So Many New Experiences

This past Wednesday, my host mom invited me to go to Tigre with her to have lunch with her brother and some friends. The organization I am here with in Buenos Aires organizes several activities each month for everyone, and this past Wednesday, they were going to go to the modern art museum. I was planning on going to that, so I told my host mom I would love to come to lunch, as long as we were back by 6:00 (when the museum tour started). She said that would work out, and that we would definitely be back before then. Having been living here in Buenos Aires for about a month, I knew not to take that statement as a sure thing, but I still decided to go anyways because how often would an opportunity like that come up. Plus, I can go to that museum whenever. We took the bus to the train station, took a train to Tigre, took a car to go to the port (we were eating on an island), and then took a small boat to the island. The lunch consisted of crackers with cheese and salami, salad, a variety of meat, and a whole lot of vino. Everything was so delicious, and I really enjoyed it! My host mom’s brother’s friend lives on a sail boat and said he was planning to sail to Colonia, Uruguay that weekend or the next weekend and invited my host mom, another girl, and me to join. I thought that that was really nice of him, considering I just met him. I told him I’d love to go and to just let me know when. In true Argentine manor, the lunch did not end for hours. We didn’t get back to Buenos Aires until 8:30. Longest lunch ever!

As soon as we returned to Buenos Aires, I met up with a couple friends and we went out to dinner at a sushi place, called Wasabi’s. It was soooo delicious, and pretty inexpensive for sushi too! I normally do not eat just plain fish because it’s too slimy for me, but one of the salmon dishes there was so good. It was just a piece of salmon laid over some rice, and I absolutely loved it! The girls I went to dinner with have been living here in Buenos Aires since July, so they pointed out some other really good restaurants near by. I can’t wait to try them!

Friday was my last day of Spanish classes. I am so relieved that that class is over. I did learn a lot and did enjoy it over all, but I feel like I could have learned a lot more. I’m planning on taking this week off and doing some studying (with my lovely flashcards) on my own. Then next week I will start private lessons; however, I’m still in the process of working out the details with the teacher. I’m really looking forward to the private lessons!

This past weekend was a very interesting experience. I ended up going sailing with that man I met on Wednesday. However, my host mom and the other girl did not want to come, which I was greatly disappointed in because that meant I wouldn’t really know anyone on the sailing trip. Before I said yes to the trip, I asked my host mom if it was safe to go sailing with these, to me, strangers. She said of course it would be safe and thought I would really enjoy it. She was right, I did enjoy the trip. I have never gone sailing before, so I thought this was a great opportunity that I couldn’t say no to. In the boat was the Captain, Ernie, another man, Pepe, and another woman, Cris. They were all around the age of 60 years old. There were definitely some awkward moments, but over all, the trip was great. They were all very friendly, and drank wine like it was water (the way of life here).

We all met up Friday night and slept on the boat. The first night we ate dinner on the boat and had calamari with rice and some kind of sauce. Normally, the only fish I eat is sushi. I am not a fan of seafood because most of it has a fishy taste that I am not a fan of at all. But I tried this dish and absolutely loved it! The calamari didn’t even really have that much of a taste. The sauce was what made the dish so good. Something I have noticed while I’ve been living here in Buenos Aires, is that they don’t really have spicy dishes. I found out (during the sushi dinner the other night) that Argentines don’t really like spicy foods, and what they think is spicy isn’t really spicy. When Ernie handed me my bowl he said to be careful with it, it’s spicy. I can handle a little spicy, but nothing too hot, and I didn’t think this dish was spicy at all. I thought it was just really flavorful. I love being in a country where I can handle the spicy foods; where as, when I’m with my boyfriend and his family, anything they considered “mild” is too spicy for me to handle.

Sailing all day Saturday was pretty enjoyable. It’s really relaxing, and was a nice break from the noisy city. Unfortunately, a bolt on one of the sails broke a couple hours into the trip, so we had to use the motor the rest of the trip. That slowed us down by about three hours. I enjoyed more time on the boat though. Also, I hardly ever get to enjoy sunsets, so I really enjoyed watching the sunset Saturday night.

That night, we went to a restaurant that they were familiar with, and it was so good! That was one of my favorite parts about the whole trip. I love going out to dinner with people from here because they know where to go and what to order. We ended up getting this cheese dish that had a bunch of different seasonings in it, and I wish we had ordered three plates of it. I loved it! Ernie had ordered the variety meat plate for all of us to share, and that was pretty good too. There were a few things in the mixture that I had never tried before, so I tried most of them. I ended up trying cow intestines, and it was disgusting. They waited till after I tried it to tell me what it was, but I didn’t like it before they told me what it actually was. Making Ms. Manners and Emily Post proud, I spit it out (discretely) in to my napkin.

Pepe had been drinking wine all day long, and was pretty drunk. He thought that it would be a great idea to speak English the whole time to the waiters at the restaurant. He knows less English than I know Spanish. His thought process was, if I speak English, everyone who works at the restaurant will treat me nicely because they will think I’m a tourist. Nonetheless, it was quite entertaining to watch.

On the way to Colonia, I sat in the back corner of the boat the whole time. On the way back to Buenos Aires I sat in the same place. However, that was a bad decision. Like I said, this was my first time sailing, and the only thing I know about sailing is from watching movies. The one thing that the movies taught me about sailing is that you make sure to stay clear of that long piece of wood that holds the mail sail that can swing back and forth. Usually, in the movies, someone almost always ends up being knocked overboard by that piece. I knew to stay clear of that, but I had no idea that I needed to stay clear of the cords that control that big piece of wood. The wind changed like that, and the next moment I get smacked in the face by the cables, and I watch my sunglasses sink in the water. I had no idea what had happened to me; I was in shock ha. It didn’t really hurt that much, but man were my eye watering. It’s like when you get smacked in the nose, and tears automatically start coming out. I just have a little mark where I got hit, so no big harm was done, and my glasses weren’t expensive so no big loss there either. Needless to say, I stayed clear of those cables the rest of the trip home, and learned a valuable lesson.

When I came back to the apartment, my host mom told me she really missed me this weekend. How cute! I missed her too though, and it was good to be back.

I’m really grateful that I got to experience such an unique weekend here in Argentina.

Until Next Time,
Liz