A WOW weekend in Rafaela

Last weekend I took a long-distance bus to visit Brian in Rafaela. Rafaela is very different from Parana and Diamante. As Brian informed me earlier, Rafaela is a noticeably wealthier city, and therefore, it really reminded me of Fairfield County in Connecticut. The people on average have larger homes, more modern appliances, and newer car models. I'm guessing that the wealth comes from the three main industries in Rafaela: autoparts, dairy, and the metallurgical industry(?).

For the three days I spent in Rafaela, I stayed with Brian's host family, the Ricotti's. The mother, Leilia, is a recently retired English teacher, and the father. Raul, is a recently retired professor from the Tech University nearby. Their youngest daughter Sonia, who studies Bio-Engineering in Santa Fe, also came to visit and spend the weekend with all of us. I am very grateful to their hospitality and generosity to me. My weekend in Rafaela was a really relaxing and enjoyable vacation for me. The Ricotti's fed Brian and me delicious food all weekend, including a very special asado on Saturday. For our first time, Brian and I tasted molleja or ....... sweetbread. I believe the translation is pancreas! Although neither of us is a fan of eating organs, we have to admit it was quite tender and tasty. Unfortunately, noting the yanquis' aversion to organ-eating, the Ricotti's informed us that American cuisine does feature animal organs ground up in the form of hot dogs, hamburgers, and cold-cuts! Oh goodness! I also learned that the italian cold cut Mortadela is sometimes made from ground up horse! Ehhh......

During the weekend, Brian and I spent a lot of time hanging out and chatting with his young Argentine friends. On Friday night we went to a pub called La Republica to dance. I still haven't full-out gone to a Boliche (dance club), but I have been making gradual progress toward it. First I went to a pub in Diamante to drink and chat with Facundo and his friends Sebastian, Estefania, and her boyfriend Emanuel until 4am, and then I danced at a pub in Rafaela with Brian, Leo, and Edu until 5am. The next step is to actually dance at a Boliche until 7am with all the rest of the Argentine youth. As usual, the DJ at la Republica played a lot of American songs, including "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga, and, to my delight, "YMCA"! However, that night, we also had fun dancing to a lot of Reggaeton songs, such as my personal favorite, "Yo soy tu gatita" = "I am your little cat." I am excited for when I will be fluent enough to actually understand all the words in a Reggaeton song.

While I was in Rafaela, I also met up with Flavio's friend Mauricio. (awww... the beauty of networking!) Mauricio and Flavio met and became good friends in the US while they were both working at a casino in Reno on a work exchange program. Although since there return to Argentina, they have not been able to see each other again, they still keep in contact, and Flavio passed Mauricio's contact information along to Brian and me. Mauricio works at the Hotel Plaza in Rafaela. Even though Rafaela is not a popular tourist city, it does receive a lot of visitors from Europe and the US regularly for business reasons pertaining to these industries. He and his girlfriend Mari also joined Brian and I at la Republica, and I am hoping to see them again soon in Parana or Rafaela. I may visit Rafaela again at the end of May when the classic racecars from all over Argentina come there for a race.

Over the weekend, I also met Brian's friend Agostina, or Agos. Agos is studying Spanish language and literature at the local University, so we had a lot to talk about as regards books and authors. Even though Agos does not know a lot of English, she spoke so clearly in castellano that I was able to understand almost everything she said to me right away. : - )! On Sunday, Agos invited me over her house to watch an Argentine film called "Lluvia," meaning "Rain." As she informed me, this film is very Argentine because there is not a lot of action, words, or changes in setting. Nearly the whole movie takes place while it is raining in Buenos Aires, first in a line of cars stuck in traffic and then in a hotel. This movie was especially interesting to me because of the two main characters: one is a Spanish man and the other is an Argentina woman. During their (very)brief conversations with each other, I noted the various classic differences between Argentine and Spanish castellano. The differences in vocabulary, intonaton, and pronunciation were all fairly transparent right away to me since I have lived in Spain and am now living in Argentina. I could see myself one day using this movie to teach a class about the differences in castellano spoken in Argentina and Spain.

Now for the definite piece de resistance of me trip to Rafaela:
This past weekend, I spoke and listened to so much Argentine castellano that I have actually begun dreaming in castellano for the first time. : - )!!!!