Internet life is clearly not for me

Okay so...I really had high hopes for my travel blog...and maybe I still do sometimes, but obviously consistent updating is just not going to happen. First because I am really terrible at maintenance in general, second because I don't have internet very often, and lastly because I'm just not that iiiinnnntttooooo the internet (even though I think it's AMAZING and the best resource EVER and I LOOOVE wikipedia!). Anywayzzz. Just throwing that out there.

So...lately, life in Argentina has been great! I have been up to:

I went on a couple of GREAT trips to mountainous outdoorsy regions and fell in love with a tea shop in the middle of nowehere in La Cumbre, which is right outside the city of Cordoba (in the province of Cordoba).

The tea shop:

La Cumbre:

We went mountain biking down an ACTUAL mountain without thinking about how we were going to get back up. It was super treacherous but when we got to the bottom there was a river and we went swimming. Then we had to go back up and it was going to be 10 miles straight up. We realized we weren't going to be able to make it and decided that the next pickup truck that passed us going up we'd ask for a ride from (because there were 3 of us and three bikes. So we did. We got a ride from this guy who literally threw the bikes in the back, we climbed on top of them, and then started speeding up the mountain. I literally thought I might die, which was terrifying, because I was closest to the edge and the bed was down because the bikes wouldn't fit in otherwise. I was being pulled down by gravity but held in by Colby and Crystal. Luckily we made the 10 miles alive by some miracle from God/the universe because there were lots of cliffs we could have fallen off of. Then we ate delicious ice cream at the tea place even though we were dirty and covered in bike oil and sweat. It was AMAZING.

I also rode horses through the mountains while we were there.

Natasha and Elizabeth hiked to Jesus, as in to a GIGANTIC statue of him that looks over La Cumbre from the mountainside. I probably should have, but they did that while we went bike riding. Colby, incidentally, got to pet the cutest puppy I have ever seen. Here is documentation:

Then, just a couple of weeks ago, the program went to Mendoza, which is wine country, and we went rafting (which was really more like advanced inner tubing...not too exciting) and hiking, and drank a lot of wine and ate too much food but we got to sit by a river and bond and we got to pick our cabin buddies so it was generally a really good time.

Our scenery every morning in Mendoza from our cabin:

The bodega that we visited was right next to a gorgeous vineyard, which was exciting to see as I had never seen wine country of any kind before.

As you can see, Sara and I continue to see each other, though not all the time...but it's waayyy nice to have her around!

The city of Buenos Aires is still amazing. I love hearing Spanish all the time and going to class in Spanish though I will be so much more thankful for being able to actually understand what my professors are saying without using every ounce of concentration next semester! People go out at like 2 in the morning and don't go home till 7 (but if you stop at a cafe to get coffee or tea and medialunas (which are like croissants but sweet) you don't get home till 8 or so). Everyone is so politically aware and active which I love, and there's a general valuing of each other...like when people are selling things or performing on the subway, people give money, like LOTS of people do, and when a performance ends, even if it was mostly stupid, like someone who can't really juggle juggling, everyone claps! I think it's great. Here's a picture of an AWESOME (not pity-clap level) band that plays at an outdoor market in San Telmo every Sunday. I bought their cd. They're fabulous.

So overall I'm having an amazing time. I'm going to miss it a lot when I go back! I would definitely consider coming back here. Also the artesanal goods are so awesome. The jewelry and leather goods are sweeeeeet. As a side note, the ice cream here is the best ice cream I've ever had, anywhere. It's sort of a cross between gelato and regular ice cream, and it's out of this world. When Adam, Sara's boyfriend came to visit, we got a kilo of it to share between five of us. It was heavenly. My opinion on this matter is clearly illustrated in this picture, I think.

I thought (and I think others were with me on this) that I was going to probably die having to eat Argentine food all the time. There's not too much variety...it's pizza, empanadas, milanesa (basically country fried steak...) and pasta at most restaurants, and that started getting old pretty quickly. But being here longer we've managed to find restaurants that have lots of different foods, or good Argentine interpretations of other types of food. Good mexican was hard to find but after a while Sara and I found one that ACTUALLY tasted Mexican and incorporated cilantro into the dishes. I also went with Crystal and Natasha to this FANTASTIC Armenian restaurant near FLACSO. There's apparently a big Armenian population here because of the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century. Interesting!

Tomorrow is my birthday and also the second program trip to a place called Tandil, which is apparently known for it's cheese (?) and located in the southern part of the province of Buenos Aires. So I guess I'll be celebrating my birthday FLACSO-style. Woo hoo! Iupi! Also it happens to be Georgetown's graduation, so to any graduating seniors...Congratulations!

Enough for now and I'll try to be better about updating. Love and miss you all!