Lights, Camera, Hablá!

There is a big film industry in Buenos Aires. You may have seen some of the films made here . . . you can even see actors out and about in the streets. In fact, today on my way through the building to meet with our Academic Director, I crossed paths with a famous 60-something gentleman-actor of soap and film star fame. I have yet to find out his name, but I was told that he is a well-known personality in Argentina. That being said, I'm not going to talk about film acting . . . but voice acting.

Joe, Jen, and Claudio

Every year the Ministry of Education develops language tests for the entire city of Buenos Aires. Over the last 3 months, I have worked with a team to review, revise, and edit listening and reading passages and test items to be used to assess the English language levels of elementary and high school kids. Well, Saturday was the big day of recording the listening segments. We arrived at Julian's sound studio early enough to catch my co-workers buying some "facturas" (Argentine pastries) to give us energy for the recording session. The Ministry had recruited Susan from New Zealand, Emily from Tennessee, Jacqui from Indiana, Jen from Texas, Joe from Oklahoma, and Claudio from Argentina (who can affect a perfectly British accent).

Susan, Claudio, Jacqui, Emily, and Carla

We all took our turns in the sound-proof room reading our scripts . . . scripts that included fairy tales, interviews, news broadcasts, conversations, teachers conducting class, phone messages, and commercials. I got to do a commercial, be a teacher, and read an NPR-type news story. Joe was a hen-pecked husband, a newscaster, and a teenaged boy (one of those three was type-casting . . . ). It was really a fun experience! I had marked the scripts for stress as part of the tedious editing process, and I was pleasantly surprised at how authentic everything sounded. Julian will later insert the clapping, ding dongs, beeps, doors opening and closing, and background music. How cool will that be? I can't wait to hear the final product.

I hope the kids of Buenos Aires enjoy taking their next standardized English language test. Having played many-a-language-tape and CD in class, I have to say that our new-found enthusiasm for acting certainly came through in our voices.

Carlitos: El Sabor de Peru



Pollada con ensalada y papas fritas

Buenos Aires, while a great eating town, is not the place you come to indulge in a wide variety of "ethnic" cuisines. Although a tremendous number of different ethnicities are represented in the cultural make-up of the city, when it comes to the restaurant scene, Argentine restaurants, with their emphasis on meat and pasta (and, of course, pizza) dominate. There are a number of Chinese places in Belgrano's Barrio Chino, a smattering of Middle-Eastern joints in Palermo, and a few expensive Japanese and "Southeast-Asian fusion" restaurants in Palermo Hollywood. However, since our guiding philosophy most of the time is "cheap, delicious, and close to home", we end up going to our favorite Peruvian restaurant, Carlitos, probably twice a week.

As I mentioned before, we technically live in the "ritzy" neighborhood of Recoleta, final resting place of Evita Peron and home to a lot of BA's "old money". However, we live on the southern edge of Recoleta, a mere one block from the distinctly downmarket neighborhood of Abasto, spiritual home of the tango and Argentine icon Carlos Gardel [note: a series on the different barrios of Buenos Aires is upcoming]. Abasto is also the home to many of BA's Peruvian immigrants, of which there are probably a couple of hundred thousand. Peruvian food culture is highly developed and centers around three things: potatoes, seafood, and chicken. They are experts in preparing the abovementioned items (and, unlike the Argentines, like some picante in their food).There are bunches of Peruvian restaurants within walking distance of our place, but we've made hole -in-the-wall Carlitos our go-to spot.

Carlitos has an extensive menu, and we've tried a few different things: papas huancaina (potatoes in a creamy sauce), cabrito con porotos ("mountain goat w/ beans" according to the menu), jalea mixta (a mountain of fried fish, shrimp, octopus, squid and mussels w/ lemony onions), not to mention chicken prepared a half-dozen ways. Lately though, we've been obsessed with the pollada con ensalada y papas fritas (fried chicken w/ salad and "friendo" potatoes) accompanied by a side of creamy white beans. Delicious! And cheap. The above (easily big enough for two people), along with a liter of ice-cold Heineken, costs around thirteen bucks. We're hooked. There are actually two branches within a couple of blocks of each other - the original funky one and a newer flashier one - we prefer the funky one (see photos). It's always packed w/ Peruvian families demolishing huge platters of food while drinking candy-colored soft drinks. It's loud, friendly, and fun...and the food - riquissimo!

Slanted, But Not Enchanted: The Sidewalks of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a big city - thirteen million people big. They say it is the fourth noisiest city in the world (pero, quien sabe?). There are a ton of cars and trucks jamming the streets, a million taxis, hordes of buses. All the wheeled traffic notwithstanding, most portenos spend a good deal of their time walking. Since we are now cast as portenos, we too spend a lot of time walking - from our four-mile speedwalk through Recoleta every morning, to my daily peregrinations around our neighborhood, to Jen's negotiation of the narrow passages of Microcentro where she has her office. Entonces, it's high time that I address the condition of the sidewalks here in BA. They are, in a word, deplorable.

The sidewalks in this city, from the nicest neighborhoods to the humblest, from city center to far suburban barrio, are totally thrashed. Broken, battered, shattered, scattered, crumbling, stumbling, unstable, uneven, undermined, missing entirely - to walk in Buenos Aires is to run a never-ending obstacle course. The slightest inattention can cost you dearly. We have learned to cope. Jen has already mentioned my pavement-scanning method:
1) always look down
2) keep your eyes on the pavement out to about 15 feet
3) avoid all piles, mounds, chunks, logs, and smears
4) be suspicious of pieces of wood or carpet where there should be sidewalk
5) call out all hazards to your partner
[At this time I hereby inform the reader that I will NOT, in this entry, directly address the issue of dog waste, the "800 lb. gorilla" of BA sidewalk controversies. I am currently writing a BOOK on BA's dogsh*t problem.]
This method keeps us pretty trouble-free. It also helps that we are fairly athletic when we need to be. Some people aren't so lucky.

We've been here less than four months and between the two of us have witnessed a half-dozen sidewalk mishaps, from semi-comical to downright gruesome, usually involving some poor little old lady pitching headfirst onto the filthy pavement. After living here their whole lives, they still can't avoid being victimized by wobbly tiles, missing pavers, random tree roots, and ankle-snapping holes in the middle of the sidewalk. Dear City Fathers of Buenos Aires: get it together, hombres! This is a wonderful city - and those sweet little old ladies deserve much better.