What Should I Do?

I have sunk into a doldrums of sorts.

Being here has stopped being interesting and is now just kind of normal. That's good in a way because it also means that some of the stress of the early adjustment phases is not bothering me anymore, but it also means I'm kind of bored. I don't have any daily routine to keep me occupied. The election is over and I can only take an hour of CNN at the most. I'm bored.

Hernan is still staying with his mother because he is renting out his place in San Telmo, which means I don't get to see him a lot. My conversation exchanges are not really working out in the way I'd hoped. I like meeting with Carlos, who I will see tomorrow, but my other two partners aren't really going the way I would have liked. Raul and I have not met once in October. I was in Uruguay and then he canceled a few times. I didn't see him last week because I had a doctor's appointment, that ended up being rescheduled and he said he forgot this week when I texted him to see if we were still on. I think we're both feeling a little bored by our meetings. I don't think we have much in common other than both being English teachers. I also worry that I may have made a faux pas when I asked him about Ford Falcons.

I am slightly obsessed with the last dictatorship and from movies I've seen and things I've read, I knew that Ford Falcons were used by the plainsclothes thugs who went and picked up people to be tortured and murdered. I've seen a few Ford Falcons from that era around town (in fact there is one that parks outside of my building sometimes). The last time I met with Raul I asked him about them and I got the feeling that it was not a question to ask him.

From what he has said, I sort of knew that he is conservative. He thinks Menem, the president in the 1990's who went on a privitization spree that ended up in the peso crash of 2001, was a good president. I just wonder if he is one of those people that Juliana told me has been indoctrinated to believe that the dictatorship was a good thing for the country (like those in the US who think the Patriot Act is meant to protect us).

We're supposed to meet next Wednesday, but I am feeling like it has been so long and the thrill is kind of gone and now I am not really keen on meeting up with him. And then there is Matias, the slightly odd guy who I met at school. I was supposed to meet with him last Friday but felt strange after my acupuncture appointment and sent him a text to cancel. I have not heard from him since. Faux pas number 2?

I feel like I should start up my private tango lessons again, but it is hot here. I don't want to go to the classes, because even when it was not hot, I was sweating because I was so nervous. With Marcelo, I also sweated because he made me work hard. I hope that the tango studios are air-conditioned, but from my experience at school the air-con either is not sufficient, or is not on. I guess the only way to know is to try.

The other problem is that since I've been having foot pain from walking so much I have had to curtail my walks. I would love to go out and take a nice walk now as the heat of the day begins to subside, but I can't. I've been doing stretches and things for my feet, but if I walk too much, they begin to hurt again. It's terrible getting old!

I reconnected with three more friends on Facebook! It is an amazing thing. People that I have not seen or heard from in years. Two friends live in Chicago and I was thinking about them as I was watching Obama's speech in Grant Park on Tuesday night (actually for me, Wednesday morning). All of a sudden, the next day I heard from one of my old college buddies, Colby, who is living in Chicago, and then the next day heard from Jake, one of my best friends back then and former roommate. Technology is an amazing thing and if I didn't have this computer here to keep me entertained, what would I be doing?