La Vida en Buenos Aires...

So after a couple of weird and frustrating days of dealing with dysfunctional bank cards, being imprisoned in my apartment waiting for lost luggage which finally arrived at 10 o´clock at night soaking wet, and adapting to leafless trees and the surreal slant of winter sunlight in the southern hemisphere, I´ve embraced the chaos and am settling quite well into life in Buenos Aires, excited for the oncoming spring.

It´s a bit intimidating being here, and yet, not at all. I don´t feel like a tourist, I know my way around, and my Spanish is bouncing back, however clumsily. Buenos Aires has apparently been dubbed ¨The Cool Capitol of the World¨and I´m pretty convinced it´s true: people don´t go out on the town until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, most of the good places don´t even have signs--you just have to know somebody to know what´s going on, and once you find them, you are surrounded by some of the trendiest, artsiest, and also most sincere and friendly people--a combination I´m not always accustomed to. The city is full of art, theater, music, cafés, European architecture, affordable prices, and Latin American openness and amiability. I feel like everyone´s so cool and I´m the geek trying to fit in, and yet, absolutely nobody has made me feel like I don´t.

My apartment is simple but cute and adequate. There´s a little kitchenette in a closet, a sunny balcony where I can watch the birds nesting in a little hole in the roof of the brick buildig across the way, cable TV to watch Gilmore Girls and West Wing, a quaint café/sweet shop on the corner where I have already become a regular for café con leche in the morning, a fresh pasta shop and fruit stands down the street, a huge park nearby, and a botanical garden full of stray cats. Yesterday I bought a couple little plants for my balcony and some flowers for my room.

I spent my Sunday at an artisan´s fair full of street performers and locals taking in the sun on blankets and sipping yerba máte. I also revisited the Cementario de Recoletta to wander amongst the sculptures in the sunshine and hang out with the stray cats there and write. (There is one black and white cat, I´ve discovered, who claims a bench for his own and like to pose for tourists´ photographs and pretend he´s not). Speaking of writing, this brings me to a bit of an announcement for those of you I haven´t told: I am writing a novel. Gulp. There, I´ve said it. And now that I have, don´t ask me how it´s coming along or what it´s about! I share things when I´m ready, thanks for your patience. . . it´s scarey enough to be serious about doing this!

At the cemetary I also ran into a new friend, Florencia, who was selling maps outside. I had met her when I was here last May and regretted non having exchanged information, but was happy to run into her again! She was happy to see me and have someone to talk to about all the rude people she´s had to deal with all day. And it turns out she´s the same age as me and has a birthday 5 days before mine (which is September 25th, by the way, in case anybody doesn´t know or wants a reminder :) so now I have somebody to celebrate with! She´s so sweet and has told me if I need anything I can count on her. . . this is the kind of hospitality I´ve received frequently in Buenos Aires, and in South America in general thus far. And as I miss you all, too, I hope you come down here to visit so you can get in on this yourself!