Thursday, May 24, 2007

back into the real world

i took my bike in to palo alto bike shop. they gave it a major tune up, and said it held up really well. all the guys at the shop are so nice. at one piont in my trip i called then freaking out cuz my chain had broke, and they gave me really good instructions (via telephone), on how to get things working again. thanks everyone at palo alto bike shop!
it's so funny being back. i've been working at this bike shop in san francisco called valencia cyclery. i'm learning how to put together bikes from their shipping boxes, and i also sell bikes to customers. so far i'm not that great at bike assembly, but i'm trying really hard, so i figure i should start improving eventally.
i'm still not used to being back in the US. everything seems insanenly expensive. and there is just so much stuff. i love going into super markets and seeing the crazy variety of food. all the cars everywhere, and public transport, and the buildings all look so new, and well constructed. sometimes i just get really overwhelmed, or like i almost feel like a tourist in my own country. things have also been really crazy just because i don't have anywhere to live and have been crashing at all my friends apartments, but starting in june, i have a one month sublet in the mission (near where i work), so that should give me some time to sort things out.
i think all in all, i'm really glad i did this bike trip. parts of it were really hard, but overall, it was pretty amazing. maybe one day i will bike the silk road from italy to beijing, china. any takers?

Friday, May 04, 2007

honey, i'm home....


so... i am back at my parents house in palo alto, california. it feels really good to be back. also, i had no idea that sethy (the cat) was so overweight. all the cats in latin america are really small and thin, sethy is like the biggest cat i've ever seen. at first he didn't remember me, but once we exchanged a few meo's, he seemed to warm up a bit. i really missed those cats. and i also really missed my parents! so good to see them again. i think this is the longest time i've gone without seeing them. i thought it might feel really wierd to be back in the US, but actually i'm just really enjoying food shopping, and cooking, and reading magazines in english.

i spent the last couple of days in buenos aires. there is a really nice neighborhood in buenos aires called san telmo. originally it was where the upper class families of the city lived, but then there was a yellow fever outbreak and everyone moved to recoleta. now san telmo is the cool bohemian neighberhood. on sundays they have a giant antique fair in the central plaza, and all the locals and tourist pour into the neighboorhood to shop. street musicians play tengo and couples dance. there are guys putting on puppet shows with antique marionettes, and men of all ages dressed up like carlos gardell, one of argentinas most beloved tango singers, posing for pictures for cash.

of course i had to eat some more steak, while in buenos aires. i went out for lunch with a bunch of the travelers from my hostel. this is a picture of andres from autria serving me some really awesome lomo (tenderloin). everytime i eat steak in argentina i say that it's the best steak i've ever had. and i mean it too.

this is a photo of mark, from australia and maria from isreal. mark is serving maria the other steak we ordered, bife de chorizo (sirloin). so, i think we all ordered too much meat because at the end of our two hour lunch there was one bife de chorizo left over that none of us could eat. i decided to take it to go, and as andres and i were walking to the subway, we saw this street dog. i was all, "hey, let's give the steak to the street dog. i bet it would make his day." andres thought that it was crazy to waste a perfectly good steak on a dog, so we just broke off a corner of the steak and fed it to the dog. man, that dog was happy. and that wasn't a stupid dog either. he knew we had the rest of the steak right there, and starting jupping up and down in front of us and wagging his tail. so we decided to run, and then the street dog starting chasing us through the financial district. we decided to throw the whole steak at the dog in order to escape him. that dog ate the steak so fast, and then still ran after us! we eventually escaped into the subway station. ha ha...

that night i went out to dinner with these girls i'd met in mendoza, tamzin, tandi, and caitlin, and a friend of my parent's friend cathy named sandra (who is argentinian). i wasn't too hungry after that monster lunch, but did manage to drink a bunch of wine. wine is really good (and cheep) in argentina. we got a bottle from a small winery we's visited in mendoza for $6.

sandra took us on a walk down through puerto madera, which used to be the old port, but is now a trendy night spot. this is a photo of a famous bridge called puente de la mujer (woman's bridge, or a i guess literally bridge of the woman). anyways, it's a bridge designed for women. as we were walking across sandra said, "if this is really a bridge designed for women, they shouldn't have put these gaps between the planks. my high heeled shoes keep getting stuck." women in argentina are really beautiful and wear really nice clothes.

the next day maria (from isreal) and i went to meet sandra at her apartment and we walked to recoleta cementary where eva peron is burried. recoleta cementary is like a small town complete with streets and street signs, but instead of houses there are tombs for argentina's deceased elite. <most of the tombs are really elaborate. some look like greek temples, others like gothic churches. and every where you look are stray cats. i think sandra told me that they feed them at the cementary. it was a pretty cool place to wander around in. after that i got my taxi to the airport and did my best to pack up the bike and what not. it made me sad to say goodbye to everyone. it's funny when you've been travling for a long time, you make friends so quickly and then you have to say goodbye just as quickly.

i started to feel really crazy once i was on the airplane. i think i'd been so busy site-seeing and hanging out in buenos aires, that it hadn't really sunk in that i'd be back in the US so soon. i was watching the computer screen that shows have fast the plane is going, and i figured that every hour on the airplane was about 5 days of bike riding. when we were near quito, ecuador, i just kept thinking that it was insane that the plane could go that fast. like it just didn't feel right. i got to feeling so anxious, that i couldn't sleep the whole flight. then when we landed in the US, there was this stupid video playing in customs that said, "going through customs is as easy as 1, 2, 3!" and then they would tell you what was goig to happen in customs. at the end of this totally cheesy video, they say, "welcome to the united states", and i totally started crying, right in the middle of the customs line!
anyhows, it feels really good to be back in the US. hope everyone is good!
-jessie