10 Dec Buenos Aires: a second time around

My feet are diry, really dirty. The tub water runs brown in our old hotel room.

We walked the city today. From Centro to Recoleta to Palermo and back.

We saw what I have already seen but with second-time around glasses. Withoutht he rush, the gardens are prettier, the cemetery more peaceful, the streets more fascinating.

And the people.

When you stop staring at your dirty feet and look up at the faces for the epopel you pass, the city is far more fascinating.

Fake blondes to graying viejos, mulleted jovenes to dirty-faced street kids.

We walked to Plaza de Mayo to see the inauguration of la primera presidenta de Argentina: Cristina Fernandez Kirchner. People, young and old, form the afueras to the centro, blond to Moreno filled the square, beating drums and singing to their new queen.

Buenos Aires is alive and beats with the rhythm of over 3 million hearts. Tonight the drums let my heart beat the same rhythm.

9 Dec The traveling begins

After months of preparation from passports to thousand dollar plane tickets, after overcoming the panic of being panicked in Argentina, my mom is finally here in Argentina (and I think still wishing I had studied abroad in Spain). And she did it all with relative ease.

After a painless flight from green bay, I picked her up at EZE and took her back to my barrio for a brief tour of the house before a much needed medialuna for me and her first malbec.

Now two weeks of mother-daughter traveling lay before us. It should be an interesting trip- and not in the 70’s acid taking way…well maybe, you never know with my mother.

Walking Slow

I stopped in mid-step half-way down Avenida Libertador today and asked myself “why are you walking so fast?”

I had just attended my last internship meeting and handed in my final paper. I was free. But I was still walking like time owned me.

My mother is right: I function better with too many things to do on my to do list; I thrive under stress, deadlines and full agendas.

Even today, I dutifully filled in my agenda with museums to see, as to not “waste” one precious moment of time.

But as I walked out of MALBA, my first of 3 scheduled stops, I just felt exhausted. So I crossed the final two stops off my list (literally), walked to the nearest Havana, ordered my beloved coffee and just sat. Sat, and thought, and breathed, and relaxed and accepted my empty agenda.

Summer Sweats

Hace calor is an understatement. It was almost 90 degrees today, the third day in december. I sweat as i browsed corrientes looking at the cheap imitation Christmas wreathes. And it all seemed a bit surreal.

Tonight the best $1 ice cream i have ever eaten dripped down my hand as Emily and I walked Almagro at night. Even at 11, the air was heavy making my ice cream and forehead sweat.

Now at midnight, i smell the neighbor's asada and hear their late night celebration. It feels like the fourth of july not the third of december.

At home the world is covered in a white blanket of snow or as the news here calls it "muerte blanca"= white death. The worlds could not be farther apart in this moment.

The lists

Almost everyone i know made the three lists before they left Buenos Aires: the things they love about argentina, the things they hate about it and what they miss about home.

The idea is to look at the things you love now to appreciate the last moments here, look at the things you hate when you are crying at the airport and look at the things you missed from home when you are wondering how it was ever possible to miss such a boring small town.

So in the spirit of tradition and because it is therapeutic, here are my lists.


THINGS I LOVE ABOUT ARGENTINA
1. CAFE!!! - i am going to die without cafe havana
2. Cheap, cool clothes on Cordoba
3. el subte
4. thick curly hair :)
5. Gancia and cheap wine
6. alfajores, ducle de leche, milensa and carne- all the food i started out hating and will now crave
7. mi familia and all of the girls from my track
8. ferias, teatro, plazas, centros culturales: always having something cheap and amazing to do at any hour and any day
9. the exchange rate: cheap waxes, cheap avocados, cheap(er) living
10. lo argnetino: the accent, UBA, the flag, it is a country unlike any other

THE THINGS I HATE ABOUT ARGENTINA
1. PIROPOS
2. Dog shit and the smell of dog shit everywhere
3. Light pollution- oh how i miss the stars
4. Noise pollution- honking does not make the light change color faster
5. Crowed wallet-stealing buses
6. Broken sidewalks and dripping building juice
7. INEFFICIENCY- i will be a happy person if i never have to wait in three lines at the correo again
8. Self absorbed argentine conversations
9. Self absorbed mullet wearing argentine musicians
10. Self absorbed argentine waiters- i miss customer service

THINGS I MISS ABOUT HOME
1. family and friends
2. My room, my big bed, my down comforter, sleeping and sleeping and sleeping
3. Grocery stores and cooking
4. Madison: the union, the coffee shops, the restaurants
5. Food: mexican, thai, chinese, bagels, skim milk, CHEESE!
6. Talking face to face with the people i love
7. Midwest friendliness
8. living on water
9. Target
10. Tampons with plastic applicators

Almost there- casi ya esta

Papers are done, almost all presents are bought (ps Rob you are a lot harder to buy for than i though) and after a confirmation from the good-looking but macho Ivan, my final trip with mom will be ready. Casi ya esta, casi.

This weekend was the last weekend, at least the last regualar weekend, i spent in Buenos Aires and i was too exhausted to even make it to one last round of too-loud, too sticky, too-crowded boliches.

I did however take some fantastic pictures of Almagro, soaked in rays at the park, saw an amazing show accompanied by amazing noquis and spent the after noon wandering through modern art. In retrospect it was the weekend was better boliche-free, in general, argentina is better boliche free.

Dreams of Home Sweet Home

The past two weeks has been a whirlwind of last minute trips and activities. From boats to beaches and buses to well more buses, at the end of each amazing but exhausting trip, i just want to look out the window and see home. Home home: snow, bay and family. I want is to be back in Wisconsin.

I am desperately trying to enjoy my last month but with last minute papers to write, presents to buy and trips to take, I am running out of patience and coffee.

I just want to light a fire, curl up on the couch and sip some hot cocoa. I want to do nothing and not feel guilty for it.

Every spare last minute here in Buenos Aires i feel like has to be filled with one last-minute adventure. But my spontaneity is just about burnt out and my tired bones ache for comfort, routine, and rest.