Jueves: My hair is gone!

(Note the new hair, the slightly exasperated facial expression after many photo fails, and the pots and pans that my clothes share a closet with.)

School week diary, day four:

10:00 Wake up. Laze through getting ready. Head out.

11:00 Arrive at the church around the corner where I attend the fourth years’ play rehearsals every week. Marisa tells us that there’s been a miscommunication: they’ve already started rehearsing in the performance space, and it’s too late for us to get there now. The play goes up Monday, October 11^th, and will be performed weekly through October and November. You can check it out on facebook here.

I head back home. I stop in a verdulería to buy an apple. Lately, men selling me fruit always ask me about the weather. They think I haven’t understood them when I reply that no, it’s not cold outside. Then I respond with a speedy, verbose explanation that I’m not from here and thus this doesn’t seem cold at all to me.

I eat the apple on the way home. It’s delicious. People don’t usually eat outside here, but I figure that I’m going to be stared at anyway, so I might as well do what I want.

13:15 Leave the house. Get on the colectivo, head to Recoleta to meet Gwen and Zoé for lunch at Tea Connection – not the most Argentine of spots, but delightful nonetheless.

14:00 I’m the first to arrive. I snag us a table near a guy with an ironic moustache. I look up words while I wait for the girls.

14:20 The chickies arrive. We decide what to order and spend most of our mealtime in Spanish. We eat some wonderful food, drink yummy tea, and have some ridiculous conversations. Lovely all around!

16:30-ish We realize that we should maybe leave Tea Connection at some point in our lives. Gwen and I decide to go to Palermo to do some shopping, and Zoé decides to head home to study. First, we stop by Gwen’s house. Zoé gets to meet host mom Dolo and host dog Felipe for the first time!

As we’re walking toward Palermo, Gwen and I spot the Doctor Who look alike that we saw in a boliche a few weeks ago. THE SAME GUY! We feel creepy but are overjoyed nonetheless.

18:00 Gwen and I arrive in Palermo. Gwen hasn’t given up on our mission for me to get my hair cut. We find a salon called Maldito Frizz – it looks promising. I step in to inquire about making an appointment. The dude (there are a lot of very DUDE dudes working as hairdressers in this city) says he can start my haircut in five minutes. And so, dear readers, I got much of my hair chopped off by a balding 30-something-year-old guy named Leonardo while listening to some excellent jams.

So, newly rid of my “ugly ends,” we went on to do some shopping, and actually found some lovely stores that were light on the floral print. I got lucky and found a dress, a sweater, and a headband – Gwen left empty-handed, sadly, but we’ll be back. The exchange rate is too much in our favor for us to pass up the opportunity.

20:00 We start heading over to the theater where we’ll be seeing Estado de ira, sponsored by IFSA. The theater is in a weird spot – sort of inside the zoo, from what I gathered. We immediately run into one of my classmates from Voz y Canto – it’s a small world when you’re a theater kid. Once inside, we see another of my USal peeps. I’m not surprised in the least.

21:00 The show starts. Review coming soon!

23:00 Show over. The group of yanquis hovers around Mario, our program director, to see if we’ll be getting a free meal this evening. After we follow him awkwardly for a couple of blocks, he peaces out. Sad.

Left to our own devices, Gwen, Zoé, Rodrigo and I have dinner at Kentucky Pizza. There are a disconcerting number of places in this city with “Kentucky” in the title. At least Gwen feels right at home!

And there you have my jueves. It didn’t turn out to be a school day in the least. Go right ahead and burn with jealousy at my abundance of weekend, just don't hate me for being free!

Besos,

Isa

Word of the day: la bronca - n. Anger. (I feel like it's almost an onomatopoiea)

Randomness in a Red Beret

In keeping with my vow to review all of the plays and films I see while down here, I have five reviews to write from the past week. Holy moley. I’d best get started.

But before I bombard you with reviews, I’d like to post some personal snippets that don’t really fit in anywhere:

1) I recently purchased a bright red beret. Those of you who know me well shouldn’t be surprised that I’m counting this as a major, life-changing, blog-worthy event. I’ve been a hat person for a long time now – at times, obsessively so – but I think it’s safe to say that this time I’m in love.

2) Latest step in resolving language frustrations: I’m vowing to stop being such a neuro-case about my accent. The poor Argentines who have imitated my r’s have had to then listen to my long-winded, flustered explanations of how my Finnish-American tongue often produces “grracias” instead of “gracias” and “perdón” comes out sounding an awful lot like “Perón.” From here on out, I promise only to refer to my accent as “utilitarian” and “cute.”

3) A couple of my IFSA pals are keeping blogs as well. I’m going to embarrass them by publicizing on here:

Robyn – beansandfudge.blogspot.com

Alli – alliupsidedown.blogspot.com

Happy reading!

Expect a kajillion reviews super soon!

Besos,

Isa

P.S. I’ll do a photoshoot with the beret soon. It’s pretty epic. I ask you to please support my need for you all to see it on my head.

Word of the day: el boludo – n. This word has many meanings. Technically, it’s a derivation of “balls.” Can be used the way we use “asshole” and “idiot” in English, but it can mean “dude” in a friendly way, too. (I can’t believe this hasn’t been word of the day yet. It’s an essential part of porteño vocabulary.)

I left my heart in San Telmo

Yesterday, I met up with lovely North-Americans Alex, Alli, Andrea, and Morgan in San Telmo, a part of the city I had yet to visit. I discovered that it’s quite easy for me to get there in colectivo or subte, and that I absolutely LOVE IT.

We ate lunch at a great little Middle-Eastern restaurant (not quite Zorona’s, but yummy nonetheless) and then headed to the huge outdoor market. Junk, antiques, hats, mate mugs, and art everywhere. Lots of artsy folk, which I love, with surprisingly few tourists to be seen.

As I had not planned for shopping, I had little money with me and thus only bought three small items. This means I am full of unrequited material lust, but it’s best that I didn’t buy everything in sight, and I shall return for sure.

Agh I could not for the life of me get this photo to flip:

My purchases, documented through dear old photo-booth...

First, I stumbled upon these vintage clip-on earrings. 30 pesos. In retrospect, I could have gotten something similar for less, but at this point I’m having a problem with the “pesos-as-monopoly-money” mindset, which I think most Americans experience upon arriving here. (Really, the exchange rate is about 4 pesos per American dollar.) I tried to take a girl-with-a-pearl-earring-esque photo, but the result was a little too MySpace-y, so this is what I ended up with:

I chatted for a bit with the lovely hippies that I bought this journal from. It’s handmade, hand-painted (“to inspire you,” they said), and allegedly eco-friendly. I was having trouble choosing from their selection, and one of them told me that this journal was the color of my soul. That totally sold me on it. I am such a sucker for compliments, especially from hippies, even if they are trying to sell me something. So this 25-peso journal is el cuaderno de mi alma.

The last thing I bought was this headband. Well, I’m excited about it! 15 pesos. Note my frustration with taking photo-booth pictures of myself.

Nearing the end of our journey through the feria, we stumbled upon a wonderful band playing on the street corner. Traditional South American music, which I absolutely love (we listened to a similar band during reading time in 4^th grade, major nostalgic joy!). And they were having so much fun! I want to be best friends with them (I find myself saying that a lot these days). I also want their CD, but they don’t have one. Alas.

A few more fotos...

I wasn't actually supposed to take pictures in here, but I'm totally coming back for Halloween preparations:

Side-view of beloved band (there were about eight members):

They started dancing with the crowd. The abuelitas loved it especially!

Anyway, I must return to San Telmo soon, in hopes of befriending that band...in any case, successful shopping experiences await there. I would like to go again with the intention of taking my time and talking to the artists (I'm starting to really be able to have interesting, organic conversations in Spanish!). On a warmer day, perhaps—mind you it is still winter here, and I’ve started conforming to the Argentine mindset that this winter is VERY COLD.

Besos,

Isa

Word of the day: el guardaespaldas - n. Bodyguard (this is not lunfardo, rather an actual word, but I love it because it's one of those great combo-words that Spanish has a few of [lit. "guard-back"])