Good summary of my mood lately. You haven't heard of me in two months and you might think I have been secluded in an isolated cave working for my thesis against the clock. And you would be wrong. I have just been travelling a lot and being very lazy reading at home.
Few days after Chris left, Renko -colleague at work- payed me a visit and we went to the Iguazú Falls. After that, I went to Santiago de Chile to see a friend of mine from University and, when I got back, I welcomed Vanessa, Xavi and Alberto (friends from Spain) in Córdoba and we left to Mendoza. Located right next to the Andes and the Aconcagua, it is the perfect place for adventure trips. We did rafting (I promise pictures!) and went to the first camp base of the Aconcagua at 3.500 m. We also went together to Buenos Aires. They left ten days ago and that is exactly the time I have been laying on my bed with the fan pointing towards me full speed.
It is summer now here so I also had a refreshing weekend at a friend's house with swimming-pool. Tonight I will be holding my farewell party at my place. It went by so fast!
For those of you who might me worried about the well-being of my research, do not fret. I did have to change the topic after three months, but everything will be fine. I have done a lot of reading and I will have plenty of time to dedicate to the thesis when I am back home.
If I do not see you before New Year's, all the best for 2007. If I do, we will toast to it together.
Besos,
Paloma
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As many of you may know, my lovely husband is coming in one week (7 days!) to Argentina to visit me. He will only stay two weeks and I intend to make this visit unforgettable. After all, this may well be a journey in a lifetime. One never knows when such a trip could be affordable again. For these reasons I have spent many hours -and a good amount of my limited patience- organizing a very special trip for us.
(Boring) Digression (skip if sleepy): After all the time I spent planning his visit, I realized there is a certain dynamic in our relationship that keeps repeating itself ever since we met. Tacitly I have been the one in charge of the organization while he has been the chief administrator. Nobody ignores that Chris is astronomically better with numbers than I am and not bossy at all unlike me; which predisposes us, in theory, to the unspoken assumptions of these roles. In practice, there are factors that favour this distribution, being the language the main one. We live in The Netherlands and he is Dutch, so it is just logical that he deals with the administration -in Dutch-. We got married in Spain and I am Spanish, so it is just logical that I organize everything regarding the wedding -in Spanish-. Whether our roles are derived from practical issues or personal predisposition, this combo seems to be working perfectly and, as for now, I do not want to rotate responsibilities.
If you are still there and awake, I will tell you about the trip I have planned. We are going to Patagonia, the southern region of Argentina, for eight days. We will start at El Calafate -one of the most southern populated places on earth- to visit the 'Parque Nacional de los Glaciares'. When you check it on a map, it is impressive how southern it is. Indeed, the trips to Antartida depart from 'Tierra del Fuego' in Argentina.
This trip has been thought as a second Honeymoon. For these reason, and not to break the tradition, the first days we will be sharing our happiness staying at a Youth Hostel and sleeping with strangers in a room for four people.
After three days in the Glaciers we will go a bit north to another national park named 'Península Faunística Valdés'. Around this place we will stay the rest of the trip (5 days) to enjoy nature and animals: whales, penguins, marine wolves and elephants, dolphins and all kinds of birds and 'desert animals' like foxes and guanacos.
If you want to have a taste of all these, you can check the internet or wait for our pics which, I am sure, will be a great many.
Just a week! I can't wait!
Besos,
Paloma
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Yesterday evening I went to a farewell party of a Belgian student who is going back home tomorrow. There were few other international students, three of which were Dutch. While having dinner, one of the Dutch guys offered some wine -in Dutch- to another girl. And then I said 'Ik wil ook een beetje'. For a couple of seconds he did not react and then, flabbergasted, he stared at me and stuttered 'Did you just...? Was that...? What did you say?' Ik zei dat ik wil ook een beetje wijn, graag. 'How is it possible that you speak Dutch?? Aren't you Spanish?' Oh, yes, and those two assertions are not necessarily incompatible. It is possible to be Spanish and be able to speak Dutch at the same time.
It sounds nastier that it was. Sure I am very sarcastic at times but I did understand what he meant and how astonished he was to find someone here, let alone a Spaniard, who could speak Dutch. We had a good laugh about it and all the Dutchies were very flattered that I had learnt some Dutch. It was very nice to practice a little bit of Dutch after nearly two months of total Spanish inmersion. I realized that I miss Dutch a little bit; just a bit. But I do miss it. Nobody here understands gezellig and it is such a useful word!
Besos,
Paloma
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