Acción de Gracias

For the past three years I have not have had Thanksgiving with my parents. Each year it has been a bit easier, especially because I have been with other family members. This year, I was with zero family members and all friends. Let me tell you, I ate some incredible food, and really enjoyed the day. Honestly, it just felt like a normal day, which made the crazy cooking and cleaning and laughing of it all so much fun.

First of all, people were cooking in our cramped, understocked kitchen all day. We had to make food for sixty people! All I ended up doing was chopping vegetables for a salad, with one of two or three knives that we had. There were only a couple of bowls and spoons, and people were mixing vats of toppings with little forks. Half of what we used were borrowed from students who live off campus! Plus the one little oven. There were around 15 dishes made. Wrap your mind around THAT craziness. But when we were done, I have to say, that was some of the best food I've had. We even had a whole vegan section!

At the end of our meal, we were all given papers to write down what we were thankful for. Obviously, that mac and cheese was well liked. But besides thankfulness for the food and authentic pumpkin pie, we were all thankful for our families, our new friends in ACA and the UAP, the chance to be in Argentina, and the care of our God. We know we're lucky, and I think I speak on behalf of all the ACA students when I say we are grateful. More than even we may realize right now. And that's what makes Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving. Not necessarily having all your family together, or just the right number of pies baked, but being with those you care about and can enjoy a moment with. A moment that won't happen exactly the same ever again. We made our moment count. Did you?

Wishing/ Working

Yesterday, instead of studying for finals I read through pages of blogs by student missionaries who are out and about this year. Some were my friends, and some were friends of my friends. Some were good writers, and others were just ok, but they all gave me something I've been missing for a while: motivation. Not motivation to learn, but motivation to be. A goal. In being I am learning, so there's the fringe benefit. But when opportunities and ideas seem or become possible to a person, it give solidity to dreams that seemed impossible before. I like that feeling. Too bad it had to come during finals. Now all I want to do is read blogs and plan my life.

Think about that though; your dreams are possible. Just how much do you care about them happening? You might say you want something or to go somewhere or to be someone. Without the work though, you might as well not wish it. My dad always says "'was going to' isn't good enough". He's right. You might say you are going to do something or were going to before, but unless it is done or is in the process of happening, it is just wasted air from your lungs. Make yourself more than words people.

I have to study now.

The Problem With the Internet

The problem with the internet is that it has replaced the zest for real life. There are hundreds of sites where even on just one you could spend hours upon hours watching videos and looking at pictures of the world. We spend so much time looking at pictures of what we could be doing that we never actually do anything. Before the internet, anyone who wanted to see the world and other cultures had to pick up and physically go there. It took planning, effort, and motivation. With a view of the world at our fingertips, we believe we don't have to move from our beds to become "cultured" and educated.

In reality, we are losing the momentum to actually see real life. To experience real life. You could watch surfing videos from Tahiti all day, but unless you get off your butt and go there, you really won't be gaining a single thing. You'll actually be losing. Losing muscle, and losing years of your life. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the more you sit, the shorter your life span is. This doesn't bode well for desk job workers (unless you make yourself a standing desk). Or students really, but luckily we aren't in school forever.

The point of all this is to not get lost in the imaginary life of the internet. Don't get lost in what you think is "being productive" when you aren't actually doing anything. Being here and away from the type of life I'm used to has made me think a lot about the way I spend my time. I've thought about it before, especially when it is mindlessly scrolling through wimp videos. (Surprise on that: it's fun, but not productive.) But here, with the opportunities I have open, I think about it even more. Use your time to better yourself. Experience life and your friends. After an entire afternoon has passed and you've realized that you could have learned 50 new words but instead watched a movie, life gets real. Don't waste your time on the fake. Be real. Don't just sit and watch life, stand and be in it.

I'm Going to Miss the Meat Here

The world knows that Argentina is knows to have some of the best meat on the planet. Even as a happy vegetarian chica I knew that and upon arrival, was reminded of that by every person here who told me how much I'm missing out.

Mom and Dad don't have to worry though. Since being here, I'm still a vegetarian and probably will be forever. In that case, why would I miss the meat here? Well, because besides mate, carne is part of the heart of Argentina. More specifically, the asados.

An asado is a barbeque, but without fancy grills and chrome plated utensils. No, an asado is down to earth, make a fire on your back patio corner with a grate over it BBQ. Or you use your huge, 10 foot long cement asado area to cook massive hunks of carne (meat). It's not only about the eating, it's about the socializing. The two go hand in hand here like nowhere else I've been.

The first asado I went to was for the University Choir. There were about 25 people who attended, and all arrived late. Upon my late arrive of 12:30, the food was just beginning to be cooked. It was two hours later we actually ate the food. Yes, two hours. The main socializing takes place while the food is being cooked guys! This is KEY to understanding Argentina. It's not a come, eat, and ditch kind of place. You just don't do that. You come, you chill, you eat, you chill, and then you leave. It's all about being there.

Asado number two for me took place just this Saturday night. It was an end of the year fiesta for my mission group. There are about 15 regulars that go every Sabbath in our subgroup, meaning there were about 15 of us crammed into my friend's apartment. The group I walked with didn't arrive until about 9pm (we were supposed to start at 8), and once we were all there and the carne was cooked to perfection (and my veggie patties happily fried) it was at least 10:30. People didn't stop eating until 11:30. And the party didn't end until . . . very late.

So as the title of this post says, yes. I will miss the meat here. I will miss the smell (sorry dad). It carries the sounds of laughing and guitars and games and wind and birds because asados here are so much more than hamburgers. They are friends becoming family and good times making good memories.


Tips for going to your first asado in Argentina:
1. Plan to eat a lot in advance- Just be ready for the food baby, ok?
2. Don't arrive right on time- If your party is at 8pm, wander in around 8:45pm and you'll probably still be first.
3. If you are vegetarian, either say so ahead of time when you pay your bit or offer to provide the bread. Because you'll probably be the only one.
4. Don't schedule anything afterwards. It's an all day or all night kind of thing.
5. Embrace it. Don't check your phone, don't check your watch (see #4) and just  be there.

The First Big Trip: Buenos Aires

Throughout my four day visit to Buenos Aires, I kept a little bullet list of fun things to remember to tell this white and orange "New Post" page here on my blog. I've separated it into four days, complete with fancy titles for easy navigation. Enjoy.

Day 1: Arrival in Buenos Aires

The bus ride was six hours of sore butts, twisted necks, and freezer-like temperatures. We stopped for lunch in a mall about an hour outside of Buenos Aires. I opted to use my 70 pesos (doled out to each of us for each meal by ACA) on a Subway sandwich. Fun fact: Everything about Subway in Argentina is smaller: the bread, the cheese, the wrapper, even the bag of Doritos. On the plus side, the jalapeños they used were fresh. The were spicy. Even though it was different, that Subway sandwich was very good.

As we entered the city, I saw that people really do live under bridges. There were tent cities set up under almost every bridge we passed, and the shopping carts and cardboard boxes did not make me think they were there on vacation. It was a permanent thing.

Besides that moment of reality and the trash lining every street, my first impressions of Buenos Aires were "big" and "cultured". Almost every single building was not only huge, but also a work of art. With heavy French, Spanish, and Italian influences, Buenos Aires is not a city lacking in beauty.

Day 2: La Boca Caminito, El Teatro Colón

This was the beautiful day. We arrived at La Boca Caminito about half an hour before all the other tourists swarmed the place, giving us a chance to watch the painters set up their stands and peruse the empty streets with ease. The place is a tourist trap in every sense of the word, but it is still a very quaint area. It doesn't feel too overwhelmingly like a big "spend your money here" place. There were guys playing accordions in side shops, and painters painting while a school group of 2nd graders with little fezzes shuffled through the streets. It was an experience indeed. With only an hour there, I know I didn't get to see every cute corner and neat niche in La Boca, but the hour there was certainly worthwhile.

El Teatro Colón: Awe-inspiring. Absolutely incredible. This building was huge. Huge chandeliers. Huge stairs. Huge busts of old men. In the theater itself there were seven balconies for seating (one was for the standing crowd). Specially made with silk on the lower sections to absorb sound and the upper walls are bare to reflect the sound down. It still is a fully functional theater, and is used for classical concerts, operas, and ballet. Incredible mosaic floors. But the actual theater was only a small part of the building. The rest of it was rich chandeliers and painted ceilings that took your breath away. At one point, Lauren and I just lay down on our backs to take it all in. Probably not the most polite thing to do in such a place, but the tour guide was looking away, so we went for it. It was worth it! Our tour guide was wonderful too, and because of him (and the movie Night at the Museum) I wouldn't mind being a museum guide at some point in my life.

Following our incredible tours, we did a little shopping. Not much to say there except that my feet were dying and prices are either ridiculously low or ridiculously high.

Day 3: La Recoleta y el Museo

-Went to a pretty park that had a sculpture of San Martín on a horse.
-Visited a memorial with two guards standing at attention. It was a very solemn place even though it was outdoors. Soon, instead of just taking pictures of the guards, some of the ACA kids got brave and went to take pictures standing between the guards. It felt kind of weird to me to do so, so I just stood and watched. At a break in the picture line, I went up to one of the guards and stuttered out, “Gracias para ustedes servicio". The guy looked at me and gave a slight nod. It was a terrible sentence, but still, he got the message and that was the highlight of my day.
- Recoleta: A very expensive part of Buenos Aires. Lots of parks, very pretty. Cool flower sculpture; a gift from the province of Córdoba to Buenos Aires. A planetario, gardens, AND the incredible cemetery. It was weird to walk through what was really a town of the dead. You could live in those mini-buildings because they were just so large! It was somber to think about the fact that I was taking pictures of dead people's graves. But that was what they wanted.

-Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes: On the way to the National Art Museum I snapped a picture of a street vendor dressed all fancy. Instead of just continuing past him, he threw his arm out and almost clotheslined me. Apparently, he didn't want his picture taken. As he yelled at me in Spanish I deleted the two pictures I'd gotten of him as he watched me and then I went on my way. They were bad pictures anyway. Whatever. Inside the museum was the good stuff. Besides all the work of many international painters, I found a Monet! One of my favorite artists, thanks to my mom's good taste.

In the evening, two of my friends and I perused the streets shopping and just taking everything in. On every street corner there are what we called "cambio guys". Cambio guys are constantly yelling "cambio": an offer to exchange your American money to pesos. They are pretty sketchy, because  number one, exchanging for the blue dollar (the higher street rate) is illegal, and number two, you never know if you are going to get ripped off or not. The normal exchange rate right now is about 5 pesos. The blue dollar exchange rate though, is around 9.5 pesos. Much better. At 8:30 pm, we decided that we were going to exchange money. We found a cambio guy and proceeded to change my friend's money. Honestly, it felt like a drug deal was going down. But we weren't gypped, and the memory was made. Another "worth it" moment.

Day 4: La Estancia
Best day ever! After driving for forever we got out in the rain to warm empanadas and juice. Everything looked authentic. It was a true tourist spot and i imagined I was at a luau in Hawaii. I even got my pony ride with two gauchos. The visit to the gift shop had me walk away with a nice mate (pronounced mah-tay) and bombilla (bomb-bisha). Finally, I'm Argentinian!

After the gift shop we were served dinner. For most it consisted of five or six different types of meat. For the vegetarians however, there was salt-less spaghetti. The salad however, was amazing. Once again proving that that's all a vegetarian needs (not really)! But the food wasn't what filled me up. It was the lively ethical discussion that occurred and the tangos and singing and dancing that happened throughout the meal. We even got to dance a little ourselves!

After our meal, we headed outside to watch a little demonstration of horse herding complete with a sheep dog. There were a few other demonstrations and then people were offered the chance to ride behind a gaucho as they galloped around the arena. Of course every girl shamelessly formed a line and died of happiness when they got the attractive one. It was just easy fun, and we all enjoyed it.

A couple of our profesoras and our awesome ACA director

The trip was indeed a success, and served to help me fall in love with Argentina. Up until Buenos Aires I had been a bit ambivalent on liking Argentina or not. Now however, I've been getting more and more into the culture, and I must say, I don't really want to leave. It's only been two months, but Argentina is slowly stealing my heart, and starting to feel like home.

Jardín de Rosas