Thoughts of a Fast Food Lightweight

So, classes finally started. My classes through my program seem manageable and interesting, which is good. I don't feel like typing up what they are right now, plus there is nothing to report, but I'll get to it eventually.

Here are some other things I've been doing

The Ecological Reserve is, well, an ecological reserve at the eastern tip of Buenos Aires that sits along the large Rio del Plata (literally, River of Silver, but widely called the River Plate due to the English bastardization of Spanish.) It is on the far end of a district called Puerto Madero that sits across a series of dikes from the rest of the city. Puerto Madero is accepted as the rich, modern neighborhood in the city, and upon entering this district, it immediately becomes apparent that money there is considerably more plentiful. Now people, I know what you're thinking. How could the rich separatists deign to set up shop when there is an economically struggling city close by? Aren't they worried about infiltration of the poor into their classy territory? Fear not, dear reader, because this problem is being sufficiently taken care of. The closest subway stop to Puerto Madero is a half hour's walk to get over the dikes. There is only ONE public bus line that services the area. The next closest bus stop is another half hour walk. While these protective measures cannot assure that all monetarily challenged are kept at bay, rest assured that for the most part, it isn't worth their time to make the long journey.
Anyway, the Ecological Reserve is on the far end of Puerto Madero, and is now one of my favorite places (roughly) in the city. As soon as the entrance gates are a few feet behind you, all city noise mysteriously disappears and the only source of sound comes from surrounding wildlife, and the faint gentle lapping of the river water onto the shore. The walk that encircles the entire reserve is 7.9 km, and while the landscape isn't really varied (as many times as they call it a forest in the brochure, it can hardly pass as such,) it was a great way to escape the city "feel" and noise. There are plots cut out off the trail where visitors can picnic, or sit by the river (no swimming,) or do pushups mid-run (saw that a lot.) If it weren't such an inconvenience to reach (about an hour long journey from my apartment,) I think I would go there everyday.
(so close, yet so far)
(Rio del Plata)

My days are still being spent exploring, and my nights, mostly, are as well. On Friday I went out to a delicious Thai restaurant in what clearly used to be someone's apartment - there is no storefront, but a secret set of stairs up to a room covered in murals of lotus flowers and other Thai-related images, with pillows on the floor for chairs, seemingly handmade lotus-lamp-thingers, and waiters in tunics. Surprisingly, my food was adequately spicy.
(sorry that I tend to look like a demon child)
Afterwards, we went to a small jazz club to see a boy from my program play in an Argentine jazz group he had joined. The exposed brick walls were covered in big pieces of modern art. Obviously, the air was dusty and the lighting low.

I just finished Stephen King's The Shining, and I just want to let you know that Stanley Kuberick, no surprise, has again taken a great work of literature and turned it into an equivalently pleasing or even better movie. I even agreed with a few things he left out of the movie - for example, hedge animals that can move - a little hokey, King, even for you.

Some last short notes:
Why do all of the women here wear thongs (not the shoes) in the gym when they are "exercising"? I will bring back a really cool present for you if you tell me.

I went to kosher McDonalds and ate 6 McNuggets, fries, and a Coke. Yes, a Coke. I felt horrible, physically, for the rest of the day. I think need to re acclimate to deep fried fast food. But it was yum.

Parents will be here tomorrow morning!

New South Park Tomorrow!

I start classes tomorrow!!

I went to the Recoleta cemetary, and even though I'd been there before I had a lovely time. My experience was rather intense because I was listening to Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions on audiobook while walking around, so it was kind of eerie. And that eerieness was compounded about a thousand times by 1) the gurney with flat tires that was left abandoned in front of one of the mausoleums,

2) the seemingly rabid cats that have completely taken over, and 3) the mausoleum that appears to have been broken into and now serves as a shelter for a homeless man.
(nice tourist elbow in the corner)
(When you're dead, maybe you will be lying underneath something like that.)

This past weekend I took a little vacation to an area called Tigre with two friends (Alice and Renee.) After a $0.40 ticket and an hour train ride north, we ended in a small vacation town full of fresh air. Tigre itself is a large network of rivers that converge to create hundreds of little islands dotted with vacation homes, restaurants, kayak rental centers, and water taxi stands. After buying fresh herbed cheese, a large "field" breadloaf, an avocado, and fruit, we took a water taxi to Tres Bocas island. We spent most of the day walking around the startlingly tropical and humid vegetation until we found a patch of grass on which to enjoy our lunch. Sadly, it ended about ten minutes later when a possibly rabid dog with a chunk missing from its side that revealed bloody innards came to sit with us. It was revolting, and he was covered in mud, and we were scared, so we ran away and finished our food in proper chairs at a restaurant.
(walking to find our picnic spot on Tres Bocas)

I'm almost finished with Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, which I am reading after having finished an enjoyed another book of similar construction, Blink. They are both nonfiction and based on results from various studies, mostly sociological in nature. I can't help but feel like a little kid reading his work, because the way he makes his points involves making a statement, explaining it, contextualizing it with examples, repeating it, and repeating it some more. I feel like the subject of some condescension on his part, but this method works, because I feel as though I really comprehend all of his points. Regardless of how his teaching mode resembles that of my preschool teacher, I recommend both of these books for some light reading for any curious human.

As I said before, the food here is good but spices and extra flavoring in general are used sparingly. Who know how intensely my cravings for spicy food would be? I met some friends at a Mexican restaurant, and was confused upon seeing the corrugated tin lining the walls. Chipotle, anyone? Upon further investigation and standing in line for my food, I noticed a few things. The place very closely resembles Chipotle in how it works and what it offers, except that the people behind the counter are less efficient, so the line takes longer. Also, NO ONE in the restaurant was speaking Spanish, except for the employees. I'm not joking - the entire restaurant was full of American students abroad in the city, getting their Mexican fill. There was so much loud English, so much Hollister, so much USA... I thought I would die. But it was great anyway, and I plan to go back for more of that fuego salsa.


Generalization time
The mutual eating of faces, to both put it bluntly and be true to the act, is a part of Bs As daily life that I don't think I will ever get used to. (And don't want to.) It comes as a result of a huge societal difference, which involves children living at home with their parents until around the age of 28-35, which results in sexually repressed and aggressive children. (Although I suppose at 27 they aren't really "children" anymore.) In response to this way of life, the society has developed institutions called telos,, which are hourly hotels. But this shouldn't bring to mind the motel behind the whorehouse, because supposedly these are classy and highly-visited institutions among even the most restrained of individuals. I heard that the 'themed' telos are in fashion right now - for example, a famous one is Arab themed, with brightly colored sheets streaming from the ceiling and ornate bedposts...you get the idea.

KBYE

PS. Here is me and my Argentine adoptive mother at a kosher parrilla. Notice that the table is filled with meat.

STILL in limbo. Make it stop

So, classes still haven't started, but I'm taking all the time I can to get to know the city. I think I have pretty much finished my learning period for the subte system, since there are only five lines, but I am still struggling to understand fully the bus system. I think it takes years of living in the city, as well as a certain degree of the distinct porteño mindset. Okay, so here is what I have been up to lately, and some related thoughts.

Since we have orientation through lunch everyday, my friends/other kids on the program have taken to trying a new cafe for lunch everyday that is near our FLACSO office (our home base, to put it simply.) We have found some good ones, and some pretty bad ones. Luckily, everything here is incredibly cheap for Americans. For example, we tried an organic, vegetarian, health-orientated restaurant for lunch yesterday. I got a one of the specials that came with roquefort cheese on top and pumpkin puree (the degree to which they eat pumpkin here makes one think that the there was a gross over-harvest in the pumpkin crop this year.) We also split a fancy salad, and quinoa pancakes with spinach, pumpkin and goat cheese. We also tried sesame ice cream. At the end of the meal, I owed about US $10.

I have been to a few museums and touristy stuff - Museo Eduardo Sivori, and MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) - if you come to this city, you HAVE to go to MALBA. It's the best collection of Latin American contemporary art I have ever seen. Of course, I also went to different parks and plazas throughout the city. Here are some photos from these wanderings:

The Pink House (picture Evita) A big park with a lake
...and overly manicured gardens


One of my favorite peculiarities here is the shortage of monedas (coins.) The buses in the city, on which everyone relies heavily, only accept coins as fare. However, there is a serious lack of coins that is felt throughout all of Buenos Aires. It is so serious, in fact, that often in stores they will give you more change than is owed because they just do not have the coins to make up the correct amount. I imagine some greedy, clever porteño hoarding mountains of coins in his apartment and watching the city slipping into chaos from his penthouse in Puerto Madero (the rich area.)

Two days ago I was taking the bus to go exploring in a certain area of the city after it had been raining all morning. The bus drove through an area where the streets were so flooded that debris was floating along the street and parked cars were completely filled with water. The water was even streaming in through the doors of our bus, and when I stepped off onto the sidewalk, I was trudging through water that reached above my knees. I really wish I'd brought my camera. Sorry. Anyway, someone ought to look into the drainage system here.

I am sick, so I haven't been experiencing the night life to its fullest, but I've been doing a little here and there. Yesterday we found a bar with live music, full of locals, and many people there started tango-ing around the tables.

School starts in about a week, and we're in the middle of the course selection process. I'm having such a hard time deciding whether I'm more here to take classes (AKA take the courses that will teach me the most) or to get to know the city (AKA take courses with the least amount of work involved.) I will let you know what happens.

BESOS