Aclimatada.

     I've realized that my blog posts have been getting less and less frequent... but I think that just means I've fully settled in to the porteño lifestyle! My life has a rhythm and I've gotten used to everything; I don't take my camera with my everywhere I go anymore, because what I used to find photo-worthy is now just every day life! 

     My good friend Katie, who I know from A&M, is doing a summer program here in Buenos Aires, and she arrived on Saturday. I was so so happy to see a face from home!! I met up with her and her roommate (also from A&M), and showed them a bit of the city--gave them a bit of a crash course on Argentina :]  Saturday happened to be Día de la Patria in Argentina (25 de mayo), and so the city toured included a political rally--it was crazy! We also saw the Obelisk, la Casa Rosada, ate some medialunas and dulce de leche, and rode the subte! It was so funny to be with someone on their first day in Buenos Aires--I don't think I'd really realized how much I'd acclimatized here until talking to the girls! I chuckled when Katie asked me with surprise "So you ride the subte by yourself?", because I'd completely forgotten that that used to seem scary to me! 

Sangria casera en Plaza de Barrancas con las chicas :]

     So life is swell. Oh, and that midterm I was freaking out about? I got a nine (out of ten)--the highest grade in the class! My professor said it was "castellano perfecto--mejor que la mayoría de los estudiantes que tienen español como su lengua materna." Which was awfully encouraging. And I've made friends with the kids in the class, we study together sometimes, and I hung out with them this weekend for some drinks and a couple hilarious rounds of charades and other games :] 

     I'm having a good time! I sleep a heck of a lot and don't do nearly enough homework, but that's going to have to change soon; I've got five papers and three presentations to look forward to in the next three weeks :[
     On the right is Sydney, Felipe, and I, studying at Starbucks last night. I use the word "study" loosely because it typically degenerates into Spanish lessons--and by that I mean Felipe making fun of our sometimes hilariously-wrong usage of Spanish. And then Sydney spazzes out and breaks a lamp with her head and we all just go home.

Oh, and if you ever start to wonder about me, know that I'm doing just fine :] because there's a ladder that leads to the roof, and I've got a ukulele and a spectacular view of the sky.
Much love,
Abby

Bariloche Video!

Ahí está!

Patagonia!

Sights of Bariloche.

On the plane finally after a VERY hectic morning.

     It would be a crime to visit Argentina for five months without seeing at least a bit of Patagonia--so Sydney and I bought plane tickets and headed to Bariloche! Patagonia is the southern region of Argentina/Chile, known for its landscapes and glaciers, and skiing in the winter. There are SO many cool towns and things to see. but since we only had one long weekend we had to pick just a few... I'll head to Calafate and Ushuaia another day :] 

     We decided to spend two nights in Esquel, a very very small town four hours south of Bariloche, so that we could go to Parque Nacional Los Alerces. However, when we arrived Wednesday night we were informed that--since it's low season--there were no tours or buses running to the park. We asked the kind man at the hostel what our options were, and he said we could rent a car! He made a call and the man from the rental car company headed over to talk to us. He said we had to be 23 and also needed to know how to drive stick. Luckily in the time it took him to come to the hostel, we had made friends with a guy from Spain who met both of those qualifications. Which is exactly how we ended up renting a car (for $12 a person for 24 hours...), and touring el Parque Nacional ourselves, with our driver, Andrés the Spaniard. Life is fun, isn't it?

     El Parque Nacional Los Alerces is GORGEOUS. The rain came and went, which only meant there were lots of rainbows! (Which turned into a reoccurring theme on our trip). The park was completely void of people. We saw a park ranger from time to time, and would exclaim excitedly "¡Mira! ¡Una persona!" if we happened upon lifeforms other than cows. 

     The pictures just don't do it justice... it was such a perfect day driving through the mountains. I am my mother's child; I would take the mountains in the fall over summer beaches any day! 

     We had such a blast adventuring around the park, hiking, climbing rocks, finding new views. It was breathtaking in the rain--I can't imagine what it would've been like in full sunlight! 

Look at all those colors!

And here you see the exotic Patagonian jungle cows. 

Mirador Lago Verde.

Happy heart.

     One of my favorite parts of the trip was the bus ride back to Bariloche. Our seats were on the first row on the top deck--we had the best views of the Andes for four straight hours! Snow-capped mountains, rivers, lakes, valleys, orange and red trees. I absolutely loved it! We tried to study but really... how are you supposed to read Spanish poetry when the world outside the window is so darn spectacular?



Bariloche is wonderful. Quaint and picturesque. It's just a sleepy little mountain town nestled up between hills and lakes. It's quite touristy during ski season (July-September), but it was fairly empty when we were there!  It's also the chocolate capital of Argentina, as if it needed more things going for it.

     The first day we went up to see Hotel Llao Llao, a five-star hotel at the top of a hill, with great views of the surrounding lakes! It's like the Gaylord Texas of Bariloche. We stopped in for some hot cocoa... and to tour the first floor and try not to get thrown out for being obviously not fancy enough... We found out later you're not allowed to eat there unless you're a guest. Oops.

Cerro Campanario.

     At our hostel we made friends with some British boys (well, two Brits and a Canadian), and we ran around Bariloche with them one day. We took the skilift up Cerro Campanario which was unbelievable! Incredibly cold and windy, but stunning. We had hot drinks in the confitería at the top, while Sydney and I worked on perfecting our British accents and learning new English phrases ("that's quite jokes!")

     We wandered around the backroads of Bariloche... such an adorable small town, I felt like I was in a movie!

     Looking back, I feel like the main thing we did in Bariloche was eat. But MAN it was good eatin'! We went out for a steak dinner one night with a crowd from the hostel, and had cheese fondue (with smoked salmon raviolis) another night. Not to mention the outrageous amount of chocolate and ice cream! 

Sydney's phone does panoramaaaa look at that full rainbow all the way across the skyyyy

Our last day in Bariloche, we took an all-day van tour through Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. We got to go on a few hikes and it was--I feel like i've used this word too much, but--gorgeous! Glaciers, rainbows, and waterfalls galore! 

Enchanted forest.

That's a black glacier back there! There's a bigger glacier behind it but the clouds are in the way :/

Aaand ice cream for second-breakfast before leaving Bariloche :]

That's about all for the trip! I'd love to go back one day--it was so nice to take a break from city life and breathe some fresh air! 

Stay tuned for Syndey's video of trip--it's gonna be a good one! :] 

Love you all!

Abby

For the Record...

I realize that I may give the impression that all I ever do is travel and go to cafés and sing on the streets and let my hair flow in the wind, but this is (oh so sadly...) not the case. Turns out the "study" part in "study abroad" is a real thing, which is completely unreasonable.

But I'll have you know:

1) I read an almost-300 page novel in Spanish in a week and a half.

2) Last week I used the word "trifurcation" in a Spanish presentation.

3) I have spent most the weekend studying for a midterm I have tonight which is going to be LAUGHABLY hard. It's on interregional economic integration, ecoefficiency and design, direct foreign investments, and free trade agreements. Let's talk about how I know nothing about those in English.
If you take into account that two months ago I didn't know Mercosur existed (much less Comunidad Andina, SICA, Caricom, etc.), and that I didn't even know how to say "investments" in Spanish... this is... going to be interesting. I'm just hoping sympathy foreigner points are a thing. Sólo tengo que aprobar. Sólo tengo que aprobar. Sólo tengo que aprobar.
(I do, however, know how to say "Estoy en el horno. En serio, estoy jodida." though, which has to be worth something.)

Also I just found this, and this is the story of Buenos Aires... 

But guess what after this midterm nightmare is over, I have one day to pack and then we're hopping on a plane to BARILOCHE! That's in Patagonia. It has mountains and lakes and cold and I'm so looking forward to it.

See you on the other sideeee :]
xoxo

Two for two.

Sydney and I were taking a study break to sing... we were sitting on a bench in a random part of the neighborhood, and within five minutes some people walked by and handed us balloons and crowns.


...I'm not sure why this keeps happening to us. I don't understand it, but I like it.

The One with the Waiter and the Balloon Animals.

(I think I'll start titling my adventures like Friends episodes.)

Café Tortoni

Playing the piano in 36 Billares 

     Sydney and I decided to do something really weird and go to some bares notables.. AT NIGHT. So far we'd only ever gone during daylight hours, and I guess for good reason because a lot of them were closed! We wound up at Café Tortoni--the oldest café in Buenos Aires that has been visited by many of the greats (Borges, Storni, Gardel, Einstein), and holds tango performances in the back a few times a week. Cool place! 

     We ended up making friends with our waiter who said eh actually he didn't have to work, he'd go to the next bar with us instead. Sooo we ended up kidnapping the waiter (who got heckled by his coworkers for leaving with the American girls..), and went to the next café/bar. There was a piano in there and the bartender said I could play it so I did, obviously, and then a random man gave us balloon animals. One of those evenings where you look at your life and just say, "What is happening right now..." which kinda becoming the norm these days and I love it :]