Managed to find some wireless here in the apartment and thought I would send out an info update- of not just for myself.
I've arrived, obviously, and really, the trip wasn't so bad. First class (woot woot to standby with Delta, HOLY MOLY) makes such a major difference in terms of my sleeping on aircraft capabilities. I slept for a good 5 hours. The flight was 9.5 hours... imagine! I was stuffed with too much food, saw some mediocre flicks, and reclined my sup cozy chair to a horizontal state. I felt pretty bad for those people "in back" and was trying to figure out how and why I deserved this million dollar seat. I arrived to the sticky/humid city a little earlier than scheduled. Took a 50 minute cab ride with an Uruguayan who told me that Chileans and Argentines hate each other but that Argentines and Uruguayans are brothers.
I'm at my new headquarters now, which is quite interesting. In a good way. There's a downstairs, which is all quite nice, quaint, and where Isabel and her boyfriend Emiliano live. I have only met Emiliano so far, he's a musician, especially talented on a giant piano that is stuffed in a tiny room. I woke up from a nap this afternoon to Eric Satie, which was incredibly calming. They seem like a great couple. I can tell from what's inside the refrigerator (soy sauce, ginger, cucumbers) and what's hanging on the walls (drawings by John Lennon and Dali) that we three are most likely going to get along.
I live upstairs in what looks like it used to be a tool shed. (i seriously think it was). It's about the size of the chicken feed shed, literally, but is painted meticulous and freshly, and has a tile floor and a big antique mirror. The door opens up onto a giant upstairs patio with tons of plants and lawn furniture, which will consider as an extension to my closet. (No lawn).
I haven't left the apartment yet. I've actually been nesting here in my new hole of a room (which actually, believe me when i say I reeeally like- it kindof feels good not taking up too much space) and unpacking. Made some rice and tried Mate for the first time. (Nothing like what comes in tea bags in the States).. not sure of your familiarity with it, but it's a very traditional tea that is slurped out of a metal filtered straw from a wooden container. It tastes like hot tobacco; very bitter and suuuuper caffeinated. I think most Argentines have the constant jitters from the stuff.
It's raining, and I have to walk through the patio, which has no roof, under the rain to get to the stairs to rest of the house. Emiliano gave me a blue umbrella. Very urban area, not as suburban as I had expected. Tall cement building with European style windows tower around me on all sides. It's strange. I haven't yet left the apartment.
While I like to believe my Spanish is advanced, I have now slipped backwards about three levels to a advanced beginner (when listening, not when speaking) due to the heavy and Italian sounding accent these people use. Not only that, but the speed and the emphasis, and the using of VOS (you) instead of TU and USTED makes for a slew of verbs conjugated to words that I have to think extremely hard about. I've already started making a list of Argentine particulars.
Anyhow, grateful to be grabbing this free wireless from someone else while I can. Reading like fiend, this time Paulo Coelho, and relaxing in my new maids quarters. Next up. "The Catcher in the Rye."
Well, maybe I will turn this into a blog, so that I can keep those far, yet near in my heart, updated on all the ity bity details of my Argentine days (like the fact that there's a vase of half bloomed white flowers, which I can't name, but smell better than all the perfume in the airport duty-free stores, sitting on my bright red desk, or the fact that Emiliano has now switched off the roaring soccer game on the TV downstairs and is strumming Bach on a guitar).
Hope this isn't TMI and overly yammered. This is just from the inside. Just wait til you hear about the outside!
Love from the Blue and White beyond
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