With more photos! Get comfy, this is probably my longest blog to date.
Before ANYTHING else is said, I must give the following very important public service announcement.........if you are going to be celebrating your favorite holiday in another country, it would behoove you to do some research and make sure the country celebrates the holiday! Thank You! More on this PSA in a minute.
But first I need to go back to the last time I wrote something down. It's getting harder and harder to write in here everyday. Sorry I'm failing you faithful readers back home. :)
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty tame. I went back to Museo, the nightclub on Wednesday night (and only had 1 drink for those of you who are still worried about me). Had a great time. Thursday, I totally lost cool points with a lot of people by going with 2 friends to see the 5 installment of the "Saw" movie series. I know I shouldn't have been excited about it at all considering how I HATED the 3rd one and the twist of the 4th one was insanely stupid. But for whatever reason I was completely stoked about the new movie. Of the 5, I'd place it in the middle as far as likability goes. The Spanish subtitles actually made the experience more fun. Go Subtitles!
Then I went back to school to study until there was a class on how to make these Argentinean cookies. The process was fun even though I had to keep going back to wash my hands because I kept sneezing into my hands and not my shoulder. The cookies were absolutely delicious but probably artery clogging like nothing else I've ever had.
Friday was a day of great anticipation for me. At school, It was the last day of 2A, I was also loosing A LOT of friends, and it was HALLOWEEN!
I went to school, with not a lot of energy. My instructor made the GRAVE mistake of telling our class that pass or fail, we were going to move onto the next level of 2B. Good thing that was the case. Had it not been, I may have been in serious trouble. We took the test and then corrected it. Then that was a wrap for 2A I hate to say it, but THANK GOD. I had the nicest teacher ever, but she did not make learning the language that exciting. Obviously, not every teacher must do so, but it makes a person who needs a lot of energy to stay on par with what I need to learn. Also, it looks as though August, my little brother on the trip is moving to the afternoon classes because he can't wake up in time for the morning session. Susan (the beauty from Switzerland via Germany) is heading back home, leaving Bernard (Germany) and I to take on 2B. Bernhard is an interesting duck to say the least.
LtoR August (Sweden) Ana-Instructor (Argentina) Bernhard (Germany) and Susan (Switzerland via Germany) and Alex
Afterwards was the weekly graduation-type ceremony. Horrible food for us vegetarians (which there are quite a few on this trip) and then the handing out of diplomas and speeches. It was sad watching friend after friend getting up there and say there goodbyes to everyone. This was especially difficult because most of the people leaving were people that arrived when I did 4 weeks ago. so we had that experience of being in a new place together and all the buzz and excitement that goes along with it. I know it's part of the terrain of being here for so long, but yeah. Still sad. (Miss you guys already!)
Mathias and Carmen
Nina (Germany), Alex and Tanja (Switzerland)
Stephanie (US) and Lela (Carribean via Switzerland)
Then I went out with some friends to the park, where there were all these venders selling stuff. I found this necklace that I liked, but was (and still am a little convinced) is for a woman. The lady selling them was very nice. We had a great conversation, she said I should be a model. Nothing would be cooler than to get paid for having my picture taken, because then I wouldn't have to speak my broken spanish to survive. After the conversation, she ended up giving me the necklace for free. It was really unique, and I didn't really understand why, but it was a really nice gesture that I appreciated a lot.
LtoR: Jessica (The Netherlands) Nina (Germany) Dorinne (???) Eric (Holland) August (Sweden) and Miriam (Holland)
I don't know why, but I really like this picture. This is the necklace that was given to me.
Afterwards, I hung out with the students and went home to plan the evening. I was going to dinner with Mathias, Lela (Carribean via Switzerland) Carmen (Switzerland) and Marko (Germany). Then we were going to the birthday party of Romina, the director of the school that I go to. Which, by the way, Unless your birthday is 10/31, what kind of twisted sadist has a birthday party on halloween night? I love this woman, but come on. Afterwards, my homestay sister Brittney (US), her friend Sarah (US), all other interested parties and I were supposed to go to an international halloween party. I was going to be rocking an outfit that unless you've known me for a number of years, you probably have never seen. And since I didn't use my camera that night (low battery) you'll have to wait to see it, all I can say is good or bad, I was getting a LOT of looks. I'll just say that it's an outfit I wore once to Rocky Horror and leave it at that.
Dinner went down at my favorite restaurant out here, BIO. It was one of my favorite experiences yet. Lela is a hilariously open minded woman. I'm going to go live with her in the Carribean and get taken care by her (This is HER idea mind you, but I'm up for it!) Carmen is adorable, Mathias is like my big brother, and Marko is the guy that the 3 of them know much better than I do.
I go to the birthday party and was going to wait until right before leaving to change into my costume. The students from my homestay sister's program were the only people in there wearing costumes. It was really funny how many people wanted me to change into mine, because I was carrying it in a bag. I only did it because I was so flipping hot in that bar. My friend Nina came with me to the bathroom and helps me change. We caused a lot of commotion with that considering the other men in the bathroom were a little confused and probably very uncomfortable. I re-enter, costume clad, and made quite a splash. I was told I made quite a splash and was the "most popular person" in there. Personally I think I had the most "what the heck is he wearing" outfit, but perhaps I'm probably splitting hairs. I'm getting a lot of accolades from people (namely women and straight men from the school) and as much as I love it, I really want to go to the halloween party. Long story short, I'm ready to go, Brittney and Sarah aren't. I finally say, screw it, I'm going anyway, at which my dinner companions are ready to go home. I'm determined to go to this hallowen thing. So I'm totally on my own trying to get someone to come with. So after an hour, I finally get my friend Tanja to go with me. More and more students are leaving and more and more Argentineans are arriving and not finding my costume funny. So I get my clothes back on and we leave. We first check out this weird rave/house thing = stupid. We take a cab over to the costume party that is JUST ending. I was pretty depressed on that one. Valid lesson learned. IF YOU HAVE A PLAN AND PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO STICK TO IT, LEAVE ANYWAY AND BLAME THEM IF THEY GET UPSET. My darn nice side didn't want to leave britt and sarah. So I go home upset and dejected and blaming myself for the way the night turned out.
Thank god for a new day right?
I wake up, take a shower and head out for what actually turned out to be a great time. First, I went to Mathias' apartment to say goodbye to him as well as Carmen and Lela. He made Euro style pancakes and they were quite good. Afterwards, I meet up Tanja. We were going to the GAY PRIDE festival that I only learned about 2 days beforehand......We eat in the park and head over. It was a bit dull until we ran into Eric (Holland) and his friends. He has the great idea of trying to get on one of these (for a lack of a better term) a truck type thing with a giant area for people to be in for dancing. We were actually able to get on one and were dancing for about 3 hours. It was a total hoot. We were worried it wasn't going to move when we were on it for over an hour and still wasn't moving. I'm so glad it did though. We were having a great time. We got to dance up the entire parade route. The funniest parts about the ride were:
- The had the same 10 songs on a loop. 5 of which you could really dance to and go crazy (Y.M.C.A., I Will Survive, Grace Kelly), and then a few that even if I knew the words to, I wouldn't EVER want to dance to (Like A Prayer for example)
- There was a Madonna look alike next to me, who was pretty aggressive about being able to be seen by parade patrons. She obviously has never heard of me. While I was totally open for making sure she could have space to groove, I wasn't going to let her push me out of my area. We eventually made peace with the mounting tension we were feeling.
Something interesting also happened. There was a guy walking up the parade route who was giving me a lot of attention. Well, our group was getting a lot of attention in general. But this guy would be near our dance car, then gone, then back again. But he and I were always doing the "you look at me and smile, I look back and smile thing" that I'm horrible at. Let's be honest, I'm horrible at anything to do with romance. Eventually, he made his way up on our car. He turned out to be about a full foot shorter than me, so I worried he might be 16 or something. Anywho, we did the fun shirtless dancing thing. It was a lot of fun. His name is Dany. We finally got to the end of the parade route that was more or less the end of the evening. Dany and I made plans to see each other again. I don't know how to feel about it but just that he may be a friend. I'm so stupid with guys. Throw in the fact there's a HUGE language barrier since he doesn't speak much english. I speak more spanish then when I got here, but understanding is still near impossible for me. Right now, I'll just take it as a nice guy and that there is a mutual attraction. Hopefully we'll get to know each other and maybe practice learning each other's languages. The two of us with Eric and Tanja grabbed some food and then went to our respective homes.
Tanja and I arriving at Gay Pride
My tiny Admirer Dany and I.
We both look horrible.
Well, that's the extensive version of what went on with my weekend. Lol. I need to shower and do some heavy duty studying.
xoxo
p.s. REALLY short story. Was invited by my US friend living in BA to a costume party a week ago. Movie themed. I had absolutely nothing to work with clothing-wise. So I took my bruise wheel of different colored make-up and made a broken line going down my chest to a "X" near my waist line, and called myself "National Treasure." We drew palm trees, the ocean and mountains and even a compass. It was so dark where we were that no one could tell it was on there at all. Even if they had, I doubt they would have understood the reference. But I was really proud of myself for the idea having little time and little resources to work with. 
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