Cafayate!!!

So this past weekend I went to Cafayate, Salta. Cafayate is nicknamed "where the sun lives", which I found out 1st hand thanks to the sunburn I was sporting. We left on Friday afternoon around 6, we being the 10ish exchange students and 5 volunteers. 

Cafayate is famous for its wine, and beautiful mountains. Our reason for going, was 1. a wine festival and 2. to see all the freaking mountains. I have to say, I took over 232 pictures on this trip, and about 60% of those pictures were of just the mountains. They were really cool. For one thing they changed color throughout the day, in the morning they were gray, midday they were brown, in the afternoon they were green, and at twilight they were a dirty red. Needless to say the following picture occurred more then once.

The wine festival was really fun! It was an all day affair, starting out with a competition where the visitors had to go through the vineyard and collect as many grapes as possible. It is probably the cheapest, best, and most fun was to harvest grapes without having to pay the cost of labor. And I quote Paolo the Italian "I ah feel a like a mexicana... No imma not racist"

(The Mexican himself, Paolo)

(Dream team USA... like being blonde didn't make us stand out enough, we had to wear our matching blue AFS shirts. Twins?)

The festival also had live music (folklore), traditional Argentine dancing, asado, cupcakes, and of course empanadas.

(Action shot)

(This one is for block 4 English, because I know you're all hungry right now)

After the wine festival we went to this famous empanada restaurant where everyone writes on the walls. 

(Yes that is my hand writing, why should it not be? I put it there.)

On Sunday we went to this awesome wine museum that, like I keep telling everyone "fue muy interesante porque habia muchas actividades interactivas". Por ejemplo they had little men the size of shoes walking around inside TVs, recordings of vineyards during the year with talking field workers, and hilarious English translations that when read dramatically make them sound hilariously poetic, and when read with an Australian accent, sounds like something Steve Irwin would say (may he rest in peace).

(This one is my favorite, read out loud as seriously and passionately as possible)

 (They had movies about wine wheels, it was pretty legit)

(Also moving water movies that moved really fast and made me feel uncomfortable, like standing really high up in a building on a glass, see through floor)

There was also this really cool building across from the museum and it had llamas and stuff it was pretty chill.

The Americans, Lydia and I, then took a moment to teach our fellow exchange students the art of bernie-ing.

After the museum we went to an actually wine factory. It smelt really bad but it was interesting to see how the wine was made. I was terrified I was going to fall into the grape crushy machine, or drop the wine IIIII bought, yes IIIII bought wine, into the scary grape machine. There was grape juice remanants everywhere that looked like blood. I thought I was going to die.

Then we went and got ice cream. They had wine flavors so of course I had to try it. It tasted like wine, but colder and more frozen, but other then that it was completely the same as wine. I also got dulce de leche, and white chocolate. I really wanted normal chocolate, but then the guy asked me if I wanted white or dark, and I thought he was talking about the wine flavors, so I asked for white, and then I got white chocolate and it was a very confusing situation.

(By the way, the huge cup I'm holding only cost me 16 pesos, that's less then $4! Ice cream savings!!)

(I'm thinking of moving to Austria to become a milkmaid. I figure this way I can learn German, milk cows, churn butter, and eat homemade ice cream!)

Now before I finish this post, I will leave you with some pictures of mountains, because God only knows how many of those I have.

 (This one is actually a really popular tourist attraction. It's called the Devil's Throat)

Hope you enjoyed this episode of "The Mountains of Salta, Argentina"
Chau for now!

AFS... Another Fat Student and an update

***Note I'm sorry if I am writing awkwardly, I have found lately that I can't speak English correctly, especially with expressions. I guess that's a good thing though?


Now it's time to talk about the food! So much to say, so many dishes. The first thing I'll talk about is my normal eating schedule.
10:00 a.m. Wake up and eat yogurt with cornflakes in it, trix cereal, or an apple with tea or coffee.
12:15 p.m. Eat a large lunch, normally consisting of a combination of some type of meat, rice, potatoes, corn, salad, coke, and water.
4:15-4:25 p.m. School snack time. The snacks are the same each day of the week meaning if it is a Monday we have medialunas (croissants), Tuesday these really dry biscuit things, Wednesday a large slice of bread with cheese, Thursday the biscuit things again, and Friday a medialuna with a cream in the center, all with a cup of tea or juice
6 or 6:45 p.m. (depending on the day) We have merienda when we get home from school, which is just your average after school snack of cookies, fruit, toasted bread with dulce de leche, or anything else your hungry for with some mate, tea, or cafe. 
9 or 10 p.m. is normally when eat dinner. Dinner is normally not as large as lunch because it just isn't as important in Argentinian culture. So normally it's something like pizza with coke, leftovers from lunch with coke, empanadas (cheese or meat) with coke, or some other type of meat of course with coke. Then after dinner is desert which is usually ice cream, cake, or cookies. 

*Note this schedule does not include the many M&M's and other various candies I eat between these meals

Now that the eating schedule has been broken down we can talk about the cultural foods of Argentina. The most important food in Argentina is the MEAT! If you do not have meat in a meal the only possible reason is that you found yourself in a vegetarian house hold, or all the cows, chickens, and pigs in Argentina died of some swine flu like epidemic. The Argentinians love their meat and I can see why. AFS even strongly discourages vegetarians to apply to go to Argentina. 


Cooking meat is also a BIG part of the culture. Sundays are normally the designated asado days. Asado is pretty much BBQ but so much more. Almost every house has one of these. It's your own barbeque grill built into your house! Perfect for gatherings no matter how big or small. And the results are amazing! No offense to my father, but I don't know if its the meat here or the way the cook it but it's probably the best cooked/seasoned/tasting meat I've ever eaten. I like to think of it as that really expensive juicy, red, and really flavorful steak on a menu at a 5 star restaurant that I've always wanted to stuff in my mouth but have never been able. Legit all the meat I eat here makes my mouth water, have mouth spasms, and words just can't describe how good it is. 
During asados, there is usually 3 or 4 types of steak or other meat cooked on the grill and we eat it with bread, or mashed potatoes, or salad. 


Another important food item is the empanada. Empanadas are little pastries stuffed with either meat or cheese. There are also empanadas that are filled with cremes, jelly, or dulce de leche.They are eaten before parties for lunch, during futbol games, for dinner. They are pretty much the chips or fries of Argentina, and rightfully so.














The last staple of my daily diet is dulce de leche, or as I like to call it, the other nutella. In Argentina they have dulce with EVERYTHING. On pancakes (which I successfully made this morning), bread, cakes, cookies, tea, etc. It is amazing and I love it. 

 
There is so much more food here that I have yet to try. And much to my mothers content, I have been eating and trying everything put in front of me. I know a surprise right! I even had ham and cheese pizza yesterday following an onion pizza, and she says I never try new foods. 

The rest of my week was pretty chill. On Thursday I went and saw the Salta Orchestra perform and they were really good. I didn't love the songs they played but they preformed them well non the less. 

Friday I went to a small birthday party for my friend Sofia, that was a lot of fun, for dinner we had empanadas. Wow big surprise there. That's just proof how much we eat them.
Next week I have no school on Friday for some reason I didn't understand in class, but I'm not complaining. I'm also going to Cafayate, which is in the north of Salta. It is supposedly a big wine country, so that should be fun, and I know my dad is jealous :)

One last thing of interest I should post about is my class. This is just a quick thing, but I think it's funny. So here I'm in senior year, and like in the US we order our senior shirts, except here we order hoodies. So, every day, and I mean EVERY day, we spend at least one or two class periods discussing possible designs, colors, if it should be reversible or not, and other stuff like that. Some people get really into, especially when we finally decided on the colors red, white, and blue, I wanted red, white, and grey because it was a lot better and didn't look like the french flag but whatever. One girl shot up out of her seat and started yelling a million miles per hour about how the colors were "que feo!" and I only caught I few words like "ugly" "idiot" "stupid ugly", I was actually terrified. In the picture below, taken on Thursday, we spent about 70 minutes between two different classes figuring out the style and colors and voting on different things. These diagrams are also in a facebook group, drawn out in a persons notebook, as well as on the board. Its a big deal and it is hilarious to watch.  

^Santiago taking a poll on the colors


Also Disney movies are so much better in Spanish, they are way funnier. Except the music is better in English. They should combine them with the Spanish words and English songs that would make them perfect!

Chau for now!

Los Monos Chiquitos! Among Other Things...

So in the last week I've done quite a bit. The rest of my school week went by quickly. My classes are all really simple to understand, just kidding, except chemistry which is actually easier to understand in Spanish than in English.

On Saturday I went to a little reunion of AFS at one of the volunteer's houses. There I met a few exchange students that have been here since August that I had no idea even existed. We played a few games, did some scavenger hunt type stuff and just got to know one another better. The group of people included current exchange students, returnees, future exchange students, host family members, and volunteers. 

On Sunday I went to my host mom's brother's house for one of the biggest meals I've eaten in a long time. I swear almost every meal I eat hear is as big as a Thanksgiving feast! But I'll talk more about the food eventually.

On Monday I went to the center of town for the first time and that was really fun :) Me and my host brother Nacho walked all around going into random stores, it reminded me a lot of LA mixed with 5th ave NYC. Also during school that day my class had a birthday party for about and hour and a half for one of the girls in my class.

 (Cathedral of Salta, located in 9 de Julio Square)

 (San Francisco Church)

Tuesday I got to be on a cable show for the last 5 minutes and me and my friend got to go and dance with the cast during the credits. I kind of felt like I was on the Amanda Show bringing in the dancing lobsters... partly because my face was a little red, but mostly because I was on TV dancing. After that I went to a birthday dinner for my other friend at an Italian restaurant. I ate a lot it was good. I swear with the amount I eat here I won't even have food babies anymore, I'll just have food quintuplets every meal.

 (I have no idea why they had clowns on this show. It was a share your opinion on things type show)

Wednesday I was back in the Plaza to meet up with some of the exchange students, we walked around and talked and it was a pretty good time J I was really excited to finally meet the other American in Salta! Her name is Lydia and she is from Connecticut. Finally! Someone that understands the stupid American movie, tv, and slang references I make!

On Thursday finally for a used trumpet to use while I’m here and signed up for the La Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil de Salta, it sounds so fancy in Spanish!

On Saturday I left in the morning to go to Tucumán a 3 hour long car drive south. There we stayed at a bed and breakfast type place with a pool. I laid around and finally got a little sun.

Maybe now I won’t stand out and the skinny, pale, and blond American boy, but instead just the skinny and blonde American boy! We went into the town center for dinner and ice cream. Its funny because there were no kids on the playground at 7:30 pm, but once it hit 10:30 there were like 50 of them. I like that the kids come to the park at 10:00 and play till 12. I wish people in the US weren’t so paranoid and let kids do that!

 (completely deserted at 2 in the afternoon)

Sunday/ Today I went to the zoo! So many animals! There was one that I have never seen in America and it reminded me of a bunny/ deer. I call it the Dunny! Yup lots of wittle animals! My favorites were the monos chiquitos! They were so freakin adorable I almost died from there cuteness.

 (the "Dunnies")

(Da wittle mono eatin some grass!)

On another note, I can already tell my Spanish has gotten a lot better in the last week. While I don't feel as though my vocabulary grows more then a few words a day, I am very confident with the words I do know and I can speak way more fluidly without getting as tongue tied as I did last week.

Hope all is well with the rest of the world! Also I might add that new song by Carly Rae Jepsen, really? I showed it to people here and they just laugh at its ridiculousness! Especially after I explain the lyrics to them! I feel almost as embarrassed by this song as the Argentinians feel about the Wachiturros! Probably the worst song ever. I much prefer this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcm55lU9knw A much better song in my opinion, and popular everywhere else in the world!

 

Chau for now,

Tyler