I love Mendoza. I took the opportunity to visit the Argentine city in October of 2007, and it was one of the best South American experiences I have had. There is nothing quite like taking a long summer bike trip down its quaint streets, sipping the many wines that each local vineyard has to offer, not to mention the outrageous selection of outdoor adventures (I would personally recommend horseback riding through the Andes; it is incredible!). So it may seem weird that when given the opportunity to go a second time, I said no. Honestly, I wanted to go but was [View Full Entry]

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Not too far from Rosario’s national flag monument lays a unique pool with odd rock figures in the center where children can often be found jumping from rock to rock. At second glance, however, and you can see that it is in fact a monument which commemorates those who perished in the Falkland’s War. Around the pool, a semi-circle wall lists the approximately 649 Argentine soldiers who were lost in the war. I didn’t realize until after I saw the Falkland Island monument in Rosario that I have now seen all of the monuments dedicated to the Falkland War within Argentina. [View Full Entry]

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It’s somewhat of a funny feeling to be sitting in the Miami Airport and suddenly hear via slightly-too-cheery airport news reporters that a United States governor has been caught having inappropriate relations in a country to which you have just visited. Not to be too obvious, but I’m talking about South Carolina governor Mark Sanford in Buenos Aires. The whole ordeal has led to a number of jokes, including one which compares his current situation with his wife to ‘Jon and Kate politics’. It’s sad because I saw him in an interview on the Colbert Report in 20 [View Full Entry]

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My mind is racing today and there is a lot running around my head, so forgive me if my thoughts bounce around a bit. So let’s talk about food. I enjoyed the food in Argentina. I didn’t love it; Brazilian food to me was much better. But I did enjoy my meals in Argentina. One thing that I noticed was the amount of restaurants in Argentina. There were a lot. So many that to me it seemed impossible that the restaurants could all be doing well and stay up and running during the world crisis we’re in. I wondered about that [View Full Entry]

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Buenos Aires is an interesting place, to say the least. Not that I don’t enjoy the city, I actually love it. Its unique European vibe and Latin American heart, complete with a metropolis of fiercely avid party-goers, creates quite a unique social construct and makes for an awesome night scene. But with such a distinct social construct, there are also perceptions and standards placed upon the society which can sometimes adversely affect its populace. A lot of the guys in my study abroad group really like chicks from Buenos Aires. It is a regular topic of conversation while hanging [View Full Entry]

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My parents went to see Queen play in Kansas City at Kemper Arena in 1983. So when I was little I wanted to get to see Freddie Mercury live too. I mean I ran around in diapers to fat bottom girls and killer queen. It’s a part of me, really. Sadly, my dreams were crushed when Freddie Mercury died. Little did I know, though, that a decade later my dreams would be ‘renewed’! An Argentine Queen cover band known as Dios Salva la Reina (or God Save the Queen) was coming into Buenos Aires to play a show at the city’s [View Full Entry]

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Eighteen pesos. That’s how much I spent on my lunch today, a Peruvian sopa from the restaurant next door to my apartment. Equivalent to about four and a half bucks, it’s similar to the meals I frequently ate while staying in Santiago, Chile. Not a bad deal and considering that I frequently eat for cheaper, it’s actually pretty wonderful in comparison to the United States. As I have become a little more adjusted to life in Buenos Aires, I have tried to pay attention to these things; from how much I spend on meals every day (an average of 28 [View Full Entry]

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For some time last year my desktop background consisted of a popular soccer picture in which a three year old German boy is flipping off an opposing soccer team with such vehement rage that it seemed impossible that a child could actually even feel the hatred he was demonstrating. The concept of a kid being placed in such a volatile environment seemed outrageous to me, and I also just thought the boy was really cute. It is ironic that I would be studying precisely that concept one year later. That being said, soccer is a relatively new concept to me. Obviously [View Full Entry]

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