Our journey has been full of challenges, and a major personal challenge for Lisa and I is to learn Español. I mean, we live in a state where almost 50% of the population speaks Spanish, the least we can do is try to learn the language, right?
We are officially enrolled in intensive Spanish classes here in Mendoza, Argentina. It´s certainly been interesting traveling around both Chile and Argentina hacking our way through spanish conversations and trying to get to know locals without really speaking the language. It´s not very easy, let me tell you! This is probably something that we should´ve done at the beginning of our trip, but I guess hindsight is 20/20, right?
On the "home" front....
As you´ve read before, it´s been interesting staying in all sorts of different places, from guest houses to homestays to hostels. We decided it´s about time to get a bit of a normal life back (if only for a little while) and find a place of our own. No more dirty kitchens, plates that are "clean" with food stuck on them, or showers that have someone else´s hair in them.
Yep, we rented our own apartment! It has been SOOO nice. I think Lisa especially likes organizing and cleaning it, it´s hilarious to me. Also, the cost was almost the same as the cheapest hostel that we were in here too. Life is good, the apartment has been great so far. Last night Lisa even made homemade meatballs and chocolate chip cookies! Mmmmm...delicious!! (although very different than at home, more about this in a later post). We´ll post some pictures of the apartment and area too. If you are interested in checking it out on google maps, we are at 730 Peru Street...1/2 block off of Plaza Italia.
As for Mendoza...
One of the reasons for us to check out Mendoza was to settle down here for awhile, learn Spanish, and to volunteer (oh, and to learn how to BBQ Argentinian style!). We got to Mendoza about a week and half ago and were greeted by a HUGE metropolis. Yep, this place is definitely NOT your quaint little town surrounded by wineries with cool architecture and views of the Andes. It was definitely a surprise to both of us. We were obviously disappointed and have had a bit of a tough time figuring out what to do next. Since the city isn´t living up to our expectations, should we stay here and do the things we originally planned to do (learn spanish and volunteer), or should we move on to a place that is more compelling to us? Yes, these are the difficult decisions that we have to make while down here, I know...
Scott
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