Carnaval "de Cristina"

La Presidenta de Argentina

We just finished up a four-day holiday in these parts - the much-talked about Carnaval "long weekend" celebrated and enjoyed with relish by 40 million Argentines. Apparently a fixture in the bygone Peron era, governments of the more recent past had put an end to the practice of combining Fat Monday and Fat Tuesday with the preceding weekend to create a nice bonus breather for all citizens. Argentina's current President, Cristina Kirchner, in a perhaps brilliant strategic move, revived the long weekend custom just this year. Yes, it is an election year (did you guess?), but my unfamiliarity with local politics will not allow me to comment much further. Let's just say Cristina's a heavy favorite come October.


Fun in the streets of Almagro

At first, Jen and I thought, "Wow! Long weekend! Let's go somewhere!" There are so many places in Argentina we have on our "must visit" list, it seemed logical to try and hit one. On second thought, and after seeing the prices for tickets and hotels doubling and tripling before our eyes, at the last moment we decided to stay close to home sweet home and relish our own neighborhood. It finally dawned on me: "We live in freaking Buenos Aires, for crissakes! We're already in a world-class destination! And we've already paid for the room!" Made perfect sense.



Anyway, we just hung around and did local stuff: went to museums (there are some awesome art museums - to be discussed), artisan markets in Recoleta and San Telmo...the town was almost empty and was a pleasure to just wander around the colorful streets. In addition, Jen & Joe's personalized anniversary (creatively dubbed, "Love Day") fell right in the middle of the long weekend and I had promised Jen we would go to "the best restaurant in town" (food blog upcoming!). All in all, I think we made the correct decision in staying close to home while millions fought traffic on the highways and byways of Argentina.

The drum corps

Luckily, we were able to catch a Carnaval celebration on Saturday night in a nearby barrio, somewhat funky Almagro. Armed with our cameras, we made it there on foot in time to see some of the festivities. Like Rio or New Orleans on a micro scale, there were marching bands and dance troupes from the neighborhood, dressed in costume, wailing away in the street. The whole thing is very family oriented and felt very safe, if you didn't mind getting sprayed down with water or shaving cream. It was a very colorful introduction to the Carnaval spirit here in oh-so- European Buenos Aires. I honestly had no idea thay even held Carnaval celebrations in Argentina!

Whirlwind trip to Paraná

Pedestrian shopping area near the central plaza

We have now been in Argentina for a little over a month, nearly the entire time spent exploring Buenos Aires. Last week, I entered a new chapter: work! I gave two presentations on English Language Methodology, one in Buenos Aires to an audience of over 150, and another in Paraná, a city northeast of BA in the state of Entre Rios. It was about a 5 hour car trip on a straight highway with grassy flat land to either side. Paraná is on the other side of the river from another city called Santa Fe. Speaking of which, due to the fact that Santa Fe is not only a major street in BA and a major city in Argentina, the postal clerk looks confused when I send packages to Santa Fe in the U.S. Anyhow, to get to Paraná, you have to wind through the city of Santa Fe (it seems as though the highway just dead ends in the city . . . ) and then go through a loooong tunnel under the river - voila! you are in Paraná.

English teachers and trainees after my presentation

In the 22 hours that I was there, I got a true small-town feel. One of my hosts, a young man who teaches at the teacher training college, took me on a short drive around town to see the impressive wide brown river, Spanish colonial houses, parks full of families relaxing, people bustling through the streets, and the occasional "cartonero" collecting recyclables. My host had gotten a scholarship recently, and he told me about his impressions of Washington, DC, Boston, San Francisco, and Kansas City. He thought that DC was "such an organized city" and that everyone was very welcoming and friendly. He was surprised that you have to move to the right on an escalator to let people pass. As he and his 11 other fellow scholarship grantees were chattering away on a subway escalator in DC, a local man came up behind them and said, "Excuse me. There should be space on the left!". In the supermarkets, he was shocked, not by the scanning equipment the cashiers had to check people out (they have giant hyper-markets here too!), but by the fact that you could opt to "check yourself out" by scanning your own items. He said it would never work in Argentina! In San Francisco, he was surprised by the number of homeless people he saw. "You see it (homelessness) here in Argentina, but I just imagined it to be different in the States." Lastly, as I notice with many international scholars that I meet, he was impressed by the diversity in the US. Here in Argentina, you see very few Asian people and even fewer Black people - almost exclusively of European descent. There are some immigrants from Bolivia and Peru, but overall, there is not a wide variety of people from other races and cultures. I think people hear how "diverse" the US is, but for some it is visually impressive (sometimes shocking) to "see" the diversity.

Church on the central plaza

Anyhow, I made it back to BA having made a bunch of new friends in Paraná! The hospitality was great, the teachers were enthusiastic, and everyone had a great sense of fun and humor. I hope I can meet up with those folks again - and next time spend more time in their city.

Coins of the Realm

Argentine coins

I mentioned in an earlier post that, by a mere coincidence, Jen could catch a bus across the street from our apartment that would take her all the way downtown, to within a block or two of her office. As it turns out, she also has the option of walking around the corner from our building (one block) and catching a different bus that takes her to the front door of her office. Amazing!

For the Americans in our reading audience, you are aware that public transportation in the U.S. stinks. Except for a very few urban centers, the only reasonable way to get where you need to go in my country is by automobile. However, one of the nice features of our life when we live overseas is our lack of dependence on the automobile. When we live in the States, Jen has her car and I have mine. While we go places together on the weekend, during the week we travel independent of each other - each of us burning gas and insurance premiums as we move around our individual environments, a thousand miles a month apiece. When we live overseas, we never drive cars - ever. Although I really do enjoy driving, what a relief not to have a car!

We have, in the past, had the luck to live in a few places where the public transportation was cheap and easy. We rode the city buses in Bulgaria and Slovenia - efficient and inexpensive. In Kyiv, Ukraine, the metro was ten cents a ride. One thin dime to go all the way across the big city! When I lived in San Francisco 30 years ago, the bus was a quarter - I wonder what a bus ride in S.F. costs today...three bucks? Which brings me to the bus service in our new city, Buenos Aires.

Joe's favorite bus: the 29

The bus service here is pretty much awesome. Mainly because you can get where you need to go easily, with a minimum of hoofing it, for about thirty cents a ride. There are dozens of independent bus companies that make up the BA bus system, driving zig-zagging routes throughout this huge city of 13 million. The price structure and method of payment for each is identical: you get on, tell the driver approximately where you plan to go, and pay between 1.10 and 1.25 pesos by dropping your coins into the machine. Easy, right? Es muy facil! This, however, is where it gets tricky.

Luckily for us, the current conversion rate for Argentine pesos into US dollars is almost exactly four to one: 4 pesos = 1 dollar/ 1 peso = a quarter. This first-grade level math allows for super-quick calculations on the fly and keeps us from accidently paying 8 bucks for a small bottle of Tabasco. So far, so good. We are handling notes ranging from 100 pesos (25 bucks) to 2 pesos (50 cents) - eezey-peezey, no?
"But whaddya have smaller than a 2 peso note?"
Ah...we have coins in Argentina! One peso coins, 50 centavo coins, 25c, 10c...Unfortunately, we have approximately 112 total coins in circulation in a country of 41 million people...we are suffering a severe coin shortage in this huge metropolis where the labrynthine bus system takes - only coins. Yikes!

We had been tipped off to this situation and began (like everyone else in BA) hoarding coins early on. One actually starts planning their purchases around the potential return in monedas. We've learned to try to never to buy anything for an even number of pesos, unless using a 5 peso note. Example: if something costs 14 pesos and you pay with a 20, you'll receive three 2 peso notes in change (every merchant outside the major chain supermarkets is hoarding, too). If you pay with a 10 and a 5, they have to give you a 1 peso coin...score! Better yet, buy something for 12.50, pay with a 10 and two 2s and get back 1.50 in coins...GOOOOL!!!!!!!
It's getting a little crazy now that our once fat stash of coinage has dwindled down to nuthin'. The last couple of days we've been reduced to buying odd amounts of junk-food just for the price -otherwise, we would be forced to walk across town. Tomorrow, we're going to visit a reputable bank and beg for coins. I plan on shaving and wearing a tie.

The Hounds of Bs As

Pack Leader

Bs As, as you can guess, stands for Buenos Aires - you see that often here in addition to BAires (pronounced "buy-res", well kind of). Before we moved to BsAs, we thought about what it might be like. Images of stereotypes tred to push their way into our heads, but we tried to keep an open mind. Now that we've arrived, we've become more concerned with observing and noticing . . . things that seem to stand out as common . . . things that help you start to form a real picture of the place, culture, people, and  . . . dogs.  As I do in every country, I can’t help but notice the dogs. Slovenia has its trained dogs, the US has its untrained dogs, Ukraine has its stray dogs, Laos has its wild dogs, and Argentina has its walked dogs.



Which one is yours again?

Dogs are popular pets here. Cats, not so much. We live in the city, mind you, which means apartment living, and we have seen every size, shape, color, and fur length under the sun. The most outstanding feature of dog maintenance is the dog-walker. Joe had told me that the Recoleta neighborhood was famous for their walkers . . . but I could have never imagined how many dogs one walker can manage!

We walk for exercise in the mornings and, without fail, see 4 or 5 dog packs each with its corresponding human holding the leashes. Its amazing how each group seems so content, calm, and aware of the routine . . . I swear they look like they are smiling as they trot through the streets. Only occasionally do we see any aggression among or between them. I really can’t believe how they “all get along.” The unfortunate part of this little tradition is, you guessed it, failure to do “doo” diligence. We’ll save that for another blog entry as Joe has devised a special sidewalk “scan and step” method. Sometimes he'll miss an interesting haircut, outfit, or building we pass by. He's committed to looking at the ground. For that reason, we’ve been lucky so far.

The Suitcases Go into Storage

Home Sweet Home

The news: we’ve moved into our new apartment. We have been “moving” since sometime in December when we began packing our stuff - sending boxes to Argentina, selling some items, giving away things, putting some essentials into storage – but, after living in five different places in the last 19 days, today we stop moving for the next eleven months (at least).



We looked at about a dozen apartments in our first week in Buenos Aires before settling on a brand-new, never-lived-in, modern loft in a somewhat obscure neighborhood about 5 blocks east of our temporary digs on Av. Coronel Diaz in Palermo Viejo. Our original plan was to find a place in Palermo – the oh-so- hip part of town renowned for the best cafes, restaurants, bars, and shops. After looking at a number of overpriced, cramped, semi-clean apartments in Palermo, we realized our budget would not allow us to combine primo apartment with groovy neighborhood, so we opted for a nice apartment in a “where’s that again?” kind of location.



View from the roof of our building





Actually, everyone knows where our building is located (give the cross streets and every Buenos Aires resident knows the ubicacion), but it’s hard to get people to agree on the neighborhood designation. Is it Palermo? Is it Recoleta? Is it Barrio Norte? We actually told everyone it was Barrio Norte until I researched our ‘hood on the internet and discovered it is officially one block inside the borders of Recoleta, but not the identifiably fancy “Parisian” part of Recoleta.

Our neighborhood is middle-class, leafy, mostly quiet – we like it. By pure accident, the bus that stops in front of our building goes directly to Jen’s future workplace downtown. At 30 cents a journey, it looks like a fabulous stroke of luck. We moved in just hours ago and our stuff is strewn everywhere. We'll post more pix of our apartment and neighborhood later.

If At First You Don't Succeed . . . Fake It!

Street Art in Buenos Aires

Well, here we are in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of the biggest capitals in the world (13 million) and the second biggest city in South America (after Sao Paulo, Brazil).

We arrived on Monday after two extremely smooth and well-connected flights. I even had time to swing by the duty-free to get my Chanel 19, and our bags were just rolling round the carousel when we hit the baggage claim. Joe's guitar made the trip without a scratch . . . yay! We have been staying in a B&B, walking and taxi-ing to appointments to see apartments. It has been an enlightening experience to see what you can get for your $$$. We haven't decided on anything yet, and have, in fact, opted to take our time and move from our B&B to a temporary apartment (weekly rental) where we'll have a fridge, more space, and a few more amenities while we search for that perfect fit.

Along the grid-like "avenidas" I've noticed very creative and colorful street art which composes the picture for this blog entry - I wish I knew the names of the artists to give proper credit! The people have been super friendly, talkative, helpful, and completely without attitude. It is so refreshing to be in a big city where people, in general, act like they are in a small town. Often people will speak, not necessarity fast, but unfamiliar Spanish. I'll say "Podria repetirlo por favor?" or "Podria hablar mas despacio" or simply "Perdon?" . . . my rule of thumb (actually inspired by my Russian tutor - thanks Izabella!) is to ask for repetition once . . . or possibly twice if I can get away with it. If I still am unclear as to what they are asking or saying . . . I unapologetically FAKE IT! Nodding, saying "si", smiling, saying "gracias", or just answering the question I think they asked me seems to keep the conversation going. Friendliness and politeness go a long way in covering up for not understanding everything. I will have to remember to teach this strategy to my students and teachers!



Another strategy that works well when getting telephone calls from apartment agents . . . "I'm sorry, but I can't catch all the details. Could you send me an email with the information?" Ahh yes, the written word is much easier to analyze! But overall, we are doing well in our communicative endeavors . . . and people LOVE to practice their English. We met a 69-year-old man named Sergio today while having a beer at an outdoor cafe. He talked at length, in English, about how he learned the language from some Welsh friends of his father and how he adores Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington. A sweet man . . . who loves to talk . . . in English.



So, there you are. Our first three days have felt like three weeks . . . not in a bad way, but in a way that is helping us get to know our new environment. Whenever you encounter a new place, new culture, the first few days are like a crash course  . . . it's exhausting, but we love it!

Feets, Don't Fail Me Now!

Our worldly belongings

You might get the impression that we move around a lot... Do ya think?

Every once in a while I try to mentally catalog all of the moves we've made since Jennie and I got hitched in June of 1993. There have been (ahem) a few...Let's take a look:

Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bulgaria
Bulgaria to Albuquerque
Albuquerque to Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta to Albuquerque
Albuquerque to Perth, Australia
Perth to Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix to Panama, Panama
Panama to Phoenix
Phoenix to Austin, Texas
Austin to Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ljubljana to Managua, Nicaragua
Managua to Tucson, Arizona
Tucson to Albuquerque
Albuquerque to Kyiv, Ukraine
Kyiv to Albuquerque
Albuquerque to Vientiane, Laos
Vientiane to Albuquerque
Albuquerque to Buenos Aires, Argentina (pending)

I'm exhausted just typing that. Everyone knows what moving house entails: liquidating stuff, making decisions, storing belongings, packing boxes and suitcases, taking care of details - utilities, housecleaning, deposits, notifying banks, post offices. These are the things you do when you move across town, much less to Timbuktu. We have gone through this process so many times that I guess it's second nature to us now, but if I think about how many times we've gone through the entire rigmarole - first acquiring and then disposing of all the "necessities" - it's a mind-blower. But that's us: no kids, no pets, no furniture -just passports, itchy feet, and a great curiosity about the world and its people. This Sunday we'll get on a plane for Houston and from there on to Buenos Aires...

Honestly, I can't wait!