bowling in argentina
This is a long holiday weekend in Argentina (Columbus day is on Monday– apparently he discovered South America a week later than North)- and so of course all of the Argentines consider it an extra “weekend” night. We were meant to see a concert that Cam’s former host brother, Patricio, was putting on, but little did we realize that there is only ONE circumstance under which punctuality applies in Latin America- concerts. So, after arriving to the venue over an hour late, we ran into the band and fans standing outside of the bar.
We offered to buy everyone a drink, and we discovered that the bar (with a name oddly similar to “alcatraz”) had a bowling alley inside. So, Cam, Em, Cam’s other host brother Ramiro, and an Austrailian friend we met through Em’s spanish course engaged in an intense round of bowling. (FYI- the lanes were exactly the same as US, the score boards were in English, and we had to change into bowling shoes– although Cam unfortunately was not wearing socks!). Throughout the game, Emma almost fell over on every shot, Ramiro took an early lead and acted like a canchero – roughly, cocky- and Cam ended up winning on the very last round. Cam now loves bowling.
Photos to come…
standard.
Saturday night we decided to venture to dinner outside of the microcentro and into Palermo, an area of the city full of innovative restaurants. While we had done some research and had a restaurant in mind, we ended up just walking into a restaurant called “standard” which is one of the many “modern argentine” restos in the zona.
The food turned out to be excellent- we shared a seasonal salad with lemon-garlic vinagrette, and Emma had rabbit cooked with rice, while Cam had a lime battered chicken with potato puree.
Afterwards, Cam and Em attempted to go to acabar, an eternally popular bar that provides patrons board games to play as they drink. Unfortunately, it was packed full of people- and quite a few Americans at that- and so we abandoned the venue and had a glass of wine at a local resto-bar outside.
PS- the photos are not of our food… but ours looked just as good!
Museo De Bellas Artes
Yesterday for class I (emma) went to El museo de ballas Artes. As i was late to class, i decided just to go straight to the museum instead of first meeting the other students at the school. well.. according to Argentine time, i would have not been late anyhow, as i ended up waiting almost an hour for the others to arrive. When we first set off to start our little tour, the Argentine section was closed, and only the Spanish and European sections were open. this posed to be a problem as we had to write about two Argentine paintings. but about two hours into the museum they opened up half of the Argentine section. we were supposed to talk about a painting that is supposedly very popular titled “Sin Pan y Sin Trabajo” (Without food and without work) although the picture was very beautiful, i found that with my little amount of Spanish vocabulary i had a difficult time trying to describe what i felt about the picture without sounding like a kindergartener.
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Not being able to say what i wanted about particular photos without a dictionary was frustrating to say the least.
The museum was beautiful, but it made me realize that i have a long way to go in terms of learning a new language.
another hurdle for vegetable eaters
To prove JUST how difficult it is here to have a meal that includes vegetables (as you readers should now be aware of), we will highlight one issue de moda now- the high price of tomatoes. While tomatoes are produced within the country, Kirchner has been negotiating a series of price controls with industry leaders that has made it more profitable to sell the- fruit? Vegetable?- on the world (rather than domestic) market. This, combined with “dolarized” operating costs for farmers and particularly cold weather conditions here this winter, have brought the price up to a high of Arg$18 a kilo.
One instance specifically proves this point: one day we were out to lunch, and Cam ordered a caprese salad, normally priced at 10 pesos. However, due to the high price of tomatoes, the waitress informed us that the salad would now be 15 pesos. Cam, not one to care about a few more tomatoes, negotiated to have fewer toms for the same price (see, we are sticking to our budget!)
Finally, watching the news, we saw that over the weekend, there was a tomato boycott. In certain areas of town, some store owners were forced to give away the product. Apparently this city-wide boycott lowered prices to ARG $6/ kilo. However, with such volatility, it will be interesting to see if supply is reduced– and prices rise even higher. We should probably get in all our spaghetti bolognese now.
Franco Sinantra
Last night we decided that we were going to venture out and experience the live music that BA has to offer. We located a bar that has music every night, and we were excited to see that the show for the night was a Brazilian band, only in town for two nights.
After being pleasantly surprised that there were still plenty of tickets for the show, we began to grow uneasy- a large number of the band members were wearing tuxes, and this combined with the fact that there were a healthy number of octogenarians in the room made us realize that we may have missed the Brazilian band.
Indeed, we had. As the lights dimmed and we flipped through the catalogue, we realized that the band had played the week before, and so we endured (for 3 hours!) Argentine “big band”/ Fran(co) Sinatra- complete with Sr. Patricio (pictured above) fulfilling his duty as the overdone and very cheesy lead singer. The night was made complete with a rendition of “Strangers in the Night” in which we could almost see Emma’s eyes fill up with tears as her cherished song from childhood was performed with effortless beauty.
Well, at least we had vegetables- the “wok oriental” that we ordered was served with a healthy dose of onions and basil!
political addendum.
I forgot to mention in the last post a very important event that happened- Christian Von Wernich, a priest who worked with the government during the dictatorship, passing on information from confessions to the government in order for the to justify “disappearing” people, and, who personally murdered 7 people and tortured numerous others, was given a life sentence yesterday (“reclusion perpetua”)- the harshest that exists in the Argentine legal system. It was so interesting to watch the sentence on the news, and see the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo realizing what they set out to do 30 years ago– see these people are brought to justice.
If you are interested in reading a little more, I found an article on BBC, and Clarin.com has a lot of articles if you speak Spanish.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7035294.stm
clase y comida espanola.
The past few days have evolved into more of a routine, at least for Emma. She started a spanish course this week that lasts 5 days a week, all until 1pm. Cameron has taken on the task of apartment searching, and has hit upon a couple of leads, although in a price range that is much higher than we expected to find- it is crazy how much prices have risen in the past year! Looking at the monthly prices that Cameron and a friend paid less than 2 years ago, the rent has risen by nearly $200/month!
We also completed the obligatory, mundane tasks yesterday- finding a place to send laundry (there are no laundromats here, but people that do it for you- generally it is $3-$5 a load and you pick up your clothes the next day folded and pressed).
Last night was a semi-historic moment in that we FINALLY had a really excellent meal. In the area that we are staying in right now, it is the tourist/ theater district, and so you can imagine that most of the restaurants are overpriced and hokey. We braved a few of them (and discovered a good pizza place in the process) but last night we went to a Spanish restaurant that had delicious paella with seafood delivered straight from Mar Del Plata, and “one of the best wine lists in the city.” However, 8/10 through the dinner (wine had not been finished and the dessert menus had just been presented) Cam checked her phone and realized that her (former) host brother was waiting on the doorstep! We had made plans to meet up later in the night, but text messages (in Spanish nonetheless) can lead to miscommunication.
To come: the apartment search continues, Cam and Em go running in Puerto Madero, and the girls take their first- can you believe it?- shopping trip.
rollerblading in los bosques
After a few days of being under the weather, we headed out yesterday to resume our exploration of the city. We walked through the streets of San Telmo (the oldest area of Buenos Aires) and then we walked to Puerto Madero, the “Zona” directly to the east, as well as the newest and most expensive area of the city (quite a contrast- photos to come).
Today we went to los bosques de Palermo (the large park in the north of the city) and we rented rollerblades. Cam’s were flat and she definitely struggled. She also purchased a Choripan (sausage sandwich) from a street vendor… the craving was so strong… and our stomachs are doing fine! Finally, because the weather was pleasant, we sat at a cafe across from the jardin botanico (botanical gardens, aka cat park due to its “mascots” referring to a ridiculous number of cats).
We have also been terrible about keeping up with our vegetable intake. Yesterday, we planned to go to the grocery store to cook, but Cam, as she was exiting our building, didn’t insert the key all the way into the lock and locked everyone inside (and other tenants out!) The building manager had to call the locksmith, we were lectured about the proper usage of the key, and we finally decided it was too late to go to the supermercado. Sunday night, after a multi-block quest for a market, we realized that they were all closed on Sunday, and we substituted our leafy veg for a half a pizza, as we repeat the Latin American mantra “Manana, manana.”
Tomorrow we start a spanish course… it will be 5 days a week for 3 hours. emma has been informed that in her level there is only one other peron, so she should get some good one-on-one attention. Cameron was invited to attend the class by Ariel (her former professor; see entry below) and we’ll see if she will continue for the next few weeks.
Photos will come shortly, and we will sure to keep everyone updated!!
pictures
the picture website wasnt working.. maybe this will work?
http://picasaweb.google.com/emmaklott
tango de-estructurada
Wednesday proved to be a very interesting day. We decided to go on a jog in the morning, and the bosques de Palermo (a giant park in the north of the city) is a perfect place for a run. Unfortunately, we are staying about 1-2 miles from that area. And, after getting there, we of course wanted to run through them. So, for those porteno-conscious, we went from teatro colon to the lagos de Palermo and back– all in all, a trip of well over 10km. (we could barely walk by the time we got back).
That night, we went to a tango show with my (cam’s) former spanish professor (Ariel), his finnish girlfriend, an Austrailian Spanish student, and a middle aged German student. Ariel, always classly, decided to sneak in a bottle of wine and became so inebriated that he called the next day and asked if we had stayed the entire show- because he didn’t remember anything after the second act. For those of you familiar with Ariel, you can probably guess other antics that ensued. The music was very unique- tango de-estructurada, or tango that has been destructured (I **think* this is a word? Wow, my english is already getting worse). Instead of following the traditional 4 pronged beat, their emphasis was on off and irregular beats- much more revolutionary than Gotan Project, Ariel contends. At end the night, we went to Plaza Serrano, (drunken Ariel had tried to trick us into going to a tango club, but luckily I had been there before and knew). The plaza, which is full of bars with outside seating, was also full of Americans and relatively more expensive drinks– but it is always a sure bet on a weeknight.
We finished the night with a bizarre cab ride home, in which our driver asked us if we liked music (obviously) and so he put on his favorite mix- which was Shania Twain’s “Man, I feel like a Woman.” He then proceeded to dance his little corazon out, and one point getting so into it that he put his head outside the window. Emma, on the other hand, was not done- she bought a poster of the cuts and types of Argentine beef, for a price we cannot remember. We have to assume that, being open at 2 (or 3?)am, he wanted to compensated for his time.
