pleasure

yes, that's right, she's all wrapped up in herself, lost in that world she carries inside her, that she's just beginning to discover.
- manuel puig

I seem to only get the urge to update this on rainy days. I love the heat and the smell and the general mass chaos of this city, but today is a meganday. The gentle drizzle almost seems to calm the city and all its inhabitants. The usual hustle and bustle is replaced with freshness and peace and I wandered around in the rain listening to my ipod for about an hour today. Rainy days are good for the soul.

On this walk, I discovered one of my new favorite places in the city: a hole in the wall used bookstore. I've had an intense craving for books in English since I got here, to the point of harassing my fellow students to read their books faster so I could have them when they were done. Today I stepped inside this little bookstore on a whim, to get out of the rain for a minute, and felt more at peace than I have this entire trip. The smell of old books and rain permeated the warmly lit room while jazz music softly played in the background. I happily browsed for awhile before I purchased 3 of the only English books they had. I had extremely good intentions when I first got here and bought Harry Potter and Little Women in Spanish, only to get beyond frustrated when it takes me 20 minutes to read one page. Reading has always been pure pleasure for me, and I've wanted books to accompany this otherwise pleasure-filled vacation so badly. I would kill for a Barnes & Noble day in the US.

Anyway, the quote at the top is from Kiss of the Spider Woman, a classic by an Argentine author that I'm reading right now. If you ever get a chance to read it, please do. The language is fucking beautiful. If the translation is this profound, I can only imagine what the Spanish version is like.