What a day!

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Today's orientation didn't start until two, so I leisurely slept until one. That was great, but from two oclock on...I have been running full steam ahead. I got into all the classes I wanted for UBA, and started to thin down my selections into something that resembles a schedule. Registration for this program is so confusing because we have four different schools to schedule classes with. I am taking a class called Creativity at UCA (Universidad Catolica Argentina), a graphic design class and a Conversational Spanish class at UBA (Universidad Buenos Aires), and an Economic Development class at FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericano Ciencias Sociales). In addition, we have the option to take a class at Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas. I signed up for Tango - Level 1, and Creativity & Photography. I realized that one of my UBA classes conflicts with the photography class and thought that this was an issue I could take care of in one day. As the lady at CCRR told me later..."This is Argentina, everything works much slower here."

I went into Rojas, presented my problem, and was directed to the fourth floor of the adjacent building. From there, the man smoking a cigarette told me I had to come back with a photocopy of my receipt, my class schedule, and a letter explaining why I needed to switch classes. Not horrible. It was just after four and he told me to return before seven when they closed. My next errand was to get to the Omnibus Terminal to buy my ticket to Mar Del Plata for the weekend. I used the Subte to get there, picked one of the tens of booths advertising trips to Mar Del Plata, and bought my ticket.

I took the Subte from the bus terminal to the stop closest to my house, got back up to street level, and hurried back to my house. It was now about 6:10 PM and I hurried to find the receipt and get back to the bus stop. On the bus, a very energetic man jumped on with a bag full of cell phone holders. In a very loud voice, he gave a very elegant speech about all the incredible benefits of these 'Nike brand' cell phone holders. Everything from elastic neoprene to a belt clip...this device had it all! He ended up selling about 5 of them...and was on his way. That seemed about 5 more than I thought he would sell - But I was impressed at his salesman efforts and bet he could do really well selling something worthwhile.

I arrived at FLACSO just before 6:30 and ran upstairs to print out my class list. After the three blocks up to Rojas, and the four floors up, I was there around 6:45...just in time I thought...this is gonna work out great! I was so glad the same guy was behind the counter - this time without a cigarette. When I tried to hand him my papers, he gave me a weird look and told me I was too late, I would have to come back on Monday. After some more discussion and clarification (Apparently I hadn't understood everything that he told me earlier), a lady employee behind the counter said "Welcome to Argentina", and I was outta there! Ready to get back home and chillax. So another bus ride and a few blocks walk brought me back home and I am fed up with big cities!

Tonight I'm going to a concert of a friend of mine called almas mugrientas...we'll see how that goes. Afterwards I'm headed out for a few hours and then I have a 5 AM bus to Mar Del Plata for the weekend...hasta luego!

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Comments

[anonymous]

when am i going to read stories about you getting super fucked up and wandering in a village and smoking some salvia divinorum???? thats the shit i want to read....that shit about nike is funny though phil

[andy]

huplah
what a big huplah for something that could take like a minute. you got it done though. it was probably good for you that your conversational skills are superb.