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Published: February 5th 2008
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Here we go. Another big entry I hope. Much has happened since Monday and I will try to squeeze it all into this entry. I am actually writing this in Bariloche, Argentina right now, which is lovely might I add.
The week went on after my champagne poisoning alright, though I felt like complete crap until about 4pm the next day. I ate some fruit from a little shop down the street from the school and that made me feel much better, which leads me to believe that I had scurvy. The night of the dinner I met two new interesting characters. James, yes another, from NewCastle, England, and David from Manhattan. James has an education in music teaching and David is studying to be a doctor. I had the chance to hang out with James a few times this week but sadly, I only saw David a few times since. David is diving head first into the Spanish thing and will try to talk only in Spanish all the time. Muy dificil para mi. James and I see eye to eye on many things so we would either go drinking or just get some coffee. It is kind of
nice to just relax at a café instead of fighting your way to the bar every night.
OH, by the way. I finally got tired of having baby coffees so I told the waiter to bring me the biggest coffee in BsAs. He brought out what we would call a Tall at StarBucks but I don’t care, it was big enough and tasted pretty good. In a month I will be heading to Santiago, Chile and they have a Starbucks there. I cannot wait. Vanilla Latte here I come.
Classes became more difficult than the other weeks and I found myself at times not knowing what the hell was going on. There was no test at the end of the week thankfully because I would have undoubtedly failed it. Here in Bariloche I am thinking of going back a level to re-hash some basic verbs. My new teacher, Juan, was really funny and we actually made fun of each other quite often. He was pretty short so that was easy, but one time he made reference to Texans marrying their cousins and I had to give him props for that. On my last day of classes, as
the graduates receive their diplomas, we have to give a speech. Well, I don’t speak Spanish all that well and I was having problems creating a speech so I came up with another idea when I was riding the bus. A blind homeless guy was handing out flyers to everyone on the bus and I decided just to read that instead. It really made no sense at all but made the staff of the school just about cry laughing. I think it was about a guy loving a women he had lost hmmmm. I have saved it. Someday I will figure it out. We did our speeches, went to class, and then that was it for escuela en Buenos Aires.
The last night was pretty good. I met the James and Anne at the little pizza joint next to school around 9 and we headed out to a nice little Greek place in Palermo. We wanted to sit outside but all the tables were full out front so they took us to the top of the building instead. Amazing experience. We ascended up a spiral staircase to the beautiful roof, which we had to ourselves. A really funny
Scottish girl showed up to join us as well as Claudia from class and Ellen, a fellow American. We just had a normal dinner with wine. Nothing special food wise. I told Claudia once before about my Swiss army knife that I had taken from me by airport security. I had it for 2 years in the Navy. It went out to sea with me probably 10 times and then I forgot to take it out of my carryon luggage one time, so they took it. Those bastards. Well I had told Claudia the story so she got me a new one. She told me not to lose this one and to not kill anyone with it. Haha. I love Claudia. I asked her to marry me and runaway to America. She said no. She would never move to America. Oh well, I just have to find another Swiss Panadera. . After dinner Claudia and the Scottish gal (I don’t remember her name) left us and we headed to a bar near the school. I was invited there by some guys that work at the school. It was called The Spot. Nice place. Just a bar, nothing snazzy. The bartender walked over and asked me “What do you want.” In a Boston accent. I guess you had to be there. It was unexpected. After having my ass kicked by James on the soccer field I finally found a game that I am better at than him. Darts. We played a game and I simply smoked him. I felt pretty good about it. We stayed there until around 4am and said our goodbyes. Wasn’t a real tear jerker or anything but I will miss James. I hung out with him most of the time. He wasn’t like most of the people here, rich or super intelligent, so I connected with him. Oh well, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to leave ones I cared about, and it probably wont be the last either.
I woke up the next day very late but I didn’t care. My bus wasn’t departing until 5:20. Bus stations aren’t like airports. All you have to do is walk up to the bus and off you go. No frisking or cavity searches. I was a bit bummed because I didn’t get to say goodbye to Ines, mi mujeres de la casa. I don’t know where she was that day and I wanted to thank here and give her a hug. Oh well again. After my last bus experience I wasn’t really looking forward to this experience. I was hoping to have a pleasant, restful ride to Bariloche. I got it actually. The bus pulled up and was impressive. About twenty feet tall, double decker, red and white. My seat was on the very bottom, near the front. Big cushy seats and a cute girl that spoke English sitting two seats over. At first it was empty, but it quickly filled up. For awhile I sat without a person next to me but soon a woman filled the seat. It really wasn’t a problem because there was enough room. At one point the bus stopped at some little shack in the middle of the country. I had no clue what was going on and everyone was getting out and going to the shack. I followed like a cow in the herd. It was a cafeteria designed by the bus company. In this 24 hour bus ride breakfast and dinner was provided. It was an egg covered in meatloaf and a little salad. Not too bad. Ive had worse here. The breakfast was croissants and café con leche. After dinner there was a movie. It might just have been the most inappropriate movie ever chosen. I didn’t catch the name but it was about an English executioner during the late 40’s. In the first 10 minutes you see a guy get hung and then maybe 30 minutes later there is full frontal nudity. I liked it but I don’t know about the 7 year old boys mother riding on the top level. The movie in the morning was The Nanny Diaries. I was looking in my dictionary for “Are we there yet.” Actually, it wasn’t that bad, chick flick and all. I woke up at one point around 2am and looked outside only to see the most beautiful starfilled sky. The only other time I had seen anything like it was in New Mexico, was out in the mountains on a backpacking trip. At dawn I even had the chance to see the sun rise. I was started to think I will ride the bus to Santiago in a month.
Finally, after 24 hours in a bus, we arrived in Bariloche, Argentina. Looks like Colorado. Not as high up though, which is nice. There is an enourmous lake at the bottom of the city. I just got here so I will make another entry describing the rest for you later. For know, Adios and Hasta Luego. -Eric
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