Mi cumple

So its a few days late (better late than never, and I wanted to not leave my blog completely hanging) but I had a great birthday weekend a week ago now. My birthday is June 13, and the last day of class was the 12th so of course we had to go out that night to celebrate the end of the semester (finally). On the night of the 12th, after meeting up with some friends at a friends house, we went to a soccer game, my first one of the trip. But I couldn't leave Argentina without seeing a 'futbol' game. We went to see tallers (I was not about to go to a game where Argentina played, those national games get crazy). I had been warned about the dangers of even a regional game, and they were definitely warranted. I spent much more time paying attention to the other people at the game than to the game itself. It was a Wednesday night but even so, it sure was packed, but only our half, exactly our half. I was standing crowded by my group staring at empty stands, completely empty, not like only a few people, completely empty. The crowd on my side had constant energy, but more than just yelling, they had several songs they would sing and everyone would know them. How they knew what song to sing next I have no clue. There were no loud speakers playing music, also there was no screen showing the score board or the time, just a little TV on the opposite side showing advertisements. But the people on my side, there was some of everything, but mostly males dressed (or not dressed) in navy and white, some waving quite large flags. We were a couple rows behind the wall overlooking the entrance on which several very young boys were sitting without any parents in sight, one slip and they fall 20 feet down onto concrete. Next to these boys were several men, probably fairly drunk, standing on that wall. I remember one of the men standing up there took his shirt off and had some very large, visible scars clearly from puncture wounds, as if from a knife. That made all of us a little uncomfortable. But the game went great, I think they lost in a shoot out, not positive, but I enjoyed pretending I could sing the songs along with the rest of the half of the stadium that had people in it.

After we went to a bar for a bit to celebrate the beginning of June 13 (My birthday!) and then went home, because it was only Wednesday. And hanging from the roof of the bar were these fruits that I'm not sure about, but I think they were called Maracuya which may mean passion fruit. They were pretty good, if you like bland fruit with little taste.

The next day we had horseback riding class, but I was not up for more horseback riding after the last one of those classes where we rode through the river, so I just did the cooking part of the lesson which was really fun. We made alfajores and pastafrola, both desserts that use flour so I didn't have any, but they were fun to make! I took a chill afternoon, probably had a nice nap, and then that evening after dinner I went to Tyler's house to bake myself a gluten free cake! It was really good, I ate most of it that night, probably should not have eaten so much cake, but it was really really yummy and I dont get a chance to eat much gluten free cake. Also, it was really easy to make, it was one of those just add water recipes, and they had direction in English, though it was British English so that did make it a little more difficult. Like the first direction was: turn on the furnace, which I didn't know how to do, but luckily Tyler already had the oven preheated so I just used that. After the cake, we went downtown and had a good night, walked to the bus stop at 4am, and I was in bed by 5:30.

I slept most of Friday to save up energy for the big show that night: my final presentation, also because I had gotten home after 5am. Friday evening the show went fairly well, there were several hiccups like the group forgetting the dances, being late in the costume change, and me not having anything to eat because they only served pizza and beer, but other than that, it went great. After the idea was that we stayed and had a party there, but that was a little awkward with all the families and teachers standing around - it felt too much like a middle school dance, except some of my friends were drunk. But instead we went across the street to Tyler's house to have an After(party) in which I think we all had a great time, and we showed some of the Argentinans here how we party US style. I made it home that morning before 7am, so still before the sun came up.

Saturday I slept all day because Ryan wanted me to go with him to the gay club that night to be his wingman. So after sleeping all day, I went with Ryan to the gay club to be his wingman (or wingwoman, I'm not sure how effective I was as a wingwoman at a gay club, but it was fun) at 1am. Except we didnt take into account that it was Saturday night and at 1am, no one would be there. And when I say no one, i mean no one was there, it was us and the staff of the club. Finally other people start showing up at like 2:30 and then its kind of full by 3am and we have a good time. Leave around 6am, home by 7am. I had a nice sleep Sunday. And that was my lovely birthday weekend in Argentina.

And to continue the post up to the present time because I'm too lazy to make another one. Monday I went shopping and bought a pair of jeans, jeans shopping in this country is much easier, once I learned all the clothes vocabulary, because the people on average here are shorter so the jeans are shorter too so they actually fit - its great. Hung out with some friends Monday night and re discovered stereograms, those were a blast from the past. Tuesday I passed my Cine final with a 9 and Wednesday I passed my Spanish final with a 10! And now the baby has finally stopped screaming so I can go to bed. I made the mistake of trying to go to bed last night at 12 and I wasted 2 hours tying to sleep just listening to the sounds of a screaming child. Its sad to say but I will miss that baby, certainly not between the hours of midnight and noon, but I've gotten used to seeing it everyday, not gotten used to referring to it with a gender, but very used to seeing it.