Pre Mid-Term Update

Wow, I guess it’s been a while since I last updated, huh?  Sorry about that, things have really picked up here academic-wise, I mean, this week brings mid-terms!  Also it’s kind of weird to think that I’m taking mid-terms when everyone else is taking finals. Also it’s a little stressful to think about things I still have to do in the States (like register for a summer class and figure out how that will work and if I’ll be able to keep my job at Taco Bell, or how that all will go down. Also, as it turns out, I’m registered for a class next semester that I really shouldn’t be registered for.  I mean, I was the one who chose it, but it’s a night class on Wednesdays from 6:00-9:00. Silly me wasn’t thinking about youth group (which is exactly over that time) and so I’ll change that class, but I can’t do it until the semester starts in the fall.  But it’s ok, it was a class I wasn’t really too pumped about anyways, it was just one that I needed to take eventually.

Anyways, I’ve kind of been sick the past couple of days, I think it’s just the stomach flu.  It’s nothing too serious, and I’ve been feeling better after drinking loads of water and getting tons of sleep…I have however, lost two pounds in two days, not exactly the way I want to lose weight…

I can’t really write for too long because I have lots (and lots and lots) of studying to do.  But I did want to give you a small update.  I guess overall things are still going well here, oh! I don’t know if I ever told you, but I’m in the IES “choir”…it’s in quotation marks because there are 7 of us.  But it’s nice, we meet every Wednesday night for a little over an hour and we sounds pretty good, if I do say so myself…which I do.  Also, after this week of mid-terms come Spring Break (which is actually Fall Break here, but everyone refers to it as Spring break…because that’s what it feels like it should be) and that means a week of exploring Buenos Aires with Annalise!  That should be fun and I’m really looking forward to it J  We have a growing list of things to do, and I will be sure to take my camera with me (and by camera I mean my DS with my SD card because the battery will last much longer and it works!  Most of the pictures I have uploaded to Facebook were taken with my DS, so I’m pretty excited to have it! (P.S. Thanks again TJ!))  It should be pretty awesome.  Anyways, studying now, more updates later.

Chau,

Kiki

P.S. Any [more] prayers you could send this way would be greatly appreciated, for health, for focus, and did I mention health?  Thank you all so much!

Mendoza (Final Part)

Dear Friends and Family,

So super sorry for the delayed post.

Love,

Kiki

Seriously though, I am sorry; I have been kind of swamped with homework for the past couple of days though (Wednesday was craaaaaazy), so here is the rest of my Mendoza weekend.

·         We went zip-lining at a gorgeous location, it was lots of fun (and lots of hiking!)

·         For dinner, we decided to make our own food and I was able to enjoy some of Annalise’s great cooking once again (wooo!)

·         Sunday morning brought a Catholic Easter service and later, a game of Settlers of Catan

·         I highly recommend the movie “Pride and Glory”

·         This week has been crazy busy with lots of homework in all my classes

·         Titanic in 3D tonight!!! (Woooooooo!)

Saturday: Zip-lining. Oh yeah.  Now, you see, we got back late the night before, and so when we asked the guy at the front desk what time we had to leave for the zip-lining, he definitely said 9, but we registered 9:30 in our minds.  So I didn’t set an alarm for myself because I knew that someone else would, and I would just wake up with everyone else.  Well, the alarm went off at 9…and the people that were going to take us to zip-lining were already there waiting for us…oops.  So what ended up happening is that they left to go pick up some other people first, and then came back to pick us up.  This was good because then we could all get dressed and eat some breakfast and shower (for those of us that wanted/needed to).  So the second time they came around, we were ready to go.  This time it was not a group of taxis, but instead a 15 passenger van.  Oh yeah.  I can’t say exactly how long of a drive it was (I don’t really remember), but I feel like it was between 30 and 45 minutes.  Also, it was gorgeous.  I have decided that I love seeing mountains, just, whenever.  Also, I decided that I want to spend at least some part of my life living in Mendoza because it is gorgeous.  But back to the story, we finally get to this activity center (essentially) and hop out.

Now, the reason I call it an activity center is because it was not just for zip-liners, there were guides for hiking, white water rafting, climbing, repelling, and other outdoor things.  This was the first and only time we saw other IES students during our trip, and they ended up going zip-lining with us, and so that was pretty cool, but we didn’t really talk with them because they were a couple groups behind us (what I mean is that the large group of zip-liners that went at the same time as us was made up of several smaller parties, and we all had to stick with our same groups, and their group was a couple after ours). 

So, this was my first time zip-lining, and Oh. Em. Gee. It is so much fun.  We went on 7 lines, and two of them were over the lake.  Not only was the view gorgeous, but it was also really exciting to be suspended so high above everything, but rushing by it so quickly.  The only thing about zip-lining is...well, it’s gravity-driven.  This means you need to hike up…and up, and up, in order to get to a place that’s high enough for you to be able to sail down in one go.  Now, this wasn’t so bad for the first 6.  But the 6^th line left us down pretty far (and we were on the other side of the lake at this point) and so we had to HIKE up.  Like way up. 

At first I didn’t know where we were going, but then I looked up and saw high, high above us, our destination.  It was kind of daunting.  But it was so worth it.  When you’re flying over the perfectly blue water, with purpley-grey mountains on either side of you…it’s not really a sight you can forget—and I never want to!  And the water, I just need to take a second to talk about it.  This water, it was as if somebody had poured tons and tons of blue-green paint into it.  It was so stinking blue.  And it stood out so much!  All around it were these dingy (in comparison) looking mountains, with very muted colors, and then BAM, there’s the water.  It was crazy.  I’m sure there are some picture on facebook of it…ok, talk about water is done.

Unfortunately after that 7^th line, our day was done.  Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly awesome, but it was just so short.  We finished at like, 1:15, but were told that we couldn’t leave until 3 because that was when the next bus left.  We ended up being able to leave by 2:45, but for that almost two hours we were just chilling and talking.  Once we did get on the bus, we started playing some guessing-like games.  You know, the ones where only one person knows the “key” and everyone else has to figure out the rules.  Like “I’m going to a picnic and bringing cantaloupe” which is ok for someone named Christina, but Ashley needs to bring artichoke, or apples, or something else with an “a”—and everyone has to figure out what the “rule” is.  Well we played this one called Snaps.  Now, this game…it sucks.  Well, at least while you don’t know the rule.  It’s super tricky to figure out (well, I may be a little biased as I was the last person to get it…and even then it was pretty much spoon fed to me).  I’ll have to teach it to you the next time I see you.  But you’ll have to bring it up because I don’t know who actually is consistently reading this…

Anyways, the zip-lining was super super fun, and after we got back we were thinking about what to do for dinner.  What we ended up doing was going to the store to buy some things and so we ended up grouping off by food preference.  Having known Annalise’s great cooking abilities based off of living with her previously, I knew I wanted to be in her group, whatever it ended up being.  She ended up cooking for herself, Drew, and me and she made steak, mashed potatoes and green beans.  It was all really good.  We brought out the wine we had bought the previous day and we all enjoyed our dinner, sitting around, talking and laughing, it was pretty awesome.  The night ended with a viewing of Zoolander—I had never seen it before (go figure).  It was actually surprisingly good; I didn’t get to hear all of it though because the lobby got a little loud at points, but I would watch it again to get the whole thing.  Also the disk was a little skippy, so there were some parts that got cut out of it too.

All in all, it was a great day spent with great people, and eating great food.  And because Sunday was relatively uneventful, and because I am a little behind, I’ll just talk about that day too.  On Sunday morning (seeing as how it was Easter and all) several of us went to a Catholic service at a church we found not too far away.  It was nice, but I was a little but tired and not super willing to translate everything in my head, and so I may have zoned out a little bit…oops.  But after the service, we met up with the people who didn’t go and we started looking for an ATM so people could withdraw money to pay for the hostel.  Now, Annalise and I had gone out on Friday to withdraw some money and so we were set…everyone else was a different story.  Yes, we were trying to find an ATM on Easter Sunday.  They had tried a few places while we were at church, but all of the ATMs were out of money (that happens here…often).  So what we ended up doing was going to a casino.  Yes, Easter morning we walked into a casino to use their ATM.  I still don’t know how to feel about that…

After withdrawing money, we went out to eat and then headed back to the hostel.  After everyone had paid, we still had about 2.5 hours before our bus.  So someone broke out the Catan.  That’s right, Settlers of Catan.  It was a bit of an intense game, Annalise and I were on a team, but the Emily-Katie team took home the win (Katie, that is the other girl’s name).  We ended right on time, though, which was sweet.  We packed up the game, picked up our stuff, and headed out.  There were no giant storms today and nothing to delay the bus, so we left pretty much right on time.  The rest of the day was spent on the bus…and nothing too interesting happened.  Annalise and I were trying to watch the featured film, “Pride and Glory” which was really, really good (I highly recommend it), but it was a little hard to hear and it also kept skipping…but it was still really good.  It’s a movie about cops, and kind of the fight between corruption and…honesty I guess.  It’s just…really intriguing and I recommend it…still.

Monday morning we got in, and I was had about 5 hours before class, so I was able to head home and relax a bit.  I wish I had done more homework in that time, though, because this week was super crazy with homework!  Oof, I’m just glad it’s over…except there are midterms in two weeks…meh, not looking forward to that either…But I am looking forward to tonight! Titanic 3D with Annalise!! Wooooooo! (I’m pumped).  So I’m going to go and get ready for that, but I hope you enjoyed the update!

Chau,

Kiki

Mendoza (part 3: Friday)

Ok, so Friday.  Friday was wine-tour-on-bikes day.

·         We left the hostel at 9:30am  to start our tour (and the “we” has expanded to the original 7 as well as three new friends,  César, Megan and…another girl whose name I cannot remember right now)

·         We toured four wineries and an olive oil making place, one of the wineries was an organic place, and it was pretty neat.  We also got to taste at least two different wines at each place.  That is a lot of wine.

·         After the tour we hung out at the place we started, ordered some empanadas and talked for a bit before heading back to go to bed.

·         [Note: the bullets are WAY less interesting than the actual posts…they’re really brief…and it makes it sound really boring, it actually was really fun and I had a good time.]

  They picked us up at around 9:30 to take us to the “home base”.  Ok, so the “they” there is the group that runs the tours, and the reason they were able to pick us up is because they are a program through the hostel and so instead of paying the company, the cost for the tour was charged to our account at the hostel and would be added to our total charge.  So they picked us up, and the “us” here is not only the 7 of us from IES, but also César (a guy that Drew and Emily met before the program started while they were in Bariloche, he’s studying in Córdoba this semester (which is another city in Argentina)), and two of Emily’s other friends Megan and her friend whose name I still can’t remember… (who are studying in Santiago, Chile this semester).  So anyways, we split up into 3 taxis (pre-paid) and headed over to their…base?  I mean, they had a little shack in the middle of a parking lot, next to an old winery which is now more of a museum.  So I don’t really know what to call it. 

Needless to say, that museum-winery was our first stop and we learned about some history of that particular winery as well as a bit about the process of how they made wine.  One of the things we got to do was actually crawl inside one of the cement holding “rooms” for the wine (it was empty of course…) and it was ginormous.  It was a giant room, made of cement, to hold wine.  The ten of us, as well as the family of 5 that was on the tour with us were all able to easily fit with plenty of room to spare.  Also, if you even whispered it echoed around for about 15 seconds.  It was crazy cool.  I’m sure there are pictures somewhere…and as soon as I find them…I’ll think about posting them to my blog but probably never actually get around to it…I’m just going off of patterns here, though…

After getting a tour of the facilities, we were able to taste 3 different wines.  Of course they were all great.  I remember there was a dessert wine we tasted, which smelled a little like molasses, but tasted like honey.  It was very sweet, and I kind of liked it, but not right after tasting two red wines that were more…wine-y.  Right next to the counter that had the wines and glasses was a little girl—I think she was the tour guide’s daughter—who was like, 7 years old, and she was selling friendship bracelets for 5 pesos and necklaces for 2 pesos.  That little girl made bank off of us.  She actually ran out and had to special make a bracelet for César.  I ended up buying a necklace (one of the only things left by the time I realized I’d look like a total jerk if I didn’t buy something) and it’s now one of my favorite pieces of jewelry I have.

After hanging out for a bit and tasting wines, it was time to actually start the bike part of the bike tour.  So we all picked our bikes, adjusted our seats, and went on our merry ways.  Because the story is pretty much the same for every single wine place we went to (a tour of the facility, learning about the process of making wine, tasting wine, and hanging out for a bit in case anyone wanted to buy a bottle) I’ll spare you the super repetitive story and just highlight some cool things.

 

The second place we went was a much more modern winery and so instead of so many old wooden barrels (of which they still had some) there were many more modern steel containers in which they held their wine.  We also ran into another IES student and her dad here and so that was kind of cool.  Here we were able to try one of their champagnes (Annalise has all the names written down…but I don’t, so it shall remain nameless for now) and it was so good.  Like, SO good. 

After that we went back to the “base” where normally the tours go to an empanada shop down the street, but because it was Good Friday, they were closed.  This was a bummer because we were all getting really hungry…also we were needing to get some food in our bodies before we drank some more wine…some of us needed this more than others.  The good thing was that we ended up getting the better deal.  At the next vineyard we were going to, there was also a restaurant, and so we were going to eat there, the only thing was that it was 6 kilometers away.  It wasn’t too terrible, and I mean, it was a great way to work up an appetite!

This particular vineyard was an organic vineyard.  And thus, all our food was organic as well; also the restaurant was outdoors, practically in the fields, and golly it was pretty!  At the other places, we didn’t get to see any of the fields, but here they went on almost as far as the eye could see.  So after hanging out and eating a three course lunch, we got a tour of their winery and a lesson on how much better organic is than regular.  This was the only place where any of us bought wine, and we ended up getting 3 bottles to share at some later date (spoiler alert: it ended up being Saturday). 

After the organic place, we went to one last stop, and this one was not a winery, but an olive oil manufacturing place.  Apparently, wine and olive oil are the two main exports of Mendoza. Who knew?  It was really cool to see how the olive oil was made (and this tour was MUCH shorter than the others), and it was really delicious to taste the oil on some bread.  However, at the end of this tour, people were pretty much ready to head back and chill.  At this point, it was probably around 6:30 pm or so (yeah, super long day!) and so we headed back to the “base” and there we tried some patero wine, which was homemade…which means it was made by people actually stepping on the grapes to crush them.  For those of you who don’t speak Spanish (or just didn’t make the connection) pata is “foot” and so, well, I'm sure you can see the connection...

All of us were incredibly hungry at this point, and someone suggested ordering some empanadas to be delivered; after debating about whether or not that would be dinner or just a snack, we decided it would be dinner, got a count of how many empanadas each person wanted, and placed an order.  I believe the order was placed around 8:00 or so, and they didn’t get there until like, 9:00.  We spent a couple hours just talking and relaxing, eating empanadas, drinking wine and beer (they brought out beer as well…) and at around 9:30 we started to call for taxis to start picking us up.  We left in waves…waves that were dictated by the arrival of taxis, and the night came to a peaceful end.

Pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.  I thought it might be a good idea to sleep as much as possible, seeing as how the activities planned for the next day was, wait for it, zip-lining.  Oh yeah.  But, that is the next day, and thus the next post. 

Until tomorrow,

Kiki

Mendoza (part 2...which is really a more detailed part one)

So I was able to spend Easter weekend in the city of Mendoza with 6 of my friends (and I also made 3 more!).  It was awesome.  Of course, there is a lot (a LOT) to say, and so I am going to break it up day by day (each day being another post).  I feel that this way it won’t get too overwhelming to read…even though the updates will probably be coming one day after the next.  Also, I know that I already touched on a lot of things in my last post, but this one will be a bit more detailed.

 So anyways, here is the overview:

·         There are 7 of us sharing a room: Annalise, Jordan (guy), Drew, Emily, Olivia, Katie, and myself. 

·         After claiming beds and taking showers, we watched Men in Black (the first time for me) because we didn’t really have plans until dinner.

·         We (minus Drew and Emily who were eating with Drew’s parents who were in town) enjoyed wine and tapas (which you heard about in the last post)

·         It was pretty much a great first day of vacations.

·         More to come in the following posts, which will probably be spaced out to be one update every day.

The first day there was Thursday, we left Wednesday night (a little delayed due to the storm) and so we got in around noon.  Once we made it to the hostel, beds were chosen (three sets of bunk beds and an extra mattress for the 7^th…which ended up being Jordan) and the desire to shower was very strong.  So we got settled in, there were 6 “lockers” (more like very large cupboards, but we put locks on them) and so people unpacked and started getting in line for showers.  There were three bathrooms in the hostel, but 4 showers…yes, one bathroom had two showers.  However, those two showers were connected with nothing to separate them…so for all intents and purposes, there were three showers, and we were not the only ones using them.  Point is: it took a while for all of us to shower.  Also, before I forget, these are the people that make up the “we” I keep referring to: Annalise, Olivia and Katie (housemates), Jordan (guy), Drew and Emily (I guess they’re an almost-couple?), and myself. 

Well, Drew’s parents were in town and so he and Emily were going to go out for dinner with them, while we were kind of left to choose our own thing.  The original plan was to do a wine tasting at around 5 and then go to dinner (I think that’s what it was) but then we caught wind of a place that had wine and tapas for just 15 pesos more…so that’s what we did.  Of course, that didn’t start until 9, so we had some time to kill.  What we ended up doing was watching Men in Black. Good choice? I think so.  Also, I’m pretty sure that was the first time I’d seen it…I know, I know, ‘how can that be? It’s such a classic!’ well…now I’ve seen it…does that count for anything?

We (minus Drew and Emily who were at dinner with his parents) ended up sitting outside (and feeling kind of underdressed in jeans and flip flops) and the way it worked was that there were two wines they were showcasing that night, and so we got to try one glass of each, and then enjoy to our stomach’s content the tapas that were being brought out.  I won’t go into too much detail about that part of the night (because looking back on my last post I realize I was about to repeat myself pretty much verbatim…without actually trying.

When we got back, it was about 11 or so and I was pretty exhausted and so I pretty much just went to bed.  I heard the next day that people went out for ice cream afterwards, but I’m ok with missing that because we had to be ready to go by 9:30 the next day to go on a bike tour, and so maximum sleep was definitely a high priority for me.

All in all it was a good day, definitely a good start to our vacation.  The only thing is that we closed the window before going to bed.  Also, two of Emily’s friends crashed with us (with all of our permission of course,) and so they just slept on the floor with these backpacking mats they had…like hard core spending-nights-outside hiking sleeping mats…yeah.  So there were 9 of us in one room…with the window closed.  Point is: it got SUPER hot at night.  I ended up waking up at like 6:30 because I was so hot, and I couldn’t get back to sleep…so I just started getting ready.  I had to be super quiet, so once I was done showering and getting dressed, I decided not to go back into the room and so that was when my last blog update happened.  I also sat outside for a bit because it was just too stinking hot in the room—it was quite cool outside and I enjoyed it a lot.  But this is getting into the next day!  I really am trying not to put too much in one post!

So that was pretty much my first full day in Mendoza, a pretty great one, if you ask me…but that wasn’t even the best part :P I guess you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow for the next part!

Chau,

Kiki

My Weekend in Mendoza (part 1)

Hey all! This update is brought to you from Mendoza! AKA Wine Country! Woooooo!

And before I get started, I have had some feedback about posts being too long.  So I have decided to do some bullet points about the main ideas before the rest of the post so that way if you´re in a hurry, or just dno´t feel like doing a reading marathon, you don´t have to, but you can still know what´s going on.  Also, I know this post is relatively (really) short, but that´s ok, I´ll do it anyway.

• Yesterday a group of friends and I bussed it Mendoza (famous for its wine and empanadas) and it took 15 hours.
• Yesterday for dinner we had wine and tapas, and it was all wonderful and delicious.
• Today we´re going on a bike tour of some vineyards and we´ll get to taste many different wines. (Yay!)

We got in yesterday after a 15 hour bus ride.  Yeah, it wasn´t supposed to be that long, but it starting raining in that torrential downpour way that is so common for Argentina and our bus was delayed...and then once we were finally on the bus it took a while to really get going because some trees got hit by lighting and they fell into the road (no one was hurt from what I could tell...just annoyed I´m sure).  The trip wasn´t too bad once we really got going though, they had food and movies for us to watch.  Also I was able to just think and write on the bus and I really enjoyed having time to process my thoughts for a while.

So also yesterday, we went out for wine and tapas for dinner.  It was 80 pesos for two glasses of wine (they were showcasing two specific ones so you got to try a glass of each) and then however much food you wanted that came around.  Some of the food items included empanadas, kebobs with two types of red meat, some chicken, and vegetables, beef stew type stuff, and what seemed to be little squares of pizza.  All of it was quite delicious of course.  Also, the wine was FANTASTIC.  Of course, it probably wasn´t a good idea to have my first glass(es) of red wine be in one of the wine capitals of the world, now nothing will ever be as good, I´m sure.  But I got a lesson from Jordan and Annalise on how to drink-to-appreciate the wine, so thanks guys!

Today brings a wine tasting and bike tour.  We will ride our bikes to a few different vineyards and get to taste some wines at each one.  It goes from 9:30am-8:00 pm...so I´m definitely going to get a workout today! Woo!  Well, I think that´s all I have for now, I´m sure by tonight I´ll have a lot more stories to share.

But that´s all (for now) folks!
Chau,
Kiki