Long Days and Pillow Fight Failures

It's been a little while. Sorry about that. I've been kind of stalling on writing an entry because I had a series of pretty shitty days. It seemed odd to put up a downer post right after "Freedom". Alas, such is life and I should be real.

My series of shitty days began 2 weekends ago, which was a pretty big social failure. I should note that people in Argentina, even expats who have now assimilated, are not known for their punctuality nor reliability. I had a weekend packed with plans involving 5 different people and only one plan/person didn't fail me. Thanks, Jorge! I had a lovely dinner at Sarki's (an excellent Armenian restaurant) with Jorge and his parents. They were both awesome and it was a fun time. After that, the weekend went downhill.

The week that followed was not any better. I was very stressed and after coming off a weekend of being bailed on, I really missed my dependable friends back home. In no way did it make me homesick, just friendsick. Keep the emails and Skype dates coming guys, because you are dearly missed.

I guess I cannot truly pinpoint why the past week was such an overall failure. I guess it was a combination of being stressed about budgets, receiving an email with unwanted information, being told I looked fat in a very matter of fact way right after an intensive workout, being bailed on multiple times, and plans just not working out as I had hoped. This weekend was supposed to make up for last weekend, I'll give it a B- for effort.

Friday night I went out with a new friend, Gaston. We went to a nice Mexican restaurant and I had delicious enchiladas for the first time since my arrival. I'll be honest and say these enchiladas were nowhere near as tasty as the Enchiladas Yolandas from Chimichangas, which I enjoyed with Ellen and Ben on my last night in STL. However, it was certainly the best Mexican I've had here. Gaston is one of my students so we started in English but thankfully we quickly switched to Spanish. Speaking English to my students actually is very tiring and literally hurts my face. You all know how fast I talk and how big my chipmunk cheeks are. I really have to force myself to concentrate on talking slowly and exaggerating my facial expressions. My cheeks are a lot of weight to move around and I generally end the day with face aches. Anyway, end of face ache tangent. The food was good, conversation was also fun. The night ended early, around 12:30 (that's really early here). I could have gone to a friend's house who was having a get together but I wasn't feeling up to a social disappointment so I worked on Travelated and chatted with Adam and Cole online. I enjoyed Friday night.

Saturday was supposed to be pretty awesome. It started great, with a delicious delivered sushi lunch with Jorge. After that, there was an event, LUCHA DE ALMOHADAS (PILLOW FIGHT) that involved thousands of people gathering in Bosques de Palermo (a big outdoor green area) and having a giant pillow fight. Obviously, this sounds amazing. The event has happened twice before and had great turnouts. This was not the case this year. Jorge and I walked through the streets, carrying our pillows and became more and more aware of the fact that no one else was carrying pillows. We arrived and found a group of maybe 40 people. It was so awkward we decided to turn around and leave. Disappointment.

However, Jorge and I did manage to salvage the day a bit. We walked though the Bosques de Palermo, enjoyed the scenery and Jorge snapped some nice shots of our pillow adventures.
As we walked home we had several of our own spontaneous pillow fights, most of which Jorge won. He's very tall, serious height advantage. We decided to get ice cream (I swear it was Jorge's idea first!) and we went to one of my favourite places, Crepes and Waffles where Jorge and I ordered the same waffle which included chocolate sauce, dulce de leche, bananas and a scoop of vanilla.

After that, we both felt happier and sleepier.


I spent a large part of my Saturday evening watching bad television and working on Travelated. Jenny and Jorge came over for dinner and drinks but after dinner I was so tired and spaced out/upset I just wanted to go to bed, which I did.

Sunday was hectic. Gracia was supposed to call me on Friday or Saturday to let me know what time she needed me. I generally work 4-9 but this Sunday was the party for Coca, the grandma. Yes, her name is Coca. Gracia forgot to do this so I got a text at 11:00, which was 10 minutes after I woke up, telling me to be there at 12 or 12:30. San Isidro is far away, especially when taking into account the slower schedule of Sunday buses. I would have needed to leave at that moment to be sure I'd arrive on time. I quickly showered and had to kick Jenny out (she was crashing on my couch) and headed to work. I spent most of the day being sassed by the 13 year old and scrubbing outdoor chairs. I didn't mind so much, I was kind of looking forward to the family party. This was a mistake. I was thinking, families tend to like me and include me. I speak great Spanish so no one will be afraid to speak to me. Wrong. I sat awkwardly at a table of food that I mostly couldn't eat due to the meat content and tried to work my way into family conversations. Once I realized I couldn't make that happen I ate a lot of cake and cookies to occupy my time and hands. I hovered between the small children who were too young for me and the adults who were too old for me. My best social interaction of the night was with the 1 1/2 year old who took quite a liking to me and pulled me around the house in circles. I continuously cleared dishes and tidied up, feeling more like a maid than anything else. It made me miss the Mortons terribly and saddened me to know that I really have no family celebrations to look forward to at all.

That made my outlook for the week look bleak, but today did not turn out so bad at all. I tutored early as usual but did not have to work after 11am due to a lot of student cancellations. I actually hate cancellations because they affect my salary, but today I just went with it. I had lunch plans with another potential new friend, Andres. I had a nice lunch then worked out a lot. I also love Mondays because it is Travelated meeting day. I had an excellent meeting with Alex and Emily and we are all very confident the site will be in excellent shape for the big push on Monday, October 4th. I am so passionate about this site and my partners, I know it's going to be a success. There will be a blog about the push, don't you worry. I feel as if I have a weekend love affair with Travelated; I await the extra time all week then cram in as much work as I can during all hours of the night. I think it's a great relationship.

Things to look forward to:

• Several new friend hang outs
• Weekend in Colonia, Uruguay with Jenny this weekend
• Getting off the boat at 3am in Colonia and immediately going out drinking
  
• Bike rides in Colonia in 70 degree weather
• Another Sunday off work
• Travelated launch!

So, in conclusion, I think the rough waters are clearing up. Here's to what I hope is an awesome week and weekend.

For more photos and overall awesomeness check out Jorge's blog.

Re-ocupada

Hace un freakin montón since my last update. I've been busy (Re-ocupada!) again. The family returned from vacation so I have been working lots of long days to make up the time. However, I am really growing to love this family so the actual working has not been too bad. The family was actually chosen as "Family of the Month" for the Au Pairs. We had to take a ton of photos, here is a semi-posed one. We really were looking at a book and talking but we also knew photos were being taken. I'm telling Jose about the 5 great lakes, which is why I am holding up 5 fingers. Ana was not back from Spain yet when this photo was taken. She came back a couple days later and brought me a gorgeous Santa Teresa bracelet (that's my Saint!) from Avila, Spain. I hugged her and I don't think she realizes how much I love her and this bracelet!

It was Jose's 13th birthday on Thursday. I spent most of Wednesday baking a huge, super chocolately cake. Jose loves chocolate and needed to feed 40 people. I had to go to the store for extra supplies. I based my recipe on a simple chocolate cake recipe, then added extra grated chocolate, dulce de leche and homemade chocolate frosting. I know you wish you could eat a piece of this.
I also made a chocolate banana cake for the maid, Estel, the next day because it was her birthday. I love baking for other people and I do a lot of baking for this family because they are fascinated by my ability to bake at my age. I also taught Joan how to make chocolate chip cookies last weekend. He was obsessed with them. His mom loved me and begged me to come back and teach her how to bake. I like that moms like me now as opposed to banning their kids from hanging out with me. For our last batch of cookies Joan and I made a Super Galleta in the shape of a flower. This says "El Flor de Rease y Joan"

I've been adding a lot of new students from Profesores Nativos, which is another reason my schedule is so all over the place. I think I'll be losing a student who I wasn't a huge fan of anyway. He was interviewing for some exchange program in the US and expected me to have in depth information about every city in the entire United States. He also argued with me about whether or not Washington DC is close to NYC.

So, everyone that knows me knows that I hate old people. I have had several run ins with little old ladies since I have been here, mostly just the slow walkers and time wasters in grocery stores, but I recently encountered 2 especially obnoxious old people. While out running, an old man yelled at me for running. Yep, he was angry I was running. Apparently he was offended by that. The old lady run in was much worse. Buenos Aires is a dog loving city, it is very common to see dog walkers with 10+ dogs. However, no one in this city picks up after their dogs so you constantly have to watch where you walk so you don't get a shoe full of dog crap. I carry bags to clean up after Padfoot because I am used to it and I feel like it might give me good karma and help me not step in shit every time I go outside. Anyway, the other day I took Padfoot out and forgot the bags. When he pooped and I had nothing to clean it up with I just shrugged and figured, oh well, I live in Buenos Aires. All of a sudden a little old lady runs out of a fruit stand yelling at me to clean it up. I told her I usually carry bags but I didn't have any, but I was right outside my apartment so I planned to go get one. Of course I had not planned on this but this lady was being a super bitch and I had a point to prove. I yelled back at her telling her to calm herself and stop being so rude. (Yeah, I yell back at old ladies, get over it). When I came back downstairs and cleaned up the mess this lady was STILL there, and decides to patronize me even more by giving me a thumbs up and then trying to give me a piece of old lady candy as a reward. I glared at her and said "I don't want your stupid candy I'm not a child".

When telling this story to Jorge, right after discussing my issues with horses, I said "Horses and old people are the same with me, they both sense that I hate them so they just freak out when I'm around them". I think that is pretty true.

Last weekend I didn't sleep much, as usual. I went to a bar with Jenny and Rosie on Friday. It was supposed to be an event for a bunch of Au Pairs but as usual only we showed up. It was kind of lame. Saturday I went to Amerika, a club that has open bar on Saturdays. It started out okay but they played a lot of Mexican music, which is awkward to dance to. Joan got really drunk and I had him and Rosie stay the night at my place. Sunday was a sleepy day but Rosie and I did manage to make it to the San Telmo market. It is huge and awesome but I didn't buy much. It gets super sketch after dark and since we got there late we didn't have a lot of time to look around. I talked to some merchants about some custom stuff I'd like to get as gifts though so it was a good trip.

Last week was exhausting but it ended well. On Friday I went out to San Isidro for lunch with the family and basically immediately got back on a bus to the city center where I live. The family has a 15 year old girl named Lucy from the United States staying with them for a week. Gracia (the mom) wanted me to show Lucy around and have Juan (the 15 year old from the family) meet us there after he finished school. I am determined to help Lucy with her Spanish as much as possible in her 2 weeks. She has only had 2 years so she understands very little and the family gives up on her too easily because they all speak better English. We rode the bus, which was uncommonly crowded, I taught her how to deal with the whole payment situation on her own. She messed up, of course, we all do the first time, but I was proud she tried. We went to the Jardín Botánico then to that delicious Waffles and Crepes place from my last entry. I also made her order for herself, which scared her but she did fine. She asked me to write down some verb tenses for her in a notebook and asked me why she could understand me when I talked to her in Spanish but she couldn't understand me when I spoke to the family. I told her it was because I have a "teacher voice" because I was a Spanish teacher/tutor, but that in real life I speak incredibly fast. After waffles we walked around a bit and eventually made it to Plaza Serrano. That area is actually where a ton of bars are but there are also cute shops, alleys (like the one in the photo, with Lucy taking a photo) and of course, a little market. I gave Lucy a crash course on dealing with street merchants and made her deal with the merchants herself for 2 purchases. I stood by to make sure they didn't rip her off but she did it. After wards she was so excited, she it felt great and she had never felt more confident in her Spanish. I told her I would talk Gracia into letting me take her to a market in San Isidro next week and also see if I could manage 1 more city trip before she left. She said "Eres lo mejor" then, like a true good student, corrected herself, "LA mejor" (You are the best, the first one being wrong because "lo" would be for a male)


Juan arrived and of course he didn't stay at the agreed upon meeting place so Lucy and I ran around looking for him as I called his phone and tried to direct him to a proper meeting place. I kept thinking, please don't tell your mom this happened, she'll never let me take you here again! We found him and then headed to El Ateneo which is one of coolest bookstores of all time. It was an old theater that they renovated to be a book/dvd/music store with a cafe. It has 4 levels, the 4th is just a photography gallery. It is gorgeous and I could spend all day there. Unfortunately, Juan arrived super late so we couldn't stay long because I had to put them on a bus home. On the way back to the bus we encountered some tango steps painted on the sidewalk and Lucy and Juan practiced a bit. Sadly, those photos are on Lucy's camera. The whole day was really fun and I got to feel like the cool older sister. It made me miss Katie Dolan a lot. Shopping with her right before I left was so bittersweet. I miss the Dolan (well, actually Morton- the mom's side) a lot. Working with a family helps me with that.

Friday night I saw Inception with Jenny and Rosie. It was awesome! I want to see it again already. We saw a show at 1:10am, because this is Argentina and movies show as late as 2am. Saturday I woke up and went running then walked through the Bosques de Palermo with Jorge and Bri. It was a lot of running/walking for my tired legs. Jorge wanted to test out his new camera, which is awesome. He took a lot of photos. After that we killed time at my place before heading to Siga la Vaca with a huge group of people I didn't know. I was invited by Michael, one of Jorge's coworkers I met last year. It was delicious, I am always a big fan of my own bottle of wine with unlimited water, french fries, salad, cheese and bread. The unlimited meat is the real pull for most people, obviously not for me. I stayed with some people I just met after Jorge and Rosie left. They talked me into getting a drink with them. It was not really that fun but it was worth a shot.

All right, I am exhausted. Hopefully my next post will not have to cover such a long period of time.