Argentina

I'm very upset about the fact I had to wake up at 7:00 am this morning, and I am even more upset that I have to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow. Let's now get ahead of ourselves and rewind back to this morning though. A mere walk, subte, train, walk, and I was at La Universidad de San Andres at the cheery hour of 9:00 am. There are 52 international students from England, Scotland, Germany, France, Colombia, Chile, USA, Mexico, Canada, Belgium, and possibly others. The whole group, on the whole, seems wholesome. We had a brief introduction from the International Programs Coordinator who happens to be blind. She is tremendously sucessful and mutlilingual and somehow would respond to my e-mails within minutes but I don't have a fucking clue how she read them. We then heard from two professors, had a campus tour, and had a good ol' fashioned Spanish assessment test to wrap things up. More importantly, however, I've finally met my roommates and they are really cool. Th...

So I went to the biggest Farm exhibition in South America two days ago, "La Rural", and to be honest it was just a bunch of cows, sheep, goats, chickens, farm equipment, and shit. I'll upload some pictures. The whole time I was looking at the cows I couldn't help but think "I EAT YOU." Also, it seems impossible that cows were at one point not domesticated. Can you imagine a wild herd of bovine gracefully galloping through a forest with the morning dew fresh on their fur? Maybe they look so pathetic because humans have selected for the traits in cattle that make them shorter and fatter so that they are more delicious and easier to catch. Anyway, me and the Colombian, turns out his name actually is John he showed me his passport, have been hanging out for the past three days and speaking exclusively in Spanish. He is a sound engineer/ music professor and when I played him an Everlast Song ("What it's like"), after three listens he could pl...

Batman was fucking awesome. It was perfect in every way. First it cost $5 to get in, next it had Spanish subtitles so I could practice, and thirdly it's just a good movie. In other news, it's official that nobody in Argentina can correctly pronounce my name. It has the sounds that Spanish lacks; the "aye" and the "errr" don't exist in Spanish. So what I end up getting is more of a "Tye-lore." Not only that a "telo," a word that apparently my name resembles, is a pay by the hour motel where you take prostitutes. So that's fun. I am, however, considering other names that would be more typical to the area. Guillermo of course is a front runner, my Spanish name from high school "Sr. Josue Guevarra Rodrigez de Castillo", but that's a little long; others include, Raul, Jesus, Blanco, y Pollo Loco. So I'm in a new hostel now, it's much smaller and more house-like. Plus me and my roommate from Colombia a r...

So in Argentina money is complicated. There is a huge difference between having money, and being able to spend money. For example, yesterday I went to the supermarket to buy a carton of eggs (I wanted an omelet you see). I had a ten peso note which is about $3.33, so a fairly low amount of money. The eggs cost 2.70 pesos so I tried to use my 10 peso note. The attendant didn't have enough change for me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! That's like $2! How can you run a business if you can give give change for $2. So I had to put my eggs back and leave the supermarket, and forgo my omelet because my only other bill was 100 pesos. I know I already said that it's annoying that ATM's only dispense 100 pesos notes, but let me rephrase it. It is super unbelievably, maximally, ultra inconvenient. Nobody has change for large bills because there isn't enough small currency. Plastic is out because nobody has the equipment for it except really high end stuff. Also to reinterate ...

This is too funny. Check it out http://www.esperanto.ca/kurso/

At times be a solo traveler is fairly difficult. Ya, you go to new places and meet some interesting characters, but you’re never in a fixed place and you never have a good friend to share things with. You build short very intimate relationships with other solo travelers out of necessity, but every 4 days or so you move on your own separate paths and you are once again alone. There’s something to be said to have common memories with someone: inside jokes, reminiscing, “Remember that time when.” But when traveling alone you don’t get that. When I was in Mendoza I built a pretty close knit community of friends like I said, out of necessity. Keith and I happened to be in the same hostel for the exact same time frame, we saw sights together, shared food, drank, but then inevitably after 4 days we parted and will likely never see each other again. That’s the nature of meeting people from all over the globe; it is very likely that you will never again cross paths. Oh well, s...

So today I leave Mendoza for Buenos Aires at 18:45 tonight, so that´s 6:45 for those of us who don´t like using the 24 h system, myself included. Yesterday my Mendoza possee and I set off to go on a Wine Bike Tour that involves tasting wine at many different wineries (bodegas) and riding low quality bikes. The group included my friend from Michigan who is studying in the north Argentina for a year, two stereotypically English fellows who insist that America has destroyed their language, two Aussies who just wanted to ride around and do tricks, and myself. We decided to do the trip on our own as opposed to the one offered by the hostel to save some money and to have a bit more fun. The 40 minutes bus ride cost us each about 1.40 pesos or $.40. We rented bikes for 25 pesos each and set off. We were delayed because the English gentlemen insisted on getting bread and ¨buttah¨ to go with the wine. And we were off. The Aussies charged ahead, the English moseyed along, and the Ameri...

Bueno, toy borracho pero queria escribir algo porque no he dicho nada por mucho tiempo. I would like to say first that the space bar is pretty much broken so my words may not have spaces. Alright, so i met some people at my hostel on saturday and they have all been studying abroad here sincejanuary and they knewsome people in Mendoza. So they invited me along to go out. We went into the middle of nowwhere where i guessthe best clubs in mendozza are. It is out a long single lane road and I thought thetaxi driver wasjust fucking with us. We end up on a club strip withthousands of argentineans waiting to get into various clubs. So we joined the hordes, literally a massive swarm of people pushing and shoving to jockey for position. My friendfrom Michigan tells me that we should speak English loudlyso we´ll get in. This boggled my mind, they let foreingers in over locals? So we spoke English and sure enough we got plucked up out of the crowd and let into the club. This club was ab...

Bueno, estoy en Mendoza. The trip was about 14 hours by bus but I just slept the whole time so it didn´t really matter. Mendoza is colder than B.A. and is situated within shooting distance of the snow capped Andes. The new hostel I am in seems much better culturally as the majority of people are actually speaking Spanish as opposed to the English/Irish party hostel I seemed to be at last time. I´m here for 4 nights, 5 days and I have absolutely no idea what to do. It was pretty fun coming from the bus station actually because I had no map and all I knew was that the hostel was approximately 10 blocks away and in the downtown region. So I trekked off from the bus station in the general direction of downtown with hopes I could find it. Well, 10 blocks is a very misleading distance, because some blocks are substantially longer than you´re standard block measurement. Getting onto the bus was a bit of a nightmare because I guess things are that strict with regards to time. For examp...

I seemed to have underestimated the value of my towel. Due to space constraints I swapped a large plush beach towel for a small little orange face towel and not a day goes by that I don't regret it. Many hostels do not provide towels you see, so I am left in the shower air drying and using the small patch of cloth I do have to get key areas. According to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: " A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid...

So it's hard to get money in Argentina. I went to make a deposit on the apartment I'm going to be renting, and I thought okay, $1500 pesos ($500) seems like a decent deposit. The person I am renting from didn't care how much we put down because it was more of a symbolic thing anyway. Anywhoo, the ATM said that I was not authorized to make that big of a withdrawal. Alright, well $1200 will be fine then. That was too much, well maybe just $900, nope... all the way down to $300 pesos or about $100 dollars. really? so I made three consecutive withdrawals of $300 pesos and went to pay the deposit. Also, it's difficult to get small bills and change in Argentina. The government only is circulating $100 peso notes at the moment so everyone is tight on coins and small notes. It's really frustrating. The reason the government/banks (not really sure) does this is so that people have to go to banks and get change which costs them about 5% of whatever their converting. ...

Well, i heeded my mother's advice and took the day off. Running around all day and drinking all night can take it's toll on the body. I purchased a cell phone today, it cost me about $50 and has a one year warranty. The Argentina is up in arms today, there are actually two different political protests today and all of the main streets are filled with angry Argentineans banging drums, waving flags, lighting off fireworks, and yelling. I'm keeping my distance. It's quite a sight though compared to America where everyone is mostly apathetic the citizens here are passionate and keep their government in check, as they should. I findly got my lap top up and running after searching endlessly to find an american adapter plug, it ended up costing about 3 pesos or 1 dollar compared to the one I say in SEA TAC for $37. Good bargain I think. The new hostel (Milhouse) is much better than the last one as there is a common area and ton's of people around constantly. Alrig...

Well I set a new personal best today. Technically two personal bests but they really go together. 1) I went to bed at 830 in the morning after I had already had breakfeast for the next day (it was already light outside 2) I woke up at 6 pm from the night before After I got back from the Parrilla, me and two Irish girls I met went out for dinner. It was a really fancy place and I had milanesa (breaded meat) and we had a bottle of wine and the bill came out to less than $30 total for all of us. We then made our way to a Irish bar where the only two Irish people were the girls I was with. We got drunk, made Argentinean friends and ended up on a docked sailboat with our two new friends. Everything here just seems kind of unbelievable. I think I´m going to take it a bit easier tonight. I change hostels tomorrrow, the one I am in now is called TelmoTango and it is really nice but there is never anybody around. Alright, I´m really hungry so more later. Later.

Alright I'm here, it already seems like some much stuff has happened but I will try to run it back. First on the plane to Atlanta there was this trivia game where everyone on the plane that wanted to could compete against each other. You could make up your own name and it said you're score and where you were sitting. There was a passenger named "Grieg" who was the Ken Jennings of Delta 101's service to Atlanta. After he had cleaned up two rounds in a row I took it upon myself to deface him. I made my name "Gregsux" (the letters were limited). Anyway, two rounds later Grieg took first and Gregsux took second. He didn't play again. That's what happens Grieg, that's what happens. Ok to the things that matter. Getting to my hostel was a sinch. I checked in at around 10 am and was walking about by 11. I got some lunch and mostly just explored trying desperately not to be obviously a tourist even though my blond hair is a dead give away....

In case you're wondering what it takes to survive in South America for 6 months, I will tell you: 6 socks (1 soccer of course) 5 undies (optional) 5 t-shirts 1 button up shirt 1 pair jeans 2 pair shorts (1 soccer) sandles cleats regular shoes 2 light jackets sketchbook guide book computer (for studying) calculator toothbrush sunglasses 100 lbs bacon (Oregon Trail anyone...) pocket translator nano cards floss deodorant wrist watch passport assorted contraband (varies regionally)

Here it is two days ago. I still haven't packed a single thing or made any significant steps toward preparing myself besides hostel reservations. I'm giving the frat one last Hurah tonight... drinking may or may not be involved but don't worry mom. My stay in B.A. will begin in San Telmo which is about 6 blocks south of La Plaza de Mayo and about 4 blocks north of Plaza Dorrego. An old high school friend who coincidentally happens to be down there now doing a program at the same university as I has graciously invited me to a party my first night down there. I get there at 8 a.m. so I should be settled in by then. Everything I have read says that Argentina is cheap, cheap, cheap. We're talking $4 dollar premium steaks, $11/night accomadations, and so forth. Man, the theme for the party tonight is Halloween, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do with that. I imagine tomorrow will be hectic as I will reap the fruits of procrastination manifested as ...

Well, here it is a week or so off me being gone for 6 months and it still seems far removed. The longest i have been away from home is about 5 weeks when I went to Europe and that seemed like a tremendously long time. i almost feel obligated to record my pre-trip thoughts so that I can look at them when i return, so here we go I guess. pretty piss poor day outside and my room mate is out of town so I am wasting my time on the internet. it seems like argentina is really coming up in the world of international travel. i've struck up conversation with many near strangers regarding what I should do when I am down there. I'll probably end up going to mendoza, maybe patagonia, and maybe the iguazu falls but who knows. I reserved my hostel today and was suprised to find that there were very few vacancies, I thought it was more or less the off season since its winter down there. i feel like I am just biding time before I leave. just making money and finding things to do to pas...