my pessimism is showing

28712

slept in fantastically late, it was great, me and mike made our way to that same market we went to the first week after the cemetery, to meet up with some of the other people, and wander around. luckily i love shopping, and especially shopping for tourist garbage, so i had a great time, after wandering around for a few hours, we decided to find a bar that was inexpensive, and had the Olympics on tv, ultimately we settled on an expensive restaurant, that had crappy music videos on tv.

yeah, we went to the hardrock cafe Buenos Aires, in the hopes that they are "International" enough to have the Olympics on, and they only had it on at the bar, which we couldnt sit at, and they had more crappy beer for way to many Peso. so it was kinda shitty.

we broke for a nap and dinner before going out. we decided to go to the bar we found last weekend, the Congo place, with the outdoor-ness and the firepits. i was mad tired, so i sat watching the crowds and nursing a beer for much of the evening.

im looking forward to just sitting around the hotel and drinking in Patagonia, because we can start that at like 8, have 5 hrs of drunken shenanigans and still get to sleep before 5am. the bar scene here doesnt pick up till like midnight, and goes till sun up.

our party split up, a bunch of girls, and my roomate wanted to go clubbing, while the rest of us went home (i went home at least, i dun really care bout everyone else). apparently mike had a bunch of fun at the club, there were fewer creepy assholes at this place than the last place, so he wasnt stuck fighting off douchebags the entire night. i vaguely recall him coming home, but i was sleeping very hard.

so yeah, this weekend was aright, i PROMISE when we hit Patagonia ill have interesting shit to talk about, glaciers and nature n shit. this dialogue is just alot less culturally exciting than my previous ones. my post-dialogue writeup will be very long, i just need some time for all this shit to coalesce, between my bias towards Europe, this being the very end of my undergrad career, and my obstinate anti-grammar nature, this dialogue will leave me with things to say beyond character analysis of the girls around me.

revolutionaries and drunkards^2

72712

friday, the last friday of classes, so its clearly a sweeter friday than next friday will be. class was aright, we watched the last segment of the Motorcycle Diaries, which was sad, because it was when Che realized life sucks, and only through (communist) revolution will Latin America be not shitty (as you know from history, his dreams were never realized, as he died in the basement of a campesino school at the hands of a drunkard Bolivian Army officer, in '67).

we also discussed the Olympics some, broadening our vocabulary with names for all the obscure sports, and positing who will win the most medals.

after class we wandered around that neighborhood looking for a bar with the Olympics on, for the opening ceremony. unfortunately, no matter how many times i will bitch about sitting at giant tables of 20 American kids in a bar, and how many people will agree with me exclaiming "youre right Dan, these unwieldy tables serve to isolate conversation and complicate the bill, we should indeed sit at different tables, the cliques develop at the big table anyways, you are so smart and great, and super awesome, we should always listen to you" (or something like that) we STILL WOUND UP WITH A LONG TABLE OF AMERICAN KIDS.

anyways we watched the opening ceremony on a 24 inch tv from 10m away, while the screen struggled to put us all into a seizure, drank more crappy Argentine beer, and ate peanuts and those salty fried things they always give you at bars here. we cut out to go home for dinner, hung out and planned for meeting at the Karaoke bar.

luckily this bar was in our neighborhood so we could walk there, and drink some, i never got drunk enough to sing, or dance for that matter, so i held down the fort and made sure no lil gypsy kids snuck in and stole anyones shit, unfortunately the guy who got his backpack jacked, and his phone stolen, and almost robbed again, managed to lose his jacket, with his wallet in it. so yeah, this asshat has nothing but his US passport, no jacket, no backpack, no wallet, no credit/debit cards, no cash, its actually pretty funny. he kinda put himself in the situations in which his shit got gone, so you neednt worry for my safety.

the girls in our group were the most excited to sing, and managed to turn the ENTIRE bar against us when they sang Beyonces "Single Ladies" they didnt let us up there anymore after that.

houses of culture

26712

once again, a day of little note, mike and i did ran to catch the train this morning, meaning we got on without paying the .80ARS consequently contributing to the city's massive debt. we did not have to run as we still got to class 20 minutes early, we just did not want to wait around for the next train to come in 6 minutes. class went by, and we were released for lunch.

today was the day of the graffiti tour, it was optional, and more expensive than i thought it would be worth, but after hearing reviews from people that went, i regret my choice in afternoon activities. the street art tour was awesome by all accounts, i thought our professors "fixer" would be running it, but it turns out it was this chick that knew a bunch of the artists and had inside stories and whatnot.

but alas, i decided to hit up the Ateneo bookstore that Claudia recommended. me and a couple of girls decided to check the place out, as she made it sound fantastic. after getting a little turned around and walking probably twice as far as necessary we came upon the place. now, we were told that this cool old bookstore was built into a rehabbed theater. and claudia went on to recount tales of being taken to this theater for operas, and ballets and all kinds of cultural activities.

so when we walked in and the foyer was about as impressive as the Barnes and Noble in the Pru, i was a little let down. after making our way further into the store, it got a little more interesting.

there was a hoe in the floor that took you to the basement for the kids books, the stage and backstage area was converted to a cafe, the main floor had shelves, the balconies had shelves, and yeah... that was about it, my spanish is good enough to read well past a highschool reading level, but that doesnt mean i enjoy it. so a bookstore in a foreign language forfeits its largest draw: books.

so yeah, after this i hopped the subway home, the wall-to-wall-people-in-contact-with-everyone subway car, and then laid around waiting for dinner and sleep.

lame ass

25712

i am starting to feel really bad that i have nothing interesting to post on here. the highlight of my day was the kitten walking around my shoulders as i made my morning tea. the train was (thankfully) uneventful, spanish class was also not particularly exciting. we went to a crappy sandwich place for lunch, that literally drenched my sandwich in either mayo or a butter-mayonnaise mix, which i also over payed for. the other class was slightly more interesting, a lecture on Argentine literature, led by some academic of literature. we are never really introduced too thoroughly with out presenters, and if we are i miss it due to the language barrier. anyways the guy was young and seemed cool, basically a classic English Major (though i suppose here it would be a Spanish Major) turned teacher.

we went through the three major phases of Argentine literature, from the José Hernández Gaucho period to Borges with his fantastical short stories, to more modern avant-garde stuff.

and after this lecture we went home to work on our projects, mine was on the Falklands Crises/Malvinas war, i threw together a powerpoint presentation for use on friday or monday.

i managed to get to sleep early.

sneaky latin-asian fusion

24712

yet another boring day, but this one was even less impactful (that's a word right) on the academics front, and far more so on the gastronomic front.

class was as normal, all be it a little slow, but we are all now comfortable with each other and the teacher so it is pretty fun. after class we were released to work on our projects, so of coarse, i went to go eat than be proactive and work on something ahead of time. me and a buddy went to the Peruvian place i have walked by nearly everyday on the way to the bus/subte into the city. the place was called Cocoroco, which is the onomatopoeia of the sound Spanish chickens make (cause animals make different noises). anyways i orders the Chaufa Mixto, and Chicha, not knowing what either of those things were. before our food was done came my Chicha ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicha#Peru ) which was far better than i ever could have hoped, apparently it is made of purple maize, and the stuff i had tasted like cinnamon, it was not overly sweet, or overly cinnamon-y but delicious and perfect. also we got some toasted corn, which is apparently called cancha, its like three quarter popped pop giant kernel corn with some kind of sour cream like sauce or green spicy sauce.

with the chicha coming out and being surprisingly delicious i was excited for my chaufa, it came out and it immediately reminded me of fried rice, and then i tasted it, and it was definitely a Latin American version of fried rice, which is fine, because fried rice is awesome. i proceeded to eat all of it, feel full and satisfied for the first time in a while. evan had basically a bunch of fried chicken, which im sure was delicious, but after my food i was unable to eat any of his, anyways, afterwords we parted ways, i went home and proceeded to nap.

after the nap i cleaned up my blog, and subsequently posted the Day 2 of Central Europe (apparently i had never actually posted it, its a good post, go back and read it), and then started digging up info on the Falklands Crises/Guerra de las Malvinas.

pictured below: my chicha

defenestrations

8512 we started with a brief history of the Czech lands on this day, with discussion on how classes will go an whatnot, then we broke for lunch, me and a few other guys, Chris the TA included, wandered our way into a restaurant, i had Elk Goulash with Potato Dumplings, it was fantastic. I have never had elk before, it tasted like lamb, it was cooked to hell in the goulash so it wasnt tough or anything like other game meats i have had, with the dinner i had a from the tap pilsner urquell which was significantly better than the bottles in the States, or the bottles here. we had a cultural misshap at this restaurant, we were told by one of our local guides not to tip very much, as in round up to the nearest hundred and that is good, so we payed like 1210, for a 1700 CZK meal, and she chased after us claiming we didnt pay enough...so i gave her an additional 200, and we left confused, i dunno if she though she could get more our of us due to our being american, i mean she clearly did get more money, of if we underpaid, or what, but whatever, a 70USD lunch for 5 people including drinks isnt that bad. we then went on a walking tour with another local guide. these are my notes from the tour, along with some addendum and pictures.

this is the current German Embassy, in sept of 89, east germans were coming to prague, to request political asylum at the west german embassy. This was one of the precipitating events leading to the november protests by czech students. this was in the embassy area, which we wandered through on our way to the top of the hill The area on top of the hill, used to be a normal portion of the village, however there was a conflagration in the late 1500s, and a series of aristocratic families kicked the poor people out and built their palaces.

Prague castle is the longest continuously operating seat of government in central europe, the kings of bohemia, various holy roman and austro-hungarian emperors, the czechoslovak republic of 1918 president, communist, modern czech presidents, all of them have ruled from this castle The hapsburgs were primarily responsible for the enlarging of the castle to what it is today, prior to this, the castle looked the same from its first conversion over to aristo homes in the 9th century, Front of cathedral is neogothic, as it was started in the 1300s, and not completed till the 1920s

i love it is big and imposing and catholic Windows of the cathedral: designed by 20th century artist, because there are no original windows, one of which designed by a famous modern czech artist, depicts early christiantiy in bohemia, including the patron-saint of the czech republic. And Cyril and Mathodius who brought christianity to moravia. Defenstration window!!!

really the only time you get to talk about defenestration is in prague, the famous one is when the protestant bohemians were upset with their newly appointed Catholic king, so they threw his advisers out the window, they landed in a pile of shit, and survived, but its the thought that counts right?

we saw some other stuff on the tour, but it wasnt quite as interesting, and im short on time, so Ill talk about the rest of the day, we had a light dinner at a place near our dorm, and me and my roomate got a litre (yup a litre) of local beer for 60CZK or 3USD, it was awesome, i think we will make this place our local quick spot as the food and beer was cheap, and for the oral history bit we will need to get done later. eventually we went to a bar with a group (in my opinion which was too large) and then wandered around to another one, we ent up at a tourist trap irish pub, overall an ok night.

guilty

23712

monday, once again a not very exciting day, woke up for class, rode the train to class, attended class, and completed class. for lunch myself and a number of other kids went to the California Burrito Co. (quite authentically Argentine right?) and all of us paid with 100 peso bills, which is what comes out of the ATM here, but instead of being the equivalent of a twenty dollar bill, businesses treat it like a hundred. i mean, my burrito costs 35ARS you should easily be able to break a hundred, even if the five people before me also broke hundreds.

anyways after lunch we reconvened for classes, it was the last class with the cool history professor guy, and it was about the economy of Argentina over the last century. while i have previous knowledge of pretty much all that was discussed, it was very interesting to see it from a locals' prospective. everyone is very cynical of the government and its fiscal and monetary policy. they do not have confidence in their leaders or their Peso, considering the inflation that today's generation witnessed, this is no surprise. the professor claimed that the people, particularly in Buenos Aires are very sensitive to the global market and currency prices. he also explained why the currency Black Market was so healthy; the Argentine people are betting against the Peso. Today the government sponsored exchange rate is 4.57ARS to 1USD, but on the black market you can easily fetch 6.5ARS to the 1USD, this is because people are betting against the Peso, they are willing to pay a little extra to buy a safe currency (the USD). a few people had a hard time understanding these concepts, unfortunately at least one of them was an International Affairs major, and i was subsequently embarrassed.

after this class we split up and went home, now, i will admit i feel bad that i am not getting much of the cultural tourism done as i would like. but when we get out of class at 333-400 pm, and my commute home is another hour, not only am i a little tired to traipse around this very large city and find museums (which in themselves are 20 or 30 minutes away from class), but i think a lot of them close by 5-6 at night anyways. i am sure my senioritus is kicking in too (thank the gods i was able to stave it off for this long), but as the afternoons and weekends free up, i will certainly try to hunt down some culture.

markets and people, and being right

22712

managed to sleep in late (but not too late) after the fun-having of Saturday night. I made myself a peanut butter, nutella, and dulce de leche sandwich for breakfast. and then me and mike headed out to meet up with people at San Telmo Market ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Telmo,_Buenos_Aires ), we took the bus, the bus we always take, and it was great, and easy, it just took like 80 minutes. so the bus took us right to the square which has the antiques stalls, which was Plaza Dorrego ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_Dorrego ), but the rest of the group we were trying to meet were literally at the other end of the Feria de San Telmo ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feria_de_San_Telmo ), which is a good 1500m long. so mike and i ducked and darted through the crowds to meet up with them, and believe me, the crowds were thick with tourists and locals so it took us a little while.

we finally ran into them as they were wandering into a parking lot, which had a grill for choripan, everyone purchased choripan, and everyone exclaimed how good they were, and praised me for suggesting such a fantastical gastronomic experience. this constituted pretty much the highpoint of my day.

we then wandered around the market, i got separated from the main group with 3 girls, who were fortunately meandering through the market faster than the rest. we got to the end, and then hunted for a coffee or some such thing.

after getting kicked out of one place for not having a reservation (which is a funny story in itself; we very slowly and obviously moved over towards a table, i made eye contact with at least 2 employees gesticulating at the table as we were to sit down, and after sitting for about 3 minutes, they came and told us to leave because the table was promised to someone else) we found our way to a pleasant place that had excellent coffees, I had an irish coffee, and their version included cinnamon on top, which was interesting. the cinnamon did not improve the coffee, but it certainly didnt improve it either. the two girls we were with got a coffee drink with creme de cacao in it, which was equally delicious.

hopped the subte home, and did nothing until i fell asleep.

palindrome

21712

despite our carousing last night we had to wake up early to head out to Tigre ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigre,_Buenos_Aires_Province ). Tigre is a town in the greater metro area of Buenos Aires, and its pretty cool. it is built up on the River Paraná Delta, so it is a city made up of a series of small islands, and many people use boats to get around, in the delta area of the town, even the supermarkets are waterborne, bringing the goods door to door for the residents to shop for their groceries n whatnot. we were taken on a river cruise, and there was a tourguide, however the public announcement system was crappy and i was unable to hear much of anything. here are some pictures of our route.

here is an example of the houses on the delta islands, a dead boat, and a fancy museum thing, but beyond that i know very little, due to the crappy sound system on the boat.

after the boat ride we were taken to the Puerto De Frutas, which was supposed to be this really cool shopping/market area. our fixer promised us you could find anything you wanted, i was sorely disappointed, there were probably 100 stores and stalls, however there were really only like 5 different stores; the tourist trap leather stall, the home decor store, the tourist crap vendor, the cheap toys for children seller, and the wicker basket provider. not only was this place lacking in interesting things, but we were allotted 3 hours here, which including lunch was about 2 hours too long. me and a handful of other catz ate some food, and then wandered around, managing to cover nearly the entire grounds in about 25 minutes, then we sat in the sun on the pier for an hour, and then we sat on a bench for an hour, and then we went home.

yeah, so that sucked.

last night we went to this very cool bar, which was very much more my scene than the bars/clubs we have been going to. the back area was open to the sky with fire pits, fire is always good, and inexpensive drinks. there were at peak about a dozen of us so it was a good time standing around and joking and chatting and whatnot. afterwords my roomate, myself and another dood in our neighborhood hopped a cab home. the cabby was awesome, talking to us (obviously in spanish) about all kinds of stuff, asking what we thought of the global economy, and how we liked Buenos Aires, and how corrupt it was, and politics, and obesity, it was neat.

we got home and promptly fell asleep.

tonight, we will eat at home and likely go out again to (i hope) a similar bar.

Chavez and pizza

20712

another day of class, and this one was no more interesting than the last. i did however discuss the politics of Venezuela with the teacher. our class know is comfortable with everyone to poke fun at eachother, ive already been pegged as the know-it-all asshole, (which is a slot i easily fill) so they were hassling me about challenging the teacher. i was talking about the elections in Venezuela not being "free and fair" and he thought we were just believing the anti-Chavez rhetoric, i tried to explain that there are indeed elections, but there is only like 50% voter turnout, and it isnt exactly "free and fair" he thought i was saying there are no elections, i was just saying the elections were a little dodgy. anyways class ended, and we were taken out for "the best pizza in the world" by our professor and her friend-fixer.

the pizza was pretty good ill admit, too heavy on the cheese, and a little light on the sauce, but plenty of dough (which i find the most important part of a pizza). this was kind of a clusterfuck of a celebration, partly for one of the girls' birthdays and partly for Dia de Amigos here in Argentina. after piling out of the pizza shop all twenty-some of us dispersed and went our respective way home. our homestay guy prepared food, and then dipped out to go celebrate Dia de Amigos with his amigos. right now plans are haphazardly being slapped together for the evening, we will see, if youre lucky youll get a latenight post from me.

be aware of your surroundings

19712

another boring entry, morning language class, and then nothing, the tour of the theater was moved so we would "have time to work on our projects." the language classes dont lend themselves to discussion here, so i really have very little to say, we spoke some spanish, watched some of the motorcycle diaries, and thats it. we were cut loose at 1, i scarfed down some choripan, and met with a handful of other kids at a bar (actually yet another Irish Pub) and hung out for a little while. i did not have any beer, as they were too expensive, and not very good. i headed home around 630, the commuter rail was packed, but i managed to find a seat. got home, ate alone, and went to sleep early, building my strength for the weekend/next week, as i plan to have all kinds of fun in El Calafate.

i woke up this morning to facebook posts about two of our number being robbed, in fact, twice. at the bar their backpacks were stolen without their knowledge, probably by the little gypsy children who cased us earlier in the afternoon. and later in the night one of them had their phone out, chillin, in the grass? bad call on his part, and someone yanked it. basically it wasnt violent, or scary, just shitty, they admitted that it was mostly stupidity that led to their misfortune.

so yeah, midweek lame blog posts, deal with it, read my weekend posts, they are better with pictures n stuff.

im sorry

18712

nothing special today, language class, where we practiced more conversation, and i got to drop some International Relations knowledge, watched a bit of Diarios de Motocicleta ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318462/ ) picking through the dialogue for grammar and vocabulary purposes. i followed a bunch of kids to the pay by the kilo Chinese buffet, and was subsequently unimpressed, i should have gone with the Choripan again. it was pretty much the same price, i got a bunch of noodles, and chicken, but it was lukewarm and had the classic cheap Chinese MSG taste. ill be sure to chase down more choripan tomorrow.

after lunch we finished our last history lesson with the professor (whose name i still forgot to get). this session went from 1955 through to today. and we talked more about Peronismo, and how its not a party, more of a vague ideology, and then we talked about Peronismo, is not a party, its something people claim to follow, and then he explained that Peronismo is not a political party (i say that because we talked about it many times, people had a hard time understanding the concept of a nonpartisan leader). we talked about the Guerra Sucia, and the financial woes of the 1990s, all very interesting stuff. fortunately we will be having the same speaker for the economics presentations as well, and i look forward to listening to him more, i should also remember to ask him questions about the Malvinas war as well.

again boring day, im sorry

sandwich of the gods

17712 another rather boring day, had spanish class, then a movie. the highpoint of the day was lunch, which i will get into in a second. i like this spanish class a lot, it is much more conversation based, and he corrects me as i go, which helps me more than any grammar chart ever has. today we started to talk about why there are differences between the United States and Argentina, as far as development is concerned, and i found it was easier for me to convey my ideas about this in spanish, than making up sentences about how i went to the store, or what i buy a good friend for their birthday. after class me and evan found a restaurant that served grilled stuff. you need to understand, this place was basically a step above a street cart (if we had found a street cart we would have gone there), there was no front wall, there was a huge grill with sizzling meat on it, a counter where you pay, a refrigerator with drinks, and a handful of tables and chairs, the place was kinda grimy but it only lent itself to the character. we had choripan, which is chorizo en pan, sausage on bread, the grill a sausage, slice it lengthwise (which i do to any sausage i eat anyways) grill it a bit more, and slap it in the middle of a half a loaf of bread. all of this for 12ARS. they hand this to you on a small plate, and i proceeded to cover it in diced onions and tomatoes, and some kind of salsa which i have yet to identify. it was absolutely fantastic, one of the best sandwiches i have had, and probably the best meal i have yet had in the country. i plan to go here as frequently as possible.

(not my picture) after this orgasmic gastronomical adventure, we returned to school to watch a movie, Valentin. ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296915/ ). it is a story of a boy being raised by his grandmother, with parents that are all messed up, and how he copes. the movie was cute, and in spanish, though it took place in Argentina, i did not feel like it was particularly "Argentine" but i appreciated it none the less. after class we made our way to a pub to have a drink celebrating one of the girls twenty-second birthday. i cut out of this early, as i was defeating the tail end of a cold, i went home, read my book, and fell asleep early.

Historians, cooler than you think

16712 today we had yet more class, which was unexciting, however after talking to claudia, i will be moving up to the advanced class. i described my predicament in my current class, that there is lots of grammar, and i believe i would better benefit from being treated like a child (learning the language from scratch, conversationally) than being shown grammar charts. my issue is i dont know the names of these tenses and forms in English, so i cant draw comparisons. charting a sentence as to where the subject and object and verb (those are all things in sentences right?) and identifying gerunds, isnt going to help, because i dont know what those are. however (despite my heavy use of slang here) i believe i have a better than tenuous grasp of English. if i were to speak spanish, and be corrected on the spot when using the wrong form/tense i would more quickly/comfortably acquire fluency (hence my being treated like a child, you dont show a Johnny 3 year old [or whenever you teach kids to speak] a grammar chart with the appropriate endings and conjugations when he says "i eated lunch today at school, and it was good" you correct him "no Johnny 3 year old, you ATE lunch today at school, and it was good" anyways, we will see how this class goes, if it goes horribly awry, i can always swallow my pride and drop down, ill probably never see these people again... after our normal language class we had a history lesson, this one covered 1880 through 1955. which goes through the modernization process (building of railroads, use of refrigerated boats to ship foodstuffs overseas) to the squalor that was the first quarter of the twentieth century, and the rise of Peron, and Peronismo. while the history is all cool n stuff, it can be easily found on the internet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n ). but you cant learn about our history professor on the internet (probably, i dunno i didnt look very hard). he is actually an ethnic Hungarian, speaks Hungarian, Polish, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and i think he said something about a minimal knowledge of German too. anyways, he was quite knowledgeable, and after class i pestered him about the rise of Argentina (the whole becoming the breadbasket of Europe while Europe was busy industrializing/killing each other, in the last half of the nineteenth century), and the Argentine attitude during World War One, and views on US Imperialism of the late nineteenth century, and what the next lecture will be on. i may end up grilling him on the Falklands/Melvinas conflict as i believe that will be what my project will be on. after class we went to get a new phone, as the roommate managed to lose it in the 2 hours that he had it (literally the only 2 hours it has been in his possession it was lost). and the two of us wandered our way back to the commuter station, and happened upon two of the girls in our neighborhood, chatted on the train, and then in a pastryshop eating, you guessed it pastries, and drinking coffee. now im home, bout to go read more, sorry there aint no pretty pictures to look at, maybe tomorrow (but probably not)

Zoo

15712 after sleeping in for the first time in a while, we woke up and decided to meet some people going to the open air market we went to last week. however we got off the subte too early, because some people thought it was closer, it was not closer, so we decided to hit up the zoo. now i must say my only experience with animals like this outside of the United States, is the circus in Russia, which was kinda fucked up, so i wasnt sure what was going on here. entry was 47 pesos, so 10USD. there were some kids outside protesting the zoo, at first i just figured they were the treehugging type, but i was soon proven, they were kind of right. they had all the animals one would expect to have in a zoo, the Milwaukee zoo I would say is definitely better, this zoo is how i imagine zoos were in the United States back in the 1960s, lots of cages, like actual cages. anyways the only stuff i was really interested in was the more local critters, so i got some pictures of them.

there is a herd of llamas (yes a herd, i looked it up) fighting eachother for the pellets of food you can buy to feed the animals in the zoo (all the animals eat the same pellet thing) and some. and the other thing that looks like a llama, but isnt is a vicuña, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicu%C3%B1a ) its apparently the national animal of Peru. anyways there was nothing too awesome in the zoo, there was one point where i made eye contact with the camel, and i saw the deepest sadness ive seen in any animal ever, worse than those sara mclachlan ASPCA commercial kittens. after seeing the despondence in a camel i realized i wasnt emotionally prepared to see the apes. so we hurried through the rest of the place, and headed home. i was torn, i dont know if i should feel bad for supporting the zoo, or feel good for supporting the animals. like if people stopped going, and the zoo stopped generating revenue, what would happen to the animals? anyways, enough with such moral quandaries, class is soon, sleep time must start now.

MEAT

14712 So today we hopped on the bus, (luckily it picked us up from our neighborhood this time) and it took us out of the city to Don Silvano Estancia for a gaucho experience. admittedly the place was a tourist trap, but the food was good, and having 20 other kids to traipse around with made it a whole lot more fun. the place is run by an italian family that immigrated to the area around 1900, it was a working farm for quite a while, but as technologies and agri-corporations got bigger small farms kinda fell behind, and in the mid 1990s, it was turned into what it is today. we arrived and were immediately herded through the empenadas and wine line, which was cool, cause id been awake for like 2 hours by then, and i definitely needed some ground meat wrapped in dough and some decent (but by local standards awful) wine. after a brief talking to by our handlers, we were set free upon the "farm" we naturally gravitated towards the horses, as we heard we would be able to ride them. unfortunately there were way more of us than horses, so there was a line, me and a few other catz decided to hit up the Bocce Ball court field lane? me and Evan dominating, with the other team (consisting of my roomate and taller rugby girl) conceding once we led by 8. we hurried back for some more wine and empenadas before climbing on the horses for the quick jaunt around the grounds.

turns out the horse i was riding was novios with the horse of tall rugby girl her and her horse:

me and mine:

roomate and his:

and Evan and his:

because my and madisons horse were so close, they had to remain physically close, so whenever one of us sped up the other would follow suit regardless of the riders intentions. my horse wasnt the most pliable, at one point i encouraged him to go a bit quicker through a larger open area, and madisons horse kicked it up too and chased us. evan, between his natural outdoorsmanship (he is from the middle of fucking no where Pennsylvania) and smaller horse, he was riding like a pro turning him around and trotting and stopping on a dime, it was pretty cool. towards the end of this jaunt, one of the ladies working at the tourist trap was taking pictures to sell to us later, now normally i would never pay for such a thing, but my horse knew what was up, and as this lady was stationed for the pictures, hurried out of line, and basically posed with my being a bad ass on top, so i shelled out the 5USD for the picture, if i can get it scanned ill throw it up here too. after the riding came the feast, and a feast it indeed was. there was a show also, but i mostly stuffed my face and spoke to the girl sitting next to me (who knew the accident prone little girl from the Czech Dialogue). first out came the salad, which i partook in liberally, you know roughage and whatnot. then came out the sausages, chorizo and a (morcilla) blood sausage. both of which we fantastic, the blood sausage, being a blood sausage had an odd texture, which i remedied by spreading on the home made bread rolls that were rife throughout the smorgasbord. after that came the chicken, i had the breast, which was nothing special, it wasnt the pumped up hormone chicken we get in the states, so it was a bit smaller, but tasted roughly the same. after that came the first round of beef, i think i got myself some rib tips i am not entirely sure. but this while covered in gristle and fat, was delicious, and by the time the second round of beef rolled along, i snagged myself a hunk of T-bone steak, which was prolly one of the best t-bones ive ever had, ever. to conclude the meal they handed out homemade flan and coffee. now normally im not a fan of flan, but this was really good, consistent thicker texture, i dont know if argentine flan is different from the kinds that i have had before, but i really liked it. upon completion inhaling my flan and the end of that show i wasnt really paying attention to, we were released from the long tables for the gaucho show. the show, while cementing the tourist trap aspect of the venture, was entertaining. it reminded me very much of the renaissance fair back home. there was a little race between a gaucho and gaucha? and then the gaucho demonstrated the use of the bola, by riding full tilt and catching a wooden post about 10m away from him with a flick of his wrist. after that there was effectively a jousting match, where they catch rings, instead of unhorsing eachother. apparently it came from spain, where the riders would be trying to put their lance/spear through a ring for the hand of a lady in marriage, however the gaucho lifestyle doesnt fit well with marriage so they have their own version. the argentine gaucho version calls for the ring grabbing, but its for a "kiss" (as explained by the owner). the gaucho in fact gets to choose who to kiss, and if the target has a significant other, said other must kiss the gauchos horse. after a few rounds of this ring catching endeavor, we were shooed away for Mate and pastries, the mate wasnt anything special, but the pastries were awesome, and after another few minutes we were sent on our way, busing back into the city. i got home and pretty much went to sleep, i read some, and made myself a honey and nutella sandwich, but did nothing else.

a lil unannounced tour

13712 aright, so things are starting to pick up with the weekend coming. woke up early as per normal, and the commuter train got us to school in a record amount of time, we ended up sitting and waiting for about 20 minutes for class to start. class started, and we did a bunch more grammar, i think one of the girls is bumping up, i think after a day, ill grill her and possibly follow. after class Evan and i meandered around looking for food, we found our way to a cafe and i had a cheese and onion empenada, and a meat empenada. while seated 3 separate street venders ambled in and attempted to peddle their wares. Evan had never seen anything like this, i spotted the first guy before he even came in and mumbled some kind of lamentation, the dude walked straight to us, and placed a packet of highlighters and a crappy flashlight on the table, and distributed the same set to each of the tables. i guess so we could inspect it more thoroughly? without feeling pressured by his scrutiny?, anyways, we werent havin it, i shooed him away, and the next, and the next. after the cheesy incident of the ravioli, and the empenada, i had to find some kind of digestive/lactose aid, so we stumbled into one of the many pharmacies in the area and began to look for it. turns out its an over the counter med, not on the shelf, so i had to ask. and while i asked in spanish, the lady responded with english that it was expensive, and it was pretty expensive, something like 19USD for a packet of 10 pills, whatever i needed em. she put it in a safety magnetic theft-proof bag, and i checked out, swallowed a pill dry on the threshold of the shop, and continued to the meeting point for the architecture tour which we had learned of only minutes after class. so this is what i got from that: Buenos Aires doesn't have any colonial architecture like the rest of the spanish american empire, all of its character is copied from Europe, this and its 19th century focus on immigration, makes it a very European city. Until the end of the 19th century, there was a mass consciousness in the world of architecture, which proscribed the italian/french neorenaissance style as the way to go.

Pictured above: Italian and French neoreneissance inside-the-line designed buildings built circa 1870s, also note that shadow covers much of the picture, thats because we were taken an an architecture tour in the late afternoon, during winter, in the southern hemisphere, the sun goes down at like 630... im sorry By 1900, many architects had broken off and began their own styles, like the art nouveau (modern) style. Argentina did not have steel until rather late in the global advancement game hence their lack of turn of the last century tall buildings, early on they bought from the US, gogo Carnegie monopoly.

This statue was originally intended to go to chile, but the argentines grabbed it first, it was the first statue of San Martin in Argentina, which is kinda bananas, cause he is a big deal here. It was commissioned by the chilanos in 1878 to some french artist, but when the argentine ambassador to France heard of this, he orchestrated the delivery to be "delayed" to chile, so it was delivered to argentina while the chilanos waited an additional 6 months for their statue First Reinforced concrete building of Argentina, built in 1932, art deco style. While the inside is designed to look much like the palaces in the immediate neighborhood, so old and swanky and full of hardwood and scrollwork.

this was a the view from that park the statue was in

after this, we went home, did nothing, ate some food, and proceeded to find an entertaining and establishment for the consumption of of the (really overall awful) beers of Argentina. my roomate and i met up with a bunch of the other kids and we stood/sat around chatting and laughing and having an all around good time, well into the wee hours of the morn.

free musuems

12712 another day of class, other than the grammar heaviness of the mid level class, it seems aright, ill stick in it for a while, it sounds like i can still prolly switch out if i so choose later. after class we were taken to an art musuem. we went here ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Nacional_de_Bellas_Artes_%28Buenos_Aires%29 ). ill admit im a lil spoiled when it comes to art museums, but its collection was certainly interesting. the building itself, though over a hundred years old the building wasnt too impressive, the first floor had art from the middle ages through the 20th century, including some famous catz, Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, others. there was also a limited modern art collection on the 2nd (third) floor, but the 1st floor which had all the famous argentine stuff, was closed. i was a little disappointed, maybe ill go back there later and see that stuff. afterwords me and a handful of people wandered around the area, and hopped a bus home, sorry im so lame, im prolly gunna go to sleep shortly, we have exciting stuff going on this weekend, allegedly horses will be involved, stay tuned.

day drinking; not an argentine custom

11712

woke up early for class again, walk to the train station went more smoothly, today after the first break, i bumped up to the next level class. i liked this class more, but, it was a little heavy on the grammar and vocab building, it sounds like the next level up is almost entirely conversational, which is what i want. ill give it another day and see whats up. Claudia says that i should do what i need to do to learn, as this is my last class and grades are less important, and im not going on to more Spanish at NU n whatnot. again, give it a day, see whatsup. after class Claudia took us all to a cafeteria (read with Spanish accent) and purchased us a half-shitton of empanadas of various kinds, chicken, carne (beef), ham and cheese, spinach, all were delicious. also this happened

we then made our way back to class for a brief history lesson on Argentina, in Spanish. it was awesome, reminded me very much of my middle school days, lecture in Spanish, PowerPoint (though that was before PowerPoint, it was whiteboard in my day) in Spanish, it was fantastic. after that a good number of us, (all being of age that is) found our way to a bar and restaurant in the immediate vicinity of the instituto. had a few of the local beers (which were awful by the way, and im not just talking from spoiled experiences in the Czech Republic), and fancy mixed drinks. the place was empty when we got there, and remained empty till we left. i made my way home, screwed around on the internet, ate exquisite home made ravioli (ricotta, Parmesan and ham) now i write this, and will likely get to sleep, as early class times suck, and lone commutes suck more.

and so it begins

10712 class started today, and it sucked. class was aright, but waking up at 7am to GET to class sucked. we got up, i microwaved some water for tea as the stove would take too long, scarfed down some toast, and we got lost on our way to the train station. the train quickly got us to the center of town, and we found our way to the instituto without too much difficulty, and because we got there on time (which is actually early) we waited around some. class started, and i was placed into the intro level, because i managed to NOT take the entrance exam while on my other dialogue (oops). it was a little easy, Claudia our prof said i can pretty easily bump up, ill see how tomorrow goes, talking to people in the upper classes, im pretty sure i could handle that work as well, so i dunno, we'll see. after class me and my roomate and Evan wandered around, and decided to go see the new spiderman movie, we bought our tickets, came out to 40 peso (for 3d) so thats like 9USD. the movie turned out to be dubbed, which is ok, cause its spiderman and didnt rely on dialogue, though i picked up more than enough to follow. I can passively understand more than enough spanish to get by, i just trip up while actively using spanish. anyways the movie was alright, i thought the new spiderman was very much more spidery and comic spidermany, so it was certainly an improvement over the later of the last attempt. after that, came home, eat some steak, and now i am debating whether i should watch a movie and go to sleep, or read a book and go to sleep. sorry for the lack of excitement.

not quite the preakness

9712 Today was Argentine Independence day, there were parades and speeches and stuff, which i caught on television, i was resting most of the day, slept in late, and laid around reading and playing with the kitten. round 4pm my roomate met up with one of the other guys and we wandered around a bunch, found a cafe got some foodz, and continued wandering. we did find ourselves walking by the Hipodromo, the horse track, and there appeared to be a race/races going on. there were a number of gated security ridden entrances, then there was the paupers entrance, we figured we would give it a shot. we wandered in, the place is very swanky, very nice and clean and modern. the track is HUGE, i guess its like a 2 mile track, but it seemed alot bigger. there didnt seem to be anything specific going on as we poked around. we saw there was movement around the stables on the jumbotron, so we figured wed sit and see what happens. turns out, in this FREE area, we sat down right in front of the finish line/winners circle. so, a race starts, and the horses haul ass, and run by us.

they are the blurs on there, my 1080p HD cameraphone had a hard time with it. anyways, the race was close, so they raised the flag saying 8 and 3 were tied for number 1, and then i guess they went to the photo or replay or whatever they do in horseracing, and determined it was 3 that won, a bunch of people cheered, and a bunch more cursed. and the guy trotted forth on his horse for pictures with the owner and press n whatnot.

after this we wandered our way back to our respective homes, our homestay made us dinner, consisting of soup, salad, and some kind of patty, it reminded me of a breaded chicken or veal patty as i have had at home, but this tasted maybe a lil fishy? i dunno what it was, it was real good though. followed this up with more kitten-fighting. and will now read myself to sleep, we gotta be in the center of the city by 830 tomorrow, meaning we gotta be on the train round 740, and outta the apartment by 725. laters

basement hangouts

8712 after sleeping till 230, we got up and farted around the apartment till we had to meet up for the dinner and (as described) tango show at 645. we were to meet at the same hotel, we tried taking the bus, which was an easy and inexpensive ride, but it dumped us off a lil late, we rolled in at 7, BUT all was well cause the bus was like 45 minutes late. so the place was in a basement it looked like a wine cellar, but i think it was engineered to be that way, it didnt look as old as it was trying to look, another touristy type place, little did i know we would get a clusterfuck of Argentine culture that evening. started with dinner, obviously i went with the veal cutlet, and the appropriate Argentine drink to pair it with. the meat was aright, prolly cheaper than what i could have gotten back home, but not necessarily better. for desert i had Peras al Malbec, pears boiled in wine, it was very tasty. after another few minutes, the show started. it opened up with standard tango dancing, the men in their fancy suits (though one seemed to have a faulty cufflink that he adjusted every 45 seconds), the women in flowy sidecut revealing dresses. the dancing was cool, clearly alot of choreography/timing goes into it, as i could see it going horribly awry with a single misstep. there was an upright bass, piano, two violins and an accordion playin the music for said dancing. the next bit was an Evita singing, the people really did love that lady. with people waving flags and handkerchiefs. then came out 4 camposinos, one on drum, another guitar, another miniguitar? (ukeletar? guilele?) and another on varous lutes and flutes, and shakers. their music was interesting, and then a guy came out with spinning noise maker things. they looked like bolas, maybe used for catching particularly insubordinate cows? anyways he spun them, so they just hit the ground, and made a clicking sound, along with the music, and he put on a show. again timing seemed to be very important, with a catastrophe waiting with each misstep. AND THEN some ancient accordionist came out, with some apprentices (thats how you learn to play the accordion right? through apprenticeship?) and the dancers came out and danced somemore, then everyone came out and there was a song with dancing, and it ended, and they kicked us out. we hopped the bus back to the hotel, and then me and the other 4 guys, and 2 of the girls wandered around looking for a bar to have a drink in to end the night. however we walked alot before finding a bar. i was growing despondent. again i say, Buenos Aires has no obvious downtown, or bar area or shopping area or eating area or anything id expect in a big city. there are bars and eateries, and malls n stuff, but they are all in disparate locations. anyways shortly before i ran out of patience and hailed a cab we stumbled onto a place called Unplugged, which specializes in 80s music, awesome. we walked in, and they asked if we speak English (is it that obvious?) and how many were in our party, being 7, they said theyd open the downstairs for us. we went downstairs, had a cute waitress, and proceeded to have a few drinks and play lame drinking games. round 230, we headed home, and went to bed. tomorrow (today lol) is independence day in Argentina, so we will see whatsup.

So you dont party till 2?

7712 Today we met the our host-guy's mother, who is hosting an additional 4 of us. she walked over to pick us up, and take us all to the meeting point in town. this meeting point was Marriot Hotel, quite a swanky place in a swanky neighborhood. we then all hopped onto a bus to get a driving tour of the immediate area of the city. and here are the notes from said tour Buenos Aires was founded in 1536, in an effort to get closer to finding the Legend of the White King, which has something to do with looking for the silver, i dunno the guide lady wasnt too clear. unfortunately after disembarking the Spanish came upon the Pampas, the grass desert, no trees, no mountains, nothing of note, just a bunch of grass, which does not lend itself to building defensible positions,and the native peoples killed them. Those few Spaniards that escaped north left a bunch of their horses and cows, who were subsequently domesticated by the people living on the plains, as you know horses and cows are big fans of plain living. Buenos Aires was then founded again in 1580 as a port for the Spanish American empire, to siphon the copper from Chile, gold from Peru, and silver from Bolivia to the homecountry. On the drive we came upon this

Which is the 3rd largest opera house in the world, helped opera to survive WWII cause you know, Europe was busy being annihilated, and no one else really cares for opera. all the big shots fled here to make more art. Old city hall where the May Revolution was declared.

Also in this square was a cathedral, now dont go expecting anything on par with what was seen on the last dialogue, cause I did, and was a lil disappointed, i actually did not take an pictures of the outside, so gogo wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires_Metropolitan_Cathedral )

Mausoleum of San Martin, buried standing, off the church as he was a mason. He's kind of a big deal to Argentina, as he freed a bunch of South America from Spanish Rule 1870s, as Europe ramped up its industrialization/in-infighting, Argentina became the foodbasket for Europe, producing grain and beef/leather to be sold to the Europeans. The rich expanded further west, pushing the native peoples out for more agricultural lands. As this happened the Argentine government needed labor, so they advertised in Europe, promising unlimited opportunity. The poor came, and lived in squalor here in the South of Buenos Aires much as they did back home in Europe. Making the southern part of the city the immigrant section, Russians, Danes, Jews escaping the Pogroms and predominantly Italians (in La Boca neighborhood). Church sponsored by Tsar Nicholas II in Southern Areas of Buenos Aires

Argentina has the largest population of Welsh outside of Whales. There is a famous Irishman who came over during the first war with the English, fell in love with Argentina, and helped to train the Argentine navy, who went on to defeat the British the next time they showed up according to our guide. here is wikipedias version of it ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brown_%28admiral%29 ) The La Boca neighborhood was built of leftover bits of the port. The port itself was the first port of the city, and the only access to the sea the city had, operated until the 1920s when ships got bigger and the port became obsolete. I didnt get any pictures of the area, it was kinda a tourist trap, we will likely go there again at some point, ill get pictures then. We ended our tour in a big fancy cemetery, filled with rich aristocrats, and heroes of the revolution. Evita Peron the Spiritual leader of Argentina through much of the first half of the 20th century is buried here, and there is a big story about her body before coming here. She died, was embalmed her body was stolen (kidnapped?) and kept in a closet for a while, and then shipped to the States, and then given back, and ultimately put in here.

after the tour broke, we wandered around the area, im not entirely sure where the downtown is in Buenos Aires, the city is HUGE, like metro area is 500 sqmi bigger than LA. and in our travels (as i am writing this late, even today) have not taken us to a central place of any kind, no specific bar scene, or downtown shopping area i dunno. the city confuses me. me and 2 of the 4 other guys had lunch at a place and paid waaaaay too much, and then wandered around a craft market. this market had stalls selling leather wares and jewelry and Yerba Mate straws and general Argentine crap stuff. we found our way home by subway, the Subte, and got a lil lost between the station and home. after dinner we went to meet people at a club thing, Club Araoz, which at only admitted grown ass people between 1100-1135 while we stood outside. we ultimately decided to walk elsewhere to the closest thing i have seen to a barscene here. the square had like 4 bars/clubs around it, we (me, my roomate and 10 of the girls) went into one place at midnight, which didnt pick up till like 130, then we went to a club and danced n partook in various beverages n whatnot till like 445, at which point we went home and slept through most of the day.

34°36′12″S 58°22′54″W

6712 so after a bunch of travel we are here. first on the 4th of july, after not sleeping enough i flew MKE to BOS, then i hung out with the accident prone lil girl from Prague, and stayed up prolly too late talking to another prime ladyfriend. waking up to see her off to work at like 8am on the 5th, i did my best to stay awake (which means i didnt) and cut out of her empty apartment round 1045, unfortunately she had nothing worth stealing. ride back to Logan was unexciting, wandered around till i found a bunch of the group, and proceeded through security to hop on the flight to Miami and promptly fall asleep. had some more time to burn in Miami before departing for Buenos Aires. first off we got there, walking up the jetway and it was cold. i loved it, after 100sh degree days in Milwaukee 30 was appreciated, we paid our 160USD for a ten-year visa, got pictures/fingerprints taken, and were off to our buses to take us to our respective homestay. its 7 in the morning. the lack of time change effected me the worst, all of my long flights have been East or West, so that there is also a time difference, and any lack of sleeping on the plane is made up for by losing/gaining a day in timechange, however we only lost an hour across the 9 hour flight to Buenos Aires. i slept through much of the busride through the city, however it wasnt very interesting with morning in-flow rush hour traffic there wasnt all that much to see. my homestay is with a guy in his 30s, Demian, his girlfriend, and his cat. he seems like a cool guy, from what it sounds like he works from home, speaks good enough english, and is neither overbearing nor completely absent. i have had limited contact with the girlfriend, but she is working on her english so im sure the mutual vocabulary exchange will help get my spanish back on track. the cat is still a kitten, and very friendly, and as kittens do she plays very hard, and sleeps harder. she sits with me as i write this

and 45 seconds later, this was the situation

i napped much of the day away, and will be going to sleep shortly, tomorrow we have a walking tour, and will see who lives where in the city, so that we can hang out with them at cafes n whatnot at night, cause apparently no one sleeps here. more to say and show tomorrow