Change of perspective in 24hrs

I love Buenos Aires... I love walking around the streets of Buenos Aires, be it early in the morning watching people as they hurry to get to work, or in a lazy sunny afternoon as they sip their coffee, or at 3 in the morning, when the streets are mostly deserted, and the cool breeze makes me feel peaceful and alive.

I just had one of those nights, of walking home alone at 4am and appreciating the quiet empty streets, and the beauty of the city... for some reason I have never felt unsafe in Buenos Aires. Sure I've heard stories of people getting mugged. Sure I have had my ipod pick pocketed out of my backpack without realizing it. But that never translated into fear.

And then, 24hrs after my peaceful walk home, I'm walking at night again, this time with 2 girlfriends, going towards the bus stop, somewhere around 3am, when I see this guy running towards us, grabbing one of my friends, yelling "Give me your cell phone or I'll kill you!" and her screaming and struggling with him. I didn't know what to do. It all happened so fast! My friend screamed and said NO! and the guy pushed her and shoved her to the ground, didn't manage to get the phone from her, and ran away. Her thumb was bleeding, and we thought maybe it was from being pushed to the ground, but later realized he must've had a knife/blade of some sort... and that's pretty scary.

So after the ordeal, we ran to the bus stop, freaked out and totally nervous, and I still have to wait for the bus. The girls waited with me, and then had to walk another few blocks to where they were staying... and I'm thinking that after the bus, I still have a few blocks to walk by myself until I get home. Not cool.

I take the bus, and get off at the same place I did the night before, when I was enjoying the nice walk... except this time I was trying to walk as fast as I could, watching behind my back and afraid someone was going to jump at me from nowhere.

The funny thing is, I wasn't actually afraid. I wanted to enjoy my walk as I did the night before. But I realized that just because I don't think it's dangerous, doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. So now I'm going to be much more careful when walking around alone...

...so much for enjoying peaceful walks in the middle of the night... :(