An Argentinian Birthday

This week hasn't been quite as eventful as the few that preceded it, however I have many random tid-bits that I can hopefully bring together in a slightly entertaining and informative way.

I'll start with the birthday seeing as I named the post after it. No biggie, turning 18 isn't all that important is it? I spent my Australian birthday (remember, we're 14 hours behind Australia over here) chilling at home, kicking the football around with my host brothers and going for a run with my host father. My Argentinian birthday was very Argentinian indeed! It began at around 11:00 am with the drinking of mate, a dulce de leche cake and my host family laughing their way through the present they bought me - "Che Buludo?" - a book of Argentinian slang . It's a very entertaining read and certain to come in handy when it comes to conversational Spanish. This was followed by a trip to the beautiful lake for an asado lunch, some frisbee and football. I also had the opportunity to test out my little digital camera's underwater capabilities and caught some pretty cool images of water splashes. This may sounds like a pretty boring eighteenth birthday to some, however it suited me just fine!

Football has come to form a central part of my life, with many hours of the week dedicated to the sport. Virtually everywhere I go here, I am reminded of the strong football culture. Every patch of grass, dirt or otherwise suitable surface large enough to host a football match bears goalposts. Shortly after my last post, Agus and I were having a kick around on the little fields on an island in the middle of the river. We'd only been there for a few minutes when a few younger kids playing nearby yelled out "Amigos! Futbol?". So began a game between us and the three kids - no older than fourteen and sharing a cigarette between themselves. The islands are also home to various horses at different times so we had to contend with random patches of horse manure. This brought back memories of playing rugby league on the paddocks at Tumut. We also had to take care not to kick the ball into the strong current of the river as it's now far too cold for swimming to be a pleasant experience. However, these things only added to the atmosphere and with the fading light, sparkling river and lonely moon cradled above the mountains, it was just bliss - a real sense of calm and joy. We lost the game but had a great time with plenty of laughs.

I feel that my football is coming along in leaps and bounds and am able to fit in reasonably well with the very skilful Argentinians. I still get outclasses regularly, however I am fairing far better than I did at the beginning. I practice four hours a week with an Under 16s team on the multipurpose courts. Some of them are significantly younger than myself, however their level of skill is extraordinary! I also have two hours a week of Physical Education comprising entirely of football. This is with an assortment of boys my own age from the school. It's given me the opportunity to play on the dirt fields that I mentioned in an earlier post. This makes for a very different style of game with the ball travelling at a much faster speed than on grass fields and with grip far harder to come by. I find these games very challenging but very very enjoyable, with jokes always at the ready when somebody makes a blunder. At the end of the game I find that my skin is significantly darker due to the thick layer of dirt covering every  bit of exposed skin on my body.

I have started taking Spanish classes three days a week, one hour per lesson. The lessons mostly comprise of grammar - something that I have very limited knowledge of - so my brain has been getting a fairly intense work out. I am learning a massive amount and I feel that it makes conversational language easier to cope with. It also allows me to see far more of the town, being about twenty minutes from the house by bike. On my first trip over there I spotted a little 'Artesanias' shop on one of the corners, and on the way home stopped for a look. There is an abundance of beautiful handcrafted items that would be perfect to purchase as gifts or for myself, however I would be a little concerned about getting some of the wooden items back into Australia. That will require further investigation and contemplation so in the meantime I am happy just having a look around and talking to the owner, a lovely lady that is very patient and helpful with my Spanish.

On Saturday I was treated to a trip to San Martin for some sightseeing and to get some more cash - a fundamental resource that I was running a little low on. I successfully refilled my wallet and loved the trip up into the hills to get a stunning view of the city and its surroundings (another lake). Wandering the shops with my host family, it was very interesting to see how different the place was despite being less than 50km from Junín. This could be attributed to its population being around twice the size and the fact that it is nestled in a valley. Apparently part of the city is permanently in the shade because the giant hills surrounding the city. It was also evident that San Martin is more of a tourist location, with souvenir and artesian shops everywhere and a large English speaking presence (though thankfully not to the same extent as Pucon in Chile). I enjoyed my time there and look forward to further visits to further explore.

Mum suggested that I give a general rundown of my school hours in case anyone was interested in how my day works. It's really different to at home! Most days I am there from 08:00 until 13:00 (everything is done in 24h time in Argentina). This is broken up into four classes, with the students staying in the one room and the teacher's coming to them. I then head home for lunch, usually followed by a siesta or school football. One day a week I return from 15:00 to 18:00 for further classes in the 'laboratory' which are usually practical science lessons. Unlike my school in Australia, none of the students have choice over which subjects they take further than choosing whether to be in 'Alimentos' - mainly food stuff, or 'Electro Mecánica' - which kinda speaks for itself. The school has been very flexible with me and, seeing as I do not understand enough to complete more than basic worksheets in class, they allow me to stay for the classes that I enjoy and head to the library to study Spanish and work on a project about Australia to present at a later date. I heard the year under myself takes classes in Literature. That being my subject of choice at home, I asked if I could join in and they were more than happy to take me. This allows me to get to know a new group of classmates and, being literature, my Spanish gets a really good workout. I understand very little of these classes, however I thoroughly enjoy them. As part of the class we are required to read novels so I was able to borrow a couple of books from the library. I mostly have simple books, however as a personal challenge I decided to grab and Agatha Christie book and work my way through it. As I have read some Christie books before, the style is familiar and I can understand a surprising amount! In some ways it is no more difficult than reading a Shakespeare work without simple translation - the general idea is quite easy, it's just the details that require more extensive use of my Spanish-English dictionary.

There are plenty of other random bits of info that I could include, however I'm struggling to find a way of cramming them in, so hopefully they'll find their way into later posts. For now, thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes on facebook and otherwise from various places around the world. Spain, England, Germany, Argentina and Australia were all represented in one way or another (sorry if I missed anyone). We're enjoying a very long weekend at the moment for one of many Argentinian holidays. I don't go back to school until Wednesday and I only have to be there until 09:30 so I'm making the most of the opportunity to get some rest and do a bit of reading and watch all the TV specials on Easter and the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking. While I'm busy chilling out here, my thoughts are with everybody slaving through everyday life in your part of the world, particularly my class mates in Australia enduring the half yearly exams! Stick with it, good luck, God bless!