Archive for August 14th, 2009

Today I continued the search for an ATM that will give me money. I found one that will give me at least pesos, so I won’t starve anytime soon (I bought a whole lot of galletitas). I might just have to bring a really big stack of pesos to school on Tuesday. It would be really nice to find one that gives out dollars, though. The CitiBank ATMs allegedly do, just not to me for some reason. Anti-American bias, maybe.

Did you know that Monday is an Argentine national holiday? It’s the Día del Libertador José de San Martín. So, you know, celebrate in whatever way you feel is properly respectful. I think that I’ll be celebrating by walking around town a lot, possibly buying cookies.

This weekend is allotted to finding a good place to run. The Norwegian girls say to just head down to the waterfront, which I’ll do tomorrow morning. One thing that I didn’t plan on and may be a little weird for running is that there’s a lot of air pollution here. I can feel it in my throat all the time, and there’s a haze around the city that you can see even in the space of a few blocks. Hopefully around the waterfront it’ll be a little clearer.

Also, the Argentines are wearing big wool coats and mufflers and heavy boots. And it’s 75 degrees outside. The Norwegians (the people I know that speak English, also my roommates, med students, and blonde) say that it’s because they’re overly sensitive to the cold, seeing as they’ve got very warm summers. I’m wearing a t-shirt and sweating. Does that mean I’m overly sensitive to the warm?

Buenos Aires is a big shoulders kind of city, which takes a little getting used to. Most people on the sidewalk seem to have a New York-ish kind of expression, uninterested diligence. Walking is actually kind of a sport, especially walking quickly next to traffic on narrow streets with pretty aggressive drivers. I’m getting used to it, though. As far as I can tell, the relationship between pedestrians and vehicles is more egalitarian (word choice?). That is to say, people and cars inhabit the same place on the totem pole of danger. Cars will barrel down tiny alleys full of people while laying on the horn to clear pedestrians. But walkers will also dart into the street in the middle of traffic to take advantage of the smallest space between vehicles.

At least there’s a bit of mutual respect.

Ciao-ciao,

Delaney