Impressions of Buenos Aires

1.Everyone is "Che." Your brother, your sister, a friend, a stranger. Portenos (people of the port of Buenos Aires) use it as a term of endearment referring to Che Guevara, who may be more important than Jesus there.

2.The chocolate is delicious.

3.Cafe culture is revered. <---aka i love it there! cafes are few and far between in Rio.

4.There is a serious coinage shortage crisis. If you do not have the exact "monedas," the cashier will give you a look of death and a giant sigh or will just round off your change, meaning you sometimes lose out. My heart palpitated every time I waited in line to pay. Ay! Alicia and I got in the habit of picking up 5 centavo peso coins off the street when we were lucky enough to find them. We would then jump for joy. Do the currency conversion of five peso cents, people. It´s pathetic.

5."Dale" can effectively be used to replace any word or phrase your heart desires. Okay, goodbye, hello, my throat hurts, your voice is killing me, etc. They can all be effectively communicated by DALE if the right inflection is used. DALE, DAle, Daaaale, dale, and so on. Why doesn´t English have a word like that?

It was good to be back home. I was a little surprised how much I missed my roommate family and all the crazy madness that is Brasil!

Update on Rio since I have returned:
-Saw Niteroi with Frank Barral who studied at OSU for his master degree in industrial design.
-My roommate Seba survived a near death experience with some kidney stones. We had to take him to the hospital. It was scary.
-Whined today because it´s been raining here all day. Pooh.
-Realised that time zones make my brain want to explode. Before the switch, Rio was one hour ahead of Ohio, now it is 3 hours. I finally figured out why. Took me a while, so I won´t spoil it for you. I am not a physics major, people. Give me break.
-Finally, thinking about all of Centerville/OSU that is mourning the death of Brian. You will stay in my thoughts and prayers.


Until next time...