Endorphins make you happy!

Good way to integrate oneself into the local scene? Join a local gym! Considering soccer practice/games with Universidad de Belgrano have been postponed until further notice (Yup, because of cursed Gripe A, aka SWINE FLU), I need another way to relieve stress and get those endorphins pumping! Although I had come with a friend to this gym once before to try it out, I officially paid my one month membership fee today (was 10 pesos short, but the gracious lady who works at the front desk gladly offered to wave the difference until I return in the future). Have now taken a pilates class and a light weight-lifting class. My reaction? My new best friends are going to be 50-year-old women! But I'm okay with that! Also, I absolutely adore the woman who has taught both classes, Nelida. She is very ripped and has boobs that are impossibly too big for such a toned body, is incredibly animated, and demonstrates enormous quantities of patience with students like me who A.) cannot fully understand everything she is saying, and B.) are incredibly uncoordinated when it comes to certain moves in Pilates involving bosu balls. The machinery is a bit sad--a handful of the bikes are lacking seats, and the incline feature on the treadmills doesn't seem to work...but no importante--the friendliness of the people that frequent this gym make up for it. Besides, it's refreshing change from state-of-the-art Wooden Center and Gold River Racquet Club.

School was kind of boring--it has been raining all day and so was a bit gloomy to begin with. Trudged to school in the rain and immediately regretted having worn jeans. At least I had on comfy good-for-walking shoes (no more blisters, please!). School was a ghost town, considering winter break has been extended for all of the Argentine students because of yup, again: GRIPE A!!!, so only international students had class. Spent an hour on grammar and then watched a movie for the rest of the class "Luna Avellaneda," a relatively new and popular Argentine film. The thing is, I generally tend to have a hard time following movie plots, even when in English and about themes with which I'm relatively familiar. Although exhausting, I can get through foreign films that have English subtitles. However, I think I may be a lost cause for films in foreign languages with foreign subtitles. I literally had NO idea what was going on in this film, and I'm pretty sure the plot was preeettty basic. There were a million different unfaithful relationships to follow, all of which became a very densely entwined web of nonsense in my head after 2 1/2 hours. I am going to equate the experience with watching Love Actually for the first time and catching only about every other word of the script. Hmmm. I am going to blame some of this also on the plain old Monday morning blues....

On another note, I uccessfully bought 3 tangerines and a pear today from the "China Man," as Maria calls him, in the fruit stand across from my apartment this afternoon.

Dinner time soon, and perhaps later a jazz concert in Palermo. Wonderful, wonderful.

Getting excited for this weekend's trip to El Tigre! Will spend 3 nights in an upscale river-side resort (1150 pesos for 3 nights/5 people...in other words, 20 US bucks a night per person? Not bad...!) and then go on a guided hiking/kayaking excursion on Sunday. Thank you, Spain, for granting Argentina independence in the first weeks of July. You must have known that a group of international students would be yearning for a break from academic rigor at this time in the future!

Besos,
Allison