Mendoza!

I went to Mendoza with my host mom and sister last weekend...we really just went to buy my sister ballet shoes because they're cheaper there, have more options (or something along those lines...) so I suppose I shouldn't have expected a weekend to go explore the city, but I did anyway...ohhh well...we got lots of walking in, saw some reallllly good-looking argentinian men and women, ate good food, and then went to the zoo...!
So anyway, we took a 9-hr bus ride through the Andes to get there, which was obviously a really scenic drive, even if at times I seriously thought we weren't going to make it up and around all the crazy/steep/scary switchbacks...but we got there. The first day we showed up, me and my sister and mom stood around listening to tons of men try to persuade us to stay at their respective hostels. My sister and I stood around for a good 10-15 minutes while my mom stood listening to this one guy try and persuade her to let him drive us around the city, showing us sites and find a hostel...which from the beginning i knew my mom thought it was a bit sketch and didn't want anything to do with him, but for some reason she couldn't get the nerve up to just say NO...anyway, we eventually found a hostel, put our stuff up, and went out to walk into town. Mendoza is a decent-sized city, and it's really pretty...it actually has trees on the side walks! We took a good 4 hrs or so looking for stores that sell ballet shoes, found some good places, but my mom felt rushed, so we'd return the next day to buy the shoes... that night in the hostel we met a nice Chilean caballero during once, he talked to my sister and tried to convince her not to study psychiatry...even though los psicologos are suuuuper popular/comun here in chile. next day: we walk in circles around the city because my mom/sister (my sister especially) had a fear of asking for directions (they reminded me of north american men...haha) so they preferred wandering, looking for obscure stores instead...oh well it was ok, that way we saw lots of the city...that night in the hostel i met a guy from north carolina, Blake, who was traveling around different countries in south america, working at farms and the like to study the different techniques used, etc...we went out that night to have a little wine-tasting of our own...we bought a couple bottles of mendoza-n wine, brought them back to the hostel, and sat out on the terrace talking for a while with my sister...good times. Our last day in mendoza, we went around the city a bit more, ate lunch on the peatonal and saw/listened to some great Mariachi music and Mexican singing (i felt more at home then than any other time here in s.a.), then went out to the Mendoza Zoo...which is prettyyy big...definitely the biggest zoo i've ever been to, and saw lots of lots of animals...oh! and on the way back to the hostel that night, we were walking through the street, when we approached a dressed-up barney in the street...earlier that day he had been handing out balloons, etc. to little kids, and he's barney, so i figured he was nice and gentle and not scary. WRONG. Anyway, so we're about 5 ft away from him when he jumps in front of us three, throws his arms out and is like, BOOOO! what?!?!?! barney is not supposed to scare people. so anyway, i like jump into the street, scared and just shocked out of my mind, my mom and sister are cracking up, and there are some men behind us telling barney not to scare the 'nena'...omg...
ok. things i noticed about chileans/argentines/etc:
-chileans don't like to ask for help, directions, or risk the shame of not knowing an answer (confirmed by my host mom...)
-argentine people are very, very good-looking...more so than chileans :)
-argentine people have much more personality than chileans (told to me by my mom, confirmed by me!)
-argentine people take 4 hr lunch breaks in the middle of the day...makes buying stuff dificil...

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Now after having taken tests in nearly all of my classes, i can officially confirm that i worry wayyy too much about the level of work required/expected from me, and lose sleep for no reason...example, i stayed up till the early morning studying all the info given to us for a test in my vasque class...dates, lots of numbers, names, vocab, etc...get to the test, it's like 8 questions: fill in the blanks with correct tense of the verb, write out how you'd introduce yourself, label the different provinces, and answer a couple short answer questions...like 20 minutes worth of work...wooooh, wayyy to go, caitlin.

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today at lunch i had a good conversation with my mom about the maturity level of south american guys, mainly my brothers. Since it is Chilean culture (and basically any other south american culture) to live at home with the family until they get married, or find a decent job after the university, many guys still have nearly everything catered to them up until their late 20's, even into the 30s, or as my mom puts it, "they need help breathing" haha. Anyway, i can't help notice day in and day out how my brothers act, what they do, and how my parents react to them, cater to them...I'd say this alone is one of the most DRASTIC changes for me to have to get used to...perhaps because i am used to doing things on my own, feeding myself when im hungry, asking for directions (lord knows i always need help with directions), etc. So anyway, to put this in some sort of perspective, both of my brothers, 23 and 26, have girlfriends, and if they're not physically with their gf, they are either talking on the phone with them, or talking online with them...i mean literallly, they are always always always on the computer with them, and get frustrated if my sister needs to use the computer to do hw, or the phone to call a friend...another example that i thought was ridiculous was 2 days ago when my bro had to take a micro to Con-Con (a small little 'city' right outside of Vina...)for a class...the whole family is familiar with Con-Con, but my bro didn't knwo where he was supposed to get off the micro and didnt want to ask the chofer where to bajar, so he didnt want to go alone...instead, he wanted his dad to drive him to where he was supposed to go and drop him off. My mom and dad thought that idea was bogus, since 'todo el mundo toma la micro' a con-con...but alas, my dad got up early the next morning and took him there himself...hmmm anyway, i thought that it was really just me who noticed the guys' dependence on their parents/girls, so i've always been afraid to bring it up with my parents...but today somehow the subject came up and my mom, as well, thinks that guys here in chile, especially nowadays (compared to guys when she was their age) are just simply immature and ridiculous. When i heard my mom say this, it was as if i had a huge weight lifted off my chest...it wasn't just me who thought this! She even told me that sometimes when I'm not in the house and something comes up with the boys, she and my dad will compare them to me, telling them to grow up and be more independent like me...ahah i'm sure they just LOVE hearing that! hahaha

k that's it for now...i leave tomorrow to go north to the desert for the week of fiestas patrias! i can't wait!