I hope you can view my photos by pasting these links into your browser...
A little late, but, here's my Going Away Party: www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=218991854/a=28150099/t_=28150099
And here's the Pascuas trip:
www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=218993020/a=28150099_28150099/t_=28150099
Casa Peru n' Stuff:
www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=218998415/a=28150099_28150099/t_=28150099
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Traveling While Traveling Is The Ultimate Trip!
Happy belated Easter, everyone! Here Easter (or Pascuas) provides an excuse for a very long weekend, and most people in Buenos Aires take the time to escape the city. After enough people asked me "where are you going for Pasucas?" I determined that going somewhere was apparently the thing to do, so I began scouting for some possible trip mates. Early last week my German house mate Pablo had a friend from his school over for dinner. I sat with them for only a few minutes--just long enough to ascertain that Medea (Pablo's friend) had plans to go to a neighboring city for the holiday. I began asking questions about the trip. Though Medea is Swiss Italian, she speaks Spanish quite well, and way too fast for me, so I misunderstood what she told me. I thought she said that she and a friend planned to rent a car, but in fact she had said that they planned to hitchhike. I thought renting a car sounded fun and told her as much. At this point, both Medea and Pablo became excited... apparently I had offered up a brilliant idea! Rent a car! If enough people would come along, renting a car would be cost effective, and thus a possibility! So Pablo and myself kindly offered to fill the car and put this new plan into action. Ta da! I had a trip! I guess sometimes it pays to suck at Spanish...
The plan for this excursion changed about a million times, and each incarnation was relayed to me through a text message in broken English. Suffice it to say that by the time we actually left I was friggin' confused and decided to stay out of all decision making. The too many cooks theory...
I think it panned out.
We ended up leaving in a taxi from my house at 2 am on Wed night/Thurs morning to catch a train at 3 am. We slept for 3ish hours on the train and arrived early in the city of Rosario where we rented our cute red auto. We headed for the Central Sierras area of Argentina--the countryside west of Buenos Aires and surrounding the second largest city of Cordoba. The drive was estimated to be about 5 hours, but it took 8 due to protesting in the streets. At this point in the story I am in the dark about this mysterious protesting, so you will be too. All we knew was that every couple hours we were inexplicably encountering loads of traffic, at which point we would wait awhile, then eventually creep through a mob of protesters blocking the road.
So 8 hours later we finally stopped in the town of Embalse, a lovely place situated on a lake. We set up camp, hit the grocery store, and made ourselves a yummy dinner. The next day we swam in said lake, then made our way to El Durazno, a picturesque spot at the bottom of a craggy winding mountain road. After a wonderful day/evening in El Durazno, we walked to one of two little restaurants in the town, Daniela's Cabana. There we were greeted by Daniela herself and gorged ourselves on gigantoid slices of homemade cake. (Daniela's Cabana is a special looking place- check out my pics on Snapfish to see for yourself). During our night in El Durazno, Pablo started getting sick, and then it started storming (after we were already cake stuffed and back in our tents, thank goodness). Unfortunately the weather, combined with Pablo's worsening cold, forced us to hurry out of the place early in the morning. The bottom of the road out of El Durazno was now a lake. There was a line of cars attempting to "wait out the weather." Of course, this plan made no sense because the lake would only grow bigger with the increasing rain. We decided to be the pioneers! We got the rental car through the lake and up the mountain again, and the rest of the cars followed suit.
The next day we went to the town (the name escapes me) of Che Guevara's house. That little museum is muy interesante!
Next day Cordoba. Deserted. Apparently everyone leaves Cordoba for Pascuas, too.
That night we all slept (albeit a good 7 hours!) smooshed in the car before driving it back to Rosario, where we went to the famous Argentinian flag monument and caught the bus back to Buenos Aires.
All in all, the four of us--A Polish girl (called Karolina), Medea the Swiss Italian (who is nothing like her namesake, I promise), and Pablo the German (yes, that is his real name in Germany too), and this gal--had a fantastic time together. We all got along dandily. Traveling while traveling is the best because people join up who don't know each other from Adam. If you're traveling while traveling, you don't have to bring your own friends, you just pick them up along the way! There's a special kind of openness about the situation...
Now I'm back and I'm studying studying studying my espanol. And teaching some English, too. I spent the 2 hours before my first official tutoring session trying to cram the entirety of English grammar back into my head. But luckily my student, Leandro, really doesn't care about the names of words and clauses and stuff, he mostly just wants to practice talking. I can do that real good! Phew!
Ok, the protests. The rich people are protesting the President, Cristina Kirchner, because she is imposing a gargantuan tax on exports. Rich people own the farms, and they don't want to be taxed up the wazoo on exports. But Cristina refuses to budge, claiming that the tax will keep goods in Argentina and this will be better in the long run. In the meantime the rich people are mad cause they hate taxes and the poor people all mad cause food prices are rising. Everyone I've spoken to seems to be of the opinion that this extra money is really just gonna pad the pocket of Cristina. Come to think of it, I've not heard any Argentines say they like her too much. Anyway, last night Cristina went on the tv saying that she refused to change her mind and this incited a HA-UGE protest. When I came to school this morning everyone was talking about the noise last night. I was totally confused because last night I sat on my back porch eating a delicious salad, listening only to the voices of my amigos and the hum of the night. When I told this to my classmates, I got lots of screwy looks. Apparently last night and tonight the whole city has been in the streets banging pots and pans. Apparently that was pretty hard to miss. I immediately assumed that my ignorance to the whole thing was a result of my frequent state of oblivion to the world around me, but was relieved to learn that the loud business skipped my neighborhood for some reason.
I want to go eat some cake that my roommates made. All the internationals here cook so much and so well! Cha-ching for me! I help though, I really do. But I want to eat cake now, so I'm gonna do my "What I Think I've Learned" section now.
What I Think I've Learned About Argentina, Pt. 2:
- You aren't supposed to throw toilet paper in the toilet. Oops.
- It takes a million years to get through the line at the grocery store because there never seems to be a simple transaction (my own included).
- McDonald's here is super swank! It's the trendy coffee house! It's the special treat burger! A Big Mac is way more expensive than a burger made from heavenly Argentine beef!
*NEWSFLASH*
I found peanut butter at the grocery store in the Sierras! There is a constant conversation among ex-pats regarding the lack of peanut butter in this country. This is a big deal.
Love, Danielle
The plan for this excursion changed about a million times, and each incarnation was relayed to me through a text message in broken English. Suffice it to say that by the time we actually left I was friggin' confused and decided to stay out of all decision making. The too many cooks theory...
I think it panned out.
We ended up leaving in a taxi from my house at 2 am on Wed night/Thurs morning to catch a train at 3 am. We slept for 3ish hours on the train and arrived early in the city of Rosario where we rented our cute red auto. We headed for the Central Sierras area of Argentina--the countryside west of Buenos Aires and surrounding the second largest city of Cordoba. The drive was estimated to be about 5 hours, but it took 8 due to protesting in the streets. At this point in the story I am in the dark about this mysterious protesting, so you will be too. All we knew was that every couple hours we were inexplicably encountering loads of traffic, at which point we would wait awhile, then eventually creep through a mob of protesters blocking the road.
So 8 hours later we finally stopped in the town of Embalse, a lovely place situated on a lake. We set up camp, hit the grocery store, and made ourselves a yummy dinner. The next day we swam in said lake, then made our way to El Durazno, a picturesque spot at the bottom of a craggy winding mountain road. After a wonderful day/evening in El Durazno, we walked to one of two little restaurants in the town, Daniela's Cabana. There we were greeted by Daniela herself and gorged ourselves on gigantoid slices of homemade cake. (Daniela's Cabana is a special looking place- check out my pics on Snapfish to see for yourself). During our night in El Durazno, Pablo started getting sick, and then it started storming (after we were already cake stuffed and back in our tents, thank goodness). Unfortunately the weather, combined with Pablo's worsening cold, forced us to hurry out of the place early in the morning. The bottom of the road out of El Durazno was now a lake. There was a line of cars attempting to "wait out the weather." Of course, this plan made no sense because the lake would only grow bigger with the increasing rain. We decided to be the pioneers! We got the rental car through the lake and up the mountain again, and the rest of the cars followed suit.
The next day we went to the town (the name escapes me) of Che Guevara's house. That little museum is muy interesante!
Next day Cordoba. Deserted. Apparently everyone leaves Cordoba for Pascuas, too.
That night we all slept (albeit a good 7 hours!) smooshed in the car before driving it back to Rosario, where we went to the famous Argentinian flag monument and caught the bus back to Buenos Aires.
All in all, the four of us--A Polish girl (called Karolina), Medea the Swiss Italian (who is nothing like her namesake, I promise), and Pablo the German (yes, that is his real name in Germany too), and this gal--had a fantastic time together. We all got along dandily. Traveling while traveling is the best because people join up who don't know each other from Adam. If you're traveling while traveling, you don't have to bring your own friends, you just pick them up along the way! There's a special kind of openness about the situation...
Now I'm back and I'm studying studying studying my espanol. And teaching some English, too. I spent the 2 hours before my first official tutoring session trying to cram the entirety of English grammar back into my head. But luckily my student, Leandro, really doesn't care about the names of words and clauses and stuff, he mostly just wants to practice talking. I can do that real good! Phew!
Ok, the protests. The rich people are protesting the President, Cristina Kirchner, because she is imposing a gargantuan tax on exports. Rich people own the farms, and they don't want to be taxed up the wazoo on exports. But Cristina refuses to budge, claiming that the tax will keep goods in Argentina and this will be better in the long run. In the meantime the rich people are mad cause they hate taxes and the poor people all mad cause food prices are rising. Everyone I've spoken to seems to be of the opinion that this extra money is really just gonna pad the pocket of Cristina. Come to think of it, I've not heard any Argentines say they like her too much. Anyway, last night Cristina went on the tv saying that she refused to change her mind and this incited a HA-UGE protest. When I came to school this morning everyone was talking about the noise last night. I was totally confused because last night I sat on my back porch eating a delicious salad, listening only to the voices of my amigos and the hum of the night. When I told this to my classmates, I got lots of screwy looks. Apparently last night and tonight the whole city has been in the streets banging pots and pans. Apparently that was pretty hard to miss. I immediately assumed that my ignorance to the whole thing was a result of my frequent state of oblivion to the world around me, but was relieved to learn that the loud business skipped my neighborhood for some reason.
I want to go eat some cake that my roommates made. All the internationals here cook so much and so well! Cha-ching for me! I help though, I really do. But I want to eat cake now, so I'm gonna do my "What I Think I've Learned" section now.
What I Think I've Learned About Argentina, Pt. 2:
- You aren't supposed to throw toilet paper in the toilet. Oops.
- It takes a million years to get through the line at the grocery store because there never seems to be a simple transaction (my own included).
- McDonald's here is super swank! It's the trendy coffee house! It's the special treat burger! A Big Mac is way more expensive than a burger made from heavenly Argentine beef!
*NEWSFLASH*
I found peanut butter at the grocery store in the Sierras! There is a constant conversation among ex-pats regarding the lack of peanut butter in this country. This is a big deal.
Love, Danielle
Thursday, March 13, 2008
One Week In...
I've offically been in Buenos Aires for one week, and as you might imagine, plenty has happened.
Last Friday night Cousin Jody's fabulous Argentine friend Maria and her husband, Agustin, picked me up in their car (a huge luxury!) and brought me to a birthday party. Que perfecto, as it was also my birthday! And so I spent my 25th with some truly lovely people. Maria (who I had never met) greeted me with a birthday gift of two black bracelets that perfectly matched my outfit! At the party, everyone went out of their way to speak English and include me in the conversation. (Now that I am officially a student of Spanish, I'm going to have to break my Argentine friends of the English-speaking habit, but that 2nd night it was so comforting to actually be able to talk to people!) The party's official birthday girl re-lit the candles after she blew them out and moved the cake in front of me. The whole party sang Happy Birthday again in English! It was a bit embarrassing, but I sincerely appreciated the gesture.
During the days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I did a lot more wandering around and finally discovered the downtown part of my neighborhood, San Telmo! When you're in the right part, it's quite charming! Sunday I met up with a friend from Atlanta and went to see There Will Be Blood at a swanky movie theater, and then out for beers and empanadas at a self-serve bar. How nice to see a familiar face! Incidentally, I had already seen the movie once and I actually liked it better the second time.
Tuesday morning I began Spanish classes! I go every weekday for four hours a day. My 22-year-old profesora, Florencia, is fabulous! I'm learning a lot from her. AND she found me my first English student, a business man named Leandro whom I will meet for the first time tomorrow. YAY for income!
Speaking of income... the Argentine peso is equivalent to about 3.1 dollars, which is awesome if you have dollars to spend! This is much less awesome if you are earning pesos, however.
After class on Tuesday, I literally spent 4 hours searching for a water bottle. When one has zero responsibilities, one can spend 4 hours on such an endeavor. I think I entered at least 12 sporting goods stores. Apparently, people in Argentina do not feel the need to hydrate when playing sports. The merchandise in these sporting goods stores would also indicate that sports are more of a fashion than a practice. All the clothes are quite adorable, but the actual equipment is slim to none. Anyways, I have resigned myself to buying bottles of water each time I need one. Ah well.
Now a bit about the food... suprisingly, it's not very good. Except the beef. The beef is FABULOUS. I haven't eaten meat in 1.5 years, but I decided that it would be a crime to come to Argentina and never try the beef. I ate a steak sandwich at the birthday party, and MAN it's really better than what y'all got, lemme tell ya. But aside from the beef, I would characterize the food here as bland and repetitive. Ooh, but the sweets are quite good too. Sweets and beef. But the cheese is expensive and MALO. And you all know how seriously I take my cheese. The best I've found are those little Laughing Cow type things in the foil. And there is no such thing as peanut butter! I am considering making my own peanut butter and starting a business here. I'm thinking that if I could get the word out to these poor, deprived peanut butterless people, I could make a mint.
Now a bit about Casa Peru (my house)... Me gusta! I live with 2 Portenos ("port people" or natives of Buenos Aires), a gal from France, a woman from Germany, a dude from Germany, a British kid, a guy from Belgium, and we just said goodbye to our roomie from Switzerland. I am the only one from the US. Incidentally, if you are traveling elsewhere in the Americas, don't call yourself an American when differentiating yourself from the people of that country. They will quickly point out that they are American too! Anyway, I've been hanging out a lot with a few of the people from the house and I really like them. Everyone's pretty transient though, so most will probably leave soon, but new people will come. I have yet to decide how long I will stay here.
Now a bit about the public transportation... The bus system is confusing as $@&*! AYE! Ok, you're probably now thinking that this reaction has to do with the fact that I'm probably one of the top 10 most inept human beings on the planet when it comes to that sort of thing, but I think just system is really absurd! People keep trying to explain it to me, and I'm still baffled. All the HUNDREDS of buses are run by different companies, and the only way to figure out where they go is to unlock the code of a magic book called The Guia T. Every time I ask someone how to get somewhere, they say, "Oh, don't you have a Guia T?" Well, yes of course I do, and not only that but I study my Guia T religiously. I pray to it for enlightenment every morning and every night. I've flipped through its many pages to the point of paper cuts- but the damn thing is like a freaking treasure map to me!! You have to basically guess where the buses are going to go based upon a complicated string of street names. You have to flip the pages back and forth between tiny pieces of maps, and put the pieces together yourself! In addition to the buses, there is a subway which is only SLIGHTLY less baffling. The other day I took the Subte (subway) somewhere by myself! I was so proud, as you might imagine. But then I told my British friend about my route and he looked at me crookedly and asked why in the world I would go so far out of my way?? You know what, I didn't even care. I made it out and back home all by myself!
I conclude this blog with a section I will, from here on out, call What I Think I've Learned About Buenos Aires...
WHAT I THINK I'VE LEARNED ABOUT BUENOS AIRES (INSTALLMENT #1):
- Time doesn't much matter to Portenos. If someone says they'll call you at 7, you have a 40% chance of hearing from them by 9 or 10. And a 60% chance that you will hear from them next week.
- Portenos don't care if they are in your way. People are constantly just stopping and standing in the middle of foot traffic, and they don't move. I guess they just expect you to shove past them, because they don't seem ruffled when everyone does just that.
- (Young) people still listen to Rod Stewart in this country!
Last Friday night Cousin Jody's fabulous Argentine friend Maria and her husband, Agustin, picked me up in their car (a huge luxury!) and brought me to a birthday party. Que perfecto, as it was also my birthday! And so I spent my 25th with some truly lovely people. Maria (who I had never met) greeted me with a birthday gift of two black bracelets that perfectly matched my outfit! At the party, everyone went out of their way to speak English and include me in the conversation. (Now that I am officially a student of Spanish, I'm going to have to break my Argentine friends of the English-speaking habit, but that 2nd night it was so comforting to actually be able to talk to people!) The party's official birthday girl re-lit the candles after she blew them out and moved the cake in front of me. The whole party sang Happy Birthday again in English! It was a bit embarrassing, but I sincerely appreciated the gesture.
During the days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I did a lot more wandering around and finally discovered the downtown part of my neighborhood, San Telmo! When you're in the right part, it's quite charming! Sunday I met up with a friend from Atlanta and went to see There Will Be Blood at a swanky movie theater, and then out for beers and empanadas at a self-serve bar. How nice to see a familiar face! Incidentally, I had already seen the movie once and I actually liked it better the second time.
Tuesday morning I began Spanish classes! I go every weekday for four hours a day. My 22-year-old profesora, Florencia, is fabulous! I'm learning a lot from her. AND she found me my first English student, a business man named Leandro whom I will meet for the first time tomorrow. YAY for income!
Speaking of income... the Argentine peso is equivalent to about 3.1 dollars, which is awesome if you have dollars to spend! This is much less awesome if you are earning pesos, however.
After class on Tuesday, I literally spent 4 hours searching for a water bottle. When one has zero responsibilities, one can spend 4 hours on such an endeavor. I think I entered at least 12 sporting goods stores. Apparently, people in Argentina do not feel the need to hydrate when playing sports. The merchandise in these sporting goods stores would also indicate that sports are more of a fashion than a practice. All the clothes are quite adorable, but the actual equipment is slim to none. Anyways, I have resigned myself to buying bottles of water each time I need one. Ah well.
Now a bit about the food... suprisingly, it's not very good. Except the beef. The beef is FABULOUS. I haven't eaten meat in 1.5 years, but I decided that it would be a crime to come to Argentina and never try the beef. I ate a steak sandwich at the birthday party, and MAN it's really better than what y'all got, lemme tell ya. But aside from the beef, I would characterize the food here as bland and repetitive. Ooh, but the sweets are quite good too. Sweets and beef. But the cheese is expensive and MALO. And you all know how seriously I take my cheese. The best I've found are those little Laughing Cow type things in the foil. And there is no such thing as peanut butter! I am considering making my own peanut butter and starting a business here. I'm thinking that if I could get the word out to these poor, deprived peanut butterless people, I could make a mint.
Now a bit about Casa Peru (my house)... Me gusta! I live with 2 Portenos ("port people" or natives of Buenos Aires), a gal from France, a woman from Germany, a dude from Germany, a British kid, a guy from Belgium, and we just said goodbye to our roomie from Switzerland. I am the only one from the US. Incidentally, if you are traveling elsewhere in the Americas, don't call yourself an American when differentiating yourself from the people of that country. They will quickly point out that they are American too! Anyway, I've been hanging out a lot with a few of the people from the house and I really like them. Everyone's pretty transient though, so most will probably leave soon, but new people will come. I have yet to decide how long I will stay here.
Now a bit about the public transportation... The bus system is confusing as $@&*! AYE! Ok, you're probably now thinking that this reaction has to do with the fact that I'm probably one of the top 10 most inept human beings on the planet when it comes to that sort of thing, but I think just system is really absurd! People keep trying to explain it to me, and I'm still baffled. All the HUNDREDS of buses are run by different companies, and the only way to figure out where they go is to unlock the code of a magic book called The Guia T. Every time I ask someone how to get somewhere, they say, "Oh, don't you have a Guia T?" Well, yes of course I do, and not only that but I study my Guia T religiously. I pray to it for enlightenment every morning and every night. I've flipped through its many pages to the point of paper cuts- but the damn thing is like a freaking treasure map to me!! You have to basically guess where the buses are going to go based upon a complicated string of street names. You have to flip the pages back and forth between tiny pieces of maps, and put the pieces together yourself! In addition to the buses, there is a subway which is only SLIGHTLY less baffling. The other day I took the Subte (subway) somewhere by myself! I was so proud, as you might imagine. But then I told my British friend about my route and he looked at me crookedly and asked why in the world I would go so far out of my way?? You know what, I didn't even care. I made it out and back home all by myself!
I conclude this blog with a section I will, from here on out, call What I Think I've Learned About Buenos Aires...
WHAT I THINK I'VE LEARNED ABOUT BUENOS AIRES (INSTALLMENT #1):
- Time doesn't much matter to Portenos. If someone says they'll call you at 7, you have a 40% chance of hearing from them by 9 or 10. And a 60% chance that you will hear from them next week.
- Portenos don't care if they are in your way. People are constantly just stopping and standing in the middle of foot traffic, and they don't move. I guess they just expect you to shove past them, because they don't seem ruffled when everyone does just that.
- (Young) people still listen to Rod Stewart in this country!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
I've arrived!
I have now been in Buenos Aires for approximately 10 hours and plenty has happened already, so I'm gonna get started with this whole blog thing.
I took a cab from the airport to my new home at Casa Peru in the barrio of San Telmo. The cab dropped me and my big bags on the curb in front of a giant wooden door and took off. The doorbell is so high that I had to stand on my tiptoes on the door's molding to reach it. After 3-5 minutes of ringing and knocking, a young man opened the door and looked confusedly at the sweaty, glassy-eyed girl before him. It turns out that they all thought "Danielle" was going to be a boy. Belgian Antonio helped me upstairs with my bags, gave me a cursory tour of the house, showed me my room, and left me to my own devices. Those of you who know my infamous sense of direction will appreciate the day that would follow. I had a list of things to accomplish, but decided I had to limit myself to one street so that I wouldn't get completely lost on day 1. When I discovered that not much could be accomplished on just that strip, I decided to add 2 more streets to my repertoire. Keeping a blue sign and a grocery store as the marker of my street corner, I wandered in circles for hours. Here is where I must tell you how utterly gracious and helpful the Argentinian people have been. A nice young man helped me purchase a cell phone. I was in and out of that store 3 times before I had everything I needed. Then it turned out he sold only the phone device itself, but not the phone minutes (??). I finally found a place that sold the minutes, and the girl there was the first English speaker I met all day. She spent quite some time with me loading up my phone and finding me an international calling card. It wasn't until at least an hour later that I realized I never paid her for any of this. So I stumbled around the block a few more times before locating her store again, ran up to the counter and apologized profusely for the oversight. She just smiled and said, "Oh, no problem." So apparently in Argentina it's no problem to use now and pay later.
I realize this blog is getting pretty long already, but I have to honor two more fabulous characters from the story of my day.
In my search for a towel and face soap, I found myself in a tiny little store that apparently sells used clothing and some beauty products. The woman behind the counter spoke very little English, and it took about 10 minutes and a few diagrams to communicate "towel". (She got face soap pretty fast.) During the process of arriving at "towel," my new friend Cristina learned that I am looking for Spanish classes. As it turns out, her daughter is a Spanish teacher. She called her daughter right then and there and we set up an appointment for me to come to her language school. Cristina then had her daughter translate directions to what is apparently the only store in the area that sells towels. Cristina explained every detail of the directions, including "turn left when you enter the store..." Now I have my towel, and when I finish this blog, I will get clean again!
Kind person number three will be known as "Man With Dog." I stopped Man With Dog to ask him for directions, but the street name I gave caused him to look askew. Apparently it was VERY far away. So he asked me what I was trying to do, and I explained that I needed a converter for my laptop. He said, "Well I think I saw a computer store a little ways from here the other day... follow me." So Man With Dog walked me about 10 minutes out of his way in search of this computer store. He spoke English well and was able to converse with the computer store attendants and express my needs. As it turned out, I had none. I didn't even need a converter for my computer because it's universal. Man With Dog made sure I got going back in the right direction, wished me well and went on his way.
This blog is dedicated to the kindness of Phone Card Lady, Cristina, and Man With Dog!
More soon...
I took a cab from the airport to my new home at Casa Peru in the barrio of San Telmo. The cab dropped me and my big bags on the curb in front of a giant wooden door and took off. The doorbell is so high that I had to stand on my tiptoes on the door's molding to reach it. After 3-5 minutes of ringing and knocking, a young man opened the door and looked confusedly at the sweaty, glassy-eyed girl before him. It turns out that they all thought "Danielle" was going to be a boy. Belgian Antonio helped me upstairs with my bags, gave me a cursory tour of the house, showed me my room, and left me to my own devices. Those of you who know my infamous sense of direction will appreciate the day that would follow. I had a list of things to accomplish, but decided I had to limit myself to one street so that I wouldn't get completely lost on day 1. When I discovered that not much could be accomplished on just that strip, I decided to add 2 more streets to my repertoire. Keeping a blue sign and a grocery store as the marker of my street corner, I wandered in circles for hours. Here is where I must tell you how utterly gracious and helpful the Argentinian people have been. A nice young man helped me purchase a cell phone. I was in and out of that store 3 times before I had everything I needed. Then it turned out he sold only the phone device itself, but not the phone minutes (??). I finally found a place that sold the minutes, and the girl there was the first English speaker I met all day. She spent quite some time with me loading up my phone and finding me an international calling card. It wasn't until at least an hour later that I realized I never paid her for any of this. So I stumbled around the block a few more times before locating her store again, ran up to the counter and apologized profusely for the oversight. She just smiled and said, "Oh, no problem." So apparently in Argentina it's no problem to use now and pay later.
I realize this blog is getting pretty long already, but I have to honor two more fabulous characters from the story of my day.
In my search for a towel and face soap, I found myself in a tiny little store that apparently sells used clothing and some beauty products. The woman behind the counter spoke very little English, and it took about 10 minutes and a few diagrams to communicate "towel". (She got face soap pretty fast.) During the process of arriving at "towel," my new friend Cristina learned that I am looking for Spanish classes. As it turns out, her daughter is a Spanish teacher. She called her daughter right then and there and we set up an appointment for me to come to her language school. Cristina then had her daughter translate directions to what is apparently the only store in the area that sells towels. Cristina explained every detail of the directions, including "turn left when you enter the store..." Now I have my towel, and when I finish this blog, I will get clean again!
Kind person number three will be known as "Man With Dog." I stopped Man With Dog to ask him for directions, but the street name I gave caused him to look askew. Apparently it was VERY far away. So he asked me what I was trying to do, and I explained that I needed a converter for my laptop. He said, "Well I think I saw a computer store a little ways from here the other day... follow me." So Man With Dog walked me about 10 minutes out of his way in search of this computer store. He spoke English well and was able to converse with the computer store attendants and express my needs. As it turned out, I had none. I didn't even need a converter for my computer because it's universal. Man With Dog made sure I got going back in the right direction, wished me well and went on his way.
This blog is dedicated to the kindness of Phone Card Lady, Cristina, and Man With Dog!
More soon...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
