I am officially DONE applying to graduate school.
DONE.
DONE.
DONE.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
aaaarrruughaaaaaeeerrrrrrriiiiiiigh
The title is approximently the sound that the sea lions make for no apparent reason. Our guide said that the sea lions can recognize the voices of their family and I certainly believe it since we heard a wide variety of strange, slightly depressing sounding noises from the sea lions. Pictures will be put up once we get them on a cd. Along with the sea lions, we learned about lighthouses, some birds, and got to walk around a little island learning about how glaciers shape the land and the variety of plant life growing at the bottom of the world.
As Sarah said, we were planning to do the tour mentioned above, some glacial trekking and visit the prison in Ushuaia. Well, the prison was pretty cool. We met a lady from Poughkeepsie who spotted us in the ever-present Vassar sweatshirts. We learned about some of the more famous (or infamous) prisoners, the labor that they did there and generally just checked out the unrestored prison. It was a great museum though with lots and lots of information, we would have been there for hours and hours if we had tried to read everything.
The glacial trekking did not work out as well as the prison or the sea lions. We made it up to the mountain via the chair lift (it is a ski resort in the winter) but everything is still covered in snow, including the glacier. So we couldn't walk on it, or see it for that matter. But it was still a cool walk, up the mountain trying to use the islands of no snow since we only had sneakers and not hiking boots. And then we walked all the way back down to town...our legs still hurt and this was 3 or 4 days ago.
Ushuaia was a great little town that felt at the same time like a fishing port and a ski resort town. That may seem a little bipolar, but it worked. From there, we caught a flight to El Calafate, in Argentine Patagonia. This place is also a lot like a ski resort town since it is all about tourism. The thing to do here is glaciers. There is a national park about 50km from town that has some spectacular glaciers. We took a boat tour today to see some of them. I have never seen anything like this in my life. The water is green because of the minerals from the melting glaciers, the glaciers are blue because the ice is so compact. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it),
there was a big break a few days ago and the sheer amount of icebergs floating around prevented us from getting very close to the big glacier (Glacier Upsala) and they also blocked the passage to the place where we were supposed to disembark for lunch and a walk around to see more glaciers and icebergs. The decision to come here was influenced by pictures an American couple showed us of the lunch location, with a small lake full of icebergs, a sunny day and a beautiful background. It is really hard to express in words how cool these icebergs were, and I'm afraid (although we don't know for sure yet) that our cameras didn't pick up the colors of the water and the glaciers very well. Either way, it was totally worth it.
At 4 am, we begin a 29 hour bus journey to Bariloche so that we can cross back into Chile near Puerto Montt. Briefly, our plan is to go to Chiloé and then up to meet family in Santiago in two weeks.
As Sarah said, we were planning to do the tour mentioned above, some glacial trekking and visit the prison in Ushuaia. Well, the prison was pretty cool. We met a lady from Poughkeepsie who spotted us in the ever-present Vassar sweatshirts. We learned about some of the more famous (or infamous) prisoners, the labor that they did there and generally just checked out the unrestored prison. It was a great museum though with lots and lots of information, we would have been there for hours and hours if we had tried to read everything.
The glacial trekking did not work out as well as the prison or the sea lions. We made it up to the mountain via the chair lift (it is a ski resort in the winter) but everything is still covered in snow, including the glacier. So we couldn't walk on it, or see it for that matter. But it was still a cool walk, up the mountain trying to use the islands of no snow since we only had sneakers and not hiking boots. And then we walked all the way back down to town...our legs still hurt and this was 3 or 4 days ago.
Ushuaia was a great little town that felt at the same time like a fishing port and a ski resort town. That may seem a little bipolar, but it worked. From there, we caught a flight to El Calafate, in Argentine Patagonia. This place is also a lot like a ski resort town since it is all about tourism. The thing to do here is glaciers. There is a national park about 50km from town that has some spectacular glaciers. We took a boat tour today to see some of them. I have never seen anything like this in my life. The water is green because of the minerals from the melting glaciers, the glaciers are blue because the ice is so compact. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it),
there was a big break a few days ago and the sheer amount of icebergs floating around prevented us from getting very close to the big glacier (Glacier Upsala) and they also blocked the passage to the place where we were supposed to disembark for lunch and a walk around to see more glaciers and icebergs. The decision to come here was influenced by pictures an American couple showed us of the lunch location, with a small lake full of icebergs, a sunny day and a beautiful background. It is really hard to express in words how cool these icebergs were, and I'm afraid (although we don't know for sure yet) that our cameras didn't pick up the colors of the water and the glaciers very well. Either way, it was totally worth it.At 4 am, we begin a 29 hour bus journey to Bariloche so that we can cross back into Chile near Puerto Montt. Briefly, our plan is to go to Chiloé and then up to meet family in Santiago in two weeks.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Land of Penguins
Our last day in Talca was quite pleasant, though we didn't actually spend it in Talca. We hopped on a collectivo (a glorified van that functions as a public bus) to a nearby town, San Javier, for a wine fair! The park it was held in was very cute, and it was fun to wander from booth to booth picking up snacks and trying out the wine. There were a few good wineries represented, but mostly I was not too impressed. Either way it was fun, and it was neat to explore the area a bit.
After that it was yet another overnight bus (they're just so comfy!) all the way down to Puerto Montt, the major stopover town for people going down to Patagonia. The town itself had some cute things like a plaza with lots of mosaics and an old wooden church, but for the most part it's nothing grand. We only stayed for a day before hopping on a plane to.... Punta Arenas!! It may have been cold, but it was definitely beautiful.
Punta Arenas is a city that deserves at least 2 days, though probably not much more than that. The center is gorgeous, lots of old mansions and a pretty plaza. It is definitely chilly since it is sooo far down south, but this is actually mostly due to the freezing cold winds. It feels fresh and clean, though, and you definitely get the impression of being somewhere very very far from home. Aside from strolling through the streets or checking out the Regional History Museum, the main activity is visiting the penguin colonies. It's a bit crazy to be in a part of the world where penguins live naturally (no zoos!). There are two options, Isla Magadalena (the ferry leaves only on Saturdays during the low season) or Seno Otway (a bus leaves every day). Due to scheduling, Eben and I went to Seno Otway, which is a bit smaller than the other penguin colony. The drive out was beautiful. The land is completely flat and seems to stretch on forever. We saw lots of interesting animals along the way, including hares, a llama-type animal, and some ostrich-like giant birds. The highlight, however, was definitely the penguins. Upon arriving at Seno Otway, we followed a path down to the water. Visitors are kindly reminded not to stray from the path, as this is Penguin Land, not People Land. We saw a few penguins along the path, standing guard over a burrow or just waddling around and being adorable. It was cool to be able to reach a hand out and touch the penguins (not that we did, but that gives you an idea of how close we were to some of them). Mostly I just enjoyed their funny waddle. :) At the water, we had to stand behind a wooden platform barrier from which we could spy on the penguins. The idea is to keep the people hidden so that the penguins don't get scared and think they are being invaded. There were maybe about 100 penguins frolicking along the shore. SO CUTE!!! And by frolicking, I mean they swung their little arms out awkwardly and waddled like a 2-year-old in a tuxedo, unknowingly making a certain 22-year-old American college graduate die with happiness.
While Patagonia was certainly proving to be awesome-tastic, we really wanted to go even further south to Tierra del Fuego.
Unfortunately, our two options on the Chilean side were Porvenir and Puerto Williams, both of which are fairly inaccessible. Essentially the only option is to fly, but even in low season the flights are booked solid for two weeks. Sad. Since you really can't come to Patagonia without seeing Tierra del Fuego, we got a little creative and decided to go back to Argentina to see their side. So once again, Eben and I got on another bus (#987 of the journey?) and headed for Ushuaia.
We arrived in Ushuaia last night after about 11 or 12 hours of driving. Lots of magnificent snow-covered mountains greeted us as we approached the southernmost city in the world (yeah, we're that hardcore). An amusing observation was that because we are so far south of the Equator, there are only about 4 hours of darkness. Walking around town at 9 pm is exactly the same as walking around at noon or 5 am. It's a bit unsettling at first to realize that the sun will just never stop shining at this time of year, but it's an interesting experience. It also means that we are closer to the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, so even though it is about 40 degrees, sunblock is essential.
So here we are. The southernmost city in this planet. On the agenda: trekking along a glacier, maybe some sea lions (visiting them, not trekking along them... that would be mean), and a visit to the old prison.
Not a bad Thanksgiving. :)
After that it was yet another overnight bus (they're just so comfy!) all the way down to Puerto Montt, the major stopover town for people going down to Patagonia. The town itself had some cute things like a plaza with lots of mosaics and an old wooden church, but for the most part it's nothing grand. We only stayed for a day before hopping on a plane to.... Punta Arenas!! It may have been cold, but it was definitely beautiful.
Punta Arenas is a city that deserves at least 2 days, though probably not much more than that. The center is gorgeous, lots of old mansions and a pretty plaza. It is definitely chilly since it is sooo far down south, but this is actually mostly due to the freezing cold winds. It feels fresh and clean, though, and you definitely get the impression of being somewhere very very far from home. Aside from strolling through the streets or checking out the Regional History Museum, the main activity is visiting the penguin colonies. It's a bit crazy to be in a part of the world where penguins live naturally (no zoos!). There are two options, Isla Magadalena (the ferry leaves only on Saturdays during the low season) or Seno Otway (a bus leaves every day). Due to scheduling, Eben and I went to Seno Otway, which is a bit smaller than the other penguin colony. The drive out was beautiful. The land is completely flat and seems to stretch on forever. We saw lots of interesting animals along the way, including hares, a llama-type animal, and some ostrich-like giant birds. The highlight, however, was definitely the penguins. Upon arriving at Seno Otway, we followed a path down to the water. Visitors are kindly reminded not to stray from the path, as this is Penguin Land, not People Land. We saw a few penguins along the path, standing guard over a burrow or just waddling around and being adorable. It was cool to be able to reach a hand out and touch the penguins (not that we did, but that gives you an idea of how close we were to some of them). Mostly I just enjoyed their funny waddle. :) At the water, we had to stand behind a wooden platform barrier from which we could spy on the penguins. The idea is to keep the people hidden so that the penguins don't get scared and think they are being invaded. There were maybe about 100 penguins frolicking along the shore. SO CUTE!!! And by frolicking, I mean they swung their little arms out awkwardly and waddled like a 2-year-old in a tuxedo, unknowingly making a certain 22-year-old American college graduate die with happiness.
While Patagonia was certainly proving to be awesome-tastic, we really wanted to go even further south to Tierra del Fuego.
Unfortunately, our two options on the Chilean side were Porvenir and Puerto Williams, both of which are fairly inaccessible. Essentially the only option is to fly, but even in low season the flights are booked solid for two weeks. Sad. Since you really can't come to Patagonia without seeing Tierra del Fuego, we got a little creative and decided to go back to Argentina to see their side. So once again, Eben and I got on another bus (#987 of the journey?) and headed for Ushuaia.
We arrived in Ushuaia last night after about 11 or 12 hours of driving. Lots of magnificent snow-covered mountains greeted us as we approached the southernmost city in the world (yeah, we're that hardcore). An amusing observation was that because we are so far south of the Equator, there are only about 4 hours of darkness. Walking around town at 9 pm is exactly the same as walking around at noon or 5 am. It's a bit unsettling at first to realize that the sun will just never stop shining at this time of year, but it's an interesting experience. It also means that we are closer to the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, so even though it is about 40 degrees, sunblock is essential.
So here we are. The southernmost city in this planet. On the agenda: trekking along a glacier, maybe some sea lions (visiting them, not trekking along them... that would be mean), and a visit to the old prison.
Not a bad Thanksgiving. :)
Friday, November 16, 2007
School Administration - The Same Around the World
Ok, so we actually did start teaching English on Tuesday. It was kind of a surprise that there were no more roadblocks that the Assistant Principal threw in our way, but he still managed to be kind of a jerk. In conversations with him before, he and Sarah's father talked about a little photo display/exposition of some of our travel photos. So we went to the trouble of getting them printed and then we matted them on some really nice paper that we picked up at an art supply store. All in all, while not much, the whole deal cost us around $20. Then we bring them on our first day and the secretary (who happens to be one of the nicest people ever) is in love with them and we go over everything with her. Then we find out our classroom and we go there to wait for the students. Just as we are about to start, the Assistant Principal comes in holding the photos all riled up. He starts going on about "what are these?" and "what am I suppose to do with these?" and "how am I supposed to understand what these are?" Apparently he had no recollection of talking about the photos and was also angry with us that we had not labeled all of them for him. I happen to think that the Machu Picchu photos speak for themselves and that in general, most of the other photos could have had a title or explanation but that it was not necessary. So, apparently, the work that we had put in getting these printed (and printed again since they overexposed everything the first time) and then mounting them on backing wasn't enough for him. However, after that day, he was nothing but nice to us. God only knows why he was so strange the first two days. Either way, it was a terrible first impression to give and it proves that incompetant administration can be found all around the world.
However, the students and teachers completely redeemed the odd actions of the assistant principal. Our first day was great. We divided the class into boys and girls. I had 5 boys and Sarah had 8 girls. All of the students were in their first year of studying English. This is (obviously) not the ideal group for a conversational English class, but this was the assistant principals idea of the group of students who would benefit the most from us. So we had all these grand plans of talking about and comparing life in the United States and Chile and talking about the school systems and university and everything. But we had to cut everything down so that these students could understand us and get something out of this class. We found out that they have an oral exam coming up in a few weeks and decided that the best idea would probably be to talk to them about things that we likely to be on the exam. So this included sports, family, school, neighborhood etc... The time flew and before we knew it, we were done with our first day. An English teacher had come in to observe us and we stayed for almost an hour chatting with her after class. She was dumbfounded as to why only beginning students were with us and also why our class was scheduled for 6-7 when the students actually end class at 6:15. Oh well, class still went well.
For the rest of the week, our classes were similar, but with other students who had heard about it and those from the first day who really wanted to be there. We had some more advanced students come on Wednesday and we talked to them about in depth about the university system and that was really awesome. It is good to know that the kids who did stay after school for this completely voluntary activity were actually interested in learning more and improving their English. We went over things like daily routines and what people want to study in university. We also tried to have them go around in a circle and make up a story by each person adding a sentence. It worked ok, but the level of comprehension and their confidence levels were not quite there for it to be really complex. I do believe that between Tuesday and Friday, some of the students showed much more confidence in trying to put together sentences and realizing that they actually did understand what we were saying even if they were not completely sure and that was awesome. For the last day (with all of three students who were awesome and dedicated) we brought in snacks and watched Harry Potter. It was a movie that all of them had seen and we stopped it a couple of times to ask them a few questions in English about the plot and the characters and what happened. Since they knew the story, it was easier for them to answer than some other questions and topics that we had been going over earlier in the week. All in all, it was a success. At the end, our difficult administrator thanked us and said that the doors are always open if we ever want to come back and that he had gotten great feedback from the students about us. So that was very nice of him. We enjoyed our time here and we wish that we could have spent more time here.
So, since our classes were only from 6:15-7 every day, we had ridiculous amounts of free time to kill. To begin with, this city is gorgeous. The houses in our neighborhood are all painted different colors (pink, blue, yellow, green, red, everything) and it smells like flowers walking around. In our neighborhood, it was kind of sleepy, but super relaxed and really beautiful. Also, this is the neighborhood that Sarah's dad grew up in and it was really exciting for her to see their old house and obviously, to work in his old high school. We spent a lot of time walking around and exploring the areas between our neighborhood, the center of the city and out to the east by the bus and train stations and the markets. This is also one of the wine producing regions of Chile and we were hoping to do something like what we did in Mendoza. After e-mailing 3 wineries, only one replied to me. So we headed out to Viña Calina, a holding in the Kendall-Jackson wine corporation, for our own private tour and tasting. They normally hold English tours at 4, but we figured that would be too close to class, so I was able to arrange to go at noon. This place is gigantic, some 140 acres and a brand new building for the offices and the winery. The tour guide was really nice and walked us around the winery showing us their different processes. The process of making wine is pretty much exactly the same from place to place, and the difference in wines is in the details which are hardly covered in these tours. She was a little surprised by us since she said that she had never had visitors as young as us. Regardless, it was a nice tour of a beautiful facility. And then we finished with a tasting of their Carménére (a grape almost exclusive to Chile) and their Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a good introduction to Carménére since neither of us had tried that grape before and we bought a bottle of it for further research...
Tomorrow we might be going to another town about 15 minutes away from Talca that has a fair/market every Saturday with a lot of the local producers for some more tastings. And then after that, we will be hopping on the overnight bus for Puerto Montt in the south to fly even further south to Patagonia. I am really excited even if it means that we have to pull out that sweatshirt that has been in the bottom of the bag since we left Bolivia more than a month ago.
However, the students and teachers completely redeemed the odd actions of the assistant principal. Our first day was great. We divided the class into boys and girls. I had 5 boys and Sarah had 8 girls. All of the students were in their first year of studying English. This is (obviously) not the ideal group for a conversational English class, but this was the assistant principals idea of the group of students who would benefit the most from us. So we had all these grand plans of talking about and comparing life in the United States and Chile and talking about the school systems and university and everything. But we had to cut everything down so that these students could understand us and get something out of this class. We found out that they have an oral exam coming up in a few weeks and decided that the best idea would probably be to talk to them about things that we likely to be on the exam. So this included sports, family, school, neighborhood etc... The time flew and before we knew it, we were done with our first day. An English teacher had come in to observe us and we stayed for almost an hour chatting with her after class. She was dumbfounded as to why only beginning students were with us and also why our class was scheduled for 6-7 when the students actually end class at 6:15. Oh well, class still went well.
For the rest of the week, our classes were similar, but with other students who had heard about it and those from the first day who really wanted to be there. We had some more advanced students come on Wednesday and we talked to them about in depth about the university system and that was really awesome. It is good to know that the kids who did stay after school for this completely voluntary activity were actually interested in learning more and improving their English. We went over things like daily routines and what people want to study in university. We also tried to have them go around in a circle and make up a story by each person adding a sentence. It worked ok, but the level of comprehension and their confidence levels were not quite there for it to be really complex. I do believe that between Tuesday and Friday, some of the students showed much more confidence in trying to put together sentences and realizing that they actually did understand what we were saying even if they were not completely sure and that was awesome. For the last day (with all of three students who were awesome and dedicated) we brought in snacks and watched Harry Potter. It was a movie that all of them had seen and we stopped it a couple of times to ask them a few questions in English about the plot and the characters and what happened. Since they knew the story, it was easier for them to answer than some other questions and topics that we had been going over earlier in the week. All in all, it was a success. At the end, our difficult administrator thanked us and said that the doors are always open if we ever want to come back and that he had gotten great feedback from the students about us. So that was very nice of him. We enjoyed our time here and we wish that we could have spent more time here.
So, since our classes were only from 6:15-7 every day, we had ridiculous amounts of free time to kill. To begin with, this city is gorgeous. The houses in our neighborhood are all painted different colors (pink, blue, yellow, green, red, everything) and it smells like flowers walking around. In our neighborhood, it was kind of sleepy, but super relaxed and really beautiful. Also, this is the neighborhood that Sarah's dad grew up in and it was really exciting for her to see their old house and obviously, to work in his old high school. We spent a lot of time walking around and exploring the areas between our neighborhood, the center of the city and out to the east by the bus and train stations and the markets. This is also one of the wine producing regions of Chile and we were hoping to do something like what we did in Mendoza. After e-mailing 3 wineries, only one replied to me. So we headed out to Viña Calina, a holding in the Kendall-Jackson wine corporation, for our own private tour and tasting. They normally hold English tours at 4, but we figured that would be too close to class, so I was able to arrange to go at noon. This place is gigantic, some 140 acres and a brand new building for the offices and the winery. The tour guide was really nice and walked us around the winery showing us their different processes. The process of making wine is pretty much exactly the same from place to place, and the difference in wines is in the details which are hardly covered in these tours. She was a little surprised by us since she said that she had never had visitors as young as us. Regardless, it was a nice tour of a beautiful facility. And then we finished with a tasting of their Carménére (a grape almost exclusive to Chile) and their Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a good introduction to Carménére since neither of us had tried that grape before and we bought a bottle of it for further research...
Tomorrow we might be going to another town about 15 minutes away from Talca that has a fair/market every Saturday with a lot of the local producers for some more tastings. And then after that, we will be hopping on the overnight bus for Puerto Montt in the south to fly even further south to Patagonia. I am really excited even if it means that we have to pull out that sweatshirt that has been in the bottom of the bag since we left Bolivia more than a month ago.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Los Godoys de Chile
We have arrived in Chile at last, the last country of our 5-month journey. It's crazy to be here, and I'm really glad that we have 2 months to spend here. We spent our first night in Santiago with some of the Godoys. It was definitely strange to meet family members I had only faintly heard of, but nice as well. My aunt's house is gorgeous and in a *very* nice suburb, so I definitely can't complain. Eben and I were off the next morning to take the train down to Talca. What a beautiful journey! It was great to see the Andes again. I think this was the first time that we saw huge snow-capped mountains (or at least this time there was a lot more snow than in other countries). Either way, it was very enjoyable.
Here in Talca we are staying with a family friend. It's been nice walking around this little city, as it's where my dad is from! He set us up with a week-long position teaching conversation English at his old high school. We were supposed to start yesterday, but the Vice Principal was a bit of a jerk when we went there and told us he had assumed we weren't coming (???) and that he had told the students there would be no English conversation. Where he came up with that idea, I have no clue. At any rate, we *should* be starting today. More news about that later (assuming the Vice Principal doesn't again magically think we have fled the city ).
Talca is about 3 hours south from Santiago. It's technically a city I suppose, but very tranquil and not too big. It has an authentic feel to it, and I'm pretty sure that Eben and I are the only foreigners in town. ¡Que lindo! Accordingly, we have been speaking LOTS of Spanish. Yay!
Not a very eventful post. Lalala.
Here in Talca we are staying with a family friend. It's been nice walking around this little city, as it's where my dad is from! He set us up with a week-long position teaching conversation English at his old high school. We were supposed to start yesterday, but the Vice Principal was a bit of a jerk when we went there and told us he had assumed we weren't coming (???) and that he had told the students there would be no English conversation. Where he came up with that idea, I have no clue. At any rate, we *should* be starting today. More news about that later (assuming the Vice Principal doesn't again magically think we have fled the city ).
Talca is about 3 hours south from Santiago. It's technically a city I suppose, but very tranquil and not too big. It has an authentic feel to it, and I'm pretty sure that Eben and I are the only foreigners in town. ¡Que lindo! Accordingly, we have been speaking LOTS of Spanish. Yay!
Not a very eventful post. Lalala.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Wine and Spanish
Alternative title: "It tastes like grape juice!"
We left Buenos Aires, as we planned, Sunday night. We finally got out of that individualistic, fashion centered city. Not to say that we did not enjoy some of our time there, but it was certainly time to leave. Thanks to Agustin, we had an excellent time our last night at Ña Serapia and then again on Sunday at the Rose Garden. We took the bus to Mendoza on what had to have been the best bus ride of the trip so far. Not only did the seats recline about 160 degrees (almost like a bed, we could have paid more to have 180 degree seats), but we also received dinner, a vegetarian option for Sarah, wine and a movie that was not too loud in case we wanted to go to sleep. It was awesome. It is a bummer that there are no buses like this in the US or else I would be doing it every time I travel from Vassar to Detroit.
Mendoza is awesome. Most of it was destroyed in an earthquake about 80 years ago, so there aren't any old buildings, but it is still a really quaint town and easy to navigate. The central plaza has a modern art and design museum underneath it and there are all sorts of different plazas, some of them really beautiful, all over the city. And most importantly, it is also the center for wine production in the country. We have been drinking a lot of Argentine wines and so we were very excited to see some of the vineyards and wineries. Our first day was spent exploring the city, so that was pretty low key. Our second day was awesome. We met up with Cindy, Sarah's friend from Women's Chorus and we went with her and two other people out to have lunch at a winery about 30 minutes outside of the city. Well, the winery should have been 30 minutes outside of the city but our taxi driver had no idea where he was going. We were really worried about getting there because we thought that we had a reservation for this winery, Ruca Malen. So, taking the scenic route (which was really beautiful), we end up at the winery only to find out that we did not actually have a reservation and that we could not have lunch there. We were sent down the road to another winery called Septima. This has the makings for a really bad day, but everything worked out. We get to Septima and after a little negotiation, we were let into the winery. The place was an interesting combination of modern architecture with variations on Inca walls. However, the best part was that we were looking at the snow-capped Andes in the background of the vineyard. It was truly a sight to behold. The lunch was fantastic, a four course meal during which we sampled their Malbec and their Tempranillo. Both wines were excellent and the chef was very creative in making Sarah a customized lunch. We followed lunch with a tour of the winery and got to see all of the equipment that goes into making the wine. I would have liked more detail on the process itself, but it was a good tour nonetheless.
Upon our return, we took a placement test at the Spanish school across the street so that we could begin private Spanish lessons the next day. Let me talk about dinner first. This whole day was an excercise in indulgence and it was awesome. We went to the restaurant in the Park Hyatt, overlooking the plaza. We decided that we would continue the wine tasting with different glasses with each course. So over the three courses we tried one white (Tapiz Chardonnay 2005), one red (Doña Paula Malbec 2005) and one dessert wine. This is what life should be like. We spent about 5 hours sitting at the table and loved every minute of it.
Back to Spanish. Since I need to improve and Sarah wanted to work on the subjunctive tense, we took three days of private lessons here. The teachers were really great and gave us both exactly what we asked for in the class. I spent mine working and vocabularly and comprehension while Sarah worked on her grammer. It was much better than the classes in Cuzco because the classes weren't too fast for me or too slow for Sarah. Private lessons are awesome and I learned a lot about the left in Argentina and the new President and the hope that leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales provide Latin America. It was good conversation and at a pace I could understand.
And the rest of the wineries: We had one ok day and one great day of wine tastings. On the first day, we rented bikes from our hostel with the ambitious plan to stop at four wineries all in one afternoon. This was thwarted however by the giant group of Israelis from our hostel also accompanying us (they took a long time to get ready to go) and construction at the meeting point. We all took the bus while the bikes were driven out to us. However, the man with the bikes could not figure out how to get to where we were and this was a problem. So while we planned to start biking at 12 or 12:30, we didn't actually start until 2, typical South America. Then we learned that Sarah, big bikes, South American roads and drivers are not a good combination. So the we were going quite slow. We did make it to our first stop, Tempus Alba, where we enjoyed six small glasses of their wines (merlot, tempranillo, syrah, malbec, cab sauv, and their reserve blend) along with some green olives grown on the premises.
The first three were not great but the last three were pretty good. Sarah made the brilliant wine tasting comments, "this tastes like Welch's grape juice," and "the aftertaste is kind of like jolly ranchers." Either way, the vineyard was beautiful, the wine decent and we ended up running into our friend Kelly who we saw Boca with back in Buenos Aires. We then went across the street to another winery called Viña El Cerno. We had to wait a long time for a tour and when we did it was half in English and half in Spanish. All of the English speakers were young while the Spanish speaking half of the group was quite old and grumpy about the fact that they had to share a group with us and that the winery was catering to non-Spanish speakers. One guy kept on complaining and Sarah turned around to indicate that she understood everything he was saying and if not him, then his wife was certainly embarrassed because she then said "stop it, they can understand you." It was a good tour and an ok tasting at the end. Neither of the wines, a malbec and a cab, were very special. So it was a long day and rough getting back. We had to walk part of the way because Sarah and her bike were not getting along. But we made it onto the bus just in time because a torrential downpour started on our way back. We spent the night eating our picnic that we packed and never ate and watching x-men movies with the little kids in the hostel.
The next day of tasting was a million times better. We hired a car and driver for about $65 for the day. First we went to a winery called LaGarde that makes a wine we drank a few times in Buenos Aires. It is exported to the US also and is called Altas Cumbres. We heard of it from a NY Times article and it is quite good for its price. Around $9 or $10 a bottle gets a good malbec or cab. This is their lowest end wine. We had a very good tour of the winery with emphasis on how they make their champagne, but they can't call it that because they aren't in Champagne, France. After the tour we had a tasting of their chardonnay and a better malbec. Then we got lunch with an Altas Cumbres white and a malbec. Lunch was very good and they did a cool variation on lasagna for Sarah with everything assembled in a bowl and then put in the oven, so they were made individually.
From there, we booked it to Achaval Ferrer which was absolutely incredible. We were with a family from Texas and the French winemaker. The winemaker walked us through everything, tasting all of the different malbecs that they make. They make three single vineyard malbecs, all with the same methods, to let the differences in the soil come out in the wine, terroir, very French. They also make a malbec blending the three vineyards that is not as good and finally a malbec-cab blend that was quite good. For the malbec-cab blend we were able to taste from the barrel and from the bottle to taste the maturation process. And with the single vineyard malbecs, we tasted all of those from the barrel because they make very few bottles every year. Finally, we were able to go down to the barrel room and taste their cab franc straight from the barrel. And all of this was free for Sarah and I, absolutely incredible. It also turns out that one of the Texans is a member of the Stolpman wine club, which is where I worked a harvest as an assistant winemaker before going to Vassar. So he and his wife have tried almost all of the wines that I helped make with the exception of the PiedraSassi which was a separate label started by the two winemakers there. So that was really cool and we talked a lot about the Santa Ynez valley and we know some of the same people because they have gone out there to taste, etc... That was an awesome end to the day of winetasting. I would have loved to buy some of the Archaval Ferrer bottles, but for the ones I wanted (the cab franc or the single vineyard malbecs) it ranged from $50 to $125 per bottle. I am not going to carry around a bottle that nice for two months from the heat in Mendoza to the cold of Patagonia, it would be a travesty. But they are exported, so maybe when we get back...
That was a great finish to our time in Argentina. We packed our stuff after the tastings and we left for Santiago the next morning (today). Brief plans: we go to Talca tomorrow to teach conversational English for a week at a high school. Then it is down to the bottom of the continent and back to the cold.
We left Buenos Aires, as we planned, Sunday night. We finally got out of that individualistic, fashion centered city. Not to say that we did not enjoy some of our time there, but it was certainly time to leave. Thanks to Agustin, we had an excellent time our last night at Ña Serapia and then again on Sunday at the Rose Garden. We took the bus to Mendoza on what had to have been the best bus ride of the trip so far. Not only did the seats recline about 160 degrees (almost like a bed, we could have paid more to have 180 degree seats), but we also received dinner, a vegetarian option for Sarah, wine and a movie that was not too loud in case we wanted to go to sleep. It was awesome. It is a bummer that there are no buses like this in the US or else I would be doing it every time I travel from Vassar to Detroit.
Mendoza is awesome. Most of it was destroyed in an earthquake about 80 years ago, so there aren't any old buildings, but it is still a really quaint town and easy to navigate. The central plaza has a modern art and design museum underneath it and there are all sorts of different plazas, some of them really beautiful, all over the city. And most importantly, it is also the center for wine production in the country. We have been drinking a lot of Argentine wines and so we were very excited to see some of the vineyards and wineries. Our first day was spent exploring the city, so that was pretty low key. Our second day was awesome. We met up with Cindy, Sarah's friend from Women's Chorus and we went with her and two other people out to have lunch at a winery about 30 minutes outside of the city. Well, the winery should have been 30 minutes outside of the city but our taxi driver had no idea where he was going. We were really worried about getting there because we thought that we had a reservation for this winery, Ruca Malen. So, taking the scenic route (which was really beautiful), we end up at the winery only to find out that we did not actually have a reservation and that we could not have lunch there. We were sent down the road to another winery called Septima. This has the makings for a really bad day, but everything worked out. We get to Septima and after a little negotiation, we were let into the winery. The place was an interesting combination of modern architecture with variations on Inca walls. However, the best part was that we were looking at the snow-capped Andes in the background of the vineyard. It was truly a sight to behold. The lunch was fantastic, a four course meal during which we sampled their Malbec and their Tempranillo. Both wines were excellent and the chef was very creative in making Sarah a customized lunch. We followed lunch with a tour of the winery and got to see all of the equipment that goes into making the wine. I would have liked more detail on the process itself, but it was a good tour nonetheless.
Upon our return, we took a placement test at the Spanish school across the street so that we could begin private Spanish lessons the next day. Let me talk about dinner first. This whole day was an excercise in indulgence and it was awesome. We went to the restaurant in the Park Hyatt, overlooking the plaza. We decided that we would continue the wine tasting with different glasses with each course. So over the three courses we tried one white (Tapiz Chardonnay 2005), one red (Doña Paula Malbec 2005) and one dessert wine. This is what life should be like. We spent about 5 hours sitting at the table and loved every minute of it.
Back to Spanish. Since I need to improve and Sarah wanted to work on the subjunctive tense, we took three days of private lessons here. The teachers were really great and gave us both exactly what we asked for in the class. I spent mine working and vocabularly and comprehension while Sarah worked on her grammer. It was much better than the classes in Cuzco because the classes weren't too fast for me or too slow for Sarah. Private lessons are awesome and I learned a lot about the left in Argentina and the new President and the hope that leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales provide Latin America. It was good conversation and at a pace I could understand.
And the rest of the wineries: We had one ok day and one great day of wine tastings. On the first day, we rented bikes from our hostel with the ambitious plan to stop at four wineries all in one afternoon. This was thwarted however by the giant group of Israelis from our hostel also accompanying us (they took a long time to get ready to go) and construction at the meeting point. We all took the bus while the bikes were driven out to us. However, the man with the bikes could not figure out how to get to where we were and this was a problem. So while we planned to start biking at 12 or 12:30, we didn't actually start until 2, typical South America. Then we learned that Sarah, big bikes, South American roads and drivers are not a good combination. So the we were going quite slow. We did make it to our first stop, Tempus Alba, where we enjoyed six small glasses of their wines (merlot, tempranillo, syrah, malbec, cab sauv, and their reserve blend) along with some green olives grown on the premises.
The first three were not great but the last three were pretty good. Sarah made the brilliant wine tasting comments, "this tastes like Welch's grape juice," and "the aftertaste is kind of like jolly ranchers." Either way, the vineyard was beautiful, the wine decent and we ended up running into our friend Kelly who we saw Boca with back in Buenos Aires. We then went across the street to another winery called Viña El Cerno. We had to wait a long time for a tour and when we did it was half in English and half in Spanish. All of the English speakers were young while the Spanish speaking half of the group was quite old and grumpy about the fact that they had to share a group with us and that the winery was catering to non-Spanish speakers. One guy kept on complaining and Sarah turned around to indicate that she understood everything he was saying and if not him, then his wife was certainly embarrassed because she then said "stop it, they can understand you." It was a good tour and an ok tasting at the end. Neither of the wines, a malbec and a cab, were very special. So it was a long day and rough getting back. We had to walk part of the way because Sarah and her bike were not getting along. But we made it onto the bus just in time because a torrential downpour started on our way back. We spent the night eating our picnic that we packed and never ate and watching x-men movies with the little kids in the hostel.The next day of tasting was a million times better. We hired a car and driver for about $65 for the day. First we went to a winery called LaGarde that makes a wine we drank a few times in Buenos Aires. It is exported to the US also and is called Altas Cumbres. We heard of it from a NY Times article and it is quite good for its price. Around $9 or $10 a bottle gets a good malbec or cab. This is their lowest end wine. We had a very good tour of the winery with emphasis on how they make their champagne, but they can't call it that because they aren't in Champagne, France. After the tour we had a tasting of their chardonnay and a better malbec. Then we got lunch with an Altas Cumbres white and a malbec. Lunch was very good and they did a cool variation on lasagna for Sarah with everything assembled in a bowl and then put in the oven, so they were made individually.
From there, we booked it to Achaval Ferrer which was absolutely incredible. We were with a family from Texas and the French winemaker. The winemaker walked us through everything, tasting all of the different malbecs that they make. They make three single vineyard malbecs, all with the same methods, to let the differences in the soil come out in the wine, terroir, very French. They also make a malbec blending the three vineyards that is not as good and finally a malbec-cab blend that was quite good. For the malbec-cab blend we were able to taste from the barrel and from the bottle to taste the maturation process. And with the single vineyard malbecs, we tasted all of those from the barrel because they make very few bottles every year. Finally, we were able to go down to the barrel room and taste their cab franc straight from the barrel. And all of this was free for Sarah and I, absolutely incredible. It also turns out that one of the Texans is a member of the Stolpman wine club, which is where I worked a harvest as an assistant winemaker before going to Vassar. So he and his wife have tried almost all of the wines that I helped make with the exception of the PiedraSassi which was a separate label started by the two winemakers there. So that was really cool and we talked a lot about the Santa Ynez valley and we know some of the same people because they have gone out there to taste, etc... That was an awesome end to the day of winetasting. I would have loved to buy some of the Archaval Ferrer bottles, but for the ones I wanted (the cab franc or the single vineyard malbecs) it ranged from $50 to $125 per bottle. I am not going to carry around a bottle that nice for two months from the heat in Mendoza to the cold of Patagonia, it would be a travesty. But they are exported, so maybe when we get back...
That was a great finish to our time in Argentina. We packed our stuff after the tastings and we left for Santiago the next morning (today). Brief plans: we go to Talca tomorrow to teach conversational English for a week at a high school. Then it is down to the bottom of the continent and back to the cold.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Country hopping and the GRE!
Woo, the past few days have been very busy. We're now back in Buenos Aires but will hopefully leaving tomorrow night for Mendoza if we ever figure out how to buy bus tickets. I took my Psychology GRE this morning, and I am so relieved to be done!! The entire experience was a bit weird. I woke up insanely early this morning (my admission ticket said the test started at 8:30) so I could have time to flip through my review book one last time, eat a good breakfast, and get to the testing center (we had visited it yesterday to make sure I knew where it was) early, all that jazz. Well. Eben was nice enough to walk with me (mostly because I am a nervous wreck before standardized tests, and I probably would have mistakenly walked into a bus while reciting to myself the parts of the brain). So we're walking along, arrive at the testing center... and it's closed. Like completely locked up, the aluminum protective door thing has been drawn down, there is no sign of human life. Hmm. I started wondering if grad schools would still process my application without GRE scores on account of a closed testing center on Test Day. Thankfully the panic did not have too much time to set in because finally a security guard came and opened the building. Success!
So I'm sitting in the waiting room for someone to take me to the classroom... and I'm sitting... and sitting... watching more and more people my age trickle in for the GRE... By now it is well after 8:30, and while I'm not surprised that the test will not be administered on time (hello, we are in South America), my anxiety is slowly mounting. The nerd I am, I kept thinking of the Yerkes-Dodson law, which says that a certain amount of arousal leads to optimal performance, whereas too much or too little arousal is not so great for performance; in other words, being nervous is okay as long as you're not like crying and shaking (or conversely, completely unconcerned). So I kept reassuring myself that I could very well me at my optimal level of arousal/performance ability. Then I sat for some more. Finally at sometime after 9 am, a woman appears in the waiting area and says, "GRE? Come with me!" and the twenty or so of us scampered up the stairs. Then it took about another half hour to check everybody's IDs and registration numbers, put us in desks, read directions, fill out forms... the Argentine students had a great deal of trouble understanding the concept of a Scantron. You know how when filling out your name, social security number, etc. you have to write it in the assigned spot and then also fill out the corresponding bubbles underneath? They just didn't understand the bubbles. It took a while for the proctor to walk around the room and explain it to each and every one of them, and I just chuckled to myself-- who knew that a life of standardized testing could really come in handy? At least the Americans knew how to fill out the Scantron. :)
All in all, we didn't end up starting the test until about 10 am. There was a clock in the room that the proctor actually set back to read "9 am" when we finally started, which I thought was really weird. I was the first to leave, which always makes me nervous (am I too fast? the others too slow?), but I did double check my answers and go back to the hard questions. In the end, I'm still not sure how I did, but I think my review book helped quite a bit because a lot of practice test questions reappeared on the real test. And quite honestly, I don't care anymore because I am done with standardized tests!!!! CELEBRATION!!!!!
Now, back to other things. Uruguay rocked my socks, and Eben and I have agreed to go back at some point in the future and fully explore the country. We spent our second day in Colonia riding along the coast on a motorbike, which was fabulous. We explored the different beaches, saw the old Hippodrome (race track), and even the crumbling bull ring that is no longer in operation. What a rockin', bougy (bourgeois) place this must have been back in the day. Colonia is absolutely beautiful, the perfect hideaway. It's low tourist season now, so it really was just the perfect environment. I hope it's not chaotic in high tourist season because that would just ruin my pristine image of the town.
Montevideo was very different from Colonia. It's an actual city, though smaller and less hectic than Buenos Aires. It rained like whoa on our first day there, so we didn't get to do too much exploring until the second day. We did, however, see cool things like a gaucho museum and a crazy mausoleum in the center of town. We stumbled upon a big socialist party/rally the first night, which was pretty cool. There was lots of literature being passed around and even a big stage for musical performers. Eben went back to the rally to be a good leftist while I studied fun psychological things, so maybe he can write more about it in his next post. I did think it strange that there were so many police with drug dogs just randomly standing about, probably hoping to catch some hippie socialists smoking pot or something. OOH! Which reminds me, Eben and I saw two kids get patted down by police with two HUGE barking scary drug dogs on our second day. I don't really know how they caught, but they all of a sudden flung their hands to a wall with their feet spread, and one of the cops ordered them to empty their pockets. We don't know if they had been selling drugs or something, but it turns out they didn't have anything, so the police let them go. Kind of an intense experience, yet I found it very amusing. I don't know why. I really like the drug dogs and always want to pet them because they look like bears, but this probably jsut draws attention to myself. And one of the dogs might eat me.
Sorry this is such a scattered post. Next on our agenda is completing more grad applications (2 submitted, 982374 more to go!!), heading over to Argentine Wine Country, and then finally entering the last country of this journey-- Chile! My dad is awesome and has found us a possible volunteer stint at his old high school in Talca doing English conversation with the students. Nothing in confirmed yet, but hopefully Eben and I will be in Talca in about a week before going all the way down to Glacier and Penguin Land.
The moral of today's post is:
1. Be prepared to wait for a long time if taking the GRE outside of the United States. Other countries are not as time-obsessed as we are.
2. Applying to graduate school from outside of the U.S. is very frustrating and should be avoided if possible.
3. Both Argentinos and Urguayos speak with the same accent, but Uruguayos are cooler. Also, they drink way more mate and all times of the day.
4. Empanadas and good wine make life better.
¡Ciao!
So I'm sitting in the waiting room for someone to take me to the classroom... and I'm sitting... and sitting... watching more and more people my age trickle in for the GRE... By now it is well after 8:30, and while I'm not surprised that the test will not be administered on time (hello, we are in South America), my anxiety is slowly mounting. The nerd I am, I kept thinking of the Yerkes-Dodson law, which says that a certain amount of arousal leads to optimal performance, whereas too much or too little arousal is not so great for performance; in other words, being nervous is okay as long as you're not like crying and shaking (or conversely, completely unconcerned). So I kept reassuring myself that I could very well me at my optimal level of arousal/performance ability. Then I sat for some more. Finally at sometime after 9 am, a woman appears in the waiting area and says, "GRE? Come with me!" and the twenty or so of us scampered up the stairs. Then it took about another half hour to check everybody's IDs and registration numbers, put us in desks, read directions, fill out forms... the Argentine students had a great deal of trouble understanding the concept of a Scantron. You know how when filling out your name, social security number, etc. you have to write it in the assigned spot and then also fill out the corresponding bubbles underneath? They just didn't understand the bubbles. It took a while for the proctor to walk around the room and explain it to each and every one of them, and I just chuckled to myself-- who knew that a life of standardized testing could really come in handy? At least the Americans knew how to fill out the Scantron. :)
All in all, we didn't end up starting the test until about 10 am. There was a clock in the room that the proctor actually set back to read "9 am" when we finally started, which I thought was really weird. I was the first to leave, which always makes me nervous (am I too fast? the others too slow?), but I did double check my answers and go back to the hard questions. In the end, I'm still not sure how I did, but I think my review book helped quite a bit because a lot of practice test questions reappeared on the real test. And quite honestly, I don't care anymore because I am done with standardized tests!!!! CELEBRATION!!!!!
Now, back to other things. Uruguay rocked my socks, and Eben and I have agreed to go back at some point in the future and fully explore the country. We spent our second day in Colonia riding along the coast on a motorbike, which was fabulous. We explored the different beaches, saw the old Hippodrome (race track), and even the crumbling bull ring that is no longer in operation. What a rockin', bougy (bourgeois) place this must have been back in the day. Colonia is absolutely beautiful, the perfect hideaway. It's low tourist season now, so it really was just the perfect environment. I hope it's not chaotic in high tourist season because that would just ruin my pristine image of the town.
Montevideo was very different from Colonia. It's an actual city, though smaller and less hectic than Buenos Aires. It rained like whoa on our first day there, so we didn't get to do too much exploring until the second day. We did, however, see cool things like a gaucho museum and a crazy mausoleum in the center of town. We stumbled upon a big socialist party/rally the first night, which was pretty cool. There was lots of literature being passed around and even a big stage for musical performers. Eben went back to the rally to be a good leftist while I studied fun psychological things, so maybe he can write more about it in his next post. I did think it strange that there were so many police with drug dogs just randomly standing about, probably hoping to catch some hippie socialists smoking pot or something. OOH! Which reminds me, Eben and I saw two kids get patted down by police with two HUGE barking scary drug dogs on our second day. I don't really know how they caught, but they all of a sudden flung their hands to a wall with their feet spread, and one of the cops ordered them to empty their pockets. We don't know if they had been selling drugs or something, but it turns out they didn't have anything, so the police let them go. Kind of an intense experience, yet I found it very amusing. I don't know why. I really like the drug dogs and always want to pet them because they look like bears, but this probably jsut draws attention to myself. And one of the dogs might eat me.
Sorry this is such a scattered post. Next on our agenda is completing more grad applications (2 submitted, 982374 more to go!!), heading over to Argentine Wine Country, and then finally entering the last country of this journey-- Chile! My dad is awesome and has found us a possible volunteer stint at his old high school in Talca doing English conversation with the students. Nothing in confirmed yet, but hopefully Eben and I will be in Talca in about a week before going all the way down to Glacier and Penguin Land.
The moral of today's post is:
1. Be prepared to wait for a long time if taking the GRE outside of the United States. Other countries are not as time-obsessed as we are.
2. Applying to graduate school from outside of the U.S. is very frustrating and should be avoided if possible.
3. Both Argentinos and Urguayos speak with the same accent, but Uruguayos are cooler. Also, they drink way more mate and all times of the day.
4. Empanadas and good wine make life better.
¡Ciao!
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