Hey Che!

Well, I realize that a whole weekend has gone by and I have not updated anyone on my adventures. I find that the more I get to know the city, the less time I want to spend on the computer. Which is a good thing...for me!

So Friday night I went out. Aidi and I decided to hit up Plaza Serrano. Well, actually Aidi decided to hit up some rando bar, but when we arrived it was closed for a private party. So then we headed to Plaza Serrano. We went to Brujas...there are two sections. One is the bar and one is the club...we sat in the bar. We drank a few beers, ate french fries, and crept on the world's worst DJ. Seriously, this guy sucked. Then, we wanted to get our dance on so we thought that we would head to the clubs...which were jumping. However, someone failed to mention that in order to get in the clubs here you have to be on some sort of elusive list. Obviously, we were not...so we headed back to Plaza Serrano. Here we bumped into Samantha and Emi who were looking for a non-existent karaoke bar. Emi decided to ask these two young gentleman where said bar was, but they didn't know. So, I decided to ask them where the good bar/boliche/club was...which they said that on Friday night there wasn't anything too great going on. I was shocked...we got to joking and talking. We taught them bad words in English. After spending like an hour in the cold, we all decided to get a table together and have a few drinks. The bar we were at kicked us out around 4:30, so we went to some sort of pool place and we shot a couple games of pool. My friend from class, Joey, also spotted me in this establishment and stumbled in to say hello...I guess I stick out like a sore thumb. So, anyway, it was fun getting to know real porteños and laughing and joking and talking with them. They said they wanted to go to Goa next weekend with us, and gave us their number, but Argentinians are weird about that stuff. Down here they make plans because its polite, even when they don't plan on following through. I guess we will see how that goes.

It's funny because they taught us some slang and some bad Spanish words. Like "Che!" is slang for friend...but it's more like if I said to my friend..."Hey biotch." Like its rude, but its a joke, so it's okay. I also learned "No tengo plata" which is I'm broke. I used it on a guy selling roses in this bar at 6:30 am...but it kind of backfired. Instead, he grabbed my hand and said ven conmigo which is come with me...I had to tell him no...get the heck away from me. What is it with these guys???

I didn't go to bed until 7 am that day...I really just wanted to sleep until like 3 or 4, but I always feel guilty, so I woke up at noon and had breakfast. Yesterday, my new roommate arrived...but her plane was delayed, so I was out for the day by the time she came home. I went to 9 de julio with some girls where we ate and walked around the streets looking in the shops and talking to the street vendors. There is this one guy who makes shoes just for you right on the street. They are 60 pesos...like 15 dollars and he is very famous. He was in the newspaper and it takes him one hour to make your shoes. I'm debating getting a pair. He said that if I have coffee with him, he will give me a discount...what a joke.

Last night I met Nancy/Alex for the first time. Her real name is Nancy, I think. But she goes by Alex. She is from New Mexico...she seems nice enough. She doesn't know any Spanish. So, I kind of translate for her...but mostly Jorge and Mercedes talk in English to accomodate her...which ticks me off. Because I want to speak Spanish with them so I can practice. Hopefully, they will ease off with the english talk. I told them that I would translate...which seemed to ease everyone's minds. Last night for dinner we had one of my favorites...roasted chicken, roasted batatas and pumpkin, and lechuga with soy sauce. Banana and dulce de leche for dessert.

I invited her to my daily ice cream run with Aidi, but she wanted to go to bed. Aidi and I went to Freddo and then Aidi just had to have a burger from BK. I came home around 12:30 and crashed. I was very tired.

 I woke up today at 11:30 and ate my breakfast. Alex was already gone on her city tour. Aidi and I met up...originally, we were going to get sushi, but we couldn't find the place, so we went to Cafe Manhattan and had a pizza. We have a waiter there who knows us...he loves when we visit him, so Aidi and I try to go every couple of days to say hey and have a drink or something. After that, we headed to San Telmo for the Plaza Dorrego feria. It's very nice...there is lots of music and street performers. There are the usual vendors and things like that. Today there was a band of two electric violins and an electric cello...they were very good and very fun to watch! I bought some gifts for my mom and my grandma and then I bought a messenger bag that is black with a zebra print stripe and a houndstooth scarf. Things are so cheap here...it's hard to resist my urge to shop.

We found this quaint little ice cream shop...I had coffee and New Orleans chocolate. Coffee was good, but the New Orleans flavor had whiskey in it. I wanted to vom. I obviously didn't finish it. My new idea for becoming rich and famous is to write a travel book...but only for ice cream. I will travel to all these cities and sample all the ice cream places and review them. I will also tell people how to get there and yadda yadda yadda. Then, I will publish my book and make millions. It's genius.

Today was Manuel's birthday, but I missed the celebration because I was out and about...but that's okay. We had empanadas for dinner with this chocolate mousse cake for dessert...it was like heaven.

Now, I'm going to get ready for bed because I'm visiting Recoleta tomorrow and I have 4 stops on my list!!! Pretty ambitious. I want to go to the cemetery, this famous bookstore, the old skating rink, and the national library. I also looked up sushi places for me and Aidi to visit. It should be a good day!