saturday nights in santiago

if i could spend a few more saturdays like last night, i would be forever happy.

last night was a blast! after surviving 27 hours of andesmar semi-cama buses (you get what you pay for) and being squashed next to a larger man and drinking gross nescafe for most of the trip, i was ready to be in santiago.

i arrived at the bus station around 8 at night. it was dark, and i was so exhausted and confused i could barely navigate the station. i managed to find a place to exchange money (the chilean peso is SO confusing), use the bathroom (which they charged me $200 chilean pesos for a little wad of toilet paper) and giving up on trying to find the right bus, i hailed a taxi.

i arrived at the apartment i was going to stay at without further troubles. inside, i met shannon, one of the tenants, phillipe, her roommate, and amanda, another couchsurfer like myself. right away, amanda and i began bonding and talk of going out to a club began. shannon suggested club blondie, some place with lots of britpop and trashy club songs. i was so in.

and thus began the craziest night of my life. amanda and i got dressed up and headed out around 1:30am. we decided that we needed something to drink, so we went to the local mercado and got a nice little bottle of wine. and then we realized that buying a bottle of wine at that point was dumb; we had no glasses or anywhere to drink it that was remotely socially acceptable. so we threw out classiness and brown-bagged it through the park, all the way to the bus stop. ha.

at the bus stop we soon made friends with a paraguayan man and his chilean girlfriend. soon we were sharing our drinks and laughing. they gave us directions to the club, and we all boarded a sketchy looking bus for club blondie.

at the club, amanda and i checked out coats and checked out the dance floor. it was disappointing. about 20 people, tiny floor, and stupid, dark electronica. we tried to dance, and soon two "joshua-version-two" types, most likely gay (it was a gay club!) were flamboyently dancing with us. it was okay, but amanda and i wanted some better music. then, one of the guys mentioned another dance floor, so amanda and i absolutely fled the scene, turned a corner and squealed; here was a GIANT dance floor packed with kids and franz ferdinands voice blared through the speakers. we laughed and jumped up on the stage and danced our little hearts out.

after a bit we befriended this photographer guy who kept taking photos for us. soon we were all dancing and being crazy. every song seemed even better than the last, the lights were great and somehow (who knows?) four hours passed. the club was closing, and we all gathered outside the club. german (the photographer guy), amanda, her friend martin and i all attempted to figure out what to do. while amanda went to go eat some bread-with-salsa thing she had purchased from a street vendor, german grabbed my hand and said in english, "let's run away right now!" next thing i know we are laughing and dodging seven lanes of traffic, running to who knows where. we didnt get very far, and both of us ended up tripping over a small fence in the grassy median. laughing, we decided to get in the next taxi. amanda and martin ran over and joined us, and soon we were off to some underground club.

by the time we got there, i was so tired i could barely keep my eyes open. german didnt have enough pesos to get in, and within 5 minutes i knew that this was pretty lame. amanda and i left around 6, exhausted from our crazy night.

after waking up at noon, i did a little emailing and a little grocery shopping (i bought an avocado, just like i said i would!). i explored the neighborhood, and discovered a great place called plaza de armas, with a big square, beautiful buildings, outdoor markets and lots of artists and musicians.

walking around santiago has been funny, because although i know it is not buenos aires, i still expect to see the same types of buildings. the architecture is just slightly different, the climate is a tiny bit cooler and most of all... the people are way different than porteños. i have never seen a people group more physically recognizable than chileanos. generally, these people are smaller, stockier and have very young looking features. in buenos aires i fit in, or at least could pass. i have never been more aware of my pale skin and gawky features. and the language! i feel as though it is not even spanish. but my version of spanish, castellano, is barely spanish. my ear is so acustomed to the double L's and flowing sounds of argentine spanish that it is shocking to hear the dut-da-dut-da cadences of chilean spanish. i honestly dont understand anything.

i feel as though i could go to bed now. but i need to wait a few hours. maybe i will prepare some sort of sandwich de falta (avocado) y tomate. or go buy myself a completo italiano. mmm.

words / concepts of the day:

south american buses: they come in several categories of nice-ness: super cama, cama, semi-cama and ... clasico. ew. clasico is the equivalent of a off brand, broken down greyhound bus. semi-cama is a little better but you might still find mysterious black goop on the back of the chair in front of you, inches from you leg, haunting you for all of the 17 hour journey. cama is great. big comfy chairs, lots of free drinks, food that is okay or not that great.
chilean peso: i am still so confused about this. there are 420 chilean pesos to one US dollar. there are 3.1 argentine pesos to one US dollar. how many chilean pesos to argentine pesos? this i would like to know. and its weird to buy a hotdog that costs 400 pesos.
completo italiano: the most amazing thing ever! a santiago specialty, it is a hotdog loaded with totatoes, mustard and avocados. but why they call it a "complete italian" is beyond me. i dont know the last time i associated italy with avocados.

over the border

i am sitting at a little internet cafe in the bus station of mendoza, argentina. the little CD kiosco in the long hallway of tiny souvenir stands and gift shops is playing the gotan project, my favorite tango electronica CD. it reminds me of the first time i was in buenos aires.

walking along here, there are funny things. i wandered into a little shop and found shelves of discount makeup. i almost bought some for ruth. hehe. instead, i bought a much needed purple hair brush. i forgot mine somewhere.

a little old man, tall and skinny and skin so wrinkled, shuffles by. he is scowling at a bunch of boys who have just ran past him. he shouts at them in spanish. i start laughing out loud, i don´t know why.

on the bus, a fat argentine baby coos and stuffs an alfahor in his face. his dad kisses his head, over and over and says "mi hijo."

a woman with emmaculate makeup hands me a piece of paper sprayed with perfume. i smile and stick it in my bag to smell it later. i am odd like that.

it is rainy outside, for the first time since i have been here. when i opened my eyes on the bus this morning, after sleeping in an odd position with my stomach full of strange treats like milanesia and bread-with-mayonaise (a staple food here), all i could see was water spilling down the outside of the bus. i thought we were in a waterfall.

i don´t have much else to say. its been a quiet last few days. before i left on my bus from bariloche yesterday afternoon, i just hung out with titan (one of the workers at the hostel) all day and watched bad american movies dubbed in spanish. we argued about futbol teams and then he made me speak spanish and drink lots of mate. it was fun.

tonight, santiago!

words / concepts of the day:

alfahor: a medium to large cookie sandwich thing, filled with dulce de leche and usually covered in chocolate. a specialty of argentina.
mi hijo: my son. or mi hija, my daughter. very loving term.
milanesia: everything is about food here! milanasia is meat, pounded very thin and covered in breadcrumbs, then baked. soooo good.

parting ways

tomorrow, leana and susie leave for puerto varas, chile (another little woods-y resort town on the other side of the border) and i take a bus to the santiago, chile. we're parting ways for a bit, which is sad.

but, we lived it up the last three nights. seriously, out of control. as leana would say, cruuuuunkk. haha. so high school.

after several days of hiking, biking and horseback riding through the wilderness, we decided to enjoy this little town of bariloche. its like some sort of miniature swiss village, only everyone speaks spanish and they still dont know how to do fondue. anyways, on tuesday night (jen and joel's last night in town before they head to BsAs!), we convinced mrs. joel comer to come join us unmarried girls for a night on the town. we headed over to one of four bars in town, this irish pub-type establishment for a round of quilmes. jen and susie were soon in deep conversation, reminiscing about childhood stories and canadian politics. leana and i decided to explore the bar and found that there was a live band performing. a skinny, tan-skinned argentine passionately clasping a microphone warbled out pink floyd lyrics, in slighly odd english. it was pretty hilarious. leana and i bumped into some other guys, obviously enjoying the funny display of not-quite-correct english music and soon we were all talking about our travels. the guys were from israel, and had just ended their mandatory three year military service. the rest of the night we got to hang out with the guys some more, and dancing and general silliness ensued.

on wednesday, tired from our night out, the group parted ways. jen and joel left bariloche, and us three girls moved to a new hostel. our new "hostel," about 5 kilometers out of town, proved to actually be a small cabin in the woods. its amazing! a few blocks from the lake and complete with two floors and a full kitchen, we have had a blast hanging out at our cabana for two nights.

wednesday night was hilarious. us three girls got dressed up and headed to town, prepared to go to a restaurant that had been recommended to us as an excellent fondue place. "la fonda del tio" sounded like it could possibly be an establishment worthy of a great journey, but after we walked more than a kilometer and we nearing the not-so-suave part of town, we began to doubt. finally, after 10 blocks, we saw a small restaurant. inside, we noted the basic, cafeteria style tables and groups of futbol-uniform-clad guys and kids running around. clearly a more laid back fondue place, we thought. but we didn't see any fondue. we had so much faith that the restaurant had fondue that we decided that the small brown pots on the table must contain fondue. susie heard pounding in the back kitchen and announced, "that's them chopping the chocolate for fondue." we nodded.

by the time we were seated and had looked over the menu for our fondue options (but only found listings for french fries and cheap salads), we asked the waiter. "donde estan ... el fondue?" the waiter just looked at us oddly. "queremos fondue." leana added, just to clarify. the waiter shook his head. we don't serve fondue here, he said. and that's when we realized that we were dressed to the nines and in the argentine version of denny's, attempting to order cheese fondue and appetizers. they didn't even charge cubiertos there, it was soooo class. not. ha.

today, we leana, susie and i wandered around the lake and ate ice cream for breakfast. then we walked a few kilometers to the gondola station and rode gondolas up the mountain. at the top, we ate at a revolving restaurant (just like the space needle!) and then enjoyed a looooonnnng hike down the mountain, on a winding road on which argentine teenage boys kept attempting to pick us up in their spluttering cars. we laughed lot, mostly at stories about old hamsters and ginnea pigs that had died in tragic ways.

tonight, we finally made it to fondue. it was great, and we stuffed ourselves on oddly thick argentine bread and swiss cheese. we laughed more, always, and then headed back to our cabana. as we were walking in the kitchen, we heard a meow outside. opening the door, a blond boy cat ran in, clearly scared. a huge pack of dogs almost crashed into the front of our house in pursuit of the poor feline. the cat were so grateful for saving him that we immediately curled up against our feet and purred. the little guy accompanied our packing up and tried to bury himself in my clothes in my backpack. i felt very tempted to take him to chile with me in my purple bag, but then he started hacking up a hairball.

tomorrow, i get on an all-night bus to santiago, chile. saturday night, i arrive in the city center and will head to the house of shannon, carlos and flyter; none of whom i know but who have opened up their couch to me. i look forward to a weekend of fun in the capital, and then a few days at the beach in valparaiso!

words / concepts of the day:

cubierto - a basic table charge you get at a nicer restaurant in argentina. sometimes, if you are at a medium classy restaurant, you can avoid the charge just by sitting at a table without a tablecloth. usually only 3 pesos ($1 usd)
tienes fondue aca? - "do you have fondue here?" what you should do to check your facts.
argentine boys - not really a special word or concept, but a whole persona. argentine boys are out of control flirty. seriously. example: the guys at the front desks of the past two hostels i have stayed at have chatted me up, flirted like crazy, offered me everything from mate to private spanish lessons and then, bam, dropped some line about how their girlfriend and them are celebrating their third year anniversary that night. what the heck?

time for new plans

so. it has been decided. i am going to santiago!

i debated about it for several days, trying to figure out what i really wanted to do. i guess that the idea of a big city really called to me. i mean, santiago is HUGE. when else will i get the chance to wander the street's of the chilean capital?

in two days, susie and leana will go to puerto varas, a small chilean lake town, and i will continue on to santiago. i am so, so stoked. i have no idea what to expect in this city but somehow, i feel like this is completing some sort of funny circle. a year and a half ago, frey, ruth and tana went to chile. a year and a half later, i am finally going there myself. it will be good.

oh, and couch-surfing is happening, hopefully! i emailed a few people in santiago, and i am pumped to extend my CS experience to an international level. if you don't know, couchsurfing.com is way cool. try it out.

nothing really happened today besides this major decision. all of us woke up late, leana was sick, and all of us were so freaking sore from horseback riding. i sat on my laptop for pretty much four hours, trying to figure out plans and find an apartment in buenos aires. no luck so far. so hard.

i also attempted to be social today. i had forgotten how introverted i get when traveling. i get overwhelmed and retreat to journaling, reading and observing. tonight before dinner i squeezed out a few conversations with others at the hostels. its weird how hard it is to talk to others when you aren't in your own culture.

tomorrow, jen and joel head back to buenos aires to get passports; and susie, leana and i head to the woods to stay in a cabin for two days. i am excited to chill for two days. i think i will read some douglas coupland.

words / concepts of the day:

la guerra sucia: a very contriversial period of argentine history. i wrote a paper on it once.

hmm more later.

un mil de palabras

http://picasaweb.google.com/celessa711/TheSouthAmericanDiaries

i forgot to tell everyone that i have a page of photos. well i do. here you go.

the last two days have been physically exhausting, but wonderful. saturday night, i retreated to my computer to do some blogging. after a bit, leana stumbled in and plopped down next to me, clutching a wine bottle. needless to say, she had consumed most of it and pretty soon we were giggling like crazy. we decided we needed to go out, instead of annoying the residents of the hostel with our stereotypical loud, drunk american antics.

we grabbed a very sleepy suzie, threw on some makeup and headed out the door. having experienced buenos aires nightlife before, i thought that bariloche would be the same. not so. the first bar we went to was an irish bar packed full of ... 40-year-old tourists. gross. the second was a slightly neon-lit establishment called the roxy bar. the only seats we could find was at a table with two oddly "u-dub" looking boys. we sat down and struck up a conversation and discovered that matteus and gerardo were engineering students at a nearby university. the boys were nice, but painfully awkward and shy. we talked, danced a little bit, i made a fool of myself, and we left.

sunday was easter. we celebrated by taking a rickety old bus to nearby colonia suiza, high in the mountains. we rented bikes and peddled a grueling 30 kilometers around the lake, stopping to take photos of the breathtaking views and steal a quick dip in the unbelievably cold, clear lake. after four hours of riding a bike down steep hill and UP mountain roads, i was so tired! we arrived back at the hostel, i walked over to my bunk and laid down on top of the blankets. i woke up 12 hours later in the same position.

today was the most amazing day by far. at 9:30, leana, susie and i went down to the lobby, where our ride was waiting. an old german man introduced himself as the owner of a horse ranch. we had called several days before to ask if we could ride horses at the ranch. he agreed, and drove over to pick us up. on the ride to the ranch (which was one quarter paved road and three quarters dirt road), he talked to us about bariloche, about the dirty war and about his horses. he had with him another old man from buenos aires, his friend by the name of juan.

at the ranch, we drove up to a small stable and cabin. a gaucho, straight out of a argentine history book, sat on the patio with two dusty looking dogs. the gaucho was wearing courderoy pants, a heavy homespun cotton shirt, a dirty bandana, and a mapuche-made leather belt with a giant knife stuck in the back. he pointed to the skin of a puma inside his cabin and told the story of how that very knife and his dog had killed the puma last winter. his skin was brown and the wrinkles were as dry and deep as the creek beds surrounding the ranch. he wore a thick mustache with as much pride as the dusty green beret on his head. he only spoke castellano, and usually to the horses. he was truly a gaucho.

the gaucho, susie, leana, myself and the small old man, juan, started out on the trail. i haven't ridden a horse in years and the feeling of being so close to something so loyal, yet so powerful, was amazing. my horse's name was pato (meaning "duck") and he was a funny creature. i talked to pato in spanish, as if that would make him understand me more. the gaucho laughed once, when i told pato that the other horse, pampa, was a little fatty who was slow because she kept stopping to eat.

the land is something i cannot explain in words. an hour ride from any paved road, we were in this hot, dry valley surrounded by mountains. the gaucho pointed out twin peaks, one in chile and the other in argentina. a crystal river ran through the valley. copper rocks spilled down dry hillsides, creating an oddly pale green landscape. yellow brush met unexpectedly with brilliant blue sky. the horses took us kilometer after kilometer into the wilderness.

half way through, we stopped at estancia la esperanza (hope ranch) for lunch. the owner of the ranch had prepared asado for us in his parilla. i have never been so hungry in my life. we spent the meal talking argentine politics and the finer points of grilling meat. after an hour, full of wine and meat, we climbed back on the horses for more adventures in the desert.

after a few more hours, we arrived back at the ranch, exhausted and dusty. the gaucho's dogs had followed us the whole way, and we laughed at how covered in dust and burrs the two animals were. susie, leana and i said "chau" to the gaucho and climbed back into the owner's van, back to the hostel.

now i am sore, tired, but happy. tomorrow i plan to take some time to myself. walk around bariloche, maybe buy a mate gourd and sit by the water, doing what the argentines do best.

words / concepts of the day:

gaucho: a south american cowboy, but way more hardcore
mapuche: the native people of chile/bolivia/argentina region.
asado: barbeque, a HUGE deal in argentina! people gather around asado
parilla: where you cook the asado. every home has one, every hostel has one, even hotels list them as a basic necesity.
castellano: the spanish dialect of argentina. differences: they pronounce their double-L's as "sha;" they use "vos" instead of "tu;" and basically, think their dialect is way cooler than anyone else.

the legend that i heard

i just finished being curled up and being homesick.

sitting in the lobby of the hostel where i am staying, there is a constant stream of odd latin electronica that the guy at the front desk chooses. but for some reason, in the midst of all of the international club music, the song "bulletproof" by rilo kiley just came on. i closed my eyes for a minute and pretended that i was at home. it was great.

last night, i went outside for a moment. all day there had been youth and young adults blasting reggae and painting murals in the narrow cobble-stoned street. as the sun set, the paint brushes and spray paint cans went away. a few guys brought out drums and tin cans. a young woman arrived with a group of little girls, all dressed in green and red and with stars painted on their cheeks. soon some drumming started up, and someone yelled some shrill, wild call, and the girls began dancing. it was like nothing i had ever seen. they marched in a circle, hopped onto their hands and feet like a crab, spun around and then, popped up and kicked in the air. the drumming was so strong i could feel it in my lungs and heart. little children ran among the dancing, adults clapped and intermintedly greeted one another with kisses, and the sun set. the young woman in charge of the group stepped forward and smiled. and then, in her beautiful rolling argentine accent, told the legend of the "children of the stars."

the beats became faster, and the stars came out. it was wonderful. i realized that this is something that hardly any people have seen. hundreds of miles into the interior of argentina, in the andes mountains, this secret legend unfolded in front of me. with stars with their eyes, the children danced.

stars in their eyes

 

a world of pretty things

un mundo de las cosas lindas.

i read that sign on some little gift shop up in the mountains in san carlos de bariloche, argentina. i liked it.

here i am, in a town that resembles a swiss village (think leavenworth, washington) in the middle of a continent. its sort of crazy. i am staying at "hostel 41 below," this sort of hardcore backpacker's hostel run by a bunch of australians. its all pine wood and snowboarding posters. reminds me of gwinn for some reason.

backing up a few days. i finally made it, alive and safe, to nicole's apartment. thursday the 20th was her last day in buenos aires before flying back to the US. we helped her pack up and we said our goodbyes. then susie, leana and i headed off to retiro to get on a bus to bariloche.

the buses here are a whole different world. do not think sketch greyhound buses. think plush, double-decker, multiple hot meals served. us three girls didn't have a clue as to how nice our 20 hour ride would be however. sitting in the crazy-busy bus station before we boarded, we chugged down a couple of bottles of quilmes, (the PBR of south america) thinking it would be our last chance for something cold to drink besides water.

the bus attendent (who turned out to be a creep. just wait, photos are coming soon) saw me classily chugging the last few drops of quilmes before boarding the bus and laughed. "quieres quilmes?" he asked. "siiiii, muy bien," i replied sarcastically.

on board the bus, we had the best possible seats. top deck, front row. immediately we settled down and food was brought to us. okay, lets get one thing straight. i love food. i adore airplane food. seriously. but plastic trays filled with piles of canned vegetables, a dry piece of bread and the nastiest egg, omelet, veggie thing ever (it was cold too) was too much. i couldn't eat anything. either could leana. but susie had no problem. she threw that egg delicacy down like it was the best meal she had ever eaten haha

lucky for us and our empty stomachs (except for susie), riding the bus in argentina means that you are served ultra classy little styrofoam cups full of wine. LOTS of wine. and remember those liters of quilmes served before? yep. and after you have lost count of the amount of cups of wine consumed, the attendant comes around with plastic champagne cups and insists that you celebrate with him. oh. my. gosh. dumb american girls double fisting wine and champagne on a 20 hour bus ride is out of control.

moving on. we arrived in bariloche on friday afternoon, after surviving lots of boring countryside and one creepy attendant. five minutes after arrival we met up with jen and joel, susie's old childhood friends (now married). after both groups checked in at their hostels we met up again for some sight-seeing. bariloche is the most touristy town i have ever seen. its exactly like leavenworth. surrounded by mountains and a lake, it is out of control beautiful. the five of us walked around the main square before heading to a little pizza place for food.

a few minutes after ordering our pizza and quilmes, disaster struck. jen looked down at the seat next to her where she had placed her purse and asked nervously, "did you guys move my purse?" we hadn't. fifteen minutes later, after jen and joel ran outside, looked up and down the street without success for someone running away with a small striped bag, they admitted defeat. jen's bag, containing all the young couple's money, credit cards, IDs, expensive cameras, flash cards AND their canadian passports, had been stolen. SO, so bad.

we asked for the pizza to be packed up, and we left for the police station. the rest of the night was a mixture of police reports, internet phone calls to banks, canadian embassies, etc. the couple is out of money and now unable to leave the country. they have to travel to the capital to go to the canadian embassy to apply for new passports.

while jen and joel figure out what to do, i have been quietly attempting to get over the initial culture shock and confusion of my own first four days in this country. there are pretty things here, and sometimes its so hectic its hard to see through everything. after walking to the bus station today to help jen and joel purchase tickets to go back to the capital, i sat outside on the street. a bunch of youth had set up a boombox playing reggae, and were painting beautiful murals on the graffiti filled walls. a few stray dogs panted about, and i called "ven aca, perritos" to them, to which they responded. it was hot and sunny and colorful, just like i thought it should be. i liked that a lot. other moments included walking through tall grass by the side of abandoned train tracks. little dark skinned children ran around with shrill voices, rolling their R's, which i envy. i can see mountains. the empnadas are good. i am learning spanish.

more to come. this trip will get better, i have faith. for now, i am staying in a dorm room with susie, leana, a small irish guy, a cocky australian, and a creepy, creepy old asian man who keeps food in his bed and sometimes (more like often) changes his clothes unashamedly in front of us. we'll see how that goes.

words / concepts of the day:

riding cama: the best way to travel on the bus here. you get huge plushy chairs, lots of weird meals, and all the drinks you can handle (or not handle).
empanadas: the most delicious little butter pasry things about the size of your hand, filled with either meat or possibly veggies.
mas vino, por favor.: "more wine, please." what not to say when you are on a 20 hour bus ride, are representing america and have had more than enough already.

fiasco continued

i woke up this morning in the middle bunk of a triple bunk bed. i had no idea where i was.

i peeked down to the lower bunk and saw a snoring, hispanic guy. i looked above and saw a male arm hanging over the side. across the room was another bunk full of sleeping guys. then i remembered that i took the cheapest room at the amastel hostel, which was apparently a dormitorio costing exactly $8 USD a night. i see why now.

i managed to slip out of bed, grab my stuff and go down to the lobby to check out. i set my pack and my purple laptop bag down for a second to figure out my next move. suddenly, this tall skinny guy walks up to me and says "hello. good day" in broken english. i responded, but was still distracted by my attempt to figure out what to do next. i checked my email and saw (YES!) that nicole had emailed me her apartment number. as i was emailing her back to tell her i would be there in half an hour, the guy kept trying to talk to me. "i am from peru. my name is blah blah blah" i felt bad, but i was more concerned with making sure i had a place to sleep the next night! finally, i grabbed my laptop and purse to go and ask the front desk about checking out. i asked the peruvian guy to watch my pack and my purple bag. at the front desk, i checked out and got my deposit. at one point, i looked in the guy's direction and he seemed to be examining my the clothes or something. whatever. i waved goodbye to the peruvian and hailed a cab.

i arrived back outside nicole's apartment. i easily got in this time and happily greeted my long lost SPU friends and told them all about my dramatic entrance to the southern hemisphere. we decided to get out my camera to snap a "finally-all-is-okay" photo of all of us. i grabbed my purple bag, looked inside and my stomach dropped. my camera was gone. i looked everywhere. then i realized that the peruvian was not looking in my pack at my clothes, he was shuffling around my purple bag where my camara was. well. that's that.

to get my brain off my ongoing bad luck, the three of us girls went to the park. it was soooo beautiful! we strolled among the botanical gardens and saw the lovely geese. we also saw the old "makeout statue," which nicole and i discovered last time i was here. after our stroll, the three of us went to havanna cafe for alfahors (amazing little cookies with dulce de leche!) and coffee. finally convinced that all was good now, i stopped by the bank to withdraw some more money. opening my wallet, i looked for my debit card. and that's when i realized that i left my debit card in an ATM machine in retiro the night before.

i honestly don't know if anything more could happen in twenty-four hours. i have now been stranded, lost, without an apartment, without a hostel, without a cell phone, robbed and now my debit card (my sole source of cash) had been lost and possibly stolen. susie, leana and i rushed to an internet cafe so i could check my account. i held my breath, preparing to see an empty bank account.

but there were no withdrawals. it was oddly fine. we rushed home, and i called my bank over skype and shouted at them over the bad connection to "cancel my debit card IMMEDIATELY!" they then told me that my new card would take 7-10 days to arrive at my seattle apartment, and who knows how long to arrive in argentina. ahh.

its all going to be okay i think. i emailed my mom, who answered in a panic, and asked her to deposit money in nicole's bank account. i will then withdraw money and voila! all good.

whew. anyways, tomorrow: san carlos de bariloche! susie, leana and i are taking a coach bus, which should be an adventure. and yes, you had better believe that MASH is going to be involved.

so, here's to tomorrow being way better!

words / concepts of the day:

ten cuidado: "be careful" - what you yell when you and a friend are casually crossing the street and a big truck comes hurtling at you, honking and speeding up as he approaches. oh and by the way, there is no word for pedestrian in spanish.
agua con gas: "carbonated mineral water" aka fancy water
voy a pagar: what susie says repeatedly, as she listens to her spanish language podcast.

here and alive

i am here.

here being somewhere areound avenida de charcas in the palermo neighborhood, buenos aires, argentina, SOUTH AMERICA!

made it.

but barely. the last four hours of my life have been a slight nightmare. and now i am sitting next to some south american kid on his laptop listening to cheesy country music and mumbling the words along. ha.

sitting on the plane as it landed amongst the hot, red, vibrant south american sunset, i felt good. i was back. but then a million worries took over. what if my cell phone, which the company said would work as soon as i got to BsAs, didn't work? what if i couldn't find a bank in the airport to withdraw cash to take a cab to nicole's apartment? what if i couldn't get a hold of nicole? what if i ended up lost in some odd part of the city and couldn't remember a word of spanish?

as the plane touched with the gate, i realized that i was freaking out, and needed to calm down. i mean, what are the chances that all these crazy things would happen? like one in a billion or something.

lucky me.

immediately, as i flipped open my phone, it flashed some sort of error message in spanish and shut down. i tried again and again. no good. then i realized that i had no cash, USD or pesos. someone told me about a bank outside of security, so i exited and went there. definitely closed. somehow i was herded by security officials to a counter selling coach bus tickets to the city (the airport is a good 40 minutes from actual BsAs). i managed to communicate that i wanted a ticket, mostly by waving my arms about a lot and pointing in the general direction that i believed the city was in. next thing i knew, i was on this bus, rambling towards (hopefully) buenos aires. after about half an hour, the bus stopped and everyone got off. i followed suit, and looked around. it was some industrial area. the other passengers were being herded into vans to go to specific hotels, but i was left alone. not sure where i was, i semi-retardly repeated "retiro?" to every official looking person i saw. they just nodded. well, i thought retiro would be closer to real buildings and shops and BANKS. finally, i managed to squeeze out "hay unos bancos cerca de aca?" the official looking guy asked me if i was nuts walking around this part of town at this time of the night. i shrugged. finally, he told me where a bank was, only a block away; HALE-freaking-LUJAH! i half ran off, with my huge backpack waggling behind me. managed to withdraw $130 pesos without further insident and immediately hailed a cab. i told the cab driver the intersection of nicole's apartment, and sat back.

thus began the first good moments of being in buenos aires. the cab driver and i chatted about the weather and he told me names of streets we were passing. the back window was open a crack and the hot, humid air flowed out and a few precious breezes floated in. i stared outside at the neon lights of bars and discos, the still-open outdoor cafes and people meandering about on such a lovely night. it was so beautiful. i did it! i am back in this crazy city!

my good moment didn't last too long. i got out of the cab at the appointed intersection but realized that i had lost the paper with nicole's address on it and i didn't have a phone to call her. ahhh.

i was also standing on this deserted street awkwardly close to a prostitute who looked like her night wasn't going to well either. i oddly smiled at her and shuffled off in my huge pack. i decided that this probably wasn't the best neighborhood to wander around at night and hailed another cab. in the cab i flipped through my guidebook and found a random hostel that was close by. the cab driver drove me there and i found the soho-hostel. finally! but, after trudging up the stairs the guy at the counter told me there were no more rooms. i almost cried, right then and there. but then he asked, "do you speak english?" i nodded enthusiastically and from then on out we had more success in communicating. he said that there was another hostel owned by the same person only a block away. he walked me there and in twenty minutes i had a room!

this place is tiny and open to the night air. the main office has a small counter and a little corner with a desk for computer users. the next room after you walk through the office is actually a patio with a roof barely covering it. if you walk through the patio room you find a tiny narrow staircase that leads to a rooftop room with skylights and with a few bunkbeds. in this room you hear the distant blaring of taxis, boom-boom-boom of discos, and carefree chatter of neighbors. it smells like smog and garden. i like it. in a few moments, i am going to crawl into my bunk in that very room and happily go to sleep.

words / phrases of the day!

con permiso - excuse me as in, "may i warn you that i am about to awkwardly crawl over you, my airplane seatmate, because you are old and asleep and snoring and on't speak english, and i have to go to the bathroom."
donde estan telefonos publicos? - where are some public pay phones, for when your phone actually doesn't work.
cafe con leche con tres medialunas y jugo de naranja - what i am going to have tomorrow morning! can't wait!

plotting and planning

still at my parents' house, still trying to figure out my life in the next 12 hours.

so, i now have no apartment in buenos aires. which sucks. BUT, a few things have come up. susie and leana (former SPU students who are randomly going to be in argentina the same time that i am) want to travel to bariloche two days after i arrive. if i go with them, i dont need to worry about finding an apartment yet. cool.

also! a few weeks back, this place called learnimmersion.com emailed me, and asked if i wanted a job interview. ha, i have no memory of asking for a job, but okay! i think dr. neusch-olver may have connections with them or something. SO, i will go interview with them at 10:30am on march 19, and if i dont get the job, i will head over to retiro bus terminal and buy myself a ticket to bariloche.

if i do get a job, however, i will want to stick around BsAs and find an apartment. i was browsing craigslist this morning, and found THIS promising ad. haha. no thanks.

wellll, i fly out of chicago at 3:00 am tomorrow morning. i will be to buenos aires by 10:00 pm tuesday night, if i dont get lost at my connection in mexico city!

the begininng

once upon a time i decided to be done with college and bought a plane ticket to buenos aires.

why argentina, everyone asks?

1. i have been there before, last summer. my only international traveling experience ever. i loved it.
2. i finished all my classes one quarter early.
3. why not?

the original plan: to live in a youth hostel in the neighborhood of recoleta and take spanish lessons.

then i thought, hey, why not get an apartment and share it with other students? ta-da! craigslist.com in argentina! found some roommates, got the apartment secured. perfecto!

and then yesterday, three days before i arrive in buenos aires, i get an email saying that plans fell through; my apartment is no longer available.

new plan: i have no plan. two of my friends who are down in argentina currently are going to bariloche a day after i arrive. i might as well go with them. my idea is to continue traveling around until i get bored/tired, then i will try to figure out a living situation back in BsAs.

my dream? to do the che guvara thing, traveling from argentina to santiago, and then upwards to la paz, lima and machu picchu! yeah!

and now i am going to have interesting words / concepts for the day:

BsAs - stands for buenos aires. the capital federal of the country.
machu picchu - not a pokemon. but still awesome.
heladería - ice cream parlor! BsAs is full of them, and this will be my first stop!
che guevara - seriously?