before now: BA

I haven't been blogging my experience mostly because of time. I'm sort of regretting this because I noticed things everyday. So this blog is a collection of disconnected recollections and descriptions. You'll have to imagine me wandering. I'm sitting the Casa Fitz Roy's foyer next to my Chilean roommate Miguel, and we are both staring at our laptops instant messaging, not each other. ...home is so important. we've attempted conversation and i think we're friends because we can't talk but try. it's so challenging. the nonverbals are funny and exasperating. ...i'm listening to macy gray "get up get up and do something. don't let the days of your life pass you by. how will you make it if you don't try?" i recently discovered her because a Swede shared some music with me. it's so good and i feel in the best mood walking the streets listening to her in my own world. this city is a behemoth. there is constant motion and construction or traffic noise. i have never seen bus drivers drive the way they do here. picture an old,narrow European street with a neon tank plowing down the block at 50mph. It's terrifying. I walked across a major intersection the other day with the "walk signal" and nearly died. all i heard was the horn and then there was a whole bus coming at me. sometimes i wander if i look like a cartoon bumbling through this city. when i stare blankly at the lady on the subway who's asking me something. i didn't know she was asking me anything until she motions she needs to pass and get off at the next station. everyone else on the subway speaks spanish and probably see me flush. then there's problem of understanding if "i want something to go?" or not. i'm getting different explanations from everyone, so i point a lot and only use present tense vocabulary. i'm planning to study spanish when my TEFL class ends. speaking of TEFL, i take the "tube" everyday to class along with everyone else. it seems argentines don't perspire and need less oxygen. today i thought i was going to faint and i'm completely over feeling uncomfortable with another man's body conforming to mine. they don't care and are determined to get on. if i don't take the subway, which periodically does not move between stops, i take the collectivo (bus). I enjoy taking the bus because i can see the city. last night i sat next to the window on the bus while two lovers made out beside me. their hips kept bumping me. these people are lovers. they kiss all day. i'm told it's because the kids don't have places of their own. so why not the park? for the whole lunch hour? today i had excellent vegetarian food in the park. argentines do a lot of interesting things with vegetables, "tartas", and lasagnas. ...i will describe more in a blog to follow soon, probably next week. i have to describe not eating for the first two days and the Swedes and the dogs that wander the streets everywhere. there are so many dogs. ciao.