¡Vivan los Sabados!

It's Saturday and I'm back! I was in such a grumpy mood yesterday, but today all has changed! It's the weekend and I love it here. I had such a good time last night and this afternoon, and it's only 6pm so the night is young!

I ended up falling asleep at half 8 last night and sleeping until Sile woke me up at 10 past 11 so that we could go out. Oops! Sleeping before heading out is the way forward here, as no one even thinks about going to bed before 6am. I love it! We went back to Cristobal, the bar on the Costanera that we were in the other night, and had a few beers before heading up to the Friday club, Mentecato. It had been far too long since I had had one of their fine Caipirinhas! The door policy there seemed very random and we all ended up paying different prices. Some people got voucher for a free drink with their entrance fee, but I didn't, no idea why! The place was packed, but we still managed to bump into people that we know. It's so cool that I have only been here for 3 weeks and yet I have loads of new "friends" from Posadas! I think that because everyone in the whole city goes to the same club, it is pretty likely that we will see the same faces, but everyone here is so friendly that it makes me feel as though I have really settled in and that I am part of the life of the city.

I was particularly pleased to bump into Sergio, the very sweet waiter who served us at Cristobal on Thursday night. He had been telling us that night which bars were the best and he advocatec Mentecato, and there he was. I had a really good conversation (in Spanish as he can barely speak a word of Inglés) with him and I am pleased to report that he asked for my number. Yay! I don't imagine this will be the romance of the century as I am only here for another 6 days, but it was nice anyway! Apparently I'm supposed to be meeting him in Power tonight, and this could go one of 2 ways - it is huge and packed and like a rabbit warren, so there is a chance I will never see him again, or, being that Posadas is worse for bumping into people than Edinburgh, he might be in front of me in the queue to go it. Either way, I'm quite happy!

Today Sile, Jenny, Hannah and I went into town to have lunch and do some shopping. One thing that we have become really used to here is being stared at constantly. It generally isn't done in a threatening way, but people here seem to be fascinated by us. I think it must be our incredibly pale skin. People keep commenting on my eyes as well, I think because it's really unusual to have blue eyes here. Anyway, we got stared at and approached constantly during our lunch, although most people are quite happy to leave us alone if we give them a polite "no, gracias". Just as well!

After lunch, siesta (annoyingly, from around 12.30pm to 4.30pm - the best part of the shopping day!) was over and it was time to hit the amazing shops. I had no idea that a provincial town in Argentina would be such a mecca of shops. I love all the stuff here, it is as if they saw me coming. I got a pair of earrings for the equivalent of 20p and a pair of shoes for around 12 pounds. It's amazing, and I want to make the most of it. I also bought a few souvenirs and we had a good look around the centre of town. Amazingly, I managed to get my bearings and find my way on my own to the taxi rank, more by good luck than anything else, though. The town is built on a grid system, and there are supposed to be signs on each corner saying which streets are crossing which, but some are missing and a lot of the corners look the same. I don't want to really obviously get my map out, but although I don't always fully trust my sense of direction, it turns out it is more reliable than I thought.

I am also loving the fact that my Spanish is as fluent as it now is. I had a really good chat with Sergio last night and we understood each other - I even attempted a joke, although this was probably unwise as no one gets my sense of humour even in English - and I had a really good natter with the taxi driver on the way to the locutorio to write this. We were discussing the weather (how die-hard British am I?) and how great Posadas is. We ended up talking about barbecues (very popular here) and the difficult economic situation in Argentina. And I used to sit in Spanish in school and wonder if I would ever need the random verbs that have been coming in so useful this last 3 weeks!

I mentioned the barbecue as Sile and I have been invited to one at Cuca's daughter's house. Jonny and Tim will be there too as their homestay mum is Cuca's daughter-in-law and it's a family affair! I'm looking foward to it. The meat here is amazing!

After that it's off to Power and tomorrow we are going to San Ignacio. We bumped into Veronica in town (Posadas is so Edinburgh! As they say in Spanish, el mundo es un panuelo - the world is a handkerchief (!)) and she told us to see the ruins first and then go to the beach. It's my mission to wear everything that I brought out here, and so far I think I only have my bikini left to go, so I can't wait!

¡Hasta lunes, chiquitos!