Octoberfest, Blues, Montevideo, Moving

Disclaimer: I had to use a lab computer to write most of this and they don´t have an English spell check, so sorry for all the errors. O well.

So much has happened. Everything is changing. Where to begin?

Octoberfest. So far the best day I've had in Argentina. Villa General Belgrano in the Córdoba province of Argentina is famous world-wide for its annual 10 day Octoberfest celebration. We went on the kick off Saturday and had a ball. So much beer, great food, incredible music and dancing. We met travelers from all over the world. What a day. Highlights included Leah being interviewed for the news and dunkenly proclaiming in choppy Spanish that ¨Both the beer and the poeple in this town are delicious.¨ So now Leah is famous all over Córdoba.

The week was pretty normal, classes, fun, went out a few times. One night in particular stands out. The regulars went bar hopped for a bit and then headed back to my buddy Trey´s place. What followed was one of the best consersations I´ve had in a long while. We talked about everything: traveling, news, politics, religion, engergy crisis, everything. Then we got to talking about the blues. Turns out Trey plays guitar, so for the rest of the night Leah, Trey, and I had a free style blues singing competition over a few beers and an pack of ciagarettes. Great night.

Back on the road: This past weekend Leah and I went to Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. I absolutely loved it. The city is beautiful with well preserved colonial architecture and the people are so friendly. Everyone smiles and waves as they pass each other on the streets, why can the rest of the world be like this? After a 10 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires we took a boat to the shores of Uruguay. When we docked we had absolutely no plans whatsoever. We were just standing there on the pier with our backpacks like, ¨Ok what now?¨ We explored the city on foot for a bit and then took a tour that showed us the whole capital. Leah and I both fell asleep for about a third of it because we were worn out from all the traveling. After that we hung out at the hostel for a bit, drank a little, sang some kareoke, made some friends, and then a group of us hit the bars. Craziest thing is that there is a block of Irish pubs in Monevideo. Fist a Germanfest in Argentina and we were ended up at a pub called ¨The Dublin¨ in Uruguay. Wierd right? The next day we just bummed around town, did a lot of nothing, which was a nice change, but that night, wow, possibly the best night of my life.

Sunday night we´re walking down the street and we hear tango music coming from a decrepit old building. We find an entrance and decide to check it out. We walk in and the place is an old dark ballroom, with cheap tables scattered around the perimiter and hundreds of people of all ages are dancing tango. It was amazing. Watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9sREstOvo

So Leah and I grab a table in the corner and order a bottle of wine. We struck up a conversation with an old tango instructor, and he invited me to dance. It's one thing to be able to tango in a classroom with your friends where you know the steps that are coming next, but to come up with a dance on the fly in from of a crowd is something entirely different. Not sure how really but somehow I pulled it off. We didn't do anything too advanced, but I was thrilled when I actually felt I could hold my own on that dance floor. Later we met two more guys whith whom we tangoed, and tangoed, and tangoed. We danced all night. Once that place started to empty out the boys invited us to another tango club. We walked five blocks or so and we come upon what was once probably an impressive mansion. The effects of time have worn the facade and the interior is falling apart but it had a charm to it. The place was mostly lit by candles. More wine more dancing. Finally we went to bed as the sun was coming up and we missed our boat the next morning.



This is kind of important because I had to be in Buenos Aires by that afternoon to deal with my phone company and get a new phone. We decide we'll catch the next one at 12:45. So I get up around 9:30 shower eat and I wake Leah up around 10:30. I'm packing all my stuff up and she asks me what time it is. I look at my watch and suddenly my stomach drops. 11:50AM. Uruguayan time is one hour ahead, so my watch was showing the correct time but I never changed the time on my alarm clock which is what I had been looking at all morning. We had less than one hour to pack up, find an ATM, pay for the hostel, go to the port, buy boat tickets, go through immigration, and try to get home. A little tight don't you think? We finally make it to the dock by 12:15 and the boat is full. Not a single seat left. The earliest we can get to Buenos Aires is at 7. I'm not going to get my phone. Sigh. I start thinking up backup plans as we order pizza at the cafe in the port. At 12:45 exactly, the woman behind the ticket counter, who I begged to get on that 12:45 boat, comes running up to our table. She says there are two seats left in first class and if we go RIGHT NOW we can get them. We drop money on the table and leave more than half our meal behind as we sprint to the pier. We pay the woman for the tickets, our passports get stamped, and we run on to the boat less that one minute before it starts moving. We were the two scrubbiest looking people in first class (which actually turned out to be only ten dollars more than tourist class.) When we walk in the seats aren't assinged, everyone had thrown their stuff all over, blocking off rows for their families and such. We give up after two minutes of searching for spots and opt to sit on the floor...of first class. Three hours later we're in Buenos Aires.

I get my phone. We do some shopping. About an hour before we have to catch a bus to Córdoba we stop for some food. The Café New Orleans. I will never forget that place. We walk in and everyone in the place stops and stares at us, which you kind of get used to as a foreigner, so we really didn´t think anything of it. We order and then it hits us. There are six tables occupied. Al by women, alone, scandalously dressed, with lots of make up. Prositutes. We are dining at the local whore house. Guys would come in alone and grab a drink at the bar and at some point they would nod to one of the girls which is the signal to meet them outside. We watched this happen several times and then asked for out food to go. We head for the bus station and chow down there. So that was my weekend.

I have trouble staying in the same place for too long: Two weeks ago I decided to move. I was living in an apartment with an Argentine roommate. She's nice but kind of anal retentive, and a total neat freak. And she lived in the apartment for a year or so alone before I moved in and I can tell she feels like the place is hers and that my presence pretty much annoyed the hell out of her. The only time she spoke to me was to complain...about me. It was frustrating as hell. We pretty much never spoke to each other and the whole point of living in Argentina is to be in a situation where you are constanly speaking and learning Spanish right? So I put up with this for two whole months and one day it really started to get me down, to the point where I was feeling completely homesick. I posted about it when it was at its worst. Then I deleted the post 8 hours later. Don't know if any of you saw it. Once I started feeling homesick I knew it was time I had to do something about it, I'm having the experience of a lifetime, I shouldn't feel like that. So I talked to our program director and asked if there were any openings to live with a family. It all worked out. So now I've moved back into my old neighborhood, right across the street from where I lived during the month of July, which is not in the best part of town, but whatever.

My new living situation is very different to say the least. Yesterday I lived in a newer apartment building, in a very quiet room, had a nice bathroom, internet, and I had a bit more freedom in that I didn´t have to check in with anyone or let anyone know if I'll be home for dinner. Today the family I live with runs a kiosk out of the front of their house, my bedroom is super tiny, I have the smallest bathroom in the world, and no internet. But hey I'm here to learn Spanish so that´s all that matters. I am already kicking myself for not doing this sooner. The family I moved in with is really nice and I no longer have to cook my own food. Sweet deal right?

No updates: Still don´t know when I am going to be back home, but plans are being made. I have an uncle that studied abroad in Peru when he was our age and he still visits his host family every once in a while. I was talking to him a few weeks ago and he told me that he fund a cheap flight to Lima so we are going to meet up there for a bit.

I can´t believe that I have less than a month of school left. I´ll be back before you know it. I miss you all. Besos.