Although I do not understand exactly why, I suppose my "love life" makes for an interesting read. For some reason everyone is anxious to get Jared married. I had planned to skip this story I have changed my mind, and am including it in my South American journals strictly for my readers. This is truly is a story of a perfect meeting and relationship that just wasn't meant to be. Wow, I feel certain I will regret this so this article may be taken down soon, probably as soon as I realize this was an awful idea and only happened as a direct result of sleep deprivation. Regardless, here is how the story unfolded.
Our very first day in Uruguay I had noticed one of the most perfect women I have ever seen. Her hair was long, dark, and thick, her skin naturally tanned, but freckled from the kiss of the summer sun, her cheek bones were high and femanine, her figure was tight and lean, yet full and enticing, despite all her dark latin features her eyes were as bright and blue as the skies above my Carolina home.
Being a bit of a self-proclaimed expert at identifying nationality, I immediately decided she was Argentinian. This was very intimidating because after living in Brazil, I could not say a single word in Spanish without twisting it with a Portuguese accent. (Let me clarify my delima by explaining that Argentinians detest being spoken to in Portuguese--I suppose it's a local rivalry thing). So that was that, I would have to shake my Portuguese accent in order to strike up a conversation. To further complicate the situation, a group of guys from Argentina were always loitoring around the lobby and they were certain to intervene or mock if I tried to practice spanish with her.
That was that--or so I thought...
As it happened I returned to the hostel early after riding bicycles all day long and anxiously began prepairing for a long night of R&R. I was going to sleep long and hard, and wake up to pack and return to Argentina the next morning. My plans however, were thwarted by a twist of fate. In an act of generousity, I allowed my older brother to not only borrow my computer, but also to enjoy the entire room to himself to have a serious and private conversation with a girl he was at the time dating.
I could do this, despite exhaustion I was a Gringo. I had a military haircut, wore cargos in 100 degree weather, carry a hatchet and a knife on all my trips, and recently everyone had assumed I had just finished a tour of duty.
So there I sat wide awake in all my gringo glory. I tried everything, coffee, shower, tv, and conversations with other hostel dwellers. All in all I was doing great! Great that is until I looked at my watch...it was only 11:35!
I don't remember much after that, until I was awakened by a shadow. I was asleep on the couch in the common room beside a desk where the public computer was. Sitting in front of the computer was the woman. Everyone else was gone, it was just the two of us. I have never been woken up by the precense of someone else before, but that night I suddenly was wide awake without so much as a sound. People had been using this computer and television all night, but for some reason at 12:30 I almost 'felt' her come into the room.
I sat up and looked at her, she didn't really notice me. This was my chance, we were all alone. There was literally no one to make fun of my futile attempts at speaking Spanish. So I quickly strung a few words together and fought the portuguese accent as hard as I could. She looked at me, most likely trying to figure out what on earth I had tried to say, and then softly suggested, "I can speak English if you prefer."
Those few words led into conversations of books, economics, the U.S., Canada (where she actually had spent the largest portion of her life), revolutions, monarchy, and so on. I learned that her mother had been a personal advisor to the king, and when the Uruguayan monarchy had been overthrown her and her mother and sister fled into Canada. She was fluent in English, French, Portuguese, and of course Spanish. After medical school she had been travelling and researching plants which she believes will very soon produce the cure cancer.
We went for a stroll around town and stopped at a restraunt, it seemed we had only been talking a few moments when we heard,
"I need to go home" Our server said, "It's 4:30."
I couldn't believe it! Had five hours really gone by already? We said our goodnights, and retired to our respective rooms. The following day I did not see her before checking out. I looked around the hostel hoping for some clue of where she might be or have gone. I suppose it our meeting was just for a night, but I would welcome the opportunity to sit and learn more about old Uruguay and her tramatic fleeing of the country she loves so much.
...To be continued soon...maybe...probably not...I left my email at the reception desk...if she ever contacts me again my readers will be the first to hear. I promise.
