The craziest thing that happened in your taxi

YAY! Orientation is over! I'm registered for: Spanish, Creative Writing Workshop, Argentine Poetry, How to Make a Documentary, and Painting, all taught in Spanish.

I thought that maybe McDonald’s would have better burgers here because it’s a meat-loving country. Rose and I tried a cheeseburger today to test this theory, but it tasted the same as ever: gross.

Rose and I went to the Cemetery again. I tried to take lots of cat pictures, but it’s kind of hard to get interesting stuff in the background. This will take more trips, which is fine, because the Cemetery is very beautiful and I love exploring.

Yesterday I had my first ride on the collectivo (public bus). Another adventure! Everything is an adventure. The bus almost left without us, but we managed to get on. Then we drove about a block while I was standing in the doorway. The open doorway. Jesus.

Whitney, Rose, and I went to a concert at the Konex Theater. It was a really cool venue. They had these fantastic hanging basket swings, and a giant fly sculpture. There were no smoking signs everywhere that went completely ignored. The music was Latin, therefore danceable and fun. Before the concert began, we were talking and a guy came up and started flirting with us. “You’re so beautiful…Are all Texas girls this pretty?...Can you teach me how to speak Texan?” He had an interesting way of making himself heard—he would lean so close to my ear that I’m surprised he didn’t accidentally eat it. I kept backing away, and finally he said, “Am I making you uncomfortable?” “Yes, a little bit,” I said, so he turned his attention to Rose. It was uncomfortable just to watch him in action! My goodness. Soon he left though, and didn’t bother us anymore.

I’ve been asking all the taxistas if anything interesting or strange has ever happened in their taxis. So far I’ve hit the jackpot twice. The first one had been robbed at gunpoint by a passenger, and then he read a few days later in the paper about the robber: he’d been killed by the police when he brandished a plastic gun in public. Today’s stories were even crazier. The first one was a little mysterious and concerned a Chinese woman. He said they didn’t speak each other’s language, but they still understood each other, and he would have expected a Chinese woman to be cold, but really she was very hot. He said that (whatever “that” is) was the craziest thing that ever happened in his taxi. Hmmm. Story number two: he found $1500 left in his taxi. Story number three: someone died in his taxi. The guy had a heart attack but the paramedics thought it was an athsma attack, and they killed him because the asthma medicine makes your heart beat faster. Well, that’s what he said, I don’t know anything about athsma and heart attacks. Anyway, I really like talking to these guys. I’m a little intimidated about the logistics of interviewing them (sticking a microphone in my driver’s face seems dangerous, and I don’t want to carry that recorder with me all the time), but I’m trying to figure something out. These guys are a goldmine of crazy vignettes.

Thursday IES took us to a beautiful estancia (ranch) outside of the city. Even though we couldn’t ride horses because it was muddy, it was still a wonderful day. First we had a huge asada lunch (Argentine version of barbeque), but it wasn’t nearly as good as the one I had before the city tour. There was a mini-zoo of sad, lonely birds and rodents. We found and rode wonderful two-person bikes that were like pedal-powered golf carts. Samantha and I chatted with a gaucho for a while. I guess I should have asked him if anything interesting or strange has ever happened while he was riding a horse. Emily, Rose, and I played some soccer, but I’m terribly out of shape so I didn’t last long. Somehow I thought that walking all over the city every day was enough to maintain myself, but that is very untrue. To cap it all off, we went swimming. What a day! I’m beat.