Asado

Welllll, another week has gone by. Monday I went to a State Department presentation for students at the U.S. Embassy on careers/internships in the foreign service. The security measures at the embassy were way more intense than I was expecting...a ton of armed guards, metal detectors, visitor tags, escorts. I guess the State Dept. has a very military-like hierarchy, and they can send entry level people to basically any U.S. embassy in the world. One guy had been stationed in Micronesia, Lithuania, and Ecuador, moving his kids every 2 years. Another job that sounds cool in theory but is probably not for me.

Nothing exciting during the school week...lots of studying. Went to the library all day Friday. Got back my big essay exam and got a 9 (they use a 10 pt. scale here, not letter grades), so I guess that was actually exciting. Friday night Hanna and I got ice cream and went to Fantasmas de Mi Ex (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past w/ Matthew McConaughey). Luckily it was subtitled, not dubbed, but it was pretty much as terrible as we expected. The theater was packed however, and it was interesting to see which parts the Argentines thought were funny, like when guys in the movie were being awkward about being touchy with each other. Saturday morning we had outdoor soccer practice, but it was kind of pointless, as usual. Saturday night I finally saw my host sister's 14 day old baby Tomas, and played with the other grand kids for awhile. I also made the Ghiradelli brownie box my mom sent me awhile ago, which was quite the ordeal. I had converted the temperature and measurements, so I thought I was all good. However, their oven, which you light with a match like the stove, doesn't have degrees, only a knob that adjusts how big the fire in the bottom is. Also, the only two measuring cup kind of things they had hold the milk bag and the dirty silverware, respectively. I washed one out but then realized it didn't have any measurements smaller than like 1 cup. So I had to just estimate the water and vegetable oil. Also, no Pam, only butter to grease the pan. Also, no normal pan. Or oven mitts. Or mixing bowl. Or spatula. I mixed the brownies in this bucket thing with a spoon. It was just ridiculous. Anyway, in the end they turned out a little dry (after I only cooked them for 20 min) and stuck to the pan, but everyone at the party I brought them to seemed to love them, so that was good.

Saturday night was this big asado (BBQ) with all the girls on the soccer team. It was at an Argentine girl's house pretty far away. It was in a bad neighborhood but the house was actually super nice, with this outdoor pool/hall/patio in the middle and a big room in the back (a converted factory) where she has parties. We had chorizo and steak, salad, bread, and my brownies for dessert. The meat was soooo good, and of course I ate a ton. Then we made daquiris, played cards, learned how to dance to cumbia/reggaeton, etc. It was so fun, and I love all the other Americans and the Argentines. Several of the Argentine girls are like 5th year law students, and we had some interesting conversations about politics. They are all so incredibly friendly and funny and I don't feel nervous speaking Spanish around any of them. We didn't even go out dancing after, which was the plan, and I still didn't get home till 4:30. We waited about 45 min. for our bus in the cold too, so that was unpleasant.

I put up a random picture of our maid, Olga, making empanadas, because they look so much like little pasties. The other day she told me "Be really careful!! I think today might be the coldest day of the whole winter!" It was 46 degrees. Pretty funny, but I do wish it was summer here too. Well, I've slept/studied all day, but Tuesday starts my two weeks from hell so I've gotta keep working. I'm feeling a lot better about my papers now though, and tomorrow is a feriado (national holiday), so I'll have nothing to do but study. Hasta luego!