Holy Zonda

So after telling various family members that I was going to update my blog either yesterday or the day before... I clearly decided to do other things instead. But don't you worry--I have thoroughly received punishment for not following through with my word. I have been forced by Mother Nature herself into this internet cafe where I am currently writing thanks to the Viento Zonda. Basically, it's a really, really strong wind that brings dry air and dust from the ocean off the coast of Chile into the region of Mendoza. When the wind reaches the Andes, it descends into Mendoza and the nearby provinces and blows up a mountain of dust, leaves, and every other item of trash left on the streets. The wind is super, super hot and when it is over (sometimes they last for more than 12 hours), the temperature drops SIGNIFICANTLY. So imagine a somewhat apocalyptic scene where the whole city is covered by a dark grey cloud, dust/leaves are violently tossed into the air, and everyone is running around trying to find some sort of cover. Now add the image of a random giant pile of leaves on fire in one of the plazas in the center because... well, I don´t really know why there was a pile of leaves on fire. Meanwhile I'm running around trying not to inhale too much and constantly looking up to make sure an old tree doesn't drop a branch on top of my head... and if you can imagine, STILL RECEIVING PIROPOS (catcalls from men--refer to an earlier post for more information regarding piropos). Holy ZONDA! What a crazy, crazy experience... Every orifice of my body is saturated with sand/dust/random-god-knows-what from the city streets and the ocean beyond.

Aside from this fun Zonda adventure, I have been keeping myself thoroughly busy since the last time I posted (I guess that is a continual theme in my life on this continent). I can successfully cross of a number of goals, as well as add a few more (and then cross them off). I have taken a class about wine (one that, I kid you not, tasted exactly, and I mean EXACTLY, like red peppers that had been cooked on top of a pizza: Finca Quora, Pecado, from Salta, Cab Sav from 2008), spent 24 hours straight without speaking/writing a single word of English (except when those words happen to be the same... for example they say the word "chance," "pullover," and "heavy with frequency in Mendoza) and, a goal that I didn't include but should have, spent pretty much an entire day drinking mate in the Plaza Independencia. Not to mention the fact that I have gone to over 6 folk concerts over the last week! And I just can't tell you in words how incredible these performances were...one better than the last! Something about the musica folclorica really creates a fire inside me. My blood pulses better with a soundtrack of flutes, guitar, charango, and cajas pounding in the background.

Perhaps the coolest thing I have done recently was going to the hot thermal springs in Cacheuta, a mountain town about 40km southwest of Mendoza close to the Chilean border/in the Andes. I went with a friend of mine from the program, along with her boyfriend (he's from Mendoza), and we spent a day TAN LINDO (so so beautiful) in the hot springs. You just lounge about outdoors in an incredibly refreshing, tropical bath that happens to be on the slope of the world's longest continental mountain range (along with being unbearably beautiful and dramatic). Needless to say, I had a pretty good time. On the bus ride to the springs there weren't enough seats to fit all of us, so there was also some random guy sitting on the stairs cracking open cans of Andes (the Budweiser of Argentina, but way better) after Andes and offering a gulp to all the other passengers on the bus. Meanwhile Elsa (my friend), Olaf (boyfriend), and I attempted and succeeded to drink mate after mate after mate, which, though it sounds easy, involves pouring near-boiling hot water into a gourd that you must first fill with dried yerba (the mate leaves).


So that's all for now, folks! Stay tuned for more intense action/wine in the life of Limor...



Hot springs in Cacheuta!


Me standing in a really cool tree in the campus of Faculty of Agrarian Sciences.

¡Qué peña!

With less than two months in Argentina, I have begun to understand some fundamental Limor-isms that will follow me, regardless of which country I am in or the language I am speaking. Though I have always been essentially myself, during the first half of my experience I felt a strong urge to push outside myself and adventure into the unknown and uncomfortable (this does not refer to something like walking through the center at 4am alone, booty shorts, etc. etc.). For example, going to a boliche, dibbling a bit of scary-looking meat, taking a shot of tequila with Argentine friends. All of these things were the bad sort of unknown and uncomfortable. On the flip side, we have things like staying out until 5 am and dancing so hard to Led Zeppelin that people actually shook my hand, making friends with the woman who makes honey with raisins and almonds, traveling to Tunuyan at 10 at night to work on an organic farm, accepting an offer to go drink mate in the park with someone I barely know.

But let's get back to the Limor-isms. As it turns out, I am equally parts social aficionado as I am hibernating recluse. Since the age of 16ish, I've had some crazy bouts of social anxiety sprinkled here and there to shake my self-esteem up. Going to college was really the low point for all this silly social hoo-haa, but since last summer's stay in the Vermont woods I have had a total and complete turn-around with the anxiety stuff. My last semester at Bates I really felt perfectly at ease with exactly what I was doing, who I was doing it with, and how I spent the 24 hours of my day. And just when I thought all that business was drowning in the Cooley Glen Shelter, it reared its feo pockmarked face in Argentina. For a month or so I felt that same inadequacy, etc. that I felt in the past... only this time I didn't have the woods to help me out (I will never take advantage of having a natural patch of trees in my backyard ever again). But it's almost as if getting older actually makes you learn...? Weird. It helps that I love my host family and being in this house, but I have pretty much stayed in every single night since coming back from the farm. I know that might seem pretty normal to some of you, but for a 20 year-old in Argentina with about 23409x less homework than I am accustomed to, this is just balderdash (and I use that word sparingly, mind you). Don't get me wrong, I am taking advantage of the DAY (Limor-ism) as opposed to pretending to like being in a smokey bar listening to bad music just because it's a Saturday night.

Yesterday morning I went with two friends to nearby Lujan to the U. Nacional de Cuyo campus of Ciencas Agrarias (think lots of greenhouses, displays of wine, agriculture, and trees). In an open field behind the academic building there was a peña going on all day. A peña is a meeting of artists and/or musicians that come together to play together, feed on the energy of the música folclórica, eat great asado/wine, dance to the beat of liveliness under the stars and in the grass. Essentially, everything I love about Argentine music/culture and what I am planning on studying after the semester is over/writing my thesis about when I return. I am continually amazed that a.) I can hold an intelligent conversation in Spanish, b.) I have the courage to engage in conversation with people I don't know, c.) I like dancing so much... Not only that, but I ended up seeing two people that I worked on the farm with last week, as well as another woman from France who studies ANTHROPOLOGY. Needless to say I had an absolutely phenomenal day, made some great connections, and spoke to a few different musicians about their music and will hopefully be meeting up with them again in the future to talk some more.

Aside from having profound personal understandings, I have also been doing a lot of drinking tea with my family, reading books in Spanish (currently reading "El Hobbit"), and sleeping. But with less than two months left, I think it's about time I make a rough list of things I want to accomplish before my semester ends/before I come home:

1.) Rent rollerblades and go skating through General Parque San Martín

2.) Make alfajores

3.) Set up my own stand at a fair and sell my own peanut butter

4.) Go to Córdoba

5.) Play the charango (folk instrument similar to a mandolin)

6.) Climb more mountains in the Andes

7.) Go skiing in the Andes

8.) Take a class about wine

9.) Spend one full day without writing/speaking a single word of English

There are more and I will add them as I think them up!

Enjoy the beautiful spring/summer weather while I bundle up in scarves and thick socks.

I live here. Jealous?