AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

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…

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).