All of you who know me at all know that I tend to be a spastic person. Normally, my head is so high in the clouds, I miss 50% of what's happening in front of my eyes. Well, today was a pretty cloudy day in Buenos Aires - literally and figuratively speaking - and I was as clear-headed as ever! It seems as though I pull myself together best when most people tend to fall apart - in times of chaos.
I started off the day lost after taking the bus without knowing where to get off. Nervous that it was going to take me somewhere far away from downtown before realizing it, I prematurely got off and took the subte, or subway, the rest of the way. With only a few glances at the map in inconspicuous locations (to avoid looking too much like a tourist), I found my way to an internet cafe, to the Western Union, another internet cafe all before noon. Then I successfully found the apartment that I made an appointment to see. Afterward, I got myself back to downtown for a cafe con leche and empanada all in a few hours!
Why all the running around? I LOST my debit card yesterday :( So, in addition to my scheduled apartment hunt, I had to figure out all the logistics of dealing with a lost card. And I had to do it all before the close of business because the 25th of May is Argentina's Independence Day (or one of them, anyway). I would have been sin dinero and sintecho (homeless) if I didn't get it all done!
What surprised me most was not that I was prepared for the worst in the first place. Rather, I went through all the motions of the day very calm and collected. As if it were business as usual. I couldn't figure out why, at first, I wasn't in a panic. But, like a good Clinton School student, I reflected on it a while and figured it out.
It was all those other bad days I've had. Days for which, today, I am very thankful! Not because it takes the bad days to know the good ones, though that's true. Rather, surviving the bad ones gets easier each time.
I'm thankful for the time someone robbed my passport and ID card in Madrid because it assured me that even in the worst situations (without identity or without money), there's always a solution.
I'm thankful for the time I walked a couple miles from the bus stop in Portugal before we realized the hostel was right there. Okay, okay...I'm thankful for all the times I've been lost in foreign cities - You all know there's been a few! Because today I was able to navigate the streets like a pro (or a Porteña)!
And I'm thankful for the seventy-somethingth day of rain in Jerez last year when Barbara and I were sitting at the eatery 100 montaditos. We had permanently soggy feet and were on the verge of tears, but refused to let the rain break us. Because today, I walked 16 blocks home in the rain and didn't melt!
With a little luck and little experience, I made it through the day with success! Without the bad day that had come before, the ominous gray clouds would have got the best of me. I wouldn't have been able to see the silver lining, which is best expressed in the words of little orphan Annie:
"The sun will come out tomorrow!"
Wednesday. May 25, 2011
It's true. The weather forecast called for 50%+ chance of rain all day. However, there wasn't a drop that fell or a gray cloud in the sky.
