Nourishment

My last few blog entries have been about trips, and work and such...but now Im going to try to get back to writing posts about specfic topics related to what's going on in Argentina/what life is like here.

So lets talk about something that we all love - Food! What the heck do I eat in this meat/sweet crazed country! Where do I buy it?? What's it like?

Well the way i feed myself is quite different from the way I do in the states. There are many options for buying food here in La Plata

1. The traditional supermarket - Carrefour (French supermarket chain), Disco (Argentine chain they have a lot of imported foods - such as Starburst, nutella, tortilla chips - yum), and Coto (Argentine chain). I normally don't go to these "supers" very much, because they can bit a bit more expensive than other places, and you often have to deal with longggggggggg lines especially in the evening. I do go to get some tortilla chips sometimes when I am in the mood for guacamole.


Disco


Coto

2. almacenes/despensas - which are kind of like small supermarkets. Some of these are the "chinos" - strange that they call them that- but they are owned by Chinese people - and they themselves call them chinos. I often go to one because there is one around the corner of my house, and it is great to see people from different places, as its not as hetergeneous here as it is in the states.

"Chino"

3. Dieteticas! I love going to dieteticas - basically they are healthfood stores that sell grains, nuts, beans, dried fruits and veggies, healthy cookies/crackers, spices, usually in big bags or boxes - and you can get the exact amount you want measured out in a little baggie. I often go to them to get spices, and also do get ingredients to make granola - oatmeal, nuts, raisins. There is an Asian dietetica that I often go to to get veggie burgers.

4. Feria de frutas y verduras or what I call the veggie market. - I love to eat and cook veggies, and my friend Jen who lived in La Plata introduced me to this great market held on Thursday and Sunday mornings. They have many stands (well more like those large moving truck things) with fresh fruits and veggies - often times ingredients that are difficult to find elsewhere such as limes, and cilantro. There are also stands that sell pizza breads, cheeses, and one that sells eggs. The man at the egg stand is really friendly, and blind - he knows which eggs are which by their size and location. Many of the stands are manned by Bolivians who often run vegetable shops and stands here in Argentina - they get what you need, no self sevice. I go to the same stands each time, and the people already recognize me and know what I like to get.






Feria de Verduras/Frutas

5. Verdulerias - these are like fruit/vegetable shops which are everywhere - you go in, and again they usually get what you need - not really self service like we have a lot in the U.S. Most are owned by Bolivians, and many are open long hours everyday.



6. Kioscos - small convenience stores.

7. Meat markets

So what do I usually do? I try to go to the veggie market twice a week, go to dieteticas every once in awhile if I can't get to the market to buy my granola ingredients, go to the almacenes/chinos usually once a week to get crackers, yogurt, tuna, canned beans, water, butter, dried pasta, etc. I go to the supers sometimes to get tortilla chips, and if I'm having a craving for an American food - but try not to because its expensive. I also go to the verdulerias if I can't get to the veggie market, or have a craving for a specific fruit or veggie.

Although they do eat lotsssss of meat here - beef, ham, chicken, etc...it is possible to be vegetarian especially if you cook for yourself. However, it is difficult to go out to eat sometimes because the other options are basically pizza, pasta, panqueques (kind of like crepes but thicker that you can get cheese and veggies in) and veggie filled empanadas- which gets realllly tiring after awhile. However, there are lots of pasta options, and they are yum! There are also shops here where you can buy fresh pasta and sauces...yumm.

As food is generally not as processed here - although it is becoming more and more so...I've really been trying to eat as healthy and as little processed food as possible. In the mornings I usually eat yogurt with granola. For dinner I eat lots of veggies, sometimes pasta, with some protein - beans, veggie burger, eggs, cheese (blue cheese is the strongest cheese they have here :( ). Of course eat lots of mozarella and parmesan here - the mozarrella here is a lot different - its much softer and less white - which I think comes from it being less pasteurized. Although I do like to eat fish, fish here is realllly expensive, not that great, and hard to find. :/ anyway... Usually drink water - but sometimes I have to have my orange fanta (yum), once in awhile a Coke - or Coca Zero or Coca Light, and sometimes a glass or so of Malbec wine.
I actually make my own pasta sauce (yes, I make my own sauce!). Its really not that difficult, and it tastes a lot fresher. And...in between meals - crackers (but I need to check and make sure they don't contain animal fat as many of them do , wheat bread, fruits, etc. Although there is not as much of a variation of foods, as I have in the U.S. which is dissapointing at times ... I think I am actually living healthier here because I'm not eating much if any frozen/really preserved food, lots of veggies, usually cook myself, and no crazy portions, walking a lot (over an hour everyday), and going to the gym 4 times a week.

Anyway...maybe boring to hear about my eating/shopping habits - but hey, just in cause you were wondering... and its a big part of my life here :)

Vacaciones! Rosario y Cordoba

After Misiones, we headed to Rosario, a city in the province of Santa Fe, and on the Parana River. It is a lovely city that supposedly started out growing like La Plata, but differs in that it took advantage of its river - along the river there is a boardwalk, restaurants, etc. We built Rosario into our trip because we wanted to stand in line on Wednesday to get tickets to the Argentina vs Brasil futbol game played in Rosario that Sunday.

When we arrived we explored the city a little bit. I thought it was a pretty city. We got to see the Monumento de La Bandera - quite an impressive site. Rosario is the birthplace of the Argentine flag - designed by Manuel Belgrano. Rosario is also the birthplace of Ernesto “Che” Guevara - and we got to see a mural dedicated to him, and the home he lived in after his birth. We ate lunch at a vegetarian buffet place (yes vegetarianism does exist in Argentina!) and then went to scope out the scene at the stadium so we could be prepared to stand in line early in the morning the following day. What we found were people that had been camping out since that Sunday, and there where tents and people completely surrounding the stadium, and then people already in line. I had mentioned to Domingos beforehand how difficult it is to get tickets - but we decided that it was worth a try - as we really wanted to go to the game, and it is an experience that one should have while in Argentina. hehe. I wanted to buy some sort of plastic chair/stool to sit on while waiting in line, so we searched quite a few stores and things but were pretty tired and couldn’t find anything so I ended up buying a small plastic child’s chair. hehe. We got to eat some more fish (I enjoyed and took advantage of it, because in La Plata/Buenos they don’t really have fish and when they do it’s pretty expensive.

Monumento a La Bandera



veggie restaurant

Che's birthhome in Rosario

The next day we arrived at the stadium at about 6AM and had no clue what we was in store for us. we felt pretty confident about our place in line because there were a lot of people who were getting in line behind us. It was a pretty chilly morning, and then it started raining a bit, and we were pretty unprepared for it (I ended up tying a plastic bag around my head), and Domingos and I kept switching off on the little child’s chair.

Luckily, we had brought quite a few snacks, so although we were tired, cold, and wet - we were not hungry :) Some woman came up to us at one point with a tape recorder (must of been from some paper) and asked us where we were from, if we thought we were gonna get tickets, etc. So we stood there for a while, a LONG while, and were barely advancing in a parking lot about a mile and a half from the stadium. People started saying all types of things - rumors circulating - there’s no more tickets, they are only selling 4,000, they are driving here with 10,000 more tickets from Buenos Aires, no one could get their facts straight despite family members and friends calling them. Vendors were selling things to hte people in line, flags, jerseys, rain ponchos (but only after the rain stopped, coffee, sandwiches, pastries choripanes (basically a sausage on a bun). At about hour 6 (yes HOUR 6!!!!!!!!!!) they told us that we had to step back a little bit. After that for about an hour we did not move at all. We were miserable. We started seeing people walking out of the line saying “Go - people its a waste of time, there are no more tickets” but I needed!! to hear that from the mouth of someone official. It was so annoying (but in typical Argentine style) that noooo one knew what the hell was going on, no one was giving us any information, and we were just waitinggg in line. So then all of a sudden we start moving really quick, and we were like maybe this is it! We still have a chance. People were getting all mashed up together, and we were getting closer - but there was a fence and two police officers on horseback that people were up against and then we could see that there was no more line behind them. So we finally heard from some official that there were no more tickets - that if we wanted to we could start waiting We left - feeling taking advantage of, angry, and abandoned our little blue chair on the side of the road. We were sad that we couldn’t see the game, and I was just frustrated at the inefficiency of the system, and the little concern for people’s times - yes I try to control my American obsession with timeliness and efficiency but sometimes I just can’t. We ate lunch at Subway (at that point I was so frustrated that I just wanted something familiar and American haha) and headed off to Cordoba.

waiting in line - my protection from the rain

people demanding answers

our little blue chair that we abandoned

Cordoba is an amazing city - perhaps my favorite in Argentina from what I’ve seen so far. Beautiful architecture, great food, lots of pedestrian walking streets, a rich cultural life, and a lovely landscape. We stayed in a very hippy hostel, like the most hippy I’ve ever stayed in complete with a big mural of Bob Marley and a marijuana leaf - and staff that probably hung out with guests more than they stayed at the front desk. Anyway, we ate some good food there - including good pasta, some Middle Eastern food (yummm hummus), and some really good pizza at an impeccably clean indoor food market. Cordoba is in the provincia of Cordoba - in the Central Sierras - basically foothills. We wanted to go paragliding but the winds weren’t cooperating. Cordoba is known for its beautiful Jesuit ruins and architecture and we were able to see it. They have a great museum that commemorates the people who were disappeared during the military dictatorship, but unfortunately it was closed for renovations :( There was an amazing book fair in Cordoba that we were lucky to see as well.



delicious pizza!

lovely cordoba

Close to the city of Cordoba lies a small town called Alta Gracia - which contains Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s adolescent home which was now made into a museum. We took a day trip there, and it was quite an amazing site. I couldn’t believe all of the artifacts and photos that they had - his old bed, childhood photos, his report cards, a map of the cities he had traveled to in Latin America, an exact replica of the motorcycle he used on his voyages through Latin America, military uniforms, letters he had written to Fidel Castro, photos with world leaders, Cuban currency with his name and signature, etc, etc. Of course they also had a room with recent photos from a trip that Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez (of course) made to the museum. It was really well done and I was glad I got to see it, as Che is someone that I admire (not all of his ideas and actions - but still). There was a nice little restaurant on the side owned by a Cuban woman, and we got to eat some good homemade Cuban food :)

map of Che's travels through latin america



had to take a pic of this



famous quote - patria o muerte....

chavez and castro's signature..hmm

cuban dish - yum

By that time we were absolutely exhausted from all our running around...and headed back to Buenos Aires. Once we got there, we napped heavily, and went to Cafe Tortoni - one of the oldest, and most well known cafes in the city - also full of tourists. Some people were even taking photos of the chandeliers. Anyway, I enjoyed some chocolate con churros. We then had dinner at El Federal - an old and classic bar in San Telmo, and went to watch the game (that we should have been at!!!) and sat next to a bunch of Brazilians and watched Argentina get creamed. I’m sure if they would have allowed us to go to the game they would have won. hehe Serves them right! People are going crazy with the fact that Argentina may not go to the world cup. I guess there’s no hand of God for Maradona.

That Sunday was Domingos’ last day, and we did a little shopping at the San Telmo market, and headed over to Palermo - a neighborhood with lots of leafy parks. He departed that evening, and so ended my vacation and time with special visitors from home :\ .

Vacaciones en Misiones!

During Domingos’ second week here, I took the opportunity to take a much needed week of vacation and explore a bit more of this lovely country. Be it touristy, I really wanted to see Iguazu falls, and I had heard that the province of Misiones (bordered by Brasil and Paraguay) was beautiful. So we undertook a long overnight bus ride to the city of Posadas in the Misiones province.

This trip was great for many reasons, but something that I learned is that I can actually sleep on buses - if I take Tylenol PM and sit in a cama seat...hehe. I’ve never seen bus travel as I have here in Argentina - it is definitely much better than traveling by plane. If you get a cama seat - the seat leans back almost flat, they give you a pillow and a blanket, dinner, breakfast, coffee (one even offered us champagne!), and offer movies, music, etc. Its also great because you can travel through the night and don’t have to pay for a hostel/hotel.

mee sleeping!

a bus meal - we also got a pasta dish

We arrived in Posadas - and I was instantly in love with the red earth in Misiones - I guess it is rich in minerals. We headed to San Ignacio a small city, that contains one of the best preserved Jesuit missions in the area - San Ignacio Mini. The Jesuits founded this mission (and thirty others in the area of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brasil) to evangelize the indigenous Guarani. It was quite impressing to see the remnants of the workshops, homes, and religious and administrative structures. It was interesting to learn that there were only two Jesuit priests among all of the people at the mission, and that it although may be a bit disturbing what the Jesuits did - basically forcing the people into a religion - as the guide indicated, it was better than what was happening to most of the native peoples at the time - mass murder. At least they got to keep a sort of community intact, and learn trades and things. We got to go to a pretty cool interesting light show at night which tried to simulate the way life was at the time.

red earth in Misiones

The ruins

San Ignacio Mini

This guy killed me! He seriously took video the ENTIRE tour - must of had like 100 GB memory for that little camera.

Another attraction in San Ignacio (something I was really excited to see), was Horacio Quiroga’s house. Horacio Quiroga is a well-know Argentine author (well he was born in Uruguay but lived most of his life in Argentina - specifically the selva (jungle) of Misiones. I read quite a bit of his work in a Latin American literature class I took in college, and even did a final research paper on some of the themes in his writing and how they related to his life experiences. What stood out most for me when I was researching and reading - was how depressing a life he had.

Seriously - when he was only two months old his father accidentally shot himself while returning from a hunting expedition. His stepfather later committed suicide, and he, Horacio, discovered the body. Then, while attempting to explain to a friend how to operate a gun, he accidentally fired it, killing his friend. He married, but his wife became really depressed by the hard work and loneliness of their life on the frontier and committed suicide. In his later life, Quiroga was diagnosed with cancer and committed suicide by dosing himself with cyanide. Both his children from his first marriage also committed suicide later in their lives. POOR GUY!

Much of his writing is based in and upon the selva of Misiones and the area around his home - so I felt really lucky that I was able to see it.

Selva surrounding his home

Casa de Horacio

this is Horacio

We left San Ignacio and headed 5 hours to Puerto Iguazu to go see the falls - the Argentine side “Puerto Nacional de Iguazu”. We arrived in Puerto Iguazu - stayed in a Hostel called “Peter Pan” with nice orange and green decor - haha, and headed to the park for the afternoon. The falls were AMAZING - exceeded my expecations - like I looked at them and asked myself - is that really water? The forcefulness of the falls was just astounding. That first day we saw a part of the falls called La Boca del Diablo - amazing! I was happy because they have seafood in the area - so we got to eat some good river fish in Puerto Iguazu.

Boca del Diablo

Our second day in Iguazu we headed to the park early, and got to see the rest of the falls - so incredible! At some points, because of the mist there is a lovely rainbow. The falls were definitely one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately we weren’t able to see that many interesting animals - we did see a monkey and some birds clinging for their lives (poor things), and some caoties - racoonlike animals that supposedly bite. The water was low so we got to a go to a little island near the falls, and hiked up to see some spectacular views and saw some vicious vulture like creatures that looked like they could tear one’s limbs right off.



look at that rainbow!

me relishing in the fury of the falls!

increible!

When I travel sometimes I can be a bit structured - in that I want to see and do a lot - and have things just I JUST HAVE TO DO. lol - it can result in annoyance and exhaustion. But I’m working on it. I insisted that I wanted to do certain things while I was there - see all of the park - check, go to “Tres Fronteras” the point where you can see Argentina - Brasil - Paraguay, - check, and take some pictures of Brazilian and Paraguayan license plates - check. Mission accomplished :) I REALLY wanted to go to the Brazilian side of the falls while I was there - and maybe hope over to Paraguay but unfortunately a pre-arranged visa and $ and then just $ stood in my way. I did enjoy seeing Brasil, and I swear I will get there someday :) Standing on one country and seeing the other two at once was pretty crazy - and just made me think about borders. The land looked exactly the same - but because of a man made line - the realities of each place are very different. hmm. I liked being there - hearing Portuguese, being on the frontera, in the warmth of the selva and with the red red earth.

3 flags

Standing on Argentina - Brasil to my right, Paraguay to my left

Paraguayan license plate

Brazilian license plate

After quickly seeing the three borders - we raced to hop on a for an 18 hr bus ride to Rosario - which continued the adventure.

Special Visits

Well, It’ s been a while since I’ve updated...but here I am again! About a month ago I was lucky to have some visitors - Lisa, Michael, and Domingos! Lisa and Michael arrived on the 17th of August - straight from their trip to the Dominican Republic. Poor things not only had to deal with winter here...but also me making them walk a ton and do all sorts of Argentine activities :)

Upon arrival I started showing them around La Plata, had lunch at one of my fav places - Carlitos, tried some Thionis ice cream, and chatted with them, and gave some insight about what its like to be in the “developing world”. I made them try mate (I was proud that they drank as much as they did for their first try!), eat some facturas and some dulce de leche, had them chat it up with my host mom, eat pizza, empanadas, and pasta, drink some good Malbec, and had them visit La Plata’s Cathedral and its Museo de Ciencias Naturales. The Natural Sciences Museum is a pretty big deal here in La Plata, in Argentina, and the worldd, being well known for its taxidermy. There’s a pretty sweet fully constructed dinosaur skeleton inside.

Hermanitas in front of the cathedral
Lisa with T-rex hehe

Michael enjoying some mate

Unfortunately they, like most of us Americans, aren’t used to walking a ton - and I realized how used to walking I’ve become as I would be like 20 steps ahead of them, and think a 20 block walk is “no big deal”. So after tiring them out here in La Plata, I need to go back to work, and so I shipped them off to San Antonio de Areco - to go to the Estancia I had been to twice, and do a little horseback riding and get to know some gauchos. After that...they flew off to Iguazu to see the wonderous falls, that I go to go see just a few weeks later. They ended their time here with a weekend in Buenos Aires - we went to have dinner and see a nice tango show at Boca Tango (the place I had gone to with the GESI and SLT groups). Then that Sunday - Domingos arrived! The four of us checked out the obelisco, and had some pizza and faina from Guerrin (like the best pizza in Buenos Aires! Faina is kind of like a secondary pizza you eat under pizza - it is made of chickpea flour and seasoned with pepper, sometimes dried onions, a bit of parmesan, etc. Thennn we took a trip over to the Recoleta cemetery where Domingos and I took some creepy and not so creepy photos..hehe. Then we hopped over to take a look at the giant metal flower in Recoleta - I’m not sure how many tons it weighs, but its many -- and it mechanically opens with the sunlight, and closes at sun down. Anyway, all arond the flower there were like hundredsss of cardboard cutouts of some woman (I guess it was some sort of artistic exhibit). We enjoyed a nice dinner of delicious pasta at Broccolino.

enjoying our tango dinner

quite strange - look at all the cutouts - photo courtesy of Domingos

Monday we took a walk down Caminito in the La Boca neighborhood. This neighborhood is named the mouth because it is the place where the river flows into Río de la Plata estuary. The river, Riachuelo, is now so contaminated from industrial waste that supposedly if you drink even a drop you will die because its poison - sort of funny, but really not. Anyway, La Boca used to be an immigrant neighborhood, and the immigrant workers lived in the colorful houses called Conventillos. The Conventillos are so colorful because they just painted them with paint that was left over from the shipyards. Then we had lunch along Puerto Madero - a pretty posh area of Buenos Aires with a boardwalk, expensive restaurants, clubs, casinos, and a view of what might be Buenos Aires’ Silicon Valley. In the afternoon, Lisa and Michael got ready to go, and returned back to the EE.UU :( It was great to see a piece of home here with me, and show my good ole’ sis how I’ve been living here - be it a little too rustic for her taste :) hehe

A funny pic we took on caminito

After Lisa’s departure, Domingos and I headed back to La Plata, and I had him explore the city a bit (cathedral, museum) and catch a glimpse of the kind of work that I’ve been doing in and out of the office. We did some food shopping (consisting of going around the corner and getting fresh fruits and veggies - yes!), cooked together, tried pizza and empanadas, mate, dulce de leche of course, and yummy vegetarian Asian food from a take-out placed called Bambuc. He also got to visit one of our host organizations, Estrategia de Caracol where the community was working on the greenhouse project they had begun with one of the GESI groups.

Domingos’ week here coincided with Anne’s last week with FSD :( so we threw her a surprise goodbye party. Somehow we were able to keep it a surprise until the last moment, and she really was surpriseddd. It was a nice evening with food, conversation, and I put together a nice little slideshow with some of the photos taken during her time with FSD. Luckily, she is going to be sticking around La Plata, so even though I will be missing her at work - I will still be able to see her.


Anne was very surprised!


Everyone at the party - thanks to Domingos for taking the picture!

After spending a few days in La Plata where Domingos got to experience a little Platense life, we headed out to go do some traveling for week of vacation!

And then there were...none

It's hard to believe...but all of our interns have left. The summer sessions (winter here) sessions have ended.

The GESI group from Northwestern left yesterday and these past few weeks have been a whirlwind of organization visits, reading reports, meetings, and goodbyes (Jen departed - sad!).

The three groups ended up developing some really interesting projects despite a lot of challenges concerning it being winter here, and the fact that many things closed because of the swine flu issue.

One group was at Biosfera- a well known and respected environmental organization here in La Plata. They primarily worked with a comedor (community center/soup kitchen) - that Biosfera works with in a poor migrant community. Among many different things they did a multimedia project with interviews that gave a visual representation of how the community sees their environment. Another part of the project was to construct a greenhouse -- out of plastic bottles! It was pretty interesting because it not only will be used to grow veggies and things during the winter, but also a display of what can be done with recycled materials taken off the streets and out of peoples yards. The group also worked on finishing a solar water heater project. They ended up working very closely with the community.



Another group was at Siluva - a day center for adults with mental disabilities. Its a great place with lots of love where they do lots of great and interesting activities with the "chicos" that attend daily. The girls' project was to work on constructing a large garden - or huerta. The construction of the huerta had many goals..but its primary goal is to increase the capacity of the chicos by having them engage in a productive hands on activity. Another goal was for the huerta to be a sort of microenterprise -- they could sell the flowers and plants grown in the huerta...and those funds would be for the center which is underfunded/resourced.



The third group was at a comedor (community center) called Arco Iris, which also contains a women's sewing cooperative. This group faced a lot of challenges because the center was closed basically closed for an entire month (the GESI group did 7 weeks here). The group wasn't able to do a project with the children who go to the center - so they worked primarily with the sewing cooperative. Their project focused on reorganizing the co-op -- and they did a great job with the women in buying new shelves, educative materials, developing an inventory, etc. This will hopefully make things easier in the co-op and stimulate production :) They also worked on a history of the sewing cooperative which will be really useful for future interns.



This past Wednesday we did a final debriefing activity with the group -- we attended the same tango show that we went to with the SLT group. It was a lot of fun...two of the interns weren't able to go so I invited my roomate Iris who is back in La Plata. We are getting along really well in the apartment..she is a funny and upbeat girl and we have similar taste in music which is great. Here's a pic of us:


It was a nice closing activity with the group.

So I've been here for almost 4 months now, and I feel a lot more comfortable with it...and am seeing my time here not as some sort of extension away from my life -- but as part of it. In terms of work - I've learned a lot on how to deal with volunteers/interns, oversee project work, work with groups, coordinating logistics and gained a lot of insight into non-profit work. Personally, have learned quite a bit about what Im capable of, what I need to improve on, what really interests me and how much my abroad experiences have really impacted and shaped my life so far. I find that my Argentine accent is coming along nicely-- although many improvements can be made...now other latin accents sound strange to me.

A new group arrives in September..and our new FSD director here in Argentina started about a month ago -- shes really nice and I think we will get along great..I will miss Ana though. Anyway, my darling sister and my brother in law arrive tomorrow - and Domingos arrives next week! I will be going to Iguazu with him, and showing my sister and him a bit of what my life has been like these past months. Stay tuned for more on their visits...

Campeones!!

I probably should have written about this all when it happened, but its better late then never, right?

The two big futbol teams in La Plata are Estudiantes and Gimnasia y Esgrima. Its usually pretty necessary that you choose one of the teams to be a fan of, so I chose Estudiantes. Reasons: 1. I like to study and be a student so I liked the name 2. I like the color red 3. They have won more 4. Most of my co-workers/people I had met were Estudiantes fans. Estudiantes was founded my university medical students and one of their nicknames is Los Pincharratas (The rat stabbers -- as they were medical students and rats are often used in labs). Other nicknames include Pincha - shortened version, El Leon (The Lion), Orgullo de La Ciudad (Pride of the City), etc.


Estudiantes Logo

Anyway, I had mentioned in a previous post that I had gone to an Estudiantes game when they plated against Uruguay in the Copa de Libertadores -- an annual international club football competition which is the most prestigious club competition in South American futbol. So Estudiantes ended up winning that game, went on to win the game in Uruguay, played against Brasil here in La Plata - tied...and then went to Brasil to play against a team for the final on July 19. So...they ended up winning the final and became champions of America!! It is a pretty BIG deal -- the last time Estudiantes won this cup was in the 70s,

Champions

The city went WILD - like fireworks, people out screaming in the plazas, beeping horns, people went to Brasil to see the game, people waited for the team outside the airport, and then welcomed home in Plaza Moreno - the center of the city. I think there was like 30, 000 people or something - despite government warnings about being in large groups because of the h1n1 virus (priorities, people!) People were painting benches and poles red and white. On TV fans were crying -- saying that being a pincha fan was a family tradition - their great-grandfather, grandfather, father, now their son, etc, etc.

People in Plaza Moreno -- no I didn't talk this picture got it offline - I watched it from the comfort of my home :)

Needless to say, I'm lucky to have been here for such an important event, and it was interesting to me to see how crazy people are for futbol!

Gaucho Land Take 2 - -

And...I went back to San Antonio de Areco!

As we enjoyed San Antonio de Areco so much the first time, we decided to take the GESI group there for their retreat last weekend. As the SLT left, Jen is no longer working with us, so Ana, Fabian and I were able to go with the group.

We got to stay in the same hostel, and go to the lovely Estancia once again!

Unfortunately it was a bit colder this time, so we weren't able to eat lunch outside at the Estancia, nor do the folklore dancing outside. I once again got forced to ride a horse -- it was fine...but really, if I never get to ride a horse again before I die - I'm perfectly ok with that. Ana had a violent white horse that was seriously kicking another. Aside from the cold, it was a nice relaxing day -- full of eating. This time they made some vegetarian empanadas (as there were 5 of us) which was tasty, and didn't give us ham on the "vegetarian salad". Of course they had the strange horse show once again -- except this time it was colder so the "indio" didnt disrobe..but this time -- he had a sidekick! He was training a kid to do what he does! And all the Argentines thought it was precious -- I still thought it was weird..

Tasty empanada

Me trying to look happy .. hehe

The girls with their horses

Weird horse show

Me and Ana at the Estancia

This time we unfortunately didn't get to see as many gauchos as I would have liked to (hehe), aside from the few at the Estancia and a couple walking along the streets. After the Estancia on Saturday, Ana, Fabian and I explored the city a bit -- I wanted to buy some typical things including a gaucho hat or boina (but they were expensive!). We tried to find a place for dinner and decided on pizza -- we thought going to the pulperia that we went to last time with a group of 11 girls might be a little too much. San Antonio de Areco is also known for making artesanal chocolates -- yummmm -- so Ana, Fabian and I went to a chocolateria and had AMAZING hot chocolate and chocolates.

Fabbie with our goodies at the chocolateria

This time - things were open on the Sunday because it wasn't election day...so Ana, Fabs, and I went to the Museo Gaucheso -- which was really interesting because it had a lot of old texts from famous Argentine writers (ex. Martin Fierro, etc), old gaucho ponchos and pictures, maps of Argentina that still indicated Indian lands, brands that were used on animals back in the day, old mates... and some really interesting things related to Juan Manuel Rosas -- a pretty brutal Argentine leader during the 1860s. They had one of his beds, and a painting of him -- saying that the oppositon to him was disgusting and needed to die. Anyway.. reminded me of the texts I read in college with my Argentine Spanish professor.

The Museum - pretty!

Some asado I saw walking through the town

After the museum - we did some walking and headed over to lunch at a cerveceria...basically a bar/restaurant that offered homemade beers. We had a nice lunch of picadas (sort of like appetizers - cheese, meats, breads, olives, etc ), and bruschetta. They had some pretty funny signs in the place.

Basically says, "Protect our Water -- Drink Beer".

Funny

After lunch we went to another chocolateria -- yummm where I probably bought way too much chocolate. We finished the trip with a nice reflection session seated outside by the river... and headed back to La Plata. All in all, it was a fun and relaxing weekend with the group, and I especially enjoyed hanging out with my coworkers. I really like San Antonio de Areco -- and hope to go back in November for their "Dia de La Tradicion" - Day of Tradition--- where theres sure to be lots of gauchos doing gaucho things!