Happy Halloween!

It's hard to believe that today is Halloween, and tomorrow will be the first day of November! Ahh! Our program is having a Halloween party for us, and we are "required" to dress up. I'm being really creative and going as a tennis player. Liliana won't go with me; she says she's too old to dress up, yet, her birthday party next week is '60's themed! It's funny because I hear her calling around to costume shops asking if they have costumes like "Jackie Kennedy" haha, ohh Liliana.
I have my first final on Monday!! eek, I'll be ready to get it over with. We've started painting our pieces in Ceramica, so that has been fun too. I don't know how much I'm going to bring home. Our teacher started "assigning" projects, so some of those aren't very fun. I'll donate them the Art Department, haha. I know that's what they really want me to do anyway..
This Friday, we have rescheduled our biking through the vineyards tour. Hopefully, it won't rain us out this time. I'm looking forward to it. I finally have all my Chile pictures up, so check them out. I even put captions on most of the them. Let the countdown begin, 6 weeks from today, I will be on US soil. xoxo
Happy Halloween!

Chile!

Chile was an amazing trip! We had really good weather, and the cabana was really nice as well. Austin's family friend, Raul, and his wife showed us around Santiago Wednesday and Thursday. They recommended a really good restuarant to us, and invited us over for lunch the next day. Santiago was a really neat city, and while it did have some poorer areas, some parts of the city were really modern and clean. They even have a subway system, which I didn't really expect to see. Raul's cabana in Vina del Mar that we stayed in was really nice as well, and it was in a great location. The Chilean port cities are really pretty because they are built up on the hills; it's definitely not a flat area. We could see the beach from our cabana, but it was probably more than a 30 minute walk there. The buses were really easy to use though, and it worked out nicely for us. The beach was called Renaca beach. This picture is actually taken in the city of Vina del Mar. We were able to lay out on the beach Friday afternoon, but at about 3:30, it became too cold again. The beach is really windy, so that made it difficult to stay warm! The beach was really pretty though, and the waves seemed so much bigger! I took a lot of pictures and will try to get them up soon. We took a day trip to Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso. He's a famous Latin American poet. His house was really neat and had a great view of the city. We got to eat some seafood too, which is hard to find/eat in Mendoza. I really miss seafood! We mostly just hung out and relaxed when we weren't out on the beach or walking around. Friday was definitely our lazy day. We consumed a lot of cereal & ice cream and played card games for hours upon hours. It was definitely a girls weekend-a huge slumber party.
All of my work is picking up, but I have my first final November 5, then I'm done with one class. The 12th, I finish another class. My spanish program class finishes the 21st, and my ceramics presentation is the 23rd! I can't believe it's almost over!
Presidential elections were today. It was a huge ballot in Mendoza because they were voting for governor, senators, deputies, and city officials as well. Their voting system is so unreal. First of all, they have paper ballots in strips of 6 blocks each in a strip. In this election there were 28 of these strips. Each strip is it's own party, but some parties combine together and for instance, one of the candidates for governor is on 6 different ballots. You can either vote straight ticket, or if you dont' want to, you cut each candidate you like from each strip and make your own ticket. It's so confusing; there are over 1000 people on the ballot just for Mendoza, or more. I will try to save some newspaper articles and sample ballots from Liliana.
Her birthday is the 6th, and we are having a "tea party" of sorts at Mariela's hotel. She said there are going to be 35 people there, and there will be games. I'm kind of nervous...I guess I have a week to prepare! Hope everyone had a great weekend! xoxo

Vino

So, I'm procrastinating more on my paper; I just needed a quick break! This is a picture from one of the vineyards, I can't really remember which. First, we went to Catena Zapata which is a 4 generation Argentine family-owned winery. They do export, so look for Catena Zapata! Secondly, we went to Septima which was nice too, but was definitely a lot smaller than Zapata. They have a specifc wine brand just for the US. I think they export like 70% of their wines (mostly to the US). Their export line is called Marraso, if anyone's interested :). Next, we went to a beautiful one down the road from Septima called Ruca Malen, and we had lunch there. It was so beautiful, and a really small operation. Lastly, somehow we made it to Weinhart, which was totally different than the others because it was an older, more traditional winery. Instead of fermenting and storing the wine in metal tanks, they used huge wooden barrels. I have some great pictures of the barrels. They had the worlds largest full barrel? Something like that..with Hiram standing next to it, it made him look like an dwarf.
Thursday night, we went to dinner with Liliana, her daughter Mariela and Mariela's boyfriend, Pablo. Pablo is completely fluent in English, and Mariela is pretty close, so I think Mom & Dad enjoyed talking to them. I didn't have to translate too much, so it was pretty nice! Mom definitely wins the award for learning the most on the trip. Hiram second because he learned to say perfectly "quarter pounder with cheese" at McDonalds. Molly comes in third because she was kind of apathetic about it all, and Dad last because "you can't teach an old dog new tricks!" I told him chorizo meant sausage at every meal!!! haha It was fun though, I didn't mind.
This Wednesday, I am going to Chile with 3 other girls. Some of Austin's family at home had an exchange student from Chile and he now has a family in Santiago. So, he offered Austin his beach cabana in Vina del Mar!! So, we are taking the bus to Santiago (about a 6 hour drive) for a night, then going to Vina. We are going to make a day trip to Valparaiso, which is one of the oldest port towns in South America (with Buenos Aires). Pablo Neruda also has a house there, so we will definitely make a trip there to take pictures and get brownie points with our professors back home. Enough procrastinating, I need to get back to work (yes, I'm doing work!). Have a great week, and Happy Mother's Day! =)

Family & Wine, Safe at Home

Well, they made it back safely yesterday afternoon. It was still hard to say goodbye Friday, but not as hard as it was in July. Now, I think I'm realizing how close December actually is! It does not feel like 3 months have passed by. I know I haven't written in awhile, and I'm stealing internet from my neighbors right now. I can't remember what I talked about last, so forgive me if I repeat. I have a 7 page minimum research paper I'm trying to write on the Falklands War, so my brain is a little mushy. Today is actually Mother's day here! We are having a mother's day "asado" or barbeque in a little bit. The last few days the family was here, we were the busiest. We did an all day mountain tour to Aconcagua on Wednesday. It's only 5000 feet smaller than Everest. Dad was so thrilled that he got to save the altitude on his GPS, 9,546 feet or something. (I uploaded a picture of it on my link). On the way down from the mountain, we stopped at Puente del Inca, which is Argentine's version of Virginia's Natural Bridge. Needless to say, this one is much cooler. It's covered in sulfur deposits and has an old, unused now, hotel built into the side of the mountain. They had a nice mountain bizarre there that we all enjoyed too. We also went to 7 colors Mountain, which was colored because of all the mineral desposits, and it was really interesting too. I am slowly uploading all the pictures. Thursday was winery day- we visited 4. We had lunch at a beautiful winery called Ruca Malen. There, we met a couple from ROANOKE VA, and to make it even more hard to believe, they knew my freshman year room mate, Holly Butcher from Roanoke!!! She works for a wine distributing company in Roanoke strictly distributing South American wines. Cool job, huh? This picutre of Molly and I was taken after our first winery visit to Catena Zapata. Okay, I'm running out of time, but I will continue to upload and update! xoxo

Hola!

Hola! Sunday was overcast so we changed plans and went to "shopping" (that's what they call their mall here). It was jammed packed because of the holiday weekend and weather, but it was still a lot of fun. Uncle Hiram loaded up on Argentine jersey's and rugby shirts, haha, he sported one last night. I'm so proud of everyone because they are at least saying "Hola" and "Gracias." Last night was a lot of fun because we went to Tango show! It was a lot fun and very informative! There were two singers, 3 couples of dancers, and a 3 person band. They also had a short film that they showed in between (with English subtitles) that talked about the history of wine and tango in Mendoza. This show was created for tourists, not just tourists from the US, but also for tourists all over South America. So at the end, they started naming countries and playing a song that corresponded to each country. For the United States they played "New York, New York", good ol Frank. It was really funny/embarrassing. I think last night we had our most successful meal yet! Poor Molly hadn't ordered anything that she'd really liked the whole time we'd been here it'd seemed, and everyone had had trouble ordering from a Spanish menu, even with my help, so I checked out the menu at Hyatt and it was in English, so I was sold. I made reservation right then and there. And Molly ate!! YIPPEE! I think they are all experiencing a little bit of culture shock. Anyway, I'm going to try to upload more pictures now. We are meeting in a little bit to walk to the Park for a little while. It's a really nice day today. hasta luego!

Bienvenidos, Familia!

They made it! Of course they were the lasts ones through customs, but that´s okay. In the Mendoza aiport, there is one little door that they make all the arrivals walk out of, so of course, there were a million people crammed in front on the door-typical Latin American style, invading your personal space. I was really worried for the fam to turn the corner and be greeted by an intense mob of strangers, so it worked out that Liliana and I were basically the only ones left there! We some how crammed all their luggage in a taxi and a her car. She asked me why they brought so much luggage!! I tried to explain that one suitcase was full of peanut butter, halloween candy, and summer clothes for me, but she was still baffled. They all of course were starving from the flight, and Uncle Hiram was especially cranky, so we quickly walked to a restuarant to eat their first Argentine meal. We walked around the centro a little last night, and I took them to Cafe Havanna where the waitresses were excited I brought my family (since I´m such a regular there!). Everyone was tired pretty early, but somehow I managed to get them to wait and eat dinner until 930. We jsut ate pizza, and it was rather comical because we ate outside on a pretty busy street, so it was loud. So you can imagine that Dad couldn´t hear anything, and there were all these ¨street kids¨running around from table to table trying to get you to buy crappy little tours for 3X their worth, so mom was afraid they were going to take her purse off the arm of her chair and Hiram kept trying to buy the crap toys! haha, typical. They didn´t embarass me too badly though! They make me order everything at every meal, so at least I´m getting to speak some spanish.
Today, we had a really great excursion to a valley near the foothills of the mountain, Cacheuta. Cacheuta is known for its hot springs because it´s a volcanic area, so the main attraction is a spa. We took a beautiful horseback adventure around the valley, then had a really nice lunch at the spa. Molly, Mom and I all got $10 30 minute massages that were very good, and we all enjoyed the hot thermal spas afterwards! They have mud treatments that you can use before you get in the spas (you wash it off first) and everyone participated in this but the boys, dad put some on his feet, whimp. Unfortunately, we did not have the camera for this adventue, but we got plenty of pictures of the spa afterwards. It was very enjoyable, and I could have stayed there all day. Our tour guide has been really nice and helpful and has helped us plan two other events so far. Tomorrow is going to be a lazy, park day. I will try to upload some picures tomorrow. Molly, the queen of taking embarassing photos, took plenty this afternoon of us all! I´ll will try to add a mix of both good and bad =)
I am so happy they are here!! Have a great weekend!

Bienvenidos, familia!

Mom, Dad, Molly, & Uncle Hiram are coming Friday morning! Liliana and I are meeting them at the airport! I am so excited to see them! Mom found a good tourist company online that I have been talking to and since we won't have a car here, I think we are going to do some excursions through that company. A day of wine, a day to the mountains, and maybe a horseback riding excursion or a spa day (yeah!!). Molly is bringing her computer to stay connected, haha, so hopefully I will get to update next week. I have Monday off, it's a holiday here. Maybe their hotel has wireless, I'm not sure. It's really close to me, so I'll either stay their most of the time or go back and forth. I'm going to make Molly go with me to my program Spanish class on Wednesday. I think we are just finishing a movie, so it will be harmless. Hasta luego, I will keep you posted!

Tai Chi & Empanadas!

Last night was so much fun! The girls came over around 5 and we had a traditional Argentine dinner at a traditional American time, it was great! We made 40 empanadas and had no leftovers! Natalie's parents are in Mendoza now, and her mom came over with Natalie. They are Cuban, so her mom is fluent, so she and Liliana had a lot to talk about! Her mom got Liliana talking about Tai-Chi, so, as you can see she gave us a little lesson! haha, it was so funny! Natalie's mom is in the background of this picture, and Liliana is in the blue directing us. Looks pretty good for 64, right?
There was a lot going on in the park today! A bunch of us met there to go for a walk, and we walked right into a parade! They were celebrating different types of dances and all of these little girls were all dressed up in flamenco costumes and other traditional outfits, dancing, singing, everything! It was really cool. Then we walked by Club Hipico where Mary takes horseback riding lessons, and they had a huge jumping show going on! It was almost grand pre style; all the people who wanted to be seen were there in the official "polo" brand of Argentina and decked out in their riding gear!
I can't believe the fam is going to be here Friday!! I am so excited, and have pretty much decided where we are eating every meal (which I know that is the most important part of the trip!) and am trying to plan as many wine tastings as possible! haha, I'm really excited. I can't wait for them to meet Liliana! She's offered to drive me to the airport to help pick them up! haha, it's going to be one awkward ride to their hotel! Have a great week everyone!!
xoxo

Buen Dia

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Hola chicos! I hope everyone is having a great week. I have good news to report about grades: I passed my history and politics exam! YIPPEEE! I will find out my international relations grade this coming Monday or Tuesday. It was harder, but I passed it too, I know. This weekend we had a very relaxed time. Mary has been taking riding lessons here and she had her first horse jumping show! It was a lot of fun, and I got really sunburned, yuck. The sun is definitely stronger here. I've had a good week, but it has been very busy week. I've joined a gym, so I am trying to go to that as much as I can in the mornings. Austin and I are still playing tennis (we played this morning). The weather is so beautiful, I had to take pictures when we were in the park last weekend. I will upload them asap, but here is a preview of one. Last Saturday we went to Katie Rae's house and cooked noquis and watched 16 Candles because her family has a DVD player. It was a real treat; I even took my house shoes! It was a lot of fun. This Saturday, everyone is coming over to meet the Lil Miester! We are making empanadas! I'm really excited about it, and I think Liliana is too. She had her friends over last night for cards, and they didn't leave until almost 1AM! They play cards, eat, and drink from about 4 PM to 1 AM, but only in "la casa de mujeres". The women who are married have to go home and cook dinner at 9, so only the single women/widows get to stay out later. Haha, it's quite funny to hear her explain this.
Anyway, hopefully, I will have something really exciting to talk about next time! Hasta Luego!