Don’t Cry for me, Argentina – March 27 – April 1

The last week has finally arrived. This is always the most hectic of weeks since we’re trying to finish up as much as we possibly can and prepare for the exit on Friday, so it was truly odd for me to actually be bored most of the week. I actually took on extra work that we had previously decided didn’t need to be done in an effort to keep busy and have something, however meaningless, to do.

I didn’t do anything on the weeknights except go to dinner and avoid the pushers of everything from leather to human flesh, mostly flesh. There was one guy who got a little upset with me because I started telling him “no” as he started crossing the street to get to me and before he had even opened his mouth to start his spiel. I knew I didn’t want his services, so why should I allow him to start pushing them on me? We mostly stayed near the hotel for dinner. The quality of the food was significantly reduced, but the shorter travel time made up for that.

On Wednesday the Veep came out to see the operation and look over our work. I’m reluctant to have him look at my stuff, mostly because I’m still not all that confident with it despite being told over and over that they’re very happy with my work. I just keep quiet and don’t offer up anything. If I’ve done something wrong, I’d rather it be caught in review by the lead auditor on the engagement than by the Veep. He only stayed one day. We had another team in Santiago, Chile that he was going to visit on Thursday. So we went to dinner with the unit’s management that night and had a good time. I really liked the General Manager. Nice guy with a good sense of humor. He was from Mexico, but looked nothing like any Mexican I’ve ever known. He was blonde-haired and blue-eyed with skin almost as white as mine.

Friday finally came and it was good to get everything over with. We had the exit in the morning, but the lead decided that instead of going right back to the hotel and enjoying the rest of our day that we should stay at the office until it closed at 3:30 and tidy up the report. He tidied. I surfed the internet. I would have much rather seen some of the sights of Buenos Aires that I hadn’t got around to yet, but my opinion wasn’t solicited.

Back at the hotel the staff started to get restless. We’d had the GM’s assistant call someone at Marriott and arrange for us to check out at 7:00pm that night, but that wasn’t apparently communicated to either the front desk or the housekeeping staff. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 10:30 that night, so there’s no way that either of us were going to take our bags with us to the office and drag them around behind us all day until then. Almost as soon we got back to the hotel, the phone started ringing and people started knocking on the door. “Are you checking out today, sir?” and “What time will you be checking out today?” were questions that I had to answer multiple times. I eventually left to go take a walk down Avenida de Florida on last time.

I had a specific agenda for my little stroll down the avenue. I wanted to find one of the leather, Indiana Jones-style hats that I’d seen during my shopping trip. The key was that I wanted to find one in the style I liked at a price I could live with. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a whole lot of luck. I saw several that looked right but the price was too high. I saw some others that had the price I wanted but didn’t look quite like what I was envisioning. Eventually, I found one that was just a couple of dollars off of my target price and was in the style I wanted. I had the clerk all excited that she was going to make a quick sale, and then snatched that happy feeling away from her. I look ridiculous in hats. I think I can pull off a baseball cap, but put a real hat on my head and I just look silly. I tried on this beautiful leather creation and laughed myself silly. I looked like Charlie Brown with a round tray on his head. Give up. Just give up.

I did buy a friend a mate. No, I didn’t find him a woman, that’s something he needs to do on his own. It’s pronounced mah-tay. A mate is the name for both a tea and the cup you drink it out of. It’s a pretty cool looking thing. A fat round bowl with a narrow top and lots of silver (more likely aluminum or steel or some other silvery looking metal based on the price I paid) and a metal straw with a strainer on the end. I think it looks like a good talking piece that he can put on his table. I even gave him a story for it. When I was walking around Bs.As. that first weekend I kept noticing all of these young people carrying these cups around. The way the mate works is that you fill it with the water and then you sprinkle this green herb on top of it. The water swirls around the herbs and it basically forms a tea. The strainer keeps you from drinking the herbs while you’re choking down the drink. I understand it’s an extremely popular drink but that it’s also very bitter. I told some of the people at the office that I would try some, but I never really got around to doing it. I really intended to. Honest.

Anyway, back to the story. I’m walking around, and I see all these people with these bowls filled with herb and a pipe stem sticking out of the top. I’ve been in college, and I’ve hung out with musicians, artists and assorted burn-outs before, so I immediately thought that they were walking around with fully loaded bongs. And it wasn’t just one or two people that were carrying these things around. It was like every 4th or 5th person I saw. Nothing I saw said anything about marijuana being legal in Argentina, and I’m of course thinking like an American, so I just thought that all of these people were flagrantly flaunting the law (in front of a highly visible police presence, I must add) and partaking of a bit of Mary Jane. I finally asked about it on Monday when I got back to the office and got the real story, but it was a couple of days where I thought Argentina’s next generation were just getting high on the streets.

None of the rest of the day is very interesting. We left for the airport at around 7:00. Got to the Admiral’s Club at around 9:00 and waited until it was time to go to the gate. The plane was supposed to leave at 10:30, but we didn’t actually get out of there until more like 11:00. The plane ride was fine. There were a few bumps but nothing to get excited about. We had dinner about an hour into the flight. The film for the evening was “Good Night and Good Luck”, which I was really excited about seeing. I reclined my chair and fixed my eyes firmly on the screen with the intention of finally seeing what was so great about this film. I think I may have made it through 10 minutes. I had the best sleep I’ve ever had on a plane. It was amazing. I must have been exhausted. I got up once around 3am to use the bathroom, but I was pretty much out the whole flight. Wish I could do that every time.