Navidad en Argentina

 Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!

Our small little Christmas tree all lit up!

Having Christmas in Argentina was a very different experience. Here Christmas isn't as commercialized, meaning there isn't decorations in every shop, many special sales for Christmas or anything on tv about it. This started off the feeling that it wasn't really Christmas. Not hearing Christmas Carols on the radio, seeing any Christmas lights or having anyone counting down the days until Christmas, left me feeling a bit weird. Here Christmas is more about the family coming over and sharing the day with them, of course this is a similarity in Christmas's all over the world but here it just stood out more because there wasn't the "normal things", that I associate with Christmas.

Christmas Eve
In Argentina Christmas starts on Christmas Eve and is celebrated with a dinner. We all got dressed up nicely and dressed the tables nicely, so this felt like a really special occasion. After our invited guests turned up 1 hour late (normal here apparently) we quickly started the dinner. We had a 'Cena Frio' (Cold Dinner) where there was salads, cold meats and other interesting foods. Its Typical for my family to have this then Asado the following day and night, but many just eat Asado for 2 days straight! After eating dessert, we had champagne with lemon ice cream! It was a very surprising taste but pretty yummy. After that we had about 5 minutes until 12am and when our clock chimed we all cheered and did a toast for 'Feliz Navidad'. At that point the fireworks started. We quickly went upstairs to the balcony and we were able to see the fireworks all over Roca going off. We set off a few of our own fireworks but they were a bit of a let down to be honest haha. They didn't go too high and were a lot different than ones I've seen and used for Guy Fawks in New Zealand. Anyway that didn't matter to much as it was quite funny seeing them and sharing the laughs with everyone else. After more talking and hanging out with my host sister I went to bed about 2am while mostly everyone else stayed up until 3.30am.

Fireworks in our backyard

Champagne and Lemon Ice Cream!

Brenda (host sister) and I on Christmas Eve

Christmas day

Asado, Christmas Lunch

We got up at about 10am on Christmas Morning, the latest I've ever gotten up for Christmas! We got together and exchanged gifts. It was a very simple gift giving, 1 or 2 presents per person. I gave everyone a framed photo and something special to remember New Zealand from me. It got pretty emotional as we realised the love that had gone into exchanging the gifts and what it meant that I was there celebrating with them. We had a Christmas breakfast of Pan dulce (a loaf with dried fruits), bread with homemade jam or cheese and ham, nougat and other sweet treats. This of course was accompanied by drinking mate and went on for a long time until everyone arrived. By 3pm all the lunch was ready, asado, empanadas, salads and other yummy things. There was my family and two other families there so it wasn't the biggest lunch I've had here. We got really nice weather (not too hot, 35 degrees) so all the younger people had a water fight with water ballons and buckets of water. The rest of the day was very chilled out, just chatting, watching movies and listening to music. For dinner we went to a Friend of the family's birthday dinner and were there until about 1.30 before we returned home

The Empanadas for Christmas Lunch

This is a screenshot of when I skyped home for Christmas. New Zealand got Christmas 16 hours earlier than Argentina so it was about 4pm on Christmas Eve when I was skyping my family opening their presents at 8am Christmas Morning. I admit it was quite hard to not be home for Christmas especially when my Christmas was pretty relaxed and we didn't do too much here. It passed just like another day, and I'm that much closer to have another Christmas BBQ when I get back to NZ.

Traditional Argentinan Barbeque Asado

This is the Asado that I have been telling everyone at home about since I got here. Finally I have a good photo, so here it is. Basically they make a fire one side then on the other they put the hot ashes and coals to cook the meat. They put really big pieces on first then once its all cooked they cut it up. The flavour of the meat its a smoked taste and the meat itself has a lot of fat before it's cooked so when it is cooking that seeps into the meat resulting in the meat being moist and tender.

   

My Host Dad preparing the Asado

Basically Christmas here was different to NZ in the fact that the "Christmas feel" wasn't really there, without the carols, lots of presents, Christmas crackers and traditional decorations. It was the same that is was mostly relaxed and spent with family. I liked it here, and it was great to experience a different countries way of celebrating Christmas.

AFS Glacier Trip!

From the 8th-16th of December I went on an AFS trip around the south of Argentina. Let me tell you, it was amazing! El Calafate was so much like New Zealand's south island that it made me feel like I was back home again. This time the amount of people was less, there were 22 of us all from different regions and cities in Argentina. There were lots of Italians, Germans, Austrians, Thai girls, a Norwegian, an American, another Australian girl and me from New Zealand! I was surprised this time as more people knew about NZ. An italian guy even asked me, "Is it true that there's more sheep than people?" I was so impressed by that question haha
TRIP SUMMARY

8/12/14
I left Roca at 6.30pm after getting picked up by our bus (It's called a collectivo here). And we started our trip! I sat by a nice Australian girl called Ella and got talking to everyone on the bus! We spend our first night on the bus travelling to our first hotel in Comodoro Rivadavia.

9/12/14
We finally arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia at 1pm in the afternoon and were able to have lunch and go to our hotel. The hotel was amazing, with people to carry your bags and everyone of the hotel workers dressed so nicely in suits and dresses, it even had 4 lifts! After settling in we were able to walk around a bit, and I finally saw the sea for the first time in all the time I've been here!

10/12/14

We left early our hotel at 10am to explore the beaches nearby. The beaches reminded me a lot of Kaikoura so that was an awesome feeling! In the afternoon we travelled to a city nearby and stayed at the beach for hours. The wind was bitterly cold and very strong so it wasn't that nice staying there for so long! We all had heaps of time to chat and get to know each other better. The long amount of time allowed us to learn bits of different languages which was heaps of fun!

11/12/14

Tonight was another night spent on the bus travelling but I had the exciting event of the prizegiving to wake up to. Too bad I didn't actually go to sleep... At about 3.30am my time the prizegiving started and I was getting updates from Mum and Aunty Bec how everything was going. For the class certificates I got Excellence in English and Spanish and Merit in Maths, Chemistry and History. I also got Year 12 overall excellence which I was very happy about! Everything was going well until at about 4.40ish my internet cut out, no service no nothing for about 1 hour. I had finally began to fall to sleep when my phone started vibrating over and over again, I picked it up and saw a message from Aunty Bec "You did it sweet head girl 2015" Wow I could not believe it. I was stunned and shocked but so happy all at the same time. While everyone else slept on the bus, I was wide awake, a smile plastered on my face :) That definitely made an amazing start to my day!

We arrived in El Calafate at lunchtime and I had Ñoquis which are one of my favorite foods here! 

We also went to the Ice bar in the afternoon. We were all dressed in these big poncho things and were allowed inside the bar for 20minutes! Everything was made out of ice! From the chairs, to the walls to the glasses! It was such a cool experience!(notice the pun;) 

12/12/14 

Today I did Mini trekking! The adventure started with a boat ride across to the Glacier then from there we got all wrapped up in warm clothes and set off to the base. There we got crampons tied to our shoes, these were like bases made of metal with 6 big spikes around the outside. These made it really easy to walk on the ice. We were walking on the ice for a total of about 2 hours, it was such an amazing experience. The Glacier was spectacular! Once we were trekking on the ice, the glacier expanded in all directions that all we could see was glacier, it was impossible to see the end of it! We trekked up and down steep edges of the Glacier stopping every so often to take photos and to drink from the natural pools of water. The time went so fast that suddenly we were at a stop where a guy was preparing whiskey in glasses while another was chipping away at the ice. They gave us "Whiskey on the rocks" and we also were given chocolate alfajores (2 chocolate biscuits with dulce de leche in the middle). After finishing that part, we got to walk back and eat our packed lunches while looking at the stunning view of the glacier. We were taken back on the bus to the Glacier lookout where there were dozens of different paths to view the Glacier at all different angles. This side was the opposite that we trekked on.

Our Group of AFS Students, we were the 1st group to do the excursion

Alfajore!

After a massive day we all went and had a little siesta then walked down to the town centre to buy souvenirs and eat ice cream of course!

13/12/14

Today we navegated the Lake argentina with a catamaran. It was such a great way to look at the glaciers, it gave such a different perspective as you felt like you were very close to them. We could also hear the 'ice carving' which is when bits of ice fall off into the lake below. The sound was a very loud boom of an explosion. There were lots of different viewing decks so I have hundreds of different photos after just 3 hours. I will post just a few so you can get the feel of what it was like!

14/12/14

We left El Calafate today to head to our final destination. This would mean another overnight bus ride! We left at 8.30 and did a lot of driving and sleeping before arriving in Rio Gallegos for lunch and to meet up with Rosie -The kiwi exchange student I met on the last trip! Even if it was for just a short time, it was great to see her again! The rest of the trip wasn't very eventful just full of travelling, chatting and sleeping

15/12/14

We finally arrived in Puerto Madryn in the morning and after picking up our guide we toured around the city. We stopped to see some seals just casually swimming in a canal of a boat harbour. We had lunch in the Welsh tea house in Trelew, the lady was very pleased when I said my last name was Jones (a Welsh surname). This tea house had been visted by Princess Diana in 1995 and there was photos of her everywhere. They still had the chair she sat on and the cup she used on display which was amazing as it was such a long time ago! We were given an array of different tea and cakes which was so delicious!

The Chair Princess Diana sat in

Today marked our last night all together, it was sad feeling everything coming to an end. The hotel we stayed in was spectacular! In the picture below you can see how big it was and how close we were to the sea! We actually went for a swim in it too, interesting experience for sure. Not as clean as NZ beaches and so much seaweed! 

Some of my best friends from the trip Yukie and Ploy! Missing Hoy that left us in Comodoro Rivadaria.
These girls are amazing, I'm so glad I could share this trip with them :)

16/12/14

This was the leaving day... We had a spectacular buffet breakfast at the hotel before heading off at 9. We had a big trip to make so we didn't stop much through the drive back. When it finally got to 7.30 we had arrived in Roca and it was time for me to leave. Of course it involved tears for me (as always ;) it was sad saying goodbye to my very good friends Yukie and Ploy. I've promised them to visit them in Thailand one day and they too hopefully will come to New Zealand! They drew me this lovely picture and wrote some really cute things as well, I will always keep that so I can remember them! 

To end this very long blog here is some pictures of our group! I made some great friends and had such a great time. I can't compare the Iguazu trips to this one, both were great for different reasons and will feature in the best things I was able to do in Argentina. 

If you have read this far, I hope you liked the post and enjoyed looking at the photos as much as I did taking them! 

Chau :) xx