Semana 2 en Cordoba

I’m back at the bar watching Sunday futbol and some team just scored a goal after 50 minutes of passing the ball around. Stand up and cheer! Anyway, time keeps chugging along here in Cordoba and our Spanish keeps getting better and better. I had my first random conversation with a local where I was actually able to hold my own. It was a proud achievement for me. Unfortunately, after talking slowly with this nice man for ten minutes while eating lunch at my favorite vegetarian restaurant, I realized he was a born-again Christian trying to convert me over to his team. “Jesus Christo es tu savior, es mi savior, es un savior por todo!” he exclaimed. “Jesus no es mi savior, lo siento,” was my reply.

We spent this week in class learning past tense verb forms and vocab words to use at the supermarket. This was Andy’s last week of lessons and she was determined to eek as much info out of Javier as possible. We were fortunate to be in Cordoba, the student capital of Argentina, during one of the most important political holidays of year. On March 24, the country stages demonstrations and parades to commemorate and honor the lives lost during the mini-holocaust that took place here between 1976-1980. During the four-year massacre, babies were taken from their home and either killed or sold, intellectuals went missing and never returned, and many activists were exiled or murdered. It was a dark stain on the country’s history and one that it will forever remember. The locals march for human rights and everyone seems to care. From my point of view it was uplifting to behold a country that continues to place importance on their history while also trying to recover from a devastating economic crash in 2002.

The march for human rights was a sight to behold. After weathering years of dictators, the rain could not stop the country from speaking their truth.

We had a very intense coversation with Javier about the atrocities that took place and how the pysche of the Argentinian people suffered because of the trauma. He mentioned how many politicians of today pretend to care and back certain groups in an attempt to win more votes. He also told us voting was mandatory in Argentina. What I think I love even more than learning the language is accumulating insight into the history people live with. It is interesting to nopte that throughout this year I have noticed that much of the world suffers from many of the same mistakes.

This was one of the good pieces of meat that Javier so kindly scored for me.

When class finished this week on Friday, our school threw a traditional asado BBQ fiesta for the students and teachers. Most people were seated around tables talking, while many of the men hovered around the grill looking for scraps from the chef. Before anything was served to the seated, all the grill lurkers got a quick taste of the cooked meat. Javier scored me some fleshy pieces of hot meat and watched as I tried parts of the cow I never imagined people could enjoy. “Muy rico!” I got my first taste of intenstines, blood sausage and liver. For the record, it was all much better than I thought it would be. There was one piece I tried that I had to spit out though, as the look and consistency reminded of something CBS Survivor would make you eat during a challenge. Despite this one mishap, I was proud of my willingness to try new, exotic foods.

No Jeff, I will not eat that blood sausage for $1,000,000.

Andy bit off a little more than she could chew at the BBQ. She's gonna hate me for putting this picture on the blog but I just had to.

On Saturday, Andy and I hit the town. We had tickets to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the famous Cordoba theatre and afterwards had plans with two other students from our school to go out clubbing. Caryn is a solo traveler from San Francisco that we met here in Cordoba. We are getting along with her real well and have been having little dinner parties, just the three of us, this whole week. Carlos is a Brasilian government worker on vacation here taking Spanish classes. He speaks almost no English and it has been a challenge to communicate with him. It’s like we are playing a game of foreign password: “miedo? nerviouso? timido?” answer: “scared!”) Despite this, we have had many interesting conversations.

We talked him into buying a ticket to see Bela and he was more than happy with that decision. This was Bela’s first time in Argentina, which means that for most of the people in attendance, this was their first Bela show. To put it midly, they blew the roof off the place. The crowd was rolling in their seats, shushing during quiet acoustic songs, and howling with enjoyment at the virtuosity of the group. Four standing ovations were scattered throughout the performance and the evening ended with the famous soccer/futball chant, “Alé, alé, alé, alé, aleeeeee, aleeeeee!” and then a three-song encore that left the crowd cheering and applaudiing for 10 minutes. Having seen Bela and the Flecktones close to 12 times, I was less blown away than others, but I will say here that this was the most energetic, tight Bela show I ever seen. (And don’t sleep on Jeff Coffin, that dude wails on the sax – he played two horns at the same time again. For those who have never witnessed the ease at which he pulls it off, it is a mind-blowing trip.)

After the show, Andy, Carlos and I met Caryn at the local café and the four of us went to Mitre, the most popular disco in Cordoba. It was filled with mingling teens and 20-something professionals. We were definitely the oldest people there. I’m cool with that though. It makes me feel good to know I can still go to these places and not totally stand out. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

It was 3 am and we headed straight for the dancefloor. The music was a little too techno-ish for me, but we got our groove on for about an hour before the pounding beats, smoke machine and crush of people finally sent me over my limit. Andy looked cute as ever and was feeling the music. I had to drag her off the dancefloor. We got home at 5 am and slept late into the afternoon today.

Andy leaves next Wednesday for Brazil to meet our friend Serena from NY. The girls are holding their annual vacation together in South America’s largest country. I will be staying in Cordoba the whole time while Andy is off exploring the wonders of Brazil. This will be our second split of the year and my focus for our time apart will be to continue to swim 3-4 times a week at our local pool, study my spanish verbs and finish my movie script.