El atraco (The Mugging)

24 Julio

Friday I played the snooze game with my alarm clock on my phone and ended up gaining complete consciousness fifteen minutes before I was supposed to meet Adam. So I raced to get ready, then took a taxi to Abasto shopping center where we met in front of Burger King. I bought some coffee, and then we walked around the enormous mall. It has four or five stories, and the fifth story is like a Celebration Station or Discovery Zone, for those of you who remember DZ. We had a pretty good time looking at stuff. I was looking for some more comfortable brown shoes, because the ones I wore to the airport dig in to my ankles, and I've had them for several years. I found a store called "Toot" and had to take a picture of it. A mall cop saw me, and explained that we weren't supposed to take pictures. We had lunch in the food court, then parted ways. I was going to look at some stores down the street for some shoes, but I didn't see anything that looked affordable, so I kept walking to various places to buy things for people. I can't say to much or I won't be able to surprise you. On my way back I stopped my the grocery store and bought enough mate to last me through the winter (hopefully the groundhog doesn't see his shadow). Then I had dinner after which I took a colectivo to Palermo. I had to wait for the bus about 30 minutes because not as many run at night. I got off the bus at Plaza Italia, and then I had to walk 10 blocks to the bar where we were having a goodbye party for Gretta. I've had to go to this part of town several times, and it's irritating that colectivos don't go anywhere near there. It was a typical bar, I guess, with a bunch of people and loud music. They even had some disturbing scenes from Clockwork Orange rolling on a projector. Bridget didn't like the music, so she, Cambria, Gill, and I decided to go somewhere else where there was actual dancing. We couldn't find the place that Cambria wanted, and I had to pee like the dickens, so we stopped in a restaurant and (after using their bathroom) had some fries and guacamole. I had a good time, but the girls, wanting to dance, didn't. After that, much to Cambria's dismay, we went home because it was already nearing 5 am.

25 Julio

Saturday I slept in well into the afternoon. When I checked my email, Amanda, from downstairs, sent me a Facebook message, inviting me to lunch at Natural Deli, one of her favorite restaurants here. During dinner we had fun talking it up about various things, home being one of them. I explained (and was reminded) to Amanda that no one city is my home any more since I've moved so much since high school. Instead, my home is people, so I have a little bit of home in Shawnee; Moore; Midwest City; Choctaw; Columbia, Missouri; and Spaldergeibenheimen, Germany. Anyway, it was a great little restaurant, one that I thought Val would appreciate a lot. I got coffee and some sort of chicken sandwich that had pesto and sunflower seed kernels. We talked about things we wanted to do that day, and I said I would like to go to the Recoleta feria (artisan fair) where I had been twice before to look for another mate. She was game because she, even though she's been here longer than I have, still hadn't been to a feria. On the way, we stopped at an ATM where we got out money for the feria along with the money I was planning on spreading out over my last two weeks here. The fair was interesting, as usual, filled with handmade you-name-its. Amanda found a table of handmade glass jewelry and went nuts! She ended up buying over 100 pesos worth of jewelry for her and her sister (if she decides to give the jewelry up when she gets home, that is).

Unfortunately, we arrived pretty late to the feria and some vendors were already putting away their merchandise. I had just enough coins to take a colectivo home, and Amanda had to get change from a kind vendor. We didn't have our Guia T's to be certain, but we were pretty sure that the 61 would take us home. We were wrong. The bus took us south and dropped us off at the end of its route to a barrio called Constitución. No big deal; it was only a twenty or thirty minute walk home. We started making our way in that direction, and the dark neighborhood started looking pretty sketchy. Amanda was commenting on just that when two young porteños started walking toward me, preventing me from crossing the street. As they came even closer to me, they mumbled a few words in Spanish, but I could only make out one: dinero. One man came up to each side of me, and I froze in shock as they each stuck their hands in every one of my pockets. The one on my right didn't feel anything he wanted so he started walking away; the one on my left found my wallet, took it out, and starting walking away. Without much of a plan, I followed him a few steps. Given more time, I probably would have tried to figure out a few words to get him to just take the money and give me my wallet back. I couldn't even remember the word for wallet, billetera, but thankfully, the man just took something out, then tossed my wallet on the ground, which I promptly picked up. All he took was the contents of the large pocket: 215 pesos; a copy of my passport, license, and insurance; and 8 weeks worth of collected receipts that I had intended on cleaning out one day. I'm glad he cleaned my wallet out for me, one less thing in the back of my mind. Thankfully, he did not take any of my cards, including my debit card, driver's license, monedero, and Subte passes. Of course, this all happened in 20 seconds or so, but time seemed to stand still. I saw Amanda again, hurriedly walking across their path, but they seemed appeased by their find and didn't go after her. Whenever they started coming toward me, she had hurriedly walked off in another direction, which she later said that she felt bad about. But I am so glad that she did, because they probably would have gone after her, too. If they had gone after her, I would have either frozen up or gotten angry and protective. If I had frozen up, I would never be able to forgive myself for my cowardice, but if I'd reacted, it probably would have ended pretty bad. Furthermore, she had twice as much cash on her as I had. We thought about all these things as we took a taxi home, something we should've done much sooner. Over all, if one of us were to get mugged, it happened in the best way possible (said Pangloss). No one got hurt, and all I lost was cash, pride, and a sense of security. After dinner, I talked to my compadres Connor and Raliegh about it over the phone, which was good for me in light of the situation and good for me in general because I hadn't talked to either of them for weeks. Thank you, God, for my friends. I thought about calling home, but I didn't want Mom to get too worried about me over here. Of course, I did make it public on Facebook, so she would soon find out. I hope you know that I love you, Mom!

26 Julio

Sunday morning I slept in because I had gone to bed so late and because Adam was going to the airport to pick up his parents who are visiting him here on vacation. But I did have a lot of homework to do. I made myself some mate and read a short story by Julio Cortázar a man who vomits conejitos (bunnies) that end up ruining his life. It was very strange, but interesting, too. I learned the next day in class that the bunnies represent words, and the man in the story is an author. Hence, an author must be able to control the words that come out of him, or else they will destroy him. I'll leave you to ponder that.