Argentina- Entry 9

 Helado, Asado, Helado (Day 8)

January 20, 2014

Hola! I am so embarrassed to say that I am now a week behind with my entries. I could give you lots of excuses or i could give you updates :)

I met up with Sabrina and Vicky (young sisters from the Chinese group). They get around the city by walking and the bus. So I had my first experience on a collectivo (what they call the local buses). I know I have mentioned that the cars here go pretty fast, well so do the buses. Once the last person gets on, the bus takes off. Like New York City, they swipe pre-loaded bus cards. So, there is still a line of bus riders waiting to swipe their cards while the bus is zooming down the street and whipping around corners. The same with getting off. You have to be ready to jump off quickly before the collectivo revs up again. Quite an experience :) We had a good day in service and ended it with helado . It was a two story ice cream shop with a game/video game room. I wish we had a place like that in Columbia. 

Next was dinner at Valeria's parents' house in the south of Rosario with my aunt and uncle. It was a nice change from eating at restaurants. Jose, Valeria's dad, made asado (barbecued beef and pork) which was deliciously seasoned and juicy. Susanna (Valeria's mom) made, believe it or not, potato salad and fried chitlins (or as they are known here: Chinchulin). The potato salad was amazing. Potatoes are a main staple here, so I should have known I'd be served potato salad at some point. But chitlins??? Who knew. Even though I grew up in the South, I have never had the desire to try chitlins. Pretty funny that my first time eating them would be in Argentina :) And I must say they are pretty tasty with red wine. We sat and talked for hours. How did we manage that? Valeria would translate for her parents and husband, who only speak Spanish. If I understood wha they were saying I would tell my aunt and uncle or wait for Valeria to translate into English. If there was a word or phrase that Valeria and I didn't understand, we would explain it in Chinese to each other. It sounds pretty complicated but it worked out very well. For dessert, we had a scrumptious ice cream cake (of course!).