I Never Go To School

The weather dropped from comfortably warm to super chilly, leaving me with a cold. This always happens to me when the weather suddenly changes and it's anything but fun. The only cure is rest, tea and time.

My host mom's son lives in Brazil, so she gave me this lime and honey tea from Brazil to try. Very strong and soothing for a sore throat.

I stayed home from school so I had time to Skype with a friend. School in the U.S. is about to start up again. I'm not missing it, but I am missing my friends and how comfortable I feel around them.

As I was lying in bed trying to recover, my host mom brought me cookies with dulce de leche. That's my kinda medicine.

The next day, I also didn't go to school because there was a nation wide strike. Very few micros (buses) are running, flights are cancelled, and my university is closed. From my understanding, various types of employees including bus drivers, professors, and medical professionals are demanding higher pay. Apparently bus drivers are paid extremely well, even more than professors, but that's not saying much because professors are not paid well. For lunch I had spinach filled ravioli with a chunky meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. Slowly starting to feel better. Seems my host mom can cure a cold with her cooking.

Chorizo and Mint Tea

With a significantly reduced work load (perhaps even pre-IB level ) and my host mom packing my lunch on certain days, I feel like I'm back in high school.

Although, my real mom never gave me chorizo sandwiches for lunch in high school. My host mom packs me so much food, but it is so necessary. On Tuesdays my day starts at 9:30 AM and goes until 9:30 PM. I have to snack throughout the day or I will be in a very bad mood.

Unlike high school, I navigated my way through the city to have a meeting at a new cafe, BROD. The cafe has a huge, sunny patio, a fully stocked bakery, and friendly service that seems welcoming to tourists. I was sad when I was greeted with a "Hi!" instead of an "Hola!," but some may find this comforting. In fact, many people in Mendoza try to speak English to me, especially if I look confused, which is often. The problem is, said person usually tries to say only one word of the sentence in English. My problem is not with knowing the meaning of individual words (although sometimes it is), but understanding the complete thought. It's easier if said person just speaks in Spanish slower and more clearly. With many repetitions.

I ordered Sweet Mint tea at BROD and it was presented to me on this lovely wooden board. I've never had tea served to me this way, with loose leaf and a strainer, so I was confused. I'm not classy enough for this, but I'm learning. At least I knew not to dump the loose leaf tea into the cup.

Turns out it's super easy and I didn't need to put much thought into it. I will definitely be back to try their bakery goodies.

Movin on Up

This is the lunch of a woman with a schedule. I finally have four classes and all of their real hours and locations. Music, literature, regional development, and Spanish. Two classes at the local, public university (Universidad Nacional de Cuyo) and two classes with the program.

Dinner was a DIY salad. I opted for everything.

Blurry canned tuna. mmm. 

I've been craving churros and haven't told anyone. But somehow my host mom knew. She came into my room before dinner and said we were going out for churros. I wanted to ask if we'd be eating dinner before or after, but I just went with the flow. Turns out the churros with dulce de leche were dinner. So, I ate three churros at Churrico (apparently the best place to go for churros in Mendoza, it's been around for 45 years) for dinner from 9:30PM-11:30PM with two sixty-something year olds. This kinda stuff doesn't casually happen in the U.S.

Cabin in Potrerillos

Today is another holiday in Argentina, to commemorate General San Martin. He liberated Argentina from Spain. We didn't have school on Monday and decided to rent a cabin in the mountains.

Tea in a Texas mug and a lady finger or "Riki sima" for a quick breakfast before I headed out for the bus to take me to Potrerillos, a small mountain town about 1.5 hours away from Mendoza.

I've been to Potrerillos once before, but this time we took the bus even further to "Alto Potrerillos."

The entrance to the cabins. The name of the town and the name of our cabin rental place were the same, Alto Potrerillos, which proved to be only a little confusing.

Two pools and a breathtaking view.

Our cabin's name was Jupiter.

That's ours! 

Hey, friends. 

There was also a playground.

With a zip-line...

Naturally, we had to utilize the equipment.

Went for a short hike to look around the town and climb a hill.

Dinner for the first night was pasta with a ton of veggies.

Discovered a new favorite tea: Rosa Mosqueta y Manzanilla. Not sure about the translation. Something with chamomile.

Day 2: Oatmeal and raisins for breakfast before our long hike.

After searching for a path and ending up having to crawl through a fence, we were met by a herd of cows blocking our way...

Finally made it to the top!

Banana in the Andes.

Salami sandwich in the Andes.

Got a little lost on the way back from the hike. Ended up on someone's private farm after crawling under/through two fences. Post hike ice cream helped with the stress. Dulce de leche (OMG THIS WAS SO GOOD) and chocolate.

Dinner Day 2: Rice, beans, veggies. Beans are not popular in Argentina. We looked in the grocery store for awhile to find some, but I'm pretty sure these are actually lentils.

Blurry picture of some amazing bread I had on the bus back to Mendoza.

Día del Niño and the Start of Classes

Last weekend was el Dia del Niño in Argentina. Argentina has a couple of other holidays the U.S. doesn't have such as Día del amigo y Día de la mujer. I like these holidays. Día del Niño is a day to celebrate the children in your life. To me, this holiday seems a little strange because virtually every day adults are giving to children. And, everyone is a child. Not everyone is a mother or a father, but everyone was born at some point. Regardless, it's a day to spend with family and a day to give gifts and a day to eat food. I spent the holiday with my host family and their extended family.

I gave the three kids I was spending the day with three triple chocolate alfajores. Alfajores are delicious crumbly cookies and I've eaten many, usually I go for the dulce de leche flavor. The kids were very excited and the one pictured below opened his up immediately and ate the entire cookie. I was not expecting a gift for Dia del Nino, buy my host mom gave me soaps that smell like peaches and have built in massage knobs. I was glad to be a kid again.

We ate spinach and ricotta filled ravioli with incredible meat sauce. Large chunks of meat that had been sitting in the sauce. Bread. and an ice cream cake. The ice cream cake had pink ice cream which I thought would be strawberry flavored. It was bubble gum.

Following a relaxing and fulfilling weekend, life became hectic with the start of classes. I'm trying to take a literature course at the local, public university. So I went to Literatura Argentina I for a couple of days, but the colonial Spanish proved to be too difficult. I went to a new class yesterday called Literatura Hispanomericana II and I think this will work much better with my level of Spanish. This literature class will probably be my only truly difficult course as I'll be taking two courses with the program and a dance class. I'm very excited to read contemporary Latin American authors. I've been pretty disorganized when it comes to arriving to class on time/on the right day. It's not completely my fault, though. The hours seem to change without my knowledge. I'm trying to adopt the chill, Argentinian vibe with this whole process.

Caprese torte for lunch. Sun dried tomatoes and mozarella in a crust.

When host mom is away, I will take selfies while eating torte.

An interesting lunch of canned tuna in my spaghetti...

I was walking to class when I received a text saying it was cancelled. I bought a dulce de leche chocolate bar and watched The Office instead.

Chicken Dinner and Diversity

I was watching Argentina's version of the Food Network, El Gourmet, when I was surprised to see the sushi chef cleaning the fish on camera. I watch quite a bit of the Food Network back in the US and I don't think I have ever seen one of the chefs put the whole animal on the table and carve out a piece of usable meat. Maybe it's too gruesome for the stomach of your average US citizen. To me, it highlights the lack of connection we have to our food. The piece of meat is coming from a whole animal. Why can't television show the whole animal? Plus it's super helpful to watch someone clean and cut the fish.

So in the midst of me being shocked as the Asian sushi chef, Iwao Komiyama, cuts the head off of the fish, I was even more shocked to see an Asian chef with his own show. Are there any Asian chefs on the Food Network? I think I've seen Rachael Ray or Sandra Lee fry some noodles in a pan, but why are there no Asian chefs?? I'm using general terms here, but I've seen very few East Asian/South Asian/African/latin@/POC/non white/non American chefs on the Food Network. The only people I've seen who appear to identify as such are Sunny Anderson, her husband, and Maneet Chauhan, who is a guest judge on Chopped, meaning she does not have her own show. I could be missing a few, but I'm probably not missing many. What's up with that Food Network?/the rest of the world?

Thanks for being a little more diverse, Argentina. 

Here's what I ate while I watched El Gourmet and pondered transnational racism.

Poached chicken and a cream/oil sauce with carrots and onions.

My plate.

I think I have found a dessert I love even more than dulce de leche: higos. An higo is a fruit, but it comes in a sugary sauce that is seriously irresistible. Also, these plates are so cute.

We have whole walnuts in the house. A few days ago, I took them on a hiking trip and cracked them open with rocks. But last night, I had just finished flossing my teeth when my host mom came in my room with an already cracked walnut. I wasn't even mad.