Chacras: where the actual marathon exists

    I extended my record for how late I can stay up in Argentina. Friday night I got home at 6 am (Saturday morning), and then slept for three hours before waking up at 9 for my next adventure. I started the night by beer tasting with my friend Doug at a place with artisan beers. We sampled a few, and liked the barley wine the best. Afterwords, we went to a birthday party for my friend Amanda's host cousin, Juli. She and her friends rented out the upstairs level of a restaurant/bar for the party, and got pizza and drinks for everybody. This was a great opportunity for me to speak some Spanish with some locals, because I haven't met many locals yet. It's definitely hard to meet local friends, especially in a bar environment, because in general the men here are only interested in one thing. I recognized a pattern after being introduced to a lot of the men at the party. After asking my name and where I'm from, the next question is always, "Do you have a boyfriend?" Many have told me that it's normal here to have two boyfriends: one in the states and one in Mendoza. Despite this, I've still met some very nice people, and most of them are very interested in practicing their English or showing us foreigners around. A lot of my conversations last night would consist of me talking in Spanish and the other person responding in English. Its good practice for both of us.
    Around 2 am, Amanda and I left with her host sister, Marina, and her friend, Agustina, and they decided to take us to a boliche. I knew I was getting up early the next day, but went with it anyway. They ended up taking us to Chacras, a region of Mendoza where all the boliches are known to be way more locos than on Aristides, the normal spot for boliches in downtown Mendoza. This place was about half hour away, which meant I was stuck there until everyone else wanted to leave, or pay for a 100 peso cab ride by myself. Amanda's host sister told us that we would stay til 6, so I got my party face on and accepted the fact that I might not get to sleep that night. It cost 30 pesos to get into the boliche, which is different than downtown, where chicas are normally free, but the entrance fee included a drink. So basically they made it required to buy a drink.
    There was a huge line to get into the boliche. We waited outside for a while, and when we entered, I had to have ID, which is the first time needing it since the airport. There were probably 2000 people in this boliche. It was massive. I couldn't believe how many people were in there. There were different rooms separated by tent coverings, with outdoor patios in between. There was also a VIP section up the stairs on a balcony where you can see everything. It was very difficult to walk and hear in there, more so than in the other boliches I've been to. This one was much more intense and very intimidating. There is barely any room in there to dance, and trying to move around is impossible. I was holding to Amanda the whole night for fear of getting lost in there because it was so crowded.
    It was interesting to spend some more time with people my own age from Mendoza. I noticed that the most common outfit in the entire boliche was a black skirt, tights, tank top and red sweater. I probably saw 20 girls with this same outfit. Which made it difficult to follow Amanda's sister because this is what she was wearing. All the Argentinians love their fernet y coca in the clubs. I still can't stand it. It tastes like mouthwash.
    We stayed out til 6, and on the way home Amanda's sister, who was driving, got breathalyzed by a checkpoint for drunk drivers. Based on the intensity of traffic I've seen here and lack of cautious drivers, it made me feel a little better to know that the police here are making some preventative measures to eliminate drunk driving. It always surprises me when it's already 5 or 6 in the morning and the time just flew by. Just like Jose warned us when we got here, the nightlife is a marathon. We started with a sprint, and are working our way up. But the tiredness definitely caught up to me the next day, making it clear why siesta time exists in this country.

New friends: Amanda and Katerina on the left are from the IFSA program too.

One of the rooms in the boliche, taken from the balcony