Celebrating 95 Years

We celebrated my host mom's boyfriend's mother's 95th birthday with a tea party and family at our house.

Singing happy birthday with one giant candle in an apple cake. 

All of us together. Surprisingly, we're not drinking wine, but Coke. Coke seems to be the only/most popular soda to drink here. 

Me and the birthday girl.

Before everyone had arrived. We had various sandwiches and tea cookies. My host mom really decorated the table beautifully.

Favorite Things

A random sampling of the food/drink I've been enjoying for the past few weeks.

Pork chops and potatoes. (photo not taken by me).

We have a thing called "Cafecitos" in my study abroad program. About once a month we all get together at the program director's giant apartment and eat desserts and drink tea. Ricotta cheese cake, strawberry cheese cake, an oreo, an alfajore, and peanut butter ( a rarity here (!!!)).

I'm seriously craving gooey, soft, melty, chocolatey chocolate chip cookies right now. I don't know if they exist here. but these are my new favorite brand of packaged cookies. Super useful when travelling/hiking.

I came home from class to a pan of green beans, slices of ham, and an egg. I ate the entire pan.

I bought all of the mate necessities!! You have to make mate portable as it's a social thing to be taken in the park or during class. Thermos, container for yerba (herbs), yerba (Taragui Citrus flavor even though my host mom told me to buy the "red flavor." I rebelled.), and of course the actual mate, which is like a gourd on the inside and on the outside leather, with a straw to filter the herbs.

Vegan Food, Zoo, Mini Hike

Wow so much has been happening and I've been lapsing on my "at least once a week" goal of posting here. I've also been having some problems with my IPhone and taking pictures. It will only hold about thirty photos for some reason...I really need to invest in a camera. Unfortunately, I have very little money and I'm trying to travel around South America at the moment which will take up the little money I do have.

Major updates:

1) I've decided to stay in Argentina for the entirety of my junior year. Which means, I won't be getting back to the U.S. until early July/maybe later because I really love it here.

2) I have an internship here! I've been writing, going to events, and working on social media for a couple magazines. Make me look important and go like their FB pages: The Squeeze Magazine and Playground Buenos Aires.

3) Less specific, but most importantly, I feel like I'm really living to the fullest here, which is not something I could say when I was back in the U.S. I felt stuck and somehow being in Argentina has gotten me unstuck. I can say confidently I'm enjoying every aspect of my life here.

Went to this vegan restaurant super close to my house with my host mom. Not many vegan restaurants here. Some people come here with Tupperware and buy all their food for the week because it's yummy and one of their only options.

Food runs out quickly and they don't put out more. The food gets cold, but there are various microwaves that everyone uses. It's a pay-by-weight kinda deal.

My plate: ravioli, potatoes, lentil empanada, fake meatballs, garbanzo beans, whole wheat bread, fake beef and mushrooms. Yummy especially after heating. Maybe a little too salty, but would definitely come back.

Post-lunch I went up a hill--Cerro de la Gloria. It was super short and easy in comparison to the other hikes I've been on, but still pretty steep. Easily accessible by bus.

I don't think I'm ever going to get used to views like these.

The zoo is close to Cerro de la Gloria. Naturally, we made a stop. I've heard plenty of rumors about this zoo. Some of which include: "You can literally touch a tiger, they're so close!" and "They definitely drug their animals, there's no other way..." So yes, you can get pretty darn close to the animals. You could probably touch this capybara, but the lions, tigers, and bears are more enclosed. 

Witnessed a peacock mating ritual. None of the ladies were interested.

I think this bear is over captivity...

Technically, you could touch a little monkey toe. So yeah, the zoo is a little crazy. It also smells horrible (especially the monkey cage). There was an ostrich/large bird wandering around the zoo outside of its cage. They also put large quantities of animals in small cages and small quantities of animals in large cages. Not sure about that logic, seems like poor planning, but what do I know about zoos and the happiness of other species.