HOW A HOBO WINS MY HEART

I have asked about 6 different students if they could travel anywhere in the US, where would they go? "DISNEYLAND!" They shout. If not, they say New York. But I have asked students' top five places to travel in the world, and normally one of the top 3 is the US.

Nick and I had quite the taste-testing experience while he was here. We tried just about every restaurant in Recoleta. He treated me like a queen. We ate Dulce de Leche and Banana Split ice cream, I had Strawberry Daquiris while he fell in love with empanadas and rekindled his love for pizza. In this way, he perfected his Argentina Restaurant Etiquette - asking for the menu, the bill, ordering drinks, AND asking where the bathroom was ALL in Spanish. We figured out together what most items were on the menus, since I usually only order what I'm already familiar with. Nick, on the other hand, was always curious (even if he didn't want to order something... he wanted to know what it was).

Some of our adventures included: taking the subway (where Nick was robbed of his sunglasses), asking for directions (in which we discovered that people don't hesitate to tell you the wrong way. They may not even know what street you're talking about, but they just want to make tourists miserable), and a Pub Crawl around Palermo (in which Nick may have coerced the managers to give me a job that involves a social life). We also discovered that in order to become a hobo magnet, all you have to do is eat outdoors, and homeless children and adults alike will beg and stink up your table until you have shooed them away. Some actually made us laugh - one told me I was good at Spanish, but Nick, not so much. Another sang us a song about Detroit once I told him I was from Michigan. Moral of the story: A hobo can win my heart if he makes me laugh really hard.

I lost my debit card after taking out $400 pesos from the ATM (a blessing in disguise?). Now I will be living off of about 700 pesos until my new card arrives. Wish me luck!