La vida buena

Wow. I've been pretty bad at updating this unless I have insomnia and it's 5 in the morning and I've got nothing better to do than kill mosquitos and twiddle my dedos. But! Here we are again with another insightful and seat-gripping post that will make you cry/sweat/bleed/fill that insatiable whole in the pit of your stomach that only a Limor can fill.

As of yesterday I moved out of my first house here in Mendoza and into house 2.0. I never considered how hard it might be living with a completely new family, trying to integrate myself into the family rhythm, adjust to the family rules... especially when they are absolutely insane and asinine. But I've left the negative energy behind and am now in a completely different section of the city with a completely different family. A little insight: the walls in the kitchen are painted lime green, accented with hand-crafted and painted ceramics, old photographs, and kitchy-whatnots. Most of the furniture has been painted by my sister Jeannete (24, tranquiiiila, studying to be an artist/musician/actriz/whatever outlet presents itself for creating things), and the walls are covered with art. Enter my bedroom: a little nook equipped with drawers, a dresser, a funky little lamp that makes the room purple if I want to, and two doors that lead outside to a roof/terrace that I can go out on ANYTIME I want without fear of an alarm going off and having to answer a secret code to the disgruntled man on the phone. When I came home from school/volunteering today, I could hear my mom, sister, and brother running to the door and my siblings both saying "no, I'm going to open it!"

A very important concept down here is that of 'onda'. In effect, onda is similar to the word vibe, only it is used with more frequency. Example, that hippy from South Dakota that is traveling through Mendoza and gave me a hand-painted rose has a buena onda (buena means good). It's really common to refer to a person who has either buena onda or mala onda... a house that has buena onda... a social interaction/situation with buena onda. So let me say that my family, house, and everything in between has a BUENISIMA onda. I feel like I am wanted, welcome, and respected. I also live a block and a half away from General Parque San Martin, an enormous park that is on the foothills of the Andes and is equipped with ample green spaces, a depressing zoo (which I mistakenly visited last weekend), a lake with an island in the center you can visit and tons of crazy trees, a small mountain to climb, an infinite amount of secret places inhabited by bums, Argentines making out, and nature-nature-nature. Especially now, with all the leaves changing and sprinkling the world with orange, yellow, and brown, I know this is the place for me (it's currently autumn in Mendoza... wicked pretty, but not New England pretty).

During the last few weeks I have been significantly improving my command of the Spanish language. Sometimes I really feel like I'm getting the hang of it, but yet I always have moments of extreme frustrating when I can't conjugate a verb, lack the vocabulary to say something, or just can't seem to move my mouth/tongue in the way I need to to form words and sentences. Overall though, I find myself less and less in situations where I can't express my thoughts, and I even found myself debating the subject of climate change with a friend here. That's right. A friend. I've somehow managed to meet a group of really really fun people here that I feel comfortable and happy around. Last weekend we went to a pajama party together (a great story, if anyone wants to hear the details another time), and sometime in the recent past gathered at a friend's house, bought all the fixings for smores, and taught the Mendocinos how to make the most delicious fire-themed snack there is. One of them even bought a kilo of marshmallows the day after because he liked them so much. Overall, I am so, so content and happy.

What else to say? I am REALLY good at making peanut butter, learned how to cook some classic Argentine food last weekend (flan, pan casero, Humita, empanadas) in the countryside, can dance folklore, am learning how to carve wood, and can say lots of dirty words in Spanish. I leave you with some photos of what I've been up to:


Me in Portrerillos--beautiful town west of Mendoza.


Tiger looking at me at the zoo.