University of St. Thomas : Saint Paul, Minnesota
Tommie Blogs follow the lives of UST Students

Danny's Blog

Lino Lakes, MN

Year: Junior

Major: International Business, Spanish

Activities: Tommie Ambassadors, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, intramurals, CLU, Brass Choir, Admissions Intern

Archive for October, 2011

Una Familia Celeste! (Literally Translated: A Blue Family)

Hola Amigos!

Another week has already flown by down here in Córdoba, and we’re less than eight weeks away from the return trip. Everything seemed to happen all at once for our classes this past week. It was like all of the professors realized we hadn’t really done anything in the past month, so now it’s crunch time with 3 weeks left of classes. I can hardly believe that I’ll be completely done with all of my classes and just left with my internship come November 23rd.

This past week consisted of studying for the most part because I had a quiz and a presentation on Wednesday, followed by a midterm on Thursday. It seemed like everyone was really stressed all last week with all that was going on, and we came the conclusion that it was not because anything was particularly challenging, but rather that we’ve become accustomed to not having a ton to do for school work. I’m already slightly nervous about the adjustment back to UST classes next semester! The one positive aspect about the increase in difficulty that I’ll be facing next semester is that my courses will be in English rather than Spanish. One fun thing I got to do this past week in the middle of all the studying was play volleyball with my speaking partner Marcos and some of the people he works with. It was a nice break from the books, and some much needed physical activity.

Friday night, we met up with a couple of our friends and went to Creambury, an ice cream shop, of course haha. They had never tried the “tabla de helado,” so we thought it was necessary to show them. Here’s a pic of it if you’ve forgotten what it was from one of my previous blogs: 307187_2233157661000_1009674451_32617449_1984721_n. The next morning, we met up with the people from our program and our speaking partners to play a little pick-up game of soccer! It was a lot of fun, but playing on super thin turf laid over concrete gave me some nasty blisters on my feet. On top of that, we were messing around and I tried to do a bicycle-kick, only to land on my ankle and have it swell up. I always seem to injure myself playing sports for fun, but it was a blast either way :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that over the past month and a half we’ve been voting for the people who speak the most Spanish from our group for prizes at the end, and Sarah and I won! She won a free dinner for two and a book, and I won two tickets to a concert of our choice. It looks like we’ll be having a free date in the near future :)

Last night, I got to experience my first Belgrano game. There are two main soccer teams in Córdoba, Belgrano and Talleres, and their fans are some of the craziest I’ve ever seen. It is all out hatred for the other team, making it a very interesting rivalry. Now, they are in different divisions so they never play each other, but that doesn’t stop the other team from heckling and taunting the other before/during/after a game. My family and my speaking partner are all “Hinchas,” their word for fans, of Belgrano, Las Piratas Celestes (Blue Pirates), so I was slightly influenced by them in my decision to become an hincha myself. Marcos, my speaking partner, invited me to the game with his brother and one of their buddies. Before the game, my host dad gave me a crazy looking hat to wear with my Belgrano jersey. This he said would be my ticket to get into the game haha. The atmosphere of the stadium was electric, and the passion in their singing for the home team is incredible! When everyone began jumping up and down, you could feel the stadium moving under your feet. As the home team enters the stadium, everyone throws tons of shredded paper everywhere. Here’s a pic of the aftermath in my seat: 006 Even with all the excitement, Belgrano and their opponents, Colón, played horribly. To top it all off, there had to be the worst referees in the history of soccer calling the game. That’s one thing that doesn’t change anywhere in the world, hatred for the referees. People here even have songs they sing directly at the refs when they make a bad call, which was frequent enough last night that even I began to catch on to the songs! We ended up losing 1-0 because of a horrible penalty call, but it was still a fun night. We also ate some delicious choripan after the game, and nothing beats choripan at the stadium. I’m excited to go to the next game, and hopefully the result will be more favorable!

The week ahead is a free week in terms of PECLA classes, which are half of mine, so I only have my internship and my UNC class. Sarah and I thinking about going to the zoo one day and maybe horseback riding another, weather pending! Also, we’ll be going camping with Marcos and some of his buddies this weekend, so that should definitely be a fun time! I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and stayed safe while out trick-or-treating :)

Chau Suerte!

Danny

When it rains in Córdoba, IT POURS!!!

Hola Amigos!

So after many long months of the dry season here in Córdoba, it finally rained! Doesn’t sound terribly exciting right? Well considering it hasn’t rained since before I’ve been, it may actually be worth writing home about :P I was beginning to doubt the existence of rain in Córdoba because for the past month, they weather people had been predicting rain in the forecast every single day, and just like home, they were wrong. For all of you who get so frustrated by the weather people not being able to predict the weather back home, it may provide some relief that down here it works just the same, if not worse sometimes. Córdoba is considered a semi-arid climate, so the frequent rain isn’t expected. However, 3 months without a drop of precipitation is a little too much for me. I’m used to rain, rain, snow, snow, snow, snow, rain, snow, snow, rain, rain, with a chance of snow always in the forecast because you never know what the Minnesota climate is going to decide to throw at you! Being surrounded by mountains, the city of Córdoba is literally shaped like a bowl, so all of the rain water flows down into the middle of the city. I’d always wondered why their sidewalks were so elevated from the main streets, with huge drains wholes in them, and now I’m well aware as to why. Here’s a picture that Sarah took on her way home, keeping in mind that we live in the northern part of the city were the elevation is higher than downtown: IMG_1584 The streets become a river and everyone panics to get inside, while avoiding the need to leave the house for any reason. This day was the worst it has rained yet, so the water was really high. However, just yesterday, it started raining a fair amount and I had to take the bus to get to class. I was not aware that the buses literally send waves over the sidewalks as they are making their routes, and this is another reason why people avoid leaving in the rain. It was pretty funny for me, comfortably seated on the bus, to watch people running frantically towards the nearest building as the bus was approaching. I saw various people who though they were safe because they were standing right up against the wall of a building, only to find out that the waves could reach them and unfortunately had wet shoes for the rest of the day. I know it’s terrible of me, but I found it rather funny to watch these people going to all extents to avoid the bus-splash. I think the smartest woman I saw was wearing two or three-inch wedges, keeping her high and dry! She kind of looked like she was walking on stilts, but hey, whatever works to keep you above the river beneath your feet.

Also last week, we had an enormous thunderstorm, hail and all. I was at the University in class when it happened, and we didn’t get hit as bad as my neighborhood did. When I took the bus home, all of the streets were covered in leaves, branches, and flowers that had been knocked off of the trees. The Argentinians call hail “piedra,” which literally translated means stone/rock. When my host mom was telling me all about how it had rained stones, I found it rather funny, but understood her point nonetheless. My host dad was telling me about how big they were, and it seems to me like they had to have been at least quarter size hail. He also told me about his ingenuity in moving the car out of the hail by placing a cardboard box over his head to protect him from the hail. I can just picture my host dad running outside with a box on his head while hail is battering down on him and it just cracks me up every time I picture it haha. The next morning, we had to cleanup the mess the storm had left from the night before, and to my surprise, there were numerous dead pigeons all over our yard and the streets. I guess I never really thought about the danger hail poses to birds nesting in the trees, but it makes total sense. My host dad proceeded to pick them up and show me every time he found one dead in our yard, and he probably found a solid half-dozen. Our cat took care of the wounded ones he told me, as he saw the little black devil, Mefi, attacking a wounded pigeon on the ground. It’s a really sad picture, but such is the wild I guess.

This past weekend was really laid back because the weather wasn’t exactly the best, with sporadic rain and thunderstorms. Sarah and I did manage to get out for a mini-date on Friday night when we went to Don Luis’s Pizzería in downtown Córdoba. It is famous for it’s “deep-dish” pizza, so we thought we’d give it a go, seeing as how much we miss good pizza. The pizza wasn’t exactly deep-dish, nor what we were expecting. It wasn’t bad, but when you have high expectations for a quality deep-dish pizza in Argentina, you’re easily disappointed. They don’t really understand the whole deep-dish concept and basically it was your typical Argentinian pizza with thicker bread. We had to try it though, and like I said, it wasn’t bad, we just had to high of expectations. After this, we spent the evening people-watching and talking in Plaza San Martín because was an absolutely gorgeous night. We ended the evening with a little delicious treat from Bariloche, and even splurged on the chocolate-dipped cone ;)

Yesterday, I finally received my birthday package from my family, only a month late due to the Argentinian postal service. It was filled with 21 fruitsnacks for my 21st birthday. For those of you who don’t know me, I eat fruitsnacks like they are going out of style, so the three months without them is somewhat torture for me haha. Needless to say, a day later and they are only six left :) I did share a few of them, but I’ll admit to eating the large majority! The week to come is going to be full of schoolwork, something that’s not very common down here. It seems like we haven’t done anything school-related for the past three weeks, and now we have all of our exams in one week. This weekend, we’re looking to make a trip to somewhere within the province provided the weather holds out! I can’t believe we’ll be home in less than two months now. The time has flown by incredibly fast, and there’s still so much we want to do! I hope all is well back home and I miss you all lots :)

Chau Suerte!

Danny

Fiesta de la Música Bizarren! (Bizarre Music Festival)

Hola Amigos!

I’m finally getting around to posting a blog about my adventures last weekend, and I apologize for the delay. For not travelling anywhere, it was still a weekend full of random things going on around Córdoba. We heard about a ballet that was going to be in town this weekend and tickets were only $10 pesos, so we decided to visit the Teatro de San Martín on Friday night. I’m not afraid to admit that I actually enjoy a good ballet, one where I can follow along with what’s going on as well as listen to a live band perform the accompanying music. However, not only could I not understand a word of the narrator, but there were recordings instead of an actual band. Ballets don’t typically have narrators either haha so I guess that pretty much explains the quality. The theater was absolutely beautifully and I’m looking forward to going and seeing a concert there because I heard the acoustics are spectacular. Also, Sarah found out the Nutcracker is going to be coming in a couple of weeks, so we’re going to try and get tickets before it all sells out!

Saturday we decided to go to the Paseo del Arte Artesenal, which is an art fair that goes on every weekend downtown with a bunch of local artists. We had to find gifts for our host moms, seeing as Sunday was Mother’s day in Argentina. Buying for your Argentinian host mother isn’t the easiest thing, as we quickly found out when we had no idea what to get or how much to spend. I ended up buying some rose shaped candles, and an over-sized mug with a goofy looking cat on it because my host mom drinks a lot of tea and loves cats. Random, yes, but she really liked it! Afterwards, we met up with my speaking partner, Marcos, and his sister to get ready for the music festival. Marcos invited us over to his house for dinner, as well as to prep for the festival because everyone goes dressed up. He had the brilliant idea of going as Tetris blocks! There were five of us in all who went as Tetris blocks, and here’s how our costumes turned out: 308352_2523781934525_1252650162_2928028_276847773_n Needless to say, we were the hit of the festival and there are tons of pictures of us because everyone wanted a picture with the “bloques de tetris!” The Bizarre Music Festival is a concert that is put on monthly here in Córdoba, and they bring back bands that were popular about 20 or so years ago. It would be like bringing N’SYNC or the Backstreet Boys back for a concert in the US because everyone remembered the songs from their childhood and was belting them out as loud as the possibly could. It was a ton of fun, and I’m glad we got to experience this cultural event! We didn’t end up getting home until 6 AM, something Sarah and I had not done for a long time down here. I think the last time we stayed out that late down here was before our trip to Puerto Madryn haha.

For Mother’s Day, my host mom decided she wanted a relaxing day to herself, so I really didn’t see her until dinner that night. I spent some quality time with my host dad watching soccer all day because the internet was out and there really wasn’t anything else to do. We went out and got some ice cream, Bariloche of course, and ended up watching some football for a little bit afterwards because I found it on one of the ESPN channels. It was only the Panthers and the Falcons, but it was still nice to watch some good American Football for a change! I met up with Sarah that night for mass, and afterwards headed home where I had dinner with my host family and we gave Roswitha, my host mom, her presents. She was very grateful for all of them and she said she enjoyed her relaxing day, free from any work whatsoever. It was neat to be able to participate in a family celebration down here and see how they celebrate holidays that are similar to ours back in the US.

There are no concrete plans as of right now for the weekend, so we’ll see what falls in our lap. We still have lots of places we want to visit in the province of Córdoba before we leave, but it’s supposed to rain/thunderstorm, so I’m not so sure we’ll be able to this weekend. I cannot believe that we’ll be leaving in just over two months. The time here has flown by and I can’t exactly describe how I feel about going home at this point. I’m extremely excited to come back for Christmas and see all of my family and friends because I miss everyone a ton, but at the same time it’s sad to think that I may never be back to Córdoba and may never see some of the people I’ve met down here again. This whole experience has been a roller-coaster of emotions and there’s still two months to go so I’m sure my attitude will fluctuate even more. I hope everything is still going swimmingly back home and I miss you all lots!

Chau Suerte!

Danny

Iguazú Falls – Easily one of the new 7 wonders of the world!

Hola Amigos!

I have to start this blog out by saying that if you’re somebody who likes adventure and incredible forces of nature, you should definitely put Iguazú Falls on your bucket list. They are the second largest waterfalls in the world, and I honestly cannot even begin to imagine what the largest ones look like. This past weekend was a long weekend because we had Monday off, so we decided to head up north to the Puerto Iguazú to see the infamous waterfalls. Everyone we’d talked to about Argentina told us that we could not leave without seeing las cataratas (spanish for waterfalls). It’s a 22 hour bus ride from Córdoba to Puerto Iguazú, which meant we had to leave Friday around noon to get there by Saturday morning. We arrived in Puerto Iguazú around noon on Saturday, just as it began to rain. Puerto Iguazú is located in the Amazon rain forest, so we were prepared for the weather. After locating a hostel, we got on a bus that would take us out to the national park where the waterfalls are located. Thankfully, I packed a pair of swim trunks, so the rain really didn’t bother me at all. It was still raining pretty heavily when we got to the park, which actually worked in our favor because it meant that there were very few tourists and that we could walk at our own pace and take as many pictures as we wanted. Upon entering the park, we noticed how similar it appeared to Jurassic Park. After entering, you have to take a train, which brings you into the jungle. Words don’t do Iguazú justice, and quite frankly, neither do any pictures that you can take. I did the best I could to capture the natural beauty that emanates from this majestic place, but like I said at the start, you need to experience it for real to really capture the awesomeness! Even though we arrived late in the day, we were able to walk both the upper and lower circuit before the park closed because there was hardly anybody there due to the rain. Here are some of the views from the upper and lower paths: Iguazú!!! 117 Iguazú!!! 084 This was my absolute favorite because we got sprayed by the waterfall as we were trying to take the picture: 314686_2357582491543_1009674451_32721834_755421686_n The falls were at full capacity the first day so we weren’t able to take the boat over to the nearby island. After spending the afternoon at the falls, we made our way back to the hostel and started cooking pasta for dinner.

The next day, we headed back to falls for a full day of exploring. Sunday was much nicer weather-wise, and as a result, there were tons of people at the park. Luckily we had gotten through both circuits Saturday so all we had left was the island and “la garganta del diablo,”which literally translated means devil’s throat. The water had receded a little, so we were able to take a boat over to la isla de San Martín where there are excellent views of the falls. Here’s a view of what the falls look like from the island: Iguazú!!! 110 After exploring the island for an hour or so, we decided we wanted to take a boat excursion that brings your right into the falls. We didn’t regret our decision even after we were soaking wet from head to toe afterwards. I cannot put into words how cool it was to drive head on into the second largest waterfalls on the face of the earth. If you get the chance to go to Iguazú, I’d highly recommend the boating excursion! To conclude our day at the park, we made our way to La garganta, and we had saved this for the end because we had heard it was the most impressive so you didn’t want to be disappointed by the other waterfalls. Boy oh boy am I glad we waited! I could not believe the amount of water that continuously goes over those falls! It was easily the most incredible thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. Here’s a pic of La garganta, but remember, pictures do not really reflect just how impressive these massive waterfalls are: Iguazú!!! 137 What an epic way to end a magnificent day at Iguazú! Upon returning to the hostel, we headed to mass downtown and then made a handful of pizzas as we relaxed for the evening. There were many different creatures that came and visited in us in our hostel. One being a baby coatie. I forgot to mention that there are what look like a cross between a monkey and an anteater in Iguazú that are called coaties, and they are mischievous little devils because if you aren’t guarding your things, they’ll rip open your bag and steal you food. This happened to one of the girls in our group and here’s a pic of the little guy enjoying the sweet taste of victory: Iguazú!!! 083

Monday morning, we went to a rescue animal shelter that had all kinds of different animals found in the Amazon. The coolest animal we saw was a Spanish-speaking parrot! Ahead of us was a little boy who kept shouting things to the birds, and they would repeat him. I couldn’t believe it nor could I stop laughing! Here’s a pic of one of my favorite birds they had there, the toucan: Iguazú!!! 159 We boarded the bus back to Córdoba after our Iguazú adventure and made the 22 hour trek back before classes started again the following day. I have to say it was one of the most incredible adventures I’ve ever been on and I’ll forever remember the natural beauty of Iguazú!

For the last week, we’ve been having storms and whatnot down here, and as a result I haven’t been able to get on the internet so that is the reason for the tardiness of this post. Iguazú was two weekends ago now, and I have more stories from this past weekend that I’ll be posting tomorrow hopefully if the internet cooperates with me! I hope all is well back home and I can’t believe I’ll be back in less than 10 weeks now! Man how the time flies :)

Chau Suerte!
Danny

Oktoberfest (Argentina Style) and Asado (BBQ Argentina Style)!

Hola Amigos!

First off, I’d like to apologize for the tardiness of this post. My internet stopped working last Thursday because of the storms and didn’t come back on before I left for Iguazú. Here’s the blog from two weekends ago, and I’ll be posting the Iguazú blog tomorrow or the next day!

All I have to say about my weekend is that it was FANTASTIC!!! Not only did the Tommies stomp the Johnnies, but I also attended the third largest Oktoberfest in the world as well as an asado. We’ll start with the adventures at Oktoberfest, seeing as that came first on Saturday. For those of you who’ve been reading my blog since day one, you’ll remember that the first mini vacation Sarah and I took was to Villa General Belgrano, for the Chocolate Festival. You’ll also remember that the Chocolate Festival was a little disappointing, seeing as it was confined to one small building. Let’s just say that Oktoberfest blew the Chocolate Festival out of the water! The whole town shuts down for the week-long festivities of Oktoberfest and people come from all over to experience this great past time. We only went out for the day on Saturday, leaving Cordoba at 8:00 AM and getting back around midnight. Villa General Belgrano goes all out for Oktoberfest, setting up this epic entrance to the park where they hold the festivities: OKTOBERFEST!!! 029 Everything starts off with a parade that essentially brings the celebration into the park, as it marches down the main drag of the town. The parade included everything you’d expect to see in a German festival: beer, tuba players, German dancers, funny hats, more beer, and, of course, leiderhousen! These little guys all decked out in their German attire were probably the most adorable part of the parade: OKTOBERFEST!!! 019 I don’t know if any of you have ever attended an Oktoberfest before, but there are certain things you should be informed of if you haven’t. First thing that surprised me was the sashes that hold your mug that you can buy. At first glance, I thought they were luggage straps that said Oktoberfest on them, but upon further review and seeing people using them, I discovered they work perfect for holding  a mug. Secondly, you need to buy your on mug before entering the festival. I found a really cool wooden mug, and here’s a picture of my whole setup: OKTOBERFEST!!! 036 When we got inside the park, everyone just seemed to be in a good mood. People were dancing, singing, and jumping around. It was impossible not to smile and laugh at everyone surrounding you. We tried a few different beers, all of which were “home brewed” in Villa General Belgrano, and there were some good ones and some not so good ones haha I think the most fun part of the whole experience was just sitting down and watching everyone else go crazy! We probably could have sat there the entire day, simply amused by our surroundings.

Sunday, my speaking partner, Marcos, invited Sarah and I to his parent’s house out in Biallet Masse, about an hour outside of Cordoba Capital, for an asado, which the Argentinian version of a BBQ. Everyone had been telling us that they couldn’t believe we’ve been in Argentina for three months now and still hadn’t tried an asado. In our defense, we could not control this because we didn’t know how to! I now know everyone speaks so highly of asados. Marcos’s dad loves to cook asados, and has one every single weekend, so needless to say, he knows what he’s doing. Here’s a picture of Marcos’s dad and uncle cooking the asado over the parrilla: OKTOBERFEST!!! 039 It had to be one of the tastiest BBQ’s I’ve ever had thus far in my 21 years of existence. Marcos’s dad said next time he’s going to teach me how to “asar,” which is the Spanish verb to have cook an asado. There were a bunch of different types of sausage and other meats, all incredibly delicious. Marcos’s mom kept putting more meat on our plates, along with a tomato salad, a corn salad, and grilled potatoes. I kept eating because I didn’t want to be rude, and they made a small mountain of food for the seven of us. It had to be the most full I think I’ve ever felt in my life, because I wasn’t hungry for the next 24 hours haha. We spent the day with Marcos’s family, enjoying the beautiful weather and just chatting about life. It was really relaxing, as well as great practice to speak Spanish with native speakers. There was a lot of traffic coming back into the city, which meant we didn’t make it back in time for mass at Schoenstatt unfortunately. However, Marcos took us to a cathedral downtown where they have a student mass later at night, which we’d heard about and wanted to go to anyways so it worked perfectly! Celebrating mass with well over 1,500 students from different parts of the country/world was absolutely spectacular. I’m really grateful we had the opportunity to attend this mass before leaving because it reminded me of being back at St. Thomas and Last Chance Mass! There’s just something special about celebrating mass with a bunch of your peers that I really can’t explain.

Tomorrow, we leave for Iguazu, the waterfalls, for the next few days so I won’t be posting on here until after we get back on Tuesday. I’m super pumped to see the waterfalls because everyone has said they are absolutely breathtaking! The only thing I’m a little nervous for is the 22 hour bus ride to get there :/ Oh well! I know it’s going to be totally worth it and I cannot wait to get there :) I hope everything is going well back home and I miss you all!

Chau Suerte!

Danny

Spring Break Patagonia Part 2!

Hola Amigos!

Here we go with the rest of my Patagonian adventure :) After our little adventure to Playa Doradillo by bicycle, we figured it’d be best to take the next excursion in a vehicle. We left the next morning bright and early for Puerto Píramides, the best place to see Southern Wright Whales in Patagonia. Puerto Píramides is a quaint little town that revolves around tourists coming in to see the whales. We were scheduled to go out on an hour and a half whale watching excursion, and after we bundled up with all of our life jackets and ponchos, we boarded the boat. It didn’t take long to find the whales, seeing as they are enormous and there are copious amounts of them in the bay. The only word that comes close to doing justice to these mammals is impressive. Growing up to around 45 feet long and weighing up to multiple tons, the Southern Wright Whale is one of the largest whales. I’d have to say that one of the coolest experiences of the trip was seeing a full grown whale swim directly under my feet! Here’s a pic of how close they came to the boat: Puerto Madryn! 131 We were probably surrounded by 10-12 whales feeding on the surface of the water. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any whales breach really close to the boat. We saw one breach way off and the distance. I’m not quite sure how an animal that large can jump out of the water, and it will forever impress me! After our whale watching excursion we continued around the Valdes Peninsula where we saw a wide variety of animals from a hairy armadillo Puerto Madryn! 171 to elephant seals Puerto Madryn! 183 The only downside to this excursion was that most of the people in our excursion were much older than us and wanted to stick to a strict schedule. They might have been the first Argentinians we met that had a strict concept of time haha :)

Friday, our last full day in Puerto Madryn, we made our last excursion to Punta Ninfas, and once again it was just us, our friends, and good ol’ Martín. Punta Ninfas is not a wildlife reserve, so we were able to go down on the beach and get right up next to the elephant seals. During this time is when the baby elephant seals are being born so you can see all different sizes of them, making it the best time to go. Baby elephant seals look, and sound, like a puppy. They are furry and black and about the size of a full grown dog. Here’s a picture of Sarah petting a baby elephant seal: ninfas23-09 482 As you can imagine she was pretty stoked after she petted the baby :) After spending a day at the beach with the elephant seals, we made our way back to Puerto Madryn. The only animal we didn’t see in any of our excursions that can be found in Puerto Madryn was an Orca. They typically don’t start arriving until October or November so it would have been incredibly rare to see one. That night, our friends told us we couldn’t leave Patagonia without trying cordero patagonico (Patagonian lamb). Martín recommended a nice restaurant where he told us they make some of the best lamb so we decided to give it a go for a nice little date. Patagonian lamb has to be one of the tastiest meats I’ve ever had! They have a sauce here called chimicurri, and the lamb with a little bit of the chimicurri on top was to die for :)

Our bus didn’t leave until Saturday evening, so we decided to leave our stuff at our hostel after we checked out and walk along the beach about before leaving. We spotted this little fellow on the pier as we were walking: Puerto Madryn! 248 The water was still pretty chilly, seeing as it is the very beginning of spring, but we decided to take off our socks and shoes and test the water anyway. After walking for a bit, we made our way over to Categoria Patagonia to say goodbye to Martín and to pay for our last excursion. He made us a DVD with over 800 photos he’d taken on our excursions with his fancy camera! Also, he put on there some of his favorite pictures he’d taken from excursions in the past, and let me tell you, they are absolutely breath-taking! Here’s a little taste: 030810peninsula 034 Before leaving Puerto Madryn, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a pizza shop nearby. Unfortunately, the pizza didn’t sit too well with my stomach and I spent the night in the bathroom of the bus haha Thankfully it was at the end of our vacation and not at the beginning ;) We got back to Córdoba in the early afternoon on Sunday, which also happened to be my 21st birthday! To celebrate, Sarah came over to my house after mass and my host mom made us a nice dinner, which tasted a little like Chinese food. Overall, I would say it was a spectacular vacation and I can’t wait to travel some more while I’m down here!

I’ll be posting another blog here tomorrow or the next day telling y’all about my weekend adventures, which included Oktoberfest, the third largest in the world, as well as an asado, which is an Argentinian BBQ! I hope all is well back home and just want to end with a WAY TO GO TOMMIES!!! Beating the Johnnies 63-7? Did they even show up???

Chau Suerte,
Danny