A day with Angela

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Still lagging from my night that ended at 5:30am, I managed to get myself up for my shopping date with Angela. We went to her favorite outlet, Libra Latina, where I picked up 2 cardigans, because apparently I’m all about cardigans here. I’ve bought 4 since my arrival. I’m compensating for not having brought a sweatshirt...On a highly vain note, I also decided I’m sick of my personal style because I only have the wardrobe I brought with me (and half of it doesn’t even really work anymore because it’s winter) and despite how much shopping I’ve done, I really haven’t bought that many clothes because Buenos Aires is pretty expensive and if you go too cheap, the quality shows. Or it’s the case where I’ve bought something really cute (fairy princess skirt from Zara) and I can’t wear it because I feel weird being dressed up but then having wet hair because it takes about 30 minutes to fully blowdry my hair. I just don’t feel like I look like myself here. Yeah, yeah, there’s a lot to be said about going all natural and I appreciate not having to spend time doing my hair and makeup (even though it doesn’t take me that much time anyway), but I feel better when I am more confident about my appearance. Maybe that makes me vain, but I don’t like my noodly brown hair and bushy eyebrows. But there’s nothing I can do about it. I am really anxious to come home and look like me again.

But alas, I digress. And while I complained about my personal style and appearance, Angela assured me there was nothing awry, meanwhile, I did the same for her. Confirming that indeed, I am my own worst critic.

Not finding anything cute nor affordable, we passed by a cafe and stopped for a coffee. And despite all the traveling I’ve done, I can’t help but feel like my cafe dates are still the best part of being in here. You can talk for hours about anything and nobody is rushing you to get out—not to mention my love of submarinos...Perhaps the pivotal moment of this conversation was when we both realized how much we love cereal and how much meaning there actually is in cereal: the plot where you tell yourself it’s OK to keep pouring bowls of Kix because the milk to cereal ratio is never right, so you have to “correct it” by pouring more of each...the conversation culminated in a topic very personal for me: Team Cheerios. What happened to them, and when are they coming back? But Angela pointed out I could just make my own Team Cheerios by mixing honey nut, frosted and multi grain Cheerios. THIS WOMAN IS A GENIUS. How did I never realize this? A moment of pure friendship as we laughed and laughed about cereal. Argentina has excellent food, but it’s got nothing on cereal.  

Afterwards we realized we were kind of close to Plaza Serrano, and still feeling in the mood for shopping we walked up to our favorite feria where I laid eyes on the coolest mate ever. I literally had to deliberate for 20 minutes because I liked all of the designs, but I finally settled on this one:

Now I must drink some mate to keep myself alive.