Roberto Jeremías Bútler on Friday, March 20, 2009 at 9:13pm
Hola! Well, it’s really hard to describe what’s been going on here because everyday is a new adventure. Basically, I’m having the time of my life. I’m still on vacation kinda sorta because my school doesn’t start till Monday, and Rachel is still here with me! Yesterday was an awesome, awesome day.
Believe it or not, I actually woke up at 9 am yesterday because I had a class. I know, I said school doesn’t start till Monday, but I’m going to two universities (hard to explain) so I have class at one university every Thursday. I’m not used to waking up so early here… because we go out so late (averaging coming home at 6 or 7) , I usually wake up around 2 and start my day at 3. Me and Rachel are practically joined at the hip here, we do everything together, it’s awesome. We ride the colectivos together, we eat choripan, and we run across the street dodging traffic. Life is beautiful. Anyways, after resting for a bit after class, Rachel and I went over to Palermo to check out this new youth hostel. I don’t have internet in my house still, so since Rachel has to teach a class, she has to find a place that has a strong internet connection. Last week, she tried giving her class at McDonalds, but it failed…horribly. Instead, she came back at 4 am, alive, with a tennis playing redhead Argentine named Rodrigo. Too much to explain. Anyways, at the hostel we met this really weird couple from Salt Lake City. The girl came by and was like, um, do I know you from somewhere? Obviously, she didn’t know me from Adam, but she was just attempting to start a conversation with me… anyways, since she thought Rachel and I were a couple, she ran downstairs to get her boyfriend so they could have a conversation in English. Up unitl this point, they were completely normal, and I even considered inviting them out to have a beer with us in Plaza Serrano. DEAD WRONG. When her tattooed Tommy Lee like boyfriend came upstairs to greet us, they immediately began to chain smoke KOOL cigarettes and talked our ears off about the poor air quality in Salt Lake City. The guy told me that he lived in Reston, Virgiina for a while, so I brought up the snipers (Anyone remember the sniper story from a few years ago, when that guy named John Malvo (for some reason, I call him John Liquid Malvo, I know it’s weird, but it seems like a good middle name) shot all of those people in Washington D.C and Virginia? Anyways, the girl started freaking out and saying that my story was completely out of context, and she couldn’t relate to the story because she had never been to D.C. “So, give me more details?!? You’re telling me that 8 people got shot in DC, for no reason? Come on, your story is out of context.. I’ve never been to DC? I can’t even relate to this???!? This is so out of context” At this point, I was doing everything in my power not to laugh in her face, but I kept my cool and finished the story. Thenshe began to touch her boyfriend on the back, and he looked her dead in the eye and said “Why are you doing that? (with the tone of voice, What the fuck are you doing?). Rachel and I just sat there in silence, drinking beer, watching the two weirdos talk nonsense Anyways, I asked the guy a question about Uruguay and he immediately got up and said goodbye to us, and left. I wish I had a video camera to tape this freaks, but unfortunately this story will have to do.
Anyways, after we left, we met up with my friend Martin and his friend Leo at Plaza Serrano to drink a beer. I love sitting outside here in the plazas drinking beer because amazing things happen… 25/7 entertainment. No, I didn’t make an error on 25 hours…. Apparently, in Argentina there are 25 hours in the day. Things here that are open all night say OPEN 25 Hours. I still haven’t grasped that concept yet.. I mean, I guess it is true, if it’s open 24 hours, it’s open 25… weird! Anyways, at the table, during the short 45 minutes we sat drinking our beer, 3 freaks came to the table:
Freak 1: La Nina: This little kid came up to me and was like, hey, I remember you!! I gave her a highfive, and we chit chatted a little bit in Spanish. I’m sure my friends were wondering how I knew a 11 year old girl so well, but the truth is that I saw her a few weeks ago, in the same plaza, trying to get money from me. Anyways, we chit chatted, and I made her a deal where I would give her 6 pesos in bills for 5 pesos in change. Now, to any normal person who isn’t from Argentina, this probably sounds like poor drunken judgement, but coins here are so rare and hard to find (but so useful) that I’d do anything to get them. Stores don’t even have change here.. sometimes if you buy something that’s 4.50 and you don’t have change, you’ll either 1) not be allowed to make your purchase or 2) be given little chocolate candies instead of change. It’s so much fun, it’s like a game to get change here! Since you’re only allowed to use coins to ride the bus,finding creative ways to get coins at this point is my favorite pastime. I’d even consider whoring myself out for a few pesos of change! I may end up with syphilis, but at least I’ll be able to ride the bus!
Freak 2: The Magician Pablo:
So, about 10 minutes after the girl /change machine left, a deaf and mute magician named Pablo came to our table and began to mouth words to us. It’s pretty hard for me to read lips in the first place, but reading lips in Spanish is even harder. After explaining hwat he was going to do, he began to do a series of magic tricks in front of us. The magic tricks were pretty awesome, except for one which needed lots of work, because I obviously saw the cards in his hand, but we did give him a few pesos for his effort. He moved on to the next table and started performing the same tricks, but Rachel called him out and I think he was kinda pissed because the girls that he was performing for spoke English. I also don’t think he was deaf, because everytime we yelled out what he was going to do, he turned around. I’m pretty sure he spoke fluent English as well, because we kept talking shit about him and he made faces at us. To most people, this is an annoyance, but I call it cheap entertainment. 1 peso to be entertained by a deaf and dumb musician on a hot summer day while drinking a cold Stella Artois in one of the coolest plazas of Buenos Aires??!?! That’s a steal!
Freak 3: The movie vendor (not really a freak, just a normal bootleg movie dealer, but since the previous two were, I had to follow the pattern)
This guy came to our table to sell us movies… I love that they have amazing bootleg movies here, for so cheap! In the past two weeks, I’ve purchased Milk, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Slumdog Milionaire, Yes Man, Seven Souls, and Gran Torino all for a grand total of $15 dollars. How is this even possible?!? By the way, the word for bootleg in Spanish is TRUCHO. It’s my new favorite vocabulary word… next to peluca.
PS, Argentines are obsessed with wigs.
We left Plaza Serrano, and went and ordered a dozen empanadas to be delivered to the house. My friend Oliver came over, and I watched Oliver and Rachel dance to latin music while we also took tequila shots chased by blue curacao. Disgusting. Anyways, we were all fucked, so we took a taxi over to Palermo to meet up with the guys from my Rotary program. We hung out with the Rotary scholars for a while, drank martinis (martinis here aren’t made with vermouth?!? What the helll?) , actually, the martini was so awful that I had to send it back, and I opted for a long island iced tea. I was so drunk I couldn’t remember the word for “gulp”, so I kept telling everyone that I was going to down the long island iced in three “cuotas” (payments). I thought it was funny, but since that sounds really weird in Spanish, no one else was really laughing. We left there, purchased more alcohol in the back of a shady empanada shop, and me, Oliver and Rachel stood in the line for Club 69, having beer race competitions with random foreigners. Once we got in, I bought us a bottle of champagne for celebration (not really sure what I was celebrating, but it was only $20 bucks!) and we met up with Martin and Leo again. I danced at Club 69 until about 6am in the morning, and then we took the colectivo home and passed out.
So now, I’m here at McDonalds, surrounded by beautiful Argentines, waiting for my friends to come over so we can go out tonight. In order for the club to be free tonight, we have to be there BY 3 am (insane)… so I guess we have plenty of time! I’ll update you tomorrow hopefully!
Believe it or not, I actually woke up at 9 am yesterday because I had a class. I know, I said school doesn’t start till Monday, but I’m going to two universities (hard to explain) so I have class at one university every Thursday. I’m not used to waking up so early here… because we go out so late (averaging coming home at 6 or 7) , I usually wake up around 2 and start my day at 3. Me and Rachel are practically joined at the hip here, we do everything together, it’s awesome. We ride the colectivos together, we eat choripan, and we run across the street dodging traffic. Life is beautiful. Anyways, after resting for a bit after class, Rachel and I went over to Palermo to check out this new youth hostel. I don’t have internet in my house still, so since Rachel has to teach a class, she has to find a place that has a strong internet connection. Last week, she tried giving her class at McDonalds, but it failed…horribly. Instead, she came back at 4 am, alive, with a tennis playing redhead Argentine named Rodrigo. Too much to explain. Anyways, at the hostel we met this really weird couple from Salt Lake City. The girl came by and was like, um, do I know you from somewhere? Obviously, she didn’t know me from Adam, but she was just attempting to start a conversation with me… anyways, since she thought Rachel and I were a couple, she ran downstairs to get her boyfriend so they could have a conversation in English. Up unitl this point, they were completely normal, and I even considered inviting them out to have a beer with us in Plaza Serrano. DEAD WRONG. When her tattooed Tommy Lee like boyfriend came upstairs to greet us, they immediately began to chain smoke KOOL cigarettes and talked our ears off about the poor air quality in Salt Lake City. The guy told me that he lived in Reston, Virgiina for a while, so I brought up the snipers (Anyone remember the sniper story from a few years ago, when that guy named John Malvo (for some reason, I call him John Liquid Malvo, I know it’s weird, but it seems like a good middle name) shot all of those people in Washington D.C and Virginia? Anyways, the girl started freaking out and saying that my story was completely out of context, and she couldn’t relate to the story because she had never been to D.C. “So, give me more details?!? You’re telling me that 8 people got shot in DC, for no reason? Come on, your story is out of context.. I’ve never been to DC? I can’t even relate to this???!? This is so out of context” At this point, I was doing everything in my power not to laugh in her face, but I kept my cool and finished the story. Thenshe began to touch her boyfriend on the back, and he looked her dead in the eye and said “Why are you doing that? (with the tone of voice, What the fuck are you doing?). Rachel and I just sat there in silence, drinking beer, watching the two weirdos talk nonsense Anyways, I asked the guy a question about Uruguay and he immediately got up and said goodbye to us, and left. I wish I had a video camera to tape this freaks, but unfortunately this story will have to do.
Anyways, after we left, we met up with my friend Martin and his friend Leo at Plaza Serrano to drink a beer. I love sitting outside here in the plazas drinking beer because amazing things happen… 25/7 entertainment. No, I didn’t make an error on 25 hours…. Apparently, in Argentina there are 25 hours in the day. Things here that are open all night say OPEN 25 Hours. I still haven’t grasped that concept yet.. I mean, I guess it is true, if it’s open 24 hours, it’s open 25… weird! Anyways, at the table, during the short 45 minutes we sat drinking our beer, 3 freaks came to the table:
Freak 1: La Nina: This little kid came up to me and was like, hey, I remember you!! I gave her a highfive, and we chit chatted a little bit in Spanish. I’m sure my friends were wondering how I knew a 11 year old girl so well, but the truth is that I saw her a few weeks ago, in the same plaza, trying to get money from me. Anyways, we chit chatted, and I made her a deal where I would give her 6 pesos in bills for 5 pesos in change. Now, to any normal person who isn’t from Argentina, this probably sounds like poor drunken judgement, but coins here are so rare and hard to find (but so useful) that I’d do anything to get them. Stores don’t even have change here.. sometimes if you buy something that’s 4.50 and you don’t have change, you’ll either 1) not be allowed to make your purchase or 2) be given little chocolate candies instead of change. It’s so much fun, it’s like a game to get change here! Since you’re only allowed to use coins to ride the bus,finding creative ways to get coins at this point is my favorite pastime. I’d even consider whoring myself out for a few pesos of change! I may end up with syphilis, but at least I’ll be able to ride the bus!
Freak 2: The Magician Pablo:
So, about 10 minutes after the girl /change machine left, a deaf and mute magician named Pablo came to our table and began to mouth words to us. It’s pretty hard for me to read lips in the first place, but reading lips in Spanish is even harder. After explaining hwat he was going to do, he began to do a series of magic tricks in front of us. The magic tricks were pretty awesome, except for one which needed lots of work, because I obviously saw the cards in his hand, but we did give him a few pesos for his effort. He moved on to the next table and started performing the same tricks, but Rachel called him out and I think he was kinda pissed because the girls that he was performing for spoke English. I also don’t think he was deaf, because everytime we yelled out what he was going to do, he turned around. I’m pretty sure he spoke fluent English as well, because we kept talking shit about him and he made faces at us. To most people, this is an annoyance, but I call it cheap entertainment. 1 peso to be entertained by a deaf and dumb musician on a hot summer day while drinking a cold Stella Artois in one of the coolest plazas of Buenos Aires??!?! That’s a steal!
Freak 3: The movie vendor (not really a freak, just a normal bootleg movie dealer, but since the previous two were, I had to follow the pattern)
This guy came to our table to sell us movies… I love that they have amazing bootleg movies here, for so cheap! In the past two weeks, I’ve purchased Milk, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Slumdog Milionaire, Yes Man, Seven Souls, and Gran Torino all for a grand total of $15 dollars. How is this even possible?!? By the way, the word for bootleg in Spanish is TRUCHO. It’s my new favorite vocabulary word… next to peluca.
PS, Argentines are obsessed with wigs.
We left Plaza Serrano, and went and ordered a dozen empanadas to be delivered to the house. My friend Oliver came over, and I watched Oliver and Rachel dance to latin music while we also took tequila shots chased by blue curacao. Disgusting. Anyways, we were all fucked, so we took a taxi over to Palermo to meet up with the guys from my Rotary program. We hung out with the Rotary scholars for a while, drank martinis (martinis here aren’t made with vermouth?!? What the helll?) , actually, the martini was so awful that I had to send it back, and I opted for a long island iced tea. I was so drunk I couldn’t remember the word for “gulp”, so I kept telling everyone that I was going to down the long island iced in three “cuotas” (payments). I thought it was funny, but since that sounds really weird in Spanish, no one else was really laughing. We left there, purchased more alcohol in the back of a shady empanada shop, and me, Oliver and Rachel stood in the line for Club 69, having beer race competitions with random foreigners. Once we got in, I bought us a bottle of champagne for celebration (not really sure what I was celebrating, but it was only $20 bucks!) and we met up with Martin and Leo again. I danced at Club 69 until about 6am in the morning, and then we took the colectivo home and passed out.
So now, I’m here at McDonalds, surrounded by beautiful Argentines, waiting for my friends to come over so we can go out tonight. In order for the club to be free tonight, we have to be there BY 3 am (insane)… so I guess we have plenty of time! I’ll update you tomorrow hopefully!
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