Acción de Gracias en Uruguay

Another November thing I skipped writing about - Thanksgiving! I felt very thankful for many things that day, one being my study abroad program, IfSA. Not only did they provide us with an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, they made a whole vacation out of it! We spent three days and two nights in beautiful Colonia, Uruguay, where we got to relax, explore, go to the beach, etc. Yes, Thanksgiving on the beach. Incredible. I didn't take many photos, but here are a few:

Approaching our program director's house, which is also a B&B and a lemon plantation (!!!):

The beautiful house, where we did not actually stay:

The delicious spread:

My plate:

Somewhat odd, yet definitely delicious, pumpkin pie for dessert:

Exploring the town:

Uruguayan flora:

It was a really lovely holiday. As always, it was nice to get away from the city for a bit, but nice to return as well.

My family, meanwhile, was chillin' in Bs As, feeling thankful that they did not have to cook a turkey this year, and I thankfully returned to them on Saturday night for another week of Batts family adventures. All of which I will write about. Eventually. Stay tuned!

Las Aventuras Patagónicas de las Trillizas Nórdicas

Hello lovely readers!

Sorry I've been M.I.A. for a couple of weeks. Here comes an epic post about my trip to Patagonia. Ready?

To sum up, Gwen, Zoé and I trekked down South for five days of adventures! We did everything. It was awesome.

Me experiencing Patagonian bliss:

Here's the day-by-day version, with pics!

Wednesday

We board our bus at 3:00 pm, bracing ourselves for eighteen hours of semi-cama travel. It ends up being not only the longest, but also definitely the strangest bus ride I have ever experienced. After just a short while on the bus, a movie begins to play – “The Ten Commandments,” dubbed into Spanish, no less. We fear this will stir up some intense religious conflict, because about half of our fellow passengers happen to be Orthodox Jews, and as such would probably not appreciate Charlton Heston’s take on Moses. The movie stops after a few minutes, and we begin to hear yelling from the bottom deck of the bus. There is a man screaming about el infierno! It turns out to be the bus driver’s favorite fundamentalist preacher on the radio. Joy! With the radio still blaring, a new movie appears on the tv screen:

“Fireproof,” a delightful film which illustrates the importance of staying married even if you hate your spouse so much you’ve stopped sleeping in the same bed and have started hanging out at your parents’ house every day (starring Kirk Cameron, no less).

Thursday

After nineteen hours on the bus, we finally arrive in Puerto Madryn. It’s a confusing town: picturesque shoreline; tiny, modest houses, some in bad shape; hostels everywhere; and several stores selling high end athletic equipment, furniture, etc., scattered among the panaderías and kioscos.

We’re transported via complimentary taxi to our hostel, which turns out to be (a) quite clean and adorable and (b) full of French people!

Hostel giddiness:

We buy some provisions from the supercompras across the street and make PB & J for lunch. A delicious rarity! Then, we board the van to go on our first excursion, to Punta Ninfas.

The landscape is beautiful and bizarre. There are no trees, only small bushes (which reminded me of Iceland) – Zoé informs me that the writer and illustrator of Le Petit Prince was inspired by his time spent flying over Patagonia, and I can see it!

The Patagonian sky is UNBELIEVABLE. I fell in love with that sky. This sounds silly, but you would have, too! I took a lot of pictures of just blue.

We trek down the cliff (?) and get up close and personal with the sea lions! Our guide informs us what to do in case we see one charging at us. We soon observe that they hardly move, and when they do, they sort of just jiggle and flop. We are left wondering what a confrontation would entail.

We return to the hostel feeling surprisingly wiped out. We microwave milanesas de soja and frozen broccoli for dinner and eat alongside our new French acquaintances, who have prepared beautiful culinary masterpieces for themselves. We are embarrassed.

Friday

We wake up at 6:30 am to head out to Peninsula Valdés! It is a full day of exploring, with much time spent on our tour van in between. Zoé and I keep falling asleep in our seats, resulting in our guide laughing at us and Gwen taking an excessive amount of unbelievably unflattering photos of us, none of which will ever be featured on this blog.

Our first stop, around 7 am:

We went whale-watching! Whales are huge and look like dinosaurs:

The rest of the day entails more sealion-spotting and more van travel. On a more exciting note: I ran into some Finns! It was great and bizarre to speak Finnish with strangers on the opposite side of the globe.

Despite having eaten PB&J’s on our excursion, we are starving when we get back to the hostel that evening, and being around marine life all day has given us intense seafood cravings. We go to a restaurant down the block and eat an entire breadbasket before the waiter even takes our orders. We get arroz con mariscos. We’re unable to identify most of the mariscos, but eat them anyway. Yum.

Saturday

Switching to past-tense. I hate grammar sometimes.

Another 6:30 am wakeup, this time for a trip to Punta Tombo! Even more time on the van this day, which made us go a little stir-crazy, but it was worth it. First, we went on a boat ride, and there were dozens of dolphins that came right next to the boat! They were so playful and lovely. They reminded me of dogs and made me miss mine! We could hear their breath sounds when they surfaced, which was cool.

So excited to see dolphins:

After the dolphins, we went on a walk through a huge penguin colony! Penguins are the strangest. When they’re not doing their famous waddle, they’re napping in shallow burrows or just standing there like statues. We saw some dead penguins as well. They just die right there out in the open! This was clearly not the Disneyland version of penguin life.

Identifying with our new species of pal:

All three triplets:

That night, after three straight days of PB&J for lunch, we cooked ourselves some actual dinner. Still not up to French traveler standards, but we felt proud.

Sunday

We sleep in until 8:30. What luxury! With only a few hours left before bustime, we spend the morning enjoying the town. We buy colitas de ballenas – made of chocolate, filled with dulce de leche – and eat them on the pier in bliss.

Chocolate in our bellies, we take a pleasant barefoot walk down the shoreline in search of flamingos, which we eventually decide are mythical.

Frolicking:

Then, we head to the BUS STATION. AGH.

The second bus trip was so awful, the sheer memory has made me unable to write this blogpost until now. The bus was about two hours late, for one, and the bus crew somehow thought it necessary to play movies continuously: some of the most god-awful romantic comedies I’ve ever seen, along with a couple of delights about cancer and gang violence. The tv screen was right next to our faces, and the sound blared through the speakers. At 1 am, they were somehow possessed to turn on all of the fluorescent lights and start playing some horrible boxing/prison movie. Our seats were also right next to the bathroom. Delightful. I turned 21 on that bus.

Bus horrors aside, it really was an amazing trip. Bountiful beauty, wonder, and laughter of the best kind! A wonderful way to welcome in a new year of my life. As for my 21^st, the celebrations continue...more of that to come!

The Blog Must Go On!

I've loved keeping this blog, but lately I've found that posting isn't coming as naturally to me as it did before. As reflected in my previous entry, life feels more ordinary now, and therefore somehow less blog-able. I'm still having great adventures as a wannabe porteña, but now my life feels like real life as opposed to some imaginary version of life abroad. Also, that to-do list I posted is messing with me. It makes me feel super un-accomplished, even though I plan to do many of those things when classes are out and when my family visits, AND most of my little adventures aren't really to-do-listy. Blah, blah.

BUT I want to keep on trekking with the blog and staying connected to my beloved readers! My camera got stolen this weekend (UGH. I won't dwell on this, but WHAT A PAIN), but luckily I didn't lose any pictures. So here are some glimpses of recent life:

Valentín and I had a farewell photo shoot with Irma before she returned to El Salvador. We miss her :(

Bailee, Gwen, Jamie, Zoé, and I wandered around the beautiful Recoleta Cemetery the other day:

Next to Eva Peron's tomb:

I look way too giddy to be in a cemetery. The sun was shining, I went stocking-less for the first time while in this country...and I STILL HAD MY CAMERA (note my left hand)

Bailee admiring our strange and beautiful surroundings.

Goofy girls :)

We then ventured to the park next to the planetarium, where I shared a dramatic moment with Galileo...

...and the other girlies climbed a tree!

This is becoming long! How about that!

Some more tidbits:

I bought this journal in the States before leaving, and filled it up recently! It's mostly in Spanish. I am proud.

My new journal, front and back (I'm using the girly shoe as the front, even though the shoes I wear every day are identical to the manly one)

To complete the healthy dose of TMI you're getting in this post, here's a fruit salad I ate the other day. Because you're statistically about eight times more likely (no joke) to read/comment if I post a picture of food. I know you too well, dear readers ;)

Besos :)

Isa

Word of the day: la cana - n. Police. (also means, but doesn't have anything to do with, "white hair")

Within the near future: boliche-style Halloween, census-inspired picnics, and (surprise!) belated play reviews. Stay tuned!

Rosario me hizo extrañarte, Buenos Aires...

On Saturday, I travelled with most of IFSA (my study abroad program) to Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina. It’s located 300 km northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western bank of the Paraná river. In short: the town is cute, the air is pure, the river is beautiful. I had a nice time, but it made me miss Buenos Aires.

We saw quite a bit on this trip, but didn't really do much, which was fine but makes this blogpost less interesting. I’ll keep it short. Here are some pics from walking around/our bus tour:

Me with Mario, director of IFSA, proudly representing Vassar:

We stumbled upon some outdoor theater! I wanted to stay and watch, but we sadly didn’t have the time...

Saturday evening, IFSA paid for a multi-course meal, which I enjoyed without documenting. We stayed overnight in the Holiday Inn Express*. SWANK. Zoé and I were roomies. We documented our reactions upon entering the abode:

The beds were unbelievably comfy. I wish we had had an extra day just for sleeping and watching “Harry Potter” en español, because we decided to go out Saturday night instead of giving in to my contagious lameosity.

Sunday brought more strolling about:

Me by the river:

We were good and looked at monuments:

...and ate some choripan:

To complement our bus tour, we took a boat tour, which was a serene experience, partly because we were all so sleepy. Here's a view out the window from one side of the boat:

...and from the other side:

The above image is of the island across the water from the city. A storm hit it recently, leaving the few houses in shambles. Quite the contrast.

There you have my Rosario. If you have a lot of time on your hands for exploring Argentina, I recommend it.

Besos,

Isa

Word of the day: la plata - n. Money. (lit. silver. The word "dinero" is hardly ever used here)

*In spite of the cushiness, I couldn’t forget that the hotel was eerily identical to hotels in the States. I started to feel like I was in a creepy study abroad limbo. It was nice to have some time to bond with my fellow yanquis, but it was nice to come back home, as well :)