AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

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.

I was up at 7am this morning and I have to admit it felt like I was facing death’s door.  I haven’t had to wake up that early in so long — I didn’t even wake up that early when I worked in the office at IHS.  My body just doesn’t agree with the early hours of the day yet.  Anyway, I got up early because I was supposed to go to a post graduate class at the university with professor Alabí but it got cancelled because there was a problem with the buses and students couldn’t get to the school.  I got dropped off by car so I didn’t get the message until I arrived at Alabí’s house.  Alabí doesn’t have my cell phone number yet so she couldn’t call me to tell me I didn’t need to wake up at the ass crack of dawn. Oh well.  We ended up having our normal class for an hour and then I went to Carena for a few hours.

I took a two hour nap when I returned home and then brewed myself a cup of instant coffee with powdered milk and powdered chocolate.  That is as good as it gets here for coffee but I don’t really mind it.

Tonight I went to Salta with Gabi because she had to go there to do things for her business.  We took a taxi to another type of taxi that cost us 20 pesos one way.  That is a pretty reasonable price considering the trip is about an hour long.  Papá Mercadal told me those taxis are illegal but I didn’t know that until after I got back.  Not that I care anyway because most things that are illegal shouldn’t be illegal in the first place.  We arrived around 9:30 - 10 and when Gabi was finished with her important work stuff we walked around to find food.  I’m getting a little better with my conversational castellano and I am understanding a lot more that I did a few days ago.  Gabi talks a lot and asks me a ton of questions so she is really making it easy for me to adapt faster.  I decided today that she is my new bestie in Jujuy.  She is definitely bestie material.  We got back to Jujuy around 2am and people were still hanging out at the movie theater near her work.  Argentines are definitely night owls…

This weekend I hung out a lot with Gabi and Pato.  I stayed at the house all day Saturday being a bum.  I didn’t want to exert any energy because I wanted to save it all up for Saturday night since we were going out dancing until 7 in the morning.  I went to Gabi’s house at 11 pm and she had prepared pizza for us.  Pato and a handful of others were on there way — yay for me, I get to make more friends!

Gabi made me a drink consisting of some sweet white wine, sprite and lemon.  It was delicious.  Gabi lives with her mom, or rather her mom lives with her since her parents separated.  Gabi has a brother that is my age (and apparently likes me though he has never met me or seen a photo of me…so it goes) and he lives with the father.  The apartment is quaint and cute.

Pato showed up with another girl whose name I can’t remember and shortly after that three dudes arrived — Seba (Sebastian), Dani (Danielo) and Juan P.  They were very funny dudes always making bromas.  Even though I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying they still provided great entertainment for me.  We drank at Gabi’s until 2 am and then we headed to the boliche (dance club).  Just like it is lame to show up to a party before 10:30 pm, it is lame to show up to a club before 2 am.  It is normal to stay at a club until 6 or 8 am.  I’m very ok with these hours as I love to dance and to dance all night long is the best thing ever.  We went to a boliche called Akropolis.  It is a huge place that fits hundreds of people.  I bought a tall cervesa for 10 pesos (about $3).  I was already pretty toasted from Gabi’s house so I didn’t need much more alcohol to set me up for the night.  A band came on around 5:30 am that played American disco music.  I thought that was really funny.

A common type of music in Argentina is Cumbia.  That is what is played in the clubs along with Reggaeton, some American dance music and probably other forms of music that I don’t know yet.  Also, it is important to remember to bring tissue in your bra when going to the club (not to enhance the girls) because the bathrooms never have any toilet paper.  This was a tip I got from my sister that I can’t thank her enough for. I had a really fun time dancing all night long and I went to bed around 7:30 am.

I woke up around 1:30 pm, took a shower and went with Jose, my “host” brother, to a rock concert in the park.  It started at 3pm and I was there until around 9 pm.  I met up with Gabi, Pato, Seba, Dani and Juan around 5pm and we drank wine and coke.  Some of the bands were ok though I’m not really into spanish rock.  Gabi, Pato and I left the concert to get some eats.  We had lomito which is basically a hamburger but it has steak instead of a meat patty.  I’m into that.

I retired early because I needed to wake up at 7 am for class with Alabí.  Woohoo!

I had my second class today with professor Alabí.  She gave me the book, The Diary of Anne Frank, in castellano and I’m going to attempt to read it.  I started the book tonight and only got through two pages.  I understand most of it which is cool.  I’m hoping this will help me learn more words and some sentence structure.  After my lesson with Alabí we watched a bit of TV because the financial situation in the US right now is in the shits.  Alabí loves keeping up with American news and she is always watching American television.  She would correct me, though, and say she was watching “North American” television as she is also an American, just  a different kind.  She loves the New York accent because she says it sounds clean and nice.  She isn’t talking about Long Island New York, don’t worry.

I worked on my laptop in Carena for about 30 minutes.  I always like to try new things in restaurants so I ordered an ensalada Capresse.  It was a salad containing tomato, cheese and some type of herb called albahaca.  I put olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper on it but it still didn’t taste very good.  I think it was due to this unknown herb which I now know is sweet basil.  Also, the cheese wasn’t very good which was hard for me to take (as you all know I freaking love cheese).  I was so disappointed with my salad and I wished that I hadn’t ordered it.  After Carena I met up with Gabi at her small business.  We hung out there for a while and talked in Spanglish.

Gabi and I walked through Centro for a while and then we went to La Fiesta Nacional de los Estudiantes to watch the carrozas (floats).  Every September the students in the high schools all across Jujuy spend most of August and September building these elaborate floats and then they have a huge parade for two weekends in a row.  The floats are judged and the schools with the best floats get a trophy.  I bought some oreo cookies to feed the beast that is my belly and then we took Gabi’s moto to my house where we chilled and watched Duelo (of course), my new favorite program.  She is good company and I’m glad we are able to hang out so much now.

I made two new girl friends today and I’m so happy about it.  There comes a sense of security with women friends that a girl can never find with her male friends.  I never have to worry about feelings developing or mixed signals.  I can say and do what I want without it being interpreted as something it isn’t.  Being in another country where the people speak a different language makes it even more difficult to know when you are being “too friendly” with a guy.  I also like the fact that these girls are more close to my age and they have steady jobs.  They are in the same boat as me.  When I hung out with my little sister’s friends they didn’t have any money and I had to act like the mommy and pay for everything (why I agreed to do such a thing I don’t even know).  It was really stupid.  I also met two girls from Holland at my favorite cafe, Carena.  I gave them my email so we could hang out since they are going to be in Jujuy for 3 months.  We’ll see how that develops.

My new friend’s names are Gabi and Pato (Gabiota and Patricia).  Gabi works with Mamá Mercadal at the private hospital and she also owns her own small business printing graphics on sportswear.  Pato works as an engineer at the engineering firm NOVA in Jujuy.  Seems legit to me.  They speak very little English which I am very happy about but they want to learn English and they want me to teach them so I am trying.  I am looking forward to hanging out with them a lot because they are really fun girls.