Birthday fireworks

Giselle arrived yesterday. She has a lot of family living in Mendoza and they immediately invited us over for lunch and to her cousin (I think) Mauro's 12th birthday party. It started around 9pm and was still going strong when we left at about 1am.

For me, the most notable part of the birthday party (besides the fantastic empanadas, of which I ate probably three too many), was the lighting of the candle on the birthday cake. You are probably envisioning a young boy being presented with a cake that had a candle looking something like this:

At least that is more or less what I would have envisioned.

But, in fact, the single red candle on the cake looked like one of these:

That is, the pointy triangular part was embedded in the cake and a red "candle" rose to at least 4 inches tall.

Just moments before they lit the Mauro's candle, I remarked to Giselle that it looked a lot like the fireworks that we used to send off on in Georgia for the 4th of July.

To my surprise, as soon as the "candle" had been lit, I realized that it was basically a baby (or adolescent?) firework:

Here it is a live action shot, although not of Mauro because unfortunately I had not brought my camera.

I have never seen one of these in the U.S., but maybe some of you have?

At one point young Mauro tried to blow it out, but it was going way too strong!

Civilización y Barbarie or Sarmiento in San Juan

Friday the director of Intercultural took me with her on a trip north to San Juan. It's about 2 hours away by car through the desert.

It was really my first day of sight-seeing in Argentina because here in Mendoza I'm mostly doing every day sorts of activities in and around the city. In San Juan, within a matter of two hours after arriving I had visited the birthplace of one of Argentina's early presidents---Domingo Faustino Sarmiento; tried unsuccessfully to enter the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (closed for renovations); bought some ice cream and discovered their word for cone---cucurucho; and enjoyed panoramic views of the city from the top of the cathedral's bell tower. This kind of tourism is not my favorite, I prefer a more tranquil day, but we arrived in the afternoon and I only had a few hours before we would be leaving again.

From what I know, Sarmiento was something of a Thomas Jefferson-like figure in Argentina (anyone who knows more on the subject, feel free to correct me). He was a politician, writer, military man, and was particularly concerned with education.

In literature programs like mine, he is most well-known for having written Facundo o Civilización y Barbarie. Plus, this year is the bicentenary of his birth.

The Cathedral in San Juan is interesting because it is the most modern cathedral I have ever seen in a Latin American country. In 1944 San Juan suffered a tremendous earthquake that devastated the city and left almost everything in ruins, including the old cathedral. The new cathedral adopted a more modern style and someone told me that it has been something of a debate among the citizens of San Juan----not everyone likes the modern look.

The church invites tourists to ride the elevator to the top of the bell tower for panoramic views of the city. From the top, you can see the Andes...

Feliz Día de la Patria

The 25 of May is the Día de la Patria in Argentina. It's a national holiday so businesses are closed, and my classes were cancelled. I spent most of the day reading in my favorite café feeling very content. This picture shows the café on the opposite corner of la Calle San Martín (remember the canopy of trees?).

The highlight of my day was breakfast in Café Dün Ken---the "Desayuno 1" special---which consisted of a large fresh squeezed orange juice, a large café con leche (also called a cortado), and two pastries (facturas). Life doesn't get much better.

For lunch, I made my first foray into home cooking. My principal problem here in Argentina, besides not having an oven, is that I don't have a lot of experience cooking meat and I have no recipes to follow. El Día de la Patria was the first day that I had the time to experiment at my own (very slow) pace. Plus, I finally caught a little market that sells meat and veggies during its hours of operation (actually, I made it just as the guy was closing for the holiday). I made my dad's famous spaghetti sauce from memory (yay!) and a milanesa with a fried egg on top. The milanesa and fried egg do not look awesome because I had a little problem with the food sticking to the pan, but they tasted just fine. I complemented the milanesa with a fresh tomato and a full glass of vino mendocino. The barrier has been broken, success!

But above all, my favorite part of el Día de la Patria were the pastelitos. I have been told that they are a traditional pastry of the holiday but that you can also find them at other times of the year. They are shaped in the form of a star and tend to have a little treat inside of either dulce de membrillo (quince jelly) or dulce de patatas (potato jelly?). This one from Dün Ken has dulce de patatas, my favorite. I might have eaten three.

Juice Box - Argentina Style

This is the juice-box that I got at the short film screening last night. That's right, it's vino tinto in a tiny little juice-box, complete with your own personal straw.

Orientation

Here is my little section of Mendoza. The apartment is on the bottom left, in the south-eastern corner of the city on Formosa. It takes me about 10 minute to get to school, the Intercultural. My guess is that it's another 20 minutes to get to la Peatonal Sarmiento downtown, although I haven't been wearing a watch. CIGMA gimnasio, although not marked on the map, is about 4-6 blocks north of la Peatonal on San Martín.

I spend most of my time walking north and south on San Juan (a smaller street) and San Martín which is a beautiful tree-lined boulevard. The trees are mature and form a full canopy overhead. I'll take a picture soon and post it here.

Bonus: Apparently there is a casino just a block south of my apartment.

Shout out

I'm sending a shout out to my friend Erika from Michigan. She's been in Mendoza for the past week or so (the same amount of time as I have) and has really made the first week incredible! We have spent afternoons reading in cafés along the Peatonal Sarmiento, scouring librerías for books, and eating lots of milanesa. My favorite is milanesa completa that comes with a fried egg on top. Yum.

Fail

Ok, so I failed in my attempt to navigate the Argentinean public health system. Well, actually, I gave up. Bright and early this morning I went to the sixth floor of the hospital, just like they told me. At that moment I remembered what I actually already knew, but had forgotten: public = bureaucracy.

On the sixth floor they told me that in order to get my form filled out I would have to go make an appointment. They sent me down to the ground floor to talk with a Sr. Jorge Perrone in consultorio 6. In consultorio 6, I discovered that Sr. Perrone was sick and not coming in, so I was sent to the "window in the hall where there's a long line" to talk to them. At the window in the hall where there's a long line, they said "Oh, no, you need to go to the clinic at the bus station to make an appointment there." A kind woman guided me across the canal to the outpatient clinic where I was instructed to take a number. When they called my number (45 minutes later) the woman at the window took one look at my form and shook her head emphatically. "No, you need to go to the health center in your neighborhood." Since this was not a life or death scenario, and since I'm an outsider, I could find the whole thing amusing (and by hour 2, just a little annoying).

I left, trying to decide whether I should try to figure out how to find my local health center or whether I should pay the $20 US to be done with it. As I walked toward my school, the empty waiting room of a private doctor's office beckoned. And what did I do? I caved. In just 30 minutes, I had my form completely filled out and I am now official, ready for CIGMA gimnasio.

Public health

I have been trying to find a gym where I can exercise while I'm down here in Mendoza. After visiting a few, I finally found one that has elliptical machines. It also offers separate weight lifting sections for women and men--a bonus.

So what's the catch? Before I can sign up, I have to have a doctor fill out a form certifying my health status. Infections? Diseases? Blood pressure. Actual and theoretical weight (what I weigh and what I SHOULD weigh). The problem? I don't know anything about going to the doctor in Argentina and I am trying to live economically. Extra (and unnecessary) visits to the doctor are not included in this plan. I went back on Saturday to talk to someone else, to see if maybe I could just run a little for them on the treadmill or lift some weights to prove I'm in acceptable shape to work out at their gym. But the woman who was working at the desk told me that by law they would be responsible if something happens to me while I'm there, so there is no way around getting a doctor to fill out the form. She suggested that I go to the public hospital--it would be free and they are open 24 hours.

This suggestion made me uncomfortable. I know very little about the health system in Argentina, but coming from a system where you do not go to the emergency room to have someone complete a form that will allow you to join a gym, I'm feeling felt uneasy with the idea of the Argentine taxpayers paying for a frivolous visit (? this is a U.S. way of conceiving of the issue, I wonder if it translates here?). But, it could also be a valuable opportunity to learn about the public (vs. private) health system here, so I decided to see what would happen.

But stay tuned! We all have to wait until Monday for the answer. When I arrived at the entry to the hospital, the guard told me that I'd have to return on Monday at 8am, and go to the 6th floor. I have a feeling that it would be faster and easier to go to a private doctor's office, but I'm interested in what the public health system is like.

Empanadas y vino mendocino

Wednesday was my first day of class at the "Intercultural" here in Mendoza. After a lonely day of wandering on Tuesday, it was a relief to meet and talk to the other students who are studying there too, although there aren't many because it's the temporada baja here right now. Since I'm staying alone until Giselle (and then Charlie) get here, I am glad to know that there will be people to talk to and hang out with, especially travelers who I generally find to be open and welcoming. This week, there are students here from New Zealand, the Netherlands (holla Eelco!), Canada, France, China, and the U.S. Since most of them are here for short periods before they move on to their next destination, I expect to see a lot of fluidity.

My current daily schedule will include 2 hours of class in the mornings, and then an optional group lunch and activity in the afternoon. Wednesday's activity was Clase de Cocina! We learned how to make empanadas and, oh boy, were they tasty.

For the adventurous chef out there, here's the recipe for Empanadas Criollas. As you will note, this is abuela's recipe, so there are some details missing--just improvise. Also, get out your metric conversion chart!

You can see pictures of the finished product here. Mine are the ones with a little piece of egg on it. That's how we distinguished our own empanadas from the ones made by others.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg of ground beef (abuela says to mix in a bit of water with the ground beef, but I don't remember why)
• 750 grams of onion
• paprika
• cumin
• oil & salt
• 12 empanada shells (in the U.S. you can find these at a Latino grocery store)

Optional:

• 300 grams of tomato
• 300 grams of cheese
• 200 grams of ham
• 2 red peppers
• olives
• 2 eggs
• chili pepper
• raisins
• potatoes

Instructions:

Cut the onion in small pieces. Fry with a little oil until they become translucent. Add the ground beef, salt, paprika, and cumin (sort of a lot, I'd say more than a tablespoon of the paprika and cumin, maybe two or three--you have to experiment to see what you like). Keep frying all of this together. Add some butter so that it sticks together well when it has cooled off (maybe a tablespoon or two). Let it cool.

(You can add any of those other ingredients to your mixture...I like adding cheese and potatoes. Things like eggs, tomatoes, or olives, you can add directly to the empanada without cooking it with the mixture described above.)

Once the filling is cool, put it inside the empanada shell with any other ingredients that you would like (pieces of an olive, pieces of an egg, tomatoes) and close it. Do this by using your finger to trace a little water around the edge of half of the shell, fold it over, and then smush the edges together and fold them over so the filling doesn't fall out.

When you are done, it will look like a half moon. If you put cheese in it, shape it more like a croissant so that the cheese doesn't melt out.

Brush each empanada with a beaten egg and put it in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, until they are golden brown (that seems like a long time, but it's what the directions say...you might want to keep an eye on it). I don't know what temperature. Sorry!

Pair with a yummy Mendozan wine, and enjoy.