Ignoring the waves of pain...
... it's easy when it's rather mild and comes and goes every now and then. Especially since it's the ulterior consequence of having enjoyed some tasty meat meals, all of which accompanied with wine and beer. Tatatatan!!! I'll ignore Gout from now on! *is joking*
Hello my dear WebBlog!
Taking into account I haven't wrote anything in ages (or in what feels like ages: I'll be back to this in a moment), I've decided that another update was more than due. Not that you've missed me or anything (if you have, PLEASE fill me in: preventing mankind's demise at the hands of sentient net-programs would go nicely in my resume!) but I'm sure some of my readers will be pleased to know I'm not dead yet. Or so I wanna think... *wink wink*
So far, I've met several kinds of people at the UB (Universidad de Belgrano): some quiet, some sarcastic, open and friendly, some WAY too friendly... and while I cannot say I've stopped missing my friends back at home (I call the closest of them "brothers" for a reason: they are special to me. But neither of them shall ever read this journal! MUAJA!) I think I've found good, kind people here as well.
But let's start from the beginning, shall well?
During the first day of class I met two mexican students: a girl called Bárbara and a guy called David, both cool and everything. Had dinner with them at a café close to school and while the place looked nifty it was a most PRICEY experience, especially since I ordered a simple chicken sandwich and ended up with a little and pathetically overpriced version of the yummy treat I envisioned in my mind so... not a cool combination. Despite this I had a good time wih the two of them and even got the girl's number: "So far, so good" - I told myself with a smile, unknowing of the happenings that would take place just a few days after that... (doesn't it sound like a lame attempt of sounding melodramatic? JEJEJE...).
I met a guy on my International Negotiations class on Wednesday (8:00 am. EWW!), a really friendly mexican called Héctor Rentería. Talking to him and Bárbara was easy (she was in this class too, though I've recently found out the two of them decided to drop it. No way I'm leaving that course, even if the professors are so boring I can completely understand why they choose to abandon the ship. Besides, they are taking more courses than me) and I got his number as well. The days passed and I felt bored on saturday so I decided to call him and ask if he had any plans for the day: he didn't and told me he would call me later and see if he could find anything to us to do.
Well, the thing is I waited for the call but after some hours I decided it was useless. He called... but at nearly 2 AM, asking if I was still avaliable and telling me to meet up with him at a dancing Club called "Sahara".
Against all odd... this didn't offend nor confused me in the least, as I'm aware of a strange fact of the city of Buenos Aires: a fact several people and my friend Giselle told me about when I was in Lima and that Bruce repeated to me here but I confess I considered it something I just HAD to see for believing, just like I had to see with my own eyes that it's still midnight dark at 6:30 am around here during the winter (it doesn't stop to amaze me. Believe me, you). Curious? People got out REALLY late. I've heard of lots of people that go to clubs and other places at 2 or 3 am and stay there until 8 or 9 in the morning. That's ODD, since my nights-out start at 10 or 11 pm and finish at 4 or 5 am (I hate to go back home after the sun's up in the sky. I really do), many foreigners are puzzled at this as well.
Anyway, back to the story: I met up with him at the club and had a nice time there, where I met a colombian girl called Ivonne (Héctor confessed me he fancied her quite a bit yesterday: he even bought her a ticket for the Robbie William's concert in October!) and a mexican couple they JUST met two hours before my arrival.
It was a very enjoyable night. A QUITE ODD night as well, but pretty enjoyable. Firstly, I might be very kind with people I know but I'm a bit shy around new people... or at least I am compared to Héctor: the chap greets EVERYBODY he lays and eye on and seems to be friend with everyone. The mexican couple was much alike him and between such merry people and the guys we met at the dancing club during the hours we remained there, I had a pretty good time; this's odd, but nearly anyone that stood near us was greeted with a hug from them and questioned on his or her nationality: we met more people from Colombia, two from Paraguay, one from the USA, several argentineans and we all toasted several (several several several...) times on the peace and concord between brother countries. It was amazing.
(Héctor exclaimed at a point that America exists only from Mexico to the south of Chile and Argentina. He was a little intoxicated at the moment and we hadn't met the USAn yet and while that's a more or less debatable phrase, I agreeded wholeheartedly at the moment. Care to guess how intoxicated I was?)
Ivonne, Héctor and me left at 6:45 am and headed for the subway, wondering if it was operating so early in the morning. After walking a few blocks we stopped and asked a group of argentineans standing at a street corner for directions... and here's the second (and probably most amazing) what-the-heck moment of the night: we started talking to them about politics and didn't stop until one hour and a half passed (the sky was starting to turn blue, so it was about 7:45 or 8 am. Seriously weird, I tell ya!). I'm really surprised at this: I'm not the type of guy that stops to have lengthy conversation with random people, an habit I've developed out of fear of being mugged. But this guys were particularly nice and we had a great time sharing ideas about why Fidel wasn't the devil incarnated and why many of the macroeconomic plans of president Kirchner weren't that bright in the long run.
After parting ways with those guys we (Ivonne and me, since Héctor was too tired to eat anything) had a light breakfast at a fancy restaurant wich was, thanks to God, open (I really missed my "Caldo de Gallina" ) and tried to take the subway but discovered there were problems with the Line we were supposed to use and wouldn't attend for a couple hours. After that we decided it was enough and took a taxi. I arrived at my room at 9:30 am and didn't sleep until two hours later and woke up at 4 am to give a call to my parents and extended family. Pretty odd night, as I've said before.
Ah! I forgot to mention I got a "War Trophy" out of the club: when we were about to leave the mexican (not Héctor) discovered an "Exit" sign that was lying on the ground. He took it and gave it to me and while a little voice in my head recommended me to go and hand it back to the owners of the place... I decided to not pay attention to it for once and kept it. This's the first time I've done this type of thing and I won't do it again so gimme a break, ok?
Before I start telling about the other days, I think I forgot to mention something else: since I arrived to Argentina I've gone to the movies by myself two times: one to see the very lame "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and a VERY good independent movie called "Ser Digno de Ser" (To be Worthy of Being) about the life of a South-African children who's coerced by his mom to pretend to be a jew and be rescued from the dying country and taken to Israel. Extremely touching and wonderful. But I disgress... I wanted to mention that a few years back I considered that going to the movies alone was the best way of screaming at the world that you're a loser and while I've battled with such a ridiculous view it's obvious that I still had a few bits of it in my head since I felt kind of bad at going alone to watch them but I can say I feel totally fine about having done it.
Regarding the other days, nothing too interesting happened until Wednesday when I met Héctor again and decided to meet up at the UB at 10 pm. I arrived at the place and met one of his friends, a german called... eerrr... Jens or something. We were supposed to go as fast as we could to a restaurant called "Las Cholas" and meet up with another friend of his, this time a german guy called Thomas (I'm not quite sure). We arrived late (something that irked Thomas a bit: German people seem to be very punctual... perhaps I should become more german that way) but we had a very nice time there: at last I could eat some good meat (A "Vacío") and drank some fine wine. I was most impressed about one detail: instead of tablecloths, the tables were covered with large papers and over them you could find, besides the usual candles and ashtrays... little baskets with CRAYONS! You were supposed to draw with them while you waited for the food. It was just TOO good a chance to let it pass so I ended up doodling several things (bottles, one of the special heaters - I'll describe this artifact someday - an extinguisher). Of course, since I spent most of my time chatting and eating I had little time for drawing but I'm happy of the results.
There's a bad side in most experiences, too... in this case, I drank too much wine so I woke up the following day at 9:15 am and my class started at... 8:00 am. So I lost that one. And to top it all, I found Héctor again during the day and I was convinced to abandon my 3 hours-long Enviromental Laws class (which ended up lasting just one hour that day: as I was leaving the professor told me he was gonna leave early that day but since I was too embarrased about leaving - I NEVER do this in Lima unless it's an emergency - I told him I needed to leave immediately) and go with him to buy tickets for Sunday's football match between River Plate and Newells. We managed to enter the stadium telling the guys at the door we were interested in becoming members of the Club and took some GOOD pictures. Later, we bought some chinese food and went to his apartment... which's really not his apartment: he lives in a room rented to a gay hairdresser who lives and works at home (Héctor's room is very nice and comfortable and though he has a good VAIO laptop he can't access to the net there. One funny detail about it is that there are two pictures of "tasteful" male nudes hanging on the wall... and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw those: poor guy doesn't know how to tell his landlord he doesn't want that in his room and I encouraged him to get rid of them as soon as possible).
Today Jens, Thomas, Héctor and me decided to visit Boca Juniors' stadium and museum and I must say they're pretty niftly: while the Bombonera's not as big as River Plate's stadium, it is a lot older and much more loved (besides, Boca Juniors have more money and will get a better stadium shortly). The museum is not too impressive except that they have a little room where they show a movie in 360º where you're supposed to be a young boy who manages to become a professional player. Awesome, too! We ate some yummy sandwiches at a restaurant nearby and here I am after that: I¡ll spend tonight at home, try to do something tomorrow AND go to the match on sunday! So far, things seem rosy (I need to start taking classes more seriously so, I'll read some texts tonight)
Well, it's a rather long posts my boys so we'll leave it there. Stay tuned! I promise I'll tell you all about my attempts at cooking and how I wouldn't have survived without some guidance!