Mate

Japan: Green Tea, Mexico: Coca Cola, Argentina: Mate. This drink can be found throughout the country in the streets, on the subway, in the parks, on the beach, anywhere you find Argentines basically. I ignorantly classify it as a kind of loose leaf tea, although it is a little more complicated than that. The ritual of drinking mate is quite specific and you definitely have to buy the supplies in order to do it right. For instance, the cup is made out of a small gourd. They are on sale all over the place and I finally bought myself one over the weekend from a very sweet old man in the market who explained to me how he hammered out the flower design my hand. The straw you see acts as a filter and makes me feel a little more sophisticated when I drink out of it. Argentines make mate a portable entity and take a thermos with warm water so that they can drink it whenever and where ever they please. I asked my host dad to help me with the whole process since I knew that I had no idea what I was doing. He helped me first cure the gourd by letting it sit for two days with some mate leaves and a little bit of cold water so that the mate flavor permeates the inside of the cup. Tonight it was all ready so I asked him if he could help me once again to finally prepare myself a cup of it. I can tell that it made both of my host parents very pleased to help enlighten me on an aspect of their culture. Little by little I'm getting to know them better and finding out that they are very pleasant people. I still doubt that I will ever feel as close to them as I feel to Marcelo's family but that's just how it goes...Classes are going well and I am starting to get into a routine. I still really miss aspects of Valdivia more than I thought I would, but the good news is that I still have 5 more months there from March till July. After that...well, I don't want to think about that right now. At least Valdivia will always be my second home :)