Bleh

Still very sick, slept for most of the last 2 days, Cami's mom read my Tarot cards Sunday, otherwise not much to report.

Puenting

These are about two weeks late, but here are the photos from puenting in Mendoza!

Cami, Cami's mom and I went to La Cumbrecita today- it's a tiny German settlement/tourist town in the mountains here (for the record, not affiliated with Nazi settlement) and it was gorgeous. However, I'm exhausted and I think I have the flu, so I'll write about it tomorrow. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Maté

I think I've mentioned maté before, but here's a quick run down:

It's Argentina's coffee. Everyone drinks it; every day at the hospital we start the day with maté and pastries, and you can guarantee that if you see someone studying, a cup of maté and a medialuna (croissant) will be within arms' reach. It's a stimulant; though as I learned in Mendoza, it's not actually caffeine based, the drug is called 'matiena' and is specific to the yerba maté plant. It's bitter; like Fernet, mate is exceptionally bitter, and most of the time it's drunk on it's own, though in the mornings it's acceptable to add sugar.

Most importantly, it's a social drink; unlike coffee, maté has very specific customs that accompany it. If you're drinking it with someone else, or a large group of people, then one person is designated the 'maté server' (cebador) and is always responsible for pouring the cup. Generally, after filling the maté gourd, the cebador takes the first drink (I think because the first cup is the most bitter, and therefore worst), refills the gourd with hot water from a thermos and then passes it to the next person in the circle. It continues going around the circle (always filled by the cebador) pretty much indefinitely.

A few rules; When you drink maté you must finish the cup before returning it to the cebador, you should not stir the metal straw (called a bombilla) and generally only touch it with your mouth. Also, if you are not the cebador, don't reach for the thermos- it's rude to try and pour your own cup. I learned that the hard way when I first came to the hospital.

The reason I'm posting about maté is because today I was the cebador. Haha, I'm surprised that in a month of being here I hadn't done it before, but when I told Dr. Marienelli I had not, he insisted on taking a picture. I'm planning on bringing a few gourds and some maté home, so, dear reader, when I see you next, remind me and we can drink maté together.

A momentous occasion. 

P.S. I also want to say that throughout this whole blog I've been neglecting accents because I'm an exceptionally lazy typist, but in reality Cordoba is Córdoba (Cor′do•ba), so please excuse my Spanish.

Half Way

It's the last day for my American friends (which means I'm halfway through my two months!) and last night we had dinner with the CFHI directors for Cordoba- Carlos and Charly. I hadn't met Charly yet and hadn't seen Carlos since the... 3rd day I was here... It's a very hands-off program... But I made an effort to talk a lot and actually found 'Charlos' very easy to understand, probably because they deal with so many foreigners.

So, the good news is that because my Spanish has improved so much, sometime next week I'm going to be the first CFHIer to work at Hospital San Roque- which is a complete hospital that has a neurology department, deals with trauma in the ER, and currently is not exclusively treating patients for la gripe. I'm pretty excited- hopefully it will be more interesting. Also, even though I'm going to miss my American friends a lot, if I'm the only foreign student there, I'll be forced to speak Spanish constantly. Though I don't know how I'll survive without Paige explaining the medical terminology to me!

The bad news is that especially over the past week or so I've found that my Spanish-speaking ability fluctuates wildly within the course of a day and I'll be in situations at the hospital where I have absolutely no idea what anyone is saying, and then a few hours later something will snap in place and I will understand 100% and speak fluidly (if you exclude my constant grammatical errors). Carlos said that as the first CFHIer to go to San Roque I 'have a lot of responsibility', I told him I'd 'do him proud'. Though I am a bit nervous about being completely on my own in a massive hospital complex. But I've got at least two more days at Rawson, so I've got some time to prepare.

The front of 'Old San Roque', I'm not sure if I'll be at the Old Building or New.

Twilight Run

I haven't seen such beautiful sunsets since Beijing('s smog).

I'm so glad Cami is my host sister. I really lucked out. That's all.

Small things

Just woke up from a 2-hour surprise nap. It was practically involuntary and I'm just glad I woke up before I'm supposed to meet my American friends for dinner. 

We're going to (hypothetically) eat Chinese food! I'm not so sure it exists here, but I'm excited to find out!

Something that probably only I will find interesting (but I will write about anyway): I finally have hot water! This probably should have been classified under the 'pulling JAZes' post, but I forgot. About two days ago I was once more taking a cold shower and fiddling with the knobs in hopes of figuring out how and why my very first day the water was perfect, but never since. I shouted to Cami "TODAVIA ES FRIO, NO SE PORQUE!" - she had been telling me to turn it off, which I didn't understand, but came in and adjusted the pressure to a little less than the minimum. Depsues, por supuesto habia agua caliente! 

I feel like there is cliche lesson about not forcing situations or about using only what you need in life wrapped up in that story, but at that moment my biggest lesson learned was that the water heater is underpowered and I should appreciate hot showers a lot more than I do.


Another unrelated topic:

I saw this candy at a kiosko today that
I thought initially was hardened mochi.
It is not, it's pretty much heaven; walnut
and dulce de leche in a suger shell. I
think it will be my downfall here.