Cumpleaños

Hola amigos,

¡Mi cumpleaños fue buenísimo! (I had an amazing birthday!) In the afternoon I had coffee with Steven and went to el MALBA, my favorite art museum, and for dinner I ate (a lot) at a spectacular Mexican restaurant in Palermo Soho, La Fábrica del Taco, with a few of my best friends. Muchísimas gracias, amigos, for all your nice wishes and gifts!

My Sunday was also great. My landlady, Fernanda, surprised me with a dulce de leche-frosted birthday cake. Cake and mate tea were the perfect breakfast! In the afternoon I went to the San Telmo craft feria and chatted with some artisans (I do that every Sunday!). Most are from Colombia or Perú and travel South America with their work.

After that I went to a café I like, Petit Colón (I like it because of the classic atmosphere and because they always play tango music there). I drank an espresso (“café chico,” my regular order) and read a story by Horacio Quiroga, one of my current favorite authors.  Sunday night I went to Chinatown with Jorge. We had a lot of fun shopping for knick-knacks and international food. We walked into an indigenous crafts store called Pachamama (Mother Earth) that I’d been curious about, and it turned out to be really great. Their business buys crafts from indigenous artisans at a dignified price that enables them to make a living from their work, and brings great crafts (plus books and natural medicines) from around the world to Buenos Aires.  I especially liked this “prosperity charm.” He comes with a cigar, which you’re supposed to smoke and then place in his mouth for good luck in earthly prosperity. Jun gave me her lucky US dollar for my birthday. She hopes it will bring me back to Buenos Aires! 

 

 August 5^th was the anniversary of my arrival in Buenos Aires! All the travels, homes, friendships, and nice Sunday afternoons I’ve had this year have been incredible.  Ever since last August, I’ve been collecting little pieces of Buenos Aires, trying to take what I could of it home with me: ticket stubs, agendas, photos, letters, yerba mate (tea), books, napkins from favorite cafes… While I can’t take the whole city home, I will leave it charged with memories. I’ll come back a true hispanoparlante (Spanish-speaker), with a much deeper knowledge of Latin-American culture and history, new friends, a small but excellent Spanish library (the question is where to station it… I have many more travels ahead!), and the desire to kiss everyone on the cheek when I say hello (“¡Hola!” + a kiss on the cheek is the normal greeting here).  My Portuguese is progressing (slowly but surely!). “Águas de Março” and “A Minha Menina” are songs I'm learning from. I found this website, Releituras, full of literature in Portuguese, and will use that to help me, too.   My work plans are also progressing. I'll give a more detailed update about that part when I have one! Here are some pictures of the last few weeks. (A small fraction of all the thousands of pictures I've taken this month!)

These next three are time-themed:

 

Of my wanderings in San Telmo:

 

Jorge's terraza (terrace). If I were more sophisticated with either Photoshop or Blogger, I would put these photos next to each other. But you can imagine it! 

For our last dinner together (my goodbyes have started!), I taught Nam how to make empanadas. Jorge prepared the meat! =)

Lovely San Telmo.

From the feria:

This is my friend Leo with his work. He shapes all the stones himself and sculpts tiny figures into the silver above them.

Jewelery from the 70's. To the right of these were what looked like little pill-boxes, which according to the vendor, "the girls used to keep their weed in." haha.

 

Amazing graffiti. San Telmo is filled with it!

Thanks for reading! Beijos!

Kaeli