It's official, as I'm sitting here on this Saturday, I'm officially spending time in my second spring break. It's hilarious how many pauses there are in school... I guess this one isn't really an OFFICIAL spring break, but it's working out because we're allotted 4 absences from March-May, and there is only class Tuesday & Wednesday this week. Naturally, everyone took 2 absences on those days and is now galavanting around the country! Tomorrow (Ojala, if this dang place emails me back....) I'll be going to a WOOFing location about an hour outside the city for the majority of the week! I'm really excited, WOOFing has been on my bucket list for a while now, and this seems like the best place to check said item off the list. In case you don't know, WOOFing stands for World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Essentially I'll be going to a farm (that hosts around 70 people at a time, it's HUGE!), working the land or doing construction (woohoo!) for around 5 hours a day, and for this they'll give me 3 meals a day and a free place to stay. It's living on a college budget, and I couldn't be happier. People there speak a little English, so I'm also really looking forward to pushing myself and being surrounded by Spanish for most of the week. I can hold a conversation, but I just need to work on my fluidity, and not getting as nervous when I"m involved in said conversation! I guess it's probably natural. Also, this place is very Christian, and I'm looking forward to seeing the religious side of the country. When I went on a Tres Dias retreat last spring, I was at a table with a native Spanish-speaking woman and when she prayed in Spanish, it took my breath away. There was something about hearing her pleas in another language that made it really real for me, and that's when I could barely piece together what she was actually saying. Now that I've got a firm grasp, I'm excited to absorb more.
Overall, this week has been a lot hanging out! I've gone for a few runs, read a lot further in my book, visited some parks after school, done some homework (for ASP summer staff and school, haha)... it's been really nice just living in BA. I feel so comfortable here- I love the feeling of familiarity, the confidence in knowing which way I'm going, when it was only a few months ago that this city was such a stranger. Moreover, I have grown to absolutely adore my neighborhood- I went for a really long walk the other day to explore parts of it I hadn't seen yet, and the homes are incredible. Where I'm located it's more apartment buildings, but if you branch off to the side of Belgrano, there are apartments and small houses that look like they were built over 100 years ago. It's the classic architecture, the balconies, the warm colors.. everything that just makes it all flow so beautifully together. I've been finding myself lately taking off my headphones and just listening to the sounds of the city, trying to carve the hollers and honks into my brain forever. There's a part of me that wants to buy a tape recorder so I can just walk around with it and record what really strikes me, and depending on how expensive it is, I plan on doing just that.
Last night I went out with my friend Coleman, he met some Australians in a skate park a few days ago and so we went over to his Argentine girlfriend's apartment in Recoletta to pregame. They all spoke English, but we spoke Spanish off and on for practice. It was funny actually, I was talking about what I'm learning in school right now (Subjunctive and Conditional tenses... kill me) and gave them some examples, and they were pretty impressed because they didn't even know how to describe those tenses! Haha, it's the small victories that keep me going. After drinking some coke with Fernetts (it's actually an Italian liquor, but it's a staple in Argentina.. probably moreso than it is in Italy) we went to another barrio, San Telmo, to see the girlfriend's brother perform in his band! There was no cover charge and it was a really nice nightclub, I was and still am impressed. They went on right after we got there so it was perfect timing.. they have some serious talent. They had 3 different guys on guitars, one on the drums, and the lead singer looked like a rustic, stylish version of Mick Jagger. The music was like classic Spanish rock, with a little Indie thrown in here and there- they were really kickin' it, and so was the crowd. When they finished the brother came and greeted our group, club music was turned on high and all of the sudden we were dancing in a boliche. Around 3:30 Coleman and I headed out, wandered around the streets of San Telmo realizing we were pretty disoriented, which actually led to us sitting on the ledge of a building for a while just enjoying the buena onda and some conversation. I love doing things like that- just spontaneously finding a spot and staying there- it let's you people watch, and check out something real. Eventually we made it to the bus stop and by chance met up with the rest of the group, took the 45 minute bus ride home and crawled into bed around 5:30. I had a greeaaat time, I hope I see those guys again sometime!
Alright, well I'm going to go exploring or do something with my day, chau chau!
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