I hate to do this one week out...

....but holy crap what a weekend.  I regretfully write that the weekend in Rosario was a bit of a bust for me.  This unfortunately will not be the lightest or greatest read of my blog, just a bit of venting that I REALLY need to do.  A majority of this post will not be somber, but if I fall from light-heartedness, please forgive me.  I'll try and jump back on the optimism train :)  I really didn't want to have a blog like this until I had been here for about a month......

Anywhoozle...

The drive to Rosario wasn't so bad.  I started organizing all my notes from the previous week and made fun of "Troy," the movie with Brad Pitt, as it played.  Through much of it, I found myself asking "Wow, really Hollywood?"  I spent most of my time talking to Mathias, my friend from Denmark.  We were discussing policies of different countries and whatnot.  We arrive in Rosario and head to the Hostel.  (funny sidenote, the driver totally tried to take off when I still had a foot on the ground, he must have been in a rush).  My first impression of the hostel was............yikes.............but after closer inspection and reassurance from my companions, I was fine.  Little things like the fact I somehow magically locked my friends in the room, (how is that accomplished?)  And the fact that the doorhandle from inside the room kept falling off.  Regardless, I was assured via hostel horror stories that we were in the life of luxury per se.  :) 

The first night we walked down to the water, had I been at optimum performance level, I would have actually asked or done my own research as to where exactly we were.  However, I decided to just play tagalong.   We went to a restaurant, which was ok.  I have to say the most significant food difference I have noticed in Argentina (or maybe it's a south america thing) is the concept of a salad.  I find it very fascinating the difference and we had a good laugh about it.  For example, a ceasar salad in America is roughly around 90% lettuce with croutons, cheese (sometimes) and ceasar dressing.  What Mathias and Nadja dediced to share was about 30% lettuce, 20% cheese, and around 50% croutons.  We were all pretty suprised by this one.  And this completely no joke.  we have a picture of what happened after all the lettuce was cleared out, and the bowl was still well over halfway full.    

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Random Factoid of Argentina of the day!

When you order a salad, you can either order a menus salad or get something with x amount of "gustos" or things that you want.  This does NOT have to include lettuce.  In fact, it is quite likely that you will have an equal quantity in all of the items you have.  Case in point, I ordered a salad that was part beets (yuck), rice, carrots, eggs, and potatoes (which ultimately were omitted from the menu item when it was sent to be filled in the kitchen) and the quantity of each part of the salad (minus the egg) were equal to each other.  Or in the case of Nadja and Mathias' Ceasar salad, there's not telling what you'll get!  :)

Getting back to the Rosario story.......

I really wanted to go out on Saturday night, but i could tell that if I didn't stay in and sleep, I was going to get worse.  I was very congested from the day before.  (Ice cream and pizza in the same day will NEVER happen again.....unless I forget........or unless if it's offered to me by someone who is single, funloving, and has an attraction to random blogging and big hair.....)  So August and I stay in and Nadja and Mathias go out.  There's a fun inside joke that follows what we pretend happened when they made it happened.  We'll just say I teased the two of them moaning, some heavy movement and a rubber duck.  You do the math.  The inside joke of saying "quack quack" in moments that could be construed as somewhat sexual.  (All jokingly of course)

 The next day, the congestion has subsided somewhat from my nose and has moved into my chest.  The group was talking about Kayaking, and I know I would not be able to hack it.  They also offered for me to hangout or sleep on the beach.  I decided against it.  So I stayed behind and slept for a good 2.5 hours.  The group came back and, as expected, had a great time.  I was a little bit bummed, but knew that rowing a kayak (do you row a kayak?) would not have helped me out.  We went to dinner #1, and for the first time that trip I actually received what I ordered (explanation later :)  )  I finally had my appetite back and thought I was on the climb back to feeling better.  Afterwards we walked to a fish restaurant that the kayak guide had suggested to my travel mates while they were kayaking.  It was a very nice restaurant down by the water that not many people could see.  It had a very nice feel that we all enjoyed.  

The question arose again of going out, and I STILL was not feeling up to the task.  Eventually everyone stayed in since it was getting late and nothing had been decided.  The recurring theme of me using the bathroom every 2 or less hours continued through the night until we woke up to go home.  (started when we left and has yet too end.....MUST.......GET.........BETTER.)

The ride back was ok.  the last hour was a mess since we tried to figure out who owed who what because the concept of splitting the check is popular down here.  Ultimately, I think I was the 1 person that owed money.  It happens when you're the only one who leaves his wallet at home.  :-/  

At this point, I am pretty bummed about being sick, not getting to do much in Rosario from being sick and little things that were not bothering me at all finally started to get to me.  We stopped at this little food place near the bus station once we arrived in Buenos Aires.  I ordered what has become one of my few food staples, tallarines con salsa tomate'.  Which is essentially spaghetti with maranara but with different noodles.  I get my dish about 10 minutes later, and even though I asked for a tomato sauce with no creme and no meat, there, plain as day before I even stick my fork in it, is some beef..................

Now, I can take a practical joke, I can keep my cool in restaurants when food doesn't come out like you ordered or expected it too, and I'm ok with the fact that in this culture, there are very few people who eat like I do.  However, if I have eaten at 10 different restaurants, 7-8 of the restaurants have brought out 1. something with one aspect to the dish replaced with something I didn't order or 2. the dish I did order but with meat in it.  As I said, I am not wanting to sound whiny.  It is possible that when I say "no carne" or "sin carne" they just hear "carne" and think I want it.  But there have been several instances where the item I ordered from the menu didn't have any type of meat in the list of what was in the dish.  How can this happen so many times?  I think I may be doing something wrong when I order.  That being said, I had a moment of "giving up."  I'm still not far enough in my spanish to where I can effectively explain "I'm sorry, but I ordered this as just tomato sauce and no meat" So trying to have the conversation yet again while feeling sick was just a little too much for me to handle at that moment.  The waiter was REALLY nice.  I thought I had ticked him off and maybe I did.  I had just opted to just fill up on the free bread and go home and count my losses, but he came and asked me if I wanted a salad.  And it was actually like a salad.  I mean the ratio was probably 15% onions (which I avoided) 15% tomatos, 30% carrots and 40% lettuce.  But that's the closest to home I've felt to my favorite dishes.   So it really was some sort of divine intervention that I just had the nicest waiter the time that I just REALLY needed.  

Lol, I don't know if it's because I'm feeling better than before I started writing this, but I don't feel as helpless as before.  I think I'm returning to normal which is hopefully a sign that I'm not going to be sick for much longer, (dear god please).  I know this was sort of a bum session (and a long one at that) So for that I offer my sincerest apologies to all of you who check in for random Alex crazy fun-ness in BA.  Ultimately, I am ok.  I was just feeling a little down this weekend.  Naturally when things are going poorly, you sort of start doubting yourself.  Especially when you took yourself out of an environment where you feel safe, secure and loved.  There are other things going on that are sort of off-putting, but they are mostly cultural things I simply must get accustomed too.  I realized over this weekend that I sincerely MUST tackle spanish harder than I have been.  I figure the first week it's not so bad to be speaking in english when you're getting accustomed to a new place.  And while I feel like my speaking capabilities are already WAY further than where they were, I feel like if I want to be fluent by the time my schooling is complete, I have to hit it harder and be tougher on myself to learn.  

Anywho, I could keep going, but I know this is WAY too long.  Take care everyone!

xoxo