Flooding!

As newcomers to the city, we were unaware that the street we chose to live on, Juan B. Justo, is one of the worst flood areas of the city. Our street literally sits above an underground stream. In the 1930s, the government enclosed the stream in a pipe and built a major road above it. When it rains too much, the pipes are unable to contain all of the water, and the street floods.

Last Friday, 19 de Febrero de 2010 it rained 80mm (3.15 inches) in 2 hours! And the average historical rainfall for the whole month of Febrero is only 107mm (4.2 inches). Jill was at a store when the flooding began, but they kicked all of their customers out in order to erect a metal blockade in the doorway to prevent flood damage. Meanwhile, I was on my way home in the subway and was amazed to hear water toppling down onto the train as we sped along. Since it's still summer here and the subways aren't airconditioned, it's often unbelievably hot and stuffy, and everyone wants to keep the windows down. But on Friday, water came pouring in the windows, so people were both wet and sweaty on their unpleasant ride home. We had to skip a stop, Scalabrini Ortiz, because the station was flooded, but I was really surprised that the subway stopped at the Palermo stop because two massive waterfalls of rainwater were cascading into the station through the vents in the ceiling. I was really thankful I could get home via subway, because the streets near our apartment were closed and it would have been difficult to figure out the buses since they were rerouting themselves.

The flooding was really bad near an intersection about a block away from our apartment. Firefighters tied ropes between traffic lights and used inflatable boats to help pedestrians to cross the street. Officials cut the power in some areas to try to prevent electrocutions, and we lost power for a couple of hours. And since we didn't really want to venture out into the water, we lit a candle, cracked a bottle of wine, ate some cheese and crackers, and talked about life. The floods subsided within a few hours, but they left behind a slimy-dirt coating littered with trash and shoes that people had lost.

In the past when other streets of our barrio have flooded, and we gladly took advantage of the opportunity to be silly and jump in giant puddles! But since the floods have been so much closer to our door, the novelty has worn off a bit... Check the video and photos below to see it for yourself (if you're having trouble viewing the video, try a different internet browser)!

Nearly Pickpocketed

Last night, Jill and I were riding a very crowded colectivo (bus) from our apartment in Palermo to Parque Centenario, where we were going to see a free Tango show. Near the end of our ride, a very short older man well-dressed in a suit got on the bus. He couldn't reach the horizontal bars above us so he kept inching over in front of me in order to hold onto a vertical bar. Shortly after that, he pushed himself in between Jill and I so he was right up against my side. Normally on a crowded bus, this wouldn't seem that strange because everyone is literally squished up against each other, but there was quite a bit of room in the back of the bus, so we weren't sure why he decided to crowd around us. Since we were getting off the bus so soon it didn't make sense for us to move to the back, so I was squished between about 5 people near the exit. Suddenly, I felt a hand in my pocket, and I yelled "hey" and grabbed at the hands because I thought someone had swiped my camera. The hand belonged to an older woman, who looked like she was probably in her 60s. She fell backwards and kept telling me that the man had stuck his hand in my pocket, and at the same time, Jill started grabbing for his hands and pockets. We quickly realized they hadn't gotten anything, and we got off the bus at the next stop. They both also hurried off the bus because the commotion alerted all the passengers to what they had just attempted to do. That was when we realized that they had been working together--he squeezed me into a tight space and she did the actual pickpocketing. We watched them walk around the corner, then turn around and go back to a bus stop, presumably to get on another bus to try again.

I had quite an adrenaline rush and shortly after the incident, I couldn't remember some of what had happened. I also began to question whether they had really tried to pickpocket me or whether I imagined the whole thing, but the more Jill and I talked about it, the more it became clear that it really happened. I felt really stupid for not being more aware of my surroundings on the bus, because I'm normally very cautious when I carry the camera. It was also a very hot day, and I wore shorts that had low-pockets which were much easier to reach into than the pockets of the jeans that I almost always wear. Anyway, Jill and I both felt very fortunate that we were targeted by sly pickpocketers and not violent muggers (which is much less common but can happen anywhere).