buenos aires continued...

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Here's a synopsis. I'm back in the states, but there's still things to be said about Buenos Aires.

On thursday, I woke up to some not so good news for me. I might have overreacted, but there I found myself next to the computer with all of these feelings that I thought I had buried away resurfacing and lost all of that goodness that I had built up about myself on the trip. That confidence just seemed to shred away and dissolve in a single moment because the only person whose opinion ever mattered will never approve of the person I have become or the decisions I decided to make (staying longer). I ended up being quite depressed the whole day, and Daniel and Emmanuela saw me in my state.

That afternoon, I ended up meeting Jane for lunch and had the most delicious hot chocolate of my life. It was SO good to see Jane. It's even cooler that we had to meet up in BA in order to hang out. We had been trying to make it work, but our schedules are so different that it didn't really. But we finally made it happen. She took me to her favorite brunch place and we just talked like no time had passed about absolutely EVERYTHING. From being in Buenos Aires, what we thought about the culture here, the travels and the places that we had visited, the people we had met while traveling, and of course, our future. It was so good to be able to talk to a friend. I had told her about my escapades the night before, and we both understood how lucky we were to have met the friends we did meet and how we always take care of each other. Each moment I am on this trip I continue to think of how fortunate I am.

The hot chocolate at the restaurant was made in this cool copper kettle and Jane really wanted one. Since my spanish was better than Jane's, I communicated with our waiter about how to get a hold of one. Apparently, it's really expensive, but he was willing to sell it for 60 pesos... however, we had to sneak it in. Jane really wanted it, so we said okay. He wrapped up the copper kettle in a plastic bag and hid it behind a waiter tray and then slipped it in my bag. It REALLY REALLY felt like a drug deal. REALLY. We laughed about it as we headed off.

I felt better for a brief moment, but for some reason continued to feel overwhelmingly sad. I talked to Jill and Daniel about heading out to Once-- the Jewish District. Jill had always wanted to go, but had no one to go with. Daniel is Jewish, and me? Well, you know, I might as well be Jewish! No, just kidding... but I love exploring. There was this guy that had just gotten in and he was sitting on the futon kind of watching me converse with some people, and then watched Jill, me and Daniel. I decided to invite him a long and he seemed very willing, as if he was waiting for someone to ask him to invite him. I'd gotten over the being shy part and just invite people everywhere now. So we all headed out to Once and walked around. I, unfortunately, was still sulking. Daniel apparently asked Jill what he should do and said to her that I'm not myself but he doesn't want to pry. It's good to have people care for you. We stopped into a synagogue that was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't think it would be appropriate. The lady who was there was the nicest lady I had ever met. I was really quiet, and she totally picked up on it. But I just continued to contemplate and think about things. We then headed to KOSHER McDonald's in a huge mall (that was quite overwhelming). We had the Kosher McDonald's, which was nothing spectactular aside the fact that it was Kosher's. Then we tried to go on the ferris wheel and go to see a beatle's cover band... however, none of those ended up happening. However, during our walk, as I continued to feel sad, I finally opened up to Daniel... not entirely about the situation, but some of the details and we had a great conversation about what we had been feeling. I left that day thinking, "Man, I really do have some great friends here in BA." It's crazy how you can meet someone for a short period of time but can become such good friends with them. I feel like that about so many of the people I have met while traveling.

The next day, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but that was the beauty of it. I knew that I had dinner plans with the Iguazu folks. I ended up deciding that I wanted to spend my last three days in BA taking spanish classes. I called the Spanish School, and scheduled for 12 hours of private spanish lessons. When I got back, Jill was waiting for me, and we went to run some errands. It didn't really matter what we were doing, just as long as we were together. We walked around and had a lot of fun. Then we went to El Atenao... the most BEAUTIFUL bookstore I have ever seen.

That afternoon, I got a phone call from one of my best friends from home. She had a calling card to South America and she had emailed me just checking in, and I told her about what had happened. She had emailed me back and valued how open we were with each other about our experiences. You think you can know someone SO well. But there were so many facets of people that we don't know and won't know until we actually share it with each other. Through our email, Dre and I shared a few things that we had never really shared with anyone else, and I definitely felt a lot closer to her through that. She called me and we talked about a lot of things, which was great. It's soo good to hear from home!

That evening, for Jill's last meal, we ended up cooking at the hostel and hung out with Daniel and some other people at the hostel. Then I headed out to meet my Iguazu friends... which i ended up not meeting up with... long story. Thus proceeded the night of things that could have gone wrong, but went right. I headed to several locutorios to try and get a hold of Suzie. For some reason, the cell phone number she gave me wasn't working. i headed back and called Jill. We ended up communicating via facebook and decided to go see a radiohead cover. In an odd moment, I realized that I had lost my memory card with ALL of my photos from Salta and Iguazu. I was trying to figure out where I had left it. I invaded every inch of my room. No avail. i checked the locutorios I had stopped in, and no luck... i decided to cut my losses and just walk to meet Jill. Then I thought... it must have fallen out of my hand while i was changing cards (i have two memory cards and i swear, i just took too many pictures on this trip!)... I headed to the corner where I thought I had dropped it... the busiest corner in Buenos Aires (near the Obelisk, on Corrienties and Carlos Pellegrini). IT WAS THERE! I popped it into my camera, and saw Jill's smiling face with the McDonald's Kosher sign and was the happiest person alive. I rushed to meet Jill.

We had both gone in to check to see what the line situation was like. they told us that there was room and tickets left, so we got in line. SOMEHOW they stopped the line in front of us. this perfect night couldn't go so perfectly wrong! Jill said, "look sad, look sad, look sad." I don't know if it was that, or if they had one last table, but they let the two of us in and we were incredibly happy.

The perfect way to spend an evening. Things that could have gone wrong, ended up going right.

On saturday was Jill's last day. I called her so that we could hang out, and she ended up showing up, even though she needed to pack. She, Felipe and I headed to Palermo to Plaza Serano for the feria. It was slightly raining, so the feria wasn't that big and they closed up. I helped Felipe pick out a scarf for a friend of his, and I bought some jewelry (of course). Then Jill headed on out and felipe and I decided our path based on food (How I always decide my path). I thought he should try a Choripan, so we headed to Calle Florida where he was trying to find a suit, saw Galeria Pacifico *BEAUTIFUL* went to Plaza San martin and walked down to Puerto Madero where we got our Choripan.

I then headed out to give Jill her memory card and we chatted a little bit before she got picked up for her flight. Sad times.

I got back and laid down and talked to a few of the people in my room at my hostel. Then it was Emmanuela's last night. We headed to Olsen, a swedish restaurant with amazing food. We hung out at the hostel bar and then headed out to a club and danced the night away. It was a blast!

I, however, only slept two hours because we didn't head out of the club until about 6:30. Lenny and I shared a cab home because I really needed to sleep. I was meeting people at 10am. I kept on asking him what time it was and he said, "You don't want to know!" I finally saw the time and thought I was going to die.

I woke up the next morning and headed to the subte to meet Suzie and Mark. They didn't show up, so I went back to the hostel, got in contact with Suzie, and she finally showed up. We were finally able to hang out! We were trying to figure out what to do. 1) feria de mataderos-- good gaucho fun. I really wanted to go. 2) tierra santa-- Jesus Land. We decided to try and do both, and head to jesus land first. jesus land was AMAZING. we were only going to stay for a few hours, but we ended up staying there for a long time. I swear, I laughed my way through that place. It was great to spend some time with Suzie. It's wonderful how you could meet someone for a short period of time and feel so connected to them and be such good friends.

I headed home and hung out at the hostel with all the boys. They were playing a game called quaters. It was like being back in a frat house. They got really drunk and out of hand. I went to bed and so that I could be mentally prepared for mis clases de espanol! and that... will be saved for another blog.

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