Monday, January 08, 2007

A good day all around (by Ken) p.s. I shaved


Right off, let´s get to the beard. I thought I´d go for that middle-aged-Porteño look.
Now, on to the day. It was a qualified, unqualified success. By that, I mean my standards of quality have been significantly lowered.
Helen and I started the day by taking the colectivo (public bus) to Palermo to pay our tuition at Universidad de Buenos Aires. (We begin classes tomorrow--look for a big post on that!). T prepare for bus, we studied quite a bit, did some dry runs, and then just went for it. Major props go out to my virtual (soon to be actual friend Alan Patrick. His blog can be found here.) Alan posted specific instructions on how to use the colectivo. We followed them to the letter and had a flawless trip.
We paid our bill at UBA, with a minimum of embarrassment, and took the colectivo home. At one point, Helen said, "Get ready, we get off here." To which I responed, "How do you know?"
"It just feels like it," she said. So she rang the buzzer for the driver to stop, and we got out. Avenida Junin--a direct hit. Bull´s Eye. High Fives (alto cincos) all around. The busses themselves are fodder for a future blog--believe me (or read Alan´s blog).
Next we had previously made arrangements to meet my FCC faculty colleague, Joanna Gannon´s, mother and sister for lunch at MALBA--the Museam of Latino Art Buenos Aires. We walked there and met them for a lovely almuerzo en al aire libre. We walked back and even found a shortcut throught the park near the cemetary.
Later, Helen began her PharmD classes at University of Denver, and we went to a Cyber Cafe to print. A bit of awkwardness--not too much--and we got that done and paided for. I must also add that the ATMs give 100 peso notes. When you pay $6 pesos for breakfast, nobody wants your $100 notes. So, today, Helen braved the bank and successfull broke the 100 into 20s and a 20 into $1 coins for the colectivo. Ther are no $1 bills here, only coins. We need to do that in the US. Also, no pennies. Everything is rounded to the $.05. If the US did it, we´d adjust in a week, believe me.
All-in-all, a great day. We are going to bed happy (still not sure about the shaving, though). Tomorrow, school starts.
Buenas noches y besos.

3 comments:

emilyeffinconrad said...

grow that beard back right now.

Dana said...

Not sure about the shaving thing either. I think the facial hair makes you look more distinguished! We could probably get used to the new look, if you like it. We are not big on change here in the U.S.!
Dana

ktpitts said...

Smooth as a baby's butt!

Doesn't look too bad, sir.