Un "finde" de diversión

This weekend had a lot of fun in store for us.

10 Julio

Friday I woke up before my alarm went off, amazingly, and I saw a bright blend of colors through the window, so, of course, I had to get up and take pictures of the sunrise. It's not everyday that I see it. In fact, this is only the 2nd time I've awoken this early since I've been to BA. Then I went back to my bed and snoozed for at least 30 more minutes. I didn't have to be anywhere for several hours. Eventually, I made myself get up, walk across the terrace, shower, walk back across the terrace, get my stuff together, and go. I took a colectivo to Plaza Italia. Thankfully, it has become easier and easier to find buses that go where I need them to. When I got to the Plaza, I found a booth where you can pay for your bus fare and for your admission to Temaiken, and I was happy because they took bills. I had used all the coins I had on the colectivo to Plaza Italia. After I figured out where I need to pay and where the bus would be, I still had an hour to kill before anyone was going to show up. So, I went to a cafe that I had been to before called "Dulcinea," which, I remembered while breakfasting, is the name of Don Quixote's romantic obsession. Just about every cafe has a breakfast/merienda deal where you can get 3 medialunas (cresent rolls) and a coffee. This cafe also threw in a small cup of fresh-squeezed JN. It was nice and relaxing sitting by myself in the cafe with time to kill. I ate my medialunas slowly and people watched, and I believe the news was on, too: a lot about Gripe A (swine flu) and fútbol (soccer). More customers came in after I did, and each one of them found a table to sit at by him/herself. There were at least 2 old men, and a businesswoman. One of the old men appeared to be a regular, as the waitress knew exactly what to tell the other workers to prepare whenever he walked in. The old men each read the newspaper. I couldn't help but feel like Buenos Aires is a giant clock, or other machine with intricate parts that repeats itself in intervals. Each porteño has his own daily pattern,which varies depending on the stage of life he is in, where he lives, where he works, etc., much like the citizens of any city. I felt like I was peering into this established system, and I can see how tourists would aggravate the flow of things. But then again, tourists almost become part of the system itself, as they come in waves at different times in the year and they add to the economy by buying overpriced merchandise. I've been here long enough to develop my own daily pattern. It's interesting to think that the millions of people that I pass every day are simply following their patterns as well, and they all interconnect to create an economy, politics, etc.

After I finished breakfasting, I sat for as long as I didn't feel awkward doing nothing there, and then when back to our meeting place, where I met Adam. While waiting for Cambria, a woman pinned ribbons on me and Adam (That's how they get you.), and she started talking about how the niños in the north of Buenos Aires who need vaccinations. I didn't want to just walk away after she gave me a cool ribbon to wear, so I gave her 2 pesos (The only other bills I had were 50 and 100), and Adam followed suit. Eventually, Mbr (Cambria) showed up, and we bought our tickets, albeit with some complications. The sign was a little misleading, and the old guy working the booth was not sympathetic. Luckily there was a younger guy who was more so, and he explained everything to us. It's frustrating that everyone here wants to practice their English. So far, if they start speaking in English to me, I'll keep speaking in Spanish, which sometimes ends up being a strange bilingual conversation with each party speaking the language he knows less of. But it all worked out in the end, and we had a pleasant hour-long bus ride to Escobar, the city wherein lies Temaiken Bioparque, basically a zoo and aquarium focused on education about keeping the world healthy. I had had a hankering to see some fish, and Mbr and I both like zoos, so that was the whole reason we planned the trip. Also, everyone we asked about Temaiken talked about how "linda" it is.

Sure enough, Temaiken brought out my inner child, and, I believe, Cambria's, too. I began taking pictures of people who I'd never see again, including our ticket tearer, Ignacio, and a guy cleaning a pond area, which made him look like he was the animal on display. The people there were almost as fun to watch as the animals. The kids were just like American kids at the zoo that we all know and love, being either belligerent or fascinated by the least interesting things. According to Cambria's host mom, there are no squirrels in Argentina, but all over the bioparque there were these strange rodents resembling chipmunks that roamed freely. They looked hilarious when they ran. I should look into figuring out what kind of animal they are. After looking at several exhibits, we were hungry and had milanesa sandwiches and french fries and coke. Milanesa is a breaded meat, normally beef, but I got chicken. Apparently, South Americans don't like ketchup as much as we do. If you ask for it, you get 2 packets, and if you ask for "mucho ketchup," you get 5 packets. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the soft drinks (pop, if you will) here, are all made with real sugar instead of nasty high fructose corn syrup. They taste so much better. Now, if only they had Dr. Pepper down here...

After eating we headed back to the bat house to see them get fed, but we realized we were there an hour early for their feeding time. Also, while looking at the bats, a strange woman looked like she was waving at us from the other side of the exibit. Sure enough, she was waving at us, and sure enough, she was strange. It was Bridget, who had shown up with Alex and her friend Derek. The bats, by the way, were the coolest thing in Temaiken. At about a foot to a foot-and-a-half long from head to claw, they are the largest specie of bat. They were incredible to watch; they looked like something that crawled out of Hades but managed to retain its cute weasel face. It was funny that they used their own wings as a blanket, and they seemed to change position under their covers to get comforable just like we do. Apparently this kind of bat didn't mind being out in the day either, which I thought was strange. Alex was in awe over natural selection, but I was in awe over the supernatural selector.

After the bat cave, we went to the aquarium, which satisfied my craving. There was a 360 degree aquarium filled with tons of sharks, manta rays, etc. Really cool. In the entrance and exit of the area, they would swim above you. In the educational room, mother water narrated a video that looked like it was from Planet Earth and she said to take care of water by not contributing towards pollution. Other animal highlights included the ROUSes, which are actually capybaras (carpincho in Spanish), rodents the size of sheep. By the time we left, the sun was setting again.

When we made it back to Plaza Italia, we took the Subte further in town and Derek, Cambria, Adam, and I went to Freddo, Cambria's ice cream store enchantment. I think she's been just about every day in the past week. I had a cone with Cheesecake de Maracuyá (passionfruit) ice cream.

11 Julio

The next day, sabado, I woke up after dawn and took the Subte all the way to Retiro train station where I was supposed to meet Cambria and Leo. Bridget was going to use a train station closer to her house, and Adam decided to take the day off. When I got to the station, I tried to use my phone, but, of course, I had run out of minutes, so I quickly found a kiosco and bought another. Soon enough, I got a hold of Mbr and she showed up. But, we still couldn't get a hold of Leo, so we waited until 11:30 before getting on a train. In the meantime, I bought some cafe con leche and two donuts. The donuts were really thick and dry. I had to dip them in my coffee to make them edible, which turned out to be really good, and the donut didn't get soggy like most North American donuts.

For some reason, the tickets that they give you don't indicate which platform you're supposed to go to, so we had to ask around and see which platform was going to Tigre. The train itself was a little decepcionante disappointing. It was basically a Subte above ground. Cambria said that the ones she rode in England were a lot cooler. There were more beggars and vendors on the train than there usually are in the Subte. One of them was selling puzzle books like Sudoku, so I bought a set of three, but they were all crucigramas, crossword puzzles. After two stops of the train, Bridget found us, and we all did Spanish crossword puzzles until we arrived in Tigre.

In Tigre's train station, we found a puppy curled up and shivering on a bench, so Bridget who has a heart for all things canine (except maybe the teeth) tried to feed it, but he wouldn't eat, leaving Bridget with a superpancho that she carried around until she found another stray dog who also did not eat it. I wonder if there's something wrong with the panchos, the dogs, or Bridget.

We headed for the famous Tigre fruit market, which I liked a lot. It was like an artisan fair, but with higher-quality goods and with stores that are there every day and not just weekends. I bought a couple magnets: an octupus and a shrimp. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long because we had to meet up with Leo, who had taken an earlier train and befriended 3 British guys. The seven of us met up and found a lancha (boat) that would drive us around the river delta.

Geography lesson: Tigre lies at the delta of a river that runs into the Rio de La Plata, which itself is more like a bay. Thus, there are several islands on which people have built vacation or permanent homes. The only way to get these houses is by boat, kind of like what I imagine Venice is like, but with more grass and trees. So, we got to see all of these houses on our hour-long lancha ride, which was pretty cool maybe the first 30 minutes, and then it all started to look the same. According to my host family, Tigre is much more enjoyable during the summer when you can do kayaking, canoing, swimming, and other fun water activities.

The thing that took up most of our time in Tigre was traveling. We walked everywhere because we weren't familiar with the transportation there and didn't want to pay for it. After the boat ride we parted ways with the Britons and started walking to the Museo del Arte de Tigre (MAT). MAT is a beautiful building right at the tip of the peninsula that Tigre is on. Unfortunately, the contents of the museum were not very interesting. There was an entire section of the museum devoted to an Argentine band that I've never heard of, and some of the visual art was interesting, but there was not much of it.

After wasting a bunch of time at the museum, we headed back inland, toward the fruit market. When we passed the train station, Leo and Alex (who appeared in the museum) took off, and Cambria, Bridget, and I kept walking toward the fruit market. Bridget was determined to buy a picnic basket. On the way, we walked past a restaurant called "Waffles del Mundo" (Waffles of the World). The food in the window looked so good that we decided we would come back after getting the basket, which we did. Bridget got a waffle on stick that was filled with dulce de leche; Cambria got a normal looking waffle, but it was topped with chocolate and dulce de leche; and I got a cheesecake and coffee. The coffee happened to be the biggest one I've been served in Argentina, and it made me really happy, but the cheesecake was subpar. When Cambria ordered her waffle, the woman selling them asked "Waffle?" pronouncing it "waff-lay," and she got a big kick out of that. After sugaring up, we head back to the train station and went home where dinner was almost ready. At my house, I ate with only Brenda and Nico. We had locro, which they said was a typical Argentine meal. It's like a stew made mostly with hominy, but there was also pork in it; I liked it a lot, especially with the salsa that they had. Interestingly, the food tends to be pretty bland here; porteños don't seem to like spicy food. Nico and Brenda each used a tiny bit of the salsa, but I used a lot of it.

12 Julio

Sunday was a laid-back day. Adam met me outside my house again, and we took the Subte to the church that we visited last week. I enjoyed it again and felt really good when I was able to sing the fast songs. This time during the greeting time I kissed five people I didn't know, and the guy behind me gave me a big hug with rubs after his kiss as if he knew me. I was able to follow along to the sermon much better, but now I can't tell you what it was about. After church, we took the Subte to Plaza Miserere and had superpanchos for lunch, then I went home and chilled and did homework until dinnertime. At dinner I learned from Amanda that instead of saying "fin de semana" all the time, they often just call the weekend a "finde," which makes me laugh. Oh, language...