Saturday was an even earlier start as we headed out to a hilltop Pachamama memorial and then to the HUGE salt flats. There is no road through the salt flats, but the idea is to drive around on them wherever you want…this is where having rented a car and being on my own with a couple other people would have been FUN. The salt flats were pretty similar to those in Utah, except much bigger and instead of being completely flat, they have ridges all over them that are mostly in the shape of pentagons (not exactly ideal for breaking land [View Full Entry]

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In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s the highlights: *Intensely precise indigenous flute players *Multi-colored mountains *A night out at a bar in Tilcara, Argentina *Numerous giant cacti *Ping-Pong/Drinking games with the bus driver *Incredible stars lying next to llamas Ok, now onto Jujuy, Tilcara, Humahuaca, La Quebrada, Los Salares, y Purmamarca. If all those names sound indigenous to you, that’s because this part of Argentina feels literally like a different country, even more so than the deep jungle of Misiones province. The people here live a much different lifestyle, not only relying on the existence of [View Full Entry]

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I’m back in Buenos Aires after a great weekend in and around Tilcara, Jujuy Province in Northwestern Argentina. Besides being overwhelmed with city life, I was more than bogged down with schoolwork and ready to get out of the city for a bit. Having never lived in a big city, I experience new things every day, without exception. Unfortunately, I have not been able to write them all down and will forget some. Sometimes they make my happy and sometimes they make me frustrated, angry, and loco. However, they always increase my understanding for Argentine culture and lifestyle. The small [View Full Entry]

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There is a filthy cloud over the entire city possibly due to the current agricultural conflict. The farmers usually burn their soy fields after harvesting, but this year they decided to do them all at once…some 70,000 hectares. It is disgusting and has already been this way for 4 days. I thought it was misty outside the other day and then heard from one of my teachers what it was. Today, I saw it and wasn’t so surprised…they probably burned more overnight. The park I’m sitting in is nice, but it feels weird with the sunlight filtered through this dirty cloud. [View Full Entry]

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We got up early, ate breakfast, packed lunch and headed out to the ‘Piedras Preciosas’ mines of Wanda (yes, a town called Wanda). Our tour guide was fairly informative but I really had to probe to get him to spill the beans on where most of the real mining gets done. There was only one miner in the cave we went into, so we knew there must be some other mines hidden. He said they were in the jungle, but all the miners were on a Tereré break (a cold form of maté). We let it go at that, tipped the [View Full Entry]

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I didn’t sleep much this weekend…and early 7:45 classes on Monday and Tuesday didn’t help. So, I spent 6 hours after my first two classes today sleeping in a park. I meant to go to my last class, but it just didn’t happen. Even with that long nap, I don’t think I’ll have trouble getting to sleep tonight. Tomorrow is a more relaxed day and by then I should be back on schedule. Last night I was doing an assignment for my creativity class until about 3 and then had to get up at 6:30 to make it on time to [View Full Entry]

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I have REALLY been slacking on my blog, but I guess it gives you time to catch up on your reading! Although no new blogs recently, I have been doing a ton; going out at night, getting used to my classes, loving the differences between UCA and UBA, and hangin out with my mom! This is being written from the balcony of my apartment that I grow to love more and more every day. My mom and Sharon have been in Argentina for a while now and we had an incredible time all last week in the Province of Misiones in [View Full Entry]

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I am listening to Bersuit Vergarabat as I write this. They are an Argentine band that I am going to see tomorrow at Quilmes Rock, the biggest Argentine rock festival. Back to the jungle… Today was great - I got separated a bit from my mom and Sharon, but we each had our own adventures, so it worked out great! We started out together on the Macuco Trail; a less-traveled section of Iguazu National Park that winds through 3 kilometers of jungle, then descends the last few hundred meters to the bottom of what is usually a very impressive waterfall. Unbeknownst [View Full Entry]

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Today I had class at Flacso from 1:15-3. Afterwards, I went to an awesome restaurant/butchershop and got a Morzipan (2.5 pesos) and a glass of wine (1.5 pesos) while I read La Critica (2.5 pesos). Morzipan is a blood sausage in a sandwich and La Critica is a new independent daily newspaper that mostly examines what the government has been up to and what they did wrong. It is amazing how much content it has since there is a new edition every day. I got home at about 5 and had to leave at 6 to make it to my 7 [View Full Entry]

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I have finally started all of my classes...and they all seem like they will be a lot harder than I had planned. On Tuesday, I arrived at UCA just after 7:45 AM for my Creativity class with a new profesor. I switched to another professor who I heard was much younger and better. I heard right. We do almost all of our assignments with Adobe Creative Suite programs, which I love! I'm very excited to learn those programs better and get to use them for my projects. First assignment: pick 3 ads and try to copy them digitally as closely as [View Full Entry]

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