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Published: March 1st 2006
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cafe
where i wrote this entry Four days until Mariahs birthday. I am reminding myself that I need to buy a calling card as well as remember to call her.
I am sitting in a cafe somewhere in San Telmo. The people sitting next to me I think are speaking Portueges. It sounds a little like French and I can reconize a couple of words. Yes it must be Portueges.
I have been walking around San Telmo, wandering a little but never losing where Avenida Defensa is. (Ave. Defensa intersects with Brasil at my apartment.) The more I wander the more I feel like I am not in Buenos Aires, at least the BsAs I saw with Mom and Auntie San. There are no wide avenues lined with trees and its not the micro center filled with business men and women and it doesnt look like any other center of any major city in the USA
The traffic moves slower here and there are a lot of people on bicycles. The architecture varies between old dilapitated mansions turned tenement houses and new 11 story apartment buildings. The place is dirty. It looks lived in. The people are a mix of tired looking immigrants and
kitchen
this is a view from my room to the kitchen artsy looking types. There are also a lot of older people here in San Telmo. People who have perhaps lived here all their lives. Everyone is walking fast but with no real purpose other then to perhaps do some errens while they are out greeting the neighborhood.
I have to admit I am a little frightened in this neighborhood. I dont especially feel threatened here but I am very aware that I do not belong here. I look like most of the Porteños (people from Buenos Aires). I have long dark hair. My eyes are red brown and my skin a light olive. I even dress the part, although my thighs and arms are three times larger than the women here. I do not kow what it is but there is something about me that doesnt fit into this puzzle.
The best I can do is keep moving with purpose. I came out today to take photos but I haven´t wanted to stop for fear that a red flag would go up and a loud buzzing noise would go off. It would scream "turista". I do not want to be the one in the funny sunglasses and shoes
who stops in the worst possible places to take a picture.
(.............the Brazilians are talking about Tom Cruise now...and Katie Holms.
I keep hearing their names. It seems funny to me, hearing people talk about Americas
obsession....now they are talking about Meg Ryan.....Nicole Kidman...........)
As for home life I am melting right into it. My bed is uncomfortlabe but I am learning to work around that. I share a room, currently, with a man who sleeps at his girlfriends every night, but he is moving out on Friday. The room is split by a loft which is where I have settled in. It has a private bathroom. I use it only to pee. I like the downstairs bathroom with its claw foot bathtub lifted up by old quarters of wood too much.
Yesterday I was feeling totaly helpless. I couldnt adjust the gas stoves flame...or even turn it off. I called my housemate Ed. He came and did what I was doing...he just had the magic touch. I felt sheepish. I had to ask him how to use the perculator for coffee (he had no idea but forntunetly I have watched Jeff make it
entry
the door to my room from the entry way this way....by the way....the coffee I made was way too strong and I stayed up until 4am.) With the gas oven I was lost....Ed came to the rescue again.
Ed is the mild mannered Englishman I live with. He is sweet and helpful. We are going to see Echo and the Bunnymen at the end of the month. I have been feeling pretty helpless. Like I have never lived on my own and embarressed about it. I feel ok asking Ed about these things and that is a good feeling.
Its been hard leaving the apartment. Maybe its because I am a little intimadated but I dont feel like I want to hide all the time like in Spain. I think I am just enjoying not moving. Im loving the book I am reading and it feels good just being on vacation.
I have been thinking a lot and it´s funny because my thoughts turn into letters to all of you. You will not receive these letters. They never leave my thoughts. Just know that you are here and I am sharing all of this with you.
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Cali
non-member comment
eres mi ojos
LizzZ, or Zeta, as 'Aunti San' says you're going by! :) I'm so proud of you for doing this...and a little jealous too! But I love seeing and hearing about BsAs, etc through your eyes. Keep up the entries, and keep venturing further out!luv, tu prima, Cali