My Semester in Buenos Aires: September 2013

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Iguazu Falls!

We boarded and rode an 18 hour bus ride to make it to Iguazu falls. No, I did not make a typo...it was 18 HOURS. We went "first class" bus and got seats that turned into beds and I brought an entire suitcase full of games and snacks because our vacation we spent more time on the bus than at the actual falls! The 18 hours were not as bad as I expected- we watched scandal, raged a bit, played games, talked for hours, then actually had a full night sleep!

We arrived in Iguazu at 9am and were ready to have a full day at the falls!

The pictures really tell it all but it was really one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen. The volume was water was indescribable and there were rainbows everywhere!

Teddy and I- are we a couple?

Thats a real rainbow.

After overlooking the falls we boarded a boat where we got to go INTO the falls!! We got soaked from head to toe in Iguazu water. When we were underneath we were all screaming "We are IN THE FALLS". It was such an incredible experience. And the weather was perfect which made it even more incredible!

The boat!

We were on the Argentine side of the falls- It is on the border of Argentina and Brazil so we could see Brazil from the water!

Monday, September 16, 2013

MALBA- modern art museum

Pardee and I for our Spanish class started off the day giving a walking tour of Recoleta, the area we live in. It was quite an interesting experience as we forgot to bring our map and our partner Brianna just didn't do any research on the places she was supposed to talk about, going as far as saying things that were just wrong and being called out by the teacher because she was talking about the wrong place...but thankfully we navigated around pretty well using my iPhone map (sorry mom and dad) and ended up pulling it off. Needless to say it was a stressful morning for me.

I had a disgusting shrimpy salad before we met Jenna and Janelle at the MALBA and the day turned around. We described it as an "adult playground" because it was so much fun! The pictures speak for themselves but it was really like nothing I had ever seen before and so worth going.

We were given stickers to add to the art!

The compilation of so many people's placements of stickers

Pardee in his own world

A room we walked through with changing colored lights hanging from the ceiling

We got to be in this room alone- mirrors everywhere and these weird looking potato like but cottony soft things

These are some of the art pieces I liked

After the museum I met my theatre class at a Spanish play where we watched a quite weird play about love and group identity.

Rosh Hashanah!

For rosh hashanah Jenna and I decided to have our friends over to join us and our family for dinner! The day before Jenna and I went to the grocery store bought all the ingredients including going to a Jewish neighborhood called Once to buy challah! The neighborhood was filled with a bunch of Jewish boys in yamakas running in the street and the bakery where we were able to buy a round challah (yep we found a round one we were surprised also) had people screaming "lshana tova!", we felt so at home. They were even giving out free brochures all about Rosh Hashanah in Spanish and we took them to put on the table. We were ready for a great dinner!

The menu for the night was

Appetizers-

Guacamole and carrots

Apples dipped in honey

Main meal-

Grilled garlic and lemon chicken

Potato pancakes

Roasted butternut squash

Spinach tomatoe and red pepper salad

Challah

Dessert-

Cookie cake

Strawberries

Cooking was quite an adventure. Thankfully Jenna and I asked for a cheese grater because neither of us had ever made home made Latkas and the act of "grating" a potatoe would have been extremely difficult if we did not use an automatic grater. Also I had never fried something before and I was extremely grossed out at the reality of cooking a perfectly fresh potatoe into so much boiling hot oil. But I guess the taste is worth it (not for me). The potatoe pancakes got great reviews though.

Jenna made the salad, Guacamole, and set up the apples and honey while I roasted the butternut squash, cooked the chicken, and made the potatoe pancakes. We were a great team and 3 HOURS LATER we had food! Cooking takes so long!!

The grated potatoes

Frying the potatoes- so much oil ew

SUCCESS

Marinating the chicken

Our friends came over while we were still cooking and I got really angry and mom-like when Pardee kept eating the apples and honey before they were on the table!

But finally the food was ready and we sat in the living room for appetizers and a glass of wine!

Cheers

I explained the signficance of the apples dipped in honey as a "sweet" new year and the family got to try it!

Trying the apples dipped in honey

The appetizers

Apples and honey

After appetizers we went to the dining room table for dinner! Our mom set up the tables really nice and we added the challah and packets we got as decoration. During dinner weave New Years resolutions, did the prayer over the challah, and read a little of the packet about the shofar and the meaning of the holiday. It was really cool to bring these traditions and celebrate this holiday with new people (even though I was sad to not be with my family).

The food was so delicious and I was so happy everything turned out so well!