AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

Amber and I had a half day off today and we decided that we wanted to go swimming since it was 80 degrees outside.  Barb helped us find a pool, which ended up being at a private sports club, and then she drove us there instead of making us hike up the driveway and take 2 buses to get there.

The pool cost 9 euros for the day and we arrived at around noon, so half the day was already wasted!  There were actually 2 pools, just square and simple but really clean looking.  When we arrived we saw a young couple there that we had seen on the bus a few days earlier.  We recognized them because they were sitting across from us on the bus, making out and fondling each other…and we noticed them also because he looked much older than her and she looked about 12 years old.  Well anyway, they were there, all over each other again but this time with much less clothing on…and we were like HOLY HELL VARESE IS SMALL.  They awkwardly stared at us on and off while we were there, mostly because they recognized us and partially because the girl kept being shy about her affection with her boyfriend and thought we were watching them (which we were, buy very covertly…haha).

I was very excited to be wearing my new American flag bikini.  I was hoping for some reactions, good or bad, but I really got none for it.  I’m in LOVE with this bikini on so many levels, and I don’t care what people think of me (be it my friends in America who are embarrassed for me, or anyone else!)  So far, the foreign people I’ve told about my bathing suit, and shown, have thought it to be awesome.  Point proven that patriotism can be cool and I’m totally going to rock it.

So the pool is cold and the only way we could manage to fully immerse ourselves was to jump in — so we did.  The water was wonderful and the pool was incredibly clean, which we noted with fascination.  I started to do hand stands and diving, soaking my hair in the water and letting it float around like octopus legs.  Everyone at the sports club knew each other because they were all members.  Amber and I were the only ones wearing stupid wristbands…standing out like the foreigners that we are (and my bikini, ahem…).  They were staring at us swimming and we couldn’t figure out if they were envious of our youth and mobility (since most of them were old) or if they didn’t like what we were doing.  After about 10 minutes, the young couple followed suit and jumped into the pool, doing as we did.  After a while this old woman said to us “shower cap” and showed us her shower cap for her hair.” We replied “no thank you!” and kept diving under the water.  When we got sick of swimming we got out of the pool, rinsed our bodies off at the outside shower, and go tan for a hot second.  It was bliss.

During our second round of swimming, someone who worked at the club came over to us after we had done our normal “jump in” routine and politely informed us that we needed to rinse off our dirty bodies before getting into the pool and to also wear a shower cap to ensure that hair does not fall out and float in the pool.  Whoops!  We are such grungy Americans that we didn’t even realize these 2 things — no wonder the pool was sparkly clean! No wonder people were glaring at us and the only ones to swim like us were the rebellious teenagers!  No wonder all of the old people were wearing shower caps and showering before they got in the pool! We just thought they were strange.  After this news we were a bit embarrassed and a bit bummed that we couldn’t keep diving unless we wore a stupid swim cap.  We had been there for a good 3 hours so we just decided to rinse off and leave.

But all in all we had a wonderful time swimming and soaking up the sun.  It was awesomeeeeeee.

Today was our first day off so we decided to head into town.  We desperately needed clothes for the farm so we were on a mission to find the ugliest and cheapest clothes possible at the open air market.  We also had a long list of random items that we needed to buy for our every day use.

The market was huge and it was full of amazingly beautiful clothes that I really wanted to buy.  I had expected them to be selling some gaudy going-out wear but they had nice lightweight cotton and linen pieces that were very basic and totally my style.  I had to refrain from looking too much because I was really going to have a weak moment and spend the rest of my savings on these wonderful clothes.

To our surprise, the market didn’t have much in terms of ugly and cheap farm clothes so we only got one or two shirts and a few knitted sweaters to keep us warm.  I bought a pair of black gym shoes for 8 euros to work in that looked like soccer shoes.

After the market we headed to the grocery store to buy some toiletries and some lunch.  Everything was so expensive I wanted to just die.  We bought the cheapest liquid hand soap in the largest container to use as our body wash.  Their body lotion section was lacking and all smelled like baby poo so we bought Johnson and Johnson baby lotion.  We also scoured the place for a matchbox but found no matches anywhere in Varese.  We are getting sick of trying to light the gas stove with lighters that do not work!  Bahhh…

We had so many bags from the market and the grocery store that we decided to just go home since we didn’t want to explore like bag ladies.  On the bus home there was an old dude who had just lost or someone stole his wallet.  He freaked out on everyone in his general vicinity and even patted down a girl and searched through a woman’s bag and purse.  Then he got off in a huff, still without his wallet.  It was quite the uproar!

When we got home we took a nap and read our books about Italy.  When dinner rolled around Amber cooked up some of her special chicken and I was poppin’ cherry tomatoes like it was going outta style.  We chilled in the kitchen for a while and the whole family started to congregate there and drink tea.  We listened to them speak in Italian and we hung out for a while.  After a while everyone left but Barbara so we ended up having a nice chat with her and really started getting to know her.

She told us that she loves the UK and wanted to move back there last June but when her father became ill in May with cancer, she stayed to take care of him until he died a few months later.  After that unfortunate and sudden tragedy, she decided that she couldn’t leave her father’s dream of the farm to rot because she cared too much so she left behind her own dream of living in the UK to stay on the farm.  Damn.  She also said that is the reason why she joined Helpx — not just for the help but to meet people from around the world and to bring the UK and English speakers to her.  She wanted to make friends even if she couldn’t travel.  I really liked that about her.

She also told us about the crazy laws in Italy that prohibit self defense of any sort.  Basically, if someone comes on your property, you aren’t allowed to hit them or they could call the cops on you and get you sent to jail.  If you kill them in self defense, then you also go to jail.  The only way to get a trespasser off of your property is to call the police and wait for them to come.  This also applies to shoplifters in stores.  You are not allowed to stop a shoplifter, you can only ask them to return the goods if you think they stole them from you.  You can’t hold them there, you can only call the police but if they know the law, they can just walk out of the store without paying because you cannot touch them or keep them there.  Crazy…

I sit here writing this, broke as a joke, because my Patagonia trip took all of my money.  I knew it was going to be expensive but I didn’t realize how much the south squeezes out every last moneda from your pocket.  They really have a hold on tourism and know what they are doing.  Regardless, I had a fabulous time and I don’t mind eating tuna from a can for the next few weeks until I go home.

The south of Argentina is like another world compared to the north.  The mountains are snow capped versus rainbow colored.  There is grass for miles versus dry, red dirt.  The people are whiter and taller and wear nicer clothes than I do.  Penguins seem to be the exploited animal of the south for tourists while the llama is the pick of the litter in the north (though the south has llamas too they call them guanacos).

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When I first came to Argentina I didn’t give two hoots about Iguazu Falls.  I thought to myself, “I’ve seen Niagara and if I don’t see Iguazu before I die I won’t regret it.”  I know in scale Iguazu trumps Niagara without fail but to me water is water is water.  Seeing the rest of the country first was more important to me that wasting time going way out of my way to an isolated part of Argentina that only had the falls and nothing else.

Even as I planned my last big trip in Argentina before heading back to the states I didn’t think about Iguazu.  I only ended up going because my friend asked me to go and the timing was perfect since she wanted to go just a few days before my trip and it was kind of on the way.

In the end I’m glad I went.  Argentina and it’s natural wonders don’t cease to amaze me.  I expected to arrive to the falls and have one lookout point and be done with it in less than an hour but I was surprised to find that Iguazu is literally a maze of waterfalls ranging in size and force.  I saw multiple rainbows and spent the whole day going from waterfall to waterfall — there seemed to be no end to them.

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I have been going to yoga here in Jujuy for about 10 months.  The studio is in the center of the city and is run by an awesome gay couple that I love.  A few months after I joined their studio, they started displaying products with the brand “Herbalife” on it.  I was a little suspicious.  I liked these guys, but have they fallen into a pyramid scheme? These smart yogi bears, one who is a dentist and one a psychologist.  Were they tricked by an even more powerful psychologist themselves? The salesman?  I couldn’t believe it.  But maybe they weren’t into the pyramid scheme.  Maybe they were just buying the supplements from someone else who was tricked into the scheme.  I mean, fish oil and multivitamins are really great for you, any yogi should subscribe to great supplements. Read the rest of this entry »

I have NEVER been interested in cooking.  At least not for the past 23 years of my life.  But this year all I want to do is cook and bake and learn everything about food.  Is my domestic instinct kicking in or something?  I mean, I’m not complaining. I actually enjoy cooking now which is great because I enjoy what I am eating since it tastes delicious and I made it with my own two hands.  The downside to this is that I don’t have all of the resources and ingredients I need to do everything I want to do in the kitchen.  Argentina is very limited, compared to the US. Read the rest of this entry »

For my friend’s birthday and for my host mom’s bday I made what I initially thought was bailey’s but realized like a dumbass later that is was more Irish coffee.  Below is the recipe with photos! Enjoy! It’s really delicious! Read the rest of this entry »

I am an idiot.  I’m just like every other girl I criticize that has men problems. I am no better and I have finally *really* realized that I sabotage myself almost every single time when I’m with a guy I like.  I think about all of the guys I have had an opportunity to date and how every time things ended I blamed them for being the wrong “guy” or the idiot when in reality from the beginning I was putting an invisible chastity belt on myself without even realizing it.  My friends of course didn’t help me to realize this. For them, it is easier to criticize and blame the guy versus making me feel worse than I already do after being rejected by telling me that it was actually my fault.

I’m so concerned about guys respecting me and about not having “relations” until I have a boyfriend that in the process I scare away every potential suitor.  To them I am not communicating “respect me, I’m worth the wait”, but rather, I’m holding a giant red warning sign that says “watch out, I’m complicated!”  I may know what I want but I don’t have a very good elevator speech for it and in that 11 seconds I normally blow it. “Hi my name is Autumn, I will not have sex with you until you are my boyfriend and I demand your full respect from day 1. I know we just met but please follow these rules before even knowing my last name.”

If a guy wants to have “relations” with me too early in the dating phase I say no without hesitation, without thinking twice.  But the not thinking twice thing is was gets me in trouble because I don’t just stop at the word “no”.  My no is always followed by “because of x,y,z” which guys are not interested in hearing and which is in fact a giant turnoff.  I don’t know why I think I need to defend or rationalize my “no.” No means no. Simple as that.  Guys throw out the sex question because to them it’s like casting a fishing reel.  Sometimes you catch a fish, sometimes you don’t and either way it doesn’t hurt to keep on casting.

This isn’t a new concept to me.  Guys have told me outright that this is the way it is. BUT when a guy shows interest in me and I like him back, I start to think too much about the situation and therefore throw almost all of my rational thoughts and previous “lessons learned” out the window.  I act on my insecurities, my heart is driving my thoughts and my rational brain goes on vacation. It’s just a fact of our biological differences.  No matter how much I want to fight it and think that I can fall in love rationally, I am just like every other member of my gender: Our heart takes the lead and more often than not it fucks us over.  Unless you are like my abnormally rational younger sister who seems to have a better head on her shoulders than I do when it comes to love.

Because of this “heart defect” I fall very quickly for someone if things seem to be going well. It is hard to suppress what I am thinking or feeling. I can’t easily go with the flow and see where the wind takes me. I will analyze every single detail of my encounters with a guy I like.  For some reason, talking out my “crazy” with my girlfriends doesn’t get it out my system.  I mean, my girlfriends are supposed to be my crazy blocker but apparently they aren’t blocking enough. Crazy takes me over and tells me that I need to go to the source, the actual dude and talk to him about the things that are silently driving me mad.  Bad idea, heart.

With Dani, he made it clear that he didn’t want a relationship but I still went with it just to see if it would end up differently — I was trying out the “go-with-the-flow” method.  After a month he was still singing the same non-committal tune and my feelings for him were only getting stronger (self-generated, he didn’t really give me any reason to like him more).  I was surprised that I lasted that long without spilling my emo-thoughts all over him but even a month isn’t very long at all.  After 1 month I did the crazy talk and he said we would be better as friends.  About 6 months later I come to find out he is dating someone, probably because she went with the flow and didn’t release her crazy like I did.

With boys in the US…well the same thing would happen.  I’d have 1-month trysts with these guys that I’d really like. I’d hit the 1 month mark and I’d be itching to talk about where it was going and what i expected of them — I just hated wasting time going through the motions of something so uncertain.  I didn’t necessarily set up ultimatums. I didn’t say “you have to be my boyfriend by the end of the month or else.” it was more like “i really don’t want to be in limbo like this if it isn’t going anywhere.”  Which, after a little reflection is actually a really passive aggressive ultimatum — one of the worst kinds.  No wonder none of them worked out.  Had I just kept my giant mouth shut most of them may have turned into something potentially significant.  The guys weren’t bad guys and I still talk to some of them on occasion.  It was just my method that was flawed.

I bring this whole topic up because I successfully terminated another opportunity with a guy in less than 4 days.  I met him Thursday, had lunch with him on Friday, spent the whole afternoon with him on Friday, enjoyed the day so much that I thought about it all Saturday and Sunday, made a bigger deal about it than it was, talked about it on Monday with the guy, talked about my feelings/respect/etc and in the end he said “well then its best if we are just friends so that I do not shame you.” haha shame me. shiiiit.

Another one bites the dust. AHHH it is so frustrating.  My new strategy is to put up a list of “DO NOT DO’s” on my wall to remind me what not to do if another guy comes along that I fancy.  It will go as follows:

1. Just say “no” when they ask the sex question.  NOTHING MORE! If they ask ‘why not’ just say “if you don’t know why then you don’t deserve it anyway” If they keep pressing you, just fucking get up and leave.
2. Do not utter the word boyfriend or girlfriend. Just don’t.
3. Do not talk about respecting yourself. Show it by demanding it without words.

Sounds obvious, right? Just writing them out makes me feel a little bit stupid but I realize now that my brain is back from vacation. Try telling these things to your heart when it is crazy full with butterflies and mixed feelings and it will fight you to the death.

As I sit here watching American Idol really for the first time ever, I am thinking about the highlights and the lowlights of my trip to Cordoba.  I have been here for about 11 days and I can’t say that I did much.  Here is a bulleted breakdown:

Highlights:

• La Feria de Las Pulgas (market of the fleas, literally translated for flea market haha).  This flea market was huge and winding in and out of streets. It felt like a maze of discovery. I spent lots of money here.
• “Random” nightclub.  I went here in my first weekend.  I dug the scene and I found myself in literally random situations - for example, a guy in a wheelchair surprise attacked my face with wet slobbery makeout session.
• Carlos Paz is a town 40 minutes outside of Cordoba city center. There is a beautiful lake there and I took a nice long walk along the water which ended with a stop at the gelato place. DELISH!
• Peatonal in city center has tons of shopping. I spent more than an hour in one store and got some new fall digs.
• Tango Hostel is a great little hostel run by friends of mine (kind of) and they have a really good atmosphere. I started off most of my nights here, eating a delicious homemade meal and then drinking on the patio and talking into the wee hours of the mornings.
• I spent some real quality time with my good friend Bobby Carter.  I’ve discovered that he is a good travel buddy. those are few and far between.

Lowlights:

• I didn’t find much to do during the day so I spent most days on my computer.
• The heat here is unbearable. Another reason I didn’t leave the apartment until after sunset.  The humidity carried out into the night and was uncomfortable.
• Restaurants close after 3 pm so when I’d finally emerge from the house and try to eat something, lots of places would be closed.  The ones that were open only offered a few items on their menu, usually Lomito and empanadas.
• I got my hair cut and the dude missed a chunk of my bangs.  He was also not very nice and made the experience really uncomfortable. It was like he was too cool to cut my hair and me being there was inconveniencing his cool.  douche.

Overall I had a good time and it was really chill.  Now I’m headed back to Jujuy to show Bobby around my neck of the woods.

This evening a rush of heavy, colorful clouds overtook my view of Cordoba from the balcony.  There was barely any rain and instead there was a magnificent show of heat lightening.  I documented it here to my favorite song by Bon Iver.

Storm in Cordoba