Day 1

Talk about hitting the ground running.

So after managing to make it through customs with getting strip searched, and getting all my bags (cause that would have been bad), I waved on of the magazines my cousin (technically second cousin, as we decided at lunch) had asked for, and saw two people eagerly waving back at me from the crowd waiting outside arrivals.

Michelle and Henry, my second cousin on my Dad´s side and her boyfriend of 9 years, graciously lent their couch to me for a weekend of couch surfing, though it doesn´t look like I´ll really be spending much time sleeping.

So we drove into the city, on the highway above all the miles and miles of slums (villas), and I started to bask in the heat and the sun the conversation of two fascinating people.

Got back to their apartment in ricoleta (the nicest neighborhood in the city), took a quick shower, and went off to lunch in Palermo (the neighborhood I´ll be living in for the next 5 months). We grabbed a table at this outdoor restaurant (okay, well right now in the perfect weather everything is outdoors, even the indoor restaurants but I´ll get to that later). The restaurant was called Mirando I think, and it was the picture of a south american lunch. Started at noon. Finished 2 bottles of wine, a heaping helping of steak, and three hours later.

Then we walked around Palermo SoHo, which I figured out later last night was about 3 blocks from where I´ll be living. Palermo Soho is the trendy fashion district, and its really does remind one of SoHo in NY. Tons of custom shops. Custom shops, each of with owned or designed for by one of Michelle´s friends. Every shop, i swear. She knew the owner, or the designer, or the manager. Including, Lacoste, which she knows the managing director of. Pretty cool.

Brief aside. At home, Lacoste is the height of prep and fashion. here its the Gap. Totally out of fashion. And kinda cheap. But not really.

The store that was really cool was called Penguin. It´s apparently some 50´s designer label that they´ve revived here a few months back. It´s like polo, or ralph lauren. And it´s their end of summer sale (or at least high summer, but more on that too, later) and I got a pretty awesome orange striped shirt for 40 bucks American.

After finally dragging michelle out of shopping frenzy, the three of us went back to their place and watched RockandRolla. Pretty good. Nothing new or inventive, but definitely Snatch-esque. Nothing to compound my trouble adjusting to the argentine dialect like a full blown dose of unintelligible cockney.

And then, the siesta!!! Ah, im going to get quite used to the siesta. A nice nap from around 6 till around 8. Quiet refreshing. I laid on Michelle´s couch and, looking out the window, watched the sun dip down the side of the apartment building sofaderech, ontop of which, an old man was laying out and smoking.

After the nap and some pettering around the place, Michelle and I went out to dinner. And by after, I mean we didn´t leave the house till 11. and then drove around looking for a parking place. and then walked two blocks to this tiny restaurant called Millión, that was built out of this beautiful old masion/apartment. Very much like the french quarter, you walked through this covered allyway, tiny and between two buildings, and came out into this tiny little courtyard that opened up to the stars, with like 10 tables and trees draped in christmas lights. Apparently the inside of the house is quite a glamourous little place itself, but we snagged the last table and sat down to a long dinner of tapas. Oh, and I had my first quilmes, the national beer. It´s not all that bad, kinda like a good pilsner... Okay, fine, which to me means PBR, but i guess it´s closest parallel is a Coors.

The only other notable about dinner was that the waiter was giving me, via Michelle, shit for not paying for both of us. Apparently here it´s still almost unheard of for a girl to pay for anything. Very patriarchal. Even after Michelle said we were cousins. She said the waiter was just being obnoxious, but still, good to know.

Afterwards, we drove over to Carñitas, another area like Palermo, filled with the young and excitable. About 2 am at this point, which by the way, was when i laughed to myself thinking about how absolutely alien this would be to my parents. (Hey mom, hey dad. Be glad I said you couldn´t come vacation here, you would have probably starved about 72 hours in. No one wakes up or goes to work till 10, there is no food anywhere till around noon, theres nothing open between 5 and 10pm, and if you show up before 11 for dinner you´ll be eating in an empty restaurant.)

Back to Carñitas. It´s the biggest neighborhood for the twenty-something, college crowd. Except, since there is no drinking age, there are high school kids too. Except here they don´t stick out like sore thumbs like in Ann Arbor. These kids are practiced professionals when it comes to clubbing. Im pretty sure I saw a 15 year old with more cool than me. But anyways, we barhopped down this one street from about 2 till 4 in the morning. Corona all the way here, and stella. Pretty much your only choices. And heinicken (or as michelle calls it, hi-nah-gahn) if you´re feeling ritzy. Still didn´t have any pesos, so I ordered stella for me and michelle at one bar, which was 24 pesos, to which i handed the soon to be confused looking bartender 6 usdollars and walked away. Which would come out to 3 US a stella which is pretty damn good. The average transaction exchange rate for US is 3.50 to 1US if you´re just dealling with someone on the street or a store. So I paid 19 pesos instead of 24, but even if i´d paid 7 bucks (24.5 pesos so probably more accurate), who could complain about $4.50 stellas. That would be a hell of a deal beer in Ann Arbor.

Anyways, after bar hopping till 4 (which is what michelle says people do before it´s time to -go out- for real, ha, makes michigan look like party pre-school) we went to Rumi, which michelle said was a great and pretty exclusive club, but there was a long line and michelle couldn't figure out what name to drop to get us in, so we went back to the car to go home. Except Michelle got a little bit turned around.....

and drove us down the street through the park where all the prostitutes troll for costomers. Slight mix up. Pretty freakin' hysterical though. It's apparently legal here, and I don't think a sight like this has ever been seen in the US. Maybe a hundred girls not wearing anything you could call clothes, just walking around on the sides of the road. Michelle and I couldn't stop laughing. Compounded by the fact that apparently during the day, the park we were driving through is a polo field. A POLO FIELD FOR PROSTITUTES! Priceless.

Anyways, that was my first night in BA. Lasted till 4am. With barely any sleep the night before. I expect nothing but awesomeness from this semester.

Much love,

Miss you all,

Sam/Rufus