The past few days have been all about making new friends and spending time with the ones I have already made. On Sunday, when I last wrote I spent the day with my adopted family beside the pool. We ate a delicious huge lunch out on the patio, all of us in our bathing suits, grandma included, and then just relaxed. Later that I evening I returned to my house, and thought that I would turn in relatively early for once, when I got a call for an invitation to eat fideo, pasta. Half an hour later I was picked up by Simon and Brooke, and we drove across town to his sailing friend’s house. Guille is his name, and he cooked some delicious homemade pastas for us. We sat for a couple hours and enjoyed the delicious meal with his wife and sister and their super active one year old daughter. The house was small and cozy, and the magnets on the fridge from all over the world inspired good conversation about travel. We left the house around midnight, and little Catarina was still awake and active. I smiled to myself, thinking how “go with the flow” they seemed.

On Wednesday I ventured downtown early before my tango lesson to go meet Brooke and a friend George to go see a movie around three. It was so hot that when I got to the place where we were supposed to meet my face was red, I mean RED, and I was sweating like crazy. Unfortunately, when I got there the lights were out so we weren’t able to see a movie. Here in Cordoba because of the continuous heat they have been having they have to cut the lights in different barrios every day for a couple hours at a time as a result of too many people using too much energy. That means that sometimes all the shops down town and everywhere don’t have lights. It’s a pretty big inconvenience to live with, but I think its kind of funny sometimes, walking around somewhere that doesn’t have light. For example, that day I went to Grido, which is the ice cream chain here that they have about every two blocks here, and sat in the dark eating ice cream for a couple of hours talking till we had to go to dance class.

It has been too hot here (today it’s supposed to get up to 39 degrees Celsius) to go many places during the day, so again, I have spent much time at the Armenian club, swimming in the pool and drinking mate. It is nice to meet so many people, and the more I go, the less shy I become, and am able to talk to them better. I love how spontaneous asados are! Last night we were all drinking mate and playing cards at the club when one person mentioned something about eating, and then the idea of an asado came up. Soon there was somebody buying the meat, somebody buying the veggies, somebody preparing the grill, everybody doing something small to contribute to the asado. In the end there were about 20 of us all gathered around a bunch of put together tables, passing around the various types of salads, breads, and meats. I felt so comfortable and welcomed there with this huge group of people, passing the time talking and laughing, they all are very willing to explain different parts of their culture to me, and ask me questions about mine. After it’s all over everybody helps clean up (there are almost never left overs) and then its time to say good bye. That takes a while though; considering you have to kiss each person on the cheek every time you say hello or goodbye. That’s probably one of my favorites out of the beautiful culture of Argentina.

Here I have left you with some pictures of my trip, the first two are of when I went to Carlos Paz, the third one is of hanging out down town, the fourth of tango lessons, and the last one of my asado last night. Hope you enjoy!