Fun With Lorena and Tess

Today was a beautiful day, sunny and warm but not hot. Probably in the mid 70's with low humidity. It was really lovely being out.

I started off the day with a trip to the Brazilian Consulate. I first thought I would be going to the Brazilian Embassy, which is one of the big old villas that the noveau riche of Buenos Aires in the 1920's had to give up because their finances failed them after the stock market crash. They are magnificent palaces and testament to greed and foolish spending. Maybe some of the McMansions in the US will eventually be turned into embassies?

Instead, I went to a fairly non-descript office building on 9 de Julio.

I arrived and a security guard told me I had to go to window 5. I waited for my turn and the woman at window 5 spoke to me in English. She looked on the computer for my application, which I had not filed, because when I asked the security guard if I needed to file an application on the computers there, he said no. So, the lady in window 5 sent me to the computers to fill out the application.

When I was done, I returned to the window, and even though the woman was super nice, it was still a bureaucracy, so of course what I did was not correct. I had forgotten to put my work phone number (like they are going to call SF?) and I didn't know the address of the hotel. I called Hernan and woke him up to get the number of the travel agent just in case, while the woman from window 5 went off to see if she could find the address of my hotel. She returned with the address and the telephone number, which she filled in on the form. I was very impressed. They could have just sent me away and told me to come back when I had what was required.

From there she sent me to a bank on Santa Fe to pay the fee. They didn't accept credit cards and I didn't have enough cash, so I had to get money from the ATM. The fee was 495.50 pesos. I gave the teller 500 pesos. She asked me if I had 50 pesos. I couldn't believe it. I was in a bank and she was asking me for change!

That done I headed home and checked my e-mail. Lorena and Tess needed help getting some basics like money, food, and some electronic items, so I headed over to their place and led them around and helped them with Spanish when they needed it.

It was really fun. Normally, when I was doing errands early on, I would only do one per day. I bought my cell phone one day. I got the gym membership another day. But here I was, helping them to do several things in one day! We went to get a sim card for their cell phone so they could use it here. The people in the little booth at Alta Palermo Shopping Center were really nice and it was fun talking to them in Spanish (and they also tried using some of their limited English).

We went and had lunch at a place on Santa Fe and Colonel Diaz and sat outside, but for some reason Santa Fe was like a parking lot and cars were just packed and moving very slowly. Drivers were losing their temper and lots of horns were blaring. I asked the waiter what was happening and he said he thought they had cut one of the streets (protestors close off streets). I could kind of see Raul's point about protests being annoying after a while (oh no, what is happening to me?!!)

From there we ran a few more errands before coming to the mother of all errands... the supermarket!

Lorena and Tess are really lucky to live one block away from a majorly huge Coto. I am so jealous. My feet were really tired from doing so much walking, but I loved walking around this supermarket. It was so big it even had appliances and underwear!

This Coto, unlike the one near me, allowed Tess to use a photocopy of her passport for ID. I don't know why my Coto doesn't allow me to use a copy. And since I saw Lorena and Tess' Coto, I don't want to go back to the snooty one in my neighborhood! I'm actually fine with my Disco, which is on the small side, but now I know where everything is.

It is fun having people in town that I know and it is fun showing them around. I was tired though and wish my feet weren't so sore. I'm going to have to take it easy and maybe not walk as much.

Overall it was a good day and I am tired. I'm going to bed sort of early so that I can be fresh for my Italian class tomorrow (highly unlikely).