Lazy Saturday

I really like the lazy weekends here. Traffic is reduced at least by 50% and even my apartment building gets quiet (I think there are some businesses in my building and the building next door that only are open Monday - Friday).

After getting back from Hernan's yesterday morning, I lazed around, took a shower, etc., and then decided to go out and get something to eat. I went to a little cafe about a block from here and got a hamburger and a salad. Both were fair, not great, but I liked the cafe as a place to go get coffee some day. It is located on the corner of Santa Fe, which is a pretty busy street, but is right across from Plaza San Martin, which is filled with big old green trees (for some reason these trees still have green leaves on them in winter).

After that I walked around the Microcentro (micro center) a little. Again, this is very near to where I am living, but I don't usually go there during the week. The small streets get choked up with traffic and buses spewing putrid black smoke and people blowing their horns as they sit there for hours trying to make it through the streets. It's horrible to walk alongside of this and I avoid it. But on the weekend, it is a different scene. The buses still drive through and still spew their black smoke, but there is less traffic and less horn honking.

I enjoyed looking at all of the different shops and buildings in this area. I think there are a lot of hotels and a lot of these shops are geared towards tourists. They have a lot of gaucho shops with ponchos and blankets, hats, riding crops, etc., which I really like. I like the patterns on the fabrics of the blankets and shawls and things and if I buy anything, it might be one of those. I could see walking around with a big cowboy hat a poncho and a riding crop and getting away with that in San Francisco - holding my mate gourd and drinking mate, on my way to tango class.

I walked down Florida street which is a pedestrian street also filled with lots of shops. I don't know that there are any bargains there, as this also seems geared towards tourists. Usually, if there are people dancing tango in the street, you can guess that you're in a touristy area. Florida street also has some street musicians, an old Chinese guy playing some sort of Chinese harp stands outside of the old closed-up Harrods (yes of London fame).

Finally, I came back to my apartment. The young guy who sits at the desk on the weekend (doorman) had asked me when I went out if I knew of a kiosk where he could buy a pancho. I thought he was talking about a poncho that you wear, and I knew there was a shop that sold gaucho paraphenalia not too far from here, but I didn't think that was what he was talking about. So, I asked him what a pancho was. He said bread. I told him I didn't know because I was not from here.

So, on my way back I thought that since this guy was nice and friendlier than the other doormen who sit at that desk, maybe he could help me light my oven. I bought some frozen pizzas at the supermarket but was not able to light the oven.

So, when I came back, first I asked him if he found his pancho, and he said yes, there was a kiosk down the street. Then I asked him if a pancho was a sandwhich, and he said no, lunchmeat. This is all in Spanish of course, and this is my translation of what I understood. But in reality, I don't understand. I think maybe he wanted a sandwich on french bread with lunch meat as opposed to a sandwich on white bread with some other filling. I'll have to ask Hernan and see if he can clarify.

After that exchange, I felt comfortable telling him about the problem with my oven. He looked at me blankly and then I said, maybe I need to call the service that rented me the apartment. To which he replied, if you want I can take a look.

So he came up to my apartment, and played with it a little, then he did something and I could hear the gas coming out in the oven and he lit it and voila! it worked.

Turns out you have to turn the dial and then push it, which I was not doing.

So I thanked him and he left. I made a pizza and a salad for dinner and made myself comfortable on my uncomfortable sofa to see what was on TV. I surfed the channels a little looking for something interesting in Spanish and being drawn to stupid English movies like Back to the Future 3 (or whatever it is called) until finally I came across Latin American Idol.

Ok, now I was in for the evening.

I saw this last week. They are at the beginning stages, recruiting people to go to Buenos Aires for the competition. They started in Mexico City and then went to Venezuela last week when I saw it. Last night I don't know where they were orginally, I think maybe Colombia, but I'm not sure, and then the 2nd hour they were in Buenos Aires.

The judges are great. Two women and one man. One of the guys, Gustavo, who I think is the "Simon" of the bunch (but looks more like Randy), says things like "that was dreadful" in Spanish, but is infinitely less bitchy than Simon, and actually complements people when they are good, gets up and dances and has a good time. The woman, Mimi, is a little less comatose than Paula, and has a really fun personality. She has a great time and also is a very good judge. The other judge is Jon Secada, and he is very nice, but also can't help crack up when people are horrendous. But he is a little kinder in his criticism than Gustavo. They had a few guest judges in the four programs I saw.

It's the same thing as our American Idol. Lots of bad singers and some very good ones, and some in the middle. But the good singers are really good, especially the guys. You can even see it on the judges' faces. When someone is really good, I get goosebumps and my eyes water. The judges sit there speechless, motionless, and they say things like "I was enchanted", "I fell in love", etc. Now I think I'm going to have to stay in every Saturday night to watch Latin American Idol. Hopefully they will continue with two programs every night instead of one, so that I'll get closer to the finale before I leave.

I went to bed at 10:30 and got up at 9:30 this morning. Boy, was I tired! I have nothing planned for today, but finding a nice cafe and doing my homework for tomorrow sounds like a good idea.