Snowmania

Yesterday it snowed in  Buenos Aires for the first time in 89 years!  I told you guys it was freezing cold! People were going crazy, building snowmen, playing in the snow, gawking at the flurries and getting into car accidents -- it was a veritable snowmania yesterday in BsAs. Check out these links to see pics from the papers:

http://www.infobae.com /contenidos/325920-100799 -0-El-mundo-reflej%C3%B3 -la-hist%C3%B3rica-nieve -Buenos-Aires

http://www.clarin.com /diario/2007/07/10 /sociedad/s-01454335.htm

http://www.informativos .telecinco.es/nieve _buenos_aires/argentina _nevadas/dn_50763.htm

Photo of Plaza de Mayo during the last snowfall, in 1928: http://www.galeon.com /elortiba/nieve.jpg

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Otherwise, I have been having a good time and meeting a lot of new people. 

On Sunday, I met up with Gustavo and we went to the San Telmo market.  There were thousands of people there as they close down the streets every week to sell clothes, jewelry, knicknacks, mate vessels (more on mate below) and so much more. Gustavo is an interesting guy, full of what I would normally think were contradictions of character.   He's about 26 and is a policeman for what is like the coastguard here.  His family lives outside the city, about one hour, and he has an apartment with some of his friends in San Telmo.  He is also an artist and wishes he could spend all of his time drawing, he hates his job.  While walking around, he almost had a heart attack when he thought for a moment that his favorite store of all time had closed, but we had just missed the street.  What kind of store was it? It was a store dedicated to fairies and dwarves and mermaids.  I am not kidding!!!  Little figurines, drawings, statuettes, etc. of fairies.  This, as I found out later, is what his drawings are all about... fantastical drawings of fairies.  So odd.  I mean, I'm not judging or anything, I just never would have expected it.

After walking around forever, we had coffee at one of the oldest cafes in Buenos Aires and then we played a few rounds of pool at a secret bar where you have to ring an unmarked door to get in, and then (file this under: things my father would definitely tell me not to do) I went back to his apartment to drink mate and watch the Copa America on TV.  Yeah, yeah, I know, but I needed to have mate as a cultural experience! Here's why:

Mate is like an herbal tea, and everyone here is completely obsessed with drinking it.  Some people carry around their thermos of hot water everywhere they go so that they are never in a situation where they might want and not be able to have mate.  People drink like 5 times as much mate as they do coffee.  People say it has medicinal qualities... it's supposed to help with digestion, curb appetite, help you sleep, cure the flu and countless other things.  Here's how it works: Heat water until it is almost boiling and fill up your thermos. Get a mate cup and some yerba (loose tea leaves).  Fill your mate cup to the brim with the yerba.  Add a tiny bit of sugar. Pour in the hot water and sip it out of little metal spoon-straw that has holes at the bottom so that you are not drinking the tea leaves. Enjoy a few sips. Refill the water. Pass the vessel.   Repeat until the thermos is empty.  Here's a more informed account of the history and practice of drinking mate: http://www .thebestyerbamate.com /yerba-mate-history -legends/

Yesterday, I went for a run which was a mistake because it was so cold, and then in the evening met this guy Raul for an "intercambio" -- we spoke english half the time and spanish the other half.  He is a lawyer here and we talked about Buenos Aires and how deceiving this place is in contrast the rest of the country.  He said you could be in BsAs and feel like you were in New York (which is how I said I was feeling)... but leave the city or even certain parts of the city and you are definitely in a third world country (his words, not mine!).  I am hatching my plan to get out of here at least for a couple of weekends while I am here to see the "real Argentina" so I can see what he's talking about for myself.  

After meeting up with Raul, I had dinner with Ana, a girl I met from Los Angeles who is here working for the Discovery channel doing a documentary series on children in impoverished nations.  In complete contrast to that project, we went to a fabulous dinner at a really fancy parilla in our neighborhood called La Miranda which was absolutely great. It's like PETA's worst nightmare here.  For a starter I had a piece of chorizo (all of the apps were sausages!).  My entree was Ojo de Bife (surprise, it's steak).  Everything was so delicious and the whole meal, with wine and everything, cost me about $20 USD.  And that's really expensive for here!!

On the North American guilt: Because I am still feeling bad about having relatively so much more than everyone here, I am going to start volunteering this week for an NGO organization that helps kids from Las Villas - the vast shantytowns and slums on the outskirts of BsAs.  It's a big problem, there are tens of thousands of people living there.  I haven't even laid eyes on the Villas yet, but I'll be teaching english for a couple of hours in the mornings and then also helping however I can with fundraising and maybe some PR.  We shall see. 

This afternoon, I start my Spanish classes at the new school.  More to come!