Fin de Semana

Holaaaa. So this was supposed to be a relaxing weekend in which I did nothing / saved money after a hectic and expensive (but totally worth it, danny!) week with my friend. The thing is it's kind of hard to do nothing with so much going on in this city! Here we go...my friend Ed's parents were here visiting this week and Thursday night they took my friend Hanna and I out to dinner at Clasica y Moderna, the cool bookstore/restaurant with live music where we'd been a couple of weeks before. We heard some great guitar and piano, had the best pasta we've had in the city, and drank plenty of wine and coffee. It was really fun to be with someone's parents for a night because it kind of felt like home. Friday we had the shorter of our two visa appointments, but mine still took an hour and a half. We had to be fingerprinted at the police station and such. Friday night the program had organized a free trip to the theatre for 15 students. We saw the play Gorda, which is adapted from Fat Pig, written by an American playwright. We were in the third row and it was super good and fairly easy to understand. It was about this very obese woman and how a normal weight man falls in love with her but receives a ton of criticism from his friends / the culture. The woman was in her bra and underwear or a swimsuit for half the play, and it was interesting to see how it was received in a society with such a high rate of eating disorders and demand for thin women. After the play I went home and ate empanadas out on the balcony with Fran and his friend Fede (the one they call Gordo, ironically). They tried to help me with my pronunciation and then we played guitar and ate the Thin Mints my mom sent me. Fede had mentioned something about Girl Scouts, and even though I really wanted to hoard the cookies for myself I decided they needed to try them. Around 1 AM I was ready for bed and they went out to a party.

Saturday morning was an outdoor practice for the UCA soccer team. I was really excited to finally get to wear my cleats and play outside, and it was a fun couple of hours, even if the level of play wasn't quite what I'm used to. The field was pretty far away at their "agriculture" campus, but it was nice enough (except for having no nets). After practice I took the subway home with this girl from Bolivia and she helped me find the apartment of another Argentine girl who is lending me a coat for my trip this weekend. Saturday evening Argentina was playing Venezuela in World Cup qualifying. My host sister and her little kids came over and we all ate sandwiches and watched the game on the host mom's bed. Everyone was super into it and apparently it was a big deal because it was Maradona's first important game as coach or something. I played with the 2 yr. old girl a lot, and I think finally we're friends. The 4 yr. old Mateo was also much more friendly. It's hard for me to tell if they don't like me because children don't like me in general or because I accost them when they're off by themselves and try to talk to them in some terrible imitation of their language. After that I went to dinner with a couple of my friends at this all you can eat restaurant in Palermo. It was probably the most wonderful place I have ever been to in my life haha. It was the best quality of food I've had here or probably anywhere, even though it was all you can eat. Everything was made to order, so they had lines for asado/meat grill (with huge steaks, etc.), pasta dishes, sushi, fish, tarts, pizza, and desserts. After that we were too stuffed and tired to do anything so we just went home.

I'm going to do yesterday in a separate post because we did so much stuff. Today I slept in, did some errands, and then went to see the indy American movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist with Hanna. Right now the Buenos Aires independent international film festival is going on, so there are awesome movies from all over the world playing all over the city. We both had wanted to see that movie this fall in Madison and never got around to it, so we decided to do it, even though I felt a little guilty going to it in Argentina. I am seeing a different Argentine film on Wednesday though. Tomorrow I have two classes and soccer practice, plus the program director is taking all the March birthdays out to lunch, so it should be another busy day, but after that come my two vacations so I'm feeling good! Oh yes, we bought bus tickets to Salta, the capital of a northern province, for Easter weekend. It is an 18 hour trip each way but the buses are apparently insanely nice--totally reclining seats with foot rests, AC, breakfast and dinner served, etc. Well, thanks for reading, hasta pronto!