random things from days gone by...

• I'm totally not used to this whole eating-real-food-for-dinner thing after having lived off of PB&J and popcorn for a few years. My host mom's cooking is delicious! Also Buenos Aires holds some sort of record for the city that eats the most sweets, but nobody is overweight (maybe because of all the walking?) All I know is- mild sugar intolerance and all- I'm going to eat the hell out of these desserts.


• I woke up SUPER LATE the other day and almost missed a class, which turned out to be a great way to conquer my aversion for public transportation (I walk most days). I hopped out of bed and hauled ass to the bus stop. Nerves conquered.


• Last Friday the whole group took a day trip to an estancia, which is like a traditional ranch (but more of a tourist-trap now: think Bandera, Texas). Spent the day relaxing after a crazy week of "assimilation" into life in BsAs, but mostly I'd like to discuss the food. So as many of you know, I have been a vegetarian for about 4 years, but I decided to add meat back into my diet because it's pretty much a staple here. Like they don't really do vegetables and there are whole meals that are just meat. So on this lovely day we pull up to the estancia and are greeted by tables full of little snacks, like empanadas and rolls and cookies and pretty much anything else you could want. We're all getting full and drinking lots of maté for about an hour, then the host comes out and invites us inside for lunch! Nobody had any idea there was more food, but good god- were we wrong. Inside are rows and rows of veggies and finger foods, salads and crab meat and fruits. So we pile up our plates for the 2nd time, thinking how full we are from all the awesome food. And THEN the waiters start pouring out of the kitchen with the REAL course, which is ALL MEAT. This I learn is a traditional Argentinian asado, and I have literally never seen or eaten that much flesh in my life. But eat it I did- chorizo and beef and chicken and something else and some sort of guts/glands that tasted kind of like bacon. I told you guys I was going big! It was pretty delicious but I did feel a little nauseous; that's a big step for a former veggie. If I ever thought I was full before in my life, nothing compares to this, and I STILL ate dessert. LOTS of dessert- I couldn't really pass it up because all of the food is so freaking delicious here! Although I do give GrandDave props, because his flan is just as good as the one I ate that day. None of us thought we could do much after that meal so we laid down in a field for a loooooong time :-) They even fed us MORE dessert like an hour after that. I don't know how these people do the things they do. I was feeling pretty good later on so I rode horses! It was SO MUCH FUN to ride, I haven't done that in so long and there were a few other girls who knew how so we raced. I don't think that horse was a big fan of me after lugging around a bunch of tourists all day but meh, it was a good time. To top off an awesome day, we got back on the bus to head back (like an hour and a half) and the bus driver asked if we wanted music on and a bunch of people screamed "YES!!" so he BLARED it, and what song was it? Total Eclipse of the Heart. That's right.
  

• While walking alongst the terrifying streets of BsAs the other day, I heard a bunch of really loud sirens and saw cars moving to get out of the way... for a policeman on a 4-wheeler. And that's not the only one I've seen. How effective can they be?

• Watched Sexo en la Ciudad yesterday and learned a bunch of dirty words in Spanish.

• Totally surprised by the punk scene in BsAs, it's very popular and...authentic? I've seen more 80s punk records here that I ever have anywhere, ever. Come se dice RANDOM.

• I want to take home all of the stray dogs and cats in the entire city; it's probably a good thing I'm living in someone else's house. Also passed a huge group of German Shepherds today and definitely started to squirt some, put on my sunglasses REAL fast.

• Finally went to the supermercado and it is HUGE, you can put your cart on the escalator and go up to the 2nd story. Then you have to wait in line for a good 20 minutes to check out. I've already briefly mentioned the strange taste in American music that goes on here but the last thing I expected to hear in the supermarket was Sugarland. That totally happened.

• I've decided to join a choir class at a nearby music university!

• Lastly: found a bar called Gibraltar and went with some girls, where we proceeded to meet a bunch of Argentinian guys who had nicknames for each other like "Popeye" (something about him smoking a lot of weed?) and "Charlie Chaplin." Exchanged a record number of "wtf?" looks as the night wore on but was definitely entertained.

So far so good here in the southern hemisphere!