Friday - Went with Stephanie to the Language School to check it out and then went to lunch at the local favorite restaurant/bar/microbrewery down the street. It's American owned so when we walked in, Tom Petty music was in the background and it featured posters of many bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and ACDC. Lunch was good, all four of the menu options looked tasty, and the grilled chicken with cheese melted on top and salad on the side was delicious. The restaurant culture here is very different, you're supposed to hang around and chat during/after meals. You have to ask for the bill because if the waiter brings it to you, it is considered rude - like they want you to stop your chill sesh and leave. So we were at this restaurant for about 2 hours and other people came and went. I met and conversed with 1) 'mates' from England, Checz Republic, Austrailia, and the US who were staying at a hostel and had already traveled a lot of South America, 2) Dan - the bar owner/chef from Cali who has lived in Rosario off and on for 12 years. He's probably 34ish, 3) Claudio - Stephanie's Argentinian husband who plays soccer every Tuesday night at 9pm (didn't take much convincing, I am in. I told him I could get a few more: Bates, Behrman, Toofan, Heimer, who else?), 4) Some of the Spanish teachers to learn about the culture a little more. Stephanie accused me (jokingly) of asking a lot of questions, I told her she should meet my brother.
After lunch we went to the host family's house, the Zysman's. Romi, the mom is super hospitable and the two kids Ludmila ("Lumi" -4) and Mirko ("Meerko" -2) are about as cute as they come. Stephanie (and her super awesome son, Juan) stayed for a while so we could hammer out some logistics because Romi doesn't speak English very well. Later we went to get my travel phone a SIM chip and hung out around the house. People typically eat around 9:30 or 10pm here. But, we at a little late this night, after Romi put the kids to sleep around 10:30, she ordered an oval shaped pizza and we split it over some a Liter of Stella. This was actually a super relaxing dinner outside by the mini pool as we conversed in Spanglish and shared many stories. Romi is super helpful, patient, and caring.
A few things I have noticed - people rarely use air conditioning here, apparently electricity is very expensive. Even though it is very hot and humid, people use fans and leave the doors open for circulation. Also, people don't have dishwashers because it uses a lot of electricity, we are washin' everything by hand.
- There are no parking lots in this city. Everyone parks on the side of the street and everything is SUPER condensed. It reminds me of NYC (shoutout DE, RZ, JB) in this way because basically each block is one long building with a bunch of doors the lead to different things.
- Stop signs are completely optional, or at least it seems that way. People tap their breaks to make sure there will not be a massive collision and continue on. Same with walking across the street, cars don't really slow down for pedestrians, you just have to make sure the coast is clear. And if you can dodge a car...
- Milk comes in a little plastic pouch
- The water in Rosario is drinkable. But, instead of having a Brita or a fridge that dispenses or drinking from the sink, people collect water bottles (or other types of bottles, Monday night we drank water out of an 1800 Tequilla handle), and fill them with sink water. So the fridge has a bunch of random bottles with water in it to drink.
Saturday - I walked and met the fam at the grocery store 6 blocks from the house. I could tell it was a large store to them, but it was a fairly small grocery store but it was jammin on this Saturday late morning. Gabi, the father, had me stand in line to hold a spot for the family. The line moved like SuperBad Seth's 100m dash - slow motion, so this was a great call. The USD is worth about 8.5 Argentine pesos (and much more if you get the "blue chip rate"), so prices are blown up. After purchasing 1,327 pesos worth of groceries, we were on our way to the "Weekend house". This was about 20 minutes northwest of Rosario in a gated neighborhood. As we pulled up to the house, my jaw dropped. It is niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, and not what I was expecting after seeing the living quarters in the city. I'll put a picture here if you haven't already seen it on FB. They come here every weekend and basically do nothing (eat, chill, talk, nap). At 6pm, Gabi and I headed to the neighborhood soccer field like 400 meters away for the weekly pickup 11v11 game. It was super fun, and surprisingly similar to an organized pickup game in the US. Most of them didn't speak English and had their inside jokes, but when I made any kind of competent play, they all yelled "Gaddy!!" in my support. People flip their R's here, saying the word "Gary" isn't realistic.
Pizza and beer was for dinner again (no complaints) at 10:30pm and I was instructed to clean the kitchen afterwards.
Sunday - More chill time. I learned that this is actually a family house, the Grandpa and sister (1 of 4 total siblings) came at around 12 and at about 1:30, we had a family feast. Gabi had used his indoor fire pit BBQ station to grill steak in about 5 different ways. It was (this one is for you Steve ---->) DANK. He melted some cheese on top of some of the steaks (super kosher family...) and we had literally 4 courses of steak. It was fantastic. Also, the culture here is to grab the food in front of you instead of waiting for others to take their share. So if you don't grab some, it may be gone and you're just out of luck. The steaks went quick.
After lunch I biked around the lake a little, took the kayak ("kashak" here - Y sounds are pronounced as SH) for a lap, and we hung around more. We spent probably 2 hours hanging on the porch while these natives spit out Spanish faster than I could comprehend, much less understand. The grandpa just got back from 2 weeks in the Patagonias, so he had a lot to share. They did include me in the convo a little as we talked about movies, shows, NBA teams (they're all distant Spurs fans... typical), and such. We cleaned, packed up, and returned to the city at about 9:30pm.
Monday - first day of Spanish classes and they were great. There are probably 15 travelers in the entire school, probably 3-4 classes at a time, 2 hour sessions each. I have two 2 hour sessions per weekday. Everyone speaks English so it is super easy to make friends and I already have plans to shoot some hoops and find a sand volleyball net somewhere.
Lunch was tough because almost everywhere is closed for lunch on Mondays, not really sure why, it's a local thing.
I hung out with the kids at home from 3-7, then I walked around throughout some city parks for about 3 hours. It was a crazy nice day and seriously EVERYONE was outside either running or playing futbol or doing yoga or calisthenics or rollerblading or just walking around. There is a longgggggggggg park along the river side and I can't gauge but I think I saw at least 5,000 people and I didn't even walk half way down the park. It is an incredibly active city, it seems like you're an outcast if you aren't outside when it's nice out.
When I got home at 9:30, the guy who had came to do Romi's hair was wrapping up. He got there at 3 and is usually done well before 6, but apparently he had messed up multiple times and was there until almost 10pm. It was clearly a long day.
I've only been in the city for 1 day and I love the activity and vibe. It is a different culture, but everyone wants to help in their own way if you ask for it. And chill time is very important.
I am sorry my blogs are so long, I'll get better at narrowing down my details the more I write. And I guess this is kind of an english outlet. I would probably benefit from some feedback (except mom..... I'm putting a word limit on your comments :) ).
I will try and post pictures later, class is about to start. Also I am sure there are many grammar and spelling errors. I was in a hurry, please forgive me. Thanks lads.
- Nos Vemos