Soy la persona con todo la plata.
It’s 12 midnight Cordoba time, and I’m sitting in a downtown apartment, surrounded by Argentinians. We’re playing Hold ‘Em, drinking Fernet and Coke, smoking. There’s the “boy’s club” camaraderie permeating from all the chicos, plenty of “¡hijo de putas!” and pantomiming violent anal sex every- and anytime someone won a big hand. I catch maybe five percent of everything they’re saying (the Argentinian-accent is a killer) but it’s so reminiscent of my own home games, I realize I’ve never felt more at home in this country.
Two hours prior, I was going mad from boredom at my hostel. My travel mates, Chrissy and Katie moved on to Puerto Madryn in the morning. The new hostel guests gave me a stink eye every other time I stepped in the room, and curtly told me, “You can speak English” when I spoke to them in Spanish. I wanted to curse them out in Chinese and used some universal sign language to translate, but was deflated. I limited my use of e-mail and Facebook to twice a week, and didn’t want to depend on the Internet as a means of passing time. Instead, I tried futilely to write, and worried about my Fulbright application.
What caused these drastic changes in locale and attitude? Couchsurfing.com.
Through couchsurfing, I met Gabriel, who didn’t just offer me his couch to crash on for a night. He introduced me to his mates, included me in their weekly get-together, and told me I was welcome to stay until the weekend, when he needed to leave for a wedding. I mean, Gabriel gave me my own set of keys to use for his apartment, so I could come and go as I pleased. He showed me facets of Argentina I’d never learn without him. It’s not the most glamorous of facets – nothing about Tango, or lovely porteñas, or the beauty of the wine country. Instead, he showed me the reality of middle class life in Argentina: the intimacy of friendship in this country, making time for each others company, and desire to share all the pleasures life offers.
He also showed me I still have some poker chops, when I took their pesos at the end of our tournament.
October 16, 2008 at 4:36 pm |
Great story! I find that hold ‘em is the most skilled of all poker games. Do Argentinians have a tell.
October 20, 2008 at 2:21 am |
Dear Chris:
One of my best friends from college is living in Buenos Aries. In fact, he is teaching Chinese over there.
Ha. If you are interested in meeting him, let me know. He’s from Taiwan too, so his Spanish is not that great. OMG! I forgot that he met Julio in Taiwan too. He helped Julio to find some side job of translating Spanish. Anyway, Steve is the nicest person in the world and his partner runs a winery in the countryside of Argentina. They seem to have an interesting life.
I enjoy reading your blog. Somehow it reminds me of the film “Motorcycle Diary”…btw, did you see the film “Happy Together” by Wong Kai-wai? It’s set in Argentina too.
Have fun and be safe!
xox, Yvette, the supposedly beloved teacher of yours.
October 20, 2008 at 12:27 pm |
@ Jeff – if you mean Argentinians as a group of people, I don´t think an entire nation of people will share a tell, haha. If you mean ¨the Argentinians¨then not that I noticed, but only one or two of ´em were any good.
October 20, 2008 at 12:39 pm |
@ Yvette – beloved Lao Shi! of course I´d love to meet Steve, let me know what I´d have to do to contact him. I´m in Cordoba (about 12 – 16 hours from BA) right now, but I need to swing through BA to get home, so we could meet up then.
I think the life I´m living in Argentina is a little too cushy to be compared to Motorcycle Diary, thought it´s flattering. And no, haven´t seen Happy Together. Do you have a copy?
Oh, I´m applying for a Fulbright to study in Beijing and Guangdong, for next year! I´d be in China for a year if I got it!
Thanks for reading, Yvette. Talk to you soon.