Southern Traditions

So I've officially moved back to Dallas.  Training finished and I came home to work from here.  The Sunday before I left though, I heard something loud behind the house.  There's a farm back there that's open to the public and when looking, we discovered a civil war reenactment going on.  I had never seen one before and it was kind of cool.  Nerdy, but cool. 

It was pretty crazy how much the gound shook when they fired those cannons. Here's some more pictures:

 

The aftermath

Then on my way home I stopped in Memphis for the Rhodes College Homecoming.  I got to see my old roommates and a bunch of friends.  We relived the old glory days at Central BBQ, Memphis Pizza Cafe, and Celtic Crossing. Pinky and I even snagged some classy strawberry Andre from Tip Top to take to the game.  We all tried to take a shot beforehand but failed miserably.  Just aint what we used to be huh?

It also felt really weird being there and not going to school anymore.  It's weird to think about how life moves on after you even though it happens all the time.  High school, college, job changes, moving to different places, etc.  I sometimes forget that it happens with everything, even when going home to my own home.  It's especially weird when you discover that you're now officially the shortest person in the family (like I did when my 14 year old brother inched ahead).

:(

Here are some pictures from Homecoming.

I think that's all for now because the RANGERS game is on.  WOOT!

update!

Ummm so it's still hot here in Texas.  As far as new stuff going on, well, it's 103F today, that's a bit better than yesterday's high of 107.  That's about the extent of excitement in my life right now.  Things might really start to get crazy if it goes below the 100 mark.  But let's pray to God that never happens!

Home, Sweet Texas.

I'm home now and it's ridiculously hot here. 108 degrees hot. So far I've had Mexican food, Chinese food, normal milk, real orange juice - with pulp, Ben and Jerry's, and root beer.  And there's still more to come.  I am going to be so fat so soon.

I've also begun job hunting.  It is such a long and tedious process, but hopefully it will pay off!

On another note, I got to spend 2 hours with Erin Stewart today on her BIRTHDAY! yay! What a great day already :)  mmmmm S Korea is so lucky.

...and I hope Dan Dekay is jealous.

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.

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!

Traveling, finally!

So it's off to Denver to see Emma Galvin and then onto Breckenridge to tumble down the side of a mountain.  I've been told to snowboard first, then switch to skiing because that's apparently easier than vice versa.  Either way, I am prepared to fall down a lot.  And at least it will be in the presence of bookpeople!

Then off to Buenos Aires and the sweet, sweet summer :)  I probably shouldn't rock the Texas shorts because the Chileans made their flag way too similar to the Texas flag, and you know how those Argies feel about Chile.  Anyway, I will try to update this as frequently as I can to let everyone know what's up, down there.  I will also be available via Skype so let me know if you need my Skype name.  I'm always down for a good old-fashioned video chat!

Also, please, someone come get me if I disappear.