C:\Marlow\

I haven´t had time to email everyone so I figured I´d do what I rarely do and write in this damn blog.

Things have been a bit difficult at times, but amazing so far. For one thing, I definitely underestimated the language barrier. It´s been a while (about 3 years…?) since I was in a country that didn´t speak a language that I spoke, and I guess I had forgotten what it was like. I had assumed a lot of things:
Everyone would speak at least a little English, Spanish is similar enough to French that they´ll understand you, and finally, that I can get by with hand gestures alone So lets address those one by one, shall we? Nope, nope and nope.

Very few people in Argentina can speak any English, even the younger generation! This was surprising to me not because I´m incredibly ethnocentric, though that´s a possibility, but I guess because when I was in Korea all the students had to take English much in the same way we take french but they took it through public school as well as high school.

The Frech-Spanish similarity is actually not so far fetched, some words are similar enough, but not to the extent that I understand what the hell anybody is saying. If I hadn´t started listening to a speak spanish mp3 class thing I´d definitely be completely clueless.

There´s a joke to preface the third. If an Argentinian falls off a boat without a lifejacket, how do you keep him afloat? Keep talking to him. Buh-dum bum.. Argentinians are very expressive with their hands and actually have a sizable gesture-vocabulary. So when a Canadian guy comes bumbling along, gesturing wildly like a gorilla having a seizure, they are completely lost, bewildered and most likely scared they´re going to get knocked silly by a flailing limb.

Despite the communication problems though things have been amazing. The weather has been amazing, the men are incredibly friendly and helpful (women tend to avoid eye-contact oddly enough, I guess I look like a sexual predator…) and I´ve met some incredible people.

This past Saturday I went to a bboy jam that was partially organized by the crew I´ve been hanging out with, United Rockers Crew. Christian, the bboy that I met off of www.bboyworld.com that certain co-workers assumed was going to rape me/harvest my organs, was DJing the event and Rafa was judging. Their crew was entering the battle and were a man short so they asked me to battle with them. Despite having sprained my ankle about 4 days prior and again the day before I was feeling up to it and Christ was playing some good tunes so I couldn´t help but join them.

It was a bit crazy because some of the other crews there were absolutely amazing. URC´s rival crew, LACREW, were in the opposite bracket to us  and got eliminated in the semis in one of the most intense battles I´ve seen live since Rivers vs Mind 180 in S. Korea. It was a shame Lacrew lost because I really wanted to face them in the finals, I really liked their style and they had incredible blowups and power, even if they had a bit of a bad attitude while battling. So when we got to the finals the crew that had just barely beat Lacrew (it was a crazy close battle) had used most of their power and blowups already. We were able to control most of the battle using the commandos and routines we had come up with before the battle started and it worked because we got a unanimous victory from the 3 judges My ankle is suffering for the victory but it was worth it and it seems to be healing up.

Anyways, I´m off to Corrientes today for a crazy boatride through the wetlands and then off to Iguassu afterwards to see their world-famous waterfall(s).

Peace!