A Moment's Just A Moment

Things are falling into place.

A few days ago my English student, Leandro, informed me that he had 3 new pupils for me. During our class, identical twin brothers suddenly showed up to meet me and schedule appointments. I hadn’t realized that Leandro literally meant he had them in the flesh. After our lesson he brought me to the office of his friend, Mariano, who told me he wants conversation classes. When I arrived at Mariano’s office he was in the midst of a meeting with Sofia. When Sofia heard about the classes, she decided she wanted in. And not only that, but she also wants private lessons 2 or 3 days a week! We got started right away. Saturday evening I went to Mariano’s apartment for a two and a half hour conversation class with Leandro, Augustin (one of the twins, the other will come next time), and Sofia. It was so much fun! We ate cake too. For me it was great even without getting paid because it was an opportunity to hang out with a bunch of portenos. And, of course, eat cake. On top of the cake and the good company, this is a very lucrative situation for me because I’m “teaching” them all at once. After our session, they all scheduled their first private lessons for Monday! And the gravy is that they all work in the same place, and I can just stay there and see one after another. No travel time!

I walked towards the bus stop after our session glowing and humming and thinking about my tremendous good fortune. I arrived at a busy intersection. A man walking ahead of me started to cross the street, and I started with him but soon realized that the light was changing, so I moved back to the sidewalk. He didn’t. I watched this man get hit by a car going about 50 miles per hour. This image will be forever emblazoned in my memory. Standing only about 10 feet away, I shrieked and ran to get help but plenty of people had already seen what happened and rushed to him. I waited there for 20 minutes, and by the time I left, the police had him sitting up and talking. Finally I made my way home, shaking the whole bus ride.

Things can certainly change from one moment to the next.

As some of you may have read in the news, Buenos Aires and the surrounding areas spent the past week enshrouded in a cloud of smoke. No one really know what happened (there’s some speculation of a government conspiracy), but probably the farmers in the countryside were burning their soy fields to enrich the soil and they burned so many hectares that the smoke made it all the way to the city and even into Uruguay. My eyes burned, my throat itched, and no Mediapila this week! Soccer had to be canceled! Finally today the cloud lifted, the sun came out and I spent most of the day outside.

Last week the Olympic torched passed through Buenos Aires, and since portenos mount gigantic protests about anything and everything (I’ve seen more than I can count in my 5 weeks here), I expected a mammoth opposition to the flame. I went with a couple of Europeans to take part. As it turned out, about 100 hundred people showed up for this one. Mostly foreigners. I had a great time all the same! A girl I went with made a sign that said, “Escucha! Tibet llora,” which means, “Listen! Tibet cries.” Along with this, she made a giant Q-tip so as to encourage people to clean out their ears. At one point I held the Q-tip up to Pablo’s head while he gave interview after interview to the press in broken Spanish. The next day my friend Maria forwarded me a video montage of the torch ceremony from the major Buenos Aires news source… Pablo and I made the cut! Here’s the link if anyone’s interested. I’m in there for just a moment, but it’s hard to miss the girl in the bright blue shirt holding a giant white stick against a man’s head. http://www.lnteve.com/video2379-la-antorcha-en-buenos-aires

Now I would like to discuss a prominent issue here in Buenos Aires: “moneda” or coins. For some reason, Argentina has a shortage of coins. I have heard that this has something to do with the mob. However, you need coins in order to take the buses, which most people do more than once a day. This has turned Buenos Aires into a city of moneda horders! Myself included! Some days I want to take the bus, but lack sufficient moneda so I have to buy something I don’t want just to get change. For a while I tried to do this at the kiosko (small shop) down the street, but the man there won’t budge!! The other day I tried to buy a small chocolate, and he wouldn’t sell it to me!! I said, “I know you have SOME change!” and he said, “No I don’t.” And I said, “Yes you do, I know you do!” And he said smugly, “Of course I would like to sell you that chocolate, but I just don’t have change.” And I said, “But I really want the chocolate!” And he said, “I’m sorry.” And then my voice turned to a whimper and I admitted, “But I NEED to take the bus, I’m late! Please!” (**imagine all of this in broken Spanish) And he still wouldn’t budge! I have pledged never to return, even if my wallet bursts at the seems with the stuff. I imagined a Seinfeld Buenos Aires in which “moneda horder guy” is a reoccurring character. But really, sometimes this situation turns me into a person I don’t want to be. When the lady at the fruit stand looks at me with her sad eyes and says, “Do you have 50 centavo?” and must answer coolly, “No, I will need change,” even though maybe I have 80 centavos! It’s a bit cruel, but it’s every man for him/herself when it comes to cambio (change).

I’m leaving Casa Peru at the end of the month and moving to Palermo, the swanky barrio with all the lovely parks. I’m looking forward to the change because of said parks, and because I will have more privacy there. That said, I will miss my house and I will miss the slightly grittier neighborhood of San Telmo.

Something I have learned here in Casa Peru: share with people.

Most of my roommates are from Europe, where apparently life is a bit more communal. In Casa Peru, when we buy food we share it. We cook food and we cook for everyone who wants some. It’s really a lovely way to go about things. We don’t count who bought what. No one owes anyone anything. Sometimes my greedy American past haunts me and I find myself overcome by the compulsion to hide some tasty treat I’ve just purchased. But then one of my roommates offers me a delicious meal or a glass of wine, and I remember to take my bag of cookies out of my private cubby and offer some to everyone.

What I Think I've Learned About Argentina #4:

1. Boys and girls here cannot be just friends. If you tell a man you want to be just his friend, he thinks you are engaging in an elaborate game. There is actually a word for women who play it: "histericas"

2. The public university, UBA, is completely free to anyone. You don't even have to be from Argentina. And you don't have to apply and get in, you can basically just go. And for most things it's the best school in the country. Students and alumni have a lot of UBA pride.

3. There is a "food" here called dulce de leche that ought to come to the US. It's really just sugary milk that ends up looking, feeling and tasting something like soft caramel. It's so obvious, I don't know why the rest of the world hasn't caught on. I'll bring some back.