#of subtely telling me things she has noticed or learned about me

[starguardianniom]

Adrien's revelation about his feelings for Marinette and before that, their "friendship"

I got big mood about it, for the moment he realise when he noticed his feelings changed for her.

That moment? The "statue kiss" in The Puppeteer 2, aka one of the most embarassing and cringe moment of the show, period.

Especially since it was one of those moments that Adrien witnessed Marinette in one of her creepiest and weirdest moment ever toward him that he's aware of and saw and somehow didn't have a problem with in the end because of her excuse and her being more upset about his joke than her behavior being beyond unacceptable toward what she thought was a statue of him, as he consider her a good friend and good friends don't creepily sniff your statue, don't pull out some of its hair to keep and don't kiss them on the lips.

But that kiss apparently made him change his feelings toward her subtely until he could pinpoint it in season 5.

Like, what? The Fuck?

Are you freaking kidding me?

Adrien, my sweet cinnamon bun, please have more self-respect for yourself.

You do not catch feelings for a girl who acts so gross toward what she thinks is a statue of yourself, please.

Heck, he was weirded out as hell when she was sniffing him, pulling his hair (his eye twitched), and of course when she kissed him he immediatly pulled away, to his defense he had no idea she would do that, because why the hell would she try to kiss a statue of him when she can barely stay in the same space alone with him in the first place? As the beginning of the episode showed, she freaked out when they were left alone and yelled (begged) to not be left alone with him, to his sadness before she corrected herself.

But him saying the moment he started to see her as more of a friend was that moment when she kissed him as a statue takes the cake.

Not to mention that already from the start their "friendship" is not really the greatest, because well, 95% of the time they get moments because Marinette or one of their friends made sure they would spend time together in some ways, or just make sure Marinette would be around or get opportunities to confess her love for him more than anything else, like actually hanging out for real as friends and not it just being a plot for a confession on Marinette's part.

Especially since Marinette has his entire schedule for the next 3 years, broke into his locker, his house (multiple times, mind you), stole his stuff, manipulated people to get into trouble so she could get a chance at maybe getting a date with him, when she's not outright trying to get rid of the competition, stalks him to another country, make sure he doesn't hang with other girls that she hates, abuse her powers to get a chance, and so on.

Let's be real here, their friendship was more genuine on Adrien side than Marinette, who said herself once in Riposte that she didn't want him to like her like that but to like her as in a romantic view instead of platonic.

Half the time the show shove Marinette down Adrien's throat because she wants to be his girlfriend, except she has a whole network to try to make it work, her friends, her family, hell, she even use her powers to try to make a move. Took 5 seasons of unhealthy behavior and 2 erased end of the universe to make it happen. Yeah!

Because I remember people being salty about how Adrien regarded knowing Ladybug's identity in Chat Blanc being wrong because he knew who she was and she wasn't aware of it, until she almost got akumatized, but the whole thing started because Marinette decided to use her powers to break into Adrien's room knowing he wasn't home to give him a gift, something that Tikki had opposed to, and of course Marinette being Marinette, didn't listen, and well, it led to that.

Not to mention that she wasn't any better when Ephemeral came, as she decided that Viperion and Su-Han would learn Chat Noir's identity behind his back and they wouldn't tell him after she learned it and later forget about it, and the whole thing fell apart because once she realised he was her precious Adrien, she decided to see how it would go. And then still proceeded with her plan. So Adrien literally had 2 other people knowing who he was and wasn't made aware of and probably wouldn't have before a long time, not sure if he would still have dated Marinette if he had found out about it.

Sure, Adrien knew in Chat Blanc, but it wasn't planned at all on his part unlike her, he sure as hell didn't tell anyone else behind her back with the promise of her never finding out like it was her original plan in Ephemeral, when he transformed to save her, well, it was either throwing his secret away, or well, they were screwed above and beyond. He didn't know Nathalie was watching and ratted him to his father, whom he doesn't know he's Hawk Moth until later in the episode when he gets traumatized by him and akumatized. Especially since Adrien finding out Marinette was Ladybug was completely on Marinette's fault for not sticking to her golden rule of never taking risks with their identities that was also shoved down his throat and ours for 3 seasons straight, but she threw that through the window (literally) by going into his room and acting like a total obsessive maniac, sniffing his pillow while laying down his bed, why, just why?

And why does Adrien just rolls with her being weird around him all the time? At one point he could get fed up and just tell her off, because well, she only acts like this toward him, and if she can't act normally around him, that won't stand, he wants to be like other kids and fit in, Marinette's behavior toward him compared to how she acts around the rest of their friends should drive a wedge between them because he wants to be part of the group, and if the girl who's the most liked by their friends can't act normal around him, what are his chances with others? Because Marinette is really the only weird one around him. Kagami, Chloé and Lila are clingy sure, but they also can function without problem around him, Marinette, barely managed at times. That went for 4 seasons. I think Adrien telling Marinette off about her behavior, especially since months passed in the show, could have been a good way to make Marinette realise that she puts him so high on a pedestrial that not only she was making it difficult for herself to endear herself to him, but maybe backpedal on her behavior that wasn't fair to him much as she has so huge expectations and pressure feeling for him that Gabriel's expectations and pressure of him can almost look good next to her views of him. That would have been a good character development for her I believe.

Instead in season 5 they joke about how she used to be and he just let it slide and doesn't concern how she learned his habits without his knowing.

Because let's face it, Marinette didn't so much got to know everything about him that there was to know as she was more studying him, like a project you're working on and need to know every little details so it won't blow up in your face or fall apart. Don't tell me she learned stuff from him by asking him directly and hanging out with him normally back in season 1, she could barely talk to him at all, or stay too long before running away or trying to. She puts him so high on a pedestrial she can't see him past the clouds. That's not a healthy way of friendship or romance mindsetfor her to be in. Even more because her worship of him is entirely on her, he doesn't want anyone to treat him like a god, he just wants to be treated normally, and she can barely manage that.

Also, Marinette monopolize so much of his time that the rest of the class sans Nino (and possibly Chloé) barely knows him, they are so quick to throw him on Marinette, or the other way, that they don't really interact at all, again he wanted to have friends, he barely interacts with anyone not named Marinette, Nino, Chloé or Lila. I think Luka got more lines with him than most of the class did. And I'm not talking about them talking about Adrien, but them talking to Adrien as in in a conversation with him and them talking together. We saw in Felix that only Nino, Marinette and Lila thought Adrien wouldn't be that mean, meanwhile Alya, Rose and Juleka get akumatized over "Adrien" being mean toward them, since they barely know him, being too busy shipping him with Marinette instead of trying to be friends with him like he would probably want to. Leave Marinette alone with him, Nino, get with Alya and leave the lovebirds alone. I swear Nino gets shoved away in favor of Marinette and it pisses me off, given how little freedom Adrien has when he can hang out with him it would be nice if he actually could and not just have Alya glaring at him for wanting to spend some alone time with him and not her, or for her to immediatly ask if she and Marinette could tag along.

Let's not forget the huge mistakes Marinette made because of her being unable to cool her heart and head when it came to him, as seen in Heart Hunter and Strike Back. Fu losing his memories and her being the guardian, later Hawk Moth getting most of the miraculouses, leaving her with only her original partner once again.

All of the unhealthy behavior she exhibit in the show because she got traumatized confessing to Kim the year prior courtesy of Chloé. Note that it's the act of confessing itself that seems to have scarred Marinette completely, not Kim or Chloé, Kim probably because she knows he was manipulated into it and is probably more unaware of how much hurt she ended up feelings as they probably have known each other for years maybe (who knows), and well Chloé had been her bully for some years by that point so nothing new here, just another new way of being tormented by her. It was the act of pourring her heart and feelings out in the open to someone she loved only to then being brutally having it turned into a sick joke that left an horrible trauma on her, to the point that she swears that she'll know everything about the next guy she'll fall in love with and make sure they're not friends with Chloé. But that second part went away with Adrien who is friends with Chloé so. Yeah.

So again, why the heck should I approve of Adrienette? Why should I like it? Why should I like that Adrien finally got with Marinette after realising he started to grow romantically interested in her after one of her worst moment ever toward him? Why would they even be good friends? For all the things I said above, I'll say that's why I'll never approve, like it or ship it, or think they could be good friends, unless Marinette just stopped feeling romantic toward him.

For all the fluff that happens when it is all romantic and soft and stuff, I remember all the terrible moments, thoughts and actions that led to them, preventing me from liking it.

Even their "friendship" moments, that were also most of the time Marinette being hurled toward him, either by herself or with the help of her friends.

Because I'm sure that Marinette would probably be able to do worse than what Chat Blanc would have done if something happened to Adrien and she couldn't save him.

She could and probably would be worse than Gabriel ever was.

The only one time I actually liked Adrienette was in Oblivio, when they had no idea who they were, and as such didn't have their trauma and insecurities with them which made it the healthiest they've ever been.

Marinette doesn't need a boyfriend, she needs a therapist to overcome her freaking trauma before actually heading in a romance. She deserves this much. She needs the help, badly. Her friends can only do so much and they are amazing, but they are also kids who aren't equiped to deal with her trauma. They all have their own traumas and worries to work on too.

Seriously where are the therapists in this city for real?

Adrien and Luka deserved better.

Adrien also needs therapy because Gabriel sucks for life.

And the kids need to reign their shipping tendencies, nice of them to help, but sometimes, please don't get involved, because either it won't work or Marinette will take it apart by herself even without meaning to.

So those are my feelings on the Adrinette ship and the Adrinette friendship.

[lightfortoday]

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[subpopmountainbabe]

With alot of recent talk about female empowerment, I am going to address an elephant in the room for women like myself, who have sometimes found it difficult to get close to other women for no reason other than the fact that I have often fallen victim to the toxic jealousy of fellow females. I know there are plenty of wonderful, genuine, uplifting women out there, but when you have lost things from jobs to friends, tips, & social media accounts at the hands of jealous women, it can certainly leave you questioning who is genuinely happy for your achievements, or there for you overall on a pure level. Just like any emotional scars, enduring something negative repeatedly can certainly skew your perceptions of the world and the people in it. To this day, I am still healing from wounds inflicted upon me by other women...while it still continues to happen for no reason other than the fact that I exist. If there is one thing jealous women are terrified of, it is others knowing or finding out that they are jealous of you because that entails swallowing their pride or admitting they aren't perfect. This just makes it harder to find your voice when you fall victim to these types of people. These aren't only the strangers giving you the stink eye from across the room, either. Sometimes these women pose as close friends, while simultaneously pulling the wool over your eyes by trying to sabatoge you, or poisoning the well behind your back. They often know what to tell people also, in order to make their lies sound more believable by manipulating people's observations, while leaving out important unseen ones.

It is frustrating when you sense, or (at times) downright know someone is jealous of you, but you don't know how to tell other people about it without coming off as cocky or full of yourself. Everyone preaches self esteem, until you actually refer to yourself as being pretty, or intelligent, which as I said can further complicate things. Yet, the damage is real, when experienced in excess, so I will be the voice for the other women who know what it feels like to constantly be outcasted for being pretty, intelligent, successful, or for any other reasons jealousy commonly occurs. It matters because of the emotional damage it can create (especially long term) as it repeatedly occurs in different settings throughout ones life. Being an intelligent, witty, or attractive female does not mean you deserve what others have put you through, whether subtely insulting you with backhanded "compliments" in social settings, or trying to get others against you with pathological lies. In order to truly empower other women, we must also hold those who have created hostile environments for other women, accountable. I'm not talking about women who just don't like someone for logical, or justifiable reasons (hint: a dislike for someone doesn't always equate to jealousy) but with the absence of truth or logic, it often does. To be clear, I am specifically talking about jealous people who ACT on their feelings in cruel ways that can inflict emotional harm or distress onto someone else. Everyone feels jealous sometimes. It's a normal human emotion when kept in check. If you are creating situations for someone else like the ones I'm about to mention below, (which are all real life examples I have endured over the years), then you need to do some introspection and figure out the root cause of your hatred. If you know people who are like this, then you need to stand up to them and hold them accountable even if they're your friends or family. This is also for people who tend to be gullible and don't know the signs. The only way to truly empower one another as females, is to first address the senseless hostility that some exude towards others for simply existing. These are all real life things that have happened to me, that were no doubt acts of jealousy: I will no longer remain silent while people take their issues out on me or other women alike. Having issues is not an excuse to screw over other people. We all have issues, and we have all felt pain. In fact, even pretty or intelligent women sometimes feel insecure, believe it or not. At the end of the day we are all people, and are deserving of kindness when we have shown kindness ourselves.

Anyhow, these are the things I am talking about that I am still healing & trying to learn from. I am going to type in 3rd person because I know I'm not the only one these things have happened to.

1. When a group of females lies to the boss to sabatoge your job, even after you've repeatedly helped them do theirs when they asked you to. Groups of females like this are the most toxic types, because it's harder to disprove to others when trying to defend yourself from their malicious intent...even though you know exactly what they're doing.

2. The "friend" who acts nice to your face, or will pretend to be happy for any achievements you've made, but will lie on pathological levels to other friends or aquaintances when you're not around so that other people won't like you, or at least not too much, therefore preventing others from getting too close to you. This is a form of 'poisoning the well'.

3. Having to rebuild social media platforms from scratch several times due to false & wrongful reporting. Unfortunately, Facebook has a broken appeals system. I could easily disprove their lies, but it was to no avail.

4. *A hint for guys*. Ever notice how that woman (or women) you liked before you met someone else, never seemed to reciprocate your feelings? Or perhaps they just didn't seem to give much of a damn at all. That was, until you publicly posted about your new relationship. Suddenly they seem to "care" about you. They went from never caring about your posts, to suddenly commenting on everything. Or maybe they are suddenly making an effort to call you. Don't for one second think they suddenly realized your value as a person. What's really going on is that they see you've moved on from crushing on them, and that you are no longer inflating their ego because you found somebody better, who actually loves you. For some people, losing that attention is like losing oxygen. It is especially evident when the girl who loves you is also intelligent, funny, or attractive. This has happened to me at the beginnings of every new relationship I have ever been in. Thankfully my husband saw through the girl who tried doing this to him at the beginning of ours, but you'd be surprised by how many guys play dumb. *Hint for women*: If this has happened to you, and your guy defends miss egotistical, your guy knows what he is doing. He knows she isn't just "trying to be nice". She is blatantly disrespecting your monogamous relationship, and he is entertaining her to keep her around as plan B or C, and you should take that as a clear red flag to leave him because there should be no plan B's or C's if he is committed to you. Im not talking about his female friends, who cared about him before you two were together.

5. Having someone constantly challenging you, even after being articulate and logical. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about someone who challenges you out of sheer curiosity or because they genuinely disagree. I'm talking about the person that constantly disagrees just to disagree because it's something you said. This is just their way of being competitive and trying to one up you. A good indicator of this is when they don't do it when it's just the two of you, but constantly do it when others are present.

6. This one is probably the most relatable for alot of women, and also really needs to STOP. If your man checks me out, it's not my fault. If your man tries to make a move, and I reject it, it's not my fault. If your man calls me hott, it's not my fault. Now, I'm obviously not talking about women who entertain his poor behavior or engage in it...because screw homewreckers. I am talking about the ones who haven't done anything wrong whatsoever. As women, we need to stop hating women because some end up with shitty, disrespectful men. Yes, I know that men are sometimes a huge root cause of creating the animosity that women feel towards other women...but if the woman has done nothing wrong except exist, then you need to re-direct your feelings towards your men, and not the women, who more often than not, have no interest in your man.

7. When you work(ed) as a waitress and have/had women glaring at you even though you've made an obvious choice to give her more attention than the man in order to ease her mind and assure her you aren't interested in her spouses stares or flirtatious gestures...but it doesn't ease her mind and she hates you, and you begin to hear her talk crap about you, or trying to jip you on a fair tip instead of holding her man accountable for the insensitive behavior that clearly upsets her. I'm sorry your man made you feel this way, but it's not my fault. If you can't see that I put in a significant amount of effort to make your experience as comfortable and enjoyable as possible, then you are quite frankly, in the wrong. I have been the woman with a disrespectful husband in the past (not my current husband, but my ex-husband to be clear) and I do empathize with women who unknowingly end up with womanizers to an extent, but for me, the extent of that line is drawn when you take it out on someone who did nothing wrong to you. I know there are waitresses that lack empathy and who do cross the line of what most consider to be a respectful presence, but that was certainly was never me because I have been on both ends of this spectrum.

While I could go on with real life examples all day long, I tried to only post the ones that others will likely relate to for now. I hope that this post has made some people question their own behavior, judgement pertaining to gossip or rumors, and that it will inspire women to start being kinder to one another. If you got this far, this is likely something that has affected you personally. That, or you have been the jealous woman for whatever reason. I hope that either way, this inspires people to change for the better, or to create an environment in which the victims of this form of emotional abuse can heal from.

[alyinargentina-blog]

Texas or Iguazu??

Iguazu falls looks like it’s fake, the pictures of it don’t do it justice but seeing it is like seeing something that would only exist in a Disney movie or a bad action movie that needs a cool set to make up for the mediocre acting. Katie and I left Buenos Aires Thursday morning, and sat at the airport getting live updates from her mom about the sentencing of Alec Cook, the UW student who sexually assaulted numerous female students in 2016. He was charged with five felonies and several other additional crimes, with a maximum sentence of 40 years. He got 3. Our justice system is so screwed up it’s revolting. Our flight there was painless, as was the ride into town. Our hostel, from the outside, looked nice enough, it had a lot of cool murals on the walls and our bedroom seemed clean. We hurriedly threw our bags down and retreated into the living room to watch the Argentina world cup game against Croatia, a seemingly meek opponent who turned out to look a lot better than Argentina ever did. 

A painful 2-0 loss later, Katie and I found ourselves with little else to do than go track down a very early dinner. We found a mexican restaurant on google maps and headed there, only to be told it doesn’t open for another hour. We tried entertaining ourselves by shopping and browsing the little markets outside but the town of Iguazu has about as much entertainment as the Wisconsin Dells downtown area, which let me tell you is about zero. There were lots of the same tourist stores filled with overpriced knick knacks, clothing stores with more graphic tees in one place than I’ve ever seen, and a surprising lack of bars where we could sit and sip a beer before we devoured some tacos. Thankfully we found a bar at the end of the main street, got some beer and cornnuts!! and wasted way an hour until dinner. 

The Mexican place was an experience if nothing else, one that involved very little real mexican food. Katie and I have decided that people generally like us: the waiter at the restaurant gave us a huge free plate of chips and dip with more to come later. We ordered some passionfruit daiquiris, which apparently are VERY different than margaritas according to the same waiter, and then our food. Turns out “quesadilla” to an Argentine means a flatbread ham and cheese sandwich, which is not quite what I had in mind, but oh well. The other two tacos we got were good, both of course needed something picante but we can’t expect Argentine sauces to provide that at this point in our semester, that would be asking way too much. After the food, our bestfriend (the waiter) came out with free tequila shots, which we were really not expecting but which were not nearly as deadly as I remember tequila shots being. By this point, Katie and I were sufficiently liquored up, and headed back to the hostel. 

We decided to shower, which in theory is a relatively easy process. False. I ended up falling and severely bruising my hand and elbow because wet tile steps are not a semi-drunk person’s friend. The rest of the night was spent icing my hand and complaining about our professor who had just decided to send the prompts for our final essays that night, two days after he said he was going to and after having the last class be cancelled without any prior notice because the professor decided she had better things to do and “didn’t have time” to text anyone about it. Juan rescheduled the class for this Tuesday, directly in the middle of a very important soccer game, so I will not be attending. Sorry Juan. We went to bed relatively early because no one was at the hostel and there was nothing to do, but nothing in Argentina can go smoothly. In this specific instance, both of our beds were horrifying. As context, our bunk bed was positioned right outside the bathroom that did not have nearly enough ventilation for a sewage system that did not allow for used toilet paper to be flushed down the toilets. The toilet seats were also cushioned, which has nothing to do with the bed situation but is just gross in general. Katie’s bed had patches that smelled very concerning, one of which was right by the pillow, so she got very little sleep. My mattress started leaking fluid, am assuming it’s water because don’t want to think about other possibilities. I didn’t realize this until I moved around to try to get warmer and realized that an entire side of my shorts were drenched, and that my shirt had some wet spots also. I very quickly decided to change beds after that incident. 

Friday was waterfall day! We woke up, had some rice and beans for breakfast, and then walked to the bus terminal to get a ride to the national park. The park entrance was surprisingly inconspicuous for such a big tourist destination, and the entire place really wasn’t too busy, which could have something to do with it being a week day. We got into the park and made our way to the Garganta del Diablo first, which is the biggest waterfall that literally looks like the earth just fell away and there’s a gigantic hole where the ground should be. You can hear the rushing water about twenty to thirty minutes before you can see anything. The trail to get to the walkway out to the waterfall is a gravel road next to the train tracks that transport all of the park’s old visitors to the flatter, easily accessible wire walkway over the river. When we got to the actual walkway, there were more people, many of whom were on guided tours that identified their members with fun matching hats. The walk out to the falls too about twenty minutes. The first thing you see is water seemingly being sucked away, and then the closer you get the more mist you see, and then the falls come into view. Definitely a “wow” moment: you can’t even see the bottom because the water hits with such force that the mist obscures it. It honestly looks like the earth disappeared and the water doesn’t ever hit a bottom. 

After this path, Katie and I decided it was lunchtime, so we headed back to one of the eating areas and attempted to make our sandwiches. However, there was a small blip in these plans thanks to animals called Cuatí. Cuatí are little rodent things that look like a mix between anteaters and raccoons, completely with weird snouts and a long tail that terrorize the tourist at the park and try to steal every single item of food they can get their clawed paws on. Katherine loved them, I hated them. The one time we decided to sit at a table and assemble our lunches, they swarmed, at least ten of them, and almost ran away with our bag of bread. I was horrified. Lunchtime turned into a detour to the only indoor food court in the park so that we could eat in relative peace. 

After lunch, Cuatí free thankfully, we did the lower path at the park, which was gorgeous, and gave us the stereotypical pictures taken at the park, with all of the waterfalls in a row and the rainbow glinting off of the spray from the water. This path was infested by this huge group of what seemed like an extended family on vacation, who would run on the walkway with all of the children, and then stop and take 20 minutes worth of pictures in the middle of the walkway because they apparently all needed a picture at the exact same place. Katie and I thankfully could bypass them, and get up to the last trail, the higher path. This one took us on top of the waterfalls we’d seen from the lower path, and had some cool panoramic views of all of the waterfalls with the Garganta del Diablo in the distance. This was our last trial, so we headed back to the park entrance behind a group of chanting geriatrics led by a man with a can who was zoom-walking and hitting signs with his cane aka an old man gone rogue.

We got back to our hostel to find it infested with a huge group of students from the University of Texas who were in Iguazu for the weekend, and in Buenos Aires for five weeks studying business management. None of them spoke spanish, or were making an attempt to learn it, they had never taken the subte or the colectivo (in fact they knew what neither of those things were), they spent the majority of their time at boliches and bars, and then had the audacity to question why Katie and I were a bit worn out by Buenos Aires. But they also turned out to be very entertaining. Matt, the first Texan that we met, took Katie and I to this light show overlooking the intersection of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, which turned out to be very cool.  He parted ways to go meet his 35 Texan friends at a restaurant that serves Milanesa, something Katie and I get more than enough of with our host moms, so we headed to an outdoor burger place that had some pretty large burgers. 

We got back to the hostel and expected it to be empty: all of the Texans had said they were going to this ice bar that is literally made of ice, and where 300 pesos buys you unlimited drinks for 30 minutes, aka you’re buying the death of your liver. Boy were we wrong: Texas was in full force in Igauzu. They’d taken over the small bar area and were continuing their binge drinking, so Katie and I opened our bottle of wine and retreated to the quiet of the small patio by our room. About ten minutes later, Matt invited us to play Never have I Ever with their group, which got rowdy real quick. We learned more than we needed to ever know about many of the boys in this group, all of whom were freshman which contributed to the absurdity of the entire event. By the end of the night, most of them were absolutely hammered, one of them was asking me why his friends wouldn’t share weed with him, another was not wearing shoes around the hostel, another was defending his decision not to give oral to his girlfriend of 2 1/2 years. 

The next morning, they had to wake up at 7 to go on their guided tour of Iguazu, which meant not only that Katie and I got woken up when all of their 20 alarms went off in our room, but that we got to hear their shouted-whispers about how they were still hammered, had gotten into literal fist fights with their friends the night before, and had no idea what to bring with them to Iguazu. Katie and I stayed in bed for a while longer, ate breakfast, watched some soccer, and then headed to the airport to fly back to Buenos Aires. 

The airport in Iguazu is literally falling apart. It’s partially under construction to “modernize” it but I think that basically means they’re tearing it down bit by bit because it’s barely functional and only has one gate. We got there about an hour and a half before our flight, because according to the guy that worked at the hostel that’s all we needed. But, as per usual in my experiences flying in Argentina, about five families had ten suitcases each, and proceeded to take at least 15 minutes checking them all and arguing about if they could have them in the plane or if they needed to be checked. It took forever to get our boarding passes, but thankfully security took very little time, and we were at the one gate right as our plane was supposed to start boarding. Except it didn’t start boarding for at least another half hour, in which two lines formed, frantic Asian women were asking everyone they could find which line was for Andes Airlines (they both were) and then not believing any of the answers they were given. We eventually got on the plane and flew home, with quite a bumpy landing, but the entire boarding process was a mess. Although Beatriz tried shaming Katie into staying another day in Iguazu to visit these jesuit ruins that turned out to be like on the other end of the province, at least a five hour bus ride away, Katie and I both agreed that one day in the town was more than enough to see the falls and head off to bigger and better (hopefully at least cleaner) places. 

Speaking of bigger and better places, I only have two weeks from today before I fly out and home to Wisconsin. I am very ready to leave. Buenos Aires has been an experience that I think will ultimately be good for me, but right now I basically want nothing more than to be back in a city that I don’t have to worry about getting stolen from every minute, that doesn’t go on strike every other week, that has my dog and my bed and my car and a phone that can do more than one thing at a time.