This was one of the best weeks by far here in Córdoba!
The Best: I think the highlight of this week was going to Mendoza! It was such a on the whim decision that we bought tickets on Friday morning and left Friday night! We did everything we could including wine tasting through the vineyards (obviously for only the people over 21), we had great food and we even went paragliding! Paragliding in the Andes! We even went upside down at one point and my guide hardly spoke English and basically told me to just run off the mountain and that was it! It was so crazy!! It was one of the coolest weekends ever!
The Most Challenging: The most challenging this week would definitely be the Praxis site. We finally got to visit our sites with one adult with us this first week, and Julia and I’s adult was our director Martin, but he wasn’t helpful at all. We got there and he hardly helped us figure out what to do and he left us most of the time. The guys at La Luci speak insanely fast and have their own language that they each know and it’s hard to understand them. Julia and I were so intimidated and sat there for a while feeling like idiots because we didn’t know what to do! Thankfully we asked the cook Norma and she showed us where we could help sort clothes. We did that most of the day on the second day and then just sat around talking to the guys. But we can hardly understand them and most of the time they are clearly making fun of us so it was definitely the hardest most challenging.
Above is me paragliding in the Andes, posing with the Cop after our car ride, the view from the vineyards of the Andes in Mendoza, the flowers my parents and gran sent for my 21st birthday, all the hair I cut off this week, celebrating Dia de la Mujer in Barrio Hogar III, and playing soccer with the neighbors and our professors daughter Ruby and Lucy!
The Weirdest: The weirdest this week was this Saturday in Mendoza. We were riding back and my sweater got caught in my wheel. Thankfully, in true Argentinian fashion, an old couple was watching and the guy came out and took my sweater out and helped put my chain back on. He even let us come into his house and wash our hands. The weirdest part was that the police then showed up. They asked us what was wrong because they could see my bike on the side of the road. Since my bike was still broken, they loaded it into the back of the cop truck and I got into the car with 4 cops and drove back to the bike shop. They were all making fun of me the entire time and saying “Fuck you” because that was pretty much the only word they knew in English. Then they offered me Mate, which again is like tea and is really common here in Argentina to share with people. So on Saturday, I rode in the back of a cop car and drank mate with 4 cops. Weirdest experience of my life.
The rest of the week was pretty normal. We are starting to get a routine here which is nice and this weekend was a bit crazy because Julia got hurt, we sat at the paragliding place for about 6 hours and we almost didn’t get back on our bus because they said we needed our passports to get back even though we didn’t have them on the way there and they said our copies wouldn’t work. Thankfully they eventually let us on and we had another 9 hour ride back to Córdoba. It’s interesting because I started feeling homesick for Córdoba. That is always a great feeling. We started Praxis this week obviously and they were hard. We go for the first time by ourselves tomorrow and that will for sure be a unique experience. I am loving all my classes even though they are each 2.5 hours long. I am taking a poverty class, a theology class, a philosophy class and an Argentinian history class that is in all Spanish. The house has been amazing and I am loving all my roommates still. Among other things this week I celebrated my 21st birthday with everyone here, my parents sent me flowers for my birthday, we celebrated International Day of Women at Hogar III and went to the Dia de la Mujer march in centro of Córdoba, we played soccer with our neighbors at the gym near our house, and my CC Michelle cut my hair! It has been a super full week! Jake, my CC, and I keep finding connections like how my dad and his uncle do work together and our siblings are in the Highland Friendship club together. It’s nice having someone from MN who I can talk about with things if I am ever feeling homesick. Sorry this post was less detailed then the others but there is just so much to talk about I don’t really know where to begin. It was been a great week and I can’t wait to keep exploring Argentina….even if we decide to stay in Córdoba for a while after our disastrous trip to Mendoza! Can’t believe I have almost been here for a month and my parents come in 19 days! Weird how fast time flies. Chau!!
Bridget In South America 