back in buenos aires.
we got off the plane and took an escalator into the airport and while we were all on it, it suddenly stopped. i said, "estamos en argentina!" and the girl in front of me said, "exactamente."
there was a sign at customs that said "Please apologize us for the delay in checking you out. Our informatic system is being changed for a better attention." ha! that stuff cracks me up.
when i drove into the city, the streets and the stores looked so small and dark and makeshift to me, after big bright shiny united states.
yesterday i went to chinatown with kari, an american girl. we shopped in the groceries, bought bubble tea and ate vegetarian food. today i met up with todd from DC, he is flying back tonight. we split a terrible chocolate milkshake at a cool café. i know that i said that i wouldn't hang out with americans anymore, but the argentinians work and go to school and stuff, and only my fellow american tourists are free to meet me during the day.

a couple sundays ago, we went to an asado at edgardo's friend's house. that is the photo. i want to make it smaller but i don't know how on this computer. the friend is marcos, the tall bald guy in the pic. it was so fun. it was a hot sunny and gorgeous day. we took the train to the house. we went in the pool and played ping pong and ate lots of meat, sausage and a whole pig. edgardo took us around the neighborhood and showed us around, me and the swiss people (somos suizos!). then we drank mate and had dessert. marcos's mom is a really awesome cook.

file under mystery solved:

last night edgardo and i went out with his friend mariano, which we do most fridays, and mariano said that he also was throwing up all day sunday! so it must have been the parrilla we went to last friday, at which we ate all kind of delicacies like chinchulines (intestines) riñones (kidneys) and my favorite, mollejas (sweetbreads) along with a lot of meat, french fries, salad and lots of wine. so something must have been bad there. i'm thinking lawsuit but apparently argentines aren't as litigiously pre-disposed as americans. NORTH americans.

file under "silly subtitles"
i was watching seinfeld the other day - it was the one where george and his some girlfriend buy elaine a 'big salad', and george needs her to know that he paid for it, yada yada. in the scene where the four of them meet on the street, george says, "we're going to the coffee shop. do you want anything?" in the subtitles it said (in spanish obviously), "we're going to the globby. do you want anything?"
if they missed "coffee shop" which is on probably every seinfeld episode, imagine all the subtleties in meaning that must be going right over their heads! obviously they need an able.bodied american such as myself to be helping them subtitle tv episodes. the moral of this story is, yes i watch a whole lot of american tv here. but i always read the subtitles.

tuesday night i arrived at cooking class from a packed, sweaty subway. still queasy. and the first thing gustavo the chef did is to slap down a whole bunch of whole slimy squid, and clean them. it was the most disgusting thing i have ever seen in real life. he cut the head off with a knife, making all these squelchy sounds. he squeezed out the guts, popped out the eyes, and extracted the ink. i really thought i was going to yak. but i didn't and now i have a huge pot of cazuela de calamares at home, which i can't eat without getting nauseous.
we also made sabayon mousse with chocolate sauce which is really good.