Family Matters

Why I was so lucky to be born into the family I have, I`ll never know... I definitely haven`t done anything in this life to have built up that kind of good karma. But, as it turns out, I guess you can be an idiot your entire life and still be lucky. Well no, that`s what affords me the ability to wander aimlessly like I do. Anyway I`ve always been kind of sickly obsessed with my grandparents and their youthful attitudes and activities... and senses of humor... but their generosity always makes me feel like such a little biatch! They spoil me too much. Anyway, my pops always told me that you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can`t pick your friend`s nose... you can`t pick your family either, for better or for worse, but nice enough, I ended up with the one I got. I still have to get a job because I need to be making my money, but damn.

I`m on my way to the 34th Street-esque Avenida Corrientes. Well, i guess it`s like a mix of Canal and 34th street-everything they sell is really cheap, but the clothes are nicer than what you can get in Chinatown in NY. It`s getting a little chilly now, so I need to regroup and grab a jacket. Shame, I was hoping the summer would last forever, but I guess I`d need to go back to Brazil for that. I have all of today free, so I need to keep busy. I go a little crazy because all of the people I`ve met are already in the middle of their projects, and until later this week, I have copious amounts of free time. At least I`ve been able to explore the city. I`ll wake up in the morning, whenever the sun shining through the curtain is bright enough to bother me, hang out, drink mate, listen to the radio (the radio sucks here, but one station plays a mix of reggaeton, american and latin pop, and random other things) study Spanish, attempt some push ups and what not, laughably, then go out and just walk around until I`m ready to die. I can walk around all day, but something about being somewhere new wears you out faster. Part of it is the constant attention you have to pay - the sidewalks are narrow, people walk slow, buses drive fast, mere inches away from you, and then the little motorcycles threaten to chop you up if you lose track of yourself for a second. Plus, you can`t walk around texting like a fiend because someone might rob you, depending on where you are, of course. I make it sound horrible, but it`s not, it`s just a little tiring. But I`m starting to get used to it, and the city really is one of the prettiest I`ve seen.

Last night I was hanging out in the apartment, waiting for a phone call to meet up with some people, when my power went out. I guess it`s not that uncommon for it to go out for a couple hours or whatever. It always comes back. So I went to Piola, even though I had decided to take a break from it. But there I was, and I met this guy who works for Continental Airlines, and after a while of talking, we decided that I could buy a really cheap ticket off of him to get back home. I love networking. He said I would have to fly through Houston, and he made it sound like I would be flying across the Bermuda Triangle in a hot air balloon, but what do I care if I fly through Houston? I asked if I could fly through Miami instead, and have a 2 day layover, but that`ll have to be hashed out later, haha.

Time is flying, it`s crazy. It`s one of those things where I feel like I`ve been here forever, and for no time at all simultaneously. That feeling is weird. I`m thinking that, once my apartment lease is up (on May 5) I might stay with a friend I`ve made until I try to go home in June. Once I ended up here, I realized that 2 months is nothing. It takes at least 2 weeks to get anything done, ya know? To get a job, to take Spanish classes, to sort out with the volunteer people when they want me and when I can come (I can go whenever), it just takes so much time! I`m going to be almost ready to leave by the time I get comfortable in a routine! So that just means I`ll have to come back some day. This guy I`ve met through the program, also from New York, by way of Philly, is working on a video project, and was toying with the idea of staying here to work. He`s plenty older than me and has a professional background, so he could actually do real work, but it sounded cool.

Anyway, I`m trying to think of something funny. I dunno. Watching me here would probably be funny to most people. It`s just funny getting accustomed to a new place-learning the little pieces of etiquette that make you look normal, the little mannerisms that you pick up, and the intonation in the way people speak, it`s all interesting. Yesterday I was walking around trying to find an internet place that was open, and asked this cop if she knew one. She looked at me, hard, for a minute, and asked how long I`d been here, so I told her a week. With a stone cold killer face, she said that she saw me walking the other day, so I asked "AND....?" and she just laughed and said she thought something (which I didn`t understand) but she guesses she was wrong and now she knows me, and told me where to go. Hmm. Well, there are a lot of things going on here, always, and through the volunteer program I`m always getting emails on different things-what nights are good at what clubs, movies to see, group events they do at the volunteer house (like barbeques and movie nights and yoga) and all sorts of tips, it`s really nice.

Alright, I`m going to go buy this jacket.