AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

What a full Sunday today was.  Everything seemed to fall into place — the flow of the day was amazing.  I woke up around 1pm and arranged to go to el dique with Gabi because it was a beautiful day.  She decided that we would take her moto there. I was so excited for this because it meant a longer motorcycle ride than our normal short rides through centro. 
I absolutely love riding motorcycles through the country side.  That is one thing I always do when I go home and visit my family in New York.  My dad has a motorcycle and for the past few years it has been a normal thing for us to take rides around the lake.  Once a year he would come visit me in DC on his motorcycle and we’d ride through Virginia (Skyline Drive).  For a while I was set on buying a motorcycle but then my attention switched to Argentina so having a motorcycle didn’t seem practical at this point in my life.
When we got to el dique I thought we were going to swim IN the dique (a lake) but as it turns out there are pools next to every dique so we went to the pool instead and just had a beautiful view of lake and mountains while we were swimming.  I much prefer swimming in a pool because I can see what I’m swimming in.  The pool was huge and the water was the perfect temperature.  I jumped in before I put on any sunscreen and I got an immediate tan. My laser lady isn’t going to like it when I show up for my appointment with tan legs. She’s already yelled at me once about it but I can’t help it — it is so hot here sometimes that the pool is the only solution.  And I’m really lazy when it comes to applying sunscreen. I just hate doing it. (For those family members that will be reading this, yes I already know the dangers of not putting on sunscreen so you can spare me the lecture.)  I did end up putting it on right after I got out of the pool but at that point the sun had disappeared behind the clouds.
We ate empanadas and sweet crackers and just relaxed.  It was wonderful.  My friend wore a thong bikini and I was jealous. I just can’t picture myself in a thong bikini — I don’t think I have the body to pull it off.  Also, I don’t like wearing thongs normally so I don’t see how I would like a thong bikini.  But still, I was jealous.  It seemed like one more thing that would complete my Argentine experience — drinking mate and wearing a thong bikini.  Oh yeah, and having a mullet and a camel toe (guys and girls) is very common in Argentina.
It started to rain so we packed up our stuff and headed for home.  The whole way home it rained. It was quite miserable to be on a moto at that time but surprisingly I didn’t get that wet.
When I got home Joaquin was in the house with his friend.  I went to take a nice hot shower to warm up from the cold ride home.  When I got out of the shower everyone was home so I quickly got ready.  I was half dressed and my bottom half was wrapped in a towel as I went to grab my jeans from the other room.  When I came out of the other room there was an amazingly beautiful dude standing before me.  I stuttered and was partially embarrassed for being wrapped in a towel.  We greeted each other and said a few small words and I escaped to my room with a red face to go put my pants on.  This guy was a friend of Joaquin’s and I couldn’t stop staring at him all night.  Oh the joy of eye candy.
There were tons of people in the house this afternoon and it was so great.  People came and went from 6pm to 2am and everyone was just chatting and listening to awesome music and having a great Sunday evening.   They were all friends of Laila and Joaquin.  It was raining like mad for the whole night and at some points the thunder was so loud and so close to the house that we all jumped out of our seats and were scared shitless.  It was insane thunder — I’ve never heard such loud thunder before in my life.   We ordered in pizza and lomitos which were both delicious.  We then drank champagne, probably toasting to the fact that Siabhann was visiting and that we didn’t die from the crashes of thunder.  I also smoked pot for the first time since I arrived down here.  The hot guy friend of Joaquin had a joint so we passed it around.
When everyone left, Laila, Siabhann, Joaquin and I had tea and chatted some more.  I cherish these moments where I can have late night talks with new people.  Laila is such a warm person and her home is so comfortable for me.  I haven’t felt lonely once since I arrived in the house.  This is the beginning of a beautiful new living experience, I can just tell.

I usually go to La Peluqueria for dancing and drinking, not for dinner.  I finally decided to eat there with Glenda and HOLY CRAP are their fire roasted pizzas DELICIOSO!  We ordered a pizza with mushrooms and smoked bacon and my mouth was in a severe state of bliss.  I am now addicted.  First it was discovering Roquefort (blue cheese) pizza down here and now this! I’m going to get so fat from the pizza here, totally for sure.

Siabhann and Laila

Last night when Laila finally got home around 2:45 am she asked me where I was going to sleep this coming week.  I was a bit surprised.  I said, well…here. She has been telling me from day one that Siabhann (the girl who used to live in this house and who is from London), was coming to stay here for a week.  Apparently what I didn’t pick up on this whole time was that she was supposed to sleep in my room with her boyfriend and I was supposed to find another place to sleep for the week.  Laila told me that she wasn’t charging me for the week that Siabhann was here because she told me that Siabhann needed the room.  I hate only getting half the message. That is what sucks about not knowing the language yet, you miss out on important details like this.  So I told her that I couldn’t go back to the Mercadal’s because their kids are home now and I also told her that I don’t have a boyfriend to stay with and all of my friends live in barrios really far away or the ones that live close don’t have accommodations for me.  She said that was fine and that they would arrange something for Siabhann. I believe she is still staying in my room with her boyfriend but that I am also staying in there too.  Awkward.  We’ll see what happens this week.  I’m hoping that when Siabhann gets here she can explain to me what the hell is going on.
When I woke up this morning I was ready to install my wireless router and begin downloading television shows.  I texted Laila to see if I could go into her room while she was not there because the computer and modem were in her room.  She wrote back “Si, por supuesto, aunque este Joaquin”.  “Yes, of course, although Joaquin is there”.  Joaquin is one of her 2 twins, 26 year old sons.  He wasn’t supposed to arrive until tomorrow so I was confused as to what she meant even though it was clear.  I knocked on the door and walked in and sure enough there was Joaquin laying in the bed fast asleep at 1pm. For a split second I thought it was a lover of Laila’s and panicked but then remembered her message about Joaquin.  I ended up not setting up the router with him in there…it would have been an awkward first encounter to have him wake up to me on the computer.
I headed to yoga and ended up falling asleep in yoga.  How does this happen, you ask? Easily.  In the beginning and end of yoga we have “relaxation” where we lay in the death pose (there is another more appropriate word for this but I forget it at the moment).  For some reason, the relaxation period lasted for more than 5 minutes and I ended up falling asleep.  This happens sometimes with people in class so the instructor comes over and grabs their ankles to gently wake them.  Well I was in such a weird state of sleep that I just thought he was readjusting my posture, which he also sometimes does.  Then he started moving my arms.  I was getting confused and finally he was like “Autumn wake up” haha.  Awkward!  After class my yoga mates started making fun of me for falling asleep and not being able to wake up.  I am still laughing about it hours later.
When I got home, I walked into my room and it still smelled like cat shit.  The maid had washed the spots on the rug with ammonia where the cat had left his shit. I also bought some carpet cleaner and some air freshener.  Nothing was getting rid of the rancid smell.  I concluded that there must be more shit somewhere so I started to investigate.  Surely enough there was a giant pile of not only shit but a dead rat under my bed as well.  I grabbed Joaquin who was now awake and asked him if he could help me take care of this because it was just too disgusting to deal with.  He cleaned it up for me. Now the smell is all gone and I’ve learned my lesson not to leave my door open when I leave the house.

Later in the evening I went with my friend Glenda to Bonafide and guess who I met?!?!  Robert Duvall.  He was there with his jujena wife of 10 years (she’s only 35ish) and his sister in law (she is around 25).  My friend knew the sister-in-law because they went to high school together so we went over to talk to her. While my friend talked to her friend I struck up a conversation with Robert.  His wife was not pleased as I’m sure people do this to him all of the time and he is old and hard of hearing and whatever.  I don’t care though, that is the price you pay for being a celebrity (or a celebrity’s spouse).  Robert was super nice and down to earth.  I didn’t get a photo with him because I don’t like that awkward situation.  Who knew I would meet a famous actor in my favorite cafe in JUJUY?!?! The luck!

Today was the last day that the Holland girls were going to be in Jujuy. It was a sad, slow and expensive day.  I had class in the morning and learned all about how to ask someone how fat they are, how much weight they were going to lose and how to ask someone to guess my age (an appropriate phrase to learn since everyone here thinks I look 17 years old).
After class I worked for a bit in Bonafide and then ate empanadas for lunch with the Holland girls in their apartment.  I went home to take a mini siesta and then I showered and met them again for chocolate cake in Bonafide at 5pm (yes, I am a loser and went to the same place twice in one day).  I spent 20 pesos in there on cake and grapefruit juice (about $6 dollars), then I went and bought myself a wireless router for the house.  It was only 239 pesos ($70 dollars).
I headed to Zorba to meet the girls again for dinner.  Zorba has delicious food but it is one of the most expensive places to eat in Jujuy.  We waited for almost 30-40 minutes while they prepared a brand new menu.  I don’t understand why they would wait until the middle of dinner to prepare new menus.  Seems a little silly.  We ordered a bottle of Malbec wine (mmmm yummy) and I ate the shit out of some bread and delicious butter.   All of the starters, entrees and desserts were all around 30 pesos ($9-10 dollars).  This isn’t that bad for a really delicious meal but it is way more than I am used to spending on a meal.  (I ended up spending 40 pesos so my entire meal was only $11 dollars.  Ok, I can’t complain.  We ended up staying at dinner from 9pm - 12:30am.  My ass had fallen asleep from lack of movement.  I taught the girls how to say some more American slang and phrases (some specialized by me) before they headed back to their homeland.  I taught them about man boobs, specifically banana boobs.  I taught them the word camel toe and told them that it can apply to both men and women.  I taught them T.H.O. and other various vulgar descriptions of the body.  I told them all about my disgusting halloween costumes from the past few years.  They were in awe.  We all walked back to their apartment and said our final farewells.  They promised to return in August or sooner if they could.  Andrea wants to live here again and Hanneke wants to visit.  I want to visit them at some point and go to Amsterdam with them.  Andrea said she has a “pot cafe” right next to her house where I can buy “space cake”.  Um, I’m totally there.  I love the fact that we all met randomly in a cafe in Jujuy and then became such very good friends.  I always make such good friends in the most random scenarios.  It’s an added bonus that most of them are international friends, too.
When I got back to my house I walked into my room and immediately smelled shit. I didn’t remember leaving my room smelling this way and I definitely didn’t remember farting as I walked into my room.  I flipped on the light to find 2 tiny piles of bright pink poop.  The cat had shit some psychadelic caca on my rug. just…fantastic.  I went upstairs and grabbed a roll of paper towels and the only cleaner I could find, kitchen degreaser.  After I cleaned it up it still smelled raunchy so I texted Laila to see if there was any carpet cleaner. No response yet and it is 2:24am.  She is not home…I wonder where she could be?  I guess I’ll have to suffer through a night of smelly shit and hope that tomorrow she’ll help remedy the situation.

Last night it took me a while to fall asleep. I tried to lay in all different positions, even with my feet in one corner of the bed and my head in the opposite corner.  What’s that called? Diagonal? It doesn’t matter… Nothing was working. I think it was a combination of eating a huge dinner with the Holland girls and then drinking coffee and having a big piece of chocolate cake with them right before bed.  Also it always takes me a few days to get comfortable with a new bed, no matter how comfortable it is.  Luckily this new bed is comfortable and big. Big enough for two people, although I am not hopeful that I will fill the other side with anyone but family and friends at this point in my life.
I woke up in the morning around 9 am to the doorbell ringing.  I was hoping that Laila was in the house so that I didn’t have to answer the door. I don’t think I would have anyway because I was barely dressed and barely awake.  I hate when random things wake me up when I’m not ready to wake up so I fell back asleep for 2 more hours. I love that I still have the ability to go back to sleep whenever I want.
When I finally did drag myself out of bed at 11 am I got dressed, got my stuff ready to go to the cafe and work, and went upstairs.  When I got into the kitchen I saw an entire breakfast spread laid out for me.  There was a whole mango, different types of breads, jam, cream, and tea.  I had completely forgotten that breakfast was included in my rent and I had definitely not expected it to be set out for me, waiting for me so beautifully like that.  It was a really nice surprise.  We’ll see if this is how it is every day. If so, I could definitely get used to it.
I worked all morning in Bonafide and then went to yoga (finally!) after not going for an entire week.  Those English exams really sucked up my free time last week and I didn’t like it.  I’d much prefer to spend my time in pigeon pose than listen to Argentine teens struggle through an oral exam that they obviously didn’t study for.
It started to downpour in the middle of yoga so after yoga, as it still rained terribly, I ran to a cafe to work some more and wait for the rain to let up.  I had to go grocery shopping so when the rain finally stopped I headed to the closest grocery store and shopped for almost 2 hours.  I was in grocery heaven.  I bought simple foods: cold cuts, lots of cheese, bread, frozen veggies…etc.  As I was browsing the tuna selection I heard someone speaking in English behind me.  I turned around to find two girls.  I asked them where they were from and they told me “buenos aires and texas”. Strange.  It wasn’t until 4 minutes into the conversation that I looked down and saw they were wearing name tags for jesus christ.  I was talking to mormon missionaries!  They didn’t try to recruit me but they did invite me to a party at the church on Friday.  I will not be attending but it was kind of them to invite me.
Later on I went to Gabi’s business to finally see her and catch up with her.  She told me that she had hung out with Dani on Sunday and talked about us.  A little situation happened on Saturday — I witnessed Dani making out with another girl literally 5 feet from me in the club.  I was a tad bit furious for a few days.  Gabi told me that yes, it was bad but it was what I needed to get over him.  She also said that staying mad at him was only going to hurt me and not him and that it was best to just get over it and move on and be friends again.  He didn’t do it to hurt my feelings so I shouldn’t take it personally.  Whatever.  She is partially right but I still think it is totally lame that he disrespected me so soon after we stopped being amigovios. I mean, it was only a week ago that we had that conversation about just being friends again!  He could have at least taken his little face-sucking session into the next room, out of my sight.  Guys are so…not cool sometimes.  Oh well, “ya fue”.

Gabi lives in the same neighborhood as me so she took me home on her moto.  First we stopped at the video store because I was in the mood to watch a movie and I was without TV or internet in my new house.  It’s almost like living in the stone age.  I rented “Children of Men” or “Ninos del Hombres”.  I’ve been wanting to see that movie for quite  some time.  I liked it.  The video store and other cute stores are only 4 blocks from my house.  Sweet!  I really think I am going to like living in Ciudad de Nieva.

Literally. My new room is the shape of a triangle.  I have never encountered a room shaped like this.  I love it.  Yes, the corners are a bit dark but I’ll fix that with a nice little lamp.
Today I moved out of the Mercadal’s house and into my new living space — a nice big house in a beautiful neighborhood with a view that overlooks the entire city from a cliff.  The house is built on cement posts cascading down a cliff.
It definitely felt weird walking out of the Mercadal’s house knowing I wouldn’t be going back there to sleep again.  No one was in the house when I left, they were all at school or work.  There were not long goodbyes, I was only moving a few minutes away so there was no reason for tears.  Mama gave me a big hug and told me she would tell me when she was going to the ferias or to shop in Bolivia.  That comforted me because I love going shopping with her.
They also invited me to christmas dinner with them so I won’t be stranded for the holidays.
Unlike my other experiences with moving from house to house, or apartment to apartment, this one was low key.  I only had a trunk full of stuff and I wasn’t scrambling up until the last minute to stuff things into random bags and boxes.  I was all packed up the night before and I even had time to enjoy a movie before I fell asleep.  It was the most tranquil move I’ve ever had.
I arrived at Laila’s house (now my house too) at around 3pm and by 6pm I was finished unpacking all of my things.  I could fit most of my clothes in the tiny dresser in my room but I’ll still need to figure out what to do with my dresses, jeans and sweatshirts.  There is no closet in my triangle room.  Any creative suggestions as to how I can store these clothes for easy, daily access would be welcomed.
Laila left the house around 7pm and I walked around taking photos of the house that you can see here on my flickr page.  I also explored cupboards, checked out what the shower looked like and laid on my bed staring at the walls, trying to get used to the 3 new walls that will house me for the next undetermined amount of time.
Currently, the house is serving as an art studio for Laila’s friends.  There are at least 2 dozen pieces of art on the walls labeled with post-its indicating what it is.  Most of the artwork is the glass work that I used to do in Washington DC.  When I got to the house today I asked her who did the glass art and she pointed to the woman who was sitting on her couch.  HOLY CRAP.  I immediately asked her if she could teach me or I could do glass with her. She said she didn’t have a studio right now, that she was doing it out of her tiny apartment and couldn’t teach me in that space but that she would let me know as soon as she got a better space.  All is not lost!  I’m so happy that Laila is surrounded by art and artists.  It will be very inspiring for me and keep me occupied so I don’t get in another pointless non-relationship with another non-commital boy.
The Holland girls came over at 8pm so they could see my new house. They fell in love with it and told me over and over again how much they were jealous.  I’m hoping that will make them want to come back here to live.  They have really become my great friends.
I went out to dinner with the girls and afterwords we went to Bonafide for some dessert. Laila ended up being there so I got to go home with her and not walk home in the dark or pay for a taxi.  So far day one in the casa nueva is buenissimo!

Today was my last day of giving English exams and I am oh so glad.  One day out of the blue some woman called me and asked me if I would be an examiner for her English exams because she needed a native speaker of English and didn’t have one.  I didn’t know what to do.  Part of me knew it wasn’t going to pay well and I couldn’t set my own price without looking like the way over priced bitchy girl from America.  Another part of me had no desire to give English exams.  None what-so-ever.  And the last part of me, the weakest part, felt guilty saying no.  I had no strong reasons not to help them with their English tests so  this weak part of me made the rest of my rational brain think that there was no real reason not to do them.  I mean yes, I have my personal commitments to my work, my yoga and just my general well being and happiness but somehow the English teacher who needed my help was overriding my own self-needs.  DAMN IT!  I said yes and knew I wouldn’t enjoy what was to come.  The pay was 10% of the fee that the students pay for the test which was 270 pesos for each of the 2 kids in the test.  This means I would get paid 54.26 pesos or $15-18 dollars in total depending on the exchange rate.  I ended up spending about 3 hours on the test, preparing for it, meeting the students ahead of time and the actual test itself.  So that means I made $6/hour.
After I spoke with this teacher about giving her exams she told me that another teacher who owns a different English institute also needed a native speaker and she paid better than most teachers.  I was thinking to myself “probably not much better than $6/hour” but I said ok, I would talk to her.  Turns out she charges less per student for the exam but she had way more students.  I ended up spending about 3 or 4 days on the tests, one day lasting from 2:30pm - 8:30pm straight.  In the end I got paid roughly 500 pesos from her but I definitely worked hard for that $150 dollars.  I also had to speak in British English because that was what the kids were used to learning. I was like…WTF??? I’m a NATIVE speaker and if they can’t distinguish between British and American English then you are not teaching them properly.  But I did it anyway, wondering what the point was of me being there anyway since they were going to grade them how they thought of them in total and not of how they did on the oral exam or not of how I thought of them.
Half of the students weren’t prepared or had not studied for the test and had to come back and retake the test.  Some students took forever to answer the questions or just sat awkwardly in silence, making it so they went over their time and caused me to stay later than I was getting paid for.  In total, the experience was more a pain in my ass than something I was happy to have done.  I hope they don’t ask me to do this next semester or next year because I will have to decline.  I’d rather sell my body on the street than give English exams.  The one thing I did learn was that I don’t think I would enjoy being an English teacher or tutor at all.  It’s too stressful and I just don’t enjoy it at all. I’m glad I didn’t decide to go that route for work. I’m much better at what I am doing now and I enjoy it.

One day a few months ago I was gchatting with my friend who was living in Buenos Aires.  She casually mentioned to me that she was getting laser hair removal done to her armpits because it was so cheap to do that in Argentina (she is American).  I thought to myself, what a great idea! I’m going to do that too!

As of recently I have begun laser hair removal treatment to my legs, armpits and bikini line.  If I can omit the nasty and annoying job of shaving from my life for a small price, why wouldn’t I?  I found it to be an excellent investment in my future.

I started the first treatment in November. I did my armpits first. It took all of 15 minutes and it didn’t hurt at all (for me, because I have a high tolerance for pain).  I had to wear these goggles that blocked the light from my eyes.  Then the woman put a gel on my armpit that felt really cold, like it was numbing or freezing my armpit.  I liked it.  I wasn’t allowed to shave for a few days so that she could find where the hairs were coming from. nice.

As of today I have gone through my first session for my legs and bikini as well.  The only part of my body that felt any pain was around my knee caps.  Who knew I had sensitive knees? hehe.

I am able to shave or wax in between sessions, which are once a month.  I think I’m only going to shave for special occasions like Christmas and New Years.  I’m already seeing results from the armpits session — I only have to shave every 3 or 4 days now where before I’d have to shave them every other day.  SWEETNESS!

My “laser lady” as I like to call her, is only 25 years old. She’s cool. I want to be her friend, even if she is zapping my lady parts and seeing me as hairy as I can be.  We listen to queen while she zaps away and we talk a lot in Spanish.  Since I can’t see her with my goggles on I use a lot of hand motions while talking. I don’t know why this is important to mention, I guess I just thought it was weird how I was “talking with my hands”. haha

Here is a breakdown of costs if I were to get this done in the US of A:

Average cost for one session:
Bikini: $350-500 (for 6-8 sessions: $2,800 - $4,000)
Under Arms: $250-$350 ($2,000 - $2,800)
Full Leg: $1,200 - $1,700 ($9,600 - $13,600)

Total if I got all of these for the cheaper price: $14,400

Here is a breakdown of costs to do it here:

Average cost for one session:
Bikini: 200 pesos (~$58 dollars) — For 8 sessions: $470 dollars
Under Arms: 160 pesos (~$47 dollars) — For 8 sessions: $380 dollars
Full Leg (both): 800 pesos (~$235 dollars) — For 8 sessions: $1,880 dollars

Total for all at the maximum price: $2,730 dollars.

That is a difference of ~$11,600 dollars.  Pretty amazing.

I’d take photos of my progress but honestly I don’t want to post photos of my hairy parts and I doubt you’d want to see that anyway.  Maybe I’ll do a “finished product” photo set to show how it turned out.  YAY FOR LASER!

Aldous Huxley said: “higgimus hoggamus, women are monogamous; hoggamus higgimus, men are polygamous.”

My friend told me this quote the other day. As silly as it sounds I found it simplified all of the bullshit I have experienced with men into one silly line that rhymes. Yes, it may make me sound like a cynic, a man-hater, a stereotyper, a typical single woman, blah, blah, blah…I honestly don’t care how you would label me for digging this quote.  You would find this quote fitting too if you crossed multiple borders, traveled thousands of miles to another country and found yourself swimming in a shallow pond full of men that are exactly the same men as the ones you left back in the states, they just speak a different language.  But one thing translates for me in all languages: “No quiero una novia.” - “I don’t want a girlfriend.”  Ha, thanks.  I’ve heard that one a few thousand times before.  It only solidifies for me that “all men are polygamous”.

As my girl friends say here in Jujuy, “Todos chicos son iguales en todos lados.” -”All dudes are the same everywhere.”  Hmmm maybe someone should have saved me the trouble by telling me this in August?  Amber…what the hell? Just kidding…only 50% of me came here to find love…wait what? are you that surprised?  Did you think I just came down here to learn the language? Well yes, I have to do that first before I can fulfill my dream of scooping up a life-long latin lover.  If Melanie Griffith can have Antonio Banderas why can’t I have my own Gael García Bernal (HOTTT, no?)?  No but seriously, only half-joking, those who know me knew that I was quite unhappy in DC because I felt lonely, felt like I was lacking something in my life and they saw me fail miserably over and over again with dude after dude.  It didn’t help that in DC, almost all of my friends had girlfriends or boyfriends or they were married.  I was constantly the 3rd wheel on their dates. Yuckie.

At age 24 you’d think I’d feel youthful and happily embrace that I was still free from the shackles of a relationship. WRONG.  As much as I love the Sex and the City series, I don’t have my own rat pack of single women to share my fascinating single life stories with and get good advice and feel empowered for being single. Instead, my friends in relationships were living vicariously through my not-so-successful happy single life and silently pitying me for failing over and over again to score a decent guy.  It’s true, Sex and the City is only cool on TV, not in real life.

So here I am in South America, my heart with it’s teary eyes wide open scanning every male figure that passes by.  To my surprise, one of my close guy friends decided that he liked me after a month of me being here.  We had been hanging out about once or twice a week just the two of us because I was trying to practice my conversational castellano and he was the only reliable one willing to meet up with me to chat.  Of course at first I only thought of him as a good friend as he thought of me. I wasn’t attracted to him, but my heart was open when he said he liked me. I was willing to at least give it a try.  I was only hesitating because he was a good friend and part of my close group of friends that hangs out almost every day.  I was playing with fire and if things didn’t work out it would be quite awkward afterwords.  I know myself and I know that if I let it carry on for too long I’d start wanting him as a boyfriend.  I ignored this important information that I knew about myself.  After the first week that he told me he liked me we were at amigovio status.  We were holding hands all over town, spending tons of time alone, kissing, hugging, assigning each other cute nicknames and constantly saying that we missed each other.  I got caught up in the moment and forgot about my fears of what it could turn into.  At the beginning I thought it was fun but still didn’t have true feelings for him so I wasn’t worried about getting hurt.   But as I had predicted from the beginning, it didn’t take long for me to develop feelings for him. This was a problem because after the first 2 weeks of our “status” we discussed that we were just amigovios, that he didn’t want a girlfriend and that i didn’t want a boyfriend (right now).  That conversation always comes back to bite one of the two in the ass. Usually it is always the girl.

Now I sit here, having freaked out about my feelings and completely cut off the amigovio status with my friend.  I couldn’t handle having feelings for him and knowing it would never turn into anything serious.  Could it have turned into something if I had just let it go on a little longer? Maybe, but I like to think not. Usually if it is meant to last I wouldn’t be here, sitting alone.  I don’t believe that I can change guys, I’m not that type of girl.  If a guy tells me he doesn’t want a girlfriend or he doesn’t want this or that, I believe him.  It doesn’t make sense not to. Guys are black and white, they don’t dance around their feelings or what they want like most women do.  You can’t persuade them to think differently than they already do.  With my amigovio, I knew far in advance what he did and didn’t want and I had to get out as soon as I felt even a hint of emotions for him.

And how can I end this post? Well now I’m without a guaranteed make out partner. That’s a fact and it makes me a bit bummed out. But I’m also saving myself a lot of stress and torture by not prolonging the inevitable.  I’d rather be single than be in a fake relationship, which is what I had with my amigovio.  Yes, I’m going through all of the withdrawal symptoms that come with any type of breakup. It sucks. But luckily I have great friends and family by my side, helping me vent like a crazy person in a mental hospital and they are not judging me because of it.

Sunday afternoon I’m chatting away on Skype with my sister when I get a text from Gabi saying, “Keres ir al dike?”  I said to myself…what the hell is “dike”?  First I should explain that Argentine’s, like Americans, shorten and change the way things are spelled.  “Keres” is “Quieres” and I found out later that “Dike” is “Dique”, short for “El Dique” one of the lakes that is right outside the town El Carmen.

When I called Gabi to find out what Dike was she said something about water so my normal response was “vamos a nadar??” (are we going swimming) and she said replied with a laugh, “no, hoy es feo para nadar !” (today is not good for swimming)  Apparently I had no idea what we were doing or what Dike was but I said yes to it anyway. I’m supposed to trust my friends and where they are taking me, right?  Asking questions is just silly. I was just happy that they thought to invite me and called me. Totally unexpected.

20 minutes later Seba picked me up in the car with Dani and a new puppy!  The puppy was Seba’s and it’s name I think is “Casi Sol” which means “Almost Sun”.  Interesting…they kept referring to it in the feminine but it was clearly a boy puppy. I was confused but whatever.  It was a cute ball of fur and I was all about it.

We picked Gabi up and she went Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs over this puppy.  After about 5 minutes of the puppy being in her lap he peed on her. I just about DIED it was so funny.

We drove for about an hour and then stopped to watch some cars race around a track.  We got there at the very end so we only watched for 5 minutes, then we left.  We finally arrived at the lake and we set up our blanket and whipped out some mate.  Literally 5 minutes after we set up it started to rain. Then it started raining harder so we packed everything back up and got back in the car.  We waited for about 10 minutes but the rain was not letting up.  We decided to leave and drive all the way back home.  We went to Dani’s house to drink some mate and hang out for a while and then we all parted ways.  It was an uneventful but fun time in the car.

To see more photos of the day, check out my flickr page, located in my side bar.