Happy Teacher's Day!

Today is Teacher's Day in Argentina-- that's me! I'm celebrating in a couple ways.

1) Tonight I am going out to dinner with everyone from the English Institute that I work for, Network Institute. They've invited us all out to celebrate our day, and conveniently the restaurant is located right down the street from me. Also, it'll be a good opportunity for me to meet everyone, because although I recognize most of the teachers by sight, I really don't know any of them at all. They are all Argentines (I'm the one native speaker at the school, so of course they pimp me out) so it should be interesting. I'm looking forward to a quiet night of free dinner, meeting my colleagues, and celebrating my very first Teacher's Day together. :-)

2) YESTERDAY, I QUIT WORKING FOR THAT CRAZY %$#*& VIVIAN!!! I couldn't be happier! The story is, she never pays me on time, ever. And then when I tell her I need my money, she either doesn't answer the phone or return calls, or she just yells at me and hangs up on me. She's really, truly awful. The worst. So this month, as always, when pay day came and went once again, I sent her my usual emails and made my usual phone calls, and she ignored me. So I called her a million times, and she ignored me. I got really mad, realizing she was screening my calls, and finally called her from another phone... and like magic, she answered! ...Then proceeded to yell and scream at me and.. you guessed it... hang up on me. Ughhh I hate her. So I finally got in touch with her husband, and yesterday after a huge headache and a lot of stress, finally got my money from him. The whole process was incredibly stressful, and this happens every month! And it seems like every month just gets worse and she treats me more and more disrespectfully. I mean, I'm her employee! So I made a difficult but ultimately good decision, and I decided that even though I love the students I teach for her, I have to stop working for her. It's not worth the money, and it's not worth the strain on my mental health. The moment the money hit my hand last night, I sat down and sent her an email explaining that I was resigning, effective immediately. This decision means a smaller paycheck, but it also means more free time, more time to potentially take on new students, and more time to take care of myself. And a whole lot less stress.

Happy Teacher's Day to me!

Día del Amigo

Today is Friend Day in Argentina... so Happy Friend Day, friends! I adore the idea of a Friend Day, and apparently so do the Argentines. It's a very popular holiday here, so popular, in fact, that supposedly the restaurants and bars all fill up, you can't get a reservation anywhere, and the cell phone companies become so overburdened that it can take hours to get a message through. Now that's what I call a holiday!

Also, according to the locals, Friend Day was chosen to be celebrated on July 20th because it is also the day we crazy humans first landed on the moon back in '69. The ironic thing about this for me, of course, is that it was an American who first made it to the moon, and yet it is the Argentines who appear to be celebrating it. Huh.

I vote that we start a Friend Day in the United States, only it seems fitting that we should celebrate it on one of Argentina's obscure holidays... personally I vote for December 8th, aka Immaculate Conception Day (Día de la Inmaculada Concepción). Yes, Immaculate Conception Day, indeed. Because nothing says "friends" like unwanted pregnancy.

It's not snowing

Greetings! Today is not only a day off of work for Argentina's Independence Day (for which our famous world's widest road "Avenida 9 de Julio"--12 lanes in all-- was named), but it is also my first official day off the cleanse! Woo hoo!! I made it 30 whole days, and i feel excellent. I'll be celebrating with some yummy Korean food at my new Korean friend Jessica's house, and maybe a little bit of wine. :-) But yes, I need to be careful not to fall back into old bad habits...

Today also marks the 2nd anniversary of the first snow in Buenos Aires since 1918. Yes, 2 years ago today, the city received a white dusting of snow.. the kids went nuts and all ran outside to play, and some people touched snow for the very first time. Today, it's certainly not snowing (it's quite nice out, actually) but it is a cool little anecdote, I think.

This year, we don't have snow, all we have is.... swine flu. Blahhhhh.