That’s not how my day was but it has ended on a good note. Supper has been a bit of a thorn in my side lately purely because staying in a hotel is fun, and eating out is great, but only for so long (especially when you’re on your ace). And my new hotel doesn’t have a restaurant, only beer…..
So today I needed to find the Golden Arches…somewhere. I had spotted one when dropping my laundry off yesterday morning, but it looked closer to Cape Town than where I was standing. But tonight I was willing to make the trek. The road it’s on is not exactly Rodeo Drive either, so on the way out I asked the guy downstairs at my hotel if he thought it was safe to walk down there. He nodded and smiled (charasmatic feller that he is), but there was definitely something about the way he looked at me which made realise how stupid my question must have sounded. This was punctuated when I saw how okay the walk actually was. It’s not that far and if you take the street behind Scalabrini Ortiz (Rodeo Drive) then it is fine. Now there are a few important things I need to mention about McDonald’s in Buenos Aires (Julz/Cath take note), and maybe there are other places that follow a similar presence.
1) The drinks do not come with an ice/beverage ratio of 6:1. That being 6 parts ice to 1 part cooldrink. In fact…they don’t come with any ice!!
2) The Coca-Cola tastes just like….Coca-Cola!
3) Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Not to everyone’s liking, but it is to mine!
4) You get more than 1 sachet of Ketchup (and they don’t charge you for it like in London)
5) McCafe. A coffee shop version of Macky D’s located next to most McDonald’s that I have seen. And that’s all I can say because I haven’t tried it.
But to talk about more interesting things than Argentine fast food, earlier today I had my second Spanish lesson. Spanish lesson # Dos (2). It went very well, although learning all the tenses and verbs made my brain feel like it was on a Fuzzy Logic setting in the washing machine. Rinse and Spin came after, when back at my desk I had some fun times with my all time favourite client (most adjectives used in this sentence is/are sarcasm). But the Spanish is going well and I am happy with the pace. It’s also really awesome that I have a lovely tutor all to myself. My new set of co-workers are quite enamid with the whole language thing, and are loving the opportunity to learn more English. They also seem to love my attempts at trying to speak in Spanish, especially when it comes to all the hellos and goodbyes. My favourite word officially is Chau (Ciao in Italian). Today I was so caught up in saying it because everyone was starting to leave the office. I almost signed off an email to a client with Chau instead of Regards. But back to washing machines quickly…. After work today I had to fetch my laundry from the laundromat. En route to the laundromat, I was wondering about my items of clothing which I had abandoned there yesterday. I wasn’t sure if my jersey was going to come out a few sizes smaller, and I was really hoping and praying that I had already washed all the blue (azul in Spanish) out of all my jeans. When I’d taken my clothes there, I just had to accept a real drop-and-go transaction. I had not the foggiest idea of how to engage the kind lady in a ‘domestic do’s and don’ts’ conversation. Between us the dialogue was simple. It went something like this:
Lady: Manana
Dianne: OK
She also asked me something about Blanco and Negro (darks and lights I deduced) so I indicated to throw it all together (cursing my inability to question whether they would be using cold water) and then she showed me the $10 and 19h00 on the receipt. Collection was easy. I paid the $10, smiled, said ‘Gracias’ and walked out the door. Anyway, I am pleased to report that I can still wear everything that came out the bag and each sock has been accounted for. 
