I have spent the last five days traveling to and visiting Iguazú Falls in Argentina and Brazil. It was an 18 hour bus ride each way, but it the journey was more than worth it. The AC on the bus froze me a little, but other than that it was very bearable.

Iguazú was absolutely incredible. The trip ran very smoothly, I had so much fun, and saw the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen in my life. The falls sit on the borders of Brazil and Argentina and we were fortunate enough to visit both sides!

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I was absolutely in love with Iguazú. I haven’t been the biggest fan of Buenos Aires for a variety of reasons. I’ve never fallen in love with that city. I don’t hate it or anything, it just isn’t my favorite city in the world. There’s been times I felt like I made the wrong choice to come here because of that, but every time I travel a bit whether it be and hour outside of the city or 18 hours away, I feel better and better about my decision to come and truly think Argentina as a whole is a pretty incredible country.

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I can feel my mind opening up and my world view changing, and it has to be one of the coolest things ever. Spanish has served as a connection to a place I had absolutely no prior connections to, and to begin to understand an entirely brand new culture and country. About a month ago, I was running late and feeling very flustered, but I needed a question answered by someone. They had noticed me speaking English with a friend from the US before we approached them. They asked me if I spoke English when my Spanish and just my brain in general was sort of failing me at the time because I was so flustered, and I was so flustered I said NO and then just continued speaking in Spanish! Um, oops? English is just my native language? However, it forced me to get my Spanish speaking act together. I had my question answered, and from a culmination of many circumstances similar to that one, I continue to see that making mistakes is the best way to learn. And I am grateful for the places knowing Spanish has been able to take me. Seeing how much more I have to learn really makes me want there to go out there and do it. I’ll continue taking Spanish classes when I get back to AU, but I think I’d really like to live in a Spanish speaking country again sometime after college.

Speaking Spanish has not only opened the door for me to study and travel Argentina, but it has also served as the connection to the culture of my ethnicity. It’s the language widely spoken in the country my dad was born in and one of the languages he grew up speaking. For quite some time now I’ve had some questions about my identity. There is grand conflation between race and ethnicity in the way they are talked about, but they are separate. What does it mean to be a white and Latina? Is it acceptable to identify this way? How living in the US fit into the picture? First and foremost, I’m duly aware of the privilege I have in being white passing alongside being born and raised in the United States. It’s a strangely unique situation, and I have so many more questions than the three written above. I’m not quite ready to publicize all my thoughts on it, but I’ve made a lot of progress and feel as though I’m finally starting to arrive at some answers for the first time in my life and that is an incredible feeling. It just so happened that as I mentally arrived in this place, I had a fantastic conversation with some friends on the last day of our Iguazú trip that made it crystal clear that race and ethnicity are intertwined but nevertheless different. Conversations like that one, traveling, and a whole lot of thinking deeply about it have and will continue to help me answer my questions.

Overall I feel really grateful for the places I’ve seen, the people I’ve met, and the experiences I’ve had so far. I still have about a month and a half left, and look forward to the remaining adventures that await!

CARBS. CARBS. CARBS. I have an extremely high carb diet here, and if you check out the typical foods from Argentina below, you’ll see why. But don’t worry Mom and Dad, I make sure to eat lots of fruits and veggies and go to the gym several times a week!

In this blog post, I want to share with you what type of things I’ve been eating! I don’t think I could consistently eat this many carbs forever, but for now I’m just enjoying them in all their deliciousness.

Medialunas are small slightly sweetened croissants that pair great with coffee – but what doesn’t? I love having these for breakfast! Many cafes in the city have great deals that sell two medialunas with a café con leche.

This picture is from a famous cafe in Buenos Aires called Café Tortoni. Historically, this cafe was a place for composers and performers of tango to write and practice. Today, it is still possible to watch groups perform music and the tango live. When I went a few weeks ago, I enjoyed churros caliente con chocolate (and a coffee of course)!

Churros are commonly sold around the city, and usually packed with dulce de leche. I enjoy those, but they are usually cold so I especially enjoyed these being fresh, hot, and dipped in chocolate!

Empanadas are one of my favorite foods here in Argentina. They are usually baked, but can be fried like the ones in the picture above. My favorite empanadas are carne picante (spicy meat)! They can differ in flavor from region to region, as well as their fillings. Some have vegetables, others have different types of meat, and a common combination is jamón y queso (ham and cheese).

I’ve even been fortunate enough to learn how to make them! During my first week here, I took an incredible empanada cooking class. (The picture above is from the class.) Thanks to the generosity of the hosts of the cooking class sharing their recipe, this is something I look forward to cooking when I come home as well!

Here we have milanesas or milangas (as they are commonly called here). My host mom usually serves this for dinner about once a week. Milanesas are thin breaded pieces of meat. I like mine with a lemon or even lime squeezed on top and some ketchup!

Last, but not least is asado! Asado isn’t food itself, but it is a traditional South American barbeque! I went to my first one last weekend. It consists of several types of grilled meats, good company, and is absolutely wonderful!

Hello from Buenos Aires, Argentina!

The idea of having a blog somewhat intimidated me which is partially why I have waited so long to start one. My friends (and more specifically my cousins) who have had them in the past wrote so eloquently that I felt as though I had to live up to that and write beautiful pieces. But, I realized I don’t! I just want to share what I’m up to with the people I love. So with that, let’s dig into what I’m actually doing here in Argentina!

I’m studying abroad, practicing my Spanish, and exploring this beautiful country. I’m living with a host mom in a beautiful apartment and share it with a super sweet roommate (also from the US). I came one month before classes began to take an advanced intensive Spanish course. Now my regular classes are in session and are all taught in Spanish. The intensive Spanish course was incredibly helpful, but my course load is fully taught in Spanish, and I’m still coming to terms with my language proficiency. I arrived here with a certain confidence in my Spanish abilities, which made it harder to accept my inadequacies.

Argentina requires me to relax my Type A personality every single day. Por ejemplo: I just started my fourth week of classes and am still not officially enrolled in any of them. Ejemplo 2: My passport only allows me to be here for about one more month and there’s no word on when my visa is coming. But there’s good to this too. The picture at the top of this post is the result of a trip planned 4 days before it took place. It made me nervous, but the trip came together surprisingly well and was some of the most fun I’ve had during my time here! In fact, the video I made for the trip was my inspiration to start writing this blog so take 2 minutes to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUcOlwegPCU. In this trip, my friends and I traveled to the provinces Salta and Jujuy. We had just about as much fun saying Jujuy (hoo-hwee) as we did during our time there. I’m glad to be here, so I don’t dwell on the uncertainty of my visa processing! Usually. I’m still Type A, so of course I dwell some.

I’m learning everyday to allow myself to make mistakes, and let go of things beyond my control. That includes starting this blog 2 months in, and being at ease with my lack of course and visa approval. Thanks for reading post #1. All my love,

xoxo,

JoJo