Mosquito Mio

So, here I am sitting, one last night before my first Spanish oral exam, writing my blog instead of studying my texts.
There are so many things to tell about Buenos Aires that I don’t know where to start. Perhaps this time I am going to be a bit more dramatic and write about the dark sides of BA.

Well, dark are my feet every day, by the time I am coming home from school. Dark are the clouds of dust that come from the exhausts of the buses. Dark is what I am blowing out of my nose every night. And very dark is the cupboard right across my room just next to my bed.

Being a porteño means…

…pollution
The pollution here in BA is extreme. I really don’t think the Argentinean government has ever heard of ecologic measures or even of the treaty of Kyoto. This city is polluted, contaminated and disgustingly dirty. My throat aches when I am too long outside, walking next to the traffic.
Cafes, bars, restaurant have cosily installed their terraces on the corners of the packed streets. The government created little smoker free islands (most of them with 3 trees and 2 banks) in the middle of the biggest boulevards…why, I mean…WHY?
Talking about my feet, with 35 degrees in a city it is quite impossible to were any kind of closed shoes, so, at the moment my “flip flops” are my life!
But, I really don’t want to know what I wash off them, before going to bed, or what is still on them when I am in bed. But, I am getting used to having ever darkening foot palms with no chance of ever seeing the real colour of my flesh again.
So, my advice to those people who are coming and visit me: don’t bring too many white clothes. At the end of your journey they will be grey!

…the argentine heat
Another very interesting experience is the 15 minute-tube-ride every morning.
I guess (or I hope) you all know the feeling of getting out of the shower in the morning all-fresh and groomed, ready to hit the sun shines and have a good start of a day?
Well, at the latest, when you are squeezed into a smelly-people-packed (cause they are already in there since 10 minutes) train you can forget about that nice feeling. By the time you reach the second last stop (and there are only 5) the sweat is already running down your back. You get out, slandering to school (in the Argentinean style) and although you normally hate air conditioning, you start fantasising about your freezing classroom. But then, when you finally open the classroom door, you quite quickly realise that the fucking thing is broken.

Never mind, you still love BA, and after 4 hours in a row of trying to communicate with hands and feet and giving all your possible to make people understand you in Spanish, you are really looking forward to a nice shower at your place, …which is burning hot!

…a lot of friends
Ah yes, speaking of my flat. Some new friends moved in with me, so finally my new roommates are creating a bit more of an atmosphere. They are quite discrete, but with a tendency of taking property of my things. Last time for example, the whole thing backfired when one of them thought my shoe (this time a real shoe, not a flip flop), was in fact his one.
Without any bad thoughts, I was putting it on (with naked feet) and suddenly I felt the bastard between my toes…COCKROACHES!!!
Ok, anyone of you, who knows me a bit, should be worried right now, cause you all know that this situation was disastrous for me. I yelled, screamed, smashed him (yes, it’s a him) and cried. And since the beasts were in my wardrobe, the next day I put on exactly the same smelly clothes than the day before.
But now, I am fine again. I wear new clothes (went a bit shopping), the bastards had their last supper and the wardrobe remains firmly shut.

So much about the ups and down of the porteño life. I have to go and wash my feet now.

Cheers,

A.