el crispito

The story has made international news, and locally, television stations were covering it with no commercial interruptions as if it were a national disaster. Okay, so perhaps that negative perspective is all mine; looking across the street this afternoon, it seemed like everyone in the opposing building was captivated by the miracle of it all. The Associated Press reported thousands cheering in the streets and their image service had pictures of rejoicing couples making out in the snow. Of course, if Argentines are anything like Mexicans, it does not take much to elicit that behavior from them.

Far from being a miracle to us, it is a real nuisance. The apartment we rented for the month has two air conditioner/heater units, one in the bedroom and another in the living room. Luckily, the one in the bedroom works and keeps it quite toasty, but the one in the living room seems to have a broken heating element, because it does nothing but blow cold air. We have been trying to find ways to stay warm here, like spending hours lingering over dinner in the warm corner café or bundling up in multiple sweaters and coats and huddling together under blankets.

We have an "emergency" phone number and email address to contact the rental company in the event of problems like the busted heating element, but in a further twist that would amaze even Murphy, today was a national holiday here: Independence Day. I tried contacting the company multiple times before I realized this, with each message more desperate than the last. I hope that tomorrow we will hear back from them, but even if the cold weather results in a lot of "personal days" being taken from the office, the forecast calls for higher temperatures. They are predicting that tomorrow it will climb to a relatively tropical 50° F.