Happy 4th of July to everybody! There won´t be any fireworks for me this year, though I guess if I really wanted some I could find some somewhere in the city. Since my last post, I´ve done a few things which should probably be noted-
Friday night- We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Argentinians don´t seem to be too crazy about Mexican food, so it has taken us about a month to find a Mexican place to eat, but it was totally worth it. Of course, when we got there, we were the only ones in the restaurant, and the owner could tell we weren´t from around here, so he spoke to us in English the whole time. We figured that he probably gets most of his business from Americans so it probably wasn´t anything new for him. It was really good food- a little bit more expensive than most of the meals I´ve had here, but $6.66 still isn´t too bad for going out to eat. Haha, the funniest part of the night was the guy putting on some Frank Sinatra music for us- so basically we were back in the US for a night. It was a fun night.
Saturday- we went out to eat at a really good empanadas restaurant, and we all got dessert afterward. The dessert portions were monstruous, so we all ate way too much, but the food was really good. Afterward, we went to the Bingo place to check out the scene, and probably played for about 45 minutes or so. It was definitely crazy. I expected it to be fairly slow paced, calling out each number and waiting about 5 seconds until the next number to give people a chance to play multiple cards and check to see if they had the numbers. Man, was I wrong. First of all, we got in there and didn´t really know the rules about the different kinds of cards or how to win. So it turns out that they use a card with 3 rows and 9 columns. In each row, there were 4 free spaces, and you had to get the five numbers to fill a line, and the first person to get a line gets some small prize. To get a bingo you have to fill out all 15 numbers on your card, so it´s none of that 5 in a row crap. Anyway, it took us about a game to figure that out, but the woman is calling out the numbers about about 1-2 seconds, so you have to be extremely fast to catch the numbers to avoid missing your bingo or line. I started watching the wall where the numbers were posted to make sure I didn´t misunderstand a number or just miss it entirely. After a few games like that, we decided it would be best for 2 of us to share a card, so that made things a lot easier. We probably played about 10 games o so, maybe more, I have no idea. We never got close to winning, so we decided to call it a night before we wasted all of our money. Well, we each spent about $3, so I´m exaggerating a bit. Definitely worth the experience though.
Sunday- We went to the Recoleta fair (for like the 3rd time since we´ve been here) but this time I actually bought a few things. We also went to the Recoleta cemetary where Evita Peron is buried, along with like all the richest people in Argentina. It was definitely cool to see, though it´s kind of a giant waste of space because it´s these hugh tombs for everybody. I mean really, they´re all , why do they need to take up space. It was like being in an urban city, as nobody had tombstones. They were all buildings trying to look more important than the ones next to it. Oh well. Later, we stopped by a bakery and picked up some pastries and an apple tart, so that was pretty cool.
That´s pretty much the extent of the weekend. I´m currently defining a bunch of words in Spanish using an online Spanish dictionary, so I´m going to get back to that. I hope everybody is doing well. Catcha later.
Friday night- We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Argentinians don´t seem to be too crazy about Mexican food, so it has taken us about a month to find a Mexican place to eat, but it was totally worth it. Of course, when we got there, we were the only ones in the restaurant, and the owner could tell we weren´t from around here, so he spoke to us in English the whole time. We figured that he probably gets most of his business from Americans so it probably wasn´t anything new for him. It was really good food- a little bit more expensive than most of the meals I´ve had here, but $6.66 still isn´t too bad for going out to eat. Haha, the funniest part of the night was the guy putting on some Frank Sinatra music for us- so basically we were back in the US for a night. It was a fun night.
Saturday- we went out to eat at a really good empanadas restaurant, and we all got dessert afterward. The dessert portions were monstruous, so we all ate way too much, but the food was really good. Afterward, we went to the Bingo place to check out the scene, and probably played for about 45 minutes or so. It was definitely crazy. I expected it to be fairly slow paced, calling out each number and waiting about 5 seconds until the next number to give people a chance to play multiple cards and check to see if they had the numbers. Man, was I wrong. First of all, we got in there and didn´t really know the rules about the different kinds of cards or how to win. So it turns out that they use a card with 3 rows and 9 columns. In each row, there were 4 free spaces, and you had to get the five numbers to fill a line, and the first person to get a line gets some small prize. To get a bingo you have to fill out all 15 numbers on your card, so it´s none of that 5 in a row crap. Anyway, it took us about a game to figure that out, but the woman is calling out the numbers about about 1-2 seconds, so you have to be extremely fast to catch the numbers to avoid missing your bingo or line. I started watching the wall where the numbers were posted to make sure I didn´t misunderstand a number or just miss it entirely. After a few games like that, we decided it would be best for 2 of us to share a card, so that made things a lot easier. We probably played about 10 games o so, maybe more, I have no idea. We never got close to winning, so we decided to call it a night before we wasted all of our money. Well, we each spent about $3, so I´m exaggerating a bit. Definitely worth the experience though.
Sunday- We went to the Recoleta fair (for like the 3rd time since we´ve been here) but this time I actually bought a few things. We also went to the Recoleta cemetary where Evita Peron is buried, along with like all the richest people in Argentina. It was definitely cool to see, though it´s kind of a giant waste of space because it´s these hugh tombs for everybody. I mean really, they´re all , why do they need to take up space. It was like being in an urban city, as nobody had tombstones. They were all buildings trying to look more important than the ones next to it. Oh well. Later, we stopped by a bakery and picked up some pastries and an apple tart, so that was pretty cool.
That´s pretty much the extent of the weekend. I´m currently defining a bunch of words in Spanish using an online Spanish dictionary, so I´m going to get back to that. I hope everybody is doing well. Catcha later.
posted by Kevin at 11:22 AM
1 Comments:
yay! I'm glad you've been eating so well down there for so cheap!! Man, am I insanely jealous. You could get a good sandwich in London for six bucks and definitely not some fine dining...it's a pity that Argentina lost, but personally I'm glad Deutschland won (certainly some bias there). Germany also just won the 3rd place match against Portugal, 3-1. Hooray!! Things have been going pretty well here. We drove up to Maryland to visit Saket for the Fourth, and got to watch fireworks by the Washington Monument in DC. Best show I've ever seen! At the Zoo, we got to watch the little panda cub, Tai Shan, put on a really cute show for the onlookers. Saket's got pictures of him posted on his site (saketvora.com). Your garden is doing quite well, apparently. Lots of veggies are coming up. Sachi's been dutifully going there almost every Saturday. I went once, but ended up babysitting more than gardening, but I guess I'll go again soon, especially now that there's lots to do. The weather is beautiful right now, which is good because a transformer blew yesterday around 7:20 p.m. and the power was out until nearly 11. A huge part of the area near us (but not where your house is, everything south of High House was fine) was out of power, including Park Place where we had gone to watch Superman Returns. So much for that! We did get our money back, and are going to watch it tonight. We got your postcard a while back, but not a return address! Let us know where you are so we can send you stuff. Work is going well for Sach and I, and it's crunch time now since we've got our end of summer presentations on Aug. 3. I have a big experiment on Monday that I'm rather nervous about, but we'll see how it goes. So, pretty much everything is cool here, and I hope everything stays as fun down there for you guys. We miss ya'll lots :). Take care!!
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