¿por qué PARQUéS ?

Let me fill you in on a little game called, Parqués: It's basically Colombia's version of Sorry with crazier more intense rules and you have to be on your A-game at all times or else your soldiers go to jail and you get eaten like PacMan.

When Felipe, called and asked us to come play a fun Colombian game with him Maria and Carlos 8:30 Saturday night before we went out, me and Bryan said were thinking ok sure- a little boardgame to pass time until we go out- we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into...

Long story short: You try to get your 4 soldiers around the path to heaven without someone else's soldier coming up behind you and eating you. 6 hours later all my soldiers went to heaven and I dominated the game! Yes! I never win anything! (As you can tell from my celebration) In the end, it was a really fun game :) not just because I won.

and the winner is...

Me & Maria

Felipe

Carlos

Bryan

Sol :(

Needless to say, we never made it out Saturday night :)

On Saturday I bought my first pair of Argentine boots! woo! And also the red Christmas sweater Im sporting in the pictures. It was so nice to get some new winter wear :) All the girls down here wear leather boots over their pants.. all of them. So I went to a boots store wearing my UGGs and the boot man looked at them, (which I'll admit- are a step up from my lime green ones) and he was like, "what are those? boots? not for going out in right?" haha, umm, so what are you supposed to say to the nice leather boot store man.. except, "umm these are my snow shoes..?" So, he felt sorry for me and gave me a deal on some cool comfy leather boots that fit my funky wide flat feet (thanks pappy). Since you walk so much here, its really important to get some good ones. I'm actually wearing them right now with pijama pants so I can break them in by tomorrow :)

I started reading a book to help me with spanish. Im not a reader, I just get so distracted and never end up finishing. The last book I finished was The Catcher & The Rye, except I didnt read the last 10 pages by choice because I knew he was going to die and I didnt want him to. Anyway, this book is called "Fin de Semana en El Paraíso" (Weekend in Paradise).

I asked the bookstore guy for an "easy-read" and he picks up Confessions of a Shopaholic. I was like, no no- an easy read like easy grammar. Then he picks up Brown Bear, Brown Bear.. haha noo maybe something with chapters would be good. So, he gives me this one. I start reading it, pass page 15, proud of myself that I pretty much understand it all except a vocab word here and there. Its holding my attention, the cover is colorful, off to a good start... until I turn it over and read : "Suggested Age: 11 years old" haha nice. I mean, I don't know why I'm surprised- they have sections where the pet dog Bruno talks, but whatever.

*oh, and Aunt Sasu, if you're reading this, I changed the settings and made it easier to leave comments :)

The Toolbox Mystery

Last night, we had some people over at the apartment and  Felipe, whos from Colombia,  made everyone Mexican food.. weird right? The native Colombian making Mexican food, not the boy from south Cali or the Texas girl whipping up some tex-mex haha no way.  He actually used to own a Mexican restaurant or something somewhere and learnt (learned?) everything from the chef.  It was so so good! Fajitas and guacamole.  It had been a while since I had seen any kind of tortilla or eaten spicy food. Mmm.. we just needed the little waiter from El Mirasol to pop in and bring us a mango margarita and some caldo de pollo. First meal when I get back to Texas I think. 

Bryan lost his camera the other day and was super super mopey for 2 days. I mean mopey. Where does he find it? The toolbox... hmm?

the flood of 2009, Buenos Aires style.

On Tuesday we had to go to Uruguay for the day because our tourist visa was about to expire. We don't have our student visas yet becauseee, well long story, but basically, since school is a two year program- you have to also apply for temporary residency. Plus, since the student visa is  good for such a long period of time, the whole application process is a huggeee ordeal like.. send finger prints to the FBI in West Virginia, get Argentina criminal records, etc. And things seem to take a whole lot longer here too. Thats kind of it in a nutshell.

Back to Tuesday, we took a 3 hour boat from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, you can make it there in an hour- but its twice the price and, who doesnt enjoy a little extra time on the sea ? We woke up to it pouring outside and freezing (not literally), but like 35 and windy. I looked out the window and my hammock looked like melted skittles, all the colored squares had run together :(  So that was a bummer. We couldnt reschedule because Tuesday was the last day we had to do it. 

Whats in Colonia one wonders... Colonia is an old old tiny historic town by the ocean with a lighthouse. Theres not much to do, but as long as the weathers nice- theres enough to do. My Colonia experience, wasn't filled with pretty nice images like that.  No just kidding, it wasnt that bad- just really cold and it poured the whole time.  I was soaked in no time- you know... that sloshy sound in your shoes or when your jeans hang because they've soaked up so much water? I mean as long as your not wearing mascara, who cares if you get wet. Its just the ice-cold rain that gets ya. Our day consisted of setting up shop in a dry restaurant for 3ish hours and then finding the local 15 store mall and playing Pictionary out of my spanish dictionary at a table with some whiskey and coke to warm us up a little. The highlight of the day was buying  alpaca socks (an alpaca kinda looks like a llama that lives in South America)  to change into for the boat ride back.  Bryan has an alpaca sweater, and since its their fur when it gets wet it smells like a wet dog for a couple days. That was a risk I was willing to take. 

The other highlight was getting a stamp on my passport. You kinda get gypped when you travel to some of the EU countries. Theyre not always stampers, even if you ask.. like, ok you wont stamp it, but will you at least sign it and draw a picture or something.. something. This is so far from home!

* This has nothing to do with anything, I just wanted you to be aware of the usual Winston-Bryan behavior.

Anyway, we finalllly got back to our apartment at midnight and it was flooded! Winnie was using the couch as an island :(  No way! When I say flooded- I dont mean our lamps and books were floating at eye level- there was just half an inch of water in the living room and the hallway. It all started because our aparment is on the top floor, so no one is above us just the sky. It poured all day and the drain on our balcony was clogged so the water had nowhere to go and seeped through the balcony door.  In some parts, the balcony was flooded 3.5 inches. We had to bucket the freezing cold water from our balcony to the bathtub. That was a process. But, the only thing damaged was the wood floors. It could've been worse. My laptop  was on the ground where it flooded and somehow magically the little protector case acted like a sponge, absorbed the water and saved my computer. Thank god.. I mean, then who would blog? haha jussst kidding. Sorry I dont blog about cooler things, I just kinda ramble about anything. So if you are still reading, kudos. 

* Anddd this is the usual Winston-Elise behavior. 

T-t-t-today Junior

The story of my Spanish speech impediment

ughhh speech impediments. Maybe its not a bad one, but non-the-less it is one. If you've ever heard me say  "ruined" or the name "Stewart" in english, you know what I'm talking about. Whats the deal with the R? My tongue cant do that -RU sound too well. Well... its even WORSE in spanish- not worse, but so many more words have that R sound...  common words too that you use everyday! 

verduRas (vegetables) veRde (green) peRdon (excuse me) taRde (late) 

In this case its the RD that haunts me. Yesterday, me and Bryan went to Chinatown to get , what else, but chinese food, which by the way is so much better down here than back home. It seems a lot lighter and "cleaner" tasting if that makes sense.   Anyway, I had to ask the lady if I could have chinese vegetables sauteed with ginger instead of garlic. The sentence had 3 of my "words" in it. It was awful. Im sure it was worse listening to me studder through it.  "PERDON, podria tener las VERDURAS VERDES, pero  salteado en gengibre en vez de ajo?" The R comes out sounding like the -er in "very", which is pretty wrong sounding. So now I walk around all day reciting my list of words out loud to myself , on the streets-before I go to bed- in the subway- waiting for coffee- in the shower- when I see something green, hoping that one time it'll magically get better. Can you imagine if you passed me doing that? Id for sure sound like a bozo whispering weird words to myself. I even make Bryan say "the words" over and over slowly and then I try and repeat it. Its driving him crazy, I know it is, like, "One more time, veeeRRdddeee. Okay, now do it again. Hmm I didnt quite catch it, can you say it again?" 

Oh and the picture is  Bryan jamming out in the hammock on our balcony with his guitar (although you cant see it).  Im so excited to finally have my own hammock! For some reason, Ive been wanting one  for  a couple of years and that submarine looking window you see in the background, is the window to the sauna in our room. Its kind of cool having it submarine-y like, it makes you feel like you're at the beach or on the dock of a boat or something. 

Besides my speech impediment and the hammock. Nothing really  has been going on that is "wow" worthy. I pretty much just go to language school everyday for 4 hours... trying to cram in as much as I can before real school starts in August! Yikes! I don't think Ive put this in the blog, haha Im so dorky I can't believe I "blog", Im a "blogger". 

Anyway, I'm going to go to grad school down here at a private university for 2 years, La Universidad de Palermo, to get my MBA in Entertainment and Media. It sounds like I'm trying to conquer American Idol, but I'm not. Its more like the business part of the music industry, well thats what I want  to put it towards. Since its an MBA program, the students are older, they've already had real jobs for a couple of years. I've only been an intern and  the average enrollment age is 29! I went to the "Welcome Oreintation" and everyone except me and this girl from Korea were native spanish speakers. So, Im kind of nervous. But hopefully, only the native spanish speakers showed up to the orientation that day. haha. 

Mmm what else,  if youre feeling adventurous and want to rent a spanish movie, rent Valentin. The little boy is so cute.

* This is one of my favorite commercials... its for Coca Cola

Watch it: You'll love it, you have to. 

Bryans favorite commercial here:

Another good one: (Mercado Libre is the Ebay of Argentina)

love you and im so jealous of all of yall with summer heat and tans :)

elise

letting the Tigre out in all of us.

We're in apartment #3 and its a little bare since we have to furnish the whole thing.  On Sunday, me Bryan Sol and Eva went to Puerto de Frutos.  Its a huge open air artesan market 30 minutes outside of Buenos Aires in Tigre where you can find all kinds of cool stuff for a lot cheaper than in the city. They sell everything from lots of furniture, weird african statues, fountains and spices to shoelaces and Lizzy McGuire backpacks. Its not like going to the flea market where you bargain with the lady for 10 minutes, finally win and think you got a steal on the Coach bag, only until it breaks 9 hours later (true story); Tigres stuff is good quality with not the average look. The stuff had a Texas-y vibe mixed with Colorado and a dash of Mexico. Whattt does that mean? ok well,  the cowboyness of Texas like my Aunt Janies house, mixed with the carved wooden bear feel like they have everywhere in Colorado with a dash of the indian, bright color, rustic feel Mexico has.  It felt like I was at home-kind of.  Maybe if Laredo was in Colorado?  I still don't think Im pinning it. The picture below is just of one of the wicker stores. They love their wicker for some reason. But, moving on.

  

So, out of all the things we need- coffee table, coffee maker, chairs, plates yada yada.. what do me and Bryan come out with? A paraguayan hammock (the first picture is where I bought it) and two patio chairs. haha. Ugh, so typical of me.  But in our defense, the patio chairs are now in the living room as real chairs and the hammock was way to cool to pass up and its hanging on the balcony. So they were good buys :) I think we're taking the train back to Tigre Saturday to get what we actually went for, a coffee table. hmmm... will it actually happen? 

* The water in the picture is the Delta del Paraná that runs into Tigre. 

el 4 de julio

Happy 4th of July!! I think this was my coldest 4th and one of the few that didnt include me in a swimsuit dominating  the apple pie eating contest. Is that gross? No just kidding, the last time I participated in apple pie festivities was in 5th grade I think at Oak Hills Country Club. None the less, I still dominated every time and it was just a piece, not a whole pie. Reigning champ. The thing was, when you won, they gave you an apple pie as your reward... I just stuffed my faceat a rapid pace with apple pie for 2 minutes , now I have it up my nose, in my eyelashes and in my hair.. do I want another whole apple pie? No, not really. I never understood that. 

Our 4th of July consisted of  letting the beast (Winnie) loose at the park which was nice because it was actually warm outside and the sky was bright blue.  Thennn he ran into the lake and came out covered in mud. So park day came to a hault. haha.  Poor little guy. 

 

Bryan started school on Wednesday, but now the government is shutting down everything for 2 weeks because of Swine Flu. So he's on vacation again. Buenos Aires isnt going to be a ghost town if thats what youre thinking, but theyre shutting down places like universities, some night clubs,  museums and stuff like that.. hoping to prevent the spread of it, which seems impossible because everyone takes public transit and that gets pretty pretty snug during rush hour. Someone told me they're only going to fill up places  30%, like movie theatres and restaurants. Theres going to be someone there to tell you where to sit, like you sit here and then the 2 seats next to you will be empty and then another person in the 4th. Crazy right? Its like finals at UT all over again. How much everyone is freaking out about swine flu here is kind of weird to me. I was talking to a cab driver and he told me all he keeps thinking about is swine flu and how hes so worried. haha really.. its just the flu pretty much. Right? Little kids and old people should worry, not regular people. 

Ok so back to the 4th, after the park we went to an asado (an argentine bbq) of one of the girls Bryan goes to school with because she had a friend in town. It was so cool and sooo good. She had a huge rooftop terrace and a big grill where this  guy with a serious mustache pretty much set up shop and cooked for the whole party. The best meat Ive had since Ive been here. Really good. We ate and  drank until 4am which isnt very late compared to argentine going out standards, but I suck and was dragging by 4:30.  Not accustomed yet.