Recoleta

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Hellos alls mys peoples,

Yuck someone is smoking at their computer right next to me. I want to spit on them.

On a more positive note, I'm doing better! I developed the nastiest bronchial colds of all colds last Monday. I missed a bit of school Tues, and on Wed it just continued to get worse; so begins my trip to the hospital. I stumbled out of bed and slipped a sweater on and kept on my pants I was sleeping with. I tried calling the pager number of a doctor that the school gives to everyone in the beginning. It wasn't a pager, and a lady answered and told me that the doctor isn't answering the phone right now and to call back later. Great, thanks. Then I thought that I remembered seeing a doctor's plaque on one of the doors on the bottom floor and just decided to suck it up if the price was high, I was really feeling that bad. After getting downstairs, I saw the doorman and asked about a doctor in the area and he told me that the doctors in the building were foot specialists or psychologists, I don't know, but nothing pertaining to what I needed. He told me about a "great hospital" six blocks away. So I started to walk, I mean, stumble and swagger, down the street. I told myself that I was an adult and didn't need to take a cab for 6 blocks, no matter HOW much I wanted to. I arrived and walked inside this warehouse-looking room surrounded by plastic seats. I waited in line to check in, and waited. And waited. And waited. Someone comes to talk to the six people in line and we check in. The guy tells me it's free, so I say to myself, hey that's great. I sit down, and I wait. And I wait. And...you know what's up. To make this long, agonizing story short, I just to tell you how awful it was to be in that room, on that seat for FOUR HOURS before I was finally called in and someone told me just to take some asprin. Let that run through your mind a bit. Because when I left that place, I was almost smiling out of the shock of what had happened. I had sat there, yearning for my bed, almost crying at times from coughing so hard, and the "doctor" says there was nothing she could prescribe for me. Hey I know that we Americans are "drug-happy" and think that everything is cureable with medication, but I really thought that I could be given an inhaler, or some stronger medication than the Vick's syrup in the pharmacy. When I saw my host that night, I told her what had happened and she said that that is very normal here with the public hospitals and people can wait up to 6-7 hours. She said that I "should have" gone to this other hospital in the area. I despise that expression and it should expelled from our vocabulary. Does it ever do anyone good to say "you should have...."? Anyhoo...

Friday I went with some friends to a show called (translated) Urban Shock. If you have ever heard of "Stomp", then that will give you an idea of what it's about. It's really just a bunch of young, ubertalented peoples that correograph music and beats from everyday objects. They all are experienced drummers, I can guarantee, and they use their hands, body, garbage tins, pipes, plastic bags, plungers, sheet metal, etc. to create these extremely creative rhythms. Their finale was incredible and it was over 10 minutes long. I took some video of it and it turned out rather clear. I really, really enjoyed it.

Saturday I took a time out and went to Uruguay. Ok, it's not as cool as it sounds. I had to go there to renew my passport stamp as I had been in the country for exactly 90 days that day. There is a three-hour ferry that leaves from BsAs and goes to Colonia, Uruguay. I had heard mixed reviews about and I bought the morning To and evening Return. The city wasn't much to look at. It is surrounded by water, but I think that I've mentioned that the water in Rio de la Plata is the brownest water I have ever seen. I didn't take out my camera once, which I am usually the Japanese tourist when I'm around water. I spent the time reading and ate, really slowly, in the vegetarian restaurant. I tried to do some exploring and came across a Patrimony celebration and got to listen to a great band. Then I went back to the station to wait. But get this- when I was going through "Customs" to get on the boat, the guy looked at my passport and asked where my stamp was. I said, it's in there, because I remember that I had gotten one on the way to Colonia. He said that I was in need of two stamps, one leaving Argentina and one coming into Uruguay - I only had one from Argentina. I was going to have to pay some 350 Urug peso fine, about 50 Arg Pesos, to get out of Uruguay. It just figured. I go there solely to get a stamp, and some idiot doesn't give me one (he even said that it was Uruguay's fault!) So I had to argue and persuade them for 20 minutes, showing them my morning's ticket stub and talking to some jefes. They let me pass, and I got an entry stamp from Argentina. So I kinda just disappeared from existance for a couple hours on April 15, 2006.

Last night, Monday, we had a big party at my house, just for me!! Ok, not exactly, but it was originally thought of to open a bottle a wine that I had brought from California. I bought it before I left to give to my host mom. Well, I left my first home and didn't give it to her; my second home, the lady didn't drink wine and that would have been wasting good wine if she gave it to someone else; so I gave it to my third host. Her and her son were really excited to try CA wine and we said that we would open it soon. On Sunday night there were about 7 people at the house and we were eating chocolate easter eggs and someone mentioned the wine. Nene said that we should drink it with a meal and decided that the following day we would all have dinner there and open the bottle. The next day, the small gathering turned into 12 people, with quite the buffet spread (I made guacamole - always a winner). The wine was magnificent, a 2001 Syrah from Voss vineyards. The guy at the store was right when he recommended it to me. We had four other bottles of wine that people had brought, but obviously the first one was the best :-) And it was also a great chance to be around Argentinians. There are always people at the house, and they are always including me in their discussions, so I feel incredibly lucky.

With that wonderful note, I will leave you. I ask you to every once in awhile, please look around you, and at who's around you, and just be thankful for what you have, and what sort of life you live. We are all lucky to have what we have, some have more than others. But believe me when I say that there are billions of people in this world who live with nothing. So even if things are going real, real bad, they could be a billion times worse.

Love, Tara

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