brb again
off to see some waterfalls & soak in some jungle heat! be back on monday, have a good weekend! xo
HAPPY BELATED FATHER’S DAY TIMOTHY B.
i just realized that i made a post for my mom on mother’s day & forgot to do the same for my dad last sunday! pretty lame of me. so here’s me & tim back in the day when we were basically twins (except he had way better gams). oh yeah and kaitlin is in the picture too. love ya forever pops!! xo
caballito
as my remaining time here keeps shrinking & i keep panicking because there is still so much to DO & SEE (!!!!) i am getting more & more prematurely nostalgic & have started taking some photos during my day-to-day that will hopefully help me remember what it was like to live in caballito & go to UBA filo which is the coolest school with the coolest students that has taught me the coolest stuff.
speaking of which, i’ll be crazy with school until a week from today, when i’ll be on a bus en route to some giant waterfalls. see you in TWO WEEKS, AMERICA. xx
reverse final countdown
after running around like a totally & complete crazy person last week trying to figure out when i’ll be returning to michigan soil, i finally know that i’ll be back home on july 11. like lots of things in this complicated world of ours, this is very good but also very bad.
#1) it is good because, goodness gracious, i can’t wait to see tim & kathy & winifred & luka & about 1000 other people/pets. for the first time in a long time, almost (and i do mean almost) everyone i love in michigan will be there, & i SERIOUSLY can’t wait to give each of you a big hug that isn’t us both hugging our computers at the same time. i can’t wait to lounge in the sun & take bike rides & go to all my favorite gr haunts (mostly meijer, el sombrero, kathleen’s house, & the 28th street thrift stores). also— LAKE MICHIGAN. it will all be so so nice & comforting & sunny.
#2) leaving earlier also means i’ll be studying up until the moment & leave, & that i’ll have to say an early goodbye to a giant handful of really wonderful people, not knowing for sure when i’ll see them again. this is going to SUCK.
like all of my time in argentina, i’m sure these last few weeks will both drag/fly. i got to thinking about this (time, space, etc.) today as i hung out with my one and only argentine baby friend. as i might have told you, my host mom’s really sweet grandson giorgio comes over every monday & friday. he’s really one of the best babies i’ve ever met because he doesn’t waste his time doing lame/trivial/annoying baby things, & just focuses all his energy on laughing & being cute. anyway, he was crawling all around today & trying to stand up, & i remembered how when i got here he was just a little 6-week-old bundled-up nugget in a onesie. now he’s standing & wearing sweater vests! SWEATER VESTS. i’ve been here for the majority of his life! he’s already graduated to casual wear, &, in a lot of ways, i still feel like i got here yesterday.
anyway, i’m making a promise to myself to enjoy my last days here, & you know, live every day to the fullest, despite exam stress. i’m happy to say that it looks like one big last trip & HOORAH to the iguazu waterfalls is in order for the first week of july, & i know it will be so fun & bittersweet.
hope all is well wherever you are, & i’ll be seeing you soon! xo
patagonia
i’m back! jeez oh petes, patagonia was a really good trip. i don’t have too much time to write, but let’s just say i soaked up enough natural majesty to last me until i’m at least 35.
my favorite activity was definitely the hike we took in el chaltén on friday. we “trekked” (which is a spanish word too!) a trail through some mountains/valleys that ended at a crazy ice lake at the foot of both mountains AND a glacier. the weather was beautiful, and it just MAY be my favorite thing i’ve done in argentina so far (though tierra santa & the espuma party are a close second & third).
now check out all these LANDSCAPES:
view from the plane.
view from bus on the way to el chaltén.
trekking photos:
such a good day! so much fresh air & friendship— closest i’ll ever get to transporting a precious ring to an ominous mountain with a really awesome crew. i’ll never forget it, i swear.
the next day we went on a tour of the perrito moreno glacier. the ride there was super beautiful.
& the glacier was epicccc:
we were even lucky enough to see a giant chunk of glacier fall into the water, which i assume is the most exciting thing that can happen on a glacier tour.
that’s it! we were only there for a few days, which felt totally nuts (it seemed like we could have easily spent two more weeks exploring). still, i’m really glad i made it there at all. shout out to tim & kath for helping make it happen! x
BRB
leaving bright & early tomorrow morning for el calafate & el chaltén (aka patagonia)! i’ll be back sunday night to report back! xo
speaking of kaitlin & art & things i’m missing, i keep reading reviews of the marina abramovic retrospective at MOMA & getting so bummed that i can’t see it. a few years ago kaitlin gave me a book on women/feminist artists. the book was alphabetical, so the first parts i read were descriptions of marina abramovic’s performance pieces. i immediately got my mind totally blown, so i wrote a paper about her for a gender studies class.
i don’t want to get too artsyyyy & i’m sure most of you guys probably know this, but in the retrospective she is at MOMA staring at visitors for nine hours every day (WITHOUT PEEING) while others perform some of her most famous pieces. so if you’re in ny & you’re wandering around the east side & feel like contemplating some heavy shit (or just grazing against some naked people), head on over & tell me how it was! xx
EDIT 6/2: my whole family went! kathy says:
“…We saw Marina Abramovic staring at people. She looked tired. We also saw naked people. Kaitlin and I squeezed through a man and a woman facing each other naked, but Dad opted out.”
CONGRATULATIONS KAITLIN ROSE
in case you haven’t heard, my sister/best friend/hero/role model for life KAITLIN graduated from hunter college this week! she had her final show in the gallery at hunter on thursday, & i wish to goodness i could have been there to see all of her incredible new creations. i am so proud of you kait!!!
as you can see, to celebrate kaitlin’s artistic achievements i did some of my finest face-in-hole work, which is actually a little bit less creepy than the time i photoshopped our adult faces onto our child bodies.
anyway, kaitlin— i love you so much, i miss you so much, & i can’t tell you how proud of you i am. you are the donna jo to my stephanie, the tia to my tamara, the marisa tomei to my bonnie hunt (unless you want to be bonnie hunt?? DON’T EAT MY CRUST).
I LOVE YOU & CONGRATULATIONS!
tierra santa
before arriving here, i knew that one of the things i absolutely HAD to do was visit tierra santa (or HOLY LAND if your español is rusty). it is a religious themed amusement park— but instead of rides, it has animatronic versions of all your favorite bible characters!
now i can’t get too into the deep ideological questions i have about this place (i better get back to studying for my PARCIAL), but let’s just say it was weird. this weekend i’ll craft a 20-page anthropological analysis in my spare time. i’ll also try to post the rest of my pictures on fb!
i probably won’t post until after thursday (so nervous about my test!) but i’ll write more soon! xo
planes (as in plans)
goodness gracious, i really need to start updating more— every day my host mom says “oh how the time is flying since you’ve gotten here!” & the other day my real mom (aka kathy) said “i check your blog every day & i’m aways disappointed with there’s never anything new.” now, i’m sure KJ is the only one with this problem, but i want to say to everyone that i’m sorry i haven’t been posting! i really do PLAN to write so many things (for example, i’ve been dreaming up an argentine FASHION post for ages) but nothing ever gets written, and time is a’wasting! i’m here for two more months (más o menos) & i can hardly believe it— there is still so much left to do! such as:
1: TRIP TO PATAGONIA: my friends & i bought our tickets to PATAGONIA yesterday! we’ll be going to el calafate & el chaltén. el calafate has a giant, beautiful, magnificent GLACIAR, & el chaltén is tiny hiking town where i will pretend that i qualify as a “hiker.” things will be pretty deserted since it’s the off-season (WINTER WHAT) so it will be coldddd. since i didn’t pack basically any of the necessary items for winter wilderness/glacier exploring i will probably just wear all my clothes at once, which should be okay, right?
2. TRIP TO IGUAZU: i am pretty excited to take a weekend trip to iguazu, which is basically just a million hour bus ride plus a day of prancing underneath a waterfall. i’ve actually started to really like bus rides here (they’re kind of luxurious & we’ve watched really good movies, such as this gem). also, as far as i can tell the falls are super majestic.
3. TRIP TO ROSARIO: i’ll have one more trip with my program to the city of rosario! should be super fun & a great way to wrap things up.
4. FINISH MY CLASSES: oh yeah, have i told you i’m taking classes here? & that while everyone in the US is finishing up their semester mine is basically just starting to suck? i have a PARCIAL (aka midterm) in my super hard 6-credit folklore anthro class next week, & i am already a total mess about it (i made a scene in cafe today, taking up two tables so i could shove falafel into my face with one hand & anxiously look up every anthropological word i don’t understand in spanish [& to be honest not in english either]). wish me luck!
5. GO TO TIERRA SANTA: tomorrow i’ll be going to tierra santa, otherwise known as the argentine christian amusement park & not to be confused with this awesome chilean band:
i plan to take lots of pictures of me hanging with plastic versions of really important holy people, & i can’t wait to show you!
more to come soon (FOR REAL). xo!
