Happenings of a Thursday

Me and Sarah

Fernando me and Sarah. We made an amazing dinner of chicken, veggies and mashed potatoes/carrots! You can see the steam coming from the plates!

So today I walked to my favorite coffee shop to work on some Spanish homework. I got freshly squeezed orange juice, cafe con lech and dos medialunas to eat. I spent a few hours there, then left around 3:30 to walk to the Fulfer's house. Every Thursday at 4pm they host something  called 'English Talk' at their home for anyone to come who wants to learn English. The funny thing, is there are more Americans that Argentines. We drank mate and ate the carrot cake that Mrs. Fulfer and myself baked the previous afternoon. After English Talk, Fernando, Javier, Sarh and myself walked a few blocks away to get ice cream. The ice cream shops here are heavenly, with over 50 flavors I think! I got two scoops: vanilla with chocolate chunks and mint with chocolate chunks. While we were there, a guy came by asking if we wanted to buy some puzzles. This happens frequently here, if you are at a coffee shop, ice cream shop or hanging out in the park. They come by with puzzles or a deck or cards and tell you how much they cost. They leave it on your table, and when they come back around, they will ask if you want to buy it. Well anyway, he put two puzzles on our table and in the midst of everything they stole a lady's cell phone. They never came back for the puzzles, so you know it was a ploy to steal what they could. The cops got involved, but they can't do much here. There is no protection really... Argentina doesn't protect their people very well from crime. I learned today that if you are child and commit a crime, the law can't do anything to them. So, if you are 10 years old, and kill somebody, you won't get prosecuted and you are free to walk the streets. Kids that are desperate for food can use that to their advantage.
 After ice cream, we took a taxi back home and walked to some shops to get things for dinner. I made chicken with garlic, mashed potatoes and carrots with butter and salt, caramelized veggies, broccoli and bread.
  After dinner, Vale (one of the girls who lives with me) taught us some Tango steps. It started out with her and me, and then we got everyone to join along in the kitchen. She brought down a boom box, put in a Tango C.D. and off we went! It was a lot of fun!

     Things I've learned today:
  Nobody ever has change for 100 pesos.
  I can't find cottage cheese anywhere.
  They don't have bagels here
  The catholic church owns most of the buildings in Cordoba
  Apparently, you have to be Catholic (on paper anyway) to become Argentina's president
  You eat ice cream with a little plastic spoon. I have yet to see some one licking their ice cream cone!
  Your shoes wear out quickly since you walk everywhere
  The ovens have no temperature gage, so you just turn  it on and guess
  We light the oven and the burners with matches (I've know this one haha)
  Teachers at public colleges go on strike all of the time
  August is an EXTREMELY windy month

         This is the 'Two Scoop' Cone.  The little white spoon is how you eat the ice cream. And that's funny is they say 'Tomar Helado' which literally translates into 'Drink Ice Cream'

                                Here are the puzzles that guy tried to sell us in the ice cream shop.

          Vale (the girl with the yellow and white striped shirt) has taken Tango lessons for close to 6 years. She was teaching us some basic steps! But Sarah and I decided to show our ballerina skills off ;)