Livin' La Vida Portena

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Yes, I am still here. In case you're not jealous yet, I writing this entry on my laptop, sitting on my balcony. Today the temperature climbed into the high 70's, and now it has cooled about 10 degrees. From my seat here, I am staring directly at the Obelisk, which is lit up at night.

Since today was the perfect Buenos Aires day, I guess it's the right time to write about my life since I've been in this apartment.

For those of you who know the city, I have an apartment on the 1500 block of Avenida Corrientes, between Parana and Montevideo streets. That puts me one block from the Uruguay subte station, four blocks from 9 Julio and the oblelisk, and three blocks from Avenida Callao. In otherwords, I'm in the middle of everything.

The upside: This apartment is FABULOUS!!! I could never pretend to have a concept of square footage, but it's about 50% larger than my apartment in San Francisco. The floor is real parque (sp?) throughout. I have a separate full kitchen with a small table enough for one. The appliances are gas, but they are all fairly new. I have a large living room with a real leather love seat and a dining room table, as well as a TV and computer that I never use. I have a bedroom with a blackout shade, and a decent sized bathroom. The best part though, is the balcony that runs the length of the apartment.

As I am right on Corrientes, there is 24 hour lights and people on the streets. The postive in that is that it's very safe to walk home at night. The downside is that there is noise of both people and traffic all night. I sleep with my laptop on, playing itunes, which helps.

I've basically been alternating between days of exploring the city and days of hauling tush out to the 'burbs to hang out with my friends. If there's one thing I miss about living in a big city, it's that ability to just leave your apartment and start walking and never doing the same walk twice. Buenos Aires is a city that is alive and thriving in every sense of the word. I don't think I even stand out as a tourist here. Locals are constantly asking me for directions, or if I know where the nearest (fill in the blank: laundry, post office, pharmacy) is. The funniest is when North American tourists ask me directions in tourist guidebook spanish.

My good friends are all in the suburbs, but I've met a few people here. Sebastian still works twice a week as a guia for the language school I went to last year, and I tag along on the tours, so I've met some current students. I've hung out a few times with a woman named Megumi, who is Japanese but currently lives in New Jersey. As she is relatively new to the United States, I actually understand her spanish better than her english.

If I had to pick one highlight of my time in the city, it was last Saturday night. Girls Night Out. Cecilia and Romina came into the city. We ordered pizza up to my apartment, where we danced to the music on my itunes. Then we went to a concert. The group is called Los Tekis, and they are an Argentine Folkloric band. Although I'd have to say that they definitely have a more pop influenced sound. Anyhow, the first half hour or so of the show, they had a kitchen table on stage with half-eaten pizza and half-drinken beer bottles (Quilmes, of course). We were sitting pretty far back, so it wasn't until Cecilia and I got up to dance in the aisles (and moved closer down) that I realized that they had MY KITCHEN TABLE. It was rectangular instead of oval, but beyond that every detail was the same. I guess The Room Store is universal.

I'm only here for five more days. I still don't know quite how I'm going to make myself get on that plane.

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Comments

[cecilia]

hola amy!!!!
que lindas fotos!!! excelente. te cuento, que estoy preparando mis cosas para el viaje, salgo el martes. fue un gusto conocerte y ojala nos volvamos a ver, en tu proximo viaje a la argentina. sos muy divertida, me caiste muy bien!!! estamos en contacto y pronto subo los videos!! besos

[nick]

parquet
hey. only because i feel obligated in my designgeek way, you got the spelling of "parquet" correct, but "real" and "fake" don't apply - parquet is a pattern, not a material (if you remember, if you even paid attention (not that you'd have had reason to), my brookline apartment had parquet floors). it's pretty much always wood, and *that* can be real or fake, but much like, say, plaid, it either is or it isn't - no 'real' or 'fake'. :) xoxo

[Sherie]

miss you
Hi Amy, I am so happy you are having such a fabulous time! We miss you here, but your blogs are great!!!! Keep having a blast! ~Sherie~

[awass]

Ah yes, but see i was referring to my apartment in San Francisco that had linoleum floors that looked like parquet.