Medico

Yay, I just received my medical packet for Peace Corps. It arrived in the States just after I left for here, so now I can finally start this new eval process. After reading everything through, I couldn't wait until my day off tomorrow to start hunting for English speaking doctors here. There's a medical office on my block, so I figured I'd start there. The lady at the desk didn't speak any English... and I forgot the word for physical, or check-up or whatever. Oh well, I suppose I should look that one up. (I thought I'd be okay with appointment.) The dentist at the office knew a little tiny bit of English. Score! I made an appointment with her next week and left her the forms so she can use a Spanish-English dictionary to figure out what everything is this week. hehe Progress! She also left me the name of a doctor who knew English. He's the son of her English teacher. (She took the classes a long time ago, evidently. hehe) If all else fails, his mom can translate for him, so I'm not worried about that. That's my mission tomorrow, wish me luck!

Pictures!

Saphron Finch on the left and a Vermilian Flycatcher on the right.
Some kind of water snake that I've determined won't kill me. (Don't worry, I asked Martin to make sure and didn't have to figure it out through personal experience.)

In the spirit of Halloween, what's better than a bat in a cow carcass? This little guy was originally in one of our bird boxes, but fell out when Ben opened the door to check the box. Instead of leaving him in the sun, I picked him up with a stick to transport him elsewhere. (Ben didn't want to get near it in fear of rabies... And he has a rabies shot already!) So, there weren't any trees in the general area of this nest, but there was a dead cow. What better shade could you ask for?

Jajaja

I really love my new program. I don't know when I am going to get to sleep tonight, but I figure I just have to share this. This is one of the first lessons to become familiar with masculine and feminine words:

Está Pedrito en la clase y le dice la maestra:
-A ver, Pedrito cuáles son las vocales.
-No sé las vocales, maestra.
Muy bien, entonces, ven a mi casa a las 17:00
A las 17:00 de la tarde va Pedrito a la casa de la profesora, entra y ella le dice:
-Ven Pedrito vamos a mi cuarto.
Pedrito va al cuarto y la maestra se quita la blusa y Pedrito dice:
-Ahhhhh
Y la maestra se quita la falda y Pedrito dice:
-Ehhhhh
La maestra se quita las medias y él dice:
-Ihhhhh
La maestra se quita el sostén y él dice:
-Ohhhhh
La maestra empieza a vestirse y él dice:
-Uhhhhh

Fin.

As I was reading it, I thought that I must be missing something and it couldn´t possible mean what I thought it did. But yes, it did. hehe. Just for a bit of translation help, se quita means to take off... I think you can figure out the rest just by guessing!

Start at the Very Beginning

It's kinda funny how certain events can foreshadow others in life. When I was at the zoo, all the little kids kept calling out "yacaré! yacaré!" which is Spanish for alligator. Then yesterday we actually had an alligator at our site!!! I knew just what Martín and Laura were talking about when the called out the same word. See, I am learning a little. hehe On that note, I have decided that I am going to start from the very beginning to refresh my Spanish. All too often I blurt out incorrect conjugations knowing full well that I am not using the right one, and then say a few more just to get to the one that I am thinking about. I really don´t know why... but I need to correct it. As you would expect nothing less of me, I downloaded a FREE program. hehe. Although I have just started using it, I really like it. It´s called SpanishUno and the verb conjugations originally drew me to the program. I really like the graphical interface which I need to keep me interested in using the program. hehe. Plus it has tons of sound files so perhaps one day I´ll start using the real pronunciation of ¨rr¨ again. Oh, and I switched my keyboard to an international one, so let me know if most of the punctuations I write are jibberish. It´s just a whole lot easier to type all the accent marks this way when I am writing to Martín, Laura, and Rodrigo. Well, I just wanted to share that with you in case any of ya´ll have a desire to learn some Spanish too. hehe, or perhaps I should say, jaja as they do here...

Learn Something New Every Day

First, I have to catch this up a bit...

On Wednesday, I played tour guide for Ben and Rodrigo out in the field as Martin and I changed the entire numbering system for our nest boxes to incorporate new boxes we will be placing next week. After checking all the nests which took forever since we didn't split up, Ben and I headed off to Santo Tome. I've taken the bus there, but instead of getting off at the terminal where we could easily catch it, we got off our collectivo much earlier. After waiting at one corner, switching to another corner (again having no clue if the bus actually travels on that street), we hailed a cab to jet us over. Then we started making some new boxes with all the wood we ordered last week.

We kicked butt! I drilled all the holes for every screw Martin set in place. The two of us also put traps on every box as well. (Ben drilled the hole for the door in the front piece of wood and cleaned up while waiting for us to finish.) We were like a well oiled machine. I was actually a little afraid that I was going to drill my fingers or Martin's at the rate we were going! By the end of the day, we started and finished 45 new boxes!!! Anyone want a bird house for Christmas? I'm an expert at making them now! hehe

We got back to the apartment at around 8pm, so instead of making dinner, we went out to celebrate. Every day when we take the taxi to our field site, we pass this Arabian restaurant. I've been eyeing it and was quite interested in trying it out. (We've probably gone out to dinner twice a week and have tried all kinds of places. Because real dinner isn't served until after 8:30pm though, most of what we've tried has been sandwiches (and burgers, lomos, etc).) Well, I ordered lamb which was served with onions on top (cebollado). Yum! It was cooked so which is a big difference between the pan fried steak Ben's been dishing up at the apartment. He ordered some kind of ground beef scoop marinaded in a lime juice or something. I liked mine way better! hehe. For desert I had oranges baked and drizzled with a sugary syrup. Mmmmm.


Okay, yesterday I worked with Rodrigo out in the field while Martin and Ben paired up. Each team was tasked with catching some birds and checking the nests on their side of the field. Our first nest to catch the female in was tipped upside-down by a cow and all the eggs were on the ground around the box, broken in half mid-incubation. It was too bad to see that there weren't going to be any chicks from that nest, but as Rodrigo said, it's less work for us. We checked all of the nests in that section (before ducking under the fence) and then processed the next female. We did all of that before the others even caught their first bird. Yes, we rock! Then we checked some more nests, measured some chicks, and tried catching a female that needed to be painted. (I've painted all of mine with a bright blue fat sharpie, but some of them either weren't painted at all, or got a speckling with a fine-point black pen. Yeah, as you might imagine, it is a little tricky to tell the males from the females as they are flying around if they are only a little bit more grey. Mine look like a whole new species!!!) We couldn't catch her again, as this was the same bird that took several days when she was incubating. Now with chicks in the nest, she has no reason to sit there forever. Oh well. We gave up and finished the rest of the nests.

By this point, Martin split up from Ben and finished checking the nests on their side. Ben was still trying to catch his bird. Rodrigo and I were walking to see if they needed any help when I froze... About three feet ahead of me lay a snake with a distinct triangular shaped head. In my book, that means bad news, so I asked Rodrigo to confirm that it was dangerous (peligroso). He replied with "do you want to take some pictures?" and "beni-noso". I'm flipping through my mental Spanish dictionary and it's not ringing any bells. So then I do the next best thing and run through possible English cognates... beni-fit, bene-volent, etc. Ummm, that doesn't make too much sense. Peligroso, si? Muy beninoso. Hmmm... still not helping, answer my question. Ohhhhhhh, light come on. So what you're saying is, this is the most venomous (actually spelled "venenoso" in Spanish) snake in all of South America. With this realization, I take a couple steps back. I think this snake doesn't need quite the intimate photo shoot Rodrigo seemed keyed up for. hehe, oh foreign languages...

We told Martin who after fixing the broken box joined me in telling the ranchers. Rodrigo left with one of them to go find it again and kill it. I am all about letting wildlife be, but these snakes can give birth to 60 live, venomous babies. Then with each bite, then inject more than double enough venom to kill a person, let alone all the cattle, horses, and little kids the ranchers have running around. Needless to say, the snake is no more. The main rancher (whose name I can't remember for the life of me) told Marin and I an interesting remedy for a snake bite. When his dogs have been bit by snakes, he injects kerosene into them. We asked all kinds of questions like how much and where to gain a better understanding. Evidently it would work for people too, but he said an alternative for treating people is to drink a mixture of milk and garlic. I don't think I want to try it just to see if it works. I'll try my luck at the hospital if I ever need to. But it is definitely neat to know that in a situation far from any medical treatment and without antivenom, you can live from such a bite. I'd love to learn all those little tricks, which makes me even more excited for Peace Corps. hehe

Today Ben and I had our day off. We split up and he paid for our accident insurance. (I am now covered with Argentina accident insurance, Cornell's International SOS health insurance, and my own travel health insurance. Overkill, doncha think?) I walked to the post office (12 blocks) and picked up the certified mail we got a notice about, which turned out to be our accident insurance papers. I also hunted down a stationary store to buy an envelope. That was another little lesson in Spanish, as I couldn't remember the word for envelope. I knew letter was "carta" and I had what I needed to send in my hand. So I told the lady I needed to send a letter, pointing to the paper I had in my hand. She then directed me to some nice, blank pieces of paper. Umm, let's try this again. I need to send this paper, and I need one of these (Pointing to the envelopes I just picked up), but smaller. Yes, success! I then went back to the post office and waited in line again. When I got to the counter, I told the lady I needed to sent "una carta certificado" or a certified letter. She just took the letter, gave me a price which was way less than I expected and slapped a stamp on it. No, I know what the word is this time, and you didn't even listen to my bad Spanish!!! :) (I didn't say that to her, but just repeated what I said the first time.) She looked annoyed, but totally understood that yes, I didn't just want to send the letter internationally, and that I pay a lot to send a little piece of paper in the mail that I had already faxed to it's destination. (That's how I see it at least.) But I'm not paying for it... if I ever get my reimbursement, that is.

Then instead of heading back to the apartment, I set out with my camera. I found llamas, picaries, flamingos, parrots, foxes, tapirs, pumas, and more!!! Yes, I took the bus up to the zoo. (I mapped out the bus system here in Santa Fe and have been exploring the city. Yes Jeff, that means that I have seem more than just Walmart. hehe Oh, speaking of which, I made peanut butter yesterday!!!! I was in a desperate search for a cheap, yet functional blender which I found at Walmart. I'm happy now. lol) At the zoo, there were no maps, no brochures, no gift shop, just animals. It was a different experience with the focus really just on seeing the animals. All the big animals were in similar enclosures which consisted of grass at varying heights and a house for the animal to get out of the sun all surrounded by a fence. The birds had perches to sit on, the monkeys had trees and swings to play on, and the nutria (think huge rat) had water to swim in. It wasn't the best zoo I've been to, but for a small city in a country with a struggling economy, it better than I expected. And for a dollar to get in, I'll have to go back to just watch the animals some more and perhaps sketch a little.

Just as I was leaving the zoo, the same Mormons were coming back down the street that passed up the street as I was going in the zoo. I had been kicking myself for not talking to them. When we passed the first time, they said "hola" and I replied with a "Hi." They each did about ten double takes as they walked further up the road. So we had a chat about where we were from and all that kind of stuff. I learned that they stay in each town for about 6 weeks and are in the country for a total of almost two years. For one of the kids, it was just his first month here while his partner was finishing up his mission. Then at the bus stop an older gentleman (who I stopped earlier looking at a map) asked me what I was doing and the like. He overheard me speaking in English and there you go. hehe. He's just traveling all around Argentina with this trip scheduled to last 5 weeks. (His Spanish is about at the level of a second week Spanish 1 student. I'm definitely more appreciative of my own ability now!) After practically a month here, I'm running into all kinds of Americans! Several stops before my apartment, another pair of Mormons boarded the bus. I would have talked to them too, but I needed to get off too soon. Crazy though.

Tonight I made the best dinner ever. I still have no clue how to control the heat in the oven. It is gas powered and there aren't any labels on the knob to tell you how hot the oven is going to be. We need to get a thermometer before I try baking cake or something. Anyhow, I put some foil down on a pan, drizzled it with oil, and sprinkled some salt, pepper, and seasonings. Then I plopped down some chicken breasts and repeated the same base layer on top with the addition of some chopped onions and tomatoes. (I realized too later that we were out of peppers.) I folded down the foil into a little packet and popped it in the oven (which is supposed to be at 400F but who knows what it was) for 30-45 min. (I think I took it out closer to 45 min after a bit of a disaster cooking the rice too high. Smoke. Bad.) The chicken turned out so well though. It was so tender and would have been even juicier had I cooked it properly. It was still loads better than anything we have eaten here at the house though. hehe Well, I take that back, I now can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. mmmmm

Peanut butter and BBQs

Well, I just got back from my jog and had a great time. Then instead of coming straight back to the apartment, i went on a search for a blender/food processor to grind my peanuts. I was hoping to just pick up a cheap one... but that might not be possible. The cheapest they had was $30 USD, which is a little disappointing as then they jump to $45. (It makes me think that the cheaper one is actually cheap. Too bad. They had normal blenders all the way up to $100 and more! I was hoping to spend about $15 bucks on one. Kels got Scott a coffee grinder for pretty cheap for his birthday, like I know she didn't spend more than $15, probably about $10 if I recall. I only saw one coffee grinder here and it was again $30.

So in defeat, I picked up a burger off the street. Not literally, it was at a food stand. I thought it would be about 2 pesos, as I had a 2 bill. Nope, when it turned out to be 3 pesos, and I only had another 100 bill and no change. I felt so bad for the guy as he pretty much gave me all the change he had to break my 100. Oops. It was a pretty good burger though, nothing special, but not covered in all the grease and fat that you might associate with a street vendor. Perhaps the burger didn't quite counteract the affects of my run. hehe

Then I went to the grocery (like a corner produce store). I picked up some more fruit, as I ran out quickly from my last shopping trip. Si, un kilo por favor. Beer caught my eye when asked for anything else, so in good nature, I got one of those too. I have to support the local cervaceria (beer factory), don't I? Well, when I got back to the apartment, I ingeniously stowed away my beer in my extra nalgene. After a bit of a trying day in the field today (not to much with me), I figured I could use a good, whole beer. No more of these splitting a single beer between two people (60/40 not in my favor), or even just drinking one out of dixie cup sized glasses. yum. My theory proved correct that just as I finished preparing my new beverage, Ben was sitting at the table of the family room, complained about the tv, left, asked me for one of my apples I just bought, and then returned to complain about the new show that just came on. Good thing I didn't have to wait until he finished drinking my beer too! hehe.

Last night was a blast. After arriving at Martin's house an HOUR late because Ben had a fight with his wife and wanted to get a drink beforehand, I had a chance to mingle with Martin and his wife. She is so bubbly and friendly. I just love her! Martin is such a great guy as well. He's the best host/boss we could have. Perhaps a good description would be the friendliness and concern of a kindergarten teacher, the fun and determination of a frat guy, and the ease of conversation of a friend you've known forever. Anyhow, they decided to have a Argentinian asada bar-b-que for us. That basically means take about a whole cow, cut it up in various pieces, pop all of it in the bbq (which looks like a brick pizza oven), and enjoy! There was sooooo much food and it just kept coming. We had appetizers of cold, bite size pieces of steak dipped in a veggie mayonnaise sauce. Then we had sausages, one that was probably normal and the other "blood sausage". I have no clue what all was in them, but yep, I'd say the later was at least 50% blood. When in Argentina! Then we had one cut of steak. And then another. (By this time I was stuffed.) But then Martin took even more off the bbq. (The pics are from an asada that we had about two weeks later out in the campo.)

I couldn't eat any more, so they switched from beer to some other kind of drink. I can't remember the name of it, but it starts with an "f" (perhaps some fennel-based alcohol...ah it's Fernet) mixed with coke. It was pretty good. Then came the coffee and tea (which I didn't take). Ohhh, I forgot the ice cream in between. mmmm. Then Martin's wife cooked up some marshmallows for us which she had a kick out of. I guess you can't get them anywhere but Walmart here, so most people haven't had them. mmmm :)

That about catches things up here. Hope ya'll are doing well!

Yippee!

Gladis finally moved out and we have the apartment to ourselves! Well, almost to ourselves, as the painters who are working on the outside of the whole building have been coming through our apartment to paint our balconies. (We kinda have the penthouse suite per say, as we are the only unit with balconies. I'm going to have to plan a party to utilize it too!!!) Anyhow, it is much better not to worry about being bombarded with rapid fire questions in Spanish when you just wake up and can't understand English let alone a foreign language with an even more foreign accent. hehe

Today we had our first chicks in the field. They are so cute! Consider that the eggs are only a little more than one centimeter by two centimeters (about the size of the first joint of your pinkie finger). These are some really tiny chicks! This picture shows six of the little guys on their second day out of their eggs. I can't wait for even more!!!

The day before yesterday Laura came with me to watch how to band the birds. These guys are much harder to hold in the photographers grip, as their legs are so stubby and they are not very calm birds. Oh well. That won't stop me from taking other pictures of them!!!

Man, while we were waiting for one of the females to fly into her box (which we had boobie trapped), the horses were playing out a soap opera. First, two of the males start fighting, aka charging at each other and being noisy. Then the pinto (I don't know my horses, but that's the painted one in my language) mounts the female and goes at it! By the time my eyes drifted from the nest box and saw what was happening, I missed the picture by just seconds! Too bad. The other male got really angry again and kept charging the pinto every time he came near his girl! I wonder who's babies she'll end up having! :)

Oh, and Kels, we've got tons of Lapwings (Southern Lapwings) which are pretty birds but really noisy. I'll post more of a bird list with more pictures once I take them. And I need to figure out the English names for the birds too. (Btw, this is pretty much the saddest bird I've ever seen. It is the pet of the ranching family at our site, but it looks like a rehabilitation project gone bad... I think it's a Monk Parakeet as we have tons of them nesting in the power towers, but I definitely think it too is failing on the godliness. hehe)

Random thoughts

Some say cleanliness is next to godliness... but as you know, Marin Catholic didn't do much to instill a strong desire in me to reach godliness. Don't get me wrong, I'm still showering almost everyday, but jumping under a weak stream of chilly water doesn't warm me up after a day of strong winds in the field. In fact, I'd be perfectly fine with skipping a day (or two) without a shower... but I haven't crumbled to that point yet. Ben can somehow get hot water in his shower and only ONCE didn't have a steamy shower. I think that may have coincided with my only shower that was warm, and how I did savor it!

Gladis took our clothes to the laundry last week, but there were a few problems with it. One, I didn't get my only towel back until the following day. (I took a shower and dried off with my tanktop... That still counts as cleaning up even if the shirt was dirty, right? It's the thought that counts.) Two, my clothes were mixed up in Savina's (Gladis's daughter, both of whom are STILL living with us). And three, I thought I lost my laundry bag (aka sleeping bag stuff sack) for good as it didn't come back until several days later. Therefore I've resolved not to send my laundry out to get it clean. However, I've also built up a Pavlovian dislike of the shower/tub where I'll need to handwash my clothes.

I'm doing fieldwork so I wear my waterproof pants every day. Those I can probably just rinse off in the shower once the caked mud starts to bother me. (It hasn't yet.) My tops could now probably use a wash as I think I've worn them all at least twice. Mind you, I didn't bring much down here! But really, I work in a pasture covered in cow patties and dead creatures of every make and model. I still smell better than all of that, so does it really matter if my clothes are clean? I think not.


On another note, I must mention a bit about the driving here. Have you ever seen a couple of kids find a new board game without the directions? They can figure out that they need to roll the dice, but they just don't know any of the rules that make the game more interesting. Well, interesting basically describes the driving here, so maybe that's not the best analogy. It just seems as though the automobile made it down to this part of South America without the DMV to make sure cars are used properly. There are plenty of cars on the roads here, yet in every intersection in Santa Fe, there are no stoplights. (Only once you get towards the "freeway-ish" road are there lights.) Okay, so there are towns in the States that don't have stoplights, but this is a city of half a million people! ANNNND to make matters even more interesting, there aren't even any stopsigns!!! Yes, that's right, I keep my eyes closed at every intersection just hoping that there isn't another car coming the other direction.

But then again, Ben and I noticed that there weren't any cars that had dents and dings as you might imagine from the inevitable crashes. We asked Martin about this one day on our way to the field. He assured us that people here certainly do get in accidents, its just that when they do, the cars are totaled. When they crash, they realllly crash. Oh that makes me feel better. So why aren't there any seatbelts in any of the taxi's??? I'll just keep my eyes closed some more.


As far as birding goes, we have about 20 nests with complete clutches (aka the swallow is done laying her eggs), then we have about another 20 that are either making nests or almost done laying their eggs. We've also found a nest made by an oven bird that looks like a swallow (though not our species) might be using. I think I'll try climbing up into the try and peak inside with my fiber optic spy camera. (Okay, so there's no camera attached to it, but it is still pretty cool.) I'm thinking I'll need to wait for a warmer day again before I can be limber enough to make the climb.

Today I caught two more females and banded them. It is so much more satisfying to catch birds here than with mist nets. With a mist net, you simply set it up and hope that a bird will fly into it. Don't get me wrong, it is very effective. But it just isn't very hands-on or active. Here we have several ways to trap swallows. The easiest is to sneak up on one of the boxes, cover the hole and then hope that the bird is inside. This doesn't always work because other birds around give alarm calls as you approach, and the bird might not be in the box to begin with. In that case, we have plug traps. These are basically a piece of cardboard cut bigger than the hole with a piece of fishing line tied in the middle. This is hidden inside the box with the line hanging out of the hole and attached to a fishing reel with the rest of the line. You back up away from the box and wait... Then when (and if) the bird returns to the nest, you reel in the line so that the cardboard inside the box covers the hole and traps the bird inside. You keep reeling in the line as you approach the box, reach in and you've got yourself a bird! It's very fun when it works and you feel like you actually had a part in the trapping. We have one bird that I've been trying to catch for two days that doesn't seem to like the little bit of fishing line coming out of her box. We're going to try an automatic trap soon...

We're only trapping the females that have been incubating their eggs for a few days already. Once we have them, I put a band on, take flattened, bent wing chord (aka length of their wing), then the length from the back of their head to the tip of their beak, and then their weight. Then I paint them with a sharpie. Ben's idea of painting the birds was with a fine tip black sharpie. Ummm, that doesn't quite fly. As even he couldn't tell which birds he caught, I showed him my method that Kels taught me. Basically, I make a whole new species of swallow. I only brought really bright colors of thick sharpies with me, so that's what I use. I've been using my bright sky-blue sharpie to color their chests, and formerly white rumps. (The species we are studying is the White-rumped Swallow.) For good measure I also sometimes color the underside of their tail. When they fly away they look like jellybeans. :) I love it and you can definitely tell which ones we've caught. (We need to know which is the male and which is the female later on when we need to trap the guy. Also, Rodrigo is studying them to see if the male helps in incubation. I've never seen the male even go in the boxes yet... but that's what science and observations are all about. Ben thinks it's a waste of time, but I think any data is good data. We can still get our work done, so it can't hurt to find out.)

Hmmm, so that's pretty much what's happening right now. I need to go find some clean socks to warm up my purple toes. ;) ttyl!

As you can tell from the picture, the weather hasn't been nice and sunny. That's find by me though, as I was still sweating under all my field clothes. I don't know what kind of bird is in the first picture. It definitely got in some kind of fight though, as it's missing a good chunk of it's feathers on it's head and possibly elsewhere. The second picture shows one of our swallows sitting atop her nest box with some nest material in her mouth. Okay, I'll take more pictures during better lighting so you can see more clearly. I just felt like posting these for now! ttyl

Explore

After work today, I decided to try taking the bus somewhere. I wasn't really concerned about where I went, I just wanted to see how the whole bus system works and what I have to do to take a bus anywhere. I decided that the Walmart we pass every day on our way to work would be a great test destination. There were signs on one of the bus lines with "Walmart" written on them, so I assumed that would be the best bus to take, right?

Before I hopped on one of the buses, I observed others using a bus card that they swiped in a machine upon entering. Interesting. I want one too. I asked another lady at the bus stop where I could get one. That didn't get very far, though another lady pointed to the store behind us as a place to buy them. It was a shoe store... was I missing something? Oh well, I asked if I could use change, and they both agreed that it works fine as well. Okay, getting somewhere. They ask where I am going (Walmart) and where I live (well, in Santa Fe for now, but I'm from the States). Yeah, do you think they could tell I wasn't a local? :)

Two buses approach, with the number 2 (aka the one that lists Walmart as a stop) behind another. But the lady who I was originally talking to told me I needed to get on the first bus. I told her that I think I want the second to go to Walmart. She grabbed my arm and told me to come with her on the bus, as it is the one I want. Okey dokey, whatever you say.

I had a feeling that this bus was certainly not the one I wanted, but I was ready for an adventure. (The bus had Santo Tome written on it, which is the name of the town where the institute is located and in the opposite direction as the field and Walmart.) Sure enough, we left Santa Fe and crossed the bridge to Santo Tome. Interesting, maybe the bus makes a big loop. We wound through town and then into the "suburbs" getting increasingly more rural as we went. Then a fellow passenger told me that the last stop was coming. Hmmmm okay.

When in doubt, fain ignorance because as everyone knows, ignorance is bliss. Well actually, ignorance wasn't too far from the truth. I really had no idea where I was going but I didn't really care. I got off the bus with the guy and he gave me his phone number if I had any problems. (I think he asked for mine first, but I told him I didn't know it. Fain ignorance!) He then asked me to call him on my phone to get the number... what was that? I don't understand... Oh the bus just arrived, too bad. :) He was a nice guy, but I think he was probably old enough to be my father, so don't worry, I'll keep my eyes out for better ones!

I got on the bus, and he talked to the driver. I wasn't really paying attention to the exchange between them, but I didn't have to pay for the return trip. Fine by me! The bus driver asked if I knew the language, and I replied that I knew a bit. (See, pretend like you don't know as much as you might and everything always works better.) So then as each person got on the bus (remind you, I was the very first person on) the driver told them I didn't understand anything and that I needed to get to Santa Fe. I am guessing that my new friend told the driver that I was lost. (I thought I told him that I missed my stop, but perhaps that actually translated into I lost my stop... Ahhh, everything makes so much more sense now!)

So, the driver explained in detail my "situation" to a guy about my age who was carrying some notebooks. Yes, student with books will be able to figure out what the stupid foreigner needs! Hey, I was just along for the ride so I didn't care, and I knew where the bus was going now and where I needed to get off. So the boy didn't ask me anything and I didn't offer any info. After a couple more people were told I was lost, the driver called a teacher who had gotten on a while back to come to the front of the bus. He kicked the boy out of his seat next to me and had the lady sit down. Yes, a school teacher would be able to teach the foreigner the ways of Argentina! I thought that he was picking people because they might know English. No such luck. She asked where I lived, so I gave her my address and told her that I lived near the government buildings. She simply repeated this to the bus driver. Now if that was all he wanted to know, he could have just asked me directly!

As we arrived in Santa Fe, we followed the street I ran on the other day. Then we turned past the gov buildings and onto a street paralleling mine. I started getting off the bus and saying thank you to the driver at the stop closest to my apartment... but the driver stopped me and said I should get off at the next stop. Ummm, you know better than I do. So I got off at the next stop which was a block further than the last, and a block further than my apartment. Moral of the story, I can get around town without people's help, and shouldn't take their offers of assistance!

It was a fun trip though. I love traveling by bus as it offered a great chance to see the area without having to get lost yourself. (You can always take the bus back in the opposite direction!) Oh, I forgot to mention where the end of the line was at a cemetery. You've got to admit, it doesn't get any more poetic than that!