Wednesday, February 26, 2014

An Afternoon in La Boca

Historically, La Boca is Buenos Aire's Little Italy, the main point of entry for Italians at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. It's known for it's brightly painted houses and stores.  Originally the homes were painted with whatever paint was left over on the docks, creating the mishmash of vibrant colors. It's also home of La Boca Football Club (yellow and blue) and the Porteños (the locals) are loca about their fútbol!

Here's a little movie of my afternoon in La Boca....
(Use the following link if the quality is poor on full screen YouTube ).





Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Language School and My Childish Meltdown

So my first week is down. It was a lot of fun really. There were 6 of us in the class this week.  Charlotte and Sophie are young American girls. Yes, well they are all young. But that's to be expected. Charlotte is from Rhode Island and Sophie is from Philly.  Then there is David from France and Stefanio from the Netherlands.  Finally, Gustavo from Berlin, who grew up in Brooklyn. He's a bit older thankfully.  5 of us have US passports.
David, Stefanio, Charlotte and me
A lot of discussion this week why the Argentines don't particularly like Americans.  I learned that the USA had a treaty with Argentina to defend them against any foreign invasion (Rio Treaty).  Should I have known about the Rio Treaty? I just remember Argentina being the aggressor. Anyway, consequently, Argentina felt abandoned when the USA gave military support to Britain. But also, they also felt bitter that their brothers and fathers were sent to war for a military dictatorship that often turned on their own people, didn't provide them with proper military equipment and would often execute their own.  But apart from that, the Argentines just don't seem to like Americans.

Class is from 9 am to 1 pm with the group.

My Childish Meltdown

I have a one-on-one with another teacher in the afternoon for an hour. His name is Martín.  We didn't get on very well at first. Well, I didn't. When I met him, my Inside Voice.....you know that Spoilt Little Child Voice....said to me " I don't like him and I have no idea why" and "Omigod, do I HAVE TO spend the next 3 weeks with you every afternoon?".  Not to be too unkind, but he had a very off -putting stare and eyes as big as saucers.  I think the expression is he "weirded me out".  So the conversation dried up and the poor guy just kept asking me question after question, like a bad job interview. A one-way train wreck. Not quite as bad as a spoilt child giving one word answers, but close enough.  To make it worse, I even ended the class 15 minutes early ("Mommy, I want to go home" - such an ass, I was).  But you know, sometimes you can't help yourself.  Anyway, I was all mature and stuff (sic) the next day and everything was fine.  I'm getting a new teacher next week though. He broke the news to me on Friday. I duly put on my Sad Face. Yeah! He must have asked for the change. I bet he didn't like me either....

Post script. Got a new teacher this week. Much better!





Thursday, February 13, 2014

La Recoleta Cemetery

When I was a boy growing up in Ireland, our local town (Foxford, Co. Mayo)  had a bust of this rather imposing man  near the school. He was known to us as Admiral William Brown (aka Guillermo Brown) this strange man who went off to Argentina to found the Argentine Navy.  The Town Hall was also named after him. That was all we knew. It turns out that he is one of Argentina's national heroes. Creator and first admiral of the country's maritime forces, he is commonly known as the "father of the Argentine Navy".  He was instrumental in winning the Argentine War of Independence against Spain.  He subsequently fought and won the wars with Brazil and Uruguay. He is interred here at Recoleta Cemetery.


William (Guillermo) Brown
1777 - 1857

Ok. It says here he was born in Ireland, he was English in origin and Argentinian in service.  That looks wrong to me!  He emigrated to America and was press-ganged from an American ship to serve the British Crown in the Napoleonic Wars.  So yes, since England ( it wasn't the United Kingdom yet) owned American colonies and Ireland back then.....it's an easy mistake to call him English!   How very dare they!
N


EVITA

The beloved Evita (Eva Perón) is also interred here. La Recoleta Cemetery is among the ten most beautiful in the world. This short video from the cemetery entrance to her final resting place shows some of the splendor of La Recoleta Cemetary. 

If the quality is poor go to YouTube using this link  YouTube Link







Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Neighborhood

My apartment is in the Monserrat District.  (Monserrat,_Buenos_Aires) .  It has some of the most beautiful buildings, including City Hall and Casa Rosada (yes, where Evita hung out).
Casa Rosada 
 It has some of the widest avenues in the world.  This picture is the crossing of the main avenue.  It has two bus lanes and two car lanes and you're lucky if you make the lights in one crossing. Sometimes it can take two. 


However, my street is not so fancy.  The stores are generally much poorer and often going out of business.  At night the shutters come down. That's how you know it's not fancy! And that explains why my rent was fairly cheap.  It's very mixed. You have all those weird run-down shops (see below) while at the same time there is a beautiful Italian restaurant on the corner, with rich mahogany panels, linen table cloths and high ceiling fans.  You can get delicious pasta and a glass of wine for under a tenner.  Some pictures of the oddball and run-down shops in the street.  Take a look.....


A men's and boy's store across the street. Clearly not the fashion district. 

A small hardware shop

Who just sells underwear these days unless you are Victoria's Secret?

Need oil for your bike? 

A candy store or a toy store?

WTF? Your guess is as good as mine!

Tea towels anyone? Or would you prefer a watch?

These people specialize in pink bags! 



And in case  you  need write a letter or make a photocopy 



First Impressions

It was pouring rain. The locals were happy at least as this was the long awaited cool-down.  The apartment is a charming mid-century apartment. Click on link.   Charming Apartment. There is an old-style elevator and gigantic keys to all the doors (which makes it difficult when you are going for a run).  There is a piano teacher in the building who teaches in the afternoon. Makes me feel like I'm in a short story.

There was no internet. T-mobile's much promised "no roaming charges" 3G was down. Because it was raining. Wi-FI was down in the apartment. The previous people did something to it. So no Google maps to get around.  No idea what the exchange rate is. Getting money from the ATM in the rain was no fun. It was all in Spanish. Can you believe that? No English. But they weren't working anyway. Two hours and two miles later in the rain, I found out that only certain ATMs work for foreigners.  So they have about a thousand banking networks on these machines. I found one that gave me money. Money!!!  Coffee and a croissant never felt so good. Lesson learned.  Don't rely on the internet and always have money in your pocket.

I missed my chance to go to the black market and get money. The landlord was going and I had given him $500 USD.  You go down to the "cuevas" (caves) and deal with "Arbolitos" (little trees...because of the green) who give you the exchange. I got an extra $100 dollars worth of pesos over what I would have gotten at the bank. That's huge. Next time I'll go with him.

The neighborhood is called Monserrat. Called after a mountain in Catalonia, Spain. The big stores haven't hit yet so everything is specialized small shops.  On the street, there is a writing supply store, a men's & boys shop, an underwear store (men and women), a general hardware store, one for just tools, and a motor bike repair shop.  Reminds me of Ireland. 30 years ago! There is some weird stuff though!

They don't supersize your coke and fries here. That's why everyone is skinny and beautiful. And there ain't no air kissing here. People greet with lip smacking kisses. Even the bro-kisses: you can hear them 100 feet away.

Socialism is alive and well. I've already seen two demonstrations.















And yes, the toilet does flush in the opposite direction!