Super H20!!!!!

Of all the great and wonderful tastes down here in Argentina, I have to confess that my greatest addiction is to that time-tested old standby... water. Yes, despite the crazed look on my face, there is no alcohol, no additives (except some carbonation), nothing except good old water. Mmmmmm! I remember seeing a carbonation machine at a friend's house in Europe once and thinking it was quite strange, but boy do I understand now. It took Joo a little longer, but she's on full swing now. We keep it chilled and usually add a mixture of Argentinian herbs for some flavor (there are 4 main herb combos sold everywhere here).

In other news, we have finally found an effective way to handle the rampant counterfeit 50 situation here...

I simply take the bill immediately after receiving it from the cashier, and walk to a nearby authority figure and ask them to check. Then (since as the last entry shows, some times even Argentinians don't really know), I hold it up with the number showing and make sure the person who gave it to me is in the background as proof of where I received it. I think this is about as safe as we're going to get (and don't even dream of the alternate solution where I ask for 10's as change instead of a 50... that would get laughter at best and verbal harrassment at worst!)

I forget if I mentioned it, but Joo and I are in limbo now... halfway between living arrangements at Kristophe's apartment. Meaning that we are back in Hotel Carly for about 9 days (just ask Joo for the EXACT amount of time remaining... she's counting down the hours until we can return to the apartment!) It's a friendly place, but the computer gets shut down at 10pm every night, severely limiting translating possibilities and the room is a bit dusty...

But, we're gone a lot more now too. When I'm not studying math, we're off into the downtown at one of our several tango classes. The more classes we go to, the more it seems to get confusing with different teachers enforcing different styles... and yet at the same time, it's quite a high whenever we have a dance (or even a couple steps) when things really click!

And we leave just in time to see plaza republica (or pizza republica) in the center of downtown as the sun sets...