Weekend in Brandsen

This past weekend James and I took a break from the bright lights, big city and caught a bus with our dear friend Kathy out to Brandsen. Brandsen is a small town about 80 kilometers north of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Our friend Pablo lives and teaches in Brandsen, and he invited the three of us out for the weekend. I'm having trouble uploading pictures, so I'll just have to use words on this one for the time being.

After about three hours on the bus, we arrived in Brandsen and began preparing for the asado (BBQ) that night. It's pretty standard to barbecue every weekend here. We bought a variety of meats and vegetables to grill and had a good look around Pablo's stomping grounds. James and I agreed that Brandsen reminded us a great deal of the suburbs of Tampa, minus the beach. This photo (the only one I can get up so far) is of Pablo's dog, Tricycle. You may notice that the dog only has three legs. Pablo told of that one of his legs, "caught off." A gruesome translation, if I ever heard one.

The asado was fantastic, of course. It was the four of us, plus Pablo's friend Chicho. Chicho brought over a grate and set it up on top of some cinder blocks, building a fire on the ground. A friend made the point that, in college, we had a grill whose legs broke off. We ended up propping the grill up on cinder blocks and it worked fine. Some things are the same everywhere, I guess.

After many liters of Quilmes (the Bud/PBR/High Life-equivalent of Argentina) and tons of food, we headed for the ice cream parlor. Being an English teacher, Pablo had some pupils come say hello and practice their English talking to us. Neighbors speculated as to why Pablo had so many American friends - we stood out, as you can imagine.

We spent the next day walking around La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires, the providence. La Plata was a nice place, with a beautiful cathedral. Lavender grew everywhere and as a result, the air smelled sweet and clean everywhere. Even the trash was like aromatherapy. Sort of. We also went to an outdoor market, where people were selling purebred puppies for the equivalent of a hundred U.S. dollars. We had to drag Kathy away crying and screaming, shooting estrogen out of her pores (these dogs were fucking cute).

It was then back on the bus and to Buenos Aires. It was only home and in the shower that I realized that the mattress I had slept on in Brandsen had bed bugs. I was bitten all over. I have pictures of that as well. We will hopefully get those up soon. I know you can't wait.

Kate.