El campo

My week took off after my slow Thursday morning at migrations.
First, Thursday night, we went downtown to the Spanish conversation weekly party on a hostel rooftop which is a great place to practice Spanish. Both locals and foreigners go so you never know who your going to end up talking to at that place. And then after, we were going to go to a boliche, but the line was to long so we hung out in a bar and talked some more Spanish.

We took a picture with a large sign that said "Soy Gay, Y Que?" if you cant read the caption. Though Dalila didn't read the sign before taking a picture with it. I was just proud that this catholic country is promoting gay awareness.
In case you need a translation "Im gay, and what?"

I slept in Friday, did some homework, and then went out again. I went to the Centro with Dalila, and we had a girls afternoon since it was Day of the Woman. We went shopping, talked to some strangers, signed a petition that I still have no clue what it was for, went to a modern art museum with some very modern art, watched a rally, and then went to a concert in a park. I was going to have a picnic dinner but then I decided chocolate and yogurt was a better option. It probably wasn't. After the concert in the park, which turned out to be classical, we went downtown. I'm not quite sure to where I thought I was following Tomas, but we ended up at this rooftop party with several people I had met before, and that was cool. Then, Dalila and Michelle and I went to a boliche since we were sad we had missed it the night before. And of course we had to stay the whole time because the buses don't even start running again until 5am.

Modern Art

So there we were, at the bus stop, at 5:30am, waiting for the bus. Michelle had caught her bus but Dalila and I were still waiting when a bunch of boys came over to the same stop. And they really wanted to have a conversation with us. Long story short, they had just been dancing Tralala (I still don't believe that's a real dance), they were drunk, they really wanted our numbers, and the only name I understood out of all of them was Pikachu, and I don't think that's really what his name was. But I made it home safely and Dalila made it home safely.

Slept in again Saturday, finished my homework, and left to go out with Ryan and some of his friends. Went to a party and then a boliche. That boliche was a struggle for me, I thought it was a gay boliche but it turned out it was just a boliche for everyone, which kind of translates to 'everything goes'. I don't understand their culture here, usually I just think they are trying to trick me because I'm a foreigner, but I never know. But what I do know is I dont go to a club to have in depth conversations on the dance floor. Everyone here wants to have a conversation while dancing, in Spanish, with the loud music and being constantly jostled. It was a struggle, but I definitely had fun. And I found myself, at the same bus stop again at 5:30am, waiting for the bus. But this time, it was pouring down rain. What is it with this country and raining from 5-7am on Sunday mornings.

Sunday I did not sleep in, I got up at 9:30 (3 hours of sleep), and went to the country side with some friends and locals. It was amazing. Since everything takes a bit longer in this country, we got to where we were going at 3:30pm, but that's cool. The journey was part of the adventure. After picking up lunch for Dalila and myself at the grocery store on my way to the train stop, we took the 2 hour train ride into the country.

The views were incredible but I just couldn't stay awake, so I took a nap. Then the ride to the house in the countryside consisted of riding in the back of a pickup for 30 minutes on dirt roads to this house in the absolute middle of nowhere. That house was the only thing there for miles. In the countryside, we split our lunch for 2, 11 ways after a mis-communication between the locals (at least it wasn't my lack of Spanish ability), played in the stream, played in the grass, hiked to the river, hiked back, and cooked dinner. Cooking dinner was an adventure for me. We are in this house that is a couple decades old and the Argentine kitchens are a bit different to begin with, I was very glad I was not in charge of cooking. I did much better at chopping. But they guys built a fire for the grill outside, and the girls cooked in the kitchen, it was such an authentic experience haha. But dinner was excellent, and then the stars... that may have been the most stars I've ever seen in my life. The milky way was so bright and it was really cool to see a different set of stars and learn some of the constellations they know here. And then the ride back in the back of the truck was really pretty on the way back too, we could see the stars, but it was a little cold, and I was wearing a lot of clothing  by that point. The bus ride back was only 40 minutes, I dont know why the train was so slow, but I was glad to be back, just a bit after midnight to get a good night sleep.

Our ride in the back of the truck

Fede not falling in the stream

My demonstration of bad form

View from the middle of the river

Me not riding a horse (though horseback riding class is tomorrow)

The adorable out-door table

The view

The boys grilling in a traditional grill

I slept nearly 12 hours solid, and in Spanish class on Monday she asked me if I was feeling ok, that I looked really tired. I did really know how to respond, especially since I had 3 more classes to make it through after that. 6 hours of class in Spanish is intense. Tuesday went a bit better, mostly because it started with the best class - RITMOS (dance class), but after History and double Lit & Film I was re-thinking the better part. While I have 6 hours of class solid on Monday, I have 6 hours of class spread out over 11 hours on Tuesday. But today, Wednesday, is nice: 2 classes, early afternoon, then I go home for a snack, nap, dinner, and then to write this blog post.

I think I may be down to 1 blog post a week, I have definitely found things to keep myself busy in this country!