Yesterday Ines invited me to hang out with her and some other students from Barcelona she new were studying at Belgrano. I knew they'd only be speaking Spanish so I figured what a perfect way to get some practice in. Well, I only really practiced listening but that's cool too. We met up at the zoo but it was so cold outside we went to a cafe and had a beer and then I listened to lots of fast Spanish.
We then went home and Ines again invited me to go out with her, this time an Argentinean friend! This too I knew would be a long night of rapid Spanish, sink or swim right?! It was about a half hour on the bus and then Juan (Ines' friend) and his friend Bruno met up to take us to the house. The first to arrive again we began the evening with Ferret, I believe it's spelt, and coke which is supposed to be a pretty typical drink here. It's pretty tastey. A few more guys showed up and then a few more and eventually a few girls so that in total I think there were about 14 of us. I mostly sat observing and trying to understand what was being said. The accent threw me off though, sometimes I wasn't sure they were even speaking Spanish. Some of them took pitty on me and spoke to me in broken English and I would try some Spanish. They were very encouraging :)
So if there's one thing I've promised myself I'd take back with me when this is all over: be nice to those who are in our country but not great with the language. I've been very lucky that everyone has been so nice but I would be quite discouraged if I was getting unkind responses to my lack of fluency in Spanish.
I did become very popular at one point though when some of the guys showed up with a toy who's directions were only in English haha
Anyway...at around 2 I finally threw in the towel and was the first to go to bed. Oh yes, we were staying at Juan's because the trip was so long and traveling around his area wasn't a good idea at night. I slept in his brother's bed because he's out of town. In the morning I woke up a few times but went back to sleep until I heard Ines. By that time it was 1 in the afternoon! Augostine, who had kindly spent a lot of the night talking with me; Allan, who's English wasn't quite as good as Augostine but he made a valliant effort anyway; another guy who's name I can't remember; Ines, me, and Juan. There were yummy sweets for breakfast and tea. After chatting for a bit we decided to watch a movie. I went with Allan to pick up some soda and chips and then we watched Woody Allan's most recent film, in English, WAHOO.
I think "dude" for Californian's = Che for Argentineans. I thought that was funny/cool because that's my nickname with some friends.
The chain smoking was...OFF THE CHAIN. People smoke here like it's going out of style. I can't even tell you how much second hand smoke I inhaled last night, I was coughing a bit this morning. There was so much at the club the other night that my clothes, which I'm in no high supply of, reeked enough that I deemed them incapable of another use.
Augostine and the other guy left not long after the movie ended and then Allan and Juan accompanied Ines and I to the bus stop. We didn't end up leaving though until nearly 5 or 6PM so I think it'd be safe to say that, that one party made for two awesome days :)
First day of school tomorrow!!!
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