July 11
Geekpunk is our little communinty, some of this is about bikes, some of it is about tech, some of it is about punk,
some of it is about knitting, some of it is about city life. All of it is about us
With the exception of this rad climbing gym on hayes valley sf is really a town for the single…
(Just so you know, Jim is making me write this so he can watch the tour.)
After watching people freak out about the snow, we went back to our apartment, cleaned, and got ready to leave the following morning. The people that we were renting from showed up about 20 minutes early, which was also 5 minutes after we realized that Jim had lost his ATM card. So there was mass confusion for a few minutes as we tried to simultaneously finish packing and look for the credit card at the same time. I stopped panicking when I realized that Spiderman had told us a million times that we´re not responsible for fraudulent chaaaaarges. We decided to go to the McCafe so that we could check the bank account: Since NOTHING in Argentina opens before 11, there weren´t any other options, and there’s something really funny about getting free internet access in a McDonalds. No one had made any charges, but that could be because none of the stores were open yet. (Jim canceled the card; it´s not a big deal.)
Then we went to the airport. International flights involve a lot of beauracracy in Argentina: First, you wait in a huge line to check in, then you wait in line to pay the departure tax, after which you wait in line to pass through passport control. Next, there´s a line to have your baggage screened, and finally, customs. When we checked in, we were told that we´d be leaving from Puerta A. Then, while we were waiting, we kept checking the monitors to see what gate we´d be assigned…and there was no information. Nothing about a gate, or anything about Puerto A, so we thought that there was just a huge delay in deciding which gate we´d use. And reps from the different airlines kept circulating, announcing flights that were about to leave and searching for missing passengers, so we didn´t worry. Then, I looked up and saw that our flight´s label had changed from “on-time” to “last call” without a gate assignment. So we started running around trying to figure out where the hell our plane was. Jim stopped a flight attendent, who looked at us as though we were truly idiots, and truly screwed, and informed us that our plane was getting ready to take off on the other side of the airport. (She used this tone of voice that seemed to imply that the airport was so big that we would have had to start hiking the day before in order to make the flight.)
I´ll pause so that you can all picture my out-of-shape ass trying to keep up with Jim, the triathlete, as we ran through the airport. (Actually, it wasn´t a very flattering picture, so don´t try to imagine it.)
After sprinting, we got to Puerto A, ran breathlessly onto the waiting bus and….sat for another 15 minutes, while everyone else who was confused as to the difference between a gate and a puerto arrived.
The flight itself was pretty uneventful. Since the tour broadcast is almost over for the day, I´ll let Jim fill you in on our arrival, how nice Sergio and Fernando are, and how I got drunk and totally started laughing hysterically at some poor guy on the elevator last night.
So for he most prt not too many fixie rats… And most people wear helmets.. This one as outside a wine bar
I mean it was ok and all… But it as served on ice… W/ no old bay… Thats just wrong!
so it snowed in buenos aires yesterday.
people freaked out because it hasn snowed since 1918. everyone broke out their camera phones and everyone was running around trying to do the things that they think people do when it snows. snowflakes on tongues etc. there were videos on the news of people making the lamest snowballs and snowmen in the world.
i tried to take pictures of everyone taking pictures with their cameraphones. there is this hilarious cameraphone commercial here where everyone is just jumping up and down chanting”Foooooto foto foto foto”
over and over and jen and I cant stop doing it but yesterday it seemed totaly appropriate
since it has been super cold we cheesed out and saw some movies. quick review:
the contract - pretty bad. held my attention the whole time. but pretty bad. i like morgan freeman and I like john cusack. that said. i like ice cube and ice t but TRESSPASS was still pretty bad.
ratatouille - we managed to find a version in english with subtitles as opposed to dubbed in “neutral spanish” or dubbed in “argentine spanish” (aLL of which are avaialble)
funny as expected. oddly enough. riveting action scenes.
Holden takes in some of cherokees phillipines… Childhood… Memories…
Daly city california
Waiting for our tour… While holden tells us about the ghosts in his room
San jose california
So on our way towards monte ray we past all these elphant seals… So rad… On to san francisco tomorrow.
there is a punk rock mall here.
it´s huge. like 5 or 6 tattoo shops, skate shops, a couple bars, 3 or 4 record stores, etc. kinda like what saint marks in NYC used to be like (I guess, I was never there before it got crazy). i saw a wearing an OLNEY boys and s club shirt. I thought it was crazy. I asked her about it and she was trying to play it cool. someone gave it to her. i bought a boom boom kid cd. I seemed to get about 5 seconds of cool points when I said I booked them a show in the US.
a few other cd´s/dvd´s that I have picked up since I have been here:
bersuit - local group. pretty catchy bought on the strength of hearing one song (¨Yo tomo”)
machuca -chilean dvd
temporada de los patos -argentine dvd
the wire season 1 boxed set (brand new, not bootlegged, $20)
here´s the thing. the country´s in an economic crisis so stuff is super cheap.
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