Making Friends in Hostel Territory

My hostel/permanent address until the end of the month turned out to be a very good choice. Despite there not being many residents, everyone there is super nice. Its owned by a 29 year old guy named Martin who stops by occasionally and is always very peppy and friendly. Not surprisingly, he is a club promoter as well. His younger brother, Manuel, is 25 and pretty much the opposite of Martin personality-wise, much quieter and mellower, but equally as nice. I also enjoy their company because they speak English! Along with Manuel there are 3 other guys who work at the hostal, trading off 8 hour shifts. They are also all very nice and about 21 years old. Matias doesn´t speak too much English so conversations with him are pretty short, but he always smiles and tries to help. Ezequiel, usually does the graveyard shifts and speaks more English than Matias. Sebastian is usually pretty quiet, although he surprised me the other day when he started talking to me while I was cooking. We actually managed to have a fairly good conversation where he asked where I was from and wanted to know about California, so I explained the basic differences between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Then there are the other residents. First, there´s Gabriella (or Gabi for short). She´s 29, Argentinian, and from Rosario. She also speaks English and has currently been staying at the hostal for the last 4 months so she can work here in BA as an actress in soap operas. She has a 5 year old daughter who still lives in Rosario with her grandmother. On Thursday night we ended up going out to a club that Martin was promoting. It was really fun going out with her because clearly she spoke Spanish and knew the BA night scene a little better than I do. We both got hit on by ridiculous drunk Argentine men, and spent half the time running away from them. Haha. This weekend she went to Rosario to be with her daughter, but next Friday we´re supposed to go see a cabaret show together.

Apparently, there´s also a doctor living in our hostal. Gabi shares a room with him, but he is never there because he is always working. The last few days there has been a nice couple from San Diego staying there as well. They have been traveling around Argentina for the last 3 weeks and are supposed to go home tomorrow. They cook a lot so I often spend my evenings in the kitchen talking to them.

Friday and Saturday, I spent with my new friend Teresa. We norteamericanas like to get together for city exploring and then go out to dinner and drinks. It is really nice to have someone to go out with. Yesterday we went to La Boca. It was certainly an interesting afternoon. Between the over-the-top haranguing by cafe promoters lining the little cobbled street near Caminito to eat at their cafes, the homeless dogs following us around endlessly, and the very bizarre little wax history museum we stumbled upon, I´d say it was quite the little adventure. So. La Boca. Check. Then last night we attempted to go to a famous night club nearby called Niceto. It was drag queen night there. So we bided out time at a bar across the street until it was a decent hour to show up (we´re talking 3am, here people!), but then when we got there it was just another packed club playing techno and house music. I think we graced it with our presence for a whole 40 minutes before catching a cab home. BA night club. Check. haha.

Tonight, I take one of those awesome overnight buses to Cordoba. I´ll be there until Thursday night. Then its my last weekend in BA!