Mendoza and Cordoba

So after more than a year of seeing my friend Jessica, who arrived last year to Argentina a month before I did, except never left until December, where she went for 5 months to Brazil and then traveled back to Argentina recently, we were able to meet up and spend time again in Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza was beautiful, by far the cleanest city in Argentina. The people are super friendly, and the landscape is amazing. Mendoza is the wine capital of South America, and is best known for the Malbec grape wines. We took a tour of 3 wineries, learned all about he process of wines, the proper way to taste, drink, hold a wine glass, and check to see weather the wine is good to drink or not by smelling the wine before drinking. It was great, we first visted the Belasco de Bosquendo winery, which is of a Spanish winery, who chose to put one winery in Argentina to make Malbec wine. The next winery we visted was Norton, the biggest winery in Argentina and the most famous. In comparison to the last, Bonfanti, a small family winery, which was a much personal experience, recieving the tour from the owner of the winery. The landscape was beautiful. Mendoza is a very dry, desert like region yet has the beauty of the snowcapped Andes mountain range as a backdrop. From Mendoza, our original plan was to visit Santiago de Chile, which technically was 6 hours away, however because of a snow storm, the pass across the Andes was closed for another week, so we decided to head to Cordoba. We went to Cordoba because I hadn't been since February of 2011, and it is where Jessica had been living, we stayed with a friend in his apartment and visited the main tourist attractions of Argentina's second city. Which seemed to be even more beautiful and clean than I had remembered it. Recenly got back to Buenos Aires, but very content with this awesome trip.

Tecnópolis and debt paid off.

The other day I went to Tecnópolis. Its a temporary theme park, they are doing every year here in Buenos Aires (this is the 2nd year, I left last year a week before it started). It is an iniciative started by the President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Everything in the park is free, the expositions, the multiple museums and interactive games. Admission is 100% free and is a very cool educational experience. Another iniciative put forward by Cristina Kirchner's government (now in its 2nd term having one reelection in October 2011 with over 54% of the vote against 4 other candidates, a historic win) was to pay off the debt of the 2001 crisis that Argentina suffered due to neo-liberal policies put in place consecutively by almost every government since the dictatorship of 1976 until 2003 which included policies mandated by Washington and the International Monetary Fund, which meant taking huge loans, privatizing every service and industry and in the 1990's, pegging the Argentine peso to the US dollar, known as the "Uno a Uno" which ended in 2002 with the Corralito, which meant that the government had to block people out of their own bank accounts because of the HUGE loss of money, almost overnight, of cash in the bank during the crisis. It also led to the end of the "Uno a uno" which meant that overnight someone who had saved their pesos at the value of one dollar each, now had over 4 times less the amount of money in the bank. The private debt accumulated at this time by private industries was then made public, in other words, the government accepted to pay that debt, which now meant that the Argentine people had to bear the burden of all of the debt accumulated without their consultation. This debt of the corralito is known as the BODEN. Cristina Kirchner's husband, Nestor Kirchner (who unexpectedly passed away in November of 2010), who was president before here from 2003 to 2007, was able to pull the country of the crisis which left over 50% of the population in poverty, who in 2005 denied a trade agreement to George W. Bush, aligned with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Lula da Silva of Brazil which would have ultimately given Washington a lot of say as to which economic policies should be put in place in South America (which would obviously benefic US interests much more than those of the people of South America). Nestor Kirchner also went with Lula Da Silva (Brazil also, like many countries if not all in the region to some degree, had gone through similar demands by the IMF and their economy during the past few decades)together they presented a joint agreement to the IMF to pay a porcentage of the debt, because the full debt would be outrageously impossible to pay, that the IMF accepted and cleared their debt with both countries. Today Argentina is the fastest growing economy in Latin America and Brazil is the 5th largest economy in the world. Further more, Argentina went from over 50% of their population in poverty to having half the current unemployment rate that the United States has as well as the highest paid wages in all of Latin America. Although Argentina does have its problems, it seems like the progressive government of the Cristina Kirchner with the slogan of "Social Inclusion" is doing well for all sectors of Argentine society. You see the constant growth of the southern Conurbano zone, or suburbs of Buenos Aires, the south being known generally as poor, new sky-rise luxury apartment buildings, fancy restaurants, elegant cafes, and even multiple openings of the all too expensive Starbucks Coffee stores (where I am currently writing this blog... Missing Washington state a bit). http://www.prensa.argentina.ar/2012/08/03/32889-se-pago-la-ultima-cuota-del-boden-2012-que-puso-fin-al-corralito.php There is an article in Spanish, which I am sure with the new web browsers it can be translated to English. Fun video in Spanish about 10 years after the crisis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uARHgbw_mOY&feature=related

END OF CLASSES

So classes have come to an end once again at the Universidad de Belgrano. I enjoyed my classes, I got great grades, better than last time. However this year I do have my critiques for the University, which I felt was extremely unorganized, even more so than last year. Like the end for example when the grade sheets that we have to get signed by all of our professors weren't ever ready and we just finished the semester without them completely. (This does worry me, because I got 2 10s and 3 9s, I want my correct grades on my transcripts that will be sent to EWU). Also I just got an Email from the international study office asking me to stop by to give them the address I want my grades sent to at my Home University, information they should already have and would complicate the majority of the international students who have already returned home. But once again, the good experience of really interesting and great professors and meeting some great, fellow classmates with similar interests really outweighed the institutional mess that is the UB.

El laburo

So, I have been going to job interviews here and there, but nothing really ever panned out. Well, I have no been hired as a call center representative at the website: BuenosAiresDelivery.com I recieve orders that people place online and I call the restaurant and place the delivery order. Its a lot of fun, so far I like working there. Just fighting my way through classes now, until the end of the quarter, trying to figure out whether I'll go back to Spokane for my last classes in September or do them online. If I go back I could possibly go to Cuba in December. Its a hard decision though, seeing as I have almost a whole second/parellel life here in Argentina now.

So yeah... about that...

Well, as I was excited before about meeting kids in my classes and getting into the material. I sort of regret it now. I feel the University, as I am now remembering about last year, organizes their schedules around giving time to the American students to party. So I spend the middle of my day, starting at 1pm in class, when I could take advantage of that time to be going and experiencing the culture and/or looking for a job. I would rather start classes during the morning. Another problem I have with a lot of the students, not all, but a lot is that they came with the idea that this was some sort of vacation, mainly because their Universities don't transfer their grades as numbers or letters, rather as Pass or Fail. All they have to do is pass, so they don't care much about working hard on the material. This means that when I'm assigned to groups for presentations in class, I ended up doing most of the work. (which I like to do anyways), but its annoying when we get to the day of the presentation they don't know what we're talking about, and because they usually don't care much about learing Spanish properly, I have to back peddle and explain everything better to make sure my grade doesn't suffer. This is a rant blog. Anways, on a litter note, La Oreja de Van Gogh, a band from Spain I first started listening to when I was learning Spanish is coming to Buenos Aires and I bought tickets. Ok, so I'm not 13 any more, but I'm not going to miss one of the first bands I ever listented to in Spanish:

Classes started!

So, classes have started, and this is what I've signed up to take: Monday & Wednesday 1pm-2:30pm: Narratives of the monstorous in Latin America. Monday & Wednesday 2:30pm-4pm: Gender Studies in Latin America. Tuesday & Thursday 1pm-2:30pm: Latin American Social Movements. Tuesday & Thursday 2:30pm-4pm: Contemporary Argentine Art. Tuesday & Thursday 4pm-5:30pm: Argentine Cultural Studies. I am excited and looking forward to meeting the kids in my classes, and getting into the material of these clases, most of which are extremely interesting to me.

Beautiful Bolivia

My visa into Bolivia. It was a mad-dash process, me and 3 other Americans on our bus full of mainly Peruvians, Bolivians, and Chileans crossing into Bolivia, had to get off at the border, run from office to office to get checked out of Peru, then into Bolivia, fill out an applications, pay the fee and have it be reviewed within 30 minutes before the Bus left us. Luckily we even been some of the Peruvians back to the bus. The fee? $135 USD. The experience in Bolivia? Priceless. La Paz was a surprise, it was an extremely beautiful city, the Highest capital in the world. Snow capped mountains off in the distance. The second day, I ate at an iffy restaurant (as I was warned, that Bolivia isn't the most heigenic when it comes to food and to be very carefulo), I ended up in a La Paz hospital with an intestinal infection on an IV. However, once I got to see the city I fell inlove. The people, and the culture are so different from what I had seen (except from Northern Argentina)which is cultural similar, but much higher quality of life and better economy really stands out in comparison. http://laalbicelestesoleada.blogspot.com.ar/2011/05/northern-argentine-road-trip.html

(A Chola, typical native woman of Bolivia, generally from the country side, but that have moved to the city)

In La Paz, I met up with Jonatan, to continue the rest of the trip through Bolivia. Our next stop would be Cochabamba, the birthplace of his father. This city has the largest Jesus Statue in the world, even bigger than the most famous one in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Cochabamba, was beautiful, as Uyuni, a city in the south where the world's largest salt flats are located. We took a 4x4 into the middle of the flooded Salt Flats to explore, which was completely beautiful. After 24 hours of no sleep we left Uyuni for Potosi. Potosi was the capital former Viceroyalty by the same name which occupied the majority of the lower part of South America. This city was a gold mine for the Spaniards... literally. It was the city of the largest gold and silver deposits ever discovered by the Spanish, almost the real life El Dorado.

Finally, we ended the trip in the most non-Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. I say non-Bolivian city, because its nothing at all like the rest of Bolivia. Its a city that finds its self in the low-land tropical jungles of eastern Bolivia, instead of the High cold mountains like the majority of Bolivia's cities. Santa Cruz is the most economically developed city in Bolivia, and has the largest population. The people here have almost nothing in common with the inhabitants of their capital in La Paz, they speak with a completely different accent, they have different ways of life, they eat different foods, wear different cloaths, and are all in all, very different. The city was a nice change from the cold weather we'd been experiencing in the rest of Bolivia. The coolest part of Santa Cruz, was that in our Hostel, there was a pet Tucan, that would let you hold him, pet him, and in the morning would jump on your breakfast table and still your fresh fruit.

A dream of mine came true in Peru...

Last night I arrived from my travels to Peru and Bolivia. I first visited the surprisingly beautiful, clean, and modern city of Lima that felt strangely like a Southern California city. Modern malls over looking beaches of the Pacific Ocean complete with Starbucks, TGI Fridays, Domino's pizza, and all the American products that aren't as common to come by in Argentina due to their own internal industry, somewhat stronger than that of Peru's, and strong economic ties with imports from Europe and Brazil. However, one of the coolest "Made in Peru" products, was the delicious, yet super sweet INKA KOLA , the Peruvian answer to Coca Cola (which oddly is now owned by the Coca Cola company).

Two days after my arrival to Lima, I got on a iffy looking "Peruvian Airlines" flight with a very old plane for an hour flight to Cuzco, Peru, the Incan Capital. The flight was practically Verticle the whole time due to the fact that we were going from sea level in Lima to very high up in the Andes Mountains. Cuzco was flocked with tourists from all over the world, as expected. All heading to the famous Machu Picchu. The Andean culture started to be more noticeable, nothing at all like Lima, with a clear accent when speaking that marked that we were in the Andes, and artesans featuring llama and alpaca whool to keep warm in the high and cold altitude. Machu Picchu was a dream come true, although complicated to get there. One has to buy the tickets to get into the sanctuary park of Machu Picchu, then by train tickets to go to the town of "Aguascalientes" also known as "Machu Picchu pueblo." To get to the train station, you must first take a 2 hour taxi ride from Cuzco to another city, going 50 or so miles an hour around winding and narrow andean roads. But in the end, it was worth it (despite getting altitude sickness at the top of the mountain, I barely remember that part, it was so beautiful).

After Machu Picchu the next stop was the town of Puno on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. Spent a few days here, in a comfortable yet very cheap hotel room, trying to keep warm, and recovering from altitude sickness. The last day in Puno I headed out to the Lake and took a tour to floating islands where the Aymara people live, indigenous people that created man made islands out of Straw and Sea Weed on which they've buit their homes. They welcomed us to their Islands, and offered us food, artesans, and the kids were especially playful:

Next Stop: La Paz, Bolivia!

Decided to go to the Andes

Well three days ago I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Peru, I'm writting this from Lima, Peru I got here last night.

Haven't explored at all yet, but going in a minute. I'll be traveling by Peruvian Airlines in two days to Cusco and Machu Picchu, then off to Puno and lake Titicaca before heading to La Paz, Bolivia and ending in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

A 3 week trip through these 2 Andean countries before classes start, should be a great experience!

Rain Storm and Power outtage

So the other day I thought I'd take my computer and get some skyping in at a cafe in San Telmo, a cool "bohemian" like neighborhood about 30 minute busride south of Belgrano where I live.

When I arrived at the cafe, it started to rain, and when it rains in Buenos Aires, it poors.

I waited about 4 hours in the cafe and I decided right before close I should try and venture back to my apartment. I set out with my umbrella and backpack to the bus stop. I got on the bus and as the bus started to head back north, it began to fill up with tons of people escaping the rain. I later found out because of the downpoor the Subways and Trains weren't running. At one bus stop, a line of people waiting for the bus I was one, were denied to get on because the bus was already too full, the bus driver tried to explain to the people that more back up busses were on their way but they didn't care, they wanted out of the rain.. many start banging on the windows of the bus yelling obscenities at the driver, and one man got so angry he kicked the front door of the bus, breaking the glass window...

We set off again in the bus and every bus stop we passed and didn't pick up the long lines of people, the bus driver got an ear full of bad names.

The rain was so bad that some streets had flooded and there were power outtages.

When I arrived finally after 50 minutes to my apartment building, I found a dark, lightless street. The power was out in my building.

I decided to go to the starbucks around the corner on one of the main avenues and wait it out until 1am when the starbucks closed to use their internet.

I was there a little while when suddenly, the whole place went black.

I was in the back and around the corner of the entrance, it was dark, but luckily one of the starbucks employees came and got all the customers out with flashlights.

Then I went to an icecream shop to wait since I obviously couldn't stay any longer at the starbucks. The icecream shop closed at 1am as well, and I came to my darkened apartment,

however for the complete darkness, I couldn't sleep also because of the heat and my fan not working properly, so I left and found an open cafe and drank tea and ate a grilled cheese sandwhich and hungout there until 5am when I came home, the power finally came on at some point in the morning while I was sleeping because I woke up to a working fan.

Quite an interesting experience.

The Coast!!

I recently returned from Villa Gesell (featured in the last X-men movie by the way, very poorly shown as a mountainous German-like village when in reality there are no mountains in sight, very flat coast line).

It was beautiful, however windy and cooler than the city. It was great to get out of the city's hot summer heat and cool down.

We spent a lot of time in a calmer resort neighborhood just south of Villa Gesell called Mar de las Pampas, full of cool modern shops and cafes, streets of Beach sand, and resorts and private huge vacation homes.

It was a beautiful 8 days with my friend and his family!

Ironically, I'm writting this at a Starbucks

So my first day, I met up with some old friends, one was actually leaving 3 hours after I got there for the airport to leave the country for a month, but we got to catch up and have lunch...

Later I met up with Jonatan, and walked around a good part of the city and had a coffee at one of Buenos Aires' many emblematic cafes.....

One thing I noticed was an increase in American chains, one being starbucks, the last time I was here, (only six months ago) I could count the amount of Starbucks in Argentina (all of them being located in Buenos Aires) on two hands and have fingers to spare. Today, Buenos Aires is looking more and more Seattle-ish, with more than 44 Starbucks locations in the entire country, in various cities, and quite a few being here in Buenos Aires.

Another surprise, two blocks from my apartment, was that a Wendy's opened up, a company that left the country in 2001 with the Argentine economic crisis and just now returned opening their first location near my house.

Another thing I noticed was the Christmas decorations around the city. A giant Christmas tree in the Plaza infront of the Government's "Pink House." Here Christmas decorations aren't traditionally taken down until the 6th of February.

MY BIRTHDAY:
So December 29th was my Birthday and I spent it with Jonatan in a city just 20 minutes away called Quilmes, its practically a suburb of the capital, but it was a nice change, a little bit quiter with a cute pedestrian only street. It was a nice outing to a place I hadn't visited yet. The city is known for a Brewery, and the beer they produce by the same name, the most popular beer in all of Argentina.

NEW YEARS:
I spent New Years at Jonatan's house with his family also in part of Quilmes, called Berazategui. It was great, we had a typical Asado (BBQ) with all types of meet and food and drink with Jonatan's big family... all interested in asking me questions about things, I had a blast and at midnight, fireworks went off all around us.