what!??! by chance I decided to check my myspace and saw some of the usual whatevs stuff, the strokes added some new vids, misleadingly making me think that their activity on their page equated new music. WRONG.
anyways, I saw a bulletin that Mario posted entitled Australia, weird thing, one he doesn't go online anymore and two he never posts anything...so I open it and it says he's going to Australia, he thanked people who were able to say bye and be with him before he left and that he might be back in a year or two...WHAT?!??!! no way, this is crazy! Can a person I have known for a good amount of time just pick up and move indefinitely to another country without evening having a chance for me to say bye? That sentence doesn't make sense, but I tend to now make sense when I'm writing nowadays, in English or in Spanish. ANYWAYS....seriously!!??! gone!?! And the weird part, I was sitting there listening to "Milk" by the Kings of Leon, KINGS OF LEON!!! Mario showed me that band, he gave me their cds and opened up that world to me, among other bands that I now love because of him. WHAT!!!?!? Gone!!!!???
Ah, it made me really sad. One summer I listened to the Kings of Leon nonstop and the songs have a haunting feeling to them sometimes, of hot summer nights in my room contemplating who knows what, probably being angsty.
Anyways, I don't believe in coincidences. It was weird of me to actually go on myspace and there I find that news while listening to kings. Something tells me that wasn't a hoax, why would anyone hoax like that....wow this is so weird. So I was sitting there thinking, geez I wished I could've been closer to that kid in the last years, but he's so hard to get a hold of, never with a cell phone, always moving between his mom's house, his dad's house and his grandma's house....geez even mom had more luck running into.
Oh well, I guess things like this happen. I just had this sad little feeling. Today was very contemplative. I did lots of walking through Defensa and the San Telmo feria, listening to music, being pulled over by that Brazilian vendor, him trying to convince me to buy one of his tie dye shirts I had eyed two weeks away, speaking to me Portuguese, I don't know how I understood him, walking around with Elizabeth, then her friend, then Kristina and Natasha...it was a gorgeous day so sunny with a light breeze, I didn't even have to wear a sweater at one point...but it was definitely weird, walking up and down that long street filled with so many people from ALL OVER, listening to different languages, seeing all the smiling faces, talking to the vendors, seeing little kids running around, I passed so many sundays there...Natasha and I would always laugh and say it was our Sunday mass...it's really the end, I won't be at that feria next weekend, there's no more feria, there's no more opportunity to buy a cookie from those goofy kids for a pesito, no more chances to laugh at the Maradona memorabilia, no more being pulled into a drum circle, but like I told Natasha, at least we lived it to its best and always had fun there.
Stupid green day song, "Time of your life", has been playing in my head. We chose it as our 8th grade grad song, but it's so suiting for the finale of things.
Anyways, I don't know what I was thinking or feeling. oh yeah I saw, Crossing Over, some new movie with Harrison Ford, with my homestay family, it was good, set in LA, I def saw some areas that made me homesick, Koreatown and its karaoke bars, I'm def going back with Brian this summer! But yeah it was about immigration and deportation and AH it was such a hard film, really made me want to cry a lot at some points, stupid immigration laws and the whole thing is ridiculous. I always think of Maritza and Joe, they're my age, I've grown up with them, nothing separating them from me, except the fact that they're not legal and that they can't go anywhere, they can't go to school, other than Cal State LA, Maritza just sits at home most of the time, she can't do anything else, she can't work. Once Joe gets done with Cal State LA, what's he gonna do?
Gah, it's so hard, the worst part is that both of them have younger siblings who are legal, and there's such a big disparity between them...it's so ridiculous to have to live so confined. Gah it makes me so sad.
Whatevs, the vacation is almost over, I guess it's time to come back to reality and look at things and examine things again. It was really nice to have a vacation and to get away and basically indulge myself for a bit. Pero la lucha sigue, there's lots to fight for and things to change and minds to open, so let's get to it, let's start working again...
Sunday, July 12, 2009
anticlimatic Avantt?
so...could it be that Avantt was semi-disappointing? Yeah it's true...we got there at a little past 1:30 am, almost missed the free entry...
and there was a line around the corner, so misleading...and once we got in, there was a massive coat check...I quickly found Zelmar, I had actually seen him walk up while we were in line, I still get the little 13 year old jitters when I first see him...I freak out like he's a rock star...anyways, I went up and said hi after the chaos of the coat check and it was barely 2am and they already opened up the bottom floor, they don't usually open it up until 3am but I realized that they weren't playing music on the top floor. So we go down there and that weird guy who usually walks around and oversees the production of things, whether its the bar or the dj or just chilling with people, he was djing...and I'm sorry, he should just stick to chilling, because his djing skills were not up to par with the other guys. He did play some good stuff, that I was in love with, like Revolution and Break on Through and Hendrix and other great stuff, but I could tell most people werent into it. Also, he played the strokes twice, I was so good with that, but everyone in the club seemed so bored.
Add to that the fact that I went back upstairs to the restroom and the whole top floor was deserted and the lights were on. The chaos at the beginning was misleading, there really wasn't anyone at the club, and the music wasn't keeping people in.
But I danced like crazy, I LOVE that place, but my friends werent feeling it. So they started trickling out and when I was left with two other kids who also wanted to go, I decided to run through the club and try to find Zelmar and say bye to him for the last time. No luck, but they did play an AWESOME cover of Michael Jackson, I swear, no club can go one night without paying homage to that man, it's amazing! But I went upstairs back to the coat check and I found Zelmar! and I said bye, took a pic, very little 13 year girlyness of me, and it was anticlimatic but still great. That song was playing in the background, that song I always equate with my 80's Molly Ringwald self, the angsty one...idk what it is... but I know it when I hear it, it's kinda haunting...ah, I'm still not sure if I should've stayed, I kinda wanted to. Zelmar was so shocked I was leaving so early, but like he said, no habia buena onda esta noche...triste triste, but I'll always have the pic and the fact that he and Cecilia introduced me to that place, too bad I didnt get to say bye to her though...sadness.
So I was back home and in my pjs at 4am, so anticlimatic, but I guess its the end, eh? and I did have a lot of other great times, and thats all that matters!
and there was a line around the corner, so misleading...and once we got in, there was a massive coat check...I quickly found Zelmar, I had actually seen him walk up while we were in line, I still get the little 13 year old jitters when I first see him...I freak out like he's a rock star...anyways, I went up and said hi after the chaos of the coat check and it was barely 2am and they already opened up the bottom floor, they don't usually open it up until 3am but I realized that they weren't playing music on the top floor. So we go down there and that weird guy who usually walks around and oversees the production of things, whether its the bar or the dj or just chilling with people, he was djing...and I'm sorry, he should just stick to chilling, because his djing skills were not up to par with the other guys. He did play some good stuff, that I was in love with, like Revolution and Break on Through and Hendrix and other great stuff, but I could tell most people werent into it. Also, he played the strokes twice, I was so good with that, but everyone in the club seemed so bored.
Add to that the fact that I went back upstairs to the restroom and the whole top floor was deserted and the lights were on. The chaos at the beginning was misleading, there really wasn't anyone at the club, and the music wasn't keeping people in.
But I danced like crazy, I LOVE that place, but my friends werent feeling it. So they started trickling out and when I was left with two other kids who also wanted to go, I decided to run through the club and try to find Zelmar and say bye to him for the last time. No luck, but they did play an AWESOME cover of Michael Jackson, I swear, no club can go one night without paying homage to that man, it's amazing! But I went upstairs back to the coat check and I found Zelmar! and I said bye, took a pic, very little 13 year girlyness of me, and it was anticlimatic but still great. That song was playing in the background, that song I always equate with my 80's Molly Ringwald self, the angsty one...idk what it is... but I know it when I hear it, it's kinda haunting...ah, I'm still not sure if I should've stayed, I kinda wanted to. Zelmar was so shocked I was leaving so early, but like he said, no habia buena onda esta noche...triste triste, but I'll always have the pic and the fact that he and Cecilia introduced me to that place, too bad I didnt get to say bye to her though...sadness.
So I was back home and in my pjs at 4am, so anticlimatic, but I guess its the end, eh? and I did have a lot of other great times, and thats all that matters!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
sos genial!
building off that wonderful people theme, god today was a GREAT day, full of amazing people of course! Also, I'm currently listening to playlist.com, which has allowed me to have access to my fav music...but actually I'm craving my argentine fav IMPERIO DIABLO right now, so goodbye The Shins, hello amazing band!!!
so today I woke up and wrote my paper, to my dismay, Laura emailed me and asked if we could meet at 1pm instead of 5pm. But it's all good, the rain let up and it was suddenly SO SUNNY and actually warm! I met her at my fav cafe across from the jardin botanico, so even though I was stuck inside writing, at least I had a gorgeous view and a window that let in the warmth of the sunshine! I was sitting there when someone knocking on the window scared me, it was my friend Lauren and her friend Eric, so funny, because that's one of her fav cafes. I said hi and we continued writing. At about 5 we wrote an intro and were done, we stopped by a confiteria and got some sweets and then I came home, busted out the last 2 1/2 pages of my part, then suddenly it was already 8:30 and I started walking on Santa Fe towards Lauren's house and picked up some Malbec to try to be genial and a good guest in a new house. I got there and I was the first of Lauren's guests to arrive.
Her host parents are the cutest!!! Soledad y Esteban! and then they had their friends Evi y Francisco (Fran) over for dinner too! Gosh todos son tan geniales! They were all so welcoming! They served me up a drink and started asking me the usual intro questions. They were cutting up lots of things and on the menu was their porteno style mexican food! It all looked so fresh and colorful and great, I was excited to try it. They had green guacamole, purple cabbage, a orange carrot spread, black beans and lentils, pico de gallo, bottled salsas, and pollo, carne, y cerdo! I was in heaven! I loved their interpretation of mexican food. They served up the wine at dinner and we were all laughing and sharing stories after a while, talking about different colloquial phrases in Spanish and English, somehow I said HEN in English and all the portenos at the table took a shot at saying it, todos re-lindos! jajaja ah we were all cracking up so bad, it was so nice. It's such a difference being a place where I truly feel at home, they were so welcoming and we just sat there and laughed most of the time.
I also complained about my host mom to them, they were all on my side, just reaffirmed the fact that I take precautions and according to Esteban, no debo estar saliendo besando a todos los chicos! jaja but they all thought it was absurd that they were putting so many restrictions on me, Soledad even said that I can come over their house on the last day if there's a problem with scheduling since my family's leaving to Rosario. Gosh, they're all so loving and welcoming, why didn't I get a family like that!?!?!? All other portenos I meet are like this, and no one can blame it on an age difference thing. My parents aren't super young, but we sit around and laugh at dinner and they're not uptight. GAH!!!! stupid familia here. And it's not really the familia, because Enri is so cool, he was on my side, rooting for Roddick silently, but Rossana is the crazy...rubbing it in when Federer won, she knows I hate him...
anyways, tonight was GREAT!!! I loved Lauren's family. And we sat there and talked about music after a while, I talked with Evi about the first times we ever smelled weed at a concert, I told her my KISS story, she told me about her Cypress Hill encounter. It was great! Then we had amazing postre that Lauren bought from Plaza del Carmen, it was AMAZING!!!! We laughed, Esteban made us margaritas, we listened to music, they took videos of Lauren dancing, and Esteban had fun with his funny paper towel holder! Soledad and Evi told us about their trip to Cuba, how it was life changing, how they got to celebrate the 50 anniversary de la revolucion....ah one day, we'll be able to get there legally, for now, flights from cancun are relatively cheap I hear! jajaja It was the best!!!
I sat there and looked over at Natasha a few times and wanted to cry. I feel so great on nights like that, I feel great about humanity, I feel so happy for the future...also, I just get this urge to want to see more of the world, to meet more people, to see how beautiful humanity can be, because the world is amazing and it's actually so small, I want to explore so much of it! just how to make it happen...
so today I woke up and wrote my paper, to my dismay, Laura emailed me and asked if we could meet at 1pm instead of 5pm. But it's all good, the rain let up and it was suddenly SO SUNNY and actually warm! I met her at my fav cafe across from the jardin botanico, so even though I was stuck inside writing, at least I had a gorgeous view and a window that let in the warmth of the sunshine! I was sitting there when someone knocking on the window scared me, it was my friend Lauren and her friend Eric, so funny, because that's one of her fav cafes. I said hi and we continued writing. At about 5 we wrote an intro and were done, we stopped by a confiteria and got some sweets and then I came home, busted out the last 2 1/2 pages of my part, then suddenly it was already 8:30 and I started walking on Santa Fe towards Lauren's house and picked up some Malbec to try to be genial and a good guest in a new house. I got there and I was the first of Lauren's guests to arrive.
Her host parents are the cutest!!! Soledad y Esteban! and then they had their friends Evi y Francisco (Fran) over for dinner too! Gosh todos son tan geniales! They were all so welcoming! They served me up a drink and started asking me the usual intro questions. They were cutting up lots of things and on the menu was their porteno style mexican food! It all looked so fresh and colorful and great, I was excited to try it. They had green guacamole, purple cabbage, a orange carrot spread, black beans and lentils, pico de gallo, bottled salsas, and pollo, carne, y cerdo! I was in heaven! I loved their interpretation of mexican food. They served up the wine at dinner and we were all laughing and sharing stories after a while, talking about different colloquial phrases in Spanish and English, somehow I said HEN in English and all the portenos at the table took a shot at saying it, todos re-lindos! jajaja ah we were all cracking up so bad, it was so nice. It's such a difference being a place where I truly feel at home, they were so welcoming and we just sat there and laughed most of the time.
I also complained about my host mom to them, they were all on my side, just reaffirmed the fact that I take precautions and according to Esteban, no debo estar saliendo besando a todos los chicos! jaja but they all thought it was absurd that they were putting so many restrictions on me, Soledad even said that I can come over their house on the last day if there's a problem with scheduling since my family's leaving to Rosario. Gosh, they're all so loving and welcoming, why didn't I get a family like that!?!?!? All other portenos I meet are like this, and no one can blame it on an age difference thing. My parents aren't super young, but we sit around and laugh at dinner and they're not uptight. GAH!!!! stupid familia here. And it's not really the familia, because Enri is so cool, he was on my side, rooting for Roddick silently, but Rossana is the crazy...rubbing it in when Federer won, she knows I hate him...
anyways, tonight was GREAT!!! I loved Lauren's family. And we sat there and talked about music after a while, I talked with Evi about the first times we ever smelled weed at a concert, I told her my KISS story, she told me about her Cypress Hill encounter. It was great! Then we had amazing postre that Lauren bought from Plaza del Carmen, it was AMAZING!!!! We laughed, Esteban made us margaritas, we listened to music, they took videos of Lauren dancing, and Esteban had fun with his funny paper towel holder! Soledad and Evi told us about their trip to Cuba, how it was life changing, how they got to celebrate the 50 anniversary de la revolucion....ah one day, we'll be able to get there legally, for now, flights from cancun are relatively cheap I hear! jajaja It was the best!!!
I sat there and looked over at Natasha a few times and wanted to cry. I feel so great on nights like that, I feel great about humanity, I feel so happy for the future...also, I just get this urge to want to see more of the world, to meet more people, to see how beautiful humanity can be, because the world is amazing and it's actually so small, I want to explore so much of it! just how to make it happen...
Monday, July 6, 2009
amazing people
I should be writing my monografia but I just want to take a second to look at how lucky I am to have amazingly understanding and all around AMAZING people in my life. My parents are great, supported me through my crazy spasm this morning and tonight as well. Also, they're defending my right to go out after I finish this monografia. They know I've been working hard on this and they know it's my last days and I should be able to enjoy them as I please. jaja it's definitely that "transcend the bullshit" in them that I love!
also, Colby is amazing, really helped me calm down by encouraging me to get out of my house and giving me a space to work, even though he is done with all of his stuff and could've spent the day in any other way than just sitting at home. Plus he's all around great.
Also, I was thinking about this weekend when I was telling Kat that I was saving her a seat at this one place and how I got into an argument with this one girl who was trying to take the chair and called me mentirosa. JAJAJA ghetto Mexican in her too said oh hell no I can't believe she said that to you, if I had been there I would've backed you up. jajaja I love her and our silliness together, and our love for our mexican food, it was so nice to share my hot cheetos with her, I know what she was missing, I feel it girl!
And yeah, Natasha, Kristina, Lauren, Elizabeth...so many great people I've met on this trip...so many people back home who I also can't wait to see, people like Eevee who came all the way to Buenos Aires to celebrate my bday with me! People like Kim and Jen who are always going to be my best friends and will always be there for me, people like crazy Jan, who will always be there to start up some kind of weird conversation with a waiter or two.
ah and yeah, just being here makes me realize how many amazing people are in the world. I updated my facebook status to say that I only have 13 days left, and ZELMAR, one of the first guys I met and who helped introduce me to my fav free 80's club, commented and was like, y adonde vas? to which I responded, tengo que regresar a realidad,a Los Angeles. Then Cecilia, my friend who I met at the same party that I met Zelmar at, said, tenemos que juntarnos, urgente! and then Zelmar posted again, saying Forever? che como dice Ceci, tenemos que juntarnos una vez mas. Then he sent me a link to a 90's party on Wednesday night. Gah such nice amazingly friendly people here, I love it! I really have only hung out with them a handful of times, but they're so genial and welcoming. I love this country! But I love home too! How to have the best of both worlds? I dont know, but I'm glad I always made the most of my time here, and that will not change, sorry gripe!
also, Colby is amazing, really helped me calm down by encouraging me to get out of my house and giving me a space to work, even though he is done with all of his stuff and could've spent the day in any other way than just sitting at home. Plus he's all around great.
Also, I was thinking about this weekend when I was telling Kat that I was saving her a seat at this one place and how I got into an argument with this one girl who was trying to take the chair and called me mentirosa. JAJAJA ghetto Mexican in her too said oh hell no I can't believe she said that to you, if I had been there I would've backed you up. jajaja I love her and our silliness together, and our love for our mexican food, it was so nice to share my hot cheetos with her, I know what she was missing, I feel it girl!
And yeah, Natasha, Kristina, Lauren, Elizabeth...so many great people I've met on this trip...so many people back home who I also can't wait to see, people like Eevee who came all the way to Buenos Aires to celebrate my bday with me! People like Kim and Jen who are always going to be my best friends and will always be there for me, people like crazy Jan, who will always be there to start up some kind of weird conversation with a waiter or two.
ah and yeah, just being here makes me realize how many amazing people are in the world. I updated my facebook status to say that I only have 13 days left, and ZELMAR, one of the first guys I met and who helped introduce me to my fav free 80's club, commented and was like, y adonde vas? to which I responded, tengo que regresar a realidad,a Los Angeles. Then Cecilia, my friend who I met at the same party that I met Zelmar at, said, tenemos que juntarnos, urgente! and then Zelmar posted again, saying Forever? che como dice Ceci, tenemos que juntarnos una vez mas. Then he sent me a link to a 90's party on Wednesday night. Gah such nice amazingly friendly people here, I love it! I really have only hung out with them a handful of times, but they're so genial and welcoming. I love this country! But I love home too! How to have the best of both worlds? I dont know, but I'm glad I always made the most of my time here, and that will not change, sorry gripe!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
odio a federer....pero el 4 de julio fue buenisimo!
So...I worked all day and then just kinda lazied around for a while. Trish had sent out a mass facebook message to all our friends, putting together a sushi outing....I had originally said I wouldn't go A) I don't like sushi B) I thought I should take it easy and not go out this Saturday night. But I said, ok I studied for a bit, everyone was going out, it's our second to last weekend together and other people have monografias due sooner than I do, I can go out...So I did, I met Colby at my street corner at 9:45, then on the subte we ran into Kat! It was so funny, she just ran up to us on the train and she kinda scared me. Then at our stop we met Trish and Molly. We got to the sushi place and found Kristina and Sara Carothers waiting. The take out one that she wanted to go to was packed, so we walked a few blocks to the main restaurant, where it was packed too. At this point we were still waiting for Natasha who was in a cab on the way over to the place. We split the group, Trish, Kat, and Sara went to the other sushi place again while the rest of us waited for Natasha.
While we waited we came to the decision we'd go to this Mexican place instead, so once Natasha arrived we found a table outside the restaurant and enjoyed the fact that it was actually a nice night during winter in Buenos Aires, I was insistent upon the fact that we aprovechar de la noche perfecta. We texted the other girls, who later joined us and it was a quilombo finding a table to add to the small one we already had. We got a skimpy amount of chips and bad salsa, I was so glad I ate beforehand at home, I'm through with horrible Mexican food in Buenos Aires. We all ordered margaritas that tasted like slurpies and toasted to America and pretended that it was a nice summer night back home. It was actually really fun.
On the walk back and forth to the restaurants, I was conversing with Kristina about possible plans for the rest of the night. She said her host girl (Karla her host girl is like 27 and super cool) had invited her to this party that she would be bartending at. I told Kristina about this party in Plano 14 off of Corrientes that our porteño friend Juan had told me about. Then we realized that we had both separately been invited to the same party and decided we had to all go due to the shear fact that fate had put this same party in both our hands. We laughed at how small Buenos Aires actually is...seriously, I feel like everyone is interconnected here.
So after everyone ate and drank, we all headed over to the party in our big group of Americans, we got there and we realized it was one of those clandestino parties, the ones that occur in like old wharehouses and would be closed down if the fire marshall ever stopped by. We got inside and it reminded me of this one show Robert had taken me to on Christmas night one time. That one was in a wharehouse in commerce and 50 times more sketch than the one we were at.
So we go in, find a place to stash our coats (bad idea, someone spilled beer on mine, so now it smells like smoke AND beer! iupi!) and then we listened to the awesome band that was playing. They were great, I love argentine bands! We didn't see Juan anywhere but we said hi to Karla at the bar. Then the dj started playing great American music, including Cypress Hill (literally the first time I'd heard Cypress Hill since I left), Michael Jackson, and lots of 70's funk music...really at times it felt like we were in the 70's the atmosphere, the disco balls, it was great! Then later we found Juan and he introduced us to his two friends. I told him how I loved the band and he said he plays with them sometimes and he disappeared and later came back with a free cd for us! sweet!!!
His friends were funny, they seemed scared of us. I feel so bad sometimes, a big group of american girls, I guess we can be intimidating. jaja and those guys can't hand at all...they started sitting in the corner after a while. So we left there at like 5ish, and walked outside and talked for a while. At that point it was just me, Kat, Kristina, and Natasha. And I talked to the other guys a bit more, turns out they have their own band, they were just missing their drummer. Crazy times, those porteños are all so talented. Juan at that point had invited us to get coffee, I was down, I had already stayed out later than I had anticipated PLUS they had a CAR!!! I haven't been in a personal automobile since I left, I SO wanted to in their car, but everyone else wanted to just go home. So the four of us all walked down Corrientes, Kristina left first, down Juan B. Justo, then Kat, down Malabia, then Natasha and I headed up Ortiz. Our feet were killing us after a while and we felt horrible. Luckily it's Buenos Aires and everything stays open. There was one of those gas stations with a cafe so we stopped there and got water and sat down. Then we started talking about how it's the end and how little time we have together, and then Natasha gave me that look of antojos de medialunas, and as tradition with me and Natasha, she convinced me to go to a cafe with her and share our usual early morning-late night treat together for one of the last times. We went to our usual Plaza del Carmen near our houses and tons of people were there, getting out of the clubs, enjoying a late night treat before crashing. As we were leaving the cafe, we talked outside for a bit and two guys came up to us, they looked like they were going to be sketch but they just needed directions. Then two other guys walked by us and one with long hair said that he needed help because his friends with dreds had hiccups. jajajja dijo: hay dos cosas mas peligrosas en la Argentina, la gripe A y el hipo! jajaja and I said: oh no tengo tanto miedo.... and just silliness ensued. These guys were hilarious. Seriously, porteños are so clever! and witty...silly boys, but it was such a funny way to end the night, Natasha gave them her email address. We waited until they walked far away, then we each departed our separate ways.
Gah, it was such a great night. At the mexican restaurant, I was sitting next to Kat and she just grabbed my arm and looked at me all sad. Then she said she didn't want to sound corny but that we had all changed her life completely. It's true for all of us though, we've all been through this huge crazy life changing experience together, we've grown together and learned so much together. At the table, we had a big discussion about gender and sexuality and labels and Colby as always was getting passionate about talking about homosexuality and it was a great conversation. Gah, I love it, I love our talks and our debates and everything. I'm seriously going to miss all these people, and I'm glad I went out last night and had another ridiculous night with all of them!
While we waited we came to the decision we'd go to this Mexican place instead, so once Natasha arrived we found a table outside the restaurant and enjoyed the fact that it was actually a nice night during winter in Buenos Aires, I was insistent upon the fact that we aprovechar de la noche perfecta. We texted the other girls, who later joined us and it was a quilombo finding a table to add to the small one we already had. We got a skimpy amount of chips and bad salsa, I was so glad I ate beforehand at home, I'm through with horrible Mexican food in Buenos Aires. We all ordered margaritas that tasted like slurpies and toasted to America and pretended that it was a nice summer night back home. It was actually really fun.
On the walk back and forth to the restaurants, I was conversing with Kristina about possible plans for the rest of the night. She said her host girl (Karla her host girl is like 27 and super cool) had invited her to this party that she would be bartending at. I told Kristina about this party in Plano 14 off of Corrientes that our porteño friend Juan had told me about. Then we realized that we had both separately been invited to the same party and decided we had to all go due to the shear fact that fate had put this same party in both our hands. We laughed at how small Buenos Aires actually is...seriously, I feel like everyone is interconnected here.
So after everyone ate and drank, we all headed over to the party in our big group of Americans, we got there and we realized it was one of those clandestino parties, the ones that occur in like old wharehouses and would be closed down if the fire marshall ever stopped by. We got inside and it reminded me of this one show Robert had taken me to on Christmas night one time. That one was in a wharehouse in commerce and 50 times more sketch than the one we were at.
So we go in, find a place to stash our coats (bad idea, someone spilled beer on mine, so now it smells like smoke AND beer! iupi!) and then we listened to the awesome band that was playing. They were great, I love argentine bands! We didn't see Juan anywhere but we said hi to Karla at the bar. Then the dj started playing great American music, including Cypress Hill (literally the first time I'd heard Cypress Hill since I left), Michael Jackson, and lots of 70's funk music...really at times it felt like we were in the 70's the atmosphere, the disco balls, it was great! Then later we found Juan and he introduced us to his two friends. I told him how I loved the band and he said he plays with them sometimes and he disappeared and later came back with a free cd for us! sweet!!!
His friends were funny, they seemed scared of us. I feel so bad sometimes, a big group of american girls, I guess we can be intimidating. jaja and those guys can't hand at all...they started sitting in the corner after a while. So we left there at like 5ish, and walked outside and talked for a while. At that point it was just me, Kat, Kristina, and Natasha. And I talked to the other guys a bit more, turns out they have their own band, they were just missing their drummer. Crazy times, those porteños are all so talented. Juan at that point had invited us to get coffee, I was down, I had already stayed out later than I had anticipated PLUS they had a CAR!!! I haven't been in a personal automobile since I left, I SO wanted to in their car, but everyone else wanted to just go home. So the four of us all walked down Corrientes, Kristina left first, down Juan B. Justo, then Kat, down Malabia, then Natasha and I headed up Ortiz. Our feet were killing us after a while and we felt horrible. Luckily it's Buenos Aires and everything stays open. There was one of those gas stations with a cafe so we stopped there and got water and sat down. Then we started talking about how it's the end and how little time we have together, and then Natasha gave me that look of antojos de medialunas, and as tradition with me and Natasha, she convinced me to go to a cafe with her and share our usual early morning-late night treat together for one of the last times. We went to our usual Plaza del Carmen near our houses and tons of people were there, getting out of the clubs, enjoying a late night treat before crashing. As we were leaving the cafe, we talked outside for a bit and two guys came up to us, they looked like they were going to be sketch but they just needed directions. Then two other guys walked by us and one with long hair said that he needed help because his friends with dreds had hiccups. jajajja dijo: hay dos cosas mas peligrosas en la Argentina, la gripe A y el hipo! jajaja and I said: oh no tengo tanto miedo.... and just silliness ensued. These guys were hilarious. Seriously, porteños are so clever! and witty...silly boys, but it was such a funny way to end the night, Natasha gave them her email address. We waited until they walked far away, then we each departed our separate ways.
Gah, it was such a great night. At the mexican restaurant, I was sitting next to Kat and she just grabbed my arm and looked at me all sad. Then she said she didn't want to sound corny but that we had all changed her life completely. It's true for all of us though, we've all been through this huge crazy life changing experience together, we've grown together and learned so much together. At the table, we had a big discussion about gender and sexuality and labels and Colby as always was getting passionate about talking about homosexuality and it was a great conversation. Gah, I love it, I love our talks and our debates and everything. I'm seriously going to miss all these people, and I'm glad I went out last night and had another ridiculous night with all of them!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
4th of july?
blah, I should be doing homework pero no tengo el animo para hacerlo....GAH! so boring, and so frustrating writing anything because I have no language options on my lame microsoft works!
I think this 4th of july is miserable only because I have so much work. If I didn't I wouldn't be stuck at home thinking about what I'm missing out on at home and in Buenos Aires. But I think I'm going to chill with some friends. They're going to a sushi place, but I think I'll just sit and chat with them. Our porteño friend Juan invited us to this party at some club...but idk if I'm down for that slash I should come home early, wake up early and actually do homework tomorrow. GAH!!! I hate this situation.
I just want this stupid paper with no real prompt to write itself. I hate this paper, literally has the most general guidelines I have ever seen and the longest length I've had to write. Nice huh? pretty stupid...
I want some fireworks and beatles by the pool
I think this 4th of july is miserable only because I have so much work. If I didn't I wouldn't be stuck at home thinking about what I'm missing out on at home and in Buenos Aires. But I think I'm going to chill with some friends. They're going to a sushi place, but I think I'll just sit and chat with them. Our porteño friend Juan invited us to this party at some club...but idk if I'm down for that slash I should come home early, wake up early and actually do homework tomorrow. GAH!!! I hate this situation.
I just want this stupid paper with no real prompt to write itself. I hate this paper, literally has the most general guidelines I have ever seen and the longest length I've had to write. Nice huh? pretty stupid...
I want some fireworks and beatles by the pool
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
one month left....serio?
gah, so I'm feeling so weird as of late. I'm totally in love with Buenos Aires and more so all the people I've met while here. I posted that as my facebook status and Adam, Sara Carothers' boyfriend who I met while he visited her down here, commented on my status, gave it a thumbs up. Even him, this guy I knew for so shortly, was an amazing person. It'd be great to go to a concert with him and Sara some time.
Every person I've met down here has been great and I've learned so much from them. jaja the other day I saw Toby as I was walking down Santa Fe, going to my UBA class I believe...and it was nice to just run into him and wave, super cool guy, I'm glad we live like a block apart. I'm so greatful for everything everyone's shared with me, I've learned so much from all the people I've met here.
Lauren posted pics of Natasha's birthday celebration, the dinner with everyone and Colby's parents, who are amazing people. And then the pics from the club and all of us dancing and being silly. Seriously, I love all these people so much and I've shared so much with them and they've shared so much with me, we've all gone through a lot together the past 4 months and we've been each other's support system, our familia away from home.
At dinner we brought up the fact that in a month we won't be seeing each other on a daily basis anymore. I looked over at Natasha and Kristina and turned to my right to look at Colby and Kat and AH!!! I was gonna start crying. I love these people. I loved last night and I love all the experiences I've had here, the good, the bad, the dumb, the not so smart...all of it, I've grown so much.
I'm ready to go back, I can't wait to see everyone and enjoy LA in the summer, but I'm gonna miss BsAs so much. I feel like I'm another person now and I'm just scared of seeing how I'm going to look at things once I get back. I don't even know if this makes sense, but yes...this is what I've been feeling lately.
Also, I'm barely adjusted and started feeling comfortable here. I was so homesick for so many months and would talk about home nonstop. I finally am doing alright and I have to leave soon. GAH!!! I can't believe this!!! I'm so scared and sad, I guess I'm just scared of the drastic change. blah, whatever, it doesn't matter, talking about it doesn't matter, I just need to enjoy all the time I have left and make the BEST of it, like I have been doing for the past few months!
Every person I've met down here has been great and I've learned so much from them. jaja the other day I saw Toby as I was walking down Santa Fe, going to my UBA class I believe...and it was nice to just run into him and wave, super cool guy, I'm glad we live like a block apart. I'm so greatful for everything everyone's shared with me, I've learned so much from all the people I've met here.
Lauren posted pics of Natasha's birthday celebration, the dinner with everyone and Colby's parents, who are amazing people. And then the pics from the club and all of us dancing and being silly. Seriously, I love all these people so much and I've shared so much with them and they've shared so much with me, we've all gone through a lot together the past 4 months and we've been each other's support system, our familia away from home.
At dinner we brought up the fact that in a month we won't be seeing each other on a daily basis anymore. I looked over at Natasha and Kristina and turned to my right to look at Colby and Kat and AH!!! I was gonna start crying. I love these people. I loved last night and I love all the experiences I've had here, the good, the bad, the dumb, the not so smart...all of it, I've grown so much.
I'm ready to go back, I can't wait to see everyone and enjoy LA in the summer, but I'm gonna miss BsAs so much. I feel like I'm another person now and I'm just scared of seeing how I'm going to look at things once I get back. I don't even know if this makes sense, but yes...this is what I've been feeling lately.
Also, I'm barely adjusted and started feeling comfortable here. I was so homesick for so many months and would talk about home nonstop. I finally am doing alright and I have to leave soon. GAH!!! I can't believe this!!! I'm so scared and sad, I guess I'm just scared of the drastic change. blah, whatever, it doesn't matter, talking about it doesn't matter, I just need to enjoy all the time I have left and make the BEST of it, like I have been doing for the past few months!
Friday, June 12, 2009
off to IGUAZU!!!!!
So I'm off to here today!
Last night was good. The day time was whatevs. I went to grammar, this one kid did a really STUPID presentation that I had to hold back my laughter during the whole thing. That last sentence made no sense but I suck at expressing myself lately so don't matter. Yeah, then I met Lauren and I went with her to Retiro bus station in our 1 1/2 between classed and she got her seats on the buses with us, perfecto!!! We had some good convos about family and life and travelling, it was great.
Then we went to Cuestiones Culturales, and of course Corigliano sang a lot, today was great though, he sang a few Village People songs instead of just the usual Peronist songs! jajaja GREAT times. Then during my break, I did my homework for writing class in 2 minutes the got helado with friends...mmmm nothing better than dulce de leche con brownie and banana split flavored helado! Dulce de leche helado here is ridiculous, it's flavored like dulce de leche, but also has dulce de leche swirls in it! mmm....
Then I sadly headed over to my writing class, and Ana had the bad idea of taking a sudoku out during the class, so instead of our usual laughter, I was also sitting there playing sudoku...I even got flat our caught because I was supposed to read and didn't...ooops. jajajaja man, I hate that class, no class in my life has ever moved me to be so disrespectful, except this one!
Whatevs,I ran to the subte (not literally) after the class, passed the usual guy with his cello playing beatles songs, brightened up my mood slightly, then I got home and Marcela and her son Gonzalo were at the house, he's a sweetie, he sat me down right next to him and then sat on my lap! He's so cute and he finally talks to me and brightens up my day!
Then I went outside and met Colby and Kristina at 8:30. We went to a locutorio because Colby really needed to talk to Kenneth. Seems as though Kenneth's not been as frank with Colby as of late, been hanging out with a new "friend". Granted Colby hasn't been frank at all, so I don't want to sound mean, but what else can he expect?
idk, then we walked to Post Street Bar and had their free pizza with some jarras de cerveza. Then Lauren ordered her Bob Marley, and, idk what I ordered, but it was sour, and it was GREAT!!!
I mean, look at this place that we were at:
anyways, we had a great time, then went to a peña and then I started texting Eduardo, and when I arrived home I called him and we talked for 50 minutes, it was great! It was kinda dumb though,I drunkenly said so MUCH, I told him everything about what's happening back home and then in order to do that, I need to tell my whole stupid long story and it was ridiculous. Why did he have to start asking about familias? I can't describe things without going into long winded descriptions, so yes, that was what came spilling out of my mouth. But what's nice, is it's not as terrible as I think it up in my head and if I talk about it it's better for me. He even said, it sounds like you needed to let out a lot and get things off my mind. But yeah, he asked me to buy him a mate from iguazu and he'll pay me back and hopefully, he'll not have work on Monday and he said we can go to la bomba if he doesn't, either way, we're going to try to see eachother monday, can't wait!!
IGUAZU, here I come!!!!!
Last night was good. The day time was whatevs. I went to grammar, this one kid did a really STUPID presentation that I had to hold back my laughter during the whole thing. That last sentence made no sense but I suck at expressing myself lately so don't matter. Yeah, then I met Lauren and I went with her to Retiro bus station in our 1 1/2 between classed and she got her seats on the buses with us, perfecto!!! We had some good convos about family and life and travelling, it was great.
Then we went to Cuestiones Culturales, and of course Corigliano sang a lot, today was great though, he sang a few Village People songs instead of just the usual Peronist songs! jajaja GREAT times. Then during my break, I did my homework for writing class in 2 minutes the got helado with friends...mmmm nothing better than dulce de leche con brownie and banana split flavored helado! Dulce de leche helado here is ridiculous, it's flavored like dulce de leche, but also has dulce de leche swirls in it! mmm....
Then I sadly headed over to my writing class, and Ana had the bad idea of taking a sudoku out during the class, so instead of our usual laughter, I was also sitting there playing sudoku...I even got flat our caught because I was supposed to read and didn't...ooops. jajajaja man, I hate that class, no class in my life has ever moved me to be so disrespectful, except this one!
Whatevs,I ran to the subte (not literally) after the class, passed the usual guy with his cello playing beatles songs, brightened up my mood slightly, then I got home and Marcela and her son Gonzalo were at the house, he's a sweetie, he sat me down right next to him and then sat on my lap! He's so cute and he finally talks to me and brightens up my day!
Then I went outside and met Colby and Kristina at 8:30. We went to a locutorio because Colby really needed to talk to Kenneth. Seems as though Kenneth's not been as frank with Colby as of late, been hanging out with a new "friend". Granted Colby hasn't been frank at all, so I don't want to sound mean, but what else can he expect?
idk, then we walked to Post Street Bar and had their free pizza with some jarras de cerveza. Then Lauren ordered her Bob Marley, and, idk what I ordered, but it was sour, and it was GREAT!!!
I mean, look at this place that we were at:
anyways, we had a great time, then went to a peña and then I started texting Eduardo, and when I arrived home I called him and we talked for 50 minutes, it was great! It was kinda dumb though,I drunkenly said so MUCH, I told him everything about what's happening back home and then in order to do that, I need to tell my whole stupid long story and it was ridiculous. Why did he have to start asking about familias? I can't describe things without going into long winded descriptions, so yes, that was what came spilling out of my mouth. But what's nice, is it's not as terrible as I think it up in my head and if I talk about it it's better for me. He even said, it sounds like you needed to let out a lot and get things off my mind. But yeah, he asked me to buy him a mate from iguazu and he'll pay me back and hopefully, he'll not have work on Monday and he said we can go to la bomba if he doesn't, either way, we're going to try to see eachother monday, can't wait!!
IGUAZU, here I come!!!!!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
no date...jaja
So today was crazy. I went to class, the usual, the cuentos are actually not that interesting anymore, but oh well. The highlight of the class was when our Prof showed us a documentary on Evita and the cinematography was hilarious. The motion stopped and they panned into Evita's hands, but you could still hear the audion of her speech. Then all of a sudden a flying dove appears in her hands and then more doves. It was so trippy, it was seriously a stoner moment and I turned to Trish and we just cracked up. We couldn't hold back the laughter.
After class, Trish and I walked back to FLACSO and met up with Kat and made our usual Wed. walk to the doner kebab place. The guys there know us already. The old man said that we bring him lots of alegria, but we told him that his place and the food brings us alegria! jajajaja cheesy moment then he brought us our hummus and we chowed down. We left him a good tip at the end. Then, back to FLACSO where I met Naomi and then we went to Retiro and bought our tickets to iguazu!! WOO!!!! So we're set, and my new friend Lauren Moore is coming with us too! Exciting! Then we took the subte again and I got off near the Abasto shopping mall because I was going to meet Colby there so he could calm my nerves before I was supposed to meet Eduardo.
So it's about 4:30ish when I'm there with Colby, and I'm supposed to meet up with Eduardo at 6 and we're looking for a place for Colby to eat when I look at my phone and see that he sent me a text saying that something came up and we'd have to meet another time! GAH!!! So we texted back and forth for a while and Colby and I headed out of the capitalismo I mean mall and found a cafe to munch at. Gah!!! It was so frustrating, but Colby comforted me and we had our usual long convo about life and talked about going to the airport together when we leave. Gosh, I'm gonna be weeping in his arms at the airport if we go together. I don't even want to talk about it. JAJAJA he told me, if I hear about someone going crazy in the Miami airport, screaming things in Spanish and saying "Q se yo!?!?", and rabidly consuming mcdonald's french fries (his only vice) that will definitely be him. The crazy that shuts down the Miami airport. jajaja
After, we walked to the plaza at Facultad de Medicina, and met up with Natasha and Kristina who were finishing up a botella de vino and some cheese. We chatted it up and laughed, then I had to go home becuase I didn't want to get sicker and I told myself I would do homework, but I didn't. Meh, no matter. I went home, ate, tried to do work, talked to la familia, then kim, then eevee shortly, then Eduardo finally called me, and it was a bit of waiting because turns out he's got a horrible night shift schedule at the hospital. He goes in at like 9 pm and leaves at like 6am. GAH!! So he would call and put me on hold or call me back because he had patients and such. It was annoying. Whatevs. But it was nice talking to him, minus the fact that I sound so stupid when I'm nervous and it makes me sound like I barely can speak Spanish. Not to mention the fact that I have a hard time understanding young porteños in general,so it was super confusing and he probably thinks I'm pretty dumb. But he asked me about my family, what life in general is like in LA, what my daily life is like, what I do normally, what people are like over there, if know any humanistos and if people take to the streets the way they do here. So yeah.
Idk if he's interested really. He might just like people and want to have a friend from a different country. But he's super sweet and really intelligent... I hope he's interested. He said to take lots of pics in Iguazu and to post them and such. He said we can hang out on Monday when I get back. Hopefully that actually happens, and hopefully he has it feriado, because then we can go to La Bomba de Tiempo together! aH!!! that would be so great!!!! but either way, I'm going to Iguazu and it's going to be GREAT!!!
After class, Trish and I walked back to FLACSO and met up with Kat and made our usual Wed. walk to the doner kebab place. The guys there know us already. The old man said that we bring him lots of alegria, but we told him that his place and the food brings us alegria! jajajaja cheesy moment then he brought us our hummus and we chowed down. We left him a good tip at the end. Then, back to FLACSO where I met Naomi and then we went to Retiro and bought our tickets to iguazu!! WOO!!!! So we're set, and my new friend Lauren Moore is coming with us too! Exciting! Then we took the subte again and I got off near the Abasto shopping mall because I was going to meet Colby there so he could calm my nerves before I was supposed to meet Eduardo.
So it's about 4:30ish when I'm there with Colby, and I'm supposed to meet up with Eduardo at 6 and we're looking for a place for Colby to eat when I look at my phone and see that he sent me a text saying that something came up and we'd have to meet another time! GAH!!! So we texted back and forth for a while and Colby and I headed out of the capitalismo I mean mall and found a cafe to munch at. Gah!!! It was so frustrating, but Colby comforted me and we had our usual long convo about life and talked about going to the airport together when we leave. Gosh, I'm gonna be weeping in his arms at the airport if we go together. I don't even want to talk about it. JAJAJA he told me, if I hear about someone going crazy in the Miami airport, screaming things in Spanish and saying "Q se yo!?!?", and rabidly consuming mcdonald's french fries (his only vice) that will definitely be him. The crazy that shuts down the Miami airport. jajaja
After, we walked to the plaza at Facultad de Medicina, and met up with Natasha and Kristina who were finishing up a botella de vino and some cheese. We chatted it up and laughed, then I had to go home becuase I didn't want to get sicker and I told myself I would do homework, but I didn't. Meh, no matter. I went home, ate, tried to do work, talked to la familia, then kim, then eevee shortly, then Eduardo finally called me, and it was a bit of waiting because turns out he's got a horrible night shift schedule at the hospital. He goes in at like 9 pm and leaves at like 6am. GAH!! So he would call and put me on hold or call me back because he had patients and such. It was annoying. Whatevs. But it was nice talking to him, minus the fact that I sound so stupid when I'm nervous and it makes me sound like I barely can speak Spanish. Not to mention the fact that I have a hard time understanding young porteños in general,so it was super confusing and he probably thinks I'm pretty dumb. But he asked me about my family, what life in general is like in LA, what my daily life is like, what I do normally, what people are like over there, if know any humanistos and if people take to the streets the way they do here. So yeah.
Idk if he's interested really. He might just like people and want to have a friend from a different country. But he's super sweet and really intelligent... I hope he's interested. He said to take lots of pics in Iguazu and to post them and such. He said we can hang out on Monday when I get back. Hopefully that actually happens, and hopefully he has it feriado, because then we can go to La Bomba de Tiempo together! aH!!! that would be so great!!!! but either way, I'm going to Iguazu and it's going to be GREAT!!!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
first date? oh snaps! jaja
So today was a GREAT DAY!!! I was in a rush in the morning and had to run down to the lavadero and pick up my laundry that I just threw on the bed. All I had for breakfast was te con leche and an apple. Come to think of it, I didn't really eat well today. Lunch consisted of papas fritas then I waited until dinner to have pizza and salad and soup. jajaja oh the diet of champs, argentine food. Oh I had coffee too! jaja
Then I got to class and the first professor for our Literatura española class passed back our tests and I got a 4 out of 5! This was the same test that I almost didn't do at all because I almost cried because I didn't understand the quote. Well, anyways, I definitely passed and then shortly after she collected the tests, we had a fire drill, so there was no class! Then Karla and I took our break and we returned and our second professor said that everyone did well, the lowest was a 6 out of 10, so no matter what I passed! I kicked ass in this class that I was always intimidated in!! WOO! And it's over, I don't have to do anything else for this class except attend the remaining three sessions. SWEET!!! All of our studying me and Karla did paid off!
Then Karla and I met up with Natasha and had papas fritas together, then headed to FLACSO to use the comps. I was on facebook chat talking to my Bena Li, having a great convo and venting to her about talking to Shanon and how I'm barely realizing they're done and how crazy and different things are gonna be when I get back. THEN...Eduardo starts facebook chatting me and asking me how my day is and everything and finally he asks if we were still on for tomorrow to have some coffee together. So it's set, tomorrow I meet him at the Abasto shopping center for some coffee! Ah!!! jajaja I know it sounds like no big deal, but I never get coffee dates or boys interested in me....so yeah it's scary! AH!!!! But he seems so sweet and chill...too bad he chose the mall...gah I hate the mall, especially this one...so hopefully I don't act too overally socially awkward inside the mall jajaja.
Yup, then I started telling Bena about the date and telling her about him and how he's studying to be a nurse and does theatre improv that centers around social problems. jajaja and she responds, "OMG socially conscious, CHECK!!! We all know how that turns you on!" jajajaja stating the obvious, I do like guys who like to make a difference in the world. Bena knows me too well. Anyways, I'm so excited and scared for tomorrow, but I think it should be fine. Also, I hope I don't get sicker!
Also, I'm going to buy my iguazu tickets tomorrow, so I have so much to look forward to!!! AH!!!!
Then I got to class and the first professor for our Literatura española class passed back our tests and I got a 4 out of 5! This was the same test that I almost didn't do at all because I almost cried because I didn't understand the quote. Well, anyways, I definitely passed and then shortly after she collected the tests, we had a fire drill, so there was no class! Then Karla and I took our break and we returned and our second professor said that everyone did well, the lowest was a 6 out of 10, so no matter what I passed! I kicked ass in this class that I was always intimidated in!! WOO! And it's over, I don't have to do anything else for this class except attend the remaining three sessions. SWEET!!! All of our studying me and Karla did paid off!
Then Karla and I met up with Natasha and had papas fritas together, then headed to FLACSO to use the comps. I was on facebook chat talking to my Bena Li, having a great convo and venting to her about talking to Shanon and how I'm barely realizing they're done and how crazy and different things are gonna be when I get back. THEN...Eduardo starts facebook chatting me and asking me how my day is and everything and finally he asks if we were still on for tomorrow to have some coffee together. So it's set, tomorrow I meet him at the Abasto shopping center for some coffee! Ah!!! jajaja I know it sounds like no big deal, but I never get coffee dates or boys interested in me....so yeah it's scary! AH!!!! But he seems so sweet and chill...too bad he chose the mall...gah I hate the mall, especially this one...so hopefully I don't act too overally socially awkward inside the mall jajaja.
Yup, then I started telling Bena about the date and telling her about him and how he's studying to be a nurse and does theatre improv that centers around social problems. jajaja and she responds, "OMG socially conscious, CHECK!!! We all know how that turns you on!" jajajaja stating the obvious, I do like guys who like to make a difference in the world. Bena knows me too well. Anyways, I'm so excited and scared for tomorrow, but I think it should be fine. Also, I hope I don't get sicker!
Also, I'm going to buy my iguazu tickets tomorrow, so I have so much to look forward to!!! AH!!!!
Monday, June 8, 2009
ah....lunes
so Sunday was weird then great. I had to meet my paper writing partner at a Starbucks in Belgrano, not my choice, twas hers. Anyways, Belgrano is a really nice neighborhood with your usual bunch of high class snobs, add to that the fact that it is STARBUCKS, capitalismo capitalismo capitalismo. Anyways, I hate being in places like that, so not me and I hate it. I got there and just wanted to start pushing put out of the way, they were trapping me in and surrounding me, I hated it. I feel like I'm drowning in social situations like that. To add to the fact, that girl was there with some other FLACSO girls and she didnt bother to save me a seat. So I was standing there, already awkward, then add to that the fact that I don't have a chair..hmm....awkward standing pursues...
Whatever, she had it all figured out and I was out of there within the hour. I got home and Colby called and said they were still in San Telmo, so I took the subte down there and had a snack with them. Then we walked to the Kiosco where Colby's new guy works. This is the same one who picked me up and spun me around at the club. I hadn't seen him since there, but he had one of those stupid smirks on when he did see me. idk, something urks me about this guy....but Colby's into him so can't say anything.
We left them there and Kristina and Natasha and I continued up Defensa, came across a band playing and people. So we opened up a botella de vino and joined the rest of the artesanos there and drank and were merry with them. SO MUCH FUN!!! Then the police drove right threw so the band stopped. We proceeded up Defensa some more and came across a small outdoors milonga and all these cute couples dancing tango. It was absolutely beautiful. jajaja and some old man came over and offered us free tango lessons if we would teach him english, then he asked for my name and I told him and the creeper was like, "Oh Cristal, tenemos q cuidarla, ver q no se quebra!" jajaja smooth man...whatevs...Colby joined us and we bought some food from vendors, it was gorgeous, then we all had to pee so we found a cafe and snacked and such.
Twas a good night.
Today was meh for the most part, errands, casas de cambio, and such. A bit of studying and planning to go to iguazu. I got to finally talk to Shanon and hear from her, that wasn't too happy for me. I'm just scared of having to deal with so much change when I go back, changes in my family, changes in relationships, it's all so scary.
Whatevs, but I also got to talk to Kim, then my mom and robert, and that was good. While I was talking to the familia, Eduardo, the kid from Avantt started texting me and asking me what I was up to. He was inquiring as to our cafe date and asking when I was free and such. Turns out he's a busy man, works at night, then organizing community theatre that centers around pointing out social problems. Yes, then after I hung up with the familia, he called me and FML, I get so nervous!!! Seriously, he was talking it up and telling me all about his amazing theatre aspirations about calling out social injustices and mobilizing people through theatre, and there I am unable to make coherent sentences. BLAH!!!! why!!! He probably thought I was so stupid or so disinterested or so apathetic, but no I swear you're super cool I just get nervous! kfaldskfjaldkfja whatevs, but we have plans to try to hang out sometime this week before I leave for Iguazu this Friday...hopefully that goes well!
Whatever, she had it all figured out and I was out of there within the hour. I got home and Colby called and said they were still in San Telmo, so I took the subte down there and had a snack with them. Then we walked to the Kiosco where Colby's new guy works. This is the same one who picked me up and spun me around at the club. I hadn't seen him since there, but he had one of those stupid smirks on when he did see me. idk, something urks me about this guy....but Colby's into him so can't say anything.
We left them there and Kristina and Natasha and I continued up Defensa, came across a band playing and people. So we opened up a botella de vino and joined the rest of the artesanos there and drank and were merry with them. SO MUCH FUN!!! Then the police drove right threw so the band stopped. We proceeded up Defensa some more and came across a small outdoors milonga and all these cute couples dancing tango. It was absolutely beautiful. jajaja and some old man came over and offered us free tango lessons if we would teach him english, then he asked for my name and I told him and the creeper was like, "Oh Cristal, tenemos q cuidarla, ver q no se quebra!" jajaja smooth man...whatevs...Colby joined us and we bought some food from vendors, it was gorgeous, then we all had to pee so we found a cafe and snacked and such.
Twas a good night.
Today was meh for the most part, errands, casas de cambio, and such. A bit of studying and planning to go to iguazu. I got to finally talk to Shanon and hear from her, that wasn't too happy for me. I'm just scared of having to deal with so much change when I go back, changes in my family, changes in relationships, it's all so scary.
Whatevs, but I also got to talk to Kim, then my mom and robert, and that was good. While I was talking to the familia, Eduardo, the kid from Avantt started texting me and asking me what I was up to. He was inquiring as to our cafe date and asking when I was free and such. Turns out he's a busy man, works at night, then organizing community theatre that centers around pointing out social problems. Yes, then after I hung up with the familia, he called me and FML, I get so nervous!!! Seriously, he was talking it up and telling me all about his amazing theatre aspirations about calling out social injustices and mobilizing people through theatre, and there I am unable to make coherent sentences. BLAH!!!! why!!! He probably thought I was so stupid or so disinterested or so apathetic, but no I swear you're super cool I just get nervous! kfaldskfjaldkfja whatevs, but we have plans to try to hang out sometime this week before I leave for Iguazu this Friday...hopefully that goes well!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Avantt dreams and a bit of Peronismo
Ah, another great weekend, the theme: meeting new people...
So Thursday was GREAT! I got out of my grammar class early so that I could go on my field trip for Cuestiones Culturales. We were all meeting at the CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajo)which was started and created by Eva Peron. Our tour was guided by an oldschool Peronista who was this old man who actually got to meet Evita. He was great, he was so passionate and proud of his country and not afraid to completely fight for rights. He showed us the room where Evita's secretary worked and where Evita received her visitors, which was now turned into a huge altar like shrine to Evita, it was beautiful. Being an altar coneisour (sp?) I rather enjoyed this place, turns out her body was on display for three years in that room. I love it, everyone else was creeped out by it, but really what's to be creeped out by? Whatevs, it was beautiful,plus the old man talked about the 17 de Octubre speech Peron gave and how everyone was just possessed by so much emotion and enthusiasm, not really for Juan Peron but for Evita, she was the people's politician, she believed in fighting for her barrio and their workers, she moved so many people. As the old man talked about her death, he began to tear up. It's amazing how much she inspired in people. I know some kids in my class thought the fieldtrip was stupid, but I thought it was beautiful and it was amazing to see this man and get to know him.
After, me and my friends went and had lunch and the meal came with vino tinto, so I said hell yes and was a little buzzed during the lunch. After, we went to the Plaza de Mayo and got to see the Madres do their ritual walk at 3:30, it was great. It must be so consoling doing that...it's amazing seeing those strong womyn still luchando and never forgetting. Then Natasha and I followed this commotion and some acrobatic kids to this demonstration. Turns out the acrobatic kids put up this aparatus and starting juggling and doing aerial acrobatics on the aparatus. That and the flags and the live music and the Che images and the communist flags, it was so GREAT!!!! I love this city.
Sadly I had to make it over to my lame writing class at 5:30 and had an awkward 2 hours with our stupid teacher... I didn't even do my hw so I just sat there dumbly and tried to find ways to distract our teacher...That stupid class literally makes me feel like I'm in junior high again. He asked us why we all have to go to the bathroom all the time, truth is, I don't go to the bathroom when I step outside, I just stand there in the hallway to take a breather, that class SUCKS!!! jaja
So I went home ate, and then just got helado with my new friend Lauren and her friend Eric. She's super cool. Then I had an easy night in and went to bed early.
Friday, I walked all over the city, it was great and had some nice alone time. Walked to bib nacional, took pics, walked to Centro Cultural Recoleta, walked to this used clothing galeria and bought this short sleeved sweater thing for 40 pesos ($12), then took a bus to the centro and ate at this amazing place called California Burrito Company that all my friends had been talking about. I fell in love. The inside looked like your average San Gabriel Valley hawaiian bbq (jaja silly) minus the hawaiian food and the azn servers! The food was great, they actually had carnitas, and they were playing the Foo Fighters! I never thought that I would say this, but I miss KROQ and their repetitive crappy rock music. I don't actually have the Foos on my itunes because if I want to hear them, I just turn on the radio, not the case here. But it was crazy great hearing that and it felt like I was actually back at home! I loved it!
I stuffed my face with the burrito and chips and salsa then... I don't remember I believe I went home and chilled then met up with Lauren and had some spring rolls with her at a hole in the wall chinese restaurant that I love. Then we met Elizabeth and found this grungy bar with stencil graffiti art covering the walls. They give you popcorn as an appetizer and they have free pizza thursday and Alida later told me that they have a sweet terrace. I'm going back. So we chilled there the rest of the night and just chatted up the night. Walked home and of course Rossana was still awake at like 3 am.
Saturday, I woke up late, chilled at home and then Lauren contacted me and said she wanted to check out the vintage galeria so we went and I bought a sweet vintage hand painted purse and she bought this cute top to wear on her date later that night with this bartender from Bomba de Tiempo, sweet! Then we took the subte over to the movies where we were supposed to watch an Argentine movie with our grupo de interes but Aime was confused and we ended up watching Adventureland, super awkward, but still funny, another hit for Seth Rogan! jaja
Then Aime took us all to a cafe for a drink. Lauren and I then headed back to our barrio and ate pizza together,mmmm...brocoli! Then we parted, she for her date, me to Elizabeth's, I had finally successfully convinced her to come out. We met at her dorm, which is amazing and I'm jealous I didn't pick doing the dorm thing. oh well. We had a few drinks together then got to Avantt via colectivo. She was immediately grossed out by all the emo/indie kids, to which I responded, how could you not be in love with all these kids? jaja got in, free as usual. I also unestimated the smoke, Elizabeth was not feeling it because of her asthma, but she was starting to feel the music. Loving and a few others showed up and soon I saw Zelmar as usual at a distance with his long haired friend. Seriously, I feel like a teenage girl in love with a rock star when I see him. jajajaja I don't know why. Anways, I said hi to him and his friend and made small talk, but returned to my group of friends and later saw him making out with some girl, the first of several times. ah, heartbreak. but really, at that moment I stepped out of my stupid little girl crush and the subsuelo had opened up so we headed downstairs and I randomly chatted it up with this kid named Lucas. It was alright, talked about music and such, kinda awk, but whatevs, I just left and that was that. No harm done.
Later we moved back up to the main floor and we were all dancing in a circle and I started checking out this boy next to us who was dancing and just having a good time with his friends. Slowly I kinda just danced over to him and we started dancing together. It was great. Then we started talking, his names Eduardo, 25, studying to be an enfermero and was pretty free spirited. It was nice. It was really hard to talk in there. But he gave me his number and when I was on the colectivo home at around 5am I texted him and said it was great meeting him and such and he said we should get coffee soon. ah!!! crazy! ooh also, he goes to lots of shows and said we should go to some together. I'm so excited, he's a sweet guy, he added me on facebook and he's really involved in this organization that teaches kids about non-violence...jaja it's just all too ideal. A smart, cute, conscious kid who likes to also rock out to the strokes and such. It's great!
So Thursday was GREAT! I got out of my grammar class early so that I could go on my field trip for Cuestiones Culturales. We were all meeting at the CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajo)which was started and created by Eva Peron. Our tour was guided by an oldschool Peronista who was this old man who actually got to meet Evita. He was great, he was so passionate and proud of his country and not afraid to completely fight for rights. He showed us the room where Evita's secretary worked and where Evita received her visitors, which was now turned into a huge altar like shrine to Evita, it was beautiful. Being an altar coneisour (sp?) I rather enjoyed this place, turns out her body was on display for three years in that room. I love it, everyone else was creeped out by it, but really what's to be creeped out by? Whatevs, it was beautiful,plus the old man talked about the 17 de Octubre speech Peron gave and how everyone was just possessed by so much emotion and enthusiasm, not really for Juan Peron but for Evita, she was the people's politician, she believed in fighting for her barrio and their workers, she moved so many people. As the old man talked about her death, he began to tear up. It's amazing how much she inspired in people. I know some kids in my class thought the fieldtrip was stupid, but I thought it was beautiful and it was amazing to see this man and get to know him.
After, me and my friends went and had lunch and the meal came with vino tinto, so I said hell yes and was a little buzzed during the lunch. After, we went to the Plaza de Mayo and got to see the Madres do their ritual walk at 3:30, it was great. It must be so consoling doing that...it's amazing seeing those strong womyn still luchando and never forgetting. Then Natasha and I followed this commotion and some acrobatic kids to this demonstration. Turns out the acrobatic kids put up this aparatus and starting juggling and doing aerial acrobatics on the aparatus. That and the flags and the live music and the Che images and the communist flags, it was so GREAT!!!! I love this city.
Sadly I had to make it over to my lame writing class at 5:30 and had an awkward 2 hours with our stupid teacher... I didn't even do my hw so I just sat there dumbly and tried to find ways to distract our teacher...That stupid class literally makes me feel like I'm in junior high again. He asked us why we all have to go to the bathroom all the time, truth is, I don't go to the bathroom when I step outside, I just stand there in the hallway to take a breather, that class SUCKS!!! jaja
So I went home ate, and then just got helado with my new friend Lauren and her friend Eric. She's super cool. Then I had an easy night in and went to bed early.
Friday, I walked all over the city, it was great and had some nice alone time. Walked to bib nacional, took pics, walked to Centro Cultural Recoleta, walked to this used clothing galeria and bought this short sleeved sweater thing for 40 pesos ($12), then took a bus to the centro and ate at this amazing place called California Burrito Company that all my friends had been talking about. I fell in love. The inside looked like your average San Gabriel Valley hawaiian bbq (jaja silly) minus the hawaiian food and the azn servers! The food was great, they actually had carnitas, and they were playing the Foo Fighters! I never thought that I would say this, but I miss KROQ and their repetitive crappy rock music. I don't actually have the Foos on my itunes because if I want to hear them, I just turn on the radio, not the case here. But it was crazy great hearing that and it felt like I was actually back at home! I loved it!
I stuffed my face with the burrito and chips and salsa then... I don't remember I believe I went home and chilled then met up with Lauren and had some spring rolls with her at a hole in the wall chinese restaurant that I love. Then we met Elizabeth and found this grungy bar with stencil graffiti art covering the walls. They give you popcorn as an appetizer and they have free pizza thursday and Alida later told me that they have a sweet terrace. I'm going back. So we chilled there the rest of the night and just chatted up the night. Walked home and of course Rossana was still awake at like 3 am.
Saturday, I woke up late, chilled at home and then Lauren contacted me and said she wanted to check out the vintage galeria so we went and I bought a sweet vintage hand painted purse and she bought this cute top to wear on her date later that night with this bartender from Bomba de Tiempo, sweet! Then we took the subte over to the movies where we were supposed to watch an Argentine movie with our grupo de interes but Aime was confused and we ended up watching Adventureland, super awkward, but still funny, another hit for Seth Rogan! jaja
Then Aime took us all to a cafe for a drink. Lauren and I then headed back to our barrio and ate pizza together,mmmm...brocoli! Then we parted, she for her date, me to Elizabeth's, I had finally successfully convinced her to come out. We met at her dorm, which is amazing and I'm jealous I didn't pick doing the dorm thing. oh well. We had a few drinks together then got to Avantt via colectivo. She was immediately grossed out by all the emo/indie kids, to which I responded, how could you not be in love with all these kids? jaja got in, free as usual. I also unestimated the smoke, Elizabeth was not feeling it because of her asthma, but she was starting to feel the music. Loving and a few others showed up and soon I saw Zelmar as usual at a distance with his long haired friend. Seriously, I feel like a teenage girl in love with a rock star when I see him. jajajaja I don't know why. Anways, I said hi to him and his friend and made small talk, but returned to my group of friends and later saw him making out with some girl, the first of several times. ah, heartbreak. but really, at that moment I stepped out of my stupid little girl crush and the subsuelo had opened up so we headed downstairs and I randomly chatted it up with this kid named Lucas. It was alright, talked about music and such, kinda awk, but whatevs, I just left and that was that. No harm done.
Later we moved back up to the main floor and we were all dancing in a circle and I started checking out this boy next to us who was dancing and just having a good time with his friends. Slowly I kinda just danced over to him and we started dancing together. It was great. Then we started talking, his names Eduardo, 25, studying to be an enfermero and was pretty free spirited. It was nice. It was really hard to talk in there. But he gave me his number and when I was on the colectivo home at around 5am I texted him and said it was great meeting him and such and he said we should get coffee soon. ah!!! crazy! ooh also, he goes to lots of shows and said we should go to some together. I'm so excited, he's a sweet guy, he added me on facebook and he's really involved in this organization that teaches kids about non-violence...jaja it's just all too ideal. A smart, cute, conscious kid who likes to also rock out to the strokes and such. It's great!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
good weekend....feeling content here
So this was a good weekend. I feel so comfortable in this city. I've had those realizations where I wake up and I think, wow yeah this is my life, this crazy, caotic, beautiful city has been my life and will continue to be my life for the next few weeks. I really don't want to think about going back. I was sitting there at my friend's apartment this weekend, a weird mix of americans and one lonely porteño and one of the girls was talking about how weird the keys are here, and yeah I thought that they were super weird and cool when I got here, but now they're just normal. I sat there trying to remember what my car keys looked like back home and what my house keys looked like, I couldn't for the life of me remember, it was ridiculous. I actually til this moment can't really remember what they look like, and I really don't want to remember, it's not important, those stupid mass produced and lack of uniquness keys that make up my life, I don't even want to remember how to drive, I just want to walk and take the bus everywhere for the rest of my life, it feels so great.
Ok, so Friday, I ran errands, went to the American Express travellers cheques place, exchanged my $200 for 740 pesos. Then I was on the subte feeling blah and wanting to just chop off my hair, so I went to Rossana's hair salon she had recommended me. I get there and there are all these really chic cool people there and I sat there and thought, Shit, this is a long way from Freddy's. I already hate hair salons, just like I hate doctors and dentists, I just dont like people all up in my face and too close to me. Add to the fact that it's a super chic place that makes me feel uncomfortable, yeah whatevs. I get this random guy who takes me to an open seat but not before he asks for my sweater so he can put it in the coat check, A COAT CHECK, isn't that ridiculous. It gets better. I start looking around and I see one woman with an empty coffee cup next to her, you can order COFFEE at this salon! Then the guy comes back with a white satin robe for me to put on, then he puts the regular old black one after that. It was just weird. So there I was getting my hair cut and hating the experience and feeling so awkward. My stupid highlights growing out, you can see all the roots, and the unevenness of the bleach because I did it myself. jajaja the unevenness of my HAIR because I normally cut it myself. jajajjaa I'm so out of place at this salon. Then he takes sections and twists them and does a random jagged cut and then I was freaked out, I didnt know what was going on, I've never seen anyone cut hair like that. He didn't talk to me at all, just the usual, De donde sos? jaja
In the end, my trim turned out great and I have less damaged hair. But I ran the hell out of there when I was done, I literally ran a little down Araoz for half a block before I got to Santa Fe. Then I killed time, probably doing nothing, until 4 when I met Karla at Alto Palermo to study for our Contemporary Spanish Lit exam. God I hate that class and I hate La Universidad Catolica de Argentina. jajaa But our study session went well and I felt like I could allow myself to go out. I went home and then put on make up and met Kristina outside the subte stop in front of Alto Palermo, we had agreed to meet and talk about our convo the previous night and clarify some stuff. It was a good convo, much needed and helped us out. We were at a super packed enpanada place when I decided to stand outside to alleviate some of the congestion in that tiny place. I was just standing there and some random guy waiting for his order was sitting there and started talking to me about how it was so packed. I got the usual de donde sos and the surprised look when I said LA and he kept trying to talk to me, it was awk, he pointed at the cute little kids hair salon across the street and told me that he works there if I ever wanted to stop by, his name was Alfredo. So weird.
Whatevs, we pre-gamed at Colby's and then took a cab ride to Casa Brandon, a queer bar Kristina and Colby had wanted to go to for a while. It was so GREAT! It was so chill inside, there were two men dressed as women as well as some girls who looked like Shane on the LWord. It was great. There was no one there and there were sofas and the walls had the words "Amor, respeto, visibilidad" going across all the walls. Plus, they were playing the yeah yeah yeahs then SANTOGOLD! Amazing! We chilled there for a bit then walked over to Sitges for another stupid night of that drinking trap. Seriously, I'm not going there for a while, I always feel so crappy the next day. But I wanted to go this time becuase it was Kat's first time. She was crazy. jajaja oh yeah so I was dancing there with Colby when I noticed that a group of 4 porteño boys were staring at him and eating him up. Of course, Colby was drunk enough for me to just drag him over to this group of boys and I left him there to disfrustar la situación. He hit it off with this one guy Cristian. I kept checking in on him throughout the night, one time I walked over to him to say hi and that guy thought it would be funny to pick me up and spin me. I hate that, idk but people seem to think, idk maybe because I'm little, that it's always fun to just pick me up and spin me around. No I don't appreciate it put me down please. I could've puked all over him and me, he's so lucky I didnt. At the end of the night I put Kat in a cab because she was gone, and I walked home because Colby was still enjoying that boy and Kristina seemed to want some space. All in all a good night, I just woke up feeling meh as usual.
So Saturday, got up early thinking that my homestay family's son and co. would be there early. They werent. I went to bed at 6 or 7 ish and woke up at like 11. Met Karla again to study, we've been really great about this. We also had some good convo, she's in the same position as Colby, boyfriend back home that she's in love with and been in a relationship with for two years, but realizing for the first time that there's a whole world of opportunities and boys out there to disfrutar. jajaja I feel so bad for really adding to the situation, I help Colby find boys too much, it's especially bad because I met Kenneth, but whatevs, it's his decision. So I went home and met the familia. The little boys were cute. One was scared of me and the other, Facundo, was super cute, he gave me a beso right away and started talking to me.
I took a nap and called up Kristina and she said they were going to complete their queer tour and go to a queer friendly thai restaurant, so I walked in the stupid endless rain to the place and it was AMAZING! There was crazy doctor seuss red spirals on the walls and our waiter was great. He kept coming by and chatting it up with us. The food was AMAZING! Actual sabor! There was sweet and sour and PICANTE sauce, eating this food immediately took me back like nothing else could. I really felt homesick for a second because I remembered what food is supposed to taste like, slash I miss my asian community!
So the waiter brought us two rounds of these warm cider shots that were great. They didnt taste like they had alcohol it was great. Also I ordered Pad Thai and was so blown away by it. I really can't explain how it feels to be separated from everything asian and then suddenly get this dish that rivals pad thai in LA! It was amazing! Oh and our waiter also told us that they have a special 4th of july celebration, Happy Days Happy Hour with cerveza and burgers. I NEED to come to this, I need some kind of semblance of my normal life during my bday so I won't get depressed.
So I left them after dinner because I had made plans with Alida and Kat to go to La Bomba de Tiempo's 3 cumple año! They're this amazing drumming group that is a must see but I haven't made my way to see them. The whole city loves them. I really should've known I'd have ticket trouble when our waiter stopped by our table and showed us his tickets, I walked those blocks in the drizzle to Konex and stood in line for a while just to find out that it was sold out. I called Kat up and we stupidly decided to walk on Corrientes towards each other, which didn't work because the cold was killing me, so I called her said we'd meet at our friend Sara's boyfriend's rented apartment. He was visiting again and had actually brought me a king size reeses package from the US since that stuff is not available here. He's basically a sweetie and Sara had invited us over for a chill party so what the hell, perfect place to stop by. I took a cab over there and met Kat, but not before I was the only unlucky person in the city to step in dog shit. jajaja
So Adam welcomed us, made us this really great Brazilian drink with limones and of course listened to his great music collection. Also, Sara's friend from the US was also there,she's here studying with a different program. But she showed us her awesome tattoos that she's gotten while here. She had a compass on her wrist which was alright, but she had this AMAZING poem written on the both sides of her ribcage that she had just gotten. It was so GREAT! It was even greater because she was telling us how her asian daddy was gonna be super pissed about all her tatoos, but damn she was such a badass, this little asian girl can take lots of pain, she had to many tatoos! I was super jealous becuase she got hers done at Bond Street and Colby just went on Friday to get his nose pierced and Kat got some earrings. My piercing that I've been set on must wait a bit more, I promised Eevee we'd get piercings together when she comes to visit. AH!!!! I can't wait, I've been thinking about this one for so long, and I really can't pass up the opportunity to get it done for the grand total of 30 pesos, less than 10 dollars! WOO!!! So Nina if you're reading this, don't rat me out, it'll be fine too I've checked all these places out, they're completely steril and yeah as you see I know lots of people to get stuff done at Bond Street, so it's all good. I will leave everyone in suspense as to what's getting pierced.
So back to the party last night. Natasha had been texting Juan "Fernett", our friend we made that night-morning I missed the bus to Tandil, you know the one with a bottle of Fernett in his jacket and who asked us if we had some Coke to go with it! jajaa so I don't actually remember meeting this kid, because I was gone, so I was REALLY excited to meet him again because I didnt even have a clue what I said to him, Natasha had to retell the story to me. jajajaja anyways, he came over! and we all chilled there for some time. After a while, Colby and Kristina finished their gay tour and left to some more queer bars. Then Sara's tatood friend left and Kat, Natasha, Juan, and I decided to make our way to a bar to chill. Juan suggested Jobs, a place that has board games and pool tables. We got there, rented our Jenga set, just like in Cha for tea, except we were missing our Boba! So we ordered a jarra of Sangria, which here equals vino tinto, hielo, and fruta. So yummy. We started playing jenga, I was on Juan's team and Natasha and Kat were another team. JAJAJA everyone seemed impressed by my jenga skills, but they don't understand that my old lame life where I couldn't go out and drink consisted of chilling at Cha for Tea and playing Jenga with my girls or with Brian for hours, in the case of Brian we would make up stupid rules where you had to grab the first one you touched. So yeah, needless to say, I'm a jenga pro plus I'm super competetive, so I take my games seriously.
Yeah it was pretty nice being on Juan's team, got nice little back pats-rubs when I did well. jaja but he was such a sweetie! After a while we all just got bored and just started talking about some of our fav English and Castellano frases. It was great, we made fools of ourselves and talked about all kinds of sexual slang and Juan innocently just told us some useful slang, like how to say I'm gonna kick ur ass (I already forgot what it was, something like darte la virada). Then we started talking about hip hop and stupid crap and of course me and Natasha, the west coast girls, brought up hyphy and of course we got hyphy and did the thizz face and I basically thoroughly embarrassed myself just to show Juan what kids in the bay do. jajaja whatevs, it was fun, plus, I love doing the thizz face. ajjaja we ordered another jarra of cerveza and poor kid he was already so gone and us crazy norteamericanas were still going strong and he probably didnt expect to gastar tanto dinero that night, but he chose the wrong girls to hang out with. We continued with our silliness until 5:30 when they kicked us out.
Then, we still werent done because of course Natasha and I wanted cafe con leche y medialunas, so we dragged him with us to a little cafe. He looked so done, todo acabado, jajaja and we were sitting there at our peak, seriously add a little coffee to me at 6 am and I am ridiculous. We were giggling up a storm. We were talking about facebook and tagging people in pics and we didnt know how to say that in spanish, and he was like, of yeah of course, Etiquetiar...jajja and Natasha and Kat couldn't say it and I kept spitting it out and saying it and giggling, but at least I was saying it right. jajaja
So we said goodbye to our new porteño friend after that, he promised we'd go out with him and his amigotes soon, yay! still awaiting his friend request on facebook, but oh it will come, unless we did scare him away, but I think it's all good, he seemed to have fun. jajaja good times.
Bad times was waking up today, Sunday at 10:30 am, when I went to bed at a little after 6 am. jajaja FML it's all good, I don't really need much sleep here, just some te con leche in the morning and I'm good, plus I went the whole day today with no nap, watched Harry Potter 5 with the familia, and studied with Karla for five hours. Damn I'm good, this is the life, I have fun, I study, I still get good grades, its so great! I just dont sleep! jajaja I'll sleep when I get home, or rather as Memi says, Me duermo cuando me muero....so true...
ah I love it here...
Ok, so Friday, I ran errands, went to the American Express travellers cheques place, exchanged my $200 for 740 pesos. Then I was on the subte feeling blah and wanting to just chop off my hair, so I went to Rossana's hair salon she had recommended me. I get there and there are all these really chic cool people there and I sat there and thought, Shit, this is a long way from Freddy's. I already hate hair salons, just like I hate doctors and dentists, I just dont like people all up in my face and too close to me. Add to the fact that it's a super chic place that makes me feel uncomfortable, yeah whatevs. I get this random guy who takes me to an open seat but not before he asks for my sweater so he can put it in the coat check, A COAT CHECK, isn't that ridiculous. It gets better. I start looking around and I see one woman with an empty coffee cup next to her, you can order COFFEE at this salon! Then the guy comes back with a white satin robe for me to put on, then he puts the regular old black one after that. It was just weird. So there I was getting my hair cut and hating the experience and feeling so awkward. My stupid highlights growing out, you can see all the roots, and the unevenness of the bleach because I did it myself. jajaja the unevenness of my HAIR because I normally cut it myself. jajajjaa I'm so out of place at this salon. Then he takes sections and twists them and does a random jagged cut and then I was freaked out, I didnt know what was going on, I've never seen anyone cut hair like that. He didn't talk to me at all, just the usual, De donde sos? jaja
In the end, my trim turned out great and I have less damaged hair. But I ran the hell out of there when I was done, I literally ran a little down Araoz for half a block before I got to Santa Fe. Then I killed time, probably doing nothing, until 4 when I met Karla at Alto Palermo to study for our Contemporary Spanish Lit exam. God I hate that class and I hate La Universidad Catolica de Argentina. jajaa But our study session went well and I felt like I could allow myself to go out. I went home and then put on make up and met Kristina outside the subte stop in front of Alto Palermo, we had agreed to meet and talk about our convo the previous night and clarify some stuff. It was a good convo, much needed and helped us out. We were at a super packed enpanada place when I decided to stand outside to alleviate some of the congestion in that tiny place. I was just standing there and some random guy waiting for his order was sitting there and started talking to me about how it was so packed. I got the usual de donde sos and the surprised look when I said LA and he kept trying to talk to me, it was awk, he pointed at the cute little kids hair salon across the street and told me that he works there if I ever wanted to stop by, his name was Alfredo. So weird.
Whatevs, we pre-gamed at Colby's and then took a cab ride to Casa Brandon, a queer bar Kristina and Colby had wanted to go to for a while. It was so GREAT! It was so chill inside, there were two men dressed as women as well as some girls who looked like Shane on the LWord. It was great. There was no one there and there were sofas and the walls had the words "Amor, respeto, visibilidad" going across all the walls. Plus, they were playing the yeah yeah yeahs then SANTOGOLD! Amazing! We chilled there for a bit then walked over to Sitges for another stupid night of that drinking trap. Seriously, I'm not going there for a while, I always feel so crappy the next day. But I wanted to go this time becuase it was Kat's first time. She was crazy. jajaja oh yeah so I was dancing there with Colby when I noticed that a group of 4 porteño boys were staring at him and eating him up. Of course, Colby was drunk enough for me to just drag him over to this group of boys and I left him there to disfrustar la situación. He hit it off with this one guy Cristian. I kept checking in on him throughout the night, one time I walked over to him to say hi and that guy thought it would be funny to pick me up and spin me. I hate that, idk but people seem to think, idk maybe because I'm little, that it's always fun to just pick me up and spin me around. No I don't appreciate it put me down please. I could've puked all over him and me, he's so lucky I didnt. At the end of the night I put Kat in a cab because she was gone, and I walked home because Colby was still enjoying that boy and Kristina seemed to want some space. All in all a good night, I just woke up feeling meh as usual.
So Saturday, got up early thinking that my homestay family's son and co. would be there early. They werent. I went to bed at 6 or 7 ish and woke up at like 11. Met Karla again to study, we've been really great about this. We also had some good convo, she's in the same position as Colby, boyfriend back home that she's in love with and been in a relationship with for two years, but realizing for the first time that there's a whole world of opportunities and boys out there to disfrutar. jajaja I feel so bad for really adding to the situation, I help Colby find boys too much, it's especially bad because I met Kenneth, but whatevs, it's his decision. So I went home and met the familia. The little boys were cute. One was scared of me and the other, Facundo, was super cute, he gave me a beso right away and started talking to me.
I took a nap and called up Kristina and she said they were going to complete their queer tour and go to a queer friendly thai restaurant, so I walked in the stupid endless rain to the place and it was AMAZING! There was crazy doctor seuss red spirals on the walls and our waiter was great. He kept coming by and chatting it up with us. The food was AMAZING! Actual sabor! There was sweet and sour and PICANTE sauce, eating this food immediately took me back like nothing else could. I really felt homesick for a second because I remembered what food is supposed to taste like, slash I miss my asian community!
So the waiter brought us two rounds of these warm cider shots that were great. They didnt taste like they had alcohol it was great. Also I ordered Pad Thai and was so blown away by it. I really can't explain how it feels to be separated from everything asian and then suddenly get this dish that rivals pad thai in LA! It was amazing! Oh and our waiter also told us that they have a special 4th of july celebration, Happy Days Happy Hour with cerveza and burgers. I NEED to come to this, I need some kind of semblance of my normal life during my bday so I won't get depressed.
So I left them after dinner because I had made plans with Alida and Kat to go to La Bomba de Tiempo's 3 cumple año! They're this amazing drumming group that is a must see but I haven't made my way to see them. The whole city loves them. I really should've known I'd have ticket trouble when our waiter stopped by our table and showed us his tickets, I walked those blocks in the drizzle to Konex and stood in line for a while just to find out that it was sold out. I called Kat up and we stupidly decided to walk on Corrientes towards each other, which didn't work because the cold was killing me, so I called her said we'd meet at our friend Sara's boyfriend's rented apartment. He was visiting again and had actually brought me a king size reeses package from the US since that stuff is not available here. He's basically a sweetie and Sara had invited us over for a chill party so what the hell, perfect place to stop by. I took a cab over there and met Kat, but not before I was the only unlucky person in the city to step in dog shit. jajaja
So Adam welcomed us, made us this really great Brazilian drink with limones and of course listened to his great music collection. Also, Sara's friend from the US was also there,she's here studying with a different program. But she showed us her awesome tattoos that she's gotten while here. She had a compass on her wrist which was alright, but she had this AMAZING poem written on the both sides of her ribcage that she had just gotten. It was so GREAT! It was even greater because she was telling us how her asian daddy was gonna be super pissed about all her tatoos, but damn she was such a badass, this little asian girl can take lots of pain, she had to many tatoos! I was super jealous becuase she got hers done at Bond Street and Colby just went on Friday to get his nose pierced and Kat got some earrings. My piercing that I've been set on must wait a bit more, I promised Eevee we'd get piercings together when she comes to visit. AH!!!! I can't wait, I've been thinking about this one for so long, and I really can't pass up the opportunity to get it done for the grand total of 30 pesos, less than 10 dollars! WOO!!! So Nina if you're reading this, don't rat me out, it'll be fine too I've checked all these places out, they're completely steril and yeah as you see I know lots of people to get stuff done at Bond Street, so it's all good. I will leave everyone in suspense as to what's getting pierced.
So back to the party last night. Natasha had been texting Juan "Fernett", our friend we made that night-morning I missed the bus to Tandil, you know the one with a bottle of Fernett in his jacket and who asked us if we had some Coke to go with it! jajaa so I don't actually remember meeting this kid, because I was gone, so I was REALLY excited to meet him again because I didnt even have a clue what I said to him, Natasha had to retell the story to me. jajajaja anyways, he came over! and we all chilled there for some time. After a while, Colby and Kristina finished their gay tour and left to some more queer bars. Then Sara's tatood friend left and Kat, Natasha, Juan, and I decided to make our way to a bar to chill. Juan suggested Jobs, a place that has board games and pool tables. We got there, rented our Jenga set, just like in Cha for tea, except we were missing our Boba! So we ordered a jarra of Sangria, which here equals vino tinto, hielo, and fruta. So yummy. We started playing jenga, I was on Juan's team and Natasha and Kat were another team. JAJAJA everyone seemed impressed by my jenga skills, but they don't understand that my old lame life where I couldn't go out and drink consisted of chilling at Cha for Tea and playing Jenga with my girls or with Brian for hours, in the case of Brian we would make up stupid rules where you had to grab the first one you touched. So yeah, needless to say, I'm a jenga pro plus I'm super competetive, so I take my games seriously.
Yeah it was pretty nice being on Juan's team, got nice little back pats-rubs when I did well. jaja but he was such a sweetie! After a while we all just got bored and just started talking about some of our fav English and Castellano frases. It was great, we made fools of ourselves and talked about all kinds of sexual slang and Juan innocently just told us some useful slang, like how to say I'm gonna kick ur ass (I already forgot what it was, something like darte la virada). Then we started talking about hip hop and stupid crap and of course me and Natasha, the west coast girls, brought up hyphy and of course we got hyphy and did the thizz face and I basically thoroughly embarrassed myself just to show Juan what kids in the bay do. jajaja whatevs, it was fun, plus, I love doing the thizz face. ajjaja we ordered another jarra of cerveza and poor kid he was already so gone and us crazy norteamericanas were still going strong and he probably didnt expect to gastar tanto dinero that night, but he chose the wrong girls to hang out with. We continued with our silliness until 5:30 when they kicked us out.
Then, we still werent done because of course Natasha and I wanted cafe con leche y medialunas, so we dragged him with us to a little cafe. He looked so done, todo acabado, jajaja and we were sitting there at our peak, seriously add a little coffee to me at 6 am and I am ridiculous. We were giggling up a storm. We were talking about facebook and tagging people in pics and we didnt know how to say that in spanish, and he was like, of yeah of course, Etiquetiar...jajja and Natasha and Kat couldn't say it and I kept spitting it out and saying it and giggling, but at least I was saying it right. jajaja
So we said goodbye to our new porteño friend after that, he promised we'd go out with him and his amigotes soon, yay! still awaiting his friend request on facebook, but oh it will come, unless we did scare him away, but I think it's all good, he seemed to have fun. jajaja good times.
Bad times was waking up today, Sunday at 10:30 am, when I went to bed at a little after 6 am. jajaja FML it's all good, I don't really need much sleep here, just some te con leche in the morning and I'm good, plus I went the whole day today with no nap, watched Harry Potter 5 with the familia, and studied with Karla for five hours. Damn I'm good, this is the life, I have fun, I study, I still get good grades, its so great! I just dont sleep! jajaja I'll sleep when I get home, or rather as Memi says, Me duermo cuando me muero....so true...
ah I love it here...
our nation and our war
So this was in the Sunday morning newspaper today:
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2009/05/31/elmundo/i-01929755.htm
for all my Spanish reading blog followers, please read. It's disgusting and horrific and another reason to hate this war that we started and to really look at what we're doing in the world.
I'm basically disgusted right now and can't really say much, but take a look. Be informed.
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2009/05/31/elmundo/i-01929755.htm
for all my Spanish reading blog followers, please read. It's disgusting and horrific and another reason to hate this war that we started and to really look at what we're doing in the world.
I'm basically disgusted right now and can't really say much, but take a look. Be informed.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Everything happens for a reason!
So, I continued my emoness today. Not the whole day. I took my grammar parcial and felt good, then after that I had that immense weight lifted off my shoulders! GREat! So I edited my paper, had an awkward meeting with leandro, ate lunch with Lauren and found a new friend, went to my cuestiones class and of course fell more in love with my professor, he loves tim burton, so cool!
After class, went with Anna and had a beer and then went through the hell that is writing class. Finished, went home, ate a great dinner then texted Colby who said he was at Tandoor having wine.
I walked over to find that he was seated with Molly, who I can't stand. I endure some time there, then Kristina arrives and Molly converses with her. In the mean time, I turn to Colby and start talking about beauty standards here in Argentina and how're they're probably more fucked up than in the US becuase here I feel like on a daily basis I'm an obese grossness. Anyways, Kristina and Molly interject, we have a debate I get angry and want to cry because Krisitna's sitting there telling me I'm wrong for having a hateful self perception when really I can't help the way I feel. I throw some money on the table and storm off. I didn't know where I was going but I knew I wanted to vent with Katy. I texted her and she said I could come over.
So we do our usual venting thing and act like dorks and she makes me feel a million times better! I love her to death! Then Ceci eventually comes home, first I've seen her since her arrival from her trip to London, Paris, and Spain. She showed us pics and little video clips and just her smile alone makes me feel happy. She's so warm and welcoming.I realized I want to live her life, I want to live life to the fullest and be caring and carefree and warm and inviting and beautiful. She kept asking me to stay the night, that it was too cold for me outside and such. She's a sweetie, she grabbed my hand and wanted to make sure that I was feeling better. Seriously, Kat and Ceci make me feel so at home! I love them.
So I leave and cross the street thinking, fuck it, I'm going to live life and be happy, accept the heartaches and embrace the pain because it makes the rest of the time that much sweeter. I arrive to my bus stop and two guys are there, one looks very talkative and says hola to me. They seem to be good friends. The talkative one starts to include me in the convo, he seems silly and philosophical and pensive, talking about how we're just three organismos in the universe, all standing less than a meter apart from each other. He talks about the stars and about life and it's all beautiful and all very true. Then the other guy leaves and I realize that the talkative one didn't know this guy before. We get to talking and he asks me where I'm from and raises his eyebrows and repeats "Norte America" and starts to mockingly speak english, it was cute. I learn that his name is Santiago, he's a pianista and that he loves tango music. When I say that my name is Cristal, he starts to sing some kind of folklore song with my name and amor in it, it was beautiful. The bus arrives and he sits by me, asks me how old I am and said that I was very young when I responded that I'm turning 21. He's 28. He was very cute, being all shivery and wiggling around. He turns and looks at my glasses and says he likes them because of the estrellas and luna....gah, kinda like fate no? He was talking about the stars when I first walked up to the bus stop.
So we're approaching my stop and I ask him if he has a contact number, he didn't but he gave me his card. Said to email him and that he would remember my name. While he was showing me his card and explaining his company to me, he would point at it and stroke my finger holding the card, it was very sweet. We got to my stop and I gave him a beso on the cheek and said mucho gusto and such and ran down my street completely extatic!
I'm glad I didn't stay at Ceci's, I really wanted to too, I feel so at home there, but hey if I would have I wouldn't have met Santiago...
After class, went with Anna and had a beer and then went through the hell that is writing class. Finished, went home, ate a great dinner then texted Colby who said he was at Tandoor having wine.
I walked over to find that he was seated with Molly, who I can't stand. I endure some time there, then Kristina arrives and Molly converses with her. In the mean time, I turn to Colby and start talking about beauty standards here in Argentina and how're they're probably more fucked up than in the US becuase here I feel like on a daily basis I'm an obese grossness. Anyways, Kristina and Molly interject, we have a debate I get angry and want to cry because Krisitna's sitting there telling me I'm wrong for having a hateful self perception when really I can't help the way I feel. I throw some money on the table and storm off. I didn't know where I was going but I knew I wanted to vent with Katy. I texted her and she said I could come over.
So we do our usual venting thing and act like dorks and she makes me feel a million times better! I love her to death! Then Ceci eventually comes home, first I've seen her since her arrival from her trip to London, Paris, and Spain. She showed us pics and little video clips and just her smile alone makes me feel happy. She's so warm and welcoming.I realized I want to live her life, I want to live life to the fullest and be caring and carefree and warm and inviting and beautiful. She kept asking me to stay the night, that it was too cold for me outside and such. She's a sweetie, she grabbed my hand and wanted to make sure that I was feeling better. Seriously, Kat and Ceci make me feel so at home! I love them.
So I leave and cross the street thinking, fuck it, I'm going to live life and be happy, accept the heartaches and embrace the pain because it makes the rest of the time that much sweeter. I arrive to my bus stop and two guys are there, one looks very talkative and says hola to me. They seem to be good friends. The talkative one starts to include me in the convo, he seems silly and philosophical and pensive, talking about how we're just three organismos in the universe, all standing less than a meter apart from each other. He talks about the stars and about life and it's all beautiful and all very true. Then the other guy leaves and I realize that the talkative one didn't know this guy before. We get to talking and he asks me where I'm from and raises his eyebrows and repeats "Norte America" and starts to mockingly speak english, it was cute. I learn that his name is Santiago, he's a pianista and that he loves tango music. When I say that my name is Cristal, he starts to sing some kind of folklore song with my name and amor in it, it was beautiful. The bus arrives and he sits by me, asks me how old I am and said that I was very young when I responded that I'm turning 21. He's 28. He was very cute, being all shivery and wiggling around. He turns and looks at my glasses and says he likes them because of the estrellas and luna....gah, kinda like fate no? He was talking about the stars when I first walked up to the bus stop.
So we're approaching my stop and I ask him if he has a contact number, he didn't but he gave me his card. Said to email him and that he would remember my name. While he was showing me his card and explaining his company to me, he would point at it and stroke my finger holding the card, it was very sweet. We got to my stop and I gave him a beso on the cheek and said mucho gusto and such and ran down my street completely extatic!
I'm glad I didn't stay at Ceci's, I really wanted to too, I feel so at home there, but hey if I would have I wouldn't have met Santiago...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I have no earrings in my ears?
So I had a nice emo conversation with Sara Loving today. We were supposed to be studying for our gramatica parcial that is tomorrow, but I had been indoors reading all day up until that point and I wanted some fresh air and Colby recommended we go to the Facultad de Medicina Plaza next to FLACSO to study and get fresh air. We studied a bit, but mostly just talked. I was good to vent and just take a breather from all my studying I've been doing these past few days. But she gave me a great idea, I need to continue writing in here, even if it's just to do a quick update.
So today, the bad: studying, freaking out, stressing out, feeling like I'm messing up in school, feeling fat (stupid skinny girls in this country), feeling unbeautiful (stupid skinny girls, stupid eurocentric beauty, stupid lack of appreciation for glasses!) and feeling generally blah. Bad turn no?
the good: Sara Loving hearing me out and making me feel better, eating Middle eastern food for lunch at our usual spot on Wed (the guys at the restaurant are so sweet to us now!), fresh air, and probably chatting online with Kat, that's always good.
So I just looked at Rachel Johnson's graduation pics and I wanted to start bawling. I won't see any of those faces when I get back. Brandon is going to Japan for two years, and I will be in the same shoes as those kids in a year. SO SCARY. gah!!!!
Blah, also, skype had a bad connection today, and sometimes I have no patience, and I have no patience for skype when it's messing up, so my convo with mom and dad was short because I was already stressed by my lack of paper (due tmr) and then the sound and mom asking me if I was letting stuff at home get to me. Yes they are. But whatevs.
fjdsflajkdslfkjdf whatevs...stupid CA, stupid deficit, stupid school cuts, and stupid gay marriage ban. Too many bad things. Whatevs
But last night was nice, got to talk to Eevee on skype, we're going to get piercings together when she comes to visit. Also got to talk to Michelle, about life, about living abroad, about changing.
It was good to talk to them. I think I'll have a hard time adjusting back to life at home... oh well
So today, the bad: studying, freaking out, stressing out, feeling like I'm messing up in school, feeling fat (stupid skinny girls in this country), feeling unbeautiful (stupid skinny girls, stupid eurocentric beauty, stupid lack of appreciation for glasses!) and feeling generally blah. Bad turn no?
the good: Sara Loving hearing me out and making me feel better, eating Middle eastern food for lunch at our usual spot on Wed (the guys at the restaurant are so sweet to us now!), fresh air, and probably chatting online with Kat, that's always good.
So I just looked at Rachel Johnson's graduation pics and I wanted to start bawling. I won't see any of those faces when I get back. Brandon is going to Japan for two years, and I will be in the same shoes as those kids in a year. SO SCARY. gah!!!!
Blah, also, skype had a bad connection today, and sometimes I have no patience, and I have no patience for skype when it's messing up, so my convo with mom and dad was short because I was already stressed by my lack of paper (due tmr) and then the sound and mom asking me if I was letting stuff at home get to me. Yes they are. But whatevs.
fjdsflajkdslfkjdf whatevs...stupid CA, stupid deficit, stupid school cuts, and stupid gay marriage ban. Too many bad things. Whatevs
But last night was nice, got to talk to Eevee on skype, we're going to get piercings together when she comes to visit. Also got to talk to Michelle, about life, about living abroad, about changing.
It was good to talk to them. I think I'll have a hard time adjusting back to life at home... oh well
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Hola querida blog!
jajaja so it's been too long since I updated this.
Life is really great right now, I got over my homesick slump that I was in for a while and am feeling really great about being here right now, I'm realizing how much I've grown and how independent I am now, it might be very difficult to adjust back to life at home.
I was talking to Colby (as always) the other night at a restuarant and I was telling him how I didn't get my license until I was in college and my mom basically drove me around everywhere I needed to go up until that point (he got his license when he was 16 and started working before that). And he was telling me how he can't even imagine me being a person to be driven anywhere, said I appeared very independent...which is true, I'm so independent now, I can't really believe I'm here and that I've made it this far and I'm having fun. I thought I would be miserable with my familia and don't get me wrong I get so homesick sometimes and with some situations I wish I could just magically apparate(harry potter reference) home to be there for certain things. But I can do it, I can be on my own and things don't fall apart when I'm not there. The other day my mom told me that Robert and Andrew took care of the kids while the mujeres went out for a chicana play, and I was like, THAT'S GREAT! See, things run smoothly with out me needing to be there, others can do the same thing that auntie crystal does and it's fine! jajaa I'm so silly
So update....this weekend let's see. Thursday I took it easy. I called my bro's apt to talk to his gf really quick and ended up talking with her mom for like 30 minutes and found out that my bro and his gf broke up and that he's moved back home. Pretty big deal, for those who don't know, they've been together for 5 years and she's like familia to me too. So yeah I was pretty sad about that, but Thursday night I met my friend Elizabeth for helado and she kindly listened to me and was very great about checking in on me and how I'm feeling. It was great that she knew that you know, despite the fact that I love to have a tough exterior, she told me, "you really don't have to be as tough as you appear to be". I'm glad she told me that...I need to let things out sometime and not freak about about things on my own and internalize things.
So after that, she needed to go back home and write a paper, and I met a few great friends at a hookah bar and just chilled there. Had some vino and went home relatively early (2 de la mañana) and when I got home Rossana was still awake. jaja ooo yeah, thursday afternoon I got my parcial back and got two 10's a perfecto! woo!
Friday,I ran errands, took my laundry, got some fotocopias at la UBA, did some readings at a biblioteca, it was rather a productive day. My lavadera girl was nice too me too, commented on my necklace. So I met Colby that night at my street corner (he lives a block away) and we headed to Godoy Cruz for our weekend ritual in seek of a good mexican restaurant. jaja not too great this week, we met Katy and Sara Loving there and we realized it was barely 10 and too early to head to our gay bar that Colby loves. So we went to another restaurant and chilled, then headed to the bar at midnight paid our entrada of just 25 pesos for open bar. Killer. That's all I have to say, I missed a bus to our weekend trip because of this bar. jajaa
Saturday, yesterday...too much I was super hungover all day...jajaja Colby and I hung out at cafes trying to study, didn't really work...we later ate armenian food with some good folk and then headed to Avantt, possibly my fav place here! I hadn't been there since march, it was killing me, but Colby was realy wanting to check it out so I was grateful. It also helped that I knew Zelmar was going to be there..jaja thanks Facebook! We got in line and we were at the door when I saw him walk up to the line with some of his friends ah I almost died. I spent the early part of the night trying to not be seen by him because I'm too shy, but around 2:30 they finally opened the downstairs part and me and my friends planted ourselves right in front of him. He came over and said hi and was really surprised to see me. Asked me how I decided to go on that night, and it was totally a coincidence that we chose that night, Colby decided early he wanted to try Avantt this weekend. Yeah, he was also telling me that he saw my facebook and that it was great that I was getting to know other parts of Argentina. He offered me some of his beer and was just super sweet! ah! too cute
omg and then there were two cross dressers, they were hot, these guys pulled off these outfits amazingly! It was great! and one of my friends Doug went up to them and started talking to them. We thought he was drunk and didn't know they were guys, so we sat back and just laughed off to the side for a long time. Eventually he came back, said he knew from the beginning but just wanted to chat and dance. jajajaj it was great. I LOVE this place! I love Avantt, its magical, all the amazing music I love, MGMT, FRranz, The Strokes, The White Stripes, plus all kinds of 80's punk mixed in there...its beautiful.
So at the end of the night Colby and I didn't have any money or monedas to take the colectivo, so we walked from the centro all the way back home. Some more than 30 blocks. jaja but it was great, we got to see the obelisco at night and all the stands they set up for the festivities today. It's 25 de Mayo, in 1810 the Revolución started and the process of liberation from Spain had begun. It's gonna be an exciting day, we'll head back to the obelisco and enjoy some of the festivities, plus there'll probably be tons of Che flags everywhere! GAH!!! I LOVE this place!
Seriously, I couldn't have picked a better city to study in...I'm attached to this place, it's great. Plus, I've made some great friends. Colby and I are like an old married couple, we've seen each other at our best and our worst, I dont want to imagine living more than a block away from him...which is going to be the sad truth in a few months.
But alas, that's far away. Now, to disfrutar the tiempo I have left!
Life is really great right now, I got over my homesick slump that I was in for a while and am feeling really great about being here right now, I'm realizing how much I've grown and how independent I am now, it might be very difficult to adjust back to life at home.
I was talking to Colby (as always) the other night at a restuarant and I was telling him how I didn't get my license until I was in college and my mom basically drove me around everywhere I needed to go up until that point (he got his license when he was 16 and started working before that). And he was telling me how he can't even imagine me being a person to be driven anywhere, said I appeared very independent...which is true, I'm so independent now, I can't really believe I'm here and that I've made it this far and I'm having fun. I thought I would be miserable with my familia and don't get me wrong I get so homesick sometimes and with some situations I wish I could just magically apparate(harry potter reference) home to be there for certain things. But I can do it, I can be on my own and things don't fall apart when I'm not there. The other day my mom told me that Robert and Andrew took care of the kids while the mujeres went out for a chicana play, and I was like, THAT'S GREAT! See, things run smoothly with out me needing to be there, others can do the same thing that auntie crystal does and it's fine! jajaa I'm so silly
So update....this weekend let's see. Thursday I took it easy. I called my bro's apt to talk to his gf really quick and ended up talking with her mom for like 30 minutes and found out that my bro and his gf broke up and that he's moved back home. Pretty big deal, for those who don't know, they've been together for 5 years and she's like familia to me too. So yeah I was pretty sad about that, but Thursday night I met my friend Elizabeth for helado and she kindly listened to me and was very great about checking in on me and how I'm feeling. It was great that she knew that you know, despite the fact that I love to have a tough exterior, she told me, "you really don't have to be as tough as you appear to be". I'm glad she told me that...I need to let things out sometime and not freak about about things on my own and internalize things.
So after that, she needed to go back home and write a paper, and I met a few great friends at a hookah bar and just chilled there. Had some vino and went home relatively early (2 de la mañana) and when I got home Rossana was still awake. jaja ooo yeah, thursday afternoon I got my parcial back and got two 10's a perfecto! woo!
Friday,I ran errands, took my laundry, got some fotocopias at la UBA, did some readings at a biblioteca, it was rather a productive day. My lavadera girl was nice too me too, commented on my necklace. So I met Colby that night at my street corner (he lives a block away) and we headed to Godoy Cruz for our weekend ritual in seek of a good mexican restaurant. jaja not too great this week, we met Katy and Sara Loving there and we realized it was barely 10 and too early to head to our gay bar that Colby loves. So we went to another restaurant and chilled, then headed to the bar at midnight paid our entrada of just 25 pesos for open bar. Killer. That's all I have to say, I missed a bus to our weekend trip because of this bar. jajaa
Saturday, yesterday...too much I was super hungover all day...jajaja Colby and I hung out at cafes trying to study, didn't really work...we later ate armenian food with some good folk and then headed to Avantt, possibly my fav place here! I hadn't been there since march, it was killing me, but Colby was realy wanting to check it out so I was grateful. It also helped that I knew Zelmar was going to be there..jaja thanks Facebook! We got in line and we were at the door when I saw him walk up to the line with some of his friends ah I almost died. I spent the early part of the night trying to not be seen by him because I'm too shy, but around 2:30 they finally opened the downstairs part and me and my friends planted ourselves right in front of him. He came over and said hi and was really surprised to see me. Asked me how I decided to go on that night, and it was totally a coincidence that we chose that night, Colby decided early he wanted to try Avantt this weekend. Yeah, he was also telling me that he saw my facebook and that it was great that I was getting to know other parts of Argentina. He offered me some of his beer and was just super sweet! ah! too cute
omg and then there were two cross dressers, they were hot, these guys pulled off these outfits amazingly! It was great! and one of my friends Doug went up to them and started talking to them. We thought he was drunk and didn't know they were guys, so we sat back and just laughed off to the side for a long time. Eventually he came back, said he knew from the beginning but just wanted to chat and dance. jajajaj it was great. I LOVE this place! I love Avantt, its magical, all the amazing music I love, MGMT, FRranz, The Strokes, The White Stripes, plus all kinds of 80's punk mixed in there...its beautiful.
So at the end of the night Colby and I didn't have any money or monedas to take the colectivo, so we walked from the centro all the way back home. Some more than 30 blocks. jaja but it was great, we got to see the obelisco at night and all the stands they set up for the festivities today. It's 25 de Mayo, in 1810 the Revolución started and the process of liberation from Spain had begun. It's gonna be an exciting day, we'll head back to the obelisco and enjoy some of the festivities, plus there'll probably be tons of Che flags everywhere! GAH!!! I LOVE this place!
Seriously, I couldn't have picked a better city to study in...I'm attached to this place, it's great. Plus, I've made some great friends. Colby and I are like an old married couple, we've seen each other at our best and our worst, I dont want to imagine living more than a block away from him...which is going to be the sad truth in a few months.
But alas, that's far away. Now, to disfrutar the tiempo I have left!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
great week for classes! not so hot for the rest....
so UBA (universidad de buenos aires)classes started this week! On monday I went to check out my Violencia Familiar class, had to take two subtes to get there, but it was cool, got to conocer a different barrio. I loved the building, the outside had murals and inside, there were posters everywhere for clubs and organizations and events, it was beautiful. That and the location next to the autopista made it feel just like home! Gah,to think that I would every miss freeways! Not that I miss them, but nothing says home like being near an overpass! jaja so I got there early, walked to nearby plaza and sat and read. It would've been perfect had it not been for the creeper who sat right next to me and who I felt lean over and come closer to watch me read. Scary! So I left my nice tranquil spot in the parque next to the overpass. Gr! Ruin my moment!
But my class was going to start, so whatevs...So they did the usual intros, then they asked a series of questions, why we chose the class, what were our expectations, what did we not want to happen with the class....etc. We did this individually, then shared with the group, then the class. It was nice, sadly, as I expected, all women in the class, because of course, these issues are for women only, they shall be solved by women alone. Yup! I brougth that up as one thing I didn't want for the class, but could obviously not escape.
So we went over our responses for a bit, plus the profesoras did some explaining about what the class would entail. They wanted to emphasize that it would by no means be a purely theoretical class, one of the issues that some women brought up as to what they didnt want from the class. But they also highlighted that it's an intro course and we would by no means be able to magical miracle workers to end domestic violence, which was obviously a great point to bring up.
In the second part of class, we went over the term "violence". They asked us to freely write on our papers the first things that came to mind when we thought of "violencia". I was very embarrassed about this part because my vocab in this part was like that of a fifth grader, but that's besides the point. After we had our free write, we got back in our groups and shared, then they asked us to write down 5-6 of the most common words between all of us in the group, then 3-4 unusual ones. So we had things like "golpe", "miedo", "peligro" as our common words, and then things like "invisibilidad" for our uncommon words. From there, each group wrote their two groups of words on the board. What we noticed across the board was that the common words were all of the initial, situational concepts of the words violence. The physical pain, the immediate emotional reaction, the individual experience. The uncommon words included things like the aftermath, things that described the state of the person afterwards, the subconscious and also the institutional systems that support violence. The uncommon words were the quite profound ones, the ones that really make you think. It was a great exercise.
At the end, they told us that besides doing our reading, for the next class we should write about an incident of violence that we have experienced/witnessed. They said we could have been the antagonist, the victim or a spectator, didn't matter, we just needed to describe that situation that we personally witnessed. At that point was when I was thinking...hm...maybe this class isn't for me, maybe I'm not ready for this just yet. So I headed to the subte stop, linea E headed back to linea D, contemplating the last class I just had and whether or not I wanted to be in it. Despite this, I still had the Talking Heads, "Psycho Killer" playing through my head over and over again, still in my state of euphoria from Saturday night's great playlist at Avant. ah, it was great!
Instead of going home, as it was actually 6pm already, I headed up further north on the linea D because I decided to have a meeting with the "consejera" through FLACSO. So the program pays for it and since it's free, I was thinking, hey why not just go and get some things off my chest and let go a little bit with complete stranger. Her office was pretty far away and my cita was for 8pm, so I had lots of time. Once I got there, to barrio Belgrano, I walke around the main avenida and looked for a bookstore to find La Regenta, the novel I need for my Literature espanola class. Found it, both its two parts, in a nice little bookstore for only 20 pesos, so about a little more than 6 dollars. NICE!!!
I finally made my way over to her office, feeling a bit nervous. I had always said I'd see a psychiatrist one day, just to check it out. I went once to Emmons at Oxy and hated it, so I never gave it another shot. So I took the elevator up to floor and found myself right outside her door, and heard her clearly on the phone inside. I rang and waited a bit and she let me in. She gave me the usual porteña greeting of a beso and a little hug and first she wanted to know what specific tings I had wanted to talk about. So I told her about my immense homesickness I was feeling last week, about Eli, about my grandma, about my missing my family and how I had really never been away from them this long and my main goal for this trip was to become more independent and grow from this experience. And then I told her about my tendencies to put the weight of the world on my shoulders and how I tend to keep all that bothers me bottled up inside me because I'm used to helping everyone else and not used to being helped or asking for help. This stuff led to other topics and then finally she sat there really concerned about my wanting to take the domestic violence class, she personally thought that it wouldn{t be good for me, would take me back to home instead of using my time here as an escape and a way to think of solely myself. She thought that I should really use this time here to forget about all the stuff back home, not to forget about all the people I care about and distance myself from home, but to take the time to better myself, to put myself first for once. I kinda sat there confused at the concept for a while, not really wanting to take what she said in. I'm so hard headed that even the suggestion of bettering myself seems like a foreign concept.
Yeah, it was difficult sitting there listening to her suggestions, because they were so simple and straightforward and of course logical, but my mind doesn't work that way, I like to torture myself with it sometimes. yeah and as I sat there telling her things I sometimes keep from even my closest friends, I was really scared of the judgement, that feeling I get, of being scared of seeming like a scary monster in the eyes of others, which in the end keeps me from exposing most of my real emotions to people. But she listened and took it all in and sat there and acted like, no big deal. And that was it. I think I needed that. It made me realize Eli was right, it doesn't matter, shit happens and my life is what it is and my feelings are what they are, it doesn't matter because in the end I am a good person and yeah my life can be complicated and my feelings can be dark, but it doesn't make me a bad, ugly person. It was really actually relieving going to that session. Even though it was painful letting some things out and her phone rang at some point and she had to talk to her daughter in the middle of the session, it really did help. Even though I wanted to punch her as she sat there on the phone, right in the middle of my vulnerable point, it made me realize, we're all people and we all have our things going on. She's a mom, she needs to talk to her daughter, no biggy, calm down crystal.
So I left the session feeling a little shaken but rejuvenated. I was quite content with that. She told me to come back next week for a check in, so yeah I will head back next Wednesday in the evening.
Tuesday, I headed back to UCA and to my literatura española class, very unenthusiastically. So in the course of the class, Karla (one of the other FLACSO students in the class) and I realized that we were not on some class list to receive emails for the class, emails that included our extra side readings for the class. GR!!! that class is so frustrating, and interacting with some of the women in my domestic violence class made me realize that the kids in this class, the literatura española class, really do suck! They know we're foreign students and completely lost to this new system of schooling, but they don't extend any offerings of help at all. But we spoke with the professor and got some things straightened out and cleared up, which was really nice and it was great to talk to a professor. Class ended, and Karla and I sat outside on the grass of UCA, and ran into Natasha on her way to class. It always brightens my day being able to see that gal! I do love her!
After a while, I left and went to the subte and back home. Ran some errands, took a nap, then off to another UBA class which was located near FLACSO, so I decided to walk there. When I finally arrived, I realized that it was a building I had passed before, and this one was even crazier than the other UBA building. It used to be an old hospital, but it's now turned into a classroom building. It's completely run down, but great! There were even more posters all over the walls and more people recruiting for their clubs and their meetings. I was standing by the class lists, double checking that I was at the right place, when some guy asked me if I knew where a certain class was. It always makes me happy to know that I am sometimes mistaken for a local! yay!
I was early for the class and just waited in the room, doing some reading. As the class rolled in, we realized there weren't enough seats, so people dragged more in from another nearby classroom. Once the class actually got started, I realized it was perfect for me. The professor talked about the notion of teenage pregnancy as a "problem", from whose perspective is it a problem? Who is it a problem for? What does this reflect about our society? Also, she talked about the difference between pregnancy and maternity, explaining that a pregnancy can be terminated, but maternity is something one chooses to enter into...but also has certain societal constructions attached to it too. We also introduced ourselves and talked about what kind of experience we've had with the theme of the class. I talked about my experience with WYSE and the girls we have worked with and the themes we discussed, and this short remembrance of my WYSE days really did make me realize I wanted this class instead of the domestic violence class. Also, as we did the intros, I realized that there was another American girl in the class, not from FLACSO, she was actually living here and works with an organization for women. Me and another girl from FLACSO talked with her after class, she was pretty great to talk to and helped us find where to get our fotocopies. It was great, and as she talked more about her work, I further realized I really wanted to be in the class. Plus, the psychiatrists words were still wringing through my ears, and I realized I felt much more comfortable after leaving that class than I did in the domestic violence class. I realized that I would be very uncomfortable and emotional taking the other class, and with this pregnancy class, I felt more ready and willing to attack life and give it my all, plus, after leaving, I had that euphoric feeling of being in love with Buenos Aires. It was great.
So I walked to the subte stop with the other girl from FLACSO, talking about how amazing the class was, with that great feeling of contentness set upon me. Then we talked about St. Paty's day and what our plans were. I told her I didn't even realize it was March 17th, how crazy. Said I'd probably stay in, didn't want to go crazy, and we parted at the stop and she wished me a happy st. paty's day...gah, if only it had been that way, it's actually funny now that I look back on it.
So I went home, ate with my homestay family and watched the ridiculousness of the city on the news,people were climbing lamposts and openly defying the already very weak police force. It was great, I sat there laughing at their ridiculousness. Then I txted Natasha and she wanted to meet up for helados, also agreeing that she didn't want to go crazy that night. So we met up at our usual malabia and santa fe corner and enjoyed some great gelato, standing and being ridiculous and silly and drunk looking on the street corner, eating our helados. But when we finished, Natasha asked what we wanted to do next. I sat there confused, thinking all we were going to do was have helados. Oh no, destiny did not have that in store for me. We ran into a FLACSO acquiantance, Colby on the street, who said he was meeting up with Kristina (a girl who had also gone to avant with us the previous weekend, a soon to be close friend after the events of the nite)in Plaza Serrano for a bit of guinness drinking. Colby left and Natasha and I pondered our opciones. Then we said, hell, joining Colby and Kristina wouldn't be too bad, it's close to home and we could leave when we were tired. jajjaja
So we caught up to them and went to the Irish Pub a block away from Plaza Serrano. Most of us at the table hadn't tried guiness so we wanted to give that a go. But they sadly ran out. Oh jajaja it was the funniest thing ever, when we arrived, one of the waitresses greeted us in a irish accent and we had a moment of stupidity and talked back to her in English, forgetting where we were and that she probably just memorized that one phrase in English, but basically she refused to speak spanish to us for the rest of the night, we were the stupid americans. So when we asked for guiness she sadly informed us that they had run out,but that Otro Mundo, Rojo was a good choie (no it wasn't) and we ordered a few of those. So, I didn't know this at the time, but each bottle was a medio litro and red beer is stronger than regular beer. I quickly downed two bottles as we played a game of 21 (one of natasha's, of course) and yes, I was quickly tipsy. Well, at some point I made my way up to the restrooms, located upstairs, as always, and yeah I puked in the baño, it was great. I don't even remember the process of puking, the nastiness coming out, so I guess that was good, but it wasn't great that I got it all over myself and some nice irish girl found me and took me down stairs, yelling at me to drink more AGUA! It was great, but apparently, at that point, Natasha was talking to this guy with dreds who I had been telling her to talk to all night, and Colby and Kristina thought I had gone home with a few other kids. So all were surprised to see me suddenly chilling with this Irish girl. They came over to the table and collected my drunken self, and took me outside, where I proceeded to puke in the street, right next to all the tables on the sidewalk where people were still seated. GREAT!!! yeah right, more puke on myself. Kristina was a doll and took nice care of me though, so we proceeded to walk home towards santa fe. Somewhere along the way, I asked where my purse was, then we realized I didn't have it nor did anyone else. Colby ran back to search for it, unsuccessfully of course.
And this whole walk home, there was supposedly a porteño named Nicolas walking with us, who I dont remember AT ALL. yeah Colby was hitting on him, but no luck, but still there was another human being with us and I didnt realize it. At this point we were freaking out for me because I didnt have my cell to call my homestay family, nor did I have their numbers, they were on my phone. Nor did I have my keys. I reassured them that I didnt have any identification or credit cards with me or much cash for that matter, remember, I thought I was only going out for helados with Natasha, which really did save me because all I lost was my phone and 30 pesos and well my keys too. At this point, it was 6 am and a cafe just opened, so my amazing friends stayed there with me until 8am when I knew I would run into my homestay dad would be exiting our apartment for work. I took advantage of this cafe by cleaning myself up in the restroom, Natasha gave me a shirt, but I still reaked and had some chunks on my jean shorts. It was GREAT! At some point after we finished our cafe and medialunas, Colby and I fell asleep with our heads on the table for a good few minutes. 8am finally arrived and I walked myself home, waited outside for 2 seconds when I ran into Enri, and told him what had happened, and how I wasnt used to red beer and to take pity on me. I was hoping I didnt reak too bad. But it was all good, he was worried about me, he saw my empty bed and thought the worst, so he was glad to see me. He walked me upstairs and I took off the puke smelling clothes and slept for like 3 hours. When I woke up, I embarrassingly told the story again to Rossanna this time, who gave me another spair set of keys (luckily they had some!) and said that at least I was alright and didnt lose much, which really is the truth.
I hungoveredly tried to read all day, didnt go outside that whole Wednesday. It was pathetic. On Thursday, when I woke up and had to go to FLACSO, I still felt weak, it was the worst feeling ever. I got through one class, ran into Kristina and others in the comp. lab during lunch, they were all happy to see I was doing better. Told my story to a few others, I got two reactions from Katy and Elizabeth, both thought I had been roofied, but we saw them uncap our bottles, so that was inprobable. BLAH! I went to my other class, on Argentine history, and it was wonderful. We have the cutest professor, this older man with curly grey hair whos just a sweetie! He broke out into operatic song to demonstrate what the argentine flag song sounded like, he was amazing! Not to mention, so great at drawing parallels between american and argentina history, he's AMAZING! Finished up my day with my awkward writing class. We went on a field trip to this bookstore, that used to be a playhouse. It was GORGEOUS!!! but the walk to the place was funny. I dont know anyone else in the class, but they all know each other. They walked together and I was stuck with our awkward-geeky looking young professor who looks like he hates having to teach us. Yes, I made awkward convo with him and he weirdly asked where I lived, I wanted to die. gah. Awk, awk, AWK!!! blah! But the bookstore made up for it.
That thursday I took it easy. I wanted to meet up with Kristina and Colby who were at a restaurant in Palermo, next to plaza serrano. I called Kristina from my home phone (since at this point I didnt have a phone) and got the address from her. I also got the address to Emmette's house, this guy from our program, who had invited all of us over to his place to chill. Natasha and Elizabeth were already there. Well, it was a great thing I got all this addresses and numbers because I took off walking to Plaza Serrano, stopped by the pub to embarrassingly inquire if anyone had turned in a black purse (no luck of course) and by the time I arrived at the parrilla that Kristina and Colby were eating at, I realized that it was on fire, the street filled with interested passerby and firemen all around. Basically I was scared. Didnt know what to do or think or know where my friends were, because they weren't around. But I calmed down, realized they probably took off to Emmette's, so I walked passed the sketch train tracks to a big street and flagged a taxi to Emmette's, and found Kristina and Colby outside, the had just arrived too. We hysterically hugged and greeted each other, amazed at our porteño luck to get ourselves in such crazy situations. They were quite impressed at my resourcefulness and ability to stay afoot and get myself to Emettes in one piece. I was impressed myself. jajaja omg and Kristina told me that she redialed my home phone number, thinking it was my new phone and started cussing and shouting about the restaurant being on fire, when she realized it was my homestay mom saying, "I don't speak English". jjajaja so funny.
So we spent a chill night in Emmette's just talking, he has a nice spread with a single 30 year old who was on a short vacation. Nice to have a homie place to ourselves. Friday, the next day, I did a whole bunch of errands, bought a phone and did my laundry in time to get in contact with Kristina and Colby, Kristina had proposed we take a bus to La Plata, a city an hour outside the city, to this alternative folklore festival that her homestay "dad" (hes 27, with dreds and plays in an awesome band) was going to perform in. That day was such a rush, but I got everything done, even walked to UBA to get my fotocopies for my class and by 4:30 I was meeting Kristina, Colby, and Natasha at the Ortiz subte stop, on the way to the bus station en Retiro. That place was huge and kinda intimidating at first, but we bought our hour and a half bus ticket to La Plata for only 9 pesos!!! 3 dollars! Ridiculous! And the ride was beautiful! It was great being able to see the countryside, you know, grass and trees and not a single high rize or apartment in sight! Plus, Natasha brought a whole bag of medialunas and other postres, it was AMAZING! The only downside was that our friend Sara brought her friend from home with her, and she was grossly obnoxious the whole night. On the bus, she talked loudly, as people who use this bus to do their daily commute to and from work sat there having to endure this gross interruption of their daily routine, having to endure the sound of loud americans on their bus. It was great, quite embarrassing. Plus, the whole night, she refused to speaka a single word of spanish, not even a gracias to the waitress who served us! It was so annoying.
Natasha and I proceeded to whisper to each other in spanish. We did have an early eruption of laughter though, because I realized that there was a penis drawn on the seat in front of me, and we all quickly remembered the wondrousness of superbad and I HAD to take a pic of it, using Kristina's camera (I didnt bring mine because I still didnt trust myself) When we arrived, we walked through the streets through trial and error, the calles were conveniently numbered only, so we just walked in one direction to find if they were rizing or increasing. We found which direction to walk in, as we stood on a street corner confusedly, a couple of old men asked if we needed help with anything. It was quite nice. They were great help! They told us how to get to the festival and pointed us in the direction of a few hotels, in case we wanted to stay over in the city. We quickly found it would be grossly overpriced to spend the night, so we just proceeded to walk to the festival. It was quite adventurous, we didn't know where we were at all, but it was nice to be out of the high rises, as I said earlier. But of course, that one girl looked like she was in a horrible mood, not down for exploring and getting lost and being adventurous, she even said, gah I dont want to get raped tonight! Yup,nice way to joke about rape, and be annoying at that. But we quickly found the parque it was happening at, and went to eat at this place that was deserted, because it was only 8pm. We ordered, had some good intellectually stimulating convos, ranging from Teach for America to gay rights, but our convo was interrupted when that girl said, "OK this convo is too serious, it's not even that deep, just too serious. So um...has anyone seen gossip girl?" No lie she said that, not an exaggeration in any way. I wanted to strangle her, plus I was on the other side of the table from Colby and Natasha, I was stuck with this annoying girl!!! WHY?!?!! It was great...
So we stayed there a while, and as 10:30 approached, the place got packed and the "show" was going to start. So this was a restaurant filled with older people and there was going to be one of those corny solo singers performing. And he did, he started, as we were paying the bill. We waited until he finished his song, and walked out, what else were we supposed to do? Kristina's homestay "dad's" band was going on at 11, we had to leave. We thought we were doing it as politely as possible, but as each one of us passed by this man, he asked, into the mic, "Adonde van? Apenas empezo" jajaja way to call us out and put us on the spot! That was evil, but oh well, we had to leave.
We walked that long walk to the big park and found the stage, it was a great night. We found a little spot on the grass and listened to one band finish up, then Luciano's band came one. They were great! He played the accordian, there were a millilon members to the band, the lead singer playing an ukaleilei (spelling?). It was so amazing to be out of the city, underneath a patch of slightly visible stars, in the open air listening to great music. On the last song, they brought out a group of folk dancers who performed on the grass right in front of us. We stayed around and danced to a few other bands, then we indecisively walked back and forth between the park and the main drag a million times, hoping that Luciano would say, hey lets go to a party that so and so is throwing. But that never happened, and we eventually all made our way back to the bus station. Luciano and his gf and his groupie went to eat and we sat there, 4am dying from the exhaust of weeks of partying and coming home at 6 am. Once we got on the bus, we all knocked out. I sat next to Natasha, who used her scarf to cover her head. That was probably the soundest I've ever slept in BsAs, all I remember was once looking over at Natasha as we locked eyes and giggled hysterically at each other. Silliness. Oh and these buses are AMAZING! They cost 15 pesos round trip, this was a low cost bus, but the seats went all the way back, they were comfortable, easy to sleep in, I can't believe the quality of bus they have here, it's great! Highly recommended. So all of us were passed out when the bus got back to the station, the bus driver had to yell "chicos!" at us several times before we realized what was going on. So we all made our way back to the subte station, departed for our respectful lines at Diagnol Norte.
Got home at around 6am like always.. Enri and Rosanna were sleeping. They were going to leave for Rosario, where their son and his family live 3 hours away, at around 9am. I was going to have the whole house to myself and Rosanna gave me permission to have a friend stay the night. I passed out yet still didnt get a full night sleep, woke up in the 1 oclock hour. I got in touch with Elizabeth and Natasha to see if they wanted to drink mate and have some sweets in el jardin botanico. I met Elizabeth and we bought some breadstick things that are weirdly plain and popular type of snack here. In my bag I had my mate, the yerba, a termos full of hot water, and my imitation yet still amazing nutella chocolate that would acompany the plain biscuits. We found a nice little bench and sat there all cool, sipping on my mate, enjoying those biscuits with chocolate, which reminded us of the asian yan yan snack that you can find at any store in china town. mmmmm...
Then we decided to take advantage of my kitchen and cook an amazing dinner. We went to carrefour, the french named market, and picked us ingredients to make a stir fry veggie mix, cheese and tortillas for quesadillas, and some wine. We got back and set up my room. Rosanna had showed me how to access the bottom cushion of my bed and we proceeded to make my room into the ultimate sleep over room. We took a whole bunch of silly pictures that looked horribly like American Apparel ads and contemplated watching Natasha's DVD, boondock saints, a movie about some irish mobsters who get into trouble on st. paty's day, quite suiting for the holiday that had of recent made me sick. We decided to make dinner instead. I started off by making some amazing salsa, if I do say so myself. We consumed that happily with some Lays, since tortilla chips are nonexistant here, sadly, are all other maiz based goods. We proceeded onto our stir fry mix and Natasha got to work on the quesadillas. She had the brilliant idea to add this other hot sauce to the veggies. The result, an amazingly tasty vegetarian meal (just for my Natasha, but to my own happiness too, I miss veggies). It was AMAZING having quesadillas, really, indescribable! Added some of our wine to the mix and started watching boondock saints and we called up kristina and colby. We met them outside after a short wait (Colby surprisingly lives two blocks down from me, which I didn't know). Showed them around my house, they revelled at my balcony, we had a bit more wine out there. We proceeded with more ridiculous american apparel pics. We had been planning to go to a reggae show downtown, but my friend Cecilia, the porteña, ended up texting me saying she wasn't going after all, and that Zelmar was going to Avant again. Gr! Wasn't the highlight of my night. Well, we were all way to lazy to make our way to microcentro, so we walked over to a different bar in Palermo! Could you believe that, we didnt go to Tazz in plaza serrano! Crazy huh!?! It was a queer friendly bar, and Colby was happy to check out the other chicos there, but was a little disappointed because he thought that there were more straight people there than gay. That and the guy he had been eying didn't respond much after we had urged him to go talk to him. Too bad. Natasha went home early, Elizabeth never went with us. Then we quickly got tired dancing, so we all went home. The next day...I don't remember what happened, nothing too eventful I believe. I don't think that was the sunday me and natasha went to san telmo and got dragged into a drum circle.
Well, actually, this is as much of an update I can do right now, I still need all of last week, which included a frustrated me saying a stupid childish retort to Natasha, due to misplaced frustration at a failed night. Gr! Yeah, and last weekend, which I think was uneventful, found a new mexican restaurant and underestimated the argentines in their ability to make spicy food.
Anyways, tonight, Wednesday April 1st, we are getting on a bus at 10pm to go to Cordoba, a city 9 hours northwest of BsAs, great for outdoors activities, with nearby mountains and rivers. Activities include: hiking, biking, horsebackriding, and paragliding, which I have been told costs about 120 pesos, amazing price for a chance to fly through the air, so hopefully I come back with some great stories!
Besos!
But my class was going to start, so whatevs...So they did the usual intros, then they asked a series of questions, why we chose the class, what were our expectations, what did we not want to happen with the class....etc. We did this individually, then shared with the group, then the class. It was nice, sadly, as I expected, all women in the class, because of course, these issues are for women only, they shall be solved by women alone. Yup! I brougth that up as one thing I didn't want for the class, but could obviously not escape.
So we went over our responses for a bit, plus the profesoras did some explaining about what the class would entail. They wanted to emphasize that it would by no means be a purely theoretical class, one of the issues that some women brought up as to what they didnt want from the class. But they also highlighted that it's an intro course and we would by no means be able to magical miracle workers to end domestic violence, which was obviously a great point to bring up.
In the second part of class, we went over the term "violence". They asked us to freely write on our papers the first things that came to mind when we thought of "violencia". I was very embarrassed about this part because my vocab in this part was like that of a fifth grader, but that's besides the point. After we had our free write, we got back in our groups and shared, then they asked us to write down 5-6 of the most common words between all of us in the group, then 3-4 unusual ones. So we had things like "golpe", "miedo", "peligro" as our common words, and then things like "invisibilidad" for our uncommon words. From there, each group wrote their two groups of words on the board. What we noticed across the board was that the common words were all of the initial, situational concepts of the words violence. The physical pain, the immediate emotional reaction, the individual experience. The uncommon words included things like the aftermath, things that described the state of the person afterwards, the subconscious and also the institutional systems that support violence. The uncommon words were the quite profound ones, the ones that really make you think. It was a great exercise.
At the end, they told us that besides doing our reading, for the next class we should write about an incident of violence that we have experienced/witnessed. They said we could have been the antagonist, the victim or a spectator, didn't matter, we just needed to describe that situation that we personally witnessed. At that point was when I was thinking...hm...maybe this class isn't for me, maybe I'm not ready for this just yet. So I headed to the subte stop, linea E headed back to linea D, contemplating the last class I just had and whether or not I wanted to be in it. Despite this, I still had the Talking Heads, "Psycho Killer" playing through my head over and over again, still in my state of euphoria from Saturday night's great playlist at Avant. ah, it was great!
Instead of going home, as it was actually 6pm already, I headed up further north on the linea D because I decided to have a meeting with the "consejera" through FLACSO. So the program pays for it and since it's free, I was thinking, hey why not just go and get some things off my chest and let go a little bit with complete stranger. Her office was pretty far away and my cita was for 8pm, so I had lots of time. Once I got there, to barrio Belgrano, I walke around the main avenida and looked for a bookstore to find La Regenta, the novel I need for my Literature espanola class. Found it, both its two parts, in a nice little bookstore for only 20 pesos, so about a little more than 6 dollars. NICE!!!
I finally made my way over to her office, feeling a bit nervous. I had always said I'd see a psychiatrist one day, just to check it out. I went once to Emmons at Oxy and hated it, so I never gave it another shot. So I took the elevator up to floor and found myself right outside her door, and heard her clearly on the phone inside. I rang and waited a bit and she let me in. She gave me the usual porteña greeting of a beso and a little hug and first she wanted to know what specific tings I had wanted to talk about. So I told her about my immense homesickness I was feeling last week, about Eli, about my grandma, about my missing my family and how I had really never been away from them this long and my main goal for this trip was to become more independent and grow from this experience. And then I told her about my tendencies to put the weight of the world on my shoulders and how I tend to keep all that bothers me bottled up inside me because I'm used to helping everyone else and not used to being helped or asking for help. This stuff led to other topics and then finally she sat there really concerned about my wanting to take the domestic violence class, she personally thought that it wouldn{t be good for me, would take me back to home instead of using my time here as an escape and a way to think of solely myself. She thought that I should really use this time here to forget about all the stuff back home, not to forget about all the people I care about and distance myself from home, but to take the time to better myself, to put myself first for once. I kinda sat there confused at the concept for a while, not really wanting to take what she said in. I'm so hard headed that even the suggestion of bettering myself seems like a foreign concept.
Yeah, it was difficult sitting there listening to her suggestions, because they were so simple and straightforward and of course logical, but my mind doesn't work that way, I like to torture myself with it sometimes. yeah and as I sat there telling her things I sometimes keep from even my closest friends, I was really scared of the judgement, that feeling I get, of being scared of seeming like a scary monster in the eyes of others, which in the end keeps me from exposing most of my real emotions to people. But she listened and took it all in and sat there and acted like, no big deal. And that was it. I think I needed that. It made me realize Eli was right, it doesn't matter, shit happens and my life is what it is and my feelings are what they are, it doesn't matter because in the end I am a good person and yeah my life can be complicated and my feelings can be dark, but it doesn't make me a bad, ugly person. It was really actually relieving going to that session. Even though it was painful letting some things out and her phone rang at some point and she had to talk to her daughter in the middle of the session, it really did help. Even though I wanted to punch her as she sat there on the phone, right in the middle of my vulnerable point, it made me realize, we're all people and we all have our things going on. She's a mom, she needs to talk to her daughter, no biggy, calm down crystal.
So I left the session feeling a little shaken but rejuvenated. I was quite content with that. She told me to come back next week for a check in, so yeah I will head back next Wednesday in the evening.
Tuesday, I headed back to UCA and to my literatura española class, very unenthusiastically. So in the course of the class, Karla (one of the other FLACSO students in the class) and I realized that we were not on some class list to receive emails for the class, emails that included our extra side readings for the class. GR!!! that class is so frustrating, and interacting with some of the women in my domestic violence class made me realize that the kids in this class, the literatura española class, really do suck! They know we're foreign students and completely lost to this new system of schooling, but they don't extend any offerings of help at all. But we spoke with the professor and got some things straightened out and cleared up, which was really nice and it was great to talk to a professor. Class ended, and Karla and I sat outside on the grass of UCA, and ran into Natasha on her way to class. It always brightens my day being able to see that gal! I do love her!
After a while, I left and went to the subte and back home. Ran some errands, took a nap, then off to another UBA class which was located near FLACSO, so I decided to walk there. When I finally arrived, I realized that it was a building I had passed before, and this one was even crazier than the other UBA building. It used to be an old hospital, but it's now turned into a classroom building. It's completely run down, but great! There were even more posters all over the walls and more people recruiting for their clubs and their meetings. I was standing by the class lists, double checking that I was at the right place, when some guy asked me if I knew where a certain class was. It always makes me happy to know that I am sometimes mistaken for a local! yay!
I was early for the class and just waited in the room, doing some reading. As the class rolled in, we realized there weren't enough seats, so people dragged more in from another nearby classroom. Once the class actually got started, I realized it was perfect for me. The professor talked about the notion of teenage pregnancy as a "problem", from whose perspective is it a problem? Who is it a problem for? What does this reflect about our society? Also, she talked about the difference between pregnancy and maternity, explaining that a pregnancy can be terminated, but maternity is something one chooses to enter into...but also has certain societal constructions attached to it too. We also introduced ourselves and talked about what kind of experience we've had with the theme of the class. I talked about my experience with WYSE and the girls we have worked with and the themes we discussed, and this short remembrance of my WYSE days really did make me realize I wanted this class instead of the domestic violence class. Also, as we did the intros, I realized that there was another American girl in the class, not from FLACSO, she was actually living here and works with an organization for women. Me and another girl from FLACSO talked with her after class, she was pretty great to talk to and helped us find where to get our fotocopies. It was great, and as she talked more about her work, I further realized I really wanted to be in the class. Plus, the psychiatrists words were still wringing through my ears, and I realized I felt much more comfortable after leaving that class than I did in the domestic violence class. I realized that I would be very uncomfortable and emotional taking the other class, and with this pregnancy class, I felt more ready and willing to attack life and give it my all, plus, after leaving, I had that euphoric feeling of being in love with Buenos Aires. It was great.
So I walked to the subte stop with the other girl from FLACSO, talking about how amazing the class was, with that great feeling of contentness set upon me. Then we talked about St. Paty's day and what our plans were. I told her I didn't even realize it was March 17th, how crazy. Said I'd probably stay in, didn't want to go crazy, and we parted at the stop and she wished me a happy st. paty's day...gah, if only it had been that way, it's actually funny now that I look back on it.
So I went home, ate with my homestay family and watched the ridiculousness of the city on the news,people were climbing lamposts and openly defying the already very weak police force. It was great, I sat there laughing at their ridiculousness. Then I txted Natasha and she wanted to meet up for helados, also agreeing that she didn't want to go crazy that night. So we met up at our usual malabia and santa fe corner and enjoyed some great gelato, standing and being ridiculous and silly and drunk looking on the street corner, eating our helados. But when we finished, Natasha asked what we wanted to do next. I sat there confused, thinking all we were going to do was have helados. Oh no, destiny did not have that in store for me. We ran into a FLACSO acquiantance, Colby on the street, who said he was meeting up with Kristina (a girl who had also gone to avant with us the previous weekend, a soon to be close friend after the events of the nite)in Plaza Serrano for a bit of guinness drinking. Colby left and Natasha and I pondered our opciones. Then we said, hell, joining Colby and Kristina wouldn't be too bad, it's close to home and we could leave when we were tired. jajjaja
So we caught up to them and went to the Irish Pub a block away from Plaza Serrano. Most of us at the table hadn't tried guiness so we wanted to give that a go. But they sadly ran out. Oh jajaja it was the funniest thing ever, when we arrived, one of the waitresses greeted us in a irish accent and we had a moment of stupidity and talked back to her in English, forgetting where we were and that she probably just memorized that one phrase in English, but basically she refused to speak spanish to us for the rest of the night, we were the stupid americans. So when we asked for guiness she sadly informed us that they had run out,but that Otro Mundo, Rojo was a good choie (no it wasn't) and we ordered a few of those. So, I didn't know this at the time, but each bottle was a medio litro and red beer is stronger than regular beer. I quickly downed two bottles as we played a game of 21 (one of natasha's, of course) and yes, I was quickly tipsy. Well, at some point I made my way up to the restrooms, located upstairs, as always, and yeah I puked in the baño, it was great. I don't even remember the process of puking, the nastiness coming out, so I guess that was good, but it wasn't great that I got it all over myself and some nice irish girl found me and took me down stairs, yelling at me to drink more AGUA! It was great, but apparently, at that point, Natasha was talking to this guy with dreds who I had been telling her to talk to all night, and Colby and Kristina thought I had gone home with a few other kids. So all were surprised to see me suddenly chilling with this Irish girl. They came over to the table and collected my drunken self, and took me outside, where I proceeded to puke in the street, right next to all the tables on the sidewalk where people were still seated. GREAT!!! yeah right, more puke on myself. Kristina was a doll and took nice care of me though, so we proceeded to walk home towards santa fe. Somewhere along the way, I asked where my purse was, then we realized I didn't have it nor did anyone else. Colby ran back to search for it, unsuccessfully of course.
And this whole walk home, there was supposedly a porteño named Nicolas walking with us, who I dont remember AT ALL. yeah Colby was hitting on him, but no luck, but still there was another human being with us and I didnt realize it. At this point we were freaking out for me because I didnt have my cell to call my homestay family, nor did I have their numbers, they were on my phone. Nor did I have my keys. I reassured them that I didnt have any identification or credit cards with me or much cash for that matter, remember, I thought I was only going out for helados with Natasha, which really did save me because all I lost was my phone and 30 pesos and well my keys too. At this point, it was 6 am and a cafe just opened, so my amazing friends stayed there with me until 8am when I knew I would run into my homestay dad would be exiting our apartment for work. I took advantage of this cafe by cleaning myself up in the restroom, Natasha gave me a shirt, but I still reaked and had some chunks on my jean shorts. It was GREAT! At some point after we finished our cafe and medialunas, Colby and I fell asleep with our heads on the table for a good few minutes. 8am finally arrived and I walked myself home, waited outside for 2 seconds when I ran into Enri, and told him what had happened, and how I wasnt used to red beer and to take pity on me. I was hoping I didnt reak too bad. But it was all good, he was worried about me, he saw my empty bed and thought the worst, so he was glad to see me. He walked me upstairs and I took off the puke smelling clothes and slept for like 3 hours. When I woke up, I embarrassingly told the story again to Rossanna this time, who gave me another spair set of keys (luckily they had some!) and said that at least I was alright and didnt lose much, which really is the truth.
I hungoveredly tried to read all day, didnt go outside that whole Wednesday. It was pathetic. On Thursday, when I woke up and had to go to FLACSO, I still felt weak, it was the worst feeling ever. I got through one class, ran into Kristina and others in the comp. lab during lunch, they were all happy to see I was doing better. Told my story to a few others, I got two reactions from Katy and Elizabeth, both thought I had been roofied, but we saw them uncap our bottles, so that was inprobable. BLAH! I went to my other class, on Argentine history, and it was wonderful. We have the cutest professor, this older man with curly grey hair whos just a sweetie! He broke out into operatic song to demonstrate what the argentine flag song sounded like, he was amazing! Not to mention, so great at drawing parallels between american and argentina history, he's AMAZING! Finished up my day with my awkward writing class. We went on a field trip to this bookstore, that used to be a playhouse. It was GORGEOUS!!! but the walk to the place was funny. I dont know anyone else in the class, but they all know each other. They walked together and I was stuck with our awkward-geeky looking young professor who looks like he hates having to teach us. Yes, I made awkward convo with him and he weirdly asked where I lived, I wanted to die. gah. Awk, awk, AWK!!! blah! But the bookstore made up for it.
That thursday I took it easy. I wanted to meet up with Kristina and Colby who were at a restaurant in Palermo, next to plaza serrano. I called Kristina from my home phone (since at this point I didnt have a phone) and got the address from her. I also got the address to Emmette's house, this guy from our program, who had invited all of us over to his place to chill. Natasha and Elizabeth were already there. Well, it was a great thing I got all this addresses and numbers because I took off walking to Plaza Serrano, stopped by the pub to embarrassingly inquire if anyone had turned in a black purse (no luck of course) and by the time I arrived at the parrilla that Kristina and Colby were eating at, I realized that it was on fire, the street filled with interested passerby and firemen all around. Basically I was scared. Didnt know what to do or think or know where my friends were, because they weren't around. But I calmed down, realized they probably took off to Emmette's, so I walked passed the sketch train tracks to a big street and flagged a taxi to Emmette's, and found Kristina and Colby outside, the had just arrived too. We hysterically hugged and greeted each other, amazed at our porteño luck to get ourselves in such crazy situations. They were quite impressed at my resourcefulness and ability to stay afoot and get myself to Emettes in one piece. I was impressed myself. jajaja omg and Kristina told me that she redialed my home phone number, thinking it was my new phone and started cussing and shouting about the restaurant being on fire, when she realized it was my homestay mom saying, "I don't speak English". jjajaja so funny.
So we spent a chill night in Emmette's just talking, he has a nice spread with a single 30 year old who was on a short vacation. Nice to have a homie place to ourselves. Friday, the next day, I did a whole bunch of errands, bought a phone and did my laundry in time to get in contact with Kristina and Colby, Kristina had proposed we take a bus to La Plata, a city an hour outside the city, to this alternative folklore festival that her homestay "dad" (hes 27, with dreds and plays in an awesome band) was going to perform in. That day was such a rush, but I got everything done, even walked to UBA to get my fotocopies for my class and by 4:30 I was meeting Kristina, Colby, and Natasha at the Ortiz subte stop, on the way to the bus station en Retiro. That place was huge and kinda intimidating at first, but we bought our hour and a half bus ticket to La Plata for only 9 pesos!!! 3 dollars! Ridiculous! And the ride was beautiful! It was great being able to see the countryside, you know, grass and trees and not a single high rize or apartment in sight! Plus, Natasha brought a whole bag of medialunas and other postres, it was AMAZING! The only downside was that our friend Sara brought her friend from home with her, and she was grossly obnoxious the whole night. On the bus, she talked loudly, as people who use this bus to do their daily commute to and from work sat there having to endure this gross interruption of their daily routine, having to endure the sound of loud americans on their bus. It was great, quite embarrassing. Plus, the whole night, she refused to speaka a single word of spanish, not even a gracias to the waitress who served us! It was so annoying.
Natasha and I proceeded to whisper to each other in spanish. We did have an early eruption of laughter though, because I realized that there was a penis drawn on the seat in front of me, and we all quickly remembered the wondrousness of superbad and I HAD to take a pic of it, using Kristina's camera (I didnt bring mine because I still didnt trust myself) When we arrived, we walked through the streets through trial and error, the calles were conveniently numbered only, so we just walked in one direction to find if they were rizing or increasing. We found which direction to walk in, as we stood on a street corner confusedly, a couple of old men asked if we needed help with anything. It was quite nice. They were great help! They told us how to get to the festival and pointed us in the direction of a few hotels, in case we wanted to stay over in the city. We quickly found it would be grossly overpriced to spend the night, so we just proceeded to walk to the festival. It was quite adventurous, we didn't know where we were at all, but it was nice to be out of the high rises, as I said earlier. But of course, that one girl looked like she was in a horrible mood, not down for exploring and getting lost and being adventurous, she even said, gah I dont want to get raped tonight! Yup,nice way to joke about rape, and be annoying at that. But we quickly found the parque it was happening at, and went to eat at this place that was deserted, because it was only 8pm. We ordered, had some good intellectually stimulating convos, ranging from Teach for America to gay rights, but our convo was interrupted when that girl said, "OK this convo is too serious, it's not even that deep, just too serious. So um...has anyone seen gossip girl?" No lie she said that, not an exaggeration in any way. I wanted to strangle her, plus I was on the other side of the table from Colby and Natasha, I was stuck with this annoying girl!!! WHY?!?!! It was great...
So we stayed there a while, and as 10:30 approached, the place got packed and the "show" was going to start. So this was a restaurant filled with older people and there was going to be one of those corny solo singers performing. And he did, he started, as we were paying the bill. We waited until he finished his song, and walked out, what else were we supposed to do? Kristina's homestay "dad's" band was going on at 11, we had to leave. We thought we were doing it as politely as possible, but as each one of us passed by this man, he asked, into the mic, "Adonde van? Apenas empezo" jajaja way to call us out and put us on the spot! That was evil, but oh well, we had to leave.
We walked that long walk to the big park and found the stage, it was a great night. We found a little spot on the grass and listened to one band finish up, then Luciano's band came one. They were great! He played the accordian, there were a millilon members to the band, the lead singer playing an ukaleilei (spelling?). It was so amazing to be out of the city, underneath a patch of slightly visible stars, in the open air listening to great music. On the last song, they brought out a group of folk dancers who performed on the grass right in front of us. We stayed around and danced to a few other bands, then we indecisively walked back and forth between the park and the main drag a million times, hoping that Luciano would say, hey lets go to a party that so and so is throwing. But that never happened, and we eventually all made our way back to the bus station. Luciano and his gf and his groupie went to eat and we sat there, 4am dying from the exhaust of weeks of partying and coming home at 6 am. Once we got on the bus, we all knocked out. I sat next to Natasha, who used her scarf to cover her head. That was probably the soundest I've ever slept in BsAs, all I remember was once looking over at Natasha as we locked eyes and giggled hysterically at each other. Silliness. Oh and these buses are AMAZING! They cost 15 pesos round trip, this was a low cost bus, but the seats went all the way back, they were comfortable, easy to sleep in, I can't believe the quality of bus they have here, it's great! Highly recommended. So all of us were passed out when the bus got back to the station, the bus driver had to yell "chicos!" at us several times before we realized what was going on. So we all made our way back to the subte station, departed for our respectful lines at Diagnol Norte.
Got home at around 6am like always.. Enri and Rosanna were sleeping. They were going to leave for Rosario, where their son and his family live 3 hours away, at around 9am. I was going to have the whole house to myself and Rosanna gave me permission to have a friend stay the night. I passed out yet still didnt get a full night sleep, woke up in the 1 oclock hour. I got in touch with Elizabeth and Natasha to see if they wanted to drink mate and have some sweets in el jardin botanico. I met Elizabeth and we bought some breadstick things that are weirdly plain and popular type of snack here. In my bag I had my mate, the yerba, a termos full of hot water, and my imitation yet still amazing nutella chocolate that would acompany the plain biscuits. We found a nice little bench and sat there all cool, sipping on my mate, enjoying those biscuits with chocolate, which reminded us of the asian yan yan snack that you can find at any store in china town. mmmmm...
Then we decided to take advantage of my kitchen and cook an amazing dinner. We went to carrefour, the french named market, and picked us ingredients to make a stir fry veggie mix, cheese and tortillas for quesadillas, and some wine. We got back and set up my room. Rosanna had showed me how to access the bottom cushion of my bed and we proceeded to make my room into the ultimate sleep over room. We took a whole bunch of silly pictures that looked horribly like American Apparel ads and contemplated watching Natasha's DVD, boondock saints, a movie about some irish mobsters who get into trouble on st. paty's day, quite suiting for the holiday that had of recent made me sick. We decided to make dinner instead. I started off by making some amazing salsa, if I do say so myself. We consumed that happily with some Lays, since tortilla chips are nonexistant here, sadly, are all other maiz based goods. We proceeded onto our stir fry mix and Natasha got to work on the quesadillas. She had the brilliant idea to add this other hot sauce to the veggies. The result, an amazingly tasty vegetarian meal (just for my Natasha, but to my own happiness too, I miss veggies). It was AMAZING having quesadillas, really, indescribable! Added some of our wine to the mix and started watching boondock saints and we called up kristina and colby. We met them outside after a short wait (Colby surprisingly lives two blocks down from me, which I didn't know). Showed them around my house, they revelled at my balcony, we had a bit more wine out there. We proceeded with more ridiculous american apparel pics. We had been planning to go to a reggae show downtown, but my friend Cecilia, the porteña, ended up texting me saying she wasn't going after all, and that Zelmar was going to Avant again. Gr! Wasn't the highlight of my night. Well, we were all way to lazy to make our way to microcentro, so we walked over to a different bar in Palermo! Could you believe that, we didnt go to Tazz in plaza serrano! Crazy huh!?! It was a queer friendly bar, and Colby was happy to check out the other chicos there, but was a little disappointed because he thought that there were more straight people there than gay. That and the guy he had been eying didn't respond much after we had urged him to go talk to him. Too bad. Natasha went home early, Elizabeth never went with us. Then we quickly got tired dancing, so we all went home. The next day...I don't remember what happened, nothing too eventful I believe. I don't think that was the sunday me and natasha went to san telmo and got dragged into a drum circle.
Well, actually, this is as much of an update I can do right now, I still need all of last week, which included a frustrated me saying a stupid childish retort to Natasha, due to misplaced frustration at a failed night. Gr! Yeah, and last weekend, which I think was uneventful, found a new mexican restaurant and underestimated the argentines in their ability to make spicy food.
Anyways, tonight, Wednesday April 1st, we are getting on a bus at 10pm to go to Cordoba, a city 9 hours northwest of BsAs, great for outdoors activities, with nearby mountains and rivers. Activities include: hiking, biking, horsebackriding, and paragliding, which I have been told costs about 120 pesos, amazing price for a chance to fly through the air, so hopefully I come back with some great stories!
Besos!
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