Hi everybody,
Sorry about the absence, but as the title implies, I've been pretty busy. On friday night, I saw the Argentine adaptation of "The Producers", La Primavera Para Hitler, if you know what I mean. Even though I didn't understand most of the dialogue, I had a great time. I know the story, so I could follow along in the same way that you would an opera.
Yesterday was spent in a small suburb of B.A., called Tigre. It has a large market and a huge residential area only accessible by boat. There's a big river network in the area, and it's impractical to build roads, so the people who live there kayak or row to their cars every time they want to go out! It was kind of like a poor man's Venice.
Today I just got back from a very cool traditional market on the fringe of the city. Getting there was quite an adventure, though. I went with another exchange student, so of course neither one of us had any idea where we were going. We had to change trains a few times before we even found ourselves in the right area code. The end of the train line was in a rough neighboorhood, as in the kind that only Latin America can produce. At that point, even Compton was looking mightly hospitable. A nice couple asked my friend and I if we were lost (what gave it away, the map or the skin), and proceeded to lead us in the direction of where we could find a cab (or so I prayed). They took us to an abandoned building, the type that has you wondering if you saw that exact one on Dateline last week. The place turned out to be some type of fly-by-night taxi depot. The one woman at the one desk got on the CB and radioed a taxi (although, I could have sworn she said "fresh meat"). We got in the car (dumb, I know, but our choices were pretty limited). The driver ended up being a very friendly out of work architect (not uncommon in post-crash Argentina). Although, I did soil my pants just a little bit when he showed us the gun necessary for driving in that part of town. We eventually pulled up to the market, and it's a good thing we didn't wander around by ourselves, since our driver pointed out a few slum villages along the way in which "They'll kill you for your shoes." No joke. This, of course, as we're riding in the back of a sputtering '77 Peugeot that I pray has at least a few more miles in it.
Needless to say, I'm pretty tired tonight, so I think a friend and I are going to go see Charlie y la Fabrica de Chocolate, should be pretty fun.
Talk to you all soon,
Myles
