Hola todos,
It's been two San Telmo ferias since my last entry here, and I enjoyed them both a lot! The highlight of the first one was hearing a street musician play my favorite tango song, and at this week's I met a few new friends.
I have two new housemates now: an American named Nam and a Colombian named Juliana (my new roommate for a while). We three went to the feria with a few of Juliana's friends. We took pictures with a statue of Mafalda that I had never been able to locate (Mafalda is a famous Argentine cartoon character), ate at El Continental — a great pizza and empanada restaurant, practiced languages, and talked about travel. We walked all the way down to la Casa Rosada (the government house), which is lit up a beautiful violet-pink at night, and then Nam, Juliana and I continued on to a café by the Obelisco. Nam and Juliana are both really nice. Nam is the first American I've had a sustained conversation with face-to-face in about eight months! It is nice to have a compatriota (countryman) in the house.
On Thursday I saw "Jane Eyre" at the theater — the 1943 version with Orson Welles. It is one of my favorites now, and went perfectly with the two new books I got. Orson Welles "sickened [Jane's] heart with a craving for sour wild fruit and made it restless for a strange love" (Andre Gide). I strongly recommend it! I want to see the more current version now.
Before the movie I ate empanadas at La Americana, another famous pizza and empanada place. An old woman couldn't finish the wine she'd ordered, and gave the rest of it to me. I also discovered a café full of paintings on my way from empanadas to Jane Eyre, which I will have to check out later. It was a nice, serendipitous night!
On Monday Nam, Jorge, Jun, and I had a party at Jorge's house. Jorge and Jun made delicious ham-and-onion pizza casera (homemade pizza... How lucky am I to have two friends who've studied culinary arts? haha). We also saw both of their great views — Jun's of the Obelisco from her balcony, and Jorge's of the top of all the downtown buildings from his terrace. After the pizza and selva negra cake (Jun's great idea), we started watching "Saw 7." While my friends actually watched it, I 'watched' it, saying "No-no-no!" with my arm covering my face the entire time, haha.
Nam and I were both missing the United States a lot on the 4th of July. It's my favorite US holiday! He lives near DC, and missed a really spectacular show. I wanted to eat hot dogs and hamburgers, or something 'American' to celebrate, so we went to an American bar called Sugar with both of my friends named Fede, who brought along more of their friends. The place was extremely packed, and when we finally got a table, the kitchen turned out to be closed, so instead of the delicious chili, bacon-hamburgers, and other American-style deliciousness advertised there, we went to a little hamburger-and-hot-dog kiosko a few blocks away. We did get a taste of America, though — I saw some teenagers lighting rockets as we walked to the kiosko, and saw a bunch of Americans at the bar. The entire neighborhood, Palermo Hollywood, is American-style, so it felt a bit like home!
In the midst of all this, and especially now, I've been hardcore studying! My first final (for Social Psychology) is tomorrow, and after that I'll have a test every 4 days or so until July 20th. Wish me luck!
Besos!
Kaeli
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