Boats, opera, monkeys, and frisbees

So it has been a busy week, but a good one. First, my three first three months came to an end as did my visa. Thus, I had to hop on a boat, cross the river, and go to Uruguay for a day. This is a common ritual for many foreigners who are here. Like me, most people head to Colonia, a charming old town on the coast that is right across the river. It has lovely cobbled streets to meander through with kitschy shops and some hearty restaurants. There are some small museums with colonial antiques, old maps, and an enormous bug collection and you can see all 7 museums for about 25 cents. You can also climb to the top of the lighthouse a look out over the ocean and along the beach, though sadly it was a cloudy day and i could not see across to Argentina. The people were absolutley lovely and very welcoming and everyone calmly gathered in the local pubs for a soccer match on TV. Also, no need to change money as everywhere accepted not only Uruguayan pesos and argentine pesos but American dollars as well. I came back on some choppy waters and am now legally able to stay for another three months.

On monday, I started my new job! I have an internship with the Southamerican Explorers Club. I am incharge of discounts which means i identify local businesses and ask them to give our members a discount. I am also helping out with a few other projects and meet lots of interesting people who come through. The club also has some great events like the cooking class I went to last week. We learned to make tamales from the northern argentina. There were about 20 people and we all crammed together in the ktichen as our argentine chef, who was speaking spanish, tried to explain what he was doing to the numerous pots that were bubbling and brewing. Then we all went around with filling corn husks with polenta, onions, quima (sp??), and of course meat. It was excellent!

Another exciting event from last week was the opera. I went to see Turandot, a opera by Puccini who is an Italian composer. It is set in Ancient china, had super titles in Spanish, was sung in Italian, and I translated it all into english. Nevertheless, it was phenomonal. The singers and sets were absolutley fabulous and I did not even feel sleepy once. However, the most entertaining part was that during the breaks, instead of having to go the concession stand, the concession stand came to you. Yes that is right. Similar to a baseball game, there were people walking around the aisles selling food and drink. And also like a baseball game, they were selling hot dogs, pop corn, coke, and coffee. I really think this is something we Americans should think about doing at more events. It really seems more efficient, and very few things here are more efficient then the US so that's saying alot (i just found the ' button on the computer! it's my romanian roommates).

Saturday night i invited four of my Argentine friends over for dinner to meet my roommate and see my apartment. I decided on a simple vegetarian lasagne, salad, and an ice cream pie for dessert. However, to get all the proper ingredients I had to go to five different stores: the grocery store, the fruit and veggie store, the meat and cheese store, the bread store, and the ice cream shop!! Luckily they are all within a few blocks of my place. I had dinner ready just on time, but of course my guests, like all latin americans, were over an hour late! I was also careful to not use any strong flavors like, oh, garlic in my cooking as I knew it would not go over well. My friends were also surprised that a dessert without dulce de leche could be so good!

Yesterday, I went on a nice outting with a few friends to the zoo. In american zoos there are pretty strict policies against feeding and petting the animals. In argentina, not so much. In fact, they have special food (available in bags or buckets) with which you can feed the animals. There are these ramps that you slide the food down and the the llama or antelope or whatever other animal will come right up and eat it. The cows (yes they have cows, they are obsessed with cows) and a few other animals will come right up and eat out of your hand. Thus, there were lots of little kids running around trying to make the animals eat. The monkeys were quite good at catching it if you threw it to them. Other animals didn't respond much even if they were hit in the head with it (much to the disappointment of a little girl who kept yelling, come on bird eat!!). Anyways definitely a different zoo experience.

After the animals, I headed uncertainly to find a weekly frisbee game I had heard about. I knew it was near the River soccer stadium but not really exactly sure. As i neared the stadium, i started to hear the shouts and clapping of the crowds, as very obviously a game was going on. I also noticed the plethora of police who seemed to be ready should anything arise. I stuck to some small streets, and finally saw the beautiful vision of a flat piece of plastic flying through the air. So despite the fact that the field seemed closed off, I crawled under the fence and went to join. While a bit disorganized, it was great to play again and had quite an international group. Afterwards I went with two british girls to get ice cream.

Anyways life is resembling something normal. I have a work schedule and can cook my own meals so that makes me happy. I'm learning the good places around my neighborhood and my roommate and i think we might have even found what could pass for a nice neighborhood bar. I haven't adjusted to the idea that it is December and sweltering hot. I have been on an unfruitful search for a fan for the past few days. Thankfully it still cools off quite a bit at night and I am able to leave my huge window open to let some air in. But summer is definitely here!!