i am woman, hear me drum.

I spent 7 hours at the San Telmo street fair today. Highlights/people observations I enjoyed:

- Finding a vintage Argentine dress, buying it and having it fit perfectly without trying it on first.

- The beautiful dreadlocked artist who spattered paint on a black canvas with his hands while jamming to Amy Winehouse and somehow ending up with a perfect neon-colored portrait of her.

- Elle calling me. I so badly miss sporadic phone calls.

- How excited everyone in this country is about today being International Women’s Day. A huge parade of girls in bright colors wound through the crowds wildly dancing and playing drums. Each girl had on a sash that proudly proclaimed ‘Mujer.’ The spectrum of women watching this was incredible. A blonde curly haired baby wearing all pink in a pink stroller was equally engrossed as the ancient, wrinkled Argentine woman holding two roses next to her. Observing smiles on the faces of the diverse crowd around me watching this spectacle gave a whole new meaning to the idea of international sisterhood.

- The chubby five year old boy solemnly feeding the pigeons. He would throw a huge handful of corn into the middle of a crowd of people and watch intently as the awful, overly aggressive pigeons here dive-bombed the group of people to get their kernels. After making sure these pigeons had got their fill, he would repeat the action with a new group of people. These adults were obviously not pleased with the pigeon situation, but nobody could say anything and ruin the boy’s quest for country-wide pigeon obesity.

- A grandma was trying to take pictures of her young grandson in front of a flowerbed in the park. She posed him for about 5 minutes, and when she was finally ready to take the picture, he would not stop scratching his crotch. Grandma would go try to have a word with him, and he would do it again. Muy muy comico.

- Dirty hippies. Everywhere. In my next life, I am going to braid hemp necklaces on the street while listening to jazz music.

- Infinite couples holding hands. Love is everywhere here.