You Will Be Missed

As I sit in the computer lab of the lovely Residencia using a mid-90´s technology center and internet connection and a key board with sticky space button I fear that my blogs will become less frequent. Sadly, my computer ´Franklin` has stopped functioning. He turns on but the clock freezes and no programs open...he just sits there with the desktop that appears to be normal. I am working on him ... it could just be some sort of coma. With this inconvenience I am excited to embark on a lesson of technology. It´s necessity and its distraction. No sé.

The time with my family was spent so well. I loved that I could share the smells, tastes, sights, sounds and more of my experience with people from home. Being together in person is better than any distance. It was very relaxing and a good break from the normal. Luckily I didn't have too many classes. We ate some of the best food I have had in my entire life; delicious pastas, desserts, breads, cheeses and wines. We visited my favorite park that has aerobic classes during the weekend mornings, a few city gardens (rose, Japanese, and botanical), a few ferias, Alee came on my class field trip to a museum and we ended our journey with rainy cold weekend in the beautiful beach getaway of Argentina watching some ugly and rancid smelling 'sea wolves'. It was great. One of my favorite things so far was when my host family met my real family. That night I could not stop smiling. I love that I can have family on both ends of the world.

I went through my migration process ... I am legally a student here, 6 weeks before I leave. I love the organization and logic of this country. Luckily my migration process went very smoothly; others were not so lucky.

I got my haircut today; it was a bit scary not having a good hair describing vocabulary. The lady manhandled those scissors in one of the fastest haircuts I have ever gotten. Its decent. I got asked if I was from France today... maybe I am catching on to some European flair and trends of this Latin American city.

Tomorrow I have plans to eat the lucky gnocchi ... do you ?

And to leave you with some ´Mar del Plata´ wall art.

Love.

Mini-vacation

My parents are going to arrive in the morning to stay here in Buenos Aires for 10 days. I have so much I want to show them and do with them ... some things I have resisted visiting to save for when they came. I am very excited and it will be like a mini-vacation because I will be staying with them in my host dad´s apartment that they are renting from him and we are also traveling to Mar del Plata for one of the weekends. I will get a break from the rules and confinement of the Residencia. I will miss my roommates but not the 8 flights of stairs, rules, sketch neighborhood, and cleaning ladies. It will be super bien.

I feel like since I will be away from the Residencia for a while, I will demonstrate the encouraging and fun environment we have from the posters of our ´recreational room´ (which consists of the oldest workout machines I have ever seen, a television, a pool table with matting so worn down that the ball goes in when its still centimeters from the hole, a Foosball table and a computer lab). Posters are as follows:

´Commitment isn't the time you spend. It's a line you cross. Budwiser.'

´1947 Indian Chief´

(sweeeeeet)

'A Hard Man is Good to Find' (this can be found in the workout section along with two other posters of women working out in thong unitards with phrases such as 'Determination' and 'Body Heat' ...man that makes me feel like working out right now.)

(self-explanatory)

Love.

Coto: Land Of Glory

I am starting to realize how much of my time here (my weekends) are already occupied by several plans (between my parents visiting - which I am overly excited for, my half marathon and the preparation for that) I don't have as much time to travel as I had originally thought. I am already more than half-way through my trip. My Monday-Thursday mornings are way occupied by my classes and school work so my weekends I can do exploring and relax. The weeks fly by.

This week I started a book for leisure in Spanish which was recommended by my host mom. Its called 'Cronica de una muerte anunciada' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian author famous for magical realism. While slowly reading it with my dictionary for the colloquialisms and details, I am able to enjoy it, which I think is a good sign of my learning of the language. I went to the Museum of Sculptures de Luis Perlotti, Museum of Natural Sciences and the Museum of Plastic Art this weekend. The sculpture museum was nothing too special, especially after the long journey getting there and almost getting smashed by the subway doors. The Natural Science Museum was amazing ... a huge display of fossils of dinosaurs that have been found in Argentina and other parts of South America. Also there were very big exhibits of all other kinds of wildlife, rocks and plants. I stopped in the Plastic Art Museum this morning in the middle of my run in my favorite park ... it had interesting wood sculptures and a very good photography exhibit.

I went to another free music show in the downtown theatre district. It was a relaxed environment like the kinda shows I am used to; the instruments and everything just set up in the atrium of the theatre instead of the stage of the auditorium. The band was called Tonolec, a mixture of electronic and indigenous music; http://www.myspace.com/tonolec. Probably one of my favorite music mixtures I have seen here.

I went to the best grocery store I have been to in my entire life. Reasons: two stories of grocery. escalator that is specialized to take carts on it and have them not slide down. Bread in the shape of turtles. A loaf of fruit bread the size of my kitchen table. Soooo much. I always get enjoyment of going to the grocery store; this one tops all. I was so excited and looked around forever. As for cultural experiences of the week: I witnessed a hazing right in front of my eyes. It is common in high school for the newbies of the incoming grades to get hazed by the upperclassmen. The upperclassmen gather whatever nasty food they can think of: flour, eggs, fish, oil, milk, etc. and find the victim walking home and just throw everything on them backpack and all. I had never known why there were just huge random piles of food all mixed together on the sidewalks reeking of nasty (its strange because I always see people washing and sweeping the sidewalks and they are fairly well kept except for when hazing happens) until now. After the victim walks home tarred and feathered, the hazing vomit is just left for the public to wonder and avoid.

And some graffiti to stay on the dinosaur theme:


Love.

Adventures

My learning adventures this week composed of a trip to the Museum of Architecture and an attempt to go to the Torre Monumental or Reloj de los Ingleses (England gave it as a gift to BA). The Museum of Architecture was interesting and funny shaped (very skinny and very tall and placed in the center of a park) because it used to be the old water supply to the city. The inside is mainly a staircase with small galleries containing paintings of cityscapes and building projects. I liked it a lot for being a smaller and specialized museum. The Torre Monumental was closed because the elevator is broken and they don't have enough staff for people to walk the stairs (I didn't get the logic either) and luckily since the Argentines are so organized and timely the elevator won't be fixed for 3 more months.

I went to this restaurant to watch some folklore music. It was quite cute. It attracted a cute crowd and was a very relaxed environment. After the restaurant's entertainers were done performing, a few spectators pulled guitars out of nowhere and tables just started singing songs.

Tonight I went to a Jazz concert in a little cultural center along the big theatre strip of the city. The hosts of the concert were such cute old men ... I could understand their Spanish very well and got their jokes and stories. It was so great. The jazz group consisted of a pianist, bassist and drummer. And to top it all of the drummer was about 60-70 years old. He could barely walk to the drum set yet played so well and energetically. It was so beautiful how the age didn't stop him fro playing. One of my favorite things I've seen. I found a government website that is very up-to-date with all of the free and cheap community events...It's perfect.

I tried a Peruvian restaurant ... it was fancier than I had wanted; next time I will try a whole in the wall place because they are plentiful in my barrio. If I were to be blindfolded, I would have guessed I was at a Chinese restaurant from the look and taste of my vegetarian option. I tried some duck (which had a curry sauce ... Thai food anyone?). The chicken was normal. I guess the cuisine has a lot more poultry than Argentine cuisine. The unique things of the food were the sauces, the drink and the appetizers. There was a green creamy sauce (Aji) which was spicy and made from peppers, a orange creamy mild tasting sauce that was served with potatoes and rice, and what appeared to be ketchup and mayonnaise but didn't quite taste exactly similar. I wasn't sure of what to do with all of the sauces that were brought to the table along with my stir fry (ketchup + stirfry?). Chicha Morada is a drink that is made from the colored corn that is sweetened with pineapple. The appetizer was a baby baked potato with the orange sauce and some garnishings. The other appetizer was canchita ... if popcorn and corn nuts had a baby it would be canchita. It looks like giant corn nuts but aren't nearly as hard and taste like popcorn.

So living in Buenos Aires is an automatic confidence booster. Each and every day that I step outside, no matter if I am a bed head in my pj's or actually showered and did something, I get noticed ... not saying I like it. But I could feel so gross and unattractive and open the front door and get looks and whistles and catcalls. It's like a movie almost: a girl is having a rough day and feels lost in a big city ... things change the instant she steps outside; people notice her, look at her, try to talk to her, try to approach her. It's nice but it gets kind creepy and annoying. Especially when the man is way older than 50 or you can tell he has a family and kids...I just have to keep telling myself 'this is part of the culture, this is part of the culture.' Now that I understand Spanish a whole lot better, its quite comical. I am not responsive at all; I make sure to not look or even give hint that I heard or understood the catcalls because I don't want an unwanted situation to arise. I have been compiling a little list of my favorites of the week:

'Deliciosa' (Delicious)

'Que rica' (How rich/delicious/lovely/cute)

'Hola, Hola! Como estas?!' (Hey, Hey. How are you)

'Che Bebe' (Hey baby)

'Mi amor' (My love!)

'Por Favor!' (Please!)

'Que hermosa sos' (How beautiful you are)

'Ojos hermosos' (Beautiful eyes)

'Sus ojos' (Your eyes)

'Hermoso culo' (Beautiful butt)

'Que linda' (How beautiful/pretty)

'Que bonita' (How beautiful/pretty)

'Mama flaca' (Skinny mama)

'Hey...I love you' (No translation needed)

'Hola rubia' (Hello blonde girl)

'[attention whistle]' (Short repeated whistles to get attention)

'[long whistle]' (The classic cartoon in love whistle)

'[honking]' (Just to get attention)

'[kissing noises]' (yup ... to get attention)

'Chh...Chh' (Just to get attention. Ojo! The colectivos make similar noises so it could be either.)

Men cat call from the street, from the doorway, from the window, from inside their shop, from their car, from their bicycles, from everywhere. Some are more confident in others; some yell and some just mumble under their breath, some start following you or go out of their way to make sure you can hear them. Almost always they do the stare down to make sure they catch any glance or response the woman will give. I heard something about 'babies' this week too ... didn't catch the full thing.

Sign of the week: Just in case you wanted to dry your face too ... the blow dryers in some bathrooms have that option and instruction.

Love.

Legends

So in continuation of the Tango Festival I went to a modern ballet ... it was completely free. It was very beautiful. I tried to go to another concert series but got there just in time for one song and the hour long break in between everything; I didn't have the patience or the time to wait for the next act. I still plan on trying a few tango classes at a studio or two. To keep the classy theme of activities for weekend, I attended an orchestra concert in a cute little church whose inside looked like a cathedral but only held about 100 people if even.

The orchestra concert did a Beethoven piece with three different movements ... there were small pauses between each movement but according to etiquette you don't clap between the movements ... good thing I have a slow reaction time with my applause, a few others weren't so lucky.

I also tried some more museums this week: Museo de Arte Popular 'Jose Hernandez' and Museo del Arte Decorativo. 'Jose Hernandez' was nothing too special, an interesting mix of modern art and traditional Argentine art and Argentine customs such as weaving. The Museo del Arte Decorativo was one of my favorites; very elegant pieces of art given as gifts from all over the world to a rich family that inhabited the mansion before the government bought it. The mansion is beautifully built and there are stories about each room explaining its purpose and how the rich family would host parties.

In Argentine tradition, gnocchi (the pasta) should be eaten the 29th of every month. You place a blank note or money under your plate while you eat to bring prosperity and good luck. It's called 'gnocchi del 29' and it came from a story about Saint Pantaleon who blessed some farmers with abundant crops after they offered him what little they had to feed him in his travels; the tradition also stems from the fact that the 29 is normally the day before payday. I gave it a shot this month ... we will see if this tradition works.

Also another legend/tradition happened this week called 'Tormenta de Santa Rosa'. Every year on the 30 of August there is a storm in Buenos Aires. It is preceded by several days of 'summer' (it was 80 degrees almost all of last week) and then on Sunday, a huge cold front came with crazy wind and some rain and now its in the 50's and stormy again today. The Legend is about 'Santa Rosa de Lima' who is the 'Patron of the Americas'...back in the 1600's a huge storm sent by Rosa prevented pirates from invading the port. The storm happens nearly every year in Buenos Aires. I love it ... the magical, mystical and enchanting stories are my favorite.

My favorite graffiti of the week:

Love.