The return from work on not just any Tuesday.
The 19th January 2010
The scene:
I am in town and my classes have finished for the day. Distracted. A little light headed from the heat, I look up to a screen outside some office and see that it’s 34 degrees outside. Bleugh, yuck. Stuffy day and feels like the world has toppled onto my shoulders and flies are buzzing inside my brain from the sounds of the traffic blurring past me.
Heavy greyish-black clouds weigh over my head, and distant thunder sounds say to me that the storm is on its way. I dont get too worried, it has rained many times since I have been here, I am not afraid of a little storm. No need for concern whatsoever. So, I ignore the clouds, get on the Subte(underground) at Facultad de Medicina innocently thinking, “oo I must pop by the pharmacy in Belgrano on my way home”, knowing it'll probably rain, but by the time I get to where I need to be, I will have missed the shower.. ..
I am minding my own business on the Subte hoping to go unnoticed as I zone out and enter the world of my own head whilst listening to my trusty I pod.
Now, there is one thing I should explain about Porteño folk. Strangers talk to strangers without knowing one another, sort of as if they were already friends. It is commonplace and considered totally normal.
In London this sort of chatter pretty much doesn't exist on public transport. If someone talks to you on the London Underground whom you don't know, you are well within your rights to induce a funny face, make a snide comment, or in fact pretend entirely as if they don't exist. Here it is slightly different, something which I will write about in more depth in future posts.
So, I am just day-dreaming, travelling on the D-line when a random woman sits next to me (who, I’ve got to be honest, I did not acknowledge in the slightest until she started talking to me) says, "You know what apparently it's absolutely horrific weather outside."
I look at her puzzled, as if to say, “oh right, are you talking to me then?”
Apparently she was, as she rambled on, "Yeah I am totally screwed because like I didn't bring my umbrella and like I have to pick up my kid, and you know I don't have a car, and err my husband had a problem y... que se yo......." Her story went on and on, something about a child... I don’t know. I sort of tune out for a bit (consequentially you can imagine that my selective hearing has been perfected over here).
All of a sudden I tune in again and she stands up hurriedly as this is her stop. I say goodbye cordially, and she buggers off still blabbering. Into my own world again, we get to Congreso de Tucuman. Middle of the rush hour, I think nothing of the hoards of people crowding on the staircases to move up to the top of the station. When I get to the main part of the station, I acknowledge that something random is happening, as everyone is just standing by the exit next to the escalators staring upwards. Everyone is chattering away, and a lot of people look stressed. Confused but intrigued, I move to the front of the crowd to see what the fuss is all about. I get there and see rain cascading down the metal stairways roaring through, as I have never seen before.
It is night-time, but you can see the sheer force of the downpour through the gleaming orange street lamps on Cabildo Avenue. The heat is astounding and the humidity is 100%, and every living thing is perspiring. The rain water is trickling into the Subte station, and I wonder what to do. To top it off, I am wearing open sandals. No matter. The British side of me has taught me to be tough.
Chin up darlin. I suck it up and proceed ahead. I walk into the sheet of wetness and within moments my clothes are totally saturated. I get to the top of the stairs and look around. The streets are chaos, cars beeping, people shouting, colectivos stuck in a huge scrambled jam. I get my bearings and by which time have totally disregarded the prospect of going to the pharmacy as planned. Now I just need to figure out how the hell I am going to get home.
Belgrano is a beautiful neighbourhood of BA, but at the same time,the pavements are not trustworthy, nor the drainage system. Water is warbling through the streets causing huge puddles the size of miniature lakes between the pavement step and the road, making it impossible to not get wet feet.
Drains are dribbling and overflowing. Screw it. My sandals are officially ruined. I just have to get to the colectivo stop without being swept away. (I tell you, a bloody lifeboat would have been handy, but I foolishly forgot to pack that in my bag before work this morning...)
I manage to make it one piece to the stop, having passed various clothes shops where it seems all the shop assistants and customers are barricaded in by waterfalls of rain slop making it impossible to gain access through their entrances. The shop staff stare at me through the tall glass windows as I scramble through this mess.
There is only one other girl standing at the stop. We both look at one another, and with one small affirmative nod, both of us acknowledged that we were boludas importantes (a right pair of eeediots) for having braved this mess. Finally the colectivo swings in and more people appear out of nowhere running our way.
Rah!
Middle-aged women, students, kids, all pile into the doors of the colectivo half lost in the sludge of the puddles trying to get in. The vehicle moves forward and sharply breaks causing all 10 of us soaked individuals to topple down onto the floor like bowling pins being sharply whacked.
I pick myself up and see that two women have got into a fight after having shoved one-another repeatedly and start screaming at each another, “ba-ba-da-ba-ba-badaanaiiii”..... I thought there couldn’t be anymore chaos today, what with all I had seen already just from being outside. The huge argument caused all “normal” (civilised and quiet) people on the bus to almost applaud this outrage.
Civilisation had pretty much gone out the window by this time of the day. All I could do was just crack up laughing. Things had just gotten so ridiculous by this point.
On rolled the journey and I just about got home in one piece.
Sods law came to find me though and my day of surprised wasn’t over.
Trapse in, kick off dead sandals, walk down hall.
I enter my room and the ceiling is falling down from a leak caused by the rain....
Algo mas????
