GSE Argentina 2005

The Tables Turn . . .

2005-05-02T00:57:00.000-03:00

This morning we arrived in Boise with the GSE team from Argentina. It was a terrific flight - lots of fun with our new friends, Gabriel, Luciano, Laura and Miriam. I noticed in the airport one big difference between the welcoming we received on April 1, and that our new friends received. Our families were all anxious to get our baggage and get us home, and had just enough time for a quick good bye for each other - friends who have been almost inseparable for a month. We were all a little sad about leaving each other, and felt a little responsible for making a comfortable transition for our Argentine friends. However, as with much in this program, the details are not in our hands, as their families were anxious to get them home as well.

After three days in Argentina of fairwell dinners and other goodbye rituals (which included my donating my curling iron to my host mom who noticed it in the bathroom and fell in love with it - she wanted to pay me for it and I was grateful not to have one more thing to pack!), we were anxious in the airport to get through security, get our tax rebates on the purchases we made, exchange pesos for dollars, get something to eat, etc. Our send off committee wanted, it seemed, to have another long goodbye and were a little put off by our anxiety. They didn't understand the rush. As it was we just barely had enough time to get on the plane after all our errands.

My impressions of the Group Study Exchange program are very positive. About two weeks into our trip, I was sure that a month in Argentina was overkill, now I'm not so sure. We made tremendous contacts with new friends, and will continue to converse with them. We learned a lot about what is important to us as indiviudals and what we can appreciate about our way of life. We learned a lot about the role our country plays in the world. Some of what we learned was pleasant, some not so much so, but the experience has had an impact and I hope each of us has the opportunity to share the knowledge we have gained with others here and in Argentina.

Bienvenidos to our new friends the Argentinians in Idaho. I hope they have a wonderful experience here and grow to love our lindo estado as much as we all have grown to love their beautiful country.

It is now 10 p.m. and I had dinner hours ago and am about to go to bed. I'm sure I'll be able to return to that way of life much easier than the transition at the beginning of April!

Ciao!
Beth

We made it home!

2005-05-01T22:44:00.000-03:00

Just a quick note to let you know that Bryan, Jen, Beth and I, as well as the GSE group from Buenos Aires, made it to Boise safely today around 11am. Don is still traveling in Argentina until next Friday. Look forward to a final blog from each of us in the coming week.

For me personally, it has been great to be home. Most importantly, I have already spent some wonderful time with my husband, sister, parents and friends. It has been great to see my dogs and cat and already spend some time in Hyde Park. Work is going to be tough tomorrow.

I love that I can cross Harrison Blvd. on foot with cars slowing down and letting me cross rather than speeding up to intimidate/hit me. I also love that people pick up after their dogs and therefore there is not dog poop on the sidewalks. Additionally, I LOVE and missed so much the fresh air of Boise. Oh and I must mention that I am immensely enjoying conveying complex thoughts such as "can I have a whole wheat tortilla instead of a flour one as well as a side salad with spinach that is not on the menu." In Argentina, it would more than likely have been, "burrito por favor" even though they did not have burritos.

It is interesting, because after living in Mexico and coming back to the states, I would at times feel embarrassment of being American because of reasons such as many people not knowing more than one language or because of the obesity problem in our country, etc. This time, I feel very proud to be American and recognize that there are both good and bad things about my country. Being away for a month has made me appreciate the good and downplay the bad. I am very privileged to live in this wonderful country and even more privileged to have had the GSE experience in Argentina to help me learn about another wonderful country while augmenting the appreciation of my own.

Ciao,
Alecia

vocational days y mas

2005-04-29T21:31:00.000-03:00

With the extra time tonight we get to catch up on the blog. This has been a great month for me and hard to believe it's time to return. We've done and seen so much that the nights and days really have blended together. I didn't know exactly what to expect before coming, but the trip has certainly been much more than I could have imagined. We'll all have to write down more specific thoughts later. We all look foward to returning to see our families and friends

I just wanted to mention I've enjoyed the vocational days I've had. This Thursday I was able to visit one of the power companies in the city and talk with several of the engineers and managers. We usually have someone acompany us around but I was on my own this time since the offices I visited were fairly close and I could walk. I wanted to visit some of the downtown facilities but wasn't able to work that out. In the afternoon I met with the President of the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Council. This is a council set up by the government to help oversee and provide direction for the energy sector. This was especially neat to discuss the past history and future direction of Argentina's energy situation. In some ways they are very advanced in areas, yet face many challanges as well in others - especially politically. We all have really been given special opportunities to meet people and companies geared toward our own professions.

The rotary meetings have also been very rewarding to share more about our state with the rotary members. We've had several mention they thought they would like to visit someday. What a great program exchange program this is and I'm glad I got to part of it.

I just wanted to mention one last thing about shopping. If you like to shop, Buenos Aires is the place for it. There are stores, shops, and malls everywhere. Even Don and I have come along way. Don bought a nice Argentine suit today and I've picked up quite a few things for my wife and kids. We'll never, however, match Jen, Beth, Alecia. We are all going to return to one last market area (the recoleta) tomorrow to get some last minute items. We're all anxious to see how our suitcases get packed tomorrow.

Adios, Bryan

Zapatas maravillosas

2005-04-29T20:44:00.000-03:00

I am happy to report that I got to sleep in this morning!! Beth and I were the stragglers last night..trying to find a place to dance with Gabi...alas, to no avail. Gabi gave it a good college try zipping us around in his car through a surprisingly dormant state of Buenos Aires. (2 - 4am)

Today was a wonderful treat. My host, Perla, greeted me this morning with a nice breakfast tray of crackers, jelly, yogurt and coffee. During breakfast (after 10am)I got to read at my leisure. What a luxury. When I realized it was noon, I figured I better give the team a call. That worked out swimmingly well since everyone at Miriam´s house was ready to go. We just can´t help ourselves we are constantly in sync.

Alecia already gave a good summary of our day today. But, I felt compelled to right a little something since I think I have only contributed twice on the blog. I haven´t had very easy access to a computer since my stay at Miriam´s.

The shoe experience was amazing!!! It was like we had the inside scoop on a little hideaway. It seemed as if we were walking down a courtyard and walking up the stairs to someoné´s house. We even had to ring the doorbell to get in. As soon as we walked in we got nervous because we saw three shoes on the wall. That is it. Quickly we learned the shoes come to us. All we have to do is give our size. Suffice to say we liked all the shoes and we really had to work hard to narrow it down. An Italian couple was sitting next to us on the only couch in the boutique. We found out they are from Rome and that the lady had already tried on over 40 shoes at two other stores. She had a hard time choosing between two pairs and the store owner kept telling her to buy both. The shoe boutigue, Comme il Faut, claims it is the best shoe store for the tango. I found out about it because I was eavesdropping on an American commenting to his two friends on the quality and price of shoes in a store window. I took a chance and confessed my listening to his conversation. He was very eager to lend advice. So, if I had not interupted this guy, I would have never found this place!

Over lunch, Beth, Bryan, Alecia and I waxed about a number of things. However, the prevailing thought was we are surprised the trip has already come to an end and we miss our families and Boise.

It´s a bummer that the ballet tonight is not going to happen. Like Don said, I guess we are going to have to come back again to get the full experience at Teatro Colon. We´ll have to make sure it is in 2007 since the theatre will be closed for repairs in 2006. (What do you want to bet they don´t meet their deadline. Didn´t they say their 100th anniversary was in 2008?)

Hasta Ladies and Gentleman. We have a dinner to attend and I am looking forward to the homemade empañadas.

Jen

Bad news and Tango Shoes

2005-04-29T20:16:00.000-03:00

When Bryan and I walked into the door at Miriam's from shopping with Beth and Jen and buying some Alfahores for our friends and family at home, Miriam immediately exclaimed that we were no longer going to the Teatro Colon tonight. Apparently, the workers strike that we saw when we took a tour of the theatre caused a cancelation of the ballet. We are all disappointed that we will not be able to see the ballet and the magnificant theatre in action.

As disappointing as missing the show due to the strike is, I cannot help but think of the children whose surgeries are being postponed for a year because of the strike at the hospital Garrahan. I think we are learning an important lesson tonight about some of the consequences of an instable/recovering economy.

Today I woke up late and then Bryan, Beth, Jen and I went to lunch and did some shopping. We finally had a chance to go to the Tango shoe shop that is supposedly the Mecca for shoe aficianados worldwide. I went to accompany Jen and ended up falling in love with the shoes. I am not the type to wear high heels, but I am telling you, these shoes are so comfortable despite the fact they have a high heel.

It was so strange to find the store. Luckily, Jen had the address because it was back in this little courtyard on the second story. We walked up the stairs to the second floor (kind of like an entrance to a second story apartment in Boise) and saw the name of the place on the door. There was nothing to even indicate that it was a shoe store. There were no windows, nothing. We rang the bell and a lady let us in. We sat down on a sofa and she asked what size we wore. After taking our sizes, she brought out two huge stacks of tango shoes, one for Jen and one for me. Once I tried on the first pair, I was hooked. They were so cute and so comfortable. After trying on quite a few pair, I decided on three pairs that I could not resist. At that point, I learned that they did not accept credit cards, so I had to walk two blocks to get cash to pay for the shoes. Obviously this place does well because they make it nearly impossible to buy shoes from them, but still have enough business to have a new line of shoes every week. Carrie Bradshaw would have been proud.

With the ballet canceled, we are having a dinner at Miriam's tonight. We were supposed to have one, anyway, after the ballet, but I suppose it will start earlier now.

I cannot belive that this will be my last night sleeping in Argentina. My biggest remaining challenge will be to fit all of the stuff I have bought into my bags. I have certainly done my part to help the recovery of the Argentine enonomy. Hopefully, the millions of underpaid workers in the city will be able to benefit from myself and other tourists like me.

La Ultima Presentación y Cena de Despedida

2005-04-29T12:36:00.000-03:00

We´re almost through. Last night we gave our final Rotary presentation. We were on the hot seat a bit when we were asked to give our spontaneous impressions of Argentina and our experiences (not that it´s anything new, just in a Rotary meeting, we usually have the opportunity to give a more polished - and practiced - version of our impressions). Everyone´s Spanish has improved dramatically, with Jen and Beth still feeling a bit challenged.

Most of the Rotary meetings have been in impressive buildings, but last night took first prize. We expected the Circular Militar to be another military museum, but actually it is a private club located in a palace built in the early 1900´s for a family of four (with 49 servants). Most of the first floor is in French Renaissance style, with ballrooms and six different kinds of marble in the entryway. The family moved after their finances dwindled, and left behind some of the paintings, sculptures, crystal light fixtures and statues. The woodwork and stained glass was incredible. The first floor costs about $1,500 american dollars to rent, and people have wedding receptions and parties there. The father of the family died two years before its completion. He had plans to become the Argentinan president, and so built in a number of balconies and other places for ´photo ops.´

Wednesday night was our send off dinner with host families, guides and the Argentina team in attendance. We were asked to give our thoughts and impressions here as well, but had been forewarned, so we had a chance to look up some words in the dictionary beforehand (Beth is getting tired of ¨bueno´ and ´lindo´ to desribe every experience of the past month). The whole group has been impressed with the amount of organization and energy put into making us feel welcome. Each member of the group has had a variety of acompañas for vocational days and tours, with varying degrees of fluency in English depending upon our needs. At every point in the trip we have had the opportunity to check back in with people who care about whether we are having a good time. It certainly makes us want to give more of our time as well to help others.

Last night Jen, Alecia and Beth went out with members of the Argentina Team coming to Boise next month to experience some of the famous Argentinian night life. Unfortunately, it was a Thursday night so things ended a little early with Alecia (grandma) going home at 3 a.m. Jen, Beth and Gabby drove around for another couple hours trying to find someplace to dance, but by about 5 a.m. decided to call it a night. Gabby apologized, ever since the devastating dance club fire in December where 200 people died, things have calmed down during the week, with clubs closing earlier and imposing maximums on the number of people in each club.

We´re looking forward to showing the Argentina team a good time in Idaho, as well, of course, to seeing our families and friends again. We´re going to be a little sad to leave as well. We have made fantastic friends here!

See you all again soon!
Beth, Bryan, Alecia and Jen

Hi from Don

2005-04-27T08:30:00.000-03:00

This is my first entry to the blog. I've been entering things to dwlcsl@aol.com for forwarding. Send an email to that address if you want my thoughts about this extraordinaary trip. This group has been fun to work with and I will miss them when they leave soon. I'm staying for six days and will catch up with Boise then.
Don Lojek

Jogging through the city

2005-04-27T08:12:00.000-03:00

I just wanted to add that on Monday Jen, Alecia and I went jogging in the evening. We went for 50 minutes through the city dodging cars, buses, taxis, people and dog droppings - a constant game of frogger. Getting through the city is an experience in itself. Last night we were late to a rotary meeting because our taxi driver got lost. The street lights have a yellow light going from green to red and also going from red to green. It´s difficult to tell if you should be slowing at the intersection or speeding up. We´ve learned though it always means to speed up as fast as you can to be the first one through the intersection moving around whatever may be in the way. We´ve seen so many ¨close calls¨ for us that somehow never seem never to affect the Argentines. We´re all doing great and enjoying our last week here in BA and taking advantage of every minute. Bryan

Rotary Meetings and the Chocolate Factory

2005-04-27T01:37:00.000-03:00

We have been back from Iguazù since Monday afternoon. On Monday, we ended up passing on the jungle tour since it was raining and we had already had one complete day of being wet and instead went to the Wanda Mines. It was interesting to see the minerals but the two hour tour was more like a half tour followed by 1.5 hours where they wanted you to shop in their stores and buy jewelry/etc. they had made. Not wanting to disappoint, I found a few pieces of jewelry to buy for family and myself, but wished that I could have seen more of the mines.

Monday night, Jen, Bryan and I had dinner with Jen's new host family since Miriam had a Jewish Easter celebration to attend. Our dinner was in a pizzeria owned by the brother of Jen's host mom.

At this point, the days are flying and running together. I honestly just had to check the computer to see what day it is. Today we woke up early and went to a Rotary meeting. This was the first early morning Rotary meeting we have attended here. It was a fun meeting and I talked with a gentleman from the US who has started a business exporting Argentine goods to regional areas in the US. I hope to be able to get together with him later this week to discuss this more because it sounds like he has learned a lot about Argentina in the process. He originally came down here on a Rotary scholarship to study for his masters in something like Latin America Economics.

Before the Rotary meeting had even finished, we packed up and headed to a chocolate factory with Gabby. It was very fun to tour the plant and see how they make various types of chocolate candies (and taste them.) Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside of the factory.

Following the chocolate factory, we had an amazing lunch at a very old restaurant and then went to the famous Book Fair (the largest in Latin America.) I enjoyed wandering around looking at the books and bought about six Argentine books at the 8th grade reading level in Spanish. It is a little embarrassing but the only way I will ever get through a book in Spanish. I bought one "grown up" book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to read if I can advance to that level. I also bought a book on Argentine slang and then enjoyed saying bad words that mean nothing to me outload and watch Gabby cringe and "shoosh" me. Seeing so many amazing Argentine and Latin American books inspired me to really work on my Spanish when I get back to the states.

Later, we had a couple of hours of "rest" at Miriam's before our evening Rotary meeting where we ate at 10pm and presented around 11pm. By 11, our Spanish is often in the meltdown mode so we never know how well the late Rotary meetings will go. This one was fun and we had a lot of audience participation.

Two funny quotes came out of the meeting. Jen said that her knife finger (the finger you use to cut with a knife) is sore from so much use, cutting beef and eating such complex meals for every lunch and dinner. Later, Beth was asked by Miriam where she lived (Miriam was trying to find her a ride home) and she responded that she did not know, but would check. This kind of exemplifies the sometimes cluelessness we feel.

Tomorrow, we are going to see some sort of military ceremony, followed by a visit to a commodities trader of grains and then all of us except the new grandfather, Don, have a free afternoon. I think the plan is to exercise. In the evening, we have a going away dinner with all of the people who have spent time with us while we have been here. I better pass on the mascara.

It is approaching 2am, so that is all for now.

Ciao Ciao!
Alecia

Welcome to the Jungle...

2005-04-24T19:40:00.000-03:00

Friday evening, the District Conference of the Buenos Aires Rotary district began with a rousing rendition of the Argentinian national anthem followed by dinner and dancing. The girls did not sit down while the band was playing. Those Argentinian men can sure dance (sorry guys.)

We feel that our presentation at the District Conference went well even though we prepared it over wine the night before and had only four hours of sleep. People were engaged during the video on Idaho and even laughed at our jokes.

Now we are in the jungle with limited internet access and they just told us it is 74 cents a minute to make a call to the US. Nobody is getting calls tonight.

Last night, we went into Iguazú town for dinner and tried to find shorts. But apparently, nobody over the age of 10 shops in any of the stores we could find. We did, however, find some street vendors with some great jewelry and enjoyed an amazing dinner in this town of 30,000 people.

Back to the shorts, none of us packed well for the jungle. Beth considered the weather "up north" and packed sweaters. Of course, we are now closer to the equator than we were in BA and it is 80 degrees F and very humid. We have now been wearing our exercise clothes for two days.

Before going to town last night, we took a stroll through a bird sanctuary located next to our hotel. It used to also be a place for a family of monkeys that it turns out they were killed by our hotel owners for pestering the guests. They are remembered by a monument in the park. It seemed like they are doing a good job rehabiliting the birds who have been hit by cars, shot or smuggled onto airplanes for sale as pets. There were toucans, parrots, eagles, hawks, owls and other types of interesting birds.

This morning we got up early and enjoyed eggs for breakfast for the first time in a month. We took a shuttle into Iguazú National Park and took a train to get our first glimpse of the world famous falls. It rained buckets all day long but it didn't stop us from enjoying every possible view of the falls from the Argentine side. We would have gone over to Brazil as well, but found out that a visa would have cost us over $100, imposed by Brazil as a reaction to the tough US visa requirments for Brasilians.

We were also able to see the waterfalls up close and personal "underneath" one of the falls in a jet boat. Needless to say, we took more than one shower today. In the jet boat, we hit some whitewater on the way back as well.

Back on shore, we had another tour of the jungle and learned about the flora and fauna of this region. There are giant blue butterflies called barboleta which reach 15 cms. in size. Coati are also here and they are similar to raccoons. Apparently there are pumas, jaguars, snakes, large spiders and monkeys, but we haven't seen any yet. We have heard the monkeys shrieking at each other in the bird park though.

Tomorrow we have another jungle tour with some sort of tree climbing activity.

It has been nice to get out of the city, with no schedule and enjoy the fresh air!!

Thanks for reading!
Beth, Jen and Alecia

And Bryan says Hi!

San Isidrio, World Peace Scholars and more

2005-04-22T13:45:00.000-03:00

Things continue to go well and we are still very busy. I apologize for the lack of blogs but we honestly wake up early and do not ever get home before midnight. Currently, Jen, Don, Bryan and I all live about an hour cab ride (on a good day) from Miriam's house, where we meet each morning. So basically any free time we might have is spent in a cab or remis (safer version of a cab.) That is why I decided to take some pictures of a typical ride and post them on snapfish yesterday.

I move to Miriam's house today and am looking forward to being in a centralized location in order to avoid spending upto 2.5 hours in a cab each day.

The past couple of days have been spent wandering through the streets, a museum, some cathedrals, a cute town called San Isidrio and giving presentations to Rotary Clubs. I am now getting to the point with my part of the presentation where I can almost remember it by heart, despite the fact that it is in Spanish.

It seems that there have been many protests in the city this week. Apparently, they are very common and we learned there are actually people who get paid for a living to be picketers. This has made cab rides really slow and cab drivers pretty ticked off. Going on strike is definitely the thing to do around here.

Wednesday, we went to a coastal town of San Isidrio where we had lunch and walked through the Cathedral. We took a tour of the delta region where all of the houses are only accessible by boat, yet you could do everything you could do in a normal community on land. There was an ambulance boat, a grocery boat, and pretty much a boat for everything you might need. You simply put a flag up on your dock when you want a particular boat to stop during its daily rounds. It seemed like it would be a great place to get away to for the weekend if you lived in B.A. Later we went to the horse races which were quite posh and fun to see. Next we went to a art exhibition of the Rotary club where the District Governor and the President of a university spoke. The day finished off with a nice dinner (and some wine) with our team! Fun times!

Yesterday, we had a breath of fresh air when we met with a group of "World Peace Scholars" also sponsored by Rotary. They are individuals who have been selected to study for two years (paid by Rotary) around areas that will help with world peace such as mediation, etc. It sounds like an incredible experience. If you are interested in applying to the program, check out the rotary.org website and search for World Peace Scholarships. We especially liked the lunch that the group set up for us where we had a chance to talk to them and learn about their program and get new perspectives on Buenos Aires. After the lunch, one of the scholars from Virginia, Leah, took us to her house so we could see what a typical (nice) apartment in B.A. looks like. We also road the bus for the first time and lived to tell about it. :) No, actually, it wasn't bad at all.

Tomorrow morning we have our big presentation at the district conference. After we finish with the presentation, we have to run to catch a plane to the world famous Iguazu waterfalls (cataratas) on the Argentine/Brazil border. We are really looking forward to our trip as well as some time as just our group (without escort.) Look forward to some gorgeous pictures of the falls and a complete report when we return!

Cheers!
Alecia

San Juan photos are up!

2005-04-19T17:24:00.000-03:00

Just a quick note to let you know that I finally found a computer that will read my CD and therefore the San Juan photos are now out there! Check them out when you get a chance!

Thanks for reading!
Alecia

You think you know Spanish when...

2005-04-19T01:03:00.000-03:00

It is so funny how one minute I feel like I am really understanding Spanish well and then all it takes is one person speaking at normal speed (fast) with the use of a little bit of slang or specific words that I do not know (there are plenty of them, especially with the detailed technical tours we have been on) and I suddenly feel like a dunce.

I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with my sister on the phone tonight and I was explaining to her what this experience feels like, so I thought I would share it with the entire blog community as well.

For example, tonight I had a very nice dinner with my host family. The parents have four kids, three sons and one daughter. One of their sons is married so his wife was also at the dinner. Like many of your family dinners, the conversation was very lively and fun with the use of a lot of slang, inside jokes and reference to stories from the past. Occasionally, I would have the pleasure of "getting" a small part of what they were talking about, like the child birth of their oldest son, but for the most part, the entire conversation passed me by. I could also tell that the kids were making fun of their mom in a jesting kind of way, something my sister and I probably take too much pleasure in from time to time. This made me miss home and also realize that the culture differences were not so extreme. All of the GSE group members have commented at one time that family dinners in Argentina are very loud and lively as well as fun. I only wish I could understand better.

It is a very different experience, both good and bad to be a part of a conversation that you only understand part of. For me, it is very good in that it reminds me to slow down in life and not take for granted my English language skills. It also reminds me of the many immigrants and visitors to the US who people often look down upon because they do not understand what is going on and may not be following directions, or doing what is accepted as the cultural norm. I challenge you next time you see such a person to instead of becoming irritated because they are slowing you down or cutting in line or whatever it may be, to instead, in slow English, share with them what they should be doing or help them if they need it. Sometimes, in another country whose first language is not your own, it is so much easier to just do something and wait for someone to tell you it is wrong rather than try and figure out how to ask what is correct, in their native tongue. This is something that is hard for me because I do not enjoy being told that what I am doing is wrong, but again that is another growing experience.

Back to the dinner...and many other meetings, tours, instructions in Spanish. I find it very exhausting to try and keep up with a fast Spanish conversation especially when more than one person is talking at a time. I focus all of my energy on what is being said and trying to decipher the meaning of the message. If my mind drifts off for even a second or if too many words that I do not know the meaning of come at once, poof, I am instantly out of the conversation and have to mentally begin sprinting to catch up.

Let me tell you, this gives casual conversation a whole new meaning.

Today was a vocational day for all of us, so we all had quite different experiences. I spent the day with the lovely Cecelia who we have come to know and love. She accompanied me to a consulting firm who writes eLearning tools for large companies such as Pfizer. It was very interesting to see how one company has incorporated the core competencies of teaching, technology and business to help other companies to be successful. It was very refreshing to see some actual R&D being done in Argentina since the other technology places I have been to more just market a product made somewhere else in the world to Argentina.

The second meeting was with Bryan and Jen at an Engineering "club." We met with the President of the club as well as the District Governor of Rotary for about an hour and a half. When the President's cigarette was not smoking directly in my face, I enjoyed the conversation. It was definitely one of those conversations where it is hard to keep up with the Spanish, but I think, between the three of us, we got the jist of it.

Tomorrow, Jen and I are going to try running in the morning and then later we have a tour of the churches of BA and then a RC meeting at 9pm. I have still not been able to get the pictures from San Juan up but I have not given up hope yet.

Anyway, I wanted to share these thoughts with you.

Alecia

San Telmo and River Plate vs. Quilmes

2005-04-18T01:17:00.000-03:00

Today we had a very exciting day planned with a tour of San Telmo, the River Plate vs. Quilmes soccer game followed by a play.

San Telmo was my favorite place in BA so far! It is the old, historical part of town and there were many quaint buildings. Many of the buildings were originally built for rich immigrants to BA, but when yellow fever plagued more than 2000 people in that area, the rich people moved to other parts of the city leaving their large homes to be divided up into "conventillos" with as many as 30 families living in poverty in the original mansion of one family. All of the homes seemed to have changed hands many times over the years and nowadays they are restaurants, coffee shops, antique shops and shops with artisan goods. In this area, there were cobblestone streets and cute, quaint buildings everywhere. In the center of the area, a market was set up today with mostly antique-type goods. It was extremely colorful with all of the beautiful objects sparkling in the sun. Wandering through this area was an very enjoyable way to spend some time.

Afterwards we had lunch, then quickly headed to the River Plate cancha for the River Plate vs. Quilmes soccer match. We baked in the sun for about 8/9s of the game, but still immensely enjoyed watching both the game and the amazing participation of the audience with the fans, once again, singing and cheering throughout the entire game. River Plate won 4-0 and after the game, it was interesting because the River Plate fans had to wait 20 minutes before exiting the building while the Quilmes fans exited in order to avoid any fights.

After the game, we grabbed a quick drink with my first host family and Bryan's first host family, who took us to the game, and then headed off to Luciano (one of the GSE members coming to Boise in May)´s play at the university. The play was called either "Dark Comedy" or "Black Lies" and is a British play written in the 60s. It was this comedy of errors and lies happening while the lights were out in a particular apartment building. Luco did a great job and was glad that we came to see him.

From the play, we went to grab dinner (around 10pm) pizza and beer (water for Bryan) and hung out with the GSE team who will be coming to Boise. It was a lot of fun and I had an interesting conversation with their team leader, Miriam (there are two Miriam's,) about Argentine economics and economics in general. Since being down here and talking with people, I have really taken an interest in people's opinions about the economy.

Backtracking a little bit...

Last night, my new host family (who is wonderful) grilled pizza for Beth, Jen, Don and I in their backyard parilla. It was so amazing. The pizza down here is the best we have ever had.

Last Wednesday, we did some shopping in the famous leather stores on Florida street. There were many beautiful items and we all enjoyed shopping for ourselves and family. The leather is of such high quality and the styles of the items are very unique. I found a leather coat that I could not resist and Jen had one made in a color she enjoyed. (I am not sure if I can comment on the other's purchases.)

Friday, before returning to BA from San Juan, we toured the bodegas (wineries) of San Juan. We went to two champagne producers and two wineries (exclusively wine.) It was very enjoyable and as we were sipping wine (except Bryan) and thoroughly enjoying ourselves we mentioned that "the Nigeria team hates us right now." Well, it is a rough job but someone has to do it. :)

I couldn't help but think that the pollution from the metallurgical plant had to have made its way into the soil where the grapes are grown... When the wine maker asked us what tastes we were able to distinguish in the wine such as strawberries, chocolate, leather, etc., I thought about saying calcium carbide, carbon monoxide, etc. It was really sad to see all of the pollutants over the city of San Juan from the factory. A pictures is worth a thousand words and I think you will understand once I get the pictures up. I hope to figure out a way to get pictures of our trip to San Juan, the pizza grill and today up on the web soon...Hopefully tomorrow.

It has been a great weekend and tomorrow we are back to business with vocational days and then the Rotary club meetings start again on Tuesday. Saturday is the Rotary district meeting. We are planning to give our presentation and then catch a plane to Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for the pictures.

Alecia

TV interviews

2005-04-16T23:09:00.000-03:00

While in San Juan a few of us were invited to be interviewed on a live TV show. Don & I agreed to do it. Jen earlier fielded questions at the factory for a story the company was writing for their company news letter. As Alecia puts it we feel we´re on a Rock Star schedule going place to place with atention from everyone.

We didn´t know what to expect for the show but were told to be at the station at 11:15 pm. A rep for the plant, Nestor, drove us to the station and was part of the interview. I was glad because I didn´t want to pronounce the name of the company in spanish (Elocrometalurgica Andina). We waited at the studio until another program finished. Our show called (N y D) for Noche y Dia started at 11:30 pm. We got our makeup and were briefed by the young lady who was to interview us. We ended up at the end of the program for about 5 minutes worth of questions. We were asked about the Rotary GSE program, what our impressions were before and after coming to Argentina, what were doing etc. It was fun but I´m not sure how many viewers are watching at 12:30 a.m. However, here it could be prime time - just after dinner!

We got back from San Juan an hour later (11:45 pm)due to some work strikes at the BA airport. Strikes and employee issues seem to be prevelent in many areas. This morning we changed homes. We we had the afternoon free and we all met at 3:30 p.m. at a flea market. It was fun to see all the booths (hundreds) and watch all the people. We spent the evenings with our host families - Beth, Alecia, Beth, and Don were all meeting together with their hosts for pizza.

I´m staying with a family with 4 kids. The father is a lawyer and was a GSE team leader to Houston in 1996. He cooked a nice lunch and also a nice Argentine dinner. They have a talking perrot that can say potato (la papa) and hola. I´ll try to get a video. They are intrigued with our Idaho potatoes and want me to make hash browns for breakfast sometime. The house is very nice and I have my own separate living quarters.

Bryan

Hola from San Juan

2005-04-14T22:48:00.000-03:00

So we´re in this little city of 600,000 people, having spent the day at a series of tours at the local electrometalurgical plant after a series of nights with fewer than five hours of sleep (last night was the record so far at 3 hours), and now after two bottles of wine we think it went fairly well.

Except for the quasi-giggle fest during our five-to-one meeting with the biggest of the big wigs at the metalwhatsamacallit plant (two bottles of wine). We think we kept up appearances well enough for our team and our country.

Here´s the scoop - two weeks into our program (at which point,we´ve been warned by previous travelers we would be close to loosing it), we are still getting along incredibly well and enjoying ourselves. But, some things are difficult.

Like Alecia´s experience at her Italian host family´s dinner last night where yelling at one another is an appropriate communication method, and talking about your guest being an imposition is also perfectly appropriate, providing the family thinks you can´t understand.

Later, things calmed down for Alecia when she joined Jen and Beth for a pajama party at Beth´s host family´s home. We all met at the airport at 6 a.m. for our flight to San Juan.

Why are we in San Juan? It´s the question we all have been asking, and one that we have heard a great deal from our friendly reps at the plant. Is it to visit the world famous vineyards? See dinosaur bones? Shop for artisan goods? Wander around looking for the one restaurant in town? We don´t know, but we do know that the very generous owner of the Andina Electrometalurgica plant honed in on the fact that there are three engineers in our group who might be very interested in a tour, and so graciously paid for our one-hour flight here, five hotel rooms and meals.

What was the giggle-fest about? Well, late in the afternoon, after a satisfying lunch and a long, sunny drive back to the plant, Don and Beth had a hard time staying conscious long enough to listen to the vice president (and our benefactor´s son) extemporate on the history of the plant and on that of the practice of electrometalurical-something in general. Bryan, Jen and Alecia tried hard to pose intriguing questions while failing to choke back their laughter during the hour-long, and tremendously intriguing presentation about the history of metallurgy. Apparently they found their team mate´s difficulty maintaining consciousness to be funny. We have since discussed that the two worst things that can happen during a meeting with an important person are being tired or having the giggles.

Okay, let´s skip to shopping. Did that in Buenos Aires yesterday (tried on a bunch of coats for Sonia, Bryan´s wife, and Mike, Beth´s husband - while finding a few "deals" for Jen and Alecia), and a little more shopping today in San Juan in artisan shops (dusty, old stuff, but a few cool things for family and friends). Tomorrow we have some time to tour "bodegas" and vineyards (with a few dams, reservoirs and dikes that we have to inspect thanks to our engineer entourage), then it´s back to BA for a good night´s rest of, oh, I don´t know, five hours or so.

We think that our continuity as a group will carry us through this difficult hump, and next week we´ll be ready to go with new host families, new attitudes, more sleep, and a few more bottles of vino tinto.

Buenos Noches,
Beth and Alecia

Rotary Meetings - Tango - Culture

2005-04-13T10:38:00.000-03:00

It´s Wed. April 13. We all have free time this morning which is nice to relax and not have so much stucture for a while. We´ve had some full days to say the least. We found a gym close by so we´re able to work off all the food we´ve been eating.

Monday we met with two different Rotary Clubs - one in the afternoon and the other at night. Yesterday we had one Rotary meeting and we got home around midnight. We usually are up late at night anyways with dinner no earlier than 9pm. We´ve given our presentation about Idaho I think 5 times now. We´ve have gotten alot of good feedback and it´s been fun to interact with all the different people. We improvise as needed (including our spanish)- last night we used a white sheet as the screen to project the power point presentation. Today we meet with the biggest club with 262 members. We only have up to 5 minutes for us so Don is going to present our group. We all get to smile and wave where we are all at our best!

We had a tango class on Monday and learned some basic tango moves. Don and I bopped up and down too much too impress the instructors much. Las chicas got it down quickly though. They´ll have to show you how to tango when we get back. We had a lot of fun, but only spent a half hour or so before we had to leave for other events.

We visited the national hospital for children and building where the mothers and sick children can stay while waiting for treatments. Both are well funded with good doctors etc. They, however, said that they seem to lack in coordition and running the facilities. It was nice to see the facilities and especially neat to meet a few of the kids.

We´ve seen some amazing museums and also visited the Teatro Colon. This theater was finished in 1908 and is beautiful. We get to go to a ballet there the last night we are here and we may go to an opera as well (rough huh?) This is a city full of culture and we´re getting to see a lot of it.

I´ve had some great vocational days as well. Yesterday I visited a place that rewinds motors and designs pump and well systems. Last week I visited a transmission substation and electrical power plant.

Hasta pronto, Bryan

New Quote for the Day

2005-04-12T20:21:00.000-03:00

At the beautiful Colon theatre where we saw many posters of commonly known plays and after a few seconds realized they were, in fact, plays we had heard of. One poster said "El Lago de Cisne" which is "Swan Lake." Another poster said "Pedro y el Lobo" which we realized meant "Peter and the Wolf" when Beth exclaimed "as opposed to 'Pedro y el Lomo' which would be 'Peter and the Sirloin.'"

Bueno - Shopping, El Campo and Uruguay

2005-04-10T21:44:00.000-03:00

Friday 4-8-05 to Sunday 4-10-05

I stayed with Guillermo this last week. He´s single and and his apartment reminded me of my apartment when I was single...no pictures on the wall and a pot with a dead plant in it. He was worried about what to feed me so he bought me corn flakes to eat for breakfast. He was really a great host took me to several nice restaurants, one evening with his daugther and the other with just him. I also had dinner at his girlfriends house with her two daughters which was very nice.

We all swapped homes this week and now I´m staying with Miriam. Her house is kind of the meeting place for us and its nice to have access to a computer and phone now. Miriam has been the General organizing everything and making sure we´re all taken care of. She does run a pretty tight ship and I think we´ve all been reprimended for something or another. We like to tease her but really realize all the hours she spends in our behalf. Many people have been so generous with their time!

Friday was nice to have a little free time in the afternoon. Jen, Beth and Alicia (Las Chicas) went shopping and came back with bags of stuff. Don and I (Los Machos) also shopped around as well but we just came back. Don and I are a little out of our realm when it comes to shopping since the most shopping we´ve ever done...as Don put it only shopping a few hours each year on Christmas Eve. We do hope to pick up a few things.

Saturday we visited an artifical insemination farm for cows. We were not exactly sure why we were going there until we got there. It was a beautiful country ranch between 10-15 thousand acres. We were able to see the gorgeous county side, eat great Argentine meat (asado)again and enjoy the tour of the site. We saw some of the toros typical to Argentina, a palace (yes it was a palace!) were the president of the company lives. Afterwards we stopped at a Gaucho musuem at a near by town. We are enjoying experiences a typical traveler would never see.

Today was our trip to Colonia, Uruguay. We took Ferry Boat (El BuqueBus) across what they say is the widest river in the world (rio de la Plata). We spent most of the day there, but wished we could have spent more time. The ferry took about an hour and when we arrived we were met by a group of 20 or more people from the rotary club in Colonia. They took us around the historic city that was developed by the Spanish and Portugal about 400 years ago. We were hoping for some time to roam a little, but had to return on the Ferry at 5:00. We met the team leader who will be heading to Idaho with the Argentine group.

Bueno, our new favorite word we use all the time. A filler word like the words okay or well and is also used if you´ve run out of things to say. I seem to use it alot. We´re all doing well and have a full day planned tomorrow.

Bryan

Questions, Submarines and Futbol

2005-04-09T01:35:00.000-03:00

It is very late so this will not be as long as I would like for it to be. Hopefully, I will get a chance to add to it tomorrow.

I just returned from a Rotary "party" to celebrate a club´s 35th anniversary. It was very interesting. I was sitting next to a group of gentleman who had a little too much to drink and were telling/asking me everything from "what are you studying in school?" to "you are too young to be married" to "you have been married too long not to have kids" to "what do Americans think about the pope?" Hay de mi! I went thinking I was going to a purely social party (this was not a group event) with my host parents but regardless, it ended up being a good experience. I even tried to dance with one of the "old guys" but he was a much better dancer than I am, so I just smiled and bopped around a bit. It was fun.

Earlier today we went and saw the inside of a submarine being repaired. It was very cool and we all enjoyed it a lot! I took lots of pictures and hope to upload them soon, but like I said, the Argentine´s party way later than we Americans do, thus I am writing this at 1:41am. Seriously, the party started around 10pm, and the majority of the people were over 50!

Yesterday, I went to HP for my vocational day with Jen. It was very interesting and I think spread a lot of knowledge about the environmental and recycling program and hopefully can work in the future to get Argentina involved in the program. I talked a little bit about MFP´s, but come to find out, with Argentina's depressed (but recovering) economy, MFP's are out of most small businesses price ranges so there was really not much to talk about. It was interesting learning about IPG and HP's business in Argentina, nevertheless.

Both yesterday and today I/we got to do a bit of shopping. Yesterday Cristina, my host mom, and I went to a huge mall and I found a gift for Andy and Anna and for myself a leather jacket for a muy buen precio! The prices are so good, since the Argentine Peso is 3 to 1 with the dollar!!

Yesterday evening, I joined my host family, who are huge fans of the River Plate (pronounced kind of like "Reever Play") soccer team for a game at "La Cancha." It was so much fun and absolutely amazing to see how much the fans were into the game. I took a couple of videos where the massive chearing section is all moving in unison, cheering River Plate on! It was unlike I had ever seen before. The cheering section sang songs about the team the entire game except for when the opposing team scored. The stadium was huge, able to hold 70,000 people. There were only about 30,000 there yesterday since it was a Thursday but I heard that it fills up on Sunday's. The two big teams in BA are River Plate and Boca Juniors. It seems that everywhere you go, people ask you which you are a fan of. It is similar in Guadalajara with Chivas and Atlas, but I would say that the fans are much more passionate here. And yes, even much more passionate than BSU versus U of I!

Everyone else but me changed host families today. I was supposed to but there was a miscommunication. I am hoping I will continue to have Internet access in the next house but will not know until probably Sunday.

Tomorrow, we are off to an artifical insemination farm for cows. We are not exactly sure why, but it should be another adventure.

Alecia

City Tour and First Presentation

2005-04-06T00:17:00.000-03:00

Yesterday we took a tour of the city. As you can hopefully see from some of the pictures on snapfish, it is quite an amazing place...very European but at the same time part American and similar to Mexico. There are SO many incredible French and Italian-style buildings. Additionally, there are many old mansions that have since been turned into embassies and museums. We toured one such mansion today which has since been turned into the Museum of Decorative Art. It was so cool to walk through the building, imagining what it would have been like to have been one of the Argintine elite at the turn of the century (1900s.) It had an incredible ball room, dining room, study, sitting room, all of the rooms a rich aristocrat would need to entertain a few hundred people.

Throughout our city tour yesterday, Beth continually pointed out (since she knows our schedule better than anyone except for Miriam, the person in charge) that we would be returning to most of those places throughout the course of the month. This was exciting news since so many of the places looked very interesting and worth exploring more!

After the tour yesterday, we had a meeting downtown to become acquainted with the district officers of the Rotary club. They had a nice reception for us complete with little sandwiches and deserts. All of the Rotarians we have met, including the ones at the meeting yesterday have been incredibly gracious, generous, patient (with our Spanish) and kind! I think we have all questioned at one point if we are truly deserving of such wonderful treatment and generosity as well as that we hope to one day repay our debts by giving back in anyway we can!

Walking to the meeting was very interesting and similar to walking in Times Squary in New York City, busy! There were so many people out and about walking partly because there had been a televised version of the mass for the pope as well as just because BA is a happening city.

Today we had our first presentation at the Palermo Rotary club. We all feel like the presentation went well and we enjoyed our time with the Palermo club. One of the members of the club is going to take Jen and I running in the morning and Beth walking, so we are very excited to have met a fellow exercise fan who will take us out running.

After the Rotary meeting, we toured the Automobile Museum as well as the Botanical Gardens. Both were interesting, although I have a feeling my husband would have been much more into the history of the cars than I was.

I spent a nice evening with my host family who I am so greatly going to miss after we change homes on Friday! They have been so wonderful and have taught me much just by me observing their family. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about living in people's homes for a week at a time, but it has been absolutely the best part of this experience. I know I have learned more Spanish and more about the culture than I would have learned even after living here alone for a year! It has been fantastic!

Well, we are up early tomorrow so I better cut this short. Tomorrow we are off to the Japanese Gardens, the Paul Harris monument, lunch on the coast of the river, the Museum of Latin American Art and our next Rotary Club meeting and presentation. Phew!

Bueno. Nos Vemos al rato!

Alecia

Pictures Posted!!

2005-04-06T00:00:00.000-03:00

You can view some of my favorite 50 pictures from the trip so far by logging into www.snapfish.com
Email: alecia@idahovandals.com
Password: argentina

I plan to update this with pictures more often now that I figured out how to work around not being able to get my laptop wired with network connectivity.

Cheers!
Alecia

Funny Quotes!

2005-04-05T23:57:00.000-03:00

I wanted to capture some of these quotes. Although they seem quite basic and maybe won´t mean anything to anyone but those of use here in Buenos Aires, they really exeplify some of the things we have been experiencing.

At the dinner table of Andy Deutsch's ranch:
Jen upon seeing the real dessert (ice cream cake) when we thought that the post-dinner fruit plate had been dessert and we had already had various appetizers, about six different types of meat, wonderful wine, various types of salads, etc.

(gasping...) "Oh my God, there's more."

Bryan, yesterday near the end of the city tour after realizing by listening to other´s speaking in Spanish that we were doing the rest of the tour on foot (instead of in the bus) but not being sure where we are actually going (common theme for all of us) when one of us asked him what was going on:

"We are going on foot now to somewhere."

Beth, while we were at the zoo and Bryan was asking if one should use the verb ser or estar (both mean "to be" but ser is to be something permanently whereas estar is to temporarily be something) when talking about the grass being green since it is permanent but can also change colors. I do not have a direct quote from her but it was something like:

"Now isn't that putting the cart before the horse? What is the word for grass? It is kind of like deck chairs on the Titanic...insignificant."

Primero presentacion-April 5

2005-04-05T23:36:00.000-03:00

Today´s weather was absolutely spectacular again. Beautiful sky and a nice breeze. I just have to mention how the weather has been perfect. (I am knocking on wood right now.)

We had our first presentation today. The building in which we had our RC meeting was pretty impressive. It is located on Libertador Avenue (prominent street in the downtown area - and the same street where Don is staying this week). We were on the top floor, piso 10. Despite there being at first no screen, no extension cord and no working outlets, we were able to finally get a pantalla (screen), manipulate a table near an outlet and negotiate a testy maintenance guy into fiddling with the electricity. I think the presentation went pretty well. However, the room was so well naturally lit, it was very hard to see the slides. So, I think that made them listen more. I don´t know about the rest of the team members (I forgot to ask) but I got a lot of compliments about our presentation. The people at my table were flabbergasted by the hourly rate of an engineer listed in the economy section of our presentation. They thought it was pretty high.

Gabi showed up to escort us to the rest of the places on our itinerary...of course in his white van!

First we went to the Automobile Club Museum. They had some pretty amazing cars dating back to 1896(?) and 1906. They had some racing cars from 1960, 1940 (?) and 1970-something. It was interesting to see the evolution of each car from the horse buggy design to a car with a round steering wheel and brakes and such.

Next we went to a Museum of Decorative Art. The building actually use to be a residence. It had a ballroom and very large dining hall. It had a mix of furniture, large paintings of aristocrats, religious artifacts and general landscape paintings...Downstairs the art consisted of mainly wall paintings, very modern.

The last stop was the Botanical Garden. I was expecting a greenhouse we could enter and a fee of some sort to enter. However, there was no fee. It seemed more like a very calm park for people to retreat into in the middle of the city. There was either a paved walkway or a red stone lined walkway throughout the park to help guide you through the thicket of different trees. There were a variety of trees, bushes, pretty statues and locked greenhouses with no one inside. The greenhouses were very old and had marvelous wrought iron structures and ornate designs.

Gabi dropped us off and we all shlepped up to Miriam´s apartment for a group meeting. Much to discuss for future plans this month.

I had Matte with Miriam´s niece and her cousins. It was amazing how fast they speak. I enjoyed just listening to them and drinking the matte.

Until next time.....Hasta luego.

Asado en el campo privado

2005-04-04T10:45:00.000-03:00

Yesterday we met with Andy Deutsch, who started his own airline and now is a rancher. He flew us in one of his airplanes - a King Air that seats 10 (Don tells us the operating costs are about $250/hour, and worth about $1.6 million). We traveled about 300 km west of BA to a private ranch near the Pampas region, although it was still in Buenas Aires province. The best part of the flight was seeing how large the city is from the air. We realized why they tell us we won´t have time to see all of BA in only a month.

Andy has about 4,000 head of cattle on about 15,000 acres. They don´t need to irrigate because they get about 1,000 mm of rain per year. They also grow soy beans, wheat, corn and hay. We had a barbeque. In the US you might hear the term carne asada in a Mexican restaurant. Here it is a style of preparing meat over an open flame. We could choose from pork or beef, and Jen was brave enough to try the black pudding again, but the rest of us passed. We had chorizos, ribs, flank steak and a kind of salsa that is on every table called Chimichurri. It is a mix of diced peppers and garlic that some of us are planning to bring home by the case. Also, we´ll need to ship some of this wine home.

Afterward, we took a tour of the ranch. We saw a spectacular array of bird life including egrets, peregrines, storks and something they call a water crow, which looks like a black sea gull with stork-like legs. The national bird is the hornaro, a little swallow that builds nests out of mud and twigs. The national flower grows on trees, the ceibo.

Today we have a little time before a city tour this afternoon, and a reception with the district governor of Rotary.

The words for the day are maestro! (dude!) and que barbarro! (cool!). Vacas are cows, with the bull called the macho (hmm), and the female is hembra, which is also a slang term for a well-endowed woman.

Hasta Luego!
Jen y Beth

Temaiken

2005-04-02T20:11:00.000-03:00

New words for the day -

Ballena = Whale
Cisne = Swan (sounds like sea snake, and for the longest time I thought it was unfortunate that they would put such lovely birds in a pond with a preditor!)
Murcèilago = Bat
Cortora = a small, loud bird (or Argentinian slang for a girl who talks too much!)

Today we visited Temaiken, a fairly new zoo, nature park, preserve. It´s about 30 miles from the city and unlike anything any of us has seen in the U.S. Our guides included members of the GSE team who will be traveling to Idaho in May. Gabriele and Luciano are a lot of fun, and added some new words to our vocabulary that I don´t think it would be polite to publish. Miriam, our team leader, planned a terrific day for all of us, and fortunately the weather cooperated.

We had lunch at a restaurant in the park and let our guides order for us. I don´t think there is any part of the cow they don´t utilize here. We tried kidney and some other meat that I think was the lining of the stomach. I don´t think any of us liked the black pudding, and were too afraid to ask what was in it after we tried it. We also had an opportunity to try matè, which is a traditional drink with herbs and hot water in a cup that looks like a kind of ornamental gourd with a metal straw. Everyone raves about it here, and many drink it instead of coffee. They say it is very addictive. I think it is an acquired taste - very close to what one might imagine is the same as if uncured tobacco leaves and grass clippings were bewed into a drink.

Driving is an adventure. Traffic lanes are painted on many of the roads, but I´m not sure who they´re for, as Argentinians don´t seem to notice them, and frequently swerve in and out of each other´s way. Sometimes they drive down the middle of the road on top of the lane marker, and if the fancy strikes them to turn, left or right, they go ahead. They don´t get anxious about traffic and no one yells obscenities or gestures rudely, mostly I think because everyone driving is busy having a conversation with a passenger.

Everyone´s Spanish seems to be improving, but I am spoiled because my host family knows English very well and like to practice with me. Once our guides learned this they were ruthless with me, speaking only in Spanish and very, very fast (it seemed). It was all very good natured and was good for me.

Tonight my host family is having a party for their 25 year old daughter´s birthday, which they tell me might last until five or six a.m. Last night they took me to dinner at eleven p.m. and we returned about 2 a.m., which they tell me is normal for them. So, five hours of sleep after about 30 hours of no sleep and it´s no wonder my Spanish is a little lax! Thank goodness I brought earplugs!

Beth

We made it!

2005-04-01T16:07:00.000-03:00

Bummer, I just typed up a posting and then misread the pop up because it was in Spanish and erased it. Starting over!

We arrived safely in Buenos Aires around 10:15am this morning. The trip here was long, but relatively uneventful. We had virtually no layovers except for enough time to eat at Wolfgang Puck's in the Denver airport for lunch yesterday. Denver to Dulles was a couple of hours long and I personally passed the time watching the movie, "Finding Neverland." It was a good, tear-jerker.

We arrived in Washington D.C. with enough time to walk to our gate and begin boarding for Buenos Aires. The flight to B.A. was roughly 10.5 hours long, so with the 4 hour time difference, we arrived this morning around 10:15am. We all tried to sleep the best we could but airplane seats are not the most accomodating for a good night's slumber.

I think we were all happy to get through Immigration and Customs and see an energetic group of Rotarians outside of the sliding glass doors waiting for us. We introduced ourselves and then stopped to have a cup of coffee (cafecito), talked about our schedule and eventually were on our way to the various host families homes.

This afternoon, I enjoyed a wonderful time with the mother of my host family, Christina. We ate an amazing lunch complete with vacio (meat), the best chorizo I have ever had and a salad. Afterwards, she took me to see the river, which she said is the widest river in the world. I couldn't see the other side (which is Uruguay.) The river is very polluted from factories in B.A., so unfortunately people do not use it for recreation, although I did see one sailboat. There is a wonderful park down by the river where many school children were having their equivalent of PE classes and were playing various sports from rugby to soccer, in uniforms.

Christina, along with some of the Rotarians at the airport speak little to no English so it is forcing me to practice my Spanish, which is good! I think that both the individual's who first language is English as well as thoses whose first language is Spanish were surprised that we could not communicate better, but as we all warmed up in our second languages, communication began to improve rapidly.

Currently, I am enjoying the most quaint office in a very quaint, skinny, tall, row-type, duplex-house. There are spiral stairs coming up from the kitchen with a view of a wonderful garden outside. The houses here are much like those in Mexico but they seem to be in slightly better shape, in general. Granted, I have only been here for a couple of hours though and as my host so graciously pointed out, I have only seen a very small portion of the city. Basically, she said I haven't seen anything.

So, we made it safely here. Next on the agenda: a nap, shower and tomorrow we are off to the zoo! Oh and I better be a gracious guest and try the wine that my host was raving about. :)

Cheers!
Alecia

Introduction

2005-03-26T19:44:00.000-03:00

Hi Everyone,

Since you are reading this, you have come to our BLOG to read about our experiences in Argentina! Bienvenidos!

We are in our final days of preparation for our trip. We have worked very hard to learn Spanish, prepare a brochure and presentation as well as many other tasks to prepare for our trip.

We are all looking forward to this wonderful opportunity that Rotary International has provided us. We hope you enjoy reading our accounts of experiences we are soon to have as well as viewing pictures of the sites and people of Argentina!

Alecia (on behalf of the GSE Argentina team)