New South Park Tomorrow!

I start classes tomorrow!!

I went to the Recoleta cemetary, and even though I'd been there before I had a lovely time. My experience was rather intense because I was listening to Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions on audiobook while walking around, so it was kind of eerie. And that eerieness was compounded about a thousand times by 1) the gurney with flat tires that was left abandoned in front of one of the mausoleums,

2) the seemingly rabid cats that have completely taken over, and 3) the mausoleum that appears to have been broken into and now serves as a shelter for a homeless man.
(nice tourist elbow in the corner)
(When you're dead, maybe you will be lying underneath something like that.)

This past weekend I took a little vacation to an area called Tigre with two friends (Alice and Renee.) After a $0.40 ticket and an hour train ride north, we ended in a small vacation town full of fresh air. Tigre itself is a large network of rivers that converge to create hundreds of little islands dotted with vacation homes, restaurants, kayak rental centers, and water taxi stands. After buying fresh herbed cheese, a large "field" breadloaf, an avocado, and fruit, we took a water taxi to Tres Bocas island. We spent most of the day walking around the startlingly tropical and humid vegetation until we found a patch of grass on which to enjoy our lunch. Sadly, it ended about ten minutes later when a possibly rabid dog with a chunk missing from its side that revealed bloody innards came to sit with us. It was revolting, and he was covered in mud, and we were scared, so we ran away and finished our food in proper chairs at a restaurant.
(walking to find our picnic spot on Tres Bocas)

I'm almost finished with Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, which I am reading after having finished an enjoyed another book of similar construction, Blink. They are both nonfiction and based on results from various studies, mostly sociological in nature. I can't help but feel like a little kid reading his work, because the way he makes his points involves making a statement, explaining it, contextualizing it with examples, repeating it, and repeating it some more. I feel like the subject of some condescension on his part, but this method works, because I feel as though I really comprehend all of his points. Regardless of how his teaching mode resembles that of my preschool teacher, I recommend both of these books for some light reading for any curious human.

As I said before, the food here is good but spices and extra flavoring in general are used sparingly. Who know how intensely my cravings for spicy food would be? I met some friends at a Mexican restaurant, and was confused upon seeing the corrugated tin lining the walls. Chipotle, anyone? Upon further investigation and standing in line for my food, I noticed a few things. The place very closely resembles Chipotle in how it works and what it offers, except that the people behind the counter are less efficient, so the line takes longer. Also, NO ONE in the restaurant was speaking Spanish, except for the employees. I'm not joking - the entire restaurant was full of American students abroad in the city, getting their Mexican fill. There was so much loud English, so much Hollister, so much USA... I thought I would die. But it was great anyway, and I plan to go back for more of that fuego salsa.


Generalization time
The mutual eating of faces, to both put it bluntly and be true to the act, is a part of Bs As daily life that I don't think I will ever get used to. (And don't want to.) It comes as a result of a huge societal difference, which involves children living at home with their parents until around the age of 28-35, which results in sexually repressed and aggressive children. (Although I suppose at 27 they aren't really "children" anymore.) In response to this way of life, the society has developed institutions called telos,, which are hourly hotels. But this shouldn't bring to mind the motel behind the whorehouse, because supposedly these are classy and highly-visited institutions among even the most restrained of individuals. I heard that the 'themed' telos are in fashion right now - for example, a famous one is Arab themed, with brightly colored sheets streaming from the ceiling and ornate bedposts...you get the idea.

KBYE

PS. Here is me and my Argentine adoptive mother at a kosher parrilla. Notice that the table is filled with meat.