All Apologies

... that I have not been keeping up with my writing here and that I have not done some of the posts I promised. There's a chance I might have to save them for my return to the states. I leave on June 2nd, and arrive home on June 3rd. Currently I am bogged down with way too much humanly possible work on my plate and a gastrointestinal virus (fever included) that has had me bedridden for what is now the fourth day. I just want all my school duties to be over (it's honestly way too much stress), but I do not want to also have to think about leaving this city. I have too many things I need to do, and have not been able to do because I am physically incapable at the moment.

But sometimes we all get stuck with moments of horrible timing.

It's official!

The number has been broken -- I'm at over 1,000 blog views! Thanks for all you have stopped by to read my ramblings and for those (shout out to friends and family) who keep coming back! More to come... les prometo!! :D

UNAS FOTOS! Buenos Aires through my lens

Although I am not cool enough to play with the big kids to have a DSLR camera like everyone else, I still very much enjoy taking pictures, and, am MORE than satisfied with my camera: a Canon PowerShot G11. It has a really nice LCD viewing screen so I more than often don't even have to look through the viewfinder. I know people who can talk up all the other technical stuff for days, and I know more or less about it, but I also just like the simplicity of point-and-shoot ability to get great shots. Granted, the following pictures I am about to show you have also been edited using Photoshop CS5 because I like to edit my photos before putting them up anywhere (Facebook, etc), mostly to resize them to a smaller size so that the act of uploading does not take as long. Most of my friends and family keep up with my pictures via Facebook, but I would also like to put some here for any others who might be interested. The following pictures were all taken in Buenos Aires and represent either iconic scenes / monuments of the city, my favorite places, my favorite moments, or, in general, shots I just happen to really like ascetically:

PS - Sorry for the extremely long, scroll-bar setup of this post. I'm not sure how to make a better photoset within a post on blogspot. Can anyone help with this? I hope you enjoy anyways! I know clicking on the picture to see it in full size will let you click 'next' all the way through all the photos, so I hope that works just the same.

PPS - I have to continue writing about the trips I have been on (now that I have written about Chile and Uruguay, I still have my short visit to parts of Patagonia and Mendoza left), and will include their respective photos there. I also am very interested in film photography, and have taken a couple of rolls of film and got the pictures developed, that I will potentially also show on a post here. Enjoy!

Recounting an Old Trip: What will I find to be the most memorable about Uruguay?

School is coming to a close, with presentations and final papers (including a 10-15 page paper in Spanish for my Art History class) and assignments and, after all of that, exam week. I have an insane amount on my plate... it is quite overwhelming, especially when I also have to think of the fact that these are my last two weeks in Buenos Aires. How will I fit in all the things I still have not yet done? See all the friends I want to see? Get gifts for all the people I still have not purchased gifts for? PACK?? And the lists of things constantly running through my mind goes on and on...

So, right now, I am taking a homework break (wrote one of my two essays due tomorrow for Spanish, the latter has to be based off a book we're supposed to read by Argentine author Adolfo Bioy Casares [La invención de Morel], which, of course, I have not read yet; among other things due for only tomorrow). A much needed break this is, where I can write in my native language. Because as much as I love the look, the sound, and the speech of Spanish, sometimes I just need a break. Being all encompassed in a second language can be overwhelming, especially when the brain is worrying about so many other things... but I sure as hell know I am going to miss speaking Spanish when I'm gone. This means frequent visits to my high school to chat with my favourite (and dearly missed) teacher, and phone calls to my roommate where we have already promised to only speak to each other in our now (somewhat) developed castellano so as not to lose it.

And now to answer the question I ask in the title of this post: my roommate and I traveled to Uruguay for a weekend, April 20-22, exactly a month ago today. So what images and memories linger about the country that is just another stamp on my passport? And the answer truly is... a lot.

My host mother is originally from Uruguay, born in Montevideo and everything. She has one of the biggest souls I have ever met in a person, and a very relaxed spirit. This more or less reflects the way of life in Uruguay, extremely relaxed and a slower pace... and I thought porteños took it easy!!

First, we took the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento (from Buenos Aires to Colonia is the ferry route, so we made it our first stop). The historical district in Colonia makes it a World Heritage Site, adding another one to the list of those I have seen! It's located on the Río de la Plata, and has that characteristic brown water that treks all the way to Buenos Aires as well. Uruguay is generally the place people go to experience real beaches; I have been told that the Mar de la Plata (about four hours from Buenos Aires) isn't up to par with something like Punta del Este, for example. The clean water is the attractive force. This still does not exist in Colonia, but there aren't 'beaches' exactly, as much as there are little pockets of sand here and there mixed amongst the forests that dip into the water, which I may actually enjoy more than commercial beaches of any sort. To exemplify:

View from our hostel window in Colonia

Taken by Susannah - me by a 'beach' in Colonia

Our hostel was away from the city center, which we were skeptical about at first because of the hike, but it ended up being for the better to get a peek into residential life in Colonia. Relaxed, and immersed into beautiful and abundant amounts of nature.

There's not much to do in the city center but shop and eat, but the EATING is just as godly as Chile's chorrillana... the traditional meal of Uruguay is called chivito (more or less a combination of chorrillana and the simplicity of Argentine food), also a common platter for sharing.

Our first chivito (al pan, para dos) at La Pasiva, a chain restaurant in Uruguay our host mom recommended to us

Meat, roasted peppers, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, ham, cheese, fried egg, mayo, and sometimes more on a giant sandwich. When it is not al pan, it is served just like this, no bread, with fries on the side. We made sure to get our fill of chivito, after falling in love right away, before leaving.

Beyond the city center is the historic district, which you can learn more about by visiting the above highlighted World Heritage Site link. It is an incredibly pleasant area with rich history and few people walking around, save some tourists (who are usually coming from somewhere around South America, or even just Uruguay).  Colonia is a nice town to walk around on a sunny day and have some maté with friends, but I'm not sure if spending more than a day or two there would have been entirely worth it.

Our next stop was just a two hour bus ride to the west to Montevideo. Suddenly, we were back in a big city, and in a hectic part of town: Tres Cruces (where the bus station is). We get a cab and head to our hostel which was located on a pedestrian street, just a few blocks away from Plaza Independencia downtown. It was hard to say just what part of the city it was compared to Buenos Aires, but it definitely gave off vibes of microcentro and the pedestrian street of Reconquista, save the stretch of bars like The Kilkenny and add more living complexes, but keep all the kids drinking their beers sitting on the benches in the middle of the cobbled street until the wee hours of the morning.

We were also very close to the water, which on our first day there (after the night we arrived) we discovered was a gorgeous blue!! I took the following picture just a couple of blocks away from our hostel:

The night before we explored a lot of what was up and down on Avenida 18 de Julio (essentially the equivalent of Avenida 9 de Julio en Buenos Aires), so this day we decided to see the water and go to some beaches. That blue water was truly mesmerizing. Our host mother recommended Playa Pocitos, which holds all of what was in my preemptive images of Montevideo: a mix of lovely sand and water with the city in the background, kind of like Miami, but cleaner and prettier.

A quick shot I took of Susannah on Playa Pocitos

Even though it was fall and cooler, it was still warm and sunny enough to be able to walk barefoot and dip our feet in the water, something I had craved since coming to South America, and Montevideo gave me my fix. Also it being out of 'beach season' it was fairly empty, which was even more pleasant to me, since I'm not much of a crowded beach goer.

After this, we headed back towards downtown after seeing some of the barrio of Pocitos. We ended up arriving at a market on 18 de Julio that was a mix of my Latin American experiences so far: artisan objects like that of the fairs in Buenos Aires, but then also boxes of baby chickens and ducklings like that in Guatemala. I of course, was sucked into all the little baby animals of which I spent more than enough time with. Susannah had trouble dragging me away. But seriously, HOW COULD YOU WALK AWAY FROM THIS?? :

Little baby bunnies, a box of puppies, a cage of kitties, and of course, my friend I made for the day: a little puppy who looked exactly like my puppy Richie Rich (may he rest in peace) who I picked up and fell in love with especially after he decided to be my friend, too and snuggle up into me. I still miss him!! And to prove he is a Richie Rich, Jr., here is a picture of my wonderful dog I had throughout all of my childhood, and until I was 18 (he passed away when he was 15 years old, what a feat!) :

Jumping into nostalgia's arms: high school graduation, and my belated puppy dog. Love you and miss you still.

So, overall, Uruguay was an amazing experience. I would say that I liked Montevideo more than Colonia, however, but the two cities are still very unique in their own respect. Also something I love about that country: MATE. I thought people drank mate here pretty frequently. Well, I was incredibly mistaken. In the big city of Montevideo you couldn't walk down the sidewalks or through the parks without seeing every other person with a thermos around their shoulder and a gourd in their hand. It was such a beautiful thing. And, as my host mother explained to me, it is for all classes. You see the wealthy and the poor and the old and the young always drinking mate. I found that to be a very honest and lovely statement about the culture of the infused drink. And because it is so widespread, Uruguay is where you go to get the GOOD STUFF. Susannah and I came home both with new gourds and a giant bag of Canarias, the best of the best brands of yerba mate in South America. I have got to bring this stuff home (I'm having some right now, it is insanely delicious) to the states. Thank you, Uruguay, for all these experiences and for your delicious mate!

The Art of Writing about Travel: Rewards of travel blogging, and closure that need be made

(The Art of Travel, post 15, Farewells

this is my final post for my blogging course!)

I still have four full weeks until I return home to the States, meaning the end is looming near, but I still have several days to explore and participate in activities on my list of things I want to do with my time here. Then, inevitably, and as is the case for most NYU students right now, school will take over with final papers, projects and presentations. I’m trying not to think about all of that right now, however, and enjoy my last month here in Buenos Aires.

By semester’s completion, I will be able to say I’ve been to two cities in Chile, two in Uruguay, and three different provinces (many visited cities within them) of Argentina.  Although these destinations may not be as extensive a list as others’, I’m still pretty impressed and more than pleased to have those passport stamps and stories to tell.  I’m seriously going to miss everything that is South America, everything that will become my memories of South America (preemptively making memories is such a silly game I play, or perhaps, a terrible habit I have).  The somewhat embarrassing self-picture I have posted here is from the trip I took by myself to San Carlos de Bariloche in Patagonia.

And throughout it all, I have been incredibly thankful to be in this course.  I haven’t been enrolled in a writing course since freshman year, and am pretty horrible at keeping up with personal writing if I’m not forced to do so.  And although I have not been all that great about the regularity of my posts (as is something to be learned about the ‘art’, per se, of blogging), I always find the time I take to sit down and write them enjoyable.  And in this last post, I find the time I have taken to look back on my old posts even more enjoyable, if not a shock, combined with humble moments of reminiscing.  I find it a fair generalization to say that all of us have certainly changed throughout this semester because of our experiences, and are able to notice these changes based on our recorded first memories and our knowledge now.  Is not that the point of a journal, or the public version, a blog?  Tracking these changes and these experiences has been, I think, essential, and that is why I am, as I will reiterate, thankful for this course.

Beyond this blog, I also have a more personal blog, conducted through blogspot, where I repost these pieces along with adding some other ones every now and then (when I can, and when I feel the need to – you can read these other posts here [this was originally a link to THIS blog!]).  And if I didn’t have this course to be a starter’s guide or a source of things to post on that other site, I would not have been quite as ambitious.  Another reason to be thankful.

Now here comes the hardest part of all: having to end both of these sources of public writing, having to end my adventures abroad, having to say goodbye to a city I have come to know and love.  As already mentioned, however, I still have time to make my farewells, but am most certainly not looking forward to it, no matter how much I want to see my friends and family at home.

I am more than happy that I decided to take a semester abroad, however.  It is something that is much more widely advertised for college students in our generation, just as it should be.  The encouragement comes with good reason.  I was scared to go at first, almost reluctant.  And now I think it crazy that I ever doubted coming to Buenos Aires.  The stories I have, the things I’ve seen, the new ways of living I plan to carry with me for the rest of my life, will be with me forever (I feel that goes without saying).  And I know, above all, that I will, one day, be back.  So perhaps this farewell is more of a “goodbye for now” type deal, because I find it inevitable that one day, I will return.

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Dear Ensueños readers:

Now I have posted all of my blog posts that I had to write for my 2-credit course called The Art of Travel. You can read them all here on this blog, with the tags of 'the art of travel', or you can go to the actual course's website and see my posts here. When pursuing the second link, I very much recommend checking out the other students' blogs (you will see a sidebar on the left called "Blogroll Spring 2012 -- make sure you are on the Art of Travel tab) where you can read about students' adventures, realizations, and tall tales from Florence, Paris, Berlin, Abu Dhabi, other students in Buenos Aires, and my favourite posts to read each week: the students in Accra, Ghana. It's been a semester of work, so please check them all out! I hope you've enjoyed the guided themed posts and everything. This last post expresses my gratitude for having this writing course this semester. And although the class is over, I do plan on continuing to write my own personal posts and keep up with the blog, until, of course, it comes time to leave this wonderful city.

Thank you all, muchísimas gracias :)

Mis Aventuras en Chile: the other side of Latin America...

I'm here to finally write about my spring break in Chile... almost four full weeks after my return (surprisingly enough I have found time in my school schedule to do so!!). It will surely be a game of flipping through my journal, diving back into the archives of my memory, trying to put myself back into that other world... because another world it was.

One of the most common ways to travel domestically and internationally in South America is by bus (what would be considered more or less a coach bus). They cost cheaper than most plane rides (depends on location, of course) and are said to be of good quality for long, overnight rides. I had my first experience of an overnight bus going from Buenos Aires to Santiago, a long painful ride, and a long stop at customs on the border. There really is not much to tell about this act of travel, except for my view of the sky at night, which you can read about here, and then the glorious, surreal and incredibly scary drive through the Andes (what I would consider a quintessential South American experience to be had).

Upon arriving in Santiago, the cab ride from the bus station to our apartment we rented for three nights consisted of downtown landscapes that reminded me of (a sunnier and warmer version of) Buenos Aires. European architecture and grand statues of independence liberators surround me as we drive through busy, downtown avenues. Yet there is something completely distinct between the European feel of Buenos Aires and this capital... it didn't seem as elegant. There was a sort of charm missing. It felt like for the first time I really was in Latin America.

I believe that spending my time in Buenos Aires has given way to an incredibly blurred outlook on just what is 'Latin America'. Buenos Aires is incredibly European and a big city with Fifth Avenue-esque fashionistas walking the streets where obesity is severely looked down upon (which is why you never see it here). It is a place where I, with my light skin, dark hair and freckles, can join the masses and be stopped by outsiders who think I'm a local and ask for directions. In Santiago, however, I stuck out like the sorest of thumbs. I was some strange white girl invading these people's space, where fashion is not of priority, and being thin and beautiful is not the required look as it is in BsAs. My comfort of being 'home' (my new home, back in Argentina) was completely lost in this place where I truly was the Other.

Something that my friends and I took great satisfaction in, however, was the amount of fast food in Santiago. There was plenty of it. McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, and their own chains swarmed the city and I was honestly completely surprised by just how much there was, which is truly saying something coming from the United States (from the Midwest, no less). But then there were also your classic, greasy diners. And we were ecstatic. Nothing of the sort exists in Buenos Aires (except for some kitschy, American-style diners with overpriced burgers and milkshakes that come with your Elvis Presley napkin and Back to the Future placemat), and we've been craving giant cups of shitty coffee and cheese fries at the wee hours in the morning from our favorite 24-hour diner in the East Village (we are college students, are we not??). Thus diner cravings were satisfied, particularly with the glory that is Chile's most traditional platter: chorrillana.

Chorrillana is a typical meal for sharing in Chile. It consists of a giant plate of fries, some sort of meat spread on top (usually beef, but sometimes it can be a mix of beef and pork and chicken), fried egg(s) and onions (caramelized, grilled or fried). Of course there are variations: some people add cheese, olives, roasted peppers. There is always a bottle of ají sauce on the table, something Buenos Aires would never dare to try (in Argentina their food is notorious for lacking any spice, because for some reason it is unwanted). We got into the habit of always asking for it with palta (avocado) to make it even more beautiful than it already is (if that's even POSSIBLE). So, our desire for greasy, bad-for-you-yet-totally-delicious food in a genuine, diner setting was beyond fulfilled. In fact, it was more genuine than any New York experience nowadays, because in pretty much all public places in Chile, one is allowed to smoke. And you can buy your cigarettes, right there behind the cash register. Some might find this to be a bit 'backwards', as if we were in 20th century America, but the fact is that Chile is a country filled with smokers, so their restaurants abide to that as well.

My camera was dead for spring break (because I was not smart and forgot to charge it before leaving) so the photographic evidence I have of these glorious meals are the two pictures below, which were taken by my friend Z (not a nickname, that is indeed his first full name) : the first one is of our first chorrillana ever! and the second at a restaurant in Valparaíso, with cheese and avocado added to the mix of meat.

My time in Santiago was spent at the music festival Lollapalooza 2012, which took place in Parque O'Higgins (a giant park, much larger than the festival's original counterpart: Grant Park in Chicago). I hadn't been to a music festival in quite some time, and still have yet to see a show here in Buenos Aires, so it felt really good to get my concert fix. AND NOT JUST ANY CONCERTS. Highlights of the weekend / a list of the shows I was able to see: Cage the Elephant, Band of Horses, Bassnectar, Arctic Monkeys, Skrillex, Peaches, Björk (she was beautiful and it was surreal), and, what made traveling to Santiago worth it all, JOAN JETT with her group The Blackhearts. She was beyond incredible, and for her age she still looks so flawless on stage in her pleather jumpsuit and studded belt. I couldn't believe how close I was to her, and how perfect she played all of her songs (including the best ones from The Runaways days) live. It was such a perfect show. Below is a picture I took of her on stage. THE REAL DEAL. Writing about this now, I still can't believe I can say I saw Joanie.

The Monday after the weekend's festivities, we took a two and a half hour bus West to Valparaíso, which cost about 7 USD. We arrived at the bus station which occupies a busy part of town (because as a general theme, I would say the bus terminals I have been to here have all been pretty crazy and noticeably unsafe areas to be in), and grabbed a cab to go to our hostel. Once nearing towards the water, we could glimpse up into the infinite hills with beautiful colored houses stretching for miles, far away and up into the sky. I begged that we would take a trek up one of these hills to get where we were going to (a random hostel we booked that day while still in Santiago, which was the cheapest one we could find on the booking site we used) and sure enough, we turn a corner and make a climb. Mind you, the United States is the only nation (at least as far as I am convinced) that more commonly drives automatic cars versus manual. That is not the case everywhere else in the world. So we were rising at what felt like a straight 180 degrees with the driver driving stick. It was a bumpy ride to say the least. And then finally we arrive at a bright blue, nautical themed hostel that more than exceeded any expectations that I had of what would be La Maison de la Mer.

I still feel that I could talk for days about this hostel, even looking back on it now, a month later. To read more details about this beautiful place and everything it was to me (and also to see some pictures from my extremely limited functioning camera) you should read this post that I wrote for my blogging class.

Everything about Valparaíso was beautiful. It is truly a charming city (as I hope can be gathered from my other post) and I cannot wait to be back. But I also can't even know where to start with remembering it all. It seems too great an effort. So I'm asking a little help from one Chile's own: Pablo Neruda.

Neruda won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, and is one amongst his many Chilean contemporaries who paved the way for Latin American literature to be recognized globally. Most important among this group is Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in 1945 - not to mention the obvious fact that she is also a woman, this is a pretty big deal and has made her name known internationally.

Neruda had a house in Valparaíso in his heyday: it was something he wanted whose design would allow him to look at out the sea and at the hills of the city when he wrote. The house today now functions as a museum, called La Sebastiana (again, I do not have pictures of my own, not until I get some film pictures developed, so I can direct you all here to put an image to this beautiful spot), which has most original furnishings and paintings that one can walk through with a guided audio tour which my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed (it is a must-do while in Valparaíso). I would very much recommend checking out the link to be able to see the dazzling views the author had from his comfortable armchair.

If you think it long and mad, 

the wind of banners 

that passes through my life, 

and you decide 

to leave me at the shore 

of the heart where I have roots, 

remember 

that on that day, 

at that hour, 

I shall lift my arms 

and my roots will set off 

to seek another land. 

The above excerpt was taken from a translation of Pablo Neruda's poem "If you forget me". Valparaíso, to me... is this place... a place of return (as noted in my other post)... a place at the shore where I sensed from the start was a place in my heart "where I have roots" that could either remain or be sent off fleeting "to seek another land." But even if my wanderlust gets the best of me, somehow my traces will remain in Valparaíso, this magical city I am itching to go back to.

So I understand this post is long. But it only just begins to touch on my experience in Chile, in all honesty. I wish I had more pictures to share, and again, hopefully I will once my film gets developed (I'm picking up a good chunk of pictures on Monday). I have been meaning to write about it for a while beyond just for my blogging class. I hope you enjoyed and were able to follow along to the delight I found in my Spring Break vacation in Chile, a truly unique and beyond beautiful country in the Southern Cone.

Advice Before Taking the Plunge: Why I would recommend Buenos Aires as a study abroad location

(The Art of Travel, post 14, Tips)

When discussing the things one needs to know before traveling to a certain place, the knowledge is endless.  One could read travel book upon travel book and still never truly grasp the ‘genius loci’ or any other sense of the location.  But, existing within the realm of study abroad sites and a college student framework, there are certainly a few tips that can be passed down from student to student.  I hope to relay a bit of my experience on things I wish I had known and things that I know now about Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Reasons why one should come to Buenos Aires: (oh god, where do I begin…?) if one is interested at all in Argentina, or perhaps South America in general; if one doesn’t mind stepping into a different culture, astray from that of the United States or Europe of which we are so closely related to; if one knows a little bit of Spanish, or is willing to be immersed in it and learn much more; if one has a little adventuresome wanderlust, to see epic beauties and glorious cities across the continent one never thought one would ever have the chance to see (which is more a reason for anyone to study abroad anywhere, no?).  These reasons, among many others, drew me to this location.  South America is more or less made up of ‘second world’ countries.  But what did I know about any of Latin America before coming here?  Shamefully, not that much.  But now I have so much history and cultural studies that I have gained through my classes and through my experiences here, and I could not be more pleased with finally beginning to know an area of the world I was once previously clueless about.

The weeks before coming here, I was apathetic and lazy, but excited to make this new change in my life, and excited to go from bitter Wisconsin winter to this sort of paradise I made out in my head.  Friends of mine were excited for me because they figured I was moving to the jungle.  I had to get through to them that I would be living in an incredibly large and very modern metropolis, although ideas of moving somewhere that would be more or less ‘tropical’ sent me in dizzying reveries.  Too bad I am sitting here, writing this in pants, thick socks, a shirt, a heavy sweater and a scarf.  Which brings me to another important tip: PACKING.

One is always warned to pack as minimal as possible, and this is beyond true.  I tried to do this (I basically had one big duffle bag with me for my four months here), but most definitely still ended up bringing too much with me (and I’m the kind of person who very much enjoys bringing my entire wardrobe, especially all my shoes, with me almost anywhere I go, but cut it down so low, and somehow it still was too much).  Also be incredibly aware of the climate of the place you are going.  People warned me it would start to get a little cooler right before we left back to the states, where it will be summer again (that will be an interesting change to make).  No one said it would be this cold, however.  I only brought one sweatshirt, and thankfully had some jeans on me.  I was lucky to have my parents come and visit, in which I asked if they could be the wonderful parents they are and BRING ME MY SWEATERS.  Thank goodness they did.

I could go on and on, and talk about how one should be in a homestay, and about traveling throughout South America while here (Uruguay is just a ferry away, there are buses that travel internationally to almost anywhere you want to go, etc), but I suppose I’ll save that for pre-departure orientation, NYU study abroad fairs, and the like.  All I must say, however, is that Buenos Aires is such a unique experience, and NYU does an excellent job with the education and the staffing here, and I could not be happier with my choice.  Leaving will be a difficult thing to do.