Week 4 Into Winter

I did not do much this past weekend. Somehow the Jordan Family Plague made its way to Argentina through me and surfaced last week...imagine that... So I slept most of the weekend.This past Sunday there was a 11 mile run through some of Mendoza´s most famous vineyards. I intended on doing it, but when I attempted to register, I could not pay for the entry fee (I kept getting an error). However it was good thing I did not, because Sunday was the day I felt the worst... o well....

Yesterday we went to a fùtbol game (soccer game), let´s just say there is nothing like a fùtbol game in the states compared to here. He paid a bit higher seat prices so that we could get safer seats. It is extremely unsafe in the "Hooligans" section. There were fireworks when the home-team came out (courtesy of the Hooligans...) especially when we scored a goal. We won 2 to 0. Goody Cruz was the home team and San Martin (which in another province in Argentina) was the losing team. Also they through a lot of toilet paper (which could last a normal family at least 2 years...) There was security out the wazoo, at least 250 policia , 30 of which had dogs. After the game is when those policia come into play. I had trouble watching the game because I was watching all the other things going on during the game. I hope I can get to another one before I return, maybe I will have my camera on me the next time :)

Yesterday after the game I took a remis (like a Taxi but safer) with two other girls and they told
their addresses first and he replied in English (which usually make me
laugh, because they know you can´t speak their language :/ ). I then I had to explain (I did it in Spanish) exactly where I lived, since he did not know where the street was. He replied to me in English "You speak Spanish very well, you said everything perfectly. Ah, finally, recognition for the language, I am finally doing something right! We then talked about the Argentina national soccer team playing the US team and how we tied them 0 to 0. It was quite nice to finally have a conversation in Spanish that I could do.

Last week an Argentinian jet showed up on the Peotanal (a no motor vehicle street in the center of the city). Just thought it was random, you never know what might show up...

Everyone was asking each other why it was there and where it came from and when it appeared...no one knew...


When I was going to school at Victoria College, I had a Spanish professor, Señor Venegas. I must say all hose weeks he spent drilling the alphabet and the pronouciation of the letters into us (ah the days...) was quite helpful. I might not be able to speak the language off the cuff, but I sure can pronounce words that I read even if I have never seen the word before and it has been extremely helpful here.
We were required to have a dictionary with us for the class, it was small, nothing big, but I still have it, here in Argentina. I keep it with me at all times, and it it has saved my butt on multiple occasions (especially when telling my host mother what I did at school). Those of you who are reading this in his class, hold on to it. Trust me, you don´t want to be walking around with huge book that is bright orange or yellow and screams "I am a tourist." Which you might be, but hey, if you can pronounce their words, what does it matter :D

This coming weekend is a 3 day weekend. Myself and 3 others are traveling to Córdoba city , for the weekend. I´ll update more on Thursday and of course on martes o miecoles.

A bit about Mendoza:

Mendoza´s motto
-La Tierra del Sol y Bueno Vino (The land of Sun and Good Wine)

Here in the city we have these massively large gutters. They funnel the water that comes from the mountains (after the snow melts) into the city. There are water gates everywhere. Each day someone goes out and opens one of the gates flooding a certain section, then the next day, the same happens further up and closes the previous gate, and so on. Here water means ¨Life¨and is very important to Mendocinos. So why I am I telling you this? I do not really know, it just came to mind on my bus ride home. However, I did fall in one onetime trying to straddle it. They are very deep (3-4 feet), so yes, I felt like an idiot...