Castellano and Milanesa

Thursday (Jan 6)

I am excited by how much castellano (Argentine Spanish) I can already understand. I had many opportunities to use it on my way here. I was going to store my luggage at the bus station in Buenos Aires while I walked around for a few hours waiting for my last flight but they didn´t have any space left. I found this out in castellano and later ordered milanesa con tomates y lechuga (similar to chicken-fried steak with tomatoes and lettuce on a roll) from the cafe there. Thankfully I remembered what milanesa was from being here before.

On the last flight I sat by a women who was born in Tucumàn but has lived in Austraila for 10 years. She spoke very little English but we were able to converse quite a bit in castellano. (Goal #4 completed!) She wanted my email to send me photos of Austraila. She also let me use her cell phone once we landed to call Ivy, whom I´m staying with. Ivy´s mom answered and I had to ask questions in castellano. I was able to understand that Ivy was on her way. She got there just when I got my suitcase. I was excited to also see Mike and Sherry Borstad, missionaries from Minnesota/Wisconsin, that I stayed with last time.

Ivy´s mom made us homemade pizza for dinner at about 10pm. We stayed up talking until 1am, which is early for most Argentines. I then slept for 10 hours! I guess I was a little tired. I had tortillas y mate (biscuits and mate tea) for breakfast and fried fish for lunch. Ivy´s mom is a wonderful cook and I hope to learn from her (Goal #3).

Today we are going to finish preparations for our camping trip in Cafayate, north of Tucumàn, with Beth and David, a couple from Colorado that are here learning castellano. We will leave early Friday morning (manaña- tomorrow) and come back Monday. It is an area of folkdance and folk music. It is also cooler than here in Tucumàn since it is more in the mountains. They recently had quite a bit of rain here so the weather is much cooler that usual. It is still humid, but just hot enough to be a little sticky.

The houses are made of brick and cement blocks to keep them cool. The family has a small yard in the back with mango, lemon, clementine, and apple trees (one of each). I have my own room and bathroom. We are enjoying getting to know each other and sharing about our families. We are heading now to Ivy's Aunt's house to get our tent. It should be a fun trip!