Happy Halloween

Todays post was taken off of Postsecret.com. It's my new favorite website. People mail in "secrets" every week, and they get posted. Sometimes its funny, sad, angry etc. I love it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Though I won't get to celebrate it like I did last year in Boulder. Doesn't look like tonight is going to be a shit show... it's better that way!

Have fun. Be safe. Love you and miss you all!!

Best Wednesday night ever

So Kate and I were at our cooking class, and I decided that I was craving a burger and a beer. We went to my neighborhood, because I knew of a brewery about a block away from my house. Not only did they have burgers and really good beer, they had the world series on TV. We enjoyed the best burger & fries and beer yet. Two pitchers, two burgers and one apple dessert later, we asked for the check.

Usually this is when the night starts going downhill. Not for us. Not tonight.

The waitress told us that the gentleman at the bar had paid for everything.

"En serio?" (Seriously?)
"Si. Todo" (yeah, everything)
"...en serio..."
"si"

It was awesome. We had talked to his wife for about 10 min, they were from boston, and it was an easy conversation considering the Red Sox pretty much killed the rockies tonight. It's alright, it's just game one.


But I've had a pitcher of beer, it's bed time. Look for an update from last weekend soon!!

GO ROCKIES!

PICS!

Pictures from the trip! Sorry, it's all backwords (the first picture happened last...)

Sunset on the bus ride home. We watched the sunrise and sunset that day.

Classic beach pose.

Beautiful sunrise over the ocean

Playing
would have been a great picture, but the stupid argentine bitch stood up right when I took the pic!
Whale watching!

Huge elephant seals! (movie to come, once I figure out how to put it on here!)
Concha means shell in spanish. It also means vagina. They had a display of conchas... haha
me with the baby whale (that ended up being dead)

We were so close to the whales!

Whales!

At the teahouse.

The penguin beach was SO pretty.

I was walking among the penguins!!

Penguins EVERYWHERE!!

The girls on the boat, dolphin watching.


Dolphins!

Sea Lions!!

Eating chips and salsa on the bus... definitely something that I miss.
Powdered coffee on the bus... SICK

PUERTO MADRYN!!!

This weekend was a long weekend in Argentina (Columbus Day) so I had a 4-day weekend (I don’t have classes on Fridays). I went to Puerto Madryn, Patagonia with Michelle and Becca. It was an amazing trip that got off to a rock start.

Thursday:
Our bus was set to leave at 7:30 pm. It was pouring rain all day in the city so there was SO much traffic. We were all running late because of the traffic, and we ended up missing the bus by like 3 minutes. These busses are the ONE and ONLY thing that leaves on time in this country.

One of the bus conductors told us to take a cab to another terminal, and we could catch our bus there. So we ran to catch a cab, in the pouring rain, and told him to GO! We said we’d pa more to get us there quickly… this was a dangerous request considering how scary cab drivers can be in the city… not this guy. We somehow got the slowest, most un-agressive driver in the city. We realized we weren’t going to make the 2nd bus so we went to Becca’s house cause it was only 2 blocks away (we hadn’t even made it ½ way through the city) Her host mom helped us call like every bus line to find another bus that night… there wasn’t one… we’d have to leave the next day. So we got dressed up to go out and started drinking. We went to my house for a minute and told my host parents what happened, and my host dad said (in Spanish) “sit down, relax, I’ll make you girls a drink…” That was the beginning and continuation of our night…

Friday:
We woke up early and found a new bus to take. We ran a few errands in the morning, and then got on the bus at 1:00… starting our 18-hour bus ride. It was pretty uneventful, except for our chips and salsa (that we found somewhere in the city ☺) and our powdered coffee. (Pictures below)

Saturday:
Our bus got in at like 7:15 and we got to the hostel at 7:30. We found out that the tour we wanted to go on left at 8. So we got ready really quick and ate breakfast. It was a guided tour with all the transportation included. We started with a boat ride to watch the dolphins (we saw sea lions too!) which was so cool cause there were dolphins everywhere, jumping and swimming and playing.

After that we had a 1½-hour ride to Punta Tombo where we saw the penguins. They were EVERYWHERE! They have their nests in little holes in the ground and under bushes… everywhere. We were just walking on a path, and they were all around us. I was like a foot away from them! We ended our tour going to a Welsh town and having high tea. This was the same teahouse Princess Diana went to. We had good tea, lots of little cakes and torts and finger sandwiches.

Our tour dropped us off in town, Puerto Madryn, after a 2-hour ride, and we went and watched the fútbol game with a group of four European girls. We went out to dinner together, then went to bed cause we had to be up early the next day.

Sunday:
I woke up at 6:30 and went for a run along the ocean. It was amazing, and reminded me how much I LOVE the water (and how much I miss Costa Rica). Our tour for the day left at 8 again. We started our trip to Peninsula Valdés, and on the way, our tour driver got a call that there were whales just off the shore, so we went and saw them. There were a few packs (is that what you call groups of whales??) with moms and babies. SO cool. We drove a little more and our guide got a call that there was one literally on shore. We stopped and took pictures.
Our next stop was elephant seals and their babies, on the beach. They were moving around and making noises, and throwing pebbles on themselves. They were really cute, but apparently they’re really aggressive, so we couldn’t get close to them like the penguins. We went on a whale watching boat tour later that day and it was awesome. There were whales everywhere.

That was the end of the tour for the day, but when we got back into town, the girls and I walked along the water, enjoying being out of the city. We bought calamari from a little stand on the sidewalk, and sat on the boardwalk with a bottle of wine, and enjoyed the best calamari EVER.

We had a good seafood dinner that night with Patagonian wine, then went to bed early-ish again for an even earlier morning.

Monday:
We got up early to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. It was so beautiful. I’ve never seen the sun rise over water before, just the sunset. Later we walked around town buying souvenirs and chocolate, and then enjoyed our last meal on the ocean (for this trip at least). Calamari, pizza and beer. Good stuff! We got on the bus (on time this time…) and began our 18-hour ride home. Awesome weekend... back (again) to the madness of the city.

Las Pumas... Rugby

Argentina is pretty much ROCKING the Rugby world cup. I love the Pumas...

Next game, Sunday. Vs South Africa... (semifinals)

GO PUMAS

No words

No words. Its a sign I saw in Iguazu... It's a man without a leg...

If you're lucky, I'll tell you the story when I get home. It's funny. Better in person....

Igúazu, waterfalls... and BRAZIL!!!

I'm going to start off by saying that this trip was absolutely fucking amazing, and it was one of the coolest places I've ever seen in my entire life. Out of everything I've seen...this is right up there... it can't compare with oceans or mountains... But it's right up with Tahoe. I took like 1983432749827 pictures. But they don't do justice. Enjoy what you can, and what you want, but it was AMAZING.Ok. Now I'll tell you about the weekend. It started out with at 12 hour bus ride... not bad at all. I woke up to a road through the jungle... It was like driving through Costa Rica. Lush, green trees, bushes and everything all around me. I was happy... (cause it didn't look like buildings and taxis anymore).

We checked into our hostel, which was really nice with a HUGE pool. We decided to do an excursion on the first day, since we'd be going to the waterfalls the following two days. This included a guided walk through the jungle (where we learned how to trap animals, and what we could eat to survive, I ate poison ivy. It was sweet), then rock climbing, zip lines (nothing like CR... nothing compares) swimming, then a boat ride up to tres fronteras (explained later.) It was a lot of fun. We got to see el Río Igúazu, and across it, Brazil. It was so cool to be that close to another country, that we couldn't enter legally. That night we went out to eat, and had an invitation, from our taxi driver, to go to Brazil to go to the clubs. He told us that it wouldn't be an issue to cross the boarder, and he'd take care of everything. We thought it was too sketchy of an offer, and decided to pass. Plus, we'd be waking up early the next morning to see the waterfalls.

We got to the park and decided to take a hike. We heard about it from a few friends who had visited the week before. The map said it was a 3k hike each way, to a really cool waterfall. We ended up hiking about 5k to the waterfall. It was beautiful. We swam around for a bit, then decided to hike back (which took a lot longer cause the other girls were really tired) to go see the real waterfalls.

When we saw the waterfalls, I was speechless. It was truly amazing. I have no idea what else to say. Natural beauty at its best.

Allison and I paid to go in one of the boats that took you underneath the falls (no not under the part that is POUNDING on you, but really close to that, and we got soaking wet.) I got a huge rush, cause you're coming up in a boat, really fast, to this huge waterfall, and there's nothing you can do. It was SO SO SO cool, and worth every penny (which was less than 20 bucks!)

That night we decided to eat at the hostel cause we heard it was good. They had an all you can eat asado (BBQ..... love it) with all you can drink Caipirinhas (brazilian liquor.. think guaro... lime and sugar). Note: I only had one... I'm on a 2 week drinking break. Dinner was calming down when 2 Brazilian dancers entered the room with really cool Brazilian music. They did their dance, and that was the entertainment of the night. We had a good time watching, then participating. wow. We met some (very typical) american guys, and ended hanging out with them for the night. We ended up going swimming in the pool, skinny dipping (in underwear) , and being THOSE americans. It was a lot of fun... and even more fun for me cause I was sober and I could watch everything pan out. The boys ended up going out to a club, and me and my girls decided to stay in, cause we had to get up early the next morning. We had a plan.

We were in a 6 person co-ed room, and one of the other people in the room was from Brazil. We were talking, and he was going into Brazil the following morning. We told him how we really wanted to go, but we couldn't without a visa.

Note: The US makes it practically impossible for Brazillians to come into the States, so in return, Brazil makes it super hard for US citizens to get into Brazil. You have to go through a long, drawn out visa process, where you have to show like 18 months of bank records in the US, your return flight, your mortgage info, etc. It sucks. And its expensive. Needless to say, we didn't have Brazilian Visas.

So he told us that we could travel with him and he'd do what he could to get us in. We would be taking public buses across the boarder. So we got up at 6:30 and caught the bus with him. It was a 4 peso ($1.25) bus ride across the boarder. We got on the bus and were scared shitless. We got stamped out of Argentina (which is necessary to get back in, so thankfully that happened) and drove across the bridge to Brazil. When we came to the customs check, the bus drove right through. We thought we were going to have to pretend to be stupid americans or whatever... but no. We drove straight through. Another guy on the bus made a comment like "what the fuck? (but in Spanish)... that never happens... Oh well" So we got really really lucky. We ended up going to the waterfalls, but from the Brazilian side, which was a completely different perspective, then out to lunch in the city. It was SO good. I had some lime juice thing (think jugo mixto...but just lime jugo, and no mixto) which was AMAZING.

Then we came back into Argentina, without any problems. Life was good. Until I got to the bus station. I needed to get my ticket printed up, cause I ordered online. This wasn't an issue in BsAs when i did it on the way to Igúazu, but apparently it was this time. They couldn't find my reservation because I made it online. Long story short, I ended up missing the bus cause they couldn't find my reservation. They FINALLY found it, but like 5 min too late. The lady told me to take a taxi and try to catch the bus. So that's what I did. We were going SO fast on the 2 lane road trying to catch the bus. We caught it like 40k out of town. It ended up costing more than I thought it would,but whatever, it was cheaper than a new bus ticket. It was pretty entertaining. The bus ride home was fine, and thankfully uneventful. We did however get to watch the same 3 quality movies we watched on the way out (Only If [shitty movie by Jennifer Love Hewitt], Flick-A [quality horse movie] and We are Marshall [football movie]) It was entertaining. So I read for pleasure and finished a book (by Nicholas Sparks). It was amazing. You'll get a quote from it in my next blog.

Enjoy the pics.
On our excursion, we took a boat trip up the Igúazu River... at the area called tres fronteras (3 boarders) we were in the water between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Brazil is on the right and Paraguay is on the left. Pretty freaking sweet. Sad though we couldn't visit cause it's illegal to enter either country without a visa.
Sarah F and me swimming in international waters.
Rappelling. I'm not going to lie, it was kinda scary at first.
They taught us how to survive in the wilderness (of the jungle) if it was necessary. I'm eating poison ivy... kinda cool.
When we checked into the hostel, we had to fill out a form about ourselves, and you had to check the boxes of where you were planning on visiting on your trip. I felt like a badass, cause i had over 1/2 the boxes checked :) I travel a lot.
Our amazing hostel... When we pulled up, we had to make sure it was the right place. 12 bucks a night gets you pretty far.
Driving back from Brazil. There is a big bridge connecting the two. It was cool cause each side had the walls of the bridge painted the colors of their flag.
Fashion in Brazil. Let's just say EEW. Purple spandex (spandex in general) High tops, converse...and everything else wrong with this picture. I had to do it.




This little fucker looked cute at first. We started taking pictures of him... Allison put down the bag with our lunch in it, he rand to it, and stole it from us.
Notice... in Portuguese. Yeah, we were in Brazil.
Before we got to customs in Brazil.. Keep going to enter Brazil... or you can turn left, and turn around and go back to Argentina.

Waiting at the bus stop waiting for the sketchy bus ride to Brazil.
Brazilian dancers in the Hostel. It was a sweet show. This american guy sure thought so.




Chillin at the waterfall we hiked to on day one... it was a really pretty waterfall, just didn't compare at all to what I'd see about an hour later... breathtaking.
For dad. I saw a lot of mushrooms.
The trail we hiked on at the beginning of our trip. It reminded me so much of CR.

Midterms suck!

So I just finished both my midterms. Essay tests. I was writing (in Spanish mind you) for 4 and a half hours!! UGH.

I think I did pretty well though, they weren´t hard :)

I´m out for the weekend now... off to Iguazu.. get excited (oh wow... there´s that sorority girl in me) for some AMAZING pictures. I dont know if Iguazu is one of the 7 wonders of the world, but from what I´ve heard, it should be!!

xoxo

The search for a perfect Sunday

I had an amazing Sunday, so I thought I’d share it with you.

So when our bus pulled into the bus station at 9 am, we were all starving, and craving a normal breakfast (other than medialunas, and dulce de leche). Becca had seen a place kind of close to my house called Waffles of the world. Since there are NO breakfast places in BsAs, we were stoked to try it out. We took a bus from the bus station to the restaurant. Note: we still have all our luggane and are in sweats because we are coming right off our 12 hour bus ride from the night before. The place ended up being closed on Sundays. We were bummed. So we took the subway, then a taxi to Olsen, which I KNEW had a Sunday brunch. They weren’t open yet, and were full with reservations. We still wanted breakfast so we walked 12 blocks (with our luggage and in sweats…stupid gringas) to a normal café that had desayuno Americano. We were so happy after our long journey to have bacon, eggs, toast, OJ and coffee. :) That was the first time, other than the breakfast at the four seasons, that I had a real, good, American breakfast.

The rest of my day was filled with fun. I ended up joining my host family watching a rugby game in a bar. Imagine a sports bar, with TVs everywhere, FILLED with people (like Superbowl Sunday filled… you had to reserve a table). They are huge guys screaming bad words at the screen. I loved it. I’m really starting to understand the game and I kinda got into it. It’s better than football, for sure.

My host dad Kay (pronounced K-eye) with my host brother Oli (ollie)

Later I met up with Alex and enjoyed Ice cram outside on the grass, it was a beautiful, warm, springtime day, then we went into the café, (downstairs in the far back corner…paranoid much?) and played on our computers and studied.
outside the cafe...everyone was outside...

The rest of the night was filled with a great dinner with my girls, going to Becca’s lover’s soccer game, and going out for a few drinks (I found a bar with great mojitos).

All in all, it was an awesome Sunday, I knew I had the rest of the week ahead of me, including 2 midterms and a trip to Iguazu on Thursday. Those will be some amazing pictures!