Spanish School

Hola Estudiantes! Hello Students!

Nathan and I are in Bariloche, Argentina, which is at the very top of the region of Patagonia. We are very excited to start exploring this wild and vast region, but first we stopped here in Bariloche to spend a week learning espanol, or Spanish. So we were students just like you this week! My teacher, Celeste, was very nice and taught me all kinds of new words and phrases. I can speak a little bit better now, but I still have a long way to go!

One of the other students in my class was a woman named Laurie, and she and her family are going to be living in Argentina for several months while her husband, Tim, works in Buenos Aires. They are all from Cleveland, OH. Laurie's kids, Madeleine and Liam, are 11 and 8 years old--the same age as some of you! Can you imagine living in Argentina? I thought it would be fun to find out what it's like for them living in another country so far from home.

I asked them what kinds of foods they eat here in Argentina, and Madeleine said, "Steak!" That's not surprising, because Argentina is one of the largest producers of beef in the world, and everyone eats a whole lot of bife, or beef. Madeleine also noted that they eat a lot of chorizo (sausage) and salami, too. Morcilla, a blood sausage, is also excellent to eat. Surprisingly, there is a lot of Italian influence here so pastas and pizza are very common, too. Liam claims that the pizza here is not as good as ours at home though! (Nathan and I agree). In this picture you see two beef steaks, chorizo and morcilla ready to go on the parilla, or barbeque.

After a big dinner of parilla you might have some sweets for dessert. Dulce de leche and alfahores are two yummy choices. Liam describes dulce de leche as, "like caramel, but really creamy--I just eat it with a spoon!" Madeleine says an alfahor, "is like really good chocolate cake with dulce de leche in the middle and the whole thing is covered in chocolate!" Sounds awesome, right? Well I can certainly say that they are delicious and one of my favorite Argentinian foods.

I asked Madeleine and Liam what kinds of things surprised them about Argentinian culture. They both agreed that the greeting people give each other when they see each other, even when they meet each other for the first time, took some getting used to. Friends and strangers say hello by shaking hands and giving each other kisses on the cheek. Madeleien calls this the "air kiss" because a lot of times the kiss doesn´t quite make it to the cheek. Sounds funny to us, but Madeleine says that although she didn't really like it at first she's used to it now and it doesn't seem so bad.

Liam and Madeleine are also learning Spanish here in Argentina and I asked them how they introduced themselves in espanol.

Liam says, "Me llamo Liam. Soy de Los Estados Unidos," and Madeleine says, "Mi nombre es Madeleine y soy de Cleveland". Do you have any idea what they are saying? Well, let's translate!

Me Llamo Liam: I am called Liam. (So if you want to tell someone your name, you can say, me llamo (your name).

Soy de Los Estados Unidos: I am from the United States.

Mi nombre es Madeleine: My name is Madeleine...

...y soy de Cleveland: and I am from Cleveland.