Last Supper

This week's weather: upper 60s, intermittent rain, Fall is coming.
This week's read: Leviticus.

Today was my last day in Cordoba. I can't believe I've been here over a month already! It feels like I've just arrived... Or that I've been here for forever.

A taste of what it's like sleeping on bunk beds, sharing a room with 3 dudes. Fortunately for you, I don't have a way to share the unique odor that welcomes you. 

And after reading Leviticus:
"Everything the [unclean] man sits on when riding will be unclean, and whoever touches any of the things that were under him will be unclean till evening; whoever picks up those things must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening."

Makes me wonder what I've sat on in chairs in restaurants, pews in church, benches in the park.
I had the sudden urge to get my clothes professionally cleaned. I have been washing them in the sink with traveler's laundry detergent as needed (it works; don't judge). And washing them in the bidet like one mystery hostel guest didn't seem like a better option. I ventured out looking for a same-day laundromat.

Fitting enough, much of the city including some restaurants and businesses were shut down today due to the train/bus strike. (Am I in France or what?) Add in a little rain in the late morning and it made for a quiet day in the streets.

On a quest for my laundromat, I walked around Cordoba seeing some of the same buildings I've walked past many times in the last month and but also walking down a few streets I had never strolled down since I arrived.

Pretty sweet high school, if you ask me.

Which reminds me, over the last month I've walked, biked, or ran over 65 miles.

These shoes are made for walking.

 And after a month in Argentina, what have I learned? Well, I've learned that I still have a lot to learn-- about the Spanish language, about traveling, about life. Well, that and don't feed a stray dog or they will follow you all the way home. So let the experience continue!

Tomorrow I take a bus (assuming the strike is over, that is) to Mendoza for a few days before heading 2 hours south of Mendoza to start my work on the farm in San Rafael on April 16th.


Au revoir, Cordoba! (Oops, wrong language!)

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!

This week's weather: humid and rainy on-and-off week.
Recent reads: Exodus. Seriously, Israel, get it together.

Yesterday I had a chance to attend a futbol match in Cordoba!

Public service billboard on the street

Now let me just say that prior to coming to South America, I knew very little about futbol as I have never played the game and don't understand the positions and the strategy of each. Futbol matches are on 10 different TV channels at any given time of day here, but I am pretty much silent as I have absolutely nothing to contribute on this subject. On Saturday night the NCAA basketball semi-final games were on and I was all about it! (I was not heart-broken by Wisconsin's loss.) Everyone here was surprised by how knowledgeable I was about basketball based on my commentary during the games because due to my total ignorance about futbol, they assumed I knew absolutely nothing about all sports in general.

But, of course, here in South America and pretty much anywhere around the world (except the US), futbol is the only sport. One Argentino friend said that for poor kids all over the world, futbol is to them what hip-hop is to kids in the ghetto: a way out. Argentinos are no exception. For them, futbol is life.

Poster in the hostel in Buenos Aires

And if futbol is life, then Diego Maradona is king of Argentina. I can't describe to you the horror on my Argentino friend's face when he mentioned Diego Maradona and I ignorantly said, "who?" Diego Maradona led the Argentina futbol team to a World Cup victory in 1986 and has been a god ever since. More notable than the finals match vs Germany is the quarter finals match vs. England. Maradona single-handedly (pun intended) defeated the English 2-1 by scoring both goals. One of these goals is forever deemed "la mano de Dios" or "the hand of God" where Maradona obviously illegally used his hand but it was not called. This continues to be a tangible point of contention to this day between Argentinos and the English. Well, that and the battle over the Falkland Islands, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK2z5-cceP4

Now this little anecdote does not mean I have instantly become an expert in futbol. But attending a match was a step in the right direction.

Even just purchasing the tickets was a task. Fellow Packer fans can relate to this but even for a Belgrano match here in Cordoba, you must be a member to buy tickets and each member can only buy two tickets per match. We got our hands on a club member's ID and I went to the stadium on Friday to purchase the sacred tickets for me and a coworker at the hostel. Considering the hoops we already had gone through to just get this far, I was praying that I didn't get robbed on the walk home, but if I did, I probably would have offered my wallet but leave me the futbol tickets!

This was a prime match to attend because the opposing team, River Plate, is ranked pretty highly in the league so it was sure to be well-attended. So much so that the local stadium just wouldn't do for this match and we bused it 40 minutes outside of town to the bigger, badder stadium.








We there a couple of hours early and got to watch the stadium slowly fill up and anticipation grow as game time approached. 

                        Let's get this started!

New this year, fans of the away team cannot purchase tickets due to too many fights between opposing fans. There go my chances of witnessing a futbol brawl! Simply observing debates among Belgrano fans about whether to sit down or stand up and the expletives that followed after a bad call lead me to believe that denying opposing fans to attend the matches, isn't such a bad ideal. 

Popular section with banners and the band.

       

Club Atletico Belgrano (CAB), Cordoba--CAB is CBA!

I loved the Belgrano team spirit! Team flags were very common and the band from the popular section led crowd chants which added to the experience.

                                      Note in the second part what I like to call the "Argentinian dead fish fist pump."

Despite the odds being against Belgrano, the local team, as they were trailing the opposing River Plate by 5+ points in the overall league standings, Belgrano came away with a 2-1 victory late in the game!

                                                                              Almost a goal by River Plate

The second goal is debatable, and whether it crossed the goal line or not will undoubtedly be reviewed on ESPN here for the next week but the fans loved it and the win still stands. 

http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/videohub/video/clipDeportes?id=deportes:2060757

The fans called it a goal for sure!

All in all, an awesome cultural experience and a great way to freshen up on my "tu madre" insults!

Carnival!

This week's weather: About 75 every day with a couple of afternoon rains.
Recent reads: The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell; three novels featuring Rene Shade, a rough-around the-edges detective, in the corrupt, hillbilly town of St. Bruno. I bought it because it was the largest book on the shelf and thought it would last me at least a few days. Turns out, I really enjoyed them!

On Wednesdays admission to the museums in Cordoba is free so I decided to check out a couple of them for myself. First I went to the Museo de Ciencias Naturales. Geared towards children, it was still entertaining and air conditioned so I don't regret it.

Next, I went to the Museo de Bellas Artes Evita and Palacio Ferreyra. It had a good balance of portraits, photographs, landscapes, paintings, and drawings with a peppering of nudes to keep one interested. The palace itself was beautiful and this is coming from a girl isn't big on museums so that's saying something.

On Thursday I took a stroll to Parque Sarmiento for a reading session before working at the hostel on at 4pm. The park itself was lovely, well kept, with a nice pool. But the area around Parque Sarmiento didn't look like a tranquil area to relax so much as it looked like a nice place for a drug deal or to contract hepatitis, neither of which are on my itinerary.

And then there's this...

On Friday Cordoba had their mini Carnival celebration in the street with dance groups in amazing costumes, music, and a celebratory feeling in the air. I was blown away by the ornate group attire, tons and tons of glitter were no doubt used but it was well worth it! Definitely a highlight!

Friday night I hit the town with some of the hostel guests, a few girls from Scotland and a smattering of people from all over the world too. Here the clubs don't get started until 1AM and we shut down Maria, Maria around 6AM. Good times were had by all!

Low points:
1) On Wednesday I got sunburned. On my neck to my shirt line so it looks like I'm wearing a pink turtle-neck. And on my legs mid calf where my capris hit me to my sock line. Pretty attractive.
2) My camera broke. It's mostly fine but the lock that holds the battery cover in snapped off so the battery won't stay in enough to take a photo. On Sundays much of the town is closed so I'll have to wait until Monday to find a repair shop. Fingers crossed!

Consider Yourselves Briefed

I am about to embark on a South American Adventure in a matter of days and I'm still waiting for a meltdown. Many of the details of my trip have just come together in the last couple of months and even weeks, but in many ways, I've been training for an experience like this for some time now.

Backstory

Where I'm coming from...I am originally from exotic Wisconsin, a land flowing with cheese and Miller Light. I went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis which is even colder than my hometown. After graduating in 2009 and surviving almost two-decades of brutal, kick-me-when-I'm-down Midwest winters, I knew I now had the mental toughness to make it just about anywhere but had lost the desire to shovel snow ever again. I had family in San Diego so I packed up my Toyota Camry and headed west in hopes of escaping diphtheria and building a life in the promised land: San Diego. I acclimated quickly to San Diego and now call North County San Diego home.

Where I was at...I enjoy traveling and always want more. Among other places, I've been to Germany, Switzerland, France, Nicaragua, Turkey, etc. I've talked about dropping everything and traveling for an extended period of time but, like most people, have never been able to pull the trigger. Why South America? I took Spanish in college but never studied abroad and always regretted it. My parents lived in Peru before they had children so I feel like it's fitting that I go there too to make the Johnson-family travels come full circle. At work I could get by with my current level of Spanish but know the next step to really improving my espanol is immersion. There are so many places I want to see in South America and around the world and, with only two weeks of vacation from work every year for the rest of my life, I would need to be Methuselah to see it all. And as my last, catch-all rationalization, insert stereotypical phrase here: if I don't do it now, I'll never do it; youth is wasted on the young; etc.

Where I'm going...I really started to seriously think about a long-term South America trip when I met with an acquaintance who has traveled extensively in South America, 18 months in total. Okay, you caught me. We dated briefly. Anyways, he recommended workaway.org and helpx.com, two websites where travelers can do light work in exchange for room and board. I perused host options and finally signed up for workaway, 25 Euros for a 2 year membership. I emailed several hosts all over South America. Many hosts only know their job needs a few weeks in advance but I got a quick response from a hostel in Cordoba, Argentina, where I'd work as a receptionist 20 hours a week. With an opportunity like this, I knew the whole idea was possible and I was all in. After all, I had already committed to 25 Euros and wasted an entire Sunday afternoon trying on backpacks at REI, so I better go for it.

Let me save you all those clicks of a laborious Google maps search. 

How I'm getting there...First step was obviously an excel spreadsheet with a budget and the sum function as often as possible. Looking back on my budget, while I saved hard and worked even harder, I am among few twenty-somethings blessed with being debt-free, without school, car, or home loans, making this whole adventure possible. After that, other logistics seemed to fall into place. My apartment lease was up so I moved in with my cousin rather than renewing. I had been looking for flights to Cordoba and they were consistently between $1000-$1300 until one afternoon when I witnessed a little miracle, a flight for under $700! #Buynow The bright side of being a mild hypochondriac (oxymoron?) is that I already have a travel first aid kit. And with a mother like mine, vaccinations, payment on death forms, and an affordable travelers' insurance policy with a helicopter-me-back-to-my-homeland-when-I-am-dying benefit were items at the top of my to-do list.

And, yes, I most definitely have a to-do list. So now I can cross "blog" off the to-do list. I wanted to do a blog mostly because I'm lazy. Rather than email personalized accounts of my adventures to my friends and family, here's a blog to keep everyone equally abreast of my whereabouts. Feel free to live vicariously through my travels, laugh at my inevitable misfortunes, and provide my last noted location to the appropriate consulate when needed. In any event, feel free to follow my travels in South America, as I see it.