Today I had an ongoing allergy attack that left my nose raw from blowing it and me out of tissues. I had planned on going to the gym, but I was unfit to leave the house. I'm not sure why my allergies bother me so much in my apartment. I sleep with an air-conditioner on in the other room and not blowing directly on me. I wonder if it is pulling air in from the outside though. It's definitely too hot to sleep without, so I am hoping the pollen counts will drop in a week or two (like when I return from Brazil).
So I hung out here and played games on Facebook (my new favorite time wasting activity) responded to some e-mails and spoke to Pablo from ATI Viajes to finalize the preparations for our trip next week.
Hernan called to say he was going to stop by later, and after lunch, I was exhausted from doing nothing, so I took a nap.
My nap was broken by my phone ringing. It was Hernan to say he was on his way. Turned out to be a perfect nap, about 20 minutes, and not one of those too long naps that are really difficult to snap out of.
Because I was tired from sneezing and napping, I made a pot of coffee, which Hernan and I drank. After hanging out a bit, he said he wanted to make a snack for me to go with mate. He ran to the store to get flour and apples and came back and made these little balls of dough with apple in them that he fried. I was amazed at how quickly he did it and they were really yummy.
While he was doing that, I prepared the mate, putting the yerba in the mate, heating the water, etc.
The mate ritual is kind of like a tea ceremony in Japan. There are rules as to how you do it and I was really nervous about being the 'cebador' - the server. But, since I make mate for myself many mornings, I decided to give it a try.
After filling the mate and turning it over with my hand cupped over the top to catch some of the dust (because Raul says it can cause kidney stones), I poured the water in slowly where the straw (bombilla) stuck out. The cebador takes the first sip, which might seem kind of rude, but it is actually doing others a favor because there might me some polvo (dust) or the bombilla might be a bit hot.
Then after finishing the tea that is made from the water and yerba, the cebador re-fills the mate and passes it.
Several times Hernan drank the mate he said "mmmm.. rica", and one time even gave me a "ricisima" (very good)! This was a big deal for me as I was doing something that is classic Argentine and not really sure if I knew what I was doing. I was glad he thought I passed the test (he didn't know it was a test), and the combination of the little apple dough balls and the mate was really nice.
After he left, I went to the Disco to pick up some more tissues and some stuff to have around the house in case I get hungry later. After coffee, mate, and dough balls, I'm not feeling hungry at all. It looks like it might rain (I hope it does so some of the pollen in the air might get washed away).
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