Back in Argentina

So I decided to start up my travel blog again- the last update was from my big European summer trip where I happened to meet an amazing man in a crappy hostel in Madrid, Spain…little did I know how much that encounter was going to change my life forever!

The next chapter of our story was supposed to be us living together in the US and getting married in Austin in October and living our “simple happy lives together.” Well, simple is not the word we’re using these days- long story short: Franco and I are dealing with some pretty serious visa issues (he can’t enter the US as a tourist as of now) and we’re facing a few very big decisions about what to do with our future. We know for sure that we want to be together and start a family, but we are having to decide where and how to begin our lives together.

So the current chapter of our crazy love story finds the two of us happily (very happily, after all this mess!) living together in Cordoba, Argentina for the summer. I say summer but if course in the Southern Hemisphere it is indeed winter, but my summer vacation from teaching- weird, I know, tell me about it! We are living in downtown Cordoba, a busy city of 1.5 million people which I coincidentally (this is crazy-) happened to have studied Spanish in for 6 weeks in 2004. So even before I knew Franco, I was already familiar with the city and a bit of the Argentine culture. There are a lot of things I really do love about Argentina- the people are amazingly warm and hospitable, the food is great, and the culture has a fascinating mix of European influence and Latin American culture (mostly Italian and Spanish and some German as well) because Argentina is a country largely made of immigrants, especially from WWI. You can see the European influence in the architecture, lifestyle, and physical characteristics of the people (there are a lot of blondes with blue eyes even!) They observe the siesta hours, they stop everything and have mate (like tea) midday, they talk with their hands…the pace of life here is a lot slower than the US- (except for the driving- yikes!) So, all in all, it is a pleasant place to be for my vacation. And of course being with Franco and his family and friends opens up so many doors to the true, authentic side of Argentina that I didn’t have a chance to experience so richly before. But I do have to admit, there is always a nagging question in the back of my mind- Can I truly see myself living here for a year or so? And I recognize that those big decisions do not need to be made today, especially during my first week here while I’m in my honeymoon stage of this culture and this life…let’s wait til I get really grumpy and culture-shocked, k? Haha…

Anyways, I’ll be trying to update this site as often as I get a chance to. Unfortunately, we don’t have internet access at the apartment and as I discovered yesterday, if a place says “WIFI” (pronounced weefee by the way) it doesn’t necessarily mean it has a quality signal- the pub I went to yesterday had a great signal for 5 minutes and then I lost it and never got it again…

Thanks again for all the love and support you have shown Franco and I during these last really rough months- I couldn’t have made it through it all without you guys, seriously! But I thank God that the hardest times are over for now (let’s hope!) Would love to hear from you guys! Please feel free to leave comments or whatever!

Chau!