big, big, ba

Just got in. Hugely busy day. Seems I always find myself walking across what is big, big, ba. Sheesh, the city is expansive.

Spent most of the day busying about getting copies of documents, printing out forms (not as easy as you might think), getting photos, and collecting credentials for my impending status as "investigadora" at the BN (biblioteca nacional). Which, quite frankly, is big and ugly. I might have found it less ugly if the young, arrogant, stupide attendant at the front desk hadn't been so young, arrogant, and, well, stupide. What an ass. Really. And, like anywhere in the world you're dealing with archives: it's all about lockers and searches. A walk through the library itself wasn't especially thrilling either, though I did see some some intersting looking foreign researcher-types who might be worth meeting. It's kinda disappointing b/c you expect to see tons of books, but of course they're all locked away somewhere. I'm hoping the law library will be a little warmer (did I just say that?).

Next stop was to get my cell phone "habilitated" for BA. Success. You can now reach me wherever I am.

And the next (another hike), the Correo Central. By far the nicest stop of the day (it's the first photo you see). Takes up a whole city block, nice architecture, interesting system, not too terribly efficient.

Finally, began the long walk home, but not before stopping at a MacDonald's -- couldn't help it, was on my last legs and there it was. Not bad at all. Walked, walked some more. Stopped by my fruit stands and then headed home.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll just go to the zoo.

As for the train wreck. No fatalities, minor in the grand scheme of things. As for atender, my super-source tells me it's slang for what we thought it was.

The day in a nutshell.

B.

(Photos taken from the lepetitjournal.com and the BN webpage, respectively.)