A life gone to the dogs

Today I went on a run. I woke up early and went on a run. Yeah, typically not my style. It was the first excursion I have made with the purpose of a exercising. My exercise lately has been a lot of walking- unfortunately due to getting turned around or lost. Anyway, as I ran/walked through the parks around Palermo,-right next to the zoo I´m too scared to go into because it just looks like caged animals- I came to some realizations. Why do they call it Buenos Aires? The air here actually kinda sucks. Its probably amplified because it is winter time and generally everything to me seems worse when its cold and somewhat gloomy, but man it was kinda hard to run... or at least I tell myself this when I walk after a couple blocks. Maybe I just need a lesson on some sort of name etymology for this city. Also, I realized they LOVE dogs here. Okay, I knew this all along, but after today there could seriously be no doubt in anyones mind how many dog owners exist in Buenos Aires. I´m also thinking that my mom is right and I should become a dog walker because as far as I can see, it could be pretty lucrative. Anyway, let me give your some of my first hand observations/analyses: I would not be surprised up I saw at least 300 dogs today; they have these little hitching hooks in the ground in the park where one-three dogs get tied up, few run around, but mostly the dog walkers hitch them up and so its just DOGS scattered everywhere; I have seen various combinations of dog breeds being walked together, generally its small with other small dogs, and large with large but really in the park there were just all kinds of dogs and no distinction as to who really belonged to who, interestingly though today, is I saw a group of just beagles. Like 25 beagles between two people. What? An exclusive beagle walker? Its really an odd sight so I can´t imagine what this same walk would´ve been like for someone who didn´t like dogs.
Ha. I just wrote an entire paragraph about dogs. I guess I just find it so intriguing.
So yesterday it rained and thank goodness Beatriz semi prepared me for it. I had all that I needed except I forgot that the boots I was wearing have very poor grip on the wet, slippery concrete that makes up the sidewalks of Belgrano. I had to do this weird stomping step where I lifted my leg from my knee and kind of marched all the way home. It probably looked funny but I was trying to avoid humiliating myself by falling. Honestly, I had several thoughts while marching home: 1) I could fall while I´m in the middle of crossing the street and since cars really pay little to no attention to pedestrians I would be run over and crushed to death 2) I could slip and seriously injure myself and not be able to communicate with all the spanish speakers what happened 3) ... and probably my most prominent and also logical fear: I could slip and fall directly above a fresh pile of dog poo (I assume the ensuing repercussions need no explanation)
Well, good news! I got home safe, in one piece, not very wet and definitely not covered in any sort of feces!
So, enough once again about dogs. This weekend, I have made plans to go to Cordoba. We have monday off for a holiday so I´m looking forward to a five day weekend! I´m not quite sure exactly what my days will consist of but it will be cool to see what is in another part of Argentina. We booked an omnibus for the 9 hour drive for 240 pesos round trip. Not too bad. The buses on double decker luxury vehicles with recliners and stuff. We leave tomorrow at midnight so hopefully its a comfortable ride. We also booked a hostel for two nights for a few of us and from there we´ll see what we can find exploring the city. Im going with 6 others for sure, but there is some possibility of others being in the same place! Vamos a ver.
In other news, I have been enjoying my tapatio hot sauce that I brought from the states (thanks kev). It has been que rico on empanadas (now lovingly nicknamed empies), milanesa de pollo and whatever meat item I dined on anoche. Oh Oh Oh and how could I forgot my grand and glorious news? Im getting wifi!!!!! woohoo. Now I will not have to endure smelly, coughing people (such as the person next to me right now) in a communal computing lab!!!!
Okay, unfortunately they DO give homework here so I must be off to do it. Chau chau.

in honor of this dog themed post I´d like to give a shoutout to some real fine pooches in my life: Penny, Beckham, Kiwi, Russel and yes you too Tango! (I mean, you are from argentina anyway right?)