Un día loco y largo

Midnight, day two. It already seems like I’ve been here forever. My spanish is improving by leaps and bounds. Today I struck out on my own to buy a little pocket notebook to write down all the vocab you’d never find in a dictionary. People are so nice to me! Especially when you are alone, everyone wants to talk to you and know all about you. And they’re so patient!

Anyway… here’s the short version: this entry includes 1) night #1 and day #2, 2)my fascination with the city, 3)my evaluation of the hostel, 4) short report on the events of the day. End of short version. 🙂

So, Buenos Aires. I like it about as much as I can like a city. It’s huge and polluted, but there are lots of things to see. I feel like I’m in New York when I’m walking down the big avendidas (streets where the pedestrian crossings are almost always a football field long – it’s crazy!). The billboards are huge. No, bigger. It’s wild. When I’m walking down the tight pedestrian streets, it feels like we’re in China (not that I’ve ever been to China).

On my first night, after I spent a few hours trying to shed my jet lag, we tried to walk to a clock tower (the Argentine version of Big Ben) where it’s free to see the view from the top. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it by sundown, and it was Sunday when everything is closed. So, we just ended up seeing a lot of the city, which is all well and good, but I{m tired of the city already. If I’m going to that much trekking around on foot, I want to be surrounded by trees and rivers and la naturaleza.

The hostel we’re staying at… well, I guess I haven’t explained “we” yet. My friend Eleanor and her boyfriend were also staying here in Buenos Aires when I arrived. Eleanor has to be in Santiago, Chile in six days to fly to La Paz, Bolivia where she has an internship. So, I’ve been hanging out with them for the most part. Either tomorrow or Wednesday, we’re going to Mendoza or Cordoba (wine country). From there, I plan on splitting off from them and heading south to see the Lake Districts of Chile and Argentina before winter kicks in. For more on itinerary updates, keep checking out the itinerary link.

Anyway… about the hostel. It’s really cute. Our room has eight beds, but there is only one other guy staying in there with us. His name is BerñaBé. He’s from Perú, and really nice. We just got back from dinner with him. The whole building (they whole city, really) is very European. I’m told to expect that even more in Chile, so I think I’m going to make my way to Perú and Bolivia faster than I expected.

Today, Eleanor and I walked down the river in the blazing sunshine and had a nice heart to heart about life. We ended up in the Plaza de Mayo where the madres de los desaparecidos (the mothers of those kidnapped during the dictatorship) still hold vigil for their lost children on Sundays. We also got to see a cardinal giving mass at a church on the plaza. And I got to walk through a sea of pigeons. They’re like my mom’s cat! They never move, even when you’re about to crunch them!

My spanish is improving really rapidly. Eleanor and Jared are both much better than I, of course, since they’ve been here longer. When I go somewhere alone, I do just fine. People are much much nicer to you when you’re by yourself (except the bank woman at the airport. She was mean and impatient with me).

Anyway, dinner is eaten really late here, so we just got back from dinner. We invited our dorm-mate out. Actually, when we left the hostel, we went for free tango lessons. The teacher never showed up, however (go figure). Fine by me… I can dance just fine if I get to make it up myself. If I have to remember steps… my brain just doesn’t work like that. But, we did meet a German guy (Andreas) in the process of trying to tango, so the five of us ended up going out to dinner. We went to a parrilla where they serve steak. We all shared “dinner for four,” which was more like dinner for eight. The first course is intestines and organs. I had blood sausage, I think for the first time ever. I also ate what was essentially compressed intestines…like sausage, but without anything inside it. It was nasty. The eggplant sauce and lengua de vaca (cow tongue) were appetizers. The cow tongue was okay… I don’t think I’d ever order it as an entreé. Eleanor was traumatized. She’s a vegetarian. The main course was far less to talk about… just lots of steak. Mmm… delicioso.

Tomorrow I think we are going to try and see the sights instead of trekking aimlessly about the city. Perhaps I will leave early for Mendoza. I think I’ve definitely had my fill of all these cars and buildings. I need some trees!