I think the antibiotics may be helping. I'm feeling less congested, though my body is still achy and I had a headache this morning. I do believe I am getting better.
Took the subte to Punta Cuore where I had fish for lunch. I'm trying to get away from the meat and potatoes diet, but it is hard. The fish was not that good. It tasted fishy, and I had to ask for lemon, which helped. It came on a bed of vegetables which were good, but they were really cooked and were sliced very thinly so that they hardly resembled vegetables anymore. There was a huge pile of "puré", which is mashed potatoes or squash. This was puré mixto, and I don't really know what it was but it was some sort of tuber mash. It wasn't bad.
The waiter I had today was really scattered and I wasn't feeling well, so I was kind of irritated. He brought menus to the table next to me and I sat there waiting. He took their menus and returned them to the pile of menus, and I sat there waiting. Finally, I had to motion to him that I needed a menu. I then had to wait about 20 minutes for the fish. I've never had to wait that long for anything here. I'll admit, it was because I wasn't feeling well, and went there hoping to be able to do my homework but there was a table of three guys sitting and drinking mate and talking very loudly. At one point, one of them was talking on his cell phone and the other two were talking loud. It was horrible, and I had a headache and didn't like the homework assignment and I was hungry and the service was very scattered.
I got to school a little early and went to the bar (that's what they call the cafeteria) and got a tea and went up to my classroom and finished writing this biography of a famous imaginary artist that was me, which was our assignment. I know, it was a strange assignment. We had to write a biography of an imaginary artist, but then Claudia added that that person was to be us. So basically we were writing an autobiography in third person that was imaginary. Very odd. And we were supposed to concentrate on the prepositions we studied. Well, the important thing is I did it. I know my problem is I am too intelligent and am over-analyzing these assignments (ahem - you know I'm kidding right?)
Class was fun as always with Claudia. We checked our homework, which Cynthia had not done. She's not getting away with what she did in level 6 and doesn't have an open forum to tell us all of the wonderful things about China. The funniest thing was when Claudia was discussing our upcoming assignment where we have to prepare either to teach a class or to give a speech. Cynthia said she would do something on China. Claudia teased her saying that she was going to talk about those unpure races, the Taiwanese and Japanese, who speak a dialect of Chinese (those were not her exact words, but it was something along those lines). Cynthia got started on one of her "in China" lectures, this one was about pollution and was in response to something Daniel was saying. She said in China the air is polluted but the ground it not (I really don't know what that meant). Claudia said, the ground is clean because Chinese walk on it - it was so funny. She was being sarcastic and obviously gets that Cynthia thinks the moon and sun revolve around the Chinese (and no one else).
I had my usual problems saying anything because Daniel and Nancy both like to talk a lot and they cut people off. I don't like feeling like I'm wrestling when I'm having a conversation, so I just held back and every now and then when Claudia noticed I was trying to say something, she would recognize me and allow me to have to floor. I think I'd have a hard time getting a word in in English, but it is even harder in Spanish. Daniel talks even when he doesn't know what to say. We were discussing a song that he wasn't in class for and he had no idea what it meant, but he was still talking and sort of thinking out loud. It was a little irritating, but Claudia does a really good job of controlling the class (for the most part).
I liked the variety of the things we did, but especially, I liked the way the class was managed. Even though I would have structured activities more and put students into pairs to discuss things (to maximize discussion time), I think Claudia is doing a good job. Several times she said "mira vos" (look at you), which cracks me up.
After class I walked home. It has warmed up considerably and it was nice to be out in the air again. I stopped at a cafe on Santa Fe and thought I'd have an empanada and something to drink, but I was sitting outside and the waiter never came out, so I got up and left. I ended up walking all the way home and just came up and took a nap.
Saul called and wanted to get together for dinner. We went to a restaurant a few blocks from here and I had a chicken cutlet with ham and cheese and tomato sauce and french fries. Wow, what an unhealthy dinner!
It's nice hanging out with Saul. Even though I really want to speak with portenos, because I love the way they talk, and Saul is from Paraguay and his Spanish is more like what I'm used to, it is still good practice for me to speak to him. He doesn't speak English, and he doesn't make fun of my Spanish (like Hernan does), and he's very patient. So, I got some good practice in with him. I also was able to ask him some questions to prepare for this lesson I'm going to teach on Friday.
I'm planning on introducing the song "Mojado" by Ricardo Arjona. Even though Arjona has some kind of pop songs about the usual things that pop songs are about, he also has quite a few songs that address political topics. Mojado, obviously is about undocumented immigrants in the US. And as they say here, he is also a "bonbon" (i.e., a babe!)
I asked Saul about undocumented people here and learned a little bit, but am going to continue talking to people and then write what I learned. Part of my lesson will be assigning a contact assignment for the students to find a native speaker and ask them about the situation with undocumented immigrants in Buenos Aires. According to Saul, the worst abuse is from the Chinese who employ them in chinos and pay them very low wages (I guess this is why the chinos are cheaper than other supermarkets).
Here's the video of Mojado if you want to check it out. It usually makes me cry.
After walking Saul down Florida street towards the subte, I walked over to Freddo to get the taste of chicken cutlet with ham, cheese and tomato sauce out of my mouth. It was very busy and everyone was getting big containers of ice cream. I remembered when I worked in an ice cream shop and we'd have summer nights that were non-stop, and often the ice cream was really hard and at the end of the night your arm and the muscle between your thumb and index finger was exhausted and sore. Every now and then, someone would give us a quarter tip, which we thought was a big deal (now I sound like my mom talking about her childhood where they were lucky to get an orange for Christmas). So I was standing in Freddo watching these girls working so hard and realized something was missing - the tip jar!
It's been a month and a half since I've had to suffer the distress of facing that tip jar and wondering if I am being a miser by not putting something in it for someone who takes my order, picks up a cup, fills it with coffee and puts it on the counter. I was spoiled by those hot summer nights scooping ice cream and going home with a sore muscle between my thumb and my index finger and was lucky to get a quarter tip, so I usually don't put anything in those tip jars, even though they have cute sayings like "tipping is good karma" or whatever. No tip jars here, even though these kids working in Freddo are probably making so much less than the kids working in Starbucks.
Ok, time to fix my evening cocktail of te de tilo and eucalyptus and peppermint liquor and hit the sack. The exterminator is coming tomorrow at 8:45.
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