I'll Be Home for Christmas

Five months ago I started out into a journey of a lifetime. I was excited and nervous, happy yet homesick. Now I find myself once again in Miami, humming to the Christmas carols being played throughout the airport and savoring my Chinese takeout. Everything is so blatantly different from Mendoza, and I find myself already experiencing reverse culture shock. The most obvious of these shocks is the language. I hadn’t realized how much I’d learned to like hearing Spanish all around me and now I’m startled by the fact that I can understand perfectly what others are saying (and no, lady in security behind me, nobody but your friend wants to hear about your latest plastic surgery). When I do hear Spanish I strain to hang on to its melodic tones and even surprised the Hispanic woman who served me my Orange Chicken by ordering in Spanish. Luckily Miami provides a nice cushion in this way, just as it provided my first slap in the face when I entered the international terminal five months ago.

My experience in Argentina will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of my life and there are a multitude of memories and stories I have yet to record on this blog. Therefore I offer this disclaimer: the writings of Lisa en Argentina will continue (if just for my own personal record and amusement) though I am, indeed, no longer en Argentina.

If you should care to continue following my ramblings however, such titles as these will soon be appearing:

October: A crazy month in review

Sola in Bariloche

The November Trilogy:

1. Road Trip! Lisa Braves Six Hours of Argentine Highway Driving
2. Aconcagua – Reaching Base Camp of the Western Hemisphere’s Highest Mountain
3. The Beaches of Chile

The Election, Finals, and Thanksgiving in Argentina

and of course…

The Two Badass Blondes of Colorado Show Patagonia how it’s Done. 

All these (and potentially more) are still to come, so stay warm, have a wonderful holiday season, and if you should like, check out my continued ramblings as I finish up some of my favorite stories from my five unforgettable months abroad. Time to board for home sweet home!

-Lisa en Argentina

The Gringo Parents Meet Argentina - Guest Blogger - Ken Parker

Well, we recently returned to our local maelstrom from our respite in Mendoza, after 10 days and 11,000 miles. Oh, did I mention we saw Lisa there??

My social work class is not nearly as difficult as flying internationally

Yes, we highly recommend that if you visit a foreign country where you can't speak a word, you should send and advance scouting party down there 3 months in advance to make the proper preparations, become fluent in the lingo, and learn the points of interest within easy distances. This was Lisa's job!

Here's a quick day-by-day diary.

1) Saturday: Leave midday for the Denver airport. There, the first seeds of destruction are sown by an American Airlines baggage clerk who told us we could not check our bags clear to Mendoza, but had to pick them up in Santiago (Chile) and hand-port them to the LAN airline desk. (Wrong!!) We did as she said, unfortunately. The weird AA printer also printed out some paper fragments that constituted our itinerary, updated since LAN had changed some key flights a day or so before. (Surprise!)  We then spent around 2 hours on the cell phone calling Expedia and AA to find out what was going on. Long story short, we got out of Denver basically on time, but the flight to Dallas was delayed by bad weather. When we got there we had less than 30 minutes to change to the next AA flight. Luckily, they moved our arrival gate to the same terminal as the departure, so we had to (literally) run 400 yard (17 gates) to our next flight. Pant! Gasp! We departed basically on time, wondering if our luggage made the connection. Now to settle in for 9.5 hours of airborn pleasure...

2) Sunday morning we approached Santiago, and landed basically on time.

However, the LAN connection was moved up, so we had around 90 minutes to find it, but first, get our bags. Where are they?? We got to the LAN desk and the girl there (barely fluent) assured us our bags would be transferred, but we needed to stay at her desk to get our new bag tags. This would take a while, but as she called the baggage desk, I (barely) heard her say to ship them to Cordoba, not Mendoza. EGADS! I showed her our tickets and she (sheepishly)called back to get them on the right plane. Sheesh! Our tags arrived about 15 minutes before departure and we raced to the security area, which was empty, and then to our gate (luckily) close by. We took off basically on time.

3) Later Sunday morning we climbed over the Andes Mountains which were mostly visible above the coastal fog. WOW, they are really big and really snowy/icy, with prominent glaciers. COOL! After around 45 minutes we were on the other side, coasting into Mendoza. Lots (LOTS!) of vineyards easily visible from the air. We slid into Mendoza, basically on time. Then there was the customs line, and our fears about our luggage to contend with. Long story short, we got into the country and (Voila') found our bags!!! Around another corner (and X-ray station) we found Lisa! Hooray!

4) Lisa, like a mother hen, shepherded us to the taxi line, and off we went to central Mendoza. Just like that. No language problems! Around 25 minutes later (and 60 pesos) we were at our hotel, a very small boutique hotel with just 11 rooms. Very nice, more like a B&B. We met Walter and Amir, our hosts who became very helpful friends. Then Lisa took us to lunch at an outdoor café. The weather was perfect, and Sundays in Argentina are very laid-back.

Mom and Dad meet "The Chicas"

We then found an ATM for our first (of many) Peso conversions. No problems.

Rough rule of thumb: $1(US) is 5 Argentine pesos. Weirdly, they use the $ sign too.

5) Later that day after unpacking and figuring out our hotel, Lisa took us, and the 6 (SIX) boxes of Jiffy Corn Bread mix we lugged down, to her host mother's home (Dina is her name). It's about 20 minutes by shank's ponies.

We soon learned we would do a LOT of walking that week...  There we met a bunch of Lisa's friends and her host family (Dina, son Rodrigo and his son, 'Jim'). The excitement was immense, over the 6 boxes of cornbread mix. Lisa has promised everyone "Corn Pancakes" and off she and her friends went to get cooking. They ordered out Empanada's for us Gringos. They were really good! Amazingly, all the pancakes, empanadas and 18 eggs were consumed -- not a crumb left over!

Lunch at the bodega

6) Monday, Lisa arranged a bike ride day for us south of town out in wine country. We were picked up and transported maybe 10 miles to a bike rental place (Hugo's) and we picked out our trusty steeds. The road headed west. It was very narrow (like 18 feet with no shoulders) and infested with 18 wheelers and busses, but otherwise peaceful and tranquil. We decided to head to the end of the route and work our way back. The first stop was an olive orchard where they raise and bottle olive oil. Our host there was a very nice local girl who spoke English very well. We got a tour and had some snacks. We then headed back, to sample some wineries along the way. That's when my bike broke down, and we found ourselves walking on that same road, pushing our bikes. After a mile or so we found a gas station, but like any

7/11 here, they had no tools. A helpful truck driver attempted to fix my bike with his toolset, but could not. Luckily, the station attendent called the rental place, and Hugo came out a few minutes later with a new bike for me, so we soldiered on to the Tempus Alba winery for lunch. The Andes mountains loomed in the distance, all snowy white as we lunched on the deck. Really nice. We got back to Hugo's without futher incident and then back to Mendoza. Lisa had been at class that day, and we had dinner with her and some friends (as we did most nights). Dinner often starts around 10pm.

7) Tuesday, Lisa took us into the (large!) foothills to a Hot Spring resort.

I told them they were large...

We took a bus up there and paid a modest fee to get in. (This saved us a bundle over what the hotel wanted to set us up with.) Very nice. The foothills west of Mendoza are tall (probably 12,000 feet) and very dry, like Nevada. From Mendoza itself you cannot see the snowy Andes behind the foothills.

8) Wednesday, Lisa sent us on a hiking trip, starting with a van ride to a sporting company's base camp in the foothills. From there a group of us split into rafting, horseback riding, zip-lining and hiking groups. Jana and I had our own private hiking guide and we rode up the road a ways to a very non-descript pullout where we jumped out and started (straight) up the mountainside to a hidden trail. This then began to follow a small but very swift brook (spring fed) and after a while we came to a nice waterfall.

After some pictures, we took another route back to the road where the van was waiting. Back at the base we had lunch, and later returned to Mendoza.

Hiking in the Andes

A note about the countryside: very pretty, with lots of trees (irrigated) along both sides of each road. There is apparently no such thing as a road without shade. And the wineries are everywhere, probably 1,000s of square miles; a huge operation.

9) Thursday, we stayed in town. Lisa took us to the large park that contains one of the local universities (60,000 students). While she went to class, we took a quick tour that brought us up to the top of a "hill" on the west side of town (3,000 feet high) where there is a monument to the liberator (San Martin) of three South American countries. A really big, cool sculpture sat on top. The guide spoke English, and he devoted his skills to 2 words: "twenty minutes", meaning the time to view the sculpture. Oh, well...

10) Friday, we went to the local shopping district (oh Joy!) and browsed around, and had lunch at a local café. We kept things simple that day.

Mom and Dad drinking mate

11) Saturday, Lisa took us to the bus station and we got a local bus (many stops) to a town south of Mendoza, where we picked up a cab to the Salentein Bodega (winery). This is a spectacular location but because of of the overcast, we could not see too much of the Andes, which are quite near and very white. We took a tour of the winery after lunching there. Nice. And the cabbie waited for us to take us back to town. He spoke great English, had lived in New Jersey for a while and his son was in Tulsa Oklahoma learning to be a pilot. He gave us the local 'color'. An express bus took us home again.

12) Sunday, we had a picnic in the big park and spent some time at Dina's, learning about "Ma The" (a tea custom from the aboriginal peoples); all very laid back.

13) Monday, this was our day to get ready for our return, and Lisa had her spanish class. Because of a special project that day, her class was learning about local music customs, so we went along and sat in the back of class. One presentation involved bringing in a local singer to present some folk songs. This young man could put Pavorati to shame -- we expect to see him on TV some day. Very interesting...

Showing Mom and Dad around Parque San Martín

14) Tuesday, Lisa stayed the night in our room for our 6am rising time to get to the Mendoza airport (after breakfast). She saw us to the LAN desk and off we went to Buenos Aires. Note, LAN had rescheduled our original flight to land in BA AFTER our AA flight was due to leave, so we had to untangle that mess earlier. Once we got to BA, we had to take a hired car to cross the town to get to the international airport. But that went smoothly and we eventually got onto our AA flight to Dallas. Ironically, that flight headed west back over Mendoza and turned north near Santiago, so we retraced those miles for 11.5 hours of fun-packed flying (over the newly forming Hurricane Sandy), a bit bumpy.

15) Wednesday, we got to Dallas at 6am, and then Denver, and finally Fort Collins around noon, and still too early for bed, after 32 hours...

What a trip!

Visiting the Plazas in the city centro

The famous gates of Parque San Martín

-ken and jana-

Ok so now for the real story... just kidding! Overall I thought Mom and Dad did really well faring in a country where they don't speak the language, dinner starts at 10 and lasts 2 hours, and toilet paper is quite the commodity. For me it was fun pointing out all the things I've become used to and seeing their reactions, such as slow waitresses, lots of walking, and the craziness of Argentine drivers.

That being said, dad did fail to mention the story of the "Monkey Cafe" where thanks to a little miscommunication on my part, we ended up with an enormous array of food (usually shared by like 8 people) and including such lovely dishes as cow tongue and other squishy looking things. He also didn't mention how we improvised doggy bags by using the plastic bags their souvenir t-shirts had come in to scoop the ham, salami, cheese, and finger sandwiches into to save for later (hence why dinner was not mentioned that night). We left the cow tongue, etc. (Dela I know this is a crime).

We also had an Argentine Asado dad forgot to mention, where mom and dad got to sample all the best Argentine beef cuts and I tried the kidney. There will not be a repeat of that experience.

Mom also got spoiled a bit as Mother's Day happened to fall during the time that they visited (it is spring in Mendoza). So I brought over a rose and some wine to share and cuddled with my mommy who I missed so much. I'd say they planned the perfect time to be here.

Mom and dad also got to witness Lisa drinking (Gasp!) which also led to some generally hilarity at the restaurant Anna Bistro where, after some porch + wine relaxation at the hotel, we shared a bottle of wine  then were given champagne in honor of my birthday (we were celebrating a little late). Mom and I may have been finding things a bit too funny by the end of the night and I think my favorite moment was when we got back to the hotel and mom decided it'd be fun to put my ski goggles on and surprise me in the bathroom. Epic.

And they also met Ryan. You can ask them about that personally, but I think he passed the test. :)

Couldn't be more proud of my Gringo parents for pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and traveling to a country they'd never considered a vacation destination. Sure the bathrooms may not have TP or functioning toilets but hey! It's all a part of the experience right? (Mom's rolling her eyes right now I just know it).

Gotta love my gringo parents!

-Lisa en Argentina

Can You Spot the Trend?

As we all anxiously await my parents' guest blog, I thought it would be fun to provide a little intermission brain teaser for all of you who follow my ramblings. Especially if you've caught up on all the latest entries you may have better luck at earning the most points in this game, but I'm not going to make it easy.


There are three levels to this game. If you figure it out in the first level, you receive 100 points. The second level is a little easier, and if you find it within these sets of photos you receive 50 points. The third level is easiest and if you finally guess it here you receive 20 points. If you don't get it at all... don't worry. I'll still explain at the end.

All you have to do is spot the trend in the following photographs. 

Ready?

Level One (Hardest)

Still stuck? Move on to Level Two...

 

Still not sure what's happening here? Move on to Level Three...

 

If you guessed at any point during the game "Hmmm, this one guy seems to be popping up a lot..." you found the trend! His name's Ryan, and he's shown up in a few of my past blogs as well. Our love for anything outdoors brought us together week one, and since then it's been a progression of spending a lot of time together, (mostly planning adventures and trips). But then he got up the courage to go dancing with me, and was willing to spend time with me and my girlfriends (this is really quite daunting). It was when he decided to join my Tango class that I started to figure it out and a few weeks later we were happily holding hands through a government protest of 5,000 people marveling at how crazy the whole situation was.

You see, Ryan goes to DU, I've just never met him before, and now we're both pretty smitten.

So now it seems I get to bring home one heck of a souvenir along with all the memories we've already made. Guess sometimes you have to travel halfway around the world to find someone who's been right under your nose the whole time. Que suerte!

-Lisa en Argentina

The 'Rents Visit Argentina! (Also known as, that one country in South America we'd never thought of visiting before)

As many of you know, my parents were considering visiting me wherever I decided to study abroad this semester. It all sounded like a dandy excuse to travel to them, that is while they were imagining the shores of a Spanish beach, or the cathedrals of Italy, or the cozy English countryside. That's when I started throwing out this whole "full-emersion Spanish!" and "Latin America!" business which put a little pause in their step. South America? Do we really want to go there?

I remember when I was debating which program to choose and my parents were very much hinting that they'd like me to study in Costa Rica, in part because it's closer to the States. Me being who I am though, I had very much made up my mind I was going to Argentina, almost 3,500 miles further south. How did I convince them?

"Mom, would you rather visit me in a jungle full of snakes? Or in wine country in the foothills of the Andes?"

No more convincing necessary.

Months later, I found myself anxiously waiting at the international arrivals gate at the small airport here in Mendoza. I was trying to distract myself by watching this adorable little girl about three years old dressed in a cute skirt and pigtails hop around the waiting area, seemingly amazed by her ability to rise 2-inches off the floor. This was much preoccupying her (and me) when out of the secure area comes a familiar face. "Mommy!" She screamed and went running up to a tall woman who dropped all her bags to swoop her little girl up into her arms.

Yup. I got a bit choked up. And low-and-behold, seemingly ages later, I see two familiar faces myself and basically repeat the exact same scene (minus jumping into mom or dad's arms, since I'm a wee bit larger than a three year old). It was crazy to think that after months and months of discussion and planning and buying plane tickets and Spanish-English guidebooks that they were actually here, in my adopted country of Argentina. Let the shenanigans begin.

No look! They're really here! (At las termas hot springs in the Andes)

As for the actual events of the week, I leave that up to my guest writers, my two wonderful Gringo parents who will update you on our adventures just as soon as the jet lag wears off. Stay tuned!

- Lisa en Argentina

Cooking in Argentina (AKA How to Creatively Salvage Food in 10 Steps)

During the grueling process of trying to figure out what to pack for my 5 month adventure abroad, one thing that I thought would brilliantly supplement my experience in another country would be to bring my recipe cards and try to cook a few of my favorite dishes. Key word: try. I finally got my chance to do so in the form of my host brother’s birthday because I knew chocolate cake was his favorite and I had brought down my recipe for this cake:

The Triple Chocolate-made from scratch-double layer cake…

I made it last Christmas for my family and yes, it was as delicious as it looks. So I set my mind to making the same thing for Rodrigo’s birthday party, regardless of the fact that it’s one of my most complicated recipes (two index cards worth). Here’s how that went.

Step 1: Translating ingredients, converting units of measurement & making the shopping list – This cake has quite a few interesting ingredients and the most challenging part of this step was not only using the internet and various English-Spanish dictionaries to translate the ingredients, but also explaining to my host mom why I needed both Baking Soda and Baking Powder (which also turned into a mini chem lesson) and that Nesquick powder was not a sufficient alternative to unsweetened cocoa. Basically I was not only facing a language barrier, but also a very serious cultural barrier about how to make cakes. This would be a reoccurring theme throughout my endeavors.

Step 2: Buy ingredients – Once I had my grocery list made, I headed to the local Vea to buy the needed items. Luckily my friend Yona came along for Spanish/emotional support and together (plus the help of one nice man who’d lived in Jersey for a few years) we compiled the necessary items, or rather, what we believed was the closest Argentine version to the necessary items. Unfortunately the store didn’t have papel manteca (wax paper).

Step 3: Find papel manteca – Worried about how my cake rounds would come out of the pan without my trusty wax paper, I decided to try a few different places that could possibly have wax paper. First I had to wait for siesta to end, but then I realized it was Sunday, so long story short I had no luck finding the paper within walking distance. Rodrigo then took me to Walmart (yes, sadly it does exist here) where alas, they too did not have wax paper. This then marked the end of my hunt for papel manteca (because if Walmart doesn’t have it who does right?) but I did purchase Spiderman party hats for my brother, who was quite ecstatic at my generosity.

Step 4: Make cake rounds – Americans are very much rule followers. We have our recipes, we have our measuring cups, we have our measuring spoons, we have our timers and our clearly marked oven dials. Argentines are not so exact. A “tasa” is the closest thing to a “cup” here and even that depends on whose house you’re in and which water glass or coffee mug the owner hands you saying, “that’s about a tasa, más or menos.” So basically my measuring of the ingredients came down to eyeballing, which as we all know can be quite disastrous in the fine art of baking. I was starting to get nervous. It also doesn’t help that “sour cream” here tastes more like a combination of cream cheese and milk and also that measuring spoons are non-existent. Nonetheless I persevered and luckily with the help of my host mom’s electronic mixer (thank goodness she had one) and my trusty co-chef Yona, the batter actually turned out a nice consistency and tasted like, well, chocolate cake batter (how this happened is still up to debate).

Step 5: Light the oven – Fortunately up till now my host mom was away visiting with friends so Yona and I successfully commandeered her kitchen and were well into my recipe. The only downfall was that we had no one to show us how to light the oven, because yes, like the stove it too is a gas appliance. I had seen Dina do this once or twice before, but I was definitely a bit nervous as causing explosions of fire in your host family’s house is usually frowned upon. Yona and I schemed for a bit debating how to turn on the gas (luckily we were able to narrow down which dial did this fairly quickly) and then did our best to experiment and figure out the mechanism to do so. This was amongst much squealing and giggling as well as a lot of sniffing to decide if we were in fact actually turning on the gas to light the oven. Finally we figured out we had to push the dial and I bravely lit the oven without burning anything. (Dad this is once again a sign that I am no longer afraid of matches/fire).

Step 6: Set the oven temperature – My recipe calls for 350 degrees Fahrenheit which in and of itself is not helpful since everything down here is in Celsius, but the greater problem was that the oven dial (and the coinciding temperatures) had worn off, so setting the oven temperature also became a matter of guesstimation, which, if I added it up right, meant that 99% of my recipe thus far was reliant on this technique, “Is this sour cream? Guess so.” “Is this a cup? Looks about right” “Is this 350 degrees? Sure!”

Step 7: Remain calm – With the oven successfully lit and cake batter inside (hopefully cooking) things seemed well on their way and I was starting to feel little sparks of hope again that maybe, just maybe, this cake would actually be edible. Then Dina came back home. Right away she started asking questions about how things were going and after 10 minutes of banter watched over my shoulder as I checked the cake in the oven. Not surprisingly (in part because I had to use a tall glass baking pan) the middle of my cake was not wanting to cook. Exasperated I closed the oven and started brainstorming when from behind me Dina says, “Have you ever baked a cake before?”

For anyone who’s… well… at all interacted with me, you know I can get a bit defensive. I froze, translating and retranslating in my mind what she said. “Mamá” I said turning to her, “you know everything is different here right? The ingredients, your oven, the measurements…” “A tasa’s a tasa” she responds.

Luckily an Argentine friend of the family that was over for the festivities saved Dina from the onslaught of English/Spanish words I was about to throw at her about how a “tasa” changes from place to place anywhere you go in Argentina, much less trying to make the conversion work from a cup which is very exact in the United States. After that, I decided to ignore Dina as I continued cooking, only giving her short answers when she needed something and trying to keep my patience. I was trying so hard and I could NOT believe she didn’t understand how difficult this project was. It gave me all the more motivation to salvage my cake and make things work.

Step 8: Salvage the cake rounds – As I mentioned, the first cake round was not cooking in the middle, and it didn’t seem like it ever would, so I eventually took it out and put the second round in in a much wider, shallower glass dish, praying this might bring better results. After it had cooled some, I decided to dump out my first round to see what I could salvage and was pleasantly surprised that it had cooked more than I expected, in fact it actually looked like a cake round (see picture at left). Ok so maybe it was a slightly mutant cake round, but hey it was circular in shape and had volume so still better than expected! Then I pulled out the second round, which had cooked much better, and after it “cooled” (no such things as cooling racks here) I dumped it out too. Alas, this is when I needed my trusty papel manteca because large chunks of this round stuck to the pan. Looked like my vegetable oil spray and flour concoction as a substitute would only go so far.

But wait! After some creative reconstructive surgery using the pieces left in the pan and smooshing the round into a more, well, round shape, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did my second cake round look like a cake round, it was the same size as my first cake round! 

Argentine baking system – 0

Lisa’s creativity – 1

Step 9: Put the cake together – after hand making whipped cream, into which I folded milk chocolate, and then making the dark chocolate glaze, it came time to construct the final product. I was so nervous to move my nicely recreated cake rounds, but (whilst holding my breath the whole time) I managed to flip the first atop the second round with whipped cream mixture squished nicely in between. With much fanfare then, I made Rodrigo watched as I poured the dark chocolate glaze over the top of the cake and spread it over the sides. Finally completed! And while I will say it was not quite the beauty I made for Christmas last year, (rather a more Frankenstein version), I was still darn proud of that cake and given that all the parts tasted good alone (cake rounds, whipped cream milk chocolate filling, and dark chocolate glaze) I was banking on it being a pretty fabulous concoction altogether, Argentine baking system aside.

Step 10: Blow out the candle! – All the frustration, all the anxiety, and all the work was worth it for this picture below, Rodrigo blowing out his birthday candle on my, made-from-scratch triple-chocolate birthday cake. Unfortunately at this point it was about midnight and as I was fighting a cold and could hardly swallow (another detail that made the whole process a little less enjoyable) I could hardly keep my eyes open. I succumbed to my bedroom before the first piece was distributed, praying everyone would enjoy it, but too exhausted to try it myself.

Bonus Step: Make amends with host mom – While lying in bed, so ready for sleep, I heard a quiet knock at my door and Dina asking if she could come in. “Sí, mama” I say, running through my head what she could possibly want now. “Your cake was amazing” she said, “I ate two pieces and everyone loves it” and she gave me a big hug. I hugged her back, thankful for this little acquiesce on her part. Guess I know how to make a cake after all.

The next morning, I woke up late still feeling pretty crummy and set to work on some Spanish assignment in my PJs. Rodrigo this time tapped on my door holding a piece of my cake and some tea for my breakfast. He was so appreciative and said everyone enjoyed it. Satisfied, I finally got to sit back and try my Frankenstein monster of a cake, which tasted like a triple chocolate-made from scratch-double layer cake – amazing.

A testament to this fact is that only the small section seen in the photo at right was left over from the party (and the store-bought cake Dina had bought was untouched). I told my girlfriends there was a little left for them to try, but by the time they made their way over to my place (about noon) the rest of it was already gone. “You’ll have to make it again!” they said.

Ready for round two of Lisa in the kitchen Argentina?

- Lisa en Argentina

P.S. A few weeks later Dina overfilled her glass cake pan with batter and it bubbled over while baking. It was all I could do to resist saying, “have you ever made a cake before?” 

Argentine baking system – 0

Lisa’s creativity – infinity