So many decisions, So little time.

Well let me begin by saying that although there were no turkey sandwich leftovers, and no pumkin pies, we had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving! The burgers were delish, as were the mashers (prepared by an English girl -I think that's what she called them), the corn (purchased by two very fit swiss brothers from the produce stand all the way down the hill), and the mate (supplied by a native Barilochian who thought she was just stopping by before her date). Before the food festival all our our guests were required to say what they were thankful for- entirley in Espanol! Ten people from all over the world with varying levels of vocabulary and all kinds of accents trying to express themselves after many, many toasts -let's just say it wasn't perfect spanish but it was a perfect evening.
I was surprised to find myself truly sad as we boarded the bus back to Buenas Aires. The peace and beauty in Bariloche is hard to beat.
And now that we are back in the big city the questions begin to pile up. Where are we going to live? Do we want to go to the beach for xmas? Should I go through the school for a spanish tutor? How can I maill all this unnecessary crap that I brought with me home? What are these chips? How can they be so delishious!?! I know that is not really a decision, but Brent just handed me a mediterraneas sabor chip and it blew me away!
Anyhow, we looked at an apartment today. It was very affordable ($700) but no AC. We have three more apartments to see this week. One is in a building with a pool. I have my fingers crossed for that one. They all are in Palermo near the parks and I cannot wait to start running through them!

Off Road Ralley's and Goin' Gaucho Style!

Are you serious? Really? No, I'm not joking here! All I have to give you is $60 and promise to pay you $2,500 US if I wreck it? Fran and I rented a car in Bariloche this past Saturday to drive around the "seven lakes" area and do a bit of site seeing. The rental car guy showed us the map of the area and suggested our route. " If you take this road, you will spend about two hours on the dirt road through the mountains and lakes." For me, it translates like this - " Give me $60 and you can race our car cross country, in an area with fantastic views, on dirt roads, with no police and no speed limit. If you wreck our car and don't die in the process, you will owe us $2,500." Here is your money, where are the keys!!

The trip was truly breathtaking. The scenery went from jagged mountains and rushing rivers, to rolling hills and green pastures to desert areas with rivers. We saw cows, horses, and sheep just roaming around on the roads and roadsides. Made me thankful we were not traveling at night! In the desert section of the trip we saw pink flamingos and three huge deer. The total trip took us 6 hours and the last section back home there are good roads and no speed limit. I got to race some locals. By the way, we named our little rental car the Chevy "Chipmunk" because of it's size, but it could move buddy!

On Sunday, we went horseback riding on an "estancia" that raised sheep. Fran was in heaven!! We were part of a group of about ten and we rode for about 2.5 hours through some cool terrain. We saw huge rabbits, a fox and two deer that were, no joke, both 10 pointers or more. We had lunch of lamb shank and lamb sausage included with a bottle of wine too. We met some great dutch girls we will likely go out to dinner with this week. All in all, a very good weekend.

We made it to Bariloche!

Wow, a lot has happened in the last few days. We had our test last Friday. Guess who received the higher score, Brent or Fran? I'll tell you at the end. Anyway, after our test I hung out with some classmates and had a few beers while Fran went to visit the Eva Parone museum. The museum was closed so Fran, a classmate Jo, and our roomie Penny went to Puerto Madero instead. I think they just had a few drinks too. Fran met me at the bar where we were having happy hour, all the cervesa you want from 6pm to 9pm for 20 pesos, less than $10! Unheard of in the states. Needless to say, I had more than one. We then went back to the apartment for a quick shower and we were off to San Telmo to meet some people from the school for a birthday party. The instructions we got before leaving were to meet at a disco between 11pm and 2:30am. We got there around 11:20 and were then told the party did not START until 2:30am. So Fran and I went to a little club with live music and talked until 2:30 and then went to the disco. We did a little dancing, a little drinking, and ended up getting home around 5:30am. I was in rare form according to Fran. Reference the picture we put up tomorrow.

We happily woke at 9:30am on Saturday to pack our bags for the bus trip to Bariloche. We brought so much CRAP that we had to pack TWO bags to leave with our friend Jo in Buenos Aires. Jo, if you are reading, thank you very much! We will see you in two weeks. So we made it to the bus terminal, 5 bags and a garbage bag full of clothes in tow, in plenty of time. The bus was phenomenal. We each had seats on the top level of the bus, and our seats reclined totally flat and a leg rest came out at your feet, so we could recline with our feet up the whole way. They served snacks, wine, champagne, whiskey, hot meals for dinner all while truckin' it across the Argentine countryside. They showed three movies and had excellent service. I think we could make this business work in the US! A party bus from Atlanta to Vegas, you party when you leave Atlanta, you sleep at night when there is nothing to see, and then you wake up in Vegas. Our tickets cost $100 American.

We got into Bariloche at 10:30am and we got into our house at 4pm. We had to leave all of our bags in the back yard because all the roommates had gone away for the weekend. A father and his two sons had gone to Chile for the weekend, two Swiss guys had gone trekking and camping for the weekend, and I don't know where the girl was. The house is big and nice with a nice back yard, living room, etc. Since the majority of the tenants are young men, the place is not as clean as it could be, but our room is clean, the bed comfortable, and the company is pretty good.

Our Spanish class is Bariloche is small. Fran, and Swiss guy name Beat, and me. Our teacher is very nice, very enthusiastic, and I think we will learn a lot here. The school is much smaller, the classes are all in the morning from 9-1, and it is a lot less hectic in general in Bariloche.

We will describe the town, post some pics, and talk about our way to school tomorrow. Fran got a 79 and I got a 79.5 on the Spanish exam. World scholars we are!