Dead on Arrival - ??

domingo 11 de enero 2009
21:06 GST

Still muggy from the Ambien...I didn't sleep long enough for it wear off completely....I made it swiftly through customs. Upon exiting I tried to soberly recall what my Buenos Aires guidebook instructed me to do...and did the opposite (damn ambien). Instead of going to the Bank right outside of the exit I went to a currency exchange booth inside where they ripped me off and gave me got a lousy rate (I found out later they exchanged my money at $2.9 to the dollar when in actuality its $3.4!!) Secondly, my guide says to take a taxi oficiale as they are safe and cheap...but I head to a booth that says "taxi" on it, and of course it turns out to be a towncar which I also overpaid. argh.


My apartment is in a barrio aka neighborhood called Once (own-say..the # 11 in spanish), which is pretty close to downtown. Cool building, marble hallways, antique elevator..Settled in my room and was given a nice glass of ice tea and honey then passed out.
Around 5 pm the women I was staying with, Mirka, and I walked around the neighborhood, hopped on the B train and headed to the last stop N.Alem where I'll be getting off for school the next morning. Walked up Av.Eduardo Madero along the Port and ended up at my school's building. On our walk back we went along Av.Cordoba to the Galerias Mall and then all along Calle Florida (which is way too crazy, like Canal street in NY...a bunch of tourists trying to score cheap shit that is way overpriced and then getting their thousand dollar cameras stolen out of their backpacks)...we walked until the lady got too tired and jumped on the train back to Once, I decided to keep walking around, jumped into a shop and bought flip flops for like 8 bucks cause the shoes I was wearing had already ripped my skin off making every step insanely unbearable.

Kept walking until I reached this triangle of streets where they were filming some sort of movie and using leaf blowers to send a million little paper hearts in the air...Walked up to the famous Obelisco, jumped on the train there, headed home, got lost when I got out of the subway, found home...ate yummy pasta....passed out early.

Journey to BA -the Missing Pen

I guess I didn't realize that this blogging thing would take much discipline, I have bad blogging manners. Today is a chill day, it's finally cooled down to 27 degrees celsius ummm 81 farenheit...which is pretty amazing so I'm taking advantage of writing in the outdoor terrace of my hostel. Okay, let's begin:

Saturday Jan. 10th

Woke up at 9 am (!!!) and checked on my flight, secretly hoping it was canceled and wouldn't have to start getting ready right away, I couldn't handle the fact that I was leaving. Procrastinated getting ready, wrote Thank you and miss you notes then went upstairs to have the most delicious homemade crepes with Alex and Jules courtesy of Farida (Jules' mama aka best cook in the world). After Tony P. mistakened Peters briefs for my underwear (seeing as they were relatively tiny, could've happened to anyone) and listening to the extremely playful bickering amongst the fam I started to already get a little homesick for the Warren house. I start to wish (no offense mom) that twenty-three years ago I could have been born half-Egyptian half-Polish so I'd be no-doubtably part of this family.
I am driven to the airport by Tony, accompanied by Jules and Evan...gave goodbye hugs...got into my seat on the plane and immediately passed out...an hour later I was in DC. Seeing as I had a layover for almost 8 hours, I had arranged to meet my cousin Alfonso downtown for dinner. After taking a shuttle to the main airport, a shuttle to the subway station, took the Orange line to the Red line to Chinatown (jeez!) & we met up for food at Chop't...after catching up on the holidays/our lives (we hadn't seen each other in a year), I took the long ride back to the airport and got to my gate just as we were boarding. I luckily had "economy plus," and two empty seats next to me!! Part of the eleven hour flight was recorded deliriously around 4 in the morning on my computer which I will now transfer to here ---can you swear in blogs?? ----



United Flight 847

AHHHHH
We still have 5 hours and twenty minutes.....okay...after three hours I was like, I can do this, its easy! I have all this room, all these movies...I ate dinner...and now, after my second movie...ummm...the whole plane is happily in dreamland and we haven't even reached the top of Brazil!! This is intense, and I lost my fucking pen somewhere between here (Venezuela) and the Dominican Republic and I really wanted to write and I just went on a mission under the seats and under the feet of the people fast asleep in front and behind of me trying to see where it went!! I even considered stealing one from one of the passengers dormido...Its disappeared, plus its not even mine, I borrowed it from the flight attendant when I first got on and she handed it to me with this stern look on her face, "I better get this back..." And She just walked up and down the aisle with a flashlight to check on our "seatbelts" or maybe trying to find me to get the pen back, but I quickly assumed the position of throwing my head back against the window and playing dead, or asleep....but on the plus side I just found the Ambien in my bag after looking for the mysterious pen.....but on the down side, the lady who walked by my seat while I was in the middle of the movie probably every ten minutes with a pitcher of water asking if I was thirsty and consistently waved away, hasn't shown up during this whole investigation and I'm guessing shes not coming back anytime soon cause the pilot just told everyone to put their seatbelts on and so she has to sit in the back, and I don't want to walk back there and find the other flight attendant (owner of the short black pen now rolling down the aisle somewhere)...but I can't go to the middle cabin to those flight attendants because they attend a "different class," and we have been asked not to cross the curtain.....ahhh....still in Venezuela, still 5 hours and nine minutes!!!!!!!!
And I can't even swallow this pill alone because the air is fucking dry on the plane that my mouth is now a massive cotton ball.
I might be going delirious, I just did a little dance in my seat during the chorus of the Regina Spektor song "that time," would be embarrassing but everyone else is alseep....I could probably stand up and dance along the aisles and no one would notice, not even the flight attendants cause they're hidden in the back...only I would be caught once the minor turbulence gets worse and knocks me over.....I'm hungry,,,,I might eat my magazine....I've seen people do that before, eat paper...can't be bad..right? damn this computer light is starting to give me a headache, its the brightest star ever in this dark plane haha what??....Distance traveled: 2626 miles........Apres Moi le deluge....but I have to sleep or I'll ruin my sleep pattern for the week basically..........aaahhh WHERE IS WATER LADY!!? What are the chances of me pressing the attendant light and pen lady coming back here?? I wish there was like a phone, and i could page WATER LADY PLEASE COME TO 24K....damn i wish i brought that salad on the plane from earlier....mmmm apples, goat cheese, raisins, turkey, and spinach greens.....mmmmmmm..i hope this Mirka lady eats goat cheese...but she is a vegetarian and I'm guessing they love goats....i actually don't even care for the cheese, only on my salads....this is ridiculous...WATER I'm dying here!!! Fuck everyone and fuck their eyemasks......AHHH YES!!! They turned the seatbelt sign off....now i just have to wait, its like timed or something, she should be coming with that water annnnnyyy minute now......okay I have a clear view of pen lady....shes hanging out, i'm making a run for it....be back

okay...got a massive cup of water, I hope I don't pass out and end up pissing my pants....that would just be the worst thing...I think I've been caught, as I walked away with my water I could've sworn I overheard Water Lady whisper to Pen Lady, "you should just ask for it back.." well too bad cause I just took my Ambien and will hopefully be unavailable for the remainder of the flight.....

Andrea signing off...somewhere at the northern tip of Brazil.


Okay so 5173 miles have been traveled and we are now fifteen minutes to our destination....I'm bleary.....freezing...poofy,,,,but i slept the whole way after a brief hallucination* earlier, but we can talk about that another time....talk to you on the ground!!


*I'm kind of pissed because I have no recollection of that hallucination and am dying to know what it was!!!

From the Beginning

Before I had this blog thing set up I was keeping a handwritten account of my trip from day 1. So just to get everything covered from the start I'm going to transcribe a summary of what was written starting from:

Friday January 2nd 2009
Somewhere over the midwest 4:14PST 7:14 PST
SFO-JFK United Flight #870

As the hours accelerate in my slow descent to NYC, I am starting the new year off with a nice little adventure. I couldn't have asked for anything better than to spend my first week of 2009 in NY with some of my darling friends : )
I'm completely blind to what is in store for me over these next few weeks/months/years. Unlike some, nothing excites me more than change and running into the unexpected. Do I have any plans for this week in Manhattan?? Nope, not one. Well, actually one: get to Julians apartment from the airport. Usually, I stress myself with lists of people I need to see and places I have to stop by...but I only have one week and it's not like won't be back soon. I just hope for good food, nice weather, and a dancefloor.
~exit

TriBeCa
80 Warren Street (chez Potulicki) 10:30pm EST

Setting up my temporary living quarters with Tony on the second floor. Andre just dropped me off from the airport and I'm already getting incessant texts from Julian to run across the street to Niccolo's apartment. I'm meeting up with them and Carly for drinks...

...1st-->Bubble Lounge: same as the one in SF but I feel like its waaay pricier here.
..2nd-->1 Oak: club/lounge on the west side. Amazing artwork inside, superb ambient lighting haha. Danced for three hours straight minus one potty break...the music was too good to be true. Definitely the best night out I'd had in months...stopped at the delicious Morgans Deli at around 4am then bedtime...

1/3/09
After waking up around 3pm, Carly and I jumped on the 2 train bound for BK to meet her good friend Ben for Champagne and bread (our breakfast)...
Stopped by Gretchen's new apartment in SoHo before leaving for dinner with her bf and two friends at Gemma's Italian restaurant in Bowery Hotel on the East Side...after, walked across the street to Antique for drinks where we were met by Jenna (yay!), Carly, Jules, Peter, Alex, Andre, Niccolo...etc...Home by 5am.

1/4/09
Brunch with Gretchen (reminder: try Shorty's for brunch between 11-3pm), met Matt in Union Square, jumped on the train heading to BK- Prospect Heights, making yesterday and today the most amount of times I'd ever been in Brooklyn...including when I was living here last year.....later went back to the island and met my cousin Alex for Italian food up by 33rd and 3rd. On the train over there Matt and me came across a lost white pigeon who was chillin under the seat in front of us and probably since we didn't get cell service underground, assumed that he/she didn't get navigation abilities underground either and was lost (right?)....went to my new favorite hideaway Smith & Mills for desert and drinks with Matt, followed by a messy night at Sway with Jules and Eric (Matt got us free drinks for the night-he works there). In bed early by 3!!

1/5/ 09

Introduced Jenna to Smith & Mills, accompanied by Jules and Eric...all + Nicc headed to BK -Clinton Hill to chill at Erics and see his new artwork (amazing)..

1/6/09
Nice day with the fam...breakfast with Tony and Jules at Gee Whiz, and then dinner at the house with everyone i.e. the lost boys, and Farida and Tony. Had tea and a two hour chat with Allison in the West Village where we kept getting distracted by the guy next to us who refused his extra chair to everyone 'cause he was "waiting for someone," while he danced in his chair completely decked out in a red Adidas jumpsuit...met up with Matt at Corner Bistro (cheap drinks, yummy greasy food) before heading to Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel...more free drinks and tons of oogling at original pieces by Andy Warhol, Basquiat, and Keith Harring all over the walls. Later to Happy Endings in the LES. Home by 6am...

1/7/09
Hung out at Gretchens place, who was sick and working from home, lucky for me 'cause I got to watch her work on the designs for the MDLR accessories line. I especially loved the "Gretchen" and the "Sabrina," bags...she introduced me to Mad Men...later met my roommate, in town from SF, for drinks with Jules and Eric...drove in an actual car (VW cabriolet to be exact) with the top down in the rain...then a boring night at Sway...home early.

1/8/09
BFast at Le Pain Quotidien on Jules' corner..totally overrated (Yogurt and oatmeal $10??? WTF) Walked around Lower Manhattan ALL day...ended up at One Little West 12th street, super nice lounge, good music, danced with Jenna, Jules and Eric....free drinks and one too many dirty martinis later ended up in the LES at a bar where I vaguely remember an arguement between Jules, Eric, and me about the color of my infamous "blue suede shoes," I thought they were Cerulean, Eric thought, they were___(I can't remember) and Jules said Cobalt. Iphone to the rescue!! With the help of google images and a color match: Cobalt..point for Jules.

1/9/09
First headache of the week!! TGIF I only have one more day of exuberance. Prepared for my big trip, took care of a bunch of errands...ran around the city to the places I least like to visit i.e. Canal street and Times Square to try and exchange my money to pesos...Apparently no one carries pesos cause its worth nothing..JK...but really...frustrated and in a sea of a million tourists from the midwest, Gretchen was just getting off work a couple of blocks away at the de La Renta offices (thats Oscar DLR btw) and took off to her place...met Jenna for a pedicure in SoHo...found out my flight to BA was canceled the next day aahh!!!! drama ensues back on the west coast at casa de Rosales-Wyman, where my parents repeatedly called me from assuming I wouldn't "take care of it," but I did! I switched my flight to the day after, what's one more day in NY?? BUT of course a storm was coming and if I didn't leave earlier, I wasn't gonna get out at all....soo changed it to an earlier time, but in no way did it deter me from going out. Allison and I met G at 1 Oak, which was dead save for some underwear clad bottle servers who were the attention of the only two guys in there and were most likely from Jersey. After about an hour the place is packed and we are on top of the booth dancing...Allison slept over and went to bed...4ish..

BYE NY

The Basics

So I finished the last semester of my Undergrad studies in December of 2008 and the What Next? part of my life is currently "under construction." I only have the month ahead of me planned and I'm taking it in strides. Expect to hear me say "I don't know," to almost any question pertaining to my future as it is my new favorite sentence. Since I'm on a roll with the usage of quotation marks today let's throw in a "Please be patient," as Caltrans would say to most Marinites who expected Hwy.101 to be done a month ago (btw apparently you guys are gonna be waiting until April).

Anyways, I started 2009 running off to one of my favorite cities: NYC. After a week of relentless debauchery on my part (I mean c'mon...not since I was in diapers have I been able to run around with no intention of doing anything but keep myself entertained), I flew my butt to the southern hemisphere on this side of the ocean and landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Being slightly lethargic thanks to this oppressive humidity, sitting and writing more than two emails a day was a little more than I could handle. SOOO with this blog I can bring everybody whom I hold close (or close enough) to my dear heart together for story time.

Well, I hope this isn't boring, possibly funny at times, and keeps somewhat of your interest...

Hasta Manana!