Sunday, November 30, 2008

Church

Went to Church today. Ran into an Elder (Holden) who lives about 3 blocks from me in the Seattle area. How crazy is that?! It was Primary program day, which, of course, I loved. I think when I went to Church in Vegas it was Primary program day and again when I was home last at Lynda's ward. My favorite Primary program was at Tyson and Kendra's ward where that little 5 year old was singing at the top of his lungs, but not singing the actual lyrics to the songs. Just whatever words he happened to like, I guess. It was hilarious.

The program today made me cry cause it made me think of my mission and missions in general. And the kids were super cute. Then the Bishop got up to speak after the program and really made me think of all of the kids in my family. The Bishop was sharing a story from his mission...when he was teaching a man the man was so moved by what was being discussed that the man told the Bishop/Elder that he knew that if the Savior could teach him, he would. But since the Savior couldn't teach him, He sent this Bishop/Elder to teach him in the Savior's place. The Bishop then said that each of the children in our families were sent to us with the express commandment that we teach them and care for them as our Heavenly Father would. We must treat them as our Heavenly Father would treat them and love them as our Heavenly Father would love them. This, of course, can be a no brainer. Love and care for your kids. We all know that.

[emotional homily]
Then I started thinking about the kids that are having trouble. That are either in trouble or looking for it. Your parents are only taking their jobs seriously. They are treating you as your Heavenly Father would want them to treat you. They are holding you responsible for your choices so that you can be a responsible adult when that time comes. I know you think you know better than your Mom. But cut her some slack. She's doing the best she can with the responsibility she's been given and with a child that's fighting her every other step of the way. You may have never asked her to do what she's doing, but your Heavenly Father did and eventually she'll have to answer to Him about her stewardship over you. He'll ask did she fight for you at every opportunity. And she will say that she did...not because she knew she'd have to answer to Him, but because she loves you more than anything in the world. Anything. 
[/emotional homily]

Here's the chapel...in the middle of a really busy street. Built in 1974. 2 wards meet there. It's like a miniature regular chapel.  Everything is exactly the same, just on a smaller scale.

Went on a bit of a walk after Church to get some fotos and see a bit more of the city. I love trees. And I love the squares throughout the city. It's a nice way to break up all the concrete jungle.

It feels as if I've been here for quite some time. And it's only been 2 weeks. This time next week I'll be back in Newcastle in my own apartment with my own bed. I'm beginning to get nostalgic for Argentina already. Not only will I miss the delicious food, but I will miss the people I've been helping out. They are so kind and genuine and a joy to help.

Speaking of...Juan totally hooked me up with a music suggestion.  Jorge Drexler is from Uraguay and his music is right up my alley.  Here's a duet he did with the guy that sings La Flaca. (video is totally a U2 homage)




And here's another song that makes my mouth just drop open in awe of how beautiful his voice is.  Seriously...I could listen to this guy all day, every day. 



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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Asado

Just an FYI...Argentina is known for its beef and particularly for its version of BBQ - Asado. One of the locals told me the best place to get Asado here is at El Establo. So Debbie and I headed there on her last night here. And I think it has ruined beef for me. I had a steak sandwich for lunch today and didn't even want to finish eating it. Because I knew that better meat existed just a few miles away, so why waste my efforts with the inferior steak? When just a few days ago the steak sandwich was a pretty darn good sandwich. Be warned: eat at El Establo and all other beef will pale in comparison.

The super fun thing about our dinner was our waiter. When I placed our order, he suggested a change (to the heavenly beef, so I'm grateful for that). I needed a glass for my water and he just grabbed an unused glass from the table next to ours. The table on the other side of us needed some ice so he took our unused ice and gave it to them. When he passed by our table he organized our glasses, drink bottles (water and soda came in a glass bottle) and everything else on the table that wasn't our actual plates. He didn't say anything while he did it...he just did it. And when he brought us our salad (along with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt for dressing) he stood beside the table as I picked up the olive oil to pour it on the salad. "That's olive oil," he said. "Yeah, thanks," I replied and continued to turn the olive oil toward the salad bowl. "That's olive oil, that's balsamic vinegar and that's salt," our waiter said again. "Gracias," I again replied and kept moving the oil towards the salad. "That's olive oil," he repeated. I decided to put the olive oil down and look at him expectantly. "First the salt, then the balsamic then the oil," he told me. "Oh yeah?" was all I could muster. "Si...first the salt, then the balsamic, then the oil...it mixes better that way...just put all of it on as you would at home." "I don't do this at home," I replied with my hand now moved from the olive oil to the salt. He was very surprised and didn't know what to say. After we finally got the salad prepared the proper Argentine way Debbie dished up some salad and put it on her plate. I shared the interesting fact with her that in Argentina (as in Spain) they don't put salad on their own plate but instead everyone eats from the same bowl. Debbie said, "Well if our bossy waiter says anything, just tell him this is how I do it and my house. So there." She's funny.

Water and sodas come out in cans or bottles (mostly bottles) at restaurants. Every restaruant I've been to serves a bucket of ice at the table (see above). And if you stop by a corner store to get a can of grapefruit soda (gaseosa de pomello) they will give you a straw to go with the can. The can clearly states not to drink directly out of the can. I wonder why. Kind of reminds me how some things in the Unites are listed as causing birth defects, but only in California.
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Thanksgiving fotos...

The hotel did an amazing job with our Thanksgiving Dinner. It was absolutely delicious. They made 3 turkeys...moist and yummy. And 3 different kinds of potatoes (see below). Mashed, roasted regular potatoes and roasted sweet potatoes. Finally...enough potatoes! And the gravy was the absolute best gravy I've ever had in my life. In lieu of cranberry sauce there was a divine plum sauce. Homemade applesauce, carrots, caramelized onions, several different types of gravy and sauces. They just kept bringing the food out from the kitchen. It was a very nice thing for the hotel to do for us.

After dinner Debbie, New Guy and I headed up north of the city to an area that's listed as "Complejo Turistico" (Tourist Complex). I thought for sure there'd be some sort of something to see. Turns out...not so much. Though we were able to get photos of the brown Parana river and this HUGE bridge that links the city to a little town on the other side of the river. I only saw commercial trucks cross the bridge, I'm not sure that regular people ever cross the bridge. We inquired about heading over to the small town to see what there is to see but could only get there if we paid a cab to take us and wait for us while we walked around the town until we were ready to return. For a little over $100 US. Wasn't worth it to us. New Guy and I decided we'd see a bit more of Argentina in a different way. More on that later.



We then walked down the coast to a private beach...which means it's not really private, you just have to pay a little over $1 US to go on it. So what would that be? A pay for use beach? I was hot and hot and...oh yeah, hot. It was over 95 degrees. I just wanted to get out of the sun.

Debbie bought a gift for Ben from this homeless guy living out of his car with who I can only guess were his wife and child. She wanted me to barter with the man on the price. And when I did, I got a 10 minute lecture on the economy of Argentina and how he worked for 30 years only to lose his job and how much he spends on food every week for his family and lots of other things. (The great thing about my Spanish being rusty is that I can just turn the Spanish off in my head...so after about 5 minutes I just pretended to be listening.) So Ben...I hope you like your gift, cause it cost me some patience.

We were going to go get some ice cream. Got lost on the way to find it...ended up back at the chapel during the day. They walked around while I listened to the ward member that was there waiting for the power to turn back on so he could make a napolitana for the Stake Young Men/Young Women's dinner that night. You know...now that I think about it...speaking the language is sometimes a hinderance as I'm stuck responding to people when everyone else is off exploring and ignoring the conversation cause they don't understand it anyway. Oh well...being polite is a small price to pay.
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Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving

Turns out that our hotel chef's version of Thanksgiving is actually pretty darn good.  The only thing lacking was stuffing and my family.  

Fotos later.  Happy Day!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I promise this entry wasn't going to be about food...

It seems that most of the entries I've had lately have been about food. So today the entry was going to have architectural fotos and be about our adventure to the Central Post Office. Debbie and I need some stamps to send the nifty postcards we found in Buenos Aires (haven't seen any postcards here). I figured we could get some stamps anywhere, but why not see if there's a central post office in a really old, large building filled with history and culture? That way Debbie could get some great photos and we'd see a bit more of the city.
So...they have a Central Post Office just as I had hoped. But...turns out the electricity was out, so no stamps for us. And when Debbie took her camera out of her bag to take a foto she was approached by a security guard/police man who simply said, "No."
Here's the one photo I was able to take. Behold! The three windows of the side of the Central Post Office.

That was a bust.

Lucky for us we found this awesome sweetbread and coffee shop. Brownie, it's called. And Debbie said the brownies are de-lish. I haven't tried mine yet, in fact, I forgot I got one until just now...I know what Ranee's having for breakfast tomorrow.


Argentine/Spanish lesson for the day: our equivalent of danishes/sweet breads is "facturas" and what we would call treats/petit fours (ok, so that's a French word, but you know what I mean) are called "masas." Masas are what are found below. I've yet to see a proper "to go" box here. They wrap everything in paper with a nice Christmas ribbon. So not only do you get the joy of eating the treats you bought, but it's like a little gift to yourself (or to your hips as the case may be).

Here's a foto of the "masas." Yes...I did eat a lot of these. I bought them to "share" with my co-workers, but they were slow to try them, so I ate quite a few. The white pointy one was yummy...I've always been a fan of meringue. And the cream inside the puffs is sweet, delicious and...mmm....creamy.

We were actually going to go to a satellite post office after the Central Post Office bust, cause we still needed the stamps. So we walk the 7 blocks down and one block over to where they postal worker told us the satellite office would be. Yeah, couldn't find it. Ended up asking a lady and her daughter on the street who 1. had no idea what I was asking for (estampillas or sellos) and 2. then directed me to a travel agency. Useless. When it turns out, the satellite office was right across the street. Too bad they didn't think to put a large sign outside the office to let clueless American's and clueless Argentines know where it was.


Yeah, like that one.  :)

To add to our clueless American reputation, tonight Debbie and I caught a cab (no, not the Cash Cab) to go find the local ward building at about 9:30 pm. (Apparently there are 4 or 5 of them here in the area.) The address from lds.org is wrong. The cabbie kept telling me that if he took me to that address he'd be dropping us off in the middle of a park. So he called dispatch and asked where the Mormon Church was on that street. Dispatch gave him the cross streets and off we went...to an Evangelical church. I had to explain to the taxi driver that though I'd never actually been to the specific Mormon chapel I was seeking, it was definitely NOT the Evangelical church. The differences may not be noticible to him, but the huge, colorful posters hanging from the Evangelical church buildings outside walls were a big give-a-way. We found it and no one was there. (We thought Mutual might still be going on, cause it's Wednesday night after all.) So we asked him to take us to a good ice cream place.

 And what do we happen upon on our way to the ice cream place? A proper Mormon chapel that looks like a smaller version of any Mormon chapel in the US surrounded by huge buildings. I'll post fotos on Sunday.

Here's some marscapone ice cream. It's ever so delightful. And was a fitting reward for being a clueless American all evening.


We got the following invitation slipped under our hotel room door this afternoon on hotel stationery: "In honor of Thanksgiving Day, we will serve a traditional American meal in Our Restuarant tomorrow, Thursday at 12:30 p.m. We hope you join us" and signed with the name of the restaurant. It looks like tomorrow's post will feature food as well...and a description of our Argentine chef's idea of what Thanksgiving dinner should be. Bated breath...I know you'll all be waiting with bated breath.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

...de dia




Saw the Make out Monument by day today. Nice view of the river, eh? And by day it's not so much Make Out Monument as it is Teenage Hangout.



Saw this sign on the way to get ice cream after work tonight. It's painted on the wall. I like it. It says wine, cheese and some word I don't now and am too lazy to look up. Night!
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Monday, November 24, 2008

Make-out Monument

Tonight Debbie, Marina and I went to the National Flag Memorial. I'd read about it online before I got here and thought I'd stop by to see it, but didn't give it a lot of importance. Then the other day we drove by it in a taxi. My eyes popped out of my head when I saw it. It's enormous. Much larger than I had imagined it would be. (Point!) Seriously though, it's massive. It's like a Washington D.C. style monument. Very impressive. If you look towards the bottom of the above photo you may be able to see the people standing in the courtyard between the Lincoln Memorial-type square part of the monument (behind the photographer - me) and the Washington Monument-like tower. If you can see the small little people standing there in the dark, it may give you some sense of the scale of the thing. Very impressive. Turns out they just added the blue lights last year and I think we can all agree it was a very good idea.   Apparently the monument is very convenient for make out sessions - in case you were wondering.  Not that I made out with anyone, mind you, but there were plenty of couples having quite the good time tonight.  

We went to dinner at a nice Italian-type restaurant tonight. Marina and Debbie and I were laughing and laughing and laughing during dinner (New Guy/Bob joined us later). Then when it came time to order dessert, I was opening the menu to translate some of the desserts for Marina when I totally knocked over my water glass and spilled it all over Marina and her place setting. She quickly stood up once she realized she was wet and Debbie threw her a napkin. The waiter and I, however, couldn't stop laughing. The waiter couldn't even help her clean up the water...he just walked toward the kitchen laughing. Probably went back to tell the cook about the crazy American's at table 6. Marina didn't eat a lot of her pasta but kept sneaking the tomatoes out of New Guy's salad. When the waiter came to take the salad and the remains of Bob's steak away, Marina quickly took the salad from in front of Bob and put it in front of her, just as the waiter was reaching for it. It was hilarious...the look on the waiter's face was as if he were thinking...Wow! Does he not feed her? Then when it was time to leave the restaurant Marina had some Braxton Hicks and didn't stand up right away, but was instead rubbing her pregnant belly. The waiter looked at Marina and said: That's what happens when you eat so much. Hi-LARIOUS. He was a fantastic waiter. I love it when waiters in formal restaurants relax a little around the edges and laugh with their customers.

Question of the week: What exactly is Servicio de Mesa? I understand that it means Table Service, but does that take the place of the tip?

Tip of the day: Don't say "coger" in Argentina. Coger, in Spain, means "to get."  Think about how many times you say "I got robbed at the club last weekend." or "Let's go get some Pomello soda (super yummy, fyi) from the corner store." or "I'm going to get diseases from this water." in a day. I used it a lot during the past week. Then a few days ago someone looked at me funny when I said I was going to get my sister (at the airport). Turns out that in Argentina "coger" is the F-bomb. And means "to F-bomb." So you can imagine why I got the funny look! So instead of "coger" we are to say: "buscar (to find-ish)" or "agarrar (to grab-ish)"...I'm looking out for you.  

Enjoy more of the enormous monument below. Besos!

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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Plastic wrap = theft deterrent

One of the first things I noticed at baggage claim in Buenos Aires was that some bags appeared to be wrapped in plastic. At first I thought that they were brand new bags being shipped and instead of putting them in a box, they just decided to plastic wrap them. Then I noticed more and more people with the plastic wrapped bags. What was the deal? Yesterday I saw one of the machines that does this. People get out of their cab at the departure gates and instead of going to the Sky Cap, like a lot of us do in the States (or the Unites as my cab driver told me they call the United States for short), they go to this machine and pay to get their bag plastic wrapped. I asked someone why...was it that they didn't want their new bags to get scuffed? Kind of. Apparently this is a theft detterent measure. The bags wrapped in plastic are less likely to be robbed (by thieving airport workers, I guess). So here's the deal...some people only get one out of their three bags wrapped. If I were a thief...I'd target the wrapped bags and just make them dissappear. Probably why I'm not a thief. What happens if secruity/customs needs to search the bag? I may get this done to one of my bags on the way home, just to see what happens at security/customers (Please note, the wheels have been cut out of the plastic so they are fully functioning, which is an awful nice touch).



Saturday morning we went to
La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Absolutely colorful. Lots of people trying to get your attention. The main tourist trap is called Caminito. A few streets of colorful bars and shops with fake Tango dancers out front that only tango for $. And there's also a guy that looks like a famous Argentine soccer player who is offering to get his photo taken with people so they can tell their friends they hung out with a famous soccer player while in Buenos Aires. Whatever. And there was a totally smelly dock. It smelled like I would imagine hell to smell like...imagine the most disgusting smell you've ever had to endure and multiply it by rotten eggs and putrid standing water and you'll just about have what the smell was.


After a quick nap we went off to the Feria (Flea Market) in
Recoleta. There were tons of stands with hand made crafts. So much fun to see it all. And then there were a bunch of kids from the local University doing things University kids do...try to get attention. This guy was practicing for Cirque du Soleil. Others were learning to walk tight rope and there was one random guy dressed like a US Founding Father walking around playing a recorder. It was just amazing fun. So much to see. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From there we went to Happening for dinner. It's in
Puerto Madero, an area that used to serve as the main port of Buenos Aires but as Buenos Aires grew larger they probably had to get a larger port. It's buildings have all been refurbished into restaurants and such. There's a nice walk along the Plate River where you can still see the cranes that were used to unload the boats. And lots of people just walking along the banks, enjoying the evening breeze. Gorgeous.



Today we went back to Recoleta and the Feria. After some shopping and a trip to the local ice cream parlour (have I mentioned how delicious the mascarpone ice cream is here? I
need to find some in the Unites...how will I ever be able to live without it, now that I know of its deliciousness?) we went to the Recoleta Cemetery. We were told it was 200 meters from the Flea Market stand we were at, but being stupid Americans, we had no idea how far 200 meters was. I figured it'd be a few streets away. After walking for about 2 minutes and just as we were arriving at a corner I asked someone where the cemetery was, he said it was 30 meters away. Surprised at how close, I said: Really? Stranger: Yes, it's just the next doorway down. Me: Are you sure? Stranger: Yeah, you want me to take you there and show you? So...turns out the cemetery is completely enclosed, unlike the cemeteries I'm used to, that are essentially large, open fields. Another tip: if you're looking for the uber-expensive and older than anything in Idaho cemetery in Argentina, it's behind that building that looks like a government or school building. The cemetery is chock full of crypts/mausolea. Absolutely amazing and overwhelming. You have no idea what to look at. Many are in disrepair (imagine that!) and New Guy swears he saw some bones in an open coffin (Gross!).
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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Welcome to Argentina Debbie


Debbie made it here this morning and it's been a non-stop fun day in Buenoes Aires with Debbie, New Guy and Marina. We'll spend 1/2 the day here tomorrow then head back around 3 pm our time. More on that later. Here's a "borrowed" foto of the bridge we walked across tonight. It's in a wonderful area. (Thanks for the restaurant suggestion Maribel! It was fantastic.) Based on today, I think I could quite happily live in Buenos Aires for a few years.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Flowers and Fruit Stands

It's warm here.  Very warm.


These purple flowers are on trees everywhere here in Rosario.  They are gorgeous.  I love the light purple color that pops against the old buildings.


And the fruit stands are around every street corner.  Love that.

Off in a few hours to pick Debbie up in Buenos Aires.  Look for fotos on Sunday or Monday.  

Besos! 

Thursday, November 20, 2008

More on the dogs...

Dog Fight!
Some of my co-workers from the States (the night shift) went out to a steak house last night and got the left-overs to go so they could feed the stray dogs that seem to follow them back to the hotel every night.  Strangely, no strays last night.  So they brought the meat along this morning hoping to see some strays along the way.  We did.  So the co-worker dropped some meat in front of one dog, which caught the eye of another stray who came wandering over to see what was up.  Not wanting to start a dog fight, the guy gave both dogs some meat.  You would think the stray dogs would've devoured the meat.  But no.  They just stood over the meat and glared at each other.   Don't know if they ever did eat the meat.  Could be they're like the North-going and South-going Zax...just staring each other down still.  Crazy dogs!

Eggs?

Here's my room service from tonight.  It's a steak sandwich.  Ingredients: slice of bread, mayonnaise, tomatoes, deli sliced ham (the same kind of ham they have at breakfast and my co-workers got in their pasta for lunch), melted cheese, steak, lettuce, melted cheese, sliced hard boiled egg, mayonnaise and bread.  And then french fries.  It was good...but took too much effort to eat.  So after getting about 1/4 of the way through...I picked it apart and ate the steak off of it.  Mmm...mmm...good!

We had a crazy cab ride again at lunch today.  I don't think there are traffic rules here.  Not as bad as what I see on The Amazing Race in India, but close enough to make me very glad we didn't rent cars here.


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Macdono


If you ever find yourself in Argentina and want to go to McDonalds you must tell the cab driver you'd like to go to "Macdono."  Saying McDonald's will get you nowhere.  I tried several variations of saying McDonald's with different pronunciations...the cab driver just sat there.  I happened upon "macdono" and the cab driver said:  Oh!  Macdono!  Hay varios a qual quieren ir? (Oh!  Macdono!  There are many...which do you want to go to?)  Just a little tip from me to you.

I got a grilled chicken sandwich, which was actually better here than in the States.  It was a proper chicken breast, not chicken breast pieces.  The fries were o.k.  I did have one heck of a yummy ice cream today on my way home from work.  Wish I would have gotten a foto of that.  Oh my gosh it was so good.  No clue what the name of it was...Mascarpone algo (something).  I asked the girl behind the counter which she liked and she gave me a sample of it.  So delish!  It's Mascarpone cheese ice cream with some sort of berry/fruit mixed in.  Heaven.

I'm really enjoying it here.  I think I'm going to head out tomorrow morning before work and see a bit more of the city.  We took a cab into the downtown part of the city to get to Macdono and it was gorgeous.  What continues to surprise me is how half the city is abandoned and the other half is thriving.  The abandoned part is intermingled into the thriving part.  One business doing well (like Macdono) right across the street from another (a cinema) that obviously hasn't been open for 15 - 20 years.   It's like this all over.  People say it's due to the unstable economy here.  It's certainly nice for the US exchange rate 3 of theirs to 1 of ours.  (Though that exchange rate didn't really matter when we decided to look up the price for the Madonna concert in Buenos Aires the weekend we're there:  $210 American.  Man...that's a lot.  So no Madonna concert for us - How much fun would that have been and in Argentina?!)


Here's a foto from the little elevator that takes me up to the roof (see foto below).  I feel that the reason children under 12 cannot ride in the elevator is because they don't want to risk killing the young...the thing is so rickety I think the cable will snap each time I'm in it.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Poop and Scary Meat



Here you go...as promised...poop and the sidewalk. 


And here's what we had for dinner.  The pig intestine was quite possibly the grossest thing I've ever put in my mouth.  Ever.

Of note...2 kids just walked into the restuarant to beg for money.  The waiter shoo-ed them away.   An hour later a stray dog came in to beg for food and no one shoo-ed it away.  

Monday, November 17, 2008

First Impressions


Let's just get something out in the open...international flights in Coach are not fun.  Especially at my age.  As a missionary I don't remember having any complaints.  Now...yeah...I may decide to stay here just so I can avoid the flight back.

The first thing that struck me when I looked out of the plane window at Buenos Aires was how many trees there were.  I've been looking at fotos of Buenos Aires for years and never did I see woods.  They are probably outside the city proper, but it was beautiful.  

The city I'm in is about 3 1/2 hours outside of Buenos Aires.  There's a lot of nothingness in between here and there.  And here reminds me  a lot of Spain.  The walk to work was on un-cemented sidewalks...but their like tiles.  I don't know how to describe it.  I'll take a foto tomorrow.  The people here are kind.  The interesting thing is there are no real commerical districts or housing districts that I've seen (of course I've only seen a very small part of it).  Everything is just kind of mingled in together.   And a lot of the buildings are abandoned.  The economy here collapsed a few years ago, and I'm guessing many business did as well.  

The Spanish is holding up pretty good.  I did meet an older gentleman today at the fruit store who I didn't really understand.  Just a few words here and there.  His Argentinian accent is pretty thick.  And he's a prankster.  When he gave me my change, he gave me a rubber cockroach as well.  I screamed "Oh my gosh!" and dropped the change out of my hand.  Boy did he laugh his head off.  I laughingly told him (in Spanish) that "I'm never returning to your store!"  I'm sure I'll go there tomorrow.  

No real sights yet.  Yesterday we finally got to the hotel and I crashed until dinner at 9 pm.  Then up this morning and off to work.   Still kinda pooped today.  Am supposed to go to dinner in about an hour...we'll see if I make it.  If it was an American style dinner, I probably could, but here, as in Spain, dinner is a many hour production.  

Other fun tidbits:  there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE.  We had one follow us to work today.  He even picked up a friend on the way.  There's also lots of stray poop everywhere.  We'll see if we can't include some in tomorrow's foto of the sidewalk.   And there is ham and cheese everywhere as well.  We stopped at a gas station for lunch yesterday...what was there to eat?  Ham and cheese sandwiches or ham and cheese empanadas.  This morning at breakfast there was just a tray of ham and cheese (for you Spanish out there it's jamon de york).  I'm trying to think what it would be similar to in the States...something that is a staple flavor...no clue.  

Friday, November 14, 2008

Me voy!


Tomorrow morning I'm headed off to (what I've heard to be) beautiful Argentina! The plan is to update the blog daily with fotos of Argentina (it'll probably end up being weekly, but a girl can hope to be that organized, right?).

I won't actually be arriving in Argentina until 8 am Sunday then I have a long bus ride to get to where I'm going. Which is totally fine, cause it'll be a long bus ride in ARGENTINA!


I'm hoping to see lots of cool architecture and have wonderful and challenging experiences (a ver si me acuerdo algo de espaƱol). So stay tuned...


Ciao!