Empanadas with Olga!
On Tuesday night, Elizabeth and I went over to Emily and Olga’s (her host mom) apartment. She was going to teach us how to make empanadas (a very popular/AMAZING Argentine gift!!! We arrived around 7 pm, and hung out with Olga and her friend Leo in the living room for a while, listening to George Straight. Olga is ADORABLE! She is a feisty, opinionated 60ish year old woman that only speaks Spanish….oh my gosh she is so funny! She couldn’t believe I wasn’t wearing a jacket in her house, so she pulls up her shirt and reveals her “can cans” (aka panty hose underneath her pants)!! It was soooooo weird but hilarious! We finally get started on the empanada process. All 5 of us are in her precious tiny kitchen, and we begin to make empanadas. Here is the process for empanadas:
o Saute 2 onions (1 onion per kilo of ground beef)
o Brown the beef with the onions
o Add 1 kilo of butter per kilo of beef (WHAT?! No wonder I am a little chunk!)
o Let all the flavors soak together (its better to prepare this early so there is more time to let the flavors sit)
o Next you get yer empanada dough squares so that you can stuff them with goodness
o You put the meat mixture in there along with some boiled eggs and olives, and you fold the square over the mixture (coat the edges with water so they will stay pretty)
o Now make an egg wash (with only the yolks) and paint it on top of the empanadas on the baking sheet (Olga used a makeup brush, but next time I will prolly use a cooking brush to paint the wash on top! Haha)
o Lastly you put them in the oven for 8 minutes or so (til golden brown) and enjoy!
We ate empanadas with Olga, Leo, and Susannah until we couldn’t eat another bite! We sat at the table and talked about life for about 2 hours. We talked about politics, boys, and Elizabeth made me sing a song for them (I coulda killed her!) Then we all sang “Aint no mountain high enough” for them, they loved it! Before we knew it, it was 11 pm and we had to get home. This was definitely one of my favorite Argentina experiences, its amazing how we were able to carry on conversations with native speakers for 4 whole hours without any English! WOW…
El último fin de semana
After tango on Friday, we went to a bodega (winery) just south of Mendoza. We had a really good time, it was really neat to see the process of making wine! We got to taste a couple different types, so that was neat too! Next we went to an art museum, interesting but nothing too special. Afterwards we went to an Artesan shop where all the locals make things by hand. That was super cool, and I got a few souvenirs from here. It was time to go home, so a group of us went to my house and we made tacos, guacamole and refried beans (my body cannot get enough Mexican food!) We were miserably full, but it was oh so good! We didn’t finish eating til late, so we went to bed around 3 am and had to wake up at 7:30 for our hike to Cerro Arco.
Cerro Arco
We hiked around the mountain and went to a beautiful river type thing and sat there a meditated on the lovely view of the city. It was very chill and pleasant. After the hike, we went to this restaurant in the mountains and ate empanadas of every flavor imaginable! Haha, they were scrumptious and we were all full and happy before we headed to the SPA!
The Spa at Cacheuta
When we arrived at this heavenly place, it was around 4:30 pm on Saturday. I scheduled my massage for 6, so until then we all put on our swim suits and took mud baths and relaxed in the multiple thermal pools facing the beautiful mountains. It was quite therapeutic and was just the beginning. After my amazing massage, I went to my room and hung out with friends. Emalee did my eye makeup, Elizabeth massaged my feet, I was feelin super spoiled and pampered! Before we knew it, it was dinner time so we went downstairs and ate some wonderful HEALTHY food! I am not usually healthy by any means, but its amazing how much you crave it when yer not able to have it! My grilled chicken, salad and vegetables never tasted so good! Haha.. after dinner we showered and went to bed nice and early. We slept in on Sunday, then ate breakfast and hit the thermal pools once again. We ate an INCREDIBLE lunch filled the vegetables, some of the best steak I have ever eaten, and lots of great desserts. We went back out to the mud baths and pools (roughin it right?!) and stayed out there for another 3 hours. I got a little sun on my chest and was really excited about that! By 6 pm, it was time to head back to reality…Finals, presentations, and essays. My lack of productivity over the weekend was absolutely worth it and I enjoyed every second of it!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Pueblo del Rio--Heaven on earth
www.pueblodelrio.com.ar/home.php This is the website, its in Spanish but you can still see how lovely it is!
This is one of the nicest resort/cabañas (cabins) in Mendoza and me, Emily and Elizabeth are staying here for 3 days, 2 nights….it is absolutely PERFECT!!! We spent Saturday eating quesadillas, nutella, Pringles, and cookies (can you say, the “argentina 15?!”), taking siestas, and walking around the beautiful place…we got some homework done in our precious, spacious cabin and have relaxed sooo much (something we have NOT had time for in our 4 weeks here!) We watched The Parent Trap in Spanish, which turned out to be much better than we expected (prolly cuz we have seen it so many times), then we went to dinner. For dinner we had some wonderful salad, meat, vegetables, and a brownie in an orange cream sauce mmmmm! We came home and went to sleep in our nice warm bed shortly afterwards.
Sunday
Woke up around 9 feeling SUPER rested…I actually got HOT last night, which has not happened in a very long time! it felt so good to sleep in a bed without gloves! Haha…We ate breakfast which was super yummy: homemade hot chocolate, croissants, dulce de leche, and many other pastries…not healthy, but oh so good! At 11 we met up with out “trekking” guide, who drove us and about 7 other people to a trail off the highway. We took our 2 hour hike, it was so laid back and beautiful. Although our guide (Ana) spoke SUPER fast, we were able to understand her so we were happy about that! We hiked to a lovely waterfall and were able to take a picture behind it, it was quite magical. It was a really good time and a pretty nice workout. We got back to the cabaña (cabin) in time for lunch, and made quesadillas, sliced avacado, kiwi, and apples, and had refried black beans….it was just oh so good! We also made some mimosas so that was classy and fun! After lunch was SPA TIME!! ahhhhhh…..so we went to the spa at the resort, and they gave us bathrobes. We had our bathing suits on underneath…the ladies were so nice. We soaked in the Jacuzzi, sweated out our mimosas in the sauna, then took these really awesome rain showers with spouts everywhere! Then we relaxed in this room full of windows that viewed the river and mountains and sipped on delicious hot tea, ate fruit, and read magazines in Spanish. Next was time for the steam room, SO so refreshing! We stayed in there for 30 minutes, and my skin has never felt so good. We went back to the resting room and chilled out for a bit longer…We finished our spa day with a “wine facial” which is full of antioxidants and smelled SO good! Today was the most relaxing day of my life so far, and I enjoyed every second of it! For dinner we had a potato soup, AMAZING DELICIOUS creamy lasagna, and crepes (panqueques) with dulce de leche EASILY my favorite meal so far! We watched the movie The Pianist, then went to sleep. This morning we slept in and now we are just gonna get homework done until our driver gets here at 5 to take us back home! This has been my favorite weekend so far, but I WILL be runnin this week to burn off SOME of what we ate….It was all worth it though!! Chau for now! xoxo
This is one of the nicest resort/cabañas (cabins) in Mendoza and me, Emily and Elizabeth are staying here for 3 days, 2 nights….it is absolutely PERFECT!!! We spent Saturday eating quesadillas, nutella, Pringles, and cookies (can you say, the “argentina 15?!”), taking siestas, and walking around the beautiful place…we got some homework done in our precious, spacious cabin and have relaxed sooo much (something we have NOT had time for in our 4 weeks here!) We watched The Parent Trap in Spanish, which turned out to be much better than we expected (prolly cuz we have seen it so many times), then we went to dinner. For dinner we had some wonderful salad, meat, vegetables, and a brownie in an orange cream sauce mmmmm! We came home and went to sleep in our nice warm bed shortly afterwards.
Sunday
Woke up around 9 feeling SUPER rested…I actually got HOT last night, which has not happened in a very long time! it felt so good to sleep in a bed without gloves! Haha…We ate breakfast which was super yummy: homemade hot chocolate, croissants, dulce de leche, and many other pastries…not healthy, but oh so good! At 11 we met up with out “trekking” guide, who drove us and about 7 other people to a trail off the highway. We took our 2 hour hike, it was so laid back and beautiful. Although our guide (Ana) spoke SUPER fast, we were able to understand her so we were happy about that! We hiked to a lovely waterfall and were able to take a picture behind it, it was quite magical. It was a really good time and a pretty nice workout. We got back to the cabaña (cabin) in time for lunch, and made quesadillas, sliced avacado, kiwi, and apples, and had refried black beans….it was just oh so good! We also made some mimosas so that was classy and fun! After lunch was SPA TIME!! ahhhhhh…..so we went to the spa at the resort, and they gave us bathrobes. We had our bathing suits on underneath…the ladies were so nice. We soaked in the Jacuzzi, sweated out our mimosas in the sauna, then took these really awesome rain showers with spouts everywhere! Then we relaxed in this room full of windows that viewed the river and mountains and sipped on delicious hot tea, ate fruit, and read magazines in Spanish. Next was time for the steam room, SO so refreshing! We stayed in there for 30 minutes, and my skin has never felt so good. We went back to the resting room and chilled out for a bit longer…We finished our spa day with a “wine facial” which is full of antioxidants and smelled SO good! Today was the most relaxing day of my life so far, and I enjoyed every second of it! For dinner we had a potato soup, AMAZING DELICIOUS creamy lasagna, and crepes (panqueques) with dulce de leche EASILY my favorite meal so far! We watched the movie The Pianist, then went to sleep. This morning we slept in and now we are just gonna get homework done until our driver gets here at 5 to take us back home! This has been my favorite weekend so far, but I WILL be runnin this week to burn off SOME of what we ate….It was all worth it though!! Chau for now! xoxo
This and That
Weekdays…
This past week was super busy academically, lots and lots of papers in Spanish…I just had to remind myself that I am here for class credit, it cant just be one huge vacay! Haha, it was worth the hard work cuz Thursday night we went to the Hyatt (the nicest 5 star hotel in Mendoza) for tapas a wine tasting. I discovered that I really love red wine (Malbec from Mendoza), so it was nice to try some different ones and eat some incredible food: empanadas, cannelloni, and baby sandwiches!
The weekend has begun!
On Friday, me, Emily, Elizabeth, Emalee, and Lizzie went shopping at “The Shopping” (said with a very strong Spanish accent! Haha, real funny) It was really fun…then Emily, Elizabeth and I went to Jumbo (an HEB equivalent) and bought groceries for tacos for my sweet Argentine family. It was really fun to be at an American-like grocery store…we also bought food for our girls weekend! We brought the stuff for tacos home and found the table was already set for 11 people! Haha, they were really excited. We made the tacos in our itty bitty baby kitchen, and had chips and guac to go along with it….Not only did my family love our tacos, but my body was SOOOOOO thankful for a taste of comida Mexicana! Haha, it was really tasty!! After dinner we chilled out in mine and Selene’s room, talking to her and Naranza (its amazing how much Spanish we have learned!) I discovered my sister has a marijuana plant growing in our room! Haha, I had no idea, I was telling ppl she loves gardening cuz we have plants in our room and Emily and Elizabeth were like, Kendra that’s a marijuana plant! We asked Sele and sure enough it is! Haha, don’t judge her, she is wonderful but its just funny how oblivious I can be sometimes! We went out with her and her friends Popo, Chachi, and Diego to a super sketch bar (by then it was nearly 3 am so we decided we should go to bed) ! it was all quite an experience and was the perfect end to a super fun day with friends, family, and locals!
This past week was super busy academically, lots and lots of papers in Spanish…I just had to remind myself that I am here for class credit, it cant just be one huge vacay! Haha, it was worth the hard work cuz Thursday night we went to the Hyatt (the nicest 5 star hotel in Mendoza) for tapas a wine tasting. I discovered that I really love red wine (Malbec from Mendoza), so it was nice to try some different ones and eat some incredible food: empanadas, cannelloni, and baby sandwiches!
The weekend has begun!
On Friday, me, Emily, Elizabeth, Emalee, and Lizzie went shopping at “The Shopping” (said with a very strong Spanish accent! Haha, real funny) It was really fun…then Emily, Elizabeth and I went to Jumbo (an HEB equivalent) and bought groceries for tacos for my sweet Argentine family. It was really fun to be at an American-like grocery store…we also bought food for our girls weekend! We brought the stuff for tacos home and found the table was already set for 11 people! Haha, they were really excited. We made the tacos in our itty bitty baby kitchen, and had chips and guac to go along with it….Not only did my family love our tacos, but my body was SOOOOOO thankful for a taste of comida Mexicana! Haha, it was really tasty!! After dinner we chilled out in mine and Selene’s room, talking to her and Naranza (its amazing how much Spanish we have learned!) I discovered my sister has a marijuana plant growing in our room! Haha, I had no idea, I was telling ppl she loves gardening cuz we have plants in our room and Emily and Elizabeth were like, Kendra that’s a marijuana plant! We asked Sele and sure enough it is! Haha, don’t judge her, she is wonderful but its just funny how oblivious I can be sometimes! We went out with her and her friends Popo, Chachi, and Diego to a super sketch bar (by then it was nearly 3 am so we decided we should go to bed) ! it was all quite an experience and was the perfect end to a super fun day with friends, family, and locals!
Paragliding and Rafting
Wow!
Long time no blog…So sorry to let my followers down, I have just been crazy busy living the Argentina dream!
Well I will start with last weekend: rafting and paragliding…WOW!! Soooooo much fun!! PARAGLIDING: this was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever experienced…First of all, it prolly wasn’t super safe but we will look past that because I am alive and it was so much fun! Pancho (this super creepy guy that seemed to have some sort of a crush on me, requesting me to call him “hot dog” because that is what pancho means in Spanish…don’t worry I called him Pancho!) picks us up at the plaza and loads 12 of us in a 6 person car…boy did we look silly! So we ride on outside of town and get to the parapente (paragliding) site. Then we pile into the back of a truck and drive up the mountain, which turned out to be the scariest part of the whole experience. It was not safe because there really wasn’t a road on this mountain but whatever….so it takes us AN HOUR to get up there but we finally make it and then we get our partners (the professionals that fly off the mountain with us, its kinda like skydiving)…of COURSE, creepy Pancho aka “hot dog” insists on being my partner, but I don’t let this get to me, I still enjoyed the flight. So we get all harnessed up, and then just start sprinting off the side of the mountain (the whole time I am just praying that our parachute is functioning)…thank the Lord it worked and for the next 30 minutes, we were floating around the Andes…it was absolutely majestic and I am so happy I did it!
RAFTING: 2 days later, we went rafting in the Mendoza river…boy was this an adventure!!! They put us all in wet suits (because we will be rafting in glacier water), and put us on a bus to take us to our starting spot. So we get a very brief lesson about rafting through the Andes, I was so nervous about falling out of the raft, I didn’t though thank goodness! Our guide (‘crusty’) was his name, WEIRD….his English was very broken, and he would said the “F” word before just about every word…haha, it was kinda funny cuz he had a very thick accent! There are 6 of us total in our raft (including Crusty), Austin and Kyle in the front, Emily and Elizabeth in the middle, and Crusty and I in the back. We start off small (class I and II rapids), then as we progress down the river they get bigger… The total route was like 12 km (mas o menos), so after 6 km or so, the rapids start getting bigger and we start getting splashed with glacier water…oh baby it was piercingly cold! We were at the class III and IV rapids so it was super fun and we didn’t care! it was fine until the last 10 minutes (the ride was about an hour long), the last 10 minutes we were just numb and couldn’t move, but it was SOOOO worth it! It was a beautiful experience and one of the guys from the rafting company took pix (they are on facebook and are really pretty)! We ate lunch at the little lodge out there and then went home!
Long time no blog…So sorry to let my followers down, I have just been crazy busy living the Argentina dream!
Well I will start with last weekend: rafting and paragliding…WOW!! Soooooo much fun!! PARAGLIDING: this was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever experienced…First of all, it prolly wasn’t super safe but we will look past that because I am alive and it was so much fun! Pancho (this super creepy guy that seemed to have some sort of a crush on me, requesting me to call him “hot dog” because that is what pancho means in Spanish…don’t worry I called him Pancho!) picks us up at the plaza and loads 12 of us in a 6 person car…boy did we look silly! So we ride on outside of town and get to the parapente (paragliding) site. Then we pile into the back of a truck and drive up the mountain, which turned out to be the scariest part of the whole experience. It was not safe because there really wasn’t a road on this mountain but whatever….so it takes us AN HOUR to get up there but we finally make it and then we get our partners (the professionals that fly off the mountain with us, its kinda like skydiving)…of COURSE, creepy Pancho aka “hot dog” insists on being my partner, but I don’t let this get to me, I still enjoyed the flight. So we get all harnessed up, and then just start sprinting off the side of the mountain (the whole time I am just praying that our parachute is functioning)…thank the Lord it worked and for the next 30 minutes, we were floating around the Andes…it was absolutely majestic and I am so happy I did it!
RAFTING: 2 days later, we went rafting in the Mendoza river…boy was this an adventure!!! They put us all in wet suits (because we will be rafting in glacier water), and put us on a bus to take us to our starting spot. So we get a very brief lesson about rafting through the Andes, I was so nervous about falling out of the raft, I didn’t though thank goodness! Our guide (‘crusty’) was his name, WEIRD….his English was very broken, and he would said the “F” word before just about every word…haha, it was kinda funny cuz he had a very thick accent! There are 6 of us total in our raft (including Crusty), Austin and Kyle in the front, Emily and Elizabeth in the middle, and Crusty and I in the back. We start off small (class I and II rapids), then as we progress down the river they get bigger… The total route was like 12 km (mas o menos), so after 6 km or so, the rapids start getting bigger and we start getting splashed with glacier water…oh baby it was piercingly cold! We were at the class III and IV rapids so it was super fun and we didn’t care! it was fine until the last 10 minutes (the ride was about an hour long), the last 10 minutes we were just numb and couldn’t move, but it was SOOOO worth it! It was a beautiful experience and one of the guys from the rafting company took pix (they are on facebook and are really pretty)! We ate lunch at the little lodge out there and then went home!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Our 2nd Excursion
Uspallata…
What a majestic weekend spent in the Andes Mountains with my dear friends. Wow! The pictures of these beautiful views do not even give this place justice… We saw Sex and the City 2 on Thursday night, and it made us all a tiny bit homesick for American comforts. Simple things like easily accessible WiFi, food that we’re used to, a language that we speak very well, and just the USA and family/friends in general. Well our weekend in the mountains was certainly the perfect medicine for our little bit of homesickness… It was absolutely incredible to be able to spend 2 perfect days in one of God’s most beautiful places.
We left very early on Saturday morning, and arrived around 11 am. They fed us a “snack-aka MEAL” on our awesome 2-story bus (that was verrrrry luxurious, not even kidding). Dr. Supplee (the Baylor director lady) warned us to drink a TON of water to avoid altitude sickness (because we were 10,000 feet up). Of course, I didn’t want a migraine or to puke my guts up, so I prolly drank 2 gallons of water and literally had to pee 10 times during our 3 hour ride. Thank goodness our bus had a bathroom! That was the day of our hike through the mountains to the beautiful view of Mt. Agoncagua (one of the largest peaks outside of the Himalayas and the 3rd toughest to climb in the world). I was very comfortable in my tennis shoes, and super warm in Aarika’s North Face get up, so that made it all the more pleasant. When we got there (it only took about an hour or so), they gave us our real lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and cookies. (I have GOT to start running this week, seriously, I can tell I am swelling up a little in my mid-section!) We ate, and then just walked around and took pictures of course. We hiked back to bus where they took us to our hostel (which actually turned out to be pretty nice to our surprise).
We showered and ate dinner at the restaurant in the hostel. It was really fun, we watched the guys play bowling in the good ol-fashioned bowling alley in the lobby (the pins were “automatic”, set up by Pablo behind the scenes!! Haha, soooo funny!) We were pretty exhausted and went to bed around 11.
Sunday: We woke up around 7:30, ate breakfast (warm milk and cereal…mmm my favorite!), then got on the bus with our various groups (we picked which activities we wanted to do—mine was a 2 hour hike, repelling, rock climbing, and zip lining!)
The hike…
Had I known this 2 hour hike was so advanced, I definitely would not have signed up for it. However, I am SO glad I did because once we made it to the top, it was worth every drop of sweat……SOOOO pretty! There was a cross at the top of our mountain and it was just lovely. (I had a video interview with our guide Jesus, I will hafta show it to you later, it’s pretty cool)
What a majestic weekend spent in the Andes Mountains with my dear friends. Wow! The pictures of these beautiful views do not even give this place justice… We saw Sex and the City 2 on Thursday night, and it made us all a tiny bit homesick for American comforts. Simple things like easily accessible WiFi, food that we’re used to, a language that we speak very well, and just the USA and family/friends in general. Well our weekend in the mountains was certainly the perfect medicine for our little bit of homesickness… It was absolutely incredible to be able to spend 2 perfect days in one of God’s most beautiful places.
We left very early on Saturday morning, and arrived around 11 am. They fed us a “snack-aka MEAL” on our awesome 2-story bus (that was verrrrry luxurious, not even kidding). Dr. Supplee (the Baylor director lady) warned us to drink a TON of water to avoid altitude sickness (because we were 10,000 feet up). Of course, I didn’t want a migraine or to puke my guts up, so I prolly drank 2 gallons of water and literally had to pee 10 times during our 3 hour ride. Thank goodness our bus had a bathroom! That was the day of our hike through the mountains to the beautiful view of Mt. Agoncagua (one of the largest peaks outside of the Himalayas and the 3rd toughest to climb in the world). I was very comfortable in my tennis shoes, and super warm in Aarika’s North Face get up, so that made it all the more pleasant. When we got there (it only took about an hour or so), they gave us our real lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and cookies. (I have GOT to start running this week, seriously, I can tell I am swelling up a little in my mid-section!) We ate, and then just walked around and took pictures of course. We hiked back to bus where they took us to our hostel (which actually turned out to be pretty nice to our surprise).
We showered and ate dinner at the restaurant in the hostel. It was really fun, we watched the guys play bowling in the good ol-fashioned bowling alley in the lobby (the pins were “automatic”, set up by Pablo behind the scenes!! Haha, soooo funny!) We were pretty exhausted and went to bed around 11.
Sunday: We woke up around 7:30, ate breakfast (warm milk and cereal…mmm my favorite!), then got on the bus with our various groups (we picked which activities we wanted to do—mine was a 2 hour hike, repelling, rock climbing, and zip lining!)
The hike…
Had I known this 2 hour hike was so advanced, I definitely would not have signed up for it. However, I am SO glad I did because once we made it to the top, it was worth every drop of sweat……SOOOO pretty! There was a cross at the top of our mountain and it was just lovely. (I had a video interview with our guide Jesus, I will hafta show it to you later, it’s pretty cool)
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