Hoy

Today was a relatively long day. Woke up before 8 am so Jenny could leave for class. (We had one set of keys and don’t have a doorman and you have to unlock the door to get in and out. “What happens if there’s a fire?” “You die.”) Once she left, I went for a jog with all of the dogwalkers of Palermo, stopped by the bank to exchange my last USD (hello ATM charges!), and attempted to unlock my US phone at a Movistar kiosk in Alto Palermo. That didn’t happen. So I headed back home before 11:30 am so Jenny could come in from school, and we left to run errands, and realized once we got to the elevator (like two steps away from our front door) that we had left the one set of keys inside. So basically we were trapped in the foyer of our apartment building. We called Annemarie and waited for someone from our building to come in or go out. Finally this dude came down the stairs and unlocked the door, and as he reached to pull the door shut, I grabbed the handle and smiled at him. Words failed me. What do you say besides “I’m an idiot who locked herself out of her apartment?” I mean, you can’t leave the building, and you can’t get in either. Tricky. Luckily Annemarie had her set, but she was just finishing up at the gym.

So Jenny and I went to the laundry to drop off some things and sat down to coffee to wait. Well, I had coffee and she had an orange Fanta. We split a panini capresse because it’s Monday, dessert day, and we don’t want to spoil our appetites. Annemarie met up with us on Charcas and Coronel Diaz with both sets of keys (she let herself in to drop off a few things) and we determine today’s dessert destination. Silvana was supposed to come with her newly dyed pink poodle, Camila, but she and Juan Jo are fighting (what’s new?) because she thinks he was checking out some other girls at the Rugby party on Saturday. Girls here are so jealous. Everyone says Silvana and Juan Jo will be done in August, when the Americans move out of her apartment and he can break up with her without leaving her homeless. This is sad news to me because I like them both. Well, Silvana in small doses. I just feed her compliments so she loves me.

So just the three of us had dessert day at Celetto, but it was a weird dessert day because Annemarie had a salad and we split a desgustacion of desserts. (Rule #1 of Dessert Day: You get your own; you can share bites.) It was very good though. They brought us small aperitifs and bites of tortillas espanolas before our meal (Jenny and I considered ordering the ravioli de berenjena – eggplant ravioli- but they were out of it, so we settled on bites of Annemarie’s salad and dessert.)

Then we booked our flight to Chile, which was a huge ordeal because we are not Agentine citizens so we have to do it all over the phone. Aerolineas Argentina has an English option on the phone, but that must be some kind of joke. “¿Hablas ingles?” “En realidad, no.” So we rattled off numbers and spelled out English words for the lady on the phone. I pronounced my name “Mah-ree Mahr-gahr-ett Douu-dee” so she was able to understand it. I had to spell my mother’s maiden name for her “V como Venezuela, O como octubre…” Instead of names, like we use in the US, they use countries and occasionally months. “¿M como Mexico? No, N como noviembre.” It was fine; it just would’ve been easier in English. Bottom line, Annemarie, Jenny and I will be headed to Santiago April 30.

After that taxing phone call, I decided to head over to Abasto Mall to try my luck at their Movistar kiosko. No luck. They told me to try someplace on the street. Apparently the malls are too fancy for unlocking phones; I guess I’ll have to go to some back alley (or just that place on Uruguay y Santa Fe) to unlock my phone. But Abasto wasn’t a total bust; it’s home to the only Kosher McDonald’s outside of Israel, so I grabbed some kosher fries. At $3.50 pesos for a small, it’s not cheap. I can get a really good empanada at San Jose for only $2.80; and they’re only $2.50 at Los Maestros (I bet they miss me already.) But I digress. I walked home in the near-dark clutching my purse. Actually it was pretty safe; just getting dark as it was nearing 7:30 pm. The only comments I got on the streets were like 5 blocks from my house, and it was some young guy who called me a muñeca, which is a compliment, but out on Av. Corrientes I’d rather play it safe (it’s times like these that I pretend I don’t speak Spanish.) But before that a lady did ask me for directions and I was so proud I could tell her where she wanted to go. But for beggars and creeps I feign English-only.

yes, I took a picture as I ate my papas fritas

So after my French fries, Jenny and I headed to Disco for groceries, where I bought Brie and apples and two different kinds of soy patties. (Soy is one of the primary exports of Argentina, and yet soy milk has yet to be found.) I don’t see the point in buying so many groceries when eating out is part of the experience and so cheap.

So that’s been my day. Actually pretty boring I guess.
¡Besos!