Domingo, primero

Today was a very uneventful day. After some late-sleeping and card-playing, we headed to the Jumbo to do our share for the Argentine economy. We purchased our first Yerba Mate, the national drink -- a bitter tea that is drunk with metal straws straight from a small bowl that people regularly walk around with, or store in their bags, so they are prepared whenever the mate urge calls. Two days ago we tried our first mate with Tatiana. All I can say is that I suspect the attachment to the drink has more to do with the tradition than with the taste.

We managed to sign up for nearly free delivery from the Jumbo. We came home and while Jonah and I were out eliciting stares for our game of baseball catch in one of the parks near our apartment, the delivery from the Jumbo arrived to our apartment door. This definitely has the making of a mate-like tradition in our household.

We had our final "class" with Tatiana downtown, in Recoleta. We started at the main branch of El Ateneo, the bookstore chain. This has to be one of the grandest bookstores I have ever seen. The bookstore is in a rehabilitated 19th century theater, with the "stage" now a cafe, and the main seating area (and balconies) filled with books and chairs and tables. Quite spectacular, and packed with people.

We ended our evening with helado at our local heladeria, an interior that captures a certain feeling here. The design is clearly intended to be quite modern in a certain nostalgic early modernist way -- white walls and counters, some faux Barcelona chairs (ala Mies van der Rohe), nothing on the walls, pure. But of course, the Barcelona chairs are brown and ripped up; wires are hanging down from the back wall, and entrance has been covered with graffitti. Life has a way of intruding on architecture.