Green eggs and ham

Sorry it's been a little while--birthday hiatus!

Took my first drawing class and it was quite interesting. Here I felt a language barrier while trying to get critiqued but not quite understanding as much as I should have by the fluent Spanish speaking instructor. All in all, I had a great time sketching a model for a few hours. You totally go into your own creative world while also feeding off of the other artists' energy in the room. Ooh, and I also went to my roomie Paula's makeup class (from cinema school) where she dolled me up to look like a modern day Caucasian geisha, hooker from Kazakhstan or Asian teeny bopper in a karaoke video. I had a blast. B^D

Last week was my birthday and it was a sweet time. The sun was shining and I was feeling good (woke up with muchos flores para mi!) Jay and I strolled over to an area right by us on the port, called Puerto Madero. Nice and tranquil. While walking to an ecological reserve (which still has a ways to go in wowing the masses), we stumbled upon a jungle gym with a zipline! Ok, it's no Costa Rican mile long zipline ride through the rainforest, but we were psyched! We rode it a few times each and loved every second of it!

I also had my first Spanish class with my tutor, Julieta. She's really cool...I need to get a good hold on grammar and not just speak in the present tense, i.e. "I am going to the store last week" I don't know how much longer I can swing that one with the locals. Amigas, since I'm basically an immigrant, you can officially call me a FOB. (FOB = Fresh Off the Boat). For the weekend, Gabe (roomie), Sam (friend who used to live in our room), Jay and I went to Rosario, a city about 4 hours away from here. The city's on the river, smaller than BA and way more laid back. Really great city! I had a friend Natalie there (who I met through Binger, Bijan) and she is super sweet! She showed us around and helped us out sooo much! All was well until I caught some sort of stomach virus with a fever too! Haven't had that since I was about 12 and had to drink Pedialyte with cheerios. Mmm Fun times!

While we're on the subject of food's last stop, why don't I tell you a little about the cuisine here. It's delicious, but very concentrated on meat, pasta and cheese. Ham (jamon) is DEFINITELY in almost everything. Go to your local restaurant here and you'll see jamon y _________ on a wholeeee lot of the menu. Now, to someone like me who ain't got time for swine (no it's not a Jewish thang, I just love that line), it's a bit repetitive. Where's the nearest Katz's Deli? But either way, the cuisine here is rich and you will find what you dig. For my birthday we ate some delicious sushi! Did I mention we live across the street from a pasta shop with amazingggg homemade pasta? Yea it's worth bragging about. On that note, perhaps you are reading this at work and munching on yogurt and granola, mom's leftovers or KATZ'S DELI???? But I have to go see what's up with my leftover gelato in the freezer. Stay groovy.

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