over the border

i am sitting at a little internet cafe in the bus station of mendoza, argentina. the little CD kiosco in the long hallway of tiny souvenir stands and gift shops is playing the gotan project, my favorite tango electronica CD. it reminds me of the first time i was in buenos aires.

walking along here, there are funny things. i wandered into a little shop and found shelves of discount makeup. i almost bought some for ruth. hehe. instead, i bought a much needed purple hair brush. i forgot mine somewhere.

a little old man, tall and skinny and skin so wrinkled, shuffles by. he is scowling at a bunch of boys who have just ran past him. he shouts at them in spanish. i start laughing out loud, i don´t know why.

on the bus, a fat argentine baby coos and stuffs an alfahor in his face. his dad kisses his head, over and over and says "mi hijo."

a woman with emmaculate makeup hands me a piece of paper sprayed with perfume. i smile and stick it in my bag to smell it later. i am odd like that.

it is rainy outside, for the first time since i have been here. when i opened my eyes on the bus this morning, after sleeping in an odd position with my stomach full of strange treats like milanesia and bread-with-mayonaise (a staple food here), all i could see was water spilling down the outside of the bus. i thought we were in a waterfall.

i don´t have much else to say. its been a quiet last few days. before i left on my bus from bariloche yesterday afternoon, i just hung out with titan (one of the workers at the hostel) all day and watched bad american movies dubbed in spanish. we argued about futbol teams and then he made me speak spanish and drink lots of mate. it was fun.

tonight, santiago!

words / concepts of the day:

alfahor: a medium to large cookie sandwich thing, filled with dulce de leche and usually covered in chocolate. a specialty of argentina.
mi hijo: my son. or mi hija, my daughter. very loving term.
milanesia: everything is about food here! milanasia is meat, pounded very thin and covered in breadcrumbs, then baked. soooo good.