Of Cameras, Parks and Coffee

I violated my "Always bring a camera with you everywhere" rule. And of course, was reminded that you shouldn't break that rule. So I'll have to describe what I've seen.

Today's been a bit slow -- too time time in my head, too little time speaking or studying Spanish. I sat outside on balcony this morning after breakfast, as is my custom, and started to study using the new flashcard program I've been playing with, iFlipr, which works both on the computer and on my iPhone. As is also my tradition, I went through the stages of infatuation ("this is great, my life's going to be so much better now!"), irrational defense ("these people complaining in the comments section don't know what they're talking about! They must be using an older version"), recognition of problems ("hmm, import/export doesn't work, the card count seems to have a bug in it. The graphic of the card flipping is cute the first 100 times, but I want speed, I don't want to watch an animated graphic for every word"), disappointment ("and these word lists have no quality control") to finally, the end point and beginning point for many, many programmers: "I can do a better version of this myself."

So instead of studying when to use the imperfect v. the preterite, and when to use the subjunctive v. the indicative, I spent my time researching other flashcard programs and mentally structuring how I'd implement my proposed changes.

In fact, though, I don't want to spend my time re-writing a pretty good program, and I'm hoping the author will implement the changes I've suggested. In the meantime, I need to get my brain back into Spanish.

After the morning rain passed, and after lunch and a short siesta, I jumped on Hugo's bike and went to a lovely park nearby. I had my big camera with me (that is, not the pocket one), took some pictures but no sure any of them are keepers. The highlight of my afternoon was meeting a young couple from New York by way of Brazil, who moved here 3 months ago and are studying Spanish and working on a guide book.

Came home, and decided I really wanted an American coffee. A big one. Not one of these teeny concentrated things with 3 drops of creme in it. I noticed my pocket camera still hadn't finished recharging, and I didn't want to shlep the big camera, so I grabbed my computer and headed over to Starbuck's, of which there are very few in Buenos Aires.

There is one, however, at the very American-style mall about a mile from here, and you pass a big park along the way. I saw a group of young people practicing juggling and ball balancing and stuff like that, which was pretty cool to watch. And I was bummed that I didn't have my camera.

I got to Starbuck's, and saw a line of about 40 people, decided I didn't want it that bad, and went to McDonald's (my annual visit), which has been advertising their McCafe with a coffee-bar. I didn't see any real American coffee, so I went with the Frappe-Cappucino with Dulce de Leche, which probably had a zillion calories in it, and given that I'm in desparate need of real exercise, I felt just a tad guilty.

I went back to the park to enjoy my iced coffee, and sat near the group of jugglers, who were now sitting in a circle playing cards, laughing, hands constanly moving with a ball or something being passed back and forth. I was hoping they'd start juggling again, but no luck.

So while I'm sitting there, I'm taking in all the other sites, or actually, trying to avoid taking in the other sites, as this seems to be "Make-Out Saturday in the Park" day. Not just snuggling and holding hands, but an all-out, rolling on the grass, lip-smashing, silivia-sharing love-fest. And it was all around -- at least a dozen couples between the park earlier today and this one. Started to feel a bit lonely, not too much, but enough to think "Although I like the handful of friends I've made here, I'd like a few more", usually a sign I've spent too much time alone.

The other site that was worth seeing was an acrobatic woman who was doing extreme stretching, and then hung a large piece of cloth from a tree (which she climped up with amazing ease). The then proceeded to come down from the tree holding on to both sides of the cloth, doing flips and standing and upside-down slides and a chair and something else. Really amazing. And bummed I didn't have my camera. And also bummed that post-yoga moves, she lit up a cigarette. Seems so counter-intuitive, given how many health-conscious athletic women to do yoga in DC who would never even imagine following up yoga with a smoke.

So while I'm watching the jugglers not juggle and yoga-girl doing her act and avoiding the grope-fest and the drunk behind me playing with num-chucks, I pulled out my computer and started reviewing my video interviewing software, figuring out what else I need, besides courage, to start interviewing people. Came up with some good ideas, partially based on my flashcard-thinking earlier today, but this has resulted in a somewhat long to-do list of clever ideas that are keeping my brain from thinking Spanish and require a decent amout of programming concentration.

And how am I possibly supposed to do that without Starbuck's coffee?