A wedding party!

I had the great privilege of being invited to attend the wedding of Naty y Boris in Mar del Plata last weekend. Mar del Plata is about 5 hours by bus from La Plata.


Wedding customs are quite a bit different here. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at the church Friday night at 8 pm. The bride arrived at 8:45 pm. I'm told this is perfectly normal. Fashionably late I suppose. From there, we went on to the reception. We had drinks and appetizers to start, eating dinner around midnight. Then we danced. We sat down again for brownies and icecream. Then we danced some more and played some games. Around 4 am we had cake. Early in the morning we danced with masks, leis, and hats until about 5:30, when breakfast was served. More or less, that's how weddings go--a party all night long! The rest of the weekend we took advantage of the beach. We were blessed with warm mostly sunny days.

The Newly Weds!

Feasts!

The Rambows

The spread!
Last week was Thanksgiving. We expats decided it was important take some time off to celebrate on Thursday. For lunch I got together with the Pattersons and Rambows. They have kind of adopted me into their families. We all pitched in to make a traditional meal complete with turkey and stuffing (almost nonexistent here.) I bravely tried making the first pie I've ever made by myself from scratch. The homemade "pumpkin" pie turned out pretty well and was excellent with whipped cream. :)
the pie I made from cooking up a butternut squash

As if that wasn't enough, the ladies of Campus Crusade invited me over for dinner. We were stuffed full with plenty of leftovers. There is certainly a lot to be thankful for! I think we would all agree that we were blessed with a very special holiday.


showing off the turkey!

This week Tuesday in on of the small groups I've been attending this semester got together to celebrate the end of the year with an asado. (Argentina's way of grilling meat). It was delicious and like another Thanksgiving with the amount of food that is so good you keep taking more until there is absolutely no more room and then you have dessert! I tried cow intestines. They had a crunchy exterior and a stranger interior texture. We enjoyed playing games. I helped teach some of the people in our group how to play Settlers of Catan and Bananagrams. They gave me lessons on how to play Truco, a very traditional Argentine card game.
Salad and intestines (first course of our asado)
the food coma resulting from a full tummy
There's a saying in Spanish that's something like, "panza llena, corazon contento" ="full tummy, happy heart"

Feliz Cumple La Plata!

While they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, a week ago was the celebration in honor of the founding of the city of La Plata. Happy 127th birthday, La Plata! Thanks for the excuse to throw a big party. The plaza downtown was packed with people. There were concerts and food and fireworks and mate.

The stage
The people swarming the plaza---in the fuzzy background you can see the Cathedral.

Funke Turismo

The group of adventurers!

Argentines like their holidays. We had a long weekend courtesy of "Columbus Day." Some coworkers and friends of ours decided it would be fun to see some mountains this weekend. We drove 7 hours southwest of La Plata to Sierra de la Ventana or more accurately the middle of nowhere because we stayed well outside any nearby city, traveling on dirt roads to get to camp. It was nice getting out of the city for a while and being able to see stars and hills. The title of the post comes from the company we used during our stay. It was an interesting trip! Overall, I had a good time, but I'm glad to be back around the "comforts of home."
Unfortunately, my poor weather streak while traveling in Argentina continued on Saturday (see Lobos post from July). It rained all day, thus wrecking havoc on our plans to hike Tres Picos--the tallest point in the province of Buenos Aires. This mountain range is alleged to be the oldest in South America.

Instead, we found adventure in maneuvering the mud roads into town to try some of the best alfajores (chocolate-covered, dulce de leche stuffed cookies) in Argentina.

Sunday we were blessed with better weather and made the climb up to a cave. We turned around as the wind picked up and clouds rolled past (carrying rain and a few snow flakes as well) instead of reaching the highest peak. It was an exhausting and beautiful hike nevertheless. I snapped a few photos while my camera battery was functioning.

Happy Birthday to me!

the cake (one of many!)


Last week I celebrated my birthday. Birthdays are a big deal here, so I celebrated pretty much all week long. :) It was a lot of fun. It's common to throw a party with lots of food. I've had the pleasure of attending several parties so far, so I knew more or less what's expected. Saturday night I invited friends over for fondue and cake. I think a good time was had by all.
The food! Cheese fondue followed by chocolate for desert! yum

the friends!

Bowling!

For our small group meeting this week, we decided to take a break from our normal Bible study routine and go bowling. How fun and American! Here are some pictures from our group bonding experience.


This week I went to Humanities with Vanessa to a Linguistics class. I think it will be a good opportunity to get to know some students besides brushing up on my linguistic knowledge. I also signed up for an interior decorating workshop that starts next week through the Fine Arts college. Today I spent time with the Campus Crusade staff talking to people at the Medical School. We had some interesting conversations. From talking to a variety of Argentines, I've found a lot of people are really disillusioned with the church. They'll say they believe in God, but are wary of anything "religious." I recently enrolled in a Church History class through a Bible Institute. I think the class gives some insight into how things get distorted along the way, causing some of the issues that people have with the church. No one is perfect and putting lots of imperfect people together will never equal perfect institutions. We see this in governments, in churches, in schools, in business, and even in families. It's actually quite wondrous that with so many fallible people (myself included!), any sort of "good" organization can result.
Anyway, we've been blessed with really nice weather this week--lot's of sunshine and temperatures in the mid-70s. Spring is right around the corner! I'm enjoying drinking mate out on in the plazas.

The Housewarming Party!

Last night my roommate and I (picture above) threw a housewarming party complete with mini pizzas, snacks, and fabulous homemade desserts. It was fun to invite friends. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking and playing card games. Not to brag or anything, but we received many compliments on the food and our space. For those of you who could not attend, here's the grand tour of our humble abode.

Allow me to introduce you to my home for a while:
Enter here.

This is the living room which connects to the dinning room. Obviously, the sanding and painting work paid off and we've come a long way from eating off a cardboard box on the floor. It's so nice to see it finally come together and be ready for hosting.

Then we have the kitchen, where my roommate makes some yummy cuisine and where I am still learning (aka my other classroom).

The bathroom has a slightly unusual set up (notice the position of the showerhead.)

We have a couple patios to allow fresh air in, but they aren't much to look at so no photos here.
Here's my room supporting the Badgers from the Southern hemisphere.


It's starting to look and feel homey, wouldn't you say?

Dia del amigo

Today is another Argentine holiday, Friend's Day. The holiday began because of the lunar landing actually, an event that brought the world together 40 years ago. To celebrate, we invited some people over for an asado (grilled meat). It was very satisfying. The weather was nice enough that we were able to enjoy the meal outside in the sun and play soccer afterwards. This week we're going on a retreat to Lobos, a nearby city, and staying in a cabin on a lake.