¡Verano!

Hola todos,

It is officially Summer here! I'm starting to get change-of-season allergies, and tons of mosquito bites. But the benefits of a Buenos Aires Summer far outweigh the costs: the botanical gardens and plazas are absolutely beautiful, it's great weather for picnics and walking, and I love all the flowering trees (especially on 9 de Julio by the Obelisk). Again (I'll keep saying it), it is great to have a friend who works in an ice cream shop at a time like this! =P

So many things have happened this week! Here are some of the highlights:

Fede and I cooked tacos with the taco seasoning I brought him from the United States. We ate it with nacho chips and cheesy Doritos. It tasted absolutely great! After that we watched South Park and "Examine Life," a movie featuring famous philosophers. We had a good time catching up!

Nelson and I cooked an excellent meal of chicken, zucchini, carrots, tomatos, onions, and ground ají (one of my new top-favorite spices). Yum!

I saw the famous flower sculpture in Buenos Aires up close for the first time. I had never realized that it's surrounded by a fountain. ¡Muy lindo! (Very beautiful!) It is one of my new favorite spots.
 

While trying to register for classes (it turns out I'll have to wait a few more weeks), I ran into Alejandra, the Knox study abroad program director. It was great to see and talk with her again! I've missed her and all my Knox study abroad friends! For those of you who were here in the winter, I think of you guys whenever I eat dulce de leche or a Milka bar, and remember when we first arrived here, because the liquidaciones (widespread seasonal sales) are back!

I walked around the sculpture garden near el Museo de Bellas Artes. After that I continued walking down Agüero street and ran into the National Library. Next to the library is a beautiful park full of flowers, benches, and stray cats (the ones pictured here are from Parque Centenario). Someone leaves buckets of water out for the cats to drink, and they are all pretty friendly.

I went to MALBA, explained art interpretation to a new Argentine friend, and ate delicious veggie sushi at a Japanese restaurant in Chinatown. I was expecting it to taste great, but it turned out to be more delicious than I imagined! Sushiiii is delicious! =)

I went to el Gato Negro (The Black Cat), a fancy tea cafe on Avenida Corrientes, with Nelson. After tea and coffee, we ate pizza and fainá (a garbanzo bean pie that accompanies pizza here) and bought some bargain books. I've been reading short stories about single women, short stories by Chekhov, classic fairy tales in Spanish, plays and poems by Gertrude Stein, and Argentine literature, besides all the essays I find on StumbleUpon and read online. I've missed reading, and am glad to be doing more! I'm going to start doing more writing, too.

I went to Parque Centenario, planning to see a play. It turned out I had mixed up the event schedule: they weren't showing a play that day, but projecting a show called "Hijitus." I had no idea what the show was, but decided to wait and find out. I sat in the park (which is beautiful during the summer) reading a book of poetry that Nelson's friend published and watching children feed the ducks. A guy holding a cardboard carton of wine and walking very unstably tried to strike up a conversation with me, cutting my peaceful reading-in-the-shade time short. I am glad I waited, though, because the show turned out to be great. When I got to the ampitheater, I realized that "Hijitus" must be a children's show, because the place was packed with kids. It turned out to be a cartoon series from the 60's about a kid superhero whose raggedy sombrero enables him to receive messages from his confidantes and to fly. He undoes the messes an evil scientist and his gang cause for their city with the help of a policeman, "el comisario." He does a little dance sometimes, saying "chiki chiki chiki," and sometimes concludes a days' work with the phrase "Ojalá, ojalita, hojalata, chocolita, chocolata," a silly little word-play rhyme. The comisario sometimes says "Buenas noches, Bariloche," another cute, rhyming phrase that means "Goodnight, Argentine-province-Bariloche." I saw a character in the show drinking mate, as well as a little girl at the park, and felt more connected to Argentina than ever.

I had my first dream in Spanish. In it, my dad and sister were speaking Spanish. My dad said he was going to "pasear por la hospital." I felt accomplished about having dreamt in Spanish when I woke up: a woman I met in Calafate told me that you know you're really fluent in a language when you start to dream in it. I've started thinking in Spanish more often, too. 

This is a picture of a piece of graffiti I passed every day on the bus last term. It says "Fernanda B: / for a wiseman, Soloman / for a poet, Borges was born / and to love you, me." While I'm not extremely impressed by the writing, I now have a nostalgic attachment to it, and think it's sweet.

Miss you all! Keep in touch, and let me know if you have any requests for the pictures I should post!

Besos,
Kaeli