$$$$$$$$$$

I just found about 3 pesos in MONEDAS and I am therefore ecstatic

Home At Last

Well I made it, after a 10 hour flight in which I almost succumbed to hypothermia, followed by serious neck pain and a brief stopover in the Agricultural Section of US Customs ( ? ) ... I don't think I carried any farm animals or products in from Argentina, but whatever.

It's been nice but I'm freezing my face off. I'm cold. The Customs Man commented on my nice tan. It was a lovely way to start my day.

Anyhow, I am telling people I have Anthrax because I have take Cipro for this gross thing I have on my foot ( t.m.i ? ) ... Whatever. I googled images of anthrax and let me tell you folks it is no picnic. I'm glad I don't really have it.

O'Hern is the best and sent me THIS funny interview with the wonderful Rufus Wainwright and it appears that he, too, suffers from ailments of the foot. I don't know if I will heed his advice about remedy but it was well appreciated.

I'm off to a hot hot bath because I'm still frozen to the core and then will be decorating the Christmas tree and trying not to have a mental breakdown because my family is CRAZY

Feliz Navidad !

Felices Fiestas

Ok folks I'm coming home. Will arrive in the good old United States of America tomorrow morning and could not be more excited. Although today was really wonderful as I lounged poolside and soaked up some December rays. I'm not necessarily looking forward to the awful weather that is going to accompany my visit.

Anyway, life is great, apartment is great, great weekend, great dinner, great whatever ... I am also just really ready to get home and see Bella and Redmere and eat INDIAN.

That's really all I care about.

Ok if you want to see me for my limited Northern America tour, let me know, we can eat Chipotle and/or not have to worry about the shortage of coins .... ah, bliss

Moving Day

Well folks today is the BIG day where I finally move into my own apartment in lovely Belgrano. I have been all over the map today for work and cannot believe that I have that much STUFF to put into my suitcases. Really, like, WTF. Seriously. Half of my clothes I brought I won't even need to use because my job doesn't make me wear office formal casual professional chic whatever you want to call it. Nice, but not nice when I have to move it from its lovely resting place in a closet into a tiny VW Gol and then into my new home.

Anyyyyyyyway. Won't have internet and will probably be too busy jumping on the bed to think about email and whatnot. Am coming back to America next week so we'll catch up then. Cannot wait to get into the Christmas spirit ( dare I say it, with cold weather ) and am really looking forward to stuffing my face with Indian food.

Bandit

Please read about little Bandit's plight to have a normal life again. I want a tortoise and I WANT ONE NOW

Great Minds Think Alike

Here is proof that I'm not the only one who complains, slash, proof that Argies are crazy.
List courtesy of the wonderful Katie

I Love America Because:

People do not hoard coins and then sell them on the black market
When Madonna has a concert, those going to the show don't park in the emergency lane of I-95 any other major US highway located close to the concert venue.
You don't have to pay some rag carrying ¨guarda autos¨ to look after your car at night.
Hosing off the sidewalk in front of your house with filtered water for twenty minutes every morning is not called ¨cleaning¨ it´s called wasting hundreds of gallons of potable drinking water because you and your fellow citizens haven´t been taught how to use a garbage can or an ashtray.
You don't have to unlock the toilet paper every time you use the bathroom in a US office building.
The amphibious Nike sandals never made it onto the NYC fashion circuit (thank god).
1. Taxi drivers don't go on strike because they are mad that the number of people who take cabs has dropped dramatically since….well, the stock market crashed and we entered a world recession.
Graffiti (or stenciling as they call it here) is not art; it's the defacement of property.
Ham and cheese in not considered vegetarian.
Men don´t drink diet coke.
Selling stolen paintbrushes and remote controls on the train and subway is not considered ¨making a living, ¨ it's called robbery.
The only people who drink Fanta and other orange soda like liquids are 5 year olds at birthday parties.
Empanadas are not a food group.
Men wear suits to work because they have to, not because they want to.
Having a bachelor's degree does not give you the right to be a professor at an accredited university.
Just because you graduate law school does not mean you are a lawyer. Same goes for someone who studied chemistry in undergrad is not a chemist DAMMIT!
People go to work
Parsianas don´t exist.
Stoplights mean something
Miracle, Sun and Jesus are not names of your children.
In a pharmacy, you don't have to go to three counters and speak to four different people before you are allowed to purchase a box of tampax.
Not everyone is catholic.

The Only Post Worth Reading

I GOT A JOB !!!!

Yep that's right folks
I am now going to be joining the workforce, and am damn happy
Much better than resigning myself to the tour-guiding world, I will be holding lovely and relatively normal office hours with a group of great fun young people and am really looking forward to getting started.

Check out the website:
Road2Argentina.com

Here are related pictures and/or graphs ( pie charts, whatever )

Viaje Del Orto

I just heard about this blog that seriously documents the pathetic state of public transport in Buenos Aires and the suburbs. Luckily I've never been robbed on the train or bus ( more common in the poorer, further away neighborhoods ) but I guess I am inured to the pretty pathetic state of things when you ride the train, subway or bus ... I just chalk it up to Third World Glory.

Here is the website: http://viajecomoelorto.blogspot.com/

Here are some pictures:



A random dog hanging out, occupying your seat on the subte, typical. Rain = floods, typical. Ticket windows that are randomly just not working, or have a person there but they really don't feel like helping you, typical.

Are You Joking

Ok I know it's Friday night and I promise I'm about to leave but I just could not let this one slide away into the abyss of amnesia.

As I mentioned earlier, Madonna has taken over Buenos Aires and is doing 4 shows over the weekend. Great, cool, rad, it's Madonna she's the jam, hooray.

Tonight the news spent 15 minutes filming, analyzing, interviewing, etc. all about the Madonna concert. But not really the concert itself. The news item was all about the "PARKING ATTENDANTS" WHO SET UP SHOP IN A 20 BLOCK RADIUS AND CHARGED PEOPLE UPWARDS OF 40 PESOS A CAR TO PARK ... ON A PUBLIC STREET.

Is this a freaking joke or what ? Like, seriously. These unemployed villa-dwellers who have no real income and no real work incentive thought it would be a great idea to rip everyone off as much as they could and think that they can get away with it. They were charging some only $20 ("because up the hill they'll charge you $30 !! This is a deal"), and I still cannot believe that people paid. Granted, I cannot believe that these people have the gall to walk up to you and say "Hey, buddy, it's going to be 20 bucks (but pesos) for the car...I'll watch it for you" -- if you don't pay and you tell them to F off, they can't make you leave, but you can rest assured that your car will not be in the same pristine state it was when you left it earlier in the evening.

This is a completely legitimate "business" now and the police - who dot every other corner or so - seemed to have no problem with it. Well that's because the cops here are probably the most useless and corrupt people in the city. But that's another story.

I was laughing out loud at the tv tonight but was also in complete shock - there is no way that would go over in D.C. If you're going to get ripped off for parking you do it in a private lot where you at least know what you're getting into.

Last time I checked I don't want a funky smelling guy with a dirty rag "watching" my car for me.

A Quiz

Who can guess which of these products is orange juice and which is a SOY-MILK PRODUCT FLAVORED WITH ORANGE ????? I'm sorry but last time I checked, this is deceptive advertising and incredibly NOT helpful when trying to make a carrot-ginger soup that requires a splash or 10 of ( real ) orange juice.

Madonna in BA

OK so Madonna is in BA for a string of concerts and all I would like to say is, yes, she is a beast, she has a sick bod and her shows are incredible. Great. Cool. But anyone can look that good if you are in the gym for 4 hours a day with your trainer and if you only eat a macrobiotic diet. Also, her face scares me. A lot. The cheek-mouth connected part there really makes me feel nervous.

Anyway. Madonna met Cristina Kirchner yesterday and it made me throw up in my mouth. Here are pictures. ( Madonna played Evita, Cristina thinks she's the new reincarnation of Evita. Right. Because owning an Hermes bag worth a semester at Boston College really reflects that you're " a woman of the people " when your fellow citizens are buying an mp3 player in installments. )

Hmm

I'm finding it very ironic that the news has decided to spent 15 minutes doing a special news spotlight on the dangers of dieting when all you see all over this damn city are offers to eliminate cellulite, drop 10 lbs in a week, burnburnburn fat, and stick-thin women whose fake breasts protrude from their bodies only to exacerbate the contrast between the silicone and the bones that show through their skin.

That's all.

Well

Apparently I was being punished by someone or something when I complained about the flooding because I have been in bed for 2 days with a fever and inexplicable back hurting-ness. Great. Oh well. I'm finally feeling on the mend, and the only way I know that for sure is that I finally am hungry again ( do you know how hard it is for me to NOT eat for 2 days ? ) ... But I feel that stuffing my face with meat might not be the remedy my body is looking for.

Good news ! The apartment will be available a week from Friday. Huzzah. Next week we're swinging by to check it out and make sure it's shipshape before committing for good. I am beyond ecstatic. I am also so beyond happy to be coming home in 2 weeks for Christmas !! Really, even though it's strange to think that now going "home" is now more like "vacation" ... a.k.a I will no longer be staying at home for any extended period of time. I am just glad to think about reuniting with Bella and stuffing my face with Indian and bringing back some stuff for my apartment. Nothing mayjah. Speaking of mayjah, I finally saw "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and thought it was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while. Completely hilarious. I have always loved the main actor since Mere and I saw "Slackers" and now I still find myself singing the Dracula Musical song when I'm bored. So you should watch it.

I'm watching "The Dead Poets Society" and I'm always so thankful that cableTV here is good. I love being able to be ill and pathetic and boring in bed while watching "Serial Mom" "Scrubs" "Sunset Tan" and of course, the most hyped-up TV presentation of the year, "Britney: For the Record." Anyway, all I am proving right now is that I am lame. Moving on.

Tomorrow I need to call the Registro Nacional de Reincidencia, which basically is the place you go to get fingerprints done so they can confirm you are not a criminal in Argentina. I hope that I can get that taken care of ASAP because then I will have almost all of my paperwork together. I just need to get my birth certificate confirmed by the Argie consulate in the states, and then have it translated ( luckily I have someone who can do that, huzzah ) ... People we're getting closer to the coveted DNI. And by coveted I mean I'm the only person in the world who wants to have Argentine documentation. As the Indian himself says, "usually people try to get papers from a country that is a little better off than their own ... "

My eyes hurt from the screen and I'm going to go rest a tad more. I'm hoping all is well in the winter wonderland of the Northern Hemisphere and can't wait to be home for Christmas.