Al Concerto del Filarmonica orquestra con Max

Max Romero Day is a young man from Argentina who spent a year in Chattanooga, 3-4 months of which he spent living in my house. Ironically enough, Max is now in my History class here in Argentina. We did not arrange this. It just happened. Small world that.
Excited to see me again, Max invited me along to an annual concert performed by Mendoza's Philharmonic Orchestra to meet his family and enjoy the music.

inside Teatro de Independencia

Max, a friend of his mother's and his mother there in the glasses with the very strong chin. Lovely lady. Teases me as if she had known me for years :) And apparently an expert at card games, but that remains for be seen...

Max's younger sister and a Rotarian exchange student from Germany named..... fail. I'll work on that...

A folklore (accent on the last 'e') choral group. Good singers, great fun, excellent musicians

The queen of I'm not sure what industry making her token speech.
Maybe it was Petrol?

Nature shots for mom

Love you!

so these green birds... looked 100% tropical to me.
And perhaps that will mean a bit more when I mention that is was perhaps 40 degrees fahrenheit outside?

At the plaza with the Lauria boys

So crowded! There had to have been at least 500 people there. this is only half of one of the four sides of the plaza. Everyone was out, bundled against the night's chill, drinking mate or sharing a flavorized water and galletitas "little cookies"

Matias hiding from the camera and Juancho making faces as usual.

painting and Carlos Paz with Cousins

There was paint and messes, so of course I had to be involved ;-p
Painting the trim of the living room... so much fun!

Gaby won the last-man-standing contest for "Who can stay in bed the longest", outlasting even Luci, at a whopping 1:26pm. I'm sure he's capable of more, but the rest of our tummy's weren't feeling particularly tolerant so we sped up the process.
*What you don't see in the picture are his Dad and older brother grabbing his feet and pulling him out of the bed.

Luci :)

Parked on the side of the street in Carlos Paz, rocking out to old Elvis Presley tunes while waiting for Fede and la Mami (Mrs. Francis) to show up. Unbeknown to us, they had already reached the restaurant and taken out a reservation...

Having fun while waiting for our names to be called at the restaurant.
These are all famous people in Argentina's history.

Taking a walk to let our food settle.
*Oh and by the way, my apologies for not taking more food pictures. It was really too good for me to wait. That will however change and I focus on strengthening my self-restraint and enthusiasm. (Right. Good luck on the enthusiasm bit, but there will be more fotos)

Luci (luciana) Francis was just a girl when I left Argentina 6 years ago; Fede (federico) Francis was 19 and struggling with too-many-alpha-males-in-the-house syndrome. Man have things changed. My fun little friend who's quinciñera (15th birthday celebration) I so merrily celebrated, is now a third year medical student and dating a boy in Israel (the boy I knew about... we've been keeping in touch). Fede, is a semester or two away from graduating college (takes longer to work your way through the system here), owns his own small furniture business and is contemplating integrating into his father's larger set-up back in Catamarca.

Weekend in Cordoba visiting family (rotarian host family)

Belen, Agustin and Juancho's apartment is just there on the right of this foto. Claudia and Cacho (my parents from my second host family while I was in Argentina the first time, 6 years ago) had driven into town to see the kids during the long weekend. My sister Vicki wasn't there. She was mid-way through a Rotarian exchange to Australia, but in her stead was a cool gal named Mily from Sydney who I quickly became friends with. Good food, cooking lessons (Mily and I learned how to make ñoquis, heated discussions over who should win the Roger cup (my brothers are avid tennis fans) and an epic guys vs girls bowling match. Girls took first honors, but then unfortunately our luck ran away from us and the guys swept us... major bummer.

a view of downtown Cordoba

Exploring the playground. I'm walkin' up an incline in boots. yeaaaaah. I'm bad. ;-p

a crowd of boys arrived on their bikes and skateboards to play soccer/futbol. I wished for my cleats so I could play, but knew I wouldn't have had the courage to invite myself in to what was clearly a neighborhood rumble

My host brother Agustin. Family resemblance much??

Agustin Lauria.... proof to the world that Argentine men can too cook!!

Sunshine, finally!!

And what a difference a bit of blue sky makes!
I know my friends at least have noticed that since the sun has come out of hiding I've only stopped singing long enough to breathe. Don't think I'm kidding :) At least most of the time I'm civilized enough to keep it quiet to where only I can hear myself. Long walks and runs are good for this.


Long walks and runs are also good for healthy amounts of exploring which I have been giving my best shot. Both a bus pass (which I have to top off with credit every 10 rides or so) and a cellphone have been acquired making my life infinitely simpler.
Not only have these things enabled my social life, but communication with my host mother as to my wearabouts and my destination for dinner (home or otherwise) keep us happy with each other and her stress levels down significantly.

Big Mountains & crazy cold

As they say... Welcome to Mendoza, Argentina!
The mountain, with sunlight glinting off their snow-capped slopes and peaks was entice, I'll give you that. But the landing quickly squelched any enthusiasm I had worked up over the weather. Pea soup. Bleh! No wonder we were delayed for so long in Santiago's (Chile) airport.

Once again with the record breaking in cold places... Geneva did this to me too ;-p
Thick clouds, intense cold, polar weather front chilling the countryside at a rate which had small trees on campus completely frozen over. Being a mostly arid region however, at least I didn't have to deal with waist-deep snow. Counting my blessings over here.

The language though!! I am once again surrounded by castellano, that is to say 'spanish', and I am loving it! The professors (all of them female) are wonderful, welcoming and excited to be working with me. There being over 40 of them, I am unlikely to learn all of their names anytime soon, but I am hopeful that by the end of semester I will accomplish the task.

Summer farewell dinner

And the family's reactions can summarized as:
Kelsey... you're leaving us AGAIN?

Well, I mean someone's got to go to Argentina (I shrug). Don't you think it should be me? Of course when one takes to account the general exodus of female persuasion of my generation - Margo to Florence, Italy for the fall, Mary Mac to India for the whole year, and myself to Mendoza, Argentina until December - I guess it's understandable.
Nevertheless we Hughes' + the requisite Bostrom contingency, can feed a crowd with the best of them. And so we did...

The ladies in teal. So much more in style than red

Allie: eating here!

Jesse Walker was unavailable, but we adopted Andrew Walker in his absence

Shenanagins are a family tradition