An Entirely Non-Work Related Post
We’re finally all settled into our amazing apartment, so we decided it would be a good time to escape from the city. We went to La Cumbre last weekend, which is a beautiful little resort town tucked away in the mountains. We enjoyed some hiking, biking and amazing food and even made a special friend, who ran alongside our bikes for our entire two hour ride.
In addition to the great food we had in La Cumbre, we’ve been doing alright in Córdoba as well. Two of the other interns are vegetarians so we’ve been trying to cook vegetarian meals, which isn’t always easy in a country known for its red meat. Here is one of our biggest successes though:
We made a traditional empanada with potato, onion, zucchini and spices and then one that had bleu cheese, walnuts and grapes. While the second was not traditional, both got the stamp of approval from an Argentine friend, who was also kind enough to teach us how to wrap them.
Córdoba is an amazing city, and at first glance it’s very modern and European; the roads are great, buses run on time (or early, which we learned the hard way), our neighborhood is full of high-rise apartment buildings, classy hotels and amazing restaurants. However, there is a darker history buried just under the surface. CEDHA’s office is located at the corner of two main streets downtown, and it’s not uncommon to have work disrupted as protesters pass by with fireworks and drums. Much of the city’s graffiti is political in nature and some of the city’s most beautiful areas, like the law school’s now pristine courtyard, were used as torture stations during the dictatorship. A compound now housing an art school still pays homage to the time it served as a compound for Peronist loyalists. Neither have the city’s residents forgotten the period in the 90s, before the economic collapse in 2001, when the Argentine peso was worth about the same as the U.S. dollar (now it’s worth about $0.25). Despite all the challenges though, the city is beautiful, its residents wonderfully friendly and its streets perfect for a group of law students looking to explore. All in all, I’m falling more in love with the Córdoba every day and I’m so grateful to CEDHA and William & Mary for the opportunity to spend my break here!
