year of the ox

We had to watch the inauguration from a Brazilian bar up the street, as the expat dive we had intended to go to was packed to street overflow, due to the Buffalo wings special and huge local TV crew that filled the bar to get the 'American reaction'. This was my favorite part:

And not just for the pleasure of seeing the back-end of a jackass and his last tax-payer-paid helicopter ride, but because of the over 35 degree (that’s like 100 degrees F) spread between our respective temperatures. It was almost worth missing America’s greatest moment in person for the pleasure of watching it in shorts.

On Thursday, Michael and I went down to La Boca to take pictures of brightly-colored shacks:

The next couple nights are a bit of a blur – I’ve been out dancing until 6AM, pretending not to have cancer. What’s funny is that people don’t seem to notice. They can’t even tell! Amazing.

Saturday was to be my night in (the weekends are for amateurs), but my neighbor invited me to a barbecue at his place to meet his girlfriend’s fantastic parents and brother:

I was grilled by the father about all things Czech for much of the evening, until we moved on to the topics of Basque nationalism, the Spanish monarchy, winemaking and New York in the early ‘70s (last time he was there). We laughed and bantered until 4AM. Coty (the lovely girlfriend – Constanza) said that they never stay up past 2, even on Christmas, so the evening was declared an unparalled success!

Yesterday we went from the overcrowded frying pan that is the San Telmo street fair straight into the fire of the ‘Ballio Chino’ for New Year’s:

All the restaurants, as well as the streets and sidewalks, were jam-packed, so we had pizza at a nonstop, but I did manage to find my ‘membranous milk vetch’ in a supermarket, so that’s a relief:

The year of the ox should have interesting implications in the Czech Republic, so please keep me posted. Ann comes to visit on Sunday. Can't wait.