Tomorrow's my last day in Mendoza. I feel strangely... eh. I'm not sad to go, but neither am I happy. I didn't go out once for drinks, or to a club. I'm almost ashamed to count how many hours I dedicated to the siesta. I never climbed the hill in the park for the "fantastic view," nor did I go skiing/paragliding/rafting, nor did I ever venture into the mountains save for the time I got trapped at the Andean border.
But that's not to say I don't love it here. It's just that the only way I can describe it is "tranquilo." Chill. After those four hectic and draining weeks in the Amazon, Mendoza was exactly what I needed, the perfect remedy for the eternally knackered medical student. I caught up on sleep, read all the (English) books in the house, and spent hours doing nothing but listening to Radiohead.
Not to fear parents, I wasn´t a complete waste of your hard-earned money! Mira. Look: I cooked empanadas, baked alfajores, danced tango in a milonga, tried mate (tea-loved it), tried frenet (liquor-hated it), tucked into appetizers at 10pm, devoured massive chunks of steak from an asado, developed an appreciation for red wines... And I've been immersed in so much Spanish that certain words no longer come out in English! A typical sentence now sounds like "Pero no, no es her falta porque ella tried her best.
Here's my daily schedule: hospital in the morning, tanning on the rooftop terrace, seista for a couple hours in the afternoon, visit to the gym, and a tango lesson at night. One weekend I just watched films and saw a rather mediocre dance perforamance. The next I went to a tango show. Last week my dad was here, so went to bodegas, drank a scandalous amount of red wine, and ate ourselves sick with truly fantastic food (no joke, the next 2 days I could hardly stomach a slice of bread :O ). This weekend I'll go for a horseback ride and have an asado in the countryside. And that'll be the end of my elective in Mendoza.
Doesn't sound particularly exciting, no? No crazy stories of being harassed by lusty Argentinean men, no dancing until sunrise, not even a single episode of eruptive vomitus! But this absence of drunken nights-out isn't why I'm not reluctant to leave. Rather, I'm not sad because I know I won't be saying adios to Mendoza for good. Because the city, encased by mountains and nestled amongst countless vineyards, is too beautiful to never see again. And the people, with their easy conversation, teasing humour, open hearts and buckets-full of buena onda, I simply can't make out those words of permanent and definitive goodbye.
No, when I leave, it will be with a "chau, hasta luego Mendoza"!
But that's not to say I don't love it here. It's just that the only way I can describe it is "tranquilo." Chill. After those four hectic and draining weeks in the Amazon, Mendoza was exactly what I needed, the perfect remedy for the eternally knackered medical student. I caught up on sleep, read all the (English) books in the house, and spent hours doing nothing but listening to Radiohead.
Not to fear parents, I wasn´t a complete waste of your hard-earned money! Mira. Look: I cooked empanadas, baked alfajores, danced tango in a milonga, tried mate (tea-loved it), tried frenet (liquor-hated it), tucked into appetizers at 10pm, devoured massive chunks of steak from an asado, developed an appreciation for red wines... And I've been immersed in so much Spanish that certain words no longer come out in English! A typical sentence now sounds like "Pero no, no es her falta porque ella tried her best.
Here's my daily schedule: hospital in the morning, tanning on the rooftop terrace, seista for a couple hours in the afternoon, visit to the gym, and a tango lesson at night. One weekend I just watched films and saw a rather mediocre dance perforamance. The next I went to a tango show. Last week my dad was here, so went to bodegas, drank a scandalous amount of red wine, and ate ourselves sick with truly fantastic food (no joke, the next 2 days I could hardly stomach a slice of bread :O ). This weekend I'll go for a horseback ride and have an asado in the countryside. And that'll be the end of my elective in Mendoza.
Doesn't sound particularly exciting, no? No crazy stories of being harassed by lusty Argentinean men, no dancing until sunrise, not even a single episode of eruptive vomitus! But this absence of drunken nights-out isn't why I'm not reluctant to leave. Rather, I'm not sad because I know I won't be saying adios to Mendoza for good. Because the city, encased by mountains and nestled amongst countless vineyards, is too beautiful to never see again. And the people, with their easy conversation, teasing humour, open hearts and buckets-full of buena onda, I simply can't make out those words of permanent and definitive goodbye.
No, when I leave, it will be with a "chau, hasta luego Mendoza"!
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