Well, kids, I'm officially unemployed again by my own doing. I know I haven't been great at keeping in touch with each of you individually, so I figured I should let you all know that I've quit my jobs at the institutes and I'm coming home from Argentina for good in a few short weeks. You didn't really expect me to stay in one place for much longer than this, did you?
So as a special treat, I'm going to let you take a virtual walk through my imagination. Okay, this is the part where I dream up a little conversation between you and me...
You: What happened?! Why are you leaving Argentina? Did your evil laundry lady pour bleach into your colors load? Have the drums of the protestors on your street given you a rare and incurable brain disease contracted only by fat capitalists from el norte? Wait! I know, I know...you mastered the Spanish language and now you're ready for a triumphant homecoming!
Me: Uh, not so much...on all accounts. Yes, my evil laundry lady is still evil, but only mostly so. I don't think even she has the heart to sabotage my entire wardrobe. As for the protests, they've certainly grown on me and inspired me to read lefty anarchist literature. Boy am I going to be a fun dinner party guest when I get back! Did I mention that I live across the street from the Communist Party HQ? As for my Spanish, well, I can say this: soy una vergüenza. For the sake of comedy (and your own edification), I refuse to translate this one, but let's say that doesn't quite mean "I'm devastatingly fluent."
No, see I initially bought a plane ticket home because I thought that Argentina didn't have much more to offer me. Now I have to admit that I was completely wrong about that. There's a ton of stuff that I just didn't take the time to explore down here. Not to mention, I've only in the last few months really broken into the reality of what goes on down here. If I could stay for another year or so, then I would really have a good understanding of what it means to be a porteño. Plus my Spanish would be killer.
You: Um, so why are you leaving then?
Me: To put in the vernacular: Visa has me by the short and curlies, and pesos just aren't going to cut it. Just like almost every other foreigner I knew here, I'm leaving because I'm broke. I could definitely go on living off of teaching for another year if I didn't have to send dollars to Visa every month.
You: Wow, that's too bad. So what now?
Me: That's the sixty-four thousand peso question. Got any ideas? Because otherwise when my press secretary is asked "What is Carly going to do next?" he's going to go with the old standby, "Well, she's going to follow her nose."
You: You're going to use a line from a scratch 'n' sniff children's book to justify not knowing what to do with your life?
Me: Well, my middle name is Bunny, uh...I mean....sure! Why not? Really, I do have a thought or two about my next bold move, but I'd rather not post that on the internet. Have you actually read that Patriot Act thingy? I'm not really itching to add post-it notes to my FBI file, if you know what I mean.
You: Okay, Ms. Terrorist. When will you be home?
Me: The week of Thanksgiving, so if you're going to be in the Los Angeles area, let's get together and eat some turkey and be thankful soon. In the meantime, I'm going to count up my pesos and see if I have enough to head down to Patagonia. If not, I guess I'll just cruise out to the casino in Tigre and blow it all on craps. Wait, I don't even know how to play craps! Got any pointers for me?
So as for that last bit about the pointers, I'm open to any wisecracking (or not so wisecracking) suggestions you can dream up for my life. Why not? It's not like I've got anything else planned. Oh, and I guess it would be a shame to call this blog Gypsy Rants and then turn around and only write about Argentina. If you have any advice that involves travel I'll give you a cut of future blog ad revenue!
Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment