The Stuff I Hear, The Stuff I Do

The conversations I hear most of the time are in Spanish, the bus driver speaks Spanish, the baristas speak Spanish, the cashiers speak Spanish. Yes, this is definitely immersion. I thought it might be like this, but really, I had no idea. This is because there is no predicting future situations, in my humble opinion. I could never have imagined that living in Argentina would be like this. I could have never imagined that the way I would feel is strangely inspired. But I do feel that way about my trip here, and that’s a good thing.

I also registered for a poetry workshop while I’m here—it’ll be at the cultural center nearby. I’m pretty excited for that. I’m expecting it to be different. I find the little things funny here, such as the sign on the street that says “Sr. Conductor.” This means something very ordinary in Spanish, but in English, to me, it would probably mean “senior conductor” of an orchestra or something. In Spanish it means the driver of the car, or literally “he who drives.” Or even more literally, “Mr. Driver.”

I have some significant experience under my belt now of navigating things. I still feel a little reliant on my smartphone to get places, but that feeling may subside with time. I have been writing down what I’ve been doing here every day. I am scoping out the music scene in order to find a good spot to go to listen to live music. I took out my own guitar relatively recently for the first time down here and played some music. Elliott Smith songs were the first that came to me.

I found a café called “Café La Poesía” yesterday and ate an enormous hamburger there. It was a nice place, good ambiance. And I whipped out my journal there and wrote a little poetry myself. That’s because “poesía” means poetry, you do know. Took Uber home because I’m not about walking in the rain. I think they may have had literary readings at this particular café as well. That fact would bode well for me because I am about to start writing some poetry in Spanish to use for my poetry workshop that is beginning at the cultural center.

And the café also had a ridiculously good playlist going when I was there. I act surprised that they know about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. But, I guess those two bands were definitely worldwide acts, so I shouldn’t be that surprised. Yesterday was a wet and rainy day.