Wrapping up week one

My first week has been great!
I've really enjoyed my Spanish class, although I get really restless sitting there for 3 hours, but my teacher Carla makes it fun :) We have been working on saying things the Argentinian way, and I think this week will help me a lot when I enter the hospital next week, where none of the nurses on the pediatric oncology unit speak English.
Each day I had a new activity after Spanish class: on Tuesday, two other students and I went with Laura, the staff member in charge on going on these fun excursions with us, to get ice cream. I had white chocolate and cheesecake ice cream-yum! Then we walked around to different plazas in the city: there is a huge plaza in the middle called Plaza Independencia, and then 4 plazas equally spaced around it. They were originally made as a place where people could go if there was another bad earthquake, so they would be away from any buildings that may crumble. After walking around, we went to a restuarant for olive oil tasting. My one glass of wine must have made me really tired, because I slept for a few hours, woke up around 8 and talked with some of my housemates, and went to bed again. It's fun talking with people from different areas; two girls from Ontario and one from Alabama did not know what the Boundary Waters were or what a loon was.
Wednesday was probably one of my favorite days. After ending Spanish class early (my request-I was getting really restless), Alex, Laura and I took a taxi to Chacras, where there are many vineyards. We rented bikes and set off for the first vineyard-Alta Vista. It is beautiful! You can see the Andes mountains in the distance.
Since Alex and I can understand most Spanish, the whole tour was in Spanish, and we learned a lot about the history of the vineyard and all about winemaking. It was really interesting! The wine is fermented in these huge cement rooms, then is sent through a hose through holes in the floor to the basement, where it is put in oak barrels for another period of time. The better wines are in the winery for up to 3 years before being sold. When they are done in the barrel, they are suctioned back up through the ceiling back to the metal or cement vats to sit for a while longer! Then we tasted three different wines-my favorite was the white wine, Torrontes, which I may have to bring home at the end of my trip!
Then we set off for the next vineyard, Clos de Chacras. The tour guide spoke really good English, so this tour was in English instead. We were taken into the basement of this winery, which used to be the old winery many many years ago. The cement vats have tiny little doors, that only a child would fit through, so children were often used to clean them out. This is a very dangerous job because of the carbon monoxide inside, so to test for carbon monoxide, they used to send a bird into the vat and if it died, it wasn't safe. I guess better a bird than a child! The old cement vats are now used for storing the bottles of wine before they are exported. If my computer fully worked I could upload some pictures, but those will just have to wait! At this winery we tasted another three wines, and were given some tips on what to look, smell, and taste for when trying a wine. We chatted with a couple from Rio de Janero, Brazil while we were there. Again, I love hearing about different cultures and lives outside of tiny Minnesota.
After the wine tasting, we returned our bikes and went to a bakery for dinner. It was delicious! We started with a hot chocolate-which here is called a "submarino", which means submarine. They serve you a glass of steamed milk and a chocolate bar, which you put in the milk and stir until it melts. It is really yummy.
We took the bus homw and didn't get back until after nine that night, and all our other students were out for one of our housemate's birthdays. Alex and I went straight to bed; it had been a long day.
Thursday afternoon, Laura and I went to Havanna, a cafe known for their chocolate. We had this yummy coffee drink; I think it was espresso with sweetened condensed milk or something like that...anyways, it was good. We also had my favorite dessert-alfajores. We returned to the house and I had a tango lesson, which I had not really been looking forward to, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I wasn't even bad at it!
Thursday nights, we always have asado, prepared by the assistant program director Martin. It's like an Argentinian barbeque on a special outdoor stone grill. The meat was delicious, and was of course served with some Malbec wine.
After that, we were planning on going out for drinks around 11, but everyone was exhausted.
Here, since they have a "siesta" in the middle of the day, dinner isn't until 8 or 9 and people don't go out to the bars until midnight or later, and stay out until six, when the bars and clubs finally close. I don't know how they do it, because I'm exhausted by 11. Maybe I should take more siestas.
Yesterday, Friday, was my last Spanish class. In the afternoon, I had a cooking class here at the house, where we made "empanadas", which are a very traditional Argentinian food. They are a sort of meat pastry with beef, onions, and egg inside, but can be made with lots of different things. We also made a dessert that looked like a cream cheese wonton, but instead had jelly inside- yum!
I tried explaining to Laura and the cook, Marta, what a bagel and cream cheese were, but they had never heard of either!
Last night we went out to Taco Tabasco for drinks and food around nine. I got a pineapple daiquiri, and it tasted like rum with a little bit of pineapple juice. I asked the waiter if he could add a little more pineapple juice since it was so strong, but I think he must have just added water. In the end I just had a beer.
We went to another bar, where I just ordered a Coca-Cola Light, which is similar to a Diet Coke, but it just tasted like flat Diet Coke so I didn't really drink that either. I would have gotten just a water, but a water cost the same as a pop. Going out to eat is really weird in that way, I'm used to always having a glass of water, but here it costs at least $2 for a bottle of water at restaurants.
This morning we said goodbye to one of the girls, which was sad; even after one week you get to know everyone pretty well. Two other girls are leaving this afternoon and five more are coming this weekend. I hope it's a good group! In the next few weeks, the house is going to start to get really full.

Well, it was a very long and rambling post, but with my tempermental computer I just try to write when I can.
I'm missing home, but also still having a great time here.
Tomorrow I'm going to the mountains!

Chau!
-Elsita.

I'm here!

So. Starting from Saturday, after getting through security in the MSP airport, I soon found out that my laptop would not turn on. Great. If it had only happened a few hours before, I could have easily fixed it.
Anyways, not the end of the world. Today I got the internet to work but otherwise I can't do anything else since apparently my computer cannot locate it's own software. Ah well.
Anyways, I had a 2 hour flight to Dallas, hung out at the airport for 5 hours, had a 10 hour flight overnight to Chile-most uncomfortable I have ever been. I finally got a few hours of sleep but then was woken up to breakfast at about 5am. Then I sat in the Chile airport for another 5 hours, and had a one hour flight to Mendoza, and spent about another hour going to customs and everything.
I FINALLY got picked up from the airport from one of the Work the World staff and was brought back to the house. Which is HUGE and so nice. There are 10 students staying here (9 girls, 1 guy), and we are on our own every night and weekend, so we all have keys for the house and have every night and weekend to go out or plan trips or just hang out in the house! I'm in a room with three other girls, and we share our own really nice bathroom. There are two other bedrooms upstairs, and the guy stays downstairs. There is a nice backyard with a pool (which isn't being used as it is their winter here) and a cute balcony...I will try to upload pictures later. I got a tour of the house and then was free for the rest of the night.
I met the other people in the house: all nursing or medical students. One from Alabama, 4 from the UK,  2 from Canada (they speak French and English), another 2 from Canada who only speak English, and me! It's fun hearing everyone's accents and different ways of saying things. I learned that in the UK, yoga pants are called "joggers", tennis shoes are called "trainers" and a "jumper" is a light sweater thing. I think.
Everyone in the house is so nice and welcoming and we're like a little family :)
Today, I overslept (oops) but people here are never very punctual anyways. I had a one-on-one Spanish lesson from 9-12, which was actually really fun! Most of the stuff was review, so I asked a lot of questions and we practiced how to say things the Argentina way, which was very helpful.
Then, I went with Alex (a girl from Alabama who is also a nursing student) on a tour of Mendoza led by Martin, the assistant program director (who picked me up from the airport). We ate lunch at this place called Sabina , which was quite interesting. You picked food from a buffet, but it was all cold. Then you microwaved all your food and weighed it and paid by the ounce. It wasn't bad, but not the greatest.
Then, we walked around town for a few hours, taking buses around a few times. We stopped at a chocolate shop and tried Alforjas, which I can't even explain but they are REALLYA good. I will have to bring some home!
We learned some history of Mendoza, like how in 1861 there was a huge earthquake that destroyed almost everything and 80% of the population died. The next year, there was a huge rainfall which caused a mudslide from the surrounding mountains. After this, they decided to rebuild the city. There is now a huge park next to the mountains, so that if another mudslide did happen, it would not hit houses and people right away. I have yet to visit the park, but I have heard it's very nice. Mendoza is actually a sort of region of Argentina, and it is huge. I am living in "Ciudad" which means city.
Mendoza is also apparently a desert. Or a desert surrounds it. I wouldn't have known if I wasn't told though!
Later on tonight, a few of us went to walk around. We first changed our money at the place that looks very nice but is part of the "blue market" because they give a really good exchange rate to tourists, which is illegal. Oops. It seemed safe enough to me, and I'm alive!
I should have brought more cash, because the exchange rate for American dollars is twice as cheap as it is to just use your card to convert to pesos. Ah well.
After that, I booked two trips-which with the great exchange rate, was only $48 total! On Sunday, Alex and I going up into the mountains on a full day trip. Then on Tuesday, we're going horseback riding and then having an Argentinian BBQ--"asado" afterwords. I have heard great things about both trips so I am really excited.

I love it here, and I think the 5 weeks will go by quickly. I am excited for the adventures I will have and will try to update this more--hopefully my computer will magically start working better!

Getting Ready to Go!

Back in October, I found out that the study abroad trip through Concordia that I wanted to go on was cancelled. I had been counting on traveling to Tanzania with the nursing program and working in a hospital there, while earning a nursing credit. I was pretty bummed at first, but then decided to explore other options to travel abroad in May. I didn't want to pay tuition for a class that I didn't need to take, so I started looking at other programs that weren't through my school.

People have asked me how I found this program that I am now traveling through, and I literally just googled "nursing study abroad" and sifted through my options. I first looked at other trips to Africa, and found a few that were also going to Tanzania. I looked into these for a while, but then realized that if I wasn't going to get credit, I may as well use my Spanish skills. 

For those of you who don't know, I went to a Spanish Immersion school in Robbinsdale, MN for Kindergarten-8th grade. I think sending me to this school was one of the best decisions my parents made for my siblings and me, and something I will forever be grateful for. I've taken Spanish classes since I started when I was 5, and have now completed my Spanish minor. I hope to use my Spanish and Nursing degrees when I graduate, and hopefully this trip will be a great way to prepare myself for the future!

Anyways, I came across this program called Work the World (www.worktheworld.com), a program based in the UK. They have medical internships and study abroad placements all over the world, Argentina being the only Spanish-speaking country. After talking it over with my parents (and researching the program to make sure it was legit), I decided to take a chance and sign up for a trip!

I can't believe that my trip is only 5 days away, and I finally have made all the necessary preparations that come along with traveling to another country. I am mostly really excited, but also a little nervous since I am not sure exactly what to expect. 

I will be in Mendoza, Argentina for 5 weeks. My first week, I am taking a Spanish Intensive course, which focuses on medical Spanish for use in the hospital. In the mornings of the first week, I will be with a small group taking the Spanish class, and in the afternoons we will travel around and do fun cultural activities! I will be living in a house just a few blocks from the pediatric hospital (Hospital Humberto Notti) where I will be "interning" in Pediatric Oncology for weeks 2 and 3, and then in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the final two weeks. Other students from around the world will be living in the house, as well as a few Work the World staff and a cook who will provide breakfast and dinner each day.

It will be their winter when I am there, but it definitely will not be as cold as Minnesota winters, so that is fine with me! 

Today, I unpacked my things and I am moved back home to GV for the summer, and tomorrow I will start repacking for Argentina...packing is not my favorite.  

Anyways, there was a long introduction to my trip!

I am told there will be internet in the house where I am staying so hopefully I will be able to keep this updated when I'm there! :)

Mendoza is near the middle of Argentina, close to the Chilean border.

-Elsa