Wine and paragliding - not at the same time

The past two weekends I've gone on trips, the first being to Mendoza. Mendoza is basically the Napa of Argentina, known for wine and pretty scenery. I went to Mendoza with my friend Charlotte from the program. A bunch of our other friends had already gone to Mendoza a different weekend so they recommended a bunch of stuff for us to do, including renting bikes to ride to the different vineyards and go wine tasting. We were really excited for our bikes and wine adventure but sadly, the weather was pretty bad (cloudy, cold and rainy) and the bike company was not renting out bikes. However, at the bike rental place, we met up with some other students that had also wanted to ride bikes and wine taste so we decided to join forces with them and walk/take taxis together to the different wineries. (Also, it just so happens that they were all Stanford students. Small world.) By the time we got to the first winery, our group had grown to 13 people after some Canadians joined us, as well as an Irish girl and a Swedish girl. Here we all are at a winery!



Another activity our friends had recommended to us is paragliding, or "parapente" in Spanish. Parapente is where you're attached to a big parachute and you run off the side of a mountain and then float leisurely down. I promise it sounds a lot more intense and scary than it actually is. Although the weather wasn't that great, it was still a gorgeous view. We were only in the air for about ten minutes, but I actually started to feel pretty dizzy while floating down, so the short time was fine with me.


View from the top


Getting ready to go!


Woohoo!

Beth - 1 Argentina - 1

Although I've been here three months now, I still find myself frustrated by the language barrier all the time. Even though this is to be expected, I find myself still feeling very self-conscious about my speaking and frustrated that I can't understand more than I do. However, in the past couple weeks, I've had a couple experiences that made me quite proud of my attempt to get by in Spanish.

First of all, I had my first exam in a real Argentine class with other Argentine students and I passed! Not only did I pass, but I did really well! It was my Psychology class at Universidad de Salvador. Since there were a lot of people that didn't pass, I was pretty surprised at my grade, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Also, this past week I went to the doctor because I had a swollen lymph node in my neck. It didn't hurt and I had no other symptoms, it was just very swollen. I was really nervous to go to the doctor and have to navigate my appointment in Spanish, but I managed! (And in case you're wondering, she gave me antibiotics and ibuprofen and it is definitely getting better.)

I'd say these two things make the score Beth - 1 Argentina - 1, in the game of Beth living in Argentina.

My trip to Uruguay (or how I found the site for my Latin American wedding)

Last weekend I went to Uruguay on a trip organized by IFSA. We went to the little historic town of Colonia, across the river from Buenos Aires. Although we had a lot of fun exploring the town (we even rented motorbikes to drive around town), the highlight of the trip by far was going to Mario's house outside of Colonia. Mario is the program director for IFSA in Argentina and owns a house/bed & breakfast near Colonia with his partner, Sergio. The place is called "La Casa de los Limoneros" which means House of Lemon Trees and it certainly was. The property was full of rows and rows of beautiful lemon trees, among gorgeous flowers, a pool and some very happy dogs. When we got there, the staff that works at his house had prepared an amazing barbeque lunch for us. The whole scene was so idyllic it felt surreal. It reminded me of how I felt living in Annecy in the French Alps last summer. After we ate, Mario led a group on a walk to and down the beach, in case the day wasn't perfect enough.

Yanqui Blanca

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've had some difficulties with people being able to say/understand my name here, particularly with the women who work at the "lavadero," the place where I go to get my laundry done. Now when I go to the lavadero, I just use my middle name, Clara, because that they can understand...or so I thought. However, when I went to pick up my laundry a few days ago, I saw that my laundry bag was not labeled Clara, but rather "Yanqui Blanca." For those who don't know, "Yanqui" is pronounced like Yankee and is a slang word for Americans, (kind of like "gringo" is for a White person) and "Blanca" means White girl. Therefore, I now know that instead of knowing me as Clara, the laundry women know me as the White American girl. In the ongoing battle of Beth assimilating into Argentine culture, this means Argentina-1 Beth-0.

Waterfalls and Run for Water

The past two weeks have been lovely, since my parents were visiting! We had a lot of fun doing touristy things around BA, like going to a tango show and taking a tour of the different neighborhoods of the city. One of the highlights of their visit though was our trip to Iguazú Falls. The waterfalls were absolutely incredible!








We took some walks around different points of the falls and also took a boat ride that takes you right up next to them. We got SOAKED so it reminded me of a water ride...except it's real life.

We were there for a full weekend, which some say is too long there, but it actually worked out great because it made our trip super relaxed and gave us time to see the falls and hang out around the hotel.

The other highlight of the past week was today I ran 6K in the Buenos Aires Run for Water, or as they call it Maratón del Agua.




Run for Water is a 6K race in lots of cities around the world that raises money/awareness for places that don't have easy access to clean water. My friend India and I ran the race together and it was so much fun! India had done a bunch of races like this before but this was my first one so it was very exciting for me. There were probably about 8,000 people there so it was a huge event. The running aspect was definitely challenging, but I hardly walked at all and I ended up with a better time than I expected so I'm happy. Here we are before the race looking all official with our numbers.