kellita the señorita the ibby dibby dow: Long Weekends

One thing is certain, the beginning of the heat and humidity of summer has arrived. I'm not gonna lie. When I was reading all your statuses about Thanksgiving, turkey and American football, I was jealous. But then I remembered I had my own long weekend, and it's summer here, so then I got unjealous.

This weekend was epic. It's always best when you have no plans and then everything that happens as a result of those non-plans is awesome.

I went for my weekly Friday night date at Pati's. We ordered pizza, ate ice cream, and watched Miss Marble, a movie series based on the novels of Agatha Christie. When the movie ended, I was exhausted and hopped on Bida to head home and crash. I arrived home to find Mana and Diego eating dinner. When I came back from the US, I was reminded of the drinking culture in there as compared to here. There we have drinking games. Beer Pong. Kings. Asshole. Hockey. Sink the Bizz. Flip Cup. And many more I don't have the time or memory to list. Anyway, here, nights are less organized, and usually focus around conversation, and less about who can get drunk the fastest in a competitive manner. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging anyone, just stating the differences)

Anyway. I came back to BA with a stock of ping pong balls so I could teach Mana and Diego the ways of Beer Pong. When I walked in on Friday, Diego looked at me, and said, tonight is the night for Beer Pong. So I called Nerik, who offered to bring the cups, and we prepped the kitchen for Argentine beer pong. Once we explained and agreed on the rules, (Nerek has a different spin, and I like to play as I call it "old school" without all their young people rules) we set up a team rotation and the games began.

Usually it takes a couple rounds before people start getting competitive, but from the word go, the Argentines were in it. Yelling at the ball, throwing their hands up in the air on every miss, and hugging and celebrating with every cup sink. They were loving it. The games went on until the beer ran out. Then we scrambled to find a delivery company, and the party continued with to-our-door beer delivery (have I mentioned I love this country).

As the games went on, the competition got stiff, and the dancing more exaggerated and taunting. And the laughs kept coming. And then the little kid masks came out. And more hilarity ensued. I took enough photos for an entire ad campaign for beer pong. And when the games were done, the table was moved and a dance party broke out. Until we realized it was 5:30 and that the sky was getting lighter. And just like that Nerek se fueron, and after a last number to finish the night, we all ran into our rooms like vampires escaping the light. Operation Beer Pong Buenos Aires - Success.

Saturday afternoon, was heavenly. Our friend Karina lives in a great apartment with a POOL in the backyard. With the humidity around here, it was just what the doctor ordered. After a little pre-pool ritual we went down to worship the sun, hypothesizing that we had a good 4 hours of sun before we lost it to the buildings. Derek showed up after a while, and Karina gave him a lesson on the back float. He'll learn to swim afterall if it's up to her. Once Derek got bored of the pool, Karina challenged un pendejo to an underwater race followed by a contest to see who could hold their breath the longest. He won.

After several hours of sunning ourselves, my craving for parilla dinner took over, and Nells and D and I left in search of the perfect outdoor hole-in-the-wall steak dinner, which we thankfully found before my hunger bitch mode came out in full force. I hate to show that side to people I love. It's just not pretty.

We feasted on papas and a mix of steak and sausage, washed down with Orange Fanta. The perfect end to the perfect day. The exhaustion from our beer pong marathon set in, and I headed home for a sweaty but good night's sleep.

Sunday I slept in before treating myself to a nice American Breakfast and some mate. Upon starting the day I realized that summer had arrived, as I just sat in one place sweating. In the afternoon I headed to meet up with Molly and Libby for a show at Konex. The show I refer to is none other than Onda Vaga, my Argentine band obsession. I warned them that I was about to take them to a concert with mostly fans of the age range of 15-21, and that I, like most of the young girls would most likely sing every word to every song as I were 15 at an NSYNC concert. And I did. Except this time instead of pushy young girls trying to get closer to their beloved band members, the place was full of young men and mosh pits. This was curious to me because Onda Vaga is not really music for moshing. But every time a high in the song came, they formed a circle, pushing everyone back and got into some serious mosh action. When in Rome... I shrugged at my friends, I channeled my inner 16 year-old boy and jumped right in that moshing, until it got too intense and I ran out. When it was all over, and we were all still sweating, we headed for empanadas before calling it a night.

On Monday, I went to drop off Pati's keys since she has a visitor this week. When I arrived, she was dressed and ready to hit the town. Which was surprising because she's supposed to be in bed as she got less than ideal results on her x-ray last week. When I asked where she was off to, she simply replied that she HAD to go shopping. I offered to go for her, to run whatever errands, and told her I didn't think it was a good idea and what about her back. And she looked at me and said, "I'm going shopping. I have been in bed for 6 months, and tengo ganas de shop. So come if you want, but I'm going." So, we hopped in a cab and we went shopping at Buenos Aires Design. For glasses for the kitchen. Which turned into pillows for the living room, and a new bathrobe, and something for the guest room. And I just followed her around the shopping center, trying to protect her from anyone running into her or touching her really, pulling her money and documents out of my pocket every once in a while to pay. I felt like the sugar daddy, only it wasn't my money. And when it was all said and done, we walked out of there with loot. And we shopped the shit out of that design center. But then we (yes we) were tired, so we settled in for another episode of Miss Marple and of course a bowl of ice cream.

Monday night I went to my futbol game, but the lights at the field went out so we couldn't play. This apparently happens a lot in Buenos Aires in the summer. My Spanish teacher says it's because they want to save money and energy. But they say it's not on purpose. Who is right? Anyway, it gave me a chance to sit outside and chat about life with my friend Jen.

And then it was Tuesday, and time to go back to work. But short work weeks are the best, so I didn't really care that much. Plus next week is a short week, too, and December will bring me lots of visitors!