tourist fail

Before I left Seattle, I made a list of addresses of all the people I love. In Buenos Aires, I bought a bunch of cool postcards (which are surprisingly kind of hard to find. At least harder than finding postcards in Hawaii.)
I have not written on a single one. I packed them to move out of my host home, but I have no idea where!
Anyway, when you get an argentinian postcard postmarked from Kailua, now you'll know why.

hostel

I moved out of my host house and was so triste to say goodbye! My host dad gave me a giant bear hug and told me I was welcome back any time about 400 different ways.
But then Willa whisked me away and now she, Kirsten, and I are sharing a hostel in palermo, which is just about the coolest ever. There's a parilla on the roof.
Yesterday we went to a delicious Indian curry place called Bangalore, which was amazing. Willa thought she didn't like Indian food, but now she wants to cook chicken korma for dinner tomorrow night; Kirsten had never had Indian food and now she's enamorada.
Today we went exploring San Telmo, which was way cool. We have had a day full of MORE AMAZING FOOD: alfajores, cafeconleche, cheap armenian shawarma, coffee butter on steaming hot bread, raviolis filled with proscuitto and others with butternut squash, pear creme brulee, and gancia. mMmMmm
Tomorrow I want to go out for lunch with my host sister and out to a boliche with chelsie's host brother, but they're not as active on facebook as I'd like them to be...

despedidas

I hate goodbyes!
Today was great. My host mom and I made pizzas together, so I could teach her how to make fluffy crust and she could teach me how to make thin crust. We used the salmon I brought from Seattle and avocados for toppings. Everyone just about died over how amazing they were. I also gave her an American pancake recipe, which we ate for dessert (with dulce de leche, of course).
I then visited the Recoleta cemetary for the anniversary of Evita's death.
Now I have to pack because I am leaving the provincias tomorrow! I can't believe it! I am dreading leaving this house and my wonderful host family and their wonderful novios and their wonderful relatives! I am going to miss it so much!

getting sentimental

...and I'm still here for a week
hear our song!

last night

None of these are my pictures, because I was stupid and didn't bring a camera.

1) tango class that was actually SUPER fun

2) Cerveza sampler

3) random argentine rock band woooo!
(not actually them)

ONE more day of class

... tengo fiaca

mi panza

I met Christy's host sister Lulú! She was in the middle of baking, was pretty much the sweetest ever, and let me try one of her conitos de coco. I ordered some alfajorcitos, galletas, y un budín that I'm super psyched to pick up before class tomorrow!

This morning I helped make an American breakfast: pancakes, chocolate-chip pancakes, fried egg over grits, ham & egg scramble, a ham-avocado-tomato-cheese omelette, and mimosas from fresh-squeezed oj and a $2 bottle of champagne. qué rico!

Then, immediately after, I went to an asado. I was stuffed from breakfast, and it was still the most amazing meat ever. I also had the best postre i've had here yet: havannita. It's a giant sugar cookie with dulce de leche (of course) and dark chocolate. Like an open alfajor, the size of a pizza. Yeah.

Now I have three ensayos to write before the term ends. On Wednesday.

UPDATE: Lulú makes the most amazing alfajorcitos ever. Says everyone.

who?

I rode a horse and ate blood sausage. And liked it. No, really.

Midterm

I am definitely making the most of my time here. So far I've been to a boliche, parilla, milonga, and several cervezerias, cafes y asados, so I feel like I've got the most basic argentine experiences covered. Oh, and I drank mate on the Río de la Plata. But the program's already half over (!!!) and I don't want to leave here thinking, I wish I had... The funny thing is I've been going to all these different places with the mindset that I will return someday, and at this point, I really expect I will.

I can't imagine traveling to a place where I didn't know the local language. I'm struggling enough as it is, but at least I can understand a stranger's directions and can read the signs telling me which line to get in. I feel like my Spanish is improving by leaps and bounds every day (also resulting in clumsy English, as you can probably tell, and more recently, unintentional Spanglish). But the other day several people including my host mom mentioned that I was speaking much more fluently! And I swear I understood about 2/3s of what was going on at dinner last night, which is a pretty major development.

Everyone is going CRAZY over swine flu. Some restaurants close early, several boliches are closed, and all classes in the entire nation are cancelled (except ours, of course).

My host family is super nice. They like me because I am always starving, so I always love any food they offer me. They think I'm crazy for eating steak sandwiches for breakfast, but so do most people, I guess.

Oh, and I went to the grocery store, where they have one entire aisle devoted to different brands (and flavors!) of mate, and another devoted to dulce de leche.

Anoche y hoy

Yesterday we made empanadas until four in the morning, and today I woke up to an asado! Qué rica es la vida argentina!

more things I love:
friendly strangers
transportation (tren, subte, colectivo; I'm definitely getting used to remises)
submarino + medialunas
my host family and their extended family

some things I miss:
recycling
free water at restaurants
a real breakfast
all of you!