Goodness me, life has been hectic lately which is why I’m only just updating my blog with my shenanigans. Where I left off was talking about Christmas celebrations.
On the 27th December, twas a busy day! In the morning I set out on the hunt for Ale & Vale, my pals from Camelot, since we were going on a shopping trip to find something to wear for later that evening. (This is something I find quite funny about Arg culture. Because it’s so laid back, you literally might be hunting for clothes on the day of a party, and that’s completely not stressful and completely normal here!). After searching for various different components of outfits for each of us (a whole outfit for Vale, trousers for Ale and a top for me) we finally completed our mission 🥳 and so to celebrate, went to mostaza to have a big fat burger. I mean, if you’ve already spent a whole lot of money, why not just spent more? 😂 After luncheon I wandered back home to have a rest.
A little while later, Nolz rocked up and I helped him on a self-imposed quest to find his glasses, meaning driving all over town to see if he’d left them in various different places we’d been (shopping centres, the church, people’s houses etc), before later finding that they were, after all, in his house (classic, lol). During part of our search we had a quick trip to a supermarket where, lowe and behold, we found some Pimm’s! (Pimm’s is a licquer that we have in England, particularly for summer, and you add lemonade and fruit and it’s super yummy. Tastes of summer to me.) I saw Pimm’s there once a few months ago but never since! So, with Pimm’s in hand, we left the supermarket for Noly to drop me back home.
I arrived back at the apartment at 9.45. I was supposed to be at a party at 10, but thankfully, as is the custom, the people I was going with were late, plus I had done my makeup earlier on in the day just incase I ended up getting back later.
Anyways, I shall spare you the details of the journey and move on to the party itself. It was Laura, the owner of Camelot,’s 60th birthday. The Camelot team is quite a big one so we had our own table and it was good to see everyone and catch up after Christmas. After we’d been fed with ample amount of super yummy food, twas time to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl. This is always a nightmare for me, being centre of attention with a big lot of people, so it always makes me laugh when people are the opposite! Laura loved it, dancing around and smiling brightly. Then there was cake and puddings before the dancing started.
The dancing was super fun! Still very hard for me to dance in the Latino rhythm so I tried quite hard to inconspicuously study my pals footwork. Very complicated! But it was fun nonetheless and sometimes there would be English music which is just generally easier for me to dance to. There were also suddenly foam-y light things that were handed out which were fun! As well as flowery headbands for the girls, which just instantly make everything all the more merry.
At about 4am (!) the party wound down and I was back home at 4.30. It’s funny. From an Argentinian perspective, I said to a few people back home “wasn’t too late, got back at 4.30”, because I seriously suspected I’d end up back at about 6.30am and everyone was completely shocked that this wasn’t late in my books! Haha.
The following day was a pool day! It was soo lush and just what I needed after a busy day the day before rushing around. Even with two applications of 50 factored sun cream I still managed to get burnt ! But thankfully only a little. I also brought the Pimm’s and cracked that out for everyone, which they all enjoyed and liked!
The following day we went off to “La casa de chocolate” (the chocolate house) with church for some baptisms. I’ve been once before and still find the name rather surprising since, disappointingly, there’s no chocolate in sight. So we had a mini church service and then headed out to the pool area to watch as about 10 people got baptised. Hurrah!
After the baptism it was time for lunch, so everyone dispersed to find their own areas to sit. We found a good space outside, under the trees as it was very hot, and we had a nice time just eating and chatting and chilling out all together.
The next thing of note, was the new years celebrations on the 31st. In my family, we don’t really do much for new years, it’s usually just a quiet night in, having dinner, setting off some fireworks, playing some games and watching the fireworks on the telly. In the Matus’ family they do a lot more! I really enjoyed experiencing a different new years, although also really enjoyed skyping in to my fam intermittently during the day, for a chat and to watch the fireworks (both theirs and the fireworks on the TV).
Prior to food there was a lot of mingling around and chatting as people slowly started arriving. This was quite satisfying for me because I could actually talk a little to various different people without Noly help. In the past I’ve found big family events quite difficult because of Spanish and feeling frustrated with myself for not being able to chat, so it was so nice to be able to and not feel completely drained and down by the end of it.
For food we had an asado (BBQ) which was, obviously, super yummy, as well as various accompanying bits of salad. I rather let the team down and became full super quickly! But never mind. Soon it was midnight and we all went around clinking our glasses and saying happy new year! Etc. Then, out came the fireworks, lanterns and sparklers that me and Nolz had bought earlier in the day, as well as all the phones, ready to take the obligatory new years photos.
Then, at about 1.30, us of the younger generation went off into town in search of a drink. Absolutely everywhere was closed (!) apart from one street, so we settled down there. I had rather been up for a cocktail but, alas, there were none in sight. So instead settled on sharing a cider with Noly whilst the others shared a big fat jug of beer. At about 4 am the decision was made to go to Sofi’s house for a bit to have pudding. By this time I was feeling decidedly grumpy and was nearly falling asleep at the table! At about 6am we left and I was finally in my bed at 6.30 am, at about the time that my family in England started getting up!
New year’s Day was very chill and a few quite encouraging things happened! One was talking to Luci & Javier and they were saying about how much my Spanish had improved and it was nice bc I could be honest, saying how I always used to feel a bit uncomfortable in group situations and felt that I needed Noly by my side but now I feel comfortable and happy either way 😊 and the other encouraging thing that happened was later, we went to see Luci’s grandfather and at one point the conversation turned to me and everyone was like, go on Nadia! Tell him a bit about yourself! Which, again, used to be my absolute worst nightmare, when the spotlight was turned on me and I had to try and cobble out some vaguely coherent Spanish sentences whilst everyone was watching me panic. Whereas now, I could do it! And wasn’t wishing to fade into the background. So that really is a lot of progress for me and is truly incredibly satisfying.
On Friday the 3rd me and Nolz headed out to do some Christmas shopping…! Haaa. Sounds weird. This year I didn’t contribute to my parents or sibs Christmas presents (I think it’s super fun to get stuff from abroad) so that I’m ready to issue out the presents for my second Christmas which I’m having when I get home!
After a relatively successful shopping trip (half down, half to go) I walked to Vale’s house. Vale (my pal from Camelot) is currently renovating her house so I said I’d go over and help with the painting. Little did I know, she has the cutest dogs ever!!!! But anyways, that’s besides the point. We painted and painted and then painted some more! All the while chatting or sometimes lapsing into comfortable silence and it was a really nice afternoon/evening. After a while Vales sister turned up and had a little chat with her. (Again, super satisfying. Could chat to someone I’d just met without feeling self conscious and overwhelmed). Was quite a good person to chat to actually, since I’m looking for my own place come end of Feb and she potentially knows somewhere! So that was good.
Then at about 11 we headed out to find some grub. It was really nice food and company (Vale’s boyfriend was with us too) and I was really enjoying it, but I confess that I was also absolutely knackered by this point and was basically falling asleep at the table! Well not quite, but no joke, my eyes were feeling all droopy..! So not too long after we finished, they dropped me in a taxi and off I went. I managed to even navigate the taxi man going to the wrong place and explaining to him where he needed to go (💪) and soon I was back and in bed.
The next day, me, Noly, Javier & Facu (Nolys cousin) headed off to Dique Cobra Cobral (I think that’s what it’s called 🤨) for the day. We had lunch en route, the Arg equivalent to fish and chips! And then headed in the direction of the lake. We got there at about 1.30pm and soon we were in the boat with Facu overboard! … Purposefully. Twas time to try and perfect the art of wakeboarding!
Wakeboarding is actually super hard ! I tried it last year and only managed to get up and out of the water properly for about two seconds before plunging back into the water again. With this in mind, and determined this time to succeed, I watched Facu and analysed with Noly what he’d done well and what he could do better. He did manage to get up and stand a fair amount of times and was trying to perfect the art of getting up and the stance that you have to stand in to keep ya balance. After a while he had gotten quite tired so twas Nolys turn.
Nolz is actually a pro. No faffing around with him. He gets in the water and up he gets straight away! Although he did try and do a trick and ended up thwacking his face down headfirst into the water, much to his suprise, bless his socks.
Next up, it was me. I was really not expecting to have much success since last time I’d found it so difficult. Yet, lowe and behold, on my second go I managed to get up! This was much to my surprise and I let out a huge involuntary shriek for a few seconds before going splat back into the water 😂 thankfully Noly didn’t record this one.. anyways, so the next little while in the water I managed to improve a little more each time, with tips yelled to me by Javier and Nolz. I always managed to get up and out of the water but the amount of time I managed to stand up varied. I was just about to throw in the towel for the day when Javier encouraged me to have one more go. I’m so glad I did! I managed to get up and stand and be pulled along for about 40 seconds! Ended on the best one 💪
I really wasn’t expecting that I’d be able to do it since last time I barely could at all. It was so satisfying! And quite frankly a bit of a surprise to suddenly find yourself flying through the water. When I got back into the boat I suddenly realised how tired my body was and my hands and arms were nearly shaking. It’s two days later and my arms are still absolutely knackered! Takes such an effort to use them so much. I’d been in the water for about an hour, so twas a lot of arm power. I wonder if going to the gym this past year helped me with wakeboarding as maybe my arms are a tiny little bit stronger than before!
Yesterday (Sunday) was a fun day too! Church in the morning, empanadas for lunch and then back to Nolys for a pool day. It’s slightly disheartening to see everyone else super tanned and then there’s me with my mini tan but never mind! A few people here have now commented and said that I am a little tanned which is satisfying. Because I’m still super pale people don’t tend to notice whereas I know that I am a little tanned haha. The afternoon was spent just hanging in the pool, chatting as well as a hilarious impromptu photo sessions with the gals and a watermelon 😂 and then it seemed to be storming up so off we went inside.
And there endeth the last little while of activities !
Two prayer requests if you’re a pray-er:
- Typically, I’ve come down with a cold again and I’m feeling very fatigued. This is not good timing as I’m preparing to come back home for a month so need to pack my bits and also try and tidy up my bits from Marta’s as I’m supposedly going to be living somewhere else when I come back.
- As mentioned above, I’m looking for somewhere to live next year. It feels a bit demoralising as most things are out of my budget or not in the location that I need. Please pray that the right thing would come through!
Thanks!
Nadia's Adventures 