San Rafael, Argentina

...now close your eyes. This must have seem weird... if you close them, how are you suppose to go on with your reading. Therefore, you might, at least, feel like if your eyes are closed.

This is no ordinary town... its too big to be called like that, and too small to be considered a city. And that's terrible... why? simple, people here are used to go to small groceries rather than large supermarkets, but like to drive last edition Mercedes! Now you are wondering... are they nuts? maybe.

I first came to San Rafael a year ago. I always live in Buenos Aires, which is the Latin American version of New York, so to move from a huge city like that to a tinny place like this was what I called AN INSANITY! But here I was... surrounded by people who would stared at me just because I was wearing a couple of Merrells instead of regular Adidas. Me, the sister of a Top Model. Me, the movie director.... or at least the script writer. What a hell was I doing there then? Someone once told me threes an answer to every question... mine its CHAT ROOM. Yeah... that's a hazard weapon. I fall in love with a someone who wouldn't dare to move and leave his mothers town... the nice landscape... the lakes... and all the bla bla bla things that you can imagine. So there I was... recently abandoned 27 years old woman who would kill for a nice man... yeah... I was too desperate, maybe. The thing is that during the same day of my birthday I took a fight straight to Mendoza... province of Sun and wines... and then grabbed a bus heading to San Rafael... where the Best Champagne is made! Well... up to now if you are a wine drinker fanatic you might think its not that terrible... in that case maybe not... but the hardest thing I ever drank was a Pepsi Twist!!!

I remember my fist week here. I remember trying to convince myself that love its all... I think I've watched Moulin Rouge too many times... I remember staying at the hotel room for the first week without even knowing there were mountains. My lover was of the type that bed came first then relationship... and I agreed with him... what else Could I have done? If I was to stay there for at least a week, let that week something to remember, I thought. But something happened... I fall in love... yes, with that "I only think of myself" guy. By the second day I was thinking of the names of our kids! So, I decided I would start walking around... getting to know people... if I was to live there for my whole life.

And all seemed quite right at first. There was a main street. Ten blocks of what we can called Down Town. Some stores. A small supermarket with no small prices. And 15 banks. Yes, 15 banks. Why? Simple, wine industry is a money factory. Here, families like Garvin, Chandon, etc, live. But the thing that really drove me crazy was the huge mansions near poor houses... like saying... "here we rule". So, by now you are wondering what in this world I love of San Rafael. Its scene... the Andes where the sun lays every day... the women making bread every morning, the smell of grapes during harvest season... the way people recognize you... all the siesta you can take... the winters, full of snow, the strawberries mixed with cream. The single cinema. The summers by the lake... and above all... the man I'm in love with... who has learn that no distance or cultural difference would ever dare to separate us... the man to which I'm marring next spring. So, I might say that San Rafael changed my life... forever.

Vicky A

Submitted: Sunday 11th April 2004, 2:21 PM

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