Who is Circadia Anyway?

Jumping across the equator from winter to summer has been fantastic, but it has messed up my sleep rhythm a little bit. It is light out right now until well after 8PM, and the sun rises obscenely early.

I kept the little sleep mask that Delta gave me on the night flight over here, and I've been wearing it at night. It's helped my sleep pattern a lot. I'm very sensitive to light, and wearing the mask helps me to get to sleep faster and wake up when I want to in the morning.

I've used sleep masks before, but often-times the ones I have bought are uncomfortable because the elastic is too tight, and I stop wearing them.

A bonus: Rob can use his computer in bed without the light waking me up.

Colonia, Uruguay

Image: courtesy of raabenb @ Flickr

Went to Colonia, Uruguay for the weekend. A quaint little village on the mouth of the river. We took the fast boat, which got us there is about an hour.

Couple of lessons for next time:

• Uruguay uses different plugs than Argentina. Only an hour away, but bring an adapter. (This is why I had to grab a photo from Flickr. Didn't have an adapter to charge camera battery.)
  
• Avoid renting a dune buggy to get around. Although it is reminiscent of the Speed Buggy cartoon, it's loud and bumpy. Take a scooter or golf cart.
  
• Instead of coming back Sunday night, we had to get an extra night in a hotel so I could empty the contents of my stomach. Not sure if it's the flu or bad food, but I will avoid seafood from a sleepy restaurant next time.
  

Overall, it's a nice little place for a weekend getaway. And it's true, our passports are stamped for another three months.

Buenos Aires Field Notes: Little salt, please?

I think we discovered the mystery to Rob's fainting. The clues were these:

1) I see a lot of people (especially on hot days) drinking this stuff , which looks like soda, through a straw. I thought it was soda, in fact, because so many people drink that too. Coca-Cola in bottles is very popular here. Then, in the grocery store, by the Gatorade, I noticed it-- water with electrolytes added. Aha!

2) People liberally salt everything. In a café, you typically have a salt-shaker on the table, but no pepper. And when everyone gets their food, the first thing they do is pour salt over everything. I thought this was a little weird.... until....

3) Rob's acquaintance (an Irishman met in the same ex-pat bar), asks him if he's getting enough salt. That's the medical advice he got when he first arrived and wasn't feeling well.

4) We're sweating. A lot. I'm not a very sweaty person, and on a normal day without a lot of exertion, my blouses are wet under the arms. Imagine how much water we are losing through evaporation that we don't notice.

So. I bought the water + electrolyte stuff at the store (which costs 1/2 the price of Gatorade because it is made in-country), and after we each gulped down a bottle, we felt like we had more energy than we had had since we arrived. And Rob hasn't fainted or felt light-headed since. We had already been drinking water, but I guess it wasn't quite enough.

Lesson learned. Don't take salt for granted. Yes, you can have too much, but you can also have too little.

Field Notes: Good Things About Big City Living

We saw Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola and Jean Luc-Ponty in concert the other night.

We saw the ad in the subte (subway), looked up the address of the theater in a newspaper, took a cab there, bought two tickets in the second row, and bada-bing, bada-boom. Culture. (The tickets weren't a bad price, either, considering what they would be in the U.S.)

It was a great show. The porteños loved it. Funny thing, though. They aren't very animated during the concert. Only a couple of guitar geeks were bouncing around to the music in the front row (and me a little bit). Everyone else just sits still and listens. But you can tell they love it when they applaud.

Breaking News: Kenpo Faints In Ex-Pat Bar

So the other day, Rob is out walking around Buenos Aires in the 32º Heat (89º Fahrenheit), and it is very humid outside. He goes into Shoeless Joe's, the ex-pat bar, has a couple of drinks. He gets up suddenly, becomes light-headed, tries to make his way to the men's room, and faints. That's right-- faints.

He wasn't drunk. The employees rushed over and helped him. He popped up, had some food, and made his way home.

He says it is the most embarassing thing that has ever happened to him. So of course, I have to blog about it.

Poor thing. He's so fragile. Delicate, really. I'll have to keep an eye on him.

Field Notes: Caffeine, Please?

I hate to sound like one of those snooty ex-pats who wants everything to be just like it was back home. I like to think of myself as pretty adaptable, really. And I will try to keep my blog posts balanced about the good things and bad things that I experience. There are just some things that are easier to adapt to than others. That said.....

I have a problem with the coffee down here. Not only does it taste different (which I will get to momentarily), but it doesn't seem to have the same caffeine content as in the U.S. Several days after my jet-lag should have worn off, I still felt groggy in the mornings. That is, until I found.... ta-da! Cafiaspirna!

It was a revelation. It's aspirin! It's caffeine! It's Cafiaspirina! Two pills have about the same amount of caffeine as one cup of coffee, so I can ween myself off my Starbucks addiction gradually.

Now as to the taste: well, it just tastes different. I'm not a complete coffee geek, so I'm not sure, but I suspect they brew their coffee at a high temperature which gives it a different flavor. That, and the beans are from a different area than I am used to. Whatever the reason, I can only manage to suck down café con leche, which is a mixture of about half coffee and half milk when I go to a café.

As for the ground coffee for sale in the grocery store: it has sugar added! That's right. Sugar. It tastes awful. I managed to find a brand with no sugar added that is decent, so that is what we use at home at the moment.

We have been told that Bonafide is a coffee shop with gourmet coffee, but of course, as with anything imported it actually costs more than what we would pay in the U.S., so it will have to be many degrees better to be worth it.

Well, they say Starbucks is coming soon to Buenos Aires. I'm sure the locals won't like it, but I suspect there may be a line of ex-pats outside the door opening day. I don't think people will be running around with paper cups of coffee everywhere, though. People don't have coffee to go here. You drink and eat sitting down. The only exception I've seen is a few people sipping soda from a bottle with a straw in the heat. So Starbucks will have to adapt to the café culture here. Let's just hope they keep the same flavor as back home. I can adapt to a lot of things, but my morning cup of coffee is a bit sacred.

Field Notes: ¡Béseme!!

Lots of kissing going on in Buenos Aires. Everyone kisses hello: a single kiss on the right cheek. Men kiss hello as well, which is a little awkward for some yankees. If you meet a friend on the street, you kiss them hello and everyone with them, whether you know them or not.


Lots of public "necking" as well. It's not uncommon to see a couple sitting on a park bench kissing away, blissfully unaware of what's going on around them.

In fact, I would say there is a lot more physical affection here in general. People will routinely touch you when they talk to you, either on the shoulder or arm. Couples hold hands while walking down the street, even septuagenarians. Many couples choose to sit next to each other at a restaurant instead of across from each other, so they can cuddle.

Romantic, really.

Mmmmmwwwa!

Brilliant!

I packed our clothes in 10-gallon Ziploc bags, and pushed all the air out of them. It helps orgazine everything and saves space. (More room for books!)

Who knew 10-gallon Ziploc bags existed?