The Tooth that broke the Helen's back

At first I was afraid, I was petrified, thought that I could never live without my rotting teeth in my head but then... I met a gorgeous dentist and started to feel better about dental work. I met him in his official position, unfortunately, but better than nothing. Tomorow ends a weeklong dental marathon, the last of my six appointments this week, the 9th so far and I have one more before new year to get the stitches out. The novelty of telling people in the hostel that I am going for dental treatment has long since worn off and out of patient solidarity I haven't even asked the girl with her arm in a sling how she ended up like that.

But Buenos Aires hasn't been all teeth pulling, gorgeous dentists and non-stop pain. Today I was the first to arrive in the dental surgery and got a hello kiss from the dental assistant and the dentist- I love latin society! I don't know if they are just thrilled that my last credit card payment has gone through or if they have become genuinely fond of the girl that cried in the chair on the first day but also likes the time in the waiting room to practise her Spanish- reading the magazines. Though today I was shocked to read that Gael Garcia Bernal is going to be a daddy soon- and not, as planned, to our gorgeous children. Huff.

In other news, part of the reason that I haven't updated this much is because, believe it or not, I have been so busy here in the hostel. It is not the cheapest hostel but it gets the highest rating on hostelworld.com and the atmosphere is great and pretty much all fo the staff know me by name now, and occassionally forget to put the beers I have pinched from the bar on my tab.

The first week I met some great people here from all over the world, including Belgium- these I charmed with my delightful childhood stories of Meli Land (though they saw that it has recently been taken over by eveil forces, a fact I was first made aware of when I last met some folk from Belgium and told them the same stories. Also, even Belgians find it hard to win the 'Name 3 Famous Belgians Game' though admittedly because I discounted anyone that I hadn't heard of. However, we did get an Israeli to sing Dana International´s Eurovision hit so not all is lost).

Weirdly met two people from Felixtowe, though I don't know either of them as they are four years younger than me and the caste system in the Stowe is very rigid. And while recounting this story another girl introduced herself as the best mate of a mate of mine from back home, a mate I met in Oz nearly ten years ago- t'is a small world and no mistake!

Last week I went to Spanish school, but this week it was closed so I didn't. I met some lovely people there and we all went out last week. Fearful of not practising Spanish and being frightfully bored this week, I lined up some language exchanges only to meet an Aussie girl on Friday night who I then spent most of my non-dental time with until the early hours of this morning.

Today I have been mostly being operated on in dental way and then subsequently complaining about it. Tomorrow I am back at the dentist and then on Saturday I leave Buenos Aires, you heard it right, I am leaving- until 29th December anyway! I am going to Uruguay for Christmas- based on the recommendation of some Colombian friends and the guys in the hostel here. I am a bit scared, I haven't moved out of this hostel since leaving Brazil- the non-stop movement after 8 weeks in Brazil seems to have awaken some kind of traveller apathy in me here in Argentina. Ideally I would like to stay here and work, I love this city, but unfortunately even the Argentines are scarpering to the nearest beach for the summer- lazy sods! So I will move on.

Funds being vastly depleted after this dental work, I think that I will move quicker than planned, too bad but it is not the end of the world. And if anyone knows of any jobs going in Colombia, or Ecuador or......