Happy gnocchi day! Feliz ñoquis del 29!

In case you didn't know, the 29th of each month in Argentina is Gnocchi Day! Can you imagine a better holiday? It comes once a month, not just once a year, and the whole purpose is to celebrate food. More details & quite a nice little article here. The bottom line is that we eat ñoquis on the 29th because of something having to do with payday, either that on the 29th you are poor and waiting for your paycheck, and flour & potatoes are cheap, or that you're celebrating that you got your paycheck, or that you put money under your plate because it's financially auspicious. Something like that. Somewhere along the line all the supersticions mixed in my head and I started to believe that you are actually supposed to put gnocchis under your pillow on the night of the 29th for good luck and prosperity, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. It sounds messy.
Anyway, E & I are going to Las Violetas, my favorite favorite old school BA café, for my last Gnocchi Day in Argentina. ¡Buen provecho!

And some more pictures of gnocchi to get you in the mood...

Gone Fishing...

I'm on vacation! Vacation in Buenos Aires. Taking my last couple weeks in this beautiful city to relax, say good-byes, and scamper around with my beautiful and intrepid friend E who has come wayyyy down South to visit me, and try not to get too sad about leaving.

p.s. it is obviously a conspiracy that Spring finally came just as I'm about to leave and the city could not look prettier. Le sigh.

Ch-ch-changes

I think of myself as someone who doesn't like change. But it seems that I actually have a strange addiction to it, as hard as it is. It's scary but exhilirating to not know what's going to happen next. All good things come to an end, and somehow I suddenly have less than a month left in Buenos Aires.
Yesterday was my last day of work as an English teacher. It's funny - I don't feel as sad or happy or anything as I expected. The hardest thing was saying goodbye to my first beginner student ever, Marcela. I've gotten close to a lot of my students but for some reason with Marcela it was more emotional, maybe because I've really seen her on this whole process of learning a language and I was so proud of her. Despite being completely different (me a random aimless foreigner here and her a mom in her forties with a family and office job and everything) we really clicked and could legitimately have fun and be silly together. In our last class we got close to tears laughing at how much we both hated The English Patient (Marcela: "Like, WHEN he die??") And then we actually both got close to tears again saying goodbye.
I've been trying my best to not think about leaving but for the first time today I did feel a little homesick for California, for family, the way the streets and the people look, how the air smells, and I got a little excited to go home.
Meanwhile I'm just going to appreciate every last minute I get to spend in this city - the way the sky looks and how the elevators smell (if you've been here you know what I mean, they ALL have the same smell), castellano, subte, dulce de leche & asado, the energy and pulse of the city. And as my friend Nina says, Buenos Aires isn't going anywhere. I can always come back.