Now I already know what you are thinking: ¨Wow, a holiday just for students? What a nice idea ... Argentines must really appreciate the hard work that these kids are putting in.¨ Not so fast. We have seen not only the Day of the Student, but also the Day of the Grandparents, the Day of the Friend, the Day of the Teacher, and, among many others, The Day of the Gnocchi, since I have been here. I kid you not. I walked down the street one day and every restaurant seemed to have a Gnocchi special -- one of them claimed it was the Day of the Gnocchi, and as hard as it was to believe, I think it was an official event. Because I believe that Argentines do appreciate the hard work the Gnocchi is putting in, and because I couldn´t make that up.
Naturally, when a country schedules so many ¨holidays¨ a few of them are going to overlap, as was the case today, and while this may at first seem like poor planning on the part of whoever is assigning arbitrary days to these random, meaningless celebrations, the conflicing holiday today was The Day of Spring. The first day of Spring. Spring Day. And Student´s Day. Sounds like Spring Break. Sounds like fun.
Now for the down side. Whoever scheduled these days did so on a Sunday. Weak. And on a cloudy, altogether un-spring-like Sunday. The gall.
Anyways, my roomates and I went out to a local park where there was supposed to be some stuff going on. Not quite what I had in mind, but I´m glad we went. Sure, most of the students there may have been ¨elementary school students¨. Sure, the games may have been designed for ¨small children¨. Has that ever stopped me?
The human foosball looked enticing until I saw the inflatable American Gladiators set-up. I´ve always wanted to be an American Gladiator (of course I´m thinking Nitro, Turbo, and Gemini, not the freakish Wolf Guy that was on the Hulk Hogan version last year) and this is my chance. Game on. The gauntlet was thrown, and Mike 2 and Mike 3 climbed into the inflatable ring.
I leapt onto the inflated pedestal right away, and right away I realized that a 180 pound guy displaces a lot more air than a 75 pound 3rd grader. I wish we would have filmed it, but the picture above is going to have to suffice. I couldn´t get onto the pedestal for more than two seconds without it buckling beneath me. I face-planted immediatedly, and continued to do so throughout the ¨bout¨, laughing hysterically the whole time. It was stupid, but it was a lot of fun. There was also free candy involved, so Student´s Day, and the Gladiator Ring in particular, gets my approval.
I guess that´s the upside of having two holidays in one day ... if Spring Day is ruined by terrible weather, there is another excuse to go do something dumb.
Moving on. I forgot to mention, but last week I got hit by a biker. Not a Hell´s Angel, thank God, and not really a Lance Armstrong type either. Local paper boy would be more on the right track. I got BLINDSIDED.
Anyways, it was completely this guys fault, but when I got ran into he was the one that got wiped out. I limped away with a cut knee and bruised hip, but the most damage was done to my manhood, because I gave out a really terrible shriek when I saw this guy hurtling the wrong way down a one-way street.
Enough of that ... here´s a photo I took a while back that I just got around to uploading.
My pleasure reading has reached a stand still, but my school reading has really picked up, and I expect to smash the rest of my midterms in a few weeks and enjoy my Andean trek guilt-free. Ah, my Andean trek. I can´t wait. I´m not sure how much, if any, of this trek will be spent in the Andes, but the majority of it will certainly be spent in their shadows, which is close enough for me.
RJ should be here in under 2 weeks. He is going to love it. That´s all for now, happen Student´s Day, and take care.
4 comments:
The 29th of every month is the dia de noquis. It is an old tradition, I think I remember reading that it was because at the end of the month workers didn't have any money left for anything with meat. My teacher scoffed at this when I tried dropping knowledge in class but I'm sticking with it.
I'm laughing out loud about the biker by the way. How the hell was it 'completely his fault'? I doubt he hunted you down, step your game up.
Alright, check it out. One way street ... I´ve always been under the impression that bikes follow the same rules of the road as automobiles. If you don´t draw the line there you get into a fuzzy grey area ... do Go-Peds count? How about scooters? Strollers? .. you get my drift.
So this guy is hauling ass, apparently, down the wrong side of the road, because I arrive at the intersection, look left, don´t see anything.
Traffic coming from the right. I wait a few seconds, wait a few more, than make my move, into the intersection. I see a flash, and that´s it, out of the corner of my eye, and by the time I turn my head to look the handlebars are bucking up and this guy is on the ground. I, of course, gave a blood-curdling cry, although I´m not sure why. I must have though this guy was gonna hit me like a Mack Truck.
hope you are ok, hon. that's scary. have you ever seen a comedian named demitri martin? he reminds me of you. miss you!
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