I Like Spring

I've really been enjoying the weather we're having, as well as seeing the city begin to bloom. The past few days have been warm and wet. It was hot on Saturday and then it rained Saturday evening. It rained yesterday morning and then the sun came out. And today it rained this morning and since noon has just been overcast. All of this combined with a very quiet city due to the long weekend. I'm hearing lots of birds singing and it's really nice.


After fooling around on the computer and doing some more editing, I decided to go out for a walk. I wanted to explore this little neighborhood I passed through on the night that I had a vertigo attack in Palermo and had to walk home. It is on the south side of Santa Fe and in the direction of Palermo. I don't really know that neighborhood and am not even sure what it is called, but it seemed nice when I passed through it before.

It was a lovely day for a walk. The air felt clean and fresh and the city was very peaceful. There was very little traffic other than on the main avenues and not many people were out. I found a nice little street, I think it is called Charcas, that is divided with a median strip planted with trees. There was very little traffic on this street (maybe none?) and it was nice street to walk down. I found a cafe that had tables outside, bought a newspaper and sat down for a coffee and a piece of lemon pie.

I didn't have my reading glasses, so I was really only able to read the headlines and parts of the articles before my eyes started getting tired. As I was leaving, I folded up my newspaper with the intention of taking it home with me and trying to read it later. A woman inside the coffee shop was watching me and said something to her husband. He came out and spoke to me and I didn't understand what he said, but he was pointing to my newspaper. He was either asking if I was done with the newspaper or if I was taking it with me. I said, "si", not really sure what I was answering yes to. I then held out the paper to him and he took it.

It was an odd intereaction and afterwards I thought that maybe I was turning Japanese. I often heard that Japanese will answer "yes" to a question but not mean yes. They are instead saying that yes, they heard the question. I don't know if this is true, but it seemed true in my case. Why did I say yes when I had no idea what this guy was asking?

I am sitting in my bedroom with the window open a crack. I can hear some little chirp chirp chirp (lots of them) and above them there is the sound of this most incredible bird that I have been hearing a lot of around town lately. It has this ongoing song that is almost like an ice cream truck. It is very musical and very loud and goes on and on.

I'm really taking it easy these days. Marcelo, my tango teacher is in Brazil until the 20th. When he comes back I'll start taking lessons with him again. I may or may not go back to the tango school. It's been kind of nice really limiting the things I try to do. I'm looking for some more conversation exchange partners and looking around with some possible volunteer opportunities. I don't really know what I want to do with my time here other than go to school. It might be nice just to keep things very simple and enjoy the city a little.