Domingo

Hola! Sunday, Sunday. I slept til noon today! I was saying to my friends last night, as we were leaving a looong dinner, "I wish I could sleep til noon tomorrow." And I did! I haven´t done that in ages.

So here´s a rundown of the last couple of days for you...

Friday after class, a large group of people from school went out for happy hour. We went to a bar with a large outside seating section and sat for a couple hours, enjoying the unbelievable weather, a nice breeze, a few cervezas, and speaking in English. It´s so nice to have a small bit of normalcy every once in a while.

I love talking to the other students. Everyone is so like-minded about things - important things - no matter what country they are from. Travelers must all have similar outlooks and senses of adventure because everyone sort of "gets it". And everyone is so interesting. So many different backgrounds and experiences.

After drinks, I had to go home for dinner with Rosa. Steak again! Her son, whose name escapes me now, came over after we had finished eating. He´s about 40 and speaks very little English, and I was very overwhelmed with his presence in the house. I had a very hard time communicating with him. It was, however, very entertaining to watch and listen to him talk to Rosa. I understand so much more than I can speak right now, so I was able to get the gist of their conversation. I just couldn´t join in when invited. We talked about Norah Jones, the difference between American pound and English pound, my new camera, etc. It was very amusing at one point because he told Rosa to ask me if I wanted to go to some party with him after he left, and she said something like, no, she does not want to do that. And they thought I had no idea what was being said! But very funny that Rosa is so overprotective of me. And very sweet. And in truth, I did not have any interest in going to the party. Yikes.

I had made plans to meet up with my friends Kate and Nicole on Saturday morning, so I walked myself over to their apartment around 11. Kate and Nicole are traveling together; they met a couple years ago working with the Nature Conservancy through Americorps. Nicole now lives in Eugene, Oregon, and is looking for new jobs for when she returns to the States in two months, and Kate lives in Bend, Oregon, and leads adolescents on "wilderness therapy" ventures.

We took the subway down to La Boca, a neighborhood in the Southeastern section of the city, where we were hoping to go to the Museo Historica Nacional and just generally wander around. The museum was unfortunately closed for renovations (as are several museums here), but we had a good day nevertheless.

We ducked into a little cafe for some lunch, and I, in the spirit of being adventurous, ordered a sandwich off the menu without knowing what I was ordering (there was no description on the menu other than it being a hot sandwich). And that is the last time I am going to do that because what I got on my plate was what we call in the South, chicken fried steak. Blech. It had ham and cheese and tomato sauce on top, too. (Everything here has ham and cheese on top. I do not understand this custom whatsoever.) I half-heartedly ate a few bites of the steak, ate all of the ham and cheese, and all of the fries.

After lunch, we decided to try to find the waterfront. On our way over, we met a Japanese couple, who heard us speaking English and asked us if we were American. Us too, they said. I will sound so ignorant saying this, but I am going to say it anyway. I was so surprised to hear them identify themselves as Americans. Something about being in a foreign country makes you start generalizing people as from here or from there, and it´s easy to look at someone and make a guess, based on what they look like, of where they are from. I had a similar experience the other day when I passed an Asian couple walking down the street, and I was shocked to overhear them speaking in Spanish. I should know better. I lived in New York, didn´t I?

We wandered into an area of La Boca called La Cominita, which is basically a tourist trap. Just several streets full of vendors selling "authentic Argentinian" stuff. Don´t you want a t-shirt with Homer Simpson dressed up as Che Guevara? They are giving the people what they think the people want, and the people think they want it, too.

The riverfront was just beyond La Cominita, and let me tell you, the water is FOUL. I have never seen such pollution. There was a section of water in between a docked boat and the wall that acutally looked solid it was so full of waste. Nicole was saying that apprently efforts to clean up the water have stopped because it would be easier to turn the water into diesel fuel than to clean it. I am not sure if that is true, but it´s disgusting either way.

After wandering around for a long, long while, we decided to rest for a bit and meet up later for a nice dinner. And it was SO nice. I told you that it´s a late night culture here, but I didn´t believe it myself until I witnessed the restaurant last night totally empty when we arrived at 9:15 PM. By 9:45, the place was packed. I guess, though, if the sun doesn´t go down til 9:30 PM, you don´t feel the need to start your evening until then.

It was my kind of Saturday night. We sat at the restaurant for about four hours, eating and drinking and talking and eating more and drinking more and talking more. We shared a salad, each got an entree, shared two bottles of wine, and each got a dessert, and the meal came to $33 US, after tax and tip, per person. And it was a NICE place. The kind of place I can´t afford to go to in New York.

I am so overwhelmed by how interesting and smart these girls are. They ask me about myself and I want to crawl under a rock. I feel so boring! But it´s funny because they are interesting and smart in a very different way than some people in New York are. Their work at the Nature Conservancy sounds amazing, and they learned so much about...nature...during their time there. They were apparently both on "fire crew" for a while, during which they intentionally set forest fires. They explained to me that wildfires like those that happened earlier this fall in California happen because small forest fires, which the forest needs occasionally to clear out all the brush, etc., have been continually put out, via the Smoky the Bear policy. Smoky taught us all that forest fires are BAD, when in actuality, the forest needs them to stay balanced. If you are interested in this subject, please do some research on it yourself, because I am certain I have butchered their explanation of the topic. I am such a ninny nonny about all things scientific.

Anyway, it was a fantastic evening, and as we walked out of the restaurant Nicole said how nice it was to make new friends. So nice.

Oh! And as we looked up at the moon on the walk home, Kate and Nicole explained to me how the moon is upside down here, and it is! I hadn´t noticed until they said something about it, but then as I looked up, the man in the moon was on the wrong side! Crazy this world is. I wish I could understand it all.

So today is Domingo. Sunday. Nicoleta moved out of the house this morning, and Gerard, a 40 year old Swiss guy, moved in. Rosa has moved me into Nicoleta´s old room, which is much bigger, with a double bed and TV, because, she says, I AM FIRST! Ah, Rosa. Such a dear.

I have had a lazy day so far, sitting out on Rosa´s patio reading and relaxing and listening to the Tango music Rosa plays in the house. I wish I could explain what it feels like to listen to this music and live this life. I am in another world.

Okay, I am going to leave here now and wander around until I find a nice looking cafe to have a very late lunch and do some studying! Love to you all.