Wow! I can't believe it is already Thursday and my parents are on their way back to the US :-( It was so great to have them here and we did A LOT in the week they were here and I am tired. Some highlights: meeting Marta and Ariel, visiting the waterfalls (see last post), going to the Casa Rosada for our ALL SPANISH tour, buying souvenirs at San Telmo, watching a tango show/learning to tango, eating delicious meats, and today PLAYING POLO!
We went to an estancia (an estate/ranch) about an hour out of the city. We had a private lesson with Fernando (a 26ish year old Argentine who speaks English well and plays polo on an organized team). He kind of looks like James Marsden (the actor). First we learned some basics of horseback riding (and the differences between normal riding and polo riding). Then we were let out into a field to warm up our horses. I of course took this opportunity to try to trot and canter (going back to my horseback riding days). My horse was slow though :-/. Then we learned how to hit the ball. You use a long stick that looks like a croquet stick but you are on a horse and have to hit the balls into goals (with the flat side of the stick): a lot of hand-eye coordination needed. At first I was really bad and kept missing but then I got the hang of it. We played a mini scrimmage: dad and me vs. Fernando and mom. It was really close 4-5 but mom's team won.
Now comes the best part: On our drive home (Fernando drove us back into the city) we dropped my parents off at the airport :-( but then Fernando continued driving me back to the city. He realized that I spoke Spanish (side note: at this point my Spanish is coming along very well :-) ) so we started chatting in Spanish. Then at the end of our trip he was like "what are your plans tonight?" I thought this was just a continuation of the small talk we were having so I responded "oh, I don't know. I probably will eat with my Argentine family and then maybe go out for dessert or something" to which he responded "if you want we can go get dessert and beer together around 10. I have your number from when you called yesterday. Here is mine" My response was something along the lines of "um, not sure what I'm doing but ill call you" Then he gave me a hug goodbye and I got on a bus to Christa's house to tell her what just happened! I figured "he won't follow up" WRONG!!!!! About 45 minutes ago he texted me and was like "so wanna go out tonight" to which I responded "thanks, but Im really tired from playing polo..."
MY LIFE! Oh Argentina, what do you have in store for me for my last 7 weeks?
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