Japanese Food in China Town

 My host mom left yesterday for Greece for four weeks! I was sad to say goodbye to her because I am so used to her constant helpfulness and compassionate presence. But she laughed and said that I will grow as an independent woman and go out with friends more. We'll see if that happens! My host sister Ana Lucía is going to be living here while mamá is gone. She is really nice and helpful with all of my Spanish and social problems. She has three jobs and goes to school so we will not see each other all the time, but I think it will work out wonderfully. She has a boyfriend named Fernando (nicknamed Suky) and we all had dinner together last night. Ana Lucía is a very good cook and I enjoyed her baked potatoes with broccoli, cheese, and other things. Dinner was very comfortable. Ana and her boyfriend are younger than mamá's other children (27ish) so it is a lot easier for me to relate to them than her siblings since they are closer to my age.

Yesterday I went to Barrio chino (China town) with Valeria, my new friend from Spanglish. It was only a few blocks long, but it was really cool to see. There were a lot of shops with Chinese symbol medallions, Buddha figurines, cheap jewelry, scarves, and golden cats that move their heads or arms in creepy mechanical ways. It was a rainy day but we made the most of it. We went to a Japanese restaurant (yes, in China town) and I ordered curry, excited by the word "picante" next to the name of the dish. This means spicy, and I hadn't had spicy food apart from the salsa from a Mexican restaurant since I'd gotten to Argentina. I should not have gotten my hopes up; the curry sauce had a tiny hint of heat that refused to linger for longer than a second, and that was it. Next we walked through a Chinese market which had a slightly overwhelming stench of fish. After I got past the smell, it was really interesting to look around. People were lined up at the cash registers with grocery carts filled with things that I did not recognize. Some of the things did not even look like food! Like big circular black stringy looking stuff. Someone had aloe vera in what looked like two gigantic soda bottles. Can you drink aloe vera? I guess it comes in different forms than the green goo I put on my sunburns. I was roaming through the aisles, glancing at the different vegetables, spices and the gallon containers of soy sauce when I came across.. 5 different kinds of peanut butter! I was saved. Two of them were even natural peanut butter! Looks like I won't have to ration this magical substance as much as I previously thought.

Valeria and I headed back to the estación de subte (subway station) and the subte stopped right in front of us, but the doors remained closed. We waited there for five minutes until they finally opened. Everyone filed out and men in uniforms appeared to tell us that no one was allowed back on the subte. A crowd gathered and a whispering-murmuring-shocked tone of voice fest began. It was hard for me to understand any of the fused-together words uttered amongst the confused chaos, but my ears finally held onto four words that made my heart stop: "Una mujer se tiró." Translation: a woman threw herself in front of the moving subway. How horrific. There were two people on the other side of the subway on the tracks, talking, yes TALKING to someone underneath. Does that mean the woman was/is still alive? I wonder if that's even worse than the success of her mission. If she survives, I suppose it could go one of two ways. Either she will be extremely injured, not have normal usage of her body, and dread her existence even more than before without having any escape because everyone will always be taking care of her. Or she will be extremely injured, not have normal usage of her body, but she will have a newly developed optimistic attitude toward life and will be happy that she survived the experience. I really hope it's the latter.

Today I tried going to the Gaucho Fair in Mataderos, Buenos Aires. It was supposed to be a huge deal today since it is the 25th of May, a national holiday. My friends and I trooped through the rain to get to the bus and then rode it for an hour and a half to get to the feria just to find.. no one. There was supposed to be dancing of gauchos (Argentine cowboys) and folkloric music playing on the streets. They decided to cancel the festivities because of the rain. So we hung around for a few hours, thinking we might as well get something out of our trek. There was a lot of meat in different forms and some artisan stands. I was disappointed that nothing exciting was going on since it had cleared up a lot within an hour of the rain. We headed back to the capital, not wanting to miss out on the real 25 de mayo festivities. This was much more satisfying than the turnout of the Gaucho Fair. We went to Plaza de Mayo and encountered a ton of people, music, food, and fun. We saw at least 6 bands play on the stage in front of the Casa Rosada (the government house where the president lives), which was lit up with bright pink lights. Flags were flying, some representing the country, some the president, others diversity.

Last collection of random thoughts: Almost everyone in my Psychology of the Personality class has added me as a friend on Facebook and I can't keep track of them! I think it's much easier to know the name of the one foreigner in the class than to know the 45 Argentine girls and 5 boys, while many of the girls have names that are similar or overlapping. Second thought: There are a lot of street vendors who fry peanuts and almonds in oil and sugar on the streets near Universidad Católica. Rarely can I resist that delicious nutty smell. Lastly, I decided that I should really stop fabricating silly excuses to avoid working out, so I am going to join a gym for a month while I'm still here! I hope this decision will result in me not being a complete blob when I return home and have to start training for my half marathon. My friend Peter agreed to be my workout buddy so we'll see if we can motivate each other enough to go!