Last Monday (4th) Jessica decided that she didn't want to stay in so she found a nearby place to take salsa lessons. We asked our friend Nico from the running club if he wanted to come and he was down to get down. Sooo we met up...and the place was closed down! It was a major bummer but then Nico mentioned an ice skating rink so we were like, "let's do it!" Of course we weren't properly dressed for ice skating because things are warming up here but it's cool because we were only there for an hour. There was a class at one end of the rink and then two guys at the other end who were doing cool tricks because they were super good. Nico tried to teach Jessica how to go backwards and do turns and stuff but I was just satisfied to stay on me feet. Only fell once :)
Tuesday Jessica and I met up with our two Italian friends: Flavio and Giatano to go roller blading in the park near Plaza Italia :) Thanks to ice skating the previous night I was a pro on the bladessssss. The park is pretty big and because I was slower than everyone else we made it around 2 times I think, in the hour we rented the skates for. It was a LOT of fun and Gaitano treated us all to ice cream after haha. Because Tuesday was also Greg's birthday, we had to get home for the dinner we decided to surprise him with at my house. Lizzie was staying with us last week because Kelsey went to Brazil for a week and Lizzie lives SUPER far from school and we do not. She LOVES birthdays (like somone else I know: shout out to Court) so she planned the whole thing and made Tacos! SO yummy and it's not a common thing here, there aren't even tortillas in your average grocery store, let alone refried beans and salsa. Argentines don't like spicey by the way. She swooped up some Coronas too! Maria and Ines made an apple pie type desert and oh my, it was good. Intentions to go to tango that night as well fell by the way side when everything ran late.
Wednesday...can't remember if anything special other than the running club and school occurred. Ah! Wait, Lizzie and I treated ourselve to ice cream at Freddo after taking a walk down the side of Cabildo I don't normally travel upon.
Thursday Greg, Raquel, Lizzie and I had dinner in China town. YUM. and then Greg and I passed some time sitting in a park late at night.
Friday was Maria's birthday so we went to La Matuffia again, same place that we went for Ines's birthday. Had ourselves some yummy, and most importantly, unlimited pizza and beer. They wanted to go to a club after but because Jessica and I had to leave for the bus station at 9AM I called it an early night.
Saturday Jessica and I got up, very excitedly, for our trip to Pinamar! Nico had invited us to come spend the weekend with him and his pals at the beach. The bus was incredibly comfy. When you take a trip by bus, you get to chose between cama, semicama, and full cama. Which basically is a choice of how far back you want to seat to go, and we got the one that literally went flat as a bed, hence full cama. Good when you're tired, like we were! The countryside went flying by us as we converced in spanish the whole way there so as to prepare for our weekend surrounded by all Argentine's all the time! We made it there in about 4 1/2 hours and Nacho, Nico, and Brad (also an ex-Pat like Nico) came and picked us up. Oh em gee, I can't describe how beautiful this place was, but of course I'll try.
The ground is nothing but sand and there are trees all around. I could hear birds chirpping and nothing else. No ambulances, no dogs barking, no squeaky brakes from the colectivos, no loud people. Just nature doing its thing :) And the air was SO fresh and clean and cool. We went to the house we were to stay at first. It was also GORGEOUS. No more than a ten minute walk from the beach. We met Agustin, the owner of the house, and a few of the other boys. Jessica and I changed into our swimsuits and made our way down to the beach. There we met at least ten dudes and were encouraged to play soccer with them. Good thing I don't know how to play lol but they were SUPER nice and SUPER encouraging. It was a bit chilly because it was so windy so after a while we wandered back to the house and ate fracturas while drinking mate. Jeez do Argentines love their sweets. This weekend my diet consisted of sweets/pastries and meat and alcohol. I know, I know, I = the epitome of health. Oh and it was terrible because a water pipe had busted so I drank very little water this weekend to top it all off. Anyway, we did some chillin' back at the house and got to know the boys a bit better... and then Jessica and I took a nap around 8 in the evening. When we got up we ate asado. Muy rico, as we say here. A few girls ended up coming as well, that was nice to balance out the 15 guys haha. One was Agustin's sister and then she had 4 friends with her. They were all really sweet. Except everyone seemed to not like one of the girls, and while I could see why they might not, she was always pleasant to me so I had no issue with her. After the asado we turned up the music, made some drinks and made a party of it. It was a blasty blast. Around 3 in the morning everyone decided it was time to go to a club. Ladies got in fo' free! It was fun but I'm not a huge fan of cumbia and that was all they played the THREE HOURS we were there for. Went into the club when it was dark and came out when the sun had come up.
I started not feeling that well because I was so tired and a bit hungry so when we got back I crashed. But didn't sleep too well all weekend because the house is big and open so when they were playing music down the stairs there were no walls to spare me from all the racket. And I wanted to MURDER Nacho, he talks so damn loud. At what I thought was 3PM I decided to get up, only to find out later it was only 12 in the afernoon, and we all lounged around on the patio and on the grass. After eating more pastries for breakfast we headed to the beach. Jessica and I took a walk along the water and then went up were everyone else was, out of the wind, and chilled. Good fun conversation there :) They use a lot of English words here but it's funny because they're with an Argentine accent so sometimes I don't even understand the english they're saying haha
We went back to the house, Jessica and I again took a nap, got back up for some food and repeated the night before, even going to the same club.
Monday was a holiday here so Brad, Nico, Jessica and I went into the center (basically like the shopping area or what have you) and ate breakfast. Milkshakes and pancakes. One of the most delicious breakfasts I've had here. Picked up some waters at the supermarket and headed to the beach again. More relaxing in the sun and then we went back to help clean up. Said goodbye to some of the boys earlier in the day so we were a few less...made some chorripan and when I refused another Agustin was convinced I didn't like it. I really do like chorripan but by this point I couldn't eat anymore meat. TOO MUCH. Didn't leave Carilo (which is actually the town where we were, like a ten minute drive from Pinamar though) until about 10PM though haha. This time we bummed a ride with Nacho and Agustin. Finally got home around 2:30 and CRASHHHED.
It was an absolutely incredible weekend. All of the boys were so nice, there was one or two I could have done without but out of 15 that's not bad. It was lovely to see nature and lovely to see another place in Argentina. Now I'm going to Rosario this weekend (also about 4 1/2 hours away from Bs As in another direction) because it's Agustin's birthday and he and all of his friends are from there so that's where the birthday party is at. This time I'm going to ride with them there and back and Agustin promised a tour of the city. They all gushed about how its a small, safer, more tranquil version of Bs As. Plus there's a huge monument there that's on the back of the ten peso bill, and that I studied in art class, that I really want to check out. I'm so freaking lucky to have made these friends; I spent a weekend at the beach and maybe spent 60 USD, the entire weekend, including transportation. Now that they are going to drive us and I have a place to stay in Rosario, I'll be spending even less and having an even more awesome time with natives to pall around with.
But to catch you up on Tues and Wednesday...Tuesday just slepted a bunch in an attempt to catch up on sleep. Wednesday (yesterday) I went to sushi with 8 other people and then wine club at Agustin's house. After Nico and Brad went to bed Agustin and I stayed up a while longer talking...at times a bit difficult (he can barely count to 10 in english haha) which reminded us about a comment his brother Sebastian had made this weekend. Why don't we all speak a universal language so that we can understand everyone no matter where we are or from? Wouldn't that be nice? Until then I'll just keep absorbing as many languages as possible and exploring the cultures that come along with 'em :)
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