So Monday night I got on a bus at 11pm and headed towards Mendoza, Argentina. I needed to extend my tourist visa another 3 months, so a quick trip over the border would suffice. I sat next to a man named Carlos (not my date) who is Argentinian but lives in Spain as a musician. We both agreed that although the other person was fairly interesting, we wanted to sleep. At three in the morning we were woken up to stand in line for an hour going through customs at the border. Neither of us had brought a jacket on the trip since in Santiago and Mendoza it is warm all the time. But in the middle of the Andes mountains, it is not so warm. The hour finally passed and we were back on teh bus. i arrived in Mendoza at 6am, and since nothing is open at that time, I walked around the beautiful city and enjoyed the solitud of a sleeping town. I sat in a plaza for an hour and read my Bible. IT was one of the best hours of my week. I shopped a little, taking advantage of the amazingly low prices in Argentina and met a woman in her late 60´s who just moved to South America from Colorado, alone. I think she is one of the coolest Gringos I have met here. Around 2pm, 8 hours after I arrived, I got back on the bus to return to Santiago. The ticket guy on my bus started calling me pretty and from experience with these ticket guys, I knew it would be a long ride if I didn´t do something quick. So I found the nearest guy my age and started talking to him. Well, honestly, I smiled at him so he would start talking to me, and it worked. We talked for a while, and then slept for a while, watched the movie... at one point we were talking about jobs and I told him that I taught English. He said he didn´t believe me so I showed him my card and he kept it. As we were getting off the bus he said he would call me when he wanted English classes. He was only staying in town for 3 days so I knew there would be no classes. Still, 20 minutes later, he called. i didn´t pick up the phone. 2 hours later he called again. He asked me to go out with him last night, I said no because I was too tired. He asked about tonight, and instead of putting up a fight or being mean, I said sure. So tonight I am going out with this guy. Oh yeah, and by the way, his name is Marcelo. Anyways, it is all so wierd to me. I tried to convince one of my roommates to come with us, but they all refused. Men! I have offically decided that I have a curfew of 3 in the morning anyways.
I live near a long thin park called Parque Forestal. It's really quite a nice park and it has a long stretch of a lane for riding bikes or jogging. And since I have a fear of riding bikes in this city, I jog. It's really pleasent. I usually listen to radioDisney on my mp3 player and jog along to Jonas Brothers, Beyonce, or Julieta Venegas. Great stuff. Yesterday on my jog I noticed that the trees were beginning to change. Fall has finally arrived and I am glad for the change. But as I was jogging through the falling leaves, I began to think about how much I like fall. And I had this special moment when I realized that I want to be here in Santiago, jogging through this park for many falls to come. After the past few weeks of cultural adjustment being a little more painful than normal, this was a nice thought to have.
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-mom