..."if you were a man, I would marry you!"

Sorry for the delay in between posts… and sorry this is a short entry. I have so many stories to tell… and at some point I will get to the rest. I am loving Argentina and my study abroad experience has been amazing so far. But here is just a little somethin’ somethin’ to tide you over until I get back from my rural homestay that’s coming up this week. Love you all, and I’ll write again soon!

So as it turns out I have all the charm any Argentine, actually Brazilian, girl could dream of. Not sure how I feel about that – but really, is anyone surprised to hear my cutsie charm is still working below the equator? ;) … After a wonderful day- long picnic hosted by a local church this past Saturday I was invited over to a girl’s apartment for dinner and fun. In such a big city I was amazed to find out that her apartment is only 5 blocks away from mine. Before I went over to her house, I remembered the tidbit of information one of our academic directors had relayed to us earlier on: in Argentina it’s nice to bring a little gift when you go over to someone’s house for the evening. Well, I don’t think that is particularly unique to Argentina or even a standard from what I have observed, but I figured this would be the perfect chance to buy a little bouquet of flowers at the corner flower stand – I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to do this. (I would seriously buy them everyday and fill my room with these beautiful flowers if I could...but, well, there's not really any sunlight in my room) So, before I made it to the apartment, I got 2 sunflowers, one orange and the other red, garnished with some nice greenery, made into a little bouquet with this perfect white ribbon to tie it all together. I was hoping Priscila would find it just as adorable as I did. In short, she LOVED it! (and so did everyone else who came over [about 12 of her friends]… if they got one compliment, they got 20!) Who knew two little flowers could have someone telling you they would MARRY YOU (…if you were a guy)? Well, I certainly didn’t… but I hope this comes as good advice for all of you blog readers hoping to win the heart of another. The evening was splendid. We ate arepas (traditional Colombian cuisine) chatted and played charades (ALL IN SPANISH!) I had to act out the movie “La Edad de Hielo” or Ice Age… and my team figured it out!! SO EXCITING! For any of you trying to come up with a mental picture of this, just know it was epic acting ;) haha.

But seriously, think about this for a minute, I had barely just met these people and they invited me over to join in on their “friend’s night” without any second thoughts. So blessed to have found such a loving, welcoming and -patient with my Spanish -church community! OK, well, again sorry for my blogging lapse… I will pick things up at some point…Hope life is just peachy for all of you!

Besos y Abrazos, Marie