Closing Time

Thinking about how I will be home in exactly 3 weeks from right now is too bittersweet. While I can't wait to go home, celebrate the holidays, and of course be reunited with my main man, Jasper, I don't want to leave and say goodbye to this city and my life of the past 5 months. I am already anticipating the tears, especially when I have to say goodbye to my amazing host mom. I really got so lucky with her and can't imagine having lived with anyone else.

Since being back from Patagonia, I've finished all my classes (woot woot)! Ironically, the same day I finished, I received my class schedule for the spring. Needless to say, I'm going to die. The weather has also been amazing! Since spring has officially sprung, I've been soaking up the sun in the park with a good book. No complaints. I've been waiting for these days for too long- hope you all are enjoying the cold weather and snow at home!

my favorite springtime trees that are all over the city!

Last Monday, instead of continuing on to the "End of the World" with Alex and Traea, I got to come back and present my final radio project with my group. Good times. It was definitely a cool experience working with a group of Argentine students and I was glad I got the opportunity to do it! With two classes done, I still had two to go. My castellano class through my program, required that we write a 4 page paper and presentation for the final. First time having to do anything like that in a while. I chose to write about the abortion in Argentina, because it is illegal, and I knew I would find a lot of information on it. Therefore, researching took way too long, especially when all the sources are in spanish.

On Thursday, Alex and I spent our "thurs-date" at El Ateneo, a beautiful, old theater that has been turned into a bookstore and cafe, to get some work done.

El Ateneo

On Friday night, Anna and I went to see the ballet of Cinderella at the amazing Teatro Colon! While we didn't have to stand this time, we had trouble seeing anything that happened on the left side of the stage. But what can ya do? It was really cool to see and the costumes were incredible!
After the ballet, we met up with Alex and her BC crew to check out a swanky bar/restaurant.

La Cenicienta

Saturday, I spent the day trying to be productive and that night we went to our friend's apartment to make some tacos and guac! It was fun to actually make our own food for once! Sunday, I met up with my group for Registrando BA, and instead of actually doing our project, we sat at a charming cafe, "brainstorming," and enjoying the beautiful day.

Coco Marie

Of course, to celebrate being done, Anna and I headed to The Oldest- I'm going to miss that place! It's always a great feeling being done with a semester, regardless of how little work I actually had to do. Now I have even more free time! Alex and I spent one of our last "thurs-dates" doing some shopping, lunch at a cafe in Palermo Soho, and then going to see Las Madres march in Plaza de Mayo. After lunch we stopped at this diner and split the most amazing dessert I have ever had. It had all of my favorites- a warm vanilla cupcake with dulce de leche and m&m's in the middle, with a nice scoop of americana ice cream on top! It made me way too happy. Because of the impulsive choice to stop for dessert, we only saw the protest for the last 5 minutes and it was not as big as I was expecting. Las Madres are the mothers of the children that disappeared during the dictatorship. They have been marching every single Thursday since 1977- what dedication!

Las Madres

pure happiness

That night I went to see En Llamas (aka Catching Fire). Apparently it's a popular series here as well,  because we bought tickets 45 minutes before the movie started, but still were stuck sitting in the first row. But so worth it!! Friday was another beautiful day where I actually took advantage of the park across the street from me, read a book and tried to get my tan on. We also planned our trip to Salta! I have so many fun things planned between now and the time I leave! My family is on their way here right now!! We are headed to Punta del Este, Uruguay tomorrow to spend some time on the beach. I'm really hoping the weather forecast is wrong about the rain! It will be awesome to have them here and show them around my city! Once they leave, I'm headed off to Salta, the Northwest region, for a few days. When I get back, I have exactly one week left in the city. I already have an outline of everything I want to accomplish in that time! I can't believe my adventure abroad is already coming to an end. Time flies when you're having fun!

Patagonia- Trip of a Lifetime

As I am sitting in my hostel, still in Patagonia, I am a little too eager to share my Patagonian adventures with you. Alex and Traea have ditched me for Ushuaia, because I unfortunately have a final tomorrow so head back to the city tonight. Being alone and not wanting to do homework gives me an excuse to blog. I don't quite know how to describe this trip other than it being absolutely amazing- constantly taking my breath away. Definitely a trip of a lifetime. I never thought I would have a favorite excursion within Argentina because all of my destinations have been so different and incomparable, but Patagonia has surpassed those awesome other trips. I basically can't stop looking back at all of my pictures and still in awe of what we did and saw. This place is spectacular.

Our trip started after a quick nap from 11-1:30am on Wednesday and then heading to the airport. We got there a little bit too early, but lucky for us there were only a few other people in the whole place and no lines. We didn't have to show a single form of id or take anything off during security. A little bit different from the USA. We then tried to get some more shut eye at the airport before our flight. We got into El Calafate around 8am and had the whole day to take advantage of. Our first mission was to go into town to buy our bus tickets for El Chaltén and book our Big Ice excursion. We then got some lunch and continued to explore the charming town. After learning about somethings to do in El Calafate, we decided that the Ice Bar sounded most appealing. We took a van to the Glaciarium and raged for 25 minutes in the -10 degree open bar.

El Calafate

Ice Bar

Our dinner experience that night definitely tested our patience. Running on basically no sleep, we were told we had to wait 45 minutes for a table. We just decided to wait it out, but it ended up being more like 10pm when we were seated, not 9:30. At that point, we weren't even that hungry and just wanted to go to bed, but as always tried to make the most of it in our delirious state. After a full day of checking out El Calafate, we had a 6:45 wakeup call to head to El Chaltén.

El Chaltén is about a 3 hour drive from El Calafate and the trekking capital of Argentina. While I couldn't quite keep my eyes open on the way there, the views were unreal. Considering our lack of warm clothing that we brought to this country, we got a chilly welcome to this windy town. Luckily we were able to find some really cute hats and gloves to rent for our hike.

El Chaltén

Ready to go!

After a delicious, warm lunch of homemade chai tea and curry risotto at a cute cafe, we were so excited to start hiking. Bundled up in our warmest clothes, we were quickly stripping them off as we started our steep trek. Considering our time, we decided to go on the 6 hour hike to Laguna Torre. It ended up not being too strenuous of a trek and the constantly changing scenery was incredible. After about 2.5 hours we suddenly arrived at the lagoon. Once again, our breaths were taken away.

made it to Laguna Torre!

View of El Chaltén on our way back
 

After an amazing hike, we were ready for some dinner. We went to a cozy spot right next to our hostel and had some refreshing cerveza artesenal, locro, and apple crumble. Definitely satisfying after our long day. We finally got a real night's sleep and the next morning, we went on a short hike to this beautiful waterfall. We couldn't stop talking about how surreal it was that we were there and surrounded by these unbelievable mountains and views. We then had to grab a chai tea again on our way out of town. We were a little crunched for time and ended up having to chug our tea so that we could catch our bus. Luckily, we made it in perfect time, with burnt tongues.

Chorrillo del Salto

Once back in El Calafate, we finally were able to satisfy our burger cravings for "linner" and decided to spend the night hanging at the hostel and going to bed early to prep for Big Ice. After sharing wine, guacamole, and good conversation with some backpackers at our hostel, the whole going to bed early thing didn't really happen. Who needs sleep, right?! 5 hours later we were up and at 'em to take on the glaciers of Perito Moreno. We were picked up from our hostel at 7am and got the the national park and had time to explore and take pictures of the incredible glacier. I definitely have never seen anything like it in my life. I couldn't believe that in a few hours I would somehow be climbing on it. 

Considering the elegible age group for the Big Ice excursion was 18-50, I was a little bit nervous about what it would entail. We took a boat ride and then an hour hike so that we were level with the glacier. We were strapped into our harnesses and had our crampons ready to start casually trekking on the glacier. I was pretty much in awe the entire time, couldn't believe I was actually doing that. We stuck with the spanish guides and were in a group with 5 Brazilians. We spent a few hours just trekking on the glacier, stopped for a quick lunch (pretty sure my butt got frostbite) and filled our water bottles up with the fresh glacier water. I was very thankful to have rented hiking boots, although the last 15 minutes were pretty painful for my feet. This was easily one of the coolest things I had ever done. It only makes me want to come back to Patagonia and do it all again. After the hike back down, we were greeted with whiskey on the rocks of glacier ice and alfajors. Other than the fact that I'm not a huge whiskey fan, I can't really think of a better way to celebrate our accomplishment. Big Ice was big fun and definitely not nearly as physically challenging as I had expected. 

Like skiing, taking off the boots was the best feeling after another long day and a shower was much needed. We also were finally heading to dinner at Don Pinchon (luckily 2 doors down from our hostel) to try the famous Patagonia lamb. Not surprisingly, we each were served a feast. After a relaxing, delicious dinner reminiscing on our trip and study abroad experiences so far, we were fast asleep. 

A lot of lamb and roasted vegetables

I am still sitting in this hostel looking out at the amazing view and can't believe I have to leave. Back to "reality" and time to start preparing for "finals." With one class already finished, I have my radio group final tomorrow, and after that just two classes to go! I can't believe that I will be done with school so soon and my family comes in exactly two weeks! I'm still baffled by where the time goes. 

Well, I just have to say if you ever get the chance to come to Patagonia, take it!!! It is an incredible place and can't wait to come back here someday. 

Viva la Vida

As my time here is slipping through my fingers, I am trying to take advantage of every last opportunity I can! With so many amazing adventures already under my belt, I am realizing that this is really the only time in my life- at least for awhile- that I will have this much free time to try new things and have so many crazy experiences. Every time I look at my calendar, I wonder where the time has gone! I can picture every week/weekend from now until I head back to the states. It's unbelieveable! So many exciting things to look forward, for example my trip to Patagonia which begins in t-6 hours, when I have to head to the airport at 2am. I have already warned my travel companions that I will be crabby then, especially because I have been feeling under the weather the past few days. I will be desperately missing that sleep, but it is so worth it and I can't wait to see the amazing landscape that Patagonia has to offer and take on the glaciers and mountains.

Since I've been back from Mendoza, there are a few new things to add to my list of adventures in Buenos Aires. First off, celebrating Halloween was definitely a change from the states, mostly because it isn't a holiday here. My host mom was pretty determined to help me come up with a costume and was generous enough to lend me some funky jewelry and a few feathers from her duster to become an Indian. Sadly, I was the only one of my friends in costume, but fit right in at the American bar we headed to.

This past weekend was definitely a fun one! Saturday morning, my friend and I went to a cooking class at a woman's house. We were joined by two other young couples and made some Argentine classics (lentil stew, empanadas, and alfajores). It was fun to learn how to make these dishes and we got to enjoy our cooking as well- let's just say I was more than satisfied. I'm hoping it turns out this well when I cook it up for the fam when I get home!

the amazing view!

Mercy and I with Norma!

That night we went out for a late dinner of delicious stir fry and then to this awesome bar called Milion,  which is a renovated mansion in the city. Their drinks were also right on target. We all got the Frozen Gaucho which is basically a frozen mojito with yerba (the herb for mate) mixed in.

the aftermath of the Frozen Gaucho

After some yummy drinks, it was time to hit the dance floor. We went to a boliche and had a good time jamming to some recognizable tunes! While boliches can sometimes be a bit much for me, this one wasn't overly crowded, not too many creeps, and I had all my best girlfriends with me. 

Sunday was another busy day, meeting Alex and her roommates for a delicious brunch of eggs benedict and Bloody Marys. I was then quickly off to the San Lorenzo de Almagro vs. Boca Juniors soccer game. After being told by multiple people that the stadium was very dangerous because it is near a villa, I was glad I took the risk to go! It was a great time and energetic atmosphere of only San Lorenzo fans (because the opposing fanatics aren't allowed into the stadium), and luckily they won! I can now attest to how crazy the Argentines are about their fútbol.

Now it's time to start thinking about finals, which will consume most of my time once I get back from Patagonia until my fam comes. Today, I did have my last film class since we don't have a final! Woot woot! I hoping to survive the "Big Ice Excursion" on the Perito Moreno Glacier so that I can give you an update on my Patagonian adventures. Wish me luck!