Visit to Laura´s

Portuguese chicken, which I made at Laura´s house.

Dispenser for soda water

Pollo portuguesa, or Chicken in the style of Portugal

My bed at Laura´s house.

My host dad´s father, who is ninety four this year

Dancing with some enthusiastic old relative I met at the party.

Me and baby Emma.

Empanadas, sandwiches and pizza. The JQ on the
empanadas stand for jamón y queso, or ham
and cheese.

Wine.

Three month old baby Emma.

The party center where we went to
celebrate the party.

Laura is a lady with AFS (my exchange organization) who I am staying with this weekend, because my family is going on a trip to visit the same relatives in the countryside that I wrote about before, but I am actually leaving on a two week long trip to the North of Argentina on Wednesday so decided to stay behind and get some things done here. On Saturday we also went to a birthday party for the mother of my host dad and had lots of food and loving Argentine relatives who are more touchy than you can imagine. At Laura´s house, I have made a yummy yellow cake from a recipe of her great grandmother, portuguese chicken, in a type of tomato sauce with onions, garlic, herbs, peppers, and potatoes, and lots of different types of very yummy pizza, including one shaped like a roll. We have also eaten lots of desserts, with the primary ingredient always being dulce de leche. I also bought my bus tickets to get to Salta, the city in the north where I am meeting other AFS students and am very excited for that trip.

Cow tongues is what these are. This is why you eat something
and digest properly before you ask what it is. They are
more of a summer food-- served cold in lots of oil and herbs.
Actually quite yummy, but would be less so if
I had known what they were.

Sleepovers and Lots of Food

Last week I had a sleepover with some of the girls I know from school, and we lined up a whole bunch of mattresses in front of the television so that we could watch movies and eat junk food, which is sort of a requirement for a slumber party, no matter where you are. We attempted to make brownies but they rose too much, and we were on a gas oven that doesn´t have the option to choose degrees, so we ended up eating them with ice cream, in a semi liquid form. We watched the scary movie When A Stranger Calls, but it was much less scary in Spanish, in my opinion.

My town

A dog, helping, in a store where we went to buy Fede
jogging--really sweat pants, but they are
just called ´jogging´.

 I recently got a care package from my family, including American gum, Oreos, and Goldfish, and my siblings now have the ever common obsession with Goldfish. We also had little chocolate things called negritos, which translates to little black ones. They were very yummy.

I don´t know if I´ve shown you all this yet--
its a hanging chicken in my kitchen that
holds bags.

My sisters love Goldfish, just like every other kid on the planet.

Yummy chocolate goodness, that have chocolate sprinkles
for hair, marshmallow things for mouths, and are filled
with wafers and chocolate, as well as dulce de leche
goodness. They are called negritos.

Steak and potatoes . . .reminds me of America

Soda that translates to drink of the bulls.

Yummy ham, cheese, and broccoli quiche thing

Life Happens.

Vika, another exchange student from Ohio,
and me, at a school where we were doing
a talk about AFS

My bus pass. I look ridiculous because we
couldn´t smile for the picture, so I
almost burst out laughing.

House keys!

Santa Rosa

Food, before the asado came in.

Ice cream cake= chocolate, dulce de leche, and vanilla ice cream
covered in solid chocolate

Easter, and lots of Chocolate

Melting chocolate to make Easter Eggs over
a double boiler

My surprise from my Kinder Egg-- a little
kite thing that flaps when you throw it.

                              My family messing around after dinner

My younger sister and her Kinder Eggs

My Easter Egg I made after we got into it

The surprise in my Easter Egg-- more chocolates filled with
dulce de leche

Our loot for Easter

Chocolate chip cookies!

Chocoate Chip cookies in muffin cups because
we ran out of baking sheets

Chocolate chip cookie muffins after they finished cooking.

Trip to the Country

Cooking matambre--my favorite-- steak with tomato sauce and cheese
on top

 My family and I went to the country to visit a grandmother and family, and it was lots of fun. We had lots of food-- it´s difficult to describe how much there really was. The photos really tell the story. There was this adorable puppy who is going to grow up to be over a hundred pounds but right now is maybe nine pounds. He is also the most patient animal I have ever met--everyone picking him up and loving him nonstop, without a peep. Afterwards, we also went to a farm to look at some pigs, and I got to pet a piglet that was just two days old. The two little boys in the picture below live on the farm and tried to ride a pig.

Because everyone needs a mate dispenser

Sunset

Cooking ingredients

Pizza rellena: tuna, tomatoes, cheese, basil, tomato sauce,
cheese, hard boiled eggs, spinich, cheese, and did
I mention cheese?

A little dog

Two brothers playing cowboy

Easter Eggs, like Kinder Eggs (for those of
you that know of these), hollow
chocolate eggs with surprises
inside

Little M&M things inside the eggs

Mate cups come in all shapes and sizes . . . that´s Tweety!

Some of the younger members of the family

Me with braids

A huge pig, which we ate for lunch.

A puppy! He´s going to grow up to be about one
hundred pounds, but is about eight right now.

Yummy homemade cheesecake

Some yummy pastries