Caught a bug

I suppose I've never had the strongest immune system on the planet. Couple that with the fact that I often don't allow myself enough sleep, it means that I sometimes get sick a bit more often than I should. Whether any of these factors were at play about ten days ago or not, I cannot say. But I contracted some sort of stomach virus that hit me like a ton of bricks as I was coming home from work on Friday. By the time I arrived at the apartment, I was dizzy and kinda talking like this guy. A fever ensued and I spent the weekend alternating from the bed to the bathroom. On Saturday, we called for a doctor who came to the house to check me out. I definitely wonder how well my Spanish went, but Belu was here to take care of me and she did the majority of the talking. I honestly can't remember it that well. The house call cost me zero pesos. I don't think I could have made it in to a doctor's office or hospital (between the dizzyness and necessity of bathroom proximity), so I felt really lucky that the system worked in my favor. I'm feeling better, but there are still some lingering after effects (about which I am certain you do not wish to read).

When I returned to work on Monday, while eating my lunch, and mentioning the fact that I'd been sick, someone said, "Well, they found a cockroach in one of the salads that was delivered today. What did you eat on Friday?" "A salad." What ensued was a rather rapid search of all food currently being eaten at my particular table that thankfully resulted in no foreign objects. Turns out that the infiltrated salad came from another restaurant, one I don't expect we'll frequent any time soon. What's that? Yes, I believe it was alive. There are roaches all over the place here now that we're in the thick of summer. If you walk around town at night, odds are you'll see one, and maybe even crush it by accident. But one should always be watching the sidewalks here for the previously described dog poop. I finally stepped in some the other day (because I was sending a work e-mail on my phone at the time). Lucky for me, it was of the more durable variety...

Big Red keeps on rolling. On the initial day of La Liga de Ultimate, Argentina, it was deemed a good idea to dispense with the original schedule and play a triple-header with shorter games, so every team would get a chance to be part of the historic event. We started against Discosur, gave up the first point, took a lead, and then held on for a 5-4 victory. Then, against Cadillacs, after playing them relatively even, we pulled away for a good win. The stomach problems forced me to miss our management day (when we lead the drills and amistozo pickup game). Yesterday, a very hardfought battle versus Cadillacs arrived at a 12-12 tie before we notched the last two points for the 14-12 win. So... Big Red --> still undefeated! We've been having practices every Wednesday, and near the end of the last one we were overrun by a colony of local bugs. They were slightly larger than fireflies, but more like some sort of flying beetle. They either bit or scratched after landing on us, not to the point of drawing blood, but it was wholly unpleasant, nonetheless. We quickly got our butts over to the choripán stand where the smoke coming from the barbecue kept the little buggars at bay.

Big Red - Mission Accomplished on Day 1. I'm the one with the condom on his head. For protection, natch.

In other news, we have a couch! It has taken a loooong time and much effort to get the bank account situation straightened out here. Not being a citizen has its detriments. But, I finally had enough cash on hand to make a purchase (it's at least 10% cheaper if you pay cash). Check the bad boy out:A new mattress has also been purchased and will be delivered this week. Now we just need a table and chairs and we're at least in a normal home. I can't believe it's taken this long, but we're finally getting there. More on the apartment in a post to come very soon.

On Tuesday, we had a huge rainstorm, something that only happens about once a month around here. I found myself hearkening back to a rainy night during my week-long "prep visit" in July. While on the way to dinner with coworkers, I was thinking, "Wow, I'm going to live here. I need to remember this street because it seems like it's the main drag through town to get around." I'm pretty sure it was Avenida Córdoba, but I have only rarely found myself using that route. That's life in a big city, I suppose. But it does remind me that there is so much more exploration yet to come. My daily schedule is really busy, but I must make time for the parts of the city I haven't seen yet. Lucky for me, I'm not leaving any time soon.

How I learned the word garganta

As anticipated, I have fallen way behind on my blogging here. Actually, I've fallen way behind on my blogging everywhere - this is space only one of the casualties. Fighting the Youth and Road Games continue to saunter forward and one day I'll get my act together and put everything in a common location, but for the time being, let's keep things a-rollin'...

After returning from Monte Hermoso, I came down with an illness. Nothing major. A slight temperature and I missed a day of work. Unfortunately, the cough lingered for two more weeks after which I was struck with a stabbing pain in my throat. The pain was accompanied by a general feeling of weakness and was debilitating enough that a trip to the doctor was deemed necessary. They have socialized medicine here, and also they don't. Um, what I mean is, they definitely do, but if you have the right insurance plan, you get to pick your choice of hospital and doctor. Lucky for me, my company has set me up with the good insurance plan. Again, I have no idea how all this works (and my company apparently doesn't know my name because the insurance is listed under Adrew Reed). Not having a doctor of my own, the emergency room was the easiest place to get one. I always dread trips to the ER because it always means you're going to be there for at least two hours. But I quickly bounced from the triage to the clerk who presented me with this bill:

That's right - 0.00, but it's much cheaper when you convert to dollars...

From there, I had to wait for my number to come up on the big board - like at a busy hardware store, only it wasn't busy, so I was called very quickly. The doctor took a quick look at my throat, said, "Tenés infección en tu garganta. Antibioticos." He then sent me on my way, prescription in hand. All in all, the entire visit took about 15 minutes. That's amazing. Perhaps it was a slow day being that it was Christmas Eve and all, but whatever the reason, I was totally impressed. So my first warm Christmas was spent in bed, trying to recuperate. Unfortunately, the pain and weakness didn't pass and I returned to the hospital again on Saturday, just in case. Finally the antibiotics kicked in Saturday night and I began to feel whole again.

But don't expect me to complain that I'm only picking up bad germs here. As I've mentioned previously, I've met a ton of incredibly cool people here. Furthermore, one of those people turned out to be a beautiful porteña named Belu who I can now proudly call my girlfriend. Without her, I'm sure I would surely have never figured out the health care system here, let alone countless other recent dilemmas. In sum, she's great and I feel really lucky to have met her. Surely there will be more postings (and eventually some photos - I promise) where she figures prominently.

I recently joined an Ultimate Frisbee team. The team is brand, spanking new, so you could argue that I helped found a team, but that would be really misleading as I've done zero heavy lifting at this point. So far, we're seven strong, and the enthusiasm, organization and dedication shown by the members has been impressive. This is my first regular team since my last campaign with Dirty Thirty, way back in spring of '07. There are now three teams in the whole of Argentina, so there's hope that this will help build the popularity here. Our name is Big Red which is a double-ententre as "red" means network en español. Expect many updates on the progress in the future. For now, we're still forging everything, but have hopes for rapid development and great big fun, too. For me, I still need to get my throws back, but the practices will surely help with that.

With a shoutout to all my Nebraska and Wisconsin homies!

I'm kind of a fast walker. OK, that's not true. I'm one of the fastest walkers on the planet and various friends and family often complain about it. I've got long legs and I just can't wait to get places. What can I do? Some people here walk more quickly, some don't, but the strange thing is how they manage to spread themselves out all across the sidewalk. Inevitably, if you are trying to walk past someone, they are in your way. My theory is that people walk this way because the roads are exactly the same. Lanes markings are mere suggestions, and whenever possible, drivers prefer to get in each other's way. It's a chicken-and-egg scenario. I have no idea if people drive the way they walk or vice-versa. I generally don't let this bother me, but there is one place where it drives me bonkers. I used to love going to the grocery store, but here it's always an unnerving proposition. People leave their carts right in your way and have never move them for you. They will wander right in front of you as you peruse the shelves, too.

Actually, that problem pales in comparison to the delays in the checkout aisle. The other day, I waited in the checkout line for 33 minutes. I timed it. I should note that when I got in line, I was 4th, and only one of the people in front of me had a full cart. Also, this was surely the fastest line available. I can't imagine how much this is harming the Argentine economy, but if it happens nationwide every time someone buys groceries, you can imagine that it adds up to a colossal amount of wasted time. I keep planning to do my shopping online, but haven't managed to figure that out yet. Maybe that can be a new year's resolution...

We'll finish up today with a brief discussion of Los Pitufos. Pitufos are the Spanish-language version of The Smurfs. But they don't throw the word "pitufo" into every sentence which kind of ruins the fun, right? The interesting thing is that many people here belive that the Pitufos represent the Seven Deadly Sins, and that Gargamel is actually a monk who is trying to take care of them for the good of all humanity.I guess you can see how this would go:

• Lust = Smurfette
• Gluttony = Greedy Smurf
• Greed = uh, also Greedy Smurf?
• Pride = Vanity Smurf
• Envy = Nosy Smurf
• Wrath = Grouchy Smurf
• Sloth = Dreamy Smurf or Lazy Smurf

I'm having trouble buying it because Azrael was clearly an agent of evil. That cat was one mean muthascratcher. But either way, thanks to the doctors, drugs, and girlfriend, I'm feeling smurfy again and look forward to the start of '09! See you then, chiquilinos!