Another Part of The World

Subhanallah, alhamdulillah. Those are the only words I can comment on what blessings God has given me. 6 months ago, I wouldn't have thought that one of my ultimate dreams; going abroad at none of my parents' expense; would come true this soon. Yes, I missed the chance of getting YES or AFS, of having one-year-studying-experience in USA OR Germany when it's like already right in front of my eyes, but God replaced it with something even much better than that: Singapore AND Argentina.  

The past two weeks were indeed, a living dream. You have no idea how overwhelmed I was with joy, knowing that I was chosen along with other 4 students from various cities to represent Indonesia in International Forum for Entrepreneurs or usually known as FIE 2011 (Foro Internacional de Emprendedores) held in Cordoba, Argentina. A very far, far away country. The most beautiful part of it was seeing my parents proud of me. 

On May 2nd I was having a lesson at class when a message from my friend received, telling me that the whole plan of attending the event would be canceled because of some VISA issues. I was supposed to have a quarantine in Jakarta the next day, but I got that message all of a sudden. Shattering all the imaginations I had had about going to Argentina, losing the will to smile and have fun with friends before leaving that day. Everytime my friends cheered me up, I cried inside. I just couldn't show them. 

But well, God knows what's best, and nothing's better than His plan. Here I am now, blogging, sharing all the priceless experiences I brought back from Cordoba. 

After flying +- 20.000 kilometers across Mid-East, Africa, and Brasil for the total of 28 hours, we finally arrived at Buenos Aires on May 6th at 10 P.M local time. We were picked up by Mr. Rudi and Mr. Sudi (people from Indonesia Embassy in Argentina who kindly helped us during our trip there) to directly go to Rochester Hotel. We'd got 2 free days in Buenos Aires before leaving again to Cordoba for FIE. Since we had no tourguide and most of them didn't speak English, we only spent the 2-day wandering around the city on foot, feeling the cold of autumn wind, taking some pictures. 

To me, Argentina is a very beautiful country. Its old buildings and culture, are truly mesmerizing. Really is a place worth flying tens of hours. And I knew it rigthaway the first time I stepped my foot on Ministro Pistarini International Airport. Argentina is as developing as Indonesia, even movies there are showed very late (Gnomeo and Juliet was still showing when I was there!). Inspite of things Argentina has in common with Indonesia; some trashes on sidewalks, beggars, high crime rate, traffic jams; I fell in love with the country. Whether it's simply because Argentina is the first Europe-like country I had ever been to, or it DOES have something that makes it so adorable.

Argentina is famous for its steak --the best of the best in the world. And it's not an exaggeration. Argentinian cows' meat is like the finest meat on earth to be cooked as steak. It is so delicious that they serve it without ANY sauce like barbecue, black pepper, even chilli sauce and ketchup. The first food I ordered there was Bife de Chorizo. At first I was waiting for the servant to bring us some sauce but he never came back. So I began eating the steak with literally nothing on it and... oh, it melted in my mouth. Really. The portion was HUGE too. But it was addicting. I can't count how many steaks I've eaten throughout my trip in Argentina (which is also the reason why, coming back,  I gained some weighs -___-). Most of the restaurants there served only steak, pasta, and my favorite Argentinian food called Empanada (again, the food is filled with meat). Regardless how heavenly taste the foods were, I still missed eating nasi uduk, pecel lele, and sate padang T_T 

As for the culture, there are A LOT of things to tell. I'll prolly talk about only some of them. South Americans, or usually known as Latins, are the kind of people that are very, very friendly and affectionate. Yes, affectionate. They love to hug and kiss people on the cheeks. Nothing romantic about that, it's just a way of them to show their friendliness. Even to a stranger you just have a talk with. And this is quite important for me to tell you, so that whenever someday you go to any South American country, you won't be surprised with it. It might be quite hard for Moslems, but when you're used to it, you'll also learn how to reject it in a nice, polite way. 

Music, might probably the most important thing in their life, and dancing is their passion.  No wonder the Tango dance was born in such country. Everyone seems to have an inborn talent to dance. Even the worst dancers, are considered good enough to me, who don't dance AT ALL. Walking down Esmeralda street in the evening, I saw a couple busking by dancing Tango. The other day at Plasa de Mayo (some kind of Bazaar or Pasar Minggu), there was a crowd dancing to Latin music on the street. People who watched danced along, jumping, marching. They seem to enjoy their life so much. 

One evening in a hotel in Buenos Aires, I was looking for my pajamas. I was pretty sure I put them on my bed, but I couldn't find it anywhere. It couldn't be lost, of course, but where were they? Definitely not in my luggage, or in the wardrobe. It bugged my mind you know, losing pajamas was not a big deal, but still ridiculous. I forced my mind to remember again the last time I saw it, but it was futile. I finally gave up and went to bed, still curious about where my pajamas were. Hours later, my question was finally answered. I was making my bed after I woke up in the morning when suddenly.... voila! my pajamas were under the pillow! I wonder how on earth they could be there, and I was kind of scared for a moment. But then I later figured out that it's the room cleaner who did it by purpose. It is a culture in Argentina to put your pajamas or t-shirts under the pillow. Wonder why? simply a culture.

There are actually many other great things about Argentina, but I guess this post is long already. Well, what I wrote above is only a tiny part of it, after all. Going to a country which, like Mr. William said, is the least visited by Asians means so much to me. Not so many people from around here have been there, especially because of the distance. And I feel so lucky and grateful to be the few who have. Alhamdulillah :')

Alrite, I think the post for Argentina is done. Next time I will write about what actually happened in Argentina :D

*Anyway, it was the first autumn I've ever had! and it felt really strange. The sun was shining yet the weather was so cold. Seeing yellow trees was another thing. Very beautiful, made me really feel I was in another part of the world :)