Day 8: August 22, 2007 In Salta
Salta,
Argentina
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Day 8: August 22, 2007 In Salta
I got up at 8:00 and did some writing over a cup of coffee. Señorita Elena slept in until about 10:00. Around 10:30, Claudia drove us out to the university where we chatted with Aldo Tapias, the handyman par excellence, before going upstairs to meet with José Viramonte and Berta González. It was good to see them both again. José, and his wife, Marita, had just returned from a couple of months in Europe where they visited their daughter Consuelo and her family in England and their other daughter Mercedes, in Spain. Mercedes spent a month with us in North Carolina in 1996. They also spent time with research colleagues in Italy.
We outlined the plan for my Fulbright course at UNSa. It was decided that it would be given on five consecutive mornings during the week of September 15th. That time frame makes the course that I originally planned to give just about impossible since the students would be required to read a pile of journal articles in English. We decided that I would give a methods and applications course on paleomagnetism instead.
Fortunately, I have everything that I need for such a course stored on my hard drive. The course will be at the undergraduate level, which should be fun.
Elena and I took Bus 6A into town and returned to Empanadas Chueco where we had a lunch of empanadas and papas fritas. After lunch, we took a cab out to the Shopping where we bought some groceries and got cell phones for each of us. Not being familiar with the way the cell phone business operates down here, it took a couple of hours to get what we wanted. I think we are set now, although we still have to purchase some prepaid minutes. We also bought Elena a notebook for her Spanish lessons.
Once we finished with the Shopping, Salta's first mall complex, we took a cab back to Grand Bourg. I spent a couple of hours on the internet in the office and Elena read and took a siesta. Later in the evening Bernardo and Jorge prepared a fine meal of steak and salad. Elena and I did the dishes afterward. The three guys stood in the kitchen drinking a nightcap of scotch while Elena, the soccer addict, watched a match on the TV. We all turned in at 11:30.
