Mendoza Part 2

Continuing....



Woke up the next morning at 7:30 (as late as possible) and ate a typical Argentine breakfast of a "media luna", which is basically a croissant, and a cup of coffee with milk. I could eat several media lunas for breakfast, but more than two is like unheard of. The van came to pick us up at 8:30 and we were dropped off moments later to start our long day of various tasks.

I was in charge of the Musician's reception room, which meant that I got my own little team of minions! We kept up the supply of snacks and drinks, cleaned up after them, and best of all we got to talk to them. That was actually a part of our job description - chat with the musicians! We wanted to help them feel comfortable, so we just chatted about whatever... mostly music, go figure. I got some band referals from the drummer of DiosNosLibre and gave him some of my own. We're fans on facebook now, haha. I feel special.

The conference for me pretty much just included opening bags of chips, washing cups, chatting with the musicians, going out to eat for lunch and dinner with students, washing cups, eating a media luna for breakfast, washing cups, cleaning up crumbs and spilled drinks, washing cups.... and sleeping very little. But it was a blast!

So, the thing about cups is that unlike in the United States, Argentines actually reuse disposable plateware. I think its great that they do the whole reduse, reuse, recycle thing so diligently but my hands got really dried out from washing dishes so frequently.

I talked to a member of the band Amanecer before they performed and told him I had never heard of his band. Its understandable because before coming to Argentina I didn't speak Spanish! He wasn't offended. He asked if I was going to watch them perform to ya know, "take it all in", so I said I would make sure that I did (I didn't watch most of the other performers). I made my way to the front of the stage to see them perform and video taped their first song. I also got proof of my musician friend waving to me from stage. :)

I was cleaning up after the last session and chatting with my new friend from Chile when I was informed that everyone else from my group had left to get on the bus back home like a half an hour ago. Hm.... I was pretty sure they wouldn't leave without me but I suddenly had a sense of urgency flood over me. On my way outside yet another person informed me that everyone else had left. I went outside and found the bus across the street. I boarded the bus to find that Lean had saved us the good seats again. Good ol' Lean! While chatting with my new friends at the back of the bus before departure, I received a phone call from someone inside the conference center asking me what color my luggage was... I didn't "forget" it; I had just assumed that someone else had loaded it already since I was so "late".