"Como si fuera Gardel"

Here's a little taste of Argentine culture. The big tango legend in this town is/was a guy named Carlos Gardel (who died in a plane crash in Colombia in 1935)... he's part of the general lexicon now. If someone is asked how they're doing and you hear "it's as if I were Gardel", it's basically like saying that they're the king of the world and couldn't be doing any better.

A few weeks ago, by happenstance, I had the odd experience of being at his grave in Chacarita cemetery on the 72nd anniversary of his death. It's really funny... in Argentina they celebrate the DEATH of someone, instead of their birth. When I tell them that, as a foreigner, celebrating the death of someone ("and good riddance to you!") instead of their birth is really funny to me, they usually don't get the concept. Ah well, chalk it up to cultural differences and what not. Kinda like in the summer, when all the pregnant women walk around here bare-bellied in half shirts... now THAT'S funny.


Anyway, it was humorous watching all the Gardel fans at the tomb. They played/danced a bunch of tangos and there was a guy on top of the statue maintaining "the eternal flame", aka a continuously lit cigarrette in the fingers of the statue. Apparently ol' Carlos was quite the chain smoker and if the plane crash didn't get him, the cigarrettes would have. Somewhere out there, I know an MSG-phobic, health food nut that could learn a lesson here... no matter how often you eat at Whole Foods, the plane crash might take you out instead!

But after leaving this little gathering and walking through the cemetery, I noticed a bunch of little green parrots all over the place (about 3x the size of parakeets). The locals call them "loros", which I always thought was your standard Polly-want-a-cracker macaw parrot. Well, this lady in her mid-70s notices me watching the parrots and launches into a story about her youth in Madrid. The good news is that I understood it. The bad news is that I understood it... it was exceedly long and lacked anything resembling a point.


The gist of it was how she enjoyed all the "gaviotas" (seagulls) in Madrid just like here... although she kept pointing at the LOROS. I became fixated on the fact that maybe I didn't understand which bird was called which name until finally, at the end of her lonnnnggggggggggggg story, I asked her "but aren't these birds called loros"?? She just shrugged her shoulders and responded "who knows? birds are birds." Anyway, it was sorta funny. Pointless but funny.


In conclusion, here's a great little place to crack open the books when it's warm... the Plaza de Mayo. Many a revolution (and tyranical dictatorship) began here. Also, it was here that Madonna besmirched an entire nation, and the cinematic world in general, with that horrible movie "Evita" whilst singing "Don't cry for me Argentina" from the Casa Rosada in this plaza.

Snow in Buenos Aires!!!

I took a few pictures of the first snow day here in Buenos Aires in 89 years and figured that I would post some here. The last time that it snowed in BsAs was on June 22, 1918. "Global warming" wasn't in fashion back then so I don't know what they blamed it on... probably just "winter". Obviously nothing stuck to the streets/sidewalks because the temps were in the 70s earlier in the week. That's my apt bldg behind me in this photo. What a weird weather place this is... kinda like Dallas. But more humid. With less annoying Texans. And more motochorros. I'll have to explain "motochorros" in another entry some day. Basically they're just thieves on motorcycles, but a lot of times they don't think things through very well and things end up badly. VERY badly.

But here's a picture of a bar/restaurant/cafe/AND gymnasium a block away from my apartment, I like the snow-on-the-palm- trees-effect. And talk about being all things to all people! It's sort of funny watching them go play (indoor) soccer or work out, followed by a healthy Quilmes... which is the local beer. Which also happens to be the company that distributes Pepsi in Buenos Aires. Which happens to be a company that is reducing their workforce, which OBVIOUSLY led to a strike by the truck drivers... forcing a rationing of all Quilmes, Pepsi, and Coke products in town. Which subsequently caused ME to stockpile bottles of Pepsi until this strike is over. Hmmm, I've gone "off point" again...

OK, here's a shot of Av. Corrientes -- one of the main drags in town. Further towards downtown it turns into the Buenos Aires version of Broadway. Lots of restaurants, theaters, and so on. All lit up nice-n-bright... except for right now, with the energy crisis and all, it's time to turn off the lights and conserve! Actually, now that I think about it, they're not conserving anything down there... it's lit up like the 4th of July everytime I go down there. So who knows?

This final picture is proof positive that the snow actually stuck to SOMETHING. Cars and open areas (like the grass in the parks and plazas) tended to be where the snow accumulated. As interesting as it was to see it snow in Buenos Aires, I think I was more amused by the reaction of the locals frolicking in one centimeter of snow. Although the kids actually figured out how to make some (very small) snow men out of it. OK, that's enough snow talk for today. It was fascinating to witness some Buenos Aires history (and trust me, a lot of the history around here you wouldn't want to be present to witness!) but I've got a crisis energética to get back to...

Return of the ola de frío

Yet another cold wave has hit Argentina and now I've seen everything... it's actually SNOWING in Buenos Aires today! Not just little itty bitty nothing fleks and flakes, but big swirling large puffy flurries. And all day long, not just for 10 minutes! The newspapers say that the last time this happened was back in June, 1918. How did the USA and capitalism in general (which are normally the root cause of every other ill around here) cause the snow back then? Would it have helped if Lawrence Welk, Duke Ellington, and Mozart had some sort of Live Earth event back then?! Anyway, if you can read Spanish, check out http://www.clarin.com/diario/2007/07/09/um/m-01453873.htm

Fortunately today is also Argentina's independence day (just 5 days after the USA), so it's a long holiday weekend down here. I say "fortunately" because this VERY cold Monday didn't happen on a standard work day here in Buenos Aires... the Argentine energy sources are already maxed out as it is. This is now the era of the "crisis energética". In fact, it's been getting down to the upper 20s at night here in town (or 12 degrees F if you're "lucky" enough to be down in the Patagonian ski resort of Bariloche). Tomorrow will be realllllllllly interesting when the work week starts back up and the energy sources are pummeled. Stay tuned.

Anyhoo, apparently the energy shortage has been anticipated for quite a while but, because it's an election year, the official line has been complete denial of any probem. With this cold weather, the Monty-Python-Holy-Grail sketch is officially over ("just a flesh wound...", "but you've got no arms left!", "I've had worse!") and el gobierno was forced to confess the problem. Least of all because the downtown office towers are turned off at night, there are no functioning escalators after 4pm, 50% of the elevators are turned off, no heating the offices between 4p - midnight, and who knows what all else. But like I said, it's an election year so the LAST thing that the gov't wants to do is start impacting individual/family homes with reduced electricity, reduced natural gas for heating, etc. I, for one, am personally very glad about that... even if I can't vote in October.

In other news, we endured the "Brazilian Invasion of 2007" at the school last week. July is the big vacation month in Brazil so a lot of Brazilians come to BsAs for a month of "language vacation" which appears to mean a 60/40 ratio of school attendance and partying for most of them... according to my very unscientific research. It all depends on how long they stay out at the clubs (and considering that a lot of the clubs don't OPEN until 2am, it can end up being pretty late). Anyway, I'm supplementing my Spanish with a lot of Portuñol at the moment (like Spanglish, but with Portugese instead). At first it sounds like they know what they're talking about... til you analyze it and realize it's mostly el gibberish-o.

OK, let's wrap this up talking about the recent car show here in Buenos Aires. I had a little time to download some photos so I'll tack them on here. Last time I was here they had just started up the car show (this was the 4th annual show). The exhibit ran for 10 days at the downtown convention center, took up three large buildings, and cost $15 pesos for admittance. Peugot probably had the most exciting new models this year... here's one standing by a car. Ha! I kill me.

There were also some classics like this one. Notice the classic Vette in the background. I also saw some Mustangs but no Shelbys in the mix. A lot of old European cars were featured, like Fiat. I could think of absolutely no reason to take a picture of them, though.

The laws in this country are a little different than in the USA and you are not paid/win the lottery/rewarded by a jury for being stupid... if you injure yourself, it's your problem. For instance, we got to see someone trying to do their "Dukes of Hazzard" impression while almost rolling the test truck. Still... it was funny to watch (from a distance), though.

There were also some new American cars that I'd never seen before, like the new Chevy Camaro and some sort of futuristic looking Ford that I'm not sure they'll market / release in the USA. Another really funny thing is that Keifer Sutherland, aka, Jack Bauer, was up in Rio de Janeiro (or "down in Rio", depending on your perspective I guess) or maybe Sao Paolo. I forget which... anyhow he's filming car commercials for the new Citroën C4 with a famous Argentine actress!

Which is funny because the car is definitely nothing to right home about. From my snooty-elitist-American-car-snob opinion, anyway. The French can tell me which wine to pair with the cheese and I'll tell them which of their cars they shouldn't bother manufacturing. Although THIS was a really cool car... it's the new Peugeot 907 V12 concept car. More of this and less of the C4!

OK, enough car show talk... I already know certain people (hola chicas!) that are probably bored with this entire line of discussion. Besides, I need to leave this internet cafe and go find a place to make me some custom / tailor made gloves. It is SERIOUSLY cold in Buenos Aires right now!!! Ojalá que funcione mi estufa esta noche...

Random stuff

Welp, I've been trying (hoping?) to add something to this deal once a week. Oops.

It must be all the election excitement around this city... I finally figured out the election was for the (equivalent) of the mayor of Buenos Aires. It was a runoff from last month, pitting the national education director against the owner of the Boca Juniors (one of the 2 big soccer teams nationwide... sort of the equivalent of Jerry Jones running for governor of TX or something).

Except most of the city thinks the winner, which turned out to be the owner of the sports team (see photo below), is pulling a Hillary Clinton and running for one office while also having an eye on an even bigger prize later on (the Argentina presidential election is in Oct this year). Anyway, I guess I'm learning a lot about Argentina politics. It helps that Argentines are never shy to share their opinion... and they almost always have one, be it well informed or not.

Although I will comment that American politicians are rank amateurs compared to the Argentines when it comes to promising the people all kinds of tax-payer-financed goodies, freebies, and give-aways in exchange for their vote... More free education (as it says to the left)! More free health care! For some reason, there's a vibrant underground economy in this country plus a massive tax evasion problem. Interesting for us foreigners to watch and observe.

Speaking of, I've also added hanging out at the "Club Europeo" to my list, the website is at http://www.clubeuropeo.com/es_home.htm for anyone interested. For $7 pesos (or less than $2usd) per visit, I can practice Spanish conversation with a lot of locals (and expats, the crowd is from all over, Australia, Germany, Italy, USA, England, Japan, etc). I might just cave in and pay the $40 pesos per month to join since it's a really stylish place on the 21st floor of a building on Corrientes (Buenos Aires' version of Broadway) with an awesome view. Also, there's a really hot Argentine lawyer that's coincidentally working on her English. Yee-haw.

Enough typing for today. I need to do my part and save some power for the national energy crisis. Everytime it gets super cold, everything grinds down to a halt. I'll have to write more about the situation some other time. Maybe also talk about my first international car show, featuring a lot of (dinky) stuff that you wouldn't see in the USA. Mostly because you would be instantly killed by the first oblivious soccer mom blabbing on her cell phone behind the wheel of her SUV. Although this is a photo of the new Camaro, for those that haven't seen it yet.

Ok, on that note, it's time to go. And to everyone in Dallas, congrats on all your rain! Earlier this year, didn't the "experts" say this is gonna be the beginning of a new "dust bowl" era??! GLOBAL WARMING, GLOBAL WARMING, AIGGGHHHHH, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!

Uruguay

OK, we've been back from Uruguay for about a week now... I went to Montevideo and Colonia on 6/9 - 6/10 with a couple of other COINED students. The only thing(s) I brought back to Buenos Aires were some postcards and new stamps in my passport. Basically, it was a whirlwind weekend tour that seemed to be mostly about staying in motion instead of seeing much. Our plan was to take a 3 hr boat ride across the Rio de la Plata to Montevideo on Sat, then take a 2 hr bus ride from Montevideo to Colonia on Sun, and finally take the 50 minute return boat to BsAs at 8pm.

Right off the bat, we were "fogged in" at the port in BsAs and our 8am departure to Uruguay ended up being a 12 noon departure. The airports were shut down as well. As of about a week ago, Buenos Aires has been slightly-to-extremely foggy for 9-10 straight days. Alas, we chose one of them for traveling. Anyway, the weather pattern that brought the fog is officially gone but we're now "enjoying" another wave of freezing, polar air (with all of the associated energy crises that Argentina can muster). Hmmm, I'm off on another weather tangent... back to Uruguay.

As you can see, the fog followed us across the water to Montevideo. This is their iconic building... the Palacio Something. It's right on the main town square (Plaza Independencia). When we arrived at around 3:30p the town was dead. I don't know if it was siesta time, due to the cold/foggy weather or what, but there was a whole lot of nothing going on. So, we opted to find a hotel after looking for a place to get some cash... and naturally all of the exchange houses were closed. Fortunately, a casino in the lobby of the Radisson hotel had an ATM nearby... most likely to assist all the gamblers that are on the cusp of "winning it all back". Whatever.


Alas for me, my stupid ATM card didn't work (although the ATM machine AND the back of my card both temptingly lie to me with the word "Cirrus"). Very annoying... fortunately another student spotted me $1000 uruguayan pesos. Or, about $40 usd. With that mission accomplished, it was time to find a hotel. Which we did right by the plaza (in fact, this is what the other direction of the plaza looked like... the nice-n-slummy building in the background of the commemorative statue is an odd touch).




Anyway, the hotel's location was excellent and just $9 usd per night for each of us! However, there were no private bathrooms... it was dorm style, with a shared bathroom down the hall for the entire floor. Oh well, what do you want for $9 a night? Plus the location was also a double edged sword... as we discovered later on when we also learned why the entire town seemed to be dead. Everyone must have been SLEEPING!


Because when we went out to dinner at 11p, the restaurant was only half full (and I couldn't order anything 'a la parrilla' because it was still way too early for them to fire up the grill). Which was fine, I wanted something local anyway. The local specialty is "Chivito" -- a health food nightmare, but super tasty. Basically it's a thin steak sandwich slathered with ham, cheese, eggs, olives, lettuce, and some kinda mystery sauce. All accompanied by french fries, of course. As we left around 12:30a or so, the restaurant was filling up, as were the streets. Apparently no one goes out on Sat night til 1a or so (mostly for pizza-n-beer with friends from what I could tell). By 2am, the streets were wall-to-wall packed and it was LOUD.

Now, about that earlier "double edged sword" comment... our hotel room was on the main strip. Even though we were on the 3rd floor, it was like being at ground level in a hotel with cardboard walls on Bourbon Street during a really loud Mardi Gras. The party literally went all night and when we left the hotel at around 11a the next morning, there were STILL people in the bar next door working on their drinks and (theoretically) thinking about going home.

But since it was so late, we didn't have time to see much else so we headed to the main bus terminal and bought tickets to Colonia. It's billed as a 2 hr trip but it was more like 3 hrs. We stopped repeatedly along the way to drop off and pick up people (since the Montevideo - Colonia route is a main highway). It was a nice enough trip though - green, a little hilly, and occasional glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean. Plus it only cost $6.50 usd for the bus ticket.



Colonia is a nice little colonial town (can you guess where the name comes from?) that's about 450 - 500 years old or so. Right on the water. If it's a clear day, you can see across the ocean (technically, it's a river) to Buenos Aires. Anyhow, there's lots of cobblestone streets, Spanish colonial style houses, a lighthouse, restaurants, etc, etc. And plenty of extremely touristy, over-priced chivitos. In other words, 4 hours is plenty of time to have "seen it, done it, got the t-shirt".


The 50 min trek back to Argentina was uneventful (luckily no sequels to "Titanic" or whatever), so we were docked by 9p. After a quick walk of 8 blocks plus a subway ride later, I was home by 9:45 or so. Then off to classes again the next morning. Yes, I know it's all so very fascinating... lots happened but I'm getting the typing equivalent of writers cramp while writing this, so enough for now.

Mi departamento

OK, I'm going to play around with the blogger program and try to post some pictures.

Here's a few photos of my apt in Buenos Aires, if you're interested... the living room.

Another view of the living room from the other direction.

And... the kitchen.

...and, of course, the patio out back.

And the view off my balcony! Just kidding. I took that picture off the top of a building near the Congreso. But from where you're looking at this, it doesn't make any difference so just pretend this is my view off my patio.

Right now it's hard to get any decent "blue sky" photos since the city has been shrouded in fog over the last 8 or 9 days in a row. They've shut down the airports multiple times as well as the port (which impacted our trip to Uruguay last weekend). But more on that later...

Welcome to "Little Lima"

For those that are curious, here's an overview of the area in Buenos Aires that I live in. Notice that I just ended the previous sentence with a preposition; I notice a lot of dorky language things like that nowadays, whilst studying another language. Spanish has the same no-ending-a-sentence-with-a-preposition rule, but they actually pay attention to it... unlike English. Anyway, I digress.

This barrio (which translates into "neighborhood" but the idea is more like the burroughs of NYC, like Brooklyn, Queens, Manhatten, etc) is actually called 'Abasto' but it's on the border of 'Once' and 'Almagro' barrios as well. The locals nicknamed the area "Little Lima" (and use the English words instead of translating it into Spanish). It's chock-full-o Peruvians, both legal and illegal. Mostly illegal. And quite a few Bolivians as well.

On top of all that, there's a huge Jewish textile industry that's been around for nearly a century. It's about half a mile away, so there's also a lot of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews plus the associated synagogues around here. And, keeping with the religious theme, there are TWO faith healer churches nearby. You'd think one would be plenty but not around here. When I get some time I'll take some pictures of them and add them to this blog.

The larger of the two churches has a "magical" tarp (or giant cloak or banner or I don't know what it is). But at the end of the ceremony they pass it around/over the crowd to heal the injured, wounded, sick, and what not. If you aren't healed, OBVIOUSLY you didn't have enough faith... that tarp is a sure fire cure! Btw, I know all of this NOT because I attended a service, but because it's on late night tv CONSTANTLY. But it's good for learning Spanish. And it's free.

The smaller of the faith healer churches seems to be more of a setup like that church in the old Eddie Murphy movie "Coming to America". Except they all speak the Argentine variety of Spanish and the people look pretty much European and Lat-Am. But it's got more of that down-home, loud gospel music flavor to it (from what I've heard out on the front sidewalk). It's possible that their doctrine is wanting but I have no time to give it my expert analysis. I'm an extremely busy International Man of LeisureTM.

OK, that's enough typing this time around. I'm headed to Uruaguay tomorrow or Saturday June 9 and meant to do some research on the boats that go over there from BA. Alas, I got caught up reviewing this idiosyncratic neighborhood. Thanks for reading and 'chau' for now, until the next entry!