Pre Passover Post

Hola!
Since we last spoke, I took my first solitary vacation into a northern interior province near Córdoba, called Villa General Belgrano. To start out my little vacation, I took an overnight bus, part of a network of tons of buses (micros) that crisscross the country with destinations from the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia (penguins!) all the way to the uppermost western corner, the Salta province. The bus was a great experience. It is a mode of transportation really heavily relied on here, and it seems to be a convenient and cheap way to travel. It was my first double-decker bus and had huge seats that reclined almost all the way to 180 degrees. The leg rests jut out at a genius angle for maximum comfort, and we got two meals, served by the lady in the stewardess outfit. Sadly, while the seats made me feel like I was in first class on a flight, the food was more akin to what was served to my ancestors in the steerage of immigrant ships. Anyway, I made it to Villa General Belgrano the next morning, 11.5 hours later.
I think it's fair to say the town was one of the strangest places I have ever been. It was settled by Germans during the Second World War (apparently the whole population of 10,000 is very conservative, if you catch my drift,) and is characterized by German-esque structures with hokey signs carved in wood, as well as a ton of beer. On Saturday my dinner was even interrupted, or rather, enhanced by a German folk band wearing lederhosen. But anyway, my solo journey northwest wasn't to see the town, but rather to hike, be outside, and meet some characters, all of which I can check off the list.

My $22 peso-a-night hostel was about a half mile out of the town nestled into a small wood with some cows, Argentine hippies, and many, many dogs. I hiked to the peak Cerro de la Virgen (so named after a hideous statue at the top,) and met a young married couple who invited me to drink a mate with them before our descent. We hiked down together, comparing notes on our respective cultures, and they asked me some pretty tough questions. Turns out my Spanish vocabulary relating to the subprime mortgage crisis is severely lacking, as are the words to describe "how it feels to take off in a plane", since the two of them had never left the country before. All I could think to say was, "it doesn't really make you feel like a bird..."
[below: view from the top]
My second day was spent with an American girl who has been traveling around the country for seven months, looking for...well, something (and whose parents are still trying to find her,) as well as Ignacio, a 26 year old Argentine struggling to find his identity while working in this small town at an after-school program. We were quite a motley crew. Ignacio took us to a nearby lake, and we spent the day ambling around there and exploring behind the dike.
Now, since I am actually in school, I had to do some studying while in VGB. I discovered something not so much surprising as interesting and thought-provoking. As I said before, all of my readings are in Spanish, but (as in any class ever,) we read translated material from other languages. I find that reading English (or German)-speaking authors that have been translated into Spanish is infinitely easier to understand and follow than reading text that is in the original Spanish. This might mean that I am translating in my head, which is pretty much the Original Sin of learning and thinking in a new language, but it's kind of a sad/shameful/neat/interesting, and logical truth.

Side note: I read yesterday in the newspaper that a 12 year old girl just died of rabies from a stray dog in my neighborhood. You may know that one of my biggest fears is getting rabies. Just want to let you all know that I am scared all the time now due to the myriad stray dogs in the street.

Finally, I know that spring is finally coming for most of you and if you are at Wesleyan make sure you take advantage, because springtime is such a lovely time to be at our school. I'm jealous. And scared of winter, because it's coming.

Chag Sameach,

And I leave you with this strange ending because of my passion for foodblogs, and for faina.

I have been cooking a lot lately, and figured out how to make this great Argentine/Uruguayan/Italian food. I'm not sure where it's from actually. It's called faina (fy-ee-NAH,) and is always served with pizza, as a kind of appetizer/side dish. It looks like normal pizza crust, but is really just a dough made with chickpea flour, which has an unbelievably rich and savory flavor even when just mixed with water. If you want to make it, it's super easy.

8 servings:
Oven @ around 375... The oven here has no numbers so that's an estimate.
3 1/2 c water
2 1/3 c chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp onion powder
1-2 pinches rosemary (optional)
5 tbsp olive oil (really good olive oil makes a difference here)
1/2-3/4 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients BESIDES olive oil and pepper, whisk together, get rid of lumps.
Put in fridge for however long you want, at least an hour.
Take out of fridge, remove the rosemary, add the olive oil and pepper to the dough.
Pour into baking pan (here they bake it in a circular one.) Dough should be about 1/8in thick.
Bake for about 15 minutes, or until edges brown and pull away from the corners of the dish.
Sprinkle with more pepper, serve hot.

Okay, so now you can have a little taste (heh) of Buenos Aires. Hasta luego