welcome to la UBA.

for my UBA class, we have to turn in a monografia (paper) for our final grade. my class meets every wednesday, and i missed two classes when i went back to the US for the election. but our paper was due the 28th of november, so i knew that when i got back to BA, i would have over 2 weeks to write it.

well, when i got to class on wednesday (i got there 5 minutes late, and yet i was still the very first person there), i was talking with my profesora. when she asked me how the paper was coming along, i responded that i hadn't yet started but that i was excited about my topic. she looked at me and said "caroline, you need to hurry up, it's due next wednesday. the 19th."

WHAT?!?! i replied incredulously... i had the due date written down in three different places, and each one said the 28th. i showed her my notebook and planner, and she just looked at me kindly (or maybe it was more out of sympathy for the lost american) and said, "no caroline, you have to turn it in next week."

welcome to la UBA. this is what life is like here. there are no such things as course syllabi that lay out the due date of every assignment for the class. exams can be moved whichever way, and now i know papers can too. so i had a week to write a 15 page paper (in spanish). oh and by the way--- here they use 1.5 line spacing. not double. it doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is. just trust me.

so now, i am spending endless hours of my life in the aroma cafe near my house to write this paper. normally, i would never come to aroma. it's a chain, which is the first no-no of Buenos Aires cafes. BA has a ton of cafes all over the place, and some really cool/cute ones to boot! Aroma is full of semi-modern furniture, fake wood, and panera-like colors on the walls. but i spent basically all day here yesterday and a good part of today working on my paper and studying, simply cause they have free wifi, and i can sit in here for hours without having to buy anything. but once im done with this paper im going back to real cafes. none of this chain business. ps did i mention that this aroma also has a freddo, (a delicous ice cream company) built into it? yes, i am studying only 20 yards away from ice cream. all day. don't ask me how i do it. i think it shows a lot of discipline and self restraint on my part. :)

but once i turn this paper in on wednesday, i am almost done with school. i will have one other assignment to turn in the following week, although it will be a cakewalk compared to this. (it's a 6 page double spaced! paper on argentine rock. cool.) but then after that, i am done! done with schoolwork! until january! and i will spend 3 more weeks in BsAs and traveling around and then will be coming home right before christmas.

i just wanted to give you all a quick update on my life. i've gotta get back to writing this paper though.

miss you!

love,
caro

back in BsAs, de nuevo

well after a crazy week in the usa, i am back in buenos aires again.

my week in the states was pretty crazy. i spent a couple days in virginia beach, i went to the wedding of my friends caroline and blake, went to arizona with the fam for the election. on election day, i traveled with the campaign to colorado and new mexico. i covered four states in this last week! (five if you count the hours i spent in the dallas airport. and i would count that, b/c i was in the dallas airport on three different occasions this past week).

election night was of course disappointing for me and my family. it is hard to see years of work all come to a close in just a couple of hours.

i am so excited to be back in buenos aires. i essentially have 6 more weeks left on my program, and i plan to make the most of every minute that i have left here. the next 3 weeks i will be working on finishing up my school work and classes, and then i plan to do more traveling!

hopefully i will be posting more frequently in the coming weeks!

love,
caro

check this out!

there is this really sweet website called wordle. you can put in a text or a blog, etc., and create your own wordle!

bariloche

because i haven't updated in a while, there is a lot to tell! but this post will just be about my trip to patagonia!

this past weekend i went with COPA to Bariloche, Argentina. It is a small town in the northern part of Patagonia and is honestly one of the most beautiful places i have ever been in my life.

when we arrived in Bariloche, we had a little time to explore the town of bariloche. and then we boarded our buses and drove around the "circuito chico". we rode an aerosilla (basically a ski lift) up to this panoramic vista. it was absolutely breathtaking. and it would be just the first view of many that we would see all weekend.

after the aerosilla, we got back on our bus and continued around the circuito chico. we then stopped at a place and went on a small walk through some woods right around a lake. it was gorgeous, and just a small glimpse of everything to come.

after that small hike we went to this place called "Blest" for dinner. we ate the typical Barilochian meal, a picada. basically it means there are a bunch of cheeses and meats and other appetizer-like things on the table, and everyone passes it around, and you eat as much as you can. haha. Blest is also a cerveceria artesanal. Read: they make their own beer. The different types were all pretty good. They even had a frambuesa beer. (raspberry).

on the second day, we boarded smaller buses and spent the day driving around the circuito grande. basically it was a route around some lakes, and we stopped at different places to take pictures or see the view, etc. after eating lunch we also went on a small hike to a cascada (waterfall) which was beautiful. i kept looking for aslan to pop out. it felt like narnia. (or at least what i think narnia would feel like). one of the places we stopped at was called mirador traful, on lake traful. the wind coming up the wall of the viewing balcony was crazy. you could throw a coin down into the wind, and it would come flying back over your head.

the last day, sunday, was by far the best. we left the hotel around 930 in the morning to go on a all day hike up cerro lopez. we were divided into 3 groups of about twenty. after hiking for about two and half hours, we reached the first "refugio". we stopped there for a break, and then continued on to the refugio at the top of the mountain. we eventually reached snow, and essentially completed the last part of the adventure hiking through snow. at some points, the snow as up to our knees. it was really tiring, but awesome! i also got really sunburnt on my face.

my words can't really do it justice, so i've uploaded some pics.

it was amazing to spend the whole weekend surrounded by nature. i love buenos aires, but so often i crave the outdoors. all weekend i was so overwhelmed by the beauty of God's creation. everything i saw was literally breathtaking. and it made me think that if creation reflects God, then how beautiful and majestic God must be! oh what it will be like to see Him face to face! the glory and beauty of creation is just a glimpse of God! when i am in the mountains, i feel so small. and yet the God who created it all loves me and calls me by name!

Job puts it so well:

"He spreads out the northern skies over empty space,
he suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness...
and these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"
- Job 26 -





i will be putting up a couple more posts in the next couple of days, trying to update you guys on all that has been going on in my life!!



Love you!!

-Caroline-

mendoza!

So basically two weeks have passed since I last posted. And I have a ton of stuff that I want to write about! But for now, I will just post on this past weekend that I spent in Mendoza. Later this week I will post some fun photos and updates from other things that have happened in the last two weeks!

Sometime early last week I decided to travel to Mendoza with some of my friends from COPA. We made the plans pretty last minute, but five of us (me, Frank, Elizabeth, Kate and Ian) left on Thursday night for Mendoza en microbus. It was a twelve or thirteen hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. (We essentially rode across the heart of the country). You may be thinking that a bus ride for that long would be absolutely miserable. It evokes memories of bus rides to young life camps in which every single time something would go horribly wrong with the bus. (It would break down, ac wouldn’t work, etc.). Well buses in Argentina can be pretty nice. For one, there a ton of companies to choose from. And secondly, within those companies are different levels of seats (such as comun, semi-cama, cama ejecutivo). We opted to pay the extra pesos for the cama ejecutivo, which meant our seats reclined to almost 180 degrees. It made the incredibly long bus ride bearable.

We rode the bus all through the night and got into Mendoza on Friday morning around 9. We walked right over to the Hostel Savigliano from the bus stop. After getting our rooms at the hostel and unpacking, we set out to explore the city of Mendoza. We had a little map and Frank’s guidebook, and we set out to see some of the city’s plazas and then the Parque San Martin. After exploring the park for a couple of hours and not even seeing the majority of it, we were starving. After a good amount of time wandering through the city, we found a place that was open for lunch and we sat down and had some delicious steak sandwiches. After lunch we just spent some time relaxing around the hostel. Friday night, we walked around the city some more, going to different little ferias and looking at all of the handmade goods. And Elizabeth got a caricature done (which looks nothing like her) but was still hilarious. We were looking for this Middle Eastern restaurant to eat dinner, but we didn’t have the exact name of it or the address (smart, I know). So after wandering for a while, we finally just decided to eat at a pretty crappy pizza place near our hostel. But it was cheap.

On Saturday we woke up pretty early to go on a “high mountain tour.” We really didn’t know what to expect, except that we would be spending a good amount of time in a bus all day. But the tour was so cool and definitely worth the time we spent in the bus. We left Mendoza on a little tour bus and literally drove to the first part of the Andes and then almost all the way to the Argentine-Chile border. The bus ride of course did not go without incident. At our first stop of the day (maybe an hour into the ride), the bus driver came back to try and close one of the windows tighter. As he was pushing it shut, the window literally shattered. Just one of the numerous little things that went wrong this weekend. We also met some great Argentines on the bus, Susana and Tito, who loved us simply because we were Americans and they think that English is so cool. They were great and we also met their other three family members that were with them on the tour. We saw a lot of the Andes up close, and at some of our stops you could see Mt. Aconcagua in the distance, which is the highest mountain in the western hemisphere. From where we were, it still looked enormous. And we were about 200km away from it.

On Saturday night we went out for a nicer dinner at this Parilla (steak house) called Don Mario’s. The steaks were huge. I literally have never seen a steak as big as I had that night. It was delicious. And we had some great Malbec to drink with it.

Sunday morning, I woke up around 6:30 to go do “parapente”. (Paragliding). I was told by the hostel to be ready around 7:00 am to be picked up. Yet of course they didn’t come pick me up until about 8:30. Typical Argentine time. But at 8:30 I finally got picked up and we drove up to the top of Cerro Arco, which is a mountain that overlooks all of Mendoza. The landscape around Mendoza reminds me a lot of the landscape in Phoenix, with a city in the valley and several (not so high) mountains that surround it. We drove up the top of this mountain, I paid, signed a waiver basically saying that I realized I could die, and then they gave me my instructions on how to paraglide. (Don’t worry, I was not doing it by myself, I was doing it tandem). The instructor essentially told me to lean all of my body weight forward as he raised the chute, and then he told me to run forward and keep running until we lifted off. So I ran towards the edge of the mountain, and we started flying! We were up in the air for 20/25 minutes, riding the thermals and going up and down, up and down. It was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever gotten to do! The weather was perfect and the view of the entire city of Mendoza was amazing! I was allowed to take my camera with me, so I got some pics and some video!

the view!

And then Sunday in the afternoon we wanted to go ride bikes and tour the numerous vineyards located in the outskirts of Mendoza. Of course with our luck most of the vineyards were closed because it was Sunday. But two of them were open, so we decided to do it and make the most of it! We rented bikes from the nicest man in the world, Mr. Hugo, who runs his bike renting business out of his house located on El Camino de Vino (Wine Pathway). We went to the first bodega, La Rural, and toured the winery, the museum, and then got to taste some of their wine. It was really cool. I also learned some new things I didn’t know about wine. Like how red grapes are sometimes used to make white wine, because the juice of both grapes is the same color. It is the skin of the red grapes that make red wine red. Fun fact. Then we rode bikes for a couple of miles, stopped and picked up some bread and cheese for lunch, and got to the second bodega, called Carinae. It was a much smaller bodega, and so everything is produced on a much smaller scale. The story of the bodega was really cool. The French man who owns it with his wife is really into astronomy and so he named the bodega after a constellation in the southern hemisphere. We also got to taste several different kinds of wine.

biking to las bodegas

So many things happened this weekend that could have gone so wrong, but somehow our weekend turned out great and it was so fun. It was a good break from the huge, busy city of Buenos Aires.

Entrance to Parque San Martin

City of Mendoza

the group and Mt. Aconcagua in the distance

miss all of you!

Love,

Caro

paro en la UBA (among other things)

every wednesday, i have class for four hours in UBA from 5-9. every day in class i have to sit in the front row and fight to hear my professor speak. because there is no air conditioning in the building, the windows are left open to allow some air circulation. but because it's during hora pico (rush hour), there is a ton of noise coming from outside. and when one porteño honks his horn, for some reason every other porteño nearby feels the need to honk as well. So needless to say, it is very difficult to listen to my professor lecture.

Last Wednesday when I got to the UBA Ciencias Sociales building, there was a huge mass of people standing outside the entrance. Someone was standing on a chair with his mate in one hand and a megaphone in the other. I fought my way past the crowds and into the building so that I could climb the 3 flights of stairs to my classroom. However I soon realized that this wouldn’t be possible. The stairs and elevators had been blocked off with desks and chairs. There was no way to get up. So I went back outside and began talking with some people in my class. The building had been taken over by students.

The ciencias sociales facultad of UBA is divided into 3 or 4 different buildings, all of which are in very poor condition. About 5 years ago the government promised to build one new building for the Ciencias Sociales department. But since then, nothing has been done to build a new building or even improve the conditions of the current ones. A month ago part of the roof fell on a student while he was using the bathroom. There aren't enough desks in many of the classrooms, and so often students have to sit on the floor. The buildings would certainly not pass any kind of fire code inspection. So basically last Wednesday and the Wednesday before, students took over the building to protest. If professors came and wanted to have class, they had to give a "public class" in the street.

It was really interesting to talk to my friends in my classes about the paro. Nearly all of them agreed that the building is in horrible condition, and that something needs to be done. But most of them didn't think that protesting like this would actually accomplish anything. It is fairly ironic when huge groups of students, who are fighting for their public education, forfeit two weeks (or more) of their classes to protest. And it will be astonishing if the administration actually takes notice and does something to improve the building conditions.

Last saturday, i went to a rugby game in San Isidro. CASI (Club Atletico de San Isidro) was playing against La Plata. I had never watched rugby before last weekend, so I was definitely a little lost. But after my friend Frank explained the rules to me, it was really cool to watch. And CASI won! Yay! Vamos Casi!

the past week i have also gotten to hang out with a friend from virginia beach, meg, who has been living here for almost 3 years. she studied in the same program as me (COPA) several years ago, and then after graduating moved down to BA to live and work. she has been playing soccer for the women's River Plate team, but recently tore her acl. she is having surgery a week from Monday, so please be praying for her! last sat. night after church, i hung out with her and some of her closest argentine friends from the church. it is hilarious cause after church on sat. nights a ton of people from the church go to burger king to hang out.

this is the front of UCA. (the Catholic University)

It is so hard to believe that I have already been here for two months! The weeks fly by. Today is Día de la Primavera! Finally, spring is here!

I wanted to share this song with you all as well. It is called "Divine Romance" and it's by Phil Wickham. It is a simple song of praise and thanksgiving to God. Check it out. And if you haven't heard of Phil Wickham, definitely listen to his stuff. It is great!

Love,
Caro

anything but a "conventional" couple of days...

I am now back in Buenos Aires. I got back here early on Saturday morning after a crazy couple of days in the United States. Thankfully, the transition back has been pretty smooth.

When I decided to study abroad this semester, I knew that it meant I would miss all the things going on with the election in the US, including the republican convention. I had never even thought about flying back for just a couple of days for it. (I was not about to shell out the money for a plane ticket to be in the US for 3 days). Well a couple of weeks ago, a family friend who works here in Buenos Aires, Andy, offered to help me go back for the convention. So using some of his sky miles and flying standby, I went to Minneapolis-St.Paul for 3 days.

The three days I spent at the convention were crazy. Right when I got there, it was essentially non stop activity. I had remembered some of the convention in 2000, but this time around, the atmosphere was completely different (simply because this time around, it hit much closer to home). It was unlike anything I have ever experienced before in my life. A quick recap:

On Tuesday, we got to take part in a charity event for ONE.org and WorldVision. Both great organizations, check them out. Essentially we helped assemble kits for AIDS caretakers in Africa and all over the world. There were tons of these plastic orange cases that we filled with simple items, such as petroleum jelly, notebooks, pens, cotton balls, anti-fungal cream. Items that are so important to help take care of someone with HIV but that aren't readily available in under-developed nations. We essentially went down an assembly line and filled the cases with each item, and then wrote a note of encouragement and thanks for the caretaker who would receive the kit. We assembled over 2500 kits. It was such a cool experience to be a part of. This event happened at both the RNC and the DNC, so 5000 kits are headed out around the world!

There was also a display from a group "Got Cents?" of tons of pennies in the shape of a ribbon. There were 6.1 million pennies on display-- that's one penny for every life lost to AIDS in one presidential term (4 years). Apparently if one were to stack them one on top of another, it would reach 6 miles into the sky.

The following day we also took part in a charity event run by Target (which by the way was started in Minneapolis, so we went to the first Target). More assembly lines, but this time we put together bags and boxes to send to hurricane victims in the southeast.

As far as the rest of the week goes...
We celebrated my Aunt Sid's birthday, listened to speeches, People Magazine photoshoot, went to a luncheon in honor of Cindy, rode in a motorcade, went to various parties. It all culminated as we watched from the Family Box as my grandfather accepted the nomination for the Republican Party and then went on stage at the end of his speech as the balloons and confetti came floating down. Truly an incredible couple of days.

Sid´s birthday!

The motorcade and the St. Paul skyline

Uncle Andy, Aunt Sid, and my Dad

My family in front of the Straight Talk on the last night


the McCain and Palin families on stage for the balloon drop!

Even though it was a hectic and tiring week, I am so thankful that I had this opportunity to go back to the US just for a couple days and experience this with my family. It was great to see my mom and dad and brother and my extended family! And I am truly proud of what my grandfather has accomplished.

Miss you all.

Love,
Caro



ps. if you get the urge to send me a letter, here is my address. it may take a week to get to me, but nonetheless i would still love to receive snailmail. :)

Caroline McCain
Av. Corrientes 880 - 8ºC
(C1043AAV) Buenos Aires
Argentina