Haircut

I walked into a peluqueria, a haircut place, with a comic book action figure on the sign. I thought it would be funny to try this place, but when I walked in I reconsidered because there was a man in the chair with blue hair. I described in very broken Spanish what I wanted, (because I don't remember the haircut vocabulary I learned, if I ever did) then crossed my fingers. The hair-cutter went about cutting my hair in a way I have never seen, but it seemed to be working. It looks great and I am enjoying it a lot, all for the price of $8 US. I'm okay with that.

Portrerillos, Argentina

In need of a break and too tired to embark on a grand adventure, we rented a cabin in the pre-mountains of Mendoza province and relax. There were eight of us, so naturally it was hectic trying to organize. After a frenzied search for a cabin (thanks Jacquie) and filling a shopping cart to the brim with groceries we were ready to go. We tried to pack light so we could trek four days worth of food with us in our backpacks, knowing the provisions would be limited. Toilet paper never crossed our minds...We rushed to the bus station, loaded our bags into the back of the bus and got in line to get on the bus. I said "did anyone verify that this is the right bus?" and I heard crickets. It was not the right bus, so we scurried back to grab our bags, and moved them to the next bus over. A man selling ice cream from a bicycle stopped to help us, which caught us off guard sufficiently but was very gracious of him.
The cabin we stayed in was lovely, the town was simple. I made some friends and hung out with them most of the day. They showed me a dried river bed that curved through awesome rock structures then ended where a waterfall would be if there were water. I started formulating escape plans in the case of a flash flood then thought to myself "who am I kidding, it never rains here." The scene was breath-taking. There were snow capped Andes looming in the background saying "welcome, but don't get too comfortable". There were rolling hills with cacti and brush all around, different colors of sand and rock, and salty residue from the river that once was at our feet. We were surrounded by hole-y rocks that reached to the sky. I began to think we are beginning to take scenes like this for granted, because we see them all the time, but they are awesome and if it were the states, there would be look-out points and gift shops on the sides of this site. It would be littered with trails. "Travel slowly" is some of the best advice I have heard, and now I know why.
The next day, while my friends hibernated until noon, I hiked back to that spot to take pictures only to find out I didn't have my memory card in my camera. I showered, wrote in my journal, stretched, then woke them up to make breakfast. Huge breakfasts are what I had been missing so they were key essentials of the trip. That's what we did.
The next day I got up early again and ran, explored the river, and walked around "town". In the afternoon, we went walking to the lake. Someone told us it was 5 k away, which we thought was like 3 miles. It was way further. We were exhausted by the time we got there, having stopped for cookies and empanadas on the walk. It was lovely and fresh by the lake, we relaxed and laughed and chatted.
The next day...consisted of more of the same, movies, breakfast, napping in the sun.

Lamentably, I have no pictures of the weekend except those I have saved in my mind.

Midterms and Halftime

The week of midterms was tough. I had to give a presentation in Spanish about France, to a room full of Argentines. This is harder than speaking in front of your comrades in Spanish class because they are also learning Spanish, whereas the Argentines know Spanish pretty well. The presentation went well, because I had five Mendocinas standing next to me, giving me a thumbs up and nodding fervently to whatever I said. The rest of my midterms I passed...kind of. For one of them, the professor pulled us aside and said "you passed, but that's because I went easy on you since you're foreign. Do better on the final or you won't pass." Ha ha. So, now we know what to expect. Aside from being written tests in a language I only started learning two years ago, they were over information I don't even know about in English. I can tell you all about movie sets, cranes, camera angles...in Spanish only. Moreover, they were over information different than what we were told would be on the test. Something I noticed that is different is that they test the students on concrete information, rather than a thoughtful synthesis of the information.
Because you're expected to read information, memorize facts, and comprehend ideas, in Spanish, then recite them back...in Spanish, even the simplest of information gets jumbled in your head. That's alright. Onward.

Midterms, coincidentally, came at the same time that half-time did. It seemed everyone had been experiencing a sentiment of weariness because we have all been here two and a half months, and have the same amount of time to look forward to. We are past the honeymoon, things aren't quite as new and fantastical. We all have lists of things to complain about. At dinner the other night we were complaining, and a friend said, "we have things to complain about...that only means we're actually living this now." So, I mean to say, it has all settled in now. Here I am.

Northern Patagonian Adventure

Hi! We traveled northern Patagonia for nearly ten days, and it was a blast...but now I'm in the midst of midterms at school and need to be studying. I know, I'm thinking the same thing: since when was I actually in school? So forgive me, but for now this entry will be mostly a photo collage style entry.
In true Latin American style, we started the trip with a little protest that held up our bus for a couple of hours. We never did find out what it was about.

Bariloche is the Aspen of South America, it's a ski town on a beautiful lake and that's where all the vacationers go. They are known for their chocolate which was really delicious.

We took a boat tour to an island where there was a forest of rare trees. The bark was very cool and it gave the whole forest a strange glow.

We also went kayaking on a serene lake, and we were the only ones around. It was incredible, and the color of the water was something I have never seen before. I don't have any pictures because I didn't bring my camera.
Next we went to El Bolson, a sleepy little hippie town tucked away in the mountains. We took a bus there, and the bus would stop in the middle of nowhere and people would run out of the trees and just hop on the bus. That's a different way of doing it. We went hiking looking for a waterfall and got ourselves totally lost, but we ran into some locals who pointed us in the right direction. They told us, "first cross that bridge, it looks broken but really it's okay to walk on."

Then we found the waterfall... and this sign. It says "Please don't yell, enjoy the nature."

In El Bolson, our lodging was rather primitive. We stayed in a lovely, cozy cabin in the woods, with the nicest family. I was sad to leave, as if they were old friends. Here is a picture of the "telefonica".

We went to Puerto Madryn, known for having tons of unique wildlife. This is a picture of a whale swimming underneath our boat. The were Southern Right Whales. The second picture is that same whale swimming around on it's back near our boat.


Then we had a scallop lunch, it was the best I've had in terms of scallops.

This is me.

This is a momma and baby Elephant Seal.

This is a guanaco, related to the llama and alpaca. He's running around among penguins. I can't even tell you how beautiful it was. Totally untouched.

Magellan Penguins holding hands...or flippers. love.

Penguin dance.

Myself with one of the locals.