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