Weekending

Last night we were invited to dine with Hugo's boxing coach Mariano and his wife Luciana. They live in one of the outlying neighborhoods of the city called Flores - devoid of expats and the inflated prices of our hood. It was an enjoyable evening but I woke up this morning wondering about the type of friends we'll have here long term. 3 months into my argentine dream I still feel like I'm "dating" and haven't committed to a relationship with any of my new friends. Many Argentines find foreigners fascinating and novel - unlike the French who could care less and from what I've heard tend to keep their social circles pretty tight and closed to outsiders. We've been invited to dinner at the homes of aristocrats, gays and working class types. they have all been warm, welcoming and keenly interested in hearing about our lives in the US. how much it costs to buy a home, what people do for fun, wanting to understand how americans can be so fat etc. Mariano was a generous and enthusiastic host. he recounted the events leading up to the most recent economic crash for us (every argentine loves to talk about this period with all of the drama of going to the bank only to be told their money was gone POOF along with the politicians) - all in spanish of course. we talked music - they love coldplay, she madonna, he the ramones. neither had heard of Beyonce or Puff Daddy, Piddy - how can that be? their children were adorable and spoke better spanish than us (duh) and better english than their parents. shrek is huge down here right now and there are lines around the block of every mcdonalds in town with parents trying to buy their kid the happy meal with the toy shrek inside. Mariano's son franco squealed with delight each time he pressed shrek's stomach and the thing says "soy un ogre" (trans: I'm an Ogre). press again and it burps, really loud.

this afternoon we go to our english friend emily's apartment for a luncheon fiesta. she's making Locro - a traditional argentine stew that my spanish tutor tells me is "muy rico". Rico seems to be the only word used to describe food here. If it's delicious, succulent, good, great, tasty, scrumptuous, yummy - in spanish its just "rico". if only spanish didn't have 500 verbs in 15 different tenses it might be easy to pick up....