gordita

today i started my day at 6:45am, well, that's what time i got out of bed after having an internal argument with myself. i didn't want to get out of bed. it's getting cold. i also have a funny stomach ache that comes and goes. nothing serious, but i thought it would be a good reason to cancel. the non lazy part of me won, so i got out of bed.

7:45am i left my apartment. i started taking the bus to work on wednesdays, it gets me a little closer to my destination, it's a little faster and i like to read on the bus (it's too difficult to read on the subte in the morning. it should be called the "smoosh-te")

8:30am i had my first class. my student always offers me coffee and i always accept. he also always calls me 'teacher' instead of by name. it think it sounds charming, but funny.

my next student is in a higher position, so when he asks me if i want coffee he dials up the office waiter (i'm serious). last time i told him i wanted wine and he asked if i really wanted some (i did not accept this offer; i was just joking with him). but, today, instead of asking for wine i asked for some medialunas with my coffee. he said in a joking manner, with a smile on his face "gordita" (fatty). i laughed, because i know that it's perfectly acceptable to call someone a fatty (gordita or gordito) when you are speaking spanish. often you hear these words exchanged by couples in a loving way. when he hung up the phone i told him "you know that you could never say that in english?" he seemed surprised.

after i met with my last student of the day, the student offered me a boat ride over the harbor. (i work on the harbor side, so that means there are only a couple bridges i can walk over to get there. the bridges are about 6 blocks apart, which means i do a lot of walking 'around' the harbor) there is a boat that goes over the harbor (which i got to ride in today) but you need a corporate pass to ride the boat. it was a nice treat.

once i made my way to the subte stairs to go down, i noticed a large demonstration near the subte entrance. it looked peaceful, but i'm sure the riot police that were standing around were ready to lurch. once i went down into the subte i noticed no one was going through the turnstiles, there was tape around them preventing people from passing through. i could have gone back up to the street level, but i didn't want to look for a bus, since many of the streets above were closed off for the protesters. i also didn't want to be around the protesters (sometimes fights can break out), so i just pulled out a magazine and started reading. i'm not sure how much time passed, but the underground was filling up with people and i could hear drums, fire-crackers and chanting from the street. an old man pushed his way up to the front where i was standing and a woman behind me scolded him for cutting, then he started banging on the metal turnstile. people followed his lead and started clapping hands and yelling. i thought, "oh great, i stayed down here to avoid a possible unruly protest and now one is going to happen down here, and there is NO WHERE for me to go". luckily the people chanted for only a minute or so and a couple minutes after that a voice came over the loudspeaker allowing people to pass through the turnstile and get on the train.