MY WEEKEND WITH CLASSMATES (this title would sound better in spanish....mi fin de semana con mis compañeros de clase....)

Friday I went to the house of a classmate from Anthropology to study and have lunch. Her house was in Godoy Cruz, which is the town bordering Mendoza to the south. I took the trolé to get there. The trolé is a bus which runs on electric cables that are strung from telephone poll to telephone poll. We have the same system in Cambridge, MA (not for the 96). Anyway, I got onto the trolé and it was packed because it was lunchtime aka the beginning of nap time (siesta hours). All the students were returning home for lunch and so were a million business people and luckily I found a spot to hold on. A guy was yelling at the bus driver about how it’s a problem that the company doesn’t run enough buses and the driver shouldn’t let more people on and so on and so on. I meet my friends and we went to Ceci’s house. She had cooked a piece of meat with roasted potatoes and yams. we ate and worked on our homework assignments for a few hours. her house was in a quiet neighborhood, on a curvy street, very American.

Saturday morning, I left the house at 10 AM to go to the bus terminal. There, I met Mateo and Ametista (from my program) along with Luciana, Andrea, and Rosana (mendocinas from my argentine lit class). we took a bus to the house/farm of another classmate, ana maria. we arrived at the house and walked the grounds a little. she has cala lilies growing, along with a grapefruit tree, a quince (membrilla) tree, almond trees, beets, tomatoes, radishes, and grapes growing on her property. we picked some radishes and almonds (not me) and went into the house. her great-grandparents had built the house at the turn of the century when the immigrated from Spain. the house doesn’t have heat (the thick mud walls insulate it) and the bathroom is attached, but outside. we started by helping her mother make empanadas, which was really fun. she had even made the dough herself. after assembling the empanadas, we set the table and got the fire going for the barbeque. the empanadas were cooked in a clay oven and the meat was all cooked over an open flame. we cut radishes and tomatoes to have some veggies with our dead cow.

after eating way to much with ana maria’s family (husband and two kids), we went for a walk through the tomato patch and picked some to take home. We had some mate (which is sort of like super strong tea) and sat around talking. I didn’t get back to the city until 10.30 PM.

Sunday, I literally did nothing. I spent the day watching television and drinking tea (ok, and doing homework). I watched ER, Law and Order and two hours of extreme makeover home edition. it was such a lazy day and reminded me of all the lazy Sundays I spent in carmie.

Monday, I went to my anthro class and we had a debate/discussion with some indigenous students on how the indigenous populations of argentina are viewed. Without notice, the profe asked me to comment on the American Indian population and I had to speak in front of the entire class (120 people). Then, a news tv crew (ok, two guys) was there and wanted me to comment on camera, in Spanish, about discrimination and racism from an American perspective. So, I gave a TV interview, but I’ll never see the thing because it won’t air until September.

My profe invited me to go with him, another profe and some students to cut cacti that afternoon. they are doing this project where they grow cacti near the university and if you cut the branches (round parts) of the cacti you can grow another one (you don’t even have to plant it really, they multiply like rabbits). so, we went and cut cacti and then brought them to another place to store them before bringing them to Lavalle, a poor area where a lot of indigenous people live. it was really fun and I had nothing else to do yesterday.

Today, we had a “public class” for anthro. we went to the legislative building which is on the pedestrian street right near the main plaza (aka a few blocks from my house). we started over an hour after we were going to (which means two hours after the class was scheduled to start). the entire class consisted of the professor and two students reading an article on the incorporation of Native American groups into Latin American society.

public classes were started as a way for students and teachers to protest together. the university is located on a hill, in the park. this puts it away from the center of the city where all the people are and, therefore, university protests on campus don’t call attention to anything. (although, they can piss people off, like last week when students blocked the entrance to the university, aka no bus access). while we weren’t really protesting, merely informing the public, it was still really interesting. reporters were there, as well as a group from the church and another group representing farmers without land (they weren’t really part of our class/protest/thing….our teacher hadn’t invited them; they came to do their own protest).

I finally found out about the food coupons. I had seen people in the food store paying for their groceries with coupons which look like food stamps. They come in booklets; each coupons is worth 5 pesos (1.65 USD). People use them to pay for their food and then pay the rest in cash. Our teacher sent me and another girl to buy thread (we were going to hang posters, but never bothered). He gave us the coupon book and some cash (not all places accept the coupons). I was finally able to ask someone what the coupons were. She told me that public employees (ie: our teacher and other state university teachers) receive a salary that comes in two parts: one in cash/money and the other in consumption coupons. When I asked her why this was, she told me that there just isn’t enough money in the country for the government to pay everyone in pesos. She said that the coupons became especially popular after the 2001 economic crash and now there is inflation (that was obvious to me) and they seem to be using them more and more. As far as the inflation goes, every day things are costing more and more. I think I wrote about the coffee/pastry inflation that happened on my block a few weeks ago. at the same time two cafes raised their “special” rate for coffee. A kiosk raised its price from $1 to $1.20 (coffee and bread) and a café went from $4 to $4.50 (coffee, tiny juice, and two croissants). While this doesn’t seem like much, its happening across the country. Today on the news they reported that fruit and vege prices may rise as much as 40% over the next few weeks. In September, all plane ticket prices went up 10%, all bus companies quickly followed suit and raised their prices by 10% as well.

Chile

Going to Chile is like going to America. They have highways connecting Santiago with the beach, the people drive Fords and new Chryslers (dad, I saw Jeeps/Chryslers that I have never seen before and they were brand new). They have marshmallows and Starbucks and Cheerios (they were multi grain; I bought a box). Parts of downtown Santiago feel like New York City (the financial district), while other parts feel more like suburban MD/VA. The metro is clean and new. However, Chile is still South America: they have crazier strikes than Argentina, Chilean are the first to tell you that Chileans are the biggest thieves in the world, the markets are fantastic.

My first destination in Chile was Valparaíso (aka Valpo), a historical port city on the Pacific Ocean. I really enjoyed Valpo for its murals and art along with hills that make Tufts look flat (I will never be able to complain about Tufts hills again). I stayed in a hostel that was really someone’s house. it was on top of cerro alegre (“happy hill”). I was there for four nights, which is the longest I have ever stayed in one place while traveling. I really liked the hostel because it had internet, hot water and I could use the kitchen. while I was in Valpo, I went twice to Viña del Mar, another costal town, about 10 minutes away. Viña was more upper class, beaches and pretty parks whereas Valpo was more middle class. During my two trips to Viña, I went to Quinta Vergara (a botanical park), the fine arts museum, the beach, a castle overlooking the water which was an art museum, and had a sushi lunch. The sushi was amazing and so necessary after a lack of fish in Argentina. the restaurant was very American feeling and even had kikoman soy sauce!!

In Valpo, I went to Pablo Neruda’s house, the vege market, the pier to see the boats, and an outdoor mural museum. I also walked the picturesque hills and sat in the plaza reading (I had homework) and went to a Passover seder. The first night in valpo, Anna (from Mendoza program) and I went out to dinner and had chorrilla, this greasy mess of fries, meat bits, hot dog bits, onion, and cheese (which she ate). to it we added ketchup, mustard and ají (a spicy tomato sauce). Then, we went dancing at a club, which was interesting because it was way more chill than the clubs in Argentina. People were there to have fun with their friends rather than show off their outfits. The guys were actually polite and accepted rejection if I didn’t want to dance with them.

the other thing anna and I ate were completos: a hot dog bun, hot dog, chopped tomato, avocado, mayo (we got ours without it), ketchup, mustard, and ají. they’re so big you can barely fit them in your mouth, but so yummy (you can’t taste the hot dog). we also shared ice cream which came in a pineapple (she ate the fruit and most of the ice cream). I really like the lucuma ice cream. lucuma is a pitted fruit from peru, but tastes almost pumpkin-y. we slept on the beach for a few hours the first day we got to chile because we were tired from our 11 hour bus ride. we sat at the boarder for 3 hours waiting and then waited another hour in line for the immigration and customs process. it sucked….chileans are crazy when it comes to customs (I don’t think they beat American immigration procedures though).

after anna left to go meet her parents, I hung out with the jumbos who are in the viña/valpo area. I met up with a girl Hannah, whom I know from Hillel and other things around Tufts. We went to a Passover seder, which was really interesting. First we went to the synagogue, which was really a room in what might have been a house at one time. There, we bumped into three more jumbos (Josh somebody, matt plitch and jake pearson). they are studying on various programs in the area. I knew matt and jake from latin American politics sophomore year. after the service, we piled into cars with the members of the synagogue and drove about 15 minutes south of town to a community center/naval academy…I’m not really sure, but they had a lighthouse! there we started the seder, which had an attendance of around 75 people. we sung all the songs and went through the seder plate, but skipped the four children and Elijah. they served matzoh ball soup, which didn’t hold a candle to my grandma’s soup. the matzoh balls were somewhat gummy/rubbery, but it was till better than nothing. the entire seder lasted 5 hours! because of all the people interrupting the rabbi and all of the craziness to serve everyone (imagine more than a dozen jewish mothers trying to “help” in the kitchen).

the next day, I went to Santiago. I stayed in a hostel and did some touristy stuff around the center of the city, which was really nice. the pedestrianized streets are fantastic: they have music playing and the music follows you as you walk! I especially enjoyed hearing Uptown Girl as I made my way to the plaza de armas (main square). I spent wedesday and Thursday wandering the city: I climbed cerro santa lucia (a hill in the middle of the city), went to Pablo Neruda’s Santiago house, went to the fish market, and barrio bellavista with a group of girls I met at my hostel who were studying in BsAs with COPA. Thursday I got my backpack from the hostel and went to Starbucks in Las Condes, a neighborhood of Santiago which feels like you are in America….starbucks was next to ruby Tuesday’s which was next to hooters….etc). I had a venti iced peppermint, soy latte and it was fantastic!!! it cost more than four dollars….but I’m pretty sure that’s what it would have cost in the US. I think the cup here was a little smaller…..

then I met caroline and went for Chinese food with her and her friends....south American Chinese food isn’t that good (with peru being the exception). we had to coat it in sauces (soy and sweet and sour) to get any flavor, but it was still a nice change from the Chilean/argentine foods. they were sick of Chilean food and I’ve been sick of argentine food (that’s why I don’t eat out). it was also the first meal where we weren’t served bread (both countries are obsessed with bread). caroline and I then went to her house and had tea with her host grandma and went out to a dance club/bar and hung out with more people on her program, all of whom are very nice. the next day we climbed cerro san cristobal, which has a huge virgin mary statue on it. it was good Friday, so the hill was packed. then we went to the fish market for lunch, which was not the best idea for good Friday….it was beyond packet. I had a raw fish soup and caroline had salmon. we went back to her house for more tea and then went to the apartment of a guy in her program and played cards. Saturday we went to parque o’higgins and barrio brasil for dinner. we also walked around barrio bellavista and walked by a religious concert. it was so great to see her and be able to talk about our classes for next year and people we know and stuff. one of her friends told her that he could see how we are friends because we have the same mannerisms….neither of us understand this…

on Sunday, I returned to Argentina and classes and life….

Monday was a strike day, meaning all classes were cancelled and transportation was completely stopped between 12 and 1 PM. A teacher had been killed by police in the south. he had been protesting the low salaries teachers receive and the protest had gotten out of hand. out of respect/to further the protest, the entire country shut down Monday, which was kind of ridiculous. it doesn’t really teach the children about protesting or workers’ rights, it just gives them a day off from school. anyway, I went to a march in the center of Mendoza, which was interesting to see the different groups demonstrating. there were approximately 10 thousand people at the march.

More insight into the Argentine educational system

So, last week I decided that I was done shopping classes and I had my schedule organized. I am only taking three classes, but in American credit hours (which Tufts doesn’t actually use) I am taking 15 hours worth of class (aka 4 Tufts classes). What does suck is that I have to go to class every day of the week, which I haven’t had to do since freshman year….however, this is the first semester not having class before 9AM (but I have to leave the house at 8:40 to get to my 9 AM class so its about the same as usual). My schedule is kinda wacky: Monday and Tuesday mornings I have Anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, which is a 45 minute walk away (or 10 minute bus ride). Wednesday and Thursday evenings (until 8 or 9 PM) I have 20^th Century Argentine Literature at the same university. Then, Friday mornings I have Argentine Foreign Policy at the Universidad de Congreso, which is only 4 blocks from my house. I’m all signed up for my classes and everything, which is an amazing relief and weight lifted off my shoulders. Now, I have to start doing homework.

Next week I have an Anthro práctico due. A práctico can be any kind of homework assignment, like a paper, response to questions or some kind of analysis of an article. In this case, we had to read and article and respond to some questions. I did the whole thing last week, wrote about 5 pages in paragraph form. It wasn’t that hard. Today in class, the teacher told us that we have turn the práctico in with a group of no more than 9 and really we can just respond to the questions. I hadn’t been able to ask this teacher about the specifics of the práctico because he wasn’t there last week. Last week’s teacher had told me prácticos could be like mini-essays and we should cite the article and another article. So, I followed those instructions.

The problem is that these professors don’t actually talk to each other. The right hand is doing one this and the left hand hasn’t got a clue what that action is. We actually have three teachers for anthro, but I have yet to meet the third. Having three teachers is normal; I have four for Argentine Literature and two for Argentine Foreign Policy. They have this weird system where teachers teach in multiple universities and high schools and no one teaches an entire semester. My host “mom” (nearly genetically impossible, she’s 34) teaches communications at at least three high schools each semester. The students stay in the same classroom and the teachers run around the city. They have this whole system in place because some teachers (and students) go to morning classes and others go to afternoon/evening classes. Everyone in the city has 1/2PM-4/5PM off because those are the siesta hours. During that time, everyone goes home for lunch and some students are done with the day and some are just starting. Mariana (host mom) only really works 15-18 hours a week, which is enough to support herself and live in a house on the main street of the city. She works Monday and Friday afternoons and Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Wednesdays she has off. During her off time, she doesn’t really do much related to her job: I have seen her preparing lessons, but never really grading papers or anything.

So, back to the group work: I have only two weeks of classes and I have had to do a group práctico in every single one. In literature, we had to read an article (during class because Wednesday’s teacher told us to read it for the following week, but Thursday’s teacher had wanted us to read it for that week). Then we had to summarize the article and write the summary in a diagram/chart on a big piece of paper. I worked with 4 other women (2 of whom have teenage children). I almost killed one of them. We only had an hour to do this whole project and reading the article took a little while to begin with. We also had to leave the classroom because other groups were reading too loudly and pissing off my group. So we really had about 20 minutes to write the notes on the big paper. But, first we had to write everything out on a smaller piece of paper and argue about the order and very specific details of the contents of the notes. So, that took about 10 minutes and then this one woman couldn’t figure out if she wanted the poster to be horizontal or vertical. she decided on vertical and began writing in pencil, but had to flip the poster over because she didn’t like the way she wrote Argentine Literature on the first side (not that anyone could actually see the writing, because she had written it so lightly). So, now we have the teacher coming over every five minutes telling us to hurry up and everyone is standing around watching this woman write (and we still had to go over all the letters in marker). I finally picked up the marker and started going over her letters. I was standing at the top of the poster (it was on a table) and therefore, re-writing the letters upside down. These women were so impressed….the foreigner was managing to write in SPANISH from upside down….really it wasn’t that big of a deal: I was following her letters. Of course, we had absolutely no time to actually present the poster. We had also skipped our 10 minute break which pissed off all the students.

For every hour of class at the UNCuyo, a 10 minute break is built into the schedule. These students are very serious about that break. They get pissed if a teacher tries to take up any of the break time and doesn’t “reimburse” them by letting them out early. In anthro, the break usually winds up being 25 minutes because of all the questions the first-years have regarding everything about the homework and everything in general. These kids need major hand-holding. Break time is usually cigarette, food, mate time for everyone. And, whats even worse is that they have bells in the Filosofía y Letras building, where I have my classes. Teachers cannot hear the bells if the door is closed, which means the students close to the door shout when the bell goes off (or a few minutes beforehand if they are feeling bored). Today in anthro, the guy sitting next to me left for the ten minute break and didn’t return for an hour (when the next 10 minute break was beginning).

Tomorrow is a strike at the university, but we’re still going to have class. I really have no clue what they are striking about; I think its something medically/health care related. Teacher 1 in anthro text messaged teacher 2 (during class) and they decided to hold class….you can’t image the student’s reaction….very mad. We’ll see if we actually have class…

(this is actually being typed on Tuesday, whereas the rest was typed on Monday) So today I went to class and we actually started on time (9AM). During the break at 9:50AM, the prof walked back in and said students I have an announcement (in a loud/excited voice): class is cancelled, we need to leave immediately. We thought something was wrong, but really it was that someone who worked in the building had died recently and out of respect, we were not allowed to have classes. So I left and went to COPA to use the internet.

My busy weekend:

I was pretty much busy every second of this weekend. Friday I went to Noel’s apartment. Noel is in my Argentine Foreign Policy class and last week Dan, Drew (other COPAs) and I went over and made pancakes and pizza with Noel and her friends. This week, I went over in the afternoon and hung out with Noel and her friends and then went back after dinner to get ready to go out. We went and met up with some of her friends from Córdoba and then went to a club to go dancing. Dan came too. We spent a few hours at the club, which was relatively close to the city and where I live (most of the clubs are way the hell outside the city, like 20 km away). Dan and I left at 5 AM because we were basically falling asleep on the dance floor (which was absolutely packed and I got stepped on). I stripped as I entered my house and left my smoky clothing outside.

Saturday morning, the cleaning woman showed up at 9 and rang the bell, which is a horrid noise. My host mom was sleeping and didn’t wake up. The woman kept ringing the bell and even called the house. I dragged myself out of bed to let her in as Mariana was dragging herself out of bed. I have no clue why she was so tired; she didn’t go out Friday night (she watched Love Actually on my computer). Anyway, the Peruvian cleaning woman had come over to teach Mariana how to make this chicken and rice dish and to clean the house a little. Luckily, she didn’t need to clean my room (there was no way I was getting out of bed again). However, they made so much noise while cooking that I didn’t really sleep much anyway. I dragged myself out of be at noon and had breakfast. That afternoon I worked on my anthro homework and went to blockbuster.

Blockbuster is 6 blocks away from my house on the main plaza of the city. Being that its blockbuster, I basically went in my pajamas (they were black yoga pants). I had to be buzzed in (and out when I left). Inside is pretty much exactly like every single blockbuster in the US: rows of movies, extremely bright lights and it was freezing. it made me kind of homesick for OT blockbuster on a Friday night when the whole world is there…aka you have to see people you know (although I’m getting to old for that because I don’t know the current high schoolers). I rented El tigre y la nieve, an Italian film that both Nancy and I had been wanting to see (but couldn’t find) the entire time we were home for break. it was a really good movie.

I watched a little of the movie and Noel texted me to tell me that everyone was meeting at Agustina and Fernanda’s apartment (10 blocks away) to take taxis to Luli’s house. The message said meeting at 9PM, but I got it at 8.45PM….so I ran out the door and hurried to the apartment, but didn’t get there until 9.15PM (ok, so I had to put on actual clothing first). when I got there, Fern was straitening Agu’s hair and they were all sitting around doing nothing. We were waiting for Dan, Drew and two Argentine girls to get there (we waited 1.5 hours). Next time, I will not be running out the door….i’ll just be late like the rest of these girls.

Luli lives in an enclosed neighborhood above the park. To enter, one of the Argentine’s in our taxi had to present her document of identity and give her name and all this info. The neighborhood felt like NJ or CA suburbs: quiet, no buses, people with cars on the street, houses with windows open….totally tranquil. It was completely different from the center of the city. I felt like I was back in the US again….this girl had a dishwasher and a mudroom with washer and dryer (these are not common in Argentina). The house also had two dining rooms (formal and informal) and high ceilings. Anyway, Luli had made pasta and lemon pie for dinner. We ate at 11.30PM and then sat around chatting until 4ish. We also played charades with movie titles which was tricky, but a lot of fun. She drove us home, which was super nice of her (we were going to call a taxi because there are none in her neighborhood).

I went to bed at 5 AM Sunday morning and woke up at 11. At 1:15PM, I was outside waiting for Mariana to pick me up (she had run some errands) to go to her sisters’ houses and get them and go to an asado (bbq) in Luján, which is about 20 minutes outside the city. Both sisters and their kids, as well as Mariana’s brother’s family and her dad were at this bbq. She has six nieces and nephews. Kate and Katie (both in COPA, each lives with a sister) were also there. We ate 5 different cuts of meat as well as chorizo (sausage) and lots of salads which mainly consisted of roasted peppers and eggplant. For dessert, one sister had made brownies with dulce de leche and meringue and the other had made lemon pie with meringue on top. Both were delicious, mainly because I couldn’t taste the dulce de leche on the brownies and they were chewy.

After the asado, Mariana drove me to the park and I went to the stadium to meet up with my friends and watch the fútbol game. Finding them was a bit of a chore. They hadn’t gotten seats and were standing on the stairs. We squished ourselves into the section (I had to climb a railing to get to them because I couldn’t get around the police barricades to go the normal way.) There were 10 of us. The people in back kept telling us to sit down and the woman in front was a major pain in the ass. She kept yelling at us to give her more room and kept giving us dirty looks…we basically ignored her and did whatever we wanted. The game was fun, but would have been much better if we were in the popular section (cheap, more “dangerous” aka the people actually enjoy the game), whereas our section was pretty boring. They cheered and yelled, but not that much. Boca (from Buenos Aires) beat Godoy Cruz (from here in Mendoza) 1-0. The game wasn’t that interesting, but it was still fun. Then we walked home, finished tigre y nieve and went to bed; the very busy weekend was over…..

Photocopies are the story of my life

So, over the past week or so, I have had to get photocopies in various places and every time its more fun that the last. This requires an explanation: students in Argentina don’t use books to study for their classes. Books are too expensive. As it is, they refuse to buy all of the photocopies because those are too expensive also. So, the photocopies… no one gives you a syllabus or any assignments. You have to go to the photocopier and buy these documents. There are two photocopiers in the Filosofía y Letras building (where I have anthro and Argentine literature). One is on the planta baja (entrance floor) and the other is on the first floor (American second floor). The planta baja copier has a larger counter and more people working. All of the documents are in big folders and you have to find them and ask for copies….I’ve only gotten syllabi there. The people are always smoking and being that we’re in Argentina they can’t make change….money is so screwed up here, but that’s a whole other story.

The past few days, I’ve been to the first floor copier every day. The way the system works is that you first have to get a number (deli-counter style). The first time I was there I pulled B65 and they were on A97. I amazingly didn’t have to wait that long (no one from 20-50 was actually there and I found B55 on the counter). There is no line. Everyone just grabs a number and crowds the counter, smoking and talking really loudly with friends. When your number gets called, you have to jump at the counter because if you don’t, they’ll pass you by (you get ½ a second to respond to your number). Then, you get to push through people until you get to the counter and talk to the copy lady. She has a computer and looks up the materials for which you are searching. She then sends the copies to one of four huge printers (which spit out pages with writing on both sides), you pay and get to push your way out of the crowd. Its chaotic, but you wind up making friends because you chat with people while waiting.

For my anthro homework, I had to read an article. The prof. only gave us the title of the article and the photocopy didn’t have any information about the author or anything like that. We haven’t seen that prof since last week (each class has 3 or 4 professors teaching it). This week’s prof gave us two authors’ names for suggestions of readings that might help us with the homework assignment. I went and found the photocopies, which involved the copy lady and I searching the readings from last year’s class. I paid AR$4.7 (US$1.5) for my copies, which is relatively a lot and brought them home. At home, I discovered that one of the copies was actually the reading we had to do for the assignment…so now I have two copies of it and I wasted time at the copier. Argentines don’t really understand the concept of wasting time…like making a bunch of the same copies at once and selling them later might make sense…Gnoman copy really has this down a lot better…they should come teach the Argentines.

Then, I went down to the student services desk to sign up for classes. COPA told us to bring a photocopy of our passport and go fill out the forms. So, being the good student that I am, I went a week ahead of the deadline to fill out the papers and stuff. However, they don’t just want a photocopy of the photo page of the passport (like most places), they want a photocopy of every page which has stamps, which for me is a lot (like more than half my passport). This really isn’t a problem, except for that the stamps are starting to come through the pages and you can see them on more then one page. The Chileans use so much damn ink and the passport has been damp recently, oops. So, I’ve got the rest of the those photocopies and I’ll go later today and see what they say…

Feeling natural in San Rafael

Rafting in San Rafael!! No, I´m not helping paddle.....or well, I´m ´´helping´´

COPA took us to San Rafael for the weekend. San Rafael is three-four hours away in the valleys to the south of the city. We left Saturday morning at 6.30AM (thank goodness the departure point was 4 blocks away). I had only gotten three hours of sleep because I was at the apartment of a friend from one of my classes. A bunch of Argentine girls, two American guys and me; we made pancakes and pizza. We got to San Rafael and found our cabins….it was super cute, a campground and cabins and a pool, all right alongside a river and mountains. we swam in the pool and sunbathed and then went on an excursion to a lake that had been damned and we chilled on a private beach for the afternoon. I climbed a sand hill (quite difficult) and the views were amazing. Then, we had a sing-a-long because my friend Paul brought his guitar. We went back to the cabins and played cards until dinnertime. Then, chatted and went to bed because we were so tired.

Sunday, we went on a hike through the mountain/canyon/valley thing (there wasn’t much climbing involved). The colors of the mountains were really pretty: reds and whites and rusty-brown colors. it was very hot and we all ran for the pool as soon as we got back to the cabins. After lunch we all went rafting, which was fun. It wasn’t as good as the time I went in Pennsylvania; the rapids weren’t super strong here. Our guides threw us into the water and then had to pull us back into the boat, which was funny. rafting is really fun in big groups because its like a constant water fight. We got back to the cabins with just enough time to shower before returning to Mendoza. I slept a fair amount of the drive back.

One of the things I really like about this COPA group is that I am one of four girls with a digital SLR; one has a Nikon, another a new Canon rebel, and the other a D20 or 30 or something like that. Its fun because we can talk cameras and lenses and stuff and people don’t look at me like the crazy girl with the big camera.

Me on the lake where we hung out on a private beach.






























Our group hike during the trip.

When they let morons design cities, but first the cool parts:

The picture on the left is an acequia and the sign for the university. The picture on the right is my building at the university.

Last night it rained. Mendoza is a desert, officially, but because of the climate changes (aka global warming, humans really are screwing up the world), they get these huge thunder and lightning storms. What you need to know as background is that many years ago, when Mendoza was founded, there was no rain. They constructed a city with irrigation channels called acequias. They are everywhere: every street has them, even though some have covered them. They are either covered with wood in construction sites or covered by the sidewalk and then have grates to let water pass. Because of the acequias, Mendoza’s central plazas (there are 5) and all of the cities street have huge trees which grew from the water they used to carry. Now, the acequias function for water removal as well. Most of the time, as I walk, the acequias are dry and like every other Latin American city (if it had acequias) filled with garbage. They are also refered to as tourist or drunk traps as people do occasionally fall into them. (I will post when I see this happen.)

When it does rain; it rains like mad and the next day, the acequias get to show off their absolute necessity. Each one becomes a river and gushes with water. My favorite acequia is the one on Bolounge Sur Mer because it is twice the width of any other acequia in the city. Also the houses on Sur Mer are really huge (they face San Martín Park, which is 1/3 of the city space). Some of the people have covered the acequias with vines and other plants to make them fit with their houses. Its really interesting to see how people have incorporated them.

The average center of the city acequia and the ones on the university are a good 14-18 inches wide, which means you have to watch where your feet land when getting off a micro (city bus) or getting out of a car. It is entirely possible to step off a bus and wind up nearly two feet below street level. If this were a city in the US, every acequia would be painted bright orange to warn people, or more likely, they would all be covered by the side walk with grates to allow water to enter. Even the park and the plazas have acequias running through them. That’s what allowed man to do things like plant pine trees next to cacti. (Its ironic to look at too.)

One does get used to crossing acequias by taking large steps, but this can be difficult in a skirt and flip flops. However, acequias make crossing the street a challenge because you might have to make the jump upon reaching the other side. There are little bridges (aka parts where the side walk has been built to cross the channel), but they are few and far between on the university.

So, the city planners were really thinking when they designed the acequias, but they really screwed up the city in one way: every street running east-west has three names. Ok, so if you want to have the streets change names when running through a central axis, that’s one thing. Its another when the center is a plaza and there are two streets functioning as an axis. The city is long and narrow; it is only about 25 blocks wide, which means that every eight blocks, the streets change names. Its not just the main streets that do this, in the central part of the city, all streets change when crossing Belgrano and San Martín. I am lucky enough to live on one of the main streets, its called Colón where I live, Aristides Villanueva between Belgrano and the park and Emilio Zapata between San Martín and the eastern city limit. Each part of the street has its own character, too. Aristides is the party street; its where most of the bars are located and where most of the population can be found on a Friday night. (Note, this is most of the human population, taxi cabs are still few and far between.) When it becomes Colón, it has more businesses like banks and supermarkets and hardware stores, with fewer bars and residential buildings. Then, Zapata has some businesses and stores, but its distinction is that when you cross San Martín, Zapata starts a two-way street.

Its not that hard to figure out, until you have to cross Belgrano. I’ll look at bus routes and they say the bus runs Ortega. Ok, but that’s in the western part of the city; then I have to figure out what that means for me. I have to think about it: Ortega is San Lorenzo for me, here in the center. Or for going to friends houses, “Sure, come over, we’re drinking mate (traditional, biter Argentine tea). I live on Avellaneda.” There is no Avellaneda where I live, so I have to consult my map and discover that Avellaneda is called Gutierez before it crosses Belgrano. Its actually more likely I would walk Belgrano and find the street, but I would have to know the direction first. Even though Mendoza is a small city, the street names do make it a bit confusing and the bus lines are an absolute hell.

Its because of Mendoza’s size that most bus lines are complete circles and go to the surrounding towns, called departments, as well. This means that even though I take the 112 or the 103 from the corner of Chile and Rivadavia, taking either of those buses back will not bring me to the same location without going all over the world. So, I have two different lists of buses: one for going to the university and another for returning. All of the buses have a line number and then a specific route number. You can only see the line number from far away. The route number is written on a much smaller sign and behind the glace window (hello, glare!), which means you get about three seconds to glance and the route number and decide if it’s the one you one. This isn’t so much a problem when I’m going to the university, but when I’m on my way home, buses I can take are constantly passing me without my realizing until its too late. At least I live in the center which is pretty easy to get to and from. I feel really badly for all the people who live on the outskirts or outside the center because there are fewer buses that go towards their houses and most of them wind up taking the bus in the wrong direction and finding out they are in one of the suburbs. This has never happened to me.