Summertime in Jardin Botanico

The Botanical Gardens in Palermo is one of my favorite haunts. Especially in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. It's one of those places where you can almost feel as though you've escaped the city, except of course the roar of traffic never quite disappears.

Nevertheless, whenever I have a free afternoon I try to make my way up there for an hour or so. The effect nature can have on your state of mind is wonderfully remarkable. Nature seems to restore a calm, anxiety free existence, and the mix of beautiful, trees, plants, and flowers, with neoclassical sculpture, is the perfect soother after a long week.

I had planned on doing some writing in the garden, yet several minutes after I sat down the bloodthirsty mosquito swarms zeroed in on my location and I was forced to keep moving. This gave me a chance to take some photos. I know I've posted about the gardens before, but I feel they deserve extra posts now and then because of the special place they hold for me.

After milling about the park for an hour I went to meet a few friends, Noe and Ann, at Lattente, where we enjoyed cappucinos and later walked through Palermo, and I was given all the information I'll ever need to know about pin-up dresses and corsets. I guess I had always just assumed a dress was a dress, but apparently I was horribly mistaken.

It seems I was also almost mugged. After dropping Ann off at her apartment Noe and I walked to the bus stop to catch 152 back into our part of town. While waiting, a rather unseemingly guy walked up and asked me for change. I told him I didn't have any, which I don't think was actually true. I just didn't want to go rifling around in my pockets with my iPhone and $100 peso notes. It seemed wiser for me to stay away from the pockets. Well, he kept talking to me and I couldn't fully understand what he said so I just kept repeating that I didn't have any change. Well, eventually he just walked to the edge of Santa Fe and stood there awkwardly while I stood at the stop with Noe. Finally a few more people walked up to the stop and they became his next targets for spare change.

As the guy's attention was focused on other people, we decided to move to a different bus stop. As we walked away Noe told me that the guy had threatened to punch me if I didn't give him change. As I worked this through in my mind it seemed that from his point of view an act of force would be the most powerful coercive weapon, yet from my point of view it only complicated the situation and made me feel much less generous with my spare change.

I guess I am thankful nothing did happen, not only for him but because too often it seems violence is used by individuals at all levels of power to maintain and ensure control of a given situation. When one violent act is committed successfully, the situation can be perpetuated, as the perpetrator see's the previous successes and expects more to come.

I won't say I averted the violent act, because I didn't, but I can say that because I wasn't assaulted, because one less act of violence was committed, the world is just a little bit brighter.

Cheers

A visit from Tuck

It is always exciting to have visitors come to town. Partly because I don't get to see friends from home or abroad very often, and partly because I enjoy showing friends this wonderful city, sharing everything BA has to offer, experientially speaking.

The other day was one of those rare occasions when my mom's colleagues, Andy and Gina, came to town on business for the Tuck school. Since it was Andy's first time visiting the city in six or seven years I offered to show him around. 

We planned on meeting yesterday at 4pm, after my classes finished, giving us two hours to walk around the city center and take a coffee at the local cafe whose menu I translated. We also had a brief opportunity to jump in the pool at his hotel, an exciting escape from the summer heat! 

Later that evening I attended the Tuck cocktail for alumni and prospective students. It was held in the Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires, a recently developed neighborhood filled with renovated warehouses and port facilities now transformed into upscale business offices, beautiful high rise apartments, and fancy restaurants. We arrived early and I gladly helped organize the preparations and how the food would be distributed, drinks, etc... 

Me, Gina, and Andy attending the Tuck function

In other news, last weekend was busy with both the super bowl and Chinese new year. To accomodate the festivities I decided to visit China town, Barrio Chino, located in Belgrano, with my friend Luis. Unfortunately we didn't plan the day effectively and we arrived 2.5 hours late for a Chinese new year party which started at 8pm, I think the hosts forgave us though... hopefully : )

I enjoyed my first ever trip to Chinatown. It was small (only 3 blocks), but Belgrano is a beautiful neighborhood and I enjoyed capturing images of the street with my camera. 

On Sunday I attended a super bowl party in Palermo. There was a good mix of Americans, Argentinos, Europeans and folks from many other nationalities. The group was fun, eclectic, and, aside from the Americans, knew almost nothing about the game. I enjoyed explaining it though. 

I have some exciting activities coming up. Including volunteer work for L.I.F.E tomorrow and volleyball on Saturday. 

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