Apologies for my ridiculous hiatus. It has been way too long. But there is a reason for it: cultural differences.
WARNING: Get ready this is going to be a long one.
So I moved into my homestay on Saturday. Yay heat. Yay hot water. Yay telephones. Yay consistent wifi. Except, she doesn't have the password to the wifi. She told me she would get it on Monday from her daughter. Guess what? She didn't. So I didn't want to post without pictures, yet here I am posting without pictures anyway.
Here in Argentina, you pay rentals up front. That does not mean you pay up front for the week each Sunday. That means you pay up front in full. Now, in America we are not a trusting people. Perhaps because we screw each other all the time. So in my mind, if I pay her in full I have nothing protecting me if something goes wrong. In my mind I have to trust her with my things during my stay (since I am in and out of her house traveling the country)and trust that she will be hospitable according to the terms discussed. In Argentina, the trust is the opposite way. She trusts that I will be an appropriate guest and my payment is my way of saying you can trust me. Therefore, withholding money is an insult.
Well, after my lovely move-in with the dispute over payment schedules and such...I went to meet up with someone I had met in my second hostel for lunch. We were supposed to meet at the hostel. He left without me. So I went to the restaurant thinking "If he's there, cool, if not I'll eat alone." I walked all the way to the restaurant - you'd think I would realize by now that maps show things much closer than they are walking distance - and he wasn't there. Moreover, the restaurant was no longer serving lunch at 4pm.
So I wandered back to a really fancy Italian place. I had a fancy meal all alone...and LOVED the food. I had this A-mazing salid with brie and parmesan and delicious ravioli. Mmmmmmmmmm! Another cultural difference: my way expensive meal at my fancy italian restaurant with nine forks and twelve spoons = $25 (with tip).
I walked around in the cold to waste some time before my tango lesson - instead of going back to the house. I found this awesome hat. We ALL know how I feel about hats. She wanted 70 pesos. Ok, it wasn't THAT awesome and for Argentinian standards that's pricey. Besides, I was going to tango lessons and I needed enough money for that. I offered her 50, she offered me 60. Nope. I walked away. She let me. I came back after realizing the most I could pay is 55 and still have money in my pocket. Note: You must always have money in your pocket. She refused. Do the math people. She wouldn't budge over 1 dollar. Cultural difference!
So I left for Tango lessons. Thank goodness for the bright spot in my day! I had wonderful teachers. I have such a hard time with the posture though. Tango is lower to the ground. You bend at the knees and the hips and you lean your shoulders forward. Not like jazz or ballet or show tap. Closer to street tap, but not as loose. But, I had a good lesson. The better my partner, the better I danced.
After getting back home from the FREEZING cold, I took a hot shower and got ready for a night out. We went to the club early...2:15am. We waited online at the coat check for an hour and then they didnt have room for my coat. Only my coat out of our entire group. My luck was running really low. But that's Buenos Aires: This coat room is full enough. "I dont care if you are offering me money, I don't really want to hang another coat." In New York, they will take your money for everything and anything. "Sure I have space...I'll wear it on my back if I have to, just give me your money."
So I danced holding my coat for 2 hours, and by 5:15 I couldn't do it anymore. I waited for everyone to get their coats and dragged my tired tush out of there at 6 am. Cabbies here, you can't pay them to take you if they don't want to. So even though there was a row of taxis sitting outside the club, I couldnt find one to take me home. You´d think Palermo was the opposite side of the earth. (FYI it´s not very far.)
Finally made it home and slept until 1 on Sunday. Some say I wasted the day. Others say I was preventing getting sick. I say, sleep is nice but when you are run down you get sick anyway.
Bea (the landlady) agreed to take half payment on Sunday and half payment next week. "This is not a hostel. I don't do this for sport." So I ran out in the pouring rain to get money on a Sunday.
For those of you who don't know, it is impossible to get money on a Sunday. IMPOSSIBLE. But I ventured on. Tired and wet I visited 5 banks.
ATM #1 (Banco Frances): This atm does not have enough money to give you. Please try another
ATM #2 (Banco Frances): This atm cannot complete your transaction.
I leave. Alarms go off. Six policemen come running. I go back to tell them I had just been there but that the atms dont work. Policemen here are not here to help you. You don't realize how nice it is to have a police force whose purpose is designed to help you until you come here.
ATM #3 (Bancho Comafi): This atm does not have enough money to give you. Please try another
ATM #4 screwed me. It told me to take my money but didnt give me any. I tried again. Same story.
So now, when I went to ATM #5 and #6, there was no money in the account.
Bea was less than pleased when I arrived home without cash in hand. And she let me know it.
It was all going to be ok at 4 o'clock, when I was supposed to go see Gabe - my pianist from my high school choir - and his choir at the Iglesia de Santo Domingo. But 4 o'clock came and went and I was sitting on the computer trying to work it out with my mom (who is a total champ). I made the mistake of making a phone call on Bea's phone. Calls to cell phones from landlines are expensive here, even if they are local cell phones.
How quickly I am learning about the differences between the US and Argentina.
2.5 hours, 2 telephone calls, and 288 lines of gchat later, all was resolved and I hopped in a cab to get to the church not on time.
I FOUND GABE!!!!! HALLELUJAH for seeing people you know when you've had such a crappy foreign day. He gave me a hug and everything seemed ok again - not to mention he is just the most adorable man in the world with such a brightness about life on such a rainy day.
I left with him and his friends to switch hotels and head out for dinner. Mind you, I am so wet and cold and tired by this point it is only Gabe's smile and little red nose that keeps me from collapsing. The power of a familiar face on a rainy day (literally) cures all (well, except my actual cold). Of course, I stayed out too late chatting with him and his brother, Ramiro, and his co-director David. At least there was tea involved.
Monday. Slept in yet again. Mind you, I am trying to get the heck out of Buenos Aires to have a break from Bea and the rain and the pace of the city. But the day was not a waste. I bought my tickets to La Bella y La Bestia for this coming Sunday!!! GET EXCITED. Then I met Gabe and the gang at El Ateneo.
El Ateneo is a chain of bookstores around Buenos Aires (maybe even around Argentina). But the original is a converted theater. All of the books are shelved where the seats used to be in the balconies of the house. The cafe is on stage an the kitchen is in the wings. So cool.
Then we did the dinner and bar thing and turned in for the night. I am sick with a cough by now.
Tuesday. This is it, damnit. I am getting out of Buenos Aires. I am leaving for Mendoza tonight. I booked my Micro (sleeper bus) and my hostel and said sayonara - well I said ciao, but you know.
I met my new Spaniard friend David at El Museo Evita for a farewell to the city. We spent time browsing through her dresses, hats and reading a bit about her politics as well. We watched videos of her speeches off the balcony of La Casa Rosada. She was beautiful. What she accomplished was pretty amazing, but what is sad is that a lot of her organizations to benefit the people of Argentina seem to have fallen to the wayside.
We then ran to dinner and I grabbed my bags to ride to the bus station to take my sleeper bus to Mendoza. I sat next to the cutest little 7-year-old girl. She taught me little games that she and her friends play. Tutti Frutti is kind of like scattergories. We played until the lights went out. Then we laid our plush leather seats down flat and slept until morning. How cool to sleep flat in transit? It´s a good thing too, because my bus ride was four hours longer than intended.
But all of a sudden, I looked out the front window of our double decker bus and saw the faint outline of snow-covered mountains against the pale blue sky. WOW. The Andes are pretty impressive, in case you thought they wouldn´t be.
Gabe´s brother Ramiro hooked me up with his friend who works for a tourism company so he helped me coordinate my days in Mendoza and he took me to dinner. People who know people are the luckiest people in the world.
Horse-backing riding in those mountains this afternoon.
Photos of all of this forthcoming.
Despite all of the rough times the past few days, I am really doing well. With help from people here and people at home we got over the banking fiasco. I am still meeting amazing people and experiencing more Argentine culture every day. AND I´m back on track with speaking Spanish instead of English all the time. I think I grew from these minor setbacks. So it´s allllll good. I´m so excited for my adventures here. Will write very very soon!!!
BESOS!
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