weirdo watch

on sunday i lay in 'las heras' park with a friend. it was really hot, so we lay in the shade on a blanket. it's a great park, it's big and there are always many people there during the day, but there are also many weirdos there too. (hence me not wanting to walk through there at night) anyway, during the day it's enjoyable to weirdo watch. yesterday i made a comment like "that guy carrying the back pack in his hand has passed us 4 times". once we were on to him he passed us 20 more times, just walking back and forth in the park, but not in circles and not even on the path. how strange! next a guy came up to us to sell us bracelets. my friend did all the talking. after we wouldn't buy he let us know he was from the paper writing an article about how people react when sold something in the park. how strange! (*the second time i almost made it into the paper, not that i want to be)

later in the evening another good friend of mine was in my neighborhood so she stopped by and we went for coffee around the corner. (have i mentioned what good friends i have here. i'm very lucky)

Monday, March 30th, 2009
monday things went back to my b.a. normal, so no more fun mate lattes to start off my day. on my way to work i got three deep stares from men accompanied by a 'buen dia senorita' and two whistles. i guess they're catching up from last week?

yesterday i learned that this thursday is a holiday in argentina.... but it's the day when i teach most of my students! so last night after learning this i sent out emails to try to re-arrange the classes. then today i asked one of my students, "what will you do on thursday for the holiday?". he said "thursday's a holiday but the argentine government moves the day that we have off from work to the monday that follows the holiday so everyone can have a long weekend". i slightly disagreed with him and said that a friend has off from work on thursday. he said yes i know, but the government just changed the date, it was in the newspaper the other day that now people will celebrate on monday. i haven't gotten to the bottom of it, but just in case i moved all my classes. it wouldn't sound crazy to me if the argentine government moved a holiday 4 days before it were to take place.

tonight i did my taxes! thank you turbo tax! my family sent my w2's to nicholas and he brought them down for me. i filed over the internet. whoever is looking down on me thank you for not making me pay this year! i'm getting a little money back. i really want black and pink pumas, but i think that would be a splurge. i have plenty of shoes (but they are really cute)

tonight i spent time with my neighbors from downstairs. we played "apples to apples" drank wine and ate chocolate. it's a word game (an english word game). can you believe the two non-native english speakers won the game (they were tied), they beat out the two native english speakers! i'm going to see how i can incorporate the game into my teaching. we had a lot of fun.

ahhh, one more thing. do you remember the cat that i was babysitting my first 3 months here? remember how she use to sit on the balcony 3 floors up? she fell last saturday. luckily she didn't run away but rather ran into a door way of a building and she is only limping. her owner took her to the vet and she should be fine. i am so thankful she didn't slip under my care. i would have felt so guilty. i'm glad she'll be ok.