Week in Link

It is tough to find a good chunk of undistracted time while living in a hostel. I will be on a bus for the next…oh, 20 hours, so I believe I will be able to right out this blog post. (Continue reading to find out just why I am, in fact, on a bus for nearly an entire day.)

Thursday last week was the day I was supposed to go to the river, but didn’t get to go. I ended up having different adventures instead, no thanks to the British girls. After I posted my blog, I went to have coffee at the same little shop I have gone to before. The guys there definitely know who I am now. I love it. While I was waiting on my café con crema to cool down, one of my friends from Mexico, José, walked by. I managed to get his attention through the window and convinced him to come in and sit down. We had a good long chat in Spanish for a few hours. We talked about our universities, soccer, etc. When I got back to the hostel, my roommate was there. I asked him if he wanted to go with me to Iguazu to see the famous waterfalls. I was expecting him to say “no” since José already said that he couldn’t, but Jacobo said he could! With in just a couple hours, all the bus tickets and hostel nights were purchased. I love the Internet because of how easy it was to do all of that. When I was finishing up the purchases, some people from José and Jacobo’s university started showing up for another exchange student’s birthday. While they were having some beers, Jacobo and I went to my little restaurant with pizza to eat dinner. When we were full we sat on the patio at Link with all of the exchange students to talk for a while. There were people from Colombia, Spain, and Brazil. I could understand the Colombians very easily and the Spaniards weren’t too difficult either. (Note: Brazil speaks Portuguese.) It was really cool to be able to understand the conversation without having to ask them to slow down. We headed out to town to get the birthday party started. Jacobo and I were feeling somewhat insecure about how we were dressed compared to the rest of the people in our group. Everyone had on a button up, heels, or some kind of cute outfit. On the other hand, Jacobo and I had on grey zipper hoodies. His had Pikachu on it. I also was wearing flip-flops, shorts, and no make up. Our first stop was a surprise though. We were searching for the address and looking for the “bar.” It was not a bar. There was a group of people with a makeshift table and chairs drinking beer and eating cakes. I was really confused, but felt better about what I had on since this was going to be some kind of street birthday party. Two guys from Brazil came over to say Hi to Jacobo and introduced themselves to me. Jacobo introduced me as his friend from France. I wasn’t sure why he was doing that, but I went along with it. Later on Jacobo told me that the two guys love European girls and he wanted to play a trick on them. I think they still believe I am from France. Haha. After a bit at the street party shindig, we headed over to a real club. Here there are lots of people who work for different clubs standing in the streets at night asking people to come to their club. They will give them a ticket to get in for free, cheaper, or some kind of deal most of the time. It also helps them to get people with the right “look” in their clubs. Still looking like we belonged in someone’s living room playing video games, Jacobo and I never got asked to go to a club. It was so obvious too! There would be a group of three or four in front of us, and a girl would ask them if they were interested in a club, not ask us, and then ask the couple behind us. This happened about three times. The group had decided on going to Studio Teatro, which I had already heard of before. It is an old theater that has been converted into a dance club. The stage sometimes has live music or people can get up there to dance if they want. And people can go up to the balcony seating to watch everyone dancing or have another drink. It is a very cool place. Since we were a group of over 15, some of the guys wanted to try to get in for free because they would get lots of drink sales from us. After about half an hour of trying, several of us still had to pay 15 pesos to get in. Less than $4, whatever.  We tried to feel cool in our hoodies for maybe 20 minutes, but just couldn’t, so Jacobo and I left to go back to the hostel. We agreed that we needed to come back another night thought because it was so cool…just with better clothes the next time.

The next morning, Friday, I slept in, checked Facebook and email, then Jacobo and I decided to go eat somewhere “fancy” for lunch. Aka – not a 3 peso miga. Migas are long white bread ham and cheese sandwiches that they sell here for suuuuuper cheap. There is really nothing to them, but they taste really good. They fill you up too. But we didn’t want to eat those, once again. Santiago, the owner of the hostel, suggested going to il Panino for lunch, just a few blocks away. It was pretty good. I had a soy burger that was HUGE!! I could only eat half of it. I got to put the other half in a to-go box. In order to de-full myself, Jacobo and I watched MTV for a couple hours. José came by and we all decided to go to Patio Olmos to have a beer and hang out. These guys are so funny. It is just constant fun and laughter hanging out with them. I really hope that we get to hang out some after Argentina. Monterrey, their city, isn’t too far from Houston. We went into the Patio Olmos mall just to look around. It used to be a really good old school, but they converted it into a mall. It is a really popular place for the hippies to sell their bracelets and other jewelry. When you go shopping with two guys, sports stores tend to be preferred over clothing stores. That is good though, I don’t need to buy the clothes in the malls here – pricey!!! Then José and Jacobo decided they wanted to eat at McDonalds. Uuuuugh! Why do I hang out with boys?!?! Haha. My phone was about to die, so we had to go back to the hostel so I could charge it before I went to watch a Flamenco show with Facundo. The show was beautiful! I loved watching the people dance like that. It is a very serious and kind of angry dance, something very different from what I am used to seeing. After the pros danced a few numbers, they let some audience members get on the stage to show off their dance skills. Love, love, love. I got back to the hostel around 12:30am. Just in time to finish my soy burger then go out! Jacobo, José, and I went to the Studio Teatro again. And this time we were lookin’ fly! During the walk, a girl from Argentina said (in Spanish) “Excuse, me, but are you Jacobo Wong?” And then freaked out when he said he was, got a picture with him, and everything. It was cool to see that happen. Especially since he is so far away from Mexico. We got to the club a little after 2am, and that might have been just a bit early because no one was really dancing. But we got the party going really soon. There was a live ska band playing, which was stinking awesome. I can dance to ska music. It just requires you kicking your legs around and acting really goofy. I guess they don’t do that here too often because people seemed to be staring. But Jacobo and I went up to the front and center of the dance floor next to the stage and brought party rock to the house that night. Once every got their boogie shoes on in the club, we went to the back to get a drink, and guess who we found!! Like…the rest of the hostel! An Israeli guy was having his birthday that day. So we hung out with the hostel people the rest of the night. We walked back to the hostel, some people stopped to get a hotdog, and then we went to sleep. Such a great night!

Saturday morning, I slept, but for lunch, I had Subway with Jacobo. I took a picture this time so you all could see how much it look like the one’s in the US. I just wish I could capture the smell some how! I wanted some coffee after eating, but my little coffee shop was closed for siesta. Sad face. So we went back to where Subway was because next door is a Starbucks! It is a little United States street right in the middle of Argentina. On the way to the US street, I just had to take a picture of the cruise ship we saw in a travel business window. There were several girls naked or topless. There was a naked couple chasing each other around the pool. I took a picture of the girl just striking a pose completely nude on the diving board with a girl behind her taking off her purple top. I just could not stop thinking about two things. What kind of company was this? And what was the creator thinking when he made the mini cruise ship? I got to Starbucks, and as usual, as soon as the employee hears my non-Spanish-speaker accent, he switches into English. It is so aggravating, but I continue to speak in Spanish. So there is yet another reason I don’t like Starbucks. International reasons. Also, the guy thought he was so good at his English, when he wrote my name on the cup, he wrote “Candle”! Haha. Wrong-o! We sat down at some couches and worked on some puzzles in a newspaper. It was nice to use my brain like that again. Back in the hostel, Jacobo needed to work on a video. He got asked by some people to go to the Olympics in London to do interviews about the games. He is up against two other Youtubers, so he had to make something like an audition video. He wanted to show that he is a better selection than the others by showing his ability to speak English. So I got to be the person he interviewed! The manager came to our room to tell us about the events that were happening in town that night. The newspaper was having a big anniversary so there was a celebration in a park. We walked around town, and then headed to the park. We saw a band playing some traditional sounding songs and people were doing some cool dances were they jumped high in the air and did kicks and spins. Over to the left and the right were some groups of people…slacklining!!! I think I freaked out a little bit when I saw that. We went over to a group and asked if I could slackline. I walked a few yards my first try and second. Then I told them it was my first time slacklining. Haha, they believed me for a second. Jacobo tried too. After I got my fix, we walked around the park some more. Saw some cool concrete egg-shaped chairs and people climbing up a giant red ribbon like they have in the circus. Next we walked over to the hippie fair so I could finish up almost all of my family souvenirs! During our outings, Jacobo and I talked about trying to stay out until the bars closed and kicked us out, then we would go to a park that all the locals go to after the clubs and eat migas. So we took a nap when we got back to the hostel in order to prepare for the night. We woke up a little after midnight, got ready, and went out. We couldn’t figure out where we wanted to go so we went to Buen Pastor and chatted for a bit. When we left to hunt for a club, people were practically begging us to go to their club. I felt famous.  We decided on a bar that was free to get into. It wasn’t that great but we had fun dancing and making fun of the music. Haha. However, we got tired around 4:30am and didn’t quite make it to the 5am closing time to get kicked out. So we went back to the hostel to go to bed.

Sunday was a pretty chill day. We filmed some for his next video, and we got a guy from Holland to join in. Then we set up the camera outside on the patio and I played my ukulele a little. That took pretty much the whole day, got some dinner, watched 10 Things I Hate About You, and went to sleep.

Back to the beginning of the week. Classes started for Jacobo again, and I got up early so I could pack and go my stay at my friend’s apartment. However, when I texted her to find out the plans, it turned out that I could not stay with her because there really wasn’t any room. More nights at Link Hostel! I decided to do an ab workout then shower to get my day going. I was going to work on my blog, but the roommie got back and we watched Youtube videos instead. The night before I had said, “Wouldn’t it be weird if we had other roommates here?” We had gotten so used to it being just our room. And guess what happened the next day? We got two new roommates! Two girls from Denmark. Jacobo and I took thought it would be a good idea to take a walk around town since our house just got invaded by new people, we needed to recuperate. That little walked turned into quite the adventure. We took a stroll down the main shopping street, got turned around, and ended up back at the street the hostel is on. My theory is that the intoxicating smell coming from the Adidas/Nike store confused us. So we went to grab a quick ice cream cone…that turned out to be a 15-minute walk away. I thought there was one closer. Since we were so close to Patio Olmos (the school turned mall), we went inside to just look around. We passed the movie theater in the mall and saw that a movie he wanted to see was starting in 25 minutes. So what else would we do but buy tickets, popcorn, and a soda, and watch the movie! We saw Project X. It is a movie about some loser-type high school kids throwing a huge party to become cool, and the party goes out of control! It was made by the same people as The Hangover, so it was really good. I just realized that you all might know about this movie since you are in the States. I haven’t heard about it though. Haha. I felt so happy sitting in that theater because I got salty popcorn that time! It is always sweet popcorn here, and it just doesn’t give off the right vibe in a theater. After the movie, we heard some kind of soccer celebration going on. There was a big group of people with banners, flags, and instruments celebrating the 107^th anniversary of the team Belgrano. Then farther down on the walk, there was a big parade that was probably three or four blocks long. It was really cool to see that. We weren’t quite ready to go to bed when we got to the hostel, so we asked lots of people if they wanted to go with us to get a drink. No one wanted to though, and our roommates said they were tired from their long bus ride. So we walked back to Patio Olmos to have a beer, walked back to a kiosk to buy migas and a KinderSorpresa. That is a hollow chocolate egg with a little toy or game inside. My egg had a little toy with a skiing girl. I thought it was too awesome! We hung out on the patio and went to sleep.

 Tuesday I was supposed to wake up to try to go on a hiking trip with the new roommates, but I felt like I had a cold, so we rescheduled for Wednesday. Jacobo wasn’t feeling too hot either, so we went to Disco, the grocery store, to buy soup and orange juice. While I was making the soup, José came to the kitchen to visit. There was a marker hanging from a string on the fridge, so he demonstrated his drawing skills on the side of the fridge. The drawing was really good and all, but he didn’t realize that the marker was permanent. Haha…why was a permanent marker hanging from the fridge? I felt even worse after the soup and juice, so I took a nap. Got to do some Skyping, then went to Buen Pastor to meet Flavia and Agu, two friends from Bell Ville, for maté and pastries. Remember when I went a couple weeks ago, and couldn’t figure out why people kept saying to go see the fountains? Well I found out why this time. On every hour, the fountains do a little dance to a few songs. It was a very nice surprise to come upon. After maté, we went to Agu’s apartment to have pizza for dinner. Nachi, her brother, was there too. The pizza was good and company even better. I came back to the hostel a little after midnight and got to watch Jacobo edit some of the video, had some more orange juice, then went to sleep.

Maybe drinking orange juice right before I went to bed wasn’t the best idea, or maybe Jacobo’s alarm going off for ten minutes before I got him to turn it off was the bad thing. But about 20 minutes after I got the alarm to shut up, I woke up again, but this time it was terrible. I was dreaming that I had an uncle named Uncle Tio. (Tio means uncle in Spanish.) And he was going to die unless I saved him. Somehow I didn’t save him and he died. Then I woke up, but I was in my room in Sulphur Springs. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t. I have had those dreams before where I tried to scream, but it never happens…except for this time. I actually screamed out loud in the hostel. It sounded like someone was trying to murder me! After I woke up and figured out what was going on, I didn’t know if I wanted to cry because I was so freaked out, or laugh because I just screamed in my sleep. Very strange feeling. Later the two girls from Denmark and I got ready to go on our hiking trip. It was shocking that the guide was at the hostel early. Normally in Argentina, if someone says we will meet at 8:30am, that means more around 9 or 9:30am, but he was there at 8am! Where am I? The hike was so refreshing. It felt so good to be able to breathe again without inhaling car or bus fumes. It was about 2 and a half hours to get to the beautiful waterfall. There was only one tough part because it was going almost straight down, and half way through that, the guide reminded us that we got to climb back up the hill on the way back. The hike was worth it. I could have sat at that waterfall for hours. It looked like something we would see on Pinterest that girls would post saying they would go there some day know that in reality they never would. But I did!! We got back to the hostel, and I was too tired to take a shower immediately, so I hung out on the patio with José and Jacobo. Some Quilmes beer was brought out. I am really starting to get tired of this watered down beer here. Gimme some good Texas beer! Ha. I took and shower, then told then went back to the patio. A guy from Australia had joined since I left. I told them about this Chinese food restaurant I saw the night before when I was walking back from dinner with Agu and Flavia. I have been searching for Chinese for a few weeks now. So went to go eat there! It was kind of suspicious looking and after we left we were all a touch worried that we would have food poisoning the next day. So more naps ensued. Then more orange juice just to make sure, and some Halls as well. We sat in the kitchen to drink the orange juice because there were a lot of people in the having a party. An Irish guy and a Scottish guy started to take to us. They were rather inebriated, and hilarious. They acted like they came out of a movie.

Thursday I got up to start packing and cleaning my room for check out. I am going to miss Link. It was my home for over a week! Jacobo got back from classes, packed, and then we went to eat pizza at my pizza shop. We put our big luggage in a locker room for while we are gone, then left for Iguazu. The adventure started off with a – bang – I guess in the taxi. Our driver was crazy! And that is saying a lot because all of the driving here is kind of nuts, but I have gotten used to it. But this guy…wow. He drove super fast, almost rear ended cars every time we stopped, and one time he was going around a car and hit it! Yeah, I have been in a car crash in Argentina! The guy just kept going like nothing happened! We got to the bus station on time and alive. The bus arrived, and we got on…for the next 21 plus hours. It was a bunch of sleeping, waking up to eat merienda, sleeping, waking up to eat dinner, sleeping, waking up to eat breakfast, blog and music in there too at times. Breakfast was kind of confusing because the guy said something to us that neither of us caught, and then skipped serving us coffee/mate or the pastries. We could not figure out what was going on. Then we got to a stop and almost everyone got off. So we figured that he was going to serve the people who were leaving first, then us later. That was somewhat true. It turned out that he overslept and had to rush through breakfast and skip us. Then we stopped at the company station of the bus to get more breakfast. We had to close the curtains on the bus because if people saw us eating breakfast late, the guy could have gotten fired. We got extra pastries, so it was fine that we had to wait 20 extra minutes. The last couple hours of the drive were beautiful. I looked so much like what I remember of Costa Rica. So green and so many different trees.

I will post more about my trip to Iguazu later. I feel like this post is plenty long for now!