AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

I would like to take a moment to break down my costs here in Jujuy.  I’ll also add some of my would-be costs if I weren’t living with a family for free.  I hope the rest of you find this interesting and maybe a little inspiring.  With the current financial crisis in the US who wouldn’t want to live somewhere where the dollar was strong? (P.S. it is roughly 3 pesos to the dollar right now)

HOUSING (if I paid for it):

To live in the center of town would be about $450/$500 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment in a nice apartment complex (almost super luxury but a step above would probably cost about $600/month).

To rent a room in a house about a 5 minute walk from the center of town would be about $200/month.  If you have been reading this blog religiously you would remember that apartment I described a while back.  The one with the mountain view and the retro decor? Yeah that one, only $200/month.

FOOD:

Currently I get my lunch and dinner and snacks that I eat in the house for free.  The only time I buy food is when I am at the cafe working or when I randomly go out for dinner with my friends.  In the cafe, depending on how much time I’m there (2-6 hours), I usually spend up to 20 pesos or 7 dollars.  When I go out to dinner I usually spend about 5-10 pesos or about 2-3 dollars.  Since I am kind of a fatty and I like my midday snacks, I’ll usually buy some galletitas or crackers to munch on while I chill with my friends and drink mate.  This runs me less than a dollar.  Sooo in total I spend about $160 a month, if I’m buying 5 days a week at a steady pace.

I can’t estimate how much it would cost me to eat if I were living on my own but once I start living on my own I will write a new post with new, interesting financial figures.

DRINKING:

The most important purchase.  I try to go out every Friday and Saturday night.  On a typical night I will spend about 20-30 pesos on alcohol.  That’s right, it only takes $10 to get me drunk. I’m a cheap date.  They sell beer by the liter here and the liters usually cost 10 pesos each.  Because they are so big, people share and buy other types of drinks like wine and coke or champagne (surprisingly popular).  In the wee hours of the morning you will find me waiting patiently in line at the nearest super pancho stand.  My super foot-long hot dog only sets me back about a dollar and that is with all of the fixins.

TRANSPORTATION:

When I go into the center of town during the day I always take the bus (or here it is called el collectivo).  Each way it costs 1.25 pesos or about .42 cents.  My round trip is less than a dollar, my monthly fare is $25 dollars.

When I am leaving the club at 6 am I usually grab a taxi which is about 7-10 pesos to my house.  I have been fortunate enough to have friends that have cars so I haven’t had so many taxi rides breakin’ my bank at 3 dollars a pop.

SHOPPING:

This will need to be a separate post as I have not done nearly enough shopping since I’ve arrived.  BOLLOCKS!

ACTIVITIES:

Classes with Alabi cost $14 dollars a week, totaling 2 hours.  I get a free class with her on Monday mornings because it is run by the University.  She also frequently invites me to lunch on Saturdays and it is delicious and free.

Gym Membership costs $17 dollars a month and I can go twice a week.

Yoga costs $30 a month and I can go twice a week.

My cell phone is pre-paid so I pay about $20 a month more or less for that.

Things that are cheap that I will some day purchase here:
Motorcycle: $500
Laser Hair Removal (silky smooth legs, baby!) - $60/session…roughly $300 total.  In the states this would cost thousands.
Red wine.  I would drink that every night if it was in the house.  Since I don’t buy the groceries I don’t drink red wine that often.

So in closing, if I’m totally being a glutton each month I would spend about $400 total, for everything.  One month for me in the US would cost about $1,000 - $1,500 (glutton status is the $1,500).  Hooray for cheap livin’!

Ok, so I kind of jumped into this blog assuming everyone that was reading it would know exactly where I was living.  Some people still think I live in Buenos Aires, which I do not.  Below you will find a map of Argentina, pointing out where BsAs is and where I am, which is in Jujuy, or more specifically, the capital of Jujuy, San Salvador de Jujuy.

Jujuy is the most northwest province in Argentina.  It is known for it’s seven colored mountains and salt flats.  The people in Jujuy speak much slower than the people in Buenos Aires.  I am very happy about this.  Not only do the people speak much slower but they also live much slower lives.  They take siestas midday.  No shops are open from 2-6 in town besides cafes (lucky for me because that is my prime time to work).  There is no Starbucks here, no McDonalds or Burger King.  No chains of any sort that I have been able to find.  People chew cocoa leaves here but in Buenos Aires they do not.

I live with my sister’s old host family at the moment.  My sister did rotary exchange last year and I went to visit her.  That is how I fell in love with Jujuy.  People find it strange that I chose such a remote place to live.  I just decided to live here because it felt right to me.  Buenos Aires just didn’t. I didn’t want to be among a sea of other foreigners living in BA.  Yes, BA offers more in the way that it is a bigger city but I don’t need that at the moment.  I’ve lived in Boston, I’ve lived in DC.  I’ve had the “city” experience.  I find it exciting to explore my little city wondering if there is a store that sells the random items that I need.  I don’t get discouraged when I can’t find something because I can just as easily find it online and pay $10 shipping for it if I absolutely need it.  So far I haven’t run into that situation yet.

I knew Jujuy would offer me uninterrupted Castellano.  I wouldn’t have to worry about it being flooded with tourists and in turn the people of Jujuy don’t immediately switch to English when they hear me speak (like in BA).  I came here to learn the language, to explore a foreign culture and to enjoy a slower life, and that is exactly what I am doing.

As per my normal daily schedule, like most every other day, I went to Carena.  Today, however, my experience with Carena forever changed.  I was two hours into my email and workload when I decided I needed a beer to keep the work flowing.  When the waiter brought me the beer he said something like “te invitado” or something about me being invited and he pointed to a guy behind the counter.  The guy waved so I waved back.  It was puzzling but I didn’t give it too much thought.  A few minutes later I noticed that the waiter didn’t leave the check on the table as he normally does and I realized what had happened.  The dude behind the counter picked up my tab.  This could mean one of two things.  One: He works there or owns the place and he sees me come in often so he thought he would be nice and give me a drink on the house.  This doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch because my sister Amber said that sometimes when she went to Carena she didn’t have to pay her bill because the staff liked her and her friends.  Two: He bought me that beer because he likes me and wants an opener to be able to get to know me.  Unfortunately I found out soon enough that it was the second thing he was after.  Even if I tried to fool myself, I knew all along he was always after #2.

He came over to my table and sat down, starting a long and painful conversation with me.  It was one of those conversations where the guys eyes were transfixed on me, not blinking once, asking every possible question he could think of to keep himself at my table.  He was determined to do or say whatever he could to occupy my time.  These types of guys and these types of conversations are always the hardest to get away from.  He didn’t even hesitate to jump right in and ask me on a date for this Saturday no more than 5 minutes into the conversation.  I politely turned him down but he kept pushing me.  I gave him all of the kind and honest answers I could muster but he still thought he could break me.  At one point he even had the audacity to ask me if I was a lesbian because I didn’t want a boyfriend, to date or to have a one-night-stand.  What the hell is wrong with men?  This is exactly the reason I don’t have a boyfriend.  They expect that if you are single and they are attracted to you, then you have no reason not to like them.  I could be radically honest and say, “Hey dude, listen, I’m not attracted to you therefore no matter what you say you will never have a chance with me.”  But no, I answer like so: “I don’t really want to date right now but I’m flattered by your invitation.”  I don’t lie. I don’t say that I have a boyfriend because I think lying only gets you deeper into the doo-doo that you are trying to stay out of.  But I do realize why so many women do lie and maybe I should consider a little white lie from time to time.  It’s just not in my nature so when I’m prompted with a question my first instinct is to tell the truth and then I kick myself later.

I know guys were born with a pair of balls but sometimes they really don’t know how to use them.   If any guys are reading this post let me enlighten you with a little advice from a woman’s perspective:  Most women don’t like the aggressively ballsy type of guy if they are coming out of left field.  Just because you see a girl and think she is attractive, it doesn’t mean they immediately feel the same way you do.  It is important to pay attention to detail because women will usually let you know when they are interested.  If we are attracted to you we will probably throw you signs like coy smiles and we will probably try to meet your eyes multiple times.  If we glance at you once because we are scanning the room for a free table, don’t take that as an invitation to approach.  There is something that rules the dating world — chemistry,  and you either have it or you don’t with a person — it is not something that can be created or learned.  Chemistry starts with a physical attraction and evolves into a mental one.  Plain and simple.  I’m going to cut off my rant here because I honestly could write a book about this but I really don’t want to take the time (and I’m sure some other smart woman has already monopolized on this topic).  As my friend Dani would say, “Ya fue” or “It’s in the past.”

I woke up at 7 am again this morning to go to that post graduate class with Alabí.  Last week it was canceled because the buses weren’t running so I was hoping it would be on this week.  There were only 2 students in the class and they were both adults that teach history.  I can’t believe they would keep a class open for only 2 students but I don’t want to even try to begin to understand the Argentine education system.  I actually enjoyed the class and will probably continue taking it even though I hate waking up so early.  Once a week isn’t so bad, I couldn’t do it every day.  The class translates English text into Castellano so it will be good practice for me to discover how sentences are structured and what tenses are what.

After class I went to Alabí’s for coffee and she thanked me for teaching her the word “Libertarian”.  She told me she was the second Libertarian in Jujuy, after me, she just didn’t know the word for it.  I don’t know how I manage to come to a different continent and run into 2 libertarians already.  First it was Brian, the guy I met en route to Buenos Aires and now my awesome teacher in a remote part of Argentina.  Pretty cool.  Alabí also told me that Robert Duvall came to Jujuy and met a jujeño that he later married.  Other actors that have been spotted in Jujuy are Richard Gere and Brad Pitt.  I’m going to keep my eyes peeled now…

Alabí and I watched a bit of TV together because that is what we do.  We watch American news and talk about it.  Without her I’d probably not keep up with the news in America because honestly it just angers and depresses me and reminds me why I escaped to Argentina in the first place.  I am glad to know, even if it may only be temporary, that Congress didn’t pass Bush’s proposal for the bailout.  I know this crisis is scary but I don’t see why we have to rush into something so stupid as paying off investors WHO KNEW THEY WERE TAKING RISKS just to keep the financial situation stable.  I’m sorry but I don’t want to pay taxes out of my ass for the next ten years or more. I already pay too much and I’m not the investor that made the wrong investment.  If congress does pass the bailout I may have to start stuffing money into my mattress or put it in a foreign bank account.  Now that I’m self employed I’ll just drop off the radar and hope they don’t track me down.

I went to another phonetics class tonight to talk in English but for this class I had no teacher monitoring the class (or me).  I thought it was pretty strange that the teacher left me alone with her class for the ENTIRE class period.  Also, halfway through the class another teacher came in and told the students that he was not going to be teaching his class tonight because he was leaving for another province for the week.  I just don’t get Argentine schooling at all.  The students told me that this happens often and they have some teachers that never show up for class.  At one point during the class the lights went out for about 2 minutes because they were doing maintenance.  I thought I would only have about 5 minutes worth of things to talk about and I didn’t expect the class to ask me many questions because the last phonetics class didn’t but these students were pretty responsive to me.  They engaged me in conversation and asked me questions like “have you met any famous people?” and “what concerts have you gone to?”.  We talked for the full 2 hours of the class and by the end of it I had made a few new friends.

Papá Mercadal made delicious pizza tonight and I stuffed my face until my belly cried out “no more!”  I miss pizza so much and the pizza here is nothing like the pizza in the states but papá’s pizza was better than most of the pizza here.  Mamá Mercadal taught me how to knit tonight as well.  That shit is hard to do!  I mean, the concept is easy and it doesn’t have that many steps but it takes some coordination and a lot of concentration.  My wrists hurt only after 2 rows of knitting.  Mamá, of course had done a full square in the time that I did 4 rows but I’m going to keep practicing and maybe when I’m done practicing I’ll have a cute little scarf to send to Lady (my beloved perro salchicha).

Yesterday I accomplished a great deal.  I walked around Centro determined to find 3 things:  an HSBC atm, a papelería, and a map of Centro.  Check. Check. and check.  Since I found the map last I really couldn’t use it to help me navigate around to find the other 2 things on my list so for walking around blindly with no sense of direction, I did pretty damn well.  I rewarded myself with some queso untable (creamy cheese) and breadsticks.  My only failure today was my attempt to try queso frozen yogurt.  I had heard about this place called Pinguino that has the best frozen yogurt and they have many flavors, including queso.  When I looked on the menu I did not see any queso flavored ice cream so I got discouraged.  I didn’t want to ask for it in fear that they would look at me strangely because who the hell would ask for cheese ice cream?  Maybe someone wanted to play a cruel joke on me by telling me that one of my favorite foods was also mixed with one of my other favorite foods.  I must investigate further and ask more friends before I boldly approach the Pinguino counter and ask for this strange combination.

After my adventure in Centro I went home and waited for Gabi to pick me up.  We were going to meet up with her old English teacher and her 2 students because they wanted to practice their English with me.  I can’t say that I was that excited about it because I really only want to practice my castellano.  Every moment that I spend speaking English is one moment that I could spend getting better at their language.  I know I shouldn’t be so selfish (ok as a true libertarian, I should not feel guilty about being selfish) but it’s not like I won’t eventually talk in English with them.  I just prefer to get their language down first and then I will talk in English with them until the cows come home.  Regardless, I had a good time at the teacher’s house and I ended up speaking a lot in castellano anyway because the student’s didn’t speak much English.  The teacher was really nice and we exchanged information so she could invite me over for an asado.  One of her students invited me to Cordoba as well so that is also a plus because this woman is hilarious and I think I would thoroughly enjoy a trip to Cordoba with her.  Two reasons: She loves sex and hates her husband.  How that works out for her I can only imagine but it is funny nonetheless.

Last night I went to La Pelukeria to dance and drink with Gabi and the gang.  I also had the Holland girls meet up with us to create one big happy family.  Those girls turned out to be really fun and they bought champagne and let me drink it with them.  There was a live band playing for about an hour and they played all american covers.  Beatles, Led Zepplin, Queen, Bob Marley…etc.  When the band was finished playing I saw one of the band members outside of the bathroom.  He stopped me and started talking to me but I didn’t really hear most of what he said because the dance music was loud and he was speaking really fast.  Sometimes when I don’t know what people are saying to me I just make up in my head what I think they are saying so I THINK this guy was trying to tell me that he saw me in Tucuman (a city in another province).  I’m sure it was just a pickup line but all the same I told him that I was not in fact the girl he thought I was and that I was new to this town.  He was cute so I thought I would try and find out if he was local and if I should get his number.  Unfortunately he lives in Tucuman so I gave up my hopes of having a hot guy friend (or potential amante) that didn’t have a unibrow.  I should have gotten his number anyway so that I could visit Tucuman but I was drunk and not networking to my full potential. 

I lost Gabi early on in the night but the rest of the gang was still going strong until 7am.  Around 7 I started seeing my girl friends pairing off with dudes and the dudes I came with had already left so I knew it was time for me to go as well.  I ended up getting a ride home with my girl friend Vale(rie) and her soon-to-be amante for the evening.  I didn’t much care for the guy as he seemed a little arrogant and he made fun of me for not speaking perfect castellano.  His teasing, although annoying, only makes me want to practice my spanish more and become even better so I can throw it back in his face.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcfx7v-z-JE]

Here is a video that my friend Gus made of himself working on a grid painting.  HIs art is truly beautiful and I wish I had his talents.  If you like his art as much as I do, check out his website and think about commissioning a painting with him (he does smaller ones than the grids).

Rad stuff, Gus — keep it up and thanks for sharing!

Forgive me because I am a little drunk as I write this post.  It is 5 in the morning and I just returned from a night of drinking and playing pool with my friend Alfredo and host brother Jose.  I was actually doing pretty well with my game, normally I don’t make any of my intended shots and I look like the typical girl that can’t play pool.  By a stroke of luck I managed to fake being good for one night.  I thought that I won the first game but unfortunately I didn’t.  Why did I think I won?  Well, I successfully got the 8 ball into the pocket that I had intended it to go in, with another ball blocking my shot.  It was like a miracle shot.  Once it went in I let out a victory “whoopie” and gave my puzzled teammate a winner’s handshake.  I was immediately informed that I was supposed to get the ball into the pocket of the last ball that went in — Argentine rules.  WHO THE HELL PLAYS LIKE THAT?  Anyway, from that point on my “game” continued downhill as I learned even more rules to the game of pool in Argentina.  I could barely keep the rules straight for American pool and now I have to remember all these messed up rules for Argentina?  I say to hell with all the rules, let’s just get drunk and knock some balls around.

On the third liter of beer I was good and toasted and could no longer play worth a damn so we quit and decided to talk world politics for about 2 hours.  I don’t know why the conversation always leads to politics, especially American politics.  Probably because that is what makes people so miserable and aside from romantic drama people only have drama with the GOV.  I’m glad that Alfredo thinks the way I do about governments and power because I more enjoy the company of smart people versus the company of dumb people that I have to argue with.  It makes life so much simpler and less stressful when someone is on your level with the way they think about the world.  When we had exhausted our bucket of complaints about the way our different countries are run so terribly, we decided to seek out some super panchos (all hail the mighty salchicha!) for drunk consumption.  I’d have to say that is the best way to end an evening.

Today I almost lost my beloved pájaro sweatshirt that I bought from the feria my first week in Jujuy.  I dropped it on the sidewalk on my way to Carena.  Luckily I realized I dropped it before it was too late.  For those who don’t know, a feria is esentially a market.  There are specific ferias like the one I went to that is outdoors, under tents and is huge.  They have all sorts of things but the majority of the stuff being sold there is second hand clothing from the US.  It’s like a giant outdoor Salvation Army.  See the photo below — freedom is everywhere, even at the feria (on a dirty old tie)…

I had the best medialunas with cheese at Carena.  I ordered one and then ordered two more because they were so delicious.  I would have ordered five more had they not been a dollar a piece and smaller than the palm of my hand.  I’m going to buy a bunch of medialunas at the bakery and cheese from the supermarket and make them at my house.  Medialunas are sweet croissants so the sweet and the salt were the perfect combination.  HEAVEN in the palm of my hand.

I hung out at Gabi’s work for a few hours and Dani was there as well.  We chatted it up as much as I was able and we drank mate.  I’m starting to get used to the taste of mate to the point where I don’t flinch anymore.  As long as it has sugar in it I can handle it.  I tried to figure out whether or not I was going out with Gabi tomorrow night.  Last weekend we didn’t go out on Friday so I wanted to try and make sure we were this Friday.  I couldn’t really understand most of what she was saying but I think the gist of it was “I have to work all day so no.”  But when I left her store she told me to text her if I wanted to go dancing tomorrow.  I don’t know if she actually wants to go or is just willing to go if I want to go.  Maybe I’ll just see what the girls from Holland are doing and tag along with them for the night.  I’d rather hang out and speak Spanish though and these girls only speak English.  We’ll see.

Duelo sucked tonight because it was reggaeton ice-skating.  I don’t enjoy reggaeton dancing — it grosses me out (ffwd to min. 1:40 to see dancing).  It’s all fake humping and licking and grinding.  I can handle the thongs and boobs but I can’t handle them with the reggaeton dance combination.  Maybe this is a sign that I am getting older and I don’t appreciate what the young people do.  I’m hoping that is not the case and in fact this reggaeton dancing is actually disgusting to most people.

With my failed attempt to watch Duelo I tried to watch a burned DVD of Jose’s.  It didn’t work in my computer so I think this means I’m just going to bed early tonight.  I may read for a bit and write some letters if I feel inspired.

The weather is changing here from Winter to Spring.  When I arrived in Jujuy it was pretty cold — I had to wear cuddl duds and sweatpants to bed.  I also wore socks and a sweatshirt.  I then crawl underneath two heavy blankets.  Last night I woke up at 4:30 am sweating my buns off. (If I had any buns, so my theoretic buns).  I ripped off my socks and sweatpants but I was still hot so I had to take one layer of blankets off me as well.  I like the weather in between hot and cold, so I guess my favorite seasons are Spring and Fall.  Please let me know where I can find a place with these two seasons all year round so I can move there.

I worked on my laptop for 6 hours today in a new cafe called Bonafide Express.  I watched waitresses change shifts. I watched the day turn to night and the cafe empty and fill up again.  I wonder what they thought of my lengthy squatting.  I kept buying food and drinks even though my bladder couldn’t hold all that liquid (and I hate going to the bathroom because I have to pack up my laptop and bring it with me).  I like this new place because it has nice smelling soap and the smoke isn’t as overwhelming as the other places.  Carena never has soap and always is smokey.

After the cafe I went to a phonetics class with Alfredo.  I stood in the front of the class and talked about myself in English for about 5 minutes.  I tried to speak slowly since I know how much it sucks when people talk fast (in castellano) but I didn’t want to talk too slow and seem really strange to them.  They didn’t ask me very many questions so the teacher asked a lot for them.  When I was done talking the teacher asked me if I could come to another one of her classes, a first year class, and speak again.  It’s pretty cool being one of the only native speakers of English here.  I feel like I’m on a speaking tour and everybody wants to know the truth of my foreign land.  I don’t have all of the answers to their questions but I try my best to answer honestly and to the best of my ability without leaking too many of my personal opinions.  The students watched a video about the Grand Canyon.  The video was probably made 20 years ago, it kept cutting out and going fuzzy.  I wanted to tell the teacher to put on the Discovery Channel or the series Planet Earth.  Anything but this nonsense.   They’d learn so much more with better programming.

When class was over Alfredo walked me to the bus and told me all of his girl troubles.  Some crazy girl is playing with his heart and causing him lots of drama.  Thank heavens I have the good sense not to get into those situations anymore.  I’ve had my fill of bad relationships and I intend to stay out of them for as long as I possibly can.  I’m holding out for a good man — a Super Pancho, if you will…haha.  I tried to give Alfredo some words of advice but it is hard to do that in a foreign language, let alone my native tongue so for now I’ll just let him learn from his mistakes.

When I got home I ate a huge bowl of fideos con salsa, and then went upstairs to use the bathroom.  Why am I telling you this? This is a pretty important trip to the bathroom, that is why I mention it.  This trip marks the first time I will use a bidet ever in my life.  I have been thinking about trying it for about a week but I’ve been scared to do it.  I had way too many questions that required answers before I jumped on toilet number two.  There are three knobs, which one do I turn?  What way do I face — toward the knobs or away?  How do I dry off? How long do I stay on the bidet?  All of these questions went unanswered and in turn fueled my fear of the bidet.  BUT today I googled directions to prepare myself for the big bidet day.  Now I was ready.  I have to say it was one of the most refreshing moments of my life.  I’m hooked.  I kept humming the tune, “So fresh and so clean, clean” in my head while I washed my hands.  I don’t know why it isn’t common to use bidets in America — do we enjoy stank ass?  I know I sure don’t and will most definitely have a bidet in my permanent residence, whenever I decide to settle down.  Yay bidet!

this is the view from my bedroom window.

I’ve been in Argentina for 20 days already.  I’m starting to get a good routine going and I’m settling quite nicely.  It no longer feels like a vacation but more a way of life now.  I’m becoming braver when taking the bus — challenging what I know of the streets to the possible bus route.  I’m not scared of getting lost because things are looking more familiar every day.

My routine is as follows:
10:30 - 11:30 - wake up and shower
12:30 - 1:30 - make myself some instant coffee and hop on the internet until lunch.  Sometimes I’ll drink my coffee on the back porch and just chill with my thoughts or practice my castellano.
1:30 - 2:30 - eat lunch with whoever is home that day.
2:30 - 5:30 - head into centro and work on my laptop in a cafe.
5:30 - 8:30 - hang out at Gabi’s business and practice my conversational castellano.
8:30 - 10:00 - walk around centro and grab food with Gabi and friends.
10:00 - 12:00 - go home and watch Duelo with the family.
12:00 - 1:00 - read, write, practice castellano then fall asleep.

Every Monday and Friday I have castellano grammar classes with profesor Alabí.  That is pretty much my schedule in total.

I met a few other girl friends of Gabi’s tonight.  They were all nice but I couldn’t really understand them and I definitely don’t remember their names…  One of the girls had a 6 year old daughter named Catalina.  Catalina knew some English words from school so she wanted to practice them with me and learn more.  For the entire night I pointed out things and told her the word in English.  She was really cute.

For dinner I had a super pancho with papas fritas.  As with most all the food I try (excluding the ensalada capresse), this was freaking delicious.  In total, including a drink, it cost me 5 pesos for dinner which is about $1.75.  Incredible!  When I got home the Mercadal’s had company over so I got to meet even more new people.  The people visiting were the niece-in-law and nephew of the Mercadal’s.  I was confused because their niece and nephew were adults and the Mercadal’s aren’t really that old.  They also brought their two small kids, ages 2.6 and 4.  Their names are Abril and Santino.  We played catch for a long time and then Santino found out that I spoke English and started asking me for certain words in English.  He was very bright.  Abril sat in my lap for a while and we looked at photos of her and her hermanito (brother).  Argentine kids are freaking cute, especially these two chiquiticos.