September 17

Cordóba

Tuesday night I watche Clockwork Orange... not the most pleasant experience of my life.

Wednesday I only had to go to Spanish class. Then I went to FLACSO to check my email and such and have lunch with Lauren. The program had split our number in half so as not to have to organized housing for 120 people per visit so unluckily Lauren was going to Jujuy and I was going to Cordóba. She brought a piece of cheesecake and a piece of chocolate cake for us to share. It was delicious. Then I happily talked to Royce online for a couple hours before running home to take a shower, eat dinner, and pack in the hour and a half I had before I had to head to the Bus Station. I actually finished doing everything in an hour...lol. Then I drug my sport bag and book bag to the subte and found my way to the bus station. I actually got there an hour before I was supposed to get there because I hadn´t known how long it was going to take me to get there so I left early. Then we waited another hour and a half before we actually got on the bus, an extremely comfortable semi-sleeper with lots of space and apparently lots of food. It was just the beginning of a weekend of being stuffed full of food at every turn. Then we began our twelve hour bus ride with a horrible movie called Lucky Seven. I won´t bore you with the details of the odd movie.

We got to our destination at about 11 am Thursday morning and of course immediately went in for breakfast. Our destination was a small sort of resort. We separated into cabins and rooms of about four people each. The room I ended up in was kindof at the top of the hill and the view from our porch looked down over the village and up into the mountains in the background. Of course I didn´t know that on Thursday because it was really wet and cloudy the entire day. After we had lunch we all walked through town, cute, small, a little shabby, to a path that led up the river into the mountains. This part was beautiful and I was really excited to see something resembling nature. At the top of the mountain there was more food, snacks, and drinks for us to have before they drove us back to the resort. Then we had some more free time before dinner. Stuffed ourselves full of dinner and wine and beer before getting up to dance some local cumbia and things like that. It was fabulously fun. Well, I suppose I was a little lonely the whole trip because Lauren wasn´t there and I don´t really hang out with anyone else so it was awkward tagging along with other groups of friends. But it was fun to meet some new people. Anyway, then the people in my room and the girls from next door all hung out on the porch until some ungodly hour... well I suppose it was only 4 am.

Friday, we slept through breakfast and got up for lunch at 12:30. But the clouds had cleared mostly and I got to see all the gorgeous scenery. Then we all got into vans that took us up into the mountains to this gorgeous little waterfall where we hung out for most of the day. Some people were brave enough to hop into the pool below the waterfall, but I was not one of those. It was not really that warm out. Then we returned to the resort where we had some free time so each room could organize a skit to perform at the bonfire later that night. Dinner, wine, beer, free time, then the bonfire complete with hot wine, melted chocolate, marshmellows, and many hilarious and often horrible skits. Our skit was a short and rather lame depiction of how the young men in Bs. As. hit on women which basically consists of starting by showing us that they can speak english then basically just grabbing you. It was funny, but really not very good. There was a funny version of Twelve Days of christmas about all the rules that we had to follow in the program... most of which we don´t even try to follow. The evening was finished off by another large group of people sitting on our porch being drunk.

Saturday we skipped breakfast again and dragged ourselves out of bed so we could go out to a ranch or something where we had some of the tradicionally grilled meat that you hear so much about. It was quite good. Then they gave out prizes for the skits from the night before. And they gave us all Mate gordes (the cup you drink mate out of) with out names carved into them! It was so cute! Then we went HORSEBACK RIDING!!! It was really exciting for me. My horse was so cute and attentive to me. I felt like such an expert comparte to all the city kids getting on a horse for the first time (there weren´t actually THAT many who had never been on a horse before, but I was definitely one of the most experienced riders). It was fun! Then we retured to the resort to pack before getting back on the twelve hour bus where instead of one, we watch two bad movies.

We got back to Bs. As. at 7 am. The subte doesn´t open until 8 am on Sunday and am becoming less and less inclined to take taxis... because I´m cheap. A girl said that she would sit and have coffee with me until the subte opened. So we had some yogurt and cereal and chatted for an hour before getting on the subte and making our way home. I spent most of sunday relaxing on my bed. Then I went to the locutorio across the street for 5 hours to reconnect with my long lost parents, spencer, emily, and royce. It was too late to call kati. :(. Then I happily went to bed. Though I am not really excited to be back in the city. Seriously, I could have sat on that porch in that small town, with my roommate playing guitar in the background for the rest of my life. Or, maybe I was just so relieved to be out of the city. Anyway, I´m going to see if I can go to Uruguay this weekend. William wants to go anyway, to renew his tourist visa.