Meow

7:55pm on a Thursday evening is very strange for me here in buenos aires. I finished class at 6, went for a beer with some class buddies and now have at least 3 hours until I go out to meet friends. At home I would probably eating dinner at this hour but here, if I eat dinner now, I wouldnt be going out until 1 or later! SO, I'll blog a bit.
I walked from my apartment to class today... a good 2 hour walk. Yeah, i know... I had nothing else to do. My observations from before become more and more true as time goes on. Walking the streets of Buenos Aires is just a huge game of chicken... literally... NOBODY moves out of your way. I'm getting more used to it and am slowly becoming the person who doesnt move out of other pedestrians' ways.
Some new observations:
As a female, walking on the street, the ogling and the cat calling is out of hand... completamente afuera de control! I'm not being egotistical... these men would making kissing noises at a anything with a pair of anything. You can be dressed in rags and you'd still hear it. You either have to ignore it or never leave your apartment.
What i find most interesting is that the police men on the street basically arent any different. Although they dont whistle or make kissy noises, you can feel their eyes on you as you walk by. I find that in NYC policemen are trained not to stare at women... i could be wrong.
Either way, cat calling sucks. i think it should be made illegal but for some reason I highly doubt the law will begin in Argentina.

Sotano Blanco

Today I took my first art class in Buenos Aires. I didnt mean to. I was introduced from one childrens book illustrator to another. It happened to be in a basement where he was teaching a very small, 3 person, class. He asked me if i'd like to stay and he would loan me supplies. I said okay. I had some of my drawings on me and he asked to see them. Probably one of the scariest thing for an "artist" to do. But what could I say? (I wanted to say no). So, i showed, they looked, they liked, they laughed (which is okay because they are comics), I smiled and we continued on. For 2 hours we worked on shadows and light (sombras y luz) but the whole time my mind was elsewhere (no, not on the cute teacher... well, maybe alittle). I was thinking that we working on the most basic concepts of art but I had just received the most advanced lesson... confidence.

Dreams...

I've been having the craziest freaking dreams. Last night I was basically in a Spear throwing war. People were dying and there were some pretty horrific sights. When a child lost their parent to a spear, these indigenous people, dressed in white and jewels would say things like "come to me child, now you will live with us... we are your family now". It was pretty freaky. I HAVE to stop watching LOST at 5 oclock in the morning.

Russia in Argentina

Last night, I went to this Russian restaurant for dinner around 11. Only seats 12 people. The food was unbelievable... like home cookin! The prices for a main course ranged between 8 thru 11 PESOS... thats about $3-4 DOLLARS! Oh yeah... they seemed to love me (i get a long way with green eyes and blonde curly hair) so they kept giving me free shots of vodka :o)
I LOVE ARGENTINA!

Planes, trains and...

thursday night i had the weirdest night of sleeping. first of all, in my dream,
i was on a plane that hugo was driving (not flying, we were still on
the ground). he was teasing us and driving with one hand and without
looking at the road, etc... it was reeeeally windy and the plane kept
swerving back and forth. i was with my brother (and other people that
i dont remember right now) and he kept telling me he that he knows
that once we get in the air we are going to crash because our timing
is off and everything is about timing.

skip to another part of my dream... lots of events took place in
between but all of a sudden i'm on a train platform and steph and
another girl fall in the train tracks when all of a sudden a train
starts coming full speed at them. they close there eyes, stick
against the wall and in the end they were fine. i was hysterical
hysterical crying and steph kept asking me if i was okay... which is
weird because she was the one who almost just got killed.

THEN... i woke up (for real) to see that the electricity had gone out
in my apartment. it was so eerily silent because usually the ac is on
that gives a buzzing and watery noise. then my father called suddenly
and he told me what time it was... (almost 11am). then the eletricity
went back on. i felt funny all day long.

Observations...

1. There are FEW to NO rules here. You can drink anywhere, smoke
anywhere, leave your dog crap in the street, jay walk (well, you have
to jay walk or else you will never cross the street, which leads me to
my next fact), barely any stop signs or street lights (except for the
main roads and highways), pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way. I
have been in 2 near death experiences due to that fact. Also, nobody
moves out of your way when walking on the street. Its not so much out
of being rude, just lack of sense of personal space.

2. People smoke like their lives depend on it... like, they are
lacking air and they can only find it in their Camel's. I seem to be
smoking very little... weird.

3. The women and men are both incredibly beautiful. The women are
always dressed very sexy and fashionable. On the other hand, although
very good looking, the men tend to dress very grungy. EVERYONE has a
tattoo. Piercings are really common and mullets are still in effect
(ugh!). Oh, and in Jerry's terms... everyone is "gay" skinny.

4. Everyone kisses hello here. When you go out and meet 15 of
someones friends... you kiss everyone hello (on the cheek... you
sicko's). I haven't shook one hand since I've been here.

5. VERY CHEAP. Food, drinks, transportation, smokes, clothes,
furniture, etc... all about a third of the price of NYC. Other things
such as electronics and gas are SUPER expensive... probably three
times the price as USA.

6. Time. Like i mentioned at the beginning of the email,
things....... take....... time. Movement is slow. When you go to a
restaurant, you seat yourself, you basically have to jump on a waiter
to get their attention. Food takes a long time to come and they never
ever bring you the check without you asking for it (that's out of
respect to the patrons, not slowness).

7. Oh yeah, all the dogs are mutts. They are SO funny looking and
there are so many strays. Hence the crazy amount of poop of the
streets.

All in all, going from NYC which is all about rules, order, etc... to
BsAS that is completely unorganized... its a huge change. Both are
pretty extreme.

Cannonball

Here in Buenos Aires, Argentina and listening to Cannonball by the Breeders. Great song. I've been mass emailing about my experiences i've had here in the 6 weeks since i've arrived and finally it occured to me... start a blog for god's sake. I am sick of forgetting people on my mass email list and making people feel bad. SO, here is my blog. I am calling it More to Explore because I want people to always keep in mind that there is so much more out there than they think. Where you are is not always where you HAVE or NEED to be. I have gotten so many repsonses to my emails saying things like "i always wanted to do something like what you're doing" or "i wish i could do something like that" or "you're so brave". Well, people, maybe some of the things i write will be some motivation to get on out and explore the world. I feel like i am just beginning!!