Day 13: August 27, 2007 In Salta
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
13
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
Salta,
Argentina
Monday, August 27, 2007
We got up at 8:00. Elena was feeling much better and was even feeling a bit excited about starting school. I spent most of the morning in the XR office while Elena read in the apartment. I was relieved to see that my portable, external hard drive worked perfectly on the XR computers so I now have everything from my Brevard computer accessible to me here. I sent my original Fulbright proposal up to Tuity.
Estela and Luchi came over to the office at about 1:00. Elena and I rode out to the school, located on the university campus. We met with Mónica Jorgensen, the Dean, and took care of some paperwork. Then, Luchi and Elena went off to class. Elena looked a little scared and quite uncertain about what she was getting into. I felt for her but knew that she would treasure this experience. I was very proud of her; I'm not sure that I would have been as composed as she was.
Estela took me back into town and dropped me off at the Shopping. On the way in, I learned that Alejandra is a boliviana. I'll bet she knows LeGrand Smith! He is a retired Methodist minister/trilobite paleontologist from Canton, NC, who spent many years in Bolivia.
I bought Elena a Spanish-English dictionary and found a couple of novels in English for myself. Next, I went grocery shopping and picked up a few things for basic sustenance back at the apartment, including a liter of Jamaican rum for U$S 3.00!---could be dangerous. I took a cab back to Grand Bourg. The driver and I talked about American movie stars. His favorite was Anthony Quinn. We ended up humming the tune to "Never on Sunday", from Zorba the Greek, together.
Tuity and I met in the late afternoon and agreed that we need to draw up a convenio between all of those who are going to participate in the magnetostratigraphic research projects that I'll be working on over the next few months. He is a pretty amazing guy. I remember when he first struck out on his own, working out of his kitchen. He has always maintained the highest quality of work. He is featured in this month's Salta business magazine.
Estela returned with the girls at around 6:30. Elena had a good time at school. She didn't understand a whole lot but she met some nice kids and had fun. It will be fun to watch her progress in the language. To reward her for her successful first day, we took a cab down to El Solar del Convento for an excellent dinner of bife de chorizo. My policy of leaving a 10% tip, rather than the normal 5%, started to pay back. We had the same waiter as we had the last time. He gave us a 10% discount on the meal which I returned to him as a tip.
We took a cab back up to the apartment. It was 11:30 by the time we got home so we went to bed.
