Isla Desierta

Tonight we to a play for my spanish class- (I was pretty much dreading it being that we'd already had 3 hours of spanish class everyday this week). It was actually a pretty cool experience. The show was at a blind theater, where all the actors were blind. The premise was that the show was to be a sensory experience, so the audience too was blind. We were led in, in the dark, and sat there for an hour just listening and experiencing the show.

It was strange, but a really interesting concept. In the hour we sat in the dark, we heard them act the play, listened to music, "smelled" the market (cinnamon, orange, and other spices) and the jungle (cucumber and then we were misted with rain) where it was set and "survived" a shipwreck and a large thunderstorm at sea. I left a little bit dazed, and wet, but it was still something interesting I'm glad to have done tonight. I brought my camera to put up some photos, but needless to say, my efforts were futile.

Close your eyes. You've got the picture.

This sounds about right

"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
-T.S. Eliot

Looking at everyone's stressed facebook statuses, I have a newfound appreciation for being abroad. The evening's plan is as follows: catch up on the office, do about 20 minutes of homework, and fall asleep early to my ipod. :)

Some photos from Patagonia- real post to come after I recover from the 22hr bus ride we just got off.

Patagonia

This is going to be a quick one as the computer I am using is dying (oh yeah and I'm in patagonia and just want to be outside in the mountians!) but I just had to share about my day. It was fantastic.

We got up this morning around 8, as usual, and headed out to Cerro Trundaor (thunder mountian from all the avalanches that fall in the area) National Park. We did some small hikes around waterfalls, and then headed up to the glacier area, where we saw both a regular and black glacier. It is really sad to see how fast they are fading-- our guide told us the ice had receeded 30 inches in 10 years on the surface of the black glacier. They predict that in 20 years it may be entirely gone. Sad to think that our children may not get to see the things we did. More on that later, with photos. Speed postings for now.

The coolest part of my day, actually, was dinner tonight. I explored Bariloche tonight with a jewish friend of mine and we stumbled upon the Chabad house. I was a bit tenative but it wound up being a great night. They didn't have the warmth or college-spirit, we'll call it, of Hershey and Chana at WashU but I underestimated how great it would be to be in a jewish home for Shabat. Not to mention the food was great. It just made me realize how much I do value being Jewish, even though I may not be as observant as others. It's nice to sit around a table with family and friends. It's nice to talk about Jewish values. And I'm finding more and more that I enjoy talking about the Torah portion and religious philosiphy. I don't so much see it pertianing to my life, but I am so intruiged as to how or why one believes what they do. Tonight, for example, I couldn't help but to wonder the Rabbi's thoughts on fatalism, or destiny and if he believed HaShem had a grand plan for him or not in the end. I am excited to come back to school and talk to Chana about that kind of stuff. Why not!

Anyways, that's all for now. Tomorrow we are visiting a Mapuche community (indigenous to this area) all day and then we leave the following day for a 20hr bus ride back to Buenos Aires. Then finals. And ISP research. Back to the real world. Boo.

Photos of glaciers, national parks, hikes, ect to come! :)

Oh and also, as of tomorrow, I am 100% parasite free!

Chascómus

What a wonderful weekend. I don't really feel like blogging right now since I only have a few hours before seeing Phantom of the Opera and then heading out to Bariloche, but I figured it'd be a good idea. Here goes nothing.

Last Thursday morning, bright and early, Nati, Fede and Nati's mom headed out to Chascómus, a small town about two hours outside of Buenos Aires for Semana Santa. Although the trip there was horrific (5 hours of stand-still traffic, all of us dying because we had to go to the bathroom so badly -- yes, I never quite realized how much we in the United States take highway rest-stops for granted -- and a brief run in with some corrupt police officers) we made it to their house by midday. Nati and Fede bought a small house together on the edge of the town, since real estate is much cheaper further away from the touristic town center, and are working on the house. It really doesn't have anything yet; this weekend's goal was to put in water and gas. It was really interested to see though, watching my host parents tear out dry wall and install gas piping along the floorboards. Crazy what an architecture degree here in Argentina teaches you to do!

Since the two of them were busy fixing up their house, I had tons of free time to roam around. In town, an artisan fair was happening. Actually, that was the reason Nati's mom came with us. In addition to being a teacher, she has her own line of shapmoos, soaps, and aromatherapy scents, and is being supported by the town in a microcredit type deal to sell her goods on big weekends such as Semana Santa. I spent some time roaming, (and maybe buying? :/ I may or may not have bought this gorgeous silk screen for my apt in St. Louis) but most of all I just sat by the water and read. If anyone reading this actually knows me, usually this would have driven me insane but it was actually quite nice.


For the past two days, really all I did was go to bed early, finally get some sleep, and then get up around 9 and go for a run along the water. I was finally able to run with my ipod since I was outside of Buenos Aires where it's not safe, and I just loved it (my view during my run shown on the right). I dont know what got into my this morning, but I ran almost the entire way into the town.. about 10 kilometers. Crazy!


The peace and quiet was so nice. Although I'm really excited to go to Bariloche tomorrow and see some snow, hike and eat chocolate (which they're famous for) it was really tough to leave..

It was sort of a strange, yet carthartic, experience for me spending so much time alone, with my book and my music, staring out at the water. I'm thinking about heading back there during my weekends of ISP and just relaxing again. So wonderful.