The first thing I learned was that messaging is very big in Argentina. The second thing I learned is that people love sending audio messages and recordings. (Please note I saw people on the streets constantly talking into their phone before hitting the send button) I'm not really going to play them for you or anything like that. Here we have George, on the attack almost immediately after meeting him.
After this the audio recordings started. Usually they were 10+ seconds long but he was doing his best to speak English and ask me simple questions. I figured it was best to reply in both audio recordings and in written text, depending on what was faster. I was living off of wifi so there were gaps between messages. Sadly I wasn't just waiting around for him to send me a message to figure out what to do.
Mark started messaging me on WhatsApp and he preferred typing out his messages. This was probably because he actually knew more English and wanted to practice. I was fine with that. The two seemed to always message me at the same time so I began to wonder if they were actually together when they messaged me, checking to see who would get responses or who wouldn't. Alfredo was no longer in the picture since I blocked him so he clearly took a hint.
Mark and George ended up inviting my friend and I to come over so we could make and eat empanadas. I need all of you to understand just how good empanadas are down in Argentina. They were everywhere in different convenience stores and at restaurants I was never disappointed. So the opportunity to have home made empanadas intrigued me. When I told my friend she was fine with going, saying maybe she could learn the recipe from the experience. It worked out with our busy schedule so we fit them in one evening.
We went to George's place, which was definitely an experience. Please keep in mind that I've traveled to many countries, visiting plenty of family homes that belonged to the locals. I know different places have different living situations. George was located in a large building that he rented a room from. When I say he rented a room I mean it was literally just one room. There were three floors in the building he was in and each level had multiple rooms and doors. There was one communal bathroom per floor. Walking up the stairs and to where his one room was located was interesting to say the least. There were clothes hanging everywhere, bicycles hanging over the stairwell, and carts full of miscellaneous items.
Mark led the way through the building, which I was grateful for because I definitely would have gotten lost. The room we arrived in that George rented was probably the size of my current kitchen at best. I live in a one bedroom apartment so it was quite small and cramped. I'm still surprised we were able to fit four people in there. George had a tall narrow dresser for his clothes, another tall cabinet that held the propane gas for his stove, another tall shelf that had a tv on it, a small table for the empanada making, and a small wooden frame for a bed with blankets on top.
The space was cramped to say the least but hey, you take what you can get because everyone and everywhere is different. George was overly excited to see us and immediately said I needed to sit by him on his wooden bed. I know it was wooden because when I sat on it I was immediately uncomfortable. Mark ended up sitting on an overturned bucket and my friend got the one and only chair. George immediately said hello and asked how I was. Mark and George both ended up ignoring my friend while just trying to converse with me. The conversation was fairly basic asking about what we had done so far and what we planned to do next.
Empanada making started as George had the mixture ready to go along with the dough. He did his best to show me how to put the filling in and then pinch the dough together. However I failed miserably and just couldn't do it successfully. My friend was a natural pro so that was fun to watch. I ended up asking George for the recipe, which he then recited in Spanish and my friend wrote it down for herself. It was his mother's recipe and he'd had it since he was a boy. There was a secret ingredient that legit blew my mine and no it wasn't love.
The funny thing is that there were bits of mushroom in it and my friend told me she tried to avoid scooping it in to the empanadas she made because she knew I didn't like them. Talk about a true friend! She made out like a bandit though because she got the recipe so it was a win win. Mark began frying the empanadas on the small propane stove and the smell was fantastic. He fried so many of them we had to stop because we ran out of room on the plate to pile them up. There were a ton more that needed to be made though so we had to start eating.
However before we could begin George decided to video call his mom! Why did he do that? To show me off! There I was, awkwardly sat by him because there was literally no space to be anywhere else and he's telling his mom about his new friends. George shoved his phone in my face so that I could see his mother and so that she could see me. She began trying to converse with me in Spanish but I didn't understand much. He had to tell her that I couldn't speak it and so he just started talking to her excitedly. My friend explained that he was basically saying, "Look mom! I have my friends over! They're from the United States and we are eating your recipe!" His mother was obviously pleased and happy for him.
George then began to tell his mother how much he liked me, which at the time I had no idea about because I didn't understand enough Spanish to know the words he was using. (It was not te amo or anything like that) My friend told me after our experience and I felt even weirder. Who does this sort of thing though? Having a stranger join them in a video call with their parents just is odd. I mean, I know he did it to show off. Like he wanted his mother to see how well he was doing in the city, since his parents live in a small town. Still, talk about awkward. After the call ended we had to take multiple photos together of us eating our empanadas. I thought he was going to post them immediately on Facebook before realizing he'd likely crop my friend and Mark out of the photo so it was just the two of us.
Now, were the empanadas good? Yes. They were amazing. Nothing could top them. I ate at least five before slowing down a bit. We had a giant 3 liter of Coca-Cola to drink as well so it was pretty chill other than that awkward video call with his mother. Both Mark and George tried to get us to stay longer but we had been there for nearly two hours and were ready to go. I felt a bit claustrophobic to be honest. George made sure we took some to go, considering he made a giant mixing bowl of filling, and we gladly took them.
Mark claimed he needed to leave as well though and walked us out of George's building. We thanked George before we left of course and he said he would see us later. Mark said he had class to attend and said he was going one way. We had to go the opposite way to get back to our Airbnb but Mark insisted on taking us back to our Airbnb to make sure we got there safe. Not that we needed an escort, considering we had been moving around the city just fine and without trouble. The whole point of the escort was to try and bombard us with more of get to know you questions, directed at me, while also trying to figure out some other sort of plans for us to get together.
We spoke about what we did for work, our next travel plans, and things of that nature. It impressed Mark to say the least because he had only been out of the country once and that was to visit family in Haiti. I got him to start talking about that though to make the walk go by faster and asking what brought him to Buenos Aires. My friend and I played it cool though. Mark and George were only messaging me in the first place so I told him that I would let him know when we were free again and we could get together to do something else. Did we actually plan to do anything else with them again? Not really. They were becoming more of a nuisance at this point with all the audio messages that George was bombarding me with. Although if empanadas could be arranged we could probably be convinced to see them once more.
In Part 3 I'll show their messages that were sent after our empanada making session. Then their talk about love and what I should do in order to stay in Buenos Aires. Would you be as confused as I was if a guy randomly started a video call with his mother as soon as you arrived at his place? Or is that a totally normal thing I just don't know about? Let me know what you think in the comments down below. (:
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