yesterday, we moved to our new house in san telmo. it was fairly simple with our old landlady's help. she picked up the keys and called a flete to move us to our new location. I thought I would have to walk with luna while brandon went with the bags, but the driver was nice and let the three of us pile into the front with him. he didn't even mind luna drooling on his leg a bit (summer has kicked in full swing now, so it was quite warm). then we arrived at the house and saw our temporary room--our room is still occupied until sunday. no one was really around, and sandra handed us a contract and rules etc. this all felt a bit overwhelming, especially in our condition of dirty and hungry.
fastforward to our attempt at retrieving the money we owe for the room (first month's rent plus half for deposit). seems like it shouldn't be hard. go to atm, get money, bring it back. well first we tried to get it in dollars, since that was how the room was advertised. that was not working. you can't even get dollars downtown (and why should you be able to?). so then we started with pesos. after 8 atms at 8 banks, then talking to a couple bank employees, we were more than a little frustrated. i wanted to scream. i saw a beautiful map of buenos aires as we were walking and i said to brandon: i don't want one of those because i hate this city. i'm such a drama queen sometimes. i <3 maps. so, we finally went to a casa de cambios where a man in a suit behind a counter explained to us that in argentina, you can't withdraw more than 1000 pesos per day from the atm. that is roughly 250 USD and would not be sufficient, since we had to pay for our first month's rent and half that for the deposit. sunken, defeated, we began walking through the sunless buenos aires streets back to our new home. we didn't consult our little guia map of the city because we had walked around this area many times before. after around half an hour of walking, we noticed in our fallow states how unfamiliar things were looking. turns out, we'd been walking in the wrong direction. of course. forget about the beautiful, big new house were were now living in, the gorgeous neighborhood , the ease with which we transported our many things from one side of the city to another. we were stressed and melancholy as hell. we had to go tell sandra that we didn't have enough money to pay her, and on top of that, we had decided that we wanted to take the smaller room at this house because it is a bit cheaper, but changed our minds and now preferred the room which we were staying in until sunday and we were not sure how this info would be received.
lucky for us, sandra is wonderful. she said no problem, we can pay the rest tomorrow. also, no problem about the room, we can have it. no pasa nada. like that. then we made a beeline for the grocery store, bought some things for dinner and stocked up on beer and wine and came home to drink and unpack. still, we felt a little uncomfortable in the house. and what an awful day it had been. once we polished off a liter of stella and began unpacking, things didn't seem so terrible. but where were all the people in the house? where was there space for our things in the kitchen? we had met a few people briefly, but other than that, everyone seemed to be minding their own business.
then suddenly, there was a shift. this is the scene: brandon and i are in the kitchen chatting with paola (from peru) and guy (from effing madison, wisconsin). we're speaking spanglish, chatting it up while they explain the kitchen to us and chop veggies for a stir fry. not to mention, paola especially, but guy as well LOVE luna. they LOOOVE her. and they have forgotten to buy garlic, so we offer ours. and they say, well, why don't we just make enough for you guys too, and we'll invite matthew (from france, but i'm sure this is not how he spells it). and we bring in some bottles of wine, and now we're having a grand old time. the dinner was delicious and the company as well. and tonight, brandon and i will be making dinner. (then afterward going to a bday party--it's margaux's bday, a girl i'd been emailing with from the states because she lived in milwaukee to study awhile back). kind of a full evening. today, i will be getting my hair cut (FINALLY) because paola recommended a place around the corner to me, and said to ask for charlie.
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