Easter & the following week

Easter Sunday April 8^th- Day 39

Today I didn’t get up too early. My host parents went to church early and left me to sleep. It was definitely strange not to go to church on Easter, but I wasn’t necessarily invited to church with my host parents so I just stuck it out at home. Shortly after noon, we headed to the home of my host parents’ oldest son, Ricky. All three kids & their spouses, the five grandkids, my host dad’s cousin and her granddaughter, my host parents, and I were at the Easter asado. An asado is typically was Argentines do when they get together for any reason and it’s more or less a grill out, but they don’t do hamburgers. We started off with a lettuce salad and a potato salad and then the meat started coming off the parilla (grill). At Ricky’s house the parilla is on the roof; they live in a single family home further outside the city center and not in an apartment, but they are still crammed on the blocks like everywhere else with no yards to speak of. The first things off the grill were chorizo (basically sausage, I like it), morcilla (blood sausage, mushier and made with more blood, I do NOT like it), and chinchulines (small intestine, it’s not horrible, but not that great either). Shortly after the riñon (kidney, couldn’t tell you what it tastes like because I couldn’t get past the texture) and molleja (thymus or pancreas, actually good, I would eat it again) came out. After all these achuras (organ meats) came the actual asado meats like ribs and smaller pieces of steak pretty much, things we would eat in the US. My host dad told me I could be a criollo (creole/native) or porteño (native to Buenos Aires) judging by what I liked and that I even tried everything. There were also two cake type dishes for dessert later on, we were there for a good amount of time while everyone was just chatting and the kids were playing. Other than eating different food, the biggest difference between here and the US is that here they talk very loudly! All the siblings were talking over top of each other and at the same time. Today I had the hardest time hearing and understanding people because there were so many conversations and everyone was talking loud and fast, I couldn’t really pick up as much as usual so I was pretty quiet, but it was still interesting to be there and see what it was like. My host mom and the cousin of my host dad sat on either side of my and had their own conversation a little slower so I could keep up and understand something for the afternoon. After we got home I went straight to the park to meet a couple Simpson students and a couple ambassadors for mate in the park near my house for an hour or so and then I came home. I was pretty tired after trying to keep up with the Spanish all day so I didn’t do a whole lot after that, just made sure all my homework for Monday was finished.

Monday April 9- Day 40

Going back to school today was kind of a bummer after four days off and getting on the internet was absolute torture. Everyone on Facebook was talking about eating all their Easter candy and I was pretty jealous. They have some Easter candy here, mostly just chocolate, so it’s not at all the same. I sent an e-mail to my mom telling her to go find some and hide it away until I’m home, who knew I’d end up missing Easter candy?! I hung out in the café for a while after class in the morning to get caught up on a few emails and some homework and things and then a few of us were meeting to talk about our next trip. After I went to get some empanadas with two other students and then walked home. I hung out at my house for the afternoon and met Maddie later to go check out a gym we want to join because it is ridiculously cheap and later my host parents and I had pasta for dinner. After dinner, I walked with Nathan, the lone boy in our Simpson group, to the other end of the central district to meet a small group for ice cream. We stayed kind of late and I walked part way home with the group afterwards and then grabbed a taxi because I have early class the next morning and really wanted to get to bed!

Day 41- Tuesday April 10

Classes went by decently fast today, which for history is kind of surprising. After class, Maddie, Susan, Annaleah, and I went to a travel agent and booked flights to the end of the world! We are headed to Ushuaia on our next long weekend. Ushuaia is considered the southernmost city in the world and is where people go to Antarctica from. It’s located in Tierra del Fuego province, which is also the only island province in Argentina. We’re really excited to go, but I feel like it’s going to be a bit chilly! There are four other Simpson students going the same weekend as well, but they have different flights and agendas. We got a lot of information on what to do and names of good guides and places from our Simpson professor here, as she has already visited Ushuaia since we’ve been here. After that I came home and took a nice long nap before dinner. Ricky and his two sons, Rickito and Ramiro were here for mileanesa and mashed potatoes tonight. His wife is studying to be a teacher or professor in addition to working right now so they come over for dinner about once a week when she needs to study and get things done. After that I headed off to the English class for a while at night.

Day 42- Wednesday April 11

Before class today I took some clothes to the lavanderia and then walked to UCEL. I had two classes and then I stayed in the café to use the wifi because we needed to be back to meet at the ice cream store across from UCEL two hours after class anyway. Jay, our director of international relations at Simpson, arrived in Rosario today and so we all met him for ice cream and to talk. He brought us some Easter candy and he had us all won over with M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles, and Starburst, it was a great surprise as far as we were concerned. I gave myself a small stomachache eating that candy right after a bunch of ice cream and I stashed the rest of my candy away for the rest of the week. Eventually I walked home with a couple of the students that live close to me and turned in for the night. Tonight’s dinner was baked eggplant with cheese and tomato slices and one half was “a caballo” meaning it has a fried egg on it, this is really common option to have on a variety of foods and literally translates more or less to “on a horse” because the egg on top is like sitting on a horse. It wasn’t too bad, but I can’t say that it was my favorite meal.

Thursday April 12- Day 43

Susan and I had our public health class this morning. Our regular professor is apparently in Barcelona for a bit so we had a different prof today and for two more weeks and we want to keep her for the rest of the time! She was a much better professor and we both felt like we learned more today than in all the other classes with the regular prof. This professor also spoke loudly unlike our regular prof and that made a huge difference for me to actually comprehend and apply the concepts instead of sitting in class just straining to hear. After we went and got coffee and factures (assortment of pastries, I will miss these back home!) in the UCEL café and just chatted for about an hour before we walked home. Our class is from 8-9:30am so we are always up and going on Thursdays. We’d been talking about school stuff and while I was talking about my schedule for next year I actually realized something that I hadn’t before to fit everything in better next year so the first thing I did when I got back to my house was get on the Simpson website and rearrange a little bit so I am pretty happy with that, not so much with the fact I have 8am classes Monday-Friday in the fall. Ughhhh. After that I got a bunch of homework and journaling for class done and had a quick interview on Skype for a position in Greek Life in the fall. We had a spinach tarta and salad for dinner and I had a banana with a little dulce de leche for dessert and then I was off to UCEL for the English class. After class, we met some of the ambassadors to hang out and give them money because they are getting tickets for us to go to a soccer game here in Rosario this weekend. I am really excited to experience a game here, soccer is insanely popular!

Friday April 13, 2012- Day 44

I got up early for my two classes today and afterwards Susan, Maddie, Caitlyn, and I went out for lunch together. We decided to try something new so we went to a restaurant that I see all the time because it’s across from my bus stop called Club de la Mileanesa. We heard they had a lot of different types of mileanesa and that it was good, so we were up to try it, especially because lunch menus are always cheaper. I finally got to try a chicken mileanesa, at my house it’s always beef. Mileanesa is basically meat cooked like a chicken fried steak, but better, not high school cafeteria style. It came with a side and I got one where you get some mashed potatoes and some mashed pumpkin. It was SO good. I miss eating sweet potatoes, and pumpkin has a similar taste. We’ve had a little bit of pumpkin at my house, but not a lot. The lunch also came with dessert or fruit salad or coffee and the drink. We really love the lunch specials when we feel like going out to eat! It had been a dreary day and as we were leaving it started to rain so that solidified my decision to take the bus home. After a little nap and some homework I met Maddie at a café so we could Skype our mothers, respond to emails, and do some homework. I went home for dinner and then Maddie and I met up at the movie theater and saw Espejito, Espejito (Mirror, Mirror) in Spanish. We were happy with how much we understood! There were another group of girls from our group that were meeting there as well so we all ended up watching it together. On my bus ride home I got my taste of Friday the 13^th. I was on the bus for literally two blocks and then the driver stopped and got out to look at something and then came back in to look at the motor and said something was wrong. He asked where I was headed to and told me other buses that would go close to my house, but I was not about to get on a bus I didn’t know that late at night so I said I’d just wait for the next one and just chatted with him while he was waiting for a guy to bring tools and I waited for the next bus. He gave me what I consider a great compliment to start off our conversation. One of the first things he asked was “Sos de Brasil?” (are you from Brazil?). I just laughed and said no, I’m from the United States, but hey, someone thinking I’m from Brazil is a step up from a stupid American! He has a friend that’s studying somewhere in the US right now so we had enough to talk about for a while. The next bus that came was the guy with the tools, so that guy got off with the tools and the bus driver I’d been talking to took me straight to my apartment in the other bus, so it didn’t turn out to be so unlucky that the bus broke.