Finally, we teed off in the same groups as yesterday. I'm a day removed now from the round so I can talk about it now without complaining, whining and whatnot. I shot a 78, one worse than the day previous, but in my mind I played better in the second round. 77-78 places me at a respectablesque +9 through 36. I hit great drives (all three woods besides one driver which went kerplunk in the water on a 320 yard par 4 with water crossing the fairway) and also was very happy with the chips I was hitting. I couldn't score because I didnt make a putt outside of 3 feet, and I really wish I was exaggerating about that one. I also finished the round with three bogeys and an especially disappointing bogey on par 5 18 where I hit two great 3 woods landing me pin high in two. I then hit a chip which turned out unlucky when it hit the upslope of a drain and didnt release down the hill towards the hole...then I had my only three putt of the day. Something tells me most readers of this blog aren't here for the golf stats so I'll leave it there.
We waited another two.five hours for the bus to leave finally, getting out of la municipalidad del tigre at 9. On the way back we picked up the Argentine youth soccer team and I was speaking spanish with all the kids and it really was another great time- I traded our yellow golf shirt for a blue and white striped Argentine AFA football jersey. I feel sort of privileged that I can communicate with another 500 million people apart from english speakers.
7 rolled around and it was time to call Ale. She had given me 15 numbers starting with 011 and 12 more and well they didnt work. Tried the 12 without the 011 and those didnt work. There was another 1 after the 011 so i figured maybe she was drunk and put the extra one in by mistake. That didnt work. At this point my friends were like well she clearly gave you the wrong number. But i was steadfast. I emailed her from Josh's Blackberry and told her the issue. Then Aiden was like hey man Argentine numbers are 8 numbers why dont you just try those. So i tried em and boom she picks up. We chatted for a bit, and unfortunately she said that dinner would be tough tonite because she was working late and was pretty tired, but that hopefully we could get together before she goes home to Mar de Plata.
We got back to the hotel and it was a quick turn around for dinner as we didnt get back until about 10. I asked the concierge about a good restaurant and was told about and were planning to go to La Caballista which probably would have been pretty good but one of the guys on my team decided that he would make the decision for us and we headed out to an Italian restaurant of which I can not and don't want to remember the name.
We got there, sat down, and the lights went out. Took a little while to order drinks and then another 20-30 minutes for them to come, and we were a pinprick away from getting up and changing restaurants. In fact, the esteemed restaurant picker of the night was the first to say we should get up and leave. I was trying to figure out the right word for that, but I'm having trouble. If you know it, please leave a comment. So finally we ordered- I ordered a mixed salad and then the bife de chorizo (strangely the only steak dish on the menu). The salad wasnt all bad, but the beef was just grotesque. I ordered it al punto (medium rare) and it came well done to past well done. The meat was shitty quality and I was forced to cut it with a butterknife. At this point, I wasnt too happy because honestly it was a wasted night, but oh well.
Got back upstairs to my room after some chilling in the lobby at 2:30 and noticed a message. Dad says: be downstairs at 8 for golf at Buenos Aires Country Club. Hmm, ok.
I get a call from Dad at 7:30 saying be downstairs in 20, and 5 minutes later a call from Dad's buddy Bruce Z. saying heya! im early, come down now please. Went down and we headed over to the Hilton in a private car to pick up Dad. On the way we found at that BACC was having a tournament so no playing there. Instead we played at Los Olivos, a pretty nice course as well. Long story short, I had a 77 with a near hole in one on the 210 yard 17th against the with with the yes 1 iron. And i did make the birdie.
Highlight of the round was using the computer in the clubhouse, checking my email and boom...email from Ale. She says I work at Unicenter and you can come visit if you'd like. So we got back from Los Olivos, passing Unicenter on the way . Got back, to the hotel and hung out with some golfers downstairs in the lobby and had a burger. Then Billy shows up and super quickly give him the run down. About 86 seconds later we're in a cab to Unicenter. (pause for laughter........)
We get to Unicenter ($12 USD for the cab, would have been at least 40 or 50 in NYC) passing one of the coolest street sculptures in the world. It is a fantasically enormous metal flower whose petals are solar powered and open completely during the day and close at night. I'm really going to try and get a picture of it, it's damn cool. Unicenter is a three story mall much like any mall in the US, only its way out of the tourist area and not a person speaks english.
Billy and I looked at the information booth for the Samsung store and couldnt find it. Then we visited a bunch of kiosks thinking she's be at one of those cell phone stores in the middle of the halls. Everyone said there was no Samsung store. Hmm. Only slightly discouraged, we went to the public phones, called her up, and Ale picked up sounding pretty excited that we were there. Turns out she works at a store called Gregoria (or something like that) a big store selling TV's, refrigerators, air conditioners, and the like. Immediately we see her, and wow Skokie, Illinois do I wish I took a picture of her...but it would have been bad I was told by Billy as this is her place of business. Well she was wearing some extremely tight pants with the Samsung logo down one of the legs. Enough said about that. She was happy to see us, we chatted for a while.
Soon the other employees began to take notice as here in the store of 50 something normal looking people is this fantastically gorgeous Alejandra talking to two gringos. Her manager came over, and we chatted with him for a little. Some customers came over for a little and we walked around the store a little. I'd go into the conversation, but this post is getting pretty long and it's getting late. Billy asked if he could give a gift of his really awesome Argentina Futbol Maccabiah shirt but she said that in Argentina it is bad form to give someone a gift that was already a gift to you. We said we needed to do a little shopping and we'd be back. She seemed sad to hear that.
We went to Adidas where Billy bought Ale a very similar shirt to the one that he tried to give her (only Adidas and not Maccabiah). Then I went to a casual men's store and billy went to get an ice cream. Wow it's strange being the only english speaker in a store. You get stares because your spanish your spanish is gringuesque, and whatnot. Oh yeah and my tan line. I'll post that pic, lol.
We went back to Ale where Billy gave her the gift and she was very very thankful although she said that gifts are not important to her. Billy told me to tell her that it's not about the gift, its about something to remember him by. Honestly, these two are perfect for each other, and I hope they keep in touch, though to be honest, the odds are kind of against her having a boyfriend, their living in different continents/hemispheres, not speaking the language/being able to communicate without me etc. Anyhoo, we are all going to keep in touch.
Billy and I took a cab back and had dinner at the McDonalds Wifi place, La Chacrita (see previous blog). Dinner was good and we headed back to the hotel. Several hours have passed since then and nothing happened that is either interesting or that I can blog about so there you have it. This is what happens when I skip a day of blogging in Buenos Aires Maccabiah 2007, loooong post.
On a side note, I'd like to think my devoted readership for their visits, if it weren't for you I would still blog, but your visits push me a little harder to make it sort of interesting (the blogs not my time here). Whether youre visiting from Westchester, California, Florida, New Mexico (sup max), Georgia, Pakistan, Portugal, Turkey, Portugal, even my buddy from Kentucky, I thank you for your visits.
DS
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