Hap Working The World

G’day folks,

Firstly, while I remember I have finally got around to posting my Thailand end of chapter.

The reason why its taken me so long is because the past 2 weeks I have been taking Spanish lessons, and have another 2 weeks left in them, so I have been studying hard.  If only I was this focused when I was at university!

The good ol’ study of language, I reckon the more you study the more you realise you don’t know. Anyone that has studied a language will know that it is one of the most frustrating things, 1 step forward, 2 steps back it feels like sometimes. Some days you can talk about swine flu with the local taxi driver for the whole journey, then the next day the grocery assistant asks you “how are you?” and you stand there looking like a cow that has eaten too much grass or a deer in the head lights, what ever rocks your boat, moooooooooooooo!

But it is also one of the more rewarding things to study. Looking back you realise that you have improved, and realise that even though you sometimes look like a cow that has eaten too much grass, you know that 2 weeks ago you looked like a cow that is one mouthful off a food coma and has a small dose of the mad cow disease, which they call La vaca loca in spanish- wow, those spanish lessons are paying off, I can say mad cow.

Enough of my rambling, the photos I have posted here are taken on my walk to school, and the body of water is the lake that Bariloche is by. Nnot a bad view for a morning walk to school.

Anyway,  just wanted to say that I had put up the Thailand end of chapter up. Argentina independence day tomorrow, so I’m heading up the mountain for the first day snowboarding, woop woop.

When it comes to the countries that I have been to, and the typical food of the country, Argentina is up there. I’m a very simple person in many ways, and food is definitely one of them, give me red meat and I’m happy, chuck in red wine and I’m even happier, hey just call me Hap.

On Friday I went to an Asado, which is basically a sit down meal where 7 or so different cuts of meat are cooked on an open fire. During the night you are brought the different cuts of freshly cooked meat, and in some cases the meat looks like it has been cut straight off the cow and jumped on the plate missing the grill all together. By the time it comes to the last cut of meat, which unfortunately is the best, you have eaten the equivalent weight of a small child in meat and have to dig up all your will power to eat it, or all your stingy, thrifty, backpacker, “I paid for this so I’m going to dam well eat it” power.

The best part of the Asado was that you got all the red wine you could drink; I thought I was in heaven! Until I woke in the morning with a headache from hell, in a food coma as my stomach worked around the clock to digest the small family of dead animals I had consumed the previous night.

Nuthin but love Hap

Hola folks,

All is well in Bariloche, Argentina. Mandy and I have moved in with an Argentinean family. We thought it would be a great experience and a gives us time to look for a place of our own in comfort. Not to mention it is a perfect environment for me to be surrounded by Spanish speaking people while I study Spanish. Speaking of learning Spanish, I started at my Spanish school on Monday, so the brain is aching, but I’m really enjoying it.

So that’s it, short and sweet, in my next post I will post some photos from the hike I did in the weekend, spectacular! Hope all is well.

Ahhhh, the familiar feeling of arriving in a foreign town and trying to set-up up roots for a new chapter. The past five days have been spent negotiating the bus systems, beating the foot path in search of a place to call home. As with all ski resort towns at the start of the ski season, competition is fierce for housing, with the demand well outweighing the supply. Lucky for me I have Mandy on my side with her fluent Spanish and her responsible appearance, two areas that I’m not that strong in………to put nicely.

I have also been looking at Spanish schools, as I plan to do a 1 month language course, and Mandy has been trying to find English teaching work.

While doing all this we have been lucky enough to be staying with Alisa and Nate, a friendly couple that we met through couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing.com is a great website that acts as a meeting point for travellers and hosts. Basically a host will give you somewhere to stay, maybe a mattress on the floor, a couch, a room, and in return you will give a gift, or just help out around the house, cooking meals etc. And then when the host goes travelling they then are able to go and couch surf with other people in the couch surfing community. This is our first time doing this and it’s been a great experience.

Hopefully next time I write a post we will have a house, myself a Spanish school and Mandy a job.