Dear Chicago,
I've been awful this week about documenting my adventures. Forgive me. Its getting more difficult to schlep around my laptop and find the time to have a coffee after hunting down a cafe that has wireless internet.
Miercoles - Wednesday
Another great week - on Wednesday I was invited to Liliana's for dinner. A big step in my spanish language ability: I ordered a car all by myself! The drive to her house is pretty far, so I arranged a 'remis' taxi. The phone remains the hardest part of communication for me, and the fact that I ordered it and made it to the right place at the right time was pretty great. Liliana and Norberto were kind as always, and there were 9 of us from dinner. My conversation skills were markedly improved from our last dinner. When the topic switched to footbal, I was still lost. A beautiful dinner of rugula salad, smoked salmon appetizers and fresh homemade gnocchi. Dessert was a brick of chocolate Liliana had brought back from a meeting in Barcelona and quince with cheese - unbelievable! Norberto and Liliana went to bed and I figured I would hang out with Carla a bit before ordering a taxi home - was I wrong!
Carla, her cousin and I hung out in the kitchen listening to music and drinking champagne (they live well and I really, really enjoy it). After the champagne were more drinks and then we were off. Her cousin had friends with an apartment party and from there we went to a secret club. A friend had rented out the space for her birthday party and it was amazing! I made it home at 6:30AM! It was a night of great conversations, drinks and places - not a word of English the whole time.
Jueves - Thursday - Independence day
I met up with a friend of a friend and his friend... confusing. Mike is an Iowa guy and Julian is a former colleague of his. They're touring around South America and I was proud to serve as their ambassador to Buenos Aires. We grabbed lunch at the oldest cafe in BsAs, the Tortoni - a good mix of authentic food for tourists. I sent them on their way to the Feria de Los Matadores, as I have been there, done that. I continued laying low due to the awful stomach ache I've had for about 2 weeks now. The diet here is getting to me! I'm sure it has more to do with portion sizes than the food itself. Many things were closed for Independence Day, and that combined with the swine flu gave me a nice mellow day. I'm officially getting a hang of the bus schedule, which is nice! No Argentine traditions here for Independence day - it felt like a regular weekend day. I continue to learn something new everyday and I am ever surprised by this city!
Ciao Chicago!
Tess
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