Suffocatingly HoT

It rained all night and was really pouring this morning. I thought it would cool things off, instead it just made things feel hotter as it is now steaming.

I was up late last night because Tess and Lorena came by for dinner. No turkey. It didn't feel like Thanksgiving here as there were no signs of Pilgrims or cranberries or Christmas sales. I did find out today that there are places where I can get turkey, but I can do without it. Somehow, turkey doesn't seem like the thing to eat when it is in the upper 80's with 110% humidity.

I woke up early this morning even though I had gone to bed late, but I was tired and kind of cranky. I read some e-mails and got even crankier. I really just wanted to go back to bed, but I had an appointment with Ralf to look at an apartment in Palermo, near Scalabrini-Oritiz.

I went to the BA4U office and met Ralf. First he showed me an apartment in the same building as their office. It was a studio on the top floor of the building with a really nice view of the city below. It was very nicely decorated, and would be perfct for someone staying for a short time, but for me, to stay there close to three months, I'd go bonkers. It was too small and it was right on Santa Fe, meaning, I'd be walking out onto a busy street every day.

The apartment we went to see was on a small street a few blocks from Scalabrini-Ortiz, and two blocks in from Santa Fe. It was a nice apartment that is owned by a British guy who was there when we went to see it. The apartment is not a typical BA4U apartment with modern furniture and trendy art. It was a little on the funky side with a big yellow couch, wooden table and nightstands and a sort of funny smell. But, it had a nice kitchen and a terrace, both which I think made up for the lack of style otherwise. I'm opting for comfort and utility over style for next time. It will also be nice to try out a different neighborhood, and there is a fish store a few blocks from the apartment that has a great selection of seafood.

After returning home, I ate lunch and watchted some TV before taking a nap (actually I fell asleep watching Dr. Phil). Then I spent most of the rest of the afternoon doing a skype work call.

We were supposed to have our tickets to Brazil by now and I still don't understand why they were not ready when promised, but, it seems that things in Argentina do take longer than they should.

I was supposed to go to the travel agent yesterday and pick up our vouchers, but they were not ready. This morning Hernan called and told me something about the vouchers, but I was not really awake yet. After I finished skyping at 6, I sent him a text to find out what was going on. He told me I had to go to the office and they were sending the tickets over by motorcycle. I then asked him why they couldn't just send the motorcycle here, which would have made it a lot easier. He just said it wasn't possible.

So I went to ATI Viajes on Callao near Santa Fe and the two agents were busy with three more people waiting. I thought it was ridiculous that I had to stand there and wait just to pick up some vouchers, when these other people were there to ask questions and book things, but I saw no alternative.

It seems to me that Argentines ask a lot of questions. The people in the travel agency were asking a lot of questions, but I've also noticed this in restaurants. It seems that people don't just order, they interview the waiter about the food. I was getting irritated because it was hot and these people were asking a lot of questions. When they finished, the others who were waiting before me took their turn at the desks of the two agents so that they could ask questions. I sent Hernan a text saying, "there are many people". He was going to meet me at Volta, but fortunately, he came to the travel agent.

He looked at me waiting and asked, "que pasa?" I pointed to the people asking questions and said, "it's busy". He went up to one of the agents and told him we were just here to pick up vouchers. The agent told him we had to wait.

And so we did.

The agent was a little cranky himself and when he finally helped us was upset that I didn't bring my document with me. I had a copy of my passport, my gym membership, my student ID and the credit card I used to book the reservations, but he wanted my original passport just to give us the vouchers. It seemed kind of dumb to me. Eventually he did give us the vouchers.

And so we are ready to head to the airport at 3:10 a.m. Sunday morning to catch a 6:10 flight. We'll arrive in Rio at 9:10 and be transferred to our hotel in Buzios. We should arrive there by 1 p.m., enough time to be able to swim a little.

I just checked the weather and it is 73 degrees and raining. It looks like it is going to rain all week. Hmm....

It will be nice to get away from the sizzling city and have a change of view. Plus, the food will be a nice change.

I'm not looking forward to December if this heat continues to increase. I'll be spending a lot of time in my nice, cool apartment.