Fall falls in Córdoba

And other miscellaneous adventures.

Get jamming.

Buenassss!! Before you do anything, throw on some headphones and crank up the volume for a listen to my new favorite Argentine song, Hablando a Tu Córazon. Argentines love rock, and shout out to Coti, my housemate for two weeks, who put it on one morning in the kitchen and we danced our little hearts out to get ready for the day.

Okay, now that you’ve got that playing, here’s the latest!

Fall has been falling here in Córdoba capital, which means some super gorgeous sunny days and others a bit more cold and dreary. I’ve officially switched my phone to Spanish mode so I am learning things like the weather in Celsius and kilometers, woohoo!

A day in the life.

Normally I wake up pretty late, around 9:30 a.m., and do some research or logistics on my computer in the morning through lunch (and mate, of which I am a fan!). I have yoga in the afternoon, sometimes I’ll go rock climbing afterwards, and I am also now officially training for the Buenos Aires marathon in September!

Fall colors by my yoga studio, my mate gourd, and my climbing gym!

Some days I have errands to run, so on the way I explore the trendy Barrio Güemes looking for street art or stop by my corner vegetable shop La Granjita. One of my favorite parts about my day is chatting up shop owners when the stores are slow during siesta time. One thing that’s been funny here is how often people are surprised I can speak Spanish, as if it’s not the second-most spoken language in the United States!

I also have had a LOT of time to cook and search for ingredients for meals. I have been missing Asian food so much while here that I will often walk the half hour to the global foods store to get chili oil and other fun things! Here is a snippet of some jazz musicians playing on the street when I was out doing my errands one day.

Museums, homemade ramen, and some street art by my house.

Otherwise, I go out the university once or twice a week to meet with my affiliate Silvia and get work done in my “box” which is basically a little wood-paneled room the university is letting me use. One of my favorite parts about going to school is the half-hour bus ride there on the 30, so much so that I wrote a poem (in Spanish lol) about it!

Una historia de amor a la treinta.

Sos lo contrario.
Por la mañana te llevas a todas lejos, y estés vacío al revés.
¿A dónde van las mujeres mayores que tienen el derecho de sentarse? 

Sos seguro con mi celu, mi kindle, mi café.
Pero sos ágil, acelerando desde el momento en que mis pies se suben. 

Estoy sudando, pero es la onda de vos, treinta.
Creando más fuerza en mis rodillas.
Un don. 

Fun now, research soon.

Okay, I promise next email I will have updates on my research. This time, we’re focusing on the fun! Lucky for me, my flexible schedule means I can do a whole lot of exploring and traveling, so far just within Córdoba capital and province, which has a ton to offer.

Inside the city, I have gone to concerts, a couple of museums and a bunch of restaurants and parks! I am loving my yoga and climbing gyms, and have also connected with the local Ultimate Frisbee team. And, after beating everyone at Settlers of Catan this week, I plan to become a regular at my local board game store’s social night.

Day hike, Cardellino concert, and Fulbright friends visiting!

I’ve also taken several day trips outside of the city to food festivals, wine tours and even a long weekend of backpacking to the gorgeous Los Gigantes with the Club Andino de Córdoba! That was definitely the highlight of the month for me, and below I’ve pasted some thoughts I jotted down during the hike.

• One thing I love to do is think about the most ideal pasture to be a cow in. Los Gigantes has some pretty lovely ones, although there is little shade.

• If there’s one thing that crosses cultural lines, it’s everyone sizing up everyone’s gear at the trailhead of a backpacking trip. I passed the test, and got to share some feats of ingenuity like the trekking pole tent.

• At first I didn’t understand why everyone was wearing pants and long sleeves, but soon found out. a) the hike was completely exposed and b) there is no trail and we were bushwhacking much of the time.

• Being the only one in shorts and a T-shirt, everyone was super worried about my solar protection! I was fine, but ironically my sunscreen did then fall out of my backpack somewhere so I had to sheepishly ask around for some to use. 

• I forgot that Argentines don’t drink that much regular water during the day, so I had to fill up my bottle more than them. But Argentines have to bring more fuel because they drink mate at least twice per day.

• People bring snacks to share during merienda :’)

• It did make me appreciate California and the crazy amount of mountains, great hikes, and developed trails we have. But it’s super cool how accessible this area was, no permits, nothing!

  

  Los Gigantes was a truly magical trip! I was the only foreigner in the group and had an amazing time.

Staying adaptable.

One of the major sources of my happiness and feelings of home here have been my roommates, so finding out this month that all but one is moving out has been hard. We’ve formed strong bonds, spent late nights laughing so hard we cried and had existential conversations about about culture, politics, racism, privilege, life and death in both English and Spanish. I love them dearly and will miss having them around. But something I’ve been trying to do here is be patient, go with the flow, and not let anything get me down.

Before we get into the journal entry, here is a recording I took of a guitarist when I was visiting the local university’s radio station, Radio Revés, that was positively gorgeous.

One important reflection I have been having is about Argentina and not judging, but simply waiting. That’s what happened at the climbing gym and at yoga. First, I was doubtful—the wall had no routes; the class was too easy. But like always, I wasn’t seeing the full picture.

No routes means unlimited routes once you know how to design them. Easy yoga is built upon as we gain new skills, making hard yoga reachable. In both cases, outside of the confines of U.S. standards, I am improving much more quickly and having a good, chill time doing it.

Maybe the lesson here is that not everything has to be hard to be worth doing. 

To close out my update, here are some food highlights of the month!

A smattering of good eats with good people from the past month!

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