A Very Argentine Day

Last Sunday, still with my family, we had a very Argentine day. I woke up early and hopped on the subte (subway) to go running in the ecological reserve. However, it had rained and since everything shuts down when it rains here, the reserve was closed. I basically ran in giant circles for 8 miles, but it was a nice run, especially since running here is quite a challenge.

After my run, we went to Boca to see a soccer game. Being in Latin America, soccer is obviously a huge deal. David said "its like a religion here." So we headed down to the poor barrio of Boca, which is known for its pickpockets, its colorful houses (the picture on the top of my blog is on the main tourist street of Boca) and their soccer team, the Boca Juniors. Officially they are CABJ, club atlético boca junior. They are one of two giant rival teams, the other being River Plate. (I love that their names have english in them, and especially how people pronounce them in english!) My friend Nate had mentioned to me much earlier that he was going to be a fan of whatever team his family is a fan of. He's Boca. My family is also Boca; my host mom said "no one even likes River Plate anyways," so I'm Boca too. The stadium is called La Bonbonera, meaning candy box, because it's small and everyone is squished together. Because it's in this not-so-safe neighborhood and also because Boca fans are crazy, we had a package deal with a tourist program. This meant that we went to the Boca museum, which actually was kind of lame, and sat in the "tame" international section. The game was against Tigre, a team from a "suburb" of Buenos Aires. They tied, it was fun but not really as raucous as it would be if it were a big rivalry game. Apparently Boca is not so good this season, and the best player is said to basically play by himself because no one else is any good. Nonetheless, David and I got into the spirit of the game with Boca shirts.

Moving on to the next typical tourist activity, we attended a tango show that night. Unlike a milonga, where people can go and dance, you sit at a table and eat and drink and watch while people dance and sing. The music was live and really good, and the actual tango was pretty impressive too. This show was cool because it went through the history of the tango--from the brothels to the immigrants to the milongas to modern tango. Not knowing much about tango it all kind of looked the same to me except in different costumes. But don't get me wrong, tango is SO cool. I wish I could dance it but I'd need years of practice to be any good. Contrary to popular belief most Argentines, lamentably, don't know how to tango. Somehow it remains an important part of their culture. I think part of it is that tango music is ubiquitous. My one complaint about the tango show was that the singing was unimpressive. At a street performance the month before I'd heard this great, modern tango group perform and the singers at this show, though talented, did not compare. I have since gone out and bought the group's cd. They're called Sexteto Milonguero, and here is a link to a video of them playing at a famous milonga that I have been to. The singer is great, as is their accordion player. 

I have so much more to share, having since this day been to Patagonia and back, and heading tomorrow to Iguazú, the world's largest waterfalls. I've put lots of pictures up on facebook so if you're dying to see more head over there. 

Un beso a todos,
Rachel

Another stamp in my passport!

Dear blog,
Do I know you? Just kidding, but sorry I haven't updated in so long. I promise that I have a legitimate excuse: my family is here visiting me! I barely have time to do my homework (which only slightly worries me) not to mention blogging, but I'm now taking a few seconds from my busy day to post some things.

Coming to Argentina I had a list of places that I HAD to visit before leaving: Chile, Mendoza, Iguazu, Patagonia and Uruguay. I've done Chile, and this past weekend we all hopped over to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay for the day! Uruguay, or at least Colonia which is a three hour boat ride across the Rio de la Plata, is very similar to Buenos Aires. Same foods, similar Spanish, and relatively similar history. However, as the name suggests, Colonia is much more colonial than Buenos Aires, in part because of its Portuguese influence. It's a small town and really cute and quiet. The Spanish word "tranquilo" fits in perfectly. There were beautiful views of the river, and lots of cool art work and architecture. We were only there for 4 hours but it was fun, definitely worth it, and I got a few more stamps in my passport. And big news: I am now officially an Argentine resident until July 24th!

Since returning to the land of "vos," my family and I have done some cool things. But that's for another blog post. Tomorrow we've got a full day of exploring Palermo and Puerto Madero, and on Friday we leave for Calafate in Patagonia for 5 days! Expect lots of pictures to be coming your way. 

Not a fan of the 18 to 1 exchange rate, 

Rachel

Chi-Chi-Chi, Le-Le-Le, Viva Chile!

Although this post is pretty late and youre probably all about to riot at my lack of posts (I like to think I have a big following) I have a pretty great weekend to share with you. Last Friday through Monday, I was in Santiago de Chile visiting my roommate of freshman, sophomore and senior(!!) year. She's studying there and her host mom was nice enough to let me stay on the couch in her house. Between that and the incredibly cheap flight I found, this weekend was more than worth the money I spent.

Friday night, Laura and I first of all went to the Santiago Marathon expo, to get our shirts and numbers for the 10k we would run on sunday. We came back to her house, found out we did not get a Senior Apartment (but we're getting the next best room on campus so it's okay), and went out for dinner and a few drinks. We went to a little restaurant with traditional Chilean food which was so delicious. Laura got a typical dish called Pastel de Choclo which is like a corn, polenta-type caserole with chicken and vegetables. I got a stew with brisket, onion, potato, pumpkin, rice and corn on the cob. It was delicious and I would easily say that it was the best meal I've ever eaten. Laura also insisted that we get a traditional drink called Pisco Sour, which was also delicious and kind of like a margarita. Then we met one of Laura's friends from her program and went to a bar, had a drink and danced.

This is me, Laura and her friend Ryan. Don't know who the girl on the right is, she joined in my picture. Also clearly the person taking the picture was really tall.

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On Saturday after a brief run, Laura and I headed to the music festival called Lollapalooza. This is the first time it's happened outside of the US and it worked out so well that it was in Chile the same weekend I was. We'd ordered our tickets in advance but the willcall line was ridiculous. We had to wait in line for many hours, and actually had to miss the first few performers. People were getting really upset and the police showed up on horses and with fences in case a riot started. Things didn't actually get riotous but it came close. Luckily we got out tickets after only 3 hours of waiting, unlike some people who waited 5 or 6. All this because we cut the line! 

Police getting ready to link arms and become a human fence:

Here's the tiny willcall tent with people storming, and me "being happy" waiting in line for a long time, and the fences surrounding the tent after we finally got out of there:

The concert was really really fun, and we didn't miss the big acts. We saw Ben Harper, and lay in the grass and napped during the soothing music of the National, and danced to the Killers. I won't put pictures of that up here but they're all on my facebook. 

Sunday was super fun. We woke up extremely tired from being out the last two nights, but made it to the start of the race. There was an impressive amount of people there, especially since you never see anyone in South America running normally. Laura and I just ran the 10k, but there was a half marathon and full marathon, and there were 20,000 people. This used to be a very small race, and while it still is, it got much bigger this year because the marathon course can be used to qualify for the Olympic Trials. Laura and I had a goal to break 1 hour in the 10k (6.2) which we figured we should be able to do in our sleep. However, because there were so many people and the streets were not that wide, we hit 3k (less than 2 miles) in 20 minutes, meaning that we were going at a snail's pace. Side note: my favorite word in spanish is caracolear which means to move like a snail. Caracol = snail. That's what Laura and I were. But we ran along this really nice park and the "river" Maipú which is more like a stream and at the 5k started to speed up a little bit. I didn't see the km markers after that but we finished in 54-something, thinking that we still had another km to go. In retrospect we could have gone a lot faster but we beat our goal and had lots of fun so there's nothing to complain about. 

Here, Laura puts on her game face:

Us after we cross the finish line:

And the Chilean flag. The race started and finished right outside La Moneda, the Chilean White House:

After finishing we followed the crowds to where the food and drinks were. We got Gatorade, fruits and yogurts. The marathon was part of an initiative to get the citizens of Santiago to be healthier, and so they were handing out stickets that say "Elegit vivir sano," or choose to live healthy. I asked the woman for another one, and because I definitely did not sound Chilean (people did tell me I sounded Argentine while I was here), she asked if she could interview Laura and me as foreigners about our experience. We said yes and next thing we know we're talking to the ministers of tourism and health with a CNN Chile microphone in our faces! Unforunately I don't think our clip was used on tv, so I don't have a link to what we said, but I did snag a picture of the reporter and camera man!

After the interview and watching 3 Kenyan men finish in a row to win the marathon, Laura and I headed back to her house to shower and change. She headed back to Lollapalooza to see Kanye West and other performances, and I went on to snap a picture of the Santiago skyline from her window, see my friend Scott from my Birthright trip (Scott is working in La Serena, a city north of Santiago), and do some touring on my own. 

 Me, Scott and his girlfriend after lunch:

I was then left to my own devices (and Laura's Chile guidebook) to explore the city. I climbed a hill/fortress and took in some sun and more of the bizzare Santiago landscape--urban sky scrapers and the serene Andes mountains. Then I headed over to La Chascona, one of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's three houses. The movie Il Postino takes place here about him. I wasn't able to go inside but I was happy enough to see the unique architecture of the outside. I then hit up the Museo de Bellas Artes, which is known for its poor collection of Chilean fine art. I totally concur with that statement. There was some interesting art but it was mostly 20th century and not "fine" by the definition that it is not modern art. There were some good exhibits though and it was free, so I am definitely not complaining. What was more fun was sitting on the steps of the museum watching a mime in the street and a bizarre dance/theater group putting on mini acts in the crosswalk when the light turned red. After this I treated myself to a nice Peruvian dinner of steak, veggies and potatos, a glass of red wine and chocolate soufflé with mint ice cream while doing some reading. 

The city is fairly smoggy, but the mountains are definitely there in the background:

 La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's house. Named after his curly-haired lover:

 The river Maipú:

 Oddly entertaining street performers:

On Monday, I got to check out the Catholic university that Laura attends, and while she was in class, I went running. Then we went to the museum under La Moneda and saw some great and varied Chilean and American art, then we went to the market, I bought some aladin pants which are all the rage in South America and Israel (basically not in the US), we had some ice cream and I headed to the airport. Even that was exciting because there was a Dunkin Donuts and I got a coffee coolata! Ive been missing my iced caramel lattes terribly. 

All in all, I had a wonderful weekend in Chile. I'm so glad I went, especially because I now have two pages of my passport completely filled in! On to uruguay for the next stamp...

Laura and I took an equal number of pictures on our cameras, and it turned out that I had all the serious, nice looking ones, and she has all the goofy ones, so once she posts her pictures (AHEM) check back to see how many funny faces I made!

Atlantic to Pacific, 

Rachel