Food

This part is especially for my "amigos" in Mrs. Armstrong's 6th grade class. Thanks for all of your comments and questions! A lot of you asked about the food here in Argentina. YES I DID eat the pig intestines. It was bearable, but I wouldn't choose to ever eat it again. Since you are so interested in what I eat - here are a few things that I have discovered during my time here about what and how they eat.

The very thing that you should know is that they LOVE mayonnaise. They put mayonnaise on almost EVERYTHING! This favorite condiment is bought in bright yellow bags (rather than in jars like the in the United States) You can see from this picture that it must be a preferred item to have a WHOLE AISLE of just this product!One of my favorite foods is pizza. I was happy to find that they do eat pizza here. In fact, they eat a lot of Italian food. The pizza usually has a thin crust and they love to put olives on it. What I thought was fun was the way they delivered the pizza to our home. The delivery boy drove a motorcycle with a box attached to the back to keep the pizza. It came in this round container tied with a bow. It was good, but I miss my Little Caesar's 5 buck Pizza!One of the favorite desserts here is one called flan. It is a custard dessert made by mixing and baking sugar, millk and lots of eggs. They put it in a round pan and eat it in slices - like a cake. Laura Mallea is famous for making great flan. She makes one for us for every special occasion.
Another food that they like to eat is the empanada. These are half circles of bread that they fill will all sorts of different things. They can fill it with seafood or with meat or with ham & cheese etc. Whatever they like! They can bake them or fry them. This is one of my personal favorites.

QUESTIONS FOR MY SIXTH GRADE FRIENDS:
Have you ever tried any of these foods?
Which foods sound good to you?
What would YOU put in an empanada?

Bodega

Friday we took the day to get a tour of Mendoza from our friend Wade Alexander who is in the tourism business. Mendoza is actually a great tourist attraction for their famous wine vineyards and Bodegas. After seeing the plazas and some art galleries in the city, we took a drive out into the country getting close the Andes Mountains. We drove right up to the western slopes of the Andes to a place called Salentein. Mendoza is known for producing some of the best wine in the world and thousands of people come from all over the world to enjoy it.

After visiting this particular bodega we were taken to a nearby vineyard called La Tupina where we had an amazing dining experience. We all determined that dining “experience” was the only way to describe it. Our tour guide, Wade Alexander, actually posted a very eloquent and descriptive explanation of the experience on his website that does MUCH more justice than I could ever do. Check it out: http://imagineargentina.blogspot.com/2008/09/restaurant-pick-la-tupia.html

Here is my attempt: The restaurant is situated in the midst of a vineyard. You are first taken to a
cozy home-like setting where you can chat with your Paris-trained personal chef. They had us sit in on cozy couches as they brought us our drinks (coke products for us! We were lucky they even had that. They rarely –if ever- get THAT request at a winery!) Here, they brought us 6 or 7 (we lost count) various appetizers that were each intricately made and presented to us with the finest of details. Every part of the meal was made from homegrown vegetables, fruits and meats
from the vineyard and/or the nearby farm and each was explained to us as they were presented.


After the appetizers, were taken outside to eat in the country air and view the vineyard. The meal consisted of two parts, a sorbet “cleanser” and was followed up by a plate consisting of three different desserts. The entire culinary experience lasted three hours (and that was without wine!) We truly received royalty treatment. It was amazing! I loved being in the beauty of the country and it was an experience I will always remember.

Mini Mission

I got to be a missionary again!

Here is the letter I wrote home to my family on my preparation day (with some edits for those non-Spanish speaking readers out there in my blogging world) It will explain better my experience:

Querido Familia,
Well - I am back in the mission field!!! ! I am a missionary again! I am currently working here in Unimev with my Peruvian companion, Hermana Arcos. A volunteer mini-missionary that was here had to go home early and the new missionary doesn’t get here until Tuesday. I quickly volunteered to take her place and now here I am! Walking the streets, teaching the people, abrir-ing mi boca (opening my mouth), I love it. I am a little rusty but am re-adjusting quickly to mission life. My Spanish has improved tons with having Hermana Arcos with me. I understand just about everything and surprise the people sometimes which is always fun. At church yesterday the people thought I was the new verdecita (greenie, or new missionary). They were really shocked when I could already speak Spanish and I wasn't timid and shy!

We have a family that we are teaching - la familia Calderon. Son Buenísimos! They came to church yesterday and we were so happy! You know that awful feeling where you are standing outside the Chapel waiting for your promised investigators to come and the hour has come and they are not there? That was us yesterday. Although we had been with them just the night before and they had planned to attend, the hour came and they weren’t there. After sacrament meeting we walked out and there they were! Their car had run out of gas and they only had enough money for their food that day. BUT they decided to use that money to go to church instead. They walked to get gas, put it in the car and came to church. We were ecstatic! Not only had they come but they had SACRIFICED to come. We are going over there tonight for a noche de hogar (family home evening).

It is so amazing to be a missionary again. Exhausting, but exhilarating.
Que Dios este con vos! (God be with you)
con amor,
Sarina

Parque San Martín

This is the San Martín Park which is just a few blocks from our home.

Hermana Lindahl and I like to take walks here as we practice speaking in Spanish. People watching provides lots of conversation in Spanish as well as entertainment. The park is always full of people no matter what time of day. They constantly have activities going on and events. Once when we walked by we heard extremely loud music and saw about 100 women doing aerobics in the street!
The streets here are lined with trees and are just beginning to bloom. Soon the trees will be green and all the flowers in blossom.

Fun Fact
for my 6th grade friends
who are following my blog:

Did you know that in Argentina the season are switched? While you are in fall and the leaves are turning red, I am in Spring and the flowers are just blossoming. That means that the people are in shorts and tee-shirts sweating for Christmas and New Years while you are buried in scarfs and gloves! If you could choose, which would you prefer?

My First Asado

One of the most defining aspects of Argentine culture is that of the Asado. The Asado is the Argentine art form of what we Americans would call a barbeque. I call it an "art" because for the people of Argentina cooking their meat is a refined process that must be done in a very specific way.

According to the Argentines a proper asado would entail . . .

*Beginning the fire at least one hour before*
*The use of a special wood*
*(the idea of using charcoal or lighter fluid is a barbequing faux pas)*

*The wood is lit in one corner of the cooking area and later, when heated, spread evenly beneath the grill. I was given this special task*

*Chorizo – pig intestines**A decorative salad to accompany the meat*

*Good friends*

*In addition to all the meat and salad, our particular asado also included 3 desserts: flan, chocolate cake and 7 tubs of ice cream – all of which were quickly consumed! They known how to eat here!*

Where I live and what I do

The Lindahls have made me feel at home real quick. "Home" for the three of us is currently the sixth floor in a condominium complex. This place was not previously occupied by the former mission presidents but rather was found and bought right before their arrival. Therefore, Hermana Lindahl arrived to an empty home with the responsibility to completely furnish their new place. Putting together a new home in a foreign country where you are insecure in the language and unsure of locations was quite a task but she has done a great job and is almost done.