Brazil and Back

I'll say a few words about Curitiba, Brazil. And, I really mean a few because I only spent 3 1/2 days at a conference there. I attended and presented at the Southern Cone TESOL Conference combined with the mid-year fellow conference. I didn't get to see much of the city due to the fact that my plane was delayed for a day, I was battling a chest cold, we stayed in the hotel and conference venue most of the daylight hours, and it was cloudy/rainy for two out of the four days. However, I will say a bit about my impressions.

Friendly meat cutters

Brazil has more salad for one thing. It seems to be very popular to get food salad-bar style and then pay by the kilo. Nice! Not to be alarmed though - Brazil has its meat too. I just don't think it's as obsessed with it as Argentina! Also, the people are louder. I almost felt like I was back in the States a couple of times. Loud voices, loud laughing, and screaming kids. It made me realize how quiet and composed Argentines are in comparison.  It was amazing how little Portuguese I could speak, as in none, and that I could actually understand some bits and pieces. The hotel staff spoke not a word of English, so I spoke to them in Spanish, and they answered in Portuguese. Yes, there was a lot of pointing and writing going on, but we managed to get the dates, breakfast time, and the rates straight on the room.

The Tube

A group of us went to a couple of nice restaurants, and one of the fellows, Anna, encouraged me to walk the city the last night. It was great as I was able to catch a few shots of the city which has, in fact, won city planning awards and is famous for their transporation system - check out the "tubes" designed for those waiting for the "tube" which is the name of the city bus. Speaking of transportation, the 40 minute ride to the airport only costs $8. Cheap in comparison to the prices of everything else - much higher than Argentina. The pedestrian walk near our hotel was charming with mosaic sidewalks and well-manicured parks.

I met a lot of nice people, especially the other fellows from my program and grantees based in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. I learned a lot about the kinds of technology folks are using in opposite ends of the country to collaborate on projects. In fact technology was also the popular theme at the local conference I attended here in BsAs Thursday and Friday. Another popular topic was "vulgar English", but I won't get into that.

Building near our hotel

Now, back in BsAs, my last piece of news is that we ate a paella feast last night at a colleague's flat. Joe played guitar and young and old sang numbers from Mama Mia to Bad Moon Rising. It was mostly a request night, but he managed to squeeze a few originals in. It's hard to believe that Glee is so BIG here; getting our hosts' daughters to choose from the soundtrack proved the perfect way to keep all generations happy with the song choices. If you had told us we were going to stay up till 3:35am singing songs, drinking wine, and speaking a creative mix of Spanish and English, we never would have believed it! Are we becoming Porteños?

Architecture

Teo

Buenos Aires is known for its architecture . . . or it must be. How else would my friend, Natalia, in Ukraine know about the Casa Rosada? Anyhow, the same was said by Teo. He also mentioned that Buenos Aires was a mix of Jewish, Italian, and Spanish culture. I can attest to that (in fact, we live in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood where people, of course, speak Spanish and pride themselves on homemade ravioli). Back to Teo . . .  well, he's not the poodle that lives down the hall from us, but a chap by the same name who was our tour guide last Saturday afternoon.

Yes, we broke down and decided to something touristy. It was actually kind of fun. There is a company (three guys who like to party, I imagine) who have advertised themselves online as giving "free" tours. They meet interested travelers at a designated meeting spot in the center of town and lead them through the city for about 2 1/2 hours, then you tip what you think you can afford. We ended up tipping around 12 bucks - I know, I'm generous. But it was somewhat entertaining.

Before the tour started, Joe and roamed around buying media lunas (kind of like croissants and integral to Porteño society), and watching parades. We hadn't realized it but it was Independence Day - Nueve de Julio - July 9.  So we enjoyed snapping some pictures of the gaucho-clad young men and other revelers - it was only 11 in the morning!

Avenide 9 de Julio

Teo arrived 25 minutes late looking like he just rolled out of bed. He apologized but also said he had been late for his last tour as well. We thought it was part of the shtick of acting the proverbial role of the Argentine who is never on time. Somewhat charming, I guess. He had great conversational English and imparted his uncensored opinion at each viewing point. This was a tour of the architecture of central Buenos Aires. I know if I hadn't taken the tour, I would never have stopped to look up and absorb the truly beautiful details of the buildings. It was really a good thing to do now that we've been here 5 months!

We started at the "Congreso" where the congress "works" - Teo had that 'two hooked fingers on both hands' gesture down pat . . . wink wink! The next building was "Confiteria del Molino" an old building with a windmill motif - in need of repair - apparently the city is forbidden from tearing it down because there is an ordinance protecting the homeless that are living there. It makes you wonder if it could be renovate it to make proper public housing as it is a beautiful building. We made our way down Avenida de Mayo with it's residence-turned-office buildings with one that is the original version of the building replicated in our Montevideo post. We made a stop at the Plaza de Mayo where the mothers and grandmothers still march in memory of "the disappeared" taken from them during the military dictatorship in the late 1970's and 80's. According to Teo, these "mothers and grandmothers" have recently been seduced by government monies to form a type of political party which has distanced them from some who used to support their cause.

Panorama including Confiteria del Molino

We also saw the Casa Rosada (The Pink House - doesn't have the same ring to it in English) where Evita used to wave from the balconies with the shaded windows. We took a few breaks and meandered toward the Obelisk where our tour ended. Teo was a likeable guy who has a strong passion for his country when it comes to football. When it comes to talking about politics or grafitti, he was apalled. However, he'd never want to live anywhere else and continues leading his "free tours" of BsAs.