mendoza (again)

oh my god that family i stayed with in mendoza was so, unbelievably nice. i tried making them chocolate chip cookies, but only about half of them turned out. the first tray was ok, the then i didn't put the second tray in the oven straight, and all the cookies ran together into one giant cookie. then the third tray turned out really good, but then i accidentaly dropped the fourth tray on the floor. oops. you win some you lose some, right?

Sebastian, took me on a biking tour of mendoza. seriously i think mendoza is probably one of the nicest cities i-ve ever been in. all around mendoza are vinards and fancy wineries. the city has five plazas, and lot's of gourmet restaurants, and fancy clothing shops. the surrounding area is really dry and desert-like, but the original city planers developed a system to bring water into the city. sebastian told me that all the local rivers are diverted into these small canals called "sequias" that run parallel to the street and bring water to all the trees.

that night i went to the shopping center with carolina and some of her friends. guess what time the shopping center closes? one o'clock in the morning! can you believe it? argentinians love the night time. we all went bowling, and i discovered that i am a horrible, horrible bowler. all the guys kept making all these srtikes, and i hit gutter ball after gutter ball. my best score was only 71. it's funny because all the bowling stuff is in english. like if you want to play another game, the screen says, "press the blue key to play again". and the bowling shoes are in american sizes (i.e. 7,8,9) instead of south american sizes (i.e. 38,38,39).

this is a photo of a fancy hotel. in the morning when i left sebastian and carolina gave me all this food to take with me. cereal bars, powdered drink mixes, and i told them i like to eat hard boiled eggs and they cooked up a bunch for me for the road. as i was leaving town i saw i place to buy cashmere sweaters and went to get one for my mom. they guy who was working in the shop was so into my bike trip, that he tried to give me a bottle of wine to take with me. i really can't believe how nice people here are. ok, hope everyone is good. happy birthday mom! love,
-jessie