MENDOZA

prrrrrr soo sorry for my absence. Now I don't even remember what I've done since the last time I wrote!

So we went to Mendoza. There was a group of maybe 12 of us exchange students that went with two of the younger international office (CRI) workers. We left Thursday night around 10 and arrived in Mendoza early-ish Friday morning. The bus ride was "semi-cama", so the seats reclined pretty far back and I slept surprisingly well! So anyways, we got to Mendoza and checked into our hostel (which was super nice, by the way) and ate breakfast. Then we had some free time, so my friend Lauren and I kind of explored the city and shopped :) and ate lunch. Mid afternoon, we went on a brief romp around 3 different vineyards. The first one we went to was cool and modern and really new. Walking in was such an experience, just the smell was enough to make you want to move in. I'm not that much of a wine gal but I thought the process was so neat. The tour group consisted of us exchangers and 2 british guys who didn't speak spanish, so we really were able to understand what was going on since the guide had to talk in english. This is a picture of the vineyards of the first bodega we visited

The second bodega we visited was one of the most important organic vineyards in Mendoza. They said that they don't use pesticides or chemicals on the crops, but most of the wines did contain some sulfates to preserve their shelf-life. I bought 3 bottles there, one for my family here, and two to bring back home. They did have a no-sulfate added wine, and that is what I bought. Now I'm no expert, but I couldn't taste much of a difference between the wines with and the wines without sulfates. The third bodega we visited was an old traditional bodega with really expensive and specifically made wines that were of no interest to me, so I'm not going to detail that anymore.

That night, our hostel got together with 3 other hostels to hold an asado nearby. We all went together and waited with the other exchange students for what seemed like FOREVER to eat. I ate a ton of potato salad, which was bomb, but everyone said the meat was super good...I don't care. Anyways, afterwards, they moved all of the tables out of the bar area and the party started. There were free tequila shots, where they held your head back and poured...this was a disaster for some people (they drank way too much), but it was only troublesome for me when the bartender poured it IN MY EYE. Yow, didn't go back for more after that! The whole party was really fun, we got to meet people from Holland, Israel, France, and a ton of guys from England. I met one boy who I still talk to currently; he's really cool because he teaches me all of these popular british phrases and because him and his friends are travelling all around S. America before they start University in the fall.

Saturday we had to be up pretty early to eat breakfast and then head out to the mountains for some good old fashioned whitewater rafting! Our guide was by far the coolest and most fun. We arrived just as the season was ending and so the water was lower and FREEZING, but I'm so glad we went. We got to wear these really fashionable wetsuits and jackets like we were pros, it was awesome! Afterwards we hung around and tried to warm up before going back to our hostel. Once back, everyone showered and ate and then we tried to find a club to go to but had little success, so we cut our losses and just went to sleep. On Sunday, we had literally the whole day to kill because our bus didn't leave until late so Lauren, Gracen, and I walked to the big park and found this giant monument of and Argentine national hero (San Martin). On our walk back to the hostel, we grabbed and early dinner and while eating, we met this girl from Australia who told us she was taking a year to travel the entire world. Listening to her talk about the places she had been/was going to made my head spin; I was so inspired! Once I get back to the US (if I ever do...), I'm going to start hoarding my money so that I can experience the world like she is.

We finally got on the road, and I was able to sleep up until the point when a baby started crying. Oh but this wasn't just any baby....this baby was sitting right. behind. me. It was kicking also, that was fun. Oh what a disaster, and it just really stunk because we had class the next day basically only few hours after we got back.

I would say that Mendoza was my favorite trip to date. In my next entry when I have more time, I'll blog about Semana Santa when I went to Uruguay and my friend and I almost got robbed!

In the meantime, here's a funny story:

For our culture class, we had a group project and I was working with two guys that constantly tease me...I'm like the little sister. For one part, I had to email a document to one of the guys, his name is Jonathan. He ended up not needing it, so I assumed he just saw the body text that I put, "shut up and leave me alone", and simply deleted it. Obviously I forgot all about it until the next afternoon I cam home to check my email and I had this in my inbox:

Jessie –

Could you give me a quick call about your message sent yesterday to President Barker?

My cell # is 864-650-5502. I’d like to help.

Joy

Joy S. Smith, Ph.D.

Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students

202 Hendrix Student Center

Clemson, SC 29634-4001

w 864-656-0471; h 864-646-2899; fax 864-656-7241

AND this one:

Jessie –

This is the email message that went to President Barker about which I wrote you just now.

shut up leave me alone

--
Jessie Phillips

Sociology Major

Clemson University '13

Is everything OK with you? I am guessing it just went to the wrong person.

Please reply so I know all is OK in Argentina.

Joy

Obviously, I was super duper embarrassed so I responded right away how I was sooo sorry and I must've just started typin a "j" and "james barker" came up and I clicked without thinking. Luckily for me, the administration at Clemson has a good sense of humor and President Barker personally emailed me to ask if I could use the story as an anecdote about the "perils of email". So, basically I'm famous (or a laughingstock, not sure which)!

This past week, we got back 2 papers and 2 tests and I made 8s on all of them so that's good...they could've been better, but like I said before, with a record like that, I won't have to sit the exams!

There are lots of birthdays around this time...Tuesday was my tutor's boyfriends birthday so I went to their apartment to snack and play "mimica" (charades), which was surprisingly hard considering we were doing movie titles and they have different translations here. For example, "the hangover" (shout out to mom) technically means "la resaca", but in spanish, they call the movie ¿Qué Pasó Ayer"...so even if we knew the english equivalent, it was really dificult to guess the spanish translation. It was a really fun time though, great to practice my spanish. Last night, a bunch of us went to a chill bar to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and the birthday of our friend Taylor. Today, I went shopping with my tutor because HER birthday is tomorrow and wanted a new outfit to wear out! SHEESH and then TONIGHT there's a surprise party for Taylor and another boy called Jeff. How exciting!

Anyways, tomorrow the weather should be nice so hopefully I'll be outside and not indoors blogging, but I will try to get everyone updated by the end of the weekend.

How's America with all of this Osama stuff? I'm kind of glad I'm away because I feel like things are about to get really bad. Many people here don't believe he's dead, and I have to admit that I'm a little skeptical as well but I only watch the Argentine news, so maybe some details are getting lost in translation....

¡Hasta luego!