Collectivos

The subject of busses (collectivos) in Buenos Aires is a world all of its own. To begin with, the city has over 300 bus lines. Each bus line is individually owned, managed, and run by a private company, and some of the busses have multiple and different routes under the same line number. The good news is that they run every few minutes and most of them run all night. One interesting and fun result of the individual line owners is that the bus companies decorate thier busses however they want, since theres no government standard to maintain. All the busses are handpainted in different stripes and with multicolored hand lettering. Most of them also have hand painted detail work on the front and back, and every one I've seen has had some kind of shade with frills over the front window. The bus I took the other night had replaced a few of the flouruesents at the front with black lights. Unfortately, the busses are almost always packed when I'm using them, so standing room only, unless its the middle of the day or late at night.

Speaking of street transportation, another common sight is the empanada men on thier scooters. These are guys who work for empanada and pizza companies (empanadas are a type of meat pies) and they load the delivery into a square box on the backs of thier motorscooters. It was kind of funny, there was a group of girls on my bus one night, and I can hear them giggling and gabbing back there and I turn to look outside to see an empanada man idling at the same speed of the bus making eyes with the girls. Finally, he salutes them, pulls down his helmet, and speeds of into the night. This is the city I live in.

In the used bookstore I found the other day, I found a guidebook to the US in spanish. Curious, I looked up what they had to say about Arizona. "Phoenix es un cuidad grande, chaotico, y aburrido..." (Phoenix is a big city, chaotic, and boring...) After dismissing Phoenix, they immediately launched into a discussion of what to see and do in Tucson, and included a short guide to Phoenix at the end of the chapter on Arizona.

We went to get Chinese food last night because I've been very deprived of spices here. Argentines have good food, but it's bland as all get out. We walked to the nearby chinatown and grabbed a table. The restaurant smelled like a chinese restaurant I remembered from China, so I took that as a good sign. The menus of course, were all in Spanish. So I got the Sopa de wan tan and the Cuerdo Frito de salsa de Agridulche con ananas (won ton soup and sweet and sour pork). Not bad. The soup was really good for my throat which has been really sore.

Two days ago, my throat just got very sore over the space of an afternoon. My lymph nodes are a little swollen, and I'm coughing and sneezing a bit, with the usual aches. Too many late nights in studio I think. So, lots of tea, lots of vitamin C (I drank a liter of orange juice yesterday), and plenty of rest.

I miss you all.