3 days left in Mendoza!

Wow, what a world wind of a week! I'm posting a picture of one of the wineries I visited on Monday. It was in the Uco Valley which is about an hour and a half away. Also in the Uco Valley is Salentein, one of the most renowned wineries in Argentina..maybe South America. We also got to see that one. I really enjoyed the winery pictured, Andeluna, because the environment was very cozy, very beautiful, and seemed less like a manufacturing plant. From the outside, it looked like it could have been a house in the suburbs. And even with it being a little cloudy, the view was still gorgeous. The rest of the week has been a blur. Wednesday we had our "graduation" from our Spanish COPA classes (the program classes). That night, we had a going away dinner and had TURKEY! It was a little dry, but it was still turkey! On top of that fun stuff, I have been packing like a mad woman. My little cracker jack box of a room has been a complete disaster area! Finally, I have it back in order, but my three suitcases are taking over. I'm packing early because today or tomorrow those of us who are going to Buenos Aires after Puerto Madryn are shipping luggage to Buenos Aires ahead of us, so we won't have to keep it in the hostel.
Monday, 10 of us are embarking on a 23 hour bus ride journey to the eastern coast of Argentina to Puerto Madryn. There we are going to visit a penguin colony (AWW!) and go whale watching! I am so excited! Hopefully, it will be warm enough to go out on the beach as well. We will arrive in Puerto Madryn on Tuesday, December 4th and leave Thursday afternoon. From Puerto Madryn, Katie Rae, Christy, Mary and I are going to Buenos Aires. We've rented an apartment (with air conditioning and wifi) for the 4 nights we'll be there. Austin will also be there 3 of the nights with her parents! It's just going to be one big party in Buenos Aires! I will hopefully get lots of pictures uploaded from our apartment after Puerto Madryn. I can't imagine how great the pictures are going to be! We are going whale watching during peak season, so we are 99% guaranteed to see a whale!!
We've had to say good-bye to some people already and it's kind of difficult..even when I wasn't really close to some of them. It's a weird feeling. I'm kind of feeling numb like I felt before I left too. It's a weird feeling because I've known ahead of time when I'm leaving, where I'm going...it's not like any of these things are new ideas that I am surprised by. Liliana hasn't really showed any emotion yet. She's said before that she will miss me. It's better for me to not really talk about it though. I'm sure we will this weekend. 13 more days!!!

One week left!

Hello! What a past few days I've had. Thanksgiving turned out great ( I posted the pic of the whole group). I will slowly start to add pictures from the whole ordeal. We starting cooking at 4:30 and ate at about 9:30. Natalie's host mom, dad, sister, and sister's boyfriend all ate. Her host parents seemed to like most everything, but her host sister and the boyfriend didn't try much. They kept saying everything was so "raro" and "distinto". They could not get over how many different types of food was in the stuffing: bread, sausage, apples, and sage??? Haha, it was funny. Krysia made a homemade pumpkin pie from scratch for the first time. Katie Rae made an apple pie. Mary was in charge of stuffing, and I was official dish washer! haha. It turned out really well.
Friday was Christy's 21st birthday, so we spent the day at the spas in Cachueata. It was a lot of fun! It was colder than when I went with the family, but it made the water feel warmer. We were prunes by the end of the day. Saturday we went to the Zuccardi party & we felt like such grown ups! It was a charity auction & there were 4 other wineries there with tasting tables. There was live music, too. Katie Rae's host mom bid on a few things and won, and we jokingly bid on a few selections of wine on the first bids. We almost cut it close one time, but luckily someone bid one higher. haha.
Tomorrow we are going on our very last wine tour extravaganza. Salentein is supposed to be the best winery in Argentina, so we figured we couldn't be here and not see it. It's pretty far out, but I called the lady we did our wine tours with when mom and dad were here, and she is cutting us a nice deal. Tomorrow will be a full day! I can't believe one week from now I will be frantically packing up my room and saying good-bye to Liliana. It's really hard to believe.
SEE YOU GUYS SOON!

3 Weeks left!

Hello everyone! Three weeks from today, I will be getting ready to go to the airport in Buenos Aires to come home! I cannot believe it's almost here! It's really gone by quickly. It's hard to believe it's Thanksgiving too! My friend Natalie really wants to cook a "thanksgiving" meal here. Turkey's are really hard to find here & are really expensive, so we are cooking chickens instead. I'm a little aprehensive about how this is going to work out...the kitchens are so small here, I don't know how we (they) are going to make everything. The oven is about the size of a microwave, so I'm not even sure if two chickens will fit in there! I'm in charge of the green salad-smart move. Everyone wants to live through the dinner. haha. I'm really going to miss cranberry sauce. I don't think I've ever even seen cranberries here. Everyone eat a lot of them for me! And I will miss the marsh mellows on top of sweet potatoes. They just won't be the same.
Friday is spa day for Christy's birthday. Her host mom has invited us over to her house that night for birthday dinner. I hope her extended family comes too so we can get the full experience. I've missed out on the big lunches/dinners that last 6 hours and have 20 people. The Lil Miester and I's meals are pretty tranquil. Saturday is the Familia Zuccarhdi party which I am really excited about! I officially finish my classes on Thursday. Our ceramics exam consists of us showing our professor our pieces. I'm really interested to see how this works because she doesn't know any of our names and doesn't have a class roster. I guess she'll ask us our name and then look at our work and give us a grade. haha. After she shows up 30 minutes late, probably. haha, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Have a great rest of the week & holiday! xoxo

San Rafael Pic

Hello everyone! I uploaded some pictures to my Mendoza album-some from Liliana's birthday party and some from San Rafael. I wish I had more pictures of the scenery in San Rafael, but was lazy the whole time and only took a few pictures. We are planning a picture swap in a few weeks, so I think I will be covered on pictures.

The girls and I had our regular Wednesday night get together and planned out just about every second of our last few weeks. This Saturday, my spanish professor is having us all over for an asado in the afternoon. Sunday, Liliana is going to give us a tai-chi lesson in the park, if the weather is "suitable for the chi". Tuesday night, we are taking a sensory tasting at The Vines (one of the few classes we haven't taken yet). Friday, is Christy's 21st birthday, so we are spending a day at the spas..where I went with the fam. Saturday, is the Familia Zucchardi special tasting. I think we might try to visit another bodega near there since we will be all the way out there. It's about 45 minutes away. My cab driver last night told me this event was spectacular and we HAD to go. =) I am really excited!
I have officially passed international relations and history =) Bravo to me! I have a Spanish oral and written final next week & then present my wonderful works of art, and I am officially done on Thursday afternoon! YAY!
No fears about the earthquake! I honestly didn't even know it happened! Haha, Liliana never mentioned it to me either, so it must not have been to disturbing to everyone down here. Have a great weekend! xoxo

San Rafael

hello everyone! San Rafael was a lot of fun! I will upload a picture tomorrow to show everyone. It is really gorgeous and has a different look than Mendoza does, even though they are in the same province. It was a very relaxing trip and more fun than I had anticipated. We stayed in cabins near a river. It was really nice and a good part of our group went. Yesterday marked the one month left mark! I'm so excited! A few weeks ago when all my classes were finishing and I was stressing about my papers I was really anxious to get home. Now as I'm realizing I only have about 3 1/2 weeks left in Mendoza, I'm kind of worrying I'm not going to fit in everything I'd like to do before I leave! November has gone by a lot faster than I had imagined it would. Don't get me wrong, I am still looking forward to being home on the 12th!!
Last night, we went to The Vines again and took a wine & cheese pairing class. It was really interesting and we met a lot of people. We met a couple from DC and another older couples group from New Hampshire. It was really interesting to talk to them; they were all just traveling around Mendoza and Buenos Aires. They were all extremely jealous of us, too.
Exciting news! Katie Rae's host mom here is really good friends with Mr. Zuccardi, the owner of Familia Zuccardi winery! Well, every year there is an exclusive premier tasting at their winery for only 100 guests and you have to buy tickets. Well, Fannie (her host mom) sold us 5 tickets for 35 pesos each to go next Friday! Happy Thanksgiving to us! I'm really excited! I've never been to Familia Zuccardi, but Mary, Christy & Katie Rae have and said it's really great. That's about all the exciting news I have for now. I will keep you posted. XoXo, have a great week!

5 weeks left!

Hello everyone! Shame on me for slacking on the blog entries. I've had a rather exciting week! Monday, I took my final for International Relations. I go next Wednesday to figure out if I passed or not. I finish my History class this coming Monday. After that, it's pretty much over. I've finished my masterpieces (ha) in ceramica & have a skit to perform for Spanish and then our good-bye dinner!
I've also been getting to know the hospital system here pretty well. My wrist has been bothering me off and on for awhile and after biking it was really swollen and hurt. So, long story short, I have a cyst in my wrist! I'm wearing a brace and the doctor said that I could wait until I'm home to get an MRI. He didn't seem like it was too grave of a situation. I'm going to do some research online because I don't really know what to expect when I get back.
This weekend, we have our last excursion with our group. We are going to the southern part of the province, San Rafael. We are staying in cabins and there are lots of outdoor activities. Christy, fell down the steps at her house the other weekend and hurt her knee, so we injured ones will be hanging out this weekend soaking up the rays and getting really cool tan lines from our braces. haha.
Tuesday was birthday day. Liliana turned 64 and her daughter threw her a 60's themed tea party! haha, all of her friends dressed in their 60's attire (which really didn't look too much different from everyday clothes, haha) and met at 5:30 for a tea! We played trivia games about the 60's and it was really enjoyable! She even went to the salon that morning and poofed her hair, wore a head band, and sported some white sunglasses. She said she was going for the Jackie O look. It was a lot of fun. My friend Sarah Beth's birthday was that day too, so I was birthday'd out!
We are doing a sparkling wine and cheese pairing class tomorrow, so it should be a lot of fun! Everyone have a great weekend! xoxo

Bike Tour!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Our bike tour was successful & we all had a lot of fun. It ended up being a little more involved than we had thought: we left at 10 and arrived back in the centro at 4. In total, we biked about 30 miles, maybe more!! Not with out wine breaks, of course. We visited 3 bodegas (wineries); one of which I'd gone to with the family. The other two were really neat though. Both were small and one, Tierras de Alta only produced Malbec wine and was built in 2001. Pequena Bodega was my favorite and was really old and still used a lot of old processes. There were 3 Germans in our group and one South American. It was a lot of fun, and good exercise for sure.
I have a paper and a final tomorrow, so they have been completely consuming my life this weekend. I will be SO glad to finish this paper. I can't wait to show it to my Spanish professors at Meredith; they have to give me credit for this class! Haha. I cannot load the video on here, so I will make a YouTube account and load it on there. I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week! 38 days until I am home!! =) xoxo