I'm upset. It started pouring down rain in the night and the noise drowned out my plans to let the sounds of the morning be my alarm. I accidently woke up an hour into church. :( Disappointed, I love church.

It is so strange. I'm pretty sure when we were getting ready to come to Uruguay we were told rain was out of the picture... its rained more than once every week I've been here. Just like Italy is supposed to be hot and dry in June and it rained everyday for the first three weeks that I was there. Rain makes everything feel like home.
Last summer i sat under the shelter of the entrance on the steps of the Duomo in Florence and took pictures of everyone else scrambling to get somewhere out of the rain with their umbrellas and wellies.
Another time the rain interrupted my painting in a small town that we took a bus to get to. So I sat on the ledge and watched the lightening over Tuscany from the veranda of an old Cathedral set on a hill. Rain has been my constant companion in the world... even when its was supposed to be sunny.
It's probably raining in Uruguay because of me.





mmm.. someone is cooking something. Smells like Zambia.

Mi Buenos Aires querido...

Afternoons in Montevideo are crippling. This type of heat has a way of making your body weak. No week is ordinary, this week was extraordinary. Perhaps in a day or two I can relate to you the most significant events... for now my mind is too preocupada con las cosas estuvio.... estuvio lejos de normal.
I met two important people in Buenos Aires. Maria y Rudulpho. Maria was sitting on the side of a large pedestrian street in Buenos Aires, Florida Street (calle Florida) with her sister Tamana. In the past year I have kicked myself many times for walking away from a face that I so desperately wanted, so desperately NEEDED a photo of and just didn't have the nerve to try. I've cowered my way through countries all over the world. It was either the perpetual wear and tear of the emotions that comes with traveling in groups or the unwanted responsibility of punishing myself for another missed opportunity but I resolved to never walk away again and made my companions wait for me as I dug out some small bills and approached the two. My spanish is relatively good for ordering food and most casual conversations (especially with friends) in light of the fact that in Buenos Aires I celebrated the close of my first month ever of formal spanish lessons. Hopefully this next month with prove as fruitful as the first. Tamana was older, I forget her age, and a little less interested in me as a person. She did warm up but Maria, who's dirty feet and pretty pink dress caught my eye in the first place wasted no time to alert me to the fact that she was two, and her name was Maria... and she was two... "como este." ("this many.") I've struggled with my desire to continue taking photographs lately, discouraged for many reasons including but not limited to: my fatigue of marketing shots and photos that are really good, but useless to me in regards to art and expression. My favorite thing to take pictures of is interesting people, and one of my favorite parts of taking pictures of interesting people is showing them the pictures I take. Especially with Maria because it was like a game for her which made it even more gratifying to me. I reviewed my photos as I walked away reluctantly and saw the shots and instantly denounced my waning and decided that if I got no more good photos the rest of my time in Buenos Aires, I was satisfied.



I did get another good shot. Equally as gratifying but chronologically it came later so there is a natural order of favoritism. On our last day in BA we were finally granted free time and naturally Kara and I used it to go find the bohemian craft Market (...what? don't act surprised... isn't that the point of traveling? tranquilo bohemians selling things?) Sundays are nice in South America because on Sundays, even in the big cities, you can find some amount of solitude and peace. We were walking down a street near the Pink House (not the White house, the pink house) that two days before was crowded with tourists and locals alike but this day was almost deserted. Side note: I have a severe infatuation with beards. The crazier the better. We're talking Zach Smith to Z.Z. top- I don't discriminate... and old men... old men are really cool to take pictures of... especially with messy hair and beards.

aahumm.. anyway...

There was a man. He had a beard. He was just sitting. He was dirty but he wasn't begging but I walked by and I said to Kara (again... always) "DID YOU SEE HIS BEARD?! he was so cool... I wanna take a picture. I should take a picture." But this time I did. We conversed and as I walked away I dug in my mochila to see what bills I had... the smallest one I had was bigger than I was seeking but it wasn't much still so I ran back and gave it to him and told him I forgot to get his name. The man never smiled the duration of the 5 minutes spent from beginning to end when we walked away, but his surprise at the money and gratitude was all over his person. Rudolpho, the man in the maroon shirt and the dirty hands.

my redemption cost me ten bucks.




Buenos Aires estuvio mi muerte... pero estuvio mi salvacion.

Two pictures. that's all I have for you.

of course, on the night of free chocolate mousse..

Hola. I have a bit of time on my hands here in Buenos Aires because I am in the hotel instead of on the trip we were supposed to make today. Sad, i know. It's because last night at the Tango show I began to feel very queasy (a rarity for me) and ended up being sick all night (even more rare). It was pretty upsetting all around but the fact that I had chocolate mousse I didn't get to finish at the Tango show was just salt in an already open wound. However don't fear because I feel like I'm on the road to a quick recovery. Rosalinda stayed behind with me today. Kara wanted to but they felt like it was better in case I got worse and needed a doctor or something. She called from downstairs before she left and i could tell the sweet one was torn up cause it may be all day before i see her. She felt bad, but i feel like we'll meet up soon. I feel much better than I did through the night and I think we may meet up with the group later in the day. I rarely can sit still long... I'll try to sit still long enough to recover first.

Otherwise Buenos Aires has been great, with only a few minor mishaps. (it's travel.) Hopefully I won't have time to get on again until I'm back in Montevideo with 4 gigs of pictures and no time to play with them.
I do miss Montevideo...
Uh oh, sounds like someones already feeling at home

i suppose I'll go rest.

ps. I changed the colors on the blog cause that white on black made me want to throw up and i feel like I may not be the only one....oh and don't bother checking the other blog. it will be basically the same story second verse.

yo hablo spanglish.

here's the thing... I started to post for today but I got caught up in (henna) tattooing a fingerbeard... (on my finger obviously...) so typing is a little hard now. Well worth it though... I now have the capacity to create numerous expressions with a slight move of the finger. Its actually a finger mustache, I guess.

Tonight we went out with a Uruguayo from the gym we joined. In particular the climbing wall (its called La Muralla.)
There have been times that, mostly because of the language barrier, our encounters are very awkward with lots of pauses and silence, but tonight the tension between us all faded quickly and we spent two or three hours at dinner conversing, mostly in spanish.
My favorite thing in Uruguay has been the people we've met, and any time we have spent in close companionship with a Uruguayo... and I realize that the conversation we maintain is typically geared towards the vocabulary that we know but when we get together with the friends we've made and we speak spanish, the progress I've made in three weeks is apparent... and I blow my own mind.

I was going to give up English & chocolate for Lent but tonight while we were at dinner Kara and I talked about it and really just decided that we should be speaking mostly in spanish not just for 40 days but all the time. So I guess its just bye-bye chocolate for Lent and (because i have a really phenominal and dedicated roommate) Spanish will be all the time. We do pretty well most of the time but hopefully we will do better.

Anyway, thats not much but its what is on my mind at the moment. When we were struggling with our conversation at dinner, Stefanie asked us why it is that when we stumble over spanish words and stay completely confused in conversations, it doesn't make us want to use spanish less, but use it more. In response I have to say that I am much more frustrated with not being able to have conversations than I am the struggle of learning. Its good I think because it give me momentum to rapidly grow. We do stumble through a lot of broken sentences and give up on a lot of failed attempts to convey thoughts but the fact of the matter is that 7 times out of 10 we are successful and can only get better. Plus, my spanglish es FENOMENAL.