A Narrative of My Time in Argentina and Guatemala: Day 86: The Hospital Farewell

Some of the students from the neurology class

Today was my last day of classes with the hospital. Tomorrow they have an optional time slot to come in and ask questions, but no one I talked to said that they were going to go. We finished up with two classes, one on three subjects: coreas y balismos, distonias, and mioclonias, that is to say choreia and ballism, dystonia, and myoclonus, and the second class was on headaches and migraines. It was interesting but a lot of writing super quickly. I think I earned the croissant that I bought for myself during the break. I had burned a lot of calories writing so quickly.

After class I took the subway home, picked up two slices of pizza and ate them with a salad and some pear. Very yummy.

At about 4.00p I headed out and about, I walked along Avenue Santa Fe, where there are a lot of shops and a giant bookstore. The bookstore is called el ateneo and is inside a former live theater. All the original seats have been removed, and there are shelves covering the ground floor. In the balconies are shelves along the walls and comfy seats for reading and people-watching. The stage has been converted into a chic restaurant and bar and there are escalators that you can take downstairs one level to the kids' book section. There is also a section for music. Now, the place is officially a book store, but from what I have heard most people just go to eat/drink something or chill with a book for a while. Betty is suspicious about the continued funding, she has her theories. The place is spectacular, with a domed ceiling that is painted and gold ornamentation throughout.

After walking some more back along Santa Fe, I walked over to Paula and Andrés' house since I was planning on meeting up with Paula later. I did not really expect anyone to be home, and my backup plan was to go to the nearby park and read for a bit, but Andrés was there, so I went up and we talked for a while. Paula came home after a bit, but had to go see an aunt and so she could not go to the giant book fair with me that I had hoped to visit. I was a little bummed, so I stayed with Andrés for dinner and used the time to convince him to go with me. In the end it worked and we went for about an hour.

Paula gave me an alfajor

The book fair was in this gigantic building, hard-to-describe big, with millions of books. Businesses had a huge variety of stalls that ranged from what looked like a corner of Barnes and Noble, to just a little book shop. Some were very modern, with fancy lighting, modern displays, music, television screens. It was great fun to browse around. Prices were wide-ranging, from pretty good deals to quite expensive. I did not buy anything, but Andrés made (an amusing for me) purchase of two papyrus leafs with his name in Arabic written on them from a stall selling all sorts of the-streets-of-Cairo paraphernalia. I do not know how it related to 'books,' but the woman was there and made 10 pesos from us.