Why You Want to Live in Buenos Aires

This is the one in which I talk about the Swine Flu

2009-07-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

Well, apparently Argentina has taken the Swine Flu worse than any other country outside of Mexico.

Not really sure what to say about this -- frankly, I assume that it's a case of negative variance, wherein Argentina got unlucky. Go read about Power Laws and this should make sense. Alot of people here are blaming the government, but I really don't see it.

But, as often happens in democracies, the governments are going crazy. All schools have been suspended in the last 2 weeks. Churches are mostly suspending their activities, all public (and in Argentina, the majority of private schools are public schools as far as I can tell), colleges and universities are closed. Hand sanitizer is everywhere, surgical masks occasionally in the street and always in the supermarket

OK, I dare you

2009-07-09T23:44:00.000-07:00

For those of you who think you speak another language, here is a practice exam:

Please explain why electric cars get better mileage in the city, opposed to normal cars. Please be advised that you are talking to your significant other's parents, and may or may not be disagreeing with them.

Enjoy!

Los Kirchner a la carcel!

2009-06-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today is election day in Argentina. That means everything, by law, was closed until 6pm, when the polls closed. This would have been the last day of the soccer season, but I guess it is postponed a week. (Vamos Huracan!)

Voting in Argentina is mandatory. I'm still unclear as to what happens if you don't vote, but a few people mentioned that they'd lost their id cards and had to go swear that they lost their ID cards in order to forgo the penalty. As you might guess, I am strongly anti-mandatory voting, but that's another story.

The big question is how the Kirchners will do. Kirchner was elected president in 2003, handed it over to his wife Cristina in 2007 in the midst of the commodities-boom fueled economic growth, and is currently the head of the Peronist party, as well as the head of one of today's tickets.

However, there is a large section of the Peronists that are not pro-Kirchner. For those of you familiar with Mexican politics, the Peronists are probably somewhat similar to the PRI in the 20th century. That is to say, ideology is trumped by the quest for power in a catch-all partisan label that doesn't really imply much ideologically.

So, instead of the political parties being on the ballot, different tickets are on the ballot. The Kirchner's ticket is "Victory Front," there's another Peronist "It Is Possible Front" (I didn't make this up, I'm thinking that their political consultant overcharged them), the Civic and Social Agreement of the UCR, the PRO, etc.

Two quirks: 1) the Kirchners decided to move the elections to today because they thought it would help them. I think it was supposed to be a few months later. 2) The Kirchners also forced through a law allowing the tickets to put anyone on the ballot...but they didn't have to serve. In other words, Kirchner wanted to put his name on the ballot in the BA suburbs, but he probably will hand over the actual seat in Congress to an underling. Yeah.

Also, nearly 40% of the vote is in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.

I literally haven't talked to anyone who is pro-Kirchner. You may -- but probably don't -- recall that I wrote about a year ago that I hadn't met a single person who was pro-Cristina. To be fair, this was probably the lowest moment of her popularity, as it was during the strikes of the farmers, which was the catalyst for her eroding popularity. After months of searching, I finally met someone at a birthday party who was pro-Cristina. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Cristina is really unpopular. I still haven't met anyone who likes her.
Girl: I support Cristina.
Me: Really? You're the first!
Girl: Of course.
Me: Why, if I may ask?
Girl: I'm a communist.
Me: A communist communist?
Girl: Yes.
Me: A communist communist communist?
Girl: Yes.
Me: Like the Soviets communist?
Me: Ay, patria tuya!

Despite what the suggests, people don't really dislike the Kirchners for ideological reasons. Saying that you don't like the Kirchners here is not a way of saying that you think they are too far to the left (or right). I'll mention without comment the disturbing tendency to have members of the educated class who would consider themselves communist or socialist.

Anyway, the title of this post is stenciled in paint throughout various parts of the city. It literally means "The Kirchners to jail!" I will say that it is probably pretty important for Argentina that the Kirchners lose...although I haven't written about it, they have been taking steps similar to Hugo Chavez. The usual despot control the media, etc. In fact, one of the scandals here was that someone was caught bringing a suitcase full of cash from Venezuela. By the way, I read a few weeks ago that Chavez owns 75% of Argentina's debt. So let's hope that the Kirchners lose.

This makes me laugh

2009-05-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

"It's not you, it's me" in Argentina is "no sos vos, soy yo." Literally translated, that's "you're not you, I'm me."

Try that one next time you're breaking up with someone.

A few thoughts from today's visit to the Bombonera

2009-04-30T22:58:00.001-07:00

I went to my first Copa Libertadores game today. That's the South American version of the Champions League (have I mentioned that Champions League has a tendency to ruin my midweek productivity? I do have to say that I do love having a girlfriend who watches soccer with me.)

1. The songs are all different for Libertadores. Weird. Seriously we were in the 80th minute before we sang my favorite song. And I don't think we ever sang my second favorite. Pretty much all the songs were different.

2. Boca has given up on the domestic season. Copa Libertadores is alot more important and we already won 1 this season (there are 2 domestic titles per season...Apertura y Clausura). The last domestic game we rested half of our starting 11. We still have like 35% of the domestic season left...but it's not terribly obvious that any of the games will be worth going to.

3. Que golazo increible! Some of you may already have seen it, as it appears that American Sportscenter put it as their #1 play of the day. Martin Palermo's second goal was a sweet bicyclekick. Gotta watch it...very awesome to be in the stands during that goal. Definitely some hugs in the stands (that's how we roll). Please ignore the fact that the American announcer said his name was "Martin Palermin." Silly Yanks. So...was Adebayor's goal better? On initial blush, I said yes...but on reconsideration, I have decided that Palermo's goal was better. Also, he wasn't that far off from having a bicycle kick goal in the first half too.

4. Palermo is definitely more popular than Riquelme, although I don't think anyone questions that Riquelme is a better player than Palermo. The best analogy for Palermo would be Taylor Twellman. Still, he gets the job done for Boca. He's awesome.

5. I'm pretty sure one of our songs today said some bad words. But not absolutely certain. Man, there was alot of marijuana being smoked around me. Even more than normal. Maybe that's why the section I normally go to is so chill.

6. It got cold. I'm glad the girlfriend has been nagging me about wearing more clothes. The jacket was very key.

I have done the paddleboats

2009-04-28T00:27:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to take the paddleboats in the Bosques de Palermo (the park I tend to take pictures of everytime I take pictures...that's not that often is it? pictures require effort...no me gusta) since I first went there

Although Ceci and I have been there a million times (or 5...who's counting?), we finally did the paddleboats last Saturday.* It was pretty amazing. I have no idea why paddle boats on a man-made lake are so fun, but they are. I enjoyed it, and I'd been waiting for a year to go on the paddleboats. I couldn't have asked for a prettier companion.

* It cost $25 pesos for a half-hour (at the current exchange rate, something a bit under $7 USD). At Hermann Park in Houston, it was either $6 or $8 an hour last time. In other words, equal. Wow, Buenos Aires is expensive... this would be like paying more than $25USD for half an hour. Yikes.

Two thoughts

2009-04-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

1. Ceci and I hung out today, like most days. Also like most days, we brought books, because clearly no one can really have conversations for at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The books didn't really get opened. Always a good sign.

That means we must be talking alot of Spanish. Yes, we are, my spanish is definitely improving. Just as English needs alot of practice to figure out the pronunciations, Spanish needs alot of work to get all the verb tenses right...accents, subjunctive tenses, etc. It's starting to feel more natural, but I still get nervous alot of times when I talk to people. No one teaches you the informal phrases, you just have you stand there, look stupid, and roll with the punches.

I think Ceci's friends all wonder how we communicate, but the truth is that culture is a much bigger barrier than language. And culture just requires a little communication...usually.

2. Which one of you fish put my post on twitter? My traffic went up alot today.

2009-04-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

Apropos my last post about music, have I mentioned the tshirts? Especially among girls, it's pretty common/trendy to wear tshirts with stupid English phrases in capital letters.

This would definitely be up there on my list of complaints about Buenos Aires. Also casual female footwear.

Such Great Heights

2009-04-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

One of the problems with this blog is that I don't remember what I've written here or not. Have I mentioned that I was pretty surprised how much US music there is here? Hop into a cab and it's probably over 50% that you'll hear English language pop if there's music playing.

For a long time (and maybe still, I haven't spent much time in the subways recently), The Postal Service's Such Great Heights would play every few minutes. It was very surreal hearing the blips and loops of that song echo through the cavernous subway stations in Buenos Aires.

One year

2009-04-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary to me! I stepped off the plane exactly one year ago.

Let's see: I got on the plane, and there was an Argentine girl next to me. As I think I recounted here before, I tried talking to her in Spanish and it was an epic failure. I didn't understand a single word that came out of her mouth: I can't even blame the Porteno accent, as she was from way far north. And that's when it hit me: this was going to be interesting.

Going through customs was interesting. At least I didn't have to fake that I didn't speak Spanish. Not speaking Spanish helps you get through customs with lots of expensive electronics.

Although everything I'd read said this city was safe, I have to be honest that I was a little nervous on my taxi ride from the airport. The last person I talked to before I left Houston was someone who told me some long story about how he hires the police blah blah blah because of how unsafe it was. I didn't really buy it, except during those fleeting moments of uncertainty -- it makes life more fun to be nervous! But with those expensive electronics in my luggage, all my favorite clothes, and about $4k US on me...I was nervous.

The last time I went to the State Department's info page about Argentina it said something like, "it's pretty safe...except when you're in a car." Yeah. I was pretty sure that my taxi driver was trying to kill me. Since when does 4 lanes on a highway become 8? I always thought the idea was to drive between the white lines...not on them.

Once we got off the freeway, we just sorta careened through streets. There are alot of 4 way intersections, none of them have stop signs...and yikes, did that guy almost just hit us? Eventually we got to my apartment, I gave the guy a tip that he didn't expect (tipping in Argentina is not normal...awesome), and then...I waited.

I waited for 4 hours or so (Welcome to Latin America!). Sorta nervously looking around like a tourist with 2 big boxes (1 of which got all ripped open on the flight...nothing lost but 2 of my colognes, which is annoying). My landlord finally showed up. I attempted to talk to her in Spanish in the largest comedy of errors ever.

That was my first day. I woke up the next morning to the smell of smoke. Was my apartment was on fire...?

McTasty

2009-04-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

While bouncing around the interwebs today, I found a listing of all the different local McDonald's items in each country. (McLobster? I want to try that!)

It seems to me like quite a few of them were things from Argentina. [Haven't seen the McKebab, but I don't pay that close attention. Strange that it's sold only in Argentina and Israel, although there are a good amount of Jews here. I heard that this was true, but didn't really believe it until walking around Once -- that's a neighborhood here.]

Which doesn't really capture half of it. McDonalds is much much nicer here, with pretty much completely different menu items. [I mean, you think Argentines would buy desserts without dulce de leche? Obviously not.] It's also not cheap. As in, even with a 3.5 to 1 exchange rate, it's frequently more expensive than in the US. On the other hand, all the restaurants are nice, new, clean, upscale places.

I've been to McDonald's a few times recently because the food court in the mall of Moron has a McDonald's with McCafe and the girlfriend likes their coffee and pastries. Which are pretty good, I have to admit.

Two weeks later, I edited the post with the bolded correction and addition.

Maybe this is weird, but...

2009-04-01T21:02:00.001-07:00

I was once going out with a girl who I thought was pretty. But man, everytime I time I ever saw a picture of her from anytime in the past, I thought she was unattractive. And this was a big problem for me.

I don't have this problem with Ceci at all. I think she's pretty intensely adorable in all her pictures from her childhood. Which is definitely preferable.

2009-03-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

I'm continually impressed by the ability of Argentines to ask intensely personal questions when they meet you for the first time.

El Cine

2009-03-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

Ceci and I saw the Watchmen today. Total price for the two of us? $5, ship that.

She wasn't too happy with my movie picking after the movie. It's a pretty complex movie -- and I think whenever you have subtitles, you lose some nuance* -- and it's three hours. It's all over the map, the story is occasionally difficult to follow, there's a ton of violence (the director is Zack Snyder of 300 and Sin City fame), blah blah blah. I will say that I thought there were some things in this movie that I thought were hilarious, but they were way too subtle for an Argentine audience. For example, the Pat Buchanan bit had me doubled over laughing out loud whereas no one else in the theater saw any humor at all.

I liked it quite a bit. I'm going to download it and watch it again. I noticed things in the movie that I don't normally notice: for instance, I enjoyed the songs they picked for the score, I enjoyed quite a bit of the visuals which normally don't impact me much. And yeah, it was complicated. So much so that I'm surprised it made it to #1. I mean, it's not Memento complicated, but it's not an easy movie. I will be fascinated to see if it has staying power...my guess is that this movie is too complex for the American public.

Anyway, the first movie she and I saw together was Slumdog Millionaire, after which she thought I was a great movie picker. We followed that up with The Wrestler, which she stopped paying attention to after about the first 30 minutes and now The Watchmen. In fairness to me, we're normally wandering around the suburbs and then decide to show up to a movie. We show to a theater that has 3 options and I try to choose the best one. So I think I'm doing pretty fantastic.

* That's leaving aside the discussion I had the other day with some friends of whether Spanish is in fact a less-nuanced language than English.

2009-03-11T01:15:00.000-07:00

According to Tim, I have $2000 worth of frequent flier/hotel points between the 3 main accounts that I have. Ship that. Is that enough for a nice honeymoon? Truthfully, probably not.

Also, if you have any frequent flier accounts, you should really follow that link and sign up.

Restless in 5th gear

2009-03-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

Something you'd probably never guess about me is that I was fascinated by...trains, planes and automobiles as a kid. Apparently (I have only foggy memories of this), I was obsessed with a certain kids book I had that was called...wait for it, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." Apparently I used to insist that they read this to me alot. As they say in Argentina, literally translated, I am hard head. In fact, I remember at least one or two birthdays at the Strausburg railroad in Pennsylvania.

Somehow along the line I lost the fascination. As anyone who has ever seen my rides knows, cars are not the most important thing in my life (I still like to drive fast, but acceleration is less important). I fall asleep on airplanes before takeoff, and I think trains are useful only for getting me from point A to point B. Preferably without a wait, although after a year in Argentina I may be learning patience....maybe.

Anyway, the point of this post was to say that all Portenos used to tell me how dangerous the trains were at night. I now take the last train to Capital several times a week. So far, I don't really see the danger, but we'll see...

Meet Ceci

2009-03-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the blog is called (tongue in cheek, of course) Why You Want To Live In Buenos Aires, and right now she is my reason to live here. Meet Cecilia.

She looks cute. I look like me. This was our first date, the day before Valentine's Day.

This was our third date. Here we are in the Rose Garden of the Palermo park. She's pretty, kind, fun, mature, and endlessly fascinating.

Now you know why I had her hold the camera.

Best part about going out with an Argentine...

2009-02-18T20:29:00.000-08:00

...would have to be that I can count spending time with her as productive time, as she doesn't speak any English.*

*Well, that's not quite true. Sometimes she says a two or three words in English, and it's really really cute. I don't want to say anymore in case she reads this and decides to stick it into google translator.

If you ever want to know why the dating culture here is so ridiculous...

2009-02-16T22:22:00.001-08:00

...just talk to old ladies on the subway.

Seriously, random old ladies started talking to me on the subway today about how beautiful girls in Buenos Aires were...for minutes. and minutes.

I get tilted when...

2009-02-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

Portenos stop me on the street to ask me directions, I tell them where to go, and then they clearly disregard my directions when they hear my accent.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why you wouldn't trust someone who doesn't speak your language, but it annoys the heck out of me anyway.

Cristina isn't a 100% failure?

2009-02-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

I've written a few times about how it is impossible to get coins here. Not such a big deal, except that they are necessary to use the bus. Well President Cristina has finally announced that they will put electronic card capability in buses and trains as they already are in the subway.

Bout time. When this eventually happens -- supposedly it will start in 90 days and have a transition "as brief as possible"...I'm guessing this means the transition will take years -- I assume the black market in coins will die. Of course this happens when I have stockpiled like 15 pesos in coins.

Random pictures

2009-01-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

I know I'm like a broken record, but my sister tells me she likes pictures, so I post more pictures. Even when they aren't very good.

This is my supermarket, Coto. Not sure what I was doing this day...I was going to the subway I think, and looked back to snap the picture.

I must have been going to Alto Palermo...yup, I was. Alto Palermo is one of the nicer shopping malls in BA. This is the food court, up on the top level (if I recall correctly). I went looking for Wii controllers and it was a fail.

There seems to be no Wiis in the country. I think I saw a Wii priced at something like 1k USD. yeah. wow. socialism is great.

Random street in Recoleta/Barrio Norte. By the way, what is Barrio Norte? Depending on who you talk to, it's the area between Palermo and Recoleta....or the area between Recoleta and Tribunales...or the northern part of Recoleta. It's a little like River Oaks, in that everyone claims to be in Barrio Norte, even if they live at Buffalo Speedway and Kirby.

Well, this was a great picture, wasn't it? It's Plaza Vicente Lopez. There's a fountain in the background, but my photography skillz are lacking.

Not sure, still the same area.

The other side of the plaza. By the way, Plaza Vicente Lopez is not in Vicente Lopez (which is technically a city and country immediately outside Capital Federal).

I made it to Republica. This is the inside.

This is my appetizer. Simple, but it worked pretty well. Note the book. Ten bonus points if you identify it. If it's not my favorite book of all time, it's close.

My main course was a Penne with dried tomatoes and basil. It was good, but I've more or less had it before for lunch here. It was good, but schmeh. This was the dessert. The cheesecake was a bit dry (too long in the fridge?), but those figs (?) were tasty.

Anyway, $13, ship it? I swear I'll never go to a restaurant again in the US because I'll get so angry at how expensive it is. This was no Sudestada for lunch -- even though Sudestada is appetizer, main course, and no dessert -- but man, it was good.

This is the little passageway where Republica is located. Inside that unique little passageway are a few restaurants. 3 are well regarded. Republica, Sirop, and Nectarine. Republica didn't blow me away. Went there for dinner tonight and had extraordinarily slow service. Food was good, but nothing amazing. I felt a little like Jenn did at Cafe Annie: is it really something I should be paying a premium for? Yeah, it's good. But where was the daring? In my two experiences at the restaurant, I literally heard English being spoken by every table. It wasn't all by native speakers, but it's quite obviously tourist dependent.

Especially after going to El Baqueano in San Telmo last week, I was so underwhelmed. El Baqueano was incredible. For the $120 peso tasting menu we had 7 courses with 7 paired wines (it's $165 for the premium wines). Everything was gourmet, everything had thought put into it. The meats were exotic, and while I'm generally skeptical of exotic meats (there's a reason we eat beef, chicken and pork), it was phenomenal. And you know how some meals get better and some get worse with age? El Baqueano continues to improve. Also, they change their tasting menu every day. I should probably be thankful that it's not near me, as I'd probably start eating there daily. The only negatives are that it's in San Telmo, which is not my area, as I said.

Look, I am bad at taking out photos, no? That wasn't something of a translation from Spanish to English of what I'd have said. Anyway, this is El Ateneo, which is a famous bookstore here inside of a former theater.

To be honest, I've been to Bookstop in Houston, over on West Alabama and Shepherd. And, schmeh, this reminds me alot of that. Although this picture is quite dark (and my stats say that almost none of you click the pictures) this is from the second floor of 4 floors. Despite being quite large, there aren't that many books. Despite many trips there with the intent to purchase, I am a failure. I don't know, buying books in a foreign language is hard.

Top of the theater/bookstore. That's a painting, if the picture was good.

Time for bed. Chau chicos.

Chau, besos.

2009-01-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

I guess in the process of fitting into the culture, a large step was taken today. I ended my first email or phone call with "un beso." It sounds pretty odd to me, but yes, the normal thing to end things here is by saying "a kiss."

I'm still pretty partial to "later," but what can I say?

My first mate (with my own set)

2009-01-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to buying a mate set at the supermarket today. Presented in beautiful style on my bedroom floor, is the thermos, the yerba mate, the cup, and the straw.

Looking down at the open yerba bag. With the cup and straw inside. By the way, that straw cost me 40 pesos! I really don't understand how a metal straw can cost something equivalent to 40 dollars if I was in the US. Anyway, as I took this picture, the water was boiling upstairs. Then I poured it into the thermos.

So, after filling the cup 2/3 of the way up with yerba, you move it all to one side by tilting it. Then you fill it with near-boiling water on the empty side. I tried to get a picture of me doing this, but only succeeded in running out of battery power...and getting lots of pictures of my leg hair. I'll spare you those.

Action shot.

Edit: man, I have long eyelashes.

Ok, I have to go get ready for a party.

You wouldn't see this in the US, now would you?

2009-01-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

This is "that post" about boobs.

This is the picture I was originally talking about, that has been splashed around town for awhile...especially on the public transit. As an Argentine friend wryly remarked, "Only in Buenos Aires is breast cancer sexy."

And then, there's this new billboard now making the rounds:

Both these pictures were taken at different stations on the Suarez line yesterday.