La Vida Mendocina (The Mendocine Life)

While it has been almost a month since I last wrote, I decided that I would wait until I felt more settled in my life in Mendoza before I gave my first update. The week after I last wrote I traveled to Iguazu Falls with Alli, who is studying in Mendoza with me. Iguazu Falls is made up of more than 250 waterfalls and is an incredibly impressive sight. The falls are on the border of Brazil and Argentina and can be seen from national parks on both sides. A visa is needed to enter Brazil, so we stuck to the Argentine side, but it kept us more than occupied with trails around the base and tops of the falls allowing us to see them from all angles.

The next week our orientation program began with three days of touring and information sessions in Buenos Aires followed by a flight to Mendoza on Friday Feburary 27. The “family matching” process felt like a more awkward, confusing version of the first day of kindergarten. The 33 students from the program walked through the gate into the waiting room to see 33 Argentine families waving sheets of paper and shouting our names. After finding and greeting my host mother, I set off for my first weekend in Mendoza in which I went to a birthday party in a vineyard, a big family luncheon and explored Mendoza with my host sisters. My family consists of my mother Patricia, a 50 some year old woman who runs a jewelery store in Mendoza, is absolutely hilarious, exaggerates and fusses over everything, and is really quite a diva--constantly adorned in bright clothing, bright lipstick and straightened white-gray hair. I have three sisters that live in the house, the eldest of whom is Marta, a 27-year old public relations student who has spent a lot of time traveling in Europe, and is one of the most generous and kind people I’ve met here. The next sister, Paula, is 23, she studies gastronomy in Mendoza, she has a lovely sense of humor and has been so great about inviting me to do things with her, or showing me how to properly make maté (the national drink of Argentina consumed in a gourd and considered an extremely important part of Argentina culture. It is impossible to pass a park, plaza, or even street corner without seeing a gathering of people drinking maté together.) The next sister, Pachi, is 22 and an economics student at one of the universities I am attending. She is definitely the social butterfly of the family so she spends less time in the house, but she loves to sing and asks me to sing Moulin Rouge and Disney songs with her when we are on car rides with the family. The other two siblings, Carlos and Belen do not live in the house. Belen is 29 and owns an apartment in Mendoza, but spends a fair amount of time in the house so I see her quite regularly. Carlos is studying to be a priest outside of Buenos Aires, but spent the past two weeks at home on his school vacation. He left Friday and won’t be back until right before I leave in July, but I really enjoyed getting to know him and attempting to converse about religion and philosophy in Spanish … I’m not sure if all my responses were coherent and tactful, but I enjoyed his company. (I couldn't find/haven't taken a picture of the whole family, but this picture shows, from left to right, Pachi, Patricia, the grandmother, Marta and Paula).

I spent my first week here getting adjusted to the city, getting accustomed to the “siesta schedule” (where everything closes between 1 p.m.-5 p.m. and people return to their houses to eat lunch and rest) and attending lots of orientation sessions. Mendoza itself is absolutely beautiful; each street is lined with trees watered by acequias (special irrigation ditches that run throughout the city). There are tons of plazas with benches, and green space, and there is a huge, beautiful park which is always filled with people picnicking, drinking mate, or taking the public aerobic class (which I will surely soon be taking, not so much for exercise as for the experience of doing hip-hop/jazz moves with middle-aged Mendocines). Paula, Marta and I often go to the park to walk or run with their beloved dog Pancho (which means hot dog in Spanish).

Last week Ben joined me for his spring break at Carolina and we got a taste of the traditions and attractions of Menodza, starting with the yearly Festival de la Vendimia [harvest festival] that culminated last weekend. The festival celebrates the grape harvest and production of wine that Menodza is most famous for. We attended parades with floats from each of Mendoza’s provinces in which their elected queen tossed grapes, melons, and sometimes steak into the crowd!

The following day we toured some vineyards, learned about the process of wine making and practiced proper wine-drinking etiquette. We attended an asado [essentially a barbeque where families and friends get together to eat steak and empanadas, drink wine, and relax outdoors] with my family, which has become one of my favorite things to do in Mendoza. My family is extremely social and constantly attends lunches, asados and birthday parties that I’m always invited to, which has allowed me to meet a lot of people and practice my Spanish. When I wasn’t in class the rest of the week, Ben and I spent time in the number of plazas lining the town center, having mate picnics with my sister or friends from the program, exploring restaurants on Aristedes, a street lined with restaurants and outdoor seating areas, and finished off the week with a horseback riding adventure in the mountains. My sister Paula, her cousin, and Alli accompanied us and it was quite the adventure considering our limited horse riding skills, but the paths were beautiful, and it wasn’t too hard to get a hang of how to direct the horses.

Ben left on Saturday and I headed off to San Rafael, another province of Mendoza, with other students from my program. We stayed in cabins near a river and spent the weekend outdoors on the beach, rafting/tubing down the river, hiking, and enjoying the warm climate and gorgeous scenery. Our program has 33 students from universities all over the United States, and pictured on the right are the three of us from UNC, Alli who I traveled with, and Caitlyn.

I am now back in Mendoza and will soon be beginning my university classes. All of the classes start on different dates, so it has been extremely confusing to figure out what I’m taking and where/when I have classes, but hopefuly it will all be sorted out in the next few weeks and I will finally begin feeling like a real student again … maybe?