I am so Cultured

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Buenos Aires, and for the last time. I am so sad to leave. The bus ride back gave me some time to plan the next leg of my trip, or realize that I in fact haven´t, which is scary, since I leave for Africa on Wednesday. I had a good 5 or 6 hours with no one next to me, which was a huge treat. Eventually a girl got on but we never spoke. Also a huge treat as I was wanting some alone time. That is a problem on this trip - I am never alone or have any privacy. Gets old. I did get to read a great deal, which was great. The funniest part was dinner, which among other things consisted on tortellinis. Not exactly raviolis...

I arrived in Buenos Aires at 7am and made my way back to the same hostel. I was able to secure a bed upstairs in one of the rooms, which was key. I settled in as much as you can do with a room full of sleeping bodies and then made my way to breakfast where I chatted with several people until Christoph woke up and came down for food. We caught up on our past few days - me and the falls, him and the food of BA - and talked about what w would do with our day. Which basically consisted of running errands for me since I would be flying out the next evening. We dropped off laundry, dropped off my film, got my check from American Airlines and cashed it, and went to an all you can eat buffet for $2.50. This in preparation for the upcoming opera - we didn´t know how long it would be or if we would have time to eat afterwards. We got back to the hostel about 5:30 and started beautifying for the big night. We left at 7:30pm so we could have plenty of time to walk over and get Christoph a beverage to satisfy his camel instincts before the show. The theater was beautiful, the orchestra was great, and the set was amazing. The opera singers were also fantastic. We had a great time. The only weirdness was that we were in the first row up pretty high, and if we sat in our chairs without leaning way over, we couldn´t see the stage at all. Bizarre. They sang in Italian and they were Spanish subtitles. I never realized how many Spanish words I didn´t know before tonight. It was humbling. Afterwards we split a pizza for about $1.50, just because we could. This is why people get fat in Argentina.

Afterwards Christoph went to sleep and I was going to pack, but my roommate upstairs was asleep, so I went to the kitchen to write in my journal since I wasn't tired. In the kitchen I ran into Peter, a Brit I had met at breakfast the same day. We sat around and chatted for a long time - until 6am in fact! After that I tried to get some sleep, but without much success. I checked out at 11am and went to grab some breakfast with Peter and Christoph, who had of course eaten at the normal morning food time. Afterwards, I spent a few painfully stressful hours trying to run last minute errands and packing. Christoph, like an angel of mercy, accompanied me through all of this and kept me in good spirits. He is a wonderful friend. In the afternoon Peter and I went out to sit in a park and destress. Of course, this would have been easier were we not sitting in front of the pink presidential house where a protest was taking place and seemingly shots were being fired. But we made it through unscathed and went back to the hostel so I could change and get everything ready for my taxi to the airport. I said good bye to Peter and to Christoph with tears in my eyes (and all down my face) and was off in a super fast, cops-and-robbers-driving-taxi. Made it in record time and bought some candy with my last few pesos after trading in the bulk of it for South African Rand. Another new currency.

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Comments

[Miranda]

Travel safe!
Hope you had a safe and uneventful flight over the atlantic! Can't wait to hear about Africa (and to see the pictures!!)