In no sense an easy day..

The mountains we were trekking on, the guide and I are in the bottom corner

While Benjamin set off for his intensive mountain trek, Kathryn and I set our sights on slightly smaller mountains, but a mountain nonetheless.. We signed up for a day of trekking, repelling and rock climbing with a guide that Benjamin had gone with earlier in the week. Before we signed up we asked him how it was and he said it was easy, if anything maybe a little boring, what a joke.

Before we left, Kathryn painted her toe nails pink and I packed a hat and sunscreen in a small leather purse and off we went into the van to drive to the bottom of the mountain. We were with the guide and one other woman from Spain. When we arrived, both of them started taking out their rock climbing equipment and hiking poles.. Kathryn and I just looked at each other.

So we began climbing a steep trail, the two others leading and us almost on all fours grabbing every rock we could with our hands so as to not fall off the edge. The trail was so tiny, on one end was the rock covered with cactus and the other was a steep decline that if fallen over.. well that would just be horrible. The trail was also full of tiny pebbles that when stepped on would slide out from under your feet, making both Kathryn and I very nervous every time I slipped in my running sneakers (no traction). When we reached the top, we admired the view for ten minutes and then began descending.. The path was so steep that the guide gave both of his poles to Kathryn to use and told me to hold onto his backpack, I looked like an idiot but I was so glad to hold onto him. He was comfortable with the trails so as he skipped along, I clumsily stumbled/ran after him, attached. Ten minutes later, Kathryn slipped badly and her hand accidently reached out to the side, covered in cactus plants, and grabbed a cactus. She had roughly ten long thorns in her hand, one going entirely through her middle finger. She sat there and had to pick them out.. I get chills just remembering that.

Me repelling..

Kathryn rock climbing the cliff we had just repelled down

Soon though we reached the first mountain wall and our guide showed us how to repel down it. Since I had never done this before.. the idea made me so anxious. I don't generally have a fear of heights but when I'm standing on the edge of a cliff and someone is telling me I have to walk down it, ropes tied on me or not, I cannot help but be nervous. The woman with us was perplexed that I had no fear of paragliding but was soo nervous to repel down since I guess there is no way you can fall down even if you lose balance on the wall. I repelled down the first two walls, about 70 meters each, fine but it was when I saw the third that I began breathing heavily. My heart must have been pounding so hard, I went down second. About half way through, I made the mistake of turning around to see how far was left and accidently let out a scream, not that our guide or Kathryn heard me, by this point they could not even see me because the cliff was so steep. I finished as fast as I could and was so relieved at the bottom. I'm not sure why but the experience was so nerve racking for me.

We didn't fall off a cliff.. (just walked down some.. bad joke I know)

Afterwards we had lunch and walked down the road to a thermal pool alongside a cool river. Kathryn commented how well our guide and the other woman with us were getting along, muy buena onda.. and while we were walking, we looked at the mountain we had just climbed and ascended and said how although it was quite an experience, we were glad we did it.. Maybe I wouldn't have spoken so quickly had I known the experience was not over. To get down to the river, we had to descend another steep path, and once again I was holding onto the guide's backpack. But the thermal pool was worthwhile and relaxing.. and when we were in it, the silent awkward moment came when Kathryn turned to the woman and said quietly, "..those are my feet" (our guide and the woman had really hit it off it seems). Haha anyway, there were a group of Argentines in the thermal pool that we made friends with who were really cool and we will hopefully see again in Mendoza. Quite a day but fun overall.

Farewell to Benjamin

The three of us at our hostel!

The three of us in the wine cellar at the restaurant

Benjamin decided to go on a six day trek in the mountains.. I already miss him but I’m so glad he’s doing it, its going to be UNBELIEVABLE. He’s trekking every day for five hours with a guide on a mountain.. They cannot trek more than that each day because if you get too high too quickly you get altitude sickness and a horrible headache. He’s camping out in a tent and each day for water must find snow, put it in a bag, and leave it between him and the sleeping bag of the guide at night to melt.. Have to admire that. Last night we went out for the most delicious dinner he could have since the rest of the week will be mostly pasta and rice. The owner of the hostel called his friend who owns a restaurant called El Palenque on Avenue Villanueva, the best street in Mendoza for restaurants and dancing.. When we got there it was packed and the owner brought us down to his wine cellar and told us about his collection and about Argentine wines and food and then picked out an Andeluna Cabernet to go with our dinner, que riquísimo.. He also ordered our plates, entraña empanadas followed by carne matambre, hecho a la pizza. It came out on top of potatoes and when I picked up the meat with my fork to put on the side, it fell into two pieces, that tender. Is your mouth melting? Mine was.. could not have done better for Benjamin’s last night in Mendoza.

Benjamin leaving at 7:30 in the morning!

Why are we covering ourselves with mud anyway?

I'm not sure what part of covering ourselves with mud sounded inviting but the way it was described to us sounded deliciously so, as did thermal pools in the mountains.. so Kathryn and I ventured an hour outside of Mendoza and spent some relaxing hours drifting between different thermal pools surrounded by these incredible mountain cliffs and a freezing cold running river. I was hesitant with the mud but Kathryn and I did it twice.. somehow it made our hair so soft, so it must be good for something. What really made the afternoon was the location.. we were convinced that the views were more and more beautiful every time we returned.

I've never been to a festival like this one..

The grill that we ordered dinner from

There were probably close to 15 stands like this one roasting meat all day..

Generally Chileans and Argentines do not regard each other so highly but in Mendoza, there is a huge Chilean population. We were lucky enough to be staying in Mendoza while they were celebrating the 200 year anniversary of Chile’s independence (September 18th 1810). It was insane.. Plaza Independencia (the main plaza), just two blocks from our hostel, was packed with over a thousand people and a concert for three nights. Every foot of grass was covered.. with tables to eat at, open grills with 24 hour roasts, asados, with people dancing, salsa, tango, everything. Chilean flags were in every direction. Benjamin, Kathryn and I headed over around 10pm and stayed till midnight when the concert finished and shared a huge portion of roasted meat for dinner. Benjamin is still saying, “BEST MEAT I’ve had in Argentina.” They roasted the meat slowly and had it turning all day but it wasn’t dry because of the sauce that they were continuing to put on it. One of my favorite moments from the night was when I was getting salad and the guy next to me asked in Spanish if I was Chilean.. Whether there were not a lot of tourists at the festival or there are a lot of redheads in Chile, it was exciting.

Kathryn and Benjamin finishing dinner, the concert in the background

Benjamin and I in front of the Plaza

Paragliding, do it.. if you're scared, conquer the fear

To anyone that reads this- YOU MUST GO PARAGLIDING AT SOME POINT. IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES I HAVE EVER HAD. My parents were happy to first learn of my paragliding adventure when I had safely returned to my hostel but I wouldn't trade it for anything else in Mendoza. If you’re scared of heights, its a completely different feeling.. I promise. A group of students we went with where terrified and afterwards, I asked them if it was a once in a lifetime experience and one girl said, “oh no, there is no way I am not experiencing that again”. I could not express the feeling better myself.

When we arrived in Mendoza, Kathryn ran into one of her friends she had met here during her last visit who is a paragliding instructor. Feeling invincible, I saw no reason not to go and when I asked Kathryn if she would go with me, she was just as excited. So while Benjamin went rock climbing today, we called up the paragliding company and asked if they had any room in their truck to take us. Since we had slept in, we called a little late, and they said yes if we could be outside in 5 minutes. The rush definitely added to the thrill of it, I didn’t know exactly how paragliding was done but I had heard that it was an incredible experience and this trip I’m really open to trying anything so I was so excited.

Kathryn and I in front of a breathtaking view of Mendoza

We picked up 4 other students from another hostel and set off towards the mountains. They were pretty nervous but since I didn’t have a clue what paragliding even entailed (I didn’t know if it was zip-lining or what.. maybe I would have thought again if I had known I’d have to run off a cliff), I wasn’t the slightest bit nervous. After half an hour we got to this camp site where Kathryn and I waited an hour for the others to go. The views were unbelievable, but the heat was too so we waited in the car most of the time. We saw everyone land and the girls who had been really nervous could NOT stop gushing about how amazing it was. I was so ready. We got in the car with the instructors and cranked up the music, it was another half an hour ride up to the highest point of the mountain we were jumping off of. It is hard to relay how scary that car ride could have been.. I don’t understand why I had complete trust in our instructor driving, probably because he had this amazing positive energy radiating off of him, but the roads carved into the mountain were tiny, and there while we were circling around the mountain, there were a lot of turns that needed pushes with the acceleration. Seeing the rocks fall off the mountain as we drove by, you could definitely not see where they were landing. It reminded me of driving in Greece, when I was 12 I visited the islands with my mom. We had a guide who was drinking beers at nine in the morning as he drove a white van full of 9 terrified women up these mighty cliffs. This truck was instead full of four enthusiastic instructors, us and two other visitors, listening to Black Eyed Peas and dancing to get rid of any nervous energy.

Raul and I right before we ran off the cliff!

The first thing that caught my attention when we arrived to the mountain top were the views. I lost all words. And then found them to ask someone to take a picture of Kathryn and I. It hit me what we were actually doing when we were paired up with instructors. Mine was Raul, such a sweet guy who told me he had been paragliding for 12 years. Once he started putting belts and a helmet on me, I started getting scared. He told me we had to wait for the wind to pick up and then we would have to run off the cliff. He stressed that it was important not to stop running once we were in the air and to sit down once he told me to. Kathryn was really nervous and when I saw her jump off, I started shaking. I turned to Raul and said (not in a steady voice), “I’m really nervous..” and he said, “me too..”. Not helpful! They had been saying that in the car and laughing but at that moment it was hard to relax. He kept kicking the dirt to see how high it would pick up and we had to wait a few minutes for another gust. By then, I’m not sure what happened but seeing Kathryn in the air, I was completely fine. Thank goodness the anxiety only lasted a minute before I went off because I wouldn’t have wished any other experience than the one I had. We started running and it was such a thrill.

Raul and I PARAGLIDING! (Kathryn took the picture from the air)

..how incredible is that view

Up in the air, I once again was completely speechless. The view of the Andes could not be replicated by anything. Just imagine flying with no boundaries, just a helmet and a kite.. nothing can compare. We jumped off at 1,800 meters and flew up around 150 more once we jumped. There was nothing scary about it, if anything it was completely the opposite because you feel so free up in the sky that all of your anxiety leaves and you just.. fly. And admire what you see.

Raul was making sure I was okay every few minutes and every time all I could reply was how much I was loving it. He said, “you can scream if you want” and it felt soo good. I screamed as loud as I could and was laughing at the same time.. He said the people in Chile could definitely hear me hahah. Another reason I probably felt so comfortable was because Raul was so nice, he noticed that I kept turning to see the Andes and would turn us so that I had the best view of them and said that the view of me in front of the Andes was his favorite. Out of the five pairs paragliding, we landed last with around a half an hour flight, which was significant because the flight usually lasts for fifteen minutes, but the day that we went the instructors said the weather was perfect. Raul was so happy he said he was going to print out the pictures of the two of us in the air and write on the back of them, “the best flight of the spring of 2010” and sent me a message on facebook that said, "alexa raul, the best paragliding team en mendoza" and then wrote on my wall something similar.

Raul and I after we landed

"alexa, el mejor vuelo, alexa raul, the best paragliding team

gracias alexa por tu muy buena onda" - Raul

On the way back to the hostel we stopped by an outdoor bar and all shared a beer and alfajones, this delicious type of cookie that can be found everywhere in Argentina that is generally two cookies with dulce de leche or chocolate in the middle.

One of the best things I’ve ever done. Highly recommended to anyone, anywhere. And if you ever visit Mendoza, get in touch with me and I’ll put you in touch with Raul and his instructors. It'll be worth it.

Biking Wine tour in Mendoza..

Today was soo great. Our overnight bus arrived in Mendoza around 8:30 in the morning and right away we dropped off our bags at the hostel and walked to the bus stop to go to Maipu, which is the area around Mendoza with the most wine vineyards. 20 minutes later we were paying 8 dollars to rent our bikes for the day at this charming street corner place where the owners kept refilling our wine glasses as we waited for the bikes to be ready. Benjamin met a French ski instructor on the bus who stayed with us for the day and the four of us set off on our bikes to the first bodega, winery.

Kathryn with the adorable puppy at one of the Wine Bodegas

The first place we biked to was a beer garden that was the coolest place. If we could, we would probably go back there every day. We left the main roads and went off on some dirt and then pebble ones before we arrived at this place in the middle of a wide green field that had 3 tables outside with umbrellas and a menu that offered four different types of house beer. I ordered una cerveza rubia, delicious flavor and came with half of a pizza that was the best I’ve had in Argentina (Argentines love pizza but I’m I’ve missed NY pizza..). It was so laid back and peaceful, we probably stayed there for an hour, Kathryn and I sitting there trying to understand the two boys speak French and not getting anywhere with it..

The beer garden, favorite place we stopped by on the wine tour

I had my first wine tasting at a beautiful bodega that we visited. We were introduced to about seven different types that the winery produced and sat with another older couple and another student from Seattle studying in Buenos Aires. We were brought to the cellar where the wines were kept in the huge, round, wooden storers and heard in Spanish about how they produced the wine. Argentines usually prefer newer wines rather than aged ones because in the past, most of the wines bought were the more recently produced because they were cheaper and now Argentines are more accustomed to that taste rather than the tastes of more aged wines. The oldest they had stored in that winery was just a year and a half old. We visited three more afterwards and tried different liquors, one winery produced chocolate liquors that I surprisingly hated and another was the oldest in Mendoza and had a small museum with it.

Kathryn met her love at this winery.. His name is Tobacco

When we came back to return the bikes, there were outdoor tables that we sat at and stayed until 8pm talking and having some more wine from the owners before getting back on the bus. Suuch a fun day. We’re going to dinner now at a parilla (grill) and then a bar called Por Aca.. Loving Mendoza so far.

Mendoza's where the wind is taking us..

All of the students at the Universities in Cordoba have this week of September 21st ("Student day") off from school, it is the same as Spring break in the States. Benjamin, my roommate, had planned about four different trips for him, Kathryn, and I to go on..

First trip to Bolivia, Chile and Northern Argentina.. too expensive for just a week because there is an entry fee of around $150 for Americans in each country.. so jealous Benjamin, Luca and Stefan don’t have to pay because their countries don’t impose the entry tax when foreigners come.

The last planned trip was to Puerto Madryn to go whale watching and Barriloche which is supposed to be an incredible-must-see-destination of Argentina. The three of us met the day before we were leaving at the bus terminal to buy the bus tickets and Kathryn brought up the idea of Mendoza instead.. When Benjamin got to the terminal, we bought bus tickets to Mendoza with no trip or hostel planned. So.. 10 days off, and 7 in Mendoza, its going to be exciting.

4 weeks and couldn't love it more here..

No excuse for lack of posting other than how incredible this experience has been so far.. I’ve been staying away from the computer much more than I do at home in New York. Right now, I am sitting here in my apartment, on an incredibly comfortable beanbag chair (I think that every student hosted here has gone home and bought one of these, Luca, who is going home in two weeks to Switzerland, just said it's the first thing he is doing) and making some tea. I should be drinking mate, which is as common here as coffee in the states, (prepared by putting hot water in a small cup of dried leaves of yerba mate and then drunk from a straw) but I’m still adjusting to the taste. Most of the international students here mix it with sugar.

Anyway, the first week here in Cordoba was certainly rough for me. I was uncomfortable in this new city, where I didn’t know the language fluently, and most did not know a word of mine. I didn’t know anyone and it was really hard knowing that all of my friends were home together and going to college where undoubtably they would make many friends on the first day since nobody knows anyone. I felt like I had made a huge mistake by coming to a place where I did not know one person and had no real means of meeting people. I doubted my decision to take a gap year abroad and was thrown off by how uncomfortable I was feeling. Classes didn’t start for a week and a half after my arrival and being in this new country, with a huge language barrier, no friends to spend time with and no idea where I was walking half the time, was.. overwhelming.

So much of my anxiousness fled once I met the family I am living with. I had no idea what to expect, although I knew that my host “parents” were incredibly nice from their emails. When I came to the apartment to meet for coffee before moving in, I was blown away. I still have no idea how I got so lucky. I am living in this beautiful five bedroom apartment in the center of the city, only two blocks away from Plaza San Martin, which is this incredible plaza with an old church and lots of little stands to walk around during the day. It is half an hour walking distance from my university, or a ten minute bus ride, while most students in my program live on the outer edges of the city and need to take a 40 minute ride each day. I live with my host parents, Jere and Fran, who are 25 and 24 and the sweetest people I’ve met here in Argentina. Jere is an artist and the type of person who seems to enjoy each moment. When he laughs, which is often, anyone around him cannot help but laugh as well. It's contagious, which makes him so much fun to be around. And Fran, who is finishing her studies of Argentine poetry at the university, has the best personality. She is so sweet, it is impossible to feel uncomfortable around her (which helped my first week here when I was majorly adjusting). She is so genuine, I’m so lucky to live with her. They host international students in the four extra bedrooms and at the moment there are four of us. Stefan, from Germany, is 24 and working at the university in a lab. Luca, from Switzerland, is 19 and here with Projects Abroad teaching English and Italian to high school students here in Cordoba. Benjamin, from France, is 21 and studying spanish in the same program as I am at the National University of Cordoba. The university is the biggest in the city and has over 111,000 undergraduates attending so the city is always buzzing with students, especially in the area it is located near called Nueva Cordoba.

Plaza San Martin y el centro de Cordoba por el dia

Plaza San Martin por la noche

My first week here I went to the university to take a placement exam. I was slightly nervous because I hadn’t reviewed proper grammar in several months but luckily it consisted of mostly writing essays, which were assigned to us very frequently back in high school, so I placed into an upper intermediate level called Spanish 3. It has been difficult.. I am taking three classes, the Spanish grammar class, a class studying Argentine literature and another on Argentine culture. Each is taught entirely in Spanish, including the text books. The work is challenging because its difficult working entirely in Spanish and there is a lot of time used looking up words, but I only have classes Monday-Thursday, so I have plenty of time on the three day weekend to explore the city and experience some culture outside of the classroom. My literature class is the most difficult, it takes hours to read one short story, especially since we are currently reading stories from the eighteenth century which is written in even less familiar Spanish.. What also makes the transition easier is how much I’ve been enjoying the learning environment here. It is SO ENCOURAGING. All of my teachers integrate video, activities and reading into their classes which keeps the two hour class engaging. My culture teacher began her first class by telling us to ask her to slow down at any point while speaking if she got too excited about the subject matter and began to speak too quickly. She has been nothing but enthusiastic about the material which makes it so much more appealing to study. It is my absolute favorite class. With only four of us, it's been so enriching learning about the traditions and history of Argentina while I’m staying in the country. All of my classes are very small, my Spanish grammar class has five students including myself and my literature has twelve. Fran and Jere are also very patient with my broken Spanish at home.. there is no end to how helpful they are with helping me speak better and I hope that by the time I finish my first semester here in December, I will have improved drastically from the time I arrived a month ago. I am not sure that my grammar has drastically improved yet but I know that my confidence with the language has. Although I might not have learned that much more yet, I am so comfortable trying to speak with people that I feel like I have. And as cliche as it sounds, I know that that has made me more comfortable with myself too.

I met my first friend here on my second night in Cordoba. I was staying at a hotel for three nights before I moved into the apartment and Laila, who is Argentine and a receptionist at the hotel, invited me to an “asado”, a grill, at her house when she found out that I was moving here. It was cold that night so we made empanadas instead and man, I had such a great time.. I came over at eleven pm, which is a normal time to start dinner here in Argentina, and her friends taught me how to make ham, cheese, and chicken empanadas and drinks with Fernet, a popular liquor here. (When I said to Laila some weeks later that we should invite some friends we had just met over for an asado and some fernet, she said, “Now you sound like you’re from Argentina girl..” hahah). Another thing that surprised me that night was when Diego, incredibly nice guy who was the one who taught me everything I know about empanadas- I’m trying to sound good here, prepare to be blown away by my cooking readers in NY..;)- poured everyone red wine with ice in it. I was taken aback and didn’t even want to try it but when I did I surprisingly really liked the wine cold.. turns out that's normal here. So once again, I have to ask myself how I ended up being so lucky to meet Laila. She’s the reason I became comfortable here so fast. She told me I could stay at her apartment whenever and even go in between my classes if I had nothing to do and needed a place to hang out. She is also studying in a university here and has opened up her arms to me and introduced me to so many of her friends, was the first to take me out dancing here to two amazing boliches and has even given me her bed at seven in the morning. She took me to Condorito, an INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL national park they preserve to allow the endangered “Condor” bird to live, where we hiked down to the river and back again for the entire day past sunset.

Me in front of our resting point for lunch at Condorito National Park

Laila and I once we reached the river at Condorito!

Some of the views quite literally took my breath away.. Laila is so much fun to be with and she lives with another student named Anesh who is so radiant. Her sweetness just permeates an entire room and lights everyone up. Not making it up.. I’ve seen it happen.

It is two in the morning here so I must sleep.. class at 11am tomorrow but I have to wake up early to finish some work. I’ll be sure to write more tomorrow, I feel like I haven’t even started yet..