Birthday delayed by Delta time

SOOOO. yesterday was my birthday. but not really. it was moved to today because of Delta time. It turns out Delta did not want Tama to arrive here for my birthday, WHICH was the whole plan!! she was supposed to arrive at 7:45am on my birthday (usually August 8th, but this year postponed to the 9th) but because someone decided to have a - heart attack? stroke? medical issue? heartache? they were forced to land in:

PANAMA.
And

then the flight was pushed back to leave at 4:15pm (when they had landed at 12am - so whats that, 16 hour delay??) and arrive in BsAs at 12:40am on the 9th. This was all because the plane was too heavy when they landed for the medical emergency because of all the extra fuel it had, and the radar broke... crazy.tuli, my birthday present to myself how cute

So yah, here I am thinking how ironic, after all that talk and effort to get Tama to come for my birthday that she is arriving right after midnight when my official birthday was over.

But then,
it got postponed again, and again. and again. (literally three more times). until she finally got in this morning at 7:45am - exactly 24hrs late.

So, today was my birthday. And it's been lovely. we just ate some birthday cake, and before that we walked around the antiques/artesanal fair in my neighborhood, which happens every Sunday and is definitely one of my favorite things in Buenos Aires.

brownies and card from mom sent via "special carrier" tama

Last year my birthday also got pretty shafted, and I'm starting to think my birthday in Argentina works on Argentine time - nothing ever happens when the clock says its supposed to. But it's really great whenever it does happen.

birthday cake!

and...

a wish!!

Now take out and malbec. Happy 22.

la primera semana ya pasó

Sooo the first week has come and gone, and I've officially registered for classes, put up some more posters, and walked too much for someone who didn't think to bring sneakers.

I spent a lot of this week with this dude Graham, who I met on the plane. We sat next to each other on the flight down (which was a total coincidence because he moved his seat three times jaja) and it turned out he was in Buenos Aires for five days and staying in a hostel two blocks from my apartment, so we shared a cab together and i have to say I've never hit it off better with someone I happened to sit next to on a plane. He had booked his flight down on a whim, after having a friend who had just come back and loved it, and after a messy break-up with the boyfriend decided, hey! let's go buenos aires! So we hung out a bit, drank some malbec and listened to some good argentine live tunes, and perused the recoleta artesanal fair.

With Graham gone on Saturday, it was officially the time to pay for and register for classes. Monday the office opened and I got up very early to go, only to be reminded that the place, like often with offices in Argentina, did not have "set hours". I went to the internet cafe, read the newspaper cover-to-cover, and drank some coffee. Finally, three hours later I find the office open with a line, and get myself an appointment for wednesday. Tuesday was full of bank drama (I shake my fist at you HSBC) as HSBC Argentina thinks that because my account is from another country of HSBC I might as well not even belong to their bank, because it is not their bank... well i had to take the 5,200 pesos (1,350 dollars) out in 900 pesos increments from the ATM with various exttraction fees.

BUT WHATEVER! I'M REGISTERED FOR CLASSES!! WAHOOO!! Yayayy!!! I successfully navigated my various little problems (which are not all listed here), and am an official foreign student of the UBA (university of Buenos Aires!)

so the classes are:

1) Culture for Peace and Human Rights - taught by the nobel peace prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel (pictured at left), that's a big deal! he founded SERPAJ, one of the biggest human rights organizations in Argentina and also with branches throughout Latin America. That's Fridays 9am - 1pm.

2) Communications and Social Movements and Organizations - a communications seminar, which should be very helpful and it'll be interesting to see what a UBA seminar is like.

3) Argentine Social Problems - a class in the social work department, which will talk about - argentine social problems?? poverty? i'll let you know when i know.

THEeee End.