So, on Saturday I got a great sleep in. Or the night before, that is. When I came home from the Friday escapades, apparently a bunch of people went out dancing and stuff. Well, I didn't really hear about this and I'm extremely happy that I just went home and slept. Because I needed it. It feels weird to write this because it is again Saturday and I just got an awesome sleep in. I guess throughout the week I'm generally pretty sleep deprived and I need to rest and repair on Friday night. *shrug*.
On LAST Saturday the weather was very surprising. It changed and we had something of a storm in Buenos Aires. The wind was quite strong (very Oregon-coast-esque) and the rain wasn't heavy but there was rain. I loved it. It just reminded me of home...except that it was so much warmer. Warm rain, warm wind...I put on a sweatshirt Saturday night, which is the first article of clothing more than one layer of t-shirt (or a button-up with undershirt) that I had put on since I arrived in Argentina. Whoa. I didn't really need it though, even when it was the middle of the night and I was outside waiting for a bus. It still wasn't really cold. So Saturday night I ended up heading over to a friend's place to meet up with a large group of other american students. Two of them brought their guitars, voices, and talents, and we had a merry time singing songs together and generally conversing about Argentina. It was really relaxed and really enjoyable. OH, and Sara bought PEANUT BUTTER. So I got my first taste of PEANUT BUTTER in Argentina. I miss Peanut Butter, obviously, because it hardly even exists here. Almost nobody uses it, and it's very hard to find. And then it's not the same...it's just...different. Dulce de leche reigns here, and I miss peanut butter. A lot. But I got to taste some!
The next day I headed out to the Cementario en Recoleta, a ways from where I live. As I waited outside for friends to show up, a couple came up to me and asked me if I was from Oregon. They asked because I had an Oregon State shirt on (obviously, go beavs!). Upon my affirmative answer, we had a cool little conversation. One of them is from Portland and is in Argentina just finishing up the term. She went to PSU. The other dude was from some other place in Oregon, I don't remember, and ...well...it was cool to connect with them! They're the first people that I've met FROM Oregon on this whole trip. Some girl in the program that I don't know goes to UO, but she is from Arizona or some other place. DOESN'T COUNT. Especially if she's a duck. Anyway, rant over.
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| WHATUP EVITAAAAAAAAA. oh wait... |
After this I traveled a long way and, in a rush, got ready to go to church. Two friends of mine and I were going to la Iglesia del Centro, which is in fact about 7 blocks from where I live. SWEET. I rushed to meet up with them early, at about 5:35, only to find the church and discover that we couldn't go in until 6:30. So we assumed the service was going to be at 6, then found out 6:30....and when we got in after killing some time around my beautiful neighborhood we found out that the service wasn't till 7. Actually, as we sat and waited, we found out it's more like 7:30. BUT WE MADE IT. It's a Baptist church, and upon entering we had a few good welcoming conversations to get started. It was wonderful. I felt at home among believers during worship, during the sermon, during prayer...it was great. The worship was AWESOME. So many people raising their hands to my Lord and singing it out...in Castellano. Filled with His Glory. The sermon was great too, and I quickly discovered that I could understand almost every word the pastor said (which is a big deal). The only thing that I found kind of hard to deal with was the length of the whole service. It went over 2 hours, and I will definitely need to do some adjusting to that. It's long. However, everything here seems to be longer. I'm referring to the entire school system. Classes are so long.
Getting into that church like that has been a direct and powerful answer to prayer. Absolutely yes. Not just my prayer. All week I've been missing it and wanting to go back. And I get to tomorrow :D
That's my weekend, and the next day classes began. My next post (also coming soon) is going to be about classes and THIS weekend. And stuff.
Great post, Lucas! Somehow, I missed Evita's tomb when I went to the Recoleta Cemetery. Probably because I didn't jump onto the back of an unintelligble Castellano tour; what was I thinking? :P
ReplyDeleteAnyways, are we going to the early service tomorrow or the same one we went to last week? I would not complain about a subte home this time!