Saturday, October 25, 2008

What is Argentina famous for???? MEAT


We had heard about the asados that they have hear, so we decided to go out to dinner at a parrilla (grill) and try some of the Argentine meat. We asked what was good and the said everything, so we ordered the plate that has everything, which was called the full parrilla. It came out on a little grill and all the meat was still sizzling! We were really excited and SHOCKED at how much meat they brought out!
We didn't know what to think, so we just started to chow down!! One problem.... they eat a lot of things that we don't usually eat. We didn't know what anything was. We first tried some meat on a rib and it was really good! Then a little chicken that was dry, but edible. Then came some funky shaped things and we tried them all, all being really really really disgusting. We asked afterward what everything was and they were intestines, kidneys, brains, you know. Just all of the parts that I would never eat. A few seconds later I found that my dinner was making it's way back up and luckily made it to the bathroom in time. I felt so sick!

Needless to say we are never eating a full parrilla again.

The Great Storm


The other night Jason and I went to be at about 2 am but we couldn't sleep, so we watched Avatar, the greatest cartoon in the world, on our computer in our bed. Jason decided to move our bed into the middle of the floor because our air conditioning stopped working the day before and doesn't blow the air out as strong or as cold, so he moved our bed so that we are could feel the air a little bit more. We finally fell asleep around 4 am, but around 4:30 we woke up to the most horrifying thunder I have ever heard. I am almost 25 years old and I was still really scared. We learned that there were no weather strips on our windows and water from the heavy rain was gushing into our apartment. We got everything off the floors and there was already an inch of water covering the tile. Our bed usually sits closer to the window, and if Jason hadn't moved our bed I would have woken up soaked! There was only a few seconds between lightening bolts and the thunder was almost constant. Jason was frustrated and trying to soak up the water as fast as he could, but then he opened the window and shut it again really fast. He looked at me with the most amazed look and said, 'Sar! You have GOT to come and see this!" He told me to brace myself and to look quick. He opened the window and rain was hitting me fast and hard, but I saw the most incredible thing! It is an image I will never forget. It was just like out of a movie. The lightening and the wind and rain... I just can't explain it! It was so cool that Jason was no longer frustrated and we stopped our efforts to clean up the water that night. We woke up to our whole apartment in a few inches of water. We took turns on our hands and knees wringing the water into a bucket with our only rag. It took a couple hours and was not all that fun, but every bit of it was worth the few seconds of seeing that storm.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I Lied...

I lied and said that we didn't have to teach last week. We were told just before 6pm that there was some miscommunication and that we were supposed to teach the workshop starting at 6!! We jumped in a cab and headed for the chapel where we were teaching at. This was by far the smallest workshop we've taught yet. There were five people in total, and two of them have callings in the employment resources, so really there were just three.
It was AWESOME!! I felt so much more comfortable teaching in a small group and we all got really close. Yesterday we were on a bus for four or so hours on our way to our next adventure here in Formosa, Argentina. We arrived at 3:45 and were taken straight to the chapel to teach our workshop that started at 4pm. We hadn't eaten or drunken anything all day and I kid you not when I was teaching in front of 25 people my mind went completely BLANK and I couldn't think of anything to say. I just stood there! It was really funny, and by funny I mean not funny at all, just embarrassing. But someday it'll be funny, I am sure. Our hotel is great here; much better than our last one in Saenz Pena. Last night I only got like four mosquito bites, which is amazing compared to the 5,000 that I got in Saenz Pena. I still haven't figured out how to to cool things for the blog, like separate my pictures or make words big. I am sad looking at everyone's cool blogs. Can you all make your blogs not as cool so I feel better? Thank you. Now here are some random pictures for you!

More to come!! Love to all!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

An "American" Breakfast


We were invited by our bishop and his family to join with them in their family tradition, which is to have a big American breakfast the Sunday morning of conference. We really enjoyed the experience... but I wouldn't say that it was American. There were American things, just not like we are used to. We had french toast, but instead of putting butter, syrup and powdered sugar on them we had a weird soft cheese and raw bacon. There was deli ham, a really good liquado, which is just milk and fruit mixed up in the blender, cereal with drinkable yogurt, a super sugary lemon pie, and scrambled eggs. It was a lot of fun. They usually just drink mate for breakfast, which is their typical hot drink that everyone drinks here, so this big breakfast is a big treat for them. Last week we traveled about 2 1/2 hours on bus to a city called Saenz Pena to teach the workshop. We stayed in a more expensive hotel, which was actually really disgusting. Our room was full of mosquitos and Jason and I were almost eaten to death. He still has battle scars on his legs. They were inside our sheet so there was nothing we could do, but we know that it could have been a lot worse. What if we had opted to go with the cheaper hotel!? Teaching in Saenz Pena was a really cool experience. The people were so humble and so appreciative of us. We spent our days doing our homework and the nights teaching the workshop. We ate the best meat there. I am so glad I am not a vegetarian. I love meat! And Argentina has really good meat!! This week we were supposed to teach the workshop in the south stake of Resistencia but some people fell through on their assignments and nothing was organized for us, so we are not teaching this week. I say great! Time off to go and travel nearby countries!! But we need a visa to get into every country so I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe we'll just get really ahead in our studies so we have time to play at the end. Life is great here. We love walking around at night through the plazas and seeing all of the crazy hairstyles of the teenagers. I've gotta get some good pictures. Maybe that can be my next post. We'll see.