Santa Rosa's coming... get the rain boots!

On Sunday for Felipes birthday, ( the guy in the picture) we invited a bunch of people over and had a huge asado for at our apartment. Bryans the grill guy and I was like wellll what am I going to make? I have to contribute something. So, I decided, "Perfect! An apple pie!" Very American and I love apple pie. I found a recipe that seemed legit, figured it wouldnt be that complicated... make some dough- cut it in a circle, throw some apples and cinammon in, put dough on top and stick it in the oven. Bam! done! So, I didnt bother to read the recipe before I started. Classic Elise cooking mistake, classic. There's always that weird surprise that pops up, like.. "let sit for 4 hours" or "tie with green fishing string" something weird like that.

It turned out wayy harder and way more complicated than I realized. Apparently I picked the recipe geared towards those that "love baking" so there were more special steps than usual. It was one of those recipes with all kinds of the hidden, "let sit for 2 hours" instructions. The only minor bump in the road was that we calculated wrong for the dough and didn't have enough at all. So.. our apple pie didnt really have a top, it was just a bowl of hot apples pretty much. haha. Me and Bryan were the only Americans, so no one really knew how it was supposed to be. This is the only picture I have of the "infamous A.P.," pre- crust and oven stage.

What else.. Bryan changed schools and degrees, instead of being at the smaller private school, he joined the big dogs at The University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Its #1 among Latin american schools and ranked higher than a lot of US schools. Go Bryan go! But hes one of those naturally smart people... you know the type. He changed to International Private Law, which is like if you live in Columbia and want to buy a house in Argentina.. Bryan would be your guy, something like that. His school is really intimidating looking.

My first week of real gradschool started on Monday! The summer school class counts, but not really. Im taking four classes and its going pretty well so far. Im the only native english speaker in my classes. There was a mexican guy in my class last night and I automatically felt like we were friends. Hey neighbor! haha. Everyone else is from Central or South America. My sports marketing and internet convergence in media classes seem interesting , but my core classes seem like they are going to be a draggggg. Administration of Human Rescources and Marketing... bummer.

Every year in Buenos Aires around the end of August, comes a big storm called "La Tormenta de Santa Rosa", its named after her because it coincides with her holiday (August 30th). The storm marks the end of the cold season and the beginning of spring! Woo! Anddd , supposedly shes coming this weekend... bum bum bum.. hopefully our apartment wont flood this time!

Oh! and Thursday, me sol bryan felipe and maria are going to Rosario ( 4 hrs north of Bs As) for the Argentina vs. Brazil soccer game! Were going to try and get tickets for the Brazilian side, just to be brazilian for a day. Plus, I think it'll be a lot easier to get tickets that way rather try and battle Argentines for a huge home game. Argentina vs Brazil is a big rival game, so, of course, I already have my face paint :)

Ok welllll, Ive gotta go to this meeting with a guy from EMI, to see if he'll give me a little job! Yikes! what to wear what to wear :)

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.