I have just experienced the most claustrophobic subway ride in my life.

As of now, I take the línea E subte train to my internship from Avenida la Plata to Bolívar. My end stop is basically at Plaza de Mayo, near the financial district of Buenos Aires. Also known as where everyone and their grandmother goes to work, especially at 8.45 AM on a Monday.
Anyway, the train was completely full when I squeezed on. Out of habit, I pulled my tote bag in front of my body and jammed my thumb into the tiny hole left open next to the zipper... just in case. I wedged myself into a corner so as to reduce human contact, but at the next stop I had to move and found myself basically inhaling the fibers off of some business man´s light pink button-down. Accessorized, I might add, with a tasteful if not slightly Valentinean red striped tie. He was pretty good-spirited about letting my rub my nose all over his pocket, especially because there was a girl with a backpack flung over her chest doing the same thing on his right.
Us three, plus whomever was leaning firmly against my back, swayed tightly with every bump -- and compared to even New York standards, there are a lot. With every stop toward Bolívar, we became more tightly packed. I was so smooshed in that my breathing was constricted. I almost began to panic as I inhaled the hot recycled air of Mr. Valentine´s office wear. Then I peeked around, the chick next to me´s tinsely sleeve tickling my Monday morning frizzy hair, and noticed that a lot of people had their eyes closed. I don´t know if this is because they were all as sleepy as I was, or because they were blocking out the reality of the claustrophobic nightmare of a commute. I tried it, hands pushed one against my chest, the other in my bag, and actually started to feel better. I couldn´t ignore the stank of way too many people being up on each other so early in the morning, but I became less aware and could zone out. At least, until the angry Peruvian mother with two small children smacked me in the face with her baby.
Now I´m safely at my office, a little rumpled but drinking mate with my coworkers.
Uuuuuffffa.