I'm not creative enough to think of a title for this one, so just read it, please.

This weekend has been one for the books.  On Friday, I went to a tango class with my speaking parter, Florencia and her friend Gime.  I was so excited to learn some tango and spend time with them...that is, until we arrived.  Imgaine this: my two friends and I dressed in jeans and boots walking into a room full of women in dresses and super high heels and men wearing dress pants and dance shoes.  We thought it was a class for beginners.  It wasn't.  These people were pros.  We didn't even have partners, so we ended up standing by ourselves, laughed hysterically and kind of interrupted the whole class, and then we took off laughing out the the door we had just come in.  It was hilarious, and after watching people tango for a few minutes I am not sure I could ever do that.  They were so serious, and looked like they were in pain from concentrating so hard.  I have trouble with the two-step...the tango is never happening.

So since we then had the whole night free, the three of us went to a panaderia and bought criollos and other sweets and went back to Florencia's apartment to drink mate and enjoy the fresh goodies.  We sat for hours and talked, and drank, and ate, and it was great.  I especially loved that we talked about the difficulties of learning languages.  Even though the two girls are learning English and I am learning Spanish, we had so many difficulties in common!  It was awesome to talk about them (in Spanish of course) and learn from each other.  I really appreciate my speaking partner and her friend and I love that I am meeting people from here.  The best way to learn a culture is to be immersed in it, and I am so glad that I am branching out past the other foreign students and am truly learning to be a Cordobesa.

Yesterday was a day of great challenges, great laughter, and lots and lots of love.  I met the whole family.  Every family member of my host family came over to visit.  It was amazing and I have never felt so much love from strangers in my entire life.  I LOVE that here in Argentina, it does not matter if you have never seen the person before in your life, when you walk up to them, you give them a hug, a kiss, and some words of affirmation that you appreciate their presence.  This culture is truly defined by people, relationships, family, love, and everything else is just extra.  Material things truly do not matter.

Anyways, all day long we talked and I got to know everyone as we ate empanadas (SO GOOD...the US went wrong somewhere.  Why don't we have empanadas as a staple?).  However the challenge with this was that I was in a small house with about thirty other people speaking in Spanish all at. the. same. time. I'm so serious.  I was trying so hard to concentrate on conversations that my brain actually began to hurt.  At one point I was trying to talk to a kind gentleman sitting next to me (He's family, but I really have no idea who he is or what his name is.  I think he's a cousin, or maybe an uncle, or an in-law...no clue) and he asked me a question.  I had no idea what he said because I could not hear a word he said, so I took a wild guess.  I said, "well my dad is Lebanese."  He responded with "ohhhhh."  I immediately knew I had just butchered that response.  I soon learned that he asked me if I missed my family.  The way he asked was "les extrano?"  The word for foreigner is "extranjero".  I thought he was asking about the decent of my family, while all along he just wanted to know if I missed them or not.  Classic mistake.  I'm still laughing about this.

When things finally died down and everyone left, I felt a kind of tired that I have never felt before in my life.  My brain was done.  The remedy?  Netflix.  In English.  With Spanish subtitles because I had no choice, my laptop knows I am in Argentina.  I felt like I deserved a sappy, comforting romantic comedy in my native language after a day of Spanish like nothing I've ever experienced before.  It was just what I need to wind down and trun off my brain so I could get some much needed rest.

However, little did I know the celebrations continued today!  Some family members spent the night so I pretty much had to do it all over again today, but I was rested enough to take on the challenge.  I spent all day talking and laughing and getting to know the sisters of mi mama.  They are so loving to the point where it's like I almost have three mothers here.  They take care of me.  I can't even count on my fingers all of the times I have heard in the past two days, "comiste?" (did you eat?), "queres un te o cafe?" (do you want a tea or coffee?), "porfavor comi" (please eat...they are so concerned about this always!), or "no no no no te preocupes, sientate" (no no no don't worry, sit....anytime I tried to help with anything).  Although I wish they would have let me help with something, it is also comforting to be taken care of.  It makes me feel at home and loved and safe, and at a place so far from home, I need to feel that.

It is crazy that I already feel like I am adapting to this culture well.  I am getting so accustomed to going with the flow - to stopping whatever I am doing when a visitor comes; to kissing everyone on the cheek, always, no exceptions, ever, really; to passing the cup of mate around the table to people who were strangers about an hour ago but so quickly feel like family; to forgetting about things like to-do lists and cleaning and running errands, because they are so not important; to having meals last at least an hour and half because no conversation can be rushed; to welcoming surprise dinner guests, and sharing whatever we have to eat with them because that's just what we do, that's what we were meant to do, I think; to not try to impress people with things, but rather bless them and be blessed by them with conversation and love; to truly caring about others and completely putting them before yourself; to living the way I imagine Jesus did and the way I imagine He wants us to live.

I don't know what these people believe in, or if they believe in anything or anyone, but there is something natural about the way of life here that makes me feel like we are living like Jesus.  I already know I will have trouble with the transition back to the States because of this.  I will struggle with a rushed lifestyle, I will struggle with that culture's constant need to put on a show for others rather than just being real, I will struggle with the lack of intentional, heartfelt conversation, and I will struggle with missing the love-centered culture here in Argentina.  Love-centered.  That's what's most important.  For now though, I won't think about what challenge awaits me five months from now, but rather I will choose to be blessed by this and take from it as much as I can.  Maybe, I can take enough to bring a bit back with me and start something new back at home...something slower, something intentional, something where anyone of any race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, culture, language, age, or religion can come and sit at any table, because every table welcomes any person.  Because I'm pretty sure that if Jesus were there He'd want everyone to come, and I'm pretty sure he'd have love to offer to all.