Recent reads: The Bible. What better time than now to attack my goal of reading the whole Bible? Now this book may take me a while.
Since my camera is in the shop, I am short on photos this week.
One day I dropped by Paseo Buen Pastor where there was a musical water show at 7:00pm on the dot. No, I'm not at the Bellagio.
On Wednesday I hit another museum, El Museo de Emilio Carrafa, and actually loved it! The new 100th anniversary exhibit just opened March 13th but it was worth the wait. I was even impressed by "Futbol. El juego acaba cuando termina," a section dedicated exclusively to the cultural, social and political reach of futbol. My favorite was a series of photos with women sewing soccer balls while sitting in their dirt yards, with kids or dogs roaming in the background and the decrepit structure they called a house as the backdrop. Reaffirmed the fact that fubol is far more than just a sport; it unites countries and the world in a unique way.
http://www.museocaraffa.org.ar/
More interesting than some of the museums I've seen, was this artistic statement regarding the city of Cordoba's recycling initiative.
On Sunday I had mate for the first time at La Nieta! Mate (pronounced "ma-te") is hot tea and a critical part of Argentinian society. Anywhere you go you'll see locals carrying a lid-less metal mate cup with straw, mate and a thermos. Mate is a social activity, many are chatting and drinking mate in the many plazas, but also individuals will bring mate with them to work to sip all day. I am seriously considering purchasing my own. And with an open air roof top terrace with a lovely view of Nuevo Cordoba, La Nieta was the perfect spot for my first mate experience!
Thursday, Friday and Saturday are my overnight shifts at the hostel. Frankly, I don't mind working from 12am-8am if it means fewer annoyed sighs from Argentinians wondering where in the world they are that I don't speak their language followed by my subsequent humiliation. The overnight shift also lends itself to some spectacular "before and afters," when vacationers head out for the bars around 1am looking well put together and return at the wee hours, slightly less put together.
Living at the hostel has proven to be somewhat Melrose Place-esque, as you can imagine. Rumor has it, some of the workers have, shall I say, "provided services beyond the job description" for some guests. Fortunately, it seems I am the last to know of any drama. Usually, by the time the grapevine reaches me, the guest and/or coworker have left Cordoba and are now breaking hearts in yet another South American town.
I have been sharing a room with a coworker, a Brazilian guy, which has worked out well. The other day while I was napping, he brought an unfamiliar girl into the room. Somehow, due mostly to the language barrier and multiplied by my grogginess, I assumed she was a new coworker. Later that evening when I returned to the room to go to bed for the night, using some basic math involving the number of empty beds in the room and the number of bodies present, I deduced that she was more likely the Brazilian's girlfriend. Huh.
More workers have been arriving this week as well, adding more spice to the melting pot that is Turning Point Hostel staff. We have the naive recent college grad from Boston who majored in Spanish but has never been west of Michigan or traveled abroad except for a high school class trip to a couple of European countries. On his first day he returned from the supermarket with fruit loops, Doritos, and a 6-pack of Activia. At least he'll be regular. Then, there's the 19 year old Belgium kid who got kicked out of his elite boarding school after 1 semester due to his poor academic performance and is now roaming around South America instead. Tough break, kid. Upside is that he speaks even less Spanish than I do. Downside is, considering he is fluent in 4 languages, it will probably only be a matter of days before his Spanish surpasses mine. Lastly, there's another guy from Rome who will be the manager here for the next 6 months. I am clearly outnumbered by dudes here but none of them have told me to go to the kitchen and make them a sandwich yet.
Street entertainment!
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