The Parasitology Laboratory

I never really told you about how absolutely wonderful it was to work in the Parasitology Laboratory, at the Hospital del Clinicas, here in Córdoba. Not only did I make lasting friendships, but it was educational, exciting, challenging, comical, and absolutely positive. Every day I went I shared laughs and learned new ways of necessities in a laboratory. Rodolfo (my boss) is one of the leading parasitologists in the whole country. He is a walking encyclopedia, but even more so, he's genuine, caring, and passionate about his work.

I now have high hopes of running some type of exchange program between a future laboratory where I will work and this laboratory. They told me that I can only send people with a good sense of humor... haha, so that will have to be in the contract!

Here are some pictures of the Parasitology laboratory I'd like to share with you...

My co-workers Laura and Dani.

The new lab we moved to while I was there.

Our last day in the old lab... believe me, I was sad to let this space go, it was so antique... I loved it! Here is a picture of Tami, Rodolfo (my boss), me and Laura.

Grocery Stores

Grocery stores in Argentina are all together different than grocery stores in Chile and the States. You all know and are comfortable with a store like Albertsons for example. When you walk into Albertsons, you see an absolutely enormous building with almost every type of food in it that you would ever want or need. This is how they sell food in Chile too. They have two large grocery store chains there, Lider and Jumbo. Both of which sell things like electronics and school supplies as well as food, but I would say most people shop there for the food. Of course in Chile there are your smaller grocery stores too, depending on where you are and the size of the city. There are stores similar to Paul's (in McCall), Cash and Carry (in Cottonwood and Grangeville), and Riener's (in Cottonwood).

In Argentina however, things are quite different. There are grocery store chains here, yes, but the stores themselves are very small no matter where you are in the country. I haven't stepped in a grocery store the size of Paul's yet! I would say the majority of the grocery store sizes here are about the size of Riener's, and I've been in one or two about the size of Cash and Carry in Cottonwood. Now, this isn't bad necessarily, because it's pretty easy to find things, but rush hour in this town of 1.3 million quite overwhelming.

Also, what you find in a grocery store in Argentina is quite interesting. Yes, they have the normal produce section, meat section, cereal section, and all the other stuff sections, but each has their own unique taste of Argentina!

The meat section here is a lot like Rieners. At Rieners, you go to Gary and ask him to get you some ribs, and he does it with a smile. That's what happens here too. You go to the meat guy, tell him you want a certain cut of meat or some hamburger, and he grinds it up and hands it to you. (I guess there's a law here that states you cannot pre-grind meat due to businesses adding fat for bulk.) In the meat section, you can find already cut stakes... I usually get stakes this way to avoid the Spanish confusion. The cuts of meat here are different too, for example ribs. You know how ribs look in the States, but here they cut them like if you were to get a vertical CAT scan of your ribs. I still haven't learned all the proper cut names here, all I know is the meat here is excellent!

I usually don't spend much time in the produce section because you can get produce at the little fruit stands right outside my building. But, in the grocery stores, you have to bag all your produce while you're in the section, and hand it to a worker who weighs it and tags it before you go to check out.

The cereal section is not a enormous aisle like in the States, it's a tiny section of some imported, really expensive cereals and other cheap bagged cereal. Of course, I get the cheap bagged cereal, but I'd say most people don't buy cereal. For breakfast, normally Argentinians drink coffee or Yerba Mate and maybe eat some bread with a little butter on it... that's it. I remember when I was in Brazil, one of the girls almost gagged at the thought of eating eggs for breakfast! Very different here for breakfast than in the States.

Bread is another important issue. I don't usually buy bread at the grocery store either, because there's a bakery right across the street. The bread section usually consists of dirt cheap freshly baked, kind of like french bread, or expensive sliced bread like we have in the States. Now, because their freshly baked bread goes bad within a day after it's bought, you only buy what you need for the day.

The dairy section is all together different than the States. Packaging of milk is very different here. It's sold in cardboard like boxes, or plastic pouches. As you can imagine, the plastic pouches are cheaper than the cardboard boxes, so that's what I get, but milk in the cardboard boxes keeps longer, and is sold and stored at room temperature. I know, I thought it to, is that ok?? But yes, I'm sure it is. Every time I've gotten the cardboard box kind, it's been perfectly fine and safe to drink. The plastic pouches though, have to be stored refrigerated. They also sell yogurt like this. Yogurt in Argentina is like a thick flavored milk. People also drink this on occasion for breakfast. It's not sold in a big container, although they do have those little personal ones just like you're familiar with. On a sad note, they don't have cottage cheese, or whipped cream (usually, I found whip cream once in a spray can).

Argentina is huge on pasta. They love their pasta because a lot of the people here come from Italian decent. Therefore, in every grocery store, you can find gnocchi's, ravioli's, and tortellini's packaged, kept cold, and just need to be boiled before served and eaten! I think this is my favorite part in the whole grocery store. I just love how they have that here. I know in the States you can find dehydrated tortellini's that just need boiling, but it doesn't taste the same. The pasta here not dehyderated, it's freshly made and very easy to prepare.

The frequency of buying food here is very different too. I never thought I'd get used to this, but I go to the grocery store almost every single day to buy food (however, sometimes I just go to the bakery and fruit/veggie stand and call it good). They just don't have the highly processed things here that can be stored for a long time. I don't mind it because I live seconds from the grocery store, but I know it would be such a drag if I didn't. I think that's why Argentinians love to live in the center of town.

Those are the main grocery store differences... of course, when it comes to baking, that's a whole different story too, but I'll save it for a later time!

Torta de Hojaldre

For Rodrigo's Birthday, his parents and brother came. We had a great time eating way too much food! During the weekend, I wanted to surprise Rodrigo with his favorite cake, Torta de Hojaldre.

He has told me the name a million times, but I can never remember it. So the week before his birthday, I asked his mom to write me the name over our Skype conversation. When we were through chatting, I went to 5 bakeries before I found one that would make it for me. You have to order it in advance, because it's quite difficult to make. Finally this bakery said they could do it, and I said I wanted it by Saturday.

When Saturday rolled around, I came up with an excuse to buy milk for Rodrigo's dad in order to pick up the cake. When I went there, the lady said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, we didn't make it because we didn't have any of your contact information... and we weren't sure you'd show up to pick it up." HA! I had no idea what to do... I was frantic because this cake doesn't exist in the States, and maybe we won't be in Argentina for his birthday the next year... who knows?

The lady pointed me in the direction of another place. I went there, and they said... "No, but maybe across the street." I crossed the street with a prayer! When I made it in there, the ladies could tell I'd been through you know where and back about this issue... they said, "We'll make it for you for tonight!"

I was so relieved! Rodrigo was going to get his cake, and he did. It was so good. This cake is basically 6 layers of flaky, flaky pie crust and dulce de leche in between (dulce de leche is kind of like caramel, but has a different texture), covered with chocolate, whip cream, and cherries... yummm! What a nightmere, but I'm so glad it worked out!

Here's a picture of the half eaten cake, it didn't last long at all.

Site Seeing in Córdoba

The Tango dance we watched

There are lots of fun things to see in Córdoba, Argentina, which is the current city I'm living in... Rodrigo and I went the other day to his University's hospital, to see if they'd let me volunteer. Luckily they said yes! So, I'm going to be volunteering in the Parasitology lab for now. I really can't wait. I decided that since I'm going to be volunteering, it'd be great to learn interesting things like a refresher in parasitology while I'm at it. The boss of the Parasitology lab seems really friendly, and I think he also wants to practice his English with me. Should be great!

Also since I've been in Córdoba, Rodrigo and I caught a Tango Orchastra concert... and there were great tango dancers! Did you know that Tango was initiated in Argentina by the poor Italians who migrated there? Yep, Tango started in the slums of Buenos Aires. Evidently there are amazing shows almost every night in BA... I hope I can talk Rodrigo into taking me sometime!

Here's some photos of the city I've captured since I've been here...


Plaza San Martín

Córdoba's Cathedral

A different angle of the Cathedral

Many cities are settled because of rivers, this the Suquía River.

Argentina's defeat against Great Britain in "Guerra de las Malvinas"

Justice Palace

Romulus and Remus

Cerro San Cristóbal

Santiago from Cerro San Cristóbal

So, I'm a little behind... because now I'm back in Argentina, however, this was a great hike Rodrigo and I did back in Santiago, Chile.

There is a large touristic hill in Santiago called Cerro San Cristóbal, and one afternoon, Rodrigo and I decided to hike it. You can either walk up it (6 KM), or ride a type of rail cart. Halfway up the hill is a zoo (we didn't go because it was too expensive), and when you reach the top of the hill there is a beautiful church as well as an outside worship area.

There are gorgeous views of the city, and nice places for hiking if you wish. There also used to be a gondola, but it no longer functions. We decided to ride the rail cart up, and walk back down to town. There were tons of cute little gardens, and even a fancy car with what appeared to be a famous French Lady touring around. On our walk back down, we ran into a friendly street dog that accompanied us the entire way! It was fun to have a dog, even if only for 4 hours...

Plaza Italia

A view of what we climbed in the Rail Cart... yes, Rodrigo was scared.

Open air church at the top, with the virgin Mary statue in the background. The statue can be seen from every part of Santiago.

The virgin statue

The little church at the top

Some of the flowers on the various gardens on our way down

Cool pool we saw on our way down

The dog that followed us... don't worry, we didn't pet it!

The Leatherman... Is "Paying for itself!"

Rodrigo received an early birthday present from my parents. For men, this tool may perhaps be the most useful thing ever created, and for women... well, it comes in handy sometimes.

Since the second his new gift was unwrapped, until now, it has been on Rodrigo's belt (except for when he tearfully had to check it to get through airport security).

Now, Rodrigo has an outrageous urge to fix things. The other day, he whipped out the file tool and asked me if he could use it to file his nails. I shrugged and said, I guess so, and the next thing I knew I looked over at him filing away. A couple hours later, I was standing there with an unopened milk pouch (milk is sold differently here)... when Rodrigo quickly drew his fancy new tool and said "Don't worry, I have a Leatherman!"

I must admit, it has come in handy sometimes. This morning, for example, we saved 30 Argentinian Pesos because Rodrigo was able to fix the light fixture with his handy dandy tool. He gave me his proud owner smile and said, "Look it's paying for itself!"

Sometimes, however, the Leatherman hasn't been just too amazing. Moments ago, I caught Rodrigo standing in the shower trying to fix the water leak on the faucet... I think he would have done it, but he needed a Cresent Wrench to get the large bolts loose. Darn. He gave me a little smile, batted his eyes and said, "Maybe it could be a birthday present from you Love??"

Boys... well, I gotta say... Thanks mom and dad!

Pop Rocks

OK, who doesn't love Pop Rocks??? Well, the other day I received a package from my mom here. It was stuffed with everything yummy that I love during Easter time. One of which was Pop Rocks. I thought, oh, this will be great for the little girls next door!

Rodrigo and I headed next door, but the girls were in the Plaza right in front of our house. They came up to us to say hello, and I said... "I have some candy!" Who doesn't love that phrase? They put out their hands... and I noticed they were kinda dirty. So they quickly rubbed their hands on their clothes and put them out again. I put a little bit of the Pop Rocks on their hands. They licked it... and their faces lit up!

Shortly after, there was a line of kids from the Plaza wanting some Pop Rocks... Their faces were so eager and cute! It made my day. I thought, now I have to be on a hunt for Pop Rocks... and the next time I go home, I'm going to bring back tons of them!!

The only sad part was, I didn't get any pictures. And now I've eaten all of the Pop Rocks. Note to self: With Pop Rocks... bring camera.