Wednesday, September 18

Today we woke up early, ate breakfast, and packed up the car to drive out to the country, where we would be staying for the rest of the week.

The car was completely full of people, food and suitcases, and by the time we got to the country (we drove for about 40 minutes); I was so ready to get out and stretch my legs. When we pulled up to the house, I realized it was basically in the middle of nowhere. I mean we could see other houses, but they were all spread out and connected by dirt roads and surrounded by fields. When we arrived, a lot of the family was already there, and so we went around and greeted everyone (some I met for the first time, others I had met before), and then we went out and decorated the house for the 18^th.

Later, Maxi and I went out with our little cousins to the park, and after a while we went for a walk around the country. We ducked under fences and came in contact with horses, fields, and abandoned houses. Then we went back to the house and an uncle of ours brought out his rifle. We practiced shooting cans off the roof, but it’s a lot harder than it looks and I didn’t even get close.

Then, some of the adults were dancing Cueca, and they invited me to join them. I think they just wanted to laugh at how badly the gringa dances Cueca, but I humored them and danced a few times with Eric.

Then, we all sat down to eat dinner, we talked for a while, and I got to meet Charly. Charly is a neighbor of the family who is somehow always over at the house. His Spanish is literally impossible to understand because he has like his own slang that he made up himself and only he uses and expects everyone else to understand. Everyone thought it was the funniest thing to watch me talk to Charly, so he told me ghost stories. Then, me and my cousins Maria Jesus, Maxi, and Camillo decided to walk through the fields to this abandoned and supposedly haunted house. It was dark and spooky and dirty and quiet, but definitely not haunted.

I laughed and walked up to the house and started making jokes about ghosts, and they all looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently it is normal in the countryside to believe in ghosts. They all truly believe that “things have happened” that are paranormal. I still don’t believe any of it, but it was an interesting contrast to being surrounded by skeptics in the US. When we got back, we went with Nancy to pick up my aunt and my cousin Seyla from the bus station. We were going to visit them in Argentina, but since we couldn’t they came to visit us. After we got home I was pretty tied, so after we talked for a while longer, I went to sleep. The house has 4 bedrooms, and there were about 25 people sleeping there, so I had to share a twin bed with Maria Jesus. It was freezing cold and pretty uncomfortable, but I was too tired to care.