Next week marks the halfway mark of my study abroad experience, where the hell did the time go?! I feel like I just got here last week but I've already been here for over two months!
Yesterday I got back from a trip to Salta, which was really amazing! Each way the bus was 22 hours, and that definitely sucked, but once we were there it was awesome. Salta is in the northwest of Buenos Aires, and the buses drove through literally the middle of nowhere to get there. For miles and miles all you could see was grass and trees. The little towns that we did pass through on our way were very Latin American; they were small, with unpaved roads, shanty houses, and barefoot children running around. We stayed in the town of Salta, which was really cute. There was a park and on Tuesday they had a big fair there with rides and carnival games, people selling cotton candy and popcorn as well as lots of other foods and toys. Our hostel was pretty nice, really cheap but nicer than many I have stayed in. Everything was outside because Salta has really nice weather (it was 80's during the day, and it's winter here).
The first night we first booked our trips for the next three days, then went to a museum. In the museum they had the preserved bodies of three children sacrificed on the top of a mountain from the Incan culture hundreds of years ago. It was really creepy but cool to see one of the children in the museum! We then walked around the main plaza of Salta and got a sense of the life in the community, which seemed really cool. We happened to be there during a religious holiday, and since we were in a rural community everyone was religious. There were huge masses of people walking from their towns over 200 kilometers away to go to Salta for the celebrations.
The next day we woke up at 6:30 (woof) and left around 7:30 on our first adventure with our tour guide, Luis, who ended up being our tour guide / driver for all three adventures. We drove a long route around the Salta / Jujuy area and saw a lot of the scenery, which reminded me a lot of Arizona: lots of gorgeous mountains. We went to el cierro de siete colores (the hill of seven colors) and to the Salt flats, which were sooo cool! The stark white of the miles and miles of salt was beautiful against the mountainous backdrop all around the flats. On our way back we passed a pink mountain, which I thought was really cool! We had also seen mountains with blue, purple, and yellow colors and Luis explained to us that the placement of the sun and the oxidation of the rock was what made them different colors.
The next day we went to Cafayate, which was a little town dotted with wineries (yumm). On the way there we drove through the mountains and a lot of very curvy roads to get to the destination, again with the most beautiful views I have ever seen. The majority of the pictures I took could definitely be postcards or pictures in a travel magazine or calendar. We got to tour two wineries and have wine tastings at each of them, which reminded me a lot of my trip to Mendoza. On our way back, we stopped at a huge lake that was absolutely breathtaking because of all the huge mountains in the background.
Our last day in Salta was spent on a trip to Cachi, another small town in the middle of mountains. In this trip we also drove through curvy roads in the mountains, but then at a certain point we were in flatlands as we went through a national park that was filled with cacti. This trip was also really cool because all of the mountains we saw were really pretty colors - turquoise, orange, red, green, etc. After our trip to Cachi we went on the Teleferico in Salta, which was like a ski lift taking you up to the top of a mountain so that you could look at the entire city and outskirts that make up Salta. The end of our trip was sitting on a ledge at the top of the hill and watching the sun set over the mountains and the city - a perfect way to relax after all the traveling and sightseeing we had done.
Our bus ride back was a disaster - we took a lesser well known company because they were the only ones who had a bus later than 3pm on tuesday, and soon found out that they didn't serve us any meals on the 22 hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. We all were really sick of being in cars / buses since that was what our entire trip consisted of - and the lack of food made it a lot worse. We finally made it back to Buenos Aires Wednesday night.
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Other than that, things have been really good! All my classes are going smoothly - we have only had readings in most of my classes as homework, so it hasn't been to hard. Next week and the couple weeks after that midterms begin, so I will update with how hard or easy those were.
In my class a couple weeks ago, we went on a field trip to a women's shelter, which was really interesting to see. It was a small but substantial space where homeless women with children could come and sleep and eat so they didn't have to sleep on the streets. It was a little depressing to learn about, because the shelter is funded by the government and the woman who volunteered there explained that many months the government wouldn't give them the money that they needed, so the 5 volunteers would have to pay out of pocket to make everything work. We have another field trip tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure it's to another shelter, so I'll have to see how that one is in comparison!
The night life here has stayed pretty much the same, although since it's getting a lot nicer out I've noticed a lot more people out and about into the wee hours of the morning. The weather has drastically improved, and I've noticed that the people here love being outside when it is nice out. There are tons of parks and fairs around Buenos Aires during the weekend that are packed with people hanging out with friends, drinking mate (the traditional Argentinian drink - like a biter tea), playing sports or music, and smoking weed (which is legal here). I really love the lifestyle that people live here - they don't live around their work schedules and really enjoy life and being around people that they love, something that I think we in the United States forget to do a lot of times. Our culture is more busy and hectic, while they enjoy the simple things like sharing tea with friends or enjoying a nice day laying in the grass. Definitely a characteristic I will take with me for the rest of my life.
In other news, my boyfriend comes in 34 hours (but who's counting?)! I'm really excited for him to be here and to be able to show someone the life that I've been living for two and a half months! We rented an apartment for a decent price for the week, so that will be really nice to be able to have our own place to relax. 20 days after he comes, my mom, and brother will be here! 20 days after that, my dad and grandmom will be here. I actually can't wait to see everyone, I never realized how much I miss them until their visits are in sight!
Another thing that I've done in my spare time (unvoluntarily) was to go through the visa process to get a student visa. Although it's not needed to get one to be in Argentina (you can stay in the country on a tourist visa for 90 days, all you have to do is leave the country and re-enter after that to start the 90 days over again), we all have to get one to have our credits transfer for our classes. The first thing I had to do for the visa process was to get a background check. This cost around USD $13 and was very easy, I went to the office, paid, and they asked me a couple questions about my parents and fingerprinted me. Then I only had to come back after 24 hours to get the sheet saying that I'm not a crazy mass murderer in Argentina. Next was the actual visa application at the Migrations office, which was also very easy. I spent all of 45 minutes at the migrations office. When I first got there I was taken to a counter where a man processed my passport and fingerprinted me, then sent to another counter where a woman looked through my passport. I then had to pay around USD $75, got a paper and was told to come back in 20 days for my visa. I was really surprised at how easy this was because everything is disorganized in Argentina, yet the visa process was very fast and organized. The funniest part about this to me was the fact that one of the workers in the Migrations office was flirting with me while I was waiting in line, and tried to hook me up with one of the other workers at the office even though I politely told him I had a boyfriend in the states. He didn't hesitate to yell across the office to the other worker that I was "single" in essence because a boyfriend in the states didn't count. The entire time I just thought of how rare that was and how in the U.S. someone would have to die for that to happen. People here are very friendly and happy, and apparently love messing with foreigners.
Going along the same subject, people here are VERY flirty. It is not uncommon to walk three blocks and have five different cars honk at you, roll down the window and stare as they slowly drive by, or have people on the street call you beautiful or something similar. Argentinians are also OBSESSED with PDA, everywhere you walk you will see people making out in the streets, parks, stores, malls, hospitals, schools, everywhere. It's also funny because it's not always just the young people that do it, even the middle aged married couple with kids is commonly seen sticking each others tongues down their throats in public places. Definitely something I will not miss when I return to the states. Ew!
As for my knee, it's getting better! All the walking I did in Salta definitely did not help it, but I've been resting a lot since then. Hopefully I can just stick with my self physical therapy and won't have to get an MRI. My next task is to figure out if I can start running anytime soon - eating all this amazing food (mostly pasta and meat) without being able to exercise as I normally do is not doing me any favors in terms of staying the same weight.
I've also noticed that mail here is very sketchy. My mom sent me two packages three weeks apart from each other - both arrived on the same day. I've gotten some letters after only a week, and some that were sent 3 weeks ago that I still haven't received. I have a package on its way for over a month that has yet to get here. I'm learning it's better if people just don't send me anything - I know you all love me but I'd hate for your stuff to get lost in the mail, haha.
Hopefully my next update will be soon, but as usual it probably won't.
Por que no?
D
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