Still Alive!
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2008
1
16
23
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Buenos Aires,
Capital Federal District,
Argentina
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Okay, I thought I´d update again even though I don´t have the ability to post photos. Just let the anticipation build.
Going out of order, did you guys watch the debate last night? Intense! If I were in the states, I´d definitely have some ¨Joe the Plumber¨ t-shirts made, stat. I am one of the few lucky IES students to have CNN in english at my home, so I typically watch the debates there, but I decided to go to a bar rented out by Democrats Abroad. I don´t even think they could tell that I´m actually a registered independent.
So, from where I left off. After I got back from Cordoba, I hung out in my apartment for the day, repacked, bought a new phone, checked my email, and wrote an update. Somehow during that time on my host-mom´s computer, I managed to get a virus. I´ve never gotten a virus on one of my own computers, and she has 2 anti-spyware programs, so I think there´s some sort of supernatural bad luck going on. So I had to pay for some guy to fix it. He also took my laptop to look at it, but I haven´t heard anything from him.
On Friday night, Marianela came to pick me up. I wasn´t really worried about it being awkward despite the whole 3 years of not seeing each other, and it was only weird for the first minute or two. I thought that she was picking me and we were going to go to her city (La Plata, 40 minutes away) and go out, but it ended up being that we went directly to another apartment in Buenos Aires for her godfather´s birthday party. Basically nobody in Marianela´s family speaks english except for her, so it was kind of intense. I haven´t really been forced into a lot of situations like that yet, and it reminded me of how bad my Spanish really is. It´s one thing to be able to ask for stuff you need at the supermarket, or ask for directions, but it´s really humbling to attempt an in depth conversation. (I tried explaining the financial crisis in a nutshell; disasterous.)
After the party, Marianela, her mom, her mom´s boyfriend, her aunt and I all packed into a car and went to La Plata. Maru has her own place, which is pretty rare for a 22 year old student, but she works at McDonalds to pay for it. (McDonalds are much classier here, by the way. And they have sweet McDonald´s jeans with M´s on the pockets. But they only pay $3 an hour.) She also has cats, which greatly affected my ability to breathe, but whatevs.
Saturday morning we got up early (9:30 am) and got in the car with Maru´s little sister, Manuela, her aunt and her mom to go to the city of Salto, which is about two and a half hours northwest of Buenos Aires city, but still in the province of Buenos Aires.
Salto is a smaller town of 30,000 also on a river, although I´m not sure which one. We stayed in the house of Maru´s aunt, and the house was beautiful. Very old and rustic, but huge rooms, 20 foot ceilings, etc. Unfortunately it´s going to be sold soon in accordance with divorce proceedings, so I´m glad I got to stay there before the sale took place!
The weekend was pretty low key, just time with Marianela´s family, catching up with her, learning about Argentine politics and history, etc. Some highlights include:
- Going to a play, basically called ¨Three Women in a Bathroom¨. You can imagine the premise.
- Going to a pizza feast with the actresses, director, and 15 other argentines I didn´t know afterwards (one of the actresses is friends with Maru´s aunt)
- Attempting to play movie charades with these people. This was extremely difficult because the movie titles aren´t the same. Not even translations, just completely different titles. I got one correct. I once had to act out a movie called ¨La aroma de la papaya verde¨, or ¨The Smell of the Green Papaya¨. Not easy. You try acting out a papaya.
- A 60 year old obese woman got the card to act out the Kamasutra. Predictably, hilarity ensued.
- Going to a ´Mother´s Day Dance´ which had nothing to do with mother´s day, and which was full of 15 year old girls that loved me. The girls in Salto really took notice of me, everywhere I spoke English. I wish I had the same appeal in Buenos Aires.
In all, it was just really nice to catch up with Maru. She´s still as crazy as ever, and I hope to be able to get to see her again before my time here is done.
When I came home, my host mom thought that I should really go to the doctor because I´ve been fairly sick for 2 months with this cold. I went to Hospital Alemania (German Hospital) which was quite nice. They did x-rays of my face, which I found strange but my host mom said it´s pretty common to look at sinuses. Anyway, after 3 hours at the hospital, 2 facial x-rays, a chest x-ray, and $100, it was determined that I have allergies. Surprise.
My host mom left for Chile yesterday, so I have the apartment to myself for the weekend. Score! When she left, she told me to ´be responsible´, so we´ll see how that goes ;-).
Hope you´re all doing well, write me! I´m sort of homesick.. well, just literally sick from buenos aires pollution. But, you get the point.
