HooHoo-ee

it seems i have been getting out of the city so often over the weekends that ive barely been writing about what im doing normally! Last weekend I went with th program to Salta and Jujuy (see above alliteration) with t he program. they split us up into two groups--half of us went to jujuy and the other half went to the province of córdoba and next weekend we switch. the trip was absolutely incredible. it is very far away (see visual), so we took a plane which was about an hour and a half trip. despite the fact that our flight was delayed 4 hours, we got there safe and sound, stayed in salta for a night, and went to jujuy the next day. we stayed in these cabins that were essentially rectangular little buildings with two separate rooms. The first thing we did, after wating a deeeeeeelicious lunch of tamales and the best chicken ever, we saw this reconstructed incan village built and maintained by the history department of the university of buenos aires. was interesting, albeit a little boring, but there were these enormous saguaro cacti everywhere that were just beautiful. also, we saw llamas, which makes any trip worth it. that night we just kind of chilled out, all very tired and the next day we went on a short hike and then they took us to a small town called humahuaca. there was a really cool artisans market, as well as an amazing cemetery and man, what a view. let me just put it out there that utah has nothing on argentina. these mountains literally looked like they had been colored with crayola crayons. bright purple, bright yellow, green, red...some of them had horizontal stripes of color across them. amazing. it was also cool because its kind of the off season there so we saw hardly any other tourists, which believe me when youre already traveling in a group of 70 is a blessing. i tried the native staple munchie of coca leaves, which the (mostly indigenous) locals chew like gum. its really not that exciting, not that i wanted it to be. it really just tastes like leaves, but they say its good for altitude sickness so we all had some. the third day was my favorite--we took a spectaular three-hour drive through the mountains, which were golden and contrasted with the brightest blue sky i have ever seen in my life. there were lots of formations too--lots of mesas, canyons, etc. amazing. anyways, we go through the mountains to Las Salinas Grandes- the biggest salt flats in the world. at first i was not expecting much--oooh a lot of whiteness. but oh. my. goodness. it was so amazing. miles and miles of flat white land in every direction, and the salt had formed hexagonal formations across the whole surface. they kind of just gave us an hour of free time there, because i mean, how do you take a tour of or do an activity on the salt flats, so i took a long walk on my own, which was great because it would be practically impossible to get lost. just look for the only non-white thing or mountain on the horizon. anywho, then my friend anna and i did a photo shoot on the salt flats, which went a little something like "ooh now lets take some of the two of us with the self-timer" "ooh lets pretend we are stranded in the desert for weeks," "ooh, lets go into fetal position in the hexagons." you know, the usual think you do on the salt flats. the thing you dont realize is that the salt hurts! the whole ground is like a field of tiny knives because the salt is pretty much rock hard. fetal position, it turned out, is not the most comfortable salt-field pose, take my word for it.
after that we went to another little town and had lunch and took a beautiful hike and went to the little flea market there. and THEN night fell upon the andes. we had a big dinner at the hotel, complete with an andean band! it was so great! they were all wearing these big ponchos and some of them had the little bowler hats like in bolivia. instruments included pan flutes, mini-guitars (not ukuleles but mini guitars), drums, and this huge horn thing similar to the ones in the ricola commercials. intense. they kept swinging the hors over our heads--they were like 9 feet long. so great. we danced our little patooties off and then left the next morning for the airport in town. on the bus ride, which took like an hour and a half, like 7 or 8 of us started playing the game mafia...oh man. FIVE HOURS of playing later, as we finally boarded the plane, we decided that mafia may have overstayed its welcome.
it was such a great trip--i am also obsessed with the staff of the program, even more than i was before. the whole thing was just so relaxing, and it was really nice to get closer to some people with whom i hadnt had a chance to get to know yet. im very excited for cordoba.

three days in paradise

So last weekend i went with a friend to Iguazú Falls, a series of gigantic waterfalls all the way in the north of the country, right on the border of both brazil and paraguay. i had made tentative plans with two people to go this weekend, because we wanted a weekend in ba before heading on the program trips next weekend, but both flaked out on me when it came time to actually buy tickets and make reservations. i was seriously considering going alone, as i didnt want to wait until after the program trips, since by that time it would be unbearably hot and humid, but at the last minute this girl i really like who goes to georgetown but didnt come to bariloche agreed to tag along. we made our reservations for a bus that left thursday night and arrived friday afternoon (it is a 16 hour bus ride) and then that left iguazu sunday afternoon and arrived monday morning in ba, so neither of us would miss any classes. now, thursday night i have a class from 4 to 7, and our bus was leaving at 8:45, which really was plenty of time considering i had already packed. but you know, after class i just HAD to stay around and talk for a few minutes and then the night was so warm so i walked home, and then i had to peel and cut the carrots i had bought for us as a snack...long story short, i left my house at 8:00 when it takes 40 minutes to get there by public transport. a smart person would have taken a cab which would take maybe half the time, but to be honest it didnt even occur to me. to make a long story short, picture me running at 8:41 through the sketchy market outside the bus station with my huge backpackers' backpack that had both my and brooks' stuff in it. at 8:42 i come flying around the corner of the ticket booth, where brooks was pretty much already making plans to stay in ba for the weekend, and we made the bus with two minutes to spare. whew. i have to say though, it made the victory of arrival that much sweeter.
anyways, we arrived in puerto iguazú at around 1 on friday and took the bus to our hostel. let me just say that the hostel was nicer than many hotels i have stayed in. it used to be a casino and they converted it into a hostel so there was this huge beautiful pool out in front and the inside was absolutely pristine, with huge windows everywhere and an entire floor as a common area- very conducive to hanging out and meeting people. by the time we had checked in and changed and were ready to go it was like 2 so we decided not to go into the park that day, but rather to go to this lookout poing called tres fronteras ("three borders") which was esentially a cliff from which you could look across the intersecting rivers and see brazil and paraguay. it was very beautiful, and really just cool--you can see the falls from brazil as well as argentina and it would have been great to be able to view them from there as well, but we werent about to pay $100 for a brazilian visa to see the falls for a day. anyways, at tres fronteras we started talking to this guy from our hostel from cambridge, england named john and then the three of us went into town and sat at an outdoor cafe and just hung out for a while. as we were sitting, we also started talking to these three australians that were also staying in our hostel--it was just cool to meet people from all over the world and just hang out. then john and brooks and i went to dinner and played cards for the rest of the night at the hostel. so fun.
the next day brooks and i failed in our attempt to get an early start and got to the park at around 11, which turned out to not be so bad because it was right between the morning and midday rush of tourists. we essentially did all the trails there were--becuase it is all cliffs and waterfalls, pretty much all the trails are simple catwalks that just wind around the cliffs offering different views of the falls. i wish that you could all just see in my minds eye what it looked like--absolutely awesome. the sheer force and volume of the water is such a powerful reminder of how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things, not to mention the fact that the weather was absolutely perfect (I was wearing sandals and shorts) and the place is a tropical paradise. the constant mist from the waterfalls creates rainbows everywhere and there were incredible butterflies everywhere you looked. needless to say, it was extremely green and lush and the smell in the air was just flowers and freshness--so amazing. as we walked the trails, it seems at every moment that you are getting the most amazing view of the falls and then you walk five more feet and it just gets better. what was really cool about it too was the variety of tourists there. because the walks are so unstrenuous, it is extremely accessible--several of the walks are even wheelchair accessible. what this meant was that in addition to all the backpackers and travelers my age, there were a ton of families with little kids, senior citizen groups, and everything in between. even though this may be the best time to go weather-wise, it is not the peak season so it wasnt that crowded and even though it was touristy, you didnt get the feeling that everyone was trying to sell you something ALL the time.
so as you can see on this maps layout, we did the upper and lower circuits first (blue and yellow), which offered great views of the falls as a whole. then after that walked a trail that is not actually on this map but would be if the map extended more to the right. that trail was so great because even though it didnt lead to the main falls, it was pretty much devoid of any other sightseers so we had the place to ourselves, and it ended in this beautiful (albeit tiny compared to the falls) waterfall with a large surrounding pool. brooks and i had heard about it before and had brought our bathingsuits, but the two people we were hiking with that were also from the program just swam in their underwear--it was so amazing. the water was, of course, FREEZING, but absolutely refreshing, as we were so hot from walking all day. we swam for probably less than an hour and then sat on the rocks to dry out for a little before heading back. man there was something about swimming there though--putting my hair under the waterfall and floating on my back so that all i could see was the blue sky and falling water...priceless.
the two people we were with, of which i was not the biggest fan but whatever, were staying for longer than me and brooks so they went back to the hostel while brooks and i took the train in the park to the garganta del diablo (devils throat), the location of which you can see on the map in pink. we got on the last train there at like 4ish--the sun was jsut starting to sink a little and after a full day of all that amazing sightseeing we thought it would just be another cool fall. im telling you though, seeing that literally brought tears to my eyes. i will post the pictures up asap so you can sort of see what i mean, but no picture could ever really capture how incredible it is. it was so huge and so powerful that when you looked down you couldnt even see the river, which was completely obscured by the mist that rose almost 50 feet in the air. the light at the time was absolutely perfect and because it was the end of the day there were maybe 15 or 20 other people there...the perfect end to a perfect day.
then at night the hostel had a parilla (argentine version of a barbeque), and for 20 pesos (about 6 or 7 dollars) we had an all you can eat buffet including all the different meats and unlimited caiperiñas, this brazilian cocktail that is deeelicious. also, there was like a show with these two brazilian dancers wearing carnaval costumes ie sparkly bra and thong and huge feathered headdress that led all these dances. included in the 20 pesos was also transportation, entrance and a welcome drink at a club in town. i ended up only staying for like an hour, maybe a little more, because i was so tired, but considering that we left the hostel to go out at almost two, i think i did pretty well.
the next day brooks and i got up, packed our stuff and headed to the park, where we made a beeline for the boat tours that take you out and under the falls. let me just say that going under those waterfalls was nothing less than euphoric. it was absolutely unbelievable, definitely the perfect sendout from iguazú. after that we spent about half an hour on this little island in the middle of the river before heading back to the hostel to shower and then to the bus.
the bus ride home was wonderful, as brooks had insisted that we upgrade from the cama ejecutivo to the tutto letto super cama for 25 more pesos, since the seats recline completely flat. i was griping about it but then we got on the bus and let me tell you, it was almost as amazing as the falls. ok not quite but definitely marvelous. something very weird happened, though. we had been on the road about an hour when we stopped at this checkpoint at which neither brooks nor i remembered stopping on the way there. anyway, this army checkpoint guy in a uniform comes on the bus and asks to see everyones passports, which we happily obliged. then another guard comes on with a dog, which i can only assume was a drug/bomb-sniffing dog and goes up and down the aisles. we were sitting in the second to last row and there was only one guy behind us, and the guard holds up this black duffel bag sitting on the floor next to the seat behind us and asks whose it is...we had no idea, the guy behind us insisted it wasnt his...the next thing we knew, the guy behind us is asked to get off the bus and they took all his luggage out of the compartment. it was bizarre- he was coming from iguazú, this tiny town where the only thing to do is the falls and he had four huge suitcases on wheels, and was traveling alone. anyways, they searched all his bags outside the bus (brooks and i got neck cramps from straining to watch), then packed them all up, put them back on the bus, the guy got back in his seat and away we go. very strange. very very strange. welcome to latin america.
all in all, i think it was my favorite trip of all the ones i have been on. it was so nice to be in nature, out of the city, but also to be in the company of someone i could talk to and trust. i really like that brooks is so different from me--a business major at georgetown, preppy mcprepperson, because despite that we do have a lot in common and she is very smart and open-minded. it can be refreshing to have friends that are different from the people you normally hang out with. anyway, i will get the pictures up asap; iguazú is definitely something you should all see once in your life. it will blow you away.

To see my photos of Iguazú, click on the link below:
Iguazú Falls

land of the free, home of the che

okok so i know it was more than two weeks ago at this point but i have to write about my trip to rosario. rosario is a city about four hours away from buenos aires (see left), and we went there because we had a three-day weekend but didnt want to travel too far. i went with three girls from the program (read: american), and we booked our bus tickets and hostel only a day or two before we left. the thing was that there was only one hostel in the city with room left because of the fact that it was a three-day weekend. anyways, after an uneventful bus ride we get to the hostel only to discover that old reliable hostelworld.com was down and they had not recieved any of the reservations from the past week. as a result, they were already overbooked by six people because of the same situation, and had dug up mattresses for them to sleep on the floor. the people at the hostel were extremely apologetic and called every hostel and cheap hotel in the city to try to find somewhere, but everything was completely full with the exception of a four-star hotel. they gave us the option of sleeping on the floor for three dollars the first night and said that we would have beds the second night because people were leaving. so we had a quick huddle and decided we were young and adventurous enough to sleep on the floor of a hostel for one night, BUT before we make any decisions the hostel people told us that there were 31 boys staying in the hostel and three girls. they were like look, we feel really bad and youre more than welcome to stay here but there are all these boys that are smelly and loud and will bother and annoy you like you wouldnt believe so its up to you. at that point we had decided to just make the best of it and resist breathing in the odor for as long as we could. we split up and me and my friend dena went for a walk through the city and to the small art museum while the other two girls hung out at the hostel. by the time we got back, the other girls had already gone out so dena and i went to dinner and back to the hostel and spent some quality time with our 6781627641786 new roommates.the plan was to drink a little and go out at like 2:30 (which believe me isnt that late here) but dena and i had a leetle too much cheap wine and were in "bed" ie on the floor with army blankets by like 3. the boys were all loud and drunk and annoying though so we moved to the living room to sleep and i had the pleasure of spending the night on a wicker couch with cushions. not exactly the lap of luxury but for three dollars it was a roof over my head.
the next day we walked around some more--rosario is home to argentina's first flag and there is like a shrine built for it with this huge tower and plaza. i forgot to mention that joining the four of us was this crazy tall venezuelan guy named carlo who had all kinds of shells and knicknacks in his dreadlocks and made a living by selling these tiny whistles made out of straws. so random. anywho we saw the view from the tower and the other two girls went on a boat tour in the river that runs along the city, but it was raining so dena and i passed and went to lunch where we ate the most delicious paella in the history of the world. not exaggerating. it was amazing. we walked around and went to this cultural center and then went to the planetarium which was so relaxing and fun. the reason for this entry's title is that che guevara was born in rosario and they dont let you forget it for a second. there are pictures of him evvvvvverywhere and it was all the guy could talk about at the cultural center. what's funny is that che guevara lived in so many places throughout argentina and south america that every town or city has that pride, but as the cultural center guy said, he was only born in one place. haha or jaja as they say here.
after the planetarium we bought food to make pasta and salad back at the hostel and then cooked for ourselves and by ourselves i mean the four of us and every male inhabitant of the hostel that smelled food and came to reap the fruits of our labor. i mean really, what could we have expected. we went out that night but not till too late and then the next day went for a long walk to the river, which was beautiful because it was the first sunny day there. there was a really cool flea market where i bought earrings for four pesos (like $1.30). because it was a holiday the whole park along the river was full of families and people playing soccer and kites flying and fishermen catching trout in the river. so great. after that we just got ourselves to the bus station and went home. it was very nice--a lot like buenos aires but mini and not so intense, perfect for a weekend away. what was also cool is that we met so many people from BA and also other foreigners studying here that we had a whole new group of people to hang out with when we got back which was so fun, expecially because they were from europe as opposed to the us. i was glad to come back to BA though--there is nothing like being packed on that subway like sardines in a can with the whole day ahead of you.

also, here is the link to my photos!! the album is both bariloche and rosario...and some miscellaneous stuff thrown in as well, just to keep you on your toes.
click this sentence to view my photos!

...oh yeah, that too

so i know it's hard to believe but i actually am also here to go to school. classes started two weeks ago, and though i thought going to bariloche would make me miss classes, i ended up dropping all the classes i missed so there you have it. from the twelve or so classes i registered for, i narrowed it down to the four i am going to take:
1. intensive spanish level 6 (8 being native speaker)
2. aprendizaje y servicio--one of the classes at the program. an hour and a half of class time per week and a minimum of hours of service at one of several organizations the program has a relationship with. some of them include the organization of the mothers of the plaza de mayo, teaching english to kids or adults...i dont know what i will choose. i think i would prefer to work with a population rather than in an office, as the mothers of the plaza de mayo would be, for example, but im not sure and want to check everything out first. the class part seems interesting too- it looks like it will be about what "community service" really means--sustainability and most efficient use of resources...we shall see. the reading for this week was from the uk guardian newspaper about whether british kids taking gap years to volunteer abroad are really just "new colonists." right up my alley.
3. latin american social thought- a class at the university of buenos aires (uba) that was recommended to me by Silvina, the woman i live with, who has a sociology degree from the uba. its crazy because we have only had one class so far but he was mentioning all these concepts i have discussed in scripps classes, with crowley, aisenberg, perez de mendiola--imaginary communities, orientalism, epistemology...and yet i have read hardly any of the authors on the syllabus. its so amazing--like core goes argentine. really, i feel like i am retaking schools of cultural criticism, but completely from a latin american perspective. i introduced myself to the professor at the end of the class and he was extremely welcoming, and said that it would be very difficult but that i should definitely stick through it, that its worth it...im very excited. its also good that there are two other kids from my program (ie american) that i really really like, because the readings are extremely long and dense. we are already splitting it up.
4. photographic documentation and journalistic discourse- basically a class about photojournalism and its role in how we conceptualize our history and reality...or something. i wasnt going to take it but i went and loved the professor and loved the syllabus and i think it will be very interesting. a plus is that the professor is a photojournalist himself and a part of the class is learning about photography ie taking pictures. and i like taking pictures.

i know i have told this to some of you but one consequence of the uba being completely free for argentines is that less than 30% of the professors are paid. those that are paid do not earn enough to live solely on that income. in addition, silvina informed me that almost a majority of the professors in the social sciences were detained during the dirty war for months to years, between the ages of around 18-25. even though i should have realized this, to hear that fact was so stunning to me. as a result of this, academia, expression, literature and protest are absolutely cherished. when you walk into the building, there is not an inch of the wall uncovered with giant posters and fliers mostly with communist, marxist, trotskyist (i didnt know there was such an ist), socialist, and feminist messages, as well as plenty demanding ingleses y yanquis afuera (Out with the english and yankees) and human rights. to get into the building you have to pass through this entry room full of tables of different groups handing out and selling a million and a half pamphlets and fliers. you know me, i cant help but talk to people and man were they eager to finally have someone who actually wants to listen to them. i have had so many interesting conversations with people just by asking them what they are doing. i honestly was almost moved to tears when i first walked in...i just thought about ulysses and how we pride ourselves in the us on all our "freedom," like we may not be perfect but at least we have our freedom and god help those who try to stifle the freedom of speech. three seconds in that building and it was so crystal clear to me how stifled we really are. the fact that for a politician to proclaim himself a socialist would be political suicide is evidence enough of how far we are from the ideals of freedom that we so freely use as justification to invade, occupy and oppress other nations. meh. it made me feel angry and cheated. even in the most liberal schools in the us--uc berkeley, wesleyan, oberlin, pitzer, you could never have the kind of freedom of expression that is so precious to people here. i can only imagine what would happen at scripps if i put a sign in the humanities courtyard with some quote about the proletariat rebellion. ha it makes me laugh just thinking about it.the building itself looks like it was abandoned for 10-15 years and they decided to use it because it was unoccupied. half the lights dont work, there is water on the floor everywhere, grafitti isnt frowned upon (and is actually pretty interesting)...the classrooms look like they belong in a prison. and ive seen prisons. everything is smoky because everyone is smoking, there were about 60-70 people in a room the size of my living room, professors show up 40 minutes late, which isnt too bad considering classes are usually four hours long (occasionally 3). not quite the scripps country club, to say the least. i was going to take a class on pre-columbian cultures at the private catholic university but there was only one non-exchange student in the class and the professor spent the first 40 minutes describing the process of writing an academic paper ie you start with a thesis and build supporting arguments etc. i had wanted to take a class there at least to compare the experiences but i felt like the only reason i would really take it would be because it was easy and i didnt want to cheat myself like that.

so yes, my classes are going very well but i must admit it is ridiculously hard to focus and get myself to read and study, especially because the weather is getting better. i love knowing my way around the city and feeling like everything is accessible to me. my academic goal i think is just to learn as much as i can and not drag my gpa down too much......

Bariloche

Wow, what a trip. i cant believe i am writing this only now when i came back more than two weeks ago but classes started and its been a little crazy for me. we left BA on a tuesday afternoon, on a big bus that was probably twice as comfortable as a first class seat on a plane. the seats reclined completely, they served tree meals, showed us movies--i slept a full nights sleep and the 20 hours flew by. bariloche itself is in the andes of patagonia and this is just before the end of the peak skiing season. the town was full of tourists--mostly brazilians and argentines but a few from europe and the states as well. i cannot describe to you how beautiful it was, but can only say that seeing that spectacular view literally took my breath away and left me absolutely speechless (crazy!). i will try to go back in the spring as well--those mountains make utah look like kansas.
skiing was fun and its really like riding a bicycle--even though i hadnt done it since i was about six years old i am really getting the hang of it...or was for a while. i was skiing down a slope and just picked up too much speed too fast and could not slow down and flipped over. my skis snapped off and then i slid down the mountain about 10 feet at least--all my stuff was all over and everyone skiing down handed me a different lost object--poles, hat, skis...one boy came and handed me the lenses of my glasses. one of the kids on the trip is a ski bum from colorado, and informed me tha that kind of fall is known as a "yard sale" with all your stuff everywhere, haha. when i fell the wind was knocked completely out of me--it took a second to breathe and i was totally disoriented. when i got up it hurt a little when i breathed so i got down the mountain and went straight to the first aid station, which promptly refused to examine me because i didnt have enough cash and they didnt accept credit cards. what really sucked almost more than anything was that none of the people i was with came or even volunteered to come with me-- i just kept thinking how if any one of them got hurt i wouldnt even t think about continuing to ski. i got lost trying to find the clinic that did accept credit cards and asked a random paramedic to help me and ended up breaking down and crying and suddenly he was ridiculously helpful and kind--got a golf cart to take me like two blocks and was like 'why would your friends keep skiing if youre hurt' and im all good question. it was pretty funny too because i was saying how unnecessary the golf cart was, and he says to me "look, if there was a lot going on here, ots of accidents, we wouldnt do it, but nothing ever happens so its our pleasure." anyway i got to the clinic and the people tehre were so nice and took an xray and no bones were broken, my muscles only got very inflamed but nothing serious at all. i was relieved. after that i went back into town and took the most amazing walk; found this artisans market where i bought beautiful, cheap jewelry and took a million pictures of the lake and mountains. it ended up being a really great afternoon even though the people i was with were disappointingly unhelpful-- in fact, they all had lunch together at the top of the mountain--i couldnt join them because i wouldnt be able to ski back down.
after my lil fall i ended up skiing the remaining two days without any problems, although i did obtain the name Slowpoke McGee, resulting from the fact that neither i nor my companions thought it was physically possible to ski as slowly as i did--but hey, i didnt fall! i just got over the whole not coming with me to the doctor thing because what choice did i have, really, and the truth is that almost all of them are actually really nice people, its just that theyre more the kind of people you have fun with at a club than in a beautiful place. they wanted to drink ALLLLLLLL the time, ie at every meal even when we were skiing all day. one kid had a bottle of whiskey in his backpack while snowboarding and would bust it out on the lifts. blech. needless to say, i was less than disappointed to find out that i had accidentally booked a ticket on a different bus than all of them on the 20 hour bus ride home. fortunately, not everyone stayed at the same place--the original 7 people had rented a condo while the other four of us stayed in the best hostel everrrrrr. it was literally ON the lakeshore and the view during the day was this magnificent lake framed by the most beautiful mountains i have ever seen. the people there were really awesome too, from all over the world, and the best night i had in bariloche was when i went out on my own with some of the people from the hostel. ah so fun! overall, it was hands down worth it, and i dont have any hard feelings about my fall.
what was also cool was that even though i had a great time, i was glad to come back to buenos aires. even more than that, it was such a nice feeling to be back--my neighborhood just felt so comfortable and familiar and i really felt like i was coming back to my own room. i hope you all are well and i have lots more to write about so stay tuned!

Snowbound

Every time I write it´s like I don´t know where to start--it feels like so much happens every day here. Last week I registered for classes, which was a strange process. the way it works here is that you register for any classes youre possibly interested in because once registration is over you can't add courses--you can only drop them. I registered for like 12 classes, but the only two i know for sure i am taking are spanish and this class that is part class and part community service. That class is within the program, but i am really excited about it...Other classes I am looking at are pre-colombian latin america, urban geography(!), latin american social thought, photojournalism....i have no idea what i will end up taking, i just have to see what seems good in the beginning. Unfortunately, I am missing the first class for a few of the classes i registered for at the catholic university...because...i am going skiing in Bariloche! Bariloche is in the mountains in Patagonia--a 20-hour bus ride from buenos aires...yes, twenty. fortunately it is overnight and the seats recline almost completely so i am not too worried about it, though i am sure i will be singing a different tune tomorrow. I just decided today that im going- im kind of tagging along with this group of kids that all go to georgetown, but they are super nice and i am glad. i kind of feel guilty going with such a big group of americans instead of going with fewer people and trying to have a more cultural experience...but what the hell, im going to bariloche! i leave tomorrow afternoon at 2 and will arrive the following morning. we went today to a ski store and for thirty bucks i got waterproof ski gloves and the cheapest pair of ski pants i could find, ie bright red ones that make me look like a fire truck. hey, at least i wont get lost....i am a little nervous about skiing since i havent been since i was maybe seven years old but there are two kids from south florida going that have never skiied before so i am not too worried about being on my own. ah! i cant believe it! i feel so adventurous! this is almost as spontaneous as me and hodi and serena booking tickets to guadalajara the day before and leaving two hours after we booked the tickets...but not quite.
yesterday i went to the most beautiful antiques fair in a neighborhood called san telmo, which is THE tango neighborhood of BA, which believe me says a lot. the fair was so amazing--they had the most crazy, random, beautiful things. each stand for the most part sold one primary thing- one vendor was selling nothing but antique siphon bottles in every color of glass you can imagine, while another sold only chandelier crystals or silver spoons. The neighborhood is great too--still kind of a dive but with incredible architecture and murals and lots of color everywhere. we saw these people that apparently are there every week- it's like twenty or thirty people playing drums of all different sizes and then women were walking in front dancing samba. soooo cool. they walked around the whole neighborhood so you could almost always hear the beat from a distance.
i hope you all are well and i miss you. wish me luck on the slopes!

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