Fuerza Forehand!

Last night was the asado, and the person grilling the meat is called an asador. There are two guys from New Jersey here who have family in the city, so we went on the terrace to see how the food was coming along. It smelled amazing! We spoke in Spanish to the asador and joked about the different accents. There’s a guy here from Spain too, and a guy from Israel who speaks fluent Spanish, English, Hebrew, and Arabic. I also spoke with a woman from France who works as an engineer in Paris but took 6 months off to travel the world. Later, I talked to two Finnish people. It’s crazy how many different people there are here!

Anyway, when the asado was finished a few hours later, the entire hostel gathered for a meal. There were plates upon plates of chicken and different cuts of meat. The chorizo con pan was my favorite! It’s beef sausage with a slice of bread. The thing about the asado was there were no marinades or sauces- everything is rubbed with salt and that’s it!

Today I met Matt for lunch. He’s from the IES program, and we met at that cheap pizza place I went to yesterday because it’s equidistant. After we ate, he walked with me to find the subte. There was no E line! We walked about twenty minutes until finally we found it. I bought a pass good for 10 rides, and then I looked at the map and realized I actually wanted the D line. Oops! That was easier to find, so we traced our steps, I hopped on, and Matt went back to his hostel.

The subte was pretty self-explanatory and not any different from any subway I’ve been on. When I got off, however, the fields were much farther than I thought. Eventually I found the field and met some people. I spoke half Spanish, half English. There was a girl from Boston, a lot of Columbians, a few ex-pats from the States, and some porteños (Argentines). It was very much like pickup at home in West Hartford or Newington. Everyone knew the rules, and we had two games going.

Some people have irrational fears, but I have a very rational fear of the bus system here. It’s just so complicated and with my history, I can’t trust that I’ll get where I want to go! But at the end of pickup, I took the colectivo (bus) home with some people who were going in the same direction. I got off a stop earlier than they did, but I made it back in one piece! Public Transportation Success Number Two!