Dia 23, Dia de Independencia, 9 de Junio

Hello all those out there who are all “Fourth of July’d” out! It’s me, your wonderful little traveler in Buenos Aires, sending you greetings on this Independence Day of Argentina. =)

Now, I know, you all must be wondering, what is Independence Day like there? Are there great fireworks, festivals, live music, hot dogs?!? What great questions! I shall tell you about Día de Independencia…

I didn’t have school! So that was probably the best thing about today. =) No, not the best…but it was fun to not have school because of a holiday. More…businesses close for the day. There are restaurants open and some stores, but that’s about all. And…no fireworks, no hot dogs, it’s B.A. so I am sure that there were parties going on somewhere, but there were no “9^th of July” parties that I knew of!

So…what did I do? Well, I had myself a good ol’ fashioned LAZY DAY! I know… I had one last weekend, but why not now? We’re making plans for the zoo tomorrow and possibly going to Tigre on Saturday, so I will be doing things! So, I did work on homework, that’s something. Of course there’s a lot more I need to do, but something is better than nothing right? I just realized how MUCH I have to read for politics. This will not be easy. Sigh. Serri is gone for the weekend (which is great because I get to use the internet, but of course sad because my house mate is gone!) so I was on the internet, looking up stuff for class and of course, being lazy.

I did leave for a little while. I walked around the town, went to a Farmacity (like a CVS or Walgreens) and bought some cheap hair wax to use on my dread to keep it all gross like. =) Then just walked around, so I could say that I walked around and wasn’t in my apartment all day! Then I went back home and watched some TV while eating dinner. OH, my dinner was steak (of course) and… Green Bean Puree. It looked…not so great. But I tried it! And the taste wasn’t so bad. It was really really salty, but after a few bites, I couldn’t handle the texture anymore. It’s like, it was trying to be green mashed potatoes, but it didn’t feel like mashed potatoes…it felt funny. I couldn’t handle it. But since I ate quite a bit of it, I was proud of myself anyway! I took a photo…it’ll be up soon!

After dinner, I worked on some more homework and discovered my love for stumbleupon.com. Sigh…I know, I know, it was such a lame day with no exciting stories!

I suppose I can teach you more slang! Woo!

Pibe/Piba: Similar to che (I know, you all remember what that means!)… calling to another person, however, it’s very informal and generally used when talking to people younger than you.

Tipo/Tipa: Similar to the above, however, more commonly used with older people (not necessarily for the young ones)

Gaucho: The Cowboy of Argentina…when we, in the US, think of the cowboy, the old west…etc. and get those happy “those were the days” feelings (and come on, we ALL get those feelings…ha), that’s how they feel about their gaucho here. I guess this isn’t really slang…just a word.

Guacho: NOT to be confused with gaucho. This is basically a “bad” person. Someone who doesn’t help out, is selfish, negative…it’s an allover not a good way to be referred to.

Chamuyero: aggressive guys, I haven’t really had to encounter any (thankfully), but I haven’t been out clubbing either. These are the flatterers, the sweet talkers. The guys who say, “You are the most beautiful girl in the world!” (This has happened to me), and yet, when you say, “NO” or “BACK OFF” they move to the next girl in the room and say, “You are the most beautiful girl in the world!”…. You know, those guys.

Chamuyar: How funny that there is a verb for the noun mentioned above. The chamuyero does the action chamuyar. To be aggressive. You can always say to those guys, “No me chamuyes.” Which is basically like, “Don’t flatter me”….along those lines.

Okay, that’s good enough for today. I have only a few more, so I’m spacing them out for other days when I have nothing exciting to say! =)

Love you and miss you all! Zoo tomorrow!