Mis Aventuras del Sur de America

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Bloglog Entry Numero 1: The Flights and First Días en<strong style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-large;"> Buenos Aires.

En Route to LAX
After a calm and relaxing (and by calm and relaxing I mean absurdly hilarious and animated) Appleton/Deane/Goldenhersh vacation in Buellton, CA drinking wine, eating aebleskivers, feeding ostriches (yep...), dancing to Carly Rae Jepsen, and playing the most competitive games of trivial pursuit I'll ever experience, Dad Goldenhersh, Jojo and I headed to LAX....





(Emotional dramatization. Samantha Goldenbushrod does NOT cry. ever.)




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MY FLIGHT TO HOUSTON



Of all the people I could have sat next to on the flight to Houston, I had to sit next to a young, blonde, Texan couple that was, clearly, still very much in their honeymoon stage. Uncle would have had a field day with these two. I'm not sure what made me want to puke more, them having to grope something of each others' every 3 minutes, her tightening HIS seatbelt, or his awful gas for the entire duration of the flight (and her thinking it was adorable). Either way, I'm really surprised I didn't hurl before, during and/or after the flight. Oh, by the way, the George Bush Intl Airport is one of the nicest airports I've ever been in. Muy impresionante.





I only spent an hour in Houston before getting on the plane to BUENOS AIRES, and spent it talking to my parents and a couple friends, crying every time I got off the phone with each and every one of them. I really started to freak out when I realized I was getting on a plane which majority of the passengers' second, or third, or not at all, language was English......




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My nervous face...</td></tr></tbody></table><table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 6px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tbody><tr><td>
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My FREAKING THE FUCK OUT face.</td></tr></tbody></table>


MY FLIGHT TO BUENOS AIRES


Okay, the contrast between airplanes on domestic and International flights are ridiculous. The plane on my flight to Houston was probably built in 1985 with huge TV's (computer-monitor-from-10-years-ago huge, not 36-inch-Samsung-HD-3D-blueray-wipe-your-butt huge). The plane I took to Buenos Aires was BRAND NEW. Classical music was playing, the clarity on my personal TV was superb, EVERYTHING WORKED, it was lovely. Then I got really spoiled when I met the people sitting next to me: a 24-year-old Penn State grad student named Kaitlyn to my right and some beautiful tan blue-eyed American surfer guy to my left across the aisle. We had a good time staring at him......and his wedding ring.


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Katlyn and I after our 10-hour flight</td></tr></tbody></table>
I'm not sure how interested you are in what I'm reading on this trip, but I'll tell you anyway. I have 4 books on my Kindle so far: The Breakthrough Experience by John Demartini, Catching Fire (book 2 of the Hunger Games, which I refuse to finish because it's so slow), At Peace With Food by Leeann Simons, and Holes by Louis Sachar.



On the plane, I alternated reading <strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">At Peace With Food - written by a registered dietitian about the failure of diets and how to lose weight by changing one's lifestyle and 'relationship' with food and eating - and <em style="font-weight: bold;">Holes - a childhood favorite of mine with 50 chapters of 5th grade vocabulary that will only take a flight to Buenos Aires to finish, and since the Emperor's New Groove didn't download completely on my iPad at the airport, I needed some sort of effortless read as a break from the rather humbling and self-reflective former.



Here are the links to the books, just in case you're interested: At Peace With Food and <strong style="text-align: center;">Holes




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So...this is Argentina? I could do this
for awhile.</td></tr></tbody></table>











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One book (or 10 hours) later...</td></tr></tbody></table>
"HOLY SHIT, I'M IN ARGENTINA"



I was pretty frazzled at the end of the flight, but I managed to figure out a shuttle service to the hostel called Manuel Tienda Leon. Then I FINALLY got to see Vale!!!!!!!


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Milhouse Hostel (Vale's workplace)</td></tr></tbody></table>





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My lovely cousin, Vale Goldenhersch!</td></tr></tbody></table>










































Okay, Aunt Jo Ellen, you were right. The hostel Vale works at is pretty awesome. The Milhouse Hostel is paradise for the young traveler. I need to spend more time there to elaborate, but I will definitely be elaborating on it, because it's rad (yes, Uncle, rad).

I talked to an adorable Aussie about traveling and whatever else I could get him to talk to me about while Vale was working and then we walked to her apartment and I got to meet Mama!!


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Grace (Vale's mother)</td></tr></tbody></table>
I have been here for 36 hours, have gotten a total of 14 hours of sleep, and have had 6 meals. 5 of them Grace cooked. She is learning English, and I Spanish, so I speak to her en Español, and she speaks to me en Inglés. If I keep eating the way I have been, I'll be muy gorda by the end of my trip.




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The meal Grace prepared upon my arrival</td></tr></tbody></table>


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¡Empenadas!</td></tr></tbody></table>


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Twinsies!</td></tr></tbody></table>





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Cique, the biggest player I know. </td></tr></tbody></table>


Vale and her mother's apartment is in the heart of Buenos Aires a block away from the Congress building. Her cat loves to climb on me and stick his paws down my shirt (not kidding, Vale thinks he was a womanizer in his past life....I believe it). Grace saw me walk out in the kitchen this morning barefoot and insisted that I wear some slippers or socks, so she found these......


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Day 2 of Buenos Aires involved me sleeping until 10am, eating breakfast, starting my blog, hanging out with Vale and my new friend Alex - who is from Ojai, California and just graduated from Boulder - talking about our future adventures in Buenos Aires together, and hanging out with Grace. She told me today I speak Spanish well....I almost cried. THERE'S HOPE FOR ME!!!! Here are some more photos. Enjoy. Post Numero Dos coming soon....... Please leave comments and suggestions on how to improve my blog. Total blog rookie over here.








<strong style="text-align: start;">¡Adios!

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Cique using me as a climbing wall</td></tr></tbody></table>


















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¡Primas!</td></tr></tbody></table>





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My view from my balcony</td></tr></tbody></table>

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