The latest

              May 10^th was the City of Rosario ½ Marathon, which I decided to run.  It went really well, and was a privileged peek at the organized side of Argentina!  I ran my best ½ Marathon time yet, finishing in 2 hours and 12 minutes.  That same weekend was also the weekend before all of my midterm exams, so I was also busy studying for the upcoming week. 

            Last weekend I went on a trip that I have been looking forward to since I started planning my trip to Argentina.  A friend of mine from the program, Stephanie, and I, went down to Patagonia last weekend to see the Perito Moreno Glacier.  We stayed in a little town called El Calafate, and we had an amazing time.  On Thursday evening, after we finished classes, we headed to the bus station here in Rosario and caught a bus to Buenos Aires.  We stayed the night in the trusty Art Factory Hostel before catching our plane down to Calafate at eight o’ clock the next day.  The plane ride went flawlessly, aside from a little hiccup with people trying to board the plane from both ends.  We arrived in Calafate before noon, and we checked into our hostel, which turned out to be a beautiful alpine style lodge.  It’s the nicest hostel I’ve stayed in yet, by far.  Anyways, we dumped our stuff there, and then headed into town to walk around for a bit.  We got a bite to eat in a little café, and walked around by the edge of the lake, took some pictures, did some window shopping, and sampled some of the locally made chocolate that they sell in town.  In every other shop…  It was pretty good, too.  That night, we ate some of the backpacking meals we had brought with, so that we wouldn’t have to take them home again.  That, paired with a nice cold beer, was as tasty of a meal as any other, and we lightened our backpacks in the process. 

`            The following day, Saturday, was our full day in Calafate, and we used it to visit the magnificent Perito Moreno glacier in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.  It was snowing when we left, and it snowed almost the whole boat ride out to the edge of the glacier, but right as it came into view, the sun came out, and it was beautiful and clear for the better part of the afternoon.  We chose to participate in a minitrek, a guided walk along the right shoulder of the glacier for a few hours, and we spent the sunny part of the day doing just that.  We went with a group, and it wasn’t really a long or a hard walk, but it was a really unique way to experience the park.  After the trek, the weather started to get nasty again, really wind and cold and snowy, so we took a quick tour of the viewpoint walkways, and then happily went back to town.  That night, Stephanie and I went out to dinner at a pizza place, where they served us their special, Patagonian Lamb pizza.  It was really delicious, despite my squirming conscious about eating baby sheep.  

            Sunday was our travel day.  When we booked our flights, they were supposed to be together, leaving Patagonia in the late afternoon on Sunday.  However, for whatever reason, my flight got switched and Stephanie’s didn’t.  So I flew home in the early afternoon, and then waited about four hours for her flight to get in, and then we took a bus back to Rosario together.  We got home early in the morning on Monday, and then it was business as usual on Monday morning.  

            This coming weekend is another group excursion.  We are traveling north this time, to the San Juan and Rioja provinces, to visit a national park and a provincial park, as well as the city of San Juan, which is home to the childhood house of Domingo Sarmiento, a past president of Argentina.  The national park is called Talampaya, and it is home to fossils and petroglyphs.  It should be really fun, as should the provincial park, home to Valle de la Luna.  I hope to be able to take lots of photos, and soak up some more of the clean mountain air that I was lucky enough to enjoy in El Calafate. 

            After this coming weekend, it’s back to school for about four more weeks, and then I’ll be coming home.  I have one or two more personal trips planned in that time, and there are a couple more group activities and excursions, but my time in Argentina is winding down quickly now.  I’ll see you all soon!

News from the southern half

Hey All,

Well, a lot has happened since the last time that I wrote.  Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend at the Gaia Ecovillage with the sustainability class.  It was a vegetarian, permaculture community, dedicated to living lightly in their environment.  They constructed all of their buildings and living spaces using natural building techniques, such as cob and straw bale construction, and utilized both thatched and living roofs.  Three wind turbines and two sets of solar panels provided all of the energy that they used. They also had several solar cookers, a solar oven, wood-burning clay stoves, and a clay oven.  All of the water was heated using a solar water heater, and all of the toilets were dry composting toilets.  Really cool!  I spent two days and one night there, and although I love being in Rosario, it was really nice to enjoy the fresh air and have a quiet nights sleep.

            In the next two weeks, I am taking all of my midterm exams, so I’ve been studying hard, but I’ve still found some time to recreate.  While I was walking around a couple of weeks ago, I saw a poster for the Rosario ½ Marathon, so I went and registered for it, and I’ve been busy training for that.  I will be running the race on the 10^th of May, and I’m really excited to dabble my feet in the international running scene.  Things can be so disorganized here; it’ll be interesting to see how an event of this magnitude ends up going.  I’m also really excited to have a new running shirt, because I only brought one with me, and it’s getting pretty smelly.  It’ll be nice to have another…

            Yesterday, the whole group went on an adventure!  We had tickets to go see a soccer game at one of the local stadiums.  One of the Rosario futbol teams, Newell’s Old Boys, was playing River Plate, a team from Buenos Aires, and it was one of the craziest things I’ve ever scene!  We got there around 3:30 in the afternoon, but the game didn’t start until 5:00, so we sat around and watched the second string players.  Once the actual game started, however, all of the fans stood up and were singing and yelling and jumping up and down, and they didn’t stop until half time.  There were banners and flags, and everyone was wearing the Newell’s colors, black and red.  We were sitting (standing) in one of the plateas, which isn’t the general section, because I guess that section is pretty dangerous, but we could see what was going on.  When Newell’s scored the one point of the game, the fans were setting off red smoke bombs and yelling and screaming and singing!  There was so much energy in the stadium; I don’t know how to begin to describe it.  It was definitely an experience.  The Argentines are serious about their futbol! 

            I haven’t really done much personal travel since I’ve been here in Rosario, aside from my impromptu trip to Buenos Aires, but all that is about to change.  The weekend after I take my midterms, I am flying down to Patagonia, to go see Perrito Moreno, the largest glacier in Argentina, and one of the only stable glaciers in the world.  The gateway city to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, where Perrito Moreno is located, is the small town of El Calafate, which should be nice and cold and wintry.  They have a local brewery there as well, and I’m pretty excited to try their microbrews.  The wine in Argentina is amazing, just as I knew it would be, but the beer definitely leaves something to be desired.  It should be really fun.  A little mountain town in the Andes, glaciers, scenery, and hiking; it doesn’t get much better that that.  My friend Stephanie and I are traveling together, and we are planning on taking a trek on the glacier, as well as getting some good panoramic shots from the viewpoints and hanging out in town.  I can’t wait to take some photos; it should be pretty epic!  (Life is sweet!)

            Oh, this is new!  I was out walking around this last weekend, and I met a young woman who was looking for a conversation partner, so we are going to meet up once a week or so, and speak English half the time so that she can practice, and Spanish for the other half so that I can practice.  Or some other similar configuration…  I thought it was a cute little story, and it’s going to be really helpful for me, I think. 

Not too much else is going on here; I’m just going about my daily routine, for the most part.  School is good, I’m learning a lot, and I’m enjoying the company of all the people I spend time with.  I’ve watched some good movies, and I’m enjoying my temporary residency in a large city. 

That’s all for now, and I can’t wait to see you all again when I get home in June!

Until next time, 

Love, 

Sarah

P.S. Emma and Rachel and Gail (I can’t remember if you’re getting these…), I love my spork that you gave me, I use it every day!

The latest and greatest from Rosario:

Last weekend, I had planned on bussing it down to El Bolsón, a small little mountain town south of Bariloche, one of the ski resorts in Patagonia.  I tried to get a bus ticket the day before I wanted to leave, which is usually more that enough time, with all of the different bus companies all making the same runs all the time, but all of them were completely sold out.  Down here, Easter is a major vacation holiday, as it turns out, and the whole semana santa is a crazy week to travel.  While I was at the bus station, I made the last minute decision to go to Buenos Aires instead, with the intention of spending most of my time in Tigre, the community in the outskirts of Buenos Aires that has formed around the delta of the Río Paraná, where it flows into the Río de la Plata.   So, the next day , Stephanie and I went to the bus station, caught our (late) bus to Buenos Aires, arrived in the city four hours later.  As we were turning the corner into the central bus station, traffic came to a complete and total stop.  There was a back up of all of the busses that were trying to get into the terminal in BA, and the line wasn’t moving.  There must have been at least a hundred busses trying to load and unload passengers, and they had all descended on Buenos Aires at 11 o’clock at night!  It took about an hour to get from the back of the line to the dock at the terminal, including switching to a bus that was closer to the front of the line.  So, we took a city bus to our hostel, the trusty Art Factory, and a really nice guy on the bus told us which stop to get off at.  When its dark, its really hard to see the really small street signs when moving at high speeds, so his help was greatly appreciated.  He also gave me his copy of the “guia-T”, which is the public transportation map for the greater BA area.  Its really more of a book, and it’s a bit to complicated for me to use and feel like I know where I’m going without doubt (there are a couple hundred different bus lines in Buenos Aires), but it was a nice gesture anyways. 

We stayed the night in BA, and in the morning, I started calling around to different hostels in Tigre, but they were all full, so we decided to just go for the day.  It was really beautiful, albeit crowded, again, semana santa, and everyone from the greater Buenos Aires area seemed to be enjoying the holiday weekend there, but it was fun anyways.  The town of Tigre isn’t really anything special, aside from it being the jumping off point for the rest of the islands, but there are some restaurants, and a theme park, and the main canal, where all of the boats leave for the islands.  Stephanie and I decided to take on of the commuter launches out to the Tres Bocas (3 mouths) neighborhood, which is three separate islands connected by bridges.  We walked around for a while, and then we hung out in a café where we had a 6-peso coupon, and we enjoyed some ice cream and played gin rummy. 

The ice cream in Argentina has captured my fancy for some time now, so I think I’ll say a word or two about it…  Its REALLY good, and I kind of went crazy for a while.  I’m happy to say that I’ve become somewhat of a expert, but I had to cool it for a while, I’m really feeling sick of it right now.  Which is sad, but what can you do?

So, we spent the day in Tigre, and then headed back to Buenos Aires.  We had an interesting time getting too and from the delta, sampling most of what the city has to offer in terms of public transportation.  To get from the city center out to the delta, we took the subway to the train station, where we took a train to Mitre Station, where we changed to the electric “Tren de la Costa,” which we took into Tigre, where we got on a boat to go out to the islands.  Then on the way back, we did the same thing all over again in reverse. 

The rest of the weekend was spent wandering around Buenos Aires.  On Friday, we went to Recoleta to admire the enormous Ómbu trees and peruse the extensive artisans market.  On the way there, we walked passed Plaza San Martin, where the UN “Buddy Bear” project, which is a fundraiser for UNICEF as well as a campaign for peaceful cities.  Almost every country in the UN commissioned an artist to paint a bear that was representative of their country, and all of the bears were displayed in a circle around the plaza.  The only country that didn’t have a bear was Canada, for whatever reason.  We also tried to visit a Holocaust Museum that had just opened at the beginning of march, but it was closed (for Passover, we decided).  Saturday, we spent the morning down at the Costanera, a park that runs along the wetlands that border the Río del la Plata.  We walked down there, passing through the Plaza de Mayo and Puerto Madero, and spent several hours there, enjoying the shade and cool breezes, and playing more gin rummy.  We played a lot of cards on this trip…  In the afternoon, we went to Palermo in search of a multi-level bookstore located in an older theater on Avenida Santa Fe.  We found the place after walking for about 45 minutes (I didn’t remember the cross streets), but then we spent about an hour and a half there.  I love bookstores, and I felt like I had stumbled upon the Powells of Argentina.  I found a copy of Zorro by Isabelle Allende, in spanish, for when I finish Harry Potter, and then we headed back to San Telmo to hang out at the hostel for the night.  We ended up playing several rousing rounds of “Shit- head”, the newest addition to my very small arsenal of card games, with a bunch of the other people staying in the hostel.  I learned it the last time I was in Buenos Aires, and everyone from Europe seems to know it, but everyone has different rules, so it gets interesting.  Anyways, that was what we did on Saturday, and then on Sunday we had to return to Rosario, but we wandered through the San Telmo Art and Antiques fair before leaving. 

This coming weekend, I have an excursion to Buenos Aires again, this time with all of the other students in the AHA program.  We will be visiting La Boca, MALBA (Museum of Latin American Art, Buenos Aires), Plaza de Mayo, Puerto Madero, all of the classics and cultural sites that BA has to offer.  We will also be returing to “Siga la Vaca,” the parrilla that I ate lunch at with the American family, where they zip-tie your bags to the chairs.  It’s going to be a quick trip, leaving Saturday in the morning, and returning Sunday night, but it should be fun. 

Tonight, the whole group has a tango lesson, and then the first weekend in May, we are all going to a futbol match, Rosario Central vs. River Plate from BA.  It should be really exciting.  Also, next weekend, the seminar class on sustainable development is going to the Gaia Permaculture farm/Ecovillage outside of Buenos Aires, and I’m going to go with them.  The farm is completely self-supported, utilizing solar and wind power to meet all of the energy needs, and growing all of their own food for their vegetarian kitchen.  All visitors get to eat and sleep on the farm in exchange for a little bit of volunteer labor.  I’m really excited to get to go and see this particular farm; its on of the only ones in Argentina, and it’s a really good example of what sustainable agriculture can look like.  It should be a really interesting and enlightening weekend!

The other big thing on my agenda is my trip to go see Perrito Moreno Glacier in the middle of May.  I just bought my ticket down, and I’ll have a weekend to go see one of the last advancing glaciers left in the world.  Should be amazing!  Well, I think that’s all for now, Can’t wait to see everyone in June!

Love,

Sarah            

Its Saturday evening here in Rosario, approaching the end of my second week here.  Thursday was a memorial day in honor of all the soldiers who fought and died for Argentina in the Islas Malvinas War, so we didn't have school and we had a four day weekend.  This is the second long weekend that we have had, and there is another one next week too, because of Easter, so I feel like I'm never in school!  Speaking of school, I had my first full week of classes (sort-of) and I love all of them.  I decided to take an Art and Lit. class, as well as an Argentine Topics class in addition to my grammar and conversation classes, and they are both really interesting.  In my Art and Lit. class, we are focusing on the lit half right now, and we are reading a book about barbarism in Argentina, which is really interesting, but a bit depressing.  On Wednesday, we watched a movie called Camila, a true story, and a pretty good movie as well.  

A big thing happened this week as well:  The first democratic president to serve after the dictatorships here, Pres. Alfonsín, died from lung cancer on tuesday night.  He was really beloved here, and a good honest politician-- 70,000 people attended his funeral in Buenos Aires, and it has been all over the news here for several days now.  

On Wednesday night, all of the students in my program decided to have an Asado, because we didn't have to go to class the next day.  We all brought stuff to grill and something to drink, and met down at this picnic area down by the river called Club Mitre, and we had a party.  I met some really nice people at the table next to ours, who were celebrating a birthday, and spoke alot of spanish.  I also met one of the team members of Rosario Central, one of the two fútbol teams in the city.  That was kinda cool, since its like religion here in Argentina.  I'll have to make sure I get to one of the games while I'm here...

Next weekend, I am planning to take a bus down to the lakes district, to a town called El Bolsón, which is really close to Bariloche, one of the ski resorts.  There is some really good hiking around it, and its right next to the Andés, so hopefully I can get some good photos while I'm there.  I'm really looking forward to getting to be in nature again.  Living in a city is nice, but it will be nice to hear a river instead of trucks all the time!

Last week, I picked up a copy of Harry Potter, in spanish, so I have been inching my way through it.  Its not such a quick read when I don't know all the words, so I think it will keep me busy for a while, as well as pad out my vocabulary a bit.  I've also been experiencing the trials of running in a busy city.  In the last two weeks, I have learned that I need to walk to a park, rather than try to run on the streets.  There are way to many cars here to be able to run  on the streets.  You have to stop at every corner, and then go, and then  stop, and on and on... Anyways, I started walking to one of the parks, and then running in the park, and then walking back home.  It takes a lot longer to go on a run this way, but the expereince has been much more enjoyable.  I will certainly appreciate the quiet Ashland streets when I get back!

I think thats all for now...

All my love,

Sarah

Rosario

Hello All!

Its been a while since my last post, which I think may become a trend, but we'll see what happens. I´m approaching the end of my first week in Rosario, and everything is going really well. I moved in with my host family, and I really like them a lot. I live with Sonia, my host mom, and her son Carlos (he´s 20) and her daughter Lucia (she´s 16). They have an apartment about 10 blocks froms school, so its a really easy walk for me. On Wednesday, Sonia went with me to the orientation for my program, to show me the way from the apartment, and I took the placement test there as well. I tested into the third level of classes, which is right where Iwanted to be, so thats really good. I think that I will be challenged enough, but I´m going to learn a lot. One of the other girls in the program lives 2 floors below me in the same building, so we have been walking to school together. I had my first day of classes yesterday, and they went really well. I had my grammar class and my conversation class, and then on Monday, I start my elective courses. I chose an Art and Lit. class, as well as a class called Topics, which basically deals with everything Argentina. Both of those classes are in spanish as well. Today I don´t have class, but I am going on a walking tour of Rosario with the rest of the group. I think that they just want to show us around a bit, and we are also going to visit the monument to the Argentinian flag, which was designed here in Rosario. There are a little over 1 million people living here, but the city has a totally different vibe from Buenos Aires. Its a bit more laid back, and not quite as frenetic!

Last week I was traveleing around quite a bit. From Puerto Iguazú in the northeast, I went on to Salta in the northwest, which was a mere 26 hours on the bus, incuding several delays. Iguazú was incredible; I don´t think that I have ever seen that much water in one place! The town really wasn´t much to look at, but the park was really beautiful, and I had a really good time. Which is agood thing, because we are going to go back there as a group. AHA changed the excursions from what they told us before I left, from going to Mendoza to visiting Iguazú. Thats OK with me, I don´t mind seeing the falls again. After Iguazú, I went to Salta. Its a much smaller town, with lots of museums and chiurches, and lots of green space. There is a local mini mountain called Cerro Bernardo, named for a saint, that I hiked up. There are 1040 stone steps that go up the side of the hill, and when you get to the top, you have a 360 degree view of the city and the surrounding valleys and hills. It was really beautiful, but it was starting to rain when I was ready to go down, so I took the gondola cable car back down. I also visited a museum called the High Mountain Anthropologic Museum, which was dedicated to the Incan society that was living in the region way back when. They had some really amazing artifacts, perfectly preserved, including several mummified bodies of Incan children that were found on the tops of mountains, most likely from ritual sacrifices. The bodies were not covered in shrouds like egyptian mummies, they were just preserved by the intense cold, so they looked like they could get up and walk away. It was a little un-nerving, to tell the truth.

After Salta, I went on to Cafayate, where I went hiking in the Quebrada, which is a desert landscape with amazing sandstone formations and slot canyons. There are lots of oxidized minerals in the rocks, which gives them a really incredible rainbow colored palette. I also had some really tasty empanadas while I was there. After Cafayate, I had to head back to Buenos Aires so that I would make it to Rosario on time. I spent on day and one night in Buenos Aires, and I met a friend of a friend named Sofia, who showed me all around the city and took me to all of her favorite places.

On Monday, I took the bus to Rosario, and I walked around the city for a while, and then in the evening I hung out with this nice German guy that was staying in my dorm in the hostel. We went to the Reggae bar next door and had a pizza, listened to Bob Marley, and enjoyed the cool evening out on the sidewalk. Which brings me back t0 Tuesday, when I met my host family.

I think that this weekend I am going to stay in Rosario, and try to get more aquainted with the city. I have so many weekends to travel, and I am a bit burned out from all the busses I took last week! But there is plenty to do here, so I don´t think I´m going to mind staying here some of the weekends. On Monday, I start my full school schedule, and I think that it is going to keep me really busy. I also bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer´s Stone in spanish, so I have been reading that in my spare time.

I think thats all for now, and I´ll try to keep posting these at regular intervals. I hope that everyone is doing well, and has been enjoying the first days of spring. I´m having a great time, but I can´t wait to see everyone when I get back in June!

Love,

Sarah

The last time that I posted something was right after I arrived in Los Angeles prior to leaving for Argentina.  I have now spent one week here, and I am having a really good time.  I spent 6 days in Buenos Aires, and then yesterday I took an overnight bus from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu.  It is an 18 hour, overnight trip, and I arrived today at about 2 PM.  

Back to Buenos Aires though.  I arrived at the airport on March 6th, and both of my bags arrived with me.  I went through customs and immigration, and then I changed some money, then proceeded to the local bus stop to catch the 86 bus into Buenos Aires.  It took me a while to find the place, but I didn't have to wait long once I found the stop.  Once the bus arrived, I told the driver where I was going and paid the fare, then sat back and enjoyed the ride.  It took about two hours to get into the city, what with the traffic and all of the stops that we made.  However, once we got to the Plaza de Mayo, which is at the heart of Buenos Aires, I had a little complication.  The driver stopped the bus, and I got up and grabbed my bags, but before I could get off the bus, he started moving again, and i had to wait until the next stop to get off, and I ended up having to walk a lot further than I had anticipated with all of my luggage.   I found my hostel, The Art Factory, in San Telmo, and I checked in, and they showed me around, and then I fell asleep on my bunk in the middle of sending an email to my parents telling them that i arrived.  

That night at the hostel, there was a parrilla, which is a traditional Argentinian barbeque, although I think that this one was tailored to out-of-towners, omitting all of the organ meats and parts that are usually present.  The food was amazing and the people were really friendly.  

I met a lovely couple from Germany named Christian and Miriam, and another couple from England, Oliver and Katie, as well as a man from Vancouver BC named Peter.  On Saturday, my first full day in the city, I took the bus to Recoleta, which is one of the more affluent barrios in the city.  I spent time in the cemetery there, wandering around on my own and going on a tour 

( in spanish!).  This is the cemetery that houses the mausoleum of the Duarte Family, Eva "Evita" Peron's family plot.  There are flowers all over the front of it, and there was a steady trickle of people wandering by it all day.  It was smaller and less impressive than I expected it to be.  I have seen pictures of it, but you never see the small alley that it is in, or the other plots on either side of it.  I met an older woman named Blanca in the plaza outside the cemetery.  We had  a really nice conversation in spanish, and we took a picture together.  She was the first local that I made friends with, and I was really excited about it!  That night, I went out to a cafe in San Telmo on the Plaza Dorrego with some of the people in my dorm, and a group from Belgium.  There was drumming  and dancing, and apparently there was a famous dutch movie star there as well.  It was a really nice atmosphere, sitting with all the porteños (people who live in Buenos Aires) out on the Plaza late at night, surrounded by beautiful old buildings.

The next day, Sunday, was the traditional weekly art and antiques fair in San Telmo.  I wandered around there in the morning, and enjoyed an empañada from a street vendor for lunch before heading back to the hostel for a little rest.  In the evening, I walked down to Puerto Madero, the old port, and walked on the docks, listened to some live music, and tried my first Argentine ice cream.  Its really good, they aren't kidding.  Monday, I took the Subte, the subway, out to Palermo, to see the parks and gardens.  I went to the Botanical gardens, walked around in the park, passed my the US Embassy, and walked by the old house of Jorge Luis Borges in Palermo viejo.  

Tuesday, I went on a walking tour of San Telmo with a group from the hostel that explored all of the historical buildings in the neighborhood-- its one of the oldest ones here-- and outlined the perimeter of the barrio.  It was supposed to only last 2 hours or so, but we ended up staying out for about 5, including a break at Plaza Dorrego to watch a tango show.  Later that evening, I went tango dancing myself.  I went down to the Microcentro to the National Tango Academy, and i took a 3 hour lesson.  It was a really fun, local place, with goofy instructors and nice people.  I danced with a gentleman named Etto, and I learned a lot from him.  

On Wednesday, I spent the better part of the rainy day trying to mail my camera back to my parents.  It broke the other day, and its new, so they are going to return it, and send me my old one when i get to Rosario.  Unfortunately, I will not have pictures of part of my first week, but of all the things to happen to you when you are traveling, a broken camera is not the worst.  That night, I went to the movies with the group from Belgium to see Slumdog Millionaire.  There was supposed to be a movie night at the hostel out on the terrace, but it was canceled due to the rain, but that was what I wanted to do anyways, so we went down to the movie theatre in Puerto Madero instead.  

Thursday was my last day in the city, and I spent it with a family that I met it the hostel.  We met at breakfast, they are from Wisconsin, but the dad, Tom, knew people in Ashland, so we bonded.  We all, Sarah the Mom, Zan the daughter who is taking a gap year  working in Paraguay, Bobbie the other daughter, Tom, and I took the Subte to Retiro to buy bus tickets, then went to the Plaza de Mayo to visit the cathedral and the Cabildo, which was the seat of the 1810 revolution, as well as the government house in the early years of Buenos Aires.  We also walked along the Peatonal, the pedestrian street on calle Florida.  It has alot of shopping and is very touristy, but worth a look.  Then we all went out to lunch at Siga la Vaca (follow the cow), an all you can eat parrilla buffet.  Tom and Sarah treated me to lunch, which was delicious.  It was all you can eat, and you walk up to the grill, and you can order any cut of meat you can think of.  They also zip-tie your bags to your chairs, they say to keep them from getting stolen, but also to keep you from eating and running.  After lunch, we all rolled out of there, and walked back to the hostel via the Plaza de Mayo again.  They were leaving for Paraguay at 7PM, and I was leaving at 9:30 for Iguazu, so we wanted a chance to rest.  I read my book for a while, and took a nap on the couch, then I took the Subte back to Retiro again to catch my bus.  

Argentines have mastered the weekend getaway.  They have these double decker busses with reclining seats that are really comfortable, and they serve you food (bad food, but food) and they run overnight so you can get there during the day.  Anyways, I slept on the bus, and I arrived in Iguazu this afternoon.  I checked into my hostel, which is right across from the bus station, and was recommended to me by the Belgians.  It is nice, but it doesn't have the same vibe as the Art Factory.  I guess my first hostel holds a soft spot in my heart.  But, it does have a pool and a great open air kitchen.

Tomorrow I think that I am going to go to Brazil to see the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls, just for the day, and then Sunday and Monday I will visit the Argentine side.  Then, on Monday night, i think that i will leave for Salta via bus.  I think thats all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading!

chao, 

Sarah

The journey begins...

This morning, I flew (on a very early morning  flight) from Medford to Los Angeles.  I'm going to spend several days here, hangin' with the fam,  before I disembark to Argentina.  I finally finished packing...  It was a marathon weekend-- packing and unpacking and packing again-- until I was satisfied with the stuff that I decided to bring!  I slept most of the way on the plane, waking up only for the turbulence that we encountered about half way down, around Fresno.  When I got to LAX, I was thrilled to find that both of my checked bags made it there safe and sound with me, and I took the flyaway bus to Van Nuys, where my grandparents picked me up.  We went out to Brunch at Art's Deli, a great old standby in Sherman Oaks.  Other than the price of the food, nothing has changed.  I ordered a BLT, and the sandwich that they brought me was a good four inches tall.  I could barely get my mouth around it.  It was AMAZING!!

I have a couple of last minute things to take care of while I'm here, like buying travelers checks and local currency for when I arrive, but other than that, I'm ready to go and getting really excited.  I recieved the information on my homestay today; I will be living with Sonia Aguado and her family!  She/they live at 9 de Julio 1673 -4to "A", which is apartment A on the fourth floor on 9 de Julio 1673 in Rosario!  So excited!  This will be my contact address in Rosario once my study abroad program starts.  You can send me mail at 

Sarah Spector

C/O Sonia Aguado

9 de Julio 1673- 4to "A"

Rosario 2000

Argentina

After the 24th of March.

My Grandparents showed me a video slide show of pictures from when they first got married, and of their kids (my Dad included) when they were little, and it was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.  That was the first time that I saw more than a couple pictures of them from when they were young, and their wedding pictures were beautiful.  

I think thats all for now!  

Over and out...

Sarah