Yes, today I went grocery shopping. In fact, I can’t shop for much because my kitchen is really just a stove, sink and very little else crammed into a cupboard! I did boil an egg today though, so I figure I could manage pasta too, but I won’t be having any grand dinner parties!

The supermarket was fun, because I was torn between going for things that were partially familiar to me and being more adventurous. Think of the cheese counter back home, with a gazillion types of cheese from many countries. Now think of that all in Spanish! When you start learning another language, names of cheeses are not the first thing you learn! And there’s always a protocol with supermarkets, isn’t there? Here it was discovering I had to get my fruit weighed by the fruit weighing man before checking out.

Anyway, I got enough cold meats etc. to have a lunch at home, and that was the plan. However, as soon as I got it on the plate I realized I hadn’t bought salt! There is also a shortage of cloths in the apartment, so I have to buy some of those tomorrow. I never though grocery shopping could be such an adventure.

This afternoon I planned to do my first sketch. I found this great cafe (one day I’ll tell you about the cafe scene in Buenos Aires), got the perfect seat outdoors facing a fantastic building with an amazing door. I plunged my hand into my sketching bag — and it came out covered in green paint! One of my tubes of paint apparently did not survive the flight from Ecuador— and that reminded me of another item to add to my shopping list for tomorrow — paper towels!

I had planned to go out for a real Argentine steak dinner tonight, but in the end I decided my stomach hadn’t really settled enough yet, so I just had a light dinner again. Tomorrow I’m going to The English Group of Buenos Aires, a Meetup group that focuses on giving locals a chance to practice their English. Apparently it’s the custom to go for pizza afterwards, so that will be tomorrow’s dinner. It won’t be until ten o’clock though, so I’ll be plunging into the Argentine dining schedule! So by the next night I should be good and ready for that steak dinner.

I had two FaceTime conversations today, one to Canada and one to Scotland, and they both worked beautifully, so it seems the Internet is in good shape. If anybody wants to have a FaceTime or Skype call with me, just let me know a time and I’ll be happy to do it.

That’s it for today. I’m now going to end my day with a nice glass of Malbec on my little balcony — cheers!