Travel a Salta and arrival

This whole thing is not very coherent, lo siento, but I don’t want to editar más so here you are:

This is going to be a long and rambling post, and I repeat myself a lot, because I wrote some of it on the plane and some of it right now, and I am tired and my brain is trying to think in Spanish because it is 12:12 a.m. (porque es la hora que se acuestan aca), so, sorryyyy but at least it’s something for you all en EEUU to read (SPEAKING OF WHICH: A cool thing I learned is that in Spanish, they sometimes use two letters in an acronym (is that what it’s even called? Only 2 days here and I am forgetting English) to show that something is plural, for example “Estados” (states) is plural so you use two E’s).

THE POST:

The time since Tuesday morning has been the longest day of my life.

Right now, I'm on a plane to Salta from Buenos Aires, where I sat in an airport for an hour or so with 3 italianas (amiccisssss <333), one guy from Switzerland, another from the Netherlands, and a girl from Canada. As we got on the plane, Emma (amicaaaa) and I were saying “Holaaaaa” very loudly and this man gave us a very strange look and we laughed forever.

On the plane to BA, Zoey (Wisconsin) and Lilly (New Mexico) and Henry (DC/Florida) and me were all in a row and we talked for a few hours about religion and random other things, and then Zoey and I ended up talking for a very long while about how we could totally morph our society to include apes because they're so intelligent and communicate and so on. It was a very sleepy but aware talk and it felt very natural and nice. 

We got off the plane in Buenos Aires and made our way through customs, and Henry randomly brought up the fact that he brought an extra pair of socks because "they're so versatile," which I thought was a hilarious reason to bring extra socks. Then we found a milllionnnn Italianos, and one of them (who I later learned is Leonardo) yelled "Why are they all blond?!" when he saw us. Only 4 out of the 13 of us were blond and I enjoyed that comment very much. Then we all exchanged names and where we were going with all of the Italians and commented on how pretty they all are etc etc (E.scribir T.anto C.anso, I learned from host sister Azul). They all were wearing yellow shirts. I was so excited in that moment because there was so much potential for meeting people all in one tiny area. Then we went through customs and immigration and on the way into immigration this lion-faced Italian started shouting "Yes, queen!!" at absolutely no one, and then when I laughed as I walked by him he said "Ooh, my gay is showing." 

 Once we got though customs we were all herded into an even smaller and hotter space, where we dropped our bags and waited in line for a billion years to get copies of our parental consent forms made (why?? Bo), but during that time I made multiple (mostly Italian) friends including Leonardo, Dario (DARio, no Darío--who called me Utah and taught me Italian), Oreste (the gay one who kept needing a smoke break and kissing me on the cheeks and pinching them (“you are so... how do you say it? Fluffy?”) and making me say bad phrases in Italian but telling me they were nice. When asked what his favorite kind of music is: "Pop music. How can I love, for example, rap?" He is a big Gaga fan.), Lillo (Life is Beautiful 

 he asked me which famous Italians i know of, and I told him I don't know any really, but then he brought up Life is Beautiful and I practically SCREAMED because I love that movie), Mmmmmmmm I keep forgetting her name MONICA who is shorter than me and kept saying how “fucking sleepy” she was. Also, someone asked one of them if they knew what Crocs are and she said, "Yes, we do, but we DON’T wear them," in the most disgusted voice. And all of them kept saying "el niño bebe" (the boy drinks) because apparently that's like (jaja, like) the only phrase Italy teaches in Spanish class which is hilarious and not useful at all. THEN after some italian bonding time and Ciaos, some of us went upstairs in the airport to get food, so it was me, a few Italian girls, one Italian boy who kept saying very funny things, like he would drink the water and then say "Eh. Could be better,” in a very silly way, and we talked about what teenagers do for fun in Italy and Serbia because there was also a girl from Serbia there. Apparently in Italy the companies that put out chairs and umbrellas on the beach also host night beach parties. And I learned that pepperoni pizza in Italy is pizza with peppers, and salame pizza is pepperoni pizza like we have in the U.S. Very important.

THEN all of the people going to the other, smaller airport (why??) had to rush out of there to the bus, where I sat next to a freckled boy from the Netherlands/Holland (I learned that the Netherlands is the country but the provinces in it are called North Holland and South Holland or something like that so that's why people just call it Holland, and in Spanish the name for the Netherlands is too long so people say Hollando (?)). And we talked mostly about U.S. (I'm trying not to say American!!) politics and the differences between the school systems and political systems in the U.S. and in Holland.

Everyone going to Salta

We got to the airport and walked a few miles until we were at this seating area, where we realized we had five hours to kill until our flight, so we just talked for awhile and that's when I decided to learn Italian. They taught me "tutto bene?" and "preggo" and I sort of understood some of their conversations because it's a little bit similar to Spanish but all I kept saying was "tutto bene" over and over and calling everyone "amicci" (which is wrong, I think that means for a group or something) and "amica" all the way until we got to our next flight and they thought that was very funny. And I talked to the Netherlands guy and learned that his name is Faas and he talked to this other guy from Switzerland, Sivi, in Dutch/German?? which I did not understand at all. Mostly, there was lots of Italian and Faas gave me stroop waffels which are better than the ones we have in the U.S. that you can get at World Market. He said, “I will miss these,” and I said, “Me too, even though this is the first time I’ve had them.” Dario taught me more Italian kind of and we all had a big demonstration with the AFS volunteer of how to show dominance when shaking hands if there is a camera present (always have your hand in front on the camera side, if that's not possible, clap them on the shoulder). And Faas and Sivi were talking in Dutch (????) and said something about a coach and they thought I didn't know what a coach was because I'm American and apparently coaches are only for royalty, which we don't have, but I said “I know what they are, they have them in Downton Abbey,” and Sivi said, "Downton Abbey... Is that in New York?" Which I thought was absolutely fanTASTICALLY so funny and wonderful.

Then we decided that italians draw out the ends of their words, or maybe just Naples Italians, I don't remember, but there was then this big joke that Italians say holaaaaa with a long tail at the end of hola. 

Thennn it was finally time for our flight and we walked a few miles downstairs to check in and whatnot, then did security and waited at the gate for a bit. I got very excited about speaking in Italian and the Italian girls got a kick out of it so we joked about that and it was very fun and I felt so giddy and couldn't stop laughing, and we did funny things with drawing out words and doing weird inflections and saying "bo" (which is like a sound you make for 'I don't know'). 

Faas somehow disappeared when we were in line for boarding and Sivi asked, "Donde está Faas?" but I thought he said "A donde vas?"--haha, funny mix up.! Then Faas came back and kept saying "Oh my God!" in an American accent to make fun of me and said that it was funny that people don't like driving 30 minutes from Park City to Salt Lake because he always thinks of Americans as saying, "A four hour drive? That's just around the corner!" Which is soooo funny oh my god. Haha, and Sivi was making fun of me because I brought up how Americans say ‘like’ so much because the Italians were talking about a similar thing, and then I couldn't stop saying ‘like’ while I was explaining that.

And we started saying “Faas” with a very long “a” sound in the middle, because it has two a’s, and you have to do a wave motion with your arms when you say it. Like (and everyone made fun of me for saying ‘like’ and ‘oh my god’ all the time because that’s very American), we couldn’t see Faas at one point when we were in baggage claim, so Francesca said, “Where is Faas?” But she paused to do the arm motion. Very funny. Also in baggage claim, Sivi started talking to the Italians and me in Dutch/German??? And didn’t realize until we made a face, which is kind of cool. Everyone speaks 2 or 3 languages, or 2 not including Spanish, so people get languages mixed up a lot. Also, Sivi went out to meet his family before any of the rest of us did, and he came back and said, “I just told them I was very married! So embarrassing!” in such a silly way, I am a big fan of these people, Because the words for married (casado) and tired (cansado) are very similar. Language is very weird.

And then we couldn't figure out how to pronounce "Sivi" and Emma couldn't figure out the intonation for "hola" and I couldn't figure out the intonation for "grazi" so we all kept saying those things in different intimations and the Italians kept saying "grazi, punto" and I did not understand and I'm sure I never said it right. 

Then I spoke in Spanish for a bit but the Italians could still understand me even though they say their Spanish is very poor. I am jealous of them, they are definitely going to be trilingual by the end of this year. Then as we boarded the plane, Emma and I kept saying "holaaaaa" a million times with weird inflections and laughing, and then Sara shushed us because we were being very loud and silly and we looked over and this MAN behind us was giving us the most horrified look ever so we had to stop but I was laughing so much I literally thought I might pee. Then as we actually got on the plane and we're finding our seats Emma kept saying "Donde está la biblioteca?" Which was very silly.

NEXT DAY (today, sábado):

Today, Facu (age 2) y Mamá (very sweet and cariñosa) came in to wake up Azul (age 14? 15?) and me, then we had these sort of croissant type things and other biscuits for breakfast, and then we went to Salta (which is the city right by San Lorenzo donde está la casa) to buy things for my school uniform. We walked around Salta too, and it’s very cute and the buildings are mostly old and pretty. And we bought tickets for Swan Lake, and they were so cheap! Five dollars each! My host mom was surprised about that. She also told me about some religious festival that they do in the centre of town, which has something to do with the fact that there started to be earthquakes in Salta and then some religious figure or other made them stop. She is very skeptical of this and so it was funny to hear her tell it. Then we went with abuela to buy some empanadas, tamales, y un postre (a dessert… it was kind of like a cake, shaped like a cake, but not actually cake, kind of crackers?? Like cooked tortilla with dulce de leche in between, and the frosting was the consistency of marshmallow fluff but tasted like honey a little bit, and there were nuts on the top). There, I saw an old man wearing a Big Time Rush hat... q bueno jajaj

A store we went to

A bank in Salta

Then we came home, ate lunch con Papá, and I unpacked everything and gave my family their gifts. Most of the food things they already have here, but the peanut butter here is savory, not sweet (I think). They have jello and pancakes, not sure about maple syrup because I didn’t know how to say it).

There are some things I brought that I just left in my suitcase because I don’t really need them… but we will see. Most of it is extra toiletries and stuff like that, I don’t think I brought too many clothes. 

After that, I went outside and played on the trampoline with Facu, Noah (who is the son of a family friend who is staying with the family for the weekend, age 6), and Azul, and we tested Noah on his colors in English. He got most of them jejeje, and he taught me this game called “quemado” where you throw a ball at the other people on the trampoline and if you hit them somewhere besides their hand and they don’t catch it, you say “quemado/a” and they are ‘burned.’ Then the neighbor came over with her three kids and we had mate. I like it pretty well, I drank a lot. It’s made in and drunk from a special cup with a straw that has a type of filter so you don’t drink up the leaves, and it’s just the Yerba mate leaves, sugar, and hot water. One person drinks the whole thing, pretty much (it’s not a lot), which is not how I was expecting, then you add more water (and sugar if you need it) and give it to the next person. We also had more dulce de leche, which comes in a container kind of like peanut butter but not exactly. Sort of like a big yogurt cup.

Then I sat and listened to the adults converse for awhile, but I was getting very frustrated with myself because I have taken so many years of Spanish and I still am having trouble understanding everything, and I haven’t been speaking very much. But then Azul and I were sitting in the bedroom and I told her I thought I should be speaking more, and we ended up having a long conversation about different things that are popular in Argentina and in Salta, things people say a lot, and stuff like that, and we ended up playing a card game called “chin” (I don’t know if that’s how you spell it). Then Facu had a meltdown because he wanted to watch Cars jajaja and we had dinner around 11 or so, which is pretty normal here, and then went to bed. I talked a lot more at dinner.

Another interesting thing is that the juice here isn’t actual juice, it’s water with powdered flavoring. I am getting used to it, though. So far, I like the pear flavor best. And the thing with dinner being later, my host mom explained to me, is that in the U.S., we eat dinner and then watch movies or read or do homework or whatever until we want to go to bed, but here you do all of that before you eat, and then you sleep right after you go to bed. (OKAY—THIS IS HOW TIRED I AM!!! I mean you sleep right after you have dinner.)

Well, I’ve written too much, it’s too late, and probably this doesn’t make sense or isn’t very interesting. I don’t think I could be a journalist. I will try to make my other posts less rambling and more coherent. Chau!! (And!! It is true that everyone here says ‘che’! Very cool.)