Buenos Aires, Independence Day

My second Buenos Aires experience could hardly be more different from the first. First time, it was the party hostel in Palermo, going to dinner at 12, the dog stand outside the 10-people dorm room, a British chick going crazy (before getting drunk), and everybody in general summerily hyped.. except me and my untimely bout of what-will-become-of-me-depression.
This time, I flew into an airport scenery fresh from "Twelve Monkeys." After givig a bogey health report - who`d voluntarily check any flu symptoms? not me, cough-cough - we were fotographed by mouth-masked airport personel. With about 79, Argentinia`s death toll is highest after the US and Mexiko. (Chile is 5th. as you see I'm flirting with death)
Leaving that atmosphere behind, as well as Argentinians eager to practice their English, which leaves a devastating effect on my confidence and comfort to speak Spanish (It`s a bit like a friendly struggle of wills, I ask in Spanish, they respond in English ...)
All grown-up I called up hostels (hence the struggles) and mastered public transport to a hostel in Palermo. I remember that first traveller I met, a fairly boring Itailan. Today I would consider using the Bangkok public transport. Or at least I would be less impressed.
The hostel is remarkably quiet. It is also cold, but they told me this morning if I had told them, they would have switched on the heating. I am on the third floor with a hermosa view of the roofs and a fatty smell from the fast food restaurant nearby. There aren`t even many people smoking in the hostel, which amazed me. This in a country where you still find smoke-infested toilets in busses and at the airport, where people just can`t wait... I remember the airport in oklahoma which had a positively smoker-hating architecture, making it necessary to walk for half an hour until you could exit somewhere to put dirt in your lungs...

Anyway, shopping in Buenos Aires - in fact, being in Buenos Aires - is not a good idea when all you have for clothes is the same tattered and incongruent stuff you have worn for a year. In my opinion, shopping always requires stomach, especially if you are a woman, but this here is a different level of the game. Today is Independence Day in Argentina (see my sensational title), I will see whether any stores are open to spend my money in shame and gibbery excitation about so much pretty leather stuff..