Friday, July 3rd....MALBA museo

Another lazy awakening in the morning. I got up, made my breakfast, and then hung out on the house compu for a while, with the intent of casually reminding Maria Laura that my internet cord was busted, because she said she would ask her ex where I could buy another one. Well, my subtle hint didn’t work, so I just asked her if she had found out where I could find another one. For some reason, she didn’t seem to remember our previous conversation, so we spent another 30 minutes attempting to get it to work, basically reattempting everything I had tried to do earlier.

Finally, I set out with the cord and my compu to attempt to find another cable. Apparently there was a galleria really near our house, like a mall, which would have everything I needed. So I found the galleria and the tienda “Wizard Tech” with relative ease. Maria Laura had warned me not to purchase anything, in case he heard my accent and jacked up the price. This really nice old man showed me what I needed and told me the price, and then I returned back. I immediately turned around to buy it because she said the price was good, but he didn’t accept tarjetas de credito (seriously?!) so I had to postpone. I’m hoping though, that now she’ll get it, although it will probably require several more days of me posting up on the compu, haha. Also learned some new compu vocab, including “ficha” referring to the end of the wires which plug into the compus. Aka I realized I have no idea what it’s called in English.

So after that, I heated up my leftover Chinese food from yesterday, which was still REALLY good. I love that place, and for around 5 US dollars, I had lunch twice. Then I headed to the Office, where I chatted with Road Staff and inquired as to where they are going to place me because I need to know my schedule so I can do other things and I would really like an assignment soon because I feel like I’m losing weeks now, yadayadayada. But they’re really swamped right now because not only the schools but also other volunteer places have all begun shutting down. In fact, Maria Laura cautioned me to take advantage of these days around the town because its likely they might close down public places like museos y cinemas (waiting to see a movie until a Wednesday because it’s cheaper, but now I might hold out until HARRY POTTER!!!) . So anyways, still no news on that front.

Rebe and I set out to see the MALBA, which is the Museum dedicated to Latin American art. A constant factor with a lot of the art was the use of multimedia, as Rebe perfectly put it. Glass was also very popular, and I am officially a big fan of using such objects to create pictures. There was also a still life of a dynamic process, which consisted of a series of pictures documenting a piece of paper being wrinkled.

The coolest thing though, was the bench at the museum. Rebe managed to sneak a few pictures (they were very strict about no photography and we both got busted) so hopefully you can catch those on her Fbook. Basically, the bench starts off as a normal, wooden bench constructed with long pieces of wood. But then the wood continues and, still maintaining its color and texture, begins to weave and act in the form of an ivy climbing up the museum walls. The artist described it as conforming to the practicality of its function, in that you can still sit on it, but once that was done taking off on a creative, beautiful path.

The Frida Kahlo painting was the only one encased behind glass.

Finally, we made our way up to segundo piso (our 3rd floor), which was the Escuelismo exhibit, where we got a tour. Apparently we were the only ones who knew about the tour availability, so it was very personal, haha. So this one artist brought all of the artists together because he saw similarities in their work. And they were all Argentine or went to primary school in Argentina, hence the theme of the works representing primary school. It was interesting, albeit a stretch in some cases.

On our walk back we passed the Argentina automobile club, as well as many dealerships like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, etc. Weird fact: many buses, etc. in BA are Mercedes-Benz. Haven’t figured that one out yet. We also passed by the National Library, which Borges once directed. And a public reading area which apparently at this time was the public makeout area. Oh! And the Italian embassy, which is in this GORGEOUS palace-looking building. The Italians know where it’s at!

Rebe and I parted ways, and I stopped by the Disco to pick up some snacks. Oh, we also stopped into a confiteria on the way home for some yummy chocolate goodies.

Headed home, where Maria Laura and Lulu where preparing for a party for her cousin. Maria Laura left me milanesa and that weird potato pie thing, and headed out. Rebe came over about 20 minutes later, and we enjoyed a lovely dinner party completely with appetizers, music, ambient lighting, and dessert dulce de leche in several forms. It left me SUPER excited for a house next year, and for the opportunity to have people over.

Chalk it up to another chill day in BA. P.s. the weather was beautiful!

p.p.s My wonderful friend Alicia turned 21 today!!