Um, this KICKED ASS

I saw the best thing ever today. An amazingly awesome puppeteer rocking the shit out of a two skeleton puppets!! I couldn’t have asked for a sweeter show. I gave him pesos, for sure. I used to dabble in puppetry here and there… nothing crazy… but as you can see from the photo below, getting down with a puppet is most definitely my kind of fun.

Oh yeah, I meant it. I am SO DOWN to play with some puppets.

So you can imagine how I felt when I saw this dude on the street absolutely KILLING IT with his skeleton puppet rock band. He blew my fucking mind. Here’s a little vid I took. The sucky part: I didn’t realize my camera cuts the sound when I zoom in and out. Aaannnd, I went vertical but I don’t know how to flip it/I don’t care to go to the trouble. Aaannnd the quality does suck. No awards in cinematography in my future, that’s for damn sure. But hang in there. Turn your head sideways or something, and watch the end at least and trust me that it was amazing in person. =-D And later I heard him doing Stairway, but I was on a bus and couldn’t get over there to film it up. No Stairway? Denied.

Check out the true MASTER OF PUPPETS on the streets of Buenos Aires…

Mo’ Bueno

I’ve been meaning to write more often, but I have this tiny-little-kinda-crappy laptop with me and I hate using the touchpad mouse, so it hasn’t been happening. But tonight I thought, “Enough of that (ya basta!),  I just gotta do it!” Do. It. My blog/life theme. Oh yeah. Right.

Another reason I haven’t written much is because I haven’t being doing a ton of stuff I considered “worthy,” but I realized today that’s also not a good reason. It has been raining quite a bit, and yes, that has prevented me from being out and about as much as I might have liked. But I’m still a stranger in a strange land, and that’s pretty interesting in and of itself.

I was surprised to really realize that I am in a BIG, BIG CITY. I haven’t been to New York (sad, I know), but I thought it might be similar and a friend recently said that’s the city her parents compared it to when they visited. Being here I’ve come to realize that I really am a small-town girl… and I think I prefer it that way.  Living here for a short while definitely is a cool experience, but it’s made me really certain that I like my little town and little cities, like SF… they’re a better fit for me.

I’ve been really surprised by a few things here. These include:

• How stylish most people are. They look SO GOOD, everyday! I felt like I just had to buy some new boots to fit in… and I did. (I haven’t worn them much though… G-D rain. And they aren’t particularly exceptional (plain black with a low heel and a couple of buckles), so don’t get too excited. I love em though, and I will most def be sportin’ em back in the states).
• The fact that I live right next to a massive, super modern mall that’s nicer than the mall Rich and I cruised through when we were in Beverly Hills a few weeks back. I can’t afford anything there! (I won’t waste my money on anything there, rather. Clothes are expensive and generally low quality here. I saw a super cute black dress with little white cats on it and I was tempted… It turned out to be around $200, and it was Macy’s junior section quality. No dice.)
• Dinner is a 10 PM! I’m over this now, but it took a few days…
• Exercise is a priority among a lot of people, and there are gyms all over the place. That surprised me because I came here expecting it to be similar to Chile, where I studied abroad in 2002… But it’s almost nothing like Chile, other than they have a lot of delish types of empanadas. In Chile, no one seemed to exercise. And another thing; I was in Chile 10 years ago already… 10 years! A lot can change in 10 years… I seemed to have forgotten that.

Along those same lines, in being here, I’ve also realized that this whole trip came about because of a 10 year old dream, and that dream doesn’t really fit into my current life. After I studied in Chile, all I wanted to do was return to Latin America. And I loved my short trip to Argentina so much, I wanted to go back from the get-go. I thought I would try to teach English and stay at least a year and really learn the language and culture. My idea for my trip to Buenos Aires was to live a modified version of that dream, but I’ve realized in being here that my dreams have changed, my life has changed, and what I wanted 10 years ago is no longer true. I’m not sorry for being here, but I don’t really want to travel solo for an extended period of time again. It feels like I’m just starting my life with my guy back at home, and I’m so excited about it! I can’t help but think, why did I leave?

So the adventure continues, even if it’s not what I expected or initially thought. That’s ok… I’m really learning a lot, and most excited about my upcoming weekend trip to one of the seven natural wonders of the world… Iguazu Falls! That will really be a dream come true.

Also, change of subject: one ultra cool thing that’s pretty cheap here is leather. Oh yeah…. love leather. I went to a “feria” this weekend and it was waaaay more my style of shopping: artisans selling their handmade goods. I saw this funky piece of leather and I had the vendor custom-create a belt for me — so awesome! I picked out the buckle from tons of choices and he sized it to fit me and in the end I paid less than $20. Sweet. My roommate here called it a hippie belt (it’s pretty colorful). I love it!

Here’s some pix of Enrique creating it for me:

It’s so cute! My one mistake… I sized it over my jeans and belt and sweatshirt, so it’s a little too big. I’m going back this Saturday to have him add a couple more holes and I’m waiting on Rich’s measurements to I can have one made for him too. Yay! Dammit, I love a deal.

Here are a few more general pix of the city… Disclaimer: I’m not much of a photographer. Sorry these aren’t more “interesting” or “cool.” 😉

Busy people, always up to something…

 

Puppies, Parks and More Food (of course)

I just want to take a quick sec to post about one of my favorite things I’ve seen here in Buenos Aires: the professional dog walker, or un “paseador de perros.”

I totally cracked up the first morning I walked to school and saw these men headed down the street each with a band of dogs of all sizes at their side. I learned yesterday it’s a legit career and I even found a website for loving dog owners who are searching for one. Check it out. This shit is hilarious!

Un paseador de perros en la calle.

Speaking of this shit, the one problem with these folks is that I don’t think they pick it up, because it’s on every sidewalk, everywhere. Gotta watch your step, that’s for sure.

I live near a really huge park that apparently has Japanese gardens and a little lake; it’s really beautiful. I had just arrived there yesterday when I realized I had to turn around and go to class. Boo. Below are a couple of the pix I snapped, more to come for sure. And about class… I judged my little boy classmates too soon– turns out they’re pretty fun and all but one of them are pretty serious (enough) about learning the language. My classes have been great and I really like the teachers. Guillermo is from Cuba and he’s AWESOME. Florencia is our conversation instructor and she’s super dry and I love it. The 19 year old Swiss & Dutch boys have a habit of coming in late and when they do she looks at them with this serious dead-pan face and says, “Buenos noches, buenos noches, chicos.” Like, “Ah, good evening, good evening, boys,” implying they’re late but in a fun way. I’m stoked to have good teachers.

This sweet lady is massive and in the middle of the “Avenida del Libertador,” which is a huge thoroughfare. She must have a story… I’ll have to look it up and report back.

And the last thing on my mind today are the awesome sandwiches I’ve had… mmmm. I’ve had a few with a cured type of ham that might be Serano ham with goods like zucchini and yummy cheese…. love em. Yesterday evening I went to a really nice tea house and had a chicken sandwich (also tasty), but best part was that they brought bread sticks with some kind of squash puree with herbs to go with the tea. It looks a little funny, but it was amazing! I’m going to try to make something similar when I get back home.

The chicken sandwich. It wasn’t particularly special, but it was satisfying and I was happy with it.

I’m off to lunch now and I have just enough time before my classes start to get something quick. I’ve been eye-balling this pasta place in the mall near my house and I think I’m going to get gnochi. The mall has some decent food, actually… I’m sure it’s not the BEST thing out there, but it’s close and a whole lot better than our malls’ food courts.

Ciao for now!

Finally Feeling Bueno in Buenos Aires

I didn’t want to blog until now, day three here in Buenos Aires. I felt like I would disappoint everyone because I couldn’t report something like, “It’s so amazing here, I love it, I feel great, life is A-Mazing!” I wanted to be able to say that SO BADLY, but the truth is, it was a rough transition. And it was hard for me to accept that because I felt like it shouldn’t be; this is a crazy awesome adventure and I’m so lucky to be here… I KNOW this, but I just wasn’t feeling it on days one and two.

I know myself well enough to know that change is kind of hard for me… I love my routines, my control, having my world full of clear expectations, so yeah, I should have known that it wouldn’t necessarily be 100 from the start. I was feeling lame about not loving it from the get-go.  I was feeling super uncool. And I was missing my guy too… there was some sadness happening. I knew I would adjust and I wished it could happen immediately. Rich reminded me I have to be patient, and that that’s not really one of my strong suits. And he’s right. Like always. Damn.

I waged my own personal “It Gets Better” campaign with myself yesterday. “It’s going to work out. It’s going to be ok. It takes time,” I told myself. I found out yesterday evening that a new girl would be arriving the next morning and she would also stay with my host family, and that was cause for celebration! I had felt so lonely walking to school by myself on Monday, and I was super bummed to find that the class I placed into included 5 young boys and me, the lone lady. And the truth is, in general, I really don’t like being friends with boys as much as I like being friends with girls. And I’m calling them boys because they are… three of them are Swiss, one is English and another is from the US. Three of the boys from Europe are 19, and the one from the US just finished college, (not sure how old the fourth European is cause he ditched class today, which makes me feel pretty sure he’s young too). 😉 At 29, I’m the old maid. Yep. The one, aged lady in the group. The boys have been at the school for weeks already and the first day a couple of them were kind of being little shits, especially in the second of our two classes, our conversation class, which was taught by a sub and she wasn’t very good… I was a little discouraged.

And something else cast a dark cloud over my whole day, and it was self-induced… I was wearing THE WORST pants/shoe combination ever!! It was a combo I would never wear in the states, and have never worn before. Huge mistake. I felt so awkward! It took my already low self-esteem down a few more notches. And all day while roaming the streets and at school I felt like everyone was looking and judging me. And all of the ladies in Buenos Aires were strolling around in boots and leggings and other much better looking combinations. Even old ladies! The saying, “Change your shoes, change y0ur life” has never felt so true. And if you’re wondering what I was wearing, I had the brilliant idea to wear my exercise-type shoes with straight leg jeans because I knew I would be doing a lot of walking, since I had 4 hours to kill after taking my placement exam in the morning and waiting for my classes to start at 2:00 in the afternoon. I thought this was an awesome idea, but the shoes actually gave me little blisters because they’re new, and I couldn’t have felt more ugly or self-conscience. I will NEVER sacrifice style for comfort again… in Argentina.

But I’m sooooo happy to say that today, day three, things actually did get better! Woot!

The new student arrived and her name is Julianna and she’s 26, in medical school, originally from Kenya, super nice, totally interesting, seemingly un-phased by anything and adventurous. We took off this morning toward a part of town near our house that some people at school recommended, Palermo. We walked around a bit and the streets were much more calm and good-looking. I realized my last couple of days have been spent walking up and down the same busy, smoggy street, Avienda Santa Fe, and it was such a good move to finally get away from there.

We stopped at a little place for lunch and I had some Italian-inspired empanadas. Mmmmmm, they were delish!  The one with the greens had something like Serano ham, mozzarella and arugula, and I also had one with something like pepperoni and cheese and part of another with chicken. My first super awesome food- YES! This is the stuff that I get a serious boner for.

While I’m talking food, I have to say, I found the best cookie ever: The amazing Alfajor. They’re sold individually, they’re huge, I’m totally obsessed, and I’m going to bring like 600 of them home with me. Yesterday, after my discouraging day at school, I bought 3 on the way home and binge ate them as a pick me up. Food makes me feel good and I don’t give a fuck if that’s not healthy, or whatever. My fave version of these sandwich cookies have something like two layers of soft, fat graham-like cookies with dulce de leche between the layers and the whole deal is coated in chocolate. Holla if you want me to bring you one back. You won’t be sorry.

I had two more today… Tried the fruit filled, white candy-coated one and had to have another chocolate, of course.

Other than food, I really do enjoy looking around and exploring this big city.

I took a couple of pix of the street and a city garden and that was a nice way to spend some time, or “pasar tiempo.”

There’s much more to say but I’m tired so it will have to wait till next time. =-)

Buenos noches!