Hello!
This is my pre-Thanksgiving post of random things so that after we celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday I can put up the pictures of my super awesome cooking. Zig came back on Friday night. We haven't done too many exciting things, but that's just because we were resting up for our Thanksgiving extravaganza!
First, sometime last week, I don't remember when, we went into the big Catholic church down by the lake. I finally got some pictures of the inside.
Double click on the picture of the window so you can check it out big sized. Sure is interesting.
Another day that I also don't remember, Zig and I saw this dog. It looks like a cross between a golden retriever and a dachshund. Also interesting, if you misspell daushund in Firefox, the suggested replacement word is Auschwitz. Not even close.
We had many different foods this week. First, we had sushi. Could've been dangerous, except that it had no raw fish in it. Only smoked salmon and canned crab. Disappointing.
Next we had Chinese. Bariloche has one single Asian food restaurant of any kind (the sushi was at a restaurant that has sushi only sometimes). It was actually ok, and the food was spicy! I miss spicy food. I forgot to take pictures of the food, so here's a picture of the restaurant.
Last Sunday night, we went to Nicolas's house because he wanted to know how to make Mexican food. Zig's mom told us how to make tortillas, mole, and Mexican rice. We also made guacamole and margaritas, my favorite. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures again. But here's the fridge with all the leftovers in it and the cleaned up table.
Two Tuesdays ago was my last day volunteering through the Spanish school. I'm going to look for better volunteering opportunities. We already talked to Club Andino, which is a volunteer group that maintains all the hiking trails, and they're going to see if they have anything for us to do starting next week. That will be more fun for me I think then being hit in the head by small children. I'm also going to see if the Methodist church has anything going on. Here are two pictures from where I wait for the bus to leave from volunteering.
According to weather.com, the sun rose at 6:09 am this morning and will set at 8:57 pm tonight. I can say that there's definitely still a little light outside around 9:30. WEIRD. Its not even summer yet.
Lastly, Zig is in desperate need of a tan. His hand is the same color as mine!! HA.
I finally got the pictures of us forcing the Argentineans to celebrate Halloween.
Angel and Valeria were having an asado for a guy who was leaving the lab, and we made them let us celebrate Halloween at it. We brought over lollipop ghosts, which came in handy later for eating. Angel and Valeria got into it and decorated with bigger ghosts and bats too!! It was fun.
I was a witch and Zig was a pumpkin. If that shirt looks a little tight on him, its because its mine. Aunt Suzanne sent it to me. We decided he was dressed up as me dressed up as a pumpkin.
There aren't any real pumpkins here, so I bought a calabaza ingles. It wasn't the same, but I made do.
Everyone kept asking me why we make jack o lanterns. I have no idea. We just do. Stop pestering me.
Since no one had never seen one before except on tv, they all wanted pictures with it. Also with my witch hat. They were big hits.
We also made jello shots, a true estadounidense college tradition. They were very popular. Here we are teaching everyone how to get them out of the little cups. Well, Zig is doing it wrong. You can't get all the jello out if you just squeeze the cup! There's technique involved.
Zig and I also made an orange red velvet cake. They don't have cake with icing on it here. Or fluffy cake. I am very curious to know if there's a reason. Usually its very compact, dry, and covered in ganache or the ever popular dulce de leche. Even the pictures on the boxes of cake mix are unappealing. I guess they don't have a cake tradition here. They make up for it with alfajores.
Here I am around 3am. Note that I am the only person who seems remotely tired. I guess everyone else had a siesta. I just can't handle it. I need my sleep!
I've been a blogging failure. I keep forgetting my camera, and the one time I had it, it was out of batteries. Friends took pictures on Halloween, so when I get those I can post them. The pictures Zig's camera takes are too large for me to open on my computer without it freezing. Maybe I can get him to put them on my blog.
Here's the only picture I took on Halloween. Its an advertisement for Halloween, but the store wasn't selling anything Halloween related inside. We saw this type of thing all over Bariloche. Its like they didn't really want to celebrate but they felt peer pressured into it.
I was a witch and Zig was a pumpkin. No one celebrates it here, not even kids, but Angel and Valeria were already having an asado for a friend, so we decorated their house with ghost lollipops and spider webs. They made bats to tape on the walls! We were the only people who dressed up, and it confused people. To really celebrate like estadounidense 20 year olds, we made orange jello shots. No one had ever had them before. They were very popular.
Here's a picture from Halloween last year. We can pretend its from now so my blogging won't be so pathetic. I was Regina George from Mean Girls in her Halloween costume from the movie, and Helga was a giraffe. I brought her costume with us to Bariloche, but she wasn't in the mood to celebrate this year.
Speaking of Helga, here are some before and after pictures that testify to how well she is fed. First, we have her right when we got her. She's helping me with my homework.
And now, here she is in all her glory, a year later...
She's taken well to the Argentinean diet.
Here's a picture of some weird birds that are all over Bariloche. They sound like ducks and are really, really startlingly loud.
Fernando tells me they're called Teros. I found an excellent youtube video. These ones sound more like seagulls then ducks, but you get the idea. I especially like the late 80's action movie music and airplane sound effects.
Here's a wikipedia article about these other birds called Chimangos that are all over the place. They're too fast for us to take pictures of. They're little hawks. The first time I saw one I thought "WOAH look at that cool bird," but then I discovered they are the pigeons of Bariloche. Actually maybe not that common. So more like the grackles of Bariloche. But prettier.
Other then that, nothing really is going on. Zig is out of town this week in Malargüe, where the detector for his experiment is. Helga and I have been watching a lot of movies. Robyn sent me a package. Whenever she mails me anything, she addresses it with her nickname for me (if you didn't know, I'm pretty clumsy. Self-injuringly clumsy.). I was much amused that they copied it onto the delivery notice.
Since I have a distinct dearth of things to blog about, I took some pictures of Mafalda from my giant Todo Mafalda book. Its been an excellent Argentina souvenir, and an entertaining way to practice my Spanish. I looked into buying an English version to bring home too, but the translations were terrible. Not only were they not funny, but they were sometimes completely incomprehensible. My translation is more the general idea then exactly word for word, so hopefully it makes more sense.
Here are some strips that introduce the main characters. Also, keep in mind that it was written in the 70's. Thats why the rockets are so exciting and they talk about civil war.
I've already mentioned Susanita, the blond girl. Her dream in life is to have a husband and many children. She and Mafalda have conflict.
Susanita: "What's that in the newspaper, Mafalda?"
Mafalda: "A photo of the Atlas rocket."
M: "Isn't it exciting? Its like having the future in your hands!!"
S: "Truly, yes...!"
S: "It really is exciting!! It looks like lipstick!!"
S: "Whats wrong? Aren't you going to use lipstick when you're grown up? Doesn't THAT future excite you?"
M: "Good lord...."
Next we have Felipe. He's older than Mafalda (she's six), so he can write and she can't. Also, Susanita has a crush on Felipe.
I couldn't make this picture turn the right way...
Felipe: "Take it!! And see that you learn to write!!"
M: Thanks, Felipe.
S: "What did Felipe write for you on that paper?"
M: "One of the things that I have to do in my life."
M: "I don't want to forget all the things that I have to do in my life, so when something occurs to me, I ask Felipe to take a note."
S: "And this makes him mad??"
This is Mafalda's father. Mafalda pesters him often with deep and probing questions about morals and the world (since it was the 70's, they mostly involve Communism and dictatorial governments). It gives him headaches. He likes to grow lots of plants in their apartment.
Dad: "Its not flowering!! It has water, light, fertilizer... I don't know what could be missing."
M: "SPRING IS HERE!!!!!"
M: Information.
Last we have Manolito. His father owns a store, so he's extremely capitalist. Everything he does is in some way related to making money. He's had the hiccups for about 3 strips previous to this one, and now Felipe and Mafalda are trying to scare them away. Fail.
M: "Do you think we can scare away Manolitos hiccups?"
F: "Let's try."
REVOLUTION!!! THE TANKS!!!!
CIVIL WAR????
Well thats all for now. Maybe soon I'll have something else to write about. Zig's classes are ending, so we'll probably travel for a couple of weeks. If nothing else, I can take more Mafalda pictures.
