Friday, May 28, 2010

Has things to say, but doesn't feel like saying them.

So, it's friday night. I should be excited to go do something super awesome, but I haven't actually found myself excited about anything in a long time. Lord, I am so emo, I need to get over this shit. Like I said, it's friday night and I feel guilty because I haven't been writing in my blog but I honestly don't feel that there is anything all that interesting going on in my life. Whatever.

(Here is where I tell you wrote that paragraph on friday and have just now made it back to my blog, it's sunday.)

So, I had class on Thursday, it was the only class I will have had in a ten day period because I don't have class on fridays or wednesdays and monday and tuesday were both holidays in honor of argentina's birthday. They celebrated for five days, I think 2 days would have been enough, I only went 2 days, although I am glad I got to go. I'm glad I got to be here for such an event and it was actually a lot of fun to be there.



Anyways, on Tuesday, Ami and Lindsay and I decided to go to the parade for the bicentennial. This was the most important thing to happen during all the festivities. It was supposed to start at 7, so we left our houses a little before 7, knowing it wouldn't start anywhere near 7, argentines just aren't that timely. So, we arrive at 9 de julio (the street where all the jazz is happening) and there are just more people than you can possibly imagine. They predicted a crowd, but holy man, this was a crowd (and I went to inauguration, remember?). We walk and walk and walk in the direction we think things are happening in. We get there, we can see the big screen, Cristina is talking. We try to figure out exactly where the parade route is so that we can somehow find ourselves in the middle of the action. We ask someone and walk in the direction of the diagonal where the parade is to be and by walk, I mean attempt to walk. There were far too many people to actually walk. I would describe it more like a black hole where gravity (here it's people) is pressing on you from every side and you are getting pushed and shoved and are trying to maintain standing and then you get hit by a stroller and the man next to you stops to have a cigarette. You can imagine this was a most lovely experience.

At some point we realize that we are standing between two rows of metal barriers meant to partition off the parade route and we're not the only ones, there are a ton of people standing where they shouldn't be. The police were trying to get all the people out of the parade route and after they realized very quickly that this wasn't working, they made another solution. They found some police tape and just made new barriers of people in front of the metal barriers giving you a partitioned off middle section, then some police tape, people, then metal barriers, then more people. It was really an excellent design. So we stand, we wait, we're behind the police tape. Nothing happens. We know the parade has already started, we saw it on the big screen. We stand. Nothing happens. People start to ask the police officers questions. Usually this seems like a good idea until you realize not a single police officer here actually gives a shit about the parade route. An Argentine asks one officer, where is the parade supposed to go? He says here. And she says, well how is it going to do that? He shrugs. We and everyone else realize that the floats literally have no where to go because of the wall of people, oh fun.



The police tape breaks, the people flood into the parade route and then somehow, miraculously, there is a reformed parade route and there are floats and lights and people coming down the street. Not that it wasn't well lit before, it's BA, but still, these were flashing lights and there was music. So Ami and Lindsay and I find ourselves on the other side of the parade route being crushed to death by people and then by more people who are moving out of the way of the parade as it approaches. I find one of those metal barrier things that for some reason is now perpendicular to the parade route, how effective and decide that this would be the perfect place to stand. I climb onto the barrier and yell for Ami to give me her camera, because I can see everything from here. Perfection. At some point, I hand my purse back to Ami, there is no way I am getting my camera out in this madness and then she and Lindsay decide that want to go back a little bit to be able to breathe and so as to not get trampled like Mufasa in The Lion King. Ami gives me her phone and I stay to take pictures. It was so awesome, somehow even in the midst of the most ridiculous street party/gathering/parade nonsense I have ever found myself in, I managed to start talking to some argentines beside me and made some friends. This was nice once Ami and Lindsay had left because periodically, the entire parade would have to stop to push the people out of the route to make room for the floats. Like I said, this was well-planned and well-executed. Go argentina.



The parade pretty much was designed to travel through Argentina's history, both the good and bad points were highlighted and it was really interesting, like I said, a good experience. However, when the last float finally made it to where I was, which was near the end of the route, all the people flooded out into the street behind it (because the last float was just a DJ playing popular argentine songs) and it became a moving street party. There were people everywhere just singing and dancing and screaming and then randomly, all the argentines, with pride of course, would start jumping to the music. I found myself in the middle of the hubbub with my two new argentine friends and the only thing to save yourself in a crowd of people jumping is to jump, so I jumped. It was amazing and so much fun and fortunately, I did not get crushed to death. At some point, I managed to find Ami and Lindsay again in the massive and endless crowd (which the news reported to be 2-3 million) and we went home, but man was I energized. Good job argentina, I really mean it, buen trabajo, feliz cumpleaños.

Fortunately yet again for me, I did not have to get up for class in the morning. This was doubly good because I had been sleeping really horribly and having some pretty wicked nightmares. However, on the recommendation of the my mother, I started taking melatonin and now I have actually been sleeping well, I think my body was just out of whack for some reason, maybe it's the argentine food.

Wednesday I did nothing, Thursday, I went to class, then yoga and then had coffee with Ami and Nikhita but mostly did nothing, unless you count skyping with my future husband Sean for an unnamed number of hours, something (which I secretly do), but I did nothing productive. Friday, I woke up with intention of doing homework, but I'm pretty sure I actually did nothing. I like sleeping in and apparently, contributing not a damn thing to society. My mother should be so proud of me. I promise to become a useful person again someday, I just don't think I am going to find that in Argentina, oh whoops, it's not counting towards my gpa, thank the lord.

Speaking of how useless I am, I have been finding it extraordinarily difficult to do anything lately. No one in the university system holds you accountable, which usually doesn't bother me, but there is also the little fact that the majority of my readings have no play on any form of evaluation for the class. All I have is final papers and one in class exam and one oral exam. None of the readings I currently supposed to be reading count for any of that. So, would you be working either? I doubt it, I'm watching Dexter. You should too.

Saturday, I went to the organic farmer's market in Palermo, which in itself wasn't easy to find but it was amazing and we ate organic chocolate while drinking organic coffee, in case you are unaware, this is my version of heaven. After we finally pulled ourselves away, we went and had lunch at Buenos Aires Verde, which was good but still had a little bit of that Argentine version of nutrition as it's core. It rained all day and I loved it because it gave me a reason to wear rain boots, a rain coat, to carry an umbrella and to look like a complete idiot for a day. Also, to note, the three of us got confused for germans and brazilians, don't understand either.

After this, we did nothing. I started watching Dexter. Oh and then there was some meat, but that's really worth seeing and not talking about. Here, just a tease, kidney. Mmm, delicious.

Anyways, that's all for now. I tried adding in some pics. Hope you like it!

Love
besos
amor
kristin

Thursday, May 20, 2010

You are insultingly young.

So I am trying to recapture my narrative abilities but I feel that my depression has stolen them from me. I never considered myself a particularly amazing writer, but I feel that my last several posts have been sub-par, somewhat mediocre. I have considered making up stories about all the amazing things I have been doing in BA, using my imagination to the best of it's abilities, like the Wiggles do. However, I have decided that I am too honest a person for this, I have decided to only tell you real, true life stories, like A&E and MTV do.

Moving on from my rambling. On Wednesday, May 19, I had my first real anything with my internship with this independent literary arts magazine run out of BA. They are in their seventh year, which is kind of a big deal, because think about how hard it is to start and maintain a magazine in the states, now imagine that with how difficult Argentina makes everything. So, basically they are cool. The email I received said that I should meet both the directors, Marcelo and Graciela, and my contact Maxi at the house/office thing at 6:15 to review what I am doing before the meeting started at 7.

I got there at 6:15 exactly which means I was very early on Argentine time. Marcelo and Maxi were there, we sat down and chatted about what I was doing and what I have been doing. Marcelo ranted about facebook and twitter and twitting and how he doesn't understand it (he's in his 60s, I'm guessing) and it was pretty hilarious. Graciela arrived right around 7, looking completely disheveled, but when she got settled, we sat down and I caught her up on everything I had talked about with Marcelo and Maxi.

At around 7:30, the first person showed up for the meeting and then they started pouring in (by which I mean, that the meeting totaled maybe 11 people). A little after 8, the meeting started. I took notes, they talked and had intellectual discussions. I was lost for about half of it and then (to make myself a wonderful use of the english language) they talked about Lost and the end of Lost for maybe half an hour or more. At the end of the meeting, I chatted with my teacher who is a writer for the magazine and then we all went out to dinner. By this time it was 10oclock and I needed to go home, but this was the first time that I had ever had the opportunity to meet any one with the magazine, so I took it. This was also the first time that I had eaten an entire dinner with only Argentines and I will say only this, I miss table manners and I thank Emily Post for her crazy etiquette inducing ways. Anyways, we finally finished dinner and I went home and showered by about 1:30 and needless to say, I did not finish my homework for my 10am class the next day.

(Sidenote: I have been writing this blog post for literally 4 days, so there are many more things I must tell you).

Thursday, nothing in particular happened. Class, yoga, café with Ami and Lindsay where we made a full list of all the things we want to do while we are in BA. As of today (Sunday, the 23rd), we have only 6 full weeks and some change left and we have a lot to do. But that's okay, we will either finish the list or we won't, none of us actually care all that much.

Friday, I woke up and did the most exciting thing ever. I went to the immigration office to get my permanent residency and by that I mean, I am officially a resident of Argentina, until the 29th of September of course. After the massively boring wait at Immigration, we went to Pura Vida for lunch which was delicious and then I came home to skype with a most lovely Nandita Rao. I caught her right between her two scheduled out study times for the M-CAT, this is why I am a double humanities major. Win. But really, I love her a lot, she's fabulous and I miss her like crazy. After that I took a really long nap and then woke up to have dinner with the host mom and her lesbian lover (who is not actually her lesbian lover, I don't think, but it is her friend who has in the past week for some unknown reason moved into our house). After that, I did absolutely nothing and I have no shame in admitting it. My Friday night consisted of a shower, a bowl of cereal and some sex and the city. It was ultimately glorious.

Saturday comes. Saturday is the day of fun. I woke up, had some eggs and with some fresh mushrooms in them that I had bought at the farmer's market. It was delicious and then Ami and Lindsay and I went the Abasto Shopping Center with the intention of shopping and a result which was more like us just trying on the most ridiculous argentine clothes we could find and taking pictures in the dressing rooms. Don't worry, I'll post all these pictures soon. So, I actually bought one shirt from Zara but that was all any of us bought. I just needed something new in my closet, I hate everything I have here. After shopping, we went to this place in Palermo that is supposed to have really good cupcakes. And as it turns out, they have really good cupcakes. We got a lot of cupcakes and some coffee because we want to try them all. We each got a main cupcake for ourselves and then we each picked one that we would cut into thirds, so that each of us could participate in the glory that is baked goods. Lindsay picked the carrot cupcake as her primary and a patagonia as her secondary (which is chocolate with a berry mousse). Ami and I both picked the Red Velvet cupcake as our primary and she picked the Bombon as her secondary (which is chocolate, dulce de leche and creme). My secondary was Café Olé which really just means tiramisu. Heaven. No worries, there are pictures of everything from the unveiling to the aftermath of this glorious baked goods adventure. These will also be posted when I care to post them in the near future.

So after this, we went to check out the bicentennial nonsense. (Oh, we did walk into a store on the way to the subway from cupcakes and I found my perfect shoes in the right color on sale but sadly and as perfectly explains my life in this country, they didn't have my size or even a size close to mine and if you recall that scene from the most famous youtube video called Shoes, the scene where the saleslady tells him that his feet are kinda big, well that is pretty much what went down in this store, except for she was super nice and I am just not the same size as an Argentine in any sense.) We got to 9 de julio, which is the street where all the jazz is happening. There were concerts and harps and more people than I could ever hope to count. We fought the crowd for a bit and then got bored and sat down and watched a guy paint graffiti for a while. After a bit of this and some people watching, we left and walked to Cumaná for dinner. No, we don't have any creativity, or in reality, it's cheap and close and the only argentine food any of us really likes. We sat and chatted for forever. Oh and it was decided that I have a cute version of a southern accent and should not try to rid myself of it anymore because what I have left is not annoying like Paula Deen's (and her existence) but rather quite charming and seemingly hospitable. How do you feel about this? I would really like to know more, do you like the amount of accent I have left? Let me know.

After eating, we left, Ami and I got some chocolate milk in boxes like they have juice and walked home while having an entire conversation on the validity of juice boxes and how it is completely unnecessary to add sugar to juice because it is perfect in its natural state. I came home, showered and fell asleep to the wonderful sounds of Lady Gaga playing very loudly from the apartment below me.

How glorious, I know! I also know that this is a very long post, you're welcome, I know you are all on summer vacation and have nothing better to fill your time. There should be more to come as it is the most exciting weekend of the bicentennial and I don't actually have to go to class again until Thursday. Oh and I don't have class on Fridays, win.

For now, I should either do some reading or not, I have yet to decide.

Lots of love
miss you all
kristin

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Don't cry for me, Argentina.

So, I know that I promised that I would update my blog yesterday, but I completely 100% forgot. I'm not exactly sure how that happened, and I know I have been a very mediocre blogger lately but I'm trying.

If you're wondering, I have 53 days left here in Argentina (and for the record, no I didn't know that, I just counted). I've been trying to be very optimistic about the time I have left and be very optimistic about life because things really aren't that bad. When I get depressed, I just remember that my life is much better than anyone on Gossip Girl's life.

For Tuesday, I had to read a book called "El Juguete Rabioso" which I think is a less severe somewhat similar version of a clock work orange but it's in spanish and it's by an argentine author. I liked the book a lot, but imagine if you were reading a book where you didn't know what half the words meant and when you bothered to look them up, some of them don't even exist. It was a challenge to say in the least, but I finished on Monday and actually had time to write my review and sleep, some.

There is nothing else really exciting going on in my classes. I seem to have found myself in a very lucky position, I have only one in-class final. And I only have one mid-term, which is an out-of-class paper. Go me!

None of this is interesting, sorry, I just don't really have a lot going on right now. Tonight, for the first time, I am actually going to go to a meeting for my internship and meet the people who work on the magazine. I only have a little over 6 weeks left to my internship and finally, it's starting! Woot. Oh and moving on, I have been researching internships for NY. I feel like I am super behind because my overachieving friend Erik has already applied for several, but that's just how he is. Also, he no longer has to go to class. Blah. I am applying for an even spread of internships I think, between magazines, publishing houses and with fashion companies. That makes me sound so much cooler than I actually am. Oh and if anyone knows anything about how to make a portfolio, let me know, I think I need one.

Today, I am going to the study abroad office to ask about some hypo-allergenic detergent. And then I have my meeting, in the interim, I plan to read Operación Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh for my Spanish class tomorrow.

I know, it's all so very thrilling. Well at least this weekend is Argentina's bicentennial celebration for independence, it's a big deal. Hopefully, I will do something remotely interesting, most likely not though.

love
besos
more love
kristin

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Just to check in.

I haven't died. I'm swamped with work. Tuesday, I promise.

oh, in the mean time, to fill all the free time you will have from not reading my blog. i have a present.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120326033

expand your music knowledge. go ahead. i dare you.

lovelovelove

p.s. you could also just watch glee.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Noticias en la vida de Cristina.

Updates in the life of Kristin (Cristina is like Kristin, but in spanish).

So, I thought that since I have already, or will at least most likely finish my homework in a timely manner tonight, I should post to my blog. Right now, I am waiting for Ana to serve dinner, which she doesn't even start unless I am home, so if I come home late, like I did tonight, we don't get dinner forever. I don't like her and I think she is stupid, and to only exacerbate my pain, I will not be moving houses anytime before I leave Buenos Aires. This is partly my fault and partly the fault of my program, and while I admit that I am at fault also, I am still quite upset with them. But I don't really want to talk about that anymore.

Nothing exciting or noteworthy in particular has happened (other than the aforementioned lack of movement) but I guess I can talk anyways. Today, I went to starbucks to do homework and was somewhat productive although not that productive in the scheme of things. And this morning when I woke up, I finished my readings for tomorrow, of which I am proud, but then I went back to sleep and woke up and went back to sleep three more times. This lead me to finish breakfast at the same time that Lindsay finished lunch. Go me!

Yesterday, during my yoga class, we were doing inversions and it was handstand day. We always do inversions in yoga class and that makes me happy because I had never really done any before I came to Argentina (oh noting this on my list of happy things that have occurred as a result of my being here list). Anyways, I have been able to do a handstand since I was little but never have I done one properly yoga style, which means that you start with you hands on the ground and a strap around your elbows and then kick up. Well, exciting day of days, I was able to kick up (against a wall obviously) and not only was I able to kick up several times, I was able to hold myself unsupported for several seconds. This was quite exciting and while I am sure most of you will not understand what an achievement this is, anytime I am able to do something new in yoga is a good day because it means I am developing in my practice and strengthening my body. That's a good thing, yay yoga!

Oh, as a result of this, my arms are almost too tired to type. I keep having to take them down off the desk to rest. I am an old pathetic lady. Oi.

I just had the untamable urge to listen to "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca, so I am. This is a fabulous movie, if you haven't seen it, I would highly recommended it.

This is just the non-sequitur post of the week, since nothing has purpose. Sorry for making you read it.

Dinner Time.

Ok, I am never going to write more, I have to finish my homework. This is all for today.

I'm going to say David Bisbal on Sunday, I'm stoked.

love
besos
kristin

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Lord I need to get better at this blogging thing.

Hey guys I know it's been a while, almost a whole week, but you must remember that now that your exams have died down and come to an end, my semester is just starting to get intense. So let's review Kristin's last week quickly:

Martes/Tuesday: I was sick, didn't leave the house except for to go to the kisoco at the corner to get wheat cookies and sprite.

Miercoles/Wednesday: I went to immigration to get my visa, it was a horrific experience, I cried, but that's not the point, I got my temporary residency. I'm an argentine resident for at least the next 15-30 days. Had lunch at pura vida, drank coffee, attempted to go to the art seminar I wanted to do, which yet again hasn't started. Then went to Mario's house in San Telmo, ate pasta, listened to him talk forever, came home, slept. The end.

Jueves/Thursday: Got up, went to class. This was boring but alright. Went to get thai food in Chinatown with Greg and Lindsay. It was decent. Did not make it to yoga because of thai food eating. Came home, watched copious amounts of Gossip Girl instead of doing homework.

Viernes/Friday: Woke up, got in the way of the housekeeper who gets here obnoxiously early on Friday mornings. Went to get vegetarian buffet and then went to La Boca. El Caminito, you should have seen pictures by now. There were colorful houses and the amount of harassments was increased about ten-fold, we even got a f*** you, how pleasant. Took lots of pictures, returned to recoleta, had some coffee and went home for dinner. After dinner, Greg and Lindsay and I went to see a movie called Synecdoche, New York. I still have no idea what it was about.

Sábado/Saturday: Very argentine day, sort of. It was at least as argentine as we will ever be. Woke up, went to pura vida and got food to go. Ate food in the park, sat in another park and drank mate while people watching. Attempted to do work, failed. Went home for a bit, did some work, skyped the fam then we went out to eat and for a show at this place called Clásica y Moderna, which is a bookstore/restaurant thing. It was cool and I had a really interesting salad of pears, arugula (they love it here), walnuts and blue cheese. The show was good, we also had wine and a brownie thing for dessert.

Hoy/Domingo/Sunday: I went to tea connection with those people I always go to tea connection with. Tea Connection got a new menu, it's seasonal, what the hell? the only reason this upsets me is because I will never again be able to eat a mangomania salad and they are delicious. They did however slightly make up for it with their new salad choices, I had the Riso-n'salad, which was basically risotto covered in a thick layer of arugula with walnuts and olive oil, it was also delicious. After that, Ami and Lindsay and I went to our sunday-afternoon-let's-do-homework haven called starbucks (because of the chairs) and we worked for a long time. And of course we did the usual people watching and what not, people really like to get it on in starbucks here. I don't know, now I'm home and am not able to contact my parents at all, too bad it's mother's day. That's alright though because I am talking to cassidy for the first time in forever.

That's about it for what you missed, there isn't a whole lot going on. I'm doing a lot of reading and homework for my classes here while also trying to get things done for NY next semester. It's a lot to handle and I can't really get any work done in my room. I don't really like being in my house, that's a problem. Anyways, I've been thinking a lot about Argentina and whether or not I would have chosen it had I known what I was going to go through and the answer is, most likely not. I do not regret my decisions to study abroad but I do not think I would have chosen Argentina and although my goal was to learn spanish more, I do not know what I would have even chosen a spanish-speaking country. Ah, too late for that now, I have had some wonderful experiences and made some good friends so it is alright.

Last thought of the post: do you think that argentine women are bitchy because they are hungry?

love,
kristin

Monday, May 3, 2010

"juice box trend sweeps the nation after duke student imports argentine obsession"

So, I wasn't actually planning on posting today, but I felt that this needed to be shared with everyone.

First, the skype conversation that started it all:


Lindsay Berger: yeah, i totally owe you a juice box tomorrow
Lindsay Berger: i like that we treat each other with juice boxes
Lindsay Berger: it's a great tradition
Lindsay Berger: i'm going to miss that when we get back to the u.s.
kristinoakley: why are we stopping it/
kristinoakley: who said i was?
Lindsay Berger: who said you were what?
kristinoakley: stoppng the juice box tradition
Lindsay Berger: oh, that's right. you're gonna start a trend in the u.s.
Lindsay Berger: with the juice boxes
kristinoakley: yep
kristinoakley: in NYC
Lindsay Berger: omg that would be so great!!! i really hope it works!
Lindsay Berger: i would love it!
kristinoakley: im going to try
Lindsay Berger: i can see that as a headline, "north carolinean singlehandedly restores the popularity of the juice box"
kristinoakley: see my life is going to be on tv
Lindsay Berger: kristin oakley sweeps the nation with the juice box trend
kristinoakley: yeah pretty much
kristinoakley: you can write the story

Lindsay is a journalism major, so on my wall I receive this:

ok, here it is.

the headline would be, "juice box trend sweeps the nation after duke student imports argentine obsession"

lede and nut graf(s): "from new york to san francisco, citizens across the nation have rekindled their nostalgic flame with the juice box. kristin oakley, a duke sophomore, is credited with igniting the trend she first observed during a semester abroad in buenos aires, argentina, where citizens consume seven times more juice boxes annually than americans. the north carolina native, currently studying in new york city, was first spotted with a multi-fruit juice box in hand in times square near the end of august. stylish new yorkers followed oakley's lead and began carting many varieties of mott's juice boxes around the city for a healthful and youthful afternoon pick-me-up. the juice box is now considered a staple in the life of all powerful new york execs and has attained a position of prestige rivaling that of the requisite blackberry."

next, there would be statistics quantifying how much juice box consumption has increased, and in which cities it is most popular. i can also see a follow-up story about the positive health effects this massive increase in juice box consumption has had on the nation, including an exclusive interview with one kristin oakley.

And then, even more:

kristinoakley: all i have to do is look fabulous while drinking juice boxes
Lindsay Berger: i know
Lindsay Berger: i was thinking that would be a good sidebar type thing
Lindsay Berger: like pictures of the essentials of a new york wardrobe
Lindsay Berger: with you looking stylish with a juice box
Lindsay Berger: and then little information boxes about all of your wardrobe essentials
Lindsay Berger: including the juicebox

This, my friends, is why we are friends.

love
kristin

p.s. all real writing credit here goes to lindsay berger.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Adventures of Elga and Marge.

So, if you weren't already assured that I was completely an idiot, please let me tell you what Ami and I did last night. We went to eat at Cumaná and we sat there for forever. I talked, Ami listened, apparently I am a very interesting person. I explained religion to Ami, and I mean all of them, we have very different upbringings. Then we finally decide to leave and give or take a few unimportant sentences, the conversation goes like this:

Me: You know what would be really good right now? Let's go get some chocolate milk.
Ami: Ok, let's go find a kiosco.
Me: Alright, we've walked for four blocks, there are no kioscos open. Hey, look! A McDonald's, let's get a tres sueños McFlurry!!
Ami: But wait isn't Volta around here somewhere?
Me: Yeah, it's that way...oh how will we decide between the two?
Ami: Let's play rock paper scissors, I'll be McDonald's, you be Volta.
Me: Oh, you're the white trash version of me!....oh I feel like I'm controlling destiny.
Ami: Fine, then we'll flip a coin
Me: Not in front of the homeless woman, that's mean...how do you flip a coin?
Ami: I don't know
Me: Oh shit, I dropped it.
Ami: look and see what does it say

(We walk to volta, buy ice cream, sit down to eat)

Ami: Hey look at the wall, I can tap that woman on the head with my giant foot shadow, hahahahahahah
Me:Oh hey, me too, let's make shadows with our feet. do you think my toe will fit in that man's ear?
Ami: I don't know, I keep wiggling my calf right next to his head....

this went on for a good 20 minutes, affirming that we are in facts, complete idiots. I'm sorry you had to read this, I thought you should know.


to move on to other things, it's been a pretty busy weekend. I guess that's good. Yesterday, I went to Belgrano, to Barrio Chino a.k.a. Chinatown to get Thai food. Now, that might sound strange to you, thai food in chinatown, but it's most certainly the most logical choice for thai food in BA. Not only was I surprised by how good it was for BA's standards, I was surprised that it was actually good. Or maybe it's just that I haven't had any thai food in 3 months and have forgotten what it is supposed to taste like, that's also a possibility. Anyways, so I went with my friend Erika and we did the double split which I think is necessary in all thai food situations. We shared the paneang curry with tofu and a chicken pad thai. They were amazing, I got extra rice, which they never charge for in Argentina. Yay. And it was actually really good, the curry, in my opinion was better then the pad thai, but both were good. We ate everything and then got dessert. We ordered sweet rice with mango (which a one, very lovely Nandita Rao introduced me to) and it was amazing. Hot sticky, sweet rice with coconut milk and mango slices from heaven. Oi, I was in love. Then we got the bill, yikes. International food here isn't cheap, doesn't matter if it's good or not, it's just not cheap. But it was oh so delicious and I plan to go back on Thursday for more heaven. HEAVEN.

After that we went by Erika's house for a second and then headed out to a free concert in the street. It was sort of correlated with the international book fair that's going on right now (I know, I know, the 10 year old Kristin's biggest dream, international book fair) and had some really famous old people. So we went and sat and more and more and more and more people came. the concert finally started and the opening act was some lady, no idea who she was, but I was uncomfortable sitting on the ground in a hot pink dress and I wanted to get some coffee. So I leave to get coffee and run into Ami and Lindsay, standing literally 5 people away. There were so many people I would never have known. Anyways, they were kind of bored also, so we went to get coffee. Lindsay just wanted to make sure to be back for some old Brazilian Guy named Caetano Veloso (yes I had to look that up), apparently he is the BobDylan of south america. Lindsay told us we should feel honored to have seen him live, I believe her, it was actually really cool. Also, watching Ami in crowds is fun, she's short. So before the crowd could leave, we left. The Subte was closed because of all the people and we waited for a bus for about 10 minutes. We caught the bus and went back to Recoleta.

As you have read before, you know what happened for dinner and the aftermath, I won't go into it again.

Today is Sunday, that means it is homework day. I should be doing homework, but I'm not yet. I am going to tea connection for lunch (as always) and I have to meet my concentration at the International Book Fair at 4. We are going to hang out there and then see someone talk. His name is Richard Piglia, pretty famous if I'm right. And then there is a free circus tonight, that I sort of want to go to, but then I don't know when I would do my homework.

That's about it for this episode of inside the life of kristin.

Until next time,

besos
kristin

p.s. I forgot to tell you what the title of the last blog meant, it was "estudiar letras es como morir de hambre" which in english means "to study literature is like dying of hunger". someone at UBA told me this last week, I love it. It's even better than the American version, which is "What are you going to do with that?" The answer, probably be happier than you corporate asshole or scientist shut up in a lab who hasn't seen daylight in 5 years (that doesn't apply to lily though).