Taking the Bad with the Good

Those who know me know well that it is rare, perhaps unprecedented, to go 3 weeks (if not 3 hours) without bitching and moaning like a spoiled child. Well, it's not quite 3 weeks and all this good cheer couldn't last forever, right?

Today was/is a not-so-great day.

Of course there are things that are frustrating, difficult, unpleasant about this city. The "aires" is hardly all that "buenos", rather the pollution is evident. Car exhaust is thick and unpleasant as is the cigarette smoke. Noisy too, of course from the intense traffic. In my particular case, this is exacerbated by the construction going on in the building where I live. (Although I find it hard to believe they're actually building or repairing anything. It just sounds like they've hired a group of monkeys to hit things with hammers for hours at a time.)

The main thing that triggered my frustration today is my still not having found a spanish teacher. There is that old joke about a man not being able to procure certain services in a certain type of institution despite his possession of a surfeit of funds that are wrapped around a certain part of his body. This is how I feel, not being able to find a spanish teacher in argentina, armed with pesos-a-plenty. Teachers respond, make appointments and then, for no apparent reason, cancel or reschedule long into the future. It is very frustrating, especially given how important the ability to communicate colors your experience in a foreign place. I can blather and babble just fine in my lame-ass spanglish, but if I had some training and some guidance I would be able to actually speak.

Having said all this, I did finally find someone today and she swears she'll show up tomorrow. We'll see.

Also, despite being happily single and willing to just live, date, hang out casually with whomever, love is everywhere here (how do you say, "Get a room!" in Spanish!?!) and I would like some myself. Truth is I've had a few "encounters" of varying degree of intimacy (conspicuously NOT chronicled here), and that was all well and good. But it would be nice to something a bit more intense, serious, whatever, and I know it won't (perhaps CAN'T) happen in the time allotted. Of course I've been happy, buoyant, content for 99% of the time, so it's not so terrible. But being only human, I can lapse from time to time, of course. It doesn't make it any easier that the porteñas are a gorgeous lot. (They are also, for the most part, crazy. But in a good way that I enjoy. And that would be for another discussion anyway.)

Let's see, what else can I bitch about????

Little teeny waxpaper napkins. Whose idea was that? Oh who cares about such trivial things.....