Monday's Musings

Hola amigos!

I have to catch up before I get too far behind; this week is just going to get crazier!!

Yay Monday - feriado for just about everyone in the city....except my class because it's run out of Spain. Cool. Also, celebrating flag day. Also found out Argentina made it a law that public holidays are on Mondays to encourage long weekends and tourism! So I showed up for class just about 3 minutes late, but everyone was already in the classroom, and Angeles, who lets everyone in, wasn't there, so I got to wait outside for about 5 minutes.

We had a lesson about the "job hunt" which was actually really depressing. Then we worked on our peer presentations, as well as received feedback from Eammon. His parting thoughts for me were that he had noticed a "gentle" but nonetheless present upward slope in my teaching abilities. Well yay :) I'll take it.

He let us go at lunch, which was WONDERFUL! I swung by the Roadhouse, and then Angie, Kiersten and I went out for lunch. We stopped by my house first so I could change/put up school stuff. Then we basically walked for like 20 minutes without finding anything before stopping at an empanada place we had first passed. I only got two, but I totally could've consumed more. Then, on our way back, we stopped by the ice cream store. Yumm. Road was thinkin' smart when they located themselves across from the ice cream store.

After that, I really wanted to go see the Ciudad Emergente that was going on. Basically, a ton of bands/films/art was being shown all weekend...culminating on Monday! Well, no one else wanted to go. And I almost just went home, but then I was like, you know, it's a free concert, what could it hurt? So I began the trek, which was about 15 blocks down. And I was thinking on my way down, as tends to happen. But I've been pretty discontent with the fact that I haven't really met ANY Argentine peeps. I mean, not that I have to know everyone (contrary to popular belief), but just some group...that speaks in Spanish. And I was just reflecting on that, and how every time I go out, I'm secretly hoping that I'll meet these ideal people who I've built up in my head....who basically oddly resemble las amigas que ya tengo, except they speak in Spanish. And I realized I just need to be content with what I have. yea, I'm not going to bars and making random contacts, but I am able to go to a free concert and just absorb the culture. And say I met a group of people, then what? Maybe they would only speak crappy Spanish and mine would get worse. There's always something more to want/complain about. So no mas. :) I'm excited about what I'm learning about miss independent Lara who doesn't have to always have a friend with her in order to go somewhere (Important note: I still prefer my peeps; I'm just recognizing that I can still enjoy things without having an event buddy). I'm trusting God and that there's reasoning for this more solitary part of my journey, you know what I'm saying....I'm learning about myself and being prepared for something I'm not even considering yet...so exciting :)

So anyways, I knew the general area I was going to. Ugh. General. haha. So I get to the basic street, and I have no idea which way to go. Well. I see this older woman walking with three younger boys. Now, in a nicer part of town, where are you going to take your three younger boys on a holiday? Obviously to the free concerts/shows/etc. in town, right? So I, no lie, start to follow this lady. And I mean, it turned into stalking. As the boys would get away from her, she would turn around to grab them, and I would have to back it up. So we go up some stairs, then we go into this mall-esque thing. It's really weird. Basically a lot of furniture stores, but they're all really tiny and basically have a room set up in them. And at this point, I'm thinking, no way she brought these kids to go furniture shopping....or maybe to meet their dad at work? But I continue to follow, dodging to the other side of the hall from time to time, feeling more and more like a total creeper. They went up the escalators, and so I let them get halfway before climbing on. That was actually where I lost them because then it opened up to the outside and a huge market, and the beginning of Ciudad Emergente. Cool beans, thank you random mom y chicos.

So I'm meandering through, taking everything in, when I remember this is where I'm supposed to go to pick up our Opera tickets. Pues, I ask the guy and got those, so yay for getting those taken care of. I walked around and saw some art, which was interesting in that there were lots of sky/celestial designs. As I walked past two teenagers, I got some free condoms shoved into my hands, so yay for that. Then I walked past this graffiti wall, which was really cool b/c people were on tiers currently painting it while we were watching. Then a concert started up, and I meandered in that room for a while, but honestly, it wasn't very good. And then I headed out and home.

On my way home, here were some observations. One, as quoted from Eammon, Argentines budget for normal stuff - food, bills, etc. and then their dogs and their psychiatrists. Not even joking. Maria Laura has both. I'm not a huge fan of dogs in the city. I just have problems seeing them here. But you pass a TON while walking. Which, logically, also means you pass a TON of dog poo and you must constantly be on the lookout. The grossest is when the streets get wet and then you have dog mush. eww. You also have lots of very affectionate couples in Buenos Aires. Seriously, it must be something about the impending doom of the towering buildings that causes couples to press unnecessarily close to each other in an attempt to ward off their fear. I mean, that's just one hypothesis, but the only thing I can think of that would cause such vehement face and body attacks in public.

But my FAVORITE part of walking through the streets in BA, no it is NOT the scary buses, is the old couples :) You see these rickety old men with their arms linked with their ladies slowly making their way down the avenue, and my heart just melts. It's precious.

Anyways, I made it home, and was really tired, so I took a nap. I was awoken by Maria Laura yelling my name. I just kept really still (you know you've done it before) and when she came by my room and was like, oh, esta durmiendo, and then I got to sleep a little longer. I woke up kind of groggy, took a shower, and then was ready to head to Genevieve's concert! Oh, but we had dinner first. Which was MILANESA!! woohoo :) She's knows it's my favorite. She also apologized for "starving" me this past weekend.....I'm not sure if I wrote about my leftover pizza on Sunday....which was like cardboard......Oh, but I ate two of them, which is crazy b/c in the States I typically can barely finish one. oh, and puree (mashed potatoes) on the side. Yummm.

I then met up with Stacy, and we headed to a bar joint to watch Genevieve's (classmate) gig! The taxi driver dropped us off at this sketch looking tunnelish entrance, and we walked in to this GORGEOUS plaza. You would never know the prettiest places in BA from how they look on the outside. So this place was Beatles-themed, fun. Unfortunately, they weren't Argentine-timed though, and G was already playing when we got there. I got to hear a few songs though, which was cool. All of the other classmates showed up too late. So we stayed from about 10-11, and then the bar closed, which is unheardof in BA. I mean, most are opening about that time. And we had to pay a cover charge too, so no bueno on that front. But one of Stacy's friends from Britain had come, and he had brought a friend from New Zealand (awesome accent), and so the four of us set off to find another joint. Apparently there's a bar here called the Alamo, which I will have to check out another time. As it was, we went to Millon, which you guys - it was SO classy and beautiful. We got our drinks and then sat on the candlelit terrace, overlooking a lovely garden with lights and city buildings. Oh, the ambience was wonderful. And again, from the street it doesn't look like anything special. So we stayed on the terrace for a while, discussing everything about our various countries from immigration to economics to Paris Hilton to terrorism. Fabulous time.

Stacy and I headed out, and then I caught a cab (see Mom, proof of me not being out by myself) and I had this really sweet, old (prolly 70?) cab driver. He was asking me if I enjoyed the bar, recommended the Alamo, and then we ended up talking about travelling in general. When he dropped me off (idling on the street), he didn't drive off until I was safely behind the gated door. So sweet! And then I plopped into bed, ready to sleep, but ugggh there was a mosquito in my room. And I mean, I wouldn't have cared if it had bitten me, but it kept flying around my ear, where I would hear it buzzing. And so I spent like 5 minutes trying to swat it before giving up and pulling the covers over my head. It SO got under the covers. Granted, I might have been dreaming at this point, but you know what I'm saying. I'm pretty sure it was still flying around this morning when I woke up.

Bed now; Chau, y gracias for the love :)