La Edad de Pavo

We were sitting around the dinner table the other night and I heard my host dad keep saying something about "pavo" - turkey. I was wondering what he was talking about, and upon seeing my confused look, asked me, "do you know what the 'edad de pavo' is?" I knew that it translated as 'the age of the turkey,' but I didn't know what that meant. He explained that he was at his sister's house, and his nephew is at that age, about 11 years old. It clicked and I realized he was talking about the awkward stage of life! You know, when you were in middle school, had braces, and all the girls were taller than the boys. I just thought that was a funny translation/fun fact. Edad de pavo = awkward stage :)

Every once in a while, I'll be home for lunch time and so I'll cook myself up a little something. My host-grandpa thinks I'm an idiot. I don't know, maybe I've been cooking eggs wrong my whole life or something, but do you guys put oil in the pan before making scrambled eggs? I cracked a few eggs and threw them on the pan, and my grandpa was like, "Que estas haciendo!?" "What are you doing?" He's like no it's going to stick! And I replied stupidly, "Well, I never use oil at home" or something like that, and just explained that I scrape out the pan afterward. A different time I was frying up a burger on the stove, and apparently I was using the wrong utensils because he quickly picked off the pan I was using to swap it with another one, burning his hand in the process. Needless to say, the pan he gave me did work better, but I swear, they use different things here. So now I never like going in to the kitchen to make something because my grandpa is always there, smoking a cigarette by the radio... But don't get me wrong, he's so great and a ton of fun too!

Still continuing with classes, which I hate to say are quite difficult. It's mostly a ton of reading, we're not really graded on much so when we do have something to be graded, ya better work pretty hard. The more pictures of Hope College I see on the internet, the more I miss it, but I'm still having the absolute time of my life here in Argentina, and I'm growing in so many different ways.

Escaping the city for a while is always a blessing. One Sunday a few friends and I took a train from Retiro train station to a city called Tigre. It's on a delta so it has tons of rivers flowing through. A Catamaran ride, Puerto de Frutas, chocolate covered strawberries and cotton candy can really do wonders for a soul :) Two weekends ago of us Flacsitos flew 2.5 hours north to the province of Salta for an excursion. We stayed in a small pueblo called Tilcara which we all like to call llama land. It was really high altitude, and extremely desert-like. The sun was really intense during the day, but dropped down pretty chilly at night. I wouldn't usually describe a desert as pretty, but the mountains that we saw were absolutely breathtaking! There were literally blue, pink, purple, yellow, and green mountains. Then there would be a mountain that had like a whole bunch of colorful stripes! It was really humbling looking at the huge, majestic mountains and thinking about whose powerful hands created those, and decided to make little old me as well. We also got to see Las Salinas, or the big salt flats. It was so weird! A huge, vast, desert of salt right in the mountains. It was really beautiful. Here are just a few pics, I'll post some more to an album soon - enjoy!




So until next time,
Kerri

Keep it Comin

Apologies, the last post is actually from about three weeks ago, but I guess it went away for a little while? Anyways, lots has been going on since I last wrote. This past Wednesday marked the day exactly 6 weeks since I left the great US, that's the longest I've ever been away from home! Like I've said before, I really can't believe how quickly it's going. It might slow down a little bit more now that I've been getting into a routine. Things are going to get rough with all the literature being piled up onto my back, on top of the constant thought process from English to Spanish. I hope that soon I won't have to be translating in my head as much and the words will just flow... that might take a while though :)

When I'm not in class I find that I usually occupy my time with many different types of things here in BsAs:

Cafe Culture: There are literally cafes or restaurants on every single block. Every time I walk by one I always say, "ooo that looks like a good one I'll have to try it sometime!" But there is literally no way I will be able to try them all, they're EVERYWHERE! It's nice though, you never have to walk far to find something to eat. Even if you just pick up a quick snack at a maxikiosco (please see description below)

Kioscos: These are terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible, but I love them. You can come across these even more frequently than a cafe. Basically it's either a tiny hole in the side of a building or an actual little store where tons of snacks and refreshments are sold. It's so hard to pass up sometimes because there are so many snacks here that I've never had before! In the US, I've probably tried all the different kinds of candy bars, sodas, and crackers. But here, I feel like a kid again, drooling over the vast selection of dulces.

Night Life: I think I've talked a bit about this before, but Buenos Aires has a life that is unlike anything I've ever heard of, but that could be because I've been in a little West Michigan bubble my whole life... Anyways, last week Saturday some friends and I were taking a cab home at like 4:30 in the morning, and there were people on the streets everywhere! Some of the clubs and bars were just beginning to get busy! I don't understand haha. And the thing is that some people do this 3 to 4 times a week and then head to school or work the next morning! I think they're crazy. For me, being out that late is ok once a week for me, and only on the weekend haha.

Tourist traps: Sometimes it's inevitable, I try to blend in as much as possible so I don't look like a gringa too much, but I still gotta see the sights ya know? I love going to the markets with all of the handmade clothing, leather items, food, music, and souvenirs. They are so much fun! I also like going to salsa lessons and watching tango. Going to see the Casa Rosada might be a good idea to see too, and unlike the White House, we can actually walk right into the main government building here.

And of course...Homework: Had a little predicament the other day with course complications, but now it's all sorted out and hopefully things will be a little bit easier. I'm taking two literature courses, and it is a TON of reading, in Spanish, obviously. So it takes a while but I'm getting used to it. My two Spanish classes, grammar and listening/converstaion are great. We're really learning a lot about the language, especially the differences from what I've been taught my whole life, and the Castellano the the Portenos use.

I finally added photos to another snapfish album of our Bariloche trip. Sorry I realize that you have to make an account to view the pictures, if anyone knows of another way to post them publicly let me know! I still don't know much about this whole blogging thing.