Córdoba

This past weekend, I took my third trip of my time here, to the city of Córdoba, Argentina. My dad's cousin Melissa spent the past semester studying abroad there, and is there until the end of July. Melissa is from Jamaica (my grandpa's sister married a Jamaican guy and moved there), so we hadn't seen each other in remember-able history.

The trip was, in short, tons of fun. I got to know Melissa, her host family is amazing, and we did lots of fun stuff. For more detail, read on :)

(pictured: Parque Centenario, Córdoba)

Thursday: My bus left at 9:30 AM, so I decided to get to the train station at 8:50 to be safe. Turns out you need not get there ahead of time at all, because the bus won't even show up until about 10 minutes before departure, making you needlessly worried that you have already gotten confused about something and are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nor will they show departures on the screens until moments before, though the arrivals for the next several hours will be clearly marked.

The bus ride over was actually very pleasant. Very few people were on the bus, so I had the seats to myself, it was a pleasant temperature inside the bus (I only mention this because of what happened on the way back), they gave out free coffee, and the bathroom even had toilet paper. The only unfortunate thing was that there was a bus accident ahead of us in the morning, causing traffic to be backed up for miles, and preventing us from moving any measurable distance for hours. It's a good thing that there weren't many people in the bus, because if there is one thing that makes me feel claustrophobic, it's sitting in an unmoving bus (or plane). The delay didn't cause any major problems though, just caused me to arrive at 11:30 PM instead of the nicer hour of 8:30 PM.

Friday: I was planning on going to some domestic worker unions and agencies in Córdoba to talk with them and hopefully get some interviews with workers as well. Unfortunately, it was "Córdoba Day" or something, and everything was closed. SIGH.

The back-up plan of going to the mall with Melissa, eating two different kinds of icecream, two other types of desserts, and going to see the new Spiderman was a decent substitute I guess :P

[Side note – loved the new Spiderman movie. No horrible Toby McGuire or Kirsten Dunst!]

When we got back, we watched some sort of CSI-type movie, which led me to dream that night that my brother Spencer had disappeared and I had to investigate his whereabouts. He turned out to be fine in the dream, which is more than you could say for the people in the movie...

Saturday: After sleeping in, which was our norm for the weekend, Melissa and I went out for lunch for one of her classmate's birthdays. Yummy food!

Then we headed to the anthropological museum in Córdoba, where the best picture of the two of us from the weekend was taken (pictured here). One of the girls we were with discovered a hidden trap-door staircase in the museum, but we were all too scared to investigate it further. It will forever remain a mystery.

That night, Melissa cooked a delicious Jamaican meal for some of her friends in her program and me, and we watched Bridesmaids, or in Spanish Damas en Guerra (Women at War). Haha!

[okay, we watched a fair amount of movies over the course of the weekend! We also watched a GREAT – this is sarcastic – 1950s movie about a mute woman living with a mountain man with Melissa's host mom]

And brownies were made (pictured).

This night is also known as Brianna Discovers She Doesn't Know How To Cook At All Part I.

Sunday: Melissa cooked a second delicious Jamaican meal for her extended host family. Also known as Brianna Discovers She Doesn't Know How To Cook At All Part II. I have thus made it my goal to actually learn this summer while I'm home. (excited Mom?? You can teach me!)

Empanadas courtesy of Melissa's host mom.

YUM.

With salad.

The one thing I kind of knew how to make.

Kind of.

That night, we went to Melissa's church in Córdoba, which was a bit big and emotion-y for me, but a cool experience.

And Monday, I had to head back :(

Definitely my favorite weekend of the trip! I got to meet my wonderful cousin, eat delicious food, talk to so many nice people, sleep, and watch a bunch of movies & TV. It maybe wasn't the most "cultural" thing I could have done for a weekend trip in Argentina, but it was definitely a fun "life" thing to do :)

(pictured: yummy Jamaican chicken!)


[By the way, my trip back, though not delayed by a traffic accident, was far worse than my trip over. First, the bus was 30 minutes late getting to Córdoba in the morning. Second, the heat was malfunctioning in my area of the bus and was blasting pure fire out of the vents. There were no empty seats this time, so I couldn't move. Not. Fun. Third, I was and am still battling a cold/cough/general-feeling-bad thing, and so spent the entire time chain-sucking cough drops to keep myself from any uncontrollable coughing attacks. Taking nighttime cough medicine that morning helped me to endure the heat, people, and feeling sick for the first couple hours, but the rest of the ride was definitely not my favorite. For some inexplicable reason, we arrived an hour and a half late (I get the half hour, not sure where the other hour came from), and couldn't be let off in the terminal due to a power outage so were just dropped off in the middle of the street. But, I made it home, and all in one piece (if a bit sweaty). And it did nothing to dampen the memories of the weekend! Which, if you have taken a psych class, you might know is a real concern, as people tend to remember peaks, valleys, and the beginning and ends of things more than the average!! It did, however, persuade me that going back for a day-trip to interview domestic workers would definitely not be worth it. Also that taking a bus to Iguazú would not be worth it.]

Melissa and I already have plans for her to come visit me in Boston this Thanksgiving. I can't wait!