When home is a hostel you know you´re living life.

What a crazy weekend.

We hop on a bus from Cordoba to Mendoza, a city right near the Chilean border smack in the middle of the Andes Mountains. We get there around 8AM and head to our hostel. I haven´t even put my stuff down before a friend of mine asks me if I want to take the next bus to Los Penitentes, another city about 2,300 meters up, and about 3 hours away. I´m in. The plan is to go snowboarding all day, sleep there and then head back to Mendoza the following evening. So a smaller group of us rent our equipment and hop the next bus to Los Penitentes.

We climb higher and higher. The view was...I can´t even describe it. I´ll let the pictures do the talking.



So we get there and we are in the middle of nowhere. I mean this town is one street. That´s it. Just a few hostels, restaurants, a gas station and the ski lodge. I go around running from hostel to hostel looking for a place to spend the night and there is not a bed left in the town. I finally find one that that has two beds open, but were traveling with three people. I beg the guy to let two of us share a bed and he agrees. He looks behind me and sees that both the people I´m traveling with are guys and asks me if one of them is my boyfriend. I tell him no and he looks at me like I´m out of my mind as he hands me the key to our room.

Snowboarding the Andes was one of the most challenging things I´ve ever done and it was some of the most fun I´ve ever had. I ate it big time twice. Like smashing my head into the ground and my board flying up over me. Repeatedly. This as I am still getting over the horse injury too. By the end of the first run I was in so much pain that I could brarely walk. So I did it again. And again.

This is me after I just got off the lift at the top of the mountain.



This is me half way down the first run.



After the lifts close it was time to get some grub. Here´s where things get interesting. I ask where an ATM is and they tell me the nearest one is 60km away. And no one accepts travelers checks. And no one accepts credit cards. I search my pockets and I have 5 pesos on me which is less than 2 dollars. I´m fucked. So there I am in the middle of nowhere, stuck in the Andes, I haven´t showered in days, haven´t brushed my teeth, haven´t eaten in 24 hours, my whole body hurts, and I´m out of money. I can´t even pay for the hostel. So I book it. I borrow 5 dollars from a buddy of mine, go back to the hostel tell the guy who thinks I´m crazy that my plans have changed, and I buy a bus ticket off him. Within twenty minutes I´m back on a bus to Mendoza, snowboard in hand, and I can´t stop smiling. I think it´s hilarious. On the way home I dig through my backpack and blow my last peso on the best cup of hot choloate I´ve ever had.

I hit Mendoza before midnight and meet up with friends there. I stop at an ATM and finally eat. At this point I´m so tired I can barely stand so a bunch of us crash at our hostel.

Day 2. We wake up at 9 and after returning my equipment I try and sign up for a wine tour. The lady tells me that the bodegas close early on Sundays so I´ve missed my shot. I ask what else there is to do in Mendoza on a Sunday. One word: Parapente. I´m not even going to try to explain this. Just go here and watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laj3nOdKam4

Adrhenalin still surging we head out to dinner and barely make our bus back to Córdoba. I get back home around 7AM, crash, wake up at 12 and go to class.

So that was my weekend.



Things I´m glad didn´t happen to me:

One. My friend Amielia is talking to a random Argentine boy in the Plaza España in Mendoza. He leaves and a minute later she realizes her purse is gone. She looks down the street and sees the guy holding it close to his chest. She sprits after him and shoves the guy into a wall. He drops the bag and walks away.

And the second story you are not going to believe. I swear this actually happened. Saturday night a few people decided to stay in Los Penitentes. This group went out to a bar and one of them, my buddy Russ, got especially toasted. He walks outside to take a piss. While peeing falls over and he´s so drunk he just falls asleep. Right there. Pants down. In his piss. In the snow. Were not sure exactly how much time went by. But basically a while later the extreme cold wakes him up. I´m going to say one more thing and I´ll let you put it together. Frost Bite.

In other news: Things are going well with classes. I have a final exam tomorrow. Right after the exam I move into my apartment and then an hour later I´m going to Buenos Aires. Talk about a busy day. I took my horseback riding final, we crossed a river and rode a trail in the mountains. And I am posting about 500 photos on Sunday.

Lost in translation: Russ has been telling people (in Spanish) that he´s hungover and he doesn´t understand why they think it´s so hilarious. He just found out five minutes ago that he was actually telling them that he´s pregnant. He was really saying ¨I´ve missed my last period.¨

Tid Bits:

I still haven´t bought clothes since I´ve been here so I still only have 6 shirts and a couple pairs of jeans.

I read a book that told me when traveling in Argentina it is essential to have a Swiss Army knife with a corkscrew. Glad I took that advice. It came in very handy on a few of those bus rides this weekend.

I´ve starting dreaming in Spanish.

I hope you realize that you´re going home alone tonight

Argentine guys creep me out. I´m sick of being grabbed at clubs, last night was ridiculous. I HATE going out without guy friends to dance with. If I´m dancing with my chicas it´s a matter of seconds before the wolves have surrounded us.

On Saturday a guy actually grabbed my hair as I walked by and wouldn´t let go. He actually pulled my hair! Who does that!?!?!

I don´t think it´s cute that you keep trying to get me drunk. I don´t think you´re a stud becuase you´re 27, that just makes you creepy. Just cause we´ve been dancing for 3 minutes does not mean that I´m comfotable with you sucking on my neck. Oh and I don´t think you´re cool because you know 10 words of English. Get your hands out of my pockets, out from under my shirt, and stop sweating all over me!!!! AHHHHHH! FUCK OFF!

I´ve given up on the ¨I´m married¨ excuse and the ¨Nobody likes a smoker¨ ploy only works half the time. Therefore I´ve simplified my strategy for keeping guys away from me. Now if a guy grabs on to me in a club and wants to dance I look him right in the eye and yell ¨¡¡¡NO ME TOCÁ!!!¨ Which is the same as saying, ¨DONT TOUCH ME!!!¨ I feel that this is the most effective and quickest way to end the interaction.

Fuck guys tonight. I just wanna dance.

Planning, Opera, Hot Dogs

This weekend I am taking 16 of my friends to Mendoza, a beautiful city about 10 hours away, way up in the mountains, for skiing and wine tasting. The best wine in the Americas is there. I´ve been planning this trip for the past 3 days and I can´t wait to go. I´m so stoked!

My Tango is getting better. I´m still not confident enough to actually go out to a tango club yet. Give me a week.

I saw an opera for the first time two nights ago. Don´t knock it ´till you´ve tried it right? Good. Well now I can knock it. The show is called Aida, and it was overwhelming to hear how talented the singers were. I mean really incredible. But here´s my beef with opera. I don´t feel that it´s a effective way to tell a story. In an opera you never see what is actually happening, you never see the story. It´s really difficult to stage fight scenes or love scenes when the characters have to be singing the whole time. So instead of actually seeing the fight, there will be a scene with two characters sining about a fight that just happened. So you never actually watch the story, you just see people singing about the story. Not my cup of tea. It is something that I think everyone should try though. At some point in your life, go see an opera.

Moving on to less classy subjects: Saturday night was a fucking shit show. An absolute three ring circus. Here´s the deal, when you are surrounded by only 20 kids that speak your language and you are with them all every single day, roumors spread faster than they do during 9-10 lunch at South. It´s nuts. Everyone is talking about the hook ups, the fights, who likes who, who hates who, who is cheating on someone else, yadda yadda yadda. And although I´ve tried to keep my distance, I am a little involved in the mess too. Meh. Fuck it. What happens in Córdoba stays in Córdoba.

Funny story, I´m at this bar with my friends and I start talking to this guy, turns out he´s my friend´s brother who´s lived in Córdoba all his life. We end up leaving together at the end of the night and we decide to grab some food on the way home. He tells me he knows the perfect place, and takes me to this hot dog stand. And you have to understand, that a hot dog is hard to come by in Argentina. This may very well have been the only hot dog joint in the city. Then while were there he tells me that one day he wants to take me to Walmart, and announces proudly that there IS a Walmart in Córdoba. And I think to myself, ¨Hrmm. Hot dogs. Walmart. I wonder what other American stereotypes he associates with me.¨

Random Rant:

I am not dating Steve Jacobson. I find myself having to explain this fact very often. No matter where I am in the world. It follows me. I´d say at least once a week at Ithaca I have to convince someone that Steve and I are not together. Same thing in Glenview as well. If I ever bump into any one I haven´t seen in a while it´s always like, ¨Oh how have you been Christina, and how´s Steve, you two are still dating right?¨ Here in Córdoba I´ve been making new friends so they´re all Facebooking me and there´s been some confusion due to my photo. So I´ve had a bunch of people here ask me about it recently, and I explain again and again that I am not dating Steve Jacobson.

Tid Bits:

I´ve been cell phoneless for 10 days now. Imagine. Me. Without a cell phone. For 10 days. (Char is stunned right now if she´s reading this.) And ya know what, I haven´t missed it. I´m actually ok.

I keep finding cigarette butts in our shower.

Brazillian break dance fighters rock my world.

I did alright on my midterm. Yay.

Gregg I am going to respond to your comment in another comment below yours.

Getting back on the horse

I will never forget today.

After I wrote that last post I went to my horseback riding class. I was doing really well until a gust of wind blew a thick dust cloud in our direction. While we were galloping the dust got into my horse´s eyes and he freaked out. The horse fumbled and I went head first into the ground and then slammed into a fencepost. I got really lucky. No broken bones. I have a few bruises and my back and neck are killing me right now, but it could have been a lot worse. There were two other riders right behind me. It´s kind of a miracle I wasn´t trampled. I was completely covered in dirt and I had to go to my other classes right after so I walked around looking super scuzzy all day.

...And yes, I did get back on the proverbial/literal horse.

Today was georgeous out. It was the first day since I got here that you could walk outside without a coat. I don´t feel as sick as I did this morning, I´ll be really happy if I can sleep though tonight.

Tango lessons started and my teacher is CRAZY! But awesome. But crazy. Tango is a blast, it´s probably the sexiest dance ever. I want to have the basics down so when I go to Buenos Aires I can go dancing.

Tid Bits:

Classes are alright, tons of work, I have a midterm tomorrow. YIKES!

I am falling in love with this city.

I told my sisters here that I fell off the horse and they gave me this big orange pill to take. Not sure why. Went down easy though.

Miss you all. I need to go study. Chau!

Please Don´t Let This Be What I Think It Is

It always starts the same way, a slight tickle in my throat. Then comes the head cold, runny nose, sinus headache, and so on. Then my throat starts to hurt and I lose my voice. Then the death cough comes back and my airway starts closing up.

I´m really sick right now. I haven´t started coughing too much yet but all the signs are there there that I´m going to soon.

They say that croup is most common when the seasons change. When I got it in Ithaca we had a mild fall, a few warm weeks in a row, and then it seemed overnight the temperature dropped and winter set in. I just spent two summer months in Glenview. The week before I left it was near 80 everyday and then literally overnight when I arrrived in Argentina it was winter.

And it´s not like it´s just cold outside here. Mine is the coldest room in a very cold house. We only have one small space heater. And I´m not sure how to explain this phenomenon, but it´s colder inside my school than it is outside. I´m constantly shivering all day. Pretty much my immune system is at an all time low....(cough, cough.)

Despite me being sick I´ve been having a great time. I´ll update more later today.

Chau for now.

Dealing with the Machismo

Excuse me. I need to vent.

Being female in Argentina is not the easiest thing in the world. In fact it kind of sucks. Argentina is famous for it´s machismo culture - basicaly they feel that women are objects who don´t have the mental capacity to do anything other than cook and clean. Only recently have women in Argentina pursued roles other than homemaker and mother. I hate walking down the street alone, no matter what time of day it is. Cat calling is huge here. I decided to keep a tally of how many disgusting comments were yelled at me on my way to school the other day. The grand total was 24. It´s a 25 minute walk to school. It´s attention that I don´t want and it´s gross. I usually just pretend I don´t hear them.

The machismo culture manifests itself in many ways. Last night I was walking through a club and a guy grabed my waist and wouldn´t let me go. I elboed him really hard in the chest and he was completely unrelenting. I finally shoved him as hard as I could and ran.

When I go out with my firends, I just want to hang out with them. I´m not looking to get picked up. I want to go home and sleep in my own bed, ALONE. I have developed a strategy to get rid of guys who hit on me. First I tell them ¨Tengo un esposo,¨ (I have a husband) and I show them the ring that Emily gave me from Russia. Then they usually reply ¨Es una cosita,¨ (It´s a little thing, it doesn´t matter.) So I reply, ¨No, esta aca,¨ (No, but my husband is here.) That´s when they tend to back off. If the guy is still persistant I try and grab one of my guy friends and tell him that he needs to act like my husband for a minute. The guys in our group are used to it so we play house for a bit. However I had one guy last night who, even after all this, was still trying. That´s when I turn to him and say, ¨¿Fumes?¨ (Do you smoke?) and I hope to god he says no. In this case it worked and then I lit up a cigarette right in front of him. It´s the biggest turn off in the world. It´s a very simple international truth: If you´re a non-smoker, you don´t want to kiss a smoker. The guy left after my second drag.


Tid Bits:

It´s quite common when you are meeting a man and his wife that the man will intruduce himself like this: Hello I am Roberto, and this is my woman.

Now I´m going back to bed.

Pickpocketed

Just got back from a bar. First time I was pickpocketed in Arengtina. They took my cell phone. Son of a bitch. Bah.....o well. It´s not the end of the world. It could have been worse right? They could have taken my wallet. At laest I had enough money on me to take a cab home. My first experience being hit on by Argentine men:

He asks me where I live.
I give him a fake address.
He asks me what my phone number is.
I say I don´t know because I´m new here. (Even though it´s a lie)
He asks me how much I´ve had to drink tonight.
I tell him I´ve had a beer. (Even though I´ve had 3 beers and more shots than I can remember.)
He likes me cause he thinks I´m dumb.
I think he´s dumb because he believes me.
I tell him that I need to meet up with my friends.(Even though I have no idea where they are.)
He says he wants to meet them.
I hail the nearest cab and say goodnight.


Chau.

Cold, Horses, Travelers Checks

Hey kids,

It´s been so cold here, and my house isn´t exactly heated...and my school isn´t exactly heated either. Yesterday morning the pipes froze. We warmed up some bottled water on the stove to bathe with. I brought everything that I am going to need for the next five months in only a duffle bag and a backpack, so basically I dont have that much. In order to stay warm, I usually walk out of the house wearing litterally half of what I brought with me. Pretty much what I´m trying to say is, drinking as much Tequila as you can handle is a great way to stay warm.

My horseback riding class started today. For our final exam we have to cross a river and ride on these trails in the mountains. However, I only have one more class before the exam. Looks like I have no choice but to learn quickly.

A note to those who plan on stdying abroad:
For the love of God, do not depend on travelers checks for your main source of money. You´ll no doubt at one point find yourself stuck in a place that doesn´t accept them and the nearest bank that cashes them will be 40 minutes away. Like it would suck, for example, if you were trying to get your student visa, and it costs, let´s say, 240 pesos, and you weren´t able to pay for it. It would further suck if, becuase it took you so long to figure out how to pay for your student visa, you, oh I don´t know, missed the city tour that was a requirement. It would however be even more embarassing if you called the director of your school and told him (or her) that you were running late bacuse you were stuck at this office trying to get your visa together, and then he (or she) decided to meet you there with the entire tour bus......hypothetically speaking of course. Point being that, keep a couple travelers checks around for emergencies but use an ATM card for your dinero.

Tid Bits:

I was talking to my older sister here and she said that this week was the first time she had ever seen snow.

My family loves Pearl Jam.

Having homework again blows.

I memorized all the grafiti on my way to and from school. It´s the only way I know where I am. God forbid they clean up the city, I´d be compeletely lost.

I was just electrocuted by the computer. Twice. My hand is kind of numb.

Chau for now,
Christina

Snow, Movies, Thongs

Excuse the spelling on these posts, I can´t get used to this keyboard.

It´s snowing here, everyone is freaking out about it. I guess they don´t see it that often. They keep asking me if I´m cold, I say, ¨No. Soy de Chicago. Es nada.¨

I´m understanding far more than when I got here, and for the most part I´m even thinking in Spanish now.

We were assinged tutors a couple days ago. Mine is named Gugu, 25, you guys would love her, we´ve been hanging out everyday. She´s a singer in a local band and nvited me to a show two nights ago, I showed up with a couple friends and we had a ball. My first drink in Argentina was a shot of Tequilla, talk about starting off right. The nightlife here is crazy. No one shows up at bar before 1AM, and no one leaves before 5AM.

When I travel, it always surprizes me to see the extent of American influence. Everyone here knows Brad Pitt, Jonny Depp, Madona, Fall Out Boy, any American stars are famous here too. The movies in theaters right now include Transformers, and Shrek the Third. Everyone watches Lost, Greys, The Office, and Arrested Development with Spanish subtitles. It´s kind of sad. It´s like these coutries are losing their individual identities because we are powerful enough to market our products and stars all over the world. France put a limit on how many American movies they allow into theatres per year. I think it´s a great idea. Now France produces beautiful films becuase their arts are well funded by the government and they don´t have to compete with American cinema.

Tid Bits:

Someone heard me signing along to the song ¨Stacy´s Mom¨ and asked me if it was by Phil Collins.

Bought a pair of shoes today for 10 bucks, a pack of cigs for a dollar, and I took a cab ride across the city for 5 bucks.

Argentine television is crazy. I´ve never seen so many women with so little clothing. I saw a man in a thong do a dance to the Matrix theme song, and I don´t know why, but I wished Emily would have seen it with me. I could almost hear her cracking up as I was watching this.

Photos: My dog, and my house.

Chau for now.

First Impressions

Lovin´ it.

The flight wasn´t bad. The first time I slept in days. I crashed on a bench in Santiago, Chile for 5 hours and barely caught my flight to Cordoba.

I live with three women, Marta, a mother and her two daughters, Gaudalupe, 29, a math teacher and Juana, 23, a painter. None of them speak a word of English, which is a thumbs up cause it´s forcing me to learn quickly. I feel like I understand about 40% of what is being said to me. I am already starting to think in Spanish and I´ve learned a ton in the past 24 hours.

The food here is awesome. They eat pasta everyday and everyone smokes, so I´d say I fit right in.

Cordoba is effing cold. It´s the middle of winter here and everything is dead. There are no leaves on the trees and the grass is brown. But I can tell it´ll be beautiful in the spring (September.)

I´m at orientation right now, just took a campus tour. Meeting lots of people, finding my wat around, yadda yadda yadda.

Gaudalupe´s boyfriend looks, dresses, and acts like Arash. It´s crazy.

I haven´t seen much of the town yet. I am trying to get everyone to go out together tonight. Check out the night life and such. I´ll post photos soon.

XO,
Christina

P.S. If you haven´t seen it yet, check out ¨Once.¨ Great little film. It´s in theaters now. I´ve been listening to a few songs from the soundtrack lately. Good stuff.

One Last Stand