AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

So New Years Eve wasn’t a complete bust.  I embraced it as just another regular holiday and tried not to think of it as a super special occasion (even if I was dressed to the T and ready for something grand to happen).  I went to Glenda’s relative’s house for dinner which started at midnight.  We toasted when the clock struck twelve and a bunch of people were outside lighting fireworks for a good hour or so.  There were kids that were younger than 10 playing ALONE with fireworks outside.  I couldn’t believe it.  Glenda told me that there are a lot of casualties (adults and kids who get burned from fireworks).  She didn’t tell me if anyone died from playing with them. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Glenda bought me pink bombachas because it is a tradition to wear them when  the clock strikes twelve because it is supposed to bring good luck.  I didn’t end up putting them on.  She got me two pairs, a cute pair and a granny pair because I told her I don’t like to wear thongs.
After dinner we went a house party in in my neighborhood.  It was fun but I was itchin’ to go dancing somewhere because I was all dressed up.  At around 4:30 I went to Santino and met up with my friends Pato and Vale.  Santino was super full.  I saw Jose there, my “host” brother and we danced for a minute before he left.  I stayed there until about 7am and then I caught a cab home.
New Years Day I went to an asado at the Mercadal’s house and hung out with Guille and Jose watching movies until really late.  It started to rain so I wasn’t able to get any cabs to come to the house.  It’s really a pain in the ass when it rains because it seems like the cabs just disappear, like they are hiding from the rain.  I know it is the exact opposite though.  At the first drop of rain people flee for cabs and they are all completely full or they are driving through centro hoping to pick up people there.  Jose was able to take me home in the car luckily.  Had I needed to take the bus I would have just died.  Waiting for the bus in the rain at 11pm doesn’t seem like much fun to me. Especially when I have to then climb a huge flight of stairs to get to my house.

Every year I spend New Years Eve in NYC with my dearest friends from high school and college.  Last year it was on the rooftop of an apartment building that overlooks the Chrysler Building and it’s festive green and red lights.  This year, I’ll be spending it with new friends and the entire experience will be different.  There will be no ball drop, no finding a random guy to make out with when the clock strikes midnight.  I’ll be eating dinner with a friend’s family at midnight while my besties in NYC will be wearing silly 2009 glasses and hats and toasting to the new year with champagne.  New Years Eve has always been the holiday that I looked forward to the most each year.  Especially in NYC where anything and everything can happen.  It’s a city full of possibilities and a night of complete surprises.   I have such high expectations for New Years Eve that I fear tonight will be a bust with my new friends in my new, small town, where no one has any money and the traditions are completely different.  The hype just isn’t the same.  The sheer excitement for that 10 second count-down to the new year doesn’t exist here.  I will silently and sadly be counting down in my head tonight and it just won’t be the same.
I know it sounds like I’m being a Debbie Downer and I should embrace change and new experiences but it’s hard having to give up your favorite holidays and substitute them with something less than spectacular.  I missed Thanksgiving, Christmas just lacked everything that makes it important to me (my family), and now I’ll be having a sub-par New Years.  But I chose this new life so I can’t really complain.  I can only sit in my own loneliness and make the best of it.  I just never realized how lonely I could get during the holidays and how much I would miss the old traditions, my family and my friends.  The hardest thing I’ve encountered in Argentina is battling loneliness and boredom because I have so much free time on my hands.  It is the hardest to fight during the holidays when everyone else around you has someone to be with and you have to work your ass off to make sure you aren’t alone for the holidays.  I’ll let you know how tonight goes, maybe this post will be a bitch session for nothing.  One thing is for sure, I miss you guys to pieces tonight.  Happy New Year!

I woke up at 3pm today and fried myself an egg with cheese.  With the boys being in the house I have been reluctant to replenish my groceries because I know anything with flavor will be eaten up in a second.  Right now I’m living off of bread and almond butter.  That egg I had today was my last one.  Luckily Laila has invited me to eat lunch and dinner with the family whenever I’m in the house when they eat.  This saves me the trouble of “getting creative” with the food that I have in the house.
It was raining really hard outside for a few hours so I was glad I had not made any plans outside the house.  Instead, I washed the millions of dirty cups from our drinking fest the night before and then explored the wonderful world that is Laila’s music collection.  She has stacks and stacks of CDs so it will probably take me 1-2 years to get through all of them.  I uploaded a few of them to my computer today and deleted a few metal and hardcore punk albums that always creep up in my shuffle and I never enjoy (sorry, Pete).
I stayed in my PJs all day (as I normally do on Sundays) and I watched a few episodes of the Planet Earth series that my mom bought me.  I’m so happy that it is a 5 disc collection because when I am without anything to do and all I want to do is watch something on TV, I can pop in this series and be entertained for hours.
Also, I regret to inform you all that I accidentally killed a lightening bug today.  I thought it was just a normal, ugly bug and as I stepped on it I saw a flickering light coming out of it’s ass.  I immediately regretted what I had done.  Lightening bugs are the only bug I will not kill.  I’ll even kill lady bugs because those bitches are not nice.  They bite!  I end my Sunday with a nasty cup of Organic Throat Coat tea that my mom sent me.  No matter how hard I try to drink different types of teas, the only one I really like is English Breakfast with lots of milk and sugar (so it tastes like coffee).

A friend of Laila’s sons has taken a liking to me, but nothing serious.  Let me explain.
His name is Fede and I’ve hung out with him so far only two times in the big group of guy friends that Joaquin and Leandro have.  The first time we hung out was on Christmas Eve at Los Aromos.  We danced but he wanted to dance like they do in the US (rubbing bodies and other awful dance moves that I’ve gladly left in the states).  I kept resisting and he kept getting frustrated like I was being a prude or something.  He kept saying “If I’m bothering you, let me know and i”ll leave you alone.”  I can’t remember if I said “I would like to dance with you but I don’t want to dance that way.”  I said that in some variation.  Anyway, he thought I wasn’t interested and I actually really wasn’t because he was a bit annoying so he left and I was left alone for the rest of the night.
Last night he came over to the house to hang out with the boys.  I put myself in one of those group conversations again so I was sitting there hanging out with all of them, not talking.  I made plans to go to Santino with the girls and asked Fede if he would drive me there if I paid him.  He agreed to do it for free but told me that all of the boys were going to Los Aromos again.  For some reason I decided to switch my plans and go to Los Aromos with them.  Probably because it is hard for me to pass up an evening with a ton of hot guys.
So we all went there and I had a good time dancing with all of the girl friends of the guys.  They are all super skinny and super pretty so it was a little intimidating to be the giant, big boobed, hourglass figured american girl among this sea of little women.  They were all very nice to me and made sure I was with them the whole time dancing and having fun.
Eventually Fede found me again but we didn’t dance together. Instead he insisted that we go back to my house and drink something.  Basically he was inviting me to drink something but also inviting himself to have sex with me.  I’ve become accustom to these “invitations” as I’ve gotten a few already.  I told him no, that I did not want to have sex with him and I paid 25 pesos to get into Los Aromos and I was not about to leave to have sex with him.  He responded with the typical answer I get here “Do you not like sex?”  NO, RETARD! I DO NOT LIKE YOU!  Why are some boys so unwilling to think that they are the reason girls say no and not because there is some defect with us?
Anyway, he kept going on and on about it for a good 30-40 minutes and I kept batting him down.  He couldn’t catch a hint even when I was being so direct with him.
The night ended with him giving me and another kid a ride home and him attacking my face for a kiss.  It was awful, like a dog was licking my face with his giant tongue.  I politely waited until I was outside of the car to wipe the saliva off of my face.  His final question for me as I exited the car was “So are we going to have sex now?”

I have been crushin’ on this cute waiter at Bonafide for about a month or more.  He’s got cute dimples and nice eyes.  After countless mini flirtations he finally asked for my number about a week ago.  He never called.  I saw him in Bonafide a few times after I gave him my number and nothing was said and nothing happened.  I figured he was either extremely shy or extremely busy OR he lost my number and was too afraid to ask for it again.  Today I was working on my laptop in Bonafide and as I went to pay my bill he came over to chat.   I asked him what he was doing tonight and he said nothing.  I said “But it is Saturday!”  and we had a laugh.  I had not thought to invite him out with me because I figured if he wanted to hang out he would invite me.  They waiter who was ringing up my bill encouraged him to go out with me tonight so I said “Do you want to go out dancing with me tonight?” And he said yes so we exchanged numbers and I told him that I would text him the details later on.  I knew he would be working until 2am or later so I waited until very late to text him.  He ended up never responding to my text messages and we never met up.  What a disappointment.  I don’t have the patience for a shy guy, especially when it makes it seem like they are sending mixed signals.  If he doesn’t have the balls to call me or text me back I’m not going to give him another second of attention.
The next day (Sunday) I get a text message from a different Bonafide waiter named Guille.  Apparently my hot waiter had given him my number because Guille wanted to be my friend. Fucking great.  I told Guille that sure, we could be friends but that I liked the other waiter (the hot one) and was only looking to be friends.  I am trying to be clearer with these guys because being vague opens up a lot of unwanted invitations.  He said he knew I liked “Gaby” (Gabriel, aka hot waiter) and he said he would help me “Make it happen” if I wanted his help because he is a good friend of my hot waiter’s.  I said no thanks, that if Gaby doesn’t have enough guts to like me on his own I don’t want to force it.  Oh well…and as I always seem to say here, “Ya fue“.

The one thing I do not enjoy about learning a language is the almost complete loss of my personality due to lack of conversational skills.  When I am in a group of friends I barely speak.  It is not because I don’t have a bajillion things to talk about or because I’m shy or not interested in what is being said.  Obviously this is not the case as all of you know me and know how outgoing, loud, and outspoken I am.  You also know how crudely I crack dirty jokes and have a wit like no other. (feeding my ego here…let me be).
It is so hard to follow a conversation when in a big group because if you don’t pay attention for one second you become completely lost it what is being said.  Also, if I don’t know a word or can’t understand someone’s accent I also lose the subject of the conversation.  Sometimes when I am able to follow the conversation, I think of something to say but by the time I have formulated the correct sentence/response in my head they have either finished that conversation or the timing is off and it would be weird if I said what I have to say.
Sometimes I think people feel bad for me and try to include me in the conversation, but only for a minute or so because I struggle to think of an answer, it takes me too long to respond or I don’t understand what they are asking me.  Other times, people will try to have one-on-one conversations with me and I can handle those but most of the time they want to be part of the bigger group discussion so our small chats only last a few minutes or a few questions and then they return to the larger discussion.
So I spend most of my time sitting there and watching people’s mouths move and their body language and I try to pick out things that I know from what they are saying, even if I can’t follow the whole conversation.  Sometimes it is so mentally draining that I drift off into my own head and daydream or make lists of things that I need to learn and practice or things I need to do the next day.  If I am in a big group with lots of people that I don’t know, I try to look busy by playing on my phone.  I’m usually deleting old text messages or trying desperately to find someone to text with.
BUT regardless of all of these painful and most times utterly boring group discussions, I continue to force myself to be part of them.  As much as I struggle I am still learning a whole lot and making new friends and listening to the natural way to have a conversation in castellano.  It doesn’t get any more raw and real than that and it is too valuable to pass up.

For Christmas day I slept until about 2:30pm and then I went back to the Mercadal’s for Christmas lunch.  We ate the same thing we ate for Christmas dinner and it was still delicious.  We also had cake that mama made.

After lunch I was going to watch some of the Planet Earth DVDs with Jose that my mom gave me for Hanukkah but he had to go do something else so instead I watched a movie with Guille (both guys are the sons of the Mercadals).  We watched a comedy called “Lower Learning” and it was pretty funny.  Guille is home for the holidays, he lives and studies in Cordoba.  He is totally hilarious and I enjoy being around his jolly attitude.  He looks so much like Alice (mama mercadal) that it is crazy.  They have the same smile and the same laugh and the same devilish look when they crack a funny joke.

After the movie I went home to take a nap and let my body recover from the multiple consecutive days of partying that I have done this week.  Tomorrow is Friday and another day of partying.  Woohoo!

It is tradition to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve in Argentina.  There is a Christmas dinner around 9pm and then everyone goes out dancing at a boliche.  Usually there are big parties or special parties held in the boliches and the entrance to get in is much more than normal.  On Christmas day they have a low-key lunch and nothing more.  They open presents on Christmas Eve.

I had Christmas dinner with the Mercadal Family.  It was just the family and me, no extended relatives or friends.  It was nice and small.  It is tradition to eat chancho for Christmas dinner and drink champagne to celebrate.  Everyone sets off fireworks so it constantly sounds like gunshots are going off.  Igna, the youngest son of the Mercadal’s, set off some fireworks of his own in the street.  I gave the family the bazillion gifts that my family sent to them from the US and they gave me a gift as well (a set of PJs and my favorite chocolates, if anyone wondered).  It was totally nice.

For my night of Christmas mayhem I started it at a friends house party in San Pedrito.  I was all dolled up in a blue dress and I was ready to go out dancing, not stay in a small house party, so I only stayed there for about an hour and then I headed to Los Aromos, a big outdoor boliche that had multiple tents of music, a pool and other random stuff.  It cost 50 pesos to get in if I wanted the VIP status.  I didn’t know what that meant but I figured it was something good otherwise people wouldn’t pay for it.  The normal tickets cost only 30 pesos.  When I got inside I saw that the VIP status got me into a freaking ELECTRONIC MUSIC tent.  I can’t believe I spent 20 pesos more just for THAT!  Ya fue.  I ended up finding 10 pesos on the ground so that was nice.

I went to Los Aromos with Laila’s boys (sons of the woman I live with) and their guy friends.  Every single one of them paired off with a girl so I was left solo.  BAH!  I walked around a few times, which is where I found the 10 pesos, and I didn’t see a damned hot guy that I wanted to dance with.  I was a little bit bored but whatever.

We left Los Aromos at around 8:30 in the morning and didn’t get home until about 9:30.  When we got home we ate leftover chancho and other food from the christmas dinner. Mmm leftovers…

A new boliche opened up in Jujuy last night and I went to the opening night party.  When you walk in the entry hallway is white and there were girls dressed in sequin white dresses and silver platforms.  Everything was white and I felt like I should have worn all white instead of the blue silk tank top and dark jeans that I had on.  Ya fue, I still felt pretty.  Huge curtains separated the entry way from the main room, as you enter the main room you see that everything inside is also completely white with hints of silver.  There were two white beds on each side of the room as you entered, for cucharita, I suppose.  There were white couches and white tables and chairs.  There was a dance floor in the back with 5 different sized disco balls.  It was basically your typical lounge bar.  I expected people to be doing white coke off of the nice white tables but I guess you only see that in the movies.  The only downside about a lounge bar such as this one is the fact that they place electronic music and nothing else. I can’t dance to electronic music…it just doesn’t move me.

Because it was the opening night, they had free drinks for the first few hours.  Any drinks that you wanted. WOOHOO!  I had 2 or 3 Vodka with Speed (speed = red bull), then I moved onto beer and then to some Gancia.  I was nice and toasted and ready to face the terrible music that I couldn’t dance to.  Any amount of alcohol can get me to dance to just about anything.  They also had free appetizers that were super delish.

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.