Is this real life?

After a 20 plus hour bus ride ALL ON MY OWN, I now await Bryce´s arrival in the ever-mountainous and green lakeside city of Bariloche. I seem to be making progress on my Castellano, as I continue to gain the appropriate confidence to get myself around down here. I owe a lot of thanks at this early point to Dana (obviously) for being a wonderfully patient teacher/example/friend and also all those we made friends with in Mendoza over the last 10 days. I have been able to go beyond just sitting in conversations now, and I am actually contributing -every once in a while I can even give sass (to bed bug nicknames) or make a joke (Dana can tell you my snail joke haha)! -the best method for measuring growth, right? :)
The last few days I spent in Mendoza have been a scurry of itching and cleaning, far differing themselves from the rest of our stay here in this beautiful little city. We had thought originally, that we were going to need to stall in northern Argentina a bit so we could meet Bryce down in Bariloche when he flew in the 14th, but turns out we did not want to leave at all -as four nights turned into six, which turned into eight, which turned into ten! HA! This is precisely why we do not want to have concrete plans for this trip. Some places turn into home real quickly.
So let me begin with the bed bug story: I was eaten alive. It all began when one of our roommates, England, complained of bed bugs our third or fourth night in. Since Dana or I had no signs of bed bugs and he didn´t seem too concerned, we stayed put and pushed the warning aside. Next, I had a bunk mate who again brought up the concern, saying that she couldn´t sleep because it was so terrible. I had noticed maybe 3 bites on my wrist that morning, but after she requested to switch rooms and they immediately fumigated the MarcoPolo room, I thought everything would be fine -quite the contrary. The next morning I awoke early, went for a run, walked the streets and was fine until 2ish when I sat down for a bite to eat. I noticed my back was itchy and when I showed Dana, her reaction was enough. We began to search my body and found more and more bites that had popped up, totaling 78!

So it was all downhill after this with them again fumigating, me switching beds, sleeping in my sleeping bag, waking up to Dana crying "watch out there's one by your face!", them fumigating for a third time, us switching rooms, and all day sitting stiff with itchiness while dozing off every other minute... We at one point went to the hospital thinking I had an allergic reaction of some sort. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least, feeling lost for the first 13 minutes wandering around abandoned hallways from a horror movie, then being seated in a room next to a man that sounded like he was heaving his guts out... Time, care (with Benedryl and Caledrin) and patience was the "secret cure" I was given as a prescription. With all of this and looking forward to leaving my favorite place, I can tell you that I was not in the best of spirits.

Anyway, other than that mess Mendoza, like I have said, was an incredible experience for us. We did a wine and bike tour with Mr Hugo (infamous here!) in Maipu with some wonderful Danish girls and explored the town's beautiful Plaza's and sprawling parque, but mostly just laid low and enjoyed our company. We instantly made great friends with all of the hostel workers and fell into a rhythm with the local groove. We got to explore the city from a native standpoint, and were A okay with hanging around, drinkin Mate, playin the guitarra, singin at the top of our lungs, and chattin in Castellano with friends -real friends. Doing nothing seemed like everything. It was an amazing feeling, one I hope to recreate many times over on my journey -if not, one to go back to after Christmas :)