Acouple of weekends ago, I decided to visit the Sierras (more specifically, La Cumbre). The Sierras are a series of large hills that run through the Cordoba region. I like to refer to this trip as my networking vacation. Once again, since I had no one to travel with, I headed out by myself. When Piera found this out, I immediately noticed the motherly worry look appear on her face.
"Sola? Pobre Kasey!"
I tried to explain to her "No pobre Kasey! I like to travel by myself. In fact, I enjoy it." I have finally learned that there is no Argentinian that will ever believe me.
Lesson #1 No one believes that you like to be alone. Stop saying it. They think you are weird.
Argentines are such a social people, that they cannot imagine that anybody would ever want or even prefer to be by themselves. So right away she gets on the telephone to call her sister, Millie, in Cordoba to meet up with me before my connection to La Cumbre. I agreed, assuming that we would grab a cup of coffee somewhere so I could pump her for information about the Sierras. Wrong again. In case you haven´t noticed, I´m not the brightest star in the galaxy, so it takes me acouple of times to learn a lesson.
Lesson #2 Assume NOTHING. The only thing that is safe to assume in Argentina is that there is food there. Where you ask? Anywhere. You will never go hungry.
To make a long story short, what I thought would be an hour visit with family, turned into me staying the night in Cordoba. Why wouldn´t it? After telling Millie that I wanted to leave for La Cumbre that morning she told me she wanted to take me on a driving tour of the city. Of coarse I´m not going to pass up a tour from a local, so I agreed. Seven hours later, it actually happend.
When I tried to tell her that I didn´t want to stay the night, that I really wanted to get to La Cumbre so I could go hang gliding the next morning she said "But I wanted to take you to this really cool art museum!" Of coarse I´m going to pass up a really cool art museum. "Okay". After drinks and 3rd meal (Argentines have four meals a day), and after waiting for dude man to hang up her curtains, and after she took a shower and got ready, we headed out for the museum at 10 pm. I know what you are thinking. 10pm is a little late for a museum to be open, right? Well, this time, you are exactly right. Of coarse the freakin´museum is closed.
Crap. Now it´s too late to grab the last train to La Cumbre. crap. We heard some music coming from the coartyard of the museum so we went to check it out. As we were listening to a mediocre local rock band, Millie ran into a friend of hers, Ludmilla. I tried to listen to what they were talking about, and picked up about half. It sounded to me like she was trying to pawn me off on this poor girl. I was right. She turns to me and says "Ludmilla is going out with some friends of hers. Do you want to tag along?" Of coarse I do. The question is, does she? And furthermore, Really? I´ve been comprimising my solo adventure all day for it to end with you, pawning me off to this poor girl? Here we come to lesson #3.
Lesson #3 You can never be an inconvenience to an Argentine. They really are that genuinally nice. There is a whole other level of nice that, unfortunetely, doesn´t exist where I come from.
So far my solo adventure has been a little bit of a slow start. It´s nothing how I pictured it. But that´s how the real good adventures begin. My new friend, Ludmila takes me to her bosses house and we do a little prepartying (remember, anybody who is anybody doesn´t go out until 2 or 3am). Then we went to a nearby bar to meet up with her work friends, who were beyond nice and funny people. After trying acouple of the national drink of choice, fernet and coke, I was dancing, laughing and having a blast. It was like I had been friends with these people my whole life. And even better, Ludmila had given me the number of a friend of hers that lived in La Cumbre. "Someone to show you around" she said. Ludmila walked me to Lita´s house and we exchanged numbers. We departed like two best friends, giving each other promises of our next visit together.
The next morning, I had a bit of a late start, like most mornings after partying in Argentina. I finally got my things together and made the bus to La Cumbre. The weather had been cold and dreary so far, but nothing had prepared me for La Cumbre. I arrived to La Cumbre without the slightest idea of where I was going to stay or what I was going to do there. I stepped into the visitor´s center and got a recommendation for the best hostel that I´ve stayed in so far in Argentina. I settled into my dorm and immediately met a girl from Ireland, Deborah, and two girls from the United States, Adrienne and Allison.
I called Ludmila´s friend, Michele, then Deborah and I headed into town for a bite to eat. My phone died so, Unfortunetly, I never got to meet up with Michele. Despite some recent bad news Deborah had recieved, she was absolutely splendid to talk to. Due to the unfortunate weather, I didn´t get out much in La Cumbre. It didn´t matter much to me because I had great company.
The next day I tried to go horse back riding, but they cancelled the trip because of hail. Too bad. Oh, well. Nothing is ever perfect, but if you play your cards right, you can get pretty damn close.
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Monday, 14 April 2008
The Main Characters
top : Hernan and Eda bottom: all the ladies. Lita, Millie, Piera, Eda
How rude of me! I haven´t introduced the characters in my life right now. I will first start with the minor characters with a brief description, and then we will move on to the main characters with a longer description. Let´s get started.
Extended family
1) Hernan and Eda are Piera´s parents who live in Adelia Maria, a little town about an hour away from Vicuña Mackenna. My first asado was at their house. Everytime I see Hernan he makes a comment that always starts "Pobre Kasey..." He always assumes my quiet demeanor is a result of how homesick I am. Little does he know it´s because I can never understand a freakin´ word he says. I told him the day I can understand him, is the day I master the language. Eda talks nice and slow for me (like her older sister, Lita).
Extended family
1) Hernan and Eda are Piera´s parents who live in Adelia Maria, a little town about an hour away from Vicuña Mackenna. My first asado was at their house. Everytime I see Hernan he makes a comment that always starts "Pobre Kasey..." He always assumes my quiet demeanor is a result of how homesick I am. Little does he know it´s because I can never understand a freakin´ word he says. I told him the day I can understand him, is the day I master the language. Eda talks nice and slow for me (like her older sister, Lita).
2) Millie and Pancho are Piera´s brother and sister. Millie, the youngest, is a lawyer in Cordoba. She reminds me of a 19-year old girl that somehow became a successful lawyer. She´s fun. Pancho is a veternarian in Buenes Aires and speaks wonderful English.
*Hernan and Eda popped out quite a good lookin´ family.
*Hernan and Eda popped out quite a good lookin´ family.
3)Lita is my new BFF (read Cordoba adventure for her story).
Work related peeps
1) Cristina is my boss and absoulutely wonderful. I´ve never seen such a busy woman be so unorganized. She is currently helping her daughter plan a wedding, taking care of her hilariously wonderful mother, and bouncing back and forth from here to Buenes Aires (a 7 hour drive).
2) Raisa is another girl in my program from South Africa, who lives in Jovita.
3)Liz is another girl in my program from New Jersey, who lives in Missiones.
4) Mallory is another girl in my program from Florida, who lives in Rio Cuarto.
Work related peeps
1) Cristina is my boss and absoulutely wonderful. I´ve never seen such a busy woman be so unorganized. She is currently helping her daughter plan a wedding, taking care of her hilariously wonderful mother, and bouncing back and forth from here to Buenes Aires (a 7 hour drive).
2) Raisa is another girl in my program from South Africa, who lives in Jovita.
3)Liz is another girl in my program from New Jersey, who lives in Missiones.
4) Mallory is another girl in my program from Florida, who lives in Rio Cuarto.
Mis Padres
My Argentine mommy´s name is Piera. She is a tiny little thing with a heart of gold. She runs around the town like a chicken with her head cut off. Dropping the kids off or picking them up from their millions of activities is a feat in itself, but she also seems to have time for her own extra curricular activities and her own counseling business. She is like five people in one with the body mass of half a person. Whenever I need anything, however small it may be, she grabs one of her three cell phones and is on the new task. She is always worried about my well-being, and it´s not one of those fake worries. We actually have a weekly conversation on how my experience is coming along and how I feel about all the changes. It´s like she read a book on the emotional evolution of an exchange student. It really wouldn´t surprise me if she did. And if there isn´t a book dealing with these issues, I bet she is in the process of writing one... with all of that free time on her hands, of coarse. All I want to know is.... when does this woman sleep?
On to Gonzalo, my Argentine dad. Gonzalo is a big kid caught caught in a red neck´s body. He owns all the toys a grown up red neck dreams of; dirt bikes, tractors, 4-wheelers, trucks and trailers. He is constantly watching the racing channel on satelite, and drives like a bat out of hell. He is incredibly generous with everything he owns. He taught me how to drive a stick shift the first day I was here, so that I had a way to get to and from Vicuña Mackenna. He always has a smile on his face and is always joking around. He works (I think), but I don´t know exactly what he does all day. I think it is somewhat productive because he carries a briefcase around. Maybe it just doesn´t seem like he works because he doesn´t carry himself like a person who works. He is extremely helpful, almost too helpful. If you want to ask him a question, you need to allot about 30 minutes for the answer. He speaks a little English and it gets better and better every day. I have to keep reminding him that I am one here trying to learn a different language... not him.
I call my parents the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise being Gonzalo and the hare being Piera. They are the sweetest Argentine parents a girl could ask for.
On to Gonzalo, my Argentine dad. Gonzalo is a big kid caught caught in a red neck´s body. He owns all the toys a grown up red neck dreams of; dirt bikes, tractors, 4-wheelers, trucks and trailers. He is constantly watching the racing channel on satelite, and drives like a bat out of hell. He is incredibly generous with everything he owns. He taught me how to drive a stick shift the first day I was here, so that I had a way to get to and from Vicuña Mackenna. He always has a smile on his face and is always joking around. He works (I think), but I don´t know exactly what he does all day. I think it is somewhat productive because he carries a briefcase around. Maybe it just doesn´t seem like he works because he doesn´t carry himself like a person who works. He is extremely helpful, almost too helpful. If you want to ask him a question, you need to allot about 30 minutes for the answer. He speaks a little English and it gets better and better every day. I have to keep reminding him that I am one here trying to learn a different language... not him.
I call my parents the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise being Gonzalo and the hare being Piera. They are the sweetest Argentine parents a girl could ask for.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Mis hermanos
I guess I should start with the eldest, Elina. This one is quite the pistol. She is too smart for her age and absorbs everything going on around her. Every conversation, every mannerism, every opinion, everything. With her very strong opinions, mostly regurgitated from overheard conversations, I often forget that she is a child. She is absolutely passionate and at times a tad too dramatic, even for a child. She has quite an impressive fake cry, though I can see straight through it. When it starts up i say "FAKE", under my breath. I don´t dare say it out loud, just in case she understands me. That´s how scared of her I am. She is the princess of the house, knows it, and knows how to use it to her advantage. You have got to watch out because she has a ridiculously good memory and has the ability to turn your words around on you. "Te mate!", she says with a smug smile and her index finger pointed accusingly in my direction (this directly translates to I killed you, which is slang for I am so right and you are so wrong). She loves the fact that I can't understand everything she says, which directly relates to my main motivation for wanting to learn Spanish. Some day, I want to kill her (not literally... you know what I mean). I hate to be outsmarted by a 9 year old girl.
On to the middle child, Luz, whose name means light in Spanish. Although I can´t quite recall what I was like as a child, I can imagine that I was EXACTLY like Luz. This child sleeps everywhere: at the dinner table, 30 seconds after a hard-core giggle fest, even on a dirt bike (no joke). I fell asleep at a New Kids on the Block concert once when I was 8, and I thought no one could ever beat that. Low and Behold.... Luz. Even for a child, she is too imaginative and easy going. She takes everything with a grain of salt, even her sister's sometimes over-demanding requests. She is slower than a snail and frankly does not give a crap. She spills a drink, gets her brand new birthday dress dirty, or drops all her cookies then shrugs her shoulders and moves on with her life. Sometimes I look at her and wonder where she is. What I wouldn't give to take a swim in that little brain of hers.
Despite the dramatic differences between these girls, they are equally a joy to be around. Variety is the spice of life, and these girls are SPICY.
On to the third child, Eliseo, or who I like to call "the screamer". This little tyke is creeping on the age of 2 and has quite an extensive vocabulary, although there are only a few words that are the staples. I like to think of it as it's own language, really.
tato=tractor Loo=Luz babu=dog dadoo=?
tita= coke Ina=Elina mama layla=? (i think he's a clapton fan)
pa=pan (bread) abu=abuela papa
There have been some additions since I've moved in. For one, he calls me totty, which sometimes sounds like titty or dotty. I taught him "hello" which he likes to yell up and down the hall, all day everyday. I am trying to teach him "bye-bye" now, but he is very selective about what he likes to say. My favorite word that I taught him happens to tie in with a funny story. One day Eliseo was playing a little too roughly with his fisher price piano so I took his hands into mine and I said "Gentle, Eliseo. Gentle". I let go and then demonstrated the proper way to play a fisher price piano. He looked at me with those big, confused eyes and yelled "GENTLE!" while simultaneously slamming his little hands on the piano. Now every time I say "gentle", he yells "GENTLE!" and proceeds to laugh histerically. Too cute.
On to the middle child, Luz, whose name means light in Spanish. Although I can´t quite recall what I was like as a child, I can imagine that I was EXACTLY like Luz. This child sleeps everywhere: at the dinner table, 30 seconds after a hard-core giggle fest, even on a dirt bike (no joke). I fell asleep at a New Kids on the Block concert once when I was 8, and I thought no one could ever beat that. Low and Behold.... Luz. Even for a child, she is too imaginative and easy going. She takes everything with a grain of salt, even her sister's sometimes over-demanding requests. She is slower than a snail and frankly does not give a crap. She spills a drink, gets her brand new birthday dress dirty, or drops all her cookies then shrugs her shoulders and moves on with her life. Sometimes I look at her and wonder where she is. What I wouldn't give to take a swim in that little brain of hers.
Despite the dramatic differences between these girls, they are equally a joy to be around. Variety is the spice of life, and these girls are SPICY.
On to the third child, Eliseo, or who I like to call "the screamer". This little tyke is creeping on the age of 2 and has quite an extensive vocabulary, although there are only a few words that are the staples. I like to think of it as it's own language, really.
tato=tractor Loo=Luz babu=dog dadoo=?
tita= coke Ina=Elina mama layla=? (i think he's a clapton fan)
pa=pan (bread) abu=abuela papa
There have been some additions since I've moved in. For one, he calls me totty, which sometimes sounds like titty or dotty. I taught him "hello" which he likes to yell up and down the hall, all day everyday. I am trying to teach him "bye-bye" now, but he is very selective about what he likes to say. My favorite word that I taught him happens to tie in with a funny story. One day Eliseo was playing a little too roughly with his fisher price piano so I took his hands into mine and I said "Gentle, Eliseo. Gentle". I let go and then demonstrated the proper way to play a fisher price piano. He looked at me with those big, confused eyes and yelled "GENTLE!" while simultaneously slamming his little hands on the piano. Now every time I say "gentle", he yells "GENTLE!" and proceeds to laugh histerically. Too cute.
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