YO

So right now our internet isn't working, but don't worry loyal blog readers, THAT WON'T STOP US! We are going out tonight to make some stories. PEACE!

Look what we found!

nights out on the town

First weekend while healthy in BsAs has been completed. Kelly brought home a bottle of vodka on Friday night, which is our tool for making friends. We showed up at Kilkenny, an Irish pub that's supposed to be popular with expats (we're tying to ease Kelly into foreign living) and were greeted by two young rogues trying to steer us from our path and convince us to try elsewhere; but though this seemed a bad omen, we persevered.

As it turned out, they were right: overpriced drinks, bad music, and unwelcome company (too many Abercrombie polos). At least we met up with Hanna and Cosmo, and we all agreed to go over to another bar. Across the street loomed a hulking pirate that ship seemed the right place to try our luck, and the giant pirate booty and bartenders dressed in full pirate gear confirmed it. We ordered cheese fries that tasted like mac and cheese. Then we needed money so Kelly suggested we go back to our apartment and get some, and I was astounded that the New Zealanders were willing to accompany us, but I suppose we are very desirable friends to acquire. We cabbed over and got a cheap drink at home then we all went to the Alamo bar, playing 'think til you drink' and 'a ship came into the harbor,' our new go-to drinking games, until they closed the bar and kicked us out.

Pirate booty:

Saturday was very eventful. We got gym memberships. We didn't work out, but it's a step in the right direction. Then we watched a Greek marathon.


Saturday's dinner: the largest empanada in the world (that is a standard size pizza box), hawaiian style (mmm pineapple):

Saturday night we went to the New Zealanders' apartment to indulge in Cuban rum and we taught them bus driver. We all headed over to Niceto, a club in Palermo, for reggae night. Which was naturally hilarious and not the typical crowd one expects at a nightclub. But drinks were 5 pesos each (about 1.50 USD) so it was a good time. Looking forward to another night when it's socially appropriate for us to go out on the town again (so tomorrow basically).

Kelly and Hanna on Saturday:

um...we have a problem

SO Leah and I had decided to cook our own nutritious meal tonight after the large consumption of empanadas and hawaiian calzones that we had been having all weekend.  I was doing my part in the meal preparation by cutting an onion, when Leah opened a cupboard, screamed, and ran out of the room.  In our world, that can mean only one thing.  COCKROACH!

I followed her out, yelling at her to tell me how big it was, seriously terrified of the answer she was about to give me. "Oh Kelly," she said.  "It's pretty mediano a grande."  I decided I wasn't going to kill it, but she wasn't going to either, so the only solution was to go downstairs and get Walter, our doorman.  Now normally I wouldn't mind going and getting the head guy of our building to help us, but I was still unsure of whether or not Walter even liked us. (But how could he not?!?!)  

Leah ran downstairs and was like, "Um, tengo un problema." Walter probably thought someone was dying from the way she said it, so when she was like, cockroach grande, he immediately started laughing and came right up.  He took care of the problem and left still laughing at us.  At least I finally saw the guy smile.

So yeah, it's the dead of winter here and we are having insect problems, I am so not excited for when its summer and its supposedly about fifty times worse.

i made it 2 weeks!

SO

Leah and I have befriended a cool couple that I went to spanish school with. Hannah and Cosmo are from New Zealand and taught us the amazing game of "Ship in the Harbor." It's like a categories game, we rocked but Cosmo was terrible. Either way, we ended up at the Alamo, a more US type bar and the Chicago bartender assured me that they play Michigan football in the fall, so its obviously my favorite place ever.

Leah and I plan on hanging out/harassing Hannah and Cosmo tomorrow.

PS ~ I received a certificate for passing 40 hours of spanish class. That doesn't mean I'm good at spanish, it just means I made it on time and didn't skip.

spanish classes

Two things I learned in Spanish class today:

1. How to use the word "fart" in any number of expressions. I can now use the word fart (pedo) express drunkenness, listlessness, annoyance, haste, criticism, and of course soltar flatos/ventosidades anales. This took about an hour of class.

2. That for the past 2 weeks, I have been asking people where I can have sex with the bus. ¿Dónde puedo coger el colectivo? Which in Spain, worked fine: Where can I catch the bus? Here, the verb coger is less innocent. You're gonna wanna use tomar. It should be noted that I've asked people where to "catch" the bus at least once a day since I've been here.

Cómo me toca

The thing I keep forgetting when I'm here and chatting with cousin Kelly is that everyone speaks Spanish, so although our English may or may not be understood by the general public, the little Spanish phrases probably are.

Our bus ride home yesterday got a bit rowdy. ABBA was stuck in our head, and the only way to eliminate an earworm is listen to the song, obviously, so we shared headphones and commenced an apparently a capella sing-a-long for the enjoyment of all the Argentines on our bus. I think our renditions of "Take a Chance on Me" and Biz Markie's "Just a Friend" were particular highlights. But I'm sure everyone's favorite was when I broke it down with 98 Degrees' "Give Me Just One Night," and my inhibition allowed the Spanish 'rap' to come out a little louder than intended. I got quite a lot of looks when I altered my voice and said to Kelly, in Spanish, "how you move me, oh how you touch me."

And now we must tear ourselves away from Maid in Manhattan to see Dark Knight again. I swear we'll do something cultural soon.

ugh

So Leah and I have this deal.  I will kill all bugs we find in our apartment and she will clean them up. I never thought it would matter until yesterday, when we found the biggest fucking  roach type thing ever. Believe me, silverfish don't even compare to this thing. Leah abandoned me to go do laundry and I was left alone to kill this bug the size of Kentucky.  I tried trapping it under an ashtray and it began to scurry around SO FAST and it got loose and bolted across the room.  I think the entire building must have heard me screaming, but I was pissed too, so I looked around for something heavy.  My shoes were too flimsy and a magazine wasn't even going to faze this monster, so I obviously ran into Leah's room and grabbed one of her heavy sandals.  I chucked the sandal from literally 5 feet away and squashed the thing.  Then I hid in my room until Leah came home. And we decided to leave the carcass (which was the size of my FIST) to warn other disgusting, South American bugs we weren't messing around.  Atleast until the maid comes tomorrow and cleans it up. 

Dark Knight Rocked!

Hey guys, still getting used to this blog thing. Had an uneventful weekend cause I'm still pretty sick. Not quite sure what is wrong with me, but hopefully I'll kick it soon. I did discover medicine down in Argentina is a LOT stronger, which is pretty cool.

Leah managed to drag me out of the apartment today and we went to some crazy, huge flea market. She made several amazing purchases, but I was too out of it to buy anything. She got a great bracelet for 40 pesos (about 12 bucks) which definitely would have gone for at least 50 dollars back home. Lots of leather things so if anyone has any requests for belts or purses, let me know so I can begin to consider getting them as birthday or Christmas gifts.

The definite highlight of the day was when we were walking back to our apartment and some Argentine guy screams at us, "I LOVE SUDDAM HUSSEIN!" I don't think he was trying to be funny, but he said it so slowly and deliberately that I laughed at him and he ran away. Clearly I'm not blending in with the locals quite yet.

Leah and I saw The Dark Knight last Thursday (a day before the US!), and as most of you probably know, it was everything we could have hoped for and more. Fortunately we had to sit so close to the screen that the subtitles didn't even bother me. Obviously we plan on seeing it again sometime this week, since movies are only about 5 dollars here and I plan on being able to quote the movie in spanish by the time I return to the states.

Still taking spanish classes, still jobless, but having fun. I'll update soon, aka next time I feel like it or when Leah forces me to.

Today I told my landlord that our ice cream store was broken. This is why I'm going back to my language classes tomorrow.

He was over to collect the rest of our 3 months of rent, which we weren't able to provide until yesterday when our family friends came into town carrying US cash for us. When traveling to Argentina, we have learned, bring USD if you plan on renting an apt or taking classes - it's easier and cheaper to pay. Not to mention the fact that ATMs put limits on withdrawals per day here. I can hardly say I blame them for needing more than 7 years to get over the banks freezing all accounts and causing financial crisis overnight. Moral of the story is, carry cash with you.

But the plus side of needing cash and forgetting my boots was that we were treated to a wonderful dinner at Azema. Pricey for Argentina, but not by US standards, it features a mezcla of Latin and Asian elements. I had the fish of the day, which had a banana/coconut sauce. The dessert of sorbets of exotic (y no tantos) fruits was also delicious.

a bidet in the life

Setting up a life here is harder than it should be since we're both sick. I think it's mostly the adjustment to the smog and exhaust of a city, but regardless we spend most of our time indoors channel surfing for subtitled American TV shows and 90's movies (Lake Placid has been my personal favorite thus far), which isn't too bad as avoiding the outdoors is the only proven way to avoid stepping in dog crap on the street.

Fortunately we'll be able to sleep in this weekend as our first week of classes has come to an end. I've been enjoying my teacher, Silvina, with whom I gossip about reality TV and why NJ is reasoned to be the armpit of America (a false stereotype, of course) while adding crucial words to my vocabulary like baile de caño (pole dance), sirenita (mermaid), palta (avocado), cancha (court; not to be confused with concha), and perturbadura (disturbing).

The first few days of class I got home 3 hours before Kelly, which led to an awkward period with nothing to do, especially since I rely on her for most TV channel-scouting. So I took to inventorying the apartment: a good selection of pots, no frying pans...found a pad of paper in the living room and a Guía T and some extra pillows in the front closet. It was like finding hidden presents. The bathroom yielded nothing too novel, but then I thought, "What if I go through the rest of my stay in this apartment and never turn on the bidet, only to discover at the end that it never worked all along and the owners make me pay to repair it?" That and, "Hey I wonder how a bidet works."

So I fiddled about. At first it appeared to work like a hybrid of a sink and a water fountain: little gush of water and a drain with stopper. I tinkered with the knobs, deducing quickly which were meant for temperature and which for water height when its non-gradual increase hit me in the face. I couldn't turn it off fast enough as I had stepped back from the shock. For an instant I was baffled and didn't know what to do. Eventually, I boldly moved back in to adjust the knob in the face of the geiser. It was the wrong direction. The floor flooded. How one can actually use a bidet is beyond me. I admitted defeat and took a nap.

YO

Hey, it's Kelly. I guess it's about time I make myself heard on this blog. Argentina is pretty fantastic. I was deathly ill for the first five days, but I've finally begun to appreciate it. The first few days in the hostel were quite the experience. Leah covered it all pretty well, but I must admit, it was quite embarrassing when every person we met made fun of the amount of luggage we have. No one seemed to understand that we are attempting to stay in this country for a year, so we need as much stuff as possible, mainly nyquil and vodka.

The more I stay in this country, the more I think I'm going to die. I had to find my own way to spanish school yesterday without the help of Cousin Leah. Obviously I failed and missed the Subte (subway) station by several blocks and ended up being so frustrated I hailed a taxi. The driver obviously didn't understand me, but when I pointed to a map he took me to class and I was only 10 minutes late, thank god. Anyways, I'm pretty drunk, so I'll finish my post later.

getting started

The cardboard pillows of the hostel now just a nightmare of the past, we have settled in nicely to our Argentine apartment in Recoleta, the classy neighborhood that the rich people moved to in the late 19th century to evade a yellow fever epidemic. Apartments in Argentina include all utilities, wifi, cable, and a weekly maid service, which is crucial. And we're across the street from a Blockbuster...so Kelly was in.

Our main qualifications in our apartment hunt were that it be in a good neighborhood and that is have 2 bedrooms. Bedroom #1 has a king size bed and a walk-in closet and a spacious window with quaint street views. Bedroom #2 is about the size of a king size bed, so it just has a twin bed and a nightstand, with a small window looking out onto the living room. This is my room. At least I have blinds. And we're sharing the walk-in closet.

We started classes today at Instituto de Español Rayula, Kelly in the beginner class with a couple from New Zealand and a rather zealous German. I only had 15 minutes of "class," just to talk to the director and arrange things and meet my only classmate, Tim. He's from the Netherlands, so I plan on adding him to my collection of Dutch friends. Then I spent an hour deciphering my "Guía T" to figure out how to take a bus ("colectivo") home from the Institute.

we're improbably here

As Kelly, fan of Lisa Kudrow's failed project "The Comeback," wants me to mention...well gang...WE MADE IT.

22 hours of travel from Grand Rapids via Houston straight through to Buenos Aires (shared with a most precocious, young, be-mulleted, googly-eyed Argentine youth who hogged the middle 3 seats and stared at us frightfully as we enveloped ourselves in Ambien-induced dreams) landed us at the Hostel Suites Palermo. Which we don't recommend, based solely on location.

We booked these first 3 nights here based on the accepted concept of Palermo as a trendy neighborhood with all the good nightlife and shopping. Which it is. Just not within 10 blocks of this hostel. Which is actually quite lovely, minus the lack of a defined shower in the bathroom (we'll blame this on common South American practice rather than a fault of the hostel).

Fortunately, Megan (Kelly's friend from Wisconsin) was able to show us what BsAs is all about - delicious food and red wine - and foster in us a more positive outlook on the city. We went to her favorite restaurant - Bodega 52 (or B52) - on our first night there. Best champagne I've ever tasted, and it was complimentary. Also fabulous red wine - they make their own, the house wine is the best but you have to ask for it specially, it's not on the menu. Here Megan and I are with our waiter, Kelly and my first exposure to a very Argentine man:


Since our arrival, we've been in the hostel a lot recovering from what we thought was jet lag, but re-termed the illness after we finally figured out hours after arrival that the time difference is only an hour. What it actually is is fatigue in my case, yellow fever in Kelly's (those live vaccines will do you in). Also we watched the music video to "Leavin'," the new tour de force of the 2000's by that up-and-coming singing phenom, Jesse McCartney, and the video definitely clears up his ambiguous lyrical ways.