realizing the value of true friendship while baring your soul to a stranger at New Time Cafe.

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Receiving very little sleep from the night before, I decided to get ready for the day. There were a few people in my room, and one of them reminded me of a girl from back home that I went to elementary and middle school with. We also happened to go to th same college, but lost touch. It was kind of weird to see someone that looked so much like her, but it wasn't her. Since we had the same plans for the day, she asked me if she could head out with me and I said, "Sure, why not?" We brought our guidebooks and maps out and wandered around the city, looking at the beautiful architecture. I didn't have my camera with me, but Evin did and she will be sending me those photos once I get in touch with her! She also has a travel blog, so I thought that was cool.

For some reason, it is incredibly easy for me to open up to strangers. Or maybe I'm making it much more incredibly easy to open up in general. We wandered around and just talked about college and looked at the architecture.

Some things I like about Salta:
--BEAUTIFUL architecture
--wonderful plaza in the middle for sitting
--nice warm weather (i'm getting my socal summer, if it's just for a brief moment)
--food is much cheaper
--everything is centralized and easy to find

Things I do not like about Saltä:
--DAMN YOU SIESTA! Seriously.
--the hustle and the bustle. the streets are much more filled with people than I had imagined. I imagined a much smaller town with far less people, since it's up in the northern province. However, this was not the case. the streets were filled with people around 11, and then it becomes a ghost town during the siesta.
--street vendors that walk up to you while you are having lunch. I have had to say "No gracias" SO many times.

I continue to firmly believe that you meet everyone for a reason. Evin and I almost had an instantaneous connection and it was just so comfortable to talk. We told stories about where we had been, and talked about growing up. I had been looking for my Ipod and told her about how I almost lost it in Nashville. I wouldn't have felt bad if I lost it if my friends hadn't bought it for me, so we went into a long discussion about all of our friends. Who our friends were, where we met them, how we know them. This common discussion of friends is what really carried us through the whole day (as well as other similar experiences like Camp!).

After looking at some beautiful architecture and sitting in the square to people watch, we decided to have lunch at New Time cafe, as recommended by The Lonely Planet. It was beautiful enough for us to sit outside. My lunch was quite interesting. I was craving vegetables, so i wanted a salad. But this was unlike any other salad I had ever seen: Shredded carrots, shredded beets, apples, raisins, cranberries. Interesting to say the least because it was 1) not mixed together, but rather put separately on my plate and 2) there was nothing green. No lettuce. Oh well.

Our conversation during our lunch might have been the best conversation I've had with a stranger. We talked about why we are in Argentina. It's funny. When people asked me this in Buenos Aires, I didn't tell them the full story. But for some reason, I decided to head on and tell the full story here. I told her about the power of friendships and how much I realized that I am such a lucky person to have the friends I have in my life. I told her how hard the past year had been for me, so this trip was very deserving and selfish. So I went in and told her the story of 2007 and how my life got turned upside down in a few single moments.

But in those moments in telling her about my mom and Sabina, and being on the verge of tears (for a non-crier, is unbelievable) I realized how grateful I am for my friends. I told her about how the night my mom passed away the friends I was with basically did whatever it could to make me happy, to make me feel better. And instantaneously, I'm not sure how, but all of my friends knew and were there to help and support me-- even when I didn't want that support, as independent as I am. She told me of a similar experience when her grandma passed away and how our friends were there to help us and guide us through such a difficult time. Then I talked about Sabina-- and I can honestly say I hadn't talked about it with anyone, but e-mailing back and forth with Dre about the scrapbook kept it prevelant in my mind... as well as Erin's wedding. We continued to connect and talk about this strong power of friendship and how I am really the luckiest person in the world to have friends like you. Who have kept me sane and strong. Who know when I need space and that eventually I'll be there when I am ready.

Our conversation about death lead us to a lot of things that had happened to us following and how we learned to "deal" or how we got through that time. And I realized the most important thing: I haven't done a single thing to really heal and it's about time that I do. I told her about how I read Tuesdays with Morrie, the Tequila Worm and the namesake-- all had a little bit to do about dying. I told her how fascinated I was with how different cultures mourn and celebrate death except for the american culture. And i told her that if i were ever to need to be put on life support, i would rather not. It's funny how you think about these things and how it was so easy to open up. It was probably the most important conversation I had had during my trip here because it made me realize 1) how important my friends are to me and 2) that as strong as I appear about the situation, a year and a half later, i still have a lot of healing to do and it's time that I faced it.

As we continued to talk and wander the streets (due to Siesta), we talked about my list. Some of the things I wanted to do on it, and I told her the most important thing was to "Say No" and "Say Yes." I didn't explain to her what that meant. But I realized a few days ago, saying no isn't a part of who I am... and I will explain that when I talk about the incident where it made me realize this.

It was surprising how much we could talk about and share with each other. I definitely prefer one on one time with folks.

After we went to an art museum, we went up Cerro San Bernardo in a little trolley tram thingy. We read the brochure and had a laugh about the "artificial waterfall with exuberant vegetation." However, when we saw the waterfall, it was pretty beautiful. The view from up there was beautiful as the city lights came back on and the sun was setting. I'm still searching for that firey glow of a sunset... but it was pretty spectacular seeing things change from day to night.

While we were in line after our time up there, we met these guys. Two of them went to Berkeley and just graduated. One of them was going to move into a house by the lake. So Random. The other guy actually knew someone who Evin was going to live with. They had gone to the same summer camp or something. The world is really small after all.

When we got back, we were trying to decide whether or not to go to the barbeque or head somewhere else. We met this dutch girl and her parents and they were going to La Casona de Molina and had invited us to go along. Evin and I shared a parilla which was absolutely delicious. We had some good wine, good music and a lot of laughter... including the silliest bet ever. The dutch girl, Talitha, and the Austrian guy, Johannes made a little bet. If Johannes drinks 5 bottles of water in 10 minutes, Talitha had to get up on the table and sing a song for everyone. If he doesn't he had to carry Talitha on his back all the way to our hostel. Needless to say, he surprising gulped down 5 bottles of water in 10 minutes, with time to spare. Talitha got up on the table and sang Hava Nagila, which was simply entertaining! On the ride back, Johannes was really cold and thought he was going to explode or die from drinking all of that water. It was quite an entertaining cab ride back.

We ended up hanging out that evening for a little bit longer and were supposed to play Hearts in the reading room. But Jill Talitha and I went down to the computer to add each other on facebook (I swear, everyone has one) and we went off into a two hour conversation where the receptionist had to close the door to the main hallway and continued to tell us to be absolutely quiet. We continued to laugh and have fun... until finally... we all decided to go to bed. We are hoping to meet up in Buenos Aires, since we will be in Buenos Aires around the same time.

So thus adds another eye-opening chapter of growing and learning and realizing how beautiful people really are and how great the world really is.

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