Hola!

Hola toda! I have had a very busy few days! Most importantly, I have uploaded all of my pictures into the "Bariloche.." album! And, I have added some new pictures to the "Stolen" album from Mendoza, Bariloche, and my room here! The weather has been beautiful this week & I am starting to think I should have brought more short sleeved shirts! Walking around in the city and riding the bus can be pretty warm, but at night, a t-shirt isn't quite enough. I've been able to play tennis twice this week though! Christy's padre here is a member of the Andino Tenis Club, and we can play under his name for 20 pesos a piece. Austin plays club tennis at Davidson, so we went Tuesday morning and this morning and played for about an hour and a half. There clay courts, which I am not as used too, but it is great! It feels so good to play! It has also been a good mail week. Meredith Roberson sent me a US Weekly, so I got filled in on all the US gossip. Everyone was excited to read that magazine! She also sent me a box of hot tamales which are already gone =) And I also got a surprise letter from Brock! The mail works so weird here. Meredith's package took over a month, Brock's letter took a month, but I received a letter from Kristin about three weeks ago that go here really fast! I just don't understand the system--Welcome to Argentina!
I don't really have exciting plans this weekend. I think there is a horseshow in the park, so we are planning on going to that Saturday and then maybe to the zoo as well. I have a midterm on Monday, so Sunday is going to be a study day. No class tomorrow! I plan to ask around at some tourism places in Mendoza and try to determine some things for Mom, Dad, Molly and Uncle Hiram and I to do when they come in almost two weeks!! I am so excited for them to come!! I hope everyone has a great weekend! Hasta Luego!
xoxo

SORPRESA

Whew, I feel like I have so much to tell everyone. First of all, Liliana at lunch today told me she "wanted to tell me something." I knew she'd been married twice, but she'd never really gotten into details about either of them. But today, she told me that her second husbands last name was DILLON! Spelled exactly the same and everything! She said she about had a heart-attack when she received my program packet and saw my name! I just think it is such a weird coincidence. Everyone has trouble saying both of my names, so it's funny for me to think Dillon is a somewhat known name here. She said there is even a famous futbol player in Argentina named "Dillon." Who would have thought?
Our trip to Bariloche, Bolson, and Chile was so amazing! I am slowly uploading pictures, and I hope to have them all uploaded very, very soon. After I upload those, I will add new ones to the "stolen" album as people send them to me. I also took pictures of our apartment here that I will add to that album.
Sunday night, Liliana and I went to Mariela's new house because it was her birthday! She had all of her friends over and her sister from B.A, Maria Pia, came in town. AND, Liliana's ex-husband and wife were there, haha, it was surprisingly fun! Some people tried to practice their English with me, but they didn't know much, so we talked in Spanish. It was a confidence boost!
Monday night, I had my first history "parcial" or midterm. I think it went fine, I know I passed it. Our Profesora loves to rub it in our faces that we don't have important US History dates memorized. She always asks us to compare what is going on in the US in the 1800's as Argentina is fighting for their independence. GEEZ LADY, can you give us a break!? We are trying to listen/comprehend/write in spanish everything you are saying about events we've never learned about before! So of course, she asked us to compare events in 1837 and 1880 in Argentina and the US. I knew the civil war was going on, but couldn't remember dates, so I vaguely wrote about that and slavery. I'm sure she laughs about her "ignorant American students" to all of her Professor friends..ugh. Next Monday, I have my International Relations midterm. We have a Colombian friend, Laura, in that class, so we have a study date on Sunday with her.
Katie Rae took this picture of me concentrating reallllly hard on the zip line or "canopy" as they call it here. It was so much fun! I hope you guys enjoy the pictures. I highly recommend visiting Bariloche! It'd be perfect during Christmas, it would be summer, HINT HINT, family!
Chao!

Puerto Varas

Hola! Even though I´m disappointed the zpack didn´t work as well as I´d hoped, it´s hard to feel too sick and miserable when the scenery around me is so amazing! The drive from Bariloche to Puerto Varas, 6 hours, was so beautiful. We basically drove through national forests, so everything was lush green, there were tons of vacas (cows) and random waterfalls everywhere! The weather once we made it to Puerto Varas was miserable and rainy yesterday, but today most of the morning and early afternoon were sunny and not too cold. Puerto Varas is a port city, but it´s on a huge lake. There is also a volcanoe off in the distance that we can see from our hotel called Orsono. Our hotel is a little outside of our hostel budget, but we made up for it by grocery shopping! We were all so bummed and tired from the weather and our time in Bariloche that we were SO EXCITED to find lots of American comfort food in the supermarket: Edy´s cookies n cream ice cream, crunchy peanut butter, frosted flakes, and preztel sticks! We´ve successfully eaten every meal here for two days for ten US dollars, go us!!
We have been very lazy since we have been here. There are 5 of us here, and two of us are sick, so we´ve taken advantage of nice comfy beds and hot showers, and watched TNT and WB most of the day. Chile is a lot more Americanized than Argentina. It was interesting coming across the border though. We couldn´t bring anything we´d bought in Argentina and no food. We stopped once to leave Argentina and then another time to enter Chile. I guess we were in no mans land between those to stops-it seemed kind of pointless. But, Argentines and Chileans don´t like each other. According to Argentines, Chileans cause all their problems! And another tricky thing about Chile is their peso. 1,000 pesos equals 5 Argentine pesos, and 1.80 USD. It´s so weird to pay 2,000 pesos for papas fritas! And their coins say 500 pesos and 200 pesos. It´s been really confusing for us, another reason to stay inside! haha. We leave tomorrow at 200PM and will have a night and most of the day Saturday in Bariloche to ride another cable car for good pictures and eat lots of chocolate and try their famous waffles! =) Hasta Luego!

Que Lindo! Que buenisimo!

Hello everyone! Bariloche and El Bolson (I am there now) are absolutely gorgeous! Bariloche is the most beautiful place Ive ever seen. It reminds me a lot of Switzerland, Lucern, when I was there. And, it does have a lot of Swiss influence, but was founded by a Britain? Argentines have such a complicated heritage! Anyway, the bus ride was not too bad Friday night. We mainly just checked into our hostel and explored around the city Saturday. We had a really amazing dinner Saturday night and ate all of the regional food- cheese and chocolate fondue, Patagonian Lamb & trout, and Wild Boar! It was very yummy. Sunday morning, bright and early, we took a canopy zip line adventure the bosque of Colonia Suiza, Bariloche. There were 10 ziplines and we rode to tree house type platforms. The longest cable was about 250 meters. I got some really great pictures!! I cannot wait to show them to everyone. After that, we visited a microbrewery and tested frambuesa cerveza (raspberry). Then we walked 7 miles back into town (I hope you read that Coach!). Today, we arrived in El Bolson at about 130 and found our hotel. The town is really small and easy to navigate. The moutnains all have snow on them, and are so beautiful! We hiked to waterfalls today, and then it started to drizzle =( The weather is not looking good for the rest of the trip, but honestly, it is not taking away from the scenary. Tomorrow, there is an Artesenial Fair in town that is supposed to be pretty awesome. I think they have everything from crafts, a lot of wood carvings, artesan beer, cheese, meat...we have no clue what to expect! We are going back to Barilcohe tomorrow night, and leaveing early Wednesday morning for two nights in Puerto Varias, Chile. We are taking a day trip to Puerto Montt, which is the southern most city you can go into Chile before the lakes actually prevent you from crossing to the remaining tip of Chile. Does that make sense? To go any further south in Chile, you have to cross into Argentina. --Just to give you a sense of how far South we are! Del Fin Del Mundo, really!!!
The trip is amazing though, and I am glad our hotel had a public computer so I could write to you all. I bought a Z-Pak over the counter this morning in Bariloche for 37 pesos, haha...I hope it works! My other meds just did not cut it. Gracias a Dios zythromax is the same in Spanish! Have a great week! xoxo

Bariloche Bound

I am eagerly awaiting tomorrow's departure for Bariloche. We leave at 8:00PM tomorrow night and arrive in Bariloche at 1:44 PM. Another lonnnnng journey. I'm really excited about it. There's definitely a lot to see! Unfortunately, it's going to be cold, but at least we can come back to warm weather.
I wanted to tell you all a funny story about Liliana. I know some people remember that when I got my family placement letter under "interests" it said "aikido" (which is a form of marshall arts). Well, Liliana is an instructor and takes classes, but hasn't lately because she has developed a chronic cough and the doctor told her to take a break until she got rid of the cough. Well, the other night, we were watching TV and there was a commercial for some martial arts movie, and it must have made her miss her favorite activity. She got up and went to the closet and pulled out her SWORD and SABER!!! Haha, she told me "watch out"..she followed it with a wicked kind of laugh, that for a second kind of scared me! haha, but she pointed out that they were not sharp. I am so eager for her to get better so I can go to a class and watch her in action!!
I hope that I can make a quick update while I'm in Bariloche. I'm so excited about all the pictures I'm going to get to update and share with you all!! Have a great weekend and a great next week! Hasta Lugego! Wish me luck, SUERTE!

I'm falling behind

Sorry, I am slacking on my blog entries! I actually jinxed myself when I said I was feeling better in my last entry. I had to call the medico on Thursday, and unfortunately, they really believe in bedrest here. So, I was ordered for two days in the bed, three without leaving the house. UGH! Luckily for me, the US Open was on, so I got to watch all the semi and finals matches! I am thankfully feeling much better now.
We have a few days off of school next week in some of our classes, so we are taking full advantage of our time off and heading down to southern Argentina. We are going to Bariloche, which is the lake district! It is supposed to be so beautiful, and a lot cooler-back to the Northface! We are also going to this really neat town that is in all of our guidebooks called El Bolson. It's kind of a "hippy" town, but it has a lot of Swiss influence, so it's the chocolate capital of Argentina! YES! Then, we are going to cross the border into Chile, get our passports stamped, and see Puerto Montt and a few other small towns in the middle of gorgeous lakes and mountains! I will try to update my blog while I'm down there; I'm sure we cannot go over a week without internet access!
I have also taken some pictures of my room, so when I post my pictures from Bariloche, I will post them too. I hope everyone has a great week!
Padre,
Este es para vos: Vos extrano un monton!

There's your Spanish, Dad!

Proof that I can cook!

I am actually cooking! Mom, aren't you proud?! You might think that it is the easiest task possible, BUT you have to roll the dough paper thin to make empanada circles, and I was very good at this! Folding the empanada corners was definitely the hardest part. I think I may suggest to Liliana that we make emapanadas sometime soon. Molly Dillon has already requested that I learn to make caramel apple empanadas like Taco Bell, fast food queen. Hopefully, I'll be able to out due the Bell.
Luckily, the ZONDA wind did not make me sick yesterday. Liliana told me "not to breathe the air today" (haha, OKAY loco Liliana) because the ZONDA had stirred up a lot of dust. We did a mini survey of our families and asked their opinions about the Zonda,a nd some believe in it and others, like Katie Rae's mom said "It's nothing..Argentines just use it as an excuse." So, who really knows?! And my sinus infection is better thanks to Austin, who gave me Mucinex. She came so prepared. My midterms are coming up in a few weeks, so that should be interesting. I guess I should start going to class...broma! (joke). I'm actually reading a famous novel written by Felix Luna. It's supposed to be one of the best novels written about Argentine history. Go me! This weekend, we are going to the zoo!! It should be a lot of fun. I have no idea what kind of zoo this is going to be, but I'm sure it will be fun. Hopefully, they'll have an alpaca!

Hola!

I hope everyone is enjoying the "stolen pictures" album. I will steal more as soon as they are up from our cooking class Saturday. Katie Rae took pictures, so I'm sure she will have them up soon. Cooking was fun! We didn't get to do a whole lot of hands on stuff. We rolled out dough for alfahores (dessert cookie) and for tortitas (bread). We got to make empanadas, which was fun, but it's hard to make the edges look pretty when you fold it. I don't have the best culinary skills, so it might have been pretty easy for everyone else! I did get an apron, which I'm sure my roomates are excited about. I think it's our first apron of the house! We will see how often it gets used. Maybe the fam would like to have an Argentine Christmas Eve dinner! Thoughts anyone? Hopefully, I'll get some practice before then.
This week my sister is beginning to move out of our apartment and into her Bed-n-Breakfast. I hope Liliana doesn't have a break down or anything or become more annoying to me about when I'm coming home, where I'm going, etc. She seems to be pretty active though and has gotten more active as I've been here, so hopefully her social life will start to get into full swing as the weather gets warmer.
Bad news, there is a "Zonda" watch for tomorrow. Liliana has already told me she thinks I should stay inside all day tomorrow and not go to my classes! Haha, as great as that sounds, I don't think I can. Monday's are my busiest days and if I don't go to class, I will be so bored the rest of the week! I know that sounds so nerdy, but I don't know if I could stay indoors that whole time. Hopefully, it won't affect me tomorrow. I already have another cold from all the spring allergies I guess.
Good news! Our Sunday chica dinner group is going to a tango show and dinner tonight! It should be fun! Maybe we'll give tango another try. In my new photo album, there is a picture of Mary and I when we had our first tango lesson. As you can see, we were taking it really seriously!
I hope everyone has a great week! Hasta luego!