back in my camping days (lordy, was it really just a
few weeks ago?), whenever it rained torrentially, i´d
stay in my tent with my tweezers and diligently pluck
the hairs from my legs. (i left my emjoi-gently at
home.) sometimes i´d listen to music, and other times,
i´d just sit in semi-meditative concentration,
listening to the amplified pitter patter of rain on my
´roof´. it´s currently pouring out there - cats and
dogs wouldn´t have a chance with the pumas and wolves
coming down.
the spanish word for cutlery is <cubierto>, which also
means ´covered´. over here, many restaurants have an
additional charge for the cutlery, which makes me
wonder if this is the source for the English ´cover
charge´, or if this latter comes from the concept of
´covering someone´s expenses´.
i´ve become reasonably close friends with a 28yo
turkish guy who´s going through a mini crisis. he´s
been away from his country for 11 years, going from
studies to work to travels. he misses turkey terribly
and wants to go back, but is dreading his obligatory
military service. if he goes back, the state will get
him for 6 to 12 months, or he could go for a 21-days
option in the service for people living outside the
country, and pay $US7000. or he could continue his
life outside the country, not only being considered a
fugitive, but having to give up his ties with his
culture. things like this make me feel so damn lucky
that i´ve got australia as my base... i´d previously
met an israeli who had ´escaped´ his military service
by pleading mental disabilities. how many of us in
this generation could imagine being in a situation
where you have to pay (with time, with money, with
compromises on personal principles..) just to enjoy
your own culture/country?
the city of Rosario (where i am now) is known in all
Argentina as having the most beautiful girls and the
best-looking guys. and the ´Rosarinos´ seem to use
this reputation to their advantage, quite happily
being with one person while ogling the next. i
couldn´t help laughing when i saw one couple
exchanging saliva: the guy was looking over his lady´s
head and making visual wolf whistles with his eyes at
a couple of other girls walking down the street.
a lot of you people who´ve been to europe or live
there know the tradition of looking into people´s eyes
when you clink glasses and say
cheers/chin/salud/santé, or whatever else (the idea
being that you get 7 years of bad sex if you don´t
look into their eyes). there´s a couple of other
quaint little ones here; if you drink from someone
else´s bottle or glass, you´ll find out all their
secrets. if you leave your bag on the floor, you´ll
lose all your money. (ok, so not the most funny, but i
thought it was cute..)
the upside of hostelling is, of course, the people
that you meet. yeah, most of the time, there´s the
typical exchange of travel itineraries and discussion
of sights seen, but every now and then, you find
absolute gems of friends who, even if you never see
them again, will always bring a smile to your face.
but enough of the sentimental stuff - moving on: the
spanish version of <who´s your daddy?> as a way of
making fun of left-of-centre habits, is <pegáme y
llamáme martha!>, ie ´hit me, and call me martha´!
this hostel gives you an hour´s free internet each day
with a new password each day to access it. typically
the username should stay the same, but in the few days
i´ve been here, i´ve had Yoan, Yun, Yon,.. it seems
any combination of vowels stuck between Y and N is
acceptable. today, they just gave up and wrote Juana.
i´m going to get my tweezers and see if i can find a
private place to enjoy this weather.
best,
Yaeioun
