Day 9: The Chase

Today was quite low key, a little sleepy perhaps, but a pretty good Monday overall. Classes were great, although we did not cover any new material. I am almost at the point now with our current subjects that I either need more challenging problems, or a new topic, but I will wait to see what we do tomorrow before asking about changing anything. Andy was ill today and missed both of the group classes. Everyone in our group joked that he must have been hungover (within the realms of possibility for him), but I think he was actually a little sick, because we got back fairly late on Sunday night from the soccer game and he said he still needed to do his homework. Anyway, I hope he feels better tomorrow. When there are only four people in a group (since we lost Layla), one person's absence is much more noticeable.

In my private lesson with Germán, he brought in a few riddles/puzzles that were in Spanish for the end of the class. We had been playing "Guess Who" for the last week, but the puzzles are quite fun, and they are all very frustratingly easy once the answer was found/given. I'll give you guys one so that you guys can participate in my life too, instead of just reading about it. Here's the riddle in Spanish:

Un tren sale de Madrid a Barcelona a las 0 horas, a una velocidad constante de 60 Km/h. Otro tren sale de Barcelona a Madrid a la misma hora, a una velocidad constante de 40 Km/h. Sabiendo que la distancia entre ambas ciudades es 600 km y que el tren que salió de Madrid hizo una parada de media hora, cuando se cruzaron ¿cuál estaba más cerca de Madrid?

A rough translation to English:

One train leaves Madrid for Barcelona at one o'clock at a constant velocity of 60 km/h. Another train leaves Barcelona for Madrid at the same time, at a constant velocity of 40 km/h. If the distance between the two cities is 600 km and the train leaving Madrid stops one time for a half an hour, when they meet, which train is closer to Madrid? (1 km/h = approx. 0.62 mi/h)

For those of you whom are not mathematically inclined, this problem is more logic than arithmetic. No need to hate on the word problems. I will give the answer in my next post.

I had a minor fiasco with the banks today, trying for over an hour to visit, and talk, with a local J.P.Morgan Chase representative, only to be told at the end of a roller-coaster of backs and forths that there were no Chase ATMs or branches in Argentina, and that no one in the local, noncommercial J.P.Morgan corporate building knew if any of the local ATMs were in any way associated with Chase. It was a little complicated, and not terribly exciting to experience, nor to relate, so I will not bore you with accurate storytelling. Why there is a corporate J.P.Morgan office in Buenos Aires makes no sense to me, but who am I to fathom the corporate banking logistical planning. I was kindly given an abroad Customer Service number and a smile, but at the end of the day I was a little put out. Still the perfect weather today meant that pretty much everything could have gone badly today, and I would have enjoyed the experience. It was fantastic.

This evening Judy and I walked to a park that is quite nearby called Plaza Irlanda. Tonight there was a performance of "Cultura para respirar" a program that holds various free cultural events in different locations around town, all in "aire libre," the open air. We were a little late after having a couple minor navigational complications (aka we got lost only once or twice), and the entire performance was less than an hour long, so it seemed a little shorter than satisfactory. But it was a musical performed by a cast of four with lights, music, singing, and dancing. It was quite entertaining. It was also nice to see that a lot of the audience was local Argentineans, not only tourist folk. There are a few more events this week, including a Tango performance by a group that is also en aire libre. And with the school planning on visiting a museum this week on Wednesday or Thursday, I think that I will be able to feel less pressure to tour the city on the weekend, and I can relax a bit more, maybe go for a run or walk around the park closest to the apartment.

Well, since it is a school night, I should be off to bed. I always seem to begin my posts right when I really ought to be going to sleep, but I'm willing to sacrifice my sanity in the next morning for the multitude of fans that I know are waiting eagerly for my pearls of wisdom each night.

Chao.