telas aereas aka aerial silks

A random encounter in the park (parqu Saramiento en Cordoba) with a friend of Luci's.

Aerial silks are oh, so cool and oh so intimidating.... I'll let ya'll know when and if I get the chance to try them out. They're quite popular here

No worries people, I promise he's not dying.... just being awkward ;-p

Soy professora, soy estudiante!!!

And all this means that I had both Friday (dia de los professores) and Tuesday (dia de los estudiantes) off from work....
Hello 5 day weekend!
well technically I should say "hello long bus rides" but it's all good when it gets me to point B at minimal cost. Who knows... one day I might even be able to sleep well on buses. Yeah. Probably not, but hey I can dream right? And until then I suck it up and enjoying spending time with "family" and friends in Catamarca and Cordoba

Luci pretending to be an architect (this the girl who's in year 3 of med school!)

pretty building

view from the entrance of Parque Saramiento. I like the ferris wheel :)

Luci being a goofball as usual

severely doubting that I should trust Luci with my camera

watching a group of guys practice "parkour"

so I wouldn't eat there... but admit it, this is foto-worthy

the name says it all

love full moon nights... having argentina's flag there was just a bonus.

Icecream with my players! volleyball that is....

It might have been 50 degrees outside... but were we in t-shirts? YES

Did we decide to get icecream anyways? Heck YES!! 

Was this decision potentially detrimental to my health?

Oh undoubtedly :)

Johnny "leading the charge". Beware folks, he's a trickster when it comes to cards.

Franco, Martin, and over to the left there somewhere is Ariel .... oh wait, I think I spot a leg!

Jere (Jeremiah), Marcella & Raul

Yamila, my frigidly cold self and of course more Jere... he's such a foto glutton

out in front of Grido

Oye Presidenta! ¿Estas loca?

Last week was entertaining.  La señora Cristina Kirchner has declared a increase of national holidays... and this in a country that already has a vacation day for everything from strikes, kids and wine.

The intention behind this publicity stunt (besides bolster her already sketchy public image) is supposedly to encourage tourism through freeing people up to travel and spend money. Genious that...

The problem is, these long weekend (especially the large number of them) wreck havoc on the education system. There are other negative effects to be sure, but these breaks in continuty of teaching a subject or material is really what has my fellow professors up in flames.

It's difficult enough as it is to convince our students that the do in fact need to attend class in order to pass their exams and finals; that they do in fact need to learn to write essays, analyze literature (not just translate it), or you know... maybe turn in assignments once every blue moon. Difficult when attendance is mandatory to only a fraction of the students.

I should probably explain a bit more. After all .... it took me almost a full month for me to figure out the system.
Those students who are "promocional" are required to show up to all classes (ish), turn in all assignments, and as a result if they do well  (8 out of 10 or above) are not required to take the end of the year finals.
"Regular" students don't show nearly as often, are touch and go with assignments and have to take all exams.
And there's a strange classification which they call "libre"  (direct translation is "free"). These students are expected to show when they show and their exams have an extra level difficulty. But if they pass they are allowed to move on to the next set of classes even though they haven't been attending classes. This third classing has its advantages for women with young children or those who have to work during scheduled class hours. But man it does not make our jobs any easier as educators!

Mom I am so proud of you right now!!

My baby sister is ALIVE!!!!

Not to scare anyone or anything, but Mary Mac is  India on a Rotarian foreign exchange and I haven't talked to her in about a month! So yes I was a bit excited when today I not only received a response to the .... oh let's say 5th?... email I had sent her, but she was online in gmail chat as well!! 

My game plan for the day had been to go to pick-up for volleyball. Sports... little "lost" sister... sports... oh who am I kidding? I just spent the last two hours updating her on the eccentricities of my life here and dragging occasional detailed responses out of her. 

One thing that she did seem to find particularly fascinating (or perhaps just entertaining) was the size which mosquitoes reach in India (10x bigger than in Tennessee) as well as the manner in which they are held at bay, ie: killed. 

Electricity. Naturally. 

Apparently screens there (though not all I'm guessing) are charged with electric current which zaps said obnoxious (and disease carrying) critters. Mary however has resorted on occasion to the more traditional method of the good-'ol-hand-slap. Apparently it still works! but may have resulted in the dirtification of her hand with many thousand souls. (so I understand the cultural and religious reference here, but I also understand Mac and therein lies the comedy of the situation)

I love my little sister!

News on other Indian fronts: 

food (ie: its spiciness) has only made her cry once! 

Now either she's been entirely too tame in her explorations of Indian cuisine (I cried like a baby through my first 26-ish meals in Thailand *and I loved every minute of it!) or she is a much tougher cookie than I first suspected. Due to the excellent depths of courage and curiosity bestowed  us by a certain D'Arcy Renee Hughes, I'm am extremely confident that the latter is true. 

Can't wait to see her pictures. 

Here below are a few I've posted for the information and stimulation of us all until she does (at which point I will be sharing and commenting :)

This is personally what some of what I hope to see (and purchase) during my adventure to go find Miss May over Christmas break. Hooray for sari's and bright colors!!

MayMay is living in a (small?) town about three hours east of Mumbai (Bombay).

 

For those of you who were understandably thinking about how far away India is, how spicy the food and different the language might be.... think again. This time, think - I wonder which boots I should wear so it doesn't hurt when i get stepped on by a bull- (though for this to happen admittedly one would have to be deliberately trying to cause mischief by lying underneath one or some such nonsense... my point being regardless, there are many animals underfoot).

Boys and basketball

Three of my university friends invited (translation: coerced) me into coming to watch their game and naturally, what is an American friend good for but to take pictures?? I couldn't complain. It was a good game and they gave me a ride home so I didn't have to navigate the public transport system at o'dark 30 in the morning ; game started around 9:45pm and naturally boys will be hungry after hours of strenuous activity.

But hotdogs? really boys? What happened to breakfast of champions? nutrition and all that good news?

Rodrigo, Denis and Jose

 

up for the tip-off... yay tall people!

closest Jose would get to the net all night... he's a point guard and traditionally a 3-point shooter, but I guess he decided to shake things up

setting the zone for a throw-in

Regatta (the other team) calls a time-out so the coach can rant... he seemed to enjoy doing that

Denis and Juampi taking a breather... long game, few subs. They're tough

Rodrigo wanted a "facebook foto"

talking "business" after the game... Rodrigo wants to open up a "finca", which is essentially a 1-2 room building on several acres of property with a pool, vineyard, and mountain access (yes they have a word that implies all that. Quite a few of those here). So his idea is to make the finca a day-event destination for tourists in local hostels and student groups were they can come, relax and experience Argentine food and culture for a day (food, cooking lessons, music, and horses provided). He's 28, a chef at a local restaurant and has decided it's high time he does something with his life

props. I'd love to see it happen, even if I doubt I could afford a day like the one he's proposing

 

obviously the camera was no longer in my control at this point.... 

Samiah turns...... oh hey look there's cake!!

Campeonato de volei

 El Círculo de Policía.... 

literal translation: "itty bitty living space".

(...said in my best possible Robin Williams voice.)

When my team walked in the door and looked up at the 40ft ceiling (we're accustomed to 55ft+) there was a collective groan of exasperation... after all, even though we're not guys, some of the girls on my team can absolutely smash the ball!  And with force and increased velocity, inevitably the trajectory of the ball upon impact is less controllable.  o joy and utter happiness. 

But for those who I haven't been in contact with recently; a few weeks ago I joined/was invited/showed up to UNCuyo's select women's volleyball team practice. The circumstances were a bit circumspect I'll admit, but the gist of the matter is that I've been playing volleyball 3-4 times a week training for the inter-university tournament final this past weekend. (**special note to all those who know me well.... you know I'm only there to make friends right?? I'm not in the slightest bit competitive.**)

 

Waving to Pablo (the friend with the camera). That's my girls... always in favor of a foto opp.

Set to receive serve or "el saque".

Coach Manolo does his thing - picking apart the competition, MASA's weak points and encouraging us to shape up our game. No unforced errors! All serves in bounds! ha ha, like I haven't heard that a thousand and twelve times before from Coach Brock while playing for GPS way back when.

Keeping up the momentum... together for a cheer after a point scored.

Agu, Roxy and Mari ecstatic to playing the third set (with two sets already in our favor!)

post-victory giddyness... sorry people, there was a 3 min interval of us jumping up and down in circles in true Argentine celebratory style, but when given the option of joining in or hanging back to film... ahem. Yeah, pictures kinda fell by the wayside.

ps: some things, I still don't understand.... I mean look at my face. Do I have any clue what's going on here? Nope.