miércoles 12 de diciembre 2012
Again, disculpa for the long lapse without
updating. I have the same excuse as last
time—life went crazy! I’m just going to
say that this is probably going to be the norm, so I’ll stop apologizing haha.
Probably the most
important change that I’ve undergone recently is a change in mindset. Before, I was [too] preoccupied about finding
work teaching… but I decided to think of this year in Argentina as a “gap year”
instead of a professional experience abroad.
I’m traveling, experiencing another culture, practicing Spanish, and
making some pocket change on the side :) no
importa cúanto sera.
I’m writing out this
blog post on my laptop on a bus to Mendoza.
How did I come to get here, you may ask?
Well, stay tuned, I’ll try my best to recap my recent life stories
chronologically.
As predicted, moving
downtown really turned my life around!
In October and November I worked quite a bit, much more than I had been
before moving from the Peninsula. And I
was able to attend many more cultural events in Bariloche, go out with Maia and
Diego and other friends… A really good
life choice!
While I was living in
my apartment, I was able to host two Couch Surfers who were visiting
Bariloche. The first was Albert from
Barcelona. He stayed with me for about
four days. At the same time I received
another CS request from a French guy named Fred. Although I couldn’t really host both at once,
we still met up with him, and he and Albert ended up spending lots of time
together in Bariloche, and all of us went out together a few nights. Through Albert I was able to meet this girl
named Yenifer from San Martin de los Andes (who Albert also met through Couch
Surfing); the three of us spent some time together and then Albert and I met
Yeni at her aunt’s house in the neighborhood of Las Victorias to celebrate her
birthday with her family!
My second Couch Surfer
was Igor from Brazil. He’s a travel
writer, so basically his work is being on vacation. When I met him he had already traveled to
about 75 countries… Harsh life, ¿no? He stayed with me for two nights, and
convinced me to go on an excursion with him to Cerro Tronodor. We hiked to the base of the glacier, hiked
back, and then the tour van drove us to the other side of the mountain where we
could see the Black Glacier.
in front of the Black Glacier (by the water). You can see another
glacier at the top of the mountain.
Because of the slope of the mountain on this side, when ice breaks off
the top glacier, instead of falling and exploding, it rolls, collects earth,
and then forms a second darker glacier at the bottom.
Another day-trip I took
was to El Bolsón. The best way I can
describe El Bolsón is that it’s “the hippy town of Patagonia”. There are lots of farms, and fresh, organic
produce (and also a lot of weed and dreadlocks). Three days a week the towns hosts a feria artesanal (artisan fair). I went one Saturday with my student Victor
(He wanted an interactive English class… so during the whole day he was asking
‘What is this? What is that?’ He learned lots of English vocabulary, and we
both had a good visit). I bought a
couple gifts, and some jars of jam… The frutos rojos and cassis varieties were especially delightful. Cassis is a fruit grown here in Patagonia,
it’s like the blueberry’s cousin. And
it’s absolutely delicious. (Some heladerías in Bariloche have cassis ice
cream… so good)
Victor and I also hiked
up the mountain for a panoramic view of the city (it’s called “El Bolsón”
because the city’s located in the middle of a cavity, or bowl, of mountains),
and then to see a natural rock formation called La cabeza del indio (the Indian’s Head).
the feria
La cabeza del indio
My next few adventures
were shared with some fellow La Montaña students. I met Matthew and Alex from England and
Itamar from Israel. The four of us went
on a half-day excursion together to Cerro Leones, where you can visit cavernas from an ancient (now inactive) volcano. There were three caves in all. In the second one, on the wall, there was an
indigenous painting. Since it was
painted who knows how long ago, the paint has now faded, but with some special
photographic tricks we can still see it…
Picture of the cave wall, normal camera
settings (Can you see anything?? …me
neither)
Same wall, with some camera setting adjustments (you can see a faint
pattern now)
Same picture, which some Photoshop adjustments
But the third cavern
was by far the most intriguing. We
climbed through this really narrow crevice and entered a pitch-black cave. The only source of light was a thin ray that
came from the entrance. When we went a
bit further, we couldn’t see anything.
But with our guide’s lights, we were able to gaze upon an underground
lake…!
By the underground lake
Me, Matt, Alex, and Itamar… after surviving the trek inside the cave!
(And don’t these helmets make us look bad-ass?)
The next day, a new
student, Ramon (an 18-year-old from Chicago) joined the gang, and we spent the
afternoon in Dina Huapi (an area outside of Bariloche). There was a fair hosted by the European colectividades (there are European
communities that reside in Bariloche).
Most European countries were represented by a food tent… there were lots
of yummy things to eat and drink that day :)
There was also traditional music and dancing. Getting there was kind of an adventure
(taking multiple buses and taxis without really knowing where we were going…),
but we eventually got there and had a really enjoyable afternoon!
Ramon being the only
American I knew in Bariloche at the time, I invited him to my place for a form
of Thanksgiving celebration… we ended up making empanadas (with the recipe I
learned from Gabbi… thank you, clases de cocina!). We made empanadas
de choclo (corn) and caprece
(with mozzarella, tomate, and basil).
Those were the two “normal” empanadas.
Then… we also made dessert empanadas.
One type was with a kind of cobbler mixture of cherries and bananas that
Ramon made, and then we had just enough dough left to each make an
“experimental” empanada… mine had banana, chocolate, peanut butter, and dulce de leche. Ohhh yeah.
The next event I must
talk about is… my birthday!!! November
30 marked 23 years of living on this earth, and 5 months in Argentina :) Here is how I spent the day: Slept in, went running, my only class of the
day was cancelled (oh bummer… haha), and then my Spanish teacher Sasha took me
out for hot chocolate and cake :)
Sasha and me at Rapa Nui
That evening, Maia,
Diego, and Ramon met me at this tranquil café called Mondella where we enjoyed
sushi night, and then we went to a bar for more drinks, food, and dessert. A quite enjoyable day :)
And my last milestone
in Bariloche was… my half-marathon!!!
The Llao Llao 21K was this past Saturday. I’ve been training ever since I came to
Bariloche… And man, did it feel good to finally do it :) I was super excited for it all week. And then Saturday came, and I started to run,
and then, well… I finished. Hahaha. I did really well! My goal was to finish under 2 hours, and I
ran a 1:42:26… That’s an average of an under 8-minute mile, which, well, let’s
just say I surprised myself. Thanks be
to God, because I was running with some kind of energy that I knew didn’t come
just from myself! I give Him all the
credit :)
After the race I found
my friend Claire, an English woman who also teaches English in Bariloche. She ran in the race too, along with two of
her British friends who had come from Buenos Aires and another British woman
she had just met about a week before. Claire
convinced me come back to Llao Llao that night for the party the hotel was
putting on for the runners. And good
thing I did… First of all, it was enjoyable—there was music, a photo slideshow
of the race, and some food (although, not enough… All the glycogen-depleted
half-marathoners transformed into a sort of hungry mob that reached and grabbed
for anything that looked edible as soon as the waiters set foot into the room
with their tray of houre d’oivers (sp???)).
It was really nice to spend time with Claire and everyone else there. We even played some ping-pong in the hotel’s
games room. And lastly, they posted the
race results and gave out prizes… and I received an award! Out of 102 female runners I came in 9th,
and placed 3rd in my age category (18-29). That was like the cherry on top of a
fantastic day :)
Did I mention that was
my first long-distance race? I’m sure
there’s many more to come…
Samantha, Claire, and me after finishing
So this past week, I semi-moved in with Maia. Since I’d be traveling for most of December
and the first half of January, it didn’t make sense to pay rent for those
months. So I left my place at the end of
November and Maia invited me to crash in her apartment. That was kind of a hilarious mess, because
she’s in the process of packing up / selling all of her stuff, because she’s
moving to Australia (her boyfriend is Australian; they met when he came to
Argentina over a year ago, fell in love, all that jazz, haha, and now she’s
moving there). Both of us for the
longest time were kind of in the same boat—we were making big life decisions
but were unsure of pretty much all the details.
In the end, she’s leaving Bariloche on December 15, will spend the
holidays with her family, and then leave for Australia mid-January. And me?
Well… at first, I was thinking of creating a permanent residence in
Bariloche, or one that felt that way at least.
But the more I thought about it, the more I decided I wanted to try out
life somewhere else. I mean, I LOVE Bariloche,
but I went through so many troubles and stress dealing with finding housing and
work… and it’s a pretty expensive city to live in. When I arrived in Buenos Aires, I knew I
didn’t want to stay there, and when I read about other cities in the country,
Bariloche was number one on my list, but Mendoza was number two. So I thought… why do I have to make a fixed
decision? Why can’t I choose both? SO I’ve decided to move to Mendoza and spend
the rest of my time in Argentina getting to know that city!
After I started thinking about Mendoza, I started looking on CompartoDepto
for listings there (it’s an Argentine web site where you can look for
housing/roommates… it’s how I met both Walter and Maia, actually!). And whereas for Bariloche there’s only a list
of about 15 places… for Mendoza there’s a list of over 50! That was my first clue that I might have more
opportunities/luck there. Since I added
my post to the website, I’ve already had various people contact me about
renting a place.
There’s also Spanish schools in Mendoza. One is called Intercultural. I wouldn’t say it’s a sister school of La
Montaña, but Veronica (our director) knows the staff there. So I can keep taking Spanish. Plus, Intercultural is a “language center”
and offers classes for all types of languages… including English! Maybe I could possibly teach there…? Veronica sent the school a recommendation
about me; she said I was coming and planning to take classes, affirmed them I
would be a great student, and also mentioned I was an English teacher and
recommended that they consider hiring me.
Who knows if that will happen or not, but hey, I have my foot in the
door in Mendoza already and I haven’t even been there :)
Mendoza is a bigger city, and just as touristy as Bariloche (touristy is
good, because more people will need to know English), because it’s Argentina’s
wine country (another obvious perk).
From what people have told me about Mendoza, it’s a nice city, a great
place for students and young people, it’s clean, and better organized than
Bariloche. It’s nestled right next to
the Andes, about a 6-7 hour bus ride and you cross over into Santiago,
Chile. It is supposedly really really
hot in the summer (it’s in the desert), and Maia keeps warning me I’m not
accostumed to it, being from Michigan and then later living in Bariloche… but,
well, come at me, heat--I’m ready for the fight!
Having said all that, I really am quite excited for a change of pace, and
of scenery, to live in and explore a new city…!
So, here is my current “plan” (I use this word lightly, because,
especially in this country, plans are never really that fixed, haha):
-I’m currently on the bus that’s taking me from Puerto Madryn (keep tuning
in… I’ll recap that trip in my next blog post!) to Mendoza. I’m supposed to meet up with my parents in
Santiago on Saturday, but to get there I have to pass through Mendoza anyway,
so I figured, if I’m going to be moving there, I might as well spend the night
and get to know the city as much as I can in a day…
-After my night in Mendoza, head to Santiago, spend a night there and then
meet my parents the next morning
-Travel around Chile with my parents for about 11 days; they leave on
December 23
-Travel to Concepción de Uruguay, a city in the province of Entre Rios,
close to the Uruguayan border. Spend
Christmas and New Years there with Maia and her family!
-Fly to El Calafate; make my way up to Bariloche via bus, visiting various
places in Patagonia along the way (taking advantage of the summer season)
-Return to Bariloche (I left some of my things in Diego’s apartment);
chillax there for a couple weeks.
-Cuando tenga ganas… move to Mendoza!
So that’s the future ahead… Really excited, let’s see how it plays out :)
No comments:
Post a Comment