Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Hello from the Other Side




Here I am






Here I am






Here I am





Here I am







Here I am








Here I am


Too close.....a little too close

For those of you who hoped I was dead, you're gonna be disappointed......cause I'm not dead. Boom!


I am in Cordoba, Argentina mid way through my third week with Remote Year (that itinerary is for a different group, my itinerary is here).

This whole thing is so hard to wrap my mind around. I've been here over two week now which seems insane, but at the same time it feels like I've been living this life forever. I can't even remember anything from my past life (sorry everyone). I'm sorry I haven't written sooner, but there's just non-stop things to do, so I'll try to do something more frequently and not let lots of so much cool stuff build up. 

Here's a pictures of a horse parade coming by the office:



Since I'm in a new strange land, I thought I would use an Adele lyric as my title. But I also thought I would put together a list of differing things that happen here in Cordoba (and Argentina in general (maybe...I haven't been anywhere else in Argentina yet so its hard to say)):

  • Everything is sooooo slow here. You can't go to a meal and have it take less than 2 hours. Sometimes one person's meal will come out literally 30+ minutes after everyone elses and they dont seems to think thats a big deal. So much frustration! So many inefficiencies.
  • Time is shifted here several hours. No one eats dinner till like 11pm (even for families). Bars start getting crowded around 1am and go till like 7am. But people still seem to wake up in the morning....they just take siestas.
  • Literally (I don't take literally lightly) every girl here wears platform shoes...I dont get it
  • ATMs often will have no money. They don't refill on the weekends or holidays and apparently haven't figured out how to determine when they will run out of money so that they can refill them, so theres often lines down the street for working ATMs
  • Everything has meat in it...especially ham. Theres ham on burgers, theres ham in lasagne, theres hame in ham. Theres just so much unhealthy food here. I don't understand why everyone here isn't super fat (like Americans)
  • People are crazy about working out (perhaps I answered the above mystery)...I see people with barbell sets in the park doing olympic lifts in the morning
  • This city is such an outdoor city...every bar and restaurant seems to be outdoors friendly. They have these things called gallerias which are like long alleyways filled with bars and restaurants and shops


Thats it. Thats everything I learned about this place. Oh and theres very few English speakers. Oh and my Spanish is terrible. But I am taking a Spanish class and using this app Duolingo. But my Spanish is terrible.



This is how I tango in Argentina





This is how I running group in Argentina
This is how I foam fight with kids in Argentina






This is how I pose next to a giant head in Argentina (although I'm not in the picture)




This is how I eat a seven course meal with wine parings in Argentina
This is how I look at one of seven
courses in a seven course meal with
 wine pairings in Argentina


This is how I nap in Argentina
This is also how I nap in Argentina




This is how I think (and work) in Argentina (sometimes)
At this point, you're probably wondering, "how much did that seven course meal with wine pairing cost in Argentina". The answer is: "Like $60. Thanks for your question". 

So stuff is pretty cheap here. Definitely cheaper than New York, but I hear this will be one of the more expensive places we will visit. I will be rich by the end of my year traveling around the world. Who knew?

There's like 75 other people traveling with me as well. Here they are:



I can name exactly seven at this point. They're pretty cool though.


One of those seven is this guy, Abe:

People say we're married cause of this picture...but really, we're just roommates


At the beginning of the trip we were always traveling in groups of 30-40. Now we're down to something more manageable like groups of 15-20 as we start forming our cliques. This is what dinner looks like with 40 people (double-sided).

That guy in the middle is Mike. He's our token......Canadien

Oh I forgot to mention that they like their meat here. Like really like their meat (I know I really already mentioned this, but I thought I would emphasize it. Then I decided I would act like I didn't remember telling you, but really I do).

How do you feel about that picture Sam Levin?


And finally (for this week), we went on a hike in a national park this weekend. So I took some pictures.







It was like a Condor trek and we saw Condors....so I'm supposed to be a Condor here



There's infinity (literally infinity) more that I could write about and show pictures of, but I would never complete an actual blog post. So I am gonna cap it there for the first entry. But I will fill in more details about my Remote Year peoples and happenings and plans and Argentina stuff and everything else you could possibly think of later. This weekend I head to Mendoza which is a region known for their wine. Get excited. Oh no, I mean I should get excited. You aren't going. Unless you're a Remote Year member reading my blog...then you can get excited. But everyone else...sorry, you can't be excited.




And if you like my blog...share it with everyone you know. Even if they don't know/like me...so I can be a positive influence in those people's lives. Trust me, they need it!