Belated trip sharing

Blah, insomnia hits again. Decided to copy paste from my journal some really late updates.

Okei! Belated update about the South America trip!

Definitely one of the best times I’ve had on any academically related trip and in the category of great memories to hang on to. Argentina itself is a beautiful country, and so very European, with narrow streets, a plethora of dogwalkers, men in felt overcoats on their suits and ties. There were marketplaces (Ricoletta) and beautiful sites, like La casa rosada and churches all over. The weather was chilly, as the southern hemisphere was just beginning to emerge from winter into spring. Still, we were lucky and caught quite a few sunny afternoons, including one in which Elise and I roamed La Boca, which was gorgeous in bright colors (like the Caribbean, but the colors were more primary than floral or pastel) and lively with a steel band and other music. There were art pieces lining the street. We also cut out in the middle of a conference day for a short stint in San Telmo, which boasts an antiques market that reminded me fiercely of Gloucester Green in Oxford. I love knowing a bit about Argentinian history too, the part about Evita and some about Salvador Allende. The gals in the lab, Rani, and Craig all went to learn Argentinian tango on the 24^th (Aguila room) of the Sheraton hotel, where the conference was being held. Craig and I even got picked to dance at the Congress party that was later that night. This is out of order, but were privileged enough to see a Romeo and Juliet modern ballet (slightly odd, but beautiful. The ballet dancers were all incredibly muscular and fit), Senor Tango (PHENOMENAL tango dancers, you almost can’t believe what you’re seeing. They do these jumps and twists and turns and go so quickly it almost seems as though someone’d pressed the fast forward button), and la Opera Pampa, which was an outdoors dancing, stepping, and horse extravaganza, with very probably the best choreographed dancing I’ve ever seen. I had to admire the fortitude of the dancers too, it was freezing just sitting outside, let alone trying to plough through freezing, resisting sand and keep up with the beat (and get out of the horses’s way). I think someone put it aptly in remarking how we’d never see this sort of thing in the US because OSHA would have a fit.

We did quite a lot of shopping and sightseeing, but the little things were just as memorable. This includes Elise and me simultaneously raising the “soccer mom arms!” before a busy intersection became busy again. Brandon noticing the guy smacking the cardboard box with a cat’s tail and yowling meows (and subsequent buying of cat whistles). Playing “Stomp” with the fellow lab rats (and Rani) in one of the outside arcades. The hands down best and most delicious flank steak I have had ANYWHERE and those gooey yummy cheesy balls. Those are darn good. Restaurants not opening until 8 pm (early bird dining, in the Argentinian opinion, thank you very much) and the stick to your teeth butterscotch toffees that seemed to be the candy of choice. Claridge hotel was cozy, clean and very accommodating. While there we also watched Cruel Intentions, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Swordfish in Spanish or Portuguese subtitles, respectively, while we were there. Most of us ended up running short on film too. J There were that many picturesque moments.

Iguazu falls was just breathtaking. We went to Itapu, which is the largest dam in the world (supplies 25% of Brazil’s power and 90% of Paraguay’s, it’s on the edge and is a binational project) and a bird aviary, which tons of beautiful and interesting birds. It’s the largest in South America. Iguazu had a whole different feel from Buenos Aires, which was definitely Cosmopolitan in nature. You could just sense how much more rugged it was when we stepped off the plane, and there were far more trees (the jungle, or “la selva”, as it’s called in Spanish). I still remember having to read a story in Mr. Jurrists’s class in 10^th grade called, “A la deriva” which was about a raft set afloat in the jungle (I think it was a Brazilian jungle too!). IHUM stories about panthers also leaped to mind. The second day we were there (after a breakfast with mango and papaya!) we went to Iguazu falls! It was breathtaking from the very first sight, and never ceased to amaze and enthrall me, the whole day. We saw the Brazil side, even got sprayed and wet right by the falls, and then drove over a bridge over a river that connected Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, and saw the falls from the Argentinian side. Trekking around and about the falls, you could see double rainbows and, after taking a small train (that sort of reminded me of the one in Disneyworld) and a bridge/path over quite a lot of watery terrain (that reminded me of the Everglades but less steamy and swampy) we went to “La Gargantua Del Diablo” or the throat of the devil, and saw why it was called such. Huge waterfalls poured down into this sort of abyss that was so fierce and tumultuous, you couldn’t see the bottom! It would also spit up clouds of spray and mist. We also saw the bottom of the waterfalls from up close via a speedboat. It was what I’d imagine white water rafting to be like. Poor Jim got a shirtful of water (despite a poncho) since he was sitting right up at the prow of the boat.

The other exciting (if scary) thing that happened to us was that while we were at the international airport in Buenos Aires, we were delayed 3 hours because the airport had received an anonymous threat to all planes departing to the US. It was sort of scary, and we all tried to call our respective families to let them know we were okei (we weren’t sure if maybe CNN was covering this or how big a deal it was). As it turned out, it wasn’t really all that big a deal. At least, my parents didn’t think so and didn’t get worried. Which is a good thing, if slightly anticlimactic (because we were all slightly anxious while waiting and hearing about this). All safe and sound though. It was the takeoff that was stressful.

I was home for about 4 days, which was relaxing.

I think I’ll let off this topic and move on to the other fun topic of…drumroll please…Okada staff retreat!

I feel so lucky to be on staff there! So far, so good. Everyone is very nice and it seems that everyone gets along with everyone else, thankfully. No big personality conflicts or argments. Anne is also a sweetheart. She bakes us desserts and always seems to have knitting handy.

For our retreat, we went just south of Santa Cruz and stayed in this cuuuuute house by the beach, mostly hanging out on the second floor. It was pretty cold that weekend, but I liked to snuggle up with a blanket anyways. After getting through a lot of agenda related business, we saw tennis matches on TV (the US Open, I believe) and watched movies. Sin City was sort of traumatizing, but Phantom of the Opera was just darn funny after a while (especially with Lauren and Calvin singing along, both with both the Phantom AND Christine’s role). We gave each other ridiculous nicknames (triple x-teen typing to you now) and walked along the beach a couple times. As Karen rather painfully found out on the first day, the beach was slightly too windy for Frisbee throwing and was not repeated on the second day. Both nights we stayed up pretty late just talking about relationships and whatnot. Scrabble was huge as well (except for me! No thank you).

Almost done with PHE training! Tomorrow we talk about sex, then final wrap-up stuff. Sweet.