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 They were originally made as a place where people could go if there was another bad earthquake, so they would be away from any buildings that may crumble.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.
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