Kylie was shooting BAFW for work, and suggested I come along. Which sounds more impressive than it is – I bought a general entry ticket at the door for 20 pesos ($10) along with hundreds of suburban, teenage, fashionista wannabes.
Last Wednesday evening, I flirted with danger.
I was waiting for Kylie and Paddy on a lit street, next to the bar we were to meet. At midnight, it was not late by Argentine standards, and I regularly saw people passing by.
In fact one of these passersby stopped and began shouting at me in Spanish, getting right up in my grill. He looked about my age, and smelled bad, perhaps of alcohol. I backed away and repeated, “No entiendo!” (“I don’t understand!”) until he left me alone.
The ruckus caused some people crossing the road on the other side to look up at me. Now I felt a bit uneasy, texting Kylie to find out how far away they were. But I figured if anything else dodgy happened I could always run into the bar, whose door was wide open and was empty except for one bartender who would surely notice if I came in yelling.
The thought was almost prophetic.
Not three minutes later the guy was back and grabbed me by the arms, pushing me further into the walls, pinning me with his body.
I yelled, “omigod you freak, what the fuck are you doing?” I pushed him with all my might, squeezing out of the corner and running straight into the bar. He tried to hold onto my arm, but I managed to pull away. By the time the bartender and security guard ran out onto the street, the guy was gone.
What do you think of my shoes? (No, really).
When I first saw them in Tokyo I really liked them but thought the removable zip was ugly and had planned to get rid of that part. But then I started thinking that maybe it was kind of cool (ugly but well designed things can be), not to mention makes it easier to put my feet in and out.
I’m currently in a cafe with WI-FI, sipping té con dulce de leche y frutos rojos. That flavour, “dulce de leche” is insanely popular here. It’s caramelly and sweet, and comes in a thick sauce that people put on toast, but is also a flavour. So far I’ve seen it in chocolate, now tea and on Monday had an icecream “dulce de leche con brownie” in San Telmo:
Helados, or icecream is so popular here. It’s weird how going to countries like this, or other European or Asian countries where icecream is really popular, makes you forget to have all those guilt pangs about high sugar or fat content, that countries like Australia associate with icecream.
I’m also eating a medialuna – literally translated as “half moon” – which is also a really popular snack here. They’re kind of like small croissants.
Translation:
Patricia Gabriela Knop
1977 – 16 – 12 – 1997
You adored friendship.
You were an example of modesty and humility.
At 21 years of age you planted seeds of love that continue to grow, living on in our hearts and in the minds of those that knew you.
We’ll never forget you.
Your parents and sister.
With some help from a dictionary and Babelfish! I may not have got it completely right.
It was quite a moving experience translating this. Slowly unraveling the words, piece by piece, a heartfelt tribute to a daughter who died too young emerged from the cloud of foreign words.
