Welcome to Rio Cuarto

Despite my rather early morning arrival in Rio Cuarto, Nico was there to pick me up from the bus station.

Driving to Nico’s place I’ve got my first glimpse of “normal” Argentina. I quote “normal” because Rio Cuarto is not tainted by the dense tourist/expat population of Buenos Aires or the touristic feel of San Antonio de Areco and Tigre.

Located on a quiet residential street was Nico’s place; a two story house with another house sharing the right wall. (I want to say it is very common in Argentina for houses to be right up against each other.)  Since his parents and sister were still sleeping we caught up in the kitchen until his family started to wake up.

My first impression of his family was unbelievable! Kind, welcoming, and generous are only a few of the words I can use to express my thoughts about them. Shortly after everyone was awake, Marta, the housekeeper, and Mili, Nico’s University project partner, arrived.

After spending the first part of the morning eating facturas and drinking mate, it was time for the daily routine of a college student to begin. Mili, Nico, and I sat at their living room table and while they worked on their project I chatted with them and worked on my email inbox. Mili is a fantastic individual and I had a blast talking with her.

Nico’s dad, Ricardo, works as a freelancer engineer giving him the ability to work from home or his office near downtown Rio Cuarto making his own hours. When Nico’s dad got home the three of us went to their tennis club and played there for a good amount of the afternoon.

With tennis being absent for a good portion of my life, I needed to use some good ol’ elbow grease to strengthen my skills back up. While Nico played tennis with his dad, I was in the practice section of the club. I will say they might want to look at getting the holes in the fence on top of the practice wall fixed because tennis balls can fly through them rather easily. Let’s just say I was a little rusty and leave it at that. LOL!

It was a tiring but enjoyable afternoon at the courts, but it felt good to finally play again. It was even a nice day; sunny with temps in the upper 80s. Afterwards we refueled our bodies with the milanesas, mashed potatoes, and salad Marta made for lunch.

There was even a time when I took at little nap while I was alone in the Wagner household because Nico was in class, his sister and mother were at the gym, and his dad was still at work.

Supper consisted of semi-homemade pizzas with Mili and the rest of the family. Then shortly after, another one of Nico’s closest friends, Flor, came to hang out. We played Truco while drinking fernet y coke prepping ourselves for a boliche.

When the fernet was gone and the time was around 3 am we made our way to the boliche. The one we were planning on going to had a pretty good sized line, so we went to one down the street with Budweiser litters on special. We stayed out until 5:30/6am simply having a good time!