Birds of a Foreign Feather Flock Together

Buenas Tardes,

Soooo, I may not be Ecuadorian or Colombian, but I AM a foreigner here in Argentina (shocking, I know), and being so gives me special status in the latino world. I have become - in my opinion - latina by association! WOOHOO! (Dont worry, Poppa T...Once a Southerner, ALWAYS a Southerner. Im now simply a bicultural Southerner;)!)

Why do I claim this, you may ask? Well, while I have quite a few fabulous American friends, the majority of my non-gringo acquaintances are either from Colombia or Ecuador. Im not entirely sure why, but Im happy as a ham to have met and connected with them. Ok, so maybe I do kind of know why. Day 1 in one of my psych classes, we all had to introduce ourselves: Name, Occupation, Country of origen, etc. One girl, Andrea, stated she was from Ecuador. Oh man, did my ears perk up. For those that do not know, I lived and studied in Ecuador my Junior year of college and have since returned THREE times (not to mention dated three Ecuadorians!). So, being desperate to meet ANYONE, my first thought was, "I MUST talk to this girl." As soon as class ended, I followed (ok, ran after) her to introduce myself. And, in spite of my slightly overbearing attempt to convince her she would want to be my friend, we got in touch via facebook and were soon spending lots of time together "studying," chatting, eating, and attending horse races (more on that later). Within one week of meeting me, she even accompanied me to the hospital during a moment of ill chill desperation!

Then, the friends just kept acomin'. I met David, the cousin of an Ecuadorian friend, who introduced me to his Colombian classmates one night. Then the Colombians invited me to go out where I then met more Colombian guys and gals. And Andrea (the Ecuadorian) introduced me to her Ecuadorian friends. THEN, I introduced Andrea to my Colombian friends, and everyone to my American friends, and now we are one big circular smorgasbord of cultures. I have exactly three Argentinian friends, although I have met and spoken to many many more. I would LOVE to expand that circle, but turns out it is far harder to make friends with people that are not foreigners than it is with those of us who have come from far far away to try to make a life for ourselves here. I suppose we are all new, more or less alone, and open to (ok, sometimes I would go so far as to say desperate) to make new friends! All in all, I feel extremely blessed to have made the friends I have and to be learning so much about different cultures and cooking tasty ethnic foods, not to mention spending tons of time speaking Spanish! VIVA!

Over the past few weeks, we birds of a foreign feather (and sometimes on my own) have biked through the city on the free bikes residents (yes, that's me!) have access to, gone for long runs on gorgeous Fall mornings through the park, seen a real live horse race (just like in the movies!), eaten yummy Chinese food in Chinatown, made Colombian arepas (cheese-stuffed corn cakes) and hot chocolate, danced the night away to amazing salsa music, climbed a tower made up of 30,000 books, and spent lots of time reading and catching up with people in cute cute cafes - oh how I LOVE Argentina's cafe culture;). Oh, and I have been attending classes and studying, of course!

I think that is all for now. Im off to begin my next adventure (i.e. clean my apartment and take a shower!).

VIVA!!