Already missing Buenos Aires

I only have around a month left in Buenos Aires before returning to the big, bad United States and I'm already realizing how much I will miss this place.

Though my sporadic and scant blog updates and lack of Skype-ing may suggest otherwise, I'm really having the time of my life here and everyday I'm thankful for this great opportunity.

And now, for the comedy. This is a picture of me trying to sell Red Bull in bulk to four random girls on the street.

Mountains everywhere...

Since 10 AM yesterday morning, I've spent around 20 hours in buses. Because my mind is dull from wine, my legs are tired from climbing mountains, and my thighs are chafed from riding horses, I'm not in the mood to type a lot. Pictures from my trip to Mendoza (capital of the Mendoza province, West of Buenos Aires at the foot of the Andes) will carry me through this post.

Americans don't dress their dogs nicely enough.

They show everyone the winery, but you have to pay the big bucks to get to see the meth lab in the cellar.


This is where, after laboring for about 30 minutes trying to understand, in Spanish, how they make wine, you actually get to try the product.


Huge wine-holding devices.


Part of the wine tour was visiting an olive oil factory. What's more interesting than olive oil? Some of the murals painted in the factory's courtyard.


Wine bottling in process. Check out that cart full of bottles!


Bad news: I was bored enough on the way to horseback riding to try lying in the middle of the road. Good news: I survived with a photo.


This is me standing near the fire pit set up by the base camp for the horse people (what do you call people that take you on horse-driven tours?).


We only lost one person on the tour.


Ugliest dog I've ever seen.



The asado waiting for us after the morning riding session. We ate it at this table...

Wine, food, and laughing followed. Seriously, though, it was probably the coolest place I've ever eaten a meal.



I met Sarah Palin there.

One example of how beautiful the Andes are.

Seeing this really made me want to go skiing. I've only been twice, and not since 8th grade so that's saying a lot.


I think the idea was to get to the top of that thing.


This was the beginning of our 5-6 hour "trekking" experience from yesterday. Walking on the railroad was easy. Walking on the surface of three feet of snow? Not so easy.


A mountain stream I drank from and washed my face with.


View from (almost) the top.


Blogger's-eye-view up to the top of the mountain. It's tough to communicate in words on the internet how difficult this was both mentally and physically.


It was a really steep climb, but worth it if just for the photo opportunity.

Nothing like some mountain snow after a long hike.

It ended up taking much longer to make this post with all the pictures than if I had just written about everything, but I hope you enjoy it. I will write again later in the week, for sure.

Be easy.

Gaza war crimes?

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "There is evidence that both the Israeli Army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes, the U.N. said."

Really?!

Basically, both sides say they're acting in "self defense." Some examples of these alleged crimes?

-Israeli soldiers shooting civilians as they calmly walked from their houses waving white flags
-Hamas leaders killing members of the rival Fatah party/group
-Hamas shooting rockets into areas with high numbers of Israeli civilians
-Israeli bombings of Palestinian mosques... during times of prayer
-The wanton destruction of food supplies by Israeli soldiers
-Both sides using captured enemies as human shields
-Israeli troops detaining Palestinian women and children in sand pits

And people say the United States is a ruthless country? Please.

The Shoe Thrower

The Iraqi journalist who threw his (reportedly size 10) shoe at George Bush during a press conference has been released from jail, the New York Times reports. He claims to have been tortured by high ranking Iraqi government and US Army officials. Why doesn't that surprise me?

After the event, Bush himself quipped, “That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves."

...and then they're tortured.

The guy now fears for his life and that of his family. They plan to flee the country and release the names of those who practiced torture.

I love the United States of America as much as the next guy, but way too many people have suffered and died in the botched "liberation" of Iraq and I'm glad this guy was brave enough to deliver what I consider the ultimate poetic justice. Seriously, I never thought Bush was a bad guy but you have to admit it's kind of messed up for so many people (Americans, Iraqis, and troops from other countries) to die as a direct result of his decisions and for him never to physically suffer any more than a mild headache or lost sleep because of it. It's just a shoe, but I think it was appropriate.

I struggle with the controversy over torture, I really do. The way I look at it, if I was 99% sure information gained through torture from one individual would save even some of the lives lost on September 11, 2001, I would have to authorize it. But it's still an illegal deprivation of that person's human rights, and a violation of international law, so what do you do? It's like the question my religion class in high school was always asked: "If you had to kill one person to cure cancer, would you?" It's a really, really difficult question.

I think the "shoe-thrower" case is interesting, though, because it shows us that allowing torture at the highest level of anti-terrorist efforts may save lives and may only hurt those most guilty of plotting against the USA. However, it also leads to a slippery slope of wishy-washy legality and culture within our military and, for instance, the Iraqi government where all moral authority is lost and you can't possibly stop torture from happening to a guy that just threw a shoe.

I wonder what Austin Powers would think of the journalist?

"Who throws a shoe? Honestly! You fight like a woman!"

Dawgs win!

When asked what Georgia's 41-37 win will affect Coach Mark Richt's upcoming week, he replied, "I don't know. I'll probably smile more." He's definitely not the only one.

A lot of stuff is going on here. I wish I could blog more, but sometimes I just forget.

On Sunday our group went to an "estancia" ("ranch" in English, I believe) about an hour and a half outside the city. It was named after a certain tree that covered the property when the owners decided to turn it into a tourist spot. We also toured the small surrounding town. Highlights included orange trees and a general store. Also, a store with a lot of knives.

Back at the ranch (get it?), we ate beef and french fries for lunch and got to see a band play a show consisting of many different Argentine musical styles. Two great dancers accompanied the band, and a little dressed up boy performed an amazing dance routine. It was a lot of fun.

After that, we went to see jousting. I'm not saying Argentine's are soft, but in my day a joust meant lining up opposite another guy on his horse and trying to kill eachother with swords. These guys seemed to think it meant riding horses at top speed and grabbing something from a wire? I can't be totally sure because I was so busy being audibly disappointed no blood would be shed. The gauchos seemed really nice, though, so I guess I'm happy no one was hurt.

We rode horses, also, but I spent the entire time either trying to convince the horse to go faster or praying to God that the thing would slow down.

I have a lot of work this week, but it'll be over by Thursday and we're going to Mendoza. It's wine country and I'll get to see the Andes, a dream of mine since I realized they would coincide with a trip to wine country.

Oh, and I had a lot of fun on the bus ride back from La Estancia because it gave me an opportunity to recite lines from Dave Chappelle stand up routines. Is there anyone funnier than him?

Favorite quote of the week is...

"... you'd have sex with a gender-ambiguous dragon?!"

I won't tell you how Meagan and I got to that point in the conversation, only that it totally wasn't my fault and it was pretty inappropriate for her to say.

I'm in a great mood because we just bought our bus tickets to go to Mendoza, Argentina, which is apparently at the foot of the Andes and I've read websites that call it an "undiscovered Napa Valley." Since the only time I've been to California was to transfer flights in the LA airport, I can't really comment on the accuracy of that comparison but if websites say it, it must be at least partially correct. Anyways, it's a 13 hour bus ride but we'll leave at night next Thursday and I think it'll be a good time.

Classes stunk this week- they're just too long- but they're over for now so I think I'm going to go to the gym, have some dinner, and try to figure out something good to do tonight.

I love my internship, I wish I could work there full time because I know my Spanish would be great and the people are really nice and fun. Some of us might go out on Saturday with a guy from the clipping room named Gabriel who is apparently "borrowing" his dad's car that night. Should be a lot of fun. He also gave the other two girls at our "pasantia" (internship) three sheets of paper with translations of common words used here. For instance, he told us the Spanish translations for:

"very drunkard"
"marijuana cigarette"
"hangover"

None of which I'll be using while I'm here, because I generally act as if Jesus is watching.

Have a good weekend.

Busy...

Monday is my busiest day of the week. I've done a really poor job of keeping in touch with people back home- mainly my family- and I can't really write any long blog right now but I just want to tell my mom, sister, and father that if you're reading this I love you and I promise I'm going to call soon.

Now I'm off to the gym and then three hours of class.

El Tigre Manana

This week went on forever. I started my "pasantia" (internship) for real, though, and it was really cool. I just get to sit in the "clipping room" at a public relations firm with some really cool people and read whatever magazines/newspapers I like. The only catch is that I'm supposed to mark pages with a post-it note if I find a reference to one of the company's clients; these clients include Apple, a traveling Anne Frank play, and local car dealerships (I only found Apple mentions my first day). Anyways, it should be a great way to practice my Spanish and meet people. One guy told me if I came out with I'd have "mucho exito" with the girls at the club...

Classes are a drag on the day, but I'm getting better at reading Spanish so the assignments are definitely feasible, if still terrible boring. My Argentine football class had a special guest speaker this week that was supposed to tell us about youth soccer in the country but he spoke too fast and his Powerpoint presentation included way too many pictures of pubescent penises. I'm not sure what point he was trying to get across, it just kind of grossed me out. I told some people we learned about penises the whole class (3 hours), and they didn't really believe me. Or they thought I was being perverted. So I asked Meagan, the only other "gringa" in the class, "Hey Meagan, what'd we learn about yesterday in football class?!"

"[pause]... Penises?"

In our "Advanced" Composition class (I can't put enough quotes around "advanced"), the teacher taught us how to order coffee at cafes here. Obviously, she doesn't know me that well as I definitely learned that through practice the second day in Buenos Aires. Then, today she was mad we started speaking to each other in English when she left the room for a minute and said we were acting like children. I guess she had a point?

Football starts tonight. Football starts in like 2 hours. Less! I'm worried I'm the only one on the trip obsessed with college football, so I'm just going to have to find some sort of patchwork of friends to sit at the American bar and watch with me. Wish me luck.

Speaking of football, some organization of referees has suggested that all the teams shake hands before their first games. The Oklahoma State coach has already decided it wouldn't be a good idea in their opener against Georgia. However, UMiami and Florida State have decided to try it. That's going to be must-see TV right there.

Tomorrow we're going to El Tigre really early in the morning.

PS: She won't read this, but happy 21st birthday, ANITA.