buen dia

hello!
Things have been so fun lately. I met up with the Argentine guy that jessica and i met while we were Italy and he is doing s great job at playing tour guide. His name is Juan, he is kind of older (around 30-32 or so), a lawyer, and he has a car- which makes everything easier. We went all over the city and visited a lot of the tourist spots and went to several of the artisian fairs. He said he didnt mind showing me around because as a native he never goes to see this stuff anymore. and yes, i AM being careful. :) Later that night he invited me to a dinner that he was going to at his friend´s new house. It was SO much fun! i was bascially the guest of honor and they loved to ask me questions and make me try foods that i had never had before. There were only 5 of us at dinner but from the amount of meat, wine, and ice cream there was you would have guessed that there were twice as many people there! The wife of his friend (who were all lawyers) is finishing her doctorate in biochemistry and was super sweet. I hope we hang out again :) Im still getting used to the time differences of how they eat dinner at 10 or 11 and head for home around 3am! but... when in Rome (or Argentina in this case!)
On Sunday my roomate (Italian), another girl (also Italian) and I (not Italian) all went to San Telmo to the largest artisan market in BA. As far as you can see down this one street people are lined up - table to table - with all the stuff they are selling. The exciting and dangerous thing is that all the stuff in really really cool! Remember when i was here the last time and i took a picture of that scary women in fishnets carrying around the head of a doll? well this is the same place :) it is very cool. There are of course a ton of tourists, but there are also Argentines everywhere - of whom all are drinking Mate. Mate is a kind of tea down here where you fill up this little gourd with tea leaves and you pour just enough water in it to cover the leaves - and then you have this fancy ¨bombilla¨(straw) that lets only water through. its kind of funny to see so many people walking around with a hot water thermos under their arm.
Later that night back at the residencia i was invited to eat dinner with my Italian and Argentine friends. I didnt contribute to the meal in the least bit, but at least i washed the dishes :)
So if you cannot tell by how many blogs i have created in the past few days - i have a lot of time on my hands. I will hopefully be starting my work at the hosptial tomorrow - but until then, there is only so much walking around you can do in 90 degree heat with 85% humidity!

chao!