It tastes like apple juice, but better.  I don’t know why the U.S. hasn’t caught on to this one because it is so much more refreshing than nasty G2 artic glacier freeze chill or something ridiculous like that. 

Oh, and kind of random, all the boarders eat frosted flakes here, but instead of putting milk in, they put vanilla yogurt in their bowls.  I mean, I guess that’s not too weird because we put granola in yogurt, I think it just throws me off because it’s not like they’re putting cereal in their yogurt, they’re putting yogurt in their cereal. Hmmm?

For the most part the food is good, I do miss a few things though, like a peanut butter.  And a proper hamburger!  If you order one here they give it to you one way, and one way only.  You can’t choose your temperature, cheese, topping, mayo/mustard, etc.; I miss the mushroom swiss burger (and you too Aaron Denney!).  Pizza is a bit of a disappointment as well.  Very different, don’t really know how to explain it.  But they do have empanadas which are delicious!  So good.  And I really miss some good old, fresh, whole milk.  It might just be me, but I’m a bit skeptical about drinking a glass of milk from a carton (or bag! (?)) that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Dicey huh?

I think that’s it as far as food goes.  I haven’t made it to Mendoza yet for the wine, but I’ll let you know when I do because it’s supposed to be wonderful. 

Anyway, sorry this one was a bit boring, I just wanted to share a few of the differences I’ve noticed so far.  I like some of them, but it’s still so hard not to miss things like peanut butter and freshly brewed coffee.  But I guess that’s part of the fun of traveling! I'll update again in a few days with some more exciting pictures and stories from the beach.

Oh, and lastly, I want to give a big shout out to my friend JOE WELSCH! Hi.

Favorite YouTube Videos

YouTube is by far the greatest thing ever created for people who want to procrastinate.  So instead of updating you on what I'm doing in BA, I'm gonna list my 7 favorite YouTube videos.  Here they are off the top of my head, keeping in mind that anything originally found on TV was not included in this.  Nor was Antoine Dodson (perps aint allowed on this blog). They are listed in order of preference.

7. N64 Kids Thank you Santa.
6. Leprechaun This embodies everything that is wrong with Alabama.
5. David After Dentist This is for Philippe.
4. Drunk History The title says enough.
3. Self Defense "...the first thing you're gonna want to do is climb in through the window because he's probably locked his door."
2. Worst Beer Run Ever  Best beer run ever?
1. Proud Dog Owner "This dog, he minds so good."

Honorable Mention:
Ninja Cat Didn't make the final cut because cats are vile creatures.














Also, I apologize for video 3.  I just really wanted to Rickroll Even Brewer.  Here is the real link:  Self Defense.





Suckas...Haha, just kidding. Here is the real one, for realzies: Self Defense.

Quilmes and Pinamar

Just finished week 2 here in Argentina.  It was the first full week of classes and pretty busy.  I really enjoy working with the younger kids though, they are all really cute and ask the craziest questions: “Miss, do you go to casino night in Texas?” Here is a picture from the St. George's campus where I live.

            Last week Manu brought me to see his favorite team, Estudiantes, play at their new stadium in La Plata.  It was fun and the stadium was nice, but I guess JumboTrons are pretty rare here because they didn’t really know what to do with it so they just put a picture of the stadium on it.  The stadium that we were inside. A game clock would have been more useful, but eh, they'll figure it out.  I enjoyed it though, a grateful change from the MLS, and Manu is determined to make me an Estudiantes fan. 

            I joined a gym here in Quilmes to go to spin class with Mikaela and Peggy (some of the teachers here at St. George’s).  I even went on my birthday.  My mom would be so proud!

            Facundo  took us gappies out in Quilmes on Thursday.  The place was pretty crazy for a Thursday night.  We met some really cool people and I was glad to see a little more of Quilmes.  It was a good time, I’m just going to have to get used to staying out until 6/7am again.  Wasn’t very prepared for Friday morning, or as Barrett once told me, “she just aint what she used to be, is she?”

            On Friday, a bunch of the teachers and gappies went out for happy hour and afterwards a few of us went on the Buenos Aires pub crawl.  Got to see some neat areas like Puerto Madero and we met some really cool people as well as some very…interesting ones.  The walk/subte/train/taxi ride back was a bit longer than desired, so we’re going to have to learn the bus schedules for this place.

Chris, me, Jeff, Thomas, and Sam at Krakow Bar.

Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires

Manu: can't get rid of this guy, jeez.

            I had to go to the dentist here because I messed my teeth up snowboarding/falling down the mountain.  It was awesome (if the dentist can be awesome?).  Not only did it take just 30 minutes, but it only cost $30 for a filling as opposed to $181 in the states.  I’m going back tomorrow just for fun!  

            And then this weekend was a holiday weekend -for Carnaval- so the other gappies (Sam and Jeff) and I went to Pinamar to enjoy the beach.  We camped at a campground right next to the beach which was nice except for the parrots that would start screeching at 7am.  I should have brought my air soft gun.   We pretty much just relaxed and enjoyed the sun, well, enjoyed it until Sam and I realized we were fried.  Wasn’t very hard to spot us on the beach though, just look for the giant glare radiating from our stomachs.  Too bad I forgot my thong bikini, rats!  We went out quite a bit in Pinamar too since Facu showed us around.  Still couldn’t keep up with the boys though and fell asleep mid conversation at the dinner table.  And then again the next night.  I’m trying!  The boys played some cricket on the beach so I’m learning a little more about that sport.  Now I just need to work on my meter/mile and liter/ounce conversions.  Got back to St. Georges this afternoon and getting ready for another week.  And sleep!

Pinamar, 7am

The boys and some lovely sunbathers in the foreground.

Bright and early!