Four Days in Mendoza

Well friends,

The time has come again for me to update le old blog, hope there are still some people out there curious as to what's up and reading this thing because these pictures always take a goddamn millenium to upload, especially on our shared slow as shit internet. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Anyways, my roommate Dan's family came to town a few weeks back and had planned a trip out to Mendoza for themselves, Dan, and Dan's little sister. To my great fortune Dan's little sister couldn't make the trip for basketball tryouts and the Koch's had a nonrefundable flight, so I got the invite.

Score.
Mendoza is a beautiful Argentine city located near Chile and the Andes mountain range. It's full of parks and trees and beautiful cobblestone walking streets. After an extended period in Buenos Aires it was a much welcome break from the craziness of inner city life to be in a calmer place. Mendoza actually strictly observes the siesta- a break in almost all commerce between the hours of approximately 130 and 5pm.

This beautiful fountain was right in the middle of the main plaza. Underneath is the Mendoza is el museo municipal de arte moderno, aka the biggest waste of 8 pesos for a photography exhibit I've ever spent. I'll leave the translating of the museum name up to you, don't hurt yourself non-Spanish speakers.

The trees that lined all the parks and roads gave for some great shade

A walking street, lined with cafes and shops. Notice the distinct absence of trash or homeless.

daytime view of the main park, half a block from the hotel

and the majestic nighttime view. We asked a doorman what the red thing that resembles santa's hat is and he responded "creo que es la gorra de papa noel", or "i think it's santa's hat". Needless to say, I don't think he knew either haha

Argentina has great trees

I definitely wanted to get a picture of this lone gazebo in the checkered tree shade, it was just an added bonus that there was a schoolyard couple canoodling right in the middle to make it such an interesting picture.

"che! foto! foto! sacanos una foto! recuerdos de mendoza!"

"hey! photo! photo! take a photo of us! memories of mendoza!"

We were talking around this park this day during the siesta, so a ton of school kids were in the park just hanging out and taking it easy. This group of boys were particularly excited to be part of our experience, and got pretty excited even though all I did was raise my hand above my head and snap a quick photo. In general I have to say the Mendocinos were more welcoming and friendly than the Portenos we deal with on a daily basis, although this largely could just be the difference between being a tourist and actually being a resident.

This handkerchief drawing on the ground is in honor of the "desaparecidos" or the "disappeared". The desaparecidos are those that were bagged, kidnapped, and murdered by the totalitarian government, and a big part of Argentina's painful past. If you've been following along this blog, I think I've referenced them a few times before.

So enough about Mendoza the city, and on to how we actually spent our time in Mendoza. Mendoza is very famous for its wine, and supposedly makes the best Malbec in the world. The climate is ideal for growing the grapes and hosts upwards of 1200 vineyards, the vast majority of which were started in the last 15 years. The Kochs are a family who appreciate their wine, so I was fortunate enough to go with them to see some of these amazing vineyards and try some incredible wines. Sure beats three buck chuck.

My first wine tasting, a selection of the finest malbecs from the Mendoza region. Before this I had really never been much of a wine fan but I was really impressed with all of the different flavors and characteristics that were present in each of these wines, not to mention their superb taste.

So on day two we headed to the clos de los 7 vineyards, about an hour and a half from Mendoza city. The vineyards are comprised of 5 vineyards jointly owned by 5 of the most important French families, including and coordinated by Michel Rolland- apparently quite a big name in the wine game. This is a map of their resort and the different crops they grow.

Other than some deserty plains and looming mountains, you'll notice a large dust cloud to the right. The day we went to the vineyards the zonda came through, a wind storm that rolls through Mendoza a few times a year. It starts as a cool wet wind in Chile, drops all its humidity in the Andes, and then comes to Mendoza all hot and dry to mess things up. It was super windy, many trees were down, power was lost to many of the suburbs, and two people died from falling tree branches. The zonda is no joke.

The view pulling up to the first vineyard, Monteviejo. Some pretty cool architecture. The entire place is on a slight slope allowing them to use gravity instead of traditional methods to do some process, but neither Dan nor I can remember which it was. Cool concept though

baby grapes

The view from the deck. Not bad, eh?

Some of the distillation tanks at Monteviejo

The lab. I think they do tests and stuff here. I can't be sure, I'm no scientist.

The second vineyard: Diamandes.
Diamandes (diamonds) + andes= Diamandes. That's actually pretty clever

And this is where the diamond comes from. A super impressive and modern diamond statue. The statue, when viewed directly from above, actually makes the shape of a diamond.

The diamond from the ground floor. I could post pictures of the vineyard, but this diamond really was the coolest part.

and the view from the basement level, below the diamond. I couldn't help but feel this room should be called something like the immortal's chamber- but it's just the owners personal wine storage.

The view of the diamond from below

alien abduction? or just really cool natural light effects?

This guy had some serious cargo in his personal stash

The Kochs had been at dinner with an old friend of theirs when they pulled out a bottle of wine from this vineyard, to which their friend remarked that her uncle was actual Jean Guy Cuvelier. What are the odds, right? Anyways, this random connection to the vineyard allowed us to get a pretty personal tour of the place, and see some things normally reserved for privileged eyes.

These egg shaped distillation tanks are unique, the only 2 in Argentina. They were flown in especially from France. Fancaaaayyyyy

When you make alot of wine, you have to store and age alot of wine. This went all the way around, but it was impossible to get a picture of the whole thing

Ok, enough wine. The next day we drove out into the mountains and went on a nice relaxing horseback ride. The natural beauty of the place was astounding

Even with sunglasses on I couldn't help but squint in the photo.

This is the ranch from where we left, small and quaint

Dan, a glorious backdrop, and the classic Kinross point and pose

The Kochs and me, all saddled up

What a view

Those are the main things we did, other than just relax and walk around or hang by the pool. It was a vacation after all. Here are a few cool extra things we managed to squeeze in-

Mendoza's soccer stadium where the local team, Godoy Cruz, plays.

I guess they take seat hopping pretty seriously...

On the way up glory hill you can see this amphitheater set into the natural environment. Apparently its used for the yearly harvest fest, when thousands of people gather up here to eat, drink, and be merry.

and at the top of glory hill- the reason its called glory hill. A monument to San Martin, the liberator of the Andes from foreign oppression

One can only dream of one day having a statue this dope erected in their honor

A big big thank you to Dan and the Kochs for taking me along!
dope was the trip, bomb was the wine, cold is the chair.

'Til next time

Buenos Aires funny fashion

Hey friends,

So I wanted to get a post out about what life is like in a new and foreign city. I think one of the first things most people, myself included, notice about a new place is the people. Are they similar to me and my friends? how do they dress? How do they behave? what features do they have? What are they into? How do they spend their time?

I could write a novel of a post covering all of these topics, which I doubt anyone would have the patience to read, so I'll try to narrow my focus. While some of these questions require time and exposure to be able to solve, I think that typically the first to be answered is simply how do these people look, and compared to what I'm used to how do they differ. I think you would be hard pressed to travel to a new land and not immediately notice how the locals dress and present themselves, and the contrasts that are drawn between their and your culture. Buenos Aires is certainly no exception.

I'm no expert on the topic, and don't want to just rant about every single difference I've seen or every time I've seen someone dressed in public and couldn't help but think "...what the hell?". Beyond the expected terrible male haircuts (think rat tails, mullets, comb overs, and some of the best and worst dreads you've ever seen) and sometimes questionable female dress (Aladdin style parachute pants, leather pants, and just overwhelming schmorgisborg of accessories) I'll let you guys in on a few trends I've noticed down here that I've found particularly interesting or peculiar.

First off, women down here really take care of themselves. There's a certain level of vanity that pervades the culture. Argentines, believe it or not, are actually covered for one plastic surgery per year under their health care coverage. Even their president, Cristina Fernanda de Kirchner, is no exception.

Cristina pre-augmentation (or at least, pre-currently augmented state)

current day Cristina. Would you believe this woman is 58?

Either the nation's leader has been hitting the botox, or Cristina sold her soul and Argentina is now being run by an evil undead succubus. I've asked many Argentines this question, yet no one seems to have any answers.

This reminds me of a short anecdote from one of my early English classes I taught here. I was starting with a new student; a 29 year old bleach blonde Argentine employed by the city government as their chief of communication. I usually start off my first lesson with any student with about 15 minutes of conversation, just to get some background on the student and see how they can manage and manipulate the language to express themselves. Our first conversation went a little like this:

Me: So what did you do this weekend?

Her: (Points to chest just under collarbone with both hands) Red...Bread...
Me: Huh?...red?
Her: Yes, bread...red...
Me: (Noticing her skin is very red, appears sun burnt) Oh, did you get a sunburn? red from a sunburn??
Her: (noticeably frustrated with her inability to communicate her idea) Hmm... no... (proceeds to grab breasts with both hands and thrusts them upwards) ...MORE TITS!!!

She had gotten breast (the word she was looking for earlier) implants over the weekend, and was trying to show me her proud new additions. This was in no way uncomfortable for her or any kind of come on, but just the news from over the weekend. She pulled aside the straps of her shirt to show me the bandages she still had from the procedure, and we went on to discuss the popularity of plastic surgery in Buenos Aires and the world. What a way to kick off a first class, eh?

Anyways, here are another couple trends you're bound to notice in under 5 minutes in this city that I've found interesting, if not baffling.

Argentine women take great care of their hair. I would say that the average girl has hair at least 50 percent longer than that of the American girl, and it' always smooth and shiny. While this looks great on a lot of the girls here, there's a wildly popular trend that I personally think ruins the whole look; the epic straight bangs.

Sure, some girls can pull it off but the sheer number of girls here that sport this style is baffling.

This is what I'm talking about:

Maybe this is just a personal thing, but I find that this just makes it look like most girls here don't have eyebrows, which kind of freaks me out.

on the left: how pretty Argentine women are
on the right: how I perceive women that cover their entire forehead with an impenetrable blockade of over conditioned hair. kinda freaky looking, right?

This city has a great counter culture, and it's not uncommon to see individuals with tons of tattoos and piercings. While there's always a spectrum of taste and class when applying such decorations to the skin, sometimes certain fads gain traction that are...harder to explain than others. I'll be the first to admit that my cultural background and comfort zone impacts my opinions on these sorts of matters, but there's a specific trend that I have not been able to wrap my brain around that maybe you guys will find interesting too; the mid lip piercing.

Now in theory, there's nothing terribly wrong with this choice. If I saw the occasional hoodlum with an unfortunate piercing I'd probably just ignore it, but when you hop on a subway train and almost half the young people you see have some sort of metallic mole adorning their face it's hard to not wonder what these kid are thinking. These piercings often come in 2's or 3's, and I'm told are more indicative of the lower class style of presentation.

While this guy may have a few more than most, this would not at all be a peculiar site in this city.

With any of these kind of image decisions it's easy to just dismiss them as misguided choices, until you realize that if this many people sport these kinds of looks that means that there are groups of people that actually think that they look COOL. Trying to keep this thought in mind and just walking around the city is always good for a few laughs. Given, if I were to have a conversation with any of these individuals about their perceptions of how I present myself I'm sure they too would laugh over my misguided choices. It's all a matter of perspective.

Until next time, and if you made it this far thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

9 month later, a short life update

Dear friends, family, and bystanders,

Updating this blog hasn't been an easy as I hoped. I've gotten some good posts out there about trips and events, but feel as though I've neglected one of the primary reasons I made this blog, which was to communicate with you guys about what I'm up to and what actually living in Buenos Aires is like.

So, where to start? Well, the most current happening over here is a certain injury I've been tending the last two days. On Tuesday after work I decided I'd bring the ol' skateboard to work, and head over to this amazing plaza outside the faculty of medicine (the med school in BA). As luck has it, after about 5 minutes skating around and warming up I managed to come down wrong on a nice easy warm up grind, a trick I have literally done countless times without problem. What happened next was my toe caught the ground, and my weight came down on my folded ankle. It didn't really hurt, but I knew I had caught it pretty good. It swelled pretty immediately, but oddly enough only on 2 by 4 inch section of my ankle at first, like a massive spider bite. I was still able to walk on it ok, so I hobbled over to the faculty of medicine main entrance and waited for a doctor to come by. Once one did, I disculpame-d and asked him if he thought I needed to head to a hospital. He said if I could walk ok, which at the time I could, that icing and anti-inflammatorys should do the trick. I finally went to the hospital the next day and have apparently strained it pretty bad. Looks like I won't be up to much the next three weeks.

day 1 swelling

day 3 coloration

at least I finally found bagels in Buenos Aires, which makes having to spend so much time at home much more bearable, at least for a half hour a day.

so what else?

I'm still working for the Spanish and TEFL school downtown where Dan and I got our TEFL certifications. They've kept me pretty busy. On top of my usual duties of scheduling, coordination, communication, correspondence, activity planning, weekly dinner outings I've recently been given the added responsibilities of coordinating all the teaching practices for our TEFL trainees, as well as creating and maintaining a TEFL blog for our school. The coordinator before me warned me that the job entailed doing "everything, basically running the school". I guess I thought she was exaggerating... nope.

Most of the friends that we had during our first few months here (except a handful of Argies) have returned back to their home countries. It's been an interesting experience having friends cycle in and out of our lives here, even in a short 9 months. Our social circle pretty much revolved around our roommates at the last house, mostly French exchange students and their friends, as a matter of convenience (not to take anything away from the cool people we've come to meet and truly enjoy). We've been in a new apartment for the last 2 months and have made friends with the other residents and a few of their friends. Unfortunately neither of our jobs lends itself well to expanding the social circles. Dan spends his time teaching English to older people with jobs and lives, and while I do spend much of my time with students roughly my age a. fraternization with the students is discouraged by the directors of the school, so really the only ones I ever end up being friends with are those that stay in Buenos Aires after their time at the school which leads me to b. most students come for a week or two and then move on from Buenos Aires. We've been fortunate to make a few friends that aren't going anywhere and usually have a good number of things to do, so the last thing I mean to imply is that our lives have been boring, they have simply been in flux.

Overall I have to say that things are good. winter (if you can call it that, it hovered in the 50s and only dropped below 40 on a few occasions) is over, the sun is out, I'll be back on my feet in no time, and there's still plenty to enjoy. I'll have a good chunk of free time over the next couple of weeks, so I plan on getting some more posts out regarding my experience living here. Check back soon to see what I've been up to, find out a little bit about Buenos Aires and Argentina, and hopefully leave more entertained than when you arrived.

Suerte y un abrazo a todos