Drinking in the Afternoon

Tuesday, February 14^th, 2012

I forgot to mention the best part of Valentine’s Day! After school, we had a cultural excursion to Teatro Colón—the oldest and biggest opera house in Buenos Aires (and one of the largest in the world). We just got a tour of it, but even seeing it makes me want to see a show there someday, no matter the cost. It is so beautiful. I would say the photos could do it more justice than my description, but unfortunately due to the bad lighting and my not bring my Rebel with me, my photos are just as poor as my description, but still worth a look.

After we parted ways with our tour guide (who looked like a guy I know from home—Angus, do you have Argentine roots!?), Angela, Toshy and I had a spot of munchies. We were really close to the 9 de Julio avenue and my friend Alex had told me about a great restaurant across from the huge McDonalds near the obelisk. So we arrived at La Rey and suddenly I felt like I was somewhere in Times Square, not only because there was a giant McDonald’s and traffic outside, but because this restaurant was very spacious and had huge sizes of everything.

Looking in my wallet as I looked at the menu, I realized the only thing I could afford was a slice of pizza and beer…classic. We all ordered a slice and our respective alcohol choice (because alcohol was cheaper than anything else on the menu). Being that we hadn’t eaten since lunch 6 hours ago, we started to all get a little buzzed—especially because Angela shared her $5 USD bottle of wine with us. We shared stories about home and had some laughs as we felt the alcohol infiltrating our veins. This is the kind of drinking I like.I felt warm all over because of the booze, humidity and good company. We somewhat drunkenly staggered back to the subway station and felt a little more drunk amongst the rush-hour crowds. It was the complete wrong time to be drunk and giggling, but no matter. Rock me to sleep in your arms, Buenos Aires.

Later Juan had a beer with dinner and asked if I wanted some, but I told him that I'd already been drunk earlier and him and Ana looked at me like I was crazy, but happy that I finally got drunk because I still haven't gone out yet. I love having 20-somethings for my "host parents".