Sea Tigers
Ok. So we have a few more posts about Punta Del Este…
Our third night at the Moby Dick, Zach and I decided to show Cameron and Preston where the Uruguayans took us the night before. We walked along the docks, looking at boats and planning how we could somehow get into one without getting into trouble. We were then more than excited to stumble upon two very large South American Sea Lions. The Uruguayans kept referring to them in English as Sea Tigers, and it never ceased to entertain me that night. South American Sea Lions are HUGE and kinda crazy looking. Their faces look exactly like that animal in Never Ending Story. EXACTLY. Although, (as stated in an earlier blog) Cameron has a dislike for large animals, Zach, Preston and I were more than happy to get close to them… but I got the impression that they didn’t like us interrupting their sleep (I can’t blame them… I’d be so annoyed). Anyhow they seemed a bit grumpy, but maybe sea lions are just always grumpy, I’m really not sure. We spent a good forty-five minutes attempting to get close to the semi-sleeping beasts and we have many pictures to prove it. Looking back, it might not have been the smartest thing, getting so close to wild sea animals, but at the time we thought it was the perfect thing to do… I guess Moby Dick has that affect on people.
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| Sea Tigers |
Which do you prefer…Transvestites or Mosquitoes?
Emmas lack of vocabulary, or possibly lack of hearing has resulted in a few embarrassing moments.
While in class I was learning about how to describe things I like and dislike about Buenos Aires.
Por ejemplo:
Me gusta la musica (I like the music).
Me encanta tomar mate (I love to drink mate).
Me molestan los mosquitos (I hate the mosquitoes).
During the classroom discussion I thought a classmate said “Me molestan los mosquitos” which by the way I do hate…as there are so many here at this time of year. Let me preface this with a little information about that classmate, David. He is from Montenegro and is a very conservative little dick, who constantly talks about how hot the teacher is and attempts to make jokes in vain. Although he is very annoying I suppose there are some redeeming qualities about him in that he is very energetic and outgoing, which is also why he is a bit annoying… either way, I’ll give it to him. In reality the Montenegrin did not say “me molestan los mosquitos” but rather “me molestan los transvestites”. I really don’t know how I got mosquitoes from transvestites, but unfortunately I did. Under this train of thought I shouted MI TAMBIEN!! as if I had just received the holy spirit. Everyone looked at me as if I were a bit crazy, then I realized too late that he was not talking about mosquitoes at all. At that point everyone thought we were both assholes. I tried quickly to redeem myself by further shouting of NO NO… ME ENCANTAN transvestites, Me molestan los MOSQUITOS! But little less than half of the class was listening to what I was saying; for now I guess I fall under the umbrella of loud/rude/judgmental (or possibly crazy) American.
Anyhow, last night I went running at Los Basques De Palermo, or more accurately: Paseo del Rosedal and as I was running toward the park, which is about 5 blocks from our house, I remembered that at night it is a hub for transvestite prostitutes. Feeling a bit anxious, I continued on my path to the park. Lo and behold I saw many a pretty lady waiting to be picked up. But the good news: there were no mosquitoes, so I was happy.
*** For more on transvestites in Palermo go here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=latin_america&sid=aeymRmStf96s
La Recoleta Cemetery: It’s like a town for small people…
… or more accurately: Dead people
A little more than a week ago, Cameron and I stumbled upon La Recoleta Cemetery while exploring a fair in Recoleta. Most famously known as the burial place of Evita, La Recoleta Cemetery has many other mausoleums of rich and/or famous dead Argentineans. We passed near Evita’s mausoleum but were unable to get too close because it was swarming with tourists (you all know how much we… like the Australian woman “hate tourists”) and we were unable to get a good look. There were however some very old and unique graves that I found just as intriguing. Each mausoleum was unique and had a captivating aura about it. As we were walking through the cemetery Cameron pointed out that it looks very much like a creepy village for little people… adding a bit of eeriness to the situation. Some graves were very well kept and in perfect condition, adorned with fresh flowers while others (possibly forgotten by family members) were left in ruins…. another reason to just get cremated. For example we found quite a few with smashed in windows, toppled caskets, and full of cleaning supplies. Cameron was on the quest to find the oldest graves… but every time she was sure she had found one, it was only about 50 years old. After a while we realized that we were in what seems to be the newer part of the cemetery. If we learned something from this little exploration is that you cant tell how old a mausoleum is by the looks of it, which is why it is so convenient that they have dates and names displayed near each door. We spent a good hour and a half wandering around before the cemetery closed. Words of advice, get there with plenty of time, because it closes early, and take a camera. Overall I would recommend visiting the cemetery to anyone passing through Argentina.
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| La Recoleta Cemetery |
The Birthday of Emile Bayard
Shayda and Ben, who are visiting from portland, got reservations at an exclusive supper club, inside the apt of two very gay men who are historically well versed, and have amazing culinary tallent… The men host tri-weekly suppers, and focus their culinary selections around a historical event. The focus of this week’s dinner was the birthday of Emile Bayard. Born on November 2, 1837, he was an artist that lived outside of paris. Emile illistrated many famous books such as Les Miserables and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Because Emile was french the menu consisted of 5 dishes inspired by the food from his region of France. The first course was a brie torte, with a consistency of a savoury cheesecake. Along with each course they provided a wine pairing to complement the dish. The second course was white asparagus soup, with potato and white onion… this was one of my favorites. For the Third course we recieved a little “beggers bundle” of peas inside a crispy dough package. after our beggers bundle we had a stew of local fish in a light broth. And finally for dessert we had the most amazing cream and strawberries. the cream was actually a type of cheese that has a simaliar consistency to yogurt, but much much better!
the house holds about 15 people for dinnner, and there were some interesting characters. One woman was also from portland and works as a real estate agent for prudential. she focuses on NE portland so she knew our neighborhood well. there was a couple who were studying cooking in BA; the woman was from Colombia and the man from Guatamala, they were very cute. as usual there was the one awkward man who came alone and tended to talk a bit too loud and definitely too much, he would continually throw in information about his life, and the “accomplishments” he has made…and the “famous” people he has meet… (Drew Carrey)… there were two tables- one of which was for just four people, which we sat at…although it was a bit anti-social, we were glad not to have to converse with the random mix of people at the other table.
all in all the food was very good, and the experience was worth the 100 pesos… 30 US… I think George and Jody would have loved it!.. .maybe whey you guys come down?
after dinner we went to Mundo Bizzaro and had a few drinks before bed.. well emma and ben went home around two while cameron and shayda stayed out till 6..
agua con gas… mi amor
Emma has discovered the world of agua con gas… maybe she just likes the name… or possibly it goes a little deeper. now that we are informed that tap water (agua de la canilla) is no good for the body, we have turned to bottled water. And with this transformation agua con gas is winning in the competition between flat boring water and fun bubbly water.
this is my ode to agua con gas… everyone should indulge
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.
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!!
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.
