wrong words

I became friends with a 15 yr. old handball player named Mikaela that was on the bus with me and my friends while traveling to Mendoza, Argentina. After having had enough of our share of wine tasting for the week, Dave, Elizabeth and I went to watch one of her handball matches. Seeing Mikaela pack her bags after the match, I attepted to ask her if she was leaving by using the verb "salir." I know now that if I want to know if someone is leaving I should say "te vas?" To my surprise, I effectively asked her out on a date which I shamefully admit that I was turned down. I'm alright...I think she may be a little young for me anyway.

Estoy en el baño.

I had the priveledge to stay in a "4 star" hotel this weekend in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Evidently the rating systems aren´t universal. Dave told me that the shower was small, but I did not expect to not be able to move to a spot outside of the stream of water. At no point during the shower could I position myself in such a way to not be touching the shower curtain which was positioned directly behind me. I cannnot imagine how someone would coop in there that was slightly about average size for a human. Even though my roommate was out of the room I shut the bathroom door completely. It is more out of habit than anything, but I also like to keep some of the heat in the bathroom to allow me to adjust to room temperature more gradually after showering. After drying off I tried to exit the room, but the door would not budge. I even sat on the commode and braced one foot against the wall with both hands on the doorknob and pulled my hardest, but nothing happened. I then looked out the window to see if it would be possible to climb to the bedroom, but we were three stories up and I was not quite desperate enough. I then thought I could get the parking lot attendent to come help me, but he walked away before I could think of an appropriate spanish sentence to use. Finally after beating the door in frustration it wiggled loose and I was freed. On a more positive note, the toilets flushed flawlessly.

Wear it out.

I went to a great Tango show last night with my cousin Kyle and my Aunt Barb and Unlce Rye who came for the week to visit Kyle. I wore my new short sleeve button down shirt that Megan helped pick out. I wasn´t really sure of the appropriate way to sport my new shirt. Should I tuck it in completely? or should I wear it completely untucked? or should I venture into new territories and try to partial tuck? I opted for the later and was quite pleased. Typically, I like to wear my shirts completely untucked. As we all know and understand, shirts must be perfect in length to pull this look off. The last "tango show" that I went to I was practially forced to partial tuck. When I got dressed I noticed that my shirt had suddenly become one if not two sized bigger. Upon closer inspection all my shirts had been noticable stretched. Evidently washing clothes by hand which can really stretch and even change the shape of clothes. I´m sure that allowing the clothes to hang dry also doesn´t do much to preserve the proper fit that I have come to expect. Maybe Kayla´s complement that I looked like I was getting thinner can be method of washing my closths and less to my diet and exercise routine. Thanks Kayla.

not so nice copy

I took some money out of the ATM last week in the amount of 360 pesos. I differed from my usual amount of 300 pesos because I wanted to have 20 peso bills so that stores would accept my money. I know, it seems strange that banks distribute 100 peso bills when many stores don´t accept them. Anyway, with my newly filled wallet, I took a cab with some friends to Plaza de Congreso to watch a Carnival parade. When I reached for the seatbelt, which I deemed necessary to utilitize due to the aggressive drivers in Buenos Aires, I discovered that it had been permantly retired for any further use. Fortunately we arrived safely. I was in a relatively calm state of mind after riding shotgun without a seatbelt with a stranger that came dangerouly close to more than one accident. The cab cost about 25 pesos so naturally I tried to use one of my newly acquire 20s. The cab driver would not accept my money claiming that it was fake. Unbelievable! The money came directly from the bank, but it is obvious that it is counterfeit. For some strange reason, banks don´t feel bad about redistributing counterfeit money. My professor tells me that the banks don´t want to lose by recieving fake money so they distribute it into the ATM´s and refuse to reimburse customers claiming that it cannot be proven that they distributed it. Now I´m paranoid to withdraw more money from the ATM. I guess I´ll actually have to start going inside and trying to communicate with these foriegn speaking tellers.

When in Rome...

I´ve written previosly about the extremely attractive women here in Argentina. To give them credit, I believe they eat a much more reasonable amount of food than Americans women and live a more active lifestyle. However, it would be unfair to the say the Argentine beauty phenomenon is all natural. My Lonely Planet guide to Buenos Aires says and I quote, "The obsession with looks has given argentina one of the highest rates of plastic surgery in the world and helped to enforce their reputation as a nation of attractive people." I´ve heard from reliable sources that "the boob job" has become the popular birthday gift for the 15 year old. I wouldn´t think about letting my daughter be operated on, but that´s neither her not there. These body modifications make age descernation very difficult. Girls from 15 to 40 all look 25. Megan did what she could to help Annie fit the Argentine mold.

Tennis Anyone?

I seem to be having a harder time finding a great place to play tennis than finding great tennis to watch. I attended the first round of the Davis Cup on Saturday and watched Calleri/Nalbandian play Aspelin/Bjorkman. I think I can safely say that it was the best sporting event I have ever attended. The Argentine fans were say fun, screaming and chanting after every point. Three of the loudest guys were standing right behind us screaming things obscenities that I have never heard of in my life. My cousin Kyle and I are in the bottom of this picture. Kyle is in the red sleeve-less shirt and I am to his left. The Copa Telmex tournament started on Monday and I was able to go Monday night and Tuesday night. Above is a picture of the first serve by Carlos Moya on Tuesday. Unfortunately the tournament is sold out for the rest of the week leaving me with nothing else to do but right about it. I checked out the Club de Amigos which is a club that not only has tennis, but has basketball, soccer, pools, etc. Unfortunately, they only have annual memberships and I have to be home for Andy´s wedding in October.

Lowered Ears and High Expectations

After 10 days in Buenos Aires, I still can´t get over how attactive the women are here. I joined a gym last week and would like to inform everyone that the people in the posters that you may see at your local gym do exist. I think they all work out here. Also, the mullet is in full force down here. I never thought I´d say it, but it looks fantastic. Even the girls sport their own version of the mullet. It too is fantastic. I got a haircut yesterday at a place just half a block from where I´m staying. I was nervous because a.) I am still terrible at Spanish and would have a hard time explaining what I want; b.) The popularity of the mullet may influence the hair dresser; c.) The hair dresser sported a blonde mohawk to accomapy here walet chains. My annuciated pleads of ¨nothing to wild¨ allowed me to leave with dignity. Fortuanately she along with many other people speak a little English. Today I ordered a CocaCola by simply saying "un CocaCola." The guy responded in English. How did he know. How am I going to learn Spanish when I can´t get people to speak anything but English to me.

Yeah! The first day of classes.

I was surprised to find that the professor did not speak a word of Spanish in the Spanish placement test. Didn´t she realize that some of us would test to be beginners. Noting that I almost put the date in the place for my last name, it should be no surprise that I tested beginner. Some suprises included Eliazebeth who speaks Spanish as her first language only tested Intermediate I (just one level above me) and Kyle who was a Spanish/Enlgish translator in Mexico for a month only tested Beginner like myself. I am really exited about the next few months of learning Spanish.