Saturday

, rainy, was spent inside between homework, fafsa, hmm... I could actually list what I did as I have my list with about 1/2 of it checked off
and intermittently talking (listening to), eating, drinking tea with Greta my Argentine host mom. She told me about how they had a French prisoner working in their garden during WW2 and how well they got along. She told me about how she lived on the beach in Italy for two years (I suspect she was a socialite partier back in her youth, she still pretty much is). She's leaving a month before I go to Rio so that she can go off to Europe to visit her friends. I'll be alone with the maid. :-) (she bought me a t-shirt for my birthday)

I decided this night was going to be spent alone, in front of my computer, listening to Koran recitations, with a bottle of Syrah. Instead I spent it with Angela. I called her, we talked for two hours. She told me about everything in her life, including how she's still with H despited H's dad going into DIABETIC SHOCK when he found out H is dating a non-muslim (angela). He literally had to be taken to Kuwait to be treated in a hospital there because it was so severe. Crazy. But anyway, they're still together, both incredibly busy and both apparently in love.
I like it when these Cairo moments come back to envelop my life for a few hours.

After this, I was semi-summoned by M to go to el fidel, a club on Costa Rica street where Marny was celebrating her birthday with about four other people. This was fun, For once I didn't mind so many Americans. Got a decent amount of dancing in and some good socializing including a rather heartfelt bus-conversation about what's behind us and what hopefully lies ahead.
Random quote of the night as a boy and a girl were talking/making out: boy says: "this is definitely something I don't want to get called about tomorrow".




Turtle. my obsession.

Gallery Nights (gallery crawl with free Champaign)

Chilled at the Gran Victoria, a café on plaza de Mayo for about four hours. Worked on periodismo interview and emails, bureaucratic necessities. One noteworthy happening, one of two business men sitting next to me ordered a delicious plate of ham sandwiches and left it untouched. So with the approval of my waitress, I helped myself to a not only delicious, but free snack. Then, I walked over to starbucks and 'squatted' (as they say in French) their internet. I briefly talked to a girl who was sitting across from me as she got up to go to a finance class at San Andres. She was reading a book in French. She's actually from Quebec. Only smiles were exchanged but maybe we'll run into each other again in this vast world of expat francophones.

Then,
E texted me to go to Gallery nights.

Gallery Nights.
Gallery Nights takes place in recoleta near retiro the last Friday of every month. In this location there is a high concentration of art galleries.
The idea of Gallery Nights is similar to that of the 'bar crawl' concept. A few exceptions though: the bars are art galleries, and the only alcohol is Champagne which, might I mention –thanks to our wonderful sponsor, Chandon– is free. One small cup per gallery, times oooh, maybe, twenty galleries, and one gets rather 'trashed' if such a term is appropriate for such a high class, bon chic bon genre, event.

Our last stop was the lobby of some sort of corporate headquarters. Here they were exposing art from the Salta region in the north west. The particularly remarkable characteristic of Salta's art is its empanadas... umm... I mean landscapes and traditional scenes...

Oh, and not to forget, some of the art galleries were quite good.


After this, I went home, ate again. Then went our again even though I was way too drunk. Sobered up by the time I arrived at la viarua, the armenia cultural center which converts itself into the late night (breakfast served at 6am) tango hub of the world.
Had a nice time with D from UIUC, talking about his various DiTella conquests and dancing with E, M's current target (although if she was, he should have gotten there a little earlier).
Only stayed til 4 though. took the 140 home and passed out after watching just a little bit more of "Eva Perón" –a pretty decent movie so far.

I need to understand why I feel the need to use initials instead of real names. Not sure why I do that.

street party

(pre)pictures from Sunday night's street party

awesome way to meet someone

Saturday around 6pm, I was located in the rugby stadium of CASI about 30 minutes north of BA, in San Isidro, probably the nicest suburb of Buenos Aires.
because I'm still on bad terms with G, I hung out with the typical american dudes, which is always 100% guaranteed fun. This is mostly due to the baseness of our conversation, something I am absolutely fine with. Among this group, I met a quiet, friendly guy named Eric. I will now attempt to best recount the first 60 seconds of our encounter.

My mouth was stuffed with a delicious choripan. We shake hands. Eric asks me what my name is. Because my mouth was stuffed with a delicious choripan, and because I have a rather difficult name to understand which usually requires immediate explanation, and because I try to stay close to the principle of not talking with my mouth full, I began to gesticulate in a series of attempts to signal to Eric, that he give me "his spiel" while I finish my current mouthful.
So he begins to talk, "umm... yea, so i'm Eric, i go to school in Minnesota, I'm from Southbend, Indiana..."
suddenly, my mouth is empty enough to blurt out "oh, I lost my virginity to a girl from Southbend, Indiana!"
He kept his cool (a normal person would have just walked away) and asked who that girl was.
At this point I had already said too much so I told him who it was.

He knows her. He went to her graduation party. I guess southbend is pretty small after all...

anyway, Eric finding out who I first had sex with was the first thing he found out about me.

Next time I'll just chew my food and stick to my name.

El Camarín de las Musas

A picture from possibly the best café in all of Buenos Aires, the café in front of 'El Camarín de las Musas'.

fin de

Sorry it's been a little while since I last posted.
G's been better after being in bed for three days. She lost four kilos and the doctors have no idea what was wrong with her. All better now.

it's been really warm here.

I've been going out way too much, four days in a row, which equates to an inverse amount of sleep... The whole weekend seems like a blur... but it was very fun. I went out to milongas friday and sunday night.

met some french/belgians at the friday night milonga (la catedral) and chilled with them until 6am.

went to an ifsa party saturday night in a house bc someone's host family was away. that was really fun and i discovered white russians, my new favorite drink. 1 part vodka, 1 part kahlua, 1 part whole milk. just a great time with Max and Eric, as usual. Learned some invaluable mixing techniques from e who has his bar tending license...

not a huge amount of homework though... but was decently productive.

oh, and today, monday is a holiday, the Argentine equivalent of independence day. One is supposed to eat chocolate to celebrate, it's the tradition :-) (wish I had some cote d'or... moans...)

Palermo by night

An eerie autumn night in Palermo, Buenos Aires.