hours in buenos aires.

tuesday, september 23rd

as the wheels of the plane hit the asphalt, i sighed. this was it. now i was seriously beyond the point of return. thankfully, i still had no regrets or doubts about what i was doing. i was nervous or questioning anything. i knew that i was where god wanted me to be. with that knowledge alone, i am at peace. we got off the place and went through the rituals of customs, the baggage claim, the securing of a taxi big enough to fit everything that the three of us brought, and changing money. i took a minute to go and make a call to matias to let him know that we had arrived. we were both so excited and happy. i had to go, so the phone call didn't last long, but it was encouraging nonetheless. we made our way through the streets of buenos aires to our day hotel. we had to stay the day in buenos aires, because our bus wasn't scheduled to leave until just after 9pm. after changing and freshening up  at the hotel, we went to go get some lunch. we didn't go just anywhere, no, we went to "palacio de pizza" or the pizza palace. being a long standing fitzgerald tradition we had no other choice. the pizzas are simple - a good crust with little tomato sauce spread on it, about an inch of mozzarella, some tomato slices spread over the top, and some spices, and badda bing badda bang - a pizza to please everyone. with our stomachs full we went to do a little dirty business for the patriach (my dad)... ok not really. we went to this gallery that had a frame to a painting my parents bought a while ago. they were supposed to send it last april, and "never got around to it," because it wasn't a "priority." we made it clear that we wanted it sent stat. they seemed to take us seriously, and we were on our way. we had nothing to do at that appointment, so we popped into an internet cafe for some emails and catching up. jeremy and mom were done before i was so they headed back to the hotel before i did. i finished up, and i still don't know, but i found my way back to the hotel. in an effort to stay awake and expend some energy in the meantime, mom and i took a walk to the park just a few blocks away. we sat and people watched for a while, but then it started to get cold, so we headed back.i tried to stay awake while watching the 100 countdown of 80s music videos in our room, but the serious lack of sleep from the night before had taken its toll, i slept for a grand total of 30 minutes. then we gathered our things and headed for the terminal. after two and a half hours of waiting around, playing golf and rummy with with jeremy and mom, and having jeremy pilfer my already tiny american food snack supply we boarded the bus for resistencia. of course the guys that load everything onto the bus freaked out when they saw how heavy my luggage was, but i was over it, i just wanted to get on the bus and sleep. the buses in argentina are incredible. especially the overnight ones. they are double decker buses, and the seats lie perfectly flat, so you have a comfortable and sizeable seat to sleep on through the night. there are tv's and the play a variety of things. one time it was current pop videos, but this time it was 45 second clips of music videos of mostly 80s songs. i have never been one to know artist names, but thanks to mary and sarah i knew most of the songs. they ranged from michael jackson to early madonna years, to the band that sings "gloria" as well as the beatles. it was random, but i loved it, i fell asleep maybe an hour into the trip. the morning would bring me to resistencia, to my home, and to matias. i couldn't wait.