10 things...

(Thanks to Ali for her idea for this post "thanks ali!!!")


okay these are ten things i REALLY miss and ten things are REALLY enjoy about san juan, Argentina.





The MISS list:


1- Early dinners (my stomache hates eating at 11pm, going to bed at 12 and waking up at 5)

2- Milkshakes (A chocolate malt to be exact... so mom FYI, as soon as we get back we are heading STRAIGHT to a wendys)

3- The woods (A few trees in the center of the city definitely doesn´t qualify)

4- Scrambled eggs and REAL ketchup (... big breakfasts in general but especially scrambled eggs!)

5- Blonde people (that title sounds bad, I don´t miss blonde people necessarily in the sense that I´d like them to be here or anything, I will just now fully appreciate the one trait that brings millions of american girls together.)

6- Running with sadie and jessie (running circles around the park is quite boring, especially without two high maintenance running companions to occupy my time... ha ha)

7- Chapstick (either they don´t get chapped lips here or they just don´t care because my tube of Crazy Blu Razberry is going very fast and I have seen no farmacia that carries any sort of chapstick..grrrr..)

8- Dancing in my room (I tried, all I could do in my itty bitty room here is climb my feet up the wall and stand on my hands for a bit... it was lame)

9- REAL jeans (not EVERYone can squeeze their thighs into an ankle-loving pair of skinny jeans and still look good... much less move!?)

10- track.. (I honestly did NOT think I was going to miss track, but I really do, my body thinks its supposed to be extremely sore this time of year and it´s not sure what to do with itself without intervals..or the piere...or hills..or lovers lane......´sigh´)

EXTRAS NOT MENTIONED IN THE PREVIOUS LIST: Public education, freedom of religion, CHEWY!, my piano, our very speedy Mac Leopard, trucks (sigh), "real" boys (2x sigh), grass/dirt, my boots, Roman, cold-nights, walking barefoot (grrrrrrr...), Ceily Highberger!!!!

The LOVE list:

1- Asado! (This is an argentine version of a barbecue... Where various (edible) parts of the cow are placed in this very large wood and coal fired brick oven thing that´s actually just a hole in the side of the garden wall and are roasted... Soooo, Grandpa, I think I have a chore for you and mis padres?)

2- The City (Having never lived in a town with over 5,000 people the diversity here is really refreshing... and with over 400,000+ people, there´s always something going on worth seeing!)

3- BOLICHES!!! (... they come complete with the bouncers (who really do have the stereotypical mustaches!), and the people who "check your IDs" (he he he) )

4- Mate (A VERY traditional tea like drink.. green tea, so technically not tea but it´s actually very good. However, there´s a lot of etiquette that goes along with drinking it (no one told little white girl this!!!) and you have to be offered the mate, you can´t just take it.. it´s a sign of respect and friendship from the person who offered it to you.. When I first heard about it i actually thought it was a drug, like chewing coca leaves or some of that... but lucky for AFS Argentina its completely legal!)

5- Tomar Helado (going out for ice cream, this is good for me (i think), because they don´t keep ice cream in their homes it´s more of a treat to go out...it´s also REALLY good)

6- Independence (It´s not that I wasn´t independent before, in the U.S., (..ha ha), but living here gives me the sort of independence of really figuring things out for myself)

7- Spanish (because I could always have been placed in Germany, Arabia, Turkey, the Ukraine, Russia...)

8- The music (.. Blows my american iPod out of the water... It´s way more fun to dance to, listen to, everything!)

9- Bruno! (is the family dog, he has to be like a million years old, what he has left of teeth are these tiny little white stubs buried in his gums... But he´s a sweet heart and at ninety years old he thinks he´s still king of the streets)

10- Currency exchanges (Always a nice pick me up when you can withdraw 3.5x the cash that your accustomed to being able to spend... an inspiration for many a shopping trip!)

EXTRAS NOT MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY: Latino soap operas, very pretty gold crucifixes (everywhere), "al parque", chicos de futbol que MUY lindo (te he he)..etc