Feliz Navidad!

“And so happy Christmas. For black and for white. For the yellow and red ones. Let’s stop all the fight.”

Those of you who know me well will know one question has plagued me for years: If Christmas is during the summer in the southern hemisphere, what does Santa wear?

Well, I have the answer. Firstly, to clarify Christmas is indeed during the summer for those in the southern hemisphere. Secondly, he wears the exact same thing. All of it. Jacket, pants, boots, gloves, massive beard... I was baffled. I thought for sure he’d wear a bikini down here. Although, I guess none of really want to see a Santa in a bikini...

You might be able to guess that Marta and I had a holiday discussion. I love Christmas. I even let her in on a secret and told her about Viernes Negro [Black Friday]. She said it sounded lovely - I think she’s crazy. We compared trees as well. Here most people hang plants and use them as trees. In the states we buy real trees, until the kids get too old and then we buy artificial ones and leave them up as the official year-round Holiday Tree. At least that’s what the Bryants did... ;)

I don’t know about you but I’m listening to Christmas music.

87 days.

Urgencias.

Last night was a fun experience for me. After a day of the Argentine BRAT diet - which consists of lots of white rice, cheese and cranberry sauce? - I still was feeling horrible and my head was on the verge of exploding. Marta then insisted that she take my temperature. She approached me with the thermometer and I instantly realized it was not my usual mouth thermometer. It's safe to say that I began questioning where she was intending to put it... Turns out it was the armpit. She informed me I was 38 degrees Celsius, for all I knew that meant it was nearly time to start snowing. Evidently it was bad enough for her to call the program director and then the doctor.

Next thing I know the doctor was grilling me about how I was feeling. Luckily Marta knew my symptoms so I didn't have to speak much. About an hour after the doctor left my antibiotics for my tonsils were delivered to our apartment. Pharmacies that deliver, and on Saturday nights. We need that in the states. Today I'm feeling much better though. I'm still on house-arrest and spend most of my time sleeping but it's raining here so it's perfect sick weather.

PS. Bryant males: Check out the new pictures in my Rosario album. The car mystery continues.

Hello Week Four.

I really need to stop making such massive posts - even I get bored reading them when they get this long. Maybe pop up some popcorn for this one?

This week has been a roller-coaster of emotions for me. Wednesday was a struggle. Now that I’ve nearly defeated homesickness my new enemy is the spanish language itself. The tricky part about this battle is that I can’t really hide from it. I was just going through some standard panicking about not learning enough, not knowing enough and not practicing enough. I wasn’t really sure what “enough” was, I just knew I wasn’t there. I pretty much broke down that night and turned to the one thing that has kept me sane here: the B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that’s the book for me. [VBS shout-out]

Thursday morning I was still feeling the after-shocks of the night before, which made my Spanish Conversation class pure torture. Everything changed for me that afternoon though: I went to my first day of volunteering at the orphanage. All week I’d been hearing terror stories from other students and their experiences so I was umm.. terrified. When Lacey and I got there we were placed in a room with 4 girls, ages 12-15. I was elated. These are my people. For the next hour we danced, made fun of my spanish and had girl talk. It was amazing. I really hope I can continue meeting with them and develop a relationship with them.

Later in the evening my program had a tango party. The greatest and worst moment of my trip happened that night. I was mingling and awkwardly avoiding having to dance - the boy to girl ratio is crazy here so it was middle school dance status where the boys chose the girls. Right, so then we formed a massive circle which I assumed was so we could be shown the next steps. Next thing I know a man’s hand is in front of my face. The instructor then proceeded to take me to the middle of the circle as an example of what we had learned. Mind you I had learned nothing during this time. I ended up tripping around for a few minutes until he gave up on me. Mortifying? Sure. Once in a lifetime awesome story? Yes.

By the end of the night we also became friends with two Rosaritos and ended up going out to tea with them till 2 AM. It was so great to be able to talk with people my age in spanish. Although I do a lot more listening than talking it’s still kind of neat to be able to understand even if I still can’t formulate sentences fast enough. Baby steps?

After an exhausting night, on top of my current sickness, I was not amped to get up early on Friday morning, but I did it anyways. 5 of us from the program had a meeting with a local Catholic school principal about volunteering at his school. While we were there the ultimate jefe [boss] showed up, which I think is something like the superintendent. Anyways, turns out he’s actually kind of famous for the work he’s done in the schools around here. So, cool points for me in getting to meet him? I’m going to start working there on Fridays serving lunches to the students. It should be an awesome experience.

I spent the rest of the day being exhausted... I attempted to go shopping but quickly decided I can’t shop here unless it’s in a grocery store. All the stores here are like boutiques with insane customer service - I don’t even like that when I understand the language. No need to worry though, I did find some things at La Callega, the local supermarket, including Pasta de Mani [Paste of Peanut]. I snagged one of 3 overpriced, dusty, sticky jars hidden under mountains of Dulce de Leche on the bottom shelf. Naturally it is actually completely different than USA peanut butter but it got the job done. Lacey, Morgan and I spent the rest of the day hanging out and being lazy. This also included dubbed Happy Days. I wish I could bring that home as a souvenir for all of you.

As I found out Saturday morning though, US peanut butter may be worth waiting for. During the course of the night I became good friends with the porcelain king in the bathroom. Marta now has me on a strict Argentine diet to combat the sickness. Kind of one of those times when you wish it was your real mom taking care of you though.

Weekend in Cordoba.

FELIZ PRIMAVERA!

Today is officially the first day of spring in Argentina.

This weekend I spent traveling around the provence of Cordoba, which means one things really: This post is going to be massive but it has some potential for excitement.

We left by bus Thursday night at 2 AM. Things were going well until 6 AM when we were awoken by the bus stopping and everyone exiting. Naturally we assumed we had reached our destination of Cordoba. I was the first one of us to get off and the driver said something to me. Mind you I had just woken up and wasn’t really in spanish mode yet, so I nodded my head like I knew what he said and followed the direction he pointed. Turns out we were on a shoulder of the highway - not exactly the bus station I was expecting. Then we were asked to get on another bus waiting for us. All the natives seemed unscathed by this event but we are still baffled as to what happened. Either way we made it to Cordoba by 7 AM Friday.

We then awkwardly figured out the line for the taxis but our driver didn’t know where our hostel was. He ended up dropping us off 2 blocks past it - not that we knew that at the time. We plopped down on the sidewalk, busted out our map and asked some locals. After a little work and some minor panic control we finally arrived at the Tango Hostel by 8 AM and passed out till the afternoon.

Once we awoke we decided to go exploring and visit the smaller town of Villa Carlos Paz in the mountains. Miraculously we managed to figure out an entirely different bus situation and made it without much trouble. Then, we were in Carlos Paz. Without any idea of what was actually there we did what any 4 girls traveling would do: Find ice cream. There we met some locals who told us where the good shopping was. We spent the day shopping, walking and exploring. Dinner was quite possibly the best part though.. Mexican food. Oh how I miss thee.

I hesitate to tell you about my Saturday only because I broke the rules: I traveled alone. Morgan, Lacey and Nicki went horseback riding but I’m cheap and a nerd so I went to a museum instead. I got on a bus and went to the town of Alta Gracia. Upon arriving I made my way to the Information Center and got myself a map and directions, then stopped for some pizza. The destination? The childhood home of Che Guevara. Although it felt disturbingly like a religious pilgrimage, this was still the highlight of my weekend. Getting to see his home, hand-written letters, his bicycle, his motorcycle and countless other things made his iconic life seem real. It’ll also give me something to talk about in class this week.

Obviously, I successfully survived my solo adventure and reunited with the others. Saturday night we intended to go out and hit up some boliches, but that didn’t happen. Instead we had some amazing conversations with people at the hostel. We met an awesome couple, one from Cyprus the other from Italy, traveling for 6 months through Africa and South America. I cannot count the ways in which they inspired and intrigued us. Around 2 AM we went out for ice cream, because we can. I don’t know why it still surprises me to see 4 year olds and 80 year olds out getting ice cream at 2 AM - I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it.

We spent Sunday putzing around Cordoba and being lazy until we got on our return bus that evening. After a 6 hour bus ride we made it back to Rosario by midnight. This weekend was such an amazing refreshment for me. It was wonderful to be able to visit small towns again - towns with neighborhoods, trees and clean air. If there is one thing I have already learned from this experience it’s that I am not a big city kind of girl.

Also, I got my first chance to really look at the stars last night. I have never seen stars from the southern hemisphere. It’s moments like that that still seem surreal to me.

Rainy School Days.

Firstly, I realize that some of you - okay probably only one of you [Wes] - might care what my daily school routine is like. Get excited! It’s super fascinating, except not. Here we go... Every morning I shower and then have breakfast with Marta. This meal typically consists of toast and coffee for the “cold” days. When it’s “hot” outside I get to have cereal - I LOVE these days. After breakfast I bus it to school and start classes around 10 AM.

I’m taking 4 classes: Spanish Grammar & Conversation, Human Rights and Che’s Roads. Spanish classes are... spanish classes. Today in my Conversation class we went to the grocery store and then made Pinonos! My Human Rights class is fairly generic and watered down compared to IHS, but we go on field trips so I can’t complain. While it is entirely in spanish, my class on Che Guevara is by far my favorite and most challenging. We read and discuss the original texts of his diaries and today we’re even watching Motorcycle Diaries! His face is spray painted throughout the city and everyone has an opinion about him. Learning about Che in his birth-city is probably one of the coolest things I’ve done in awhile.

I finish classes around 7:30 PM and then bus home. At which point I bust out some homework and Marta begins making dinner. We eat around 9 PM, which is early, and then talk for a hour or so. Dinners are very unpredictable but always tasty. Last night I got to have fresh corn on the cob. Score! After dinner I do homework, read and sleep. Right, there you have it a day in the life of Wendy.

On another note: Last night while consuming my corn on the cob Marta and I had a brilliant conversation - I think. We covered all of my interests, and all the Bryant family interests too: Che, Castro, Hitler, Volkswagens, old cars, jobs and work ethic. It was just like family dinner, except in spanish, and in Argentina, and with a crazy little blonde woman. As for the mysterious disappearing vehicle she said two young men took it to restore it.

One more thing. Monday is the first day of spring so we don’t have classes - seriously, it’s actually called the Day of the Students - this means extended weekend, which means traveling. So tonight at 2 AM, which is technically tomorrow, Lacey, Morgan, Nicki and I are jumping on a bus and going to Cordoba. Ah. The first adventure.

Hey Sunshine.

Hoy rompí mis gafas de sol. Bummer.

Today I broke my sunglasses. Bummer.

Mindless Rambling.

Life with Marta is going well. She’s helping me a lot with my spanish and is incredibly patient with me while I sit and conjugate verbs in my head. I wish I understood everything she said though. I can often see in her eyes that she’s telling me something important and meaningful to her but I can only catch the gist of it, at best. There are a lot of moments when she stares at me waiting for my response when I didn’t even know she asked a question. I’m excited for the day when I’m better at spanish and can have her repeat all her stories to me.

While I’m bragging about Marta I should include some examples of how sweet she is so you can get to know her better. She puts left over food in a clean plastic bag before she puts it in the trash to “dumpster divers” can have a clean meal. Every night she also takes food to our neighbor across the hall because she can’t cook - I didn’t catch why though. I got in the elevator the other day and a woman got in a few floors after me. It was quickly obvious that I couldn’t keep up with her spanish. When I told her which floor I lived on she instantly knew who I was living with and why I was here. She couldn’t stop raving about Marta and how sweet she is.

Also, for those of you who are interested in pictures - visual proof that I’m still alive and consuming way too much meat and bread - I’ve posted a link to the left that connects to my Facebook photo album. Hopefully it works.

Unrelated fact: I think I might be back in the states just in time for the WOU Holiday Tree lighting - all you Monmouth-ites know how much I am obsessed with it. Needless to say, I about pee’d my pants when I discovered this.

Boys.

Saturday night Lacey, Morgan and I went to La Fluvial - a bumpin' dance club next to the river. We got there around midnight, which was evidently too early for dancing, but we weren't really in a dancing mood anyways. So, we plopped down and ordered some late night coffee and "yoghurt" - I cannot express to you how excited I was to have yogurt again. I miss it almost as much as peanut butter and burritos. Around 1 AM more people started showing up and a pack of 4 guys hunted us down. They came over and we had some awkwardly funny conversations in Spanglish. They were all 28 and baffled that we were eating yogurt and drinking coffee instead of getting drunk off cervezas. We chatted for awhile before they got tired of trying to get us to dance and moved on to some new prey. It's hilarious how forward guys are in foreign countries and it definitely helped ease some of those homesickness pains.

Welp, I'm off to find me an Argentine boy..

Mi Amor.

Thursday, was for sure the hardest day I’ve had since landing in Argentina. A full day of classes plus overwhelming homesickness... It was all I could do to not bust out crying in class. Then, when I got home from classes and was about to explode, Marta immediately thrust the phone at me and had me talk to her son and his daughter. That was chaos. After my first spanish phone call, I went to cry in my room because that’s what I do when I cry.

Well, Marta is one smart cookie and she caught me. That is when I was confronted with one of the strangest, greatest experiences of my life: Balling my eyes out with a woman I’ve known for 3 days and then having to explain my feelings in Spanish. She was holding me in her arms and saying "mi amor, mi amor" [her "nickname" for me] over and over again. Then, to ease the pain even more she instantly began feeding me cookies slathered in dulce de leche then rolled in coconut and having me drink mate.* We then also had an awesome conversation about sunscreen. She’s a big advocate for slathering on the SPF too. Score! Now I’m feeling much better, it’s probably the drugs in the mate, but either way I’ll take it.

You know, just some fun facts for all you back home.

Side-note: The spanish version of "Man in the Mirror" just came on the radio at the bakery/cafe I'm at. Awesome.

*Some helpful definitions:

Dulce de leche is similar to a carmel spread and everyone in Argentina is obsessed with it. They put it on everything. Bananas, crackers, cookies, toast, spoons... Also, thanks Mac for including it in my wisdom teeth care package. I got major bonus points when I already knew what it was.

Mate is the national tea of Argentina - that might not be a fact but if it isn’t it should be. They drink it 24/7. It looks like weed but I’ve been told that it’s not. While I’m still not convinced, I down the stuff because it’s tasty.

Recycling.

Yesterday I wore my last pair of clean underwear.

Fortunately, us Bryants are experts at recycling, especially clothes. If I understood her correctly, Marta is taking my laundry to be washed right at this very moment. Unfortunately it takes them a day to do it so it looks like I have another day of.. recycling to do.

It's been cold here lately. By cold I mean 50 degrees, which I know most Oregonians would say that isn't actually cold, but rest assured - it is frigid when the only clothes you have are spring time clothes.

I'm also learning the art of taking the bus. They really show no mercy. I literally step off onto the pavement and it's already moving down the street. It also doesn't help that the entire bus stares at me as soon as I get on. I'm really a freak of nature down here: blue eyes, short red hair and WHITE skin.

Last night I ran for the first time since the Hood to Coast. I went to the gym with some of my friends, and well, I think I'm made for the streets. You really haven't lived until you've ran on a treadmill set to the metric system and in Spanish. It's great fun. Then of course the one I was on sounded like a train wreck if I went above 6 kilometers per hour. This led to me going for a brisk walk for about an hour. It was embarrassing.

Finally, for all you soccer fans Argentina played Paraguay last night. We lost, again. No bueno.

Mi Marta.

Last night I moved to a new house. It was crazy awkward having to explain to why I was leaving to Alicia, my old host mom, but I survived and made it to my new home. Now I live a few blocks from the river but 20+ blocks from school so I get to be adventurous and figure out the bus system. I'm not gonna lie, I miss being so close to school and the Parque de Independencia but it's worth it.

My new mom, Marta, has two older sons and 3 grandkids. She takes care of them during the day and they come over for dinner on the weekends. The neighbor across the hall from us has two younger kids as well who are adorable. I'm really excited to get to know them and attempt to interact with them. Marta doesn't know any English so that's been a challenge of course but I'm really good at nodding and agreeing with her.

My new address, for the third time:

Mendoza 379 2 D

2000 Rosario, Santa Fe

Argentina

Third Time's the Charm.

Fun Fact: Tonight, I'm moving.

Black Coffee.

I should probably warn you, this is a mega post:

These past few days I’ve felt like every minute was an adventure in one sense or another - it’s exhausting. I finally met my host mom, Alicia. She is divorced with two older sons and is a dance instructor. She works every night which is nice for me because I enjoy independence but like so many people in Rosario, she smokes. She also speaks a lot of English with me which is obviously easier but we all know I need to be forced to speak Spanish... Thus far I’m not the biggest fan of her but we get along well enough. It gives me a good reason to get out and see the city anyways. Incidentally I live next to an AMAZING park - score! And, whether or not I enjoy it I am experiencing and learning about how life is when one doesn’t have awesome parents like I do. I might be biased though.

My first day of classes were on Thursday. Alicia said we could take her car if it wasn’t blocked. Upon arriving at her car I was convinced it was blocked - and by blocked I mean both bumpers touching other cars. She proceeded to get in so I followed suit and pretended like it was all very normal to me but I was secretly freaking out inside. I was curious to see what her escape plan was. Well, she threw it in reverse pushed the car behind us back. Then went to first and pushed the car in front of us forward a few feet. And just like that we were off to classes, which I am loving so far.

That night we had a crazy awesome thunderstorm. The only non-awesome part was the fact that I was at Lacey’s house which is a solid half-hour walk from my place and it was super dark. This led to me hailing my first taxi cab. I’m not gonna lie, I felt pretty cool.

Friday was one amazing moment after another. Argentina has a very laid back culture which is focused on relationships and spending time with one another. There are very few “take-out” restaurants but rather everyone sits and spends hours eating or drinking. I’m also really good at forgetting to ask for cafe con leche so I’ve been drinking 2-3 cups of straight black coffee a day. Wired. Anywho, we had great lunch of patella, although we quickly realized it included squid, tentacles, clams and the like. Meh. When in Rosario.

After lunch we went on a walking tour of Rosario which was beautiful to say the least. I will never forget Friday night though. Lacey, Morgan, Nicki and I went to an orchestra concert on the steps at the flag memorial. Thousands of Rosaritos showed up and we scored an incredible spot sitting on a statue overlooking the river. There was a fireworks show and the orchestra played a lot of famous theme songs: Godfather, Mission Impossible and James Bond. Exiting was chaos and we ended up accidentally moshing to an extent. Check that of my to-do list. As if that wasn’t enough we then went to see Nicki’s apartment. We ended up drinking tea with her mom for 2 hours talking about everything under the sun.

Saturday we spent going on a boat tour of the Parana River - so beautiful! We then spent the afternoon shopping around different street vendors, which naturally reminded me of the Saturday Market only in Argentina.. Last night was a massive soccer rivalry game between Brazil and Argentina. It was being held in Rosario so there was epic tension and passion in the air that night. Some of us went to a local pub/restaurant to watch the game. I've never experienced anything like it. The place was packed with people all cheering and supporting one national team and sport. Unfortuantely, Argentina lost 1-3 but it was still awesome to watch, and we got to drool over all the good-looking soccer boys.

All this to say: Despite my bummer housing situation I’m having an exhaustingly awesome time.

Bienvenido a Rosario!

After over 24 hours worth of flying, busing and time-changing I finally arrived in Rosario around 3 o'clock today. At the Houston airport a bunch of us from the program were able to meet up and fly together which was a big stress relief and it was neat getting to know different students in the program. After a 10 hour flight we arrived in Buenos Aires we were shocked at how welcoming and relaxed everyone was. Customs was breeze and they even let us skip the bag searches. We then had a four hour bus ride to our hotel in Rosario. Upon first impression Argentina has a lot of resemblances to Mexico. I did notice a few irregularities though: A 16 lane highway, cars parked under trees on highway shoulders and dozens of horses near the highways - one was even spotted hauling a fridge.

We got to shower at our hotel which was nothing short of amazing after so much traveling. Then tonight we had our fiesta and got to mingle with the professors and eat some delicious foods. Tomorrow is orientation day at the university as well as placement exam day. We'll also be meeting our host families tomorrow night. Exciting!

The picture above is the view from my hotel room at night. I don't know when I'll have internet again but I'll try to keep you all updated about life in the southern hemisphere. Toodles!