I'm going to stop talking about the meclizine and vertigo unless something changes. This will be my last report that taking meclizine on a regular basis seems to be enabling me to lead a fairly normal life.
I had my Arabic class this morning and it was pretty much more of the same. An interesting thing has been happening in the class though. We have a book that we bought, that I got a CD for and we listened to the CD the first few classes and did a little in the book. Also on the first day of class Ybti gave us 7 pages that she had photocopied from a different book. We did a few pages from that book every class.
I noticed that this other book, which itself was a photocopy and is completely scripted in Arabic, including the directions, was floating from one student to another. Someone had it, and they photocopied it and then they gave their photocopy to someone else and they photocopied it and on it went. I kind of ignored this because it didn't affect me other than to wonder why I was being left out of this pirating ring.
Today it mattered.
Ybti told us to turn to page 12, but it ended up being page 12 in the book that everyone else had a copy of except me! I don't understand why we have a book that we are not using and we are using a book that I didn't have.
Romina, the nice girl who started the class a few weeks late and is more lost than me, offered to lend me her copy and I could copy it. In the meantime, I looked over the shoulder of Claudia Duffy - the Irish Argentine girl who was sitting to my right.
The lesson sucked. I really cannot be any more blunt than that. It was total confusion and not clear at all. We were all helping each other, and poor Nicolas was totally lost. Ybti lost her patience with him and kept telling him not to get lost. He gets lost easily because he is soooo focused on the most minute details and gets easily distracted by things that are not really important. At one point Ybti was trying to explain something to him and he didn't understand it and was asking a million questions and finally she just said, "let's leave this" and moved on. She was losing her patience with him.
Maybe it was the heat.
It was very warm this morning. I'd guess maybe in the 80's though I don't know for sure.
After I left school and went to drop off the copy of Romina's book to get copied, and we all got a copy of page 13 which was missing from the first copy of the copy and therefore missing from everyone's book, I checked my phone and had a text from Hernan.
When I got home we spoke and he invited me to visit him in Palermo Hollywood where he is dog sitting.
I found this advertisement on some expat site, I don't even remember now, from an American couple who were looking for someone to dog sit for them and stay in their apartment in Palermo. I thought this was perfect for Hernan so I forwarded him the e-mail and he got the job! He is not getting paid, he just has a free place to stay and is able to rent out his apartment in San Telmo.
He told me the dog was very old and sick. But actually the dog was very sweet. His name is Toby or something like that.
We went for a walk with the dog through Palermo Hollywood, which I don't know very well. It was very neighborhoody and very nice actually. Today the entire city is pretty quiet because it's a long weekend, but PH (I'm going to abbreviate it from now on) was particularly quiet. There were lots of people sitting in outdoor restaurants and cafes that we passed, but very little traffic and hardly anyone walking on the sidewalks.
We walked to a little park and sat for a bit with the dog and then went to a restaurant and had a late lunch.
The restaurant was called Oui Oui and is on Nicaragua and I don't remember what street. When we turned on to the street there was a big old building on the other side of the street that went for about a half a block. The building was abandoned and being gutted and you could feel this chill and maybe just my imagination, but a very heavy presence from the building. It was kind of eery for me. I didn't say anything to Hernan.
We first chose seats outside at the restaurant and Hernan tied the dog's leash to his chair. I got a wonderful salad with watercress, humus and brie. Hernan had a smoked salmon sandwich.
As we were sitting waiting for our food, we smelled an intensely insulting stench of dog poo. We thought it was Toby, but when we looked down at him under the table, he was also sniffing the air with a look of disgust. Hernan started waving his hand in front of his nose and saying "oh, what is that smell?!!!" and soon, people at the other tables outside also started doing the same. Some of them got up and moved inside. When the waiter came out, Hernan asked him what the smell was and everyone else who was still seated outside was murmuring "what is that smell?, where could it be coming from? What do they have inside there?" I thought it was very funny, because really, it wasn't THAT bad, but it was a pretty strong dog smell. People were checking their shoes and everything.
The waiter said it was coming from the building next door where they owners had some big dogs. Hernan said he could not sit outside and eat, so we moved to a cute little table right inside where we could watch the dog from the window.
Lunch was really great and it was so nice to be in a place where there were different choices on the menu. I loved my salad, and the brie came on fresh, warm, homemade bread and was melting. The hummus was not what I am used to, but it was wonderful.
It started to rain while we were there, but had slowed down by the time we left. It was still drizzling though, but it just made the air and the streets feel fresh and clean.
After we got back to the apartment where Hernan is dog sitting, a friend of his came by with a package of sandwiches from the bakery. It was mate time. Hernan didn't have any mate though, and his friend only wanted water. I got to observe, and partake peripherally in the "merienda" the custom of visiting a friend in the late afternoon for mate or coffee and pastries.
His friend (I forget his name) is a psychologist and was a very nice guy. He engaged me in conversation a little and he and Hernan sat and caught up while I tried to follow. I love having the opportunity to see people interact with each other in Argentine Spanish. I liked Hernan's friend, as I have liked all of his friends that I have met.
After his friend left, I walked Hernan out and I caught a cab back. The city is deserted and it is so lovely. The streets were damp from the rain, the air was wet and warm and there was hardly any traffic on the streets, though there were still plenty of people out enjoying the tranquility of the late, warm, wet afternoon.
I went to the Disco and it was also deserted. I had a leisurely time wandering about. I bought some arugula and watercress and pears and blue cheese all to make a salad, along with some other things. There was no line for the checkout and no one heading at me with shopping carts.
It is now raining. There was some thunder earlier and I can still hear it in the distance. It is very quiet except for the sound of the rain. It's been a nice return to Buenos Aires after my little trip "abroad".
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