Salad=Salt

Major epiphany. Last weekend I went to Mendoza, which is a 13 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. It's Argentina's wine country and across the Andes from Santiago, Chile. While on the bus, my friend and I were talking/complaining about Argentine food with an Argentine that we met on the bus.

Our major complain-- lack of flavor and way too much salt. And why the heck would anyone put SALT on his/her salad?

This Argentine just looked at us inquisitively. An ensalada (salad) is salada (salted); they come from the same root! I didn't quite want to believe this, since we (or at least I) never put salt on salads.

Merriam Webster origin of salt: Middle English salade, from Middle French, from Old Italian (northern dialects) salata, salada, from salar to salt, fromsal salt, from Latin.

Let's just say that I have started a list of things that I am 1) going to miss about Argentina 2) looking forward to in the US. Salted salads is most definitely not on the first list.

This post is a form of procrastination

But I did do some things of note this weekend.

Friday:

-I intended to work on a paper I have. That didn't happen.

-I watched the news as South American leaders such as Hugo Chavez arrived in Buenos Aires for Kirchner's wake.

-I went to Starbucks to work on my paper. I ended up talking for two hours in Spanish to an Argentine who spoke to me in English. She is planning a trip to the West Coast of the US.

-The employees had asked where I was from (guess my Argentine accent isn't perfect yet, ha), and it was fun to say from Seattle! They then asked me about Pike's Place.

-I went to see Red social (Social Network) with friends. It was really good, but I let hating all the characters. No one was too likable.

-Gwen and I then went to a house party that someone in my class was hosting. My first Argentine party! We then went to a boliche.

Saturday:

-After three hours of sleep, I met up with a guy from my program to hop on a bus for two hours to go to a zoo in Luján.

-We were able to pet lions and tigers. No bears though:( I had heard the animals were drugged, but from what I read online they are just very well fed and trained with domestic animals. And if they are in a bad mood, the visitors just can't enter the cages.

Just chilling with the tigers!

He bit me in the butt. I probably deserved it.

Los elefantes!

And of course, holding el leoncito!

-I then got 12 hours of sleep:)

Today:

-I went running. My calves were still sore from Thursday! I'll just have to make running a more regular activity.

-I came home and my host mom insisted that I'm her daughter for the next 6 weeks. Despite the program saying that I'm responsible for lunch, when I'm home for lunch, she'll cook and we'll eat together. I can't complain! We also spent a few hours drinking tea, looking through the book my mom made for me with pictures from my birth to high school graduation, and showing her a map of the US to explain where I live and where all my relatives live.

-I have spent the afternoon and evening eating cookie dough and thinking about writing my paper as well as skyping with my parents and Aunt Kappy.

The next few days will be full of Alfonsina Storni and feminist literary theory. My host mom is convinced that I'm smart and can whip it out quickly. We'll see:)

One down, three to go!

One of the universities where I have class ends ridiculously early. So today official marked the last day of Medicina Laboral! No more 8:30 class (although it was only once a week). I've had class at Whitman earlier than that, but it's a little different when I don't live 5 minutes from the classroom. There is technically a final, but you don't have to take the final if you do well enough on the midterm exams and other work in the class. I asked the professor, and he said I don't need to take the final. Awesome.

On the way home from class today on the way to the subway I passed la Casa Rosada where half the population has gathered to mourn Kirchner. No one seemed to like him before, but now that he's dead, he was the best thing that happened to Argentina. We were told to avoid big groups like this in fear of demonstrations turning violent, but I wasn't too concerned about this group getting rowdy.

La Casa Rosada y un montón de gente

I also when on my first city run! There's a park about 8 blocks away that's a giant circle. I saw 1400 meters marked on the sidewalk, so I take that it's a little less than a mile in diameter. The weather was so nice today- about 70 with a little wind.

Even with only 3 days of class this week, I'm feeling pretty tired at the moment. I've been watching Kirchner news but changed it to Latin music videos. I think I'll start planning our 3 week Argentina/Brazil adventure. I'm getting excited for my family to get here in 6 weeks! Where has the last 3 1/2 months gone?

A sad day for Argentina

I woke up this morning to the news the ex-president, and current president's husband, Nestor Kirchner died of a suspected heart attack this morning. He was thought to be a likely candidate for the 2011 presidential election and is known to have quite a bit of power in the current administration. From talking to my host mom and my friends about the reactions of their families, it sounds like most people accept that this could affect the political situation in the country substantially. No one seemed devastated by his passing though, meaning that most of the host families are generally against the Kirchners' politics.

Today was also the national census. The census is conducted on one day here, making it a national holiday where census workers come door to door. One person must be in each household, and they can't leave the house until their census is taken. ALL businesses were closed today, minus a few kiosks that seemed be opened illegally. It made for an eerie morning walking around the city where tourists, census workers, and police officers appeared to be the only people out.

I celebrated the national holiday by having a picnic in a park with friends. We spent almost all day there, and I managed to get a pretty significant sunburn on my back. I brought oatmeal raisin cookies, which my new host mom helped be make. I had gone to a store looking for the ingredients, but couldn't find things like brown sugar or baking soda. My host mom, Laura, went to the store with me yesterday evening and helped me find the ingredients and then helped me use the oven. The ovens here are gas and need to be lit with a lighter and don't have temperature gages. The cookies turned out pretty well considering my rather imprecise measurements in metric units and the oven.

I moved last Tuesday and am so much happier here. My new host mom is amazing. I was welcomed to the house with a few brand new towels (since I'm so tall I needed bigger towels:) and a non-stick pan after I had mentioned that I like to cook. She has been very talkative and interested in learning about me. I've also woken up to her making me breakfast multiple times and insisting on washing all my dishes. I still need to explore my new neighborhood and am debating my gym options, but am quite comfortable here!

Random fact

Oranges and other similar citrus fruit actually have seeds here. I am reminded of this after eating half a mandarina and spitting out 23 seeds. You can do the math to figure out how many seeds in total. I'm not sure where I stand on genetically modified food, but I can't say I mind the seedless citrus in the US.

Lazy day!

This week went by very quickly, thanks to Monday being a holiday and never having classes on Friday. Last night I went to a movie with some friends called La familia. You would never guess from the way that movie titles are changed between English and Spanish, but it was the movie And the Kids Were All Right. It was a very relaxing way to finish off the week. There was a shout out to Buenos Aires in the script, something about the beef being so fresh that the cows are still mooing on your plate. We all appreciated it. The movie was followed by a Quilmes, the national beer.

Today I ran errands. I was only partially successful.

- I managed to get 25 pesos in monedas at the bank!

- I bought some black sandals that I'd been shopping around for.

- I was not however able to find a copy of Respiración artificial by Ricardo Piglia that I need for class. Apparently it's about to be reprinted, but that just means no one has the old copy. Needless to say, I walked down a street that is known for it's 123920 bookstores and none of them had it. I'm not really looking forward to reading 200 pages on my computer screen...

- I also stopped by the program center looking for Kenna's package, but it still hasn't arrived:( PS You're all welcome to send me letters! I'll return the favor!

- I went to lunch with David, another Whitman student who is here, and his girlfriend who is visiting. We went to sushi, and I got the "Philadelfia" roll. I can't wait for some Ahola Sushi in Walla Walla.

Another topic: Las tomas a la UBA

Before coming to BsAs, everyone who had studied here told me that I needed to take a class at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. The huge, 300,000 students, public (aka free) university. For whatever reason I decided not to take classes there, but I am now incredibly thankful that I'm not. For most of the semester, the facultades of Filosofía y Letras and Ciencias Sociales have been closed due to student strikes. The students started the strikes in solidarity with high school student strikes, who were protesting the deteriorating states of their buildings and supplies and general lack of funding. Some university professors are holding public classes in the street, others have class in cafes, some are online, and others just aren't meeting. The program that I'm in has been forced to implement "Plan B" in order to ensure that people who were enrolled at UBA receive credit. The options include an independent study/20 page paper or a selection of newly created classes offered through our program. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about it!!

Other random things:

- I'm moving on Monday to a new house.

-It's 10:23 and we still haven't eaten dinner. This schedule is killing me, my body refuses to adapt.

-It's Mother's Day here on Sunday!

Over due post!!

Life has gotten busy! I've been in the middle of midterms here. I had three exams within a week of each other, and two papers to write. I wrote on of the papers about mining for my Medicina Laboral class. It's 10 pages long- the longest paper I've ever written. I guess that's how it goes when I don't write very many papers for the classes I take in the US. I still need to outline a paper about Alfonsi Storni and feminism (errr.... or where ever it goes once I start it) for this Thursday. I feel like I'm working a lot on my school work, but I've also gotten some rather disappointing grades back. I think I will just be reassessing my expectations are far as grades, reminding myself that I'm here to learn Spanish and can only try my best!

I've also decided I'm going to move host families. I'll move in about a week to the barrio Almagro. Nothing is entirely unbearable about my situation now, but I think I'll be more comfortable once I move. I'm excited to explore a part of the city that I would otherwise not know!

Last weekend I went to Rosario, which is the 3rd largest city in Argentina and about 4 hours northwest of BsAs. The trip was organized by the program so there were 100 of us traveling together. Not my favorite was to travel but it was still a 'free' trip to a beautiful city. It was a lot more calm than BsAs, but a little more than 24 hours felt like enough time to see what was there. We took a walking, bus, and boat tour of the city. There are pics on facebook, but I don't feel like uploading them here.

This weekend I've been staying with my friend Caroline and her brother in a hotel in Palmero (another barrio in BsAs). Caroline is from Brazil but went to my high school for a year and a half. She came to visit, so I've spent the weekend playing tourist. The last month has really started to feel like I'm actually living here and not just a tourist passing by. It's been nice to take a break from my life that has felt pretty hectic recently. Again, there are lots of pics on facebook from this weekend. We did quite a few things that I haven't done yet since getting here like walking around Puerto Madero, going to the Sunday San Telmo fería, visiting some shopping districts, and entering some churches with gorgeous architecture.

It's starting to get warm here and spring has certainly arrived. Considering that sweat is already dripping down my back in the subway when it's 70 degrees out, I'm not really looking forward to the results of 90 degrees and packing into a subway car like sardines.

Tomorrow is a 'holiday'. According to what I just looked up, Saturday through Monday are Día de las Americas. A different spin on Christopher Columbus.

Off to bed now! Between sleep last night and naps today, I might have gotten 5 hours of sleep total.