Traditional clothing in Argentina

Many who live on the countryside or even in the cities of Argentinal, Brazil, and Uruguay, wear gaucho clothing. The gauchos are the cowboys of these South American countries.

A common shoe is the alpargatas, which is a rope sole and canvas shoe. It is produced with a wide range of colors and patters, and sometimes even made with a rubber sole. Tje bombachas de campo are very strong pure cotton trousers, worn alot for horse riding. The most popular are traditional colors. These trousers are very easy to identify because they have a button at the ankle to narrow them.

The bombacha de campo is unisex, unlike the gauchos. The gauchos are worn mainly by womean because they are more like capris, stopping before the ankle.

They also use the poncho, in order to protect them from winters in the pampas.

The people of Argentina use a clothing style similar to that of Austrailians. The gaucho style is used more in the villages, which is the dress of traditional cowboys.

The above link is a picture of a good example of the gaucho clothing style, with a man and a woman.

Food in Chile

Chileans usually eat four meals a day, with many specialties from the sea. Chile yeilds some of the worlds most finest and varied seafood.

Chilean snacks consist of junk food that is sold in kiosks lining the streets, or that can be found in tiny convenient stores or delis. A popular example is the empanda, which is a pastry filled with pino (a combo of stewed beef and onion) or queso (cheese). http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jRrsx3RNE-k/SXHsF4w_P7I/AAAAAAAAAhQ/0_ZIbxmK1Bg/s400/Empanada+queso+camaron+de+Con+Con+jan+15+2009.JPG

This is a picture of an empanada, which is alot of times the food of choice.

Chile has vineyards that are among the best of Mediterranean Europe and California, and no meal is complete there without wine. 

The four meals of Chile are breakfast, lunch, once (spanish for eleven), and dinner. Once is a light meal that is eaten between four and seven in the afternoon. It is similar to breakfast, consisting of bread and sandwich toppings and some tea or coffee. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, and it usually means that businesses will close during lunch hour.

Music and dance in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans enjoy Latin, American and British contemporary rock, and they also have an interest in tunes from the 70’s and 80’s. Night clubs are a big hit in Costa Rica, and they prefer to dance to traditional latin rhythms of Salsa, merengue, cumbia, lambada, and soca.

This video is an example of Costa Ricans dancing to lambada, one of the popular dancing tunes. This dance is typically done with arched legs, steps being from side to side or tuning, never front to back. It has a pronounced movement of the hips. This dance is associated with short skirts for women and long trousers for men, the woman’s skirt should swirl up when she spins.

Music and dance in Costa Rica are representative of the many cultural influences that make up the country. San Jose, which is the capital city, holds many of the countries night clubs and attracts a younger crowd. The music scene in San Jose is a very diverse one for this reason.

The Guanacaste Province holds the roots of traditional folk music in Costa Rica. Much of the folk traditions have originated here uncluding the Punto Guanacasteom which is the national folk dance. They also have la danza del sol (the dance of the sun) and la dancza del la luna (the dance of the moon).

The Spanish Euro

The above picture is of the spanish currency, or the type of money they use in Spain. They use this because Spain is a member of the European Union (EU). Not all EU countries have adopted this as their currency, but most have which means that one can move between any of these countries without having to change currency. These come in notes and coins. The notes come in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500-euro denominations. The coins start with 1-cent and end with 2 euro piece. 

Spain has had the euro since 2002, and it replaced the peseta. It is the only currency accepted in spain, they will not accept pesetas anymore. One US dollar is equivalent to about .82 euros. With the crises in Greece, the euro has taken a downfall in recent months. The best way to exchange currency is in the ATM machines of international airports. These can be found in both the Madrid and Barcelona airports.

The euro is the second largest reserve currency and the second most traded currency in the world after the US dollar. The eurozone is the second largest economy in the world.

Healthcare: La Republica Dominicana Vs Estados Unidos.

 

 

Taking bloodpressure

 

Asistencia Sanitaria en la Republica Dominicana es bastante dura en comparacion con los Estados Unidos.

 

The above picture is from a voluntary health clinic I worked at in the Dominican Republic during the summer of 2009.

While going to the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2009, I wasn’t sure at what to expect. What I saw when I got there, exceeded all expectations. We were taking a doctor along with us on the trip, and we were going to set up a clinic in the village so he could see people that desperately needed healthcare. Since I had previously completed my CNA, I knew I would be helping in the clinic, and could not wait to see what it was like compared to the United States.

After we had gotten things all set up, people were lined out the door waiting to see us. Pregnant women, women with babies and small children, elderly, and just people of any age were waiting to be treated for just about anything one could think of. We had a translator, because not a single one of the patients could speak decent english. Healthcare in the D.R. is very scarce, especially in Cielo, which was where we were set up at. There is an emergency center in the capital, Santo Domingo, but outside the capital it is very limited to nonexistent. 

In America, I am used to walking right into a doctor’s office, being seen and treated immediately, and then be on my way. The patients we were seeing in the Dominican were scared of us. They did not like the fact that we had to touch them and use instruments such as a blood pressure cuff. These were things they had never seen before, foreign objects to them. Some people wouldn’t let us treat them, they were so scared they would rather just walk out. I remember the doctor specifically telling me that it was dangerous giving them medicine. He said most of them did not understand simple instructions, such as they had to take one pill twice a day.

It just seems crazy to think that Americans basically live off of pills, and citizens of the Dominican don’t even know how to properly take them. The water in the Dominican Republic is also unsafe to drink, which can cause many problems. I feel like we take advantage of our healthcare in the US, although a lot of people might not agree with the policies we have here, at least we have the healthcare that we do have.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1103.html#medical
^This website also has some information on the healthcare in the D.R.

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