The desert, the best chicken I may have ever had, and everything in between

And the brief hiatus is broken! Here are the important things happening in my life right now:

1) Classes are so close to being over. I finished one final yesterday, but I have four more to go. I feel chill about it and I'm confident I'll get everything done despite the confusing Argentine rules and systems that I never seem to have a complete grasp of.

2) I've been missing theatre and performing so much here. I was being lazy about finding a way to get involved (which I normally wouldn't recommend), but a friend led me to a theatre-dance class and it's physically demanding and dramatic and I love it.

3) My search for what to do for three months of Argentine summer continues. I'm using WWOOF to find farms in the south of Argentina. I picked the south because it'll be cooler. I've gotten replies from a blackberry and raspberry farm and I'm still in negotiation with them to find out how long I can stay/wondering if I should do multiple farms or just stay at one.

4) I went to San Rafael last weekend (a small town three hours south of Mendoza, still in the province) and had such a great time. We did a challenging hike through the mountains, rafted in the rain and lightning, and ate raw pasta with a much too garlicky pesto (the food wasn't spectacular, except for the last day when we had a mini-asado and I could fulfill my chori-pan craving).

5) I've decided to change host families for next semester. I'm still not sure what type of family I'm looking for, maybe one with siblings. I have a lot of feelings about this and at the same time feel indifferent.

Picture time!

Took a trip to the desert in Lavalle. We rolled down the sand hills, went on a tour of the small town, and had lunch together.

Mate with a friend from Bolivia.

Cooking the chicken, pollo al disco.

Ok, for real, this was one of the best meals I've had in Argentina. Pollo al disco is chicken with rice and veggies which is really simple, but it was so flavorful and cooked perfectly.

I forget what this is called in Spanish so I'm just going to call it: Mendocinian Shepherd's Pie. It's got the mashed potatoes, beef, and veggies, but on top is sprinkled cinnamon and sugar. 

Onion and cheese pizza. It's pretty popular to buy pre-made crust and design your own pizza.

My host mom went on a trip to Brazil, so she left me a bunch of frozen food including this fish and pumpkin puree. This was the first time I've had fish here (aside from canned tuna) and it was delicious. The seafood in Mendoza is expensive because we're nowhere near the water.

My family has discovered Skype.

Tuna, rice, peas, carrots, and bread. 

And a sunset view of the city and mountains for good measure.

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.

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.

Hot drinks and a night out

Met up with some friends in the beautiful Parque Central and drank mate. Mate is a central part of the culture in Argentina. One person prepares the mate. The cup and straw are shared and passed around in a circle. A little strong/bitter the first try, but you can always add sugar :)

The wind was strong, so we decided to move inside to a cafe. I ordered a cafe dolce which is coffee and condensed milk at the bottom. Super sweet and yummy.

For the first time since arriving, my host family and I went out to dinner. The bread came with spreadable cheese instead of butter. Definitely prefer the cheese.

Water is not free. Most people drink agua con gas o "soda," but I'm sticking to my roots with this agua sin gas.

Bife con papas fritas. Very popular meal here. Everything was soooo good.

For dessert back at home: canned peaches (duranos) with dulce de leche. I'm really starting to become a dulce de leche fiend...

Mendoza

Finally in Mendoza with my host family!! I'm living with a woman named Carmen in a centrally located apartment with a view of the Andes. I felt weird taking a bunch of pictures of food when we were still getting to know each other, but I managed to snag one. I will be taking more pictures of the food I am served soon. Esta muy bien.

Zucchini tart, pizza with whole green olives, empanada with beef and egg. I've been eating more salad and less bread/meat lately because if I don't they will have to roll me out of Argentina. I made this plate for dinner when I was still a noob.

I ran into these medias lunas when I went to the quiosco to buy credit for my new cell phone. Not sure what the flat bread is on the left.