argentina part II

~carne asado~

we ate all sorts of carne, including morcilla...

~argentinians are vampires~

you're probably looking at this picture saying, "that looks so nasty. what is that?"

that lovely and surprisingly edible piece of meat is morcilla (more-see-shuh)

morcilla is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. basically, someone whacks off the head of a cow (or pig or goat of that matter) and lets the blood from the body drip into a pit, waits for the blood to clot, then gathers it all into a yummy link of morcilla.

and i tried it. oh, how innocent i was.

hugo, my host dad offered me a piece smiling and nodding. suspicious, i looked over to see my host mom also smiling and nodding saying, "es rico! tan rico!" 

so i reach for the morcilla, slowly bring the fork to my mouth and the minute it touches my tongue, i gag. no joke. i gag immediately, then spit it up into a napkin. i look over to see my sister doing the same thing. with all eyes on us, someone yells in english, "it's blood!". sister and i exchange horrified looks, then start laughing hysterically

~smiles~

after i gathered my composure and the entire hall of people had a good laugh, i looked around at the scene before me. families and friends laughing and talking loudly in spanish filled the hall. that feeling of community almost brought tears to my eyes.

~music show~

next stop: the patio!

~musical evening~

we held a little sing-along on the patio belting out jason mraz, ricardo arjona and camila

~brought some classic american food to argentina~

i explained that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is THE staple of kid food here in the states. 

PBJ: american right of passage

it didn't go over as well as i'd hoped

~alfajore: argentine right of passage~

~we played around with uv lights~
mara and sol are models

~late night hang out~

these boys sang at the top of their lungs the song "bajo el mar" ("under the sea" in spanish)

~escuela hogar~

goodness, i can't get enough of that sweetness!

teaching the kids "twinkle twinkle little star" and "mary had a little lamb"

~those kids taught me something~
i need to look into elementary education. i love this stuff too much.

~i really came to love these people~

~final goodbye~

~welcome to buenos aires, argentina~