Alright I'll give you some weekly news. I've talking a lot about the differences, so I thought I would point out three similarities. 1 - I have an annoying dog that lives in my "yard" (similiar to family barking dog at home). 2 - I share a bunkbed with a gamer nerd (shared a bunkbed with my brother, Tate, who is a gamer). 3 - it's fricking hot (I'm from Phoenix, need I say more)....back to differences.
Air conditioning units do not exist in this country, neither do heaters. For warmth, add clothes, to cool off, remove clothes, like all that's possible without getting in trouble. It's tempting, I admit, to follow the Argentines in their way of dealing with the heat. So because it's ridiculously hot, I haven't been able to fall asleep till three all week till yesterday! Twas a miracle. In church they had three fans to help stay cool, the church building isn't used lunes thru sabado (Monday thru Saturday), so we stole the big one. We'll return it on Sundays, but for the first time all week, I slept last night.
And a Spanish update. I have been here a month. Four weeks ago, I could not tell the difference between an Argentine speaking Spanish and a Chinaman speaking Mandarin. Now, however, it's starting to sound like Spanish!! Do I understand it all? Not even close. Can I say what I want? Not even close (in fact I'm often harassed for it). Can I carry a conversation and respond to questions or comments made by friends in their home or strangers in the street? Yes. Was that a yes? Indeed it was. It's miraculous the improvement that has come over the past month, makes me curious/excited for next month.
To answer some questions that have come my way: A tip for packages, stickers/pictures of the virgin or Jesus, otherwise the post office will open it and take what they want. And transfers are crazy, nobody knows when they are this time, President said it was a five week transfer but another time said the transfer date was the twenty ninth of November so I don't know.
I live in a house that our neighbor is renting out. It's made of cinder block (everything in Argentina is cement and some type of block, and when you say we build stuff out of wood, they smirk, laugh, giggle, and say to themselves "haha idiots, wood is flammable"). The walls aren't thin, they're cinder block thick, everything is just poorly made. Every door has an opening above and below, and many do not have handles, and the ones that do I stopped touching after I broke two (which had been previously broken but still a tad embarrassing and hindering). Oncativo is almost all the same type of house as mine. Mine is actually big though. Most consist of a kitchen/living/everything-other-than-a-bedroom room, and a bedroom. My house has a separate kitchen. Córdoba has lots of apartments (it is set up like a big city, even though it has a fourth of the population of Phoenix it's tall and crowded like normal big cities). Jobs are varied. In my branch, two hermanos (brethen) own stores (half the branch works in one of the stores), one hermano (brother) works in a paint shop, and our soon to be hermano works at a dairy. School is two six year schools, the majority however never graduate (our branch president is fourty something and is working on finishing high school). Kids per family range from 2-4 with 2 being the mode.
How did I get my holes (in my pants)? I have no idea. From scrubbing, doubt it, I've washed them once. My companion has not has that problem. I don't know how bad to consider them, one isn't too bad the other is iffy, and Oncativo might have 15,000 people but it feels like an Argentine St David (a small town in southern Arizona), so I don't know about a seamstress. As for purchasing pants, I'll have to do it in the city. Favorite food, probably empanadas. The asado last week was legit, it was just Elder Abraham and I. And I bought him lunch today while we were in the city (we had a zone instead of district meeting and we stayed to chill). And another good food is their yogurt (yogurt pronounced jscho-goor) is like flavored milk not yogurt (they eat cereal with it and think milk and cereal is crazy).
Well that's about it. Love you all, catch ya later.
LMX
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