I didn't have any classes scheduled for today so my whole day was open. around 11 i headed out to my new favorite cafe that has "illy coffee" and good 'non-bathed in sugar' medialunas. i read the paper and watched some news on tv (my spanish practice for today). 10 pesos.
afterward i walked to recoleta (a neighborhood). it was about a 30-40 min walk. the weather was beautiful and i like to get to know the streets, so i walked. i went to purchase boat tickets. a friend an i are planning on going to uruguay for the day. (just over the river).
when i found the sales office i almost asked "hablas ingles" but decided to be daring and just speak in spanish. I said (in spanish) "i need to buy two tickets to colonia uruguay" to which the woman was able to understand me and she told me to sit down and wait. i sat down, waited for 5 min then my name was called. the office where you purchase the tickets was a pretty swanky place.so, when my name was called i ordered the boat tickets...all in spanish. this was a proud proud moment for me. again, much of my spanish comes from the context of conversation but i still have enough knowledge to understand and get by. yeah!
after purchasing the tickets i started to walk back towards my apartment but then i noticed how close i was to the recoleta cemetery. i visited there once when i first arrived but it was on a weekend and crowded, so i decided to go back. it is really the most amazing / interesting place. i think i spent an hour just walking around admiring the mausoleums. it 's a really big cemetery and on the weekdays it was dead (no pun intended). at one point is was really quiet, kind of eery, and then, someone around the corner of one of the mausoleums, sneezed. i jumped.... and then laughed at myself.
there was a guy in the cemetery taking photos. we kept walking into each others photos. it happened about 3-4 times. we both kept apologizing. finally we started talking. he was also was bit by the travel bug. he's traveling around south america now. he was easy to talk to and interesting. so we spent the day having coffee, then having wine and then dinner (the best mexican food i've had here).a couple of times the topic of luck came up. i said that i really feel lucky to be here and to have the life that i do. but he questioned whether it was luck or did i create this life for myself? we also talked about the possibility that it's positive thinking rather than luck or that we view our world with a positive approach. i think it's a little bit of all three.
nevertheless, i feel lucky to be having this experience. i also feel so lucky to have my friends and family and their support.
(photo below: taken at my favorite park: the botanical garden)
(photo below: not sure what this sign is trying to warn me of? drunk people...dancing people?)
Did I mention how lucky I feel?
4 comments:
Where did you have the good Mexican?
I'm also interested in this "good Mexican"... the only one I know of that's supposedly any good is in Belgrano, haven't visited yet but have heard good things.
The good Mexican was at "Xalapa" on El Salvador 4800, in Palermo Soho.
I ordered chicken tacos. They came rolled and deep fried. The chicken wasn't over cooked and the guacamole was fresh. I would definitely go back.
i can't say which was more gratifying when i practiced spanish on others- understanding them, or having them understand me. either way, it's so fabulous, isn't it?
a bit of luck...had you been born really poor and disadvantaged, it's hard to say whether you'd be where you are. however, after a lot of conversations with a crazy, tiresome friend, where he keeps reiterating ad nauseum that people want too much credit for their accomplishments that couldn't be accomplished without others, i've taken quite a positive look at my own and others' accomplishments, and recognized just how much work people put into stuff.
i get kind of tired of hearing, "he/she is soooo lucky," because chances are he/she defined some goals and set about working very hard to achieve them.
-jenna
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