miércoles 8 de agosto 2012
I’ve been in Bariloche
now for 10 days. This place is
absolutely magical.
Picture a humongous
lake. Now in your mind, make it twice as
humongous. Then put mountains all around
it. Sprinkle a dusting of snow on the
tops of those mountains. Add some
trees. Add some more trees. Last, build a quaint little town on the coast. Bam. That’s where I’m living.
For the first handful
of days, Luke (one of my TEFL classmates, who came here with me) and I were
couch-surfing with this guy named Mario (30-year-old snowboarding engineer.
Really cool lad). During the day we went
out looking for work/housing. I had been
browsing through this website (compartdepto.com.), which lists housing/people
searching for roommates in Argentina, for a while. One day we decided to go see a house that this
couple (Walter and Miriam) had listed as having a room for rent. They live in this really big, really gorgeous
wooden house, on the lake, in la Peninsula de San Pedro. The Peninsula is about 20km from el centro,
but as soon as we saw the place, that didn’t really matter to Luke and me. We still took a few days to think on it
before giving them a definite answer (honestly I was concerned about how far it
was from el centro, but in the end the pros won over that con). But now we’re living with them—and what a
good decision! They are seriously some
of the nicest people I have ever met.
And did I mention they’re both professional chefs? Yeah, they’re both professional chefs. They
also have three girls, who can be obnoxious sometimes but are really just
adorable (you know how little kids can be).
Living in the Peninsula
is absolutely amazing. It is kind of
annoying to go to/from el centro, but when I was living in Boedo in BA, the
commute was just as long (or longer, traffic-pending) to get downtown. But out here is like a taste of paradise. It’s a runner’s dream. And Walter has a mountain bike (a really nice
one, mind you) that he lets us borrow whenever we want (like I said, nicest
people ever).
And every once in a
while, Walter and Miriam host parties at their place. Well, there was one Saturday night (our
second night in the house)! Luke and I
helped bar-tend, serve food, prep, and clean and what-not (and we got small
stipend—score!). The party was complete
with multi-colored lights, high-school-age DJs, and dancing—and it went on
until 5:30 (which Walter said was relatively early)! Talk about a warm welcome!
When we moved in Walter
and Miriam told us that their house was our house, and that we would be treated
as part of the family. I definitely feel
like that. Not to mention the crazy
amount of Spanish practice Luke and I are getting! So as far as the housing situation goes—I’m quite
satisfied.
Looking for work, on
the other hand, has been a bit stressful.
The market is nothing like that in BA.
Most of the schools we’ve visited either A) don’t need teachers until
March or B) are government-run, which means we need work visas in order to be
hired (whoops). I’ve been advertising
for private lessons, and also looking for business English/marketing translation
work opportunities. So right now I’m
kind of playing the waiting game. I’m
trying not to stress too much over it (I didn’t come to Argentina to be
stressed all the time) and just hoping I’ll find something. Although some prayers would be more than
welcome!
One thing that IS
slowly coming together is that it looks like I’ll be teaching English to
members of the Peninsula community!
Walter and Miriam have been talking to their neighborhood and
friends. I’ll probably be teaching a group
of children at level zero, a group who’ve had a little bit of English already,
and probably a group of adults too. So
that’s cool! They said I could give the
lessons right out of their house. The
parents are meeting together and with me over the next couple of days, so
hopefully we can start that up next week.
Yay! It’s almost like I’ll be
founding my own mini school :)
In the meantime, I have
been keeping myself busy and entertained.
I’ve visited el museo de Patagonia, and el museo de chocolate. (Umm did I mention Bariloche is the
chocolate capital of Argentina? Uh,
yeah. And it’s not overrated at all—it’s
all really really delicious) There’s a
ski hill, Cerro Catedral, right next to town.
Haven’t made it there yet, but I plan to in the next week or so.
I also visited a
Bariloche church on Sunday night. That was…
an incredible experience. First of all,
I can’t believe how much I’ve grown in my Spanish. I mean, I didn’t understand every word, but in
general I got most everything. It just
felt really cool to be able to sing and talk about God in a different language,
and it still produced the same powerful effects. It was really moving. Secondly, the church (it’s called La Roca
Centro Cristiano) is just a really cool place.
Nice people, good fun vibe, good message that night. AND I loved the music. At times it seriously felt like I was at a
Cru meeting back at Northern. I even
knew a lot of the songs—they were just translations! We even sang Hanging By A Moment by Lighthouse
(also known as Por un momento).
And then—totally an act
of God: The next day I was walking
through town, searching for places to drop off my résumé. I popped into a tourism/excursions office,
and who was working at the desk but one of the girls from church! She remembered me and we chatted for a
while. She told me a little more about
the church and some of the activities they do.
Saturday night they’re hosting a movie which I want to go to. She also said she thinks there are plenty of
people at the church who would want to learn English (bam!). So I think I really want to try getting
involved with this community. I could
grow spiritually, make friends, and potentially work too. We’ll see!
As for the weather
here, it’s really great. It’s winter in
Argentina, and since Bariloche is more south, I thought it would be
colder. And I mean, when there’s no sun,
yes it’s cold. But during the day, it’s
always been sunny, and reaching the 50s.
Really great. And there’s no snow
on the ground. There were patches here and
there when we arrived. As far as winters
go, this is totally bearable.
So there’s a general
overview of my time so far in Bariloche.
Today I biked for almost five hours—stopping at bus stops to put up more
flyers and then once for café con leche
and once for ice cream. And it was a
perfectly sunny day—couldn’t have asked for anything better! What’s hopefully to come: starting English
classes, snowboarding, and a day trip to El Bolson (a nearby village) with
Walter and Luke.
I’ll post pictures… as
soon as I find my camera cord…
