Peanut Butter Asians

Hello all! I am writing from the comforts of my own mattress (more like pad, there are no springs) this evening. Yes! I finally received wifi en casa. Let me tell you explain that this fact does deserve its own blog acknowledgement. It comes as the result of the longest pain in the butt (PitB) process. First, the technician came to install the wifi but nobody was home to let him in. Boo, okay five more days of waiting but thats it. Next, two times for two weeks nobody can make it to setup. Then, when they finally do come, woohoo! We have the wrong modem and turns out I have to dar more pesos for another. So alas, after a month since the fought began and after being told 4 times that internet access was mere moments away, I am finally celebrating it as reality! hazaa!

So, back to actually important matters. You know, things that deal with my personal thoughts and experiences and oh yeah, Buenos Aires. Lets see, I left July 17th and today is September 5th. Is that 7 weeks? 8 weeks? Well anyway Ive been gone for quite a long time! Im having an amazing time here but there are things and people at home that I miss. In the past few days the weather has gone from sunny and perfect for sandals and a t-shirt, to "why am I here when California is drenched with sunshine right now?" The official start of spring is less than three weeks away so hopefully by then I wont have cold weather to complain about on my blog.

Its really hard when you havent blogged for a few days and you want to update people on all the activities you been doing and you cant remember everything. I will just stick to things I can remember and see where that gets back.

This past week I've evaluating my living situation. I think I made my life a lot better by asking Beatriz to eat with me from time to time. She told me she didnt eat dinner, only fruit, because she is trying to lose weight. I was like, eh whatever, except that she would sometimes actually eat real food later at night in her room! And why couldn't she eat her fruit while I ate dinner? So, now we eat together more- or at least she is present when I eat. Its great because its a time of the day where I most definitely practice conversing in spanish. The first night we ate together she showed me pictures of her family and of the apartments she redocorates as one of her many endeavors. To reciprocate, I ran upstairs, grabbed my computer and gave her like a 30 minute long slide show of my life. It was kind of force-fed, but she at least feigned interest. It was a lot of storylike explanations in spanish so it was good practice.I mean, I had to supplement all your weird faces with something! Also, the other night we had dinner with her mother and her son Federico. Her mother made this uber tasty lentil soup/stew dish that had sausage and meat and uhh lentils. That of course was followed by panqueques (crepes) and dulce de leche and strawberries. Needless to say I ate more than anyone else at the table.

Yesterday I woke up pretty early. The maid comes to clean on Thursday mornings so I have to be awake and that usually means that I just leave. Last week my excursion during this time was a haircut. Ha. Just now when I wrote haircut I accidentally wrote "haircute". Thats funny and ironic because its NOT cute. I knew it was risky but I had seen results in person and it looked good. The pictures in the place looked good. The people looked good. Me, no good.
It kind makes me look like either: mrs. brady, hallie berry 5 years ago (it looked good on HER), or a 15 year old argentine boy. Hair grows back right? Please give me hope! Anyway, its done so there is really no point in regretting it. When I complained to my friend Ben, he told me he felt way better about his haircut after he blogged about it. hmph, we'll see. Back to yesterday, I left the house with the thought that I would just get off on some subte stop and walk around until I found something. I texted my friend Dan (from UCLA, I swear I didnt plan to hang out with so many UCLA-ers) who lives in Recoleta to see what he was up to. I ended up stopping by his apartment (right next door to where Jorge Luis Borges once lived) and we decided to go get some food in Barrio Chino (right back near where I live). I wasnt exactly sure where it was, but it wasnt too hard to find. We laughed at how funny it would be if we (two asian kids) ran around Belgrano asking where Chinatown was. Funny how so many cities have chinatowns right? Beatriz told me there has been so much recent immigration that if I come back to Argentina in 10 years Ill have to learn Chinese. Doubt it. Dan asked me, 'do you think they asians here speak english or spanish?' I know, its an odd question because why would they speak english, but ya know, its kinda weird to see. Anyway, it was a delightful time in Chinatown. I had spicy food, we found cheap peanut butter and lots of asian snacks.
That night we met up with some other friends at a restaurant 'tenedor libre' (freefork). It was a giant buffet where you go up and order and they make it for you. I ate paella, chicken, chorizo, ravioli and gnocchi. But by far, the best part was the dessert. This country is soo dangerous for me because they love their sweets and so do I. I mean, it was a spread like Ive never seen or could imagine. It was almost too much. I had little slivers of cheesecake and flan and then ordered a flambeyed apple crepe with dulce de leche and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The only time my stomach feels rock hard is after I eat. Sadness. It was worth it though. I wish I could tell you all it didnt matter anyway because I'm running in the University 10k, but that would be a lie so I won't tell you that. It doesnt help that now Beatriz has given me her account number at Freddo (amazing ice cream store) and that I live a block from one and that on mondays its two for one. I have no will power. Although, I'm hoping to start yoga classes this week and I did go for a run before my tango class the other day. Working out does make me feel good, but really it just allows me to feel free to eat more. I wish you all could taste the meat and pastries here!