This day has just been too utterly ridiculous to NOT blog about! I usually don't write unless I've got a good reason too, which results in really sensational blog entries like Fuerza Bruta! or I hate public transportation! And I promise my daily life is not actually that over the top. That being said...
Saturday night, amidst a twitterpated Skype session, my computer once again stop charging and eventually went dead, unrevivable. Having dealt with this problem once before I knew the protocol, but had to wait til Monday when the electronics repair shop would be open. It's actually amazing how much I accomplished yesterday without having internet access! I read a million articles for Gender Studies, got my essay for today all prepared (since I couldn't actually write it!) and read a whopping whole 5 pages of the Motorcycle Diaries by the infamous Che Guevara (that's actually alot... you should be impressed!)
So this morning, my plan was thus: drop off my computer charger to be re-repaired early in the morning, and head over to the ISA office to confiscate one of their computers for a couple hours to crank out my very well thought out essay before 2:30pm. Well, after a 15 block ride on a colectivo that ALWAYS arrives in the last moment before you're ready to give up waiting, Hugo and his boys tell me that there's nothing wrong with my charger (of course not! They repaired it!) and could I bring in my computer?? So I wait a good 15 minutes for the colectivo, only so that the next one to pull over to the line of us impatiently gathering could change it's sign to "Afuera de Servicio." Realizing I was working against time at this point to get my computer repaired and my paper written, I decided to walk, no, power-walk it home. Once I had my precious non-functioning compu I waited once again for a enfuriatingly tardy colectivo to take be back to where I'd just come (had a great conversation with a lovely abuelita however). I thus present my laptop and its charger in desperate surrender, and the boys concluded that yes, something is wrong inside the laptop, something they can't fix. So they send me across the street to their buddy Gabriel who can.
It's past noon at this point. Gabriel tells me, almost immediately that something inside my laptop has been tweaked (what exactly I couldn't tell you, because I wouldn't have understood even if he'd explained it in English) and he needs to take it completely apart to fix it. An exasperated sigh, and I give him the command, "Hacelo." I can afford $250 pesos and a couple days without Skype, but I need my computer. Plain and simple.
Already exhausted by the backward and forward lugging of electronics, impunctual colectivos, and foreign computer talk, I now address my next task of finding a computer and writing my Gender Studies essay in Spanish in 1.5 hours. TOTALLY DOABLE! I catch another colectivo (ps. gotta insert a shoutout to Estevan de Newman, mi amigo de CLU, for dumping an ungodly amount of monedas on me as a parting gift before hopping a plane to Brazil... that's the only reason I was able to take so many successive colectivos today!) to the ISA office and set to myself to work. This is where I flourish! I'm the thrive under pressure type, at least thats what I say to pardon my insipid procrastination. I'm cranking out in depth grammatically correct sentences on the not-so-cut-and-dry topic of gender and transexuality in a foreign language, almost as fast as I would in English!! I am so impressed with myself in this moment!!!
And then my time limit expires, and kicks me off without allowing me to save a single word.
Its 1:45pm.
Even if I could have remembered what I'd spit out so fluidly that first round, there was no way I could have finished the minimum of 2 pages within a half an hour and still have enough time to print it and walk the 8 blocks to class in time. So... I used those remaining moments to 1. laugh at myself for having tried SO HARD and still been defeated by all elements beyond my control, 2. craft an email to my profesora explaining to her why I wouldn't be handing my paper in today, knowing full well that it would only come off as an elaborate my-dog-ate-my-homework fib, the like of which I am too well-versed, and 3. walk to Chantilly, the aforementioned best confiteria in all of Capital Federal (and possibly the world!) to buy myself the fattest, richest alfajor that ever graced your daytime fantasies.
Que podes hacer?
When life hands you technical difficulties, eat artisan chocolate!
The epilogue to this saga is that Gabriel called me at 7:00pm tonight to tell me (or to tell Sofi who could understand him and who in turn told me) he'd already finished repairing my computer 3 days ahead of the prescribed time! Without needing to be told twice, I grabbed my backpack and power-walked, no, power-sprinted as fast as was socially acceptable, the 15 blocks to my compu and was cosily back in my apartment with a cup of tea by a record 7:30pm, ida y vuelta and already working on my paper faster than it took to wait for the #107 this morning.
So...
$250 pesos
3 colectivos
80 blocks of walking
and a million calorie alfajor later,
and I am back in business!
(Although after my delightfully untethered weekend of productivity, I've decided I really don't want to abuse the luxury of my laptop anymore. I'm past the point of no return in this trip and I'd really like to savor where I am by actually being present in it.)
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