My best friend and I had an Airbnb in Buenos Aires along with an itinerary of different things we wanted to see and do while in the wonderful city. My best friend had lived there a few years ago so there were plans to meet up with some of her old friends. I was more than happy to tag along because how could I complain or argue? With my limited Spanish I was doing good just to smile, nod, and get by while leaving her to do all the translating. It was a great setup in my humble opinion. Not many people spoke English and what was funny is some people were surprised I didn't speak Spanish. I'll take it as a compliment that they didn't automatically assume I was an American.
So the first meetup opportunity was for my best friend to see her friends while at church. Ugh. I hate wearing a dress and going to church. It just isn't fun for me. I'd rather spend my time doing others things but hey, to each their own. I tagged along to church, not understanding much because I don't know enough Spanish but I got the gist. It's church, all about God and things like that. After the service was over my best friend was approached by everyone who remembered her from years ago. I smiled, introduced myself as her best friend, and then just nodded as they spoke Spanish to each other.
Plenty of plans were made to meet up for dinner or go to the mall and other things of that nature throughout our week long stay. Just as we were leaving though a group of guys approached us and two started to speak to me in English. To be perfectly honest I was so relieved to finally be able to have a conversation with someone and understand what was being said. Mark was fairly well spoken while George knew more short phrases but hey, speaking more than one language is hard so kudos to them. Alfredo didn't know any English but he was eager to be in the conversation.
They asked my name, where I was from, and handed me their phones so we could become friends on Facebook. I was a little thrown off, since we had literally just met, but my best friend was doing the same thing so clearly it was the "you're a friend of a friend so that makes you my friend too" game. They asked how long we were in town and what we had planned. I did my best to explain we had things we wanted to do but were still pretty open and figuring out what to do.
The conversation took a turn because my best friend was translating what they were asking and trying to say to me. They no longer cared about her and were more interested in me. I was a bit upset for my friend because she did not have to play translator. If the guys wanted to talk to me they would have to figure it out. She informed me that they were inviting us to a game night that night. We didn't exactly have any plans but at the same time I was still thrown off by these guys. I didn't want my best friend stuck playing translator all night if she didn't want to. "Are you sure?" I asked, hinting that we could say no if she didn't want to. She said it would be fun because a bunch of her friends would be there too so I relented. Then there was the mention of food and I decided to think about it.
My best friend and I left church with plenty of plans for the week and more to come so it was a success. In hindsight I can't complain because I did have quite a bit of fun with just about everything we did. Once back at our Airbnb we got changed into normal clothes and then went grocery shopping because the market was going on nearby. That was a fun experience of buying fresh meat and produce, since that's not really a thing in Vegas. Yes, there are farmers markets but there's not as much variety as what I saw in Buenos Aires. Once we loaded up we did some meal planning for the week so we didn't buy more than we needed.
Soon enough it was time for the game night. We ended up walking to the address that was sent to us because it was more fun to walk around than deal with public transportation. I was still getting my bearings so it was nice to see what was around and nearby. We arrived at the game night finding the place packed with more than ten people. It was a fairly small apartment so things were a bit cramped. I just went with it though and the host of the game night Felipe was super nice. He spoke English so I had someone who I could converse with while my best friend was chatting with her friends.
There were plenty of snacks, treats, and mate to drink so it was a chill setup. That's when a PlayStation 2 was busted out with FIFA. I was shocked. People still have a PS2? They needed a converter since they had gotten it from the states so I pulled mine out my backpack and became the savior. In the middle of setting up the PS2 the guys from earlier arrived. Suddenly I was swarmed on the couch by them while I was being given a controller to play. They were asking if I had received their messages, which I hadn't because I was living off of wifi. It was only later on wifi that I discovered they were blasting me with messages about when we could possibly get together to hang out.
They knew about the game night. Why did they think they needed to send me 20+ messages each? Anyway, I didn't know that during the game night so I just spent time with them beating them at games while also conversing when I could. Then dinner was served and there was discussion about what everyone did for a living. The guys who thought they were my new best friends were saying that they were still in school or drove for the equivalent of UberEats (I forget the name of the Argentinian company). Some were still in school and things like that so it was interesting to hear. When they asked about me I told them about what I did and all the traveling I did each summer. They were blown away since most had never even left Argentina.
Game night started to wind down and then the group of guys from church tried asking me how long I wanted to stay in Argentina. They asked what I wanted to do while there. They asked if I had a boyfriend. They asked if I wanted to have a family. They asked if religion was important to me. I was a bit shocked by their forward questions but answered them honestly. I answered that I was just visiting, that I didn't have a boyfriend, that I wasn't worried about a family, and that religion wasn't important for me. Now of course they were bugging my best friend to play translator once again because they didn't know the exact words in English that they were looking for. They then asked to see me again soon, before looking at my friend and quickly saying both of us.
They were barely smart enough to think that my best friend needed to be around to both play translator and to even get me to be around them. We said we'd message then and make plans for later in the week before leaving. Now let's give a quick rundown of the guys.
George aka Lover boy - He could only speak short phrases in English but did try and use his phone with a translator. He kept trying to take pictures with me and I was not about that. I don't need a stalker in my life. He's not very tall, maybe 5'5" so definitely shorter than me. He isn't very cute but he was very eager to talk to me and was pleasant at first so I dealt with it.
Mark aka Desperate - He spoke the most English so he was the best to communicate with. He sat right by me on the couch and kept the conversation going while everyone was lost in their own Spanish stories. He's about 5'8" so still shorter than me. Another one who wasn't very cute but hey, I just had to talk to him and I survived.
Alfredo aka Douchebag - He didn't speak any English and kept bugging my best friend to translate for him. He was the tallest of the group, about 6' tall, so that was nice. Sadly the lack of common language made it so we couldn't truly communicate. He also was made fun of by the group of people at the game night a lot. I couldn't tell you exactly what was said but it was definitely a diss on him. I took that as a bad sign of sorts.
Now after we left there was a bit of a walk to get back to our Airbnb. That's when my best friend informed me about how Alfredo had been a bully to her when she had first arrived in Buenos Aires. He made fun of her for not being fluent in Spanish and spoke quickly on purpose so she wouldn't understand what he was saying. I was horrified because what a douchebag! How dare he want her to be translator when he had been so cruel to her before. If I had known that Alfredo had been a complete jerk to my best friend I would NEVER have spoken to him. Once I was on Wifi I blocked him because there is no need to have that kind of negativity in my life. I also apologized for her having to play translator and she just laughed saying it was good practice. Also she was curious to see what they would have planned for us if we did see them again later.
This post has all ready become a little lengthy so apologies for that. In Part 2 I'll talk about the next meetup with the guys and how WhatsApp became their go to way to communicate with me! What do you think of the guys so far? As long as you don't like Alfredo then we are on the same page. Let me know in the comments down below. (:
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