Crossing the Andes to Chile!

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to visit Chile with my family! Normally they vacation in Mar Del Plata but this year they decided to visit The Serena in Chile!!! We left early Sunday morning with what we thought would be about a seven hour drive ahead of us. What we didn´t count on was the following: when we arrived at the Argentinian customs, my papa realized that he didn´t have the most up-to-date insurance card in the truck. Given that is was necessary in order to cross the border, we spent almost two hours calling numbers and trying to find someone awake on a Sunday morning who could fax us a copy of the receipt saying that we had actually paid. Eventually they got in touch with a friend of a friend who works for our insurance company and we were able finally to get across the border. Easy going from there, right? Not quite- although my parents had calculated out the mileage of the trip and based our travel time off that, they had never actually driven the road before. So when we got to the pass that would take us up over the Andes Mountains we were all horrified to find that it was a pot-hole filled, one lane only, no guard rail, dirt road. So for the next six hours or more we were rolling along at about 25 or 30 miles per hour MAX. Surprisingly (and thank God for this!) I wasn´t actually scared of the height. Which should have scared the crap out of me because we were just feet from tumbling down a mountain. The only actual problem we encounted on that stretch of road was the fact that we hadn´t thought to bring any sort of lunch food. We were stuck eating cookies, media lunas, and apples until six that afternoon! You can imagine that I was pretty hungry by the end of it! The Chile border crossing was easy (searched the car, gave me my stamp, and registered us in the computer) and we were officially in another country!

Imagine finding a lake at 4,200 meters...

We actually made it all the way to 4800 meters!

The next week was incredible! We rented a cabin on the waterfront and just had to cross the street to get to the beach! We actually only had two days of sun which were spent tanning and swimming in the ocean (Did you know that I actually can tan?) and the rest of the week was spent going for runs in the sand and exploring the Chilean culture. What really stood out to me the most was the colors and placements of the houses. I have seen "south american" cultures in movies where all the houses are packed together on mountains with bright colors every other house and steep roads that are almost impossible to drive up, but I never really imagined that they were actually like that. It was so beautiful in such a strange way that I just spent hours taking photos and looking at the town.

What was really fun was analizing all the differences between Argentina and Chile. My sisters had also never been to Chile before so we were all in the same boat. We had challenges going to see if we could spot Chilean boys who were hotter than Argentinians. Which, by the way, was impossible since there was not one! I guess I picked the right country. :)  We also noticed the differences in clothing styles and how they still used boots and hadn´t switched over to sandles yet like us. We spent hours shopping and looking at electronics since they are cheaper in Chile. We also went on walks on the beach in the early morning hours. There is nothing like the sweet smell of the ocean water and seaweed. But in fact, I missed San Juan´s dry air. My hair puffed up into a frizzy mess and the air felt heavy and trapping with all the humidity. How I am going to go back to Deming is a mistery to me!

Anyways, the whole week was fantastic and it was super fun to spend time with my family. Paula´s boyfriend, Federico, also came with us which was nice. Sometimes when it is just family we can get on eachother´s nerves a bit. I hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays and not missing me too much! Less than two months before I get back! Chau for now!

Turning 18 Means a Really Bad Haircut

As you should know by now, turning 15 for girls here is a really big deal. But as some might ask, what about the boys? Don´t they get some big party as well? And that is where I would step in and explain that yes, they do have a party but unfortunetly it is not as...nice as what the girls get. For a guy in Argentina, turning 18 is a really big deal. They usually have a party with their whole family and friends and stay up all night getting really drunk. Only the next morning they almost always wake up with their hair shaved off or cut in random places. Generally you can blame their friends. :) It is a tradition that the guys have to shave off their hair when they turn 18 and normally us as party guests get the honor of chopping it off. I have been to two different birthdays where I got to wack at a guy´s hair with scissors and let me tell you, it was the worst looking hair ever!

The next morning most of them (if they are smart and don´t want to look stupid) go to the haircutters and have them shave it all off! It is always quite funny when I see someone with a shaved head because I automatically know that he must have turned 18 recently. Nobody likes short hair here so you can pretty much bet your money that that is why they shaved it. :) Anyways, just thought you might like to hear a little bit about something I learned recently. Enjoy the snow and cold weather! Today it got up to 98 degrees! Yay! Summer break just started and I am already boiling to death! :)

Once a Nerd, Always a Nerd

Yay! Summer break has finally arrived and now I can rub it all in your faces! You would not believe how hard it was back in July when I was stuck in school and everyone was off at camp and sunbathing. But now my time for revenge has finally come! Last Friday I officially finished school and until I get back in February, it is all summer, swimming, and late nights! The only thing left to finish in terms of school is the end of the year Mass, Assembly, and collecting all my notes and letters for my school back in the U.S. Last night we had our last Mass that I had to go to which was actually really nice. The best part though was when they announced the "Best Classmate" award for each grade. I had already known that my classmates had chosen me (that was why I had to go to the Mass afterall) but it was still really fun when I got to walk up infront of everyone and recieve my diploma award. Afterwards my family and friends and teachers congradulated me and hugged me and over all just made me blush a lot. This award is really just a silly tradition but for me it means so much more. You have no idea how hard I have worked to make friends here. Every day at school I had to struggle with the language and my fear of talking to people I didn´t know. It sucked some times but in the end it payed off. I also got so lucky! You would not believe how many exchange students only get along with one or two of their classmates and I get along with every single one!! I litterally have started introducing some of the other exchange students to my friends because everyone is so jealous that I have such an incredible class. Anyways, it was really sweet that they chose to honor me with the "Best Classmate".

But as the saying goes "Once a nerd, always a Nerd". As you might have guessed (or might not have because it is so freaking unbelievable!), there is one more award that my school gives out. The principal told me last night at Mass that at the end of the year Assembly I will also be awarded with the "Highest Grade Average" in my class. Yeah, let that sink in for a bit. I, Jenica, have recieved the highest grades out of a group of twenty four students, in a foreign language, and in many subjects that I have NEVER even studied before! And I hate to even say this but I didn´t even study that much.... :) So my reputation continues to stay in tact as a full out nerd, but atleast this time I am also a very popular nerd. :)

Mendoza - City Touring!

I was finally able to visit Mendoza last weekend! I have spent the last eight months hearing about how awesome this city is and I finally was able to see it for myself. Mendoza is about the size of Seattle (and in many aspects almost exactly like it) and it two hours south of our house. It was my great-aunt´s birthday so we decided to visit her for the day. Sofi and Paula had other plans so they didn´t go but we did take my grandma along with us.

We left at about nine in the morning and began the long ride in the middle of no where. The surprising thing about all my Argentina traveling is that as soon as I leave the city - WHAM! Nothing. I mean like it is the desert for miles and there is maybe one house every half hour. It is like Argentiníans can´t live in anything but clumps which make up the cities. :)

As soon as we finally got to Mendoza, we went straight to my great-aunt´s house. We spent a little time with her, left my grandma there to chat, and went off to explore the city. First we did a general tour of downtown. We drove the main streets and gave me an idea of the layout of the city. It is a lot like Seattle in that the streets are packed with little shops and the traffic is crazy. The only difference is that in Seattle I always got a neck ache from having to look up at all the skyscrapers. In Mendoza there isn´t a single one but it is a lot bigger in area. So kind of like taking Seattle and squashing it with a spatula. :)

Later we went out of the city a little bit to visit a monument. It is on the top of this little hill out in the country with a beautiful view. To get there we got to drive through a giant park where I saw evergreen trees for the first time! I was super excited and took pictures of them just to prove that they do exist here. I hadn´t really thought about it but the only trees here lose their leaves in the fall. We don´t have evergeens in San Juan! The monument was about San Martin and they told me the story of it but I don´t exactly remember. It has something to do with them traveling over the Andes to get to Mendoza and then having to break free of the chains that were keeping them from freedom. Anyways, when we got there I ran into my friend Rosie from Italy! It was such a random coincidence that we would both travel to Mendoza the same weekend on the same day and visit a monument at the same time! It was pretty funny.

Afterwards we went to the mall to do some window shopping and eat lunch. What is so interesting about San Juan is that giant stores don´t exist unless it is the grocery story or Walmart. When visiting the mall, each store is about the size of your living room and nothing more. It makes it a pain to go shopping because often they have only one size of a shirt so you have to be really lucky to find something in your size, the color you want, and at a price you can afford. I deffinetelly miss some of the giant stores in Bellingham. We spent a while looking at stores and went to the food court to eat lunch. It was already three o´clock so I was starving! We bought "lomos" which I have to say are one of my favorite foods in the world (after Mike´s Grinders) and I could eat them all the time. Unfortunetelly we don´t get to eat them a lot so I jump at the chance everytime I have it. They are like a sandwhich but so much better! It has eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, mayonase, and your choice of pork, steak, or chicken. Mi papa also bought french fries covered in eggs. I don´t know if I have mentioned it but Argentinians are obssesed with eggs. They put hardboiled eggs on pizza, fried eggs in sandwhiches and scrabbled eggs on french fries! And the weirdest thing of all is that they are actually so much better with eggs! It was really hard for me to get used to at first but after I make some of them for you guys when I get back, you will see what I mean.

We got back to my great aunt´s house at around six and I was SUPER tired. I went an slept for an hour on an extra bed after I practically fell asleep on the table. When I woke-up, other family members had arrived that I didn´t know. I got introduced to everyone and they asked me the normal questions about how I am doing here, do I miss my family, and what are the things that are different between Argentina and the U.S. You might think that I would have gotten tired of those questions after seven months but I actually still enjoy answering them. Most exchange students come up with an answer that they just automatically give every time but I really try to think about it and give different answers. It makes it a lot more fun that way. Since we still had a two hour drive back home and I had school the next day, we had cake and then left at about eight-thirty. As we were driving out of the city my family told me to look through the back window of the car. I could see the whole city layed out in tiny little lights! It was super pretty and was just a fantastic way to end the day...I then quickly fell asleep until we got back home. :)

Día Del Estudiante

Wednesday, the 21st of September, is "Student Day" in Argentina and obviously going with Argentina traditions, you have got to party! Tuesday night I went over to my friend Juli´s house for a sleepover. We went to a birthday party with her mom and returned about one-ish. We spent the next two hours just chatting about boys and cell phones and eating cookies. The cookies turned out to be a disaster! I had made them earlier that day using a typical Nestlee recipe but accidently put flour with baking powder in it! So the cookies rose up like a cake, then flattened, and ended up having all the chocolate and butter on the bottom and a layer of cake on the top. To put it kindly, they were interesting...

Gime, (don´t know) (don´t know), Ivan, Dani, Sol, Juli V., Juli B., Mari, Me, Elias, Blake

The next morning we got up "early" at eight thirty and loaded up the car with our stuff. All my classmates and I were going to a cabin in Villa Tacu to spend the day together. My other friend Juli owns a house there and offered to let us hang out in it. Villa Tacu and "camping" as they call it are the hot spots to hang out on Student Day so the streets were packed with teenagers. Many people (my guys classmates included) spent Tuesday night in Villa Tacu drinking and partying but all us girls were pretty much forbidden to go. Wednesday is generally the calm day and so it is a lot safer to be out and about than when every one is drunk. Especially because all the drunk people from the night before are so wasted that they just sleep all day!

(don´t know), Thomás, Facundo, Elias, and Lucas.

Since "technically" alcohol isn´t allowed in Villa Tacu, the police searched our car and backpacks as we entered in the area. But you should never under estimate a Sanjuanino´s drive to drink alcohol because my guys classmates drove up a week earlier to bring in the booze. The day was pretty hot - I am guessing in the low 80´s - so most of us were in shorts and tank tops. My first month here when it was summer it never really accured to me how WHITE I am but sitting there in a lawn chair in my shorts, it was pretty obvious that I wasn´t from here! Given that it is impossible for me to tan, I don´t have much hope of being able to blend in during summer. :)

Mari, Sorrentino, and Elias

We hung out the whole day, , had a water fight, and generally just enjoyed being classmates together! We also went on a long walk where I unfortunetelly forgot to put on sunscreeen and ended up getting a little red. But we were in the shade the rest of the day so no harm no foul. Sorrentino cooked hamgurgers on the grill for lunch. I am not sure exactly why but it also seems to be him that cooks the food....given that it was super hot and he had to be next to the fire, we were happy to hand over the job to him. The whole day was fantastic and it was especially nice to have  a day off school. :) I wish that the U.S. would have more random holidays when we got to go party!

Discovering Argentina in 200 Days

Saturday the 10th I celebrated my 200th day from home! It also was my mom´s 50th birthday which made it even extra special! In all the time I have spent here, every day I keep discovering new things. It is like an Easter Treasure hunt where just when you thought you found all the eggs weeks later, another rotten one turns up in the closet. Only obviously here they aren´t eggs and they sure aren´t rotten! So let me take you through some of the things that are SUPER obvious about San Juan but just might take you a couple months to finally figure them out. :)

This one can be kind of dangerous: the holes in the streets. Generally when I think of a side walk, I think of a flat piece of pavement along side the road tha tis designed for people to walk on. Well, here you could pretty much give it the same deffinition but you would have to chop out the word "flat". The sidewalks here are like a death trap! You would not believe how many times I have tripped and almost crushed my face when my clumbsy feet fell prey to the pavement. Right off the bat they have you watching your step because almost everywhere between the sidewalk and the road they have a one foot gap that you have to step over. Thankfully for those older or handcapped people that would like to use the side walk without having to hire a crane to lift them onto it, at the end of every block they have a little cement bridge connecting the two. After you finally make it onto the sidewalk, where there normally is a small harmless crack that will break your mother´s back in nursery rhymes is an uneven little wall or step that my shoes like to catch on a lot. You also have the holes.....yep, just random holes in the middle of the sidewalk! Where exactly they go I have no idea but some of them go down for a long ways! So a piece of advice, watch where you are walking in San Juan!

The amount of animals here as well is something that is awefully strange. One every street there are tons of dogs. It´s like if you imagined that every third person walking the streets of Bellingham was a dog. Normally, with the streets overrun with little puppies, I would have assumed that nobody would have them as pets. Wrong again! Actually there are tons of people that have dogs! The second most popular animal to have as a pet is a bird. Which is especially weird because unlike dogs, there are almost zero birds outside. I might get lucky and see one a day! They also seem to come in one variety marked brown and very little. There must be a lot of worms here because there sure aren´t enough birds to eat them all! The third weirdest thing is that people don´t have cats as pets. Having a cat in the house is about as weird as having birds in the U.S. Sure, some people have them but you don´t usually have to worry that you will let the bird out when you walk into your neighbors house. :) So in general, I find that the weird mix-up of animals quite confusing and without slugs in our garden, I am just lost! :)

Trash manegment has also been some what of a mystery to me for a while. But after paying special attention, I think I have finally figured it out. If you recall, I mentioned how we hang out garbage outside on trees...well it is because the dogs will eat it. We don´t have trash bins (although the dogs could get into those too) so we hang the plastic bags filled with garbage on the trees outside before the garbage truck comes. What doesn´t seem to make any sense to me is exactly WHEN the bags get picked up. As far as I can tell, it just seems like some random day at some random time a giant dump truck drives by and loads up all the trash. As I think I have already mentioned, recycling doesn´t exist in San Juan. That still is something I have not gotten used to and I flinch every time I toss a bottle into the trash or scraps of paper. It makes me proud of how environmentally conscious Bellingham is! :) I also figured out the mystery of what happens with all the trash dumped in the streets or in the ditches. Generally the rule goes as follows: you are required to clean the side walk infront and around your house and all the trash that might have been thrown there. So my family washes the sidewalk, trims the tree outside and piles all the trash and leaves into bags for the garbage truck. The city streets are a whole other thing....I am not exactly who is supposed to clean up there. Hmmm...

Anyways, those were just the three things that came to mind when I was thinking about San Juan. It is interesting all the things I learn here the more time I get to spend exploring and watching. I hope you get a little taste of the culture I am living in down here and maybe one day when I come back to visit, you guys can come too!
P.S. The day after I wrote that long paragraph about being careful where I walk, I fell into a hole for the first time! I was crossing the street to school, thinking about something else, and when I went to step over the crack between the sidewalk and the road, my foot fell in and I went right with it! The crack was filled with garbage and water and the whole left side of my pants were soaked along with my shoes - and I had to be in school in less than three minutes! Thankfully I just crossed back across the street to my house, changed as fast as I could (waking up Sofi in my rush!), and arrived at school only a little late. So like I said, not only can those holes be dangerous, they can also make you late for school! :)

Birthday vs. Cumpleaños

The longer I am here in Argentina, the longer I am fascinated when I learn knew things about this culture and their traditions. Being as it was my 17th birthday just a few weeks ago, I am going to do a little comprason between my U.S. Birthdays and my Argentina Cumpleaños. But as AFS always likes to remind us students - it´s not good or bad, it´s just different. So keep that in mind! :)

I had my birthday party on the Sunday after my birthday with seven of my girlfriends here and we camped out in my living room:

* Note: First time or info is from the U.S. and the second it from Argentina.

Start time: 3:00 P.M. U.S. vs. 8:30 P.M. Argentina.

First person to show up: 3:05 P.M. vs. 9:15 P.M. I was driving my sisters crazy passing up and down the halls until the first person showed up. I keep forgetting that in Argentina being on time is practically against the law. :)

When everyone is finally there: 4:15 P.M. vs. 11:30 P.M. Can you imagine having someone show up to the pary THREE HOURS after if officially started?

Dinner time: 6:00 p.m. vs 12:30 a.m. (that would be a half hour past midnight)

Cake time: 6:30 p.m. vs 2:00 a.m.

Official party ending time (when all the guests leave except my best friends): 7:30 ish p.m. vs. 4:00 a.m. (but I didn´t have this part because I only had it with my seven best friends but normally at other birthdays the non-bestfriends leave about that time.)

Presents: Polite vs Unnesessary. I generally consider presents something you should bring to a party in order to be polite (even if you hardly know the person) and are opened infront of everybody. Where as in Argentina presents are only something you get for a VERY best friend and are opened the second the birthday girl gets it. Otherwise, presents are really unnesessary.

Games and movies: Games vs. No games and Comedy vs. Horror. Usually I have a ton of games to play through out the night and have atleast two romantic-comedy movies to watch. Here we usually talk and take pictures (although I had to have SOME games at my party so I picked my favorite ones and we had a blast playing  them) It is also a tradition to watch a horror movie when you get together with friends. As many times as I have had to explain it, my friends still can´t understand how deep my dislike of horror movies is and often force me to watch them; but thankfully, given that it was my birthday, I opted to not watch a movie to save my self years of nightmares.

Candles: One for each year vs. the Number. I have always had to blow out one candle for each year of my life on my birthday cake until this year. After you get to be about thirteen, they switch out the individual candles for tow candles that say the number. So this year I had a one and a seven on my birthday cake. I have to say it seems a lot more practical given that we didn´t have to scrape off all the wax that melts onto the frosting. :)

Family: Parents vs No Parents. I was surprised to realize that at my party my parents served us dinner but ate in a different room. They also sang me happy birthday but then chose to eat their cake in the kitchen in front of the TV. Since we had a family dinner on my birthday, it is normal that the parents leave the party almost completelly alone except to bring us more food.

Time for bed: 4:00 a.m. vs 7:30 a.m. I can still remember how excited my friends and I were when we actually would make it till four or five in the morning without going to bed! It was something we only did maybe three times a year and was written in the record books. Here, I have already stayed up bast five a.m. atleast 15 times and have hit 7:30 twice now. I have new records to beat!

Also, often people don´t even have a party. They either go out to a club with their classmates or just go out to lunch somewhere with some bestfriends. I am gathering that as soon as you get into your teen years, the importance of having a big party drops drastically. Even so, that wasn´t going to stop me from showing Argentinians how I like to do it! :) During my party, I incorporated traditions from both of my countries. Since I had had a classic, Argentina, dulce de leche cake on my birthday, I baked a Chocolate Expresso cake that Onalee has made a few times in the past. We had churriso which is super famous here for dinner but also had icecream with the cake which they almost never eat. We played lots of games but also stayed up till the sun began to rise. All in all, it was a fantastic way to celebrate my birthday and also gave me a lot of insight into that aspect of Argentina´s culture. It was perfect that I had traditions from both the U.S. and Argentina because honestly speaking, I feel like they both have a place in my heart. How could I ignore one and only celebrate the other?

On a side note: Happy First Days of School to all you northerners! Enjoy the homework and early mornings and I will be here counting down the two and half months until my summer break. :) I hope everyone is well and keeping the rain away from Washington. I will get a tan for you all in the coming months! :)

Chau for now!