It's November. Buenos Aires in November is beautiful. Spring has officially sprung. The grass is green, the air is warm (but not too hot) and the jacaranda are in bloom. The city is awash in purple. I love it. Produce is bountiful. The verdurerias (green grocers) are full of strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cherries and apricots. Asparagus and artichokes abound. I haven't seen a pecan in nine months and now they are everywhere. It's the season of plenty. Our eyes are drawn to the gelaterias once again. The other day I had huge scoops of passion fruit and raspberry. They were delicious.
On the other hand November drives me crazy. In a country where nearly everyone takes vacation in January, the population has been working for almost eleven months. The troops are getting restless. People are driving faster and more aggressively, if that's possible. Check out lines are becoming increasingly impatient. People are snapping at one another, huffing and puffing and sighing. Women are working out at the gym at a frenzied pace. They are thinking bikini, bikini, bikini...
Over the next few weeks life will wrap up for the year. But in the meantime school concerts need to be preformed, vacation plans made and Christmas shopping done. The world gets in a word, crazy.
The energy will build and build, until it's almost unbearable. And then instantly it will pop. School will finish and vacations will start. People will head out to the beach or the mountains. Those of us left behind in Buenos Aires will breathe more deeply. Everything will slow down again and we will settle into the dog days of summer.
Ahhh November my favourite, least favourite month of the year....
