(This map shows how close Mendoza is to Santiago. I think it's a six hour journey with about an hour spent at the border)
Friday we spend the day in the parks and eating.
(Big kids in a huge park. Steve, Kat, Andrea, Me)
The quality and price of the food there is amazing. We had steaks, Italian food that our friend from Italy gave his approval to, and stumbled upon a Spanish Cultural Festival Friday night in the main Plaza. This provided us with traditional Spanish dance and music while we ate tapas, paello, and drank some sangria. Of course the Argentinians take their nights seriously, which we saw as we returned to our hostel around 12:30 and saw all of the outdoor cafes filled with people still eating, and drinking before they head out to the dance clubs. We decided you only spend one night in Mendoza on October 10th, 2008, so we might as well go out to one of the clubs. When in Rome, right? It was a fun place that showcased amble beautiful women. We were in heaven, even our girlfriend that we were with was shocked at the difference of the women between Chile and Argentina.
Saturday we signed up to go paragliding and were waiting for the company to pick us up when someone came up in a van telling us it was too windy to do it Saturday. So, we spent the rest of the day walking around the city, checking out the main five plazas, and of course eating.
(I guess we'll eat some food?)
Saturday night, we met up with my friend Dylan's friend who lives in Mendoza. They met in Vail, CO and she was very excited to meet me and my friends, so we had dinner with her and her friends at a very Argentinian time of 11:00pm. Then the eight of us(3 US, 1 Italian, 4 Argentinians) joined tables with some other friends and all of a sudden we had a group of about 16 people and we then wen to a birthday party with all of our new friends.
(The eight of us at dinner. Dinner was a pizza, but the crust was a juicy steak. I know, very healthy)
(Here we have the four of us with our new Argentinian friends. We did some "cultural lessons" at the table, like how to say "slam it" in Chilean, Argentinian, and English)
This birthday party was not at all what I was expecting. I thought there would be 15-20 people sitting around drinking a little, talking, eating some Lay's potato chips, and that it would be awkward when our crew of 16 showed up, but when we arrived to this ranch style house, we discovered that the party was more like a dance club with about 100 people dancing with a dj, lights, food and drinks under a carnival tent. Then when we thought it couldn't get any better, a kiddie blow up slide appeared out of nowhere that delightfully entertained us.
Sunday, we woke up with the intention of getting a bus ticket home for Sunday night and to visit the vineyards, since that is what you typically do in Mendoza. About 70% of Argentina's wine is produced in the Mendoza area. This vineyard plan was thwarted by our lack of planning as almost all the vineyards were closed due to it being Sunday. So what did we do? Yup, ate and walked around, then eventually found a cafe to watch the Chile/Ecuador World Cup Qualification game with other Chileans.
I got in Monday morning, exhausted from a long uneventful weekend, and then Tuesday we had our Duoc 40th Anniversary Dinner at a huge conventional hall. It was like being at the Oscars, there was a live band, cameras on huge booms, and stars form the popular soap operas MC'ed the event. We were served extremely good food for about two hours then a famous Chilean comedian came on stage around 11 and performed for us. His specialty is impressions, which was great for me, because not only did I not understand his Spanish, he was impersonating people I didn't know. But it was a fun event and I got to wear on of my ties that I haven't used in about 4 months.
Wednesday night was filled witnessing History happen live. While I will regrettably admit I wasn't at the "Ice Bowl" and have the unfortunate luck of being born 15 years after man walked on the Moon, I can proudly claim that I was there when Chile finally beat Argentina in an official Soccer Match. Wednesday night marked the first time in the history of the Universe that Chile was victorious against Argentina and it was amazing. The energy in the Stadium was electric. Everyone was filled with optimistic hope, and when Chile scored their goal about 20 minutes into the game, the 80,000+ crowd erupted into cheers, songs, and chants for the next hour and a half.
(Celebrations after the goal. From http://www.santiagotimes.cl)
The game was intense with plenty of shots on goal, and good passing, but once the ref finally blew his whistle signaling the seemingly impossible had just happened, it was like a bomb blew as everyone celebrated. Well, actually there were a few explosions that went off. I think they were some kind of fire works. No one wanted to leave and people started light their newspapers on fire in celebration.
(The celebratory flares after the game was called)
As we left every vehicle joined in a chorus of beeps and honks of Chilean chants and songs. People were walking around proudly waving their Chilean flags and gleefully shouting.
Now, I'm trying to catch up on some work, and figure out what to do this weekend. I'm frustrated with my students' lack of motivation right now. For example, we had our Midterm last night for one of my basic classes, and we had reviewed the previous class, we did a two page review, and they have known about this exam for at least three weeks. Despite all of these preparations, I had student fill in two answers and tell me, "nope, I didn't study" shaking his head. I was shocked. How is that possible? This was my night class as well, the students that should be motivated to learn English to help advance their careers. I guess this was the first time I took a students failure personally. I know it is completely their responsibility, and I did what I could, but it was strange. I still compare my UW-Madison experience to where I'm at and need to realize they have different expectations and experiences shaping who they are. My Duoc students are now UW-Madison students. I mean, I don't think UW-Madison would hire someone who graduated from a Universtiy in China who majored in Chinese literature to teach Chinese without any certification.
I hope all is well back home. The weather is amazing here, we had our daylight savings last weekend, so the sun now sets at 7:50pm giving me the summer feeling that I missed in June/July/August.
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