Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Arroz y Academicos

Sup, mundo. Guess who caught a gastrointestinal virus. I'll give you a hint: It's not Princess Diana. At first I thought it was just from my Tuesday night hangover, but after still being dizzy by Wednesday night, and feverish Thursday and Friday, and extreme stomach pains on Saturday, Sunday, and today..... I figured it wasn't a consequence of las bebidas and workin' the dance floor like John Travolta (or John Belusci... take your pick). I finally decided to call El Medico today and yuuup, here I am. For the next two days, my menu options are (unenthusiastic drumroll, please): mineral water, 7up lite, apples, apple sauce, apple gatorade (the other flavors are actually not okay), plain white rice and boiled chicken. If I'm feeling crazy, I can eat rice cakes. "Excuse me, waiter, I'm going to need another minute to think it over." Here's the real kick in the pants: the doctor said I'm supposed to rest (as in bed rest) for the next 2-3 days. Clearly, I am cheating by coming across the street to use the wi-fi but SERIOUSLY!?!?!? Ironically, I have "100 Years of Solitude" to read back at my home-stay. Uf.

Buuuut let's tilt the camera away from my colon for a bit, k? Every weekend in my neighborhood, Recoleta, there's this kind of fair thing? I don't know how else to describe it. Every Saturday and Sunday, venders set up tents and sell things such as bags, shoes, handmade picture frames, tango art, empanadas, jewelry, cotton-candy, dresses for your BARBIE, super rasta pipes, etc. This is a BIG park by the way, and in other areas of it people listen to/dance to live musicians, there's a play for kids, a puppet show, and various young people just relaxing with their friends. I found this lil' firecracker off-duty by the puppet show area, and she was MORE than willing to have her picture taken.

I didn't take many more pictures from there because (a) I had a lot to carry and (b) with my giant backpack, hanging a nice camera around my neck would kind of make me a target. My backpack was especially plump because I had just bought a brand new leather backpack which I had to fit inside my other one. Let me tell you, she is a beauty. For only 30 USD, it was a toootal steeeeeaaaaal.

Later that day, I went grocery shopping, as I have to fend for myself on weekends. All there is are the Supermercados, mini produce places, and meat, bread, and cheese specialty stores. I feel like I've been so spoiled by the selection we have in the US. In the Supermercados, there are only a few aisles. The cereals seem to be all sugary and there were two options for granola bars (not good ones, even). Also, the majority of the produce places I pass sell produce which is already brown or with very dull tones. I'm trying to be culturally sensitive but what's a girl got to do to get a decent salad around here? Not this girl, of course, as I wouldn't be able to eat it anyways, but you get the idea. AND DUDE!! WHERE THE DANG TWIX BARS AT!?!?!?!?!

Today, we had one-on-one academic advising meetings, which basically consisted of 1oo-some college students completely disregarding their number ticket stub and flooding around the windows of this one conference room like registering for classes was a game of musical chairs. The funny thing was, we didn't register at all. We wrote down the classes we wanted to take, somebody looked at it, took our sheet, nodded, and asked if we had any questions. This whole study abroad experience has been like that: chaos and confusion responded to by calm nodding.

This afternoon I went walking around town with two lovely ladies and we found a shopping mall, which was pretty surprising, since it's mostly just shops everywhere. It was super cool inside. There were some aspects which were similar to malls in the states- stores, kiosks, food court, but there was a giant mural on a dome ceiling in the very middle of the mall, and a museum on the top floor! We didn't have time, but for 15 pesos (roughly 4 USD) we could have seen an exhibit of drawings by Francis Bacon. IN A SHOPPING MALL. There were none of the same stores as in the states which is kind of a weird feeling. (I should have gotten those sweet Dora the Explorer hair ties from Claires when I had the chance...) Also, there's a very few range of sizes. On racks, it's like one or two of a shirt in small or medium. It makes sense, I guess, because the majority of people here are thin, but that super sucks for those who aren't a size 6 or smaller.

Okay that seems like sufficient blabbing. I'm gonna go eat some apple puree and feel bitter.

2 comments:

  1. you finally got a leather backpack! wooooo haha. i have many things to respond to i'm gonna write you and email right now just wanted to say HOLLA and omg i hope you feel better / that whole ordeal sounds kind of hilarious (?) i love ridiculous foreign experiences haha muah babe

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