Sunday, March 8, 2009
here you go mike
My stupid cousin asked me to link to his website that sells cheap used books at www.thriftbooks.com. But I LOVE that website!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Santas Workshop
I went to Santas workshop.
Saturday night I was walking around the Plaza Independencia with a buddy, Devin, and we were talking to all the metal working artisans, becasue Devin is into making jewelry/metal work. So we got refered to a booth, and the guy at this booth was Santa. He was jolly with a big white beard-- Santa. So santa makes knives and we all chatted it up really well, and in the end he gave us his card and invited us to his house where he makes all his knives. Devin and I were really stoked, so we gave him a call and we went to his house today, it was so great.
He lives in a section of the city that was described to me as the *bronx*, so we went and it was great. In his back yard he had a pig, chickens, and bunnies--for eating. We showed up and he just started working. The knife he made started out as a piece of car suspention, and he just chalked out the shape he wanted, and cut out that knife. He filed it down, cut out some other pieces, and after 2-3 hours there was a bone handled knife. It was really different because he just had pieces of animal hanging around his shop. There was an emu leg, a horse leg, and lots and lots of cow bones. When he finish cutting out the knife he threw the leftover pieces under his work table and called it the banco, because he was gonna make different smaller knives out of the little pices. He said it was important to not waste. His son was also making a knife that was really cool to watch, becasue everything they use is recycled. The sons knife was like a fancy knife, with a stripy wood hilt,and all of it was made out of recycled stuff. The blade-guard was made out of a handle from a drawer, that was follwed by the leg of something copper for the beginning of the hilt. then wood, and the end had a fancy looking pointy thing that used to be a handle for a drawer. I took a picture. Then we all sat together and chatted drinking Mate. it was so great. The mom had made some biscutes, and she invited me over to show me how to make them. The dude, Angele, invited us all out to eat asado any time we want and the son invited me out to learn how to make knives. THis is soooo cool. While we were being shown around the yard we saw the mom packing sawdust into a metel bucket, then put it under a cylinder and lit it on firel, and she explaind that that is their water heater. They are a very natural family and they say that the sawdust is cheaper than gas and better for the environment. ¿Que bueno, no? They had all kinds of plants and trees in their little yard and we got to try the jam she made, it was amazing.
I kinda feel like that area is more like the real argentina, because in the centro where we all hang out it is very much like it is in the states, all the same. Out in Las Herras the streets were small, the cars were slower and there wasnt the familiar feeling i have around my house. The side walks were made of pácked dirt, etc... Over here there are gas stations and little super markets.
so all in all i had a great day
un beso,
Pame
Saturday night I was walking around the Plaza Independencia with a buddy, Devin, and we were talking to all the metal working artisans, becasue Devin is into making jewelry/metal work. So we got refered to a booth, and the guy at this booth was Santa. He was jolly with a big white beard-- Santa. So santa makes knives and we all chatted it up really well, and in the end he gave us his card and invited us to his house where he makes all his knives. Devin and I were really stoked, so we gave him a call and we went to his house today, it was so great.
He lives in a section of the city that was described to me as the *bronx*, so we went and it was great. In his back yard he had a pig, chickens, and bunnies--for eating. We showed up and he just started working. The knife he made started out as a piece of car suspention, and he just chalked out the shape he wanted, and cut out that knife. He filed it down, cut out some other pieces, and after 2-3 hours there was a bone handled knife. It was really different because he just had pieces of animal hanging around his shop. There was an emu leg, a horse leg, and lots and lots of cow bones. When he finish cutting out the knife he threw the leftover pieces under his work table and called it the banco, because he was gonna make different smaller knives out of the little pices. He said it was important to not waste. His son was also making a knife that was really cool to watch, becasue everything they use is recycled. The sons knife was like a fancy knife, with a stripy wood hilt,and all of it was made out of recycled stuff. The blade-guard was made out of a handle from a drawer, that was follwed by the leg of something copper for the beginning of the hilt. then wood, and the end had a fancy looking pointy thing that used to be a handle for a drawer. I took a picture. Then we all sat together and chatted drinking Mate. it was so great. The mom had made some biscutes, and she invited me over to show me how to make them. The dude, Angele, invited us all out to eat asado any time we want and the son invited me out to learn how to make knives. THis is soooo cool. While we were being shown around the yard we saw the mom packing sawdust into a metel bucket, then put it under a cylinder and lit it on firel, and she explaind that that is their water heater. They are a very natural family and they say that the sawdust is cheaper than gas and better for the environment. ¿Que bueno, no? They had all kinds of plants and trees in their little yard and we got to try the jam she made, it was amazing.
I kinda feel like that area is more like the real argentina, because in the centro where we all hang out it is very much like it is in the states, all the same. Out in Las Herras the streets were small, the cars were slower and there wasnt the familiar feeling i have around my house. The side walks were made of pácked dirt, etc... Over here there are gas stations and little super markets.
so all in all i had a great day
un beso,
Pame
Thursday, May 3, 2007
The morgue
I went to a morgue today.
Thats right, i saw dead people. I went to my host brothers anatomy class that he is a TA for, during diccetión. It was really interesting an different. The bodies they had to work with were really old looking, like really old. Clearly they were soaked in formaldahyde, but it seemed that they were older. They were all brown, dry, and leathery. I will spare detailes, but it was creapy. It really hard to find the bits of the neck they were looking for, becasue all the bodies were deteriorating. If anyone saw the new Texas Chainsaw Masacre, it made me think of that basement, it was dirty looking, and there were old bathtub-looking things taht were semi-full of a brown liquid. If I looked really hard I could pick out fingers ect.... Anyhoo, after the classes were over i asked my brother how old the bodies were, and I thought he said the building was 50 years old. So I asked agian, and the bodies were about 50 years old!!!!!! And they were old guys too, When these guys were born WWI had not happened, trippy!! Thats all.
Paméla
PS, I saw a jar full of fetuses, full, like 5 or 6 of varying sizes.
Thats right, i saw dead people. I went to my host brothers anatomy class that he is a TA for, during diccetión. It was really interesting an different. The bodies they had to work with were really old looking, like really old. Clearly they were soaked in formaldahyde, but it seemed that they were older. They were all brown, dry, and leathery. I will spare detailes, but it was creapy. It really hard to find the bits of the neck they were looking for, becasue all the bodies were deteriorating. If anyone saw the new Texas Chainsaw Masacre, it made me think of that basement, it was dirty looking, and there were old bathtub-looking things taht were semi-full of a brown liquid. If I looked really hard I could pick out fingers ect.... Anyhoo, after the classes were over i asked my brother how old the bodies were, and I thought he said the building was 50 years old. So I asked agian, and the bodies were about 50 years old!!!!!! And they were old guys too, When these guys were born WWI had not happened, trippy!! Thats all.
Paméla
PS, I saw a jar full of fetuses, full, like 5 or 6 of varying sizes.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
a few days in Mendoza
We went to the zoo! It was soo neat, and sad. It was neat becasue the animals were moving around and interacting with each other and us, it was sad because they were moving around becasue their cages were so small. It was huge! they had sooo many animals. I got spit on by a juanaco, probably spelled wronge. GRose, and I was meeting a friend to go shopping right after the zoo, so I had to spend the day with janaco spit, EWW. The cages for the animals were very close to people. They were designed only to keep animals in, not people out, so if I wanted I could have climbed in with most of them, lions included. There is a foto of me with my feet haning over the side of the cage. CRAZY. There was a car alarm going off every now and then, and that set off the Tiger, who set off the 10-ish lions, it was really neat.
So there were monkeys in the trees around the zoo, just chillin´, a lady who was walking around the zoo-circle the same time as us had a bag of cookies, and was feeding all the animals. Christina gave me one to feed a monkey. I fed a MONKEY! they were SO cute. The Caged monkeys were semi-fighting for the cookies, and the bears did tricks. It was neat-o.
Anyhoo, neat Mendoza information:
-There is a bum who sleeps on my porch, my family told me he was crazy, but not dangerous, sooooo when I come home late it is always a surprise when the porch light turns on and there he is, staring at me...
-People here don´t wear hoodies, which is half my wardrobe, so i had to buy sweaters, nice looking ones because everyone here always looks nice, and if you are reading this you probably know that I generally don´t look very nice i.e. pajamas and a hoodie.
-Pajama pants are not to be found here, so sad. Sweat pants, workout pants, dance pants, yes, but true flanal pajams, no. SO SAD, cuz i didn´t bring any.
-Shops all close between 1 and 5 for ciesta.
-A steak dinner costs less than a Happy Meal (Cajita Feliz)
-If I am going out to do something alone, or new my mom points at her eye and says ¨ojo¨ meaning, be careful.
-People nurse their babies on the bus. Nursing in public is completly socially aceptable, as it should be.
-Ice Cream shops here are like Starbucks in the US. In frequency, not tastieness
-Ice Cream here rocks.
speaking of ice cream, time to go get some...
ciao
-Paméla
ps, there are fotos of the zoo up
So there were monkeys in the trees around the zoo, just chillin´, a lady who was walking around the zoo-circle the same time as us had a bag of cookies, and was feeding all the animals. Christina gave me one to feed a monkey. I fed a MONKEY! they were SO cute. The Caged monkeys were semi-fighting for the cookies, and the bears did tricks. It was neat-o.
Anyhoo, neat Mendoza information:
-There is a bum who sleeps on my porch, my family told me he was crazy, but not dangerous, sooooo when I come home late it is always a surprise when the porch light turns on and there he is, staring at me...
-People here don´t wear hoodies, which is half my wardrobe, so i had to buy sweaters, nice looking ones because everyone here always looks nice, and if you are reading this you probably know that I generally don´t look very nice i.e. pajamas and a hoodie.
-Pajama pants are not to be found here, so sad. Sweat pants, workout pants, dance pants, yes, but true flanal pajams, no. SO SAD, cuz i didn´t bring any.
-Shops all close between 1 and 5 for ciesta.
-A steak dinner costs less than a Happy Meal (Cajita Feliz)
-If I am going out to do something alone, or new my mom points at her eye and says ¨ojo¨ meaning, be careful.
-People nurse their babies on the bus. Nursing in public is completly socially aceptable, as it should be.
-Ice Cream shops here are like Starbucks in the US. In frequency, not tastieness
-Ice Cream here rocks.
speaking of ice cream, time to go get some...
ciao
-Paméla
ps, there are fotos of the zoo up
Monday, April 23, 2007
HAY FOTOS!
Ahora hay fotos.
it took me like 2 hours and 2 pesos to get these few fotos up, so don´t expect that many more, but I´m gonna go to a fany internet place, and hopefully the connection will be faster....
ciao
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t264/pjtenney/
it took me like 2 hours and 2 pesos to get these few fotos up, so don´t expect that many more, but I´m gonna go to a fany internet place, and hopefully the connection will be faster....
ciao
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t264/pjtenney/
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Jeffs Tooth
So I feel Jeff´s tooth deserves a better post than that, so here is my official police report.
A man named Charles was very drunk and molesting girls. My two friends Jeff and Marta aproached me wanting to leave the club, I did not know why, but i got another friend, Aliana, who was dancing with a boy named Patric, and we were all going to go catch two cabs. Patric brought Charles, who is generally agreable, and we all left the club and went down the stairs in front of the club, when we realized that someone else wasn´t with us, Patric went back to get him. While Patric was in the club, Marta and Charles began to argue and push, Marta was advancing on Charles telling him not to touch her like that, that is was disrespectful to women. Charles responded to this coments with violent gestures, but I didn´t hear what he really said. When Patric returned he began to hold Charles back as Charles was now trying to go towards Marta and Jeff. He looked like he wanted to attack them. Jeff had said something like ¨Cool down¨, or ¨lets go¨. Aliana was between Marta and Charles, and I was standing back. Jeff walked foward to direct the two other boys into a cab. He approached Charles, then flew backwards very fast, and fell onto is back. When I helped him up he was bleeding alot, and missing a tooth. Charles left imidiatlly and caught a cab, leaving Marta, Jeff, Patric, Alina, and I. We all caught a cab and went to the hospital.
My account is a little scattered becasue I didn´t want to be involved in what I thought was just a lot of drama, because I wasn´t a part of it at all. Charles was leaving me alone, and I didn´t want to jump into someone elses argument. But it turned out to be an adventure, so the friend Alina is from Argentina, and is also very nice, and she took us all to the hospital in a taxi, she is the daughter of one of the program directors, and is fluent in both English and Spanish. So she took us to the ER, where the doctor pretty much gave Jeff and ice pack and told him to go to a dentist in the morning then Alina´s mom, Samia, showed up and drove us all home.
-Pam
ps, it is true 4 am is late, but here it is not as late as in the states. Dinner is at 10 or 11. Everyone takes a 2-4 hour nap in the middle of the day. stores are closed from about 1 to about 4-5. Just to put it in perspective
A man named Charles was very drunk and molesting girls. My two friends Jeff and Marta aproached me wanting to leave the club, I did not know why, but i got another friend, Aliana, who was dancing with a boy named Patric, and we were all going to go catch two cabs. Patric brought Charles, who is generally agreable, and we all left the club and went down the stairs in front of the club, when we realized that someone else wasn´t with us, Patric went back to get him. While Patric was in the club, Marta and Charles began to argue and push, Marta was advancing on Charles telling him not to touch her like that, that is was disrespectful to women. Charles responded to this coments with violent gestures, but I didn´t hear what he really said. When Patric returned he began to hold Charles back as Charles was now trying to go towards Marta and Jeff. He looked like he wanted to attack them. Jeff had said something like ¨Cool down¨, or ¨lets go¨. Aliana was between Marta and Charles, and I was standing back. Jeff walked foward to direct the two other boys into a cab. He approached Charles, then flew backwards very fast, and fell onto is back. When I helped him up he was bleeding alot, and missing a tooth. Charles left imidiatlly and caught a cab, leaving Marta, Jeff, Patric, Alina, and I. We all caught a cab and went to the hospital.
My account is a little scattered becasue I didn´t want to be involved in what I thought was just a lot of drama, because I wasn´t a part of it at all. Charles was leaving me alone, and I didn´t want to jump into someone elses argument. But it turned out to be an adventure, so the friend Alina is from Argentina, and is also very nice, and she took us all to the hospital in a taxi, she is the daughter of one of the program directors, and is fluent in both English and Spanish. So she took us to the ER, where the doctor pretty much gave Jeff and ice pack and told him to go to a dentist in the morning then Alina´s mom, Samia, showed up and drove us all home.
-Pam
ps, it is true 4 am is late, but here it is not as late as in the states. Dinner is at 10 or 11. Everyone takes a 2-4 hour nap in the middle of the day. stores are closed from about 1 to about 4-5. Just to put it in perspective
I LOVE PATAGONIA
I love Patagonia!!!!
I love patagonia. I don´t even know where to start. I´ll start at the very begining(thanks Julie Andrews).
There was a 17 hour bus ride to Patagonia, dios mio!, but that wasn´t so bad. We watched a few movies in Spanish, I had two seats to myself on our double decker bus, so I slept really well, especially since i had only slept like 1-2 hours the night before, and we arived on Saturday!
Saturday: We arive, pack ourselves into our tiiinnnyy rooms, with really neat bathrooms, and by neat i mean a normal sized half-bath, with a shower poking out of the wall. There are fotos. we unpacked, ate lunch, and went on a short caminata. We walked from our facility, around a lagoon(beautiful), and into town. Villa la Angostura was sooo beautiful. It was a little tourist town full of delicious chocolates. There were like 10 chocolate stores where the people make the chocolate infront of us. LINDA . then the bus took us all home.
Domingo: Caminata 2º, we took a boad from the town Villa la Angostura around a peninsula, then walked back to town over a hill. there were horses on the trail and I made friends with them via an apple, and it was really neat.
Lunes: lluvia(rain) y clases y el centro= we walked around downtown (one street) for a few hours.
Martes: Mas lluvia y clases. I got sick so I slept alot.
Miercoles: Mas lluvia y clases, but we went to the big city in the area (Bariloche), on the way there we climbed up the highest mountian in the near area(como 25 min.) , and had the most beautiful view of the Siete Lagos, then my camera bateries died, lame. Bariloche was very pretty, and there were even better chocolates here. there was a very swiss feeling in the city, with all kinds of stuff, like laider hosen(i know i butchered that), ect..., but that was all there was to do there. We went to a restarante elegante for a taza de té and a tostado(toasted ham and cheese sandwich, tea shop staple) and there were americans there who couldn´t read their menu, and i helped them, and they thought i was from Argentina!! yeay. If i stick to small words i don´t sound ridiculous.
Jueves: hoy Caminat 3º. SO PRETTY!!! It was raining where we were, by the lakes and the Andies, so we went 1 hour east, into a desierto, no I´m serious, 1 hour and we leave the jungle and are in a desert, where there was a little rain, and at the top of the mountian it was snowing. it was sooo pretty. And COLD. it was sooo cold. I had like 4 layers, gloves, a hat, everything, and i am a warm person!! so cold. but pretty. I have fotos. This hike was kinda far. We walked down a pretty dirt road for like 10 minutes, then the guide randomly left the road and we walked up the side of the mountian for 4 hours. There were no trails. It was hard core awsome! We saw some of the rabbit deer they have, but i didn´t get any pictues, they were the same color as the mountian. I saw several condors, SO pretty. It was overwhelmingly AMAZING.
Viernes: Caminata 4º. QUE HERMOSA ERA CAJONE NEGRO. Or should i say cajone blanca, because it was COVERED in the snow from yesterday. So amazing it was like walking around in Narnia, because we were walking around in the most beautiful forest ever, then all the sudden there was snow everywhere, snow that no one had walked on, or seen, or thought about. We started out going up pretty steep though a thick forrest, and after 1 hour we got to the waterfall, and a bunch of people went back(and missed out), becasue after the waterfall in was a decent up hill, not half so fuerte, and then we hit the snow!!! It was sooo beautiful and peaceful, no hay palabras, there are not words. (but there are fotos) At the same time many of the students on the hike were wearing running shoes, and had wet cold feet. Regardless there was alot of snowball fights ect...
Sabado: I slept till noon, walked to town, then got onto a bus for 17 hours
Domingo: I got home and wrote all this down at a locutorio
In general: The guides were SO great! Gije, Juan(i think), and Alejando. Ale was 21, pretty, could dance very well, and a pig. He embodided the Machisimo Culture here. He wouldn´t let girls walk alone place, safe places, because we might get lost, but he would let the boys go. He told me to get him juice at times, a jerk. At the same time he was LOTS of fun to dance with, because he was a very strong leader, I didnt know how to do anything, and he just threw me around, very fun. He danced with all the girls here at least once(very nice), but he picked like 3 girlfriends he spent most of his time with (not me, claro). One girl here is a profesional dancer, and he taught her the Argentine Tango, and it was really neat to watch them. They also knew how to Merainge(claro), salsa, rumba, and they both did the twist AWSOME, very pulp fiction.
Gije was SO sweet. he was like a 15 year old in a 33 year olds body!! he had a guitar and played Imagine for us, and twist and shout, and lots of Argentine clasics ¨samba de su salma¨ or something like that, and during the Caminatas i taught him english and he taught me castillan(spanish), and it was sooo great. ok this has been too long.
There is another post about Jeff´s tooth below this one.
-Pam
ps, has anyone else noticed my english deteriourating. Especially my spelling....
pss, I will try to put up fotos today or tomorrow.
I love patagonia. I don´t even know where to start. I´ll start at the very begining(thanks Julie Andrews).
There was a 17 hour bus ride to Patagonia, dios mio!, but that wasn´t so bad. We watched a few movies in Spanish, I had two seats to myself on our double decker bus, so I slept really well, especially since i had only slept like 1-2 hours the night before, and we arived on Saturday!
Saturday: We arive, pack ourselves into our tiiinnnyy rooms, with really neat bathrooms, and by neat i mean a normal sized half-bath, with a shower poking out of the wall. There are fotos. we unpacked, ate lunch, and went on a short caminata. We walked from our facility, around a lagoon(beautiful), and into town. Villa la Angostura was sooo beautiful. It was a little tourist town full of delicious chocolates. There were like 10 chocolate stores where the people make the chocolate infront of us. LINDA . then the bus took us all home.
Domingo: Caminata 2º, we took a boad from the town Villa la Angostura around a peninsula, then walked back to town over a hill. there were horses on the trail and I made friends with them via an apple, and it was really neat.
Lunes: lluvia(rain) y clases y el centro= we walked around downtown (one street) for a few hours.
Martes: Mas lluvia y clases. I got sick so I slept alot.
Miercoles: Mas lluvia y clases, but we went to the big city in the area (Bariloche), on the way there we climbed up the highest mountian in the near area(como 25 min.) , and had the most beautiful view of the Siete Lagos, then my camera bateries died, lame. Bariloche was very pretty, and there were even better chocolates here. there was a very swiss feeling in the city, with all kinds of stuff, like laider hosen(i know i butchered that), ect..., but that was all there was to do there. We went to a restarante elegante for a taza de té and a tostado(toasted ham and cheese sandwich, tea shop staple) and there were americans there who couldn´t read their menu, and i helped them, and they thought i was from Argentina!! yeay. If i stick to small words i don´t sound ridiculous.
Jueves: hoy Caminat 3º. SO PRETTY!!! It was raining where we were, by the lakes and the Andies, so we went 1 hour east, into a desierto, no I´m serious, 1 hour and we leave the jungle and are in a desert, where there was a little rain, and at the top of the mountian it was snowing. it was sooo pretty. And COLD. it was sooo cold. I had like 4 layers, gloves, a hat, everything, and i am a warm person!! so cold. but pretty. I have fotos. This hike was kinda far. We walked down a pretty dirt road for like 10 minutes, then the guide randomly left the road and we walked up the side of the mountian for 4 hours. There were no trails. It was hard core awsome! We saw some of the rabbit deer they have, but i didn´t get any pictues, they were the same color as the mountian. I saw several condors, SO pretty. It was overwhelmingly AMAZING.
Viernes: Caminata 4º. QUE HERMOSA ERA CAJONE NEGRO. Or should i say cajone blanca, because it was COVERED in the snow from yesterday. So amazing it was like walking around in Narnia, because we were walking around in the most beautiful forest ever, then all the sudden there was snow everywhere, snow that no one had walked on, or seen, or thought about. We started out going up pretty steep though a thick forrest, and after 1 hour we got to the waterfall, and a bunch of people went back(and missed out), becasue after the waterfall in was a decent up hill, not half so fuerte, and then we hit the snow!!! It was sooo beautiful and peaceful, no hay palabras, there are not words. (but there are fotos) At the same time many of the students on the hike were wearing running shoes, and had wet cold feet. Regardless there was alot of snowball fights ect...
Sabado: I slept till noon, walked to town, then got onto a bus for 17 hours
Domingo: I got home and wrote all this down at a locutorio
In general: The guides were SO great! Gije, Juan(i think), and Alejando. Ale was 21, pretty, could dance very well, and a pig. He embodided the Machisimo Culture here. He wouldn´t let girls walk alone place, safe places, because we might get lost, but he would let the boys go. He told me to get him juice at times, a jerk. At the same time he was LOTS of fun to dance with, because he was a very strong leader, I didnt know how to do anything, and he just threw me around, very fun. He danced with all the girls here at least once(very nice), but he picked like 3 girlfriends he spent most of his time with (not me, claro). One girl here is a profesional dancer, and he taught her the Argentine Tango, and it was really neat to watch them. They also knew how to Merainge(claro), salsa, rumba, and they both did the twist AWSOME, very pulp fiction.
Gije was SO sweet. he was like a 15 year old in a 33 year olds body!! he had a guitar and played Imagine for us, and twist and shout, and lots of Argentine clasics ¨samba de su salma¨ or something like that, and during the Caminatas i taught him english and he taught me castillan(spanish), and it was sooo great. ok this has been too long.
There is another post about Jeff´s tooth below this one.
-Pam
ps, has anyone else noticed my english deteriourating. Especially my spelling....
pss, I will try to put up fotos today or tomorrow.
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