Sleep Deprived

Thursday, 12/17/09

Some people take pills to sleep better. I've discovered that the best non-chemical way to get to sleep at night is to have stayed up the entire previous night. We – who normally get up at 7:30 – slept in until 10:00. I think that either of us could have slept even later.

Yoyi had said last night that we should close the blinds to keep the sun out in the morning. I said that, since the windows face north, the sun wouldn't come in. I failed to take into account that we are in the southern hemisphere where the sun is always in the North, unlike in Atlanta. Luckily I had closed the blinds even as I demeaned my wife's knowledge of astronomy.

From our window we have a great view the incoming lines of the Retiro train station as well as the cranes and building of the port on the river.

Breakfast in Buenos Aires is Croissants (mediaslunas) and coffee (cafe con leche). We went into the food court of the Patio Bulrich for our fix. In this expensive mall 3 croissants and a huge cup of coffee was $7.00. (That's 7 Pesos, or about US$2.00.) And the mall has WiFi.

Being tourists today, we walked up to Florida, the pedestrian shopping street. After some perfunctory shopping we went into the Gallerias Pacifico to look around and to eat in the food court. The food court of the mall has the obligatory McDonald's, but most of the buffets are much more interesting. Of the 15 or so food services at least three are parillas (meat cooked over a fire) and several others are for sandwiches made of similarly prepared meats.

We had a 250 gram (a little more than 8 oz.) rib steak with a huge bowl of guarnacion (like an upscale salad bar) plus a small beer for $25 (about US$7.00 or $7.25). Grilled to order. To walk off our lunch we explored the area, including the box office at the Teatro Nacional de Cervantes, where we tried to decide which play we might like to see. We also walked past the (still being renovated after how many years) Teatro Colon and the Libertad Synagogue.

Afterwards, we went to a tourist bureau to arrange for some guided tours, so that Yoyi could become familiar with the city without having to put up with a know-it-all husband guide. We scheduled a city tour for tomorrow (2 for the price of 1. Of course). And we scheduled a bus, train, boat tour for early next week.

Still feeling sleep-deprived, we went back to the apartment to rest so that we could go to the theater in the evening. We studied the book that publishes the theater offerings and decided on a few options, all in Corrientes Avenue. At 8:00 PM (20.00) we took a cab to Corrientes only to find our favorite theater closed for the summer – in spite of having been shown as active in December. We walked to the next theater, which was also closed. Finally we bought tickets for “Agosto,” a well-received play this season in Buenos Aires.

The play was very well acted, and had some (we gather) famous actors in the cast. There was no amplification, making it somewhat difficult to hear all the players. To my dismay, the actor that I best understood died early in the plot. The play received a standing ovation. I personally understood somewhere around 60% of the dialogue. But I felt pretty good to learn that Yoyi didn't understand everything either. In large measure it was for not being able to hear well.

Sandwiches were all we could handle for supper, immediately after the play, at 11:45. How do the Porteños manage with so little sleep?