Mon-Thurs = classes!! On Wednesday night I got to hang out with a new friend, Adriana, we met only once before and it was about a year ago, we have a mutual friend back in Florida, so that's how we connected. Through Adriana, I met 6 other Argentine girls and we hung out at one of their (Augustine's) apartment. We drank beer, ate empanadas, chatted (in my case mainly listened to others chatting), and looked at a bunch of underwear. Yes underwear. A couple of the girls sell it as a job so they just pulled out a duffle bag filled with undies, pretty amusing.
To stay with Thursday tradition, I went out to Pub Crawl, and we can just say that it was a pretty crazy night and leave it at that.
Friday was recuperation/lay around and do nothing day.
Saturday I got my culture fix and took a tour of the Casa Rosada, the Argentine government building. It's painted pink as a symbol of the harmony of the two primary political parties (federals which are Red, and the unitarians which are White). I now fully support the US's adoption of a Purple house, how sick would that be??? After our nice little history lesson we headed over to the famous Café Tortoni (the oldest café in Argentina) to have some coffee and dulces. I got a torta (cake) called Bonbon Suiza, it was amazing. Afterwards we strolled down Calle Florida where there are a lot of touristy and cheap vendors. Here I bought a Boca fútbol team soccer ball :)
Today, we went to the park, where I got to try out said soccer ball and laze around in the sun for the afternoon. Just a teensy bit warmer and it would've been perfect, but regardless, it was a beautiful day and it felt great to be outside and mess around with a soccer ball.
Think I forgot about last night??? WRONG I absolutely did not, just saving the entertaining story for last. So last night I was going to meet some friends at a park to drink a little and hang out (it was yet another election day eve, hence no bars/clubs were serving alcohol). We've been to this park before, I know exactly where it is, and so I look up in my Guia (guide book with all the bus routes that ISA gave us) which buses traveled from my part of town to this park, wrote about five options down on my hand, and head off. The first bus from my list that showed up was the 111, so I hop right on. Very shortly afterwards it turns to the left, which I knew was in the opposite direction of where this park is. So I pull out my Guia and double check to make sure the bus in fact does end up at the park, it said it did, so I figured I'd be patient. After about 20 minutes of patiently sitting on the bus, I really regretted not getting off and turning around, but the area the bus was in was too sketchy to turn back now, so I continued to go along for the ride. My friends call me to make sure I'm still coming, and I explain my bad choice of bus and let them know I'll be a little late. Maybe about 20 more minutes later I'm getting really nervous, so I start following the bus route street for street in my Guia. Even though I have no idea where I am, the streets are matching up, so I figure it will end fine. Then the bus takes a couple of streets that are not listed in the Guia, I figure I better address this situation head on. I ask the bus driver when we are going to get to the park, "Park off of Maria de Campos?? We don't go there, thats in a completely different province!!" (in Spanish). I proceed to have a mini mind freak out and try to talk with him about how to fix this. Apparently the all-knowing Guia is capable of making errors. I'm at a bus stop, in a different province, I'm having a really hard time understanding the nice bus drivers, and all I could gather was that I need to take the 140 back and I'd have to wait 40 minutes for the next one. I may or may not have shed a tear or two at this point... I was pretty freaked out. The nice old bus driver saw this, and graciously escorted me to a different bus stop, spoke to the driver of that bus, explained my sitch, and got me going in the right direction. (I LOVE this man). Then I sit on this bus for 20-30 minutes, endure some creepy guy saying "wow" to me, the 8 screaming babies/children/terrors that rode with us for a good 15 minutes, and the cute, yet rather loud gum-smacking old man. Finally bus driver number 2 tells me to get off here, and to take bus 114. Here I wait with a drunk man leaning on the telephone wire for 10 min, then hop on 114. Luckily, this was a short and easy bus ride and within 10 minutes I FINALLY met up with my friends. Such an incredibly stressful night, but everything worked out, and I really enjoyed just hanging in the park. I thought I was done getting THAT lost, but I now know to not assume such things. Lessons learned:
- ALWAYS ask the bus driver if they in fact are going to your destination, or say where you want to go as you enter.
- NEVER, EVER TAKE COLECTIVO 111!!!!!
Off to other things,
Chau!
No comments:
Post a Comment