Help! I can't stop blogging!

I don't even know who is reading my blog, though some people have let me know. But for me this has become a way for me to record the many things I'm doing, and to express the many thoughts I am having with each day being full of new experiences for me. After two weeks, I feel like this city has still not revealed itself to me fully.

I remember when I first went to Japan and was just amazed at the size and new sights and sounds of Tokyo. Then culture shock hit, and I hated Japan and anything Japanese. I wish I had been able to record my first impressions though, because it really was a time of wonder and amazement. That is what I think I am doing here, and I fully expect to reach a point where I am tired and beginning to feel the cultural differences and become frustrated. When that happens, I'll be able to look back on my blog and more easily access the memories of these days of wonder.

Today I am going to a spa. I had planned on going to a shopping center because I want a nice black sweater that I can wear under my black velvet sport coat I brought with me with my new black and white scarf that I bought in the men's boutique across the street and with jeans, look like I'm kind of dressed up and didn't just get off the gringo express. But instead of shopping, I decided to look up this spa, Aqua Vita Medical Spa, that I found on the website of the place where I rented my apartment. On the BA4U Apartment website, they had prices listed that looked like American spa prices $189, $200, $450, etc., with packages that range from 2 hours to 5 hours. So I googled the spa and went to their website and looked at the packages, and it said "all prices are quoted in Argentine pesos". So, I called them and booked an "Aqua Spring" package, which includes, steam room, facial, body scrub and moisturizing bath, deep tissue massage and hydrotherapy for a whopping $189 pesos. That is ...let me do the math here... about $60. It's about what we paid for dinner at Las Lilas the other night. Wow! I've never been to a spa unless you count when I used to go to the sento with Nancy and Yaari in Japan - it was kind of an upscale public bath. We'd go and sit in the hot tubs - I'd have to go alone to the men's quarters, and then we'd get a massage and walk around in our robes and slippers. But anyway, this is a real spa experience. I think this might become a regular thing here.

I learned something new about taxis yesterday. We've been warned only to take radio taxis, which we have been doing, even catching them on the street, but checking to see if they are radio taxis. Radio taxi is a taxi company. There are other companies, and then there are unidentified taxis with no apparent affiliation.

The other night after Las Lilas, both Mike and Larry's cousin's husband Dave, had problems with taxi drivers. They both gave the driver a 10 peso note, and the driver said they gave him 2. If they were correct and the driver changed the bill on them, they lost about 3 dollars in the deal, which if if happened every day, would add up, but for one time to learn a lesson, it was a cheap lesson. So we discussed it last night and decided our strategy from now on would be to hand the driver a bill and say, "here's 20 pesos" so that we can see what we are giving him and he acknowledges what he is being given. Last night we were desperate to get a taxi from la peña, and ended up getting a cab from a different company that was not radio taxi. I sat in the front since I was going to be the last one out and therefore would be able to see if the driver tried to switch bills on me. I'm not going to be paranoid, but will be careful. In fact, the more I learn what the tricks are that people use to make a few extra pesos, the less worried I am becoming. It's the unsuspecting fresh off the gringo express tourist who is an easy target, but those who know the tricks can more easily avoid them.

Ok, I am going to take a shower, have some breakfast and get ready for my spa day!