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Published: March 24th 2010
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Puente Rosario-Victoria
The bridge that spans the Rio Parana between Rosario and Victoria The flight down to Buenos Aires from Seattle, WA was definitely an interesting one. United Airlines to Los Angeles, CA, TACA to San Salvador, El Salvador, TACA to Lima, Peru, TACA to Buenos Aires. Layovers EVERYWHERE!!! Though, after 29 hours and a really shady, 7 hour stay at San Salvador's Cuscatlan International Airport is enough to tire anyone out. That airport was indeed the most stereotypical Central American airport I have ever seen. Paint peeling off the walls, floor tiles dirty, unclean bathrooms, extremely rough runway and taxiways. I couldn't believe that an airline as fine as TACA would affiliate themselves with this airport, let alone make it their hub. It was an extreme relief to make it to Lima's airport. Extremely modern and clean, better than most American airports.
After arriving in Buenos Aires, I waited about 2 hours for my travel partner, Courtney to arrive on her plane from Bogotá, Columbia. After she arrived we waited yet another 2 hours for our bus to leave for Rosario. The bus to Rosario was nothing exciting, simply 5 hours to catch up on some well needed sleep.
After arriving in Rosario, we made our way to our hotel, the Ariston Hotel, where I am blogging from right now. After checking in and moving into our rooms, we headed out to explore the part of the city where we were situated. After all, nothing else to do as the study abroad program wouldn't start for at least another day. We found an small little cafe around 4 o'clock where we ate lunch (an unheard of time to eat lunch for Argentines, as they usually eat lunch around noon and dinner around 9) We both ordered sandwiches but I ordered a coke with mine and she ordered a glass of milk. The coke that I had was one of the best that I had ever had. Though it helped that it came in a tall, glass bottle like the old fashioned ones did. She said that her milk was the best she had ever had too. Though I wasn't surprised as I hear that the Argentinians take very good care of their cows. When our sandwiches arrived, I had ordered a jamon crucio con queso, and she wasn't sure what she had ordered. But both sandwiches were good. Though it wasn't until the next day (today) that I ordered it again and found that the meat in the sandwich was actually raw meat. I wasn't put off by this and I still ate the rest of it.
Yet another entertaining story from yesterday was when I went to take a shower. I hopped in the tub and turned on both knobs as I usually would for any other shower figuring that I would simply adjust the water temperature as I needed. Finding the water to be too hot for my liking, I reached for the knob with the letter "C" on it and turned it slightly higher. The water was still getting warmer. So I span it higher still. The water was still getting hotter, to the point where it was hurting my feet. Still determined to stay in the tub, I cranked the knob as far as it would go. I was hopping back and forth from foot to foot when I noticed that the other knob had the letter "F" on it. "F" stood for "frio", in English, "cold". The "C" I had been spinning this entire time stood for "caliente", meaning "hot". Swearing, I jumped out of the shower and found the correct temperature before climbing, raw footed, back in. The only positive thing that I took away from this experience was that I discovered the meaning of the knobs in the shower, and not on the bidet.
Enough of what happened yesterday. Today, my alarm clock failed to go off leaving me to wake up in my hotel room at 12:30 PM, 2 and a half hours after my check-out time. Seeing this, and afraid that another night would be charged to me, I scrambled out of bed, threw all my things into my suitcase and sprinted out of my room and downstairs. Using panicky Spanish I tried to explain why I was so late in checking out. The ladies at the front desk understood and simply moved my room for the next night a few floors up (my program fees paid for this room).
Our orientation for the program was today as well. There, I met my on site director, several of my professors, as well as the other 13 students in my program. We all chatted in both Spanish and English, had, yes, more sandwiches for dinner, as well as some of the most delicious ice cream I have ever eaten, before heading back to our rooms. Later, myself, Courtney as well as two others, Nikki, and Kanan, went down the street where we sat outside at a cafe and ordered two liters of Quilmez beer. The whole thing got us about two mugs of beer each for only 20 pesos, or 5 American dollars. It was a perfect ending to a very good day.
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Marysia
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I love it! Raw meat sandwiches, bidets and cheap beer! This place is perfect for you! Have you shown this to Mom and Dad?