My life isn't just amazing trips...I spent some time here in Buenos Aires too! Life update.

Well…I have a bit more time, lately, so I ought to get my blog 100% up to date.  This isn’t a blog about some amazing trip to a place in Argentina with wonderful sights and crazy adventures; sadly…this is more like what my life actually is here.  So far I manage to blog about the highlights mainly.  Now…well it’s not that I actually have more time at this actual moment.  In reality, it’s 3:48 and I can’t sleep.  This has been happening a lot lately…it’s because my schedule was (as a result of writing essays till real late/other stuff) having me go to bed around 4 and get up fairly late.  Well, I need to adjust back to my regular schedule.  Yesterday I made a big stride in that area…fell asleep at ONLY midnight.  But I woke up about an hour later and was up for a while…same sort of thing happened tonight, except with me falling asleep at 1 and waking up about 30 minutes later.  And staying awake.  Trying to sleep.  Staying awake.  Grrrrr.

What’s up in Luke’s life lately?  Well…I miss home.  That’s a pretty strong feeling.  In fact, on the last blog, I talked about my trip to Jujuy.  I’m not sure if in the post that I mentioned just HOW much I started missing home around then.  When I came back, within a few weeks I was realllllllllly feeling it, like every night.  Well things have gotten better since then, that was about a week and a half ago…but that said, I still miss home.  If you’re reading this, I miss you, it’s about that simple.  I miss SO much..  And when I think I don’t miss home, if I just THINK about it for a minute, think about anything to do with home or the people there, wayyyy back in Oregon…I miss it a lot.  Or just look at a picture or two. 

Classes are kind of the same, but they’re winding down.  I never really believed in that terminology though…when classes are “winding down” in college they’re usually taking it up a notch (BAM!) with big tests, big assignments due, and the like.  Well, I’m there, but since the busywork is down a little it feels like things are getting easier.  In reality, I still have a midterm for my UCA class, the final for that class, a big presentation for my verbal production and comprehension class, a final paper for my fiction class, and a dance final for my tango class.  Things that I’ve already taken care of include: written Tango final (bigger deal than it sounds like, probably), smaller paper for fiction class…regular busy work.  Not a lot, it seems like.  Save for a few figures, I’m fairly confident in being ready for the dance final…but those sacadas, how does one do them?!  Hrmm…not much else to say about school.  It’s not easy by any means.  By no means.

So one needs ways to deal with it.  I recently found out (in the last three weeks, the last two Saturdays before this last one to be exact) that there is Ultimate Frisbee in Buenos Aires.  Not a lot of it, but it exists.  Like this:

One of the Buenos Aires teams

Talk about lots of foreign people...countries represented here: Canada, USA, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia

Yeah, he missed that disc.

But he definitely did not!

That said…the majority of the players are foreign.  Oh well.  The biggest percentage of players comes from Colombia, interestingly enough…apparently they have some pretty good leagues of Frisbee in Bogotá.  Sweet deal mayne.  I want to visit, haha.  Since I’m not actually supposed to play…I played it pretty gentle.  I still played too much, so I’m officially stopping and probably not going more than one more time before I head back home.  As much as it was a relief to throw around and then play, it’s too much movement.  I can’t really half jog the whole time because I end up making split-second decisions and picking up a lot of speed.  I haven’t hit as full a sprint as I can, but I’ve definitely got into decent sprint range.  I can’t be doing that with a foot injury or I’ll send myself back into the dark ages!  People couldn’t walk because of foot injuries in the dark ages, right?

Also, on two Sundays ago, I got the opportunity to watch a River Plate fútbol game.  If you’re too gringo for my taste, that would be SOCCER.  Ugly word, that one.  Anyway: River and Boca are the two biggest professional teams in Argentina.  One of the first Argentines I talked to told me he was a River fan (I believe…I didn’t know the teams then, nor did I understand him very well at all)…and proceeded to show me multiple tattoos of his team’s emblem.  And this guy was like 16.  So people get INTO it here.  I don’t really know how to describe it…or rather I’m too lazy to.  Briefly: the game was River Plate vs. Colón, a big game, at River’s stadium (also the national stadium, and as such it’s BIG).  Ask me about it when I get home, please, I’m too lazy to explain it all.  Until then, just look at the pictures (ask for my videos when I get home…oh man.  It’s just of the fans, but they screeeaaammmmm some interesting things): 

This was actually the second game I got to go to.  I had the opportunity to attend a fútbol game through the program that didn’t cost me anything.  But that was only to see a much more minor game in a smaller, albeit nice, stadium.  That was Velez-Sarsfield vs. Gimnasia.  Velez Sarsfield made it to the quarter finals of the Copa Libertadores, one of the two biggest South-American championships just recently, and I’m pretty sure they hold the top spot in the AFA (Argentine soccer league, noobs!).  So they played really good fútbol, but the real experience was with the other game that I saw later, with River Plate (see above).

Coke.  Oh yeah.

Velez=Mostly white uniforms

They've had some success.

About 2 and a half weeks ago I met up with two great friends from my study abroad program, on a Friday.  They’re also Christians, strong ones at that, and we talked and read and prayed and worshiped together (with a super out of tune guitar.  See: Winter in Buenos Aires and being outside in it late).  It was absolutely wonderful, and it really turned my missing-home-a-ton-blues around.  Or rather (O sea, Argentines say) God heard the prayer and has given me comfort with all of the difficulty.  I go with that option.  Anyway…we met up again last Friday, this time we had less time but we laughed together, had fellowship in that sense, and read and prayed.  And it was good.  That last Friday, I got to finally go to “Casa Amistad”, which is what the small groups at my church are called.  They just get together, have fun doing something, watch a video the pastor puts together, discuss it, hit up some scripture sometimes, and pray.  But it was the first time I’ve been able to make it, what with a million other commitments with classes meeting extra times and just STUFF.  In any case, it was really awesome.  I hope to develop relationships with the believers I know there as much as possible in the time before I jet off to the You ESS of EEEEEEHHHHHHH.  Well…what else to say.  Boring post, most likely, but it feels nice to get this stuff out there.  I’ll mention my plans for the time when my classes are like mostly over and I have free time:  Get on the trains of Buenos Aires and head to the ends of them.  I want to go as far as possible on train.  I say that because MUCH earlier in my time in Buenos Aires, sometime around the 1 month mark, I took a train to “El Tigre,” which I believe I blogged about.  It’s part of the Buenos Aires province.  The point here is that the ticket was about 1.25 or so (can’t remember exactly…fairly certain that’s what it was though).  That’s what a long bus ride costs in Buenos Aires, which translates to about .32 (rounded up a centish) USD.  So that’s rather cheap, no?  Cheap travel, see more of Argentina than just this humongous crazy city?  Deal.  I’m in.  Make it a series of day trips, no overnight even necessary?  DOUBLE deal.  That’s how I think I’ll end my time around here, in general, with these day trips.  I want to mix that in with spending plenty of time with friends (we’ll probably go on these trips together, however) and making a big point of hanging out with Argentines all that I can.  I must say…I love it here.  I’m from Oregon, the big USA, and that’s where I belong for a while longer, but…I do love Argentina, I love the people and the places and the language and the atmosphere.  So I’ve already decided someday to return.  Not sure when that’ll be…the plane tickets are not exactly cheap.  So quite a while in the future, possibly.  But…I’ll be back (/Arnold voice).  Way before all of that though, my loving friends and family…

I’m coming back, dudes, in a month and 3 days (not counting that I’ve already passed midnight by 4 hours).  

Pear (pure, get it?!) contemplation...

 

Mountains, llamas, alpacas...and really cheap ice cream.

ALRIGHT FOLKS.  It’s been too long since I updated this thing.  I REALLY need to update this thing, or I’m gonna forget all about the amazing trip I took like 3 weeks ago.

It was the big trip planned by the program, the one that involved a taxi, an airplane, and a bus just to GET there.  We went to Jujuy, the northernmost province of Argentina (I’m pretty sure, anyway…) and visited three small towns there. 

I really enjoyed the in-Argentina plane experience, by the way!  Except for the newsweek I was handed complimentarily as I walked through the airport towards my flight.  It was in English.  WHAT IS THAT, ARGENTINA?!  HUH?!  Grr…

…goes without saying that I read the whole thing, almost.  Hey, it was an interesting edition!  The Bin Laden edition, in fact.

Gotta love that terrain...

Anyway.  After passing from city on the coast to sub-tropics to desert in the span of a few hours, we finally arrived at Tilcara, Jujuy, Argentina.  This place is waaaay north and pretty far West of Buenos Aires, right up by the border with Bolivia and Chile.  It’s also in the Andes mountain range, so we definitely had a bit thinner air where we stayed.

We stayed in these cabins at this sort of mini-compound with a good 10 or so cabins and a big main eating-meeting hall.  And upon arriving we gorged, which was EXACTLY to my liking.  I was HUNGRY.  Good food, too.

The cabin really wasn’t anything too special, but I was pretty happy with it.  3 beds in a nice little room, , plenty of space for our stuff, a few chairs, a little fridge, a TV (didn’t expect that…more on that later), and a mostly functional bathroom (the toilet got unhappy the last day, hahahaha).  Even the showers were warm and stuff!  Well…most of the time.  The first shower I took was a mean trick.  Warm, warm…nice, nice…2:30 into it and BAM, FREEZING.  Then hot water, all calm, about 30 seconds later.  What is going on?!

We had a few hours after eating to walk into town and check it out.  All you have to do is climb out from under the rock you live under to see how incredibly beautiful this place is.  And for those who don’t live under rocks, you can’t escape it!  I don’t have words for it, but it was incredible.  Tilcara is a humble but active little town of a few thousand people (or like 5-6?  Can’t remember).  

Welcome to Tilcara

It’s a pretty old settlement, actually, because the day after we arrived we checked out some reconstructed ruins very nearby.  I went with a few friends to the feria (fair) in the center of town, at the plaza.  It was lined all the way around with stands selling mainly alpaca and llama clothing and things.  I got a SWEET alpaca sweater for like $15 (USD, CHEAP BRO!).  There was a ton of trinkets and little silly things too, most of which was themed after llamas.  Oh, llamas.  There were plenty of those in the area.  

Alpaca sweater model

The ice cream prices blew my mind!  See also: Alpaca sweater!

I'm telling you the truth about the Llamas and Alpacas...

So, after that and a long, half interesting half I’m-asleep-what-were-we-talking-about presentation that we got right after lunch, we had dinner and slept.  I NEEDED the sleep, too, because we had to all be at Aeroparque, an airport that is NOT, in fact, very inside of Buenos Aires but nearly on the edge of the federal capital area…at 6:30am Thursday morning.  Since we’re talking about Luke English here, you can bet I didn’t get to sleep until like 3:00am plus, and didn’t sleep until that night.  First up of the dudes in my cabin, in the morning, too.

I grabbed that sweet (see above, also a TRAP) shower and headed over to get breakfast, takin mah Spanish/english Bible along.  Soon as I opened the door of the cabin (which had like one window which was very well darkened, if that) I was hit with THIS:

My instant response was to run back inside the cabin and grab my camera, because LOOK AT THAT.  Also, it was pretty chilly when I went outside.  The night before, as soon as the sun dipped below the mountains, the temperature dropped like a rock.  The wind’s archrival needed to take some rest and had full reign…it got cold.  Same in the morning, except it takes a good while to warm up.  It was weird, I was the very first person to breakfast.  I guess people wanted to sleep…somehow I had worried about food being gone or something (after some hostel experiences with strawberry jam getting all snagged!).  So I had breakfast with Jesus and read psalms as I ate.  It felt like some sort of camp or retreat for a few minutes, and I loved it. 

We hit up the reconstructed ruins.  It was absolutely fascinating history, which includes a lot of shameful eradication of Quichua, the native language, and poorly handled investigation into the history of the area by earlier governments.  Just across the borders, they told us, up in Peru and in Bolivia, the indigenous culture is MUCH more preserved. 

Reppin' Suburban College Ministry!  You know what's up!

a real Pucará, which is a pre-Conquest fortress.  Has only one way in it, which is fairly easily defendable.  The people of Tilcara would go here if someone came to attack them.

After that big load of beauty, we loaded up and took the 45 minute drive North to Humahuaca, another small town.  Humahuaca was absolutely beautiful (I overuse that word, but my English vocabulary has gone out the window, I barely speak the language anymore!), and we got to hear about the history of its growth and the story behind its incredible monument to the people who fought in the war of independence.

Sort of indigenous music with lunch!  Sweet!

We are a culture that walks in a globalized world

It was a hard war...we all had to do what we could.

The old Spanish church tower

It also had a very Mexico-esque cemetery.  Apparently a lot of the culture is quite similar to Mexican culture with respect to the treatment of cemeteries and the dead.  They wash and keep clean the graves and adorn them richly with flowers, celebrating those who died and remembering them in a very active way.  I loved it, hearing about it and seeing it more than anything.

That night passed much like the last, though less eventful and we didn’t visit the town like before.  The next day I got up later for breakfast and there were more people there, though I still beat plenty of them.  I took my bible again and again it was very worth it.  This time we were about to go on the 3 hour trip to las Salinas Grandes (big salt flats!), wayyyyy up in the mountains.  So, somewhere around 4200 meters up when we took a break,

Luke got altitude AND motion sickness.  The road was suuuper windy.  But...just look:

Above the clouds.  No complaining allowed, no matter how sick you are.

And the air was quite thin.  Good thing they had coca tea and coca leaves on hand!  Now, I know some of you might be saying: “Luke, aren’t coca leaves what people use to make COCAINE?”  and…well, they are!  However, just chewing on the leaves isn’t going to get anybody high.  What it does is relax the stomach and increase circulation so that more oxygen gets into your blood, which is the problem the body is dealing with already.  It thinks you’re being starved of oxygen because it’s not used to getting so little, so you get dizzy and shakey.  Silly body, we’re just checking out the Andes!  And they were indescribable.  So impressive.  So, after being really sick, I had the coca and Dramamine and took a nap…and the bus hit a HUGE bump that nearly threw me from my seat, waking me up violently.  And then we were there, las Salinas Grandes.  I don’t know what to say about them, nor can I explain well why there are there…but they are.  Look:

That is one of many big humongous piles of...salt.  MMM

They built it out of the most convenient thing around...salt.  Salt tables, salt house.

Look Mom, I'm in las Salinas Grandes, AND I'M USING NO HANDS!!!

Well...when else does one get to lick the ground for sport?

Go beavs.  Seriously, GO BEAVERS!

Salt macro!

Also, let me just say that there is a LOT of salt there.  I ate some, bought a huge chunk for a few pesos (it cost like nothing)….you’ll get to see it when I bring it home, it’s really pretty.  And big. 

After that we finished with a stop at Purmamarca, another little town, this one more nestled inside the mountains than the others, and probably the smallest of the 3 by a fair margin.  The town had a really nice atmosphere, but the best part (and my favorite part of the trip, actually) was the optional (can’t IMAGINE opting not to go and instead going to the feria…they’re all the same!) walk/hike to see el Cerro de los Siete Colores and some other of the Andes.  No words, guys and girls, I don’t have words to describe it.

El Cerro de los Siete Colores

Again, no words...just look at that.

A casual stroll through the Andes...you know, everyday stuff.

Awesome shaped rock

Purmamarca has a LAME VIEW.  Ugh.  Just nasty.

That night we had a free dinner (as in we got to go buy it and choose where we wanted to eat) and which I finally got my wish…I ate LLAMA!  And it was good.  It’s kind of like beef…kind of like sheep, too.  Hrm, I’m no good at describing it, but I enjoyed it a lot.  The table was large and we filled it, having a big epic conversation about sexuality and religion and stuff.  It was intense.  I feel as though I gained from having been there and hearing a lot of other perspectives, though I was definitely fairly unique in my beliefs, which I had the opportunity to share.  

After that we had a little night on the town (in a smallllll town) and visited a bar/boliche of the Northern type.  That’s right, local bands (REALLY cool music, lots of wood flutes of different types, etc, etc, etc, cool instruments)!  It was good.  That night, in fact, I felt incredibly homesick, but thanks to some great friends (shoutout to you, Sharon, if you’re reading this!) I felt better by the next day.  I got home pretty late, even danced to the music a little before heading out the door, and since I was the first of my cabin-mates home…I flipped on the TV.  BAM!  Gameshow. 

The previous night I had watched about 10 minutes of a RIDICULOUS movie with one of my roommates…I can’t remember what it was called.  I ended up continuing to watch it to just find out what it was called, since my curiosity was killing me.  Something about…hell, in the title.  It’s worth mention because it I literally flipped to it as soon as the guns started going off.  Apparently a team of men dressed like Elvis were robbing a Casino of something REALLY valuable…so they took M16’s and MANY pistols with them to ensure success.  It was…violent.  And hilarious.  I mean…they’re dressed like Elvis, guys, come on!  It’s comedy gold!  They escape in a helicopter, after a good bit of firefight on the roof (ending in like 10 dead guards)…and then I needed to sleep.

The gameshow was cool though because it sucked me in.  It was a word scramble…and after about 3 minutes of not being able to figure it out, one of my roommates walked in, sat down, looked at it, and gave me the answer in about 1 minute.  I excitedly texted the number on the screen…got confused, so I called the number…and so on.  They just run you around, making you prove you’re a human by answering some question about Argentina or someplace (the first one was legitimately difficult…for me) and telling you to try again, that you didn’t QUITE get it.  Well, I tried that for like 12 texts, so they were obviously just running me in circles, and I gave up and went to sleep.  But it was SWEET.

Next day was the last day!  We got up, cleaned up, packed up, and then had about an hour to hit up the town one last time.  I bought a few things as gifts and headed back for lunch.  After lunch, we loaded up and drove the 3 hours back to Salta.  Ahh, back to some humidity.  Jujuy, in the part we were in, is very dry, and it was starting to get to me.  Sure,  you don’t feel the heat as much, but you SURE DO dry out.  We ended up having an hour to walk around the city of Salta, which is the capital of the province of Salta.  It’s a really beautiful city, and I enjoyed the time I got there.  Incredible looking basilicas (kind of like a church/cathedral)!  

Catedral Basílica de Salta

People look a lot more…dark skinned, dark haired, in Jujuy and Salta, and it was kind of a change from the Buenos Aires immigrant mix.  Also, when we found a place to buy pastries (necessary, DUH), the lady who was selling them used “tú.”  In Argentina…people say “vos” they don’t refer to people with “tú,” so it shocked me.  Lol.

The flight was uneventful but nice, and I was quite happy to be “home” in Buenos Aires when I finallllllly made it back.  Buenos Aires from the sky at night was breathtaking.

And to close, this made me incredibly happy to see:

See the words?

"God is love"