Mi Buenos Aires Querido.... te extraño.

It's been less than two weeks since I've been home in Spokane now and I'm feeling STRONG homesickness for Argentina. Stronger than the homesickness I felt for Spokane when I was in Argentina.

I'm trying to think of anyway to get back to Argentina within the coming months, hopefully by the end of next March at the latest. My lifestyle and group of friends was so different down there, I grew accustomed and fell in love with this new way of life. Its been hard for me to re-adjust, the only thing that would be hard to leave behind again would be my family, but I'd like to even study another semester down there.

My friends for the most part here don't understand the experience I've had, and I feel awkward and like they don't care when I bring up my experiences (which is constant!). Further more I feel like I've grown so far apart from my friends here, that we have so little in common. My group of friends in Argentina speak more than one language, have travel experience, and actually read my blog sometimes. (haha sad but true!). I feel like I'm back in Spokane stuck in a rut. I hope to be able to leave by the time I graduate (which, God-willing, should be at the end of March!)


I suppose this whole identity crisis and "homesickness" is all apart of the re-adjustment period. However; it sucks big time!

¡Bienvenido a casa Tommy!

Yesterday I arrived back in Spokane, WA after having been delayed two days leaving Buenos Aires because of the ashes in the air from the Chilean Volcano.

Walking through the security gates at Ezeiza (the international airport in BsAs), I felt my stomach and heart drop. I realized just then that I was walking away from a place that I'd grown to consider my home for the last almost 5 months. I would be leaving people behind, new friends, a routine and a lifestyle I'd become acustomed to, and a culture that I love.

On the flight to Atlanta, the flight attendants would try speaking to me in Spanish at first, and the man that worked in US customs, a man of Cuban descent, only spoke Spanish to me the whole time asking me the questions about my luggage thinking I was from Argentina, I feel like this was a sign that I pretty much adopted the place as my own! haha

While waiting in the airports (Salt Lake and Atlanta) I started to have this feeling of culture shock to my own culture. People would bump into me and I'd naturally respond with: "ay perdón" as well as hearing more English than I had been used to.

Back in Spokane it was different as well, driving again, seeing my friends, and the money situation. I paid with a $50 bill when I went out for Ice Cream with a friend and I asked the cashier if she could make change first. (She looked at me with a "duh of course" look). I'm so used to being asked for smaller bills or being told they couldn't make change for that. I kind of missed it in a way.

It's deffinately going to be a re-adjustment period back to life in good ol' Spokane.
But now I have this connection to another part of the world because of an experience that I would trade for anything!

¿Qué voy a extrañar Argentina?

What am I going to miss about Argentina??


So my time is wrapping up down here in Argentina, and I must say there are things that I will miss a lot.

1. Milka Chocolate. It is a GERMAN brand of chocolate like Hershey's, except 100x better than Hershey's chocolate (which they don't even have down here). I find myself buying a chocolate bar almost everyday.

2. THE BEEF. I mean it is Argentina. I don't even need to put a picture... look at my entry from Uruguay. 

3. Facturas! These amazing little pastries usually filled with dulce de leche and powdered sugar. They're addicting.

4. Dulce de Leche. 

5. Empanadas. These fun filled bread pockets have been one too many meals for me down here. And I still love them. 

6. Choripan. Chorizo between some french bread. Simple, easy, cheap, and delicious. 

7. The Political atmosphere, I love how EVERYONE has an opinion, and how people are constantly standing up for their rights and beliefs (even if I don't agree with all of them). They definately exercise their right to protest here, and they always speak their mind.

8. The Night Life. I'm not one to go out and party much, however the night life here is incredible. You can find anytype of bar or club that is playing any type of music, and they're all open until 6 am. 

9. The Cafe Culture. 

10. The lack of political correctness. The US idea of avoiding specific vocabulary or expressing certain points of views as to not offend somebody doesn't really exist as much here. In other words, Argentines will tell you like it is, and not make any excuses for it. 

11. The cheap and pretty efficient public transportation. Roughly 30 cents to ride the bus or the Subte (Underground, subway, metro etc..) 

12. The way to greet people (which might get me in trouble in the US now that I'm used to it here). Here people greet eachother, no matter who you are, even if its the first time you meet, with a kiss on the cheek. Even two guys. I think this is a much more personal way to greet someone, its friendlier. Sometimes in the US we just stand there and say hi, and its so disconnected and impersonal. 

13. The traveling. This country is HUGE (in fact the largest in terms of geographic size in the Spanish speaking world). It has such a variety of landscapes and things to see with in its borders. Tropical jungles, deserts, snow capped mountains, beaches and ocean coast lines, and even graciers, 

14. The Amazing people I've met from all over the world, Argentina, and different parts of the US and that I am now able to call friends! 

I will miss Argentina, very much so. 

Cataratas y Coatíes.

So me and Jessi hopped on a bus on Wednesday and took off for Argentina's Northeastern Litoral to the tiny city of Puerto Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina. After arriving at 6pm, it was dark out already so the first night we spent in the hostel, resting up for a day at the Iguazu national park, a jungle park where you can visit some of the world's biggest waterfalls.

The Park was amazing, there were paths that took you above and below the waterfalls and through the jungle, and it was beautiful and a nice 70 some degrees, (a great change from Buenos Aires that hasn't hit temperatures above the mid 50s for a while now).

While walking the paths you'd come accross these little Racoon-monkey like creatures called Coaties. They were everywhere trying to go through people's food and the garbage cans. Unfortunately we didn't see any monkeys :(

And the grand finale of the day at the park was going to the Garganta del Diablo falls, or the Devil's throat. They're the biggest falls in the park and to get to them you have to walk on a 1100 meter metal bridge over the river leading to the falls, but it is well worth it. It is a complete hypnotic site, the amount of water falling is incredible and the power of the falls. 

The next day, we had a full day before getting on the bus to head back to Buenos Aires, so we walked down to the Hito de las 3 fronteras. Which is a monument site on which you can look over where the Paraná and the Uruguay rivers meet and on the left, you can look at Paraguay (and even see the skyline of Ciudad del Este Paraguay in the distance) and on the right you can look over at Brazil. And on each side you can see giant markers painted with the colors of their flags. 

In this picture, I'm obviously sitting in Argentina, on the right of me, that is Brazil, and on the left that is Paraguay. 

Now its back to Baires to enjoy my last 1 and a half or so and my last weekend in the city before I head home! OOH and of course final exams haha.

Northern Argentine Road Trip!

Hi all,
So I just got home from Northern Argentina. On Thursday we (Me, Roberto, Laurin, Maryly, and Anna) flew from Buenos Aires to the city of Salta in the province of Salta in Northern Argentina. We had rented a car beforehand and it was waiting for us at the tiny Salta airport.
It was only about 9:30 in the morning when we got to the Hotel so we dropped our stuff off and went to explore.
We drove for hours through some of the most beautiful mountain/desert scenery.
In Northern Argentina there is a strong indigenous community, and you can really tell the difference of the people of Buenos Aires and their European influence and the peoples of Northern Argentina with a stronger Native culture. This area used to be part of the Incan Empire that extended from the bottom of Colombia, through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and this part of Argentina, a lot of the people even speak Quechua in some of the smaller pueblos we visited.
We spent the next 4 days exploring this beautiful landscape in our little white Chevy Corsa from South of the city of Salta, to back up north to the neighboring province of Jujuy which borders Bolivia to the north and to the west Chile.

In Jujuy we saw some of the coolest landscapes and wild llamas!. We travelled from Salta to a town, way high up in the mountains called San Antonia de los Cobres, where the temperature was below freezing and the mountains were snow capped. 

After leaving San Antonio de los Cobres (where I purchased a llama hat!) we made our way to Salinas Grandes, which are large salt flats left behind from a super - salt lake that once was there. It creates this crazy effect and is great for taking amazing and trippy pictures. 

And then once in Jujuy we got to see the Quebrada de Humahuaca. A beautiful scenery of mountains of 7 different colors! It was literally awe-inspiring. At one point all 5 of us in the car turned the corner and saw the mountains and all said in unison "WOW."  Truely incredible experience. 

Now back in Buenos Aires, I'm getting ready for one last excursion before my return to good-old Spokane. In a week and a half I'm off to Iguazu, Argentina with Jessica!

Interesting observations and facts about Buenos Aires/Argentina in general.

¿¡Los hombres se saludan con un beso!?
Yes, as is custom in most Latin American and European countries, when two girls, or a guy and a girl greet eachother, either being friends, or even meeting for the first time they kiss eachother on the cheek. Well one interesting observation is that here in Argentina, even two guys practice this custom, something that doesn't happen in the rest of Machista-minded Latin America. Maybe this could be an Italian thing carried over? I don't know. Or maybe its just that they're more open-minded here in Argentina because such things as Gay marriage is legal, and Marijuana use is pretty highly tolerated.

El uso de celulares prohibido en los bancos...
This was something I wasn't aware of when I got here. But cell phone usage is prohibited inside of a bank. I was told this when I was texting on my cell phone in line for the ATM one day. After talking about it with an Argentine woman, she told me that the excuse is that it interferes with the alarm system of the banks, but in reality its to prevent robberies, by someone inside the bank on a cell phone giving information about the location of workers and how much money people are coming out of the bank with and where they have it.

La birome, las huellas digitales, las transfusión sanguínea, y soda...
Thats right, the ball-point pen was invented and comes from right here in Argentina, also the throw-away syringe, soda water, and the science behind the blood transfusion and finger prints brought to the world all thanks to Argentina.

Alpargatas TOMS®
So many people don't know this, but the popular shoe design that TOMS® uses is based off of a popular type of shoe here in Argentina called Alpargatas, these shoes tend to be very inexpensive ($5USD at most) which is quite a difference from the $60-some dollar price tag they carry in the USA. Also that is the reason the TOMS® label is the Argentine flag except with the word TOMS replacing what would be the sun on the original flag.

Che, ¿querés comprar una casa? Dale, vení con toda la plata guardada en una camioneta armada..
In Argentina, the idea of a mortgage doesn't exist, and on top of that, after the 2001 economic crisis in this country, banks are trustworthy anways. So how do you buy things like a house? Well, simple really. You bring all of the money, in cash descretely in a suit case or in an armored vehicle.

Lima-limón...
Lemons and limes... In Spanish the word limón can refer to both lemons and limes and to distinguish you might specifiy by saying limón verde (green, to specify that you're talking about a lime) or limón amarillo (yellow, to specify lemon). Although they seem to be confused many times as to which should go where. For example, when purchasing a "Margarita" at a Mexican restaurant, it was made with lemon. The thing is limes aren't common to come across here, you don't find them at the supermarkets, or the fruit stands. Only some places have them that import them from places like Chile or Brazil, giving drinks and some foods a different taste than expected.

Pica poquito.
Contrary to popular belief in the US, Latin American food isn't all just like Mexican food. In fact, Mexican food isn't common to come across here either. In a city of 16 million inhabitants, there are a total of about 4 Mexican restaurants, all varying on taste and flavor and nothing close to being authentic. Spicey food is even less common, and their definition of "spicy" would be our definition of "seasoned." The food tends to be bland and usually includes some sort of Pasta (there's that Italian influence), bread, beef (of course, this is Argentina). But tortillas, beans, rice, and spice aren't common place at an Argentine dinner table. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're probably getting a lot more spice back in the USA than I am down here in South America. Enjoy, because I miss it!!

Leche embolsada...
Its common place in the US to run to the grocery store for a carton or gallon of milk. Not so much here, in fact, milk doesn't come in Cartons nor in Gallon containers. How does it come?? In bags. Yes big bags of milk. You purchase the bag of milk and then you must also have some sort of holder for the bag so that once you cut the corner of the bag to pour the milk, it doesn't spill all over your fridge. Another interesting observation about milk is that it can also be bought in boxes. Yes boxes. And its not refrigerated until you open the box. I don't trust this, and I suspect that its not even real milk, but who knows?


This is all I had in mind for this post, but there will probably be a part 2 to this, I'm always coming across something new and interesting.

Midterms...

Sorry for the lack of updates folks, since I've been back from Uruguay, I haven't had much time.
And right now we're in Midterm week 2.

Thursday was 5 de mayo, and even though this isn't Mexico, there was some celebrations going on. So we went to one put on by a company called "Pub Crawl BA." It was a Gringo filled event, packed wall to wall, so we left early and went to a Boliche which is the local word for night club. They had no idea what 5 de mayo was or how it was supposed to be celebrated, haha but we had fun  anyways.

Yesterday was Mother's day back in the US of A (they celebrate mother's day here at the end of October), which was somewhat difficult to be away from home at that time. Homesickness has been tough this week with the stress of Midterm exams and Mother's day, but I'm getting better. I know that I now only have less than 7 weeks, or 45 days until I arrive home.

I will try and put up a better update soon, I just wanted to check in after a long absence.

Chau chau.