You know you live in Bs As when... (part 2)

• A hamburguesa “completa” means it includes fried egg and ham. In fact, pretty much everything involves egg and/or ham.
• The only place to get coffee “to go" is McDonald’s.
• The elevators only hold two people (and may very well flash red lights and beep and call you “SOBREPESO” if you try to fit three) and have doors you must close by hand. Which is thoroughly annoying on top of being weird... imagine that someone goes up to the 8th floor and neglects to close the door all the way, rendering the elevator stuck on that floor, and condemning you to a hellish, never-ending spiral staircase experience.
• Coffee is almost always served with a little glass of water, often sparkling, and some sort of little cookie or treat. But at the same time,
  
• serving tap water at a restaurant is unheard of.
• EVERYWHERE delivers, including ice cream shops. Now, how this makes any sense, considering waiters practically ignore you when you are actually eating inside an establishment, is entirely beyond me.
  

WILCO IN BUENOS AIRES AHHHH OH MY GOD

La banda liderada por Jeff Tweedy llegará por primera vez al país para mostrar los temas de "Sky blue sky" y se presentará en el Personal Fest que se realizará el 7 y 8 de Diciembre en el Club Ciudad. También están confirmados Fischerspooner, Coco Rosie y Hot Chip (el 2/11).

http://www.bsasinsomnio.com.ar/postp115841.html

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! There are no words.

Weekend in Córdoba

When one spends 12 hours on a bus, the ideal final destination is one with flawless weather, beautiful land, luxurious accommodations, and free and delicious food and drinks. Day one in Córdoba fell slightly short of these hopes: there was no sun, the land might have been beautiful had the views not been so thoroughly clouded over, the accommodations were charming if a bit rustic, and the food and drinks passable, though abundant and prepaid. But on day two, the sun came out, the land (picture the American Southwest but a bit greener) awed me, and I fell in love.

Our activities mostly consisted of venturing by bus or foot to pretty places, chilling and optional walks/slight climbs of varying degrees of difficulty, and frequent meals and meriendas. On the third and last day, we had a delicious asado involving beef, chicken, and some amazing baby goat. Really. I will refrain from putting up the photos of the meat roasting in case of squeamish vegetarians, but it was so so delicious.

The worst part of the trip was leaving on Saturday night to get on another overnight bus heading back to Buenos Aires. Who knew I'd be so disappointed to return to "real life" after three days of relaxing in the middle of nowhere? I had almost forgotten how much I love the non-city side of travel: breath-taking natural scenes, hiking, vast open spaces, local culture. I could easily have spent another day or two or three in Córdoba, but classes and reading and this life that somehow has belonged to me for two months awaited in Buenos Aires.

Mate y conversación

My 7pm psicología social class at UBA was canceled last night. And by that I do not mean that I received an email telling me so. I do not mean I got there and there was a sign on the door, or there was any kind of announcement. I mean that I sat their scribbling in my journal in Spanish (frustrated sentences along the lines of "parece que soy incapaz de hacer amigos con argentinos cuando estoy sola...") until 7:30, by which point about half the class had left. Finally I turned to a group of students sitting next to me and asked the obvious: "Piensan ustedes que no hay clase?" Their response: apparently not, but did I want some mate? Naturally, I proceeded to bumblingly mumble something along the lines oh, "Uhh no thanks I mean I'd like to but I've never had it before and I don't know the rules--" (Yes, there are rules. It's a ritual of sorts of here.) But they of course told me in five friendly and encouraging voices that it didn't matter and I should just try it. Would I say no to my first chance to try mate? Of course not. So I sat and talked and drank mate with a group of Argentines until 8 or so, and then walked happily, and with a heavy caffeine buzz, back to the resi.

birthday!

Birthday celebrations lasted many days and were pretty fantastic.
Here I am on September 4th after midnight, having my first ever would-be-legal-in-the-States drink. This "drink," which was lovingly purchased for me by a few devilish boys, is called el septimo regimento and I'm pretty sure contains nothing but a sampling of bad vodkas.
Here I am with Hannah on the night we super-celebrated at a bar in Palermo Viejo. We had this big area with a whole bunch of couches, and about 20-some-odd friends showed up. Later in the night, the bar unexpectedly turned into boliche (club), which was even better.
A shot with a handful of resi girls, plus Jordan and Kadhir. Chilling on the couches.

Now I am 21, happy, and wanting nothing more than to sleep for a few days straight. Celebrating my birthday here was more fun than I ever could have asked for, and it was great to see so many people I really like in one place. Apparently I've amassed a pretty awesome group of friends over the past seven weeks.

This week, I leave for Cordoba on Wednesday evening for four days of relaxing and seeing pretty sights while FLACSO pays for everything (...with the money we've already given them). It'll be nice to get out of the city for awhile.

Happy September, everyone. I'm envying you all for your New York September as the humidity creeps in down here. I suppose it's a small price to pay.

BAFIM, Boots, and the Worby Flip

1. Buenos Aires Feria Internacional de la Música: wooooooooo
I took this photo during Mimi Maura, who is Puerto Rican and awesome and worth getting out of bed for on a Sunday afternoon. Okay, so she wasn't on until 6:30pm. But Sundays are hard.

2. I BOUGHT BOOTS!
They fold down and they click-clack and I love them. This is the beginning of a new era.

3. My hair, having settled into its new length and with little to weigh it down, has suddenly acquired the Worby Flip (TM) -- yes, I am afraid I may be turning into my brothers.

To demonstrate, I give you this poorly taken shouldn't-have-used-a-flash vanity shot:


Guess that about sums things up. Apparently it's September now, so that's weird, and I'm going to be really old in a few days. Happy Labor Day to those of you up in the U.S. of A.