Red bean dream

2004-05-19 / 9:24 a.m.

It�s May. Ah, May. Springtime. Flowers and sunshine and open windows and happy breezes and smiles and loveliness�IN THE FUCKING NORTHERN HEMISPHERE!

How ironic is it that someone who hates cold weather so much is getting two winters? Ung, it killed me to break out my pea coat a mere three months after retiring it.

Three months. Wow. It just hit me while writing the pea coat rant that I�ve passed THREE MONTHS in Buenos Aires. Eight weeks from Friday night, I�ll be getting on a plane and coming back to the United States. Lots of things have changed. Home is different, I�m different�.and whereas three months ago, I thought I�d be happy to be coming home again, I�m not so much looking forward to it at all anymore.

Living here is not easy to be sure�but it�s totally insane (in a good way). Life is more than a little surreal for me at the moment, and I�m getting the sneaking suspicion that coming home to �real life� is going to be like hitting a brick wall at a zillion miles an hour. Suddenly, I�ll have to deal with my old concerns, my mundane everyday problems, the things that I�ve been able to ignore being so far away from them. Here, I have problems, difficulties, obstacles�but they�re unique, novel, and somehow not as weighty�though maybe that�s just because I know that they�re (for the most part) temporary problems. Strange.

My main focus at this point is to �disfruit� my last two months to maximum capacity, despite the academic shittiness of final papers and such that is looming in the not-distant-future.

I�m going to miss living here.

In other news�.

It was an interesting weekend.

Friday night I went to the Fiesta Semaforo. It was somewhat enjoyable, but I found that there was a bit of a difference in interests between mine, and most of the guys at this party. We all know I love to chat and flirt and all that jazz, but it�s different here, and harder for me. First of all, it all goes down in Spanish, putting me at a marked disadvantage. There was a moment that, with the noise of the party, the alcohol I had imbibed, the alcohol my suitor had imbibed (clearly much more than I) and my poor understanding of spanish, I was left completely unable to understand what he was saying. Not like the conversation was going anywhere interesting�the last thing I was able to make out was something about how my lips looked like some kind of delicious strawberry dessert that he would like to try�Secondly, guys are really forward here. Even when I started talking with a chico that didn�t seem to be out on the prowl, the first lull in the conversation led to him attempting to start a makeout session with me. This doesn�t seem uncommon�guys just want to start sucking face, and not even necessarily as a precursor to further amorous activity (read: doin� it), just making out for the sake of making out. It seems like a good way to get mono to me, but whatever.

There were good points though too. The venue was incredible. A guy from my program rented A HOUSE. A real, live, house. It was neat-o too. Big courtyard, lots of space to move around and stuff. He also hired a guy to watch the door, two bartenders, and a DJ. It was a fine, fine, setting. The drinks were good and inexpensive too. I had a nice time talking to some Argentine girls I met there, as well as some of the people from the program I like. After it started getting really crowded, I went home. I slept particularly well.

Sunday, I went to the very very small Chinese part of town, but it was cool. I wish I didn�t go right after Sunday meatgasm, because the food there looked and smelled FANTASTIC. I bought a red bean pastry that was particularly delicious, and reflected on happy memories of Chinese cuisine in Atlanta.

Monday, I went out for coffee with my Argentine acquaintance (the one from the film fest). He claims that the last two Harry Potter movies were shown (at least in the functions he went to) with subtitles. There is hope yet!

Gentlemen, start your engines

2003-05-16 / 8:59 p.m.

Crackerfuck. Today was the single WORST DAY EVER to not take my camera along with me when I went out. I didn�t have much ganas de estudiar, so I just went out exploring (and a little shopping) for the better part of the afternoon. Things I would have taken pictures of:

*I saw two of the greatest brand names in the supermarket today! A brand of frozen hamburger patty named �Barfy� and a spice company which had its moniker: �Poo� written in HUGE letters on a canister of oregano.

*I found the dress of my dreams at Zara today. I mean, it was the perfect little black dress that I have always wanted. I may go back and buy it, but I doubt it�I never go anywhere where I need to wear a dress, and it was kind of expensive (119 pesos, roughly 40 dollars). Anyway, if I had my camera, I could have at least photographed it for posterity.

*I walked past a store I�ve been wanting to take pictures of since the first time I passed it on good ole� 132� �Rey de los Pantalones.� Not only was I on foot, but I had a perfect shot of it. It�s located in a part of town that�s usually FULL of people, but I was there at a time when it was relatively uncrowded.

*Ohmygoodness, this is the best one yet. I have never seen anything that made me wish more that Hillary could have been there to see it. I was in one of the snootier malls in the city, chilling out with a really interesting kind of soda made of yerba mate, and I saw that they had set up some kind of special activity or exposition or something. I approached�it seemed to be something having to do with babies. Though disinterested, I continued toward it�.you will never believe what was going on��

�

baby races. I shit you not. Several babies. Starting line. Racing to the finish.

Troya

2003-05-16 / 8:58 p.m.

Yesterday afternoon, I was feeling very NorthAmerican (yet distinctly non-Canadian). Not having access to baseball, apple pie, or war prisoners to torture, I decided the best way to express this Ameriphilia would be to see an American movie. Troy (ac�, se llama �Troya�) came out Thursday, so I went to see that. It ended up being just what I was in the mood for�fun to watch and requiring little brainwork. Clearly, it wasn�t the cinematic masterpiece of the year, but it was pretty good.

I�m a sucker for Greek Mythology, so even if it really blew, I probably still would have gone to see it. I actually never really enjoyed the stories about the Trojan War�Paris pisses me off. As far as Homer goes, I�d rather see a movie made about the adventures of Odysseus. Wolfgang Peterson created an ending conducive to a sequel, so I wouldn�t be surprised if this happened.

The big particular thing I noticed about the movie was the frequency of posing, and prolonged close-ups on pensive faces. But, well, with faces like those why the hell not. What a bunch of beautiful men in one movie. For the record, I found Eric Bana prettier than Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.

Sugarfree Jazz

2001-01-01 / 9:55 p.m.

Last night, I went to listen to live jazz with the Amigo I made at Tania�s friend�s party a couple of weekends ago: se llama David. It was highly enjoyable. We went to hear a quintet (of soprano sax, tenor sax, drum set, upright bass, and guitar) named �Fauna.� While I know next to nothing about Jazz, I enjoyed listening to it, so I�m going to go ahead and say that I think they were good. I was totally floored on how young they were too!! It was an enjoyable night for the majority of my senses: The music was good, David and I fixed a simple, but tasty dinner at his apartment before we left, we drank a tasty Malbec from Mendoza during the show, the venue was really neat with lots of interesting characters present � not to mention watching the musicians�.That covers just about all of my bases, and had anyone been remotely interested in engaging my sense of touch, I would have been all about that too.

Miss. Clean Jeans

2003-05-12 / 11:54 a.m.

Jeez�I haven�t written in ages, I know. Since my rant on the ickiness of the Canadian lady, she has left, and the Brit came back. (yay!) The truth is that with all of my midterm crap (which went incredibly badly) and Hillary�s visit (which went incredibly well) I haven�t had the time, nor the ganas, to sit down and write an entry. I still plan on keeping up the journal, but now that school has picked up it�s hard to put together anything interesting to read. Plus, I�ve redoubled my efforts to think, write, speak, and live in Spanish. I can�t stand the thought of coming home, and still speaking Spanish like an inebriated monkey.

Despite the little apology, This isn�t going to be a super long or super interesting entry either. I�ve got some free time today, but I�m in the mood to go to the movies. I think I�m going to see La Ni�a Santa. It�s supposed to be weird�it wasn�t written by Almod�var, but he has something to do with it.

For a brief review of my life, most things are going fairly well. School is the notable exception, but I don�t want to talk about my academic failures at the moment. I still looooove living here, it�s an absolute riot.

Hillary spent the last week here, and it was superfun. Highlights of her visit include: spending Saturday goofing around in Recoletta�mostly in the fair; going to the most campy, touristy, restaurant ever--a tenedor libre themed after President Grant; Going to the salon and then to a nice sushi restaurant in Puerto Madero; being absolute tourists in Calle Florida�.we did a lot of stuff. I�ll probably elaborate on some of these things a little later, but to do it now would take significant time and effort. What�s important to note is that the best part was just existing with my best friend in the whole entire world. I�m so sad that she�s moving to DC, but I�m also terribly happy for her and proud of her.

Backing up to the week before, other than studying for midterms, little interesting happened. I finally got in touch with Tania, my friend from TheCollege. She and I went to a party in a suburb of BsAs. I had a pretty fun time, but I felt a bit awkward there. It was worthwhile to go, mostly because I made an amigo. Granted, he�s a gringo and not an argentine, but he can hopefully keep me from dying of loneliness on the weekends. We have tentative plans to go see a live jazz act tonight, so I�ll make sure to post about that if anything interesting happens.

Okay�and I wanted to upload some pictures, but unfortunately I can�t. The stupid software I was using to re-size them has decided that I�m no longer allowed to use the re-size feature without upgrading to the "professional" version of the program. Yay. I�ll find a way to do it later, but right now, I can�t mess with it. Hillary, with her superior skizzils and superior camera took some kickass photos which I�m sure she�ll post soon.

Ergh. Right now, I should get to work on homework and studying and crap like that, as well as making a pass by the laundry place�I am without clean jeans, and this causes me woe and dismay.