Bien Taylor
Well, so many things have happened that I am not really sure where to start, so I suppose I'll go to the end. "And then I decided to write in my blog."
Rewinding back in time from this reference point takes us to Friday. I arrived in Córdoba at 13:30 and hung out, ate food, walked, read, and people watched until Oscar got off work at 18:00. I made sure to go to the super market and picked up a nice bottle of wine for the family. Oscar arrived with his friend Marcus and picked me up from wherever the hell I was. Honestly I have no idea but there was a statue and trees and shit. It's really disorienting the first day when you are in a city because you don't understand the layout. Anyway, we went out that night to Oscar's cousin's birthday party. On the way there we discussed Oscar's year long trip in New Zealand, traveling, and life. Mostly we discussed how hard it is to be away from your home for a long amount of time because you are never as relaxed as you are when you are at home. Oscar's English was good but he still had an accent which makes me wonder how strong my accent is after 4 months. I'd rather not think about it. Oscar's cousin had just turned 16 and he had a big party with a bunch of friends. Oscar explained to me that how for girls the big birthday is 15 and for guys it is 18. At this 16 year old's birthday party, the 16 year old guests were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Not all of them, but quite a few. During the weekend I noticed that people pretty much chain smoke non-stop when they are hanging out with their friends in a party like setting. One guy told me, "I go through one pack between Sunday and Thursday and a pack a night Friday and Saturday." Pretty chill birthday party, I mostly just talked with Oscar and had a few beers.
Saturday Oscar set up for me to go with his friend Andrés to go buy the supplies needed for our excursion to the campo. We bought 15 bottles of cerveza, 3 bottles of Fernet (Argentinean 45% liquor), and 10 liters of Coke-Cola. It was made very clear to me that only and I mean only, Coke-Cola can be used for the Córdobian specialty of Frenet y Coke. Pepsi is unacceptable and intolerable. Anyway, for the asada we went to a carniceria and bought 150 pesos worth of carne. We are talking 5 kilos of premium premium high grade central Argentinean meat. At 15:00 hours we launched our adventure. I'm not trying to sound like I'm using military time but I've found that when talking about schedules it's just easier to use a 24 clock instead of using am and pm. So at 3 pm we launched our adventure. We were two small compact cars (see pictures), and we were Taylor, Oscar, Andres, Santiago, El Gordo, y Marcus. In the car ride, despite my 3+ years of college level Spanish and 3 months of studying abroad, I couldn't understand a god damn thing these cats were saying. I had a general idea of the conversation but the mixture of the lundardo, the speed of the conversation, and the accent which includes cutting off s's killed me. Bascially, if someone wanted to talk to me they had to change how they talked so that they pronounced the words in a more universally understood way. It was great exposure to Spanish but it made me realize how much more I have to learn.
We arrived at the country house of Andres at around 5 pm or 17:00 and there were already 4 girls there sitting around drinking Fernet + Coke. We joined them. We had intentions of going to Oktoberfest but the mixture of pretty girls, booze, and bad weather made us revise our plans to stay at the house and continue drinking. A good decision I would say. Rewinding, yet again, the house was about 15 kilometers off of the main road on a curvy dirt road with free range cattle roaming around. It was at this point when I was thinking, well, if Oscar was planning to kill me now would probably be the most oportune time. But he didn't. Oscar is a geniunely nice guy and he understood how hard it is to be in a foreign country and took every concession to make me feel like one of the guys. So we drank Friday night, watched Argentina beat Uruguay in football, had a mini-asada, and hung out. At 3 a.m. I decided to call it a night just as the girls decided they wanted to go to a boliche. I couldn't be asked. We woke up the next day at around noon and make another asada. Normally I wouldn't be down for meat for breakfast but this asado was unbelievably good. Look at how content I am in this picture after the asado.
We cleaned up and shoved off for Oktoberfest at around 16:00. When we first got there it wasn't full but it quickly become so. Just a mob of roundy young people eager to get to drinking. We quickly bought our steins and I bought a belf for my stein which I deemed necessary. The belt goes over the shoulder diagonally and comes down with a special harness to carry your stein when you're not using it so you don't have to burden your hands with the task of carrying it. Additionally, when you are drinking, the harness works as a safety mechanism in the unfortunate event that you're stein were ever disloged from your hands because the belt would prevent the stein's fall and consequencial breaking. The mechanism to prevent lost beer is to have a metal top that can be popped up, however, these are quite expensive. But, if one is lucky enought to aquire both items, that is both a beer belt and a metal top, he is practically invinsible. So we wandered around Oktoberfest for a few hours, had a few 20 pesos beers and 5 peso panchos. There were tons of groups of roundy guys dressed up sometimes in the same costumes cruising down the street unsubtley... wait, what's the opposite of subtle... beligerent is the word I want... crusing down the street beligerently. I was standing in line for a hot dog and I met some Americans but they weren't that interesting. Here's two a video of the climate at Oktoberfest and some photos.
Well that video took a long ass fucking time to load so you better enjoy it. After returning from Oktoberfest at around 10 pm, Oscar informed me that we had another social engagement. So we went to the birthday party of one of his good friends and yet again I enjoyed quite a few more Fernet + Coke's and spoke with a bunch of Argentineans. The house was spectacularly nice and Oscar told me that it was voted one of the top 10 best houses in Argentina. Sweet. Once again returning to the theme of accents, during the party a Argentine came up to me, and began boasting about how he spent a few months working in the United States and how he speaks English so I don't have to worry about speaking Spanish. The only thing is, his accent was as they say in spanish "horrible". It just further planted the idea that there is a huge gap between studying, knowing, and speaking a language. When I arrived here I couldn't speak for a damn although I had studied it. Now I know it more or less but I still can't really speak it. I've just now been able to start using subjunctive in the everyday flow of conversation. I've got a long ways to go let's say.
We got back late, change in subject stay on top of things, and went early the next morning to the bus terminal. By early I mean 11:30 a.m. At this point I felt as though I was begining to creep nearer and nearer to the abyss that is overstaying one's welcome so I was willing to take the earliest bus. Unfortunately, but also fortunately, there wasn't a bus until 8:00. So we went back and got to enjoy an asada with the family and sat around afterwards chatting. Yes, three asadas in three days. It was nice to see how an Argentine family interacts for a meal. For the rest of the day I tried to give the family some space and went outside to read for a few hours reviewing my Spanish grammar book I brought along. When I was reading one of their four dogs tried to pee on my foot as if I were I fire hydrant. At 6:30 we left for the terminal and picked up three of Oscar's buddies. We got to the terminal with about an hour to spare so we went to a cafe and shot the breeze. I thought they were going to drop me off and go on to the next thing but they waited with me in the cafe, and helped me find my bus and waited until I had successfully loaded before leaving. Everyone I met was a breed apart. They were all extremely nice and welcoming of me. I feel guilty because there is no way that I can repay them for the kindess and generosity they showed me. I arrived on Friday and until Monday Oscar incorporated me into his life. I am a very cynical person but it's time like this that give me some hope in the human race. Sharing your life for 4 days with a stranger you met online and not asking anything in return. It's a beautiful thing. I got back to Buenos Aires at 6:00 this morning, went to my apartment, showered, and left for school. Honestly, this morning kind of sucked because I had that quasi-sleep airplane drowsiness thing going on. During lunch I went to a lecture about the American presidential race and we saw a bunch of projections and break downs of state voting records. It was really good information except the professor kept calling states by the wrong name because the map wasn't labeled. Being the only American in the lecture, I felt compelled to correct him, but after I did it once I realized that it didn't really matter to anyone but me, and I didn't want to be that guy. So I tolerated Nevada being called Colorado, Pennslyvania New York, Mississippi Missouri, and Missouri Montana. Well, I guess that pretty much updates things. I've got to read a 15 page case before going to bed so I suppose I'll start that. Later.
Rewinding back in time from this reference point takes us to Friday. I arrived in Córdoba at 13:30 and hung out, ate food, walked, read, and people watched until Oscar got off work at 18:00. I made sure to go to the super market and picked up a nice bottle of wine for the family. Oscar arrived with his friend Marcus and picked me up from wherever the hell I was. Honestly I have no idea but there was a statue and trees and shit. It's really disorienting the first day when you are in a city because you don't understand the layout. Anyway, we went out that night to Oscar's cousin's birthday party. On the way there we discussed Oscar's year long trip in New Zealand, traveling, and life. Mostly we discussed how hard it is to be away from your home for a long amount of time because you are never as relaxed as you are when you are at home. Oscar's English was good but he still had an accent which makes me wonder how strong my accent is after 4 months. I'd rather not think about it. Oscar's cousin had just turned 16 and he had a big party with a bunch of friends. Oscar explained to me that how for girls the big birthday is 15 and for guys it is 18. At this 16 year old's birthday party, the 16 year old guests were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Not all of them, but quite a few. During the weekend I noticed that people pretty much chain smoke non-stop when they are hanging out with their friends in a party like setting. One guy told me, "I go through one pack between Sunday and Thursday and a pack a night Friday and Saturday." Pretty chill birthday party, I mostly just talked with Oscar and had a few beers.
Saturday Oscar set up for me to go with his friend Andrés to go buy the supplies needed for our excursion to the campo. We bought 15 bottles of cerveza, 3 bottles of Fernet (Argentinean 45% liquor), and 10 liters of Coke-Cola. It was made very clear to me that only and I mean only, Coke-Cola can be used for the Córdobian specialty of Frenet y Coke. Pepsi is unacceptable and intolerable. Anyway, for the asada we went to a carniceria and bought 150 pesos worth of carne. We are talking 5 kilos of premium premium high grade central Argentinean meat. At 15:00 hours we launched our adventure. I'm not trying to sound like I'm using military time but I've found that when talking about schedules it's just easier to use a 24 clock instead of using am and pm. So at 3 pm we launched our adventure. We were two small compact cars (see pictures), and we were Taylor, Oscar, Andres, Santiago, El Gordo, y Marcus. In the car ride, despite my 3+ years of college level Spanish and 3 months of studying abroad, I couldn't understand a god damn thing these cats were saying. I had a general idea of the conversation but the mixture of the lundardo, the speed of the conversation, and the accent which includes cutting off s's killed me. Bascially, if someone wanted to talk to me they had to change how they talked so that they pronounced the words in a more universally understood way. It was great exposure to Spanish but it made me realize how much more I have to learn.
We arrived at the country house of Andres at around 5 pm or 17:00 and there were already 4 girls there sitting around drinking Fernet + Coke. We joined them. We had intentions of going to Oktoberfest but the mixture of pretty girls, booze, and bad weather made us revise our plans to stay at the house and continue drinking. A good decision I would say. Rewinding, yet again, the house was about 15 kilometers off of the main road on a curvy dirt road with free range cattle roaming around. It was at this point when I was thinking, well, if Oscar was planning to kill me now would probably be the most oportune time. But he didn't. Oscar is a geniunely nice guy and he understood how hard it is to be in a foreign country and took every concession to make me feel like one of the guys. So we drank Friday night, watched Argentina beat Uruguay in football, had a mini-asada, and hung out. At 3 a.m. I decided to call it a night just as the girls decided they wanted to go to a boliche. I couldn't be asked. We woke up the next day at around noon and make another asada. Normally I wouldn't be down for meat for breakfast but this asado was unbelievably good. Look at how content I am in this picture after the asado.
We cleaned up and shoved off for Oktoberfest at around 16:00. When we first got there it wasn't full but it quickly become so. Just a mob of roundy young people eager to get to drinking. We quickly bought our steins and I bought a belf for my stein which I deemed necessary. The belt goes over the shoulder diagonally and comes down with a special harness to carry your stein when you're not using it so you don't have to burden your hands with the task of carrying it. Additionally, when you are drinking, the harness works as a safety mechanism in the unfortunate event that you're stein were ever disloged from your hands because the belt would prevent the stein's fall and consequencial breaking. The mechanism to prevent lost beer is to have a metal top that can be popped up, however, these are quite expensive. But, if one is lucky enought to aquire both items, that is both a beer belt and a metal top, he is practically invinsible. So we wandered around Oktoberfest for a few hours, had a few 20 pesos beers and 5 peso panchos. There were tons of groups of roundy guys dressed up sometimes in the same costumes cruising down the street unsubtley... wait, what's the opposite of subtle... beligerent is the word I want... crusing down the street beligerently. I was standing in line for a hot dog and I met some Americans but they weren't that interesting. Here's two a video of the climate at Oktoberfest and some photos.
Well that video took a long ass fucking time to load so you better enjoy it. After returning from Oktoberfest at around 10 pm, Oscar informed me that we had another social engagement. So we went to the birthday party of one of his good friends and yet again I enjoyed quite a few more Fernet + Coke's and spoke with a bunch of Argentineans. The house was spectacularly nice and Oscar told me that it was voted one of the top 10 best houses in Argentina. Sweet. Once again returning to the theme of accents, during the party a Argentine came up to me, and began boasting about how he spent a few months working in the United States and how he speaks English so I don't have to worry about speaking Spanish. The only thing is, his accent was as they say in spanish "horrible". It just further planted the idea that there is a huge gap between studying, knowing, and speaking a language. When I arrived here I couldn't speak for a damn although I had studied it. Now I know it more or less but I still can't really speak it. I've just now been able to start using subjunctive in the everyday flow of conversation. I've got a long ways to go let's say.We got back late, change in subject stay on top of things, and went early the next morning to the bus terminal. By early I mean 11:30 a.m. At this point I felt as though I was begining to creep nearer and nearer to the abyss that is overstaying one's welcome so I was willing to take the earliest bus. Unfortunately, but also fortunately, there wasn't a bus until 8:00. So we went back and got to enjoy an asada with the family and sat around afterwards chatting. Yes, three asadas in three days. It was nice to see how an Argentine family interacts for a meal. For the rest of the day I tried to give the family some space and went outside to read for a few hours reviewing my Spanish grammar book I brought along. When I was reading one of their four dogs tried to pee on my foot as if I were I fire hydrant. At 6:30 we left for the terminal and picked up three of Oscar's buddies. We got to the terminal with about an hour to spare so we went to a cafe and shot the breeze. I thought they were going to drop me off and go on to the next thing but they waited with me in the cafe, and helped me find my bus and waited until I had successfully loaded before leaving. Everyone I met was a breed apart. They were all extremely nice and welcoming of me. I feel guilty because there is no way that I can repay them for the kindess and generosity they showed me. I arrived on Friday and until Monday Oscar incorporated me into his life. I am a very cynical person but it's time like this that give me some hope in the human race. Sharing your life for 4 days with a stranger you met online and not asking anything in return. It's a beautiful thing. I got back to Buenos Aires at 6:00 this morning, went to my apartment, showered, and left for school. Honestly, this morning kind of sucked because I had that quasi-sleep airplane drowsiness thing going on. During lunch I went to a lecture about the American presidential race and we saw a bunch of projections and break downs of state voting records. It was really good information except the professor kept calling states by the wrong name because the map wasn't labeled. Being the only American in the lecture, I felt compelled to correct him, but after I did it once I realized that it didn't really matter to anyone but me, and I didn't want to be that guy. So I tolerated Nevada being called Colorado, Pennslyvania New York, Mississippi Missouri, and Missouri Montana. Well, I guess that pretty much updates things. I've got to read a 15 page case before going to bed so I suppose I'll start that. Later.
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