Finde - Fin de semana, which means weekend, but in abbreviated texting lingo.
Wednesday (2/25) - Didn't do much the rest of the day until 10pm when I went to play futbol again, this time with a group of locals. I met one of them at the hostel which my host family owns, told him I'd be interested in playing soccer, and I got the invite. It was at a nice, indoor, turf field, and the guys were pretty good at futbol (as are most people growing up here). This game was also 5v5, and we lost but the guys were super friendly. Instead of like "bro" or "dude" or "man" they call their friends "loco" (crazy) or "viejo" (old man). I thought that was interesting.
The soccer rivalry is so fierce here, I wore my Rosario Central jersey to play in (because it was the only dry shirt I had, the maid took 3.5 days to do my thin load of laundry), and Gabi, the dad of the family I am staying with - HUGE Newell's fan, was legit not happy when he saw me wearing that in his house. He told me to take it off, and I chuckled and said yeah I'm leaving. But then he looked me in the eye and said "I'm not kidding, I don't want to see those colors in my house." I left. I'm trying to think about how a die hard UT fan would feel if someone wore a sooner jersey in their house. Or Ohio State-Michigan. Or Yankees-Red Sox. It's a pretty crazy rivalry here.
Oh I also stopped by the grocery store after school, where they were selling a liter of beer for 15 pesos, or $1.20.
Wednesday (2/25) - Didn't do much the rest of the day until 10pm when I went to play futbol again, this time with a group of locals. I met one of them at the hostel which my host family owns, told him I'd be interested in playing soccer, and I got the invite. It was at a nice, indoor, turf field, and the guys were pretty good at futbol (as are most people growing up here). This game was also 5v5, and we lost but the guys were super friendly. Instead of like "bro" or "dude" or "man" they call their friends "loco" (crazy) or "viejo" (old man). I thought that was interesting.
The soccer rivalry is so fierce here, I wore my Rosario Central jersey to play in (because it was the only dry shirt I had, the maid took 3.5 days to do my thin load of laundry), and Gabi, the dad of the family I am staying with - HUGE Newell's fan, was legit not happy when he saw me wearing that in his house. He told me to take it off, and I chuckled and said yeah I'm leaving. But then he looked me in the eye and said "I'm not kidding, I don't want to see those colors in my house." I left. I'm trying to think about how a die hard UT fan would feel if someone wore a sooner jersey in their house. Or Ohio State-Michigan. Or Yankees-Red Sox. It's a pretty crazy rivalry here.
Oh I also stopped by the grocery store after school, where they were selling a liter of beer for 15 pesos, or $1.20.
Thursday - After class, I spent time planning traveling things until I went to try a yoga class at 8pm. This was in a yoga studio right across the street from the river. It was very interesting, we concentrated a lot on breathing patterns and I found it to be much less physically demanding than the yoga classes I had experienced in the past. The instructor was basically whispering in Spanish the whole time as she was trying to keep everyone (7 people) relaxed. I am by no means a yoga expert, hardly a beginner, just my observations. We probably spent 5 minutes straight practicing breathing out of each nostril. But it was really awkward for me because one of my nostrils was stuff up, so when the instructor came over to me and tried to demonstrate/Spanish whisper how to do it correctly, I was thinking "lady, I understand, but unless you want me to literally blow my nose onto my lap, I'm gonna have to continue to modify your techniques here."
I continued trying to follow everyone else's movements for the rest of the hour and a half. It was definitely a great new experience. Then, it was a beautiful night out so I delightfully strolled the 25 minutes home, which is a normal walk here.
Friday - I had some babysitting duty from 3ish-6:30ish. Every planned time that isn't school or work related is "ish" here. People are constantly late and/or change plans last minute. So I got home at 3, but the kids didn't wake up from their nap until about 4:15, and then Gaby got home at about 6:15 to take them to a movie, "The Cinema". So I basically only had to play the game "do whatever it takes to not make the kids through a tantrum" for like 2 hours. Then I went on a casual run around the park and next to the river and did some sweet people watching while enjoying the perfect weather and scenery. When I got home at 9, the family had just returned, so I watched the kids for another hour before dinner. After dinner I hung out for a second before going (at 12:15am) to meet a local friend Mauro at a bar nearby called Antares. I think this bar is American owned but it is also a Brewery in that they make their own beer. All of the tables were full and it was very noise throughout the 2 hours we were there enjoying the 2 for 1 happy hour from 1am-2:30am. No that is not a typo.
I continued trying to follow everyone else's movements for the rest of the hour and a half. It was definitely a great new experience. Then, it was a beautiful night out so I delightfully strolled the 25 minutes home, which is a normal walk here.
Friday - I had some babysitting duty from 3ish-6:30ish. Every planned time that isn't school or work related is "ish" here. People are constantly late and/or change plans last minute. So I got home at 3, but the kids didn't wake up from their nap until about 4:15, and then Gaby got home at about 6:15 to take them to a movie, "The Cinema". So I basically only had to play the game "do whatever it takes to not make the kids through a tantrum" for like 2 hours. Then I went on a casual run around the park and next to the river and did some sweet people watching while enjoying the perfect weather and scenery. When I got home at 9, the family had just returned, so I watched the kids for another hour before dinner. After dinner I hung out for a second before going (at 12:15am) to meet a local friend Mauro at a bar nearby called Antares. I think this bar is American owned but it is also a Brewery in that they make their own beer. All of the tables were full and it was very noise throughout the 2 hours we were there enjoying the 2 for 1 happy hour from 1am-2:30am. No that is not a typo.
Saturday - Stopped by the bus station to look into bus tickets to Iguazu falls, and then headed to Cordoba street to do some walking around/shopping. The shopping went really well, I saw some cool things, asked some great questions, talked to a new person, and bought some popcorn.
Then I casually walked the 30 minutes to the river to relax a little before I was supposed to meet a few locals that wanted to practice speaking some English. We went to a riverside (literally) restaurant called Los Jardines and chatted away for about 2 hours. My friend Nick from North Carolina set this up, and we were talking with a young couple in their 20s who are preparing to go to Boston in November. They seemed very enthused to learn more about the states and practice their English, it was a great time.
Later that night I went to a "Despedida" (going away party) for one of our local friends who is going to be traveling to Canada and the USA next weekend. I was very excited to be invited to this dinner/hang out because it was all locals, and me and Nick. So it's always fun practicing Spanish and learning more about how things go down around here, and people like practicing and learning more about English so it is all mutually beneficial. We grilled hamburgers, ate, hung out, and chatted until about 4:30am. I may or may not have whipped out catch phrase until my phone died. Not sure.
Then I casually walked the 30 minutes to the river to relax a little before I was supposed to meet a few locals that wanted to practice speaking some English. We went to a riverside (literally) restaurant called Los Jardines and chatted away for about 2 hours. My friend Nick from North Carolina set this up, and we were talking with a young couple in their 20s who are preparing to go to Boston in November. They seemed very enthused to learn more about the states and practice their English, it was a great time.
Later that night I went to a "Despedida" (going away party) for one of our local friends who is going to be traveling to Canada and the USA next weekend. I was very excited to be invited to this dinner/hang out because it was all locals, and me and Nick. So it's always fun practicing Spanish and learning more about how things go down around here, and people like practicing and learning more about English so it is all mutually beneficial. We grilled hamburgers, ate, hung out, and chatted until about 4:30am. I may or may not have whipped out catch phrase until my phone died. Not sure.
Today is Sunday - I slept in and I am just lounging all day today. It is raining and chilly here, and it is Gaby's birthday so the family went to the weekend house in Roldan.