Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So I'm a little Irish. And here in BA, it's not quite the big deal that it is in Chicago. Apparently there's a parade planned (designed to be perfectly timed with my commute home), and maybe some green beer can be had around town. But for now, let's sing and weep!

Fulfilling Requests

Some folks requested a photo of Belu from Valentine's Day. So here it is!I told you my camera phone is not very capable. Also, this artsy shot was done between two glasses of the aforementioned goodass malbec.

Valentimes

You may have noticed that I've been derelict in my blogging duties. Today's the first chance to catch up. Content may be less at a time, but that's likely for the best.

As mentioned in the previous post, I finally have a couch. I received it on Valentine's Day, but not without some confusion. Belu decided to play cute, and misled me into thinking they were delivering the couch without my having paid the majority of the money owed. This would make no sense in the US, let alone here. But I assumed she had worked some kind of magic. Nopes, she was just finding a way to keep me in the house, instead of off trying to pay up to the furniture store. So when I saw balloons in our video phone (yeah, this apartment has a video phone for security's sake - it's the most rockstar-ish thing about me!), I knew something was up.

Globos de veracidad

Turns out, she had ordered a surprise breakfast to be delivered. I tried to eat it all, but with everything from medialunas to dulce de leche desserts to tea and coffee included, I only plowed my way through about half. Needless to say, I had plenty of energy for the Big Red frisbee game.

Oreo cookies for breakfast? Okay!

Since I'm dating a porteña, I rarely make the plans all on my own. Belu knows the city as well as I know Chicago (or rather, as well as I knew Chicago - I've been here six months!). So it's often much easier for her to make the plans. But on V-day, I was going to take charge. Luckily, it's not like Chicago when every decent restaurant is booked weeks in advance because I didn't set the plan until the day before. I had a list of three options. The first was jammed, but my second choice seemed good. No reservations available, but it sounded like two of us wouldn't have to wait that long.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera again, so all the phone-photos turned out with this kind of quality. But look, I have a magic hand!

We hopped in a cab, and I refused to tell her where we were going. But as we approached Jangada, she pointed and asked, "Is it that one?" Of course, it turned out to be the restaurant where she eats lunch twice a week. Ups. We walked in and everyone working there greeted her like they were old friends. Because, well, they kind of are. But no matter, we sat down and had a great meal. We shared a fish called dorado, which is definitely not trout or flounder or salmon, but darn tasty whatever it was. We coupled the badass dorado with a goodass malbec and had ourselves a tasty dinner, regardless of my failings as an event planner.

Check out his badass face! I know this picture looks lousy, but this was a great meal.

I asked the waitress if Valentine's Day was a big deal here. She smiled sincerely and said, "Sí, es un día especial." I don't know if I believe her, as there was little fanfare around town. But anyway, Belu and I had a great day and look forward to other imported American holidays.

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.

Update a Comin

I've been working on a couple new postings here, but things are very busy with work right now. So, just to tide you over, here's a shot that Mike took at a recent Big Red practice: