To start, 2 nights after my last blog post on May 6th, 2 friends and I watched a woman get attacked and robbed for the first time since I've been here. Definitely not something I wanted to witness or ever see, especially almost right in front of my apartment! We were walking home from Starbucks at around 9:30 and a motorcycle drove by with 2 people on it. The person (who looked like a woman) jumped off the back and started running behind the woman on the street with her purse, and snagged it from her really fast and the 30ish-year-old woman toppled to the ground. The other driver kept moving this whole time and the robber hopped on again and they rode away. Me and my two friends Bianca and Alecea were on the other side of the street and about 20 feet behind the woman so we saw the whole thing. We ran over to make sure she was okay, and she was already accompanied by another woman who saw it and a man who lives right there I think heard her yell so he was outside his door figuring out what happened. She was surprised and rattled but not really hurt or anything. Without a phone or money or keys or anything I'm not sure what she ended up doing, but the man let her use his cellphone to call someone I think.
So yeah, pretty scary experience to see all that. It's easy to think if I saw it all happen that I could have reacted to the situation and helped, but I definitely froze during it unless you count jumping behind a pillar of a business to hide. It happened so fast and it took awhile for me to process what the motorcycle rider was doing until after they hopped off the bike and were running up behind the woman. As sucky as it is, it's the reality here. I'm assuming robbers are always looking for an opportune moment to do it too--woman alone by herself, at night, with a shoulder purse on her arm that faces the street, walking with traffic so she wouldn't see them coming. Nonetheless I was like shaking afterwards because in reality that easily could have been us. Insecure situations like that that could happen at any moment make me miss the security of home a little. It almost seems ridiculous to picture something like that happening in downtown Wayzata or Minnetonka somewhere.
The weird thing is I had this odd feeling with me all day that day something was off. I began thinking that I was starting to feel safer in the city because I hadn't seen anything bad happen yet. Then during the day we went to Parque de Independencia with our conversation partners to use the paddle boats in the pond. I was talking with my friend Sofia who comes from a small town about an hour outside Rosario but came here for university. She said like last year when she was back home standing in line outside a boliche, a man came up and asked for all her money. She didn't have any because she was getting into the club for free so she offered her camera, phone or gold necklace instead. He didn't want any of that and demanded money again. When she had nothing to give him, he punched her in the face and broke her nose! This was in a line in a smaller town with a bunch of other people around and this man still did that. The thought you can never be safe here no matter what you do is a really scary thought for me. This is going to sound crazy, but before we went to Buenos Aires we were told about a new phenomenon of people going around cutting off women's long ponytails to sell! Something as secure as your own damn hair isn't safe! What. in. the. world. I feel bad for people that are that desperate, but at the same time it's pathetic to think that people do that and think it's okay and normal.
Also last week we saw a man cross the street towards us (in the same place where we saw the robbery the week before, the block of my apartment!) trying to be inconspicuous and he purposely dropped what he had in his hand under a car. It made a "thack" sound and he continued walking on our side of the street in front of us without looking back. So odd. My guess is that it was drugs, but we don't know and probably never will. Either way, this dude better work on being more stealth for next time because it's not like we were paying a lot of attention to him and still realized something odd was going down.
Anyways, enough with stories of that nature! I don't really know where I left off because the last time I wrote it was quite awhile ago. Let's break up these giants blocks of text with whatever I can come up with next.
Here's my facebook album from the last couple weeks: Home"town" Rosario3, Córdoba, Gaucho Party
New Words of More Than One Week
albahaca- basil
paloma- pigeon
cuotas- fees
sospechar- to suspect
trepar- to climb
arrugas- wrinkles
amanecer- sunrise
atardecer- sunset
lastimarse- to injure
heladera- refridgerator
dados- dice
payaso- clown
broma- trick, chiste-joke
préstamo- loan
manta- blanket
cajón- drawer
pulseras- bracelets
calcetines- socks
enganchar- to hook
no le pinche el globo- don't burst his/her bubble
macitas- cookies (they don't use "galletitas" here)
buzón- mailbox
sorda- deaf
soso- bland (no offense, Argentina, but like your food)
chupete- binky (for a baby)
pañal- diaper
oreja- ear
mocos- nostrils
barro- mud
miel- honey
Also last week we saw a man cross the street towards us (in the same place where we saw the robbery the week before, the block of my apartment!) trying to be inconspicuous and he purposely dropped what he had in his hand under a car. It made a "thack" sound and he continued walking on our side of the street in front of us without looking back. So odd. My guess is that it was drugs, but we don't know and probably never will. Either way, this dude better work on being more stealth for next time because it's not like we were paying a lot of attention to him and still realized something odd was going down.
Anyways, enough with stories of that nature! I don't really know where I left off because the last time I wrote it was quite awhile ago. Let's break up these giants blocks of text with whatever I can come up with next.
Here's my facebook album from the last couple weeks: Home"town" Rosario3, Córdoba, Gaucho Party
New Words of More Than One Week
albahaca- basil
paloma- pigeon
cuotas- fees
sospechar- to suspect
trepar- to climb
arrugas- wrinkles
amanecer- sunrise
atardecer- sunset
lastimarse- to injure
heladera- refridgerator
dados- dice
payaso- clown
broma- trick, chiste-joke
préstamo- loan
manta- blanket
cajón- drawer
pulseras- bracelets
calcetines- socks
enganchar- to hook
no le pinche el globo- don't burst his/her bubble
macitas- cookies (they don't use "galletitas" here)
buzón- mailbox
sorda- deaf
soso- bland (no offense, Argentina, but like your food)
chupete- binky (for a baby)
pañal- diaper
oreja- ear
mocos- nostrils
barro- mud
miel- honey
On A Happier Note...Córdoba Happened!
Yay! We were lucky that the bus strike ended last Wednesday and we were able to purchase tickets to this city. This was literally such a spur of the moment trip where we totally did everything last minute, but that was sort of the beauty of it. If there's anything I've learned about myself through this travel adventure, it is that I do not like the unknown and I'm sort of uptight. It's easy to say "oh yeah, let's just be laidback and go with the flow..." but when my mind runs about a million miles a minute about what could happen, it's hard to put those thoughts to rest.
Prime example was this entire trip in general. Needless to say, we were the only guests (aside from the manager's unofficial guests) at our tiny hostel that I picked out but I don't think anyone (including myself) was a huge fan of. It's always hard to tell from the internet and everyone in our group of 5 that went is really laidback/indecisive. So once it became 2 days before our trip and hardly anyone had done any research for hostels, I just chose one at random and no one had any complaints. We can get over the fact that it was small and crappy, but what we did not like was that the manager guy, Juan, was sort of the rockstar/pothead type who didn't help us much with finding things to do in the city. It was very much unlike Mendoza where they had lists of stuff for us to choose from to do each day. Nothing of the sort here. Basically Juan (who used a plastic chip-clip to put his hair in a half-ponytail...that's the only thing I liked about him...) handed us a map of the city and that was it. We inquired about the national park of Quebrada outside of the city in the Sierra Mountains, and after the 3rd time talking to him about how exactly we can go there, we understood that we had to go to the bus station to buy our ticket.
So we arrived Friday afternoon after a 5.5 hour bus ride. The rest of Friday basically included taking it easy with a pizza for lunch, walking around the outdoor shopping area and going to the plaza to listen to a bunch of police officers play band instruments (yes, you read that right. So odd. I guess this is what they do when people are off getting robbed...), eating ice cream, playing pool at the hostel and listening to some good ole' country to feel at home, drinking a lotta wine, going out for a fancy dinner, and topped off the night at a small bar that played American 80s music with music videos on the TV screens. I had a great time with our small group.
Then on Saturday, we woke up bright and early to a nonexistent breakfast that is supposed to be included and headed to the bus station (which was luckily very modern, large and has a lot of restaurants/a grocery store in it.) Also unluckily is that we didn't know if we should go to the new or old part of the station to buy this bus ticket. Eventually after sort of rushing around we figured it out. Then, as we're about to board the bus, my friend Brett pointed out, "Uhh..did we get a return ticket??" After pestering the shit out of the bus driver who seemed extremely unconcerned about whether we returned or not, we think we understood that if we wait on the side of the road at this place that is 2.5 hours away at 8 p.m. when it will be dark and freezing, his bus will roll by and pick us up. Sketch-o-meter is off the charts right now. The only thing I was happy about was that we paid 30 pesos (about $6) for this one-way trip on a long bus ride that had full beds.
However, the entire way I literally gave myself a headache out of stress. This was the first time I felt like I wanted to go home. Home-home, like the USA. I sat in a row on the bus by myself away behind my friends and stared out the window the whole time with my arms crossed. I was just really frustrated that we had no clue what we were doing, our destination on the ticket didn't even say Quebrada National Park, we didn't have a return ticket, and the crazy what-if scenarios started rolling in. Then, 2.5 hours later, no buildings or signs in sight, we were dropped off on the side of the road in the mountains on a highway. Once the bus road away, we thankfully saw the sign of the entrance to the park. Jesus.
After walking along the trail a little and seeing that the park was actually really cool and we at least had a really amazing view, I relaxed just a smidge. We did, however, find a leather planner of some woman stuffed away out in a field near a rock, which of course signified that we were stuck out here and were gonna die. At least we had some useless-looking horses to use as an escape route if it came down to it, too. Since we were all alone out in these mountains, we went off the beaten path literally under the fence, to eat lunch on this big rock we climbed. I honestly considered rationing my food at this point. We still had no clue how we were getting back! About an hour later after walking on the path again, we found the welcome center building! I didn't even know there was one! I was SOO relieved to see that and a big parking lot full of cars. I felt like dropping to the floor and kissing it, as if I had been stranded in the desert for weeks or something. Dramatic, yes, but until you're seemingly stranded in another country out the in mountains with minimal food or clothing, I don't wanna hear it from you!
Moral of the story, after all this hectic stress of the day, I finally felt at ease because we found out that there are other options for bus times that don't involve waiting on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere in the dark. The rest of the day was really nice and relaxing, freely hiking up some mountains and resting near a creek we found. To get a good idea of the scenery...
We were exhausted from the day and after waiting at the bus stop BEFORE dark with a large group of other kids our age we found who were from all over the world, we finally were able to purchase our return ticket for the way back! Ironically it cost another 30 pesos which was totally find to pay $12 round trip to this park 2.5 hours away, but this bus was quite different. A horrible rattling noise from beneath, not a double-decker, no heat, and definitely no full beds. How did this bus cost the same as the first bus we took?? Our driver was sort of a speed demon on these windy mountain roads and after we were driving for about an hour (and luckily out of the mountains at this point) the engine would die every time we came to a complete stop, which going through small towns was basically at every stoplight. So, after about 15 engine fails and startups, another bus came by and we switched over onto that one. Have I said this before?? ONLY IN ARGENTINA! :)
Sunday we slept in a little bit and our plan was to go to the zoo. I stand by my ideal that I am against zoos due to some research I did on the treatment of the animals and how the habitat is just completely not natural...but when everyone else wanted to go I had no choice. Hate to say it but I actually enjoyed myself there. Still feel bad for those animals though ;( My favorite was the liebre patagónica from the South of Argentina. Cute little bunny, camel, llama mixtures, they were. Look at this face! (and ignore the bright yellow chomper he's got...well now you can't help but look haha)
Anyways, after all the chaos that was the Córdoba trip, I'd say it was a success. The other students who went to Patagonia had a great time as well with all the glaciers, so it was a win-win for all! Once everyone was back, we told each other that on our trips we missed each other which I think says something about our group. We're a close bunch :) I really like everyone and how all our completely different personalities mesh. We have the same sense of humor though for sure. We're already planning the reunion that is to take place in Oregon sometime within the next year!
Well, all I talked about was robberies and Córdoba tonight but I think I'm gonna wrap up here. I'll try to come back to tell more stories sometime this week :)
Yay! We were lucky that the bus strike ended last Wednesday and we were able to purchase tickets to this city. This was literally such a spur of the moment trip where we totally did everything last minute, but that was sort of the beauty of it. If there's anything I've learned about myself through this travel adventure, it is that I do not like the unknown and I'm sort of uptight. It's easy to say "oh yeah, let's just be laidback and go with the flow..." but when my mind runs about a million miles a minute about what could happen, it's hard to put those thoughts to rest.
Prime example was this entire trip in general. Needless to say, we were the only guests (aside from the manager's unofficial guests) at our tiny hostel that I picked out but I don't think anyone (including myself) was a huge fan of. It's always hard to tell from the internet and everyone in our group of 5 that went is really laidback/indecisive. So once it became 2 days before our trip and hardly anyone had done any research for hostels, I just chose one at random and no one had any complaints. We can get over the fact that it was small and crappy, but what we did not like was that the manager guy, Juan, was sort of the rockstar/pothead type who didn't help us much with finding things to do in the city. It was very much unlike Mendoza where they had lists of stuff for us to choose from to do each day. Nothing of the sort here. Basically Juan (who used a plastic chip-clip to put his hair in a half-ponytail...that's the only thing I liked about him...) handed us a map of the city and that was it. We inquired about the national park of Quebrada outside of the city in the Sierra Mountains, and after the 3rd time talking to him about how exactly we can go there, we understood that we had to go to the bus station to buy our ticket.
So we arrived Friday afternoon after a 5.5 hour bus ride. The rest of Friday basically included taking it easy with a pizza for lunch, walking around the outdoor shopping area and going to the plaza to listen to a bunch of police officers play band instruments (yes, you read that right. So odd. I guess this is what they do when people are off getting robbed...), eating ice cream, playing pool at the hostel and listening to some good ole' country to feel at home, drinking a lotta wine, going out for a fancy dinner, and topped off the night at a small bar that played American 80s music with music videos on the TV screens. I had a great time with our small group.
Then on Saturday, we woke up bright and early to a nonexistent breakfast that is supposed to be included and headed to the bus station (which was luckily very modern, large and has a lot of restaurants/a grocery store in it.) Also unluckily is that we didn't know if we should go to the new or old part of the station to buy this bus ticket. Eventually after sort of rushing around we figured it out. Then, as we're about to board the bus, my friend Brett pointed out, "Uhh..did we get a return ticket??" After pestering the shit out of the bus driver who seemed extremely unconcerned about whether we returned or not, we think we understood that if we wait on the side of the road at this place that is 2.5 hours away at 8 p.m. when it will be dark and freezing, his bus will roll by and pick us up. Sketch-o-meter is off the charts right now. The only thing I was happy about was that we paid 30 pesos (about $6) for this one-way trip on a long bus ride that had full beds.
However, the entire way I literally gave myself a headache out of stress. This was the first time I felt like I wanted to go home. Home-home, like the USA. I sat in a row on the bus by myself away behind my friends and stared out the window the whole time with my arms crossed. I was just really frustrated that we had no clue what we were doing, our destination on the ticket didn't even say Quebrada National Park, we didn't have a return ticket, and the crazy what-if scenarios started rolling in. Then, 2.5 hours later, no buildings or signs in sight, we were dropped off on the side of the road in the mountains on a highway. Once the bus road away, we thankfully saw the sign of the entrance to the park. Jesus.
After walking along the trail a little and seeing that the park was actually really cool and we at least had a really amazing view, I relaxed just a smidge. We did, however, find a leather planner of some woman stuffed away out in a field near a rock, which of course signified that we were stuck out here and were gonna die. At least we had some useless-looking horses to use as an escape route if it came down to it, too. Since we were all alone out in these mountains, we went off the beaten path literally under the fence, to eat lunch on this big rock we climbed. I honestly considered rationing my food at this point. We still had no clue how we were getting back! About an hour later after walking on the path again, we found the welcome center building! I didn't even know there was one! I was SOO relieved to see that and a big parking lot full of cars. I felt like dropping to the floor and kissing it, as if I had been stranded in the desert for weeks or something. Dramatic, yes, but until you're seemingly stranded in another country out the in mountains with minimal food or clothing, I don't wanna hear it from you!
Moral of the story, after all this hectic stress of the day, I finally felt at ease because we found out that there are other options for bus times that don't involve waiting on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere in the dark. The rest of the day was really nice and relaxing, freely hiking up some mountains and resting near a creek we found. To get a good idea of the scenery...
We were exhausted from the day and after waiting at the bus stop BEFORE dark with a large group of other kids our age we found who were from all over the world, we finally were able to purchase our return ticket for the way back! Ironically it cost another 30 pesos which was totally find to pay $12 round trip to this park 2.5 hours away, but this bus was quite different. A horrible rattling noise from beneath, not a double-decker, no heat, and definitely no full beds. How did this bus cost the same as the first bus we took?? Our driver was sort of a speed demon on these windy mountain roads and after we were driving for about an hour (and luckily out of the mountains at this point) the engine would die every time we came to a complete stop, which going through small towns was basically at every stoplight. So, after about 15 engine fails and startups, another bus came by and we switched over onto that one. Have I said this before?? ONLY IN ARGENTINA! :)
Sunday we slept in a little bit and our plan was to go to the zoo. I stand by my ideal that I am against zoos due to some research I did on the treatment of the animals and how the habitat is just completely not natural...but when everyone else wanted to go I had no choice. Hate to say it but I actually enjoyed myself there. Still feel bad for those animals though ;( My favorite was the liebre patagónica from the South of Argentina. Cute little bunny, camel, llama mixtures, they were. Look at this face! (and ignore the bright yellow chomper he's got...well now you can't help but look haha)
Anyways, after all the chaos that was the Córdoba trip, I'd say it was a success. The other students who went to Patagonia had a great time as well with all the glaciers, so it was a win-win for all! Once everyone was back, we told each other that on our trips we missed each other which I think says something about our group. We're a close bunch :) I really like everyone and how all our completely different personalities mesh. We have the same sense of humor though for sure. We're already planning the reunion that is to take place in Oregon sometime within the next year!
Well, all I talked about was robberies and Córdoba tonight but I think I'm gonna wrap up here. I'll try to come back to tell more stories sometime this week :)
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