Lazy.

My friend Sasa (can’t do that thingy over the letter ‘s’ that makes it sound like ‘sh’ – copy/paste Saša) just reminded me that I haven’t posted anything.  I told him that I’m being lazy and watching Walking Dead season 3.  This site: http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/ has lots of free stuff, but it’s a hit or miss with what’s really available for free and what requires you to sign up etc.  Watching episode 3.

Yesterday’s weather was gorgeous.  Possibly, the warmest day since we’ve been here.  Walked around a lot.  Couple of good restaurants.  Tango lesson.(Tango)

Louisa made a good observation about why Buenos Aires reminds us of Yerevan.  Probably, the biggest reason.  It’s the street noise.  The buses, cars and the inconsistent noise of suddenly a couple of buses (and those are old buses, almost like the ones we had or very similar), a few cars.  Then quiet.  Then a few more cars.  Sounds of horns.  (People don’t seem  to take any offense on beeping each other.  A fraction of the horns that we hear here – in Alpharetta – the middle finger would require a reconstructive surgery.)  Completely different from the sound of, say Big Apple (Mucho Manzana?).   Hard to explain.  Maybe I should record it.

The night before we stumbled on another Armenian restaurant ‘Sarkis’.  I think this is our 6th or 7th.  The place was big and it was full.  Around 9:30 and the whole place was full.  The restaurants here are popular, especially, late at night.  Side note: it’s pretty unusual walking by a whole bunch of restaurants around 6:30, 7:00 and they look deserted.  Tables are set, glasses, plates, utensils and – no one.  Zero.  2-3 hours later – there are bunch of people.  Having said that, Sarkis had more people than we’ve ever seen – the place was full.  The manager (I think he was the manager) approached us.  He was Greek.  Set us at a great reserved table (don’t ask how).  We had a really good meal there.  We think the place was popular, because their food is a different from most of the Argentinian restaurants.  Argentinian food is pretty much the same.  At least, we think so.  But, opinions and observations change.  Just like it was with the dog poop here.  Yesterday I read about the origin of word ‘poop’.  (looking for the link)…  Found it: http://listverse.com/2013/06/10/10-everyday-words-with-unexpected-origins/

Just went to the kitchen to hit the kettle and remembered to mention another thing.  We actually use matches here.  Real ones.  I remember over 2 decades ago using matches in the kitchen.  Technically, it was longer than 2 decades ago, since after the war for Nagorny Karabakh broke out, the gas (among many other basic life necessities) was cut off from Armenia.  Say it was 1990 when I’d light up a match to start the stove.

Shopping for matches (and salt, and butter and everything else) was fun first couple of days.  We’re in an area where there are virtually no tourists and practically no one speaks English.  The chain of big (not by American standards) supermarkets is called Disco.  I wander if someone was thinking of Tesco and went with Disco.  So, standing in the middle of Disco and trying to find out what the hell you call matches (among all the other names) is fun.  My high-end dictionary on iPhone requires internet connection.  Every cafe and restaurant has one (Sarkis didn’t), but the supermarkets don’t.  Anyway, it’s fun showing people with my hands and fingers what I’m looking for (thank God we don’t use straws).

PS  matches called phosphor.