Minimalism Thoughts/ Friends

And the exchange rate continues to climb favorably, it's now at 3.71! Today I spent 2 dollars on lunch, que barato!

One of the things I was thinking about today, while washing my face with soap, was the value in not having excess things. This is something I already thought about in Madrid, but I thought about again here in Buenos Aires. I forgot to bring my face wash here so I have to use normal old soap. Years back, I started using face wash because my face would break out and I didn't want to have a lot of zits. I'm not so sure that I will have zits if I don't use this special face wash. If this is the case, it is so nice to not have to lug around with me this orange neutrogina bottle wherever I go. I started thinking about the culture in my town, where accumulating excess needs seems like a sport. It's one thing to accumulate luxuries as one is able to afford them or new activities through experience in life, as long as one treats them as such. But with this small example of face wash, I realized its possible to add something to your life, feel it is a neccessity and feel that being without it is a grave situation. It seems like this way of living needlessly complicates life. Such a needlessly complicated life seems to also lead to a lot of complaining. I'm going to be careful that I don't slip into that lifestyle of accumulating stuff as a sport, treating it as necessity and complaining about how complicated it is to keep everything together. At least this is the way I look at it now, maybe I'm not appreciating some other perspective or component to the equation.

Today in class we continued to learn about Argentina. It's fun the way we learn about it; we have this fun lively Argentinian man (good looking, but no worries tomas, he's about 45, dare I say....old?) that tells us, based on his first hand experience as a "porteno," about the customs and culture in Argentina. He told us about the mentality of a young argentinian guy in the clubes. Apparently, the guys are not interested in buying a girl a drink or buttering them up; they are aggressive because they don't want to lay a penny down until they know that they are getting something. This is very different from the "beat around the bush" strategy of many american men. Which is better? One is direct which is nice, the other is more comfortable? I'll touch back on this after I get more experience in such situations.

I met a cool American today named Lukas. He has a friend here in BA who is a circus contortionist. His friend is living here with a bunch of other circus performers. He is into sax and guitar and studies the performing arts. Interesting guy, really genuine and proactive (two things I like in a friend).

Besides the IES people, I talked via email with Aunt Barbara's friend and the foreign service couple here in BA. Barbara's friend and I might cook together this sunday which would be very fun. The other couple hasn't responded yet. Besides that, I might meet up with my portena friend Carito this weekend. Lots of people to get to know!

According to the program student development specialist, us students might be ending the honey moon period soon... Our expectations were set a while back, we have been swept up in the excitment of BA, and now reality should be setting in. I'll report on how my feelings are compared to this standard. I feel like I'm always back and forth everyday. There are really exciting moments in the day mixed with the feeling of being in a far away place, away from any truly comfortable moments. Hopefully I can create some more confortable moments for myself, embrace the anxious uncomfortable ones a little more and focus on the excitment of the city.

It's 9:30, time for dinner! Comemos como los espanoles aca!

Luego,
Kati