Estuve muy infirmo

Hola,

So, let me bring you up to speed. You've likely noticed that I haven't written any entries in about a week or so. Well, there's a good reason for that. Between then and now, I came down with a terrible case of bronchitis. Coupled with a fever of 101+, I really wasn't able to do anything more than lie in bed, watch movies and curse the beautiful weather (yes, spring has begun here). Thankfully, due to a well-timed housecall visit by an english-speaking Doctor, I'm fully recovered now.

Today we had our first exam in Spanish. Essentially the course is structured so that you advance one level per month. Given that this was my first month, I was in level one. The exam was about an hour's worth of written work and then about 10 minutes of speaking/conversation. It went well - I'll be starting Level 2 on Monday. Of course, that begs the question of what I'll be doing for the rest of this week. Well, in 3 hours time, I'll be embarking on a trip to Bariloche, Argentina (in the Patagonia Region)!

Bariloche is supposed to be a place resplendent in natural beauty (i.e. surrounded by lakes and mountains). A group of 4 of us are going from the program, and we're planning on getting in a few days of skiing and snowboarding between now and Sunday. The only tough part is that Bariloche is actually quite a distance from Buenos Aires! It's a 22 hour bus ride or a 2 hour flight. My traveling companions all opted to take the bus both ways (it's about a quarter of the price) however, I've decided to save myself the return trip. I'll be flying back to Buenos Aires on Sunday evening, which will allow me to still make it to work for Monday morning.

Oh, and about the pictures. We visited the Argentina Senate on Thursday evening and I couldn't resist getting a picture speaking from the podium. Fun stuff.

Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo

Abuela means 'grandmother' in Spanish.

It's hard to know where to begin this sad story. Well, as you probably already know, Argentina has been on the cusp of first world status for, oh, about a hundred years now. Yet, every time the country gets close to getting its act together, political instability ends up eating up much of the progress made and plunges the country into chaos again. Amazingly, Argentina's GDP per capita is not much higher today than it was in the year 1900 and, though the country produces and exports approximately ten times as much food as is necessary to feed its population, it continues to teeter between prosperity and poverty.

Today we went to visit a group called 'Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo' - the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (a big gathering place within the city). In 1976 Argentina experienced a military coup whereby the elected Peronist government was forced out by the military. During the succeeding years up until 1982 (I think) the government conducted one of the most barbaric and repressive campaigns to supress dissident thought. Interestingly, most believe that it was Argentina's decision to go to war against the British (and its US ally) that eventually brought down the regime. Anyway, back to the abuelas.

During the military government, approximately 30,000 people 'disappeared'. Think about that - 30 THOUSAND. Some were student leaders, leaders of opposition parties, etc., but a great number were simply abducted due to the fact that they had associations with a person who was viewed as against the government. My spanish teacher described it as though they would disappear a 'person of interest' and then disappear everyone in his or her phonebook. Techniques for murder varied, but apparently a favored tactic was to drug the prisoners up and then toss them from aircraft over water. Today, the 'desaperacados' (the disappeared) remain unforgotten in Argentina.

The regime faced the challenge of what to do with the children (born and unborn) of the abductees. In many cases, people had young families or were embarazada (pregnant) at the time of abduction. When these people were 'disappeared' their families were taken and, those not killed, were given to the military elite, many of whom could not (or could not be bothered to) have children of their own. Unknown numbers of children were essentially stolen and grew up not knowing their true identity.

The Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo get their name for a protest that they have been carrying on since the early days of the regime each week in Plaza de Mayo. Imagine the courage of these women who had lost their sons, daughters and grandchildren to stand up and essentially 'dare' the military junta (group) to take them out. Today we had the opportunity to visit their office and to meet with one of the original abuelas.

The woman that we met with spoke extremely rapid spanish (is there any other kind?!), but I was able to understand some points. She lost two daughters to the regime, one of which was 8 months pregnant. To this day she does not know what happened to any of them.

There have been successes, however. Of more than 500 children that the abuelas have been searching for, they have found more than 80. A current controversy relates to whether DNA testing should be made mandatory for children and parents of this era. Many believe that a large number of 'stolen' children still do not truly know their identity.

Well, that was a bit of a long-winded post. I apologize, but I wanted to give the context. For anyone who's read the book (or seen the opera, as I did) of the Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, this lamentable episode in Argentinian history has some eerie parallels.

The above picture illustrates the abuelas main source of funding. They receive no government funding (which I guess is typical) but depend on artists from around the world to undertake works on their behalf which they then sell to keep the organization going.

This concludes my somewhat informed writing on Argentine history for the day.

"Disney War"

On Sunday I returned again to Recoleta barrio (neighbourhood). Recall, this was where the huge cemetary was located and is a fairly touristy type of place to visit when in Buenos Aires. Luckily, in my last visit I had missed a truly interesting museum that was located next to the cemetary, so this visit was extremely rewarding.

The museum housed a huge number of contemporary and 'hip' type art including a bunch of spanish word-plays that I clearly didn't understand. What I found most interesting though was the exhibition of the graffiti art of 'stenciling'. Apparently in Buenos Aires a lot of graffiti is intended to have a political message and, for consistency, a large number of graffiti stencils

somehow make their way into circulation.

I found the Disney War stencil to be a quite incisive satire (your views may vary, of course). Apparently this stencil made its way around the world and originated here in Buenos Aires. So, next time you're exploring the urban decay of your respective metropolis, keep an eye out for stencils. They may (or may not) be more clever than you think.

If you only know three words of spanish in Buenos Aires, make it "Bife de Lomo"

'Bife de Lomo' for those not in the know is the name of the choicest cut of beef in the great parilla (barbeque) restaurants of Buenos Aires. Attached is a picture of my beautiful steak from last night.

In the interest of my health, I've been limiting my consumption of steak to once weekly, and last night was the magic night for this week.

For the heavenly price of $18 pesos (about $7 CAD) I enjoyed the most tender, juicy and lean cut of steak I've ever had the pleasure of consuming. Add about another $18 pesos for a beautiful bottle of Argentinian Malbec vino tinto (red wine) and you've got a meal fit for a king.

At the risk of being obsessive about things, I've included a second picture where you can see a cross section of this fine steak. Ok, I'm going to stop rambling on about the steak now.

The weather in BsAs is actually starting to warm up a bit. Today was a gorgeous day (maybe 15 degrees or so at the peak) so I managed to get out for my first run here. Our residence is located relatively near to a huge group of parks, so there's plenty of room to run. Thankfully the parks are traffic free - truly my biggest fear in this city is the insanity of the drivers. Otherwise, it's starting to feel like home.

The Sport of Kings

Today was a most excellent day to be an employee of Deloitte.

It started quite early with my first meeting with the Argentine consulting team. I'm going to be working on a part time basis with the firm here in Buenos Aires, focusing mainly on firm strategy (I'll spare you the boring details, but it's quite exciting for me).

Anyway, my hosts in Deloitte were exceptionally gracious in inviting me along to a Deloitte-sponsored polo match this afternoon.

There's a massive international finance conference going on right now in Buenos Aires and my colleagues came up with the great idea that Deloitte should sponsor a polo match and invite a group of clients and targets as a 'cultural' event since most of them are not from Argentina.

Though the weather wasn't perfect, the day was exceptionally fun! The rain held off until after the match where we proceeded to a wine tasting activity and a chance to chat with the other delegates. I had the chance to practice my spanish, which is always good, and always humbling.

Cities of the dead

Today we toured Recoleta neighbourhood and cemetary. Recoleta is amongst the most affluent barrios (neighbourhoods) of Buenos Aires and it was a nice day for a walk (though a bit cold).

According to my guide (who spoke in Spanish, slowly, thank god), Recoleta was originally settled by catholic monks, who were expelled by the aristocrats of Buenos Aires when a yellow fever epidemic overtook the city and they needed a new place to live.

Recoleta is also home to the most exclusive cemetary in Buenos Aires. I've included a few photos of some of the more opulent shrines (including Eva Peron's (maiden name: Duarte)).

The cemetaries reminded me of those I visited in New Orleans about a year ago, which is all the more poignant given recent events. In the cemetaries of New Orleans, everyone is buried above ground, with the result that the cemetaries resemble (and are called) 'cities of the dead'.

The reason for burying people above ground is that since New Orleans is below sea level it floods quite often (of course, none as bad as Hurricane Katrina). As a result of these floods, they had to stop burying people underground because the floods would unearth the bodies and they would float through the streets. Creepy.

Anyway, on to the pictures. The first two pictures are from the cemetary - the tomb of Eva Peron and a random tomb that I had to break out laughing at its ostentatiousness. Even look at the pose - the guy is stepping from a sinking boat onto dry land with a courageous face. The bottom row of pictures includes a huge bush (yes a bush, not a tree) and a university that I found quite funny. I'm sure moron has a different connotation en espanol.

Me encanta 'Jumbo Easy'

Today I had an excellent grocery shopping experience. My shopping thus far has been mainly limited to local supermarkets where the selection is, how do I say it, somewhat spartan. After hearing about this mystical 'Jumbo Easy' store from a few other residents, I decided to check it out this afternoon. Well, an hour and a half, and about $70 later, I emerged with quite a cache of fine foods and comforts from home.

Jumbo Easy essentially rivals any of our huge Loblaws or Fortinos supermarkets at home. They sell every variety of groceries imaginable, and even have specific sections for foods germane to the US, to Germany, to Spain and so on. I was quite happy to finally find some cans of tuna packed in water (packing tuna in olive oil seems to be pretty standard here) and I happily took home a bunch of Dr. Pepper and other miscellaneous treats. And, with this being Buenos Aires and all, my cab ride home was about $1.25!

The attached pictures are a few choice shots within Jumbo Easy (before I was accosted by the security guard - I think he thought I was a corporate spy). I had to laugh at a couple of the products there - Bimbo sausages, for example, as well as a huge side of beef pre-packaged and mass produced (approx $50 CAD). I also had to snap a picture of the neighbourhood around the store - the buildings reminded me of a 'park avenue'-type of apartment row.

Fin de semana

It's Sunday and I'm extremely tired (estoy muy cansado) as I write this. My weekend started Thursday and essentially finished this morning at about 8am. Now, I have a bunch of spanish to study and an early night ahead of me. But let me recap some of the highlights:

Thursday night: Met up with an Argentine friend of mine (Diego) and a couple of his friends and went out to a club (see last entry).

Friday night: Met up with a different Argentine friend (Ramiro) and his friends for a night on the town. I met Ramiro on the plane on the way back from Toronto. It's one of those random encounters that proves to be so great - he's been an excellent friend to me since I arrived here. In the picture above, the back row is two of Ramiro's friends (Jonathan and Damien) and Ramiro is in the front row.

On Friday night (see pictures) and we went clubbing in downtown Buenos Aires. When he originally called me, I assumed we were going out at 10 or 11 o'clock, but no, we actually arrived at the club at shortly after 2:30 am. After a couple of rounds of drinks we proceeded to dance the night away until about 7:30 am.

I stayed over at Ramiro's house in Pilar - which is a suburb outside of Buenos Aires. He lived in one of the nicest houses I've ever seen in an extremely exclusive community. I've attached one picture of his dining room / bar. Apparently his dad is quite the hunting afficionado!

Anyway, we slept till about 4pm and then had breakfast(!) and did some shopping. Ramiro also let me drive his Land Rover which was very cool. I arrived back to my residence at around 9pm to join our exchange student party that was just getting started. We had upwards of 40 people here last night and, with it being too cold to use the rooftop terrace, let me tell you this place was very crowded! Anyway, we departed to the club by around 2am, and finally called it a night around 7 this morning.

Needless to say, I'm feeling exceptionally run down now. I think it's a special breed of people (argentines?!) who can do this on a regular basis, but, for me, I'll be taking it easy for the next few days... That is, at least until the next fin de semana (weekend!). chau.

In the club on a late night, feeling right

In Buenos Aires, everything happens later. Dinner, rarely before 9. Have a few drinks at home until midnight then head to a bar, before you know it it's 6am and you've been at a club for a few hours. Amazingly, the place is as packed on a Thursday night (Friday morning?) as most clubs in Toronto would be at midnight on a Saturday.

This picture was taken at a club called 'Lost'. It was totally massive and packed with people. The picture is of a guest DJ - apparently its the guy from the Black Eyed Peas.

Spanish classes continue to be difficult, but I'm definitely making progress. After class today I volunteered to be an english speaking conversation partner for a group of advanced english students. Essentially I stood in front of a room of about 30 argentines and introduced myself and then split off into a group with about 8 of them to have a conversation so that they could practice their english. It was actually a lot of fun and it definitely reminded me that that same troubles I have with spanish (i.e. so many new words, people speak so fast) are the same challenges inherent in trying to learn any new language. I remain committed and motivated.

This weekend we're throwing a huge party at the residence for all of the exchange students and our argentine friends. We're going to put our rooftop barbeque to good use. Stay tuned for more pictures. Hasta luego.

Keeping all the balls in the air

so, time continues to fly by here. Last night I met a new Argentinian friend of mine for sushi. His name is Ramiro and we met on the plane back to Buenos Aires. He's studying international business at university and is an all around cool guy. We're going to go shopping this weekend, which should be a great chance for me to upgrade my fashion to Buenos Aires levels. Honestly, if nothing else, it's worth making the trip here just to shop.

Another little difference - every cool clothing store offers a 12-months no interest-type program here! i.e. the same way you'd buy furniture or appliances in Canada, people buy clothes here! Just becuase it's expensive doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it, I suppose!

One more difference that's not so good - EVERYONE here smokes. I mean everyone, everywhere at all times. Apparently 70% of Doctors smoke here. I keep wondering - didn't they get the memo re: smoking killing you and making you age prematurely. It totally doesn't jive with the image consciousness here.

Anyway, about the pictures: The first picture was taken last night around 3am at a faux irish pub called the Kilkenny. A pint of guiness costs $16 pesos there, which is ridiculous considering the best steak in the world (bife de lomo) costs the same amount. I shant return. From left in the picture is Chris (from Arkansas, here for a year to learn spanish) and Guille (pronouned Gee-Jay). He's an argentine guy - lots of fun, as you can see in the picture.

The other guy there is named Andrew (not in the picture). Apparently his parents were on Good Morning America yesterday because they donated their house to a hurricane Katrina victim for a few months (they just bought a new house). I haven't seen the segment yet.

The second picture is of me juggling. A friend of mine here is a master juggler so I've been learning for the past few days. I can almost keep three balls in the air. It's actually quite fun.

Random BA pictures

Here's some more random pictures from Buenos Aires.
- This is a view looking down the street from my subway stop. The street is Santa Fe, which is one of the main throughfares in Buenos Aires.
- This is a billboard that I had to laugh at - I have no idea what it means. There's seems to be a bunch of random english language in the city, some of it makes sense, some of it doesn't.
- This is the subway stop for my language school. It's about a 10 minute walk from the station.
- The next picture is the steak I had last night. It was about $6 and a great bottle of argentine wine was about the same price. The restaurant totally rocked - full of Argentines and packed at midnight.
The first picture was taken Tuesday night at a bar.

New friends...

Here's a couple of pictures of some more peeps in the same program as me. Again, each has their own story, here's a very brief overview.
The first picture is of Tim and I. Tim is from upstate New York (Syracuse) and actually taught grade 8 spanish for a few months as a substitute teacher, so he's fairly advanced. He's here for 3 months and replaced Landon and Alex in the residence room.

From left, the other picture is of: Kevin (musician from NYC - it was his 24th birthday we were celebrating); Kylie (my housemate from Sydney Australia, she's a journalist with Reuters and turned me on to this whole blogging thing), Tim, Andrew (from Arkansas - he's here for an entire year) and me.

and we've got a rooftop barbeque too!

check out the rooftop barbeque at the residence! I can hardly wait for some warmer weather (it's maybe 12 degrees here right now)

Mi residencia

Here's some pictures of my residence. It's about a 5 minute walk to the subte (subway) and is located in one of the best neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires (Palermo Hollywood). Palermo Hollywood is apparently where all the movie stars live and comprises half of the Palermo neighbourhood (barrio) - the other half is Palermo SOHO which is supposed to be a bohemian/artistic type of area, similar to New York's SOHO.

I'm actually quite happy with the place, but I think I may move out after a month or two simply because I'm so used to having my own place. There's a few people here that I might opt to get a place with, so, stay tuned.

Here's a couple of pictures of my room also. Again, not bad, but I gotta say, I do expect a little bit better - especially in Buenos Aires!

My god, the food.

So, one of my regrets so far is that I haven't taken pictures of all the amazing stuff I've eaten. I honestly cannot describe how good the steak is here. The night before this picture was taken, I ate the BEST filet mignon ever created by god. It's called bife de lomo here, and for 18 pesos (roughly 9 dollars) I had a steak as thick as my fist and the size of 3/4 of the plate (and this was the small one!). I'll take a picture of the next one I eat.

Anyway, after eating a steak so massive, I had a serious beef hangover. I decided to try a vegetale parilla (grilled vegetables) and here's what they brought. It was absolutely incredible and cost about $4. Oh, and the red wine is dirt cheap here too and absolutely incredible. A bottle of wine at a restaurant might go for 18 pesos (less than $10) so, suffice it to say that I've been enjoying mas vino tinto (much red wine).

Scalpel for sale?!

Here's another little difference that struck me. While walking around after class, I happened upon a block of medical supply stores where you could buy literally everything you would need to perform surgery in the comfort of your own home. Of course my medical phopia prohibited me from lingering too long, but I had to snap a picture since you just don't see these things at home (or at least, I don't).

Mi companeros

Here's a picture of a few of my roommates from the residence. They're all uniformly cool people, each with their own distinct personalities. Oh, and two of them have since departed, but more about that later. One of the great things about taking a trip like this is the chance to meet similarly-minded individuals (i.e. broad world view, typically leftist, non US-centric, etc.) I'll write more about my new roommates, but, suffice it to say that there are very few people here whom I would not independently choose to be friends with.

Anyway, here's a (very brief) overview of everyone (from left). Me (no overview necessary). Courtney (Toronto) has done a number of cool stuff in Latin America (i.e. charity work) and has been here for a few months. She's in a different university program than me, and, of course, her spanish is much better!. The bearded guy is Alex (from the UK). Alex had been here for 4 months and left to go home a couple of days ago. He was truly one of the funniest brits I'd ever met and gave me a good introduction to the place. Next is Landon (from San Francisco). Landon had been here 3 months (I think) and also left a couple of days ago. Along with Alex, I hit it off with him quite well - we enjoyed a few late drinking nights here. Next is Maria. Maria is from Uruguay and is a waitress in a chinese restaurant near the residence. She doesn't speak much english and was a friend of Landon's (he went to the restaurant daily.. partially because of the food). Last, but not least, is Emily (from Jersey). Emily is a true original and has such an easygoing manner that makes her a perfect roommate.

I'll describe my new rommates in a later post.

First picture in Buenos Aires

After flying all night, I thought that this billboard offered good advice: Smile, you're in Argentina! (If the picture is too small, just take my word that that's what it says!)

My flight was actually not too bad (if 11.5 hours on a cramped airline can be classed as 'not too bad'). I made good use of the open bar service and thoroughly annoyed my seatmate by opting to read all night instead of sleep (I had a pile of Globe and Mails to get through, ok?!?).

Bienvenido a Colonia, Uruguay

well, it's been almost a week in Buenos Aires, so it's time to skip the country, right? Anyway, the company that organized my life here in BA set up a trip to Colonia, Uruguay for this Sunday, so, of course, I had to go. This meant that I had to be cleared customs and on a ferry bound for Uruguay by 9am Sunday morning. Considering that an early night here is when you get home at 3am, this was a bit difficult. But, since I had already paid 100 pesos for the ferry ride, I managed to drag myself out of bed and onto the ferry in time.

The group picture is of everyone that went to Colonia. Everyone there is either in the same program as me, or lives in the same residence.


Colonia is quite a nice, picturesque place. It's old city (pictures from above - I was perched in a lighthouse) and certain parts of it are classed as a world heritage site. The city will be absolutely gorgeous in summer though since every street we saw was lined completely with huge sycamore trees.

One of my highlights of the trip was the chance to drive around in a golf cart all day. This totally took me back to family holidays at Darien Lake where the chance to drive a golf cart (at 12 years old) was the world's greatest attraction.

Oh, I had my first culinary miscue in Colonia. I figured, since this is a port city, the seafood must be great. Well, after I received a plate of calimari that tasted as horrible as it looked, I quickly rethought that assessment. Oh well, live and learn. Come to Uruguay for meat, avoid fish!

oh, you might note that I was growing a bit of a beard in the picture. Well, I decided to visit an Argentine barber the next day for a shave, and, well, the beard is no more. Suffice it to say that visiting an argentine barber for a shave is another experience I won't be repeating.

I always loved having my laundry done

I found a local laundry place where they did a massive load of laundry (washed, dried, folded) for about $6 canadian. What a country.

My first day of sightseeing...

so, with 4 months to explore this great place, my sightseeing has been at a relatively leisurely pace. Plus, the fact that we've been out till all hours of the morning each night (more about that later) has meant that I really haven't done much 'touristy' stuff (yet).

Here's a picture of me in front of the Casa Rosada (Pink House). It's essentially the same as the White House (i.e. Presidential Palace). This is where Eva Peron (Evita, for all you Madonna Fans) used to speak to 'her people'. I forget the spanish word (descamisado, maybe?), but it roughly translates to 'the shirtless'. Apparently she was quite a hero of the great unwashed (to use a north american colloquialism). Anyway, the casa gets its characteristic pink hue from the technique of mixing oxblood with whitewash. It had faded quite a bit since being originally constructed, so was redone just a few years ago. Well, the money actually ran out after only the front had been refinished, so it's only been partially redone.

As for the picture, I thought it somewhat clever (ironic?) to go sightseeing in a city that I'm not from, wearing a shirt of a place that I'm not from either. At least I can amuse myself.

Sir, if you feel tired...

Upon arrival in Buenos Aires I had to smile when I noticed this sign. Such a polite country.

Well, I'm a week into my Buenos Aires adventures and I figure if I don't start writing things down, I'm going to forget all the little experiences that tend to make a trip like this so memorable.
The purpose of this blog is twofold: firstly, anyone who knows me knows that I have a huge extended family that is highly curious of my travels and tends to, shall we say, worry a bit when I'm not in touch. I figure this blog will allow me to upload pictures and notes on a regular basis and will provide the chance for me to keep in touch with family and friends. I've promised that I won't disappear again as I did on my last solo trip (long story).
Also, I'm hoping that a few (most?) of you reading this will opt to leave comments of some sort, which I'd totally appreciate. It's a completely new world here and I welcome any news, reactions, jokes, etc. from back home.
With that said, let's start the blog!