G´Day Mate (Pronounced ´Mar-tay´¨)

You cannot possibly say you have been to Argentina, or that you know anything about Argentina, unless you have tried mate (mar-tay). With respect to lovely people I already know in Argentina who love mate.... for me, it is a singularly awful taste - similar to very strong bitter herbal tea...and grass clippings. Here is a photo of my first experience which I took somewhat tentatively, mindful of my trail-blazing amiga Viviennne´s description of it during her visit to Argentina. It is not really a drink as such because the vessel is filled with .... something like dried herbs (a word I can´t remember but will fill in the gap when I get it right.....later.... it's called yerba mate), and then bit by bit hot water is added to fill in the gaps. People carry around hot thermos flasks and their mate vessels (will research what they are called) and top it up as they need to. The ´straw´ is metal (called a bombilla) and gets offered to others to share if desired. There are courtesies and traditions and light-hearted superstitions involved and I have been told many but cannot be precise enough to write them here.

I am currently watching children´s tv and am delighted that I can understand much of it. It´s the Disney Channel dubbed I think.

I am trying to work out how send a link to this blog to everyone because I can´t seem to find it in a search and yet I see that mi hermana (sister) Lynn has found me from Australia. I will see what I can do but I am working on an Argentinian keyboard so I have to slow down or go back and correct heaps of mistakes... and all the instructions and labels on my host family´s computer are in Spanish, of course, which fits the immersion experience. However, I worry I will delete or change something by accident.