On the Road Again

After a five week rest the red backpack has been dusted off and hoisted onto my shoulders once again. It was odd packing up the tiny bits of my life that had scattered themselves across my B.A. apartment, it was as though I'd forgotten that it could all fit in one bag and I was disappointed to discover that, in fact, it did all fit with room to spare. I am finding that I am not as in love with life on the road as I once was. I take a new pleasure in the tiny normalcies of life: showering and sleeping in the same place, walking to the subway each morning to go to school, recharging my phone or buying my fruits and vegetables at the same corner stores, going to the same Mexican restaurant twice or three times in a week, getting to know the people who run the laundromat. Maybe it is because even while it becomes a routine I know that it is temporary so I don't become bored or bogged down by it. In short, I was sad to leave my little B.A. home bubble and, though looking forward to going to the places I'm headed, I'm not vibrating with excitement the way I did on some past travels.

Saying goodbye to people has become an all too normal part of my life. The goodbyes to my fellow CELTA teachers was drug out over a few days. All 10 of us + one spouse went out to dinner on Friday night at an all you can eat steakhouse, Siga La Vaca, in B.A. The all you can eat menu included either an entire bottle of wine or a liter of beer per person.  No one ever hurries you out of restaurant in Argentina so our feast was a nearly four hour long affair, starting at 8 and ending at midnight, which was good cause 11 bottles of wine is a lot to drink, even when there are 11 of you. Some goodbyes were had at dinner and then the rest of us went out to an awesome bar in Palermo (my neighborhood) which was decorated in a funky Portlandesque style and had games like Pictionary, scrabble, and jenga for all the tables. It made me a little homesick to see all of these people playing games at a bar. Every table was playing a game. We played pictionary in spanish, which was challenging because half of the time we had to have Gabriela (who is Argentinian and now certified CELTA english teacher) translate the cues for us. It was pretty hilarious. I spent the weekend soaking up my last bits of BA. I did a decent amount of exploring in my time there, but I was so busy with the CELTA that I didn't go out at night much and there was lots that I didn't do. Our trip to the game bar and some of my wanderings my last few days there made me want to get know the city even more. On the one hand, I know my way around and have seen a lot. On the other hand there is so much MORE to discover! Alas, you can't do it all.

Two of my fellow CELTA folk, Ollie and Kari, and I traveled to Uruguay to visit another CELTA cohort, Christel. Christel is marrying an Oregonian diplomat and they are stationed at the US Embassy in Montevideo. It was the perfect trip, even Kari and I almost getting in like five car accidents in the taxi on the way to the ferry terminal was great (and by great I mostly mean hilarious because we didn't actually get in an accident and the taxi driver was singing along to 80s tunes in English the whole time and blaming the other drivers).

We took the slow, 3 hour long, ferry from B.A. to Colonia, a small colonial town on the Rio de la Plata in Uruguay. The sun was shining and we spent the entire time out on the top deck, soaking up the sun and playing backgammon and cards. Everyone I asked about Colonia pretty much had this to say about it, "Yeah, Its pretty but....you just need a few hours there and that's enough." We spent just a few hours there, loved it, and could've stayed longer. This is probably mostly due to the fact that we rented scooters and had an amazing time zipping through the cobblestone streets of the old town and up the coast (the river is so wide it looks like you are already at the Atlantic), stopping at beaches and an abandoned bull ring before taking backroads back into town. Poor Kari kept switching between riding on the back of my scooter and Ollie's because both of us kept saying things like "wow! Its so much harder to drive this thing when you are on it." The old town of Colonia is beautiful and we went a little picture happy.

We slept the entire 2.5 hour bus ride to Montevidea, which meant we were wide awake when Christel picked us up at the bus station in her pink Chinese knock off of a mini cooper. We picked up two other CELTA peeps, who were staying at hostel in Montevideo, and forced the poor pink car (which I named Lola) to cart all six of us up the hill to Christel's beautiful apartment where her husband-to-be had an amazing dinner and wine waiting for us. We stayed up late, talking, eating, drinking and playing the guitar.

The next day we wandered along the beach, had lunch with Christel at a cute little restaurant, and then wandered around the old town of Montevideo. Most guidebooks describe Montevideo as a city that seems stuck in time or as a quiter, tinier, tamer, older looking version of BA. This is true but also a little unfair. The downtown, Ciudad Viejo, area of Montevideo does sort of look like a quiet, slightly run down neighborhood of B.A., with French Art Noveau turn of the century buildings that are a bit run down looking, but the city is growing, developing and expanding outside of the city center. That said, it is MUCH smaller and quieter than BA. There are only 3 million people in the entire country of Uruguay and a third of them, 1.3 million, live in Montevideo.  That night we went to a sleek, modern, new Brazilian bar in the shadow of the sleek, modern, new World Trade Center not too far from where Christel lives to hear the wife of a US diplomat sing. Picture a sassy, blonde, buxom, 40 something year old from Kentucky. Now picture that woman winning the Urugayan equivalent to American Idol when she'd not really had a musical career before and then launching a music career by playing at local bars and venues. Boom. That was our concert. It was great.

The entire trip everything seemed to just fall into place for us and the next day was no exception. The weather was perfect for a beach day, which was what we had planned. We spent 3 hours just relaxing, reading, and sleeping on the beach and then ambled back to Christel's to watch a movie in which Christel starred. Christel is Dutch and she was a teenage actress so we got to watch the first movie she was ever in (and she had the starring role). It was really fun to see. That night we went to a parilla (grill house) just around the corner from her house and I had the best steak I've ever had in my entire life. Delicious!

The next day was the last round of CELTA farewells. First saying goodbye to Christel, then to Ollie, and then, finally, to Kari. On to a bus I went and now I am writing from the apartment of my Swedish-Argentinian couch surfing host in Cordoba...and now I have to figure out what comes next...I'll keep you posted.