en serio?

Well, Saturday our remaining two soccer games were canceled because of the gripe epidemic. Fears about swine flue just exploded here while we were in Chile. They have now shut down all of the city's schools and universities. A lot of boliches and dance clubs are also closing. Other students in my program who still had exams to take are scrambling to write replacement final papers since they obviously can't stay till August, when the Argentine students will have to take their finals before their next semester starts. Fran, for example, had already started studying for some of his finals, but now has to spend his 4 week winter vacation worrying about them, so that sucks for him. It was also too bad about soccer, because now I won't get to say good-bye to some of the Argentine girls. Saturday night I went out to dinner with some girls and then we briefly stopped by someone's birthday party...pretty "tranqui" night for my last Saturday in BA, but the flu really did close quite a lot of places down, and the soccer girls couldn't really get their acts together to go dancing like we'd planned anyway.

Sunday afternoon the same girls and I went to San Telmo to do the touristy outdoor market thing one more time. It was a nice day, and we just wandered around and had lunch at a cafe. After that I left by myself to go to a nearby neighborhood, Parque Patricio, to meet up with my Argentine friend Fer, from soccer. It's kind of hard to explain the Argentine soccer league point system, but yesterday was basically the championship, and she's a big fan of one of the teams who was playing, Huracan, and lives close to their stadium. Anyway, we went to just a normal cafe thing, full of families and couples, to watch the game on TV, since it isn't broadcast to houses. We'd been sitting there about forty minutes, just talking and having a beer, when two men with guns came in and robbed all of the patrons/the cash register. It was all over very quickly, but it was the scariest situation of my life. At first I didn't realize what was going on. There was some commotion over by the door, but I thought people were having a disagreement about the game, given how intense fans get here. Then all of a sudden I looked up at the bar, close to where we were sitting, and there was a guy with a gun. Apparently he was telling everyone to put their valuables on the table, because Fer was taking everything out of her pockets. I immediately put my money, my keys, and my cellphone on the table. Luckily I didn't have a purse or anything else because I had already been mugged (thank you, father, for the lesson between robberies and muggings) in Chile. There were several children in the restaurant who started crying, and a woman was having a panic attack, hyperventilating and flailing around in the corner. One guy by us stood up, but the guy pointed the gun at him, made him get on the floor, and said "te juro, voy a matarte" (I swear I'll kill you). That was the one thing I actually understood of what anyone was saying. Let me tell you, in panic mode, your Spanish just leaves you. I didn't know what to do, and at first I was just saying out loud, in English, to Fer, "what do I do. Oh my God. what's going on." But luckily she realized what was happening first and told me to shut up and look down. The guy came over and grabbed all of our cash and my phone. He left my keys and my monedas, and Fer actually scooped them up before we left, since they're so valuable haha. I also had a present I had just bought for my mom on the table, but I accidentally left it there in the hurry to get out. Basically, they took everything, left really quickly, and then everyone started panicking and screaming. So Fer and I just got up and left, obviously without paying for the beer, and walked to her house in the other direction about 6 blocks as fast as we could. Fer felt so bad about taking me to a bar in a bad neighborhood, etc. etc. but it was a perfectly respectable place, in the middle of the day. They just timed it so no one would be on the streets during such a big game I guess. I couldn't even tell her I was fine though. I was hyperventilating and all I could say was "okay, okay, okay" over and over again. When we got to her house we calmed down a little and my Spanish came back, then her sister lent me money and I called a taxi. The taxi passed the place on the way to my house and there were a bunch of police cars and an ambulance there...probably for the woman in shock, because no shots were fired or anything.

When I got home, Claudia and Fran weren't there, and my parents weren't answering on Skype, but luckily I was able to reach Danny and talk to him for a bit. I was freaking out because my emergency phone number card was in my purse in Chile, and without my cellphone I couldn't call anyone here. I found Fran's cellphone number in the kitchen, but I don't know how to call cellphones from their land line. I ended up going down to the apartment below us where Fran's best friend Fede lives. I just started crying and couldn't really even explain what happened, but his family was super nice and he called Fran for me. He and Claudia were at the grandma's house down the street, so they told me to come over there. I did, but the entire extended family was there and it was just awkward so I went back home again. But then I realized I still didn't have any phone numbers, and I was just in shock I guess and didn't want to be alone. I eventually found my friend Katie's house phone, and she and Hanna dropped their movie plans and came over to sit in the lobby with me till Claudia got home. They ended up getting me pizza and chocolate, and then Claudia let them come up, so we just hung out for a couple of hours. It was so nice of them, because otherwise I'm sure I couldn't have gotten my mind off of it. I would have liked to go to the movie with them but I was literally terrified of going out on the street.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better today, but it's just crazy that two bad things could happen to me like that in one week. Just really bad luck, and it makes you want to hide out in your bed. Today it was raining, and I haven't left the apartment except for to get lunch at the bakery on our block, but hopefully I can go out tomorrow to do something at least. Although at this point with no money and no cellphone, there's really not much to do/it's hard to make plans with people. I literally had 200 Argentine pesos sitting in my room to survive on when I got back from Chile. And then I got robbed and became broke yet again. I'm borrowing money and it's going to be fine, but seriously. I'm just incredibly paranoid now, and every person I pass could have a gun. The other day a woman was killed after taking out money from an ATM on the main street right by me. It's just crazy. You run across someone on paco or other drugs or something, and they could kill you for 10 pesos, they're so addicted (this is what I wrote my 10 page paper on, ironically). I know bad things happen everywhere, but it makes me want to go home. And I'm going home Friday, so I suppose this was the time for this kind of thing to happen.

Well, hopefully I will have a completely uneventful rest of the week and be back in blissfully boring old Mequon by the weekend! Chau!