1-19-2009

uruguay

1/10/09 post armenian food

We have pictures, but this computer doesn´t have picassa so i have to add them all individually and there are like 200-300 pictures its gonna take some time, but here is a link and i will let you know when they are all up

01/09/2009-Un Asado experience

Asado is BBQ. It´s more plain and simple than we do it. No herbs, spices, sauces, marinades, or propane. Just straight meat and coal. It is very delicious. You get a huge grill and smother it with cuts of meat i´ve never seen before right along side different kinds of chorizo and blood sausage. There were 2 vegetarians at the table. The cook for the evening upon hearing that these people don´t eat carne(beef) went to the grill, returned, and filled there plates with sausage while saying "it´s good, not carne, only chorizo". Me, being me, was picking apart my food, making sure it was cooked well and ripping out big chunks of fat. On my second helping of chorizo i´m in sausage heaven. It´s so good and salty and what! it´s got cheese in it. It´s oozing some creamy delicious white cheese. I ask what kind of cheese is this? and i hear "no, como se dice en ingles", i give a good swallow and say "fat?" after a few more exchanges of phrases, it is decided, yes I am indulging, it straight up creamy melted FAT! You know when you get a coffee from starbucks and it leaves that film on the inside of your mouth because they use real cream... i feel like i had a Venti breve. So sick! I don´t know why people can´t just lie to me. Another weird food related item, my friend anthony from peru, eats the chicken bones and cartiledge. Its really shocking the first time you see someone do that. Ok bye bye now

01-07-09 post spanish lesson

Holy shit i can´t believe that it is 2009! I haven´t written in a while, sorry. I´m very lazy. I wanna say, straight away, happy late birthday Grandpa, I hope you enjoyed it! and happy early birthday Ryan! To auntie Teresa-yes i still call you that behind your back-i decided to spend a long time in Argentina because I really liked it. When i came to south america all i had planned was a plane ticket arriving on october 18th and departing april 10th and i knew that i wanted to go to brasil to see my dad. I have ended up staying in Argentina, in buenos aires, because its totally rad. I want to spend as little money as possible here in south america because i hope to travel to europe and i have plans to road trip with my friend david for the summer/fall. buenos aires is cheap compared to us, a lot of people speak english and there is loads of stuff to see and do. I also happened upon a fabulous hostel full of wonderful people, most of whom i feel priveledged to know. I am learning some spanish, a little everyday, in hopes of being more prepared when i travel to places were the people only speak spanish. It looks as though i will be going to uraguay soon, maybe in the next week to visit a friend from Germany. I´m so excited, they have beaches there, lots of nice beaches and as it is in the 90s and humid almost everyday here, i could use a break in the way of the ocean. In feb/march i hope to travel to chile and peru and maybe bolivia, equador, and columbia. I would also like to get around argentina some more, its a awesome country with lots to see. I´m having a great time and loving every minute of being here! I have taken lots of pictures and hopefully i will be able to put them up for all of you. Ok I think that answers your guestion and catches everybody up. I had a great new years and I hope you all did also. I have been spending the last week shopping and walking to different places in the city. I ventured to Tigre by train and that was fun. Public transportation costs like 25 cents a ride, its crazy awesome! I eat delicious food everyday, but for the last 2 days i have had smoothies and french fries, what could be better....mmm my love for fried potatoes continues, though i have given up chocolate(heather, tell betty never to come here, there is no dark chocolate) and chips. I´ve only had one hamburger and it wasnt near as good as ours. The hot dogs are awesome though, they are called super ponchos and i dont know what kind of mixture of processed meat they are made out of, they are delicous. I´m getting browner, but i have a total farmer tan cause everytime i go out i cover up as much as i can, cause i hate sunscreen. im brown from the elbow down, half a calf and top of my foot and around my neck, its just makes me look like i dont bathe, its hot. I found an american/european fancy mall that has a tiffany and a MAC. At first i was really excited to be in the mall, but then everything was American and just the same as at home and i hadnt seen it in so long it made me sick. I had to get out of there, it was so much to look at and it was all lame. It was horrible, but then I saw the MAC(you know the makeup store) on the way out and my inner american came out and i decided it was all crap but the MAC was ok...silly i know. An american guy showed up and the hostel a few days ago and he is the same age as i am. It was very odd to be around him. He was from berkley and said "hella" and fuck every other word and was so sarcastic like typical young american guy. I started swearing again and being sarcastic, it surprised me how fast i just fell right back into that way of speaking. Hes gone now and my mouth is a bit more appropriate now. The longer i stay here the less i want to go home. My trip is very close to half over and I feel like i´ve barely started my journey. love and kisses to all my family and friends. To those of you that use this blog as an opportunity to check up on me and see how i am doing: I miss you and please feel free to email me and tell me what you are up and what is going on in your life. I could really stand to hear some stories. Besos. Gracias para todo haces. Te extrano mucho. No espero a ver sos.

12/25/08 Merry Christmas

I am so happy, I am watching A Christmas Story on Youtube as I write this. A Christmas Story is THE christmas tale. It´s the best, I never tire of TBS 24 hours of Christmas story and have memorized mostly all the dialogue and every scene...I like movies and christmas movies are my favorite. I spent the day bogarting the TV and I managed to see part of The Holiday, which can, at best,be loosely considered Christmasey and The Grinch with Jim Carrey. The Grinch is hilarious with Jim Carrey, I had never watched it all the way through, but it´s awesome. I got a present yesterday from the hostel, it was a personal sized pan dulce and it was good. All was going well with my make shift movie marathon until the night reception guy came on and stole the tv to watch soap operas. Who is the customer here buddy? Whatever...be postive. I got my journal and sat down to outline my wonderful past 2 days. I got most of the way through christmas eve when i heard some loud mouthed Austrailian (all sorts of cuss words I´m sure you can think I might use)talking about me speaking spanish with an American accent and I got all mad and could no longer write nicely about my wonderful times travelling and just as I am writing this I am thinking maybe she was talking about someone else...even still that is just not nice! Stupid Rude drunk girl. There was a whole party taking place and she ran everyone off being obnoxious. Ah oh well, I feel better now. Ralphy brought me back to reality. It is christmas after all. I´m going to a spanish lesson tomorrow and some time next week I am going to go to another neighborhood and go yarn shopping and eat mexican food, I hope its good. I am having a wonderful time and just relishing taking in what I can. Last night people lit off fireworks for hours, it was so pretty. There were these paper lanterns on fire floating through the sky.It was so cool. I hope everyone had a good christmas! Have fun playing with your new toys and remember...don´t shoot your eye out!

12/15/2008

To the man in Iraq that threw a shoe at president Bush:
I assume you will be punished, but it shouldn´t be so. Thank you.

I found out yesterday that every argentinian person i know is a bush fan and they don´t like Obama. I feel so alienated. It makes sense, it´s very conservative here.

It´s business time, flight of the conchords is getting me through it.

enjoy the snow!

Random stuff i remembered...
a few days before i left brazil my dad was on his daily walk and he saw a little kid get his bike stolen by a guy with a machete!

there was a big demonstration, protest here and i went to a different neighborhood to go to the doctor. I got there just fine, but no taxi would take people back to my neighbor hood when i was done. My friend and I stood on the street for i think close to an hour when we found out what the issue was. The subway was also closed. I ended up taking a bus for the first time. The usual 10-15 min ride was an hour because the protestors had closed down so many streets. I saw demonstration later on the news and there were thousands of pèople there. They were in the Plaza de Mayo fighting against hunger.

12/10/2008

im sick, have been bad for 2 days and going back to bed i just wanted to let you know i wasnt dead

Today marks 4 months left in South America
my trip is 33.3% over and even though i am hella grumpy and wanna come home cause i hate being sick, i cant believe how fast time is going
hope you guys are good
send me some snow please