As I sat in the blue chair in the well-lit corner of our hotel room and tried to think of a title for this post, Matt encouraged me to use my best Spanish sentence, which turns out to be “A woman and a man walk.”  Not only does this display my excellent command of regular verb conjugation, it also describes (true to my new blog title) our major activity these last two days.  Although in that vein, I could have said una mujer y un hombre comen or una mujer y un hombre beben vino, because both of those sentences are pretty accurate, too.  And if I knew how to say “we were finally able to change outfits,” I’d throw that in, as our luggage arrived late last night.  I wish I could tell you why they were heavily Saran-wrapped, but we’re both in the dark there.

Having more and clean and warmer clothes to wear has been a real plus, and I’m thoroughly enjoying dressing more like an Argentine woman with my leather boots and tailored coat, although today a little boy selling pens (boligrafos!) approached us and asked if I was Russian.  Go figure.

The women here, like the women in Hangzhou, dress well and are quite fit; in fact, according to the blog of a local expat, Rosarinas are supposed to be the most beautiful women in all of Argentina.  I can’t comment on that yet, but I do like their boots and the way they wear their hair, which is very, very long.  Most of the young women here have hair that falls somewhere between bra strap and booty.  (<– I think that's the first time I've written "booty" in this blog.)  I also like that because there is so much European ancestry here, I don't get stared at ever.  It's quite refreshing.

Something else that makes it easier for me to acclimate to Rosario is this feeling of a shared social sensibility.  I never realized it until I went to China, but there is a real literacy in being able to recognize what types of shops you’re looking at without being able to read the signs or who should move over on the sidewalk first when crossing paths with another pedestrian.  Though I could intellectually learn these things in China, I knew they’d never be second nature for me.  Rosario shares a lot of these norms with the US, and I feel more competent here than I did after two days in Hangzhou.

I’m finding our neighborhood- and the 8500 dogs that cohabit it- quite photogenic.  I can just imagine taking Vilas for walks here.  And then coming home for what would surely be our nightly flea bath.

Tonight, we eat fish (comemos pescados), and tomorrow, who knows.  La buena vida.