Friday, March 7, 2008

I'm beginning to see the light


We've rounded a corner in our stay here in Argentina.  After the intensive month, all we really wanted to do was crash for the weekend.  Not how our cards fell, exactly.  The evening after our final exam and final oral presentation, the Clemson group got on the bus at 9pm.  10 hours later we arrived in Tafi del Valle, two provinces away in Tucuman.  We began our weekend of a lot of trekking, longwinded speakers, and real bad food.  We had a really good time, and we got to go to a bodega (vineyard / winery) and do a wine tasting which was real cool, but by the end of the trip we just wanted to get back to Córdoba and crash.  Poor Abby wouldn't touch mayo with a 10 food pole and it happened to be that almost every single item of food we were presented with had mayo on it.  There were also a lot of potatoes, which I happen to not really eat.  Also on the menu was locro, which is a kind of stew with cow's stomach. Delish - not, I didn't get near it. On the way back, after we had been counting down the hours til we returned to Córdoba, about 5 hours away from home our bus broke down and we were stranded on the side of the road for two hours until the bus was fixed.  We got home to Córdoba around 5 in the morning.  And classes started the next day.  But the thing is, when I started looking at all my pictures (and there are a lot) from the past month, I realized that maybe we are actually having fun here.  So things started to change a little bit.  There are some things about Argentina that are difficult, for instance: 
1. Argentines are extremely longwinded.  A lot of times you don't want to ask questions just because you know that there is no such thing as a simple answer, much less a "yes or no" answer.  And the men talk more than the women.  
2. Argentines are ridiculous about correct change.  First of all, they normally round up or down and I have never once seen a 1 cent piece, and only once have i received a 5 cent piece.  They hate bills above 10 pesos and it is really frustrating sometimes to deal. 
And then there's the fact that our program sometimes is very poorly organized, and there are things that we have heard happened in past years that they don't seem to fix... But anyway, onto the good stuff!!!!
1. We have realized that the food in Córdoba is pretty delicious.  We made up a song about desserts on our trip to the North (a really good use of our time on that bus). I've become obsessed with alfajores, a cookie that's a specialty around here. Everyone becomes obsessed with them I think when they come to Córdoba.  We are also big fans of budín de pan and dulche de leche (which they smother on everything). My madre here always makes me really good pasta since I have started to like meat less and less.  
2. We are started to really like the people around here. It didn't come to us immediately, but some of the people we've gotten to know we have really come to love.  Some of the tutors are absolutely hilarious, and we love hanging out with them.  My teacher, José, always gives us a recreo (recess) in the middle of our hour and thirty minute class (the length of the classes absolutely killls me and i am sooo grateful to him).  My literature professor, Cande (Candelaria), is so obviously passionate about what she does and is a really good teacher.  And then there's our art history teacher, Margarita. She's pretty soft spoken and the class is kinda tough but I swear the woman just eludes cool.  And finally, the people in the cantina at school.  They are sooo nice! When it was Christen's 21st, they gave her a free medialuna and a free bon o bon (my obsession) and sang her happy birthday.  Oh yeah and then there are the people at the kiosko right by my house who love to practice their very few English words with us.  The people here really have started to grow on us, and I think we've realized that maybe all that talk about Córdobans being so nice might have been true.  Maybe we're going to make it 5 months after all, and even like it.  
 Precious little guys we met in Amaiche, in the Northwest of Argentina. 

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