right now i'm sipping on mate, the popular tea stuff they drink here, just reflecting on life this week. today is election day here, both for president and gubernatorial. it's a big deal here because according to the primaries, cristina fernandez de kirchner (the current president) will be re-elected for another 4 years. i still can't grasp the fact that voting is mandatory in argentina and that liquor sales closed in the afternoon yesterday. bars stopped serving alcohol at 10pm last night and the alcohol aisles in the grocery stores were blocked off by caution tape. it seems odd because although it's required to vote, the politics here are still very corrupt. parties will "campaign" by gifting computers to 17 year old kids who will be 18 at the time of elections, going into poor neighborhoods and giving members of the villas miserias one shoe, promising to bring the other one after elections are over. candidates will also wait outside the voting areas and give out money for people to vote for them.
my family has gone on another vacation, but this time it's barely for 24 hours. i got the invite (woohoo!) but decided to stay home because i have a final exam review session tomorrow that i figured i shouldn't miss. i missed the last session because i was in patagonia and just barely passed the midterm...whoops. in one week, i will be done with one of my classes here, and three weeks after that, i will be officially done with classes. i try not to think about it like that because i am finally out of my rut and have really come to appreciate mendoza.
yesterday i woke up at a decent hour and did some homework. i helped clean the house a little bit because my mom's birthday party was in the afternoon. my family and i had lunch together and then my host dad and brothers peaced out. my dad had been urging me to get out of the house because all of my mom's friends were going to come over for the party ("too much woman in the house" he said). i didn't believe him until i came back from my run and could hear the chatter of almost 30 women from three houses down. i walked in, sweaty and tired to the house full of middle-aged women, plates of cheese, cakes, cookies, and sandwiches, tons of flowers, all of my host mom's fancy china, about 20 bottles of wine and a lot of perfume and gossip. the patio had been opened into the house, so it was literally like one big outside party. like my dad said, there was demasiado mujer, literally "too much woman". i showered and managed to slip out again to give my host mom time with her friends. i went back to the park and a bunch of ifsa gringos and i played soccer until around 9pm, or until it was impossible to see the ball. when i got home, all but one of my mom's friends had left, so we sat outside with my host grandmother just chatting and eating the remainders of the food on the tables. my brothers and host dad came home soon after and we ended up just playing soccer with a mini ball inside the house in the dining area for over an hour. it was at this point i realized that i was bonding, really bonding with my host family. facundo broke out the digital camera and filmed julían and i volleying the ball and playing with pancho. this morning, julí ran up to me in the kitchen and insisted (three times) that i be a part of his magic trick show. i have never felt so accepted here before! as my family was leaving, my host dad gave me a flower and thanked me for being so entertaining and accepting (i assume he was talking about the previous day/night). i was surprised and didn't know what to say!! i have finally found my place here, and can't imagine leaving now. what a ride.
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