AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

Tomorrow is el dia de la madre (Mother’s Day) and I have been planning for a week to buy flowers for my Argentine mama.  I have asked many people where the best place is to purchase flowers and they all tell me the terminal (the bus station).  To me, the bus station was a million miles away because I have no concept of distance or direction so I was trying to figure out how to get there with the little knowledge I have of the bus system.  Luckily I was mistaken and the bus station is actually walking distance from Centro.  Another thing I didn’t realize was the bus station has wonderful shopping.  Since I was on a mission to buy only one thing I had to refrain from looking and buying other things.  I ended up buying 3 bouquets at 2 pesos each (less than $1 each).  That is so ridiculously cheap that I intend to go there weekly and buy flowers for my apartment so I can be surrounded by them always.

On my way back from the terminal I stopped in a clothing store and directly after me a mariachi band entered, dressed to the T in their sombreros and fringed velvet suits.  They began playing their instruments and signing while everyone in the store just stopped and watched. I quickly whipped out my camera and started taking a video which you can enjoy below.  To make things even more strange, the employees of the store started passing around sandwiches and champagne for everyone in the store.  I don’t know what they were celebrating but I went along with it.  I can only imagine it had something to do with Mother’s Day…I mean, I that would make sense, right?  But here not many things make sense, like some provinces deciding to change the time for daylight savings and other’s deciding not to at the very last minute.  I actually changed my clock and had to change it back when I found out they changed their minds.

Mariachi Surprise video

I hadn’t seen Gabi since last weekend so I decided to go to her shop this afternoon to catch up with her.  We ended up painting shirts again (it never ends!) and she said she wanted to have people over for pizza later on.  I was happy that there was some sort of plan because there never is.  Gabi called Dani and Seba and they agreed to come over.   She then texted Pato but Pato was already on her way home and didn’t want to go back out.  Gabi got upset and I believe she was going to cancel the whole night just because Pato wouldn’t go.  I could be mistaken though because I only understand about 50% of what is said to me but she seemed like she didn’t want to have it anymore.  I couldn’t understand why it was so important for Pato to be there, why my company wasn’t good enough.  It made me feel kind of bad and want to go home and forget the whole night but I just brushed it off.

I realized that we were still sticking to the plan when Dani showed up and we all went to the empanada place to buy empanadas to eat instead of pizza.  I hate that I am so out of the loop when plans are made because I’d really like to know what is going on.  I know they think I won’t understand so they don’t include me in the details but how am I supposed to learn if they never talk to me about it?  That is the only way I’ll get better.  Oh well.

The empanadas were delicious and we drank beer and coke (mixed) and it was pretty delicious.  We watched part of a fútbol game and Gabi and Dani talked most of the time.  When I’m in big groups I tend to get left out of the conversation because they talk so fast that I can’t understand a word they are saying.  This sucks for me because I really do want to be able to talk and want to be part of the discussion.  My brain can’t handle the multiple people talking at the same time — it is too much to process so I usually just tune out.  I am way better with one-on-one conversations.

At around 2am, me, Dani, Seba and their friend Arnuqui went out drinking.  Gabi wasn’t going because Gabi never goes.  We first went to this bar called Babylonia and it was ok.  The beer was expensive and the waitress was “too cool for school”.  We stayed there for one drink and then went to a boliche called “Kolor”.  My friends kept telling me that it was the rich people’s boliche and that they didn’t like it.  I don’t understand why we went there if they didn’t like it but I didn’t complain.  I liked it and I had fun.

This past week it rained every single day so my days weren’t filled with much besides gloom and wet pant-legs.  I have decided that I only like rain once in a while and only when I am in the mood to watch a movie or when I am sleeping and I can hear it hitting the rooftop while I’m safe, dry and warm.  I don’t like umbrellas and I don’t like rain boots.  I don’t care how cute they can be, I still get wet and they still suck.  This weekend the weather is supposed to clear up so at least I have that to look forward to.

It was a slow day here for me.  Much slower than I was hoping it would be.  I had class early in the morning and then I met up for coffee with my new friend Glenda Lobo.  She speaks English and Castellano so we spent about 5 hours talking in English at a cafe.  It is very hard for me to talk in castellano with someone when I know they can speak English.  One of the hardest things for me here is being understood so when I have a chance to communicate something to someone on “the other side” (castellano side) I just do it in English.  I know I should be taking the opportunity to talk to them in Castellano but whatever.  At this point I’m just happy to have someone understand me at all.

From 8am - 4pm all I had to eat was a piece of bread, some coffee and some medialunas.  I was starving and exhausted by the time I parted ways with Glenda.  My body was so weak that I could barely make it home on the bus.  Luckily when I arrived home lunch was ready and waiting for me on the table.  Right after I was done eating I thought I was going to collapse.  I was dizzy and my body felt heavy.  I waited a few minutes for everyone to finish eating and then I stumbled upstairs to pass out on my bed.  When I woke up 2 hours later my body ached, I was hot and my throat hurt.  I wanted to go to the gym but instead I laid on the couch and watched a movie.  I told mama Mercadal that I wasn’t feeling well so she put my forehead on her cheeks to check my temperature. She said I had a fever and gave me some medicine to bring it down.  I laid on the couch for another 3 or 4 hours and then felt much better.

Mama made these beans with herbs and dressing that she called poroto.  After looking up the definition I realize now she was just calling them what they were, kidney beans.  It was freaking delicious.  She has been cooking like a mad woman because she is sending a giant box of home cooked meals to her eldest son, Guillermo, who is studying in another province.  It reminded me of when my mom would make me my favorite meals in bulk and bring them to me when she visited me in college.  Now I have a family that makes home cooked meals for me every day.  I’m so spoiled.

I went to a birthday asado tonight for a friend of my friend Pato (or as I found out later, an “enemigo” of Pato, an ex boyfriend).  This was my first asado in Argentina and my second birthday celebration.  The place was a rented space for parties and there were well over 50 people there.  When I walked into the main room I recognized some people that worked at the gym that I go to.  There was the old lady at the counter that was fed up with me because I didn’t speak castellano, there was the blonde chick that wears really short shorts all of the time and then there was this dude that I thought was a trainer.  I thought this guy was a trainer because he came over and helped me with a machine the other day (because as usual I don’t know what they hell I’m doing in there, sorry Pete).  I also have a minor crush on this dude as well as a good portion of the other guys that are at my gym.  It was just my luck that Jujuy was small enough to bring us together on a Saturday night when I was looking super cute (and not sweaty and gross like I look at the gym).
We glanced at each other a few times in the beginning of the night but it wasn’t until 2 or 3 hours into the night that he came over to me.  Unfortunately he was completely wasted and he ended up sitting in my lap and tried to get me drunk like him.  He didn’t speak any English so he kept repeating the same sentences in Spanish over and over again.  Or he’d say “drink you drink” or some such nonsense.  He is also 21.  Bummer.  I don’t really want to date a younger guy because they always prove to be more immature than me and not ready for commitment.  No offense to you younger guys, I’ve just had some bad luck and I’m looking for a man, not a boy.  This guy was acting like a 14 year old that had just gotten drunk for the first time. It was bad.  I’m actually looking forward to seeing him at the gym again to see if he remembers me at all.

Today was my friend Vale’s birthday so a bunch of us went out for pizza to celebrate.  We ordered a ton of pizzas and my favorite by far was the four cheese pizza because one of the cheeses was BLEU CHEESE!  I freaking love bleu cheese so it was such an awesome surprise.  I will be frequenting this pizza place quite often now.

After we finished eating I got an uncomfortable stomach ache.  I get them sometimes after I eat or drink but I can never track a pattern as to why I get them or what foods/drinks cause them.  They don’t happen frequently enough for me to be too concerned but they do suck a whole lot.  It is not a normal stomach ache where I feel nauseous, but rather it feels like all of the muscles in my stomach are tight, like I’m flexing them constantly waiting to be punched.  It usually lasts for a few hours or until I go to bed.  I always seem to get the pain when I am about to have a long, awesome night of partying so that really sucks.

When dinner was over a bunch of us wandered through centro to find a bar.  We ended up at a place called Salamanca and it was a karaoke bar!  Oh what luck!  You can imagine the joy and excitement I felt when I saw karaoke in my new city.  There was no place to sit in the bar because it was packed so we ended up standing by the bar which also happened to be the karaoke stage.  All of my friends wanted me to sing so we found the song list to pick out a song.  Unfortunately there were no songs in English that I knew, out of the three English songs listed.  For a moment I thought, “what a great bar, it is a shame there are no English songs for me to sing…” but then I saw the “song guy” in front of the computer and decided to ask him if he had any English songs on his computer.  As it turns out, he has thousands.  Woohoo!  I had to think quick about what I wanted to sing because I didn’t have a list to stare at.  I chose some old favorites, Ace of Base’s “Don’t Turn Around” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”  The crowd was lively and the whole evening was awesome.  Also, the dude running the songs was also cute so I’ll have to find out some deets on him.

Last night I talked to my host parents about my length of stay at their home.  This subject has been looming over my head ever since I arrived but I wanted to wait to talk to them about it when I felt more comfortable being there.  Because my castellano is still rocky I wrote a letter to them and had Amber translate it for me.  They thought the letter was sweet and funny and they were going to save it.  As for their response to the letter, they said there was no time period for me at their house, I can leave when I feel comfortable.  They understand that it takes time to adapt to a new and foreign environment and they don’t mind if I do it at their house.  I was so relieved.  I’ll probably stay here until December, we’ll see how I feel when that time rolls around.  I am excited to some day have my own place here but for now I am comfortable and happy at the Mercadal’s house and I don’t want to leave.

As much as I love the company of Alabí, I’m beginning to grow tired of her teaching style.  While I think it holds some value I don’t feel challenged by it and I don’t feel like I’m learning as much as I should be at two classes a week.  I don’t know how to tell her that I’d prefer not to have classes anymore and I’d rather just hang out with her and have coffee from time to time.  Any suggestions would be well received by me because I have no idea how to say “your teaching style just isn’t doing it for me”.

I am going to look for some formal grammar classes that assign homework and scare me a little more because it is more of a challenge and I have to work for it.  I’m not sure where I will find such a class here since I can’t imagine there would be a class here that teaches Spanish grammar in English and Spanish (which is what I truly need).  Alabí is more of a friend that likes to chat about random things than a strict grammar teacher.  I need someone who can challenge me and provide me with many examples of how to use certain grammar so I can turn around and use it in conversation with my friends or in practical situations.

I am getting better with my conversational spanish but I still have a hard time remembering the conjugations for important verbs like dar, decir and pedir.  I’m also not very comfortable with the verbs llegar and llevar yet.  Much practice on my end is still needed.

I was supposed to have my first yoga class tonight but classes were cancelled because today was the holiday for the Virgin Mary.  Instead, I went to Gabi’s business and painted names on t-shirts.  When I asked her why she doesn’t use spray paint she said “it doesn’t work with this type of shirt”.  I am not sure I believe that…Also, appliques are apparently expensive here so that is why she doesn’t use those either.  If she were to ask me, I’d tell her to charge a bit more for the appliques so that she produces a better product and doesn’t spend so much time painting these shirts (she has literally been painting the same shirts for 2 weeks).  I’m still learning how their minds work here and why they take the slow road with everything.  I mean, I think the slow life is good in some parts of your life but when it comes to making money I don’t think you should opt for the slowest option just because it is the cheapest.

This morning in class with Alabí I learned a new bad word.  For this class I translate English text into Castellano so when it came time to translate the word “seized” I wrote (with pure innocence) “cogieron”.  That would be correct if I were in Spain but in Argentina that means “They fucked.”  Oops.  My teacher tried not to laugh and spelled out the word “F-U-C-K” versus saying it out loud in her explanation as to why that was wrong.  I think in the back of my brain I knew that meant fuck but I forgot.

Today I joined a gym to maintain some sort of healthy lifestyle here.  It only costs 50 pesos ($17) to go twice a week for a month.  Not too shabby.  Had I wanted to use the treadmill, though, it would have cost me $75 pesos a month.  How strange.  I worked out for about an hour and it felt really good.  I’m not where I used to be in terms of strength and endurance but I hope to build that back up.  I am also starting yoga twice a week beginning tomorrow.  That only costs me 100 pesos a month ($30) for twice a week and the studio is really beautiful and big.  My yoga instructor is also the dentist to my host brother and sister.

Tomorrow is a feriado celebrating the Virgin Mary so me and my friends are going to get drunk in the park.  I love that they celebrate a religious holiday by getting drunk versus going to church.  I’m not complaining…

My first Couch Surfing person (commonly referred to as a CSer) came to Jujuy today.  He isn’t staying on my couch but he will be staying in a hostel until Thursday of next week.  Couch Surfing is a network of people that open up their lives and sometimes their couches to travelers that want a different experience than just the normal hotel or hostel experience.  It isn’t about having a free place to crash but rather it is an invitation to see a country or a city through a native’s eyes.  I have unofficially been a “Couch Surfer” for a while now, for example, meeting an Icelandic guy on an airplane and visiting him and his family for a weekend a few months later.  Any opportunity I have to see a new place and make a new friend, I jump on it.  I’ve never been the hotel-type when I travel internationally, although I do enjoy a nice boutique hotel when I’m traveling in the states (thanks to my older sister, I am forever spoiled.).  If you aren’t a part of the Couch Surfing network yet, I highly recommend it.  As a single woman who frequently travels alone, I trust this site and think it is a great, safe way to travel.

But let us return to my CSer, Javier Fernandez.  We met up for coffee as soon as he arrived and I helped him find a hostel.  We then walked around town for a few hours until I went to class with Alabi.  Javier is a freelance translator so for our first few hours we only spoke in English.  It is so easy for me to default to English when I know the person can understand me.  He kept trying to help me practice my Castellano, and a few times we were successful, but mostly we spoke in English so as not to be confused.  When we went out on Friday and Saturday night, he became my unofficial translator for all of my spanish-speaking friends.  It was nice for me to understand everything for once and I’m sure my friends were grateful to Javier for helping them communicate with me.

On Friday Javier introduced me to another local CSer, a girl named Norma.  She is cool, very nice from what I can tell.  We all went dancing at La Peluqueria.  I am hoping that her and I will hang out more in the coming months because I can always use more girl friends.

I was also contacted by another local CSer but it was a dude.  At the moment I’m kind of burnt out on the dudes, even if they just want to be my friend so I haven’t really pushed on with this CSer.  This past week has been full of dudes everywhere, wanting my email, number, my attention.  It’s not the dream I thought it would be, where the attention really boosts my ego and I go on a zillion dates or at least feel like the prettiest bell at the ball.  No, this is too annoying to be enjoyable.  I am happy with my two guy friends right now, Seba and Dani because they don’t make me feel uncomfortable and they treat me like a person and not just a chick with a “pretty face” (this is what they say, I’m not making up my own piropos here).  In a sea of pelotudos (a’holes) I would like to find one caballero to call my own.  This is my needle in the haystack challenge.  It is a challenge that every woman faces and it sometimes takes years.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress…