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Ok so it's official that it's freezing here in Argentina. There is still no snow here in Tucuman but the temperature was -1 degree Celsius this morning. Yes that is officially below freezing! Although it was freezing here this weekend that didn't keep my indoors. My good old Iowa blood helped me to spend the entire weekend outdoors sight seeing in Salta and Jujuy.
Except for the night I spent indoors skyping my new nephew! Congrats again Trisha and Chevi on the adorable baby boy, Zeblan! Trust me after all the babies I've seen lately I can tell the adorable ones from just the cute ones and Zeb is super adorable! J I can't wait to meet him in a couple of weeks! O and don't worry Trish the doctors explained everything to me about the minor complications of your pregnancy and said that your baby is a perfect weight! (Did you know babies that weigh too much actually have almost just as many complications as babies who are below normal weight?) Don't worry, I can explain everything to you in perfect Spanish when I get there…. Well… more or less perfect Spanish with some hand gestures involved for the words I don't remember….
Other things I accomplished in the hospital this week included learning how to take blood from the patients. (I'm not quite a pro yet but I'm getting there) and interviewing the patient in Spanish without the help of anyone else and explain everything about our study to them. I'm becoming more brave with my Spanish and am speaking more with the patients at the hospital now. However, just when I think I'm finally blending into Argentina two people at the hospital picked me out of the crowd and asked me where I was from even before I even spoke a word….. guess the blonde hair doesn't help my blending into the crowd idea.
Anyway the best part of my week was traveling by bus to the northern part of Argentina. You def have to check out all the pics I uploaded this week bc up north is beautiful! Salta la linda (Salta the cute as it translates) is a beautiful city with gorgeous churches and colonial buildings. I also went into their museum of the mummies that has 3 perfect mummies of children that were sacrificed by the Incas some hundreds of years ago and found frozen at the top of a mountain. With this trip I actually learned a lot about the history of Argentina, their native Indian population, as well as their struggle against Spain. Saturday I took another bus trip to the province of Jujuy to see more native towns as well as see the beautiful scenery of the mountains. Purmamarca is the city with the cerro de siete colores (mountain of 7 colors) that you have to check out in my pics because they only barely show the actual beauty of the mountains. And then I went to Tilcara which is the city of ruins of old indian civilizations (actually it's only a replica because none of the ruins are still standing but it was still cool to see with amazing scenery again.) Then I visted Humahuaca to eat some amazing traditional food and shop like crazy at all the artseanal shops! And we also stopped at Maimara which has a cementary built into one of the mountains. I thought it was just in Buenas Aires where they build mausoleums for the dead but they even do it in the native villages.
Another interesting fun fact I learned on my trip is that buying coca leaves (the leaves you use to make cocaine) is legal here and very common in the north. One of the doctors in the hospital explained it to me that people will put some of the leaves in their mouth like chew to use as a simulant. They will use it instead of coffee or to help with digestion. Have less than 1 kg is legal I think because it takes 10 kg to make cocaine. Also, in case you've been watching the news and are worried about my safety don't worry the destruction in Buenas Aires is not affecting me. Lets just say some fans get a little crazy here when their soccer team loses. They hicieron Aca (beat up) the police, the stadium, and the surrounding area. Crazy! Not something real fans would do I don't think….. but hooligans are just taking advantage of the situation to loot the surrounding stores.
As my trip is coming to an end because I only have 2 weeks left here in Tucuman I'm realizing there is so much to do and still so little time to do it all! If only I didn't actually have to start med school to get my white coat I'd be ok with staying here and learning at the hospital…. it's way better than studying.
Anyway changos,
Hasta la proxima y besos!
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