Why You Want to Live in Buenos Aires

That's not cool. literally.

2011-01-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

No electricity last night from midnight to...well, not sure exactly, but I think it was somewhere around 4am or so.

In summertime, that's not fun. Especially when you already have a few mosquitos in the bedroom, and you don't want to open the windows and risk getting more.

Auditorial power

2011-01-01T20:44:00.000-08:00

It's amazing to me how music connects me to memories that would otherwise be lost to history. When I put a particular song or album on, I'm instantly transported to what I was feeling in that minute. The joy, the expectations, the plans, the frustrations, whatever.

Right now I'm listening to Snow Patrol's A Hundred Million Suns, which I think is totally brilliant (especially The Planets Bend Between Us), and yet I've never gotten into any other album of theirs. But when I put this album on, I am instantly transported to my early days in Buenos Aires. I don't really remember what I wrote now, but there's tons of nervous energy wrapped up in this album for me. That's what I felt at the time -- energized, but terribly nervous. Completely uncomfortable, but enjoying the challenge. I specifically think of the apartment on Arevalo and the sun streaming in the window.

I didn't speak a word of Spanish. I'd never left the country before. I wasn't quite sure exactly why I had decided to move, and I wasn't sure how long I'd make myself stay if I hated it -- and I love the US, and hate being outside of Texas. When I left the house, I really had no idea what to expect and the easiest things in life were difficult for me.

All that has come flooding back to me as I listen to this album. Wow it's brilliant, and I have goosebumps from the combination of the music and the memories.

Final thought: it's also amazing to me that frequent listening to music tends to happen during particularly productive periods of my life. Causation =! correlation, yada yada yada, but I think it's a self-reinforcing mechanism. Virtuous cycle, as it were.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T12:44:00.000-08:00

Feliz año nuevo!

Most people make resolutions about this time of year. I've never been a fan of that -- no particular reason why, maybe I just like being a contrarian.

Probably the most common new year's resolutions are to go to the gym or get their personal finances in order. Not really things I ever need to make a resolution to change, so that's out for me.

I have however started doing pushups again. I did 500 pushups a day (in sets of 50, and then later of 75) for about a year in 06-07 until I busted my ankle and couldn't do them anymore. It made quite a difference and I enjoyed it, although folks pointed out that I'd probably have grown more muscle if I did them every other day.

So now I'm trying to do pushups every other day. I've been semi-committed to it for the past month or two, and so far it does actually seem to have worked. I can definitely tell a difference looking in the mirror, plus I think it helps me stay energetic throughout the day.

And it doesn't cost me $50 a month in gym membership.

In case you haven't heard: baby Zoe passed away

2010-12-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

I realize that I should probably save some people the embarrassment of asking the "Has she had the baby yet?" question. So if you haven't heard...

My wife and I lost our baby about a month ago when Zoe was at about 6.5 months. It was a brutal experience, and has left a scar that doesn't easily heal, and certainly hasn't done so yet. She talks about it being the worst thing to ever happen to her.

Christmas in Mar del Plata

2010-12-28T10:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Mar del Plata was a nice change of pace.

I would never go to Mar del Plata during January or February, when the city is full of folks from Buenos Aires. But even during Christmastime, a week before the crazy madness is at 100%, it is relatively tranquil.

Will write more later when I put pictures up.

End of December is the worst time of year to live in Buenos Aires

2010-12-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

We've been having a ridiculous amount of power outages recently, as well as internet outages. It's driving me up a wall. And it seems to fit the same experiences I've had at the end of my previous two Decembers here.

Summer arrives here around mid-December, and people start using their air conditioners so energy usage spikes. The school year also ends in mid-December, so kids are all in their houses full-time. That means that not only are commercial properties hitting full blast with AC, but all residential properties are likewise being air conditioned or at least using multiple fans (as air conditioning is far from 100%, even in stores).

Everyone goes on vacation January 2nd though, so the infrastructure isn't nearly as taxed for the month of January. Though the temperature is hotter, many businesses close and from an American perspective, it's just amazing how many people leave the city. I've written about this in previous years, so I won't repeat it. But both years so far, it has been kinda mindblowing.

School doesn't start until mid-February, so the infrastructure isn't taxed because there are still a surprising percent of the city on vacation. I guess the people who don't have kids but want a slightly cheaper vacation go on vacation in late February. A few people go on vacation in early March, as well.

But yeah, like 95% of Buenos Aires vacations happen in a very small timeframe...which we are about to arrive at, but haven't yet. So until then, the infrastructure is just overwhelmed. That's my theory.

And that means that I continue being super annoyed every few hours when my electricity and/or internet cut off. It's something like low 90s, so it can be annoying to be both hot and with nothing to do.

thanksgiving

2010-11-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving. We are celebrating by going to a dinner in Capital held by an American, although I expect it will be mostly Argentines.

As the holidays approach, I increasingly think Jennifer Noronha is morally bankrupt

2010-10-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Jennifer Noronha is a pretty bad person. I can't visit my family this holiday season because of her involvement in rejecting my wife for a tourist visa.

Happenings

2010-10-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

1. I'm not going to talk about MBA applications right now. I haven't done it so much here, but I'm just exhausted by it. It's so much work, when all the while you are essentially presenting your life for inspection. Do they like you? After days and days of work, do you get a rejection anyway?*

Despite politics and Christianity being important parts of my life (and the former a huge part of my leadership experiences), I largely left them out of my application. I know for sure I have been discriminated against in similar circumstances previously. I won't make the same mistake again.

2. I have to go give presentations in English tomorrow. I'm pretty sure they won't even pay me half of my hourly dollar rate in pesos. In other words, they'll pay me about 10% of what I'd normally accept to wake up on a Saturday morning. When we're talking 10%, I'd generally rather that they not pay me at all, but I think I will have no choice.

Surprisingly, now that I speak Spanish reasonably well, some of my most awkward moments are when respected people want to speak English with me, because I feel pressured to understand. Tomorrow I have to understand the director when she speaks English. It might be easy...it might not be, and I'm sympathetic to her feelings if I don't understand her.

3. I am finishing a fantastic champagne as I write this. This is my favorite champagne in the world -- Argentine, of course. Por supuesto, che.

* Given that my GMAT score is above the median for every school, this is arguably worse when I get rejected.

Life is more expensive in Argentina

2010-10-07T22:22:00.001-07:00

Before they devalued the peso after the 2001/2002 crisis, Buenos Aires was considered one of the most expensive cities in the world.

A data point: I recently looked into buying a domain name in Argentina (.com.ar). Considering it costs $10 in the US, I figured it'd be about something similar...when really it should only be about 10 pesos (or about $2.5USD).

You know how much it was? $50. There was a cheaper registrant, I think, but it looked rather fly by night. So, 200 argentine pesos to register something that really has no good reason to cost more than about 10 pesos.

I laughed and said forget it. The government controls domain names, and the Kirchners are corrupt wannabe Hugo Chavezes. No reason to expose any business to that sort of risk, especially when it costs 500% more.

2010-10-02T22:16:00.001-07:00

Sitting here at home very late into the wee hours of a Saturday night writing MBA essays. Good times, amirite?

I'm sparked to write because I still get freaked out when I see the siren lights reflecting off my walls late at night from the private security in our neighborhood slowly patrolling the streets. It always takes me a second to relax after tensing up.

Just got back from a trip to Brazil. Always good times. <3 Brazil, aside from getting a visa to go there, as "everyone has a Brazilian visa story." It's hard to dislike a place that has a reputation for being happy and liking to party.

I'm in brazil

2010-09-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Will need to be prompted to put a trip report up.

Now #2 for Jennifer Noronha searches in google

2010-08-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

...and I haven't done a single thing yet. When I actually get around to it, there will probably be around 200x more strength to making that post #1 for Jennifer Noronha....for the next few decades.

Amusingly, if you google her name, you'll find multiple instances where she tells American citizens to contact the embassy if they need anything. Riiiight...she hasn't responded to either of my emails (both quite polite) for a month now. She's a bureaucrat; the last thing she cares about is helping American citizens.

On fundraising

2010-08-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

I don't get people who send out mass emails "please support me on my bike/run." I mean, I suppose it can't help you raise less money, but...if we haven't communicated in any form for years and you can't even motivate yourself to personalize the email to me (much less call), why would I get around to going to the website and digging out my credit card in order to give money?

Does anyone ever say no to an actual personal appeal? Of course not. Well ok, I've done it, but only because I vowed not to give money to Rice for 10 years after I graduated. And even then, I almost decided to donate a nominal amount like $5.

Been to Corinthians, now its time for Sao Paolo FC

2010-07-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

I'm going to Brazil in late September, but have quite a bit of flexibility in my exact trip timing.

Obviously that means I'm timing my trip around soccer games. Last trip to Sao Paolo only Corinthians was playing, so I got to see Ronaldo play at the Pacaembu. Pretty awesome stadium; come to think of it I'm not sure I ever put up pictures.

My tentative dates for travel this time leave me with two home games for Sao Paolo Football Club, meaning I should be in good shape to see at least one game at the Morumbi. Of course, Corinthians is currently top of the table, so I may have to shift dates around to see if I can go watch Corinthians again, who also have signed 37 year old Roberto Carlos.

lol MBAaments

2010-07-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

In 2003, I graduated from Rice. Every business school admissions cycle since, I have considered applying to MBA programs. I even wrote the essays a few times, but I never sent an application in. No regrets; I wasn't ready nor certain enough at the time to make a $100k+ investment.

But I'm certain that I'm applying this year and that means I have to start selecting my application list. At about $300 per application (fee + sending GMAT score fee) plus the considerable time investment, it's a choice that requires careful thought. The funny thing though is how in flux this list is. If you asked me a week ago, you'd get a completely different list, and a month ago, another one entirely.

Nearly 100% that I apply: Wharton, Texas, MIT Sloan, Yale. Wharton is known as the finance MBA, but I'm also going to have a foreigner wife and a newborn so being close to my family in Philadelphia is a pretty key reason to choose Wharton. Sloan is entrepreneurial and quantitative, plus carries MIT along with it, which has tons of nerd cachet. Yale is historically not a great MBA program but has recently risen dramatically in the rankings and shown a commitment to improving its program. As a value investor, it looks like a bargain: exactly the sort of school which will be higher ranked in the future than it is now. Texas is my safe school: as an in-state resident, if I don't get into Texas or the other 7 or so schools where I am likely to apply, I have to consider whether I should be paying $100k to get an MBA. But Texas has some factors that make it an extremely attractive safe school: in Texas, weather, Austin, 1/2 the price of other MBAs, local recruiting, etc. It's definitely plausible that I get into bigger name schools yet go to UT. On the other hand, my interactions with the McCombs admissions folks have definitely left me...less than palpably excited about McCombs.

Very good chance: Stanford, Chicago, Kellogg. Stanford is something of a dream school, but it's also the most expensive application fee which I find annoying even though it makes sense as they are by far the most difficult MBA to get into. I like the way they structure their essays though: classy and intelligent. Chicago is known as a finance school, which I dig, but I'm still a bit hurt that they rejected me for law school 7 years ago, although I'm glad they did. Probably not rational, but I think it's important to fight to be rational only where it truly matters. I don't really like their "make a powerpoint presentation about yourself" essay question either. It strikes me as slightly inane. Northwestern is obviously also a great school, but I'm not so sure how well I'd handle the cold of Chicago.

In flux: Harvard, Duke, Dartmouth, NYU/Columbia. At many points, I would have had Harvard on my definite list, but for whatever reason it's currently here. Dartmouth is a fantastic school, but cold, kinda middle of nowhere, and not in a city. Lack of a brand name like Harvard* doesn't help if I need to get a job in Argentina because the wife wants to come home. Duke has a good name, good weather, high quality of life, but I'm not sure I envision a scenario where I go there over Texas. NYU/Columbia are on the list simply because I'm not sure I want to be in NYC with a newborn.

* When I went to the Stanford MBA presentation a year or two ago, I was pretty amused by the Stanford folks having to give more of a hard sell than they seemed to be used to. The highest caliber Argentine applicants want to go to Harvard, because it's better known than Stanford here.

24 hours later: Columbia has jumped to the "nearly 100% that I apply" list. Funny how that works.

Further update: List has changed, also I forgot to put Acton MBA on this list.

Ah, Brazil, all you so you can have your feelings of revenge

2010-07-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

According to the Brazilian consulate in Buenos Aires, in order to get a tourist visa, one must make an appointment by phone. Of course, if you call the number provided, you'll find that it's out of service.

That sounds like a Jennifer Noronha-designed system to me: as citizen-unfriendly as possible!

On dealing with the federal bureaucracy known as Jennifer Noronha

2010-07-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

Since the US Embassy of Buenos Aires rejected my wife for a tourist visa, I've had a wonderful education in just how immovable the federal bureaucracy is.

I've filed a complaint with my congressman, John Culberson out of Houston. His staff forwarded my complaint, and we received back a response filled with spin and falseties from Jennifer Noronha, the consul general of the US Embassy to Argentina in Buenos Aires. I had Culberson's staff complain again, pointing out the inconsistencies in Jennifer W. Noronha's response. Ms. Noronha sent us back the bureaucractic equivalent of a middle-finger.

So, I complained to my Senator. Same thing, except this time Jen Noronha decided to simply forward to the Senator's office the original response, but with names changed. She continues to help the interviewing consular officer coverup the fact that the original officer didn't know the law.

Now, the day after we were treated so horribly by the US Embassy, we found out that Ceci is pregnant, so we wouldn't have been visiting the US anyway (our plans were that we would have been there right now).

Even so, Jennifer Noronha refuses to reply to any of my polite emails. She refuses to take her job seriously as consul general of the US Embassy. She even refuses to reply to any specific details I've raised in my complaints. I'm very tempted to tell our story and Consular General Noronha's role in it and then make it the first result in Google for "Jennifer Noronha" and all variations.

It doesn't seem right that federal bureaucrats can act with such mendacious impunity and no one ever knows about it.

Edit to note: amusingly, this is already the #1 result for Jennifer Noronha, and it's not even the result of work that I could do to make sure that it stays the #1 result for the next 20 years.
Edit 2: probably depends on your data center, as this post is now 11th or so when I just searched it.

A reading sofa

2010-07-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

You know what I've wanted all my life? A sofa where I could lie down, face-down, and read. That is, it would have a slot open for the eyes, and it wouldn't be too high off the ground from the book. It'd also need to be convenient to turn the pages. And obviously, face-area comfort is a must.

I've wanted one of these since I was 6 or so. Apparently I'm the only one in the world who wants one.

Vilma Martinez should improve the US embassy

2010-06-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

My good friend Arjan had offered for awhile to let us use his frequent flyer miles, and Ceci wanted to see where I grew up, so we decided to visit the US.

I did some research online and it wasn't obvious what visa my Argentina wife should apply for. On Ceci's urging, I called the US embassy. I spoke with a few people and was told to apply for a tourist visa. I was very skeptical, but they were insistent. The last woman I talked to in particular told me she was 100% sure I should apply for a tourist visa.

So Ceci and I paid the $140 put all her papers together. We had evidence that we've bought a new car that we cannot legally sell. We had a copy of the 2 year lease on our house. We had pictures from our wedding 6 months ago. We had all the paperwork showing she has had the same job for the last 8 years. Etc etc.

After waiting in line in the cold for hours, we got to talk to the consular officer (facing the windows, she all the way to the left, I believe it was lane 5, on June 7th at about 11:30). I went to the window with Ceci. The consular officer asked where Ceci wanted to visit. Ceci said "Delaware," since my parents live there. The consular officer didn't understand her, so I said "Delaware. My parents live there." The consular woman said, "You're an American? Go wait over there!" I left, and sat down. 10 seconds later, the woman told Ceci to get me.

Although for brevity's sake I won't transcribe everything she said, the consular officer was quite rude. It is possible to reject someone yet make them feel like it's an unfortunate consequence. This woman made us mad at how she treated us. I can't believe she represents the US in a professional capacity to foreigners behaving so rudely.

The rude consular officer told me that the law says that spouses of American citizens cannot ever get visas. My understanding is that this is the common interpretation of the law, but not the actual law. The consular officer rejected us in about 30 seconds before ever giving us a chance to show her any documents.

So what makes me really mad about all this?

* My wife cannot visit the US. That means I can't visit the US because I'm not going without her.

* The marriage penalty. My wife has less rights by marrying me than she would if she were only dating me. By marrying me, she loses rights with regards to America? That's messed up.

* Not only was I given false information by the US Embassy, I was given false information by an Embassy employee who insisted that she was 100% sure that Ceci should apply for a tourist visa after hearing my story. If she had just given me false information that would be one thing. But the employee insisted in the face of my skepticism...it's not like it is her job to advise people. Oh wait.

* That false information led to me losing $140 plus about 10 hours of my time (some of it standing in the cold. I hate the cold!) and about 10 hours of Ceci's. The low limit on how I value my time would be about $60 an hour.

* My wife and I were treated quite rudely by the consular officer. My wife in particular was very upset by how rudely she was treated.

The US Ambassador to Argentina is Vilma Martinez. Ambassador Martinez, the American embassy in Buenos Aires...is a disaster.

2010-05-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I walk by the tv and think, "darnit! who left the Spanish channel on?"

Being in another language sucks because...

2010-05-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

I make a joke about Big Brother, and I'm not sure whether I should translate it into older brother or larger-sized brother.

ps. Larger-sized brother.

Do you think the wife and I drink much mate?

2010-04-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

That's not even our peak. A few weeks ago we probably had two or three more bags.

2 year anniversary

2010-04-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

A few days ago was my 2 year anniversary of arriving in Buenos Aires. Crazy.

3:10 to Yuma review

2010-04-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

The wife and I watched 3:10 to Yuma tonight. Rarely does a movie build me up as much and then leave me feeling so unsatisfied. Despite being a bit over 2 hours, the movie flashed by quickly. It starts a little slow but after that it does a good job hitting you with suspense every few minutes. It doesn't overdo it, there's just enough action.

With all that said, you'd think I would agree with the very high 88% rating that the film received on Rotten Tomatoes. But...I don't. If you pushed me into making a binary decision, I guess I'd give it a thumbsup, I guess...but just barely. The story was just too surreal. This is a movie about real life! It turns on the moral dimension of one of the main characters...you have to give me something, anything to make me believe! I want to believe! But I couldn't. I didn't feel it when the scene happened, I just sat there saying, "that's so Hollywood." And analyzing the movie later, I see where the filmmakers tried to stick things in to make us believe it was possible. But not only did I viscerally reject it, intellectually I still think they didn't make their case.

I did spend a few minutes wondering if that was Gretchen Mol in the movie, and finally decided that if the actress wasn't Gretchen Mol 10 years after Rounders, it looked exactly like she would look.

How I Spent My Afternoon

2010-04-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

Our house is extremely well-shaded. This is great in summer, but not so great in winter. Our house is cool year-round, which means that as we head into autumn it gets cold inside. So I wrapped myself in a blanket and headed to the sun.

And of course, you can tell why I came inside. Even wrapped in a blanket, it was kinda chilly once the shade crept up upon me. Even the mate stopped keeping me warm enough.

It was a fabulous afternoon; very peaceful. Reading about MBS/CDO/CDS for the CFA could not have happened in a better environment. Most of it isn't new to me, from reading stuff in the news over the past year, but it's still interesting. While reading, it re-occurred to me that most of the pundits' opinions that I read about the SEC's Goldman Sachs case is pretty puerile.

A couple other notes:

* It's amazing how many bugs there are. Within 5 minutes I had mosquitos, flies, locusts, spiders etc. It seemed to go away after a bit, but maybe I just got used to it.

* Not many people pass by, but since I am hidden inside my hedges it's hard not to overhear conversations. I heard a mother yelling at her kid as they walked down my street and an older married couple discussing their kid rather frankly.

* I was pretty immersed in my reading, but at one point I looked up and there was a cat about 10 yard from me in full-on hunting mode. Since there was nothing else around, he was clearly stalking me. It was mildly unnerving.

Writing up thoughts on an entrepreneurial failure

2010-04-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Applying for the VC analyst job has been bringing back memories of my own little startup: FSBOAustinTX.com. USV's operating thesis is that the internet is a paradigm changer in every facet of life. I agree. Take real estate, for example: as Americans -- and then the world -- fully migrate to the internet, real estate agents will probably become an endangered species. That was my epiphany in 2004 while doing real estate school online. So I decided to try and make it happen.

My landlord in Austin was from Madison, WI, and he suggested that we start an Austin version of fsbomadison.com. And so was born FSBOAustinTX.com. fsboMadison is a site that had started to sell the owner's house for sale by owner (FSBO) and then just kept growing organically because it had traffic, cost $200 and could save buyers and sellers thousands. It made six figures on Madison alone with a website that even its developer was ashamed of (he couldn't convince the owners to upgrade). The owners liked the idea of people using their idea, and we figured Austin was as similar to Madison as possible: state capitol, university town, crunchy liberals, high internet usage, etc. Downside was that some nationwide fsbo sites had started and there was already an attempt at a local FSBO site.

After we did a little bit of research, we weren't too concerned about the competition. The nationwide sites were non-starters who had no local presence and would never get the search engine traffic. The local site was non impressive.

We knew we'd have a problem with unrealistic prices. For reasons I do not understand, most FSBO "sellers" set the price way above market value. Here's an example of madeup but realistic numbers: the Smiths have a $200,000 house, which they try to sell FSBO at $220,000. After a couple months where it doesn't sell (duh!), they put it on the market for $205,000, and it eventually sells for $200,000. The owner and seller in this case each pay $6000 (3%) to real estate agents, making the effective house price 206,000, but the seller receives only 194,000. So they tried to sell FSBO at $26k more than they would actually take, when they might have been able to sell the house for $205k, made 11k more while the buyer would have paid $1k less. Argh...so irrational!

That is the background, here is my quick list of successes and failures.

Successes:

- Search engine rankings in competitive keywords. I taught myself search engine optimization and got the site into the first page of 'austin real estate' within 6 months, while ranking 1st in the niche keyword terms in the meantime. The frustrating part of this is that my business partner did not value this at all. I, on the other hand, view search engine rankings as absolutely vital for a business like this.

- The signs. One of the big reasons people still pay money to real estate agents is a recognizable sign. We made big, recognizable awesome signs and put them in yards. Getting brand recognition through your signs is almost as important as being able to get good search engine traffic.

-Launching. Hey, we dealt with our developer and got the sucker built. We pulled off some press (if I recall correctly), and at one point had a pretty full site in terms of listings. If it worked, it was very scaleable and we kept costs very low.

- A real estate agent tried to get us shut down for violating the law. He lost. My research kept us on 100% safe legal ground.

Failures:

- Not waiting enough time. In truth, this happened largely for personal reasons, because I broke up with the girl I was dating and wanted to get out of Austin. However, the next two reasons are why I didn't it wasn't just the girl...

- Team. Who you work with really matters. Executing poorly will ruin even the best strategy. As indicated above, my biz partner and I just didn't agree on some things that I never would have foreseen. Some of this was a fault of planning, certainly. But the team has to really be in synch in order to make it worth it.

- Never solved the overpricing problem. I still haven't really: I think the answer is just to establish the brand name, let the signs establish themselves, get some press and eventually let word of mouth take over. It is tough though, because in the beginning if homebuyers come to the site and see overpriced (and thus eventually stale) listings, they won't return. This is why it is so important to be hyper-local, with someone managing the signs and making sure the listings don't become stale in the local metro area.

- We were overanxious. To get listings on the site, we found existing FSBO sellers and let them list for free. But we still kept the list price of $200 on the site. That was a big mistake: we should have gambled on getting more users and more listings by offering it for free. Now, we got some advice from folks doing similar sites that this was the way to go, but I think we should have established the site as a big community resource and then started charging. After all, if we could have proved the site worked in getting a house in front of prospective buyers, $200 would be totally reasonable.

--------------------------------

Today FSBOAustinTX.com has zero listings. The site isn't even as good as when I was doing it, and it is 5 or 6 years later. If I go to Texas for an MBA (my planned safe school), I might try and buy the site and give it another go.

Would I ever do this idea again? As I indicated above, yes. I still think the basic idea has merit. While in some ways Craigslist fills this niche, it isn't local enough. I still think that someone could do this nationwide, but with hyper-local sites in each market. And in fact, I think that eventually something like this will happen, but it might be a long time.

It was fun trying to launch and build something. I'll probably do it again in my life, although temperamentally I am probably more built to be a venture capitalist: I would much prefer to take small company risks in a bunch of different companies (although the Dot Com bubble burst shows that there is always systemic risk) than take one big massive company risk that is a startup.

Applying for a VC analyst job

2010-04-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

So I applied to for the analyst role at Union Square Ventures, an NYC venture fund made famous by A VC. It's been three days since they posted it, and already over 400 applications have come in for the two jobs combined. It's so crazy because 4 years ago when they did this only 30 people or so applied. If anything highlights how much the web has changed in those 4 years, this would be one of them. I'm assuming that most are not serious applications, but I'm still kicking myself for not applying when I read the post 4 years ago -- I just didn't want to go to New York. Now, moving to Manhattan for a couple of years sounds fun.

Even though it was like throwing a Hail Mary, I think it was a rewarding process. It forced me to think about what they want, what I want, where I'm going. I spent hours thinking about my application, which I think I'll be able to recycle into my business school applications assuming I don't get the job. Still I'm not going to give up hope yet, as I think I would be a good fit. They want someone who can do the due diligence, research and financial analysis required, but also someone who gets their investment theses and can provoke good discussions and add value to the decision making process.

I think my letter made a pretty good case that I can do that. Assuming that they read it, because they will probably filter a good percent of applicants based on the initial screen they get from LinkedIn (USV asked for LinkedIn profile and cover letter showing your web presence) that just shows your education and work experience. I guess we'll see how respected Rice is in the Northeast! Hmm, maybe I should be worried...

Might have to start on my (oft-discussed, much-neglected) novel again

2010-04-14T23:52:00.001-07:00

I ended up reading Crichton's _Disclosure_ in about a 4 hour period and it almost makes me want to devote my life to being a novelist. Why? Because I'm shocked by how many discussions that book sparked. So many conversations and scenarios come nearly word-for-word from that book. Discussions from the teenage roundtable I did for the News Journal back in the day to Criminal Law in law school. As a novel, it was incredibly influential on pop culture. Reading it made me feel like I was surrounded by these sexual harassment discussions all over again.

The book is no literature masterpiece. But it consistently trickled down time-and-time again into pop culture discussions. Now that's impact.

Reading Disclosure

2010-04-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Reading Michael Crichton's Disclosure today and enjoying it so far. I never got around to reading this or seeing the movie. After I read it, I think I'll get the movie to show the wife.

It will be a good discussion point for political correctness in the US. So I can cross something off the cultural disconnect list. I sometimes want to tell a story and then realize that I can't tell the story because there is too much cultural backstory that I have to explain.

Today's afternoon jog

2010-04-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

Took the camera out with me for a jog today. It was a pretty day.

The area around me is a military complex. Now, I've already heard a story or two about foreigners who went to jail for taking pictures of the military during the dictatorship. But that's not gonna stop me! There were a ton of soldiers out today doing strategical/tactical exercises. I put my shoe up on the wall, tied my shoe, and snapped a picture from the camera next to the shoe.

This picture was not supposed to be up in the air, but I put it in here anyway.

I liked the statue.

The wife saw these photos and said, "you can't put these photos up with the trash there!" I explained to her that the reason I took the camera along for a jog was to take a picture of the burned out cars that seemed like they'd been here for years. She explained to me that these were stolen cars that get taken to chop shops, stripped of their parts, and then the thieves take the car to the side of the road and burn them. It didn't matter anyway, because they had taken all the cars away.

Something about this says "Houston" to me everytime I see it. Although this isn't a good example, there are lots of very interesting houses in my neighborhood. There's about 200 I think I'd like to take pictures of.

It was a pretty day.

The Rotary Club is everywhere.

You can't really see that there's an airforce base out in the distance.

I am currently listening to Michael Lewis' "The Big Short"

It's always been true

2010-04-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

I tend to mimick the language of the people who I am around. It's been true all my life.

So now, because I speak Spanish to my wife all day, I mimick her Spanish. She has a much larger outside influence AND an incredibly vaster vocabulary, so her discretionary use of phrases changes more frequently than mine does, and thus affects mine greatly. It's a very weird feeling to be dependent on someone for all your language.

Pero bueno, anda a freir churro.

River se va la B?

2010-04-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

In Argentina, soccer teams are relegated based on the average of the last 3 years, which is six seasons. Of the 20 teams in the first division, two are relegated to the second division. 17th and 18th place play 'la promoción' against the 4th and 3rd teams from the second division. Those playoffs are a two game home and home series on aggregate goals. If there is a tie, then the team that was in the first division stays in the first division.

River is in danger of being relegated in May 2011. Here is the listing:

Clausura 2010 12 points in 13 games (17.5)
Apertura 2009 21 points
Clausura 2009 27 points
Apertura 2008 14 points
-----------------------------
Clausura 2008 43 points
Apertura 2007 23 points

In 108 games, they have 140 points. That comes out to an average 1.296 points per game. That means they are safe from relegation at the end of this season (through a historical quirk, the closing of the season is in May). That leaves them tied with Huracan for 14th, which is pretty safe. Even if they get zero points for the rest of the year (if they continue at their current pace, they will get 17.5 points), that means they would still be at 1.22 this year which would avoid even the relegation playoffs unless all the bottom clubs suddenly win a bunch of games.

However, in May 2011 they lose the points from Clausura 2008 (when they were champions) and Apertura 2007. Excluding those points right now means that River has 74 points in 70 games, or 1.057 points per game. Right now, that puts them in 18th place, but just barely above Chacarita and Atletico Tucuman, who will be relegated. So, in other words, if River continues at the pace of the last two years over the next two years, they will almost definitely be relegated.

That's crazy. The funny thing is that while your average Boca fan would love it, you have to wonder if Boca management feels the same way: the Superclasico is big business.

I never did put up pictures

2010-04-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

I realized I never put up pictures of where I live now.

Where I'm sitting now, mate in hand. It's a beautiful autumn day outside.

Notice the self-referential nature of this picture?

Not sure why I decided two pictures was necessary.

Kitchen. I think my mother in law made the curtains the color of River on purpose. At least there's no diagonal slash across them. Actually, yesterday she was making fun of me and telling me that she thought about making them that way to see how I would react.

Where I was sitting up until about 5 minutes ago watching Barcelona play. That Leo Messi is something, isn't he? Hold your breath every time he starts dribbling.

I liked this photo because of the refracted reflection in the window. This is out our front window to the street...pretty much blocked off by green.

We have a pretty odd shaped yard. And yeah, the lawn is something less than manicured. I cut the lawn with a weedwacker (thanks Dad!). That's pretty common here, since big lawns are definitely not the norm.

The bush off in the left of the photo above.

Standing at the bush looking back at the house. I purpose put the flower in the frame. We'll call that my moment of artistry, since all the rest of these pictures were point and shoot.

Standing in the middle of the yard looking towards the garage.

Photos from El Superclasico, Boca v. River

2010-03-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

10 days ago Sunday was the annual Superclasico -- Boca Juniors vs. ~~las gallinas~~ River Plate -- in La Bombonera, Boca's stadium.

Some lists have just seeing any home game at La Bombonera as one of the sporting events you have to experience before you die. Or, in others, seeing Boca River at La Bombanera is simply #1 on the list. Boca River happens once a year in Boca's stadium, once in River's stadium. Although I haven't been to the Superclassico in River's stadium, after 2 games at River Plate's stadium I can tell you that any experience in the Bombanera is probably more intense than in River's stadium.

We woke up to sun shining in our window. As we left for church, it started to rain. But it didn't look threatening. I left church early and headed onto the train. And it stayed grey. Not a good sign.

The view where I normally go underneath la Doce (the 12), which is the crazy fans/hooligans. We are a little more laidback where I am. This is a few of La Bombonera 2 hours before gametime. I wanted to make sure I got a decent place to stand. As you can see, they were starting to put up the banners. Notice that there are already plenty of people there, and luckily for me, I arrived just in time to get a sheltered spot -- because as you can notice in the top of the photo, there is concrete above me.

This is 2 hours or an hour and a half before game time, I don't remember. The top deck away is always the visiting section of the stands. Yeah, there were already alot of River fans there.

Notice that you can see the line of the 18 yard box on the field.

Not really sure what happened here.

30 minutes before the game. Do you see lines on the field?

So, eventually started after 2 hours of standing, waiting for the game to start. It was a pretty miserable 2 hours, I'm not going to lie. Everyone was packed in the covered area and with people smoking and sweating it was pretty miserable. I felt like I was suffocating.

In the end, I traveled about 4 hours for this game, waited 2 hours standing, and then after 9 minutes they cancelled the game because the field was so wet it was simply unplayable. Of those 9 minutes, I couldn't see a thing for 5 of them because the doce above had covered us with a flag. When the game started and we couldn't see, I thought there might be a riot.

When I left the game, the police wouldn't let me get on the train because they thought (incorrectly) that the hooligans were right behind me. I had only brought my Boca jersey, and they didn't want me to get on the train. I'm pretty sure I could have actually gotten on the train, but while they were arguing with me that the hooligans would arrive in 10 minutes, the train that was going to leave in 2 minutes...left. Gee, thanks.

I left the train station and took the subway to a different train. It probably only cost me 20 minutes extra or so.

The game was rescheduled for Thursday at 3:45. I figured that I could safely arrive much later and still be able to get in since lots of people would be working. I didn't necessarily intend to arrive at 3:42 like I did, but whatever. I got into the stadium, pushed my way into the crowd, and voila. Here I am. Same section, but on the other side of the goal. You'll notice that my vision isn't that good yet, as I have yet to really start pushing my way into a good line of vision.

Diego Maradona didn't go to the game on Sunday, but he showed up on Thursday for the replay, which is the first time he had dared to do so in over a year. Having induced Riquelme to quit, Boca fans had -- shock! -- sided with Riquelme over Maradona. And so it was again, because whenever people tried to start the Diego Maradona song, the crowd drowned it out with "RIQUELME! RIQUELME! RIQUELME!" I obviously was one of the Riquelme screamers.

This picture really doesn't do justice to how much stuff we throw when the team comes out against River. Also, the picture doesn't seem to capture how much it was glittering in the sun. It was a gorgeous day for football. I wish I'd seen Carlos Tevez play here, but at least I get to see Riquelme.

The two above must've been halftime, at which point it was 1-0. The goal happened when Juan Roman Riquelme took a free kick from just outside the box in this photo, near the corner of the box. He passed it around the wall to Gary Medel, who slid in front of the keeper to toepoke it in. Great vision from Riquelme.

If you look in the top right you'll see that there are empty seats. That's mandatory, to prevent riots between the visiting fans and the home fans. If you click on the picture and get it in full form, you'll see that there are policemen lining that wall.

We ended up winning 2-0, on another goal by Medel. Pretty sweet finish, you could totally see the sweet curve he put on his shot. My voice was pretty much shot from screaming/singing/whatever the whole time and my legs were tired from all the jumping. Awesome.

I took the photo above because it shows that the police (in fullon riot gear, I imagine) were pushing the River fans to leave. Although they wouldn't let us leave for 15 minutes or so, this picture is from right before the police finally let us leave.

The River fans kept on singing after the game was over, of course. When they didn't, we sang "and now, a moment of silence for the dead hens." (gallina, their nickname) And a stadium of almost 70,000 people was silent for 15 seconds, after 3 hours of crazy shouting. Pretty intense.

The joys of living outside the US

2010-03-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

I'm drinking a Coke with sugar right now. Much better tasting, much less bad for you.

Vamos los xeneizes a ganar!

2010-03-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

This image is appearing in flyers around Buenos Aires today.

We beat River yesterday in el Superclasico. Loosely translated, the flyer means "Without winning in the Superclasico, you aren't going to remain. In the 2nd division, the club Boca Unidos waits for you."

River probably really isn't going to be relegated, but we're going to make fun of them for it either way.

A story

2010-03-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting to post this story because I wanted to get a picture of the scene off the wife's cell phone. But I still haven't done it, so I'll just post it.

About two months ago, our power went off. After a couple hours, we went off to the in-laws house. When we returned, the telephone poll outside our house formed a 90 degree angle, instead of the normal 180. Yes, someone had obviously crashed into our telephone poll.

I'm probably significantly less paranoid about safety than your average American, but telephone wires are not an area where I like to take risks. We went in the house, got our things, and returned to the in-laws house. At the in-laws house, the wife and I have a mild tiff over whether to call 911. Finally I prevailed.

She called 911. After 10 minutes of waiting for someone to answer her call, she gave up. We woke up the next morning and went back to our house. It was kinda windy, and the telephone poll was only still upright with some support from the wires themselves.

So she called 911 when we got home at about 10am. A few hours later, she went outside and found out from neighbors that a dumptruck had hit the telephone post and then ran off. Still no sign of anyone. She says that the neighbors had also called it in.

2pm. A guy who works for the power company knocks on our door, a litle frantic. "I just happened to be driving by your house...did you know there's a telephone poll that's about to fall? That's extremely dangerous!"
2:10 I learn that the wife called the city, not 911. All the neighbors also called the city. I am incredulous.
2:15 Power company employee has put danger signs up, blocking the street off from access. He tells us that we have to call in the emergency. Employees are not allowed. Seriously? Ok. We call the power company and explain what happened.

No one shows up that day.

The next morning, we wake up and find out that some of our neighbors have unblocked the street and taken down the warning signs. That's right, a telephone poll with electricity wires about to fall just doesn't seem that dangerous to them.

The wife calls again, trying to make the power company understand that this is really an emergency. At about 3pm, they finally come fix it. By some miracle, the thing never fell.

All of this just left me dumbfounded. No one thought it live electric wires falling imminently to be something worth calling 911 for.

11 v 100

2010-03-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

Via Rudy, I found this video of a Japanese soccer team against 100 kids (13ish?) from various select teams.

Seems to me like there were some large strategic faults here on both sides.

Been awhile

2010-03-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

It's been about a year since I wrote here with any frequency. About a year ago I started dating my wife, and I guess I stopped having things to write about. The low hanging fruit of posts on cultural differences got picked, and it just became less important. Plus a few months ago I picked up one of my other online presences again, which consumes an embarrassing amount of my time for little gain.

These days I live in the suburbs. Of the approximately thirteen million people that are usually counted as being in Buenos Aires, about 10 of them are in the suburbs. So it's perhaps a more typical existence, but also at times a more frustrating one.

It takes me about an hour's journey to go to Sudestada now, which is frustrating. Meeting foreigners there for lunch is still one of the relatively few social opportunities that my new life has. I'm not sure I was really cognizant that moving would be such a change. And it's not a bad change, though the preceeding paragraph sounds like it. Just a change that is still happening. In the meantime, I'm studying for CFA level 2 which is in early June, a few days before the World Cup starts. I plan to pretty much watch every World Cup match, as I did last time. Then CAIA level 2 in Sept, which will mean another trip to Brazil.

And in other news, I'm reading Game Change. Not much reason to write more now.

I'm glad I have dollars

2010-01-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

The wife and I were in line at the grocery store last night and there was a family of four in front of us. They had a pretty full cart, so I was waiting to see how much it would cost.

$671 pesos. Man. I can't imagine paying $671 dollars for a trip to the grocery store. It's not like we went to Whole Foods or anything, just a regular grocery store.

Thoughts on 2010 so far

2010-01-04T14:38:00.003-08:00

I am apparently trying to set the record for most yerba (mate) purchased by a foreigner in one year.

Bonarense

2009-11-27T13:54:00.001-08:00

I'm officially now a Bonarense* now and not a Porteno. The distinction is whether one lives in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires or in the province of Buenos Aires that surrounds the city proper.

*I think I spelled that wrong.

2009-11-27T13:52:00.001-08:00

Learning a language is an interesting experience because you learn how many things don't make any sense in your own language. For example, today I have been trying to describe power strips in Spanish. Power strip is a decent description of a device that offers multiple electrical outlets, but truthfully it doesn't make much sense literally. And frankly, while I assume there's a few other words in English for it, I can't think of them right now.

Ironies Abound

2009-11-12T23:39:00.000-08:00

When I wander around the city on public transportation, I frequently bring my ipod shuffle on me, loaded with various podcasts, Ride songs, and maybe a Shakira album or two.

Sometimes I leave the earbuds in, but usually I take them out if I talk to people, even for the simplest interactions.

The other day I didn't take my earbuds out, though I had turned off the sound. I walked up to the ticket counter, said where I was going for the train and the cranky lady asked if I had 10 cents. No, I don't have any coins, I replied. She asked me again, I shook my head no. Then, visibly annoyed, she said "HELLO! DO YOU HAVE 10 CENTS?"

I was pretty amused, you cranky old bureaucrat you. I'm the one with the earbuds in, yet you are the one who lacks the auditory capability. I replied politely with a smile on my face 3 times and heard every word spoken, yet you utterly failed to pay me heed or notice that my facial expressions would have indicated that I had also responded. Also, cranky lady, I will continue to wait at the ticket counter until you remember to give me the ticket I've paid for...no matter how annoyed you are.

Argentina hates me and wants me to die

2009-10-22T02:11:00.001-07:00

They have cancelled Daylight Savings Time this year.

Christina and Nestor Kirchner, you may be two of the worst elected officials* in the history of the world and trying to ruin your country to enrich yourselves, but now it is personal with me.

There are nights when...

2009-10-10T23:25:00.001-07:00

There are nights when life just is perfect. Everything is exactly like you want it. You have made long-term plans, they have come to fruition; short-term things have worked out in your favor as well.

Tonight is that blissful night.

This tilts me

2009-09-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

I've never been to the McDonalds drive thru here until a day or two ago. They call it Auto Mac.

Where's the menu? It was basically about 6 photos of combo meals, and that's it.

Today, today

2009-08-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Went running with a friend today, took the ol' camera along. Took the subway over to his place on Las Heras, then we went running up to the Coast. Wandered around the little convention centerish type thing (hey, there's a driving range, sweet!), then started heading down the coast.

Here's a little link to the map of where we were. Find the coast below the airport, follow up.

I sometimes wonder if people get a distorted sense of what it is like to live here when I post pictures like this. This is running up the coast. I think this is actually some little drainage ditch into the river. At first I thought that was a sunken-ish piece of machinery. Then I noticed that it appears to be in some sort of pool, if you note the concrete barrier. The sign on the sucker said something about ecological cleanup or something. Not sure if you can read it.

FYI, there are actually alot of expensive restaurants and clubs up here. Why is it that the water enchants people so much...especially at night?

I took this picture because there was a plane taking off right next to the road. Right after this plane took off, a plane landed on the same runway. Yep...I'm flying Aerolineas Argentinas soon!

Looking back from a little point sticking out into the river. On the far right you can see downtown in the distance. To the left of downtown you can see a club -- I think it's a club, and I'm sure it's somewhat famous whatever it is exactly.

This is the right half of the park. I just rotated 90 degrees and snapped another pictures. Off to the left was some playground equipment, but looks like you can't see it.

We kept running up the coast. We passed Santa Tierra (Holy Land) which appeared to be some sort of Catholic amusement park. Or at least I assume it was Catholic. Here's Evan's rule of thumb: if there's a body on the cross, it ain't Protestant. I just did some research and apparently the rest is some sort of private sports/pool park. Somehow I didn't here of it last summer, I guess...? It's not like I've been here forever, but at this point I do feel like I know Capital Federal pretty well, especially the richer neighborhoods.

If you follow that map from before, the road curves around the park and has a few UBA campuses on the right. We keep following the road and it turns into this. Thanks for the sidewalk! We walked on the side of the road with onrushing traffic right next to us. We got a few glares, but surprisingly no honks...and Portenos looooove to honk.

La casa de las gallinas. The stadium of River Plate.

Boca's stadium = much better. Though I do have a certain fondness for River's jersey, I have to admit.

Visit to Colonia, Uruguay

2009-08-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I went to Colonia, Uruguay.

The restored/boat museum in Puerto Madero.

Puerto Madero in the morning.

You can't really see it, but the dock for Buquebus is off in the distance at one end of Puerto Madero. So I ran over there, filled out my paperwork, headed onto the boat and took a nap.

It's a nice boat. I didn't really notice at first when I stepped on it, then for a moment I thought I was in a fairly decent hotel. I was in first class, which as far as I can tell was basically the same as regular class. It was the same price given the rather cheap promotion that I used.

I then proceeded to sleep for the next 3 hours. When I woke, we were there.

I think I uploaded the pictures (took forever, I hate blogger) the same day, wrote all text above the next day, and now, 8/18 when I should be asleep, I am writing the rest.

I arrived in Colonia. A Dutch girl who I didn't think spoke Spanish very well...at all...got off right before me and was taking the same tour I was. She chose to take the tour in Spanish, not English. Oh pride that has not been conquered, of course I will take the tour in Spanish. Of course, I managed to fail to understand the Spanish instructions and almost missed that bus...nearly venturing out into the city on my own.

Did I regret taking the tour in Spanish? Yes. The speakers on the bus were horrible and I couldn't really hear the guide. When we got off the bus, I went and asked Dutch girl what she said, and apparently we had an hour lunch break. I wandered down to the water and saw this map. Notice that everything is in both Spanish and English. Hegemony has its virtues as well as its vicissitudes.

I had been told to rent a gokart/moto and take it around the city. Hmm...didn't do it, will do it next time probably, but I did find it annoying how they didn't post a price. If they had post a price -- any price -- I'd have paid it, but I am stubborn and find distasteful the notion that someone will charge me more.

Yeah, I try to be rational, apparently I do not follow the economic model perfectly.

A little past the sign, took a picture. Wandered back up the street, found the big plaza of the city, sat down and watched people pass by. Was very disappointed that not! every! Uruguayan! had! a! mate! thermos! under! their! arm! (that's a porteno stereotype)

We got on the bus, wandered up through town, wandered over towards the rest of the city. No pictures, as I take pictures rather haphazardly and had to pay close attention to pick up anything over the speakers.

There apparently was a former resort area of some sort in the early 20th century (Americans should remember that back then (pre Peron socialism) Buenos Aires was on par with the US on GDP per capita) that had a racetrack, a casino, and...a bullfighting ring. This bullfighting ring was built in 1910, held 10k people and...the Uruguayan government banned bullfighting in 1912 after a very massive enormous 8 fights. I am sure that the Porteno investors (I looked this up) were very pleased. (very far afield Evan sidenote: political risk is almost always the Black Swan when investing, be duly warned...have I noted that a large percent of my investments are concentrated in a specific sector which is massively suffering because of the current President's pandering? A government that can give you what you want can take it away? yeah, moving on). Anyway, I don't know why the rest of the resort area is in ruins, but the bullfighting ring hasn't been used since then and is falling apart. Check the link for some pics. Despite the fact that it is obviously crumbling and the fact that there were many posted signs warning of danger, there were 10 guys inside the ring playing soccer with backpacks as goals.

Anyway, the point of of this photo is this picture is ostensibly of the islands off the coast of Colonia. But I think if you look closer, you may be able to see the large buildings of Buenos Aires to the right of the islands.

Next was the walking city tour. It was interesting, and I understood most of it. This is the city gate and wall. Why such a massive wall? Because the city of Colonia changed hands 7 times between the Spanish and Portuguese. And a few times after that, of course. Oh, and I do not like mimes.

This is taken from the vantage point of the right side of the picture above. The wall persists, with the cannons and such.

Same vantage point, more to the left.

Same vantage point, from the wall, but to the right instead of the left. Lighthouse. Note that for a winter day, it was beautiful and almost 70. We had a warm week. This is the the sort of winted I chose Buenos Aires for.

How much did I understand of the tour? Well I struggle with Spanish years, there's like a million words just to say the year and they say them so fast because they are used to it and I'm not, but I took the photo of these houses to point out the Spanish (to the right) and Portuguese (to the left) arquitecture. I apparently understood enough to know that she explained that the reason that the Portuguese house's roof tiles are uneven: the slaves formed the tiles by forming them to their thighs.

I was standing on the deck of the Buquebus, about 4 floors high and took this picture...that point to the left is where most of the pictures I took are from. In fact, I just realized that I think you can see the lighthouse from earlier.

A very enjoyable trip. It cost me about $45 total. I wish I had taken a picture going right from where I was standing when I took the picture above. There was a sunken ship that had clearly been there for 10 years or so, at least. This seems to be not terribly uncommon here, if you remember my Tigre pictures...no wait, I never posted those. Nevermind.

However, what amazes me is this: the boat was full of recent graffiti. On first look, schmeh, graffiti on an abandoned structure. When I arrived to Colonia, this didn't impress me. On leaving...I realized that someone took a little rowboat out to this boat and boarded it. Yes, they boarded a decades-old sunken ship with parts sticking out of the water, which seems like a very bright proposition to me: always smart to trust the structural stability of abandoned ships. And they did this in the middle of the night presumably...to spraypaint.

I'm going to Uruguay today

2009-08-12T02:18:00.000-07:00

I should be taking along the camera, so we'll time it to see how long it takes me to upload my pictures.

Over/under starts at...a week?

Economic downturns, you suck...

2009-08-10T01:23:00.000-07:00

...when you impact my life.

So apparently out of the 5 big Argentine clubs (Boca, River, San Lorenzo, Independiente, Estudiantes...actually, I think maybe that's Racing and not Estudiantes, but whatever), 4 are in debt. For this, the season does not begin this upcoming weekend.

Well, you guessed it, Boca is not debt. So I think they should just declare us champions. Dale dale Boca. all the same, it is frustrating: the tv stations and the soccer clubs are negotiating, because the soccer clubs want more money. As for now, the season is suspended and the government is about to intervene (color me an American, but this is not a sign of a healthy society...though I have to admit that our courts intervene...and they are a moderated form of our bifurcated society, so...)

And now I get to what was originally going to be the only part of my post: whenever I ask people here when the season begins, I get a sorta strange look for a second. I think that is because it is more normal here to use the word tournament than season. I just realized this now. Talking another language is sometimes frustrating.

also, i wanted to say in the post: new mutemath album. it's exciting; i'm still confused (which seems to be a frequent occurence for me with music these days).

hmm. I've started saying "for this" recently in English. I'm pretty sure I'm translating Spanish. Sigh, if I'm gonna think in Spanish when I talk English, I should really speak Spanish better.

I'm not rude, I'm Dutch!

2009-08-06T01:34:00.001-07:00

I guess fun articles like this are why I read international newspapers:

In his book, Native English for Dutch People, essential reading for the international business traveller, Ronald van de Krol stresses the need in English to use words such as 'thank you,' 'please' or 'sorry' approximately once per sentence. Anyone who doesn't simply isn't speaking good English, and what's more, is an unspeakable oaf. That's not something most people would aspire to, and yet that is exactly what many Dutch people - unconsciously - do.

Several people here have remarked similar things to me, like "che, all you Americans say please and thank you every other word." This is true, this is considered good manners in the US of Americaments. Not really so here. In fact, awhile ago I read an article that foreigners saying por favor (that'd be please) is frequently grating to Spanish-speaking ears because of the differences. [Note: if you don't speak Spanish, keep saying por favor. Don't worry about it.] And yes, they definitely do not say please and thank you in the same way we do.

I find this topic interesting. It is definitely relevant to English speakers in relationships with Spanish speakers. Despite what my spanish teachers told me, after a certain age people learn languages by translating their native languages.

Sooo...to English-speaking ears, Latinas can seem a little bossy. It is common to use the imperative form "Come here!" and not "Please come here, love?" (translated, obviously). And while you may know that, your brain knowledge may not always translate to heart knowledge.

Give your kids an interesting name

2009-08-04T02:56:00.001-07:00

As a fallback option, I've consistently used my name as a source of conversation in life.

The other day, I did it for the first time in Spanish. I'm very in favor of giving your kids sources of conversation. Never be normal.

I roll with the stars

2009-07-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here's my day in the life, for Thursday, 7/23/2009:

11am: Wake up. Oh, I hate mornings. They should really not exist at all.

Noon: Ceci picks me up. She recently bought a new car, this is sorta kinda the awesome. Awesome in that she drives me places, not awesome in that I have to give her directions in Capital in Spanish (obviously, this results in lots of jokes about who exactly is the foreigner).

12:30: We show up at Sudestada, the best lunch in Buenos Aires (and subject of enough posts here), where I am on a first name basis with many of the waitresses. Ceci does not like the panAsian food, she thinks it is "raro."

1:55: We're driving, and Ceci starts freaking out. Apparently it's an actor that is in every novela here. "He's really not as good looking in person." I am pretty sure I've seen this dude in Sudestada multiple times. Yeah, I didn't think he was that good looking.

2: We start circling in Centro (downtown), looking for parking. But wait, there is a random union strike (btw, if you think unions are overly powerful political in the US, you will probably not like Argentina).

2:40 Parking space. Ship it. Yes, note the timeline, welcome to my life. What was my dollar expectation during those 40 mins? I'd rather not think about it.

3: Is that the first government line here that didn't take an hour?

3:30 Last 30 minutes was a talk in the car with the girlfriend. She is great, and in the midst of a very very cold day, her car is warming up naturally from the direct sunlight. Good choice on the parking space.

4-7 Coffee shop in Belgrano. Girlfriend likes her caffeine.

7:15 Try to decide what to do next. Apparently that whole making decisions thing isn't my forte.

7:45 Arrive in Las Canitas mall. Buy tickets to see La Propuesta (The Proposal) with Sandra Bullock. Guess whose idea this was? Movie doesn't start til 8:30, walk around for awhile. I dance in the aisles.

8 Ceci is ready to leave me forever because I won't stop dancing. I swear, it's the fact that the shoes I have right now have zero traction, and these tiles are super slippery, so I just have to do the moonwalk.

8:05 Wow, he's really famous, i can't believe it! I'm still not clear as to who this guy was, but he was seated with 2 other people, 1 of which was also famous.

8:30 Moviements. I don't remember the protagonist's name, but I thought he acted well. Very forgettable, don't recommend it (Ceci gave it 2 stars out of 5). On the other hand, I don't regret it. Stupid premise, yet executed well. I got to sit next to a beautiful woman for more than an hour, I'm happy.

10:30 Leave theater. I go to bathroom.
10:31 Old man leaves urinals slightly before me. Dude literally takes 15 seconds of standing in front of the washbasins to decide which to use.

10:32 3 girls pass me. Yawn.

10:32:30 "Did you see those girls?," says Ceci excited. "Which?" say I. "The ones that came out of the bathroom before me?" "Uh...not really...I think there were 3 of them, that's about all i can remember." "The blond is one of the most famous models here..." "Really?"

It's no joke to say I would choose Ceci a million times before any of those models. That's the end of this post.

I've meant to be writing more here. Really.

2009-07-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

But everytime I have time at the computer, writing missives to the unknown electronic ethers isn't my first choice. So this is all you get for now:

The other day, Ceci says to me, "What, are all you Yankees Shakira fans?"

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.

Exploring the suburbs.

2009-01-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

Friday, Andres and I decided to go explore. We had some technical difficulties getting started, but eventually met at the train station. After calling a friend in Moron, I realized (read: he pointed out) that we weren't taking the Moron line...we were taking the San Martin line. Ok. After sprinting to the train station, I came up with just enough time to hop on the train. We hop on the train, start talking...and then we hit the last stop before we know it. It's more than halfway through the county of San Martin.

We got off at the Suarez stop in the San Martin partido (county). First impression is that everything was closed. We walked a little bit, and then I stuck my hand out onto the street randomly and took a picture. It was this one. Andres said, "It'd be so typical if someone drove by and snatched the camera out of your hand."

Looking the other way. Underneath that bridge is the traintracks, and to the left is where the station is.

We stopped and I read all the ads at the inmobiliaria (real estate office). House for 45k? Maybe I am in the real estate market. Then we turned down the street and walked to see the residential area.

I took the picture above because I found it fascinating. Think about my vantage point, think about the sign, and then think about the road. Get it? The sign is completely invisible to any driver on the road. Maybe there's something I'm missing here....

The streets have no name...but does the church have no name? Well, that's why I took the picture, but afterwards Andres pointed out that there is indeed a name right underneath the overhang. Church of the New Apostle. I lose.

So...we walk by this house. Guy is pulling out of the driveway. I want to take a picture of the shoe on the roof (see picture). He's looking as us suspiciously, and so we sorta have to move on. We're not sure if he came back around to check on us again, but he clearly thought we were going to rob him. I have heard that Houston organized crime was infiltrating Buenos Aires, with people pulling out digital cameras in the light of day to use to ransack houses in the suburbs...

We wander around a little more. I finally find nice shoes I like to replace the shoes that I've wearing since like 1996...but of course, they are closed for siesta. Claro, this is not Capital. We start heading back to the train station, while talking about genetics...and everything is closed. So I took this picture. Really, everyone is one vacation, even more so than in Capital. Of like 7 shops in a row here, only the one is open.

We wander over to the over side of the tracks. Definitely didn't seem as well off. I took this picture because I thought it was amusing that what didn't seem to be terribly nice, yet had directv. Now if only Directv would put the playoff games on Sunday ticket (and Thanksgiving#!$@#%#$%^@)

Apparently certain phrases are universal. This is underneath the far side of the bridge from the 2nd picture.

Got back on the bridge train and took it to San Andres. Got off the train, and I snapped this pic. Apparently Rotary has some involvement (left side of picture). I think I'm just a sucker for carousels, although I feel like I see a carousel on every other corner here sometimes.

We stopped and hung out in this park for a little bit. Then we wandered back in this neighborhood and it was definitely a nice neighborhood around San Martin. We got ice cream (it was pretty underwhelming for both of us) and then realized we were both really tired.

As we approached the train station, I felt like walking to the next station. "C'mon, it can't be that far," I said. So we walked, which was nice.

After walking for awhile, we hit something I assume was a railway workers club. We had to go around it. There was this railroad line of dead railroad cars. I was fascinated by the one in the middle, because it seemed higher up than the others, also I liked the graffiti on the railway cars on the right. I've always admired graffiti art, what can I say? All that gang activity in Newark, what what?

We ended up walking all the way back to Capital. Then we took the train back. And man, I was something exhausted.

Nivel de espanol

2009-01-09T07:05:00.001-08:00

Since yesterday was my attempt to answer a question I get alot ("What do you do all day?"), I'll try and answer the other question y'all always ask me: how is your Spanish?

It's a long way from being good, that's what it is. On the other hand, it's been at a perfectly fine level for my everyday encounters for awhile. I can have a pretty basic conversatin fairly easily.

I'm doing better at understanding the Porteno accent, which is good. Things I need to work on: subjunctive, improving my verb vocab, conjugating verbs correctly, starting conversations, and not getting so nervous when I try to say something complicated to start a conversation.

A Day in the Life

2009-01-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

People often ask me if I can describe a typical day in my life. Well, not sure what's typical. Here's what I did today:

9:30am Wake up. Check email. I'm tired, so I go back to bed.

Noon Wake up again. Bum around, ponder where I'm going to move. Talk to Brendan on gchat. Do some work on web development that I am working on in Django. Again, I spend half my time frustrated beyond belief because I have no idea what's going on and because patience is not in my nature. Again wonder if this project is a pipedream...

1:45 Decide I am hungry.

2 Arrive at lunch place after nice little saunter through my neighborhood. Go to Lobby, which is a change, as I think I've been to Sudestada three days in a row for lunch. Excellent salad, quite good pasta main course, very tasty brownie for dessert. Excellent food, really can't complain. Costs me $8 USD including my drink, but I get mildly tilted by how slow the service is for the entire restaurant. Really, when you have 2 levels and an outside, you need more than 2 waiters. I halve my tip in annoyance, and try to remember that I am an estadounidense (the ugliest word ever pronounced imo) in Argentina.

3:30 Get home. Check email, think about my investments, ponder some trades. On my walk home, I passed some condos being built...they are superswanky and in the perfect location. I think about buying one, and decide to go check it out soon...even though I have resolved not to buy real estate here. Go back to work on Django.

4:45 I want a massage, my life has been so stressful lately. Ha, who am I kidding, I just want a massage. Go to my masseuse. For the first time ever, she isn't there. I get some older woman who certainly didn't mail it in...but she wasn't deep tissue enough, my style of massage, nor was she nearly as pretty as my usual therapist.

6 Get back home. Django, django. Also listen to Shakira because I can count listening to Shakira as productive, as I am theoretically picking up Spanish.

7 Talk to Andrew and Will for a little over an hour. Definitely good friends. Will and I have very similar tastes in lots of things, from undergrad to law school to church. Not sure if there's anyone in my life that pushes my buttons better than Will. Andrew and I met pretty soon after I got to Rice. Don't think either of us realized at the time that we both have a very similar outlook on life -- very probabilistic, very analyzed -- but got around to it after college. If I want to assess odds on any nonlinear matter, I'd call him.

8pm A little django.

8:?? - 10ish Somewhere in here, I got lazy and took a nap. which is not good...

11 National championship. Watch online and talk to some people. Try to speak Spanish in my conversations online. Frequently give up and get lazy. Am somewhat productive in various things, ship a decent amount of money and EV.

2am Game is over, ship ship Florida. I <3 Urban Meyer's offensive schemes (check Smart Football if you want to know all about the latest and greatest in schemes) and I love Tim Tebow's intensity. Although I thought OU would beat them (though imo Texas Tech and UTexas were better than OU), Florida had some definite positive variance, Meyer may have outschemed and outadjusted and Tebow is Tebow. Also, keep in mind that American football is an incredibly high-variance game, although maybe not as much as soccer (though soccer is generally less variance in its champions...topic for another day.)

It's now 3am, and I have to go to bed. I've mostly written this post and bummed around for awhile.

Tomorrow Andres and I are supposed to go wander around Moron, which is a part of the city (suburbs, really) I've never been to. Strangely though, Moron is the hometown of the mother of a American girl I used to go out with. We will see if I get around to taking pictures.

2009-01-06T19:28:00.000-08:00

I am currently considering a winter move to Colombia. Probably to a beach town. Thoughts?

Not going to lie, as pretty as I think Portenas are, the average Colombiana that I have met here is at least her equal.

Cool

2009-01-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

One of the fun things about living where I live now is that whenever a storm comes, I'm fairly convinced that the world is ending. I guess that's what happens when your windows rattle as much as I do, and you can look out at the top of a huge tree and watch it go from like half of your vision to zero percent to half again in the space of three seconds.

"Raindrops" keep falling on my head

2009-01-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

So I was just wandering about my neighborhood, looking for photos that I need to illustrate two posts I want to write here. Sadly, I was only able to find one of them, so the breast advertisement post will just have to wait (how was that for a teaser...? probably anyone in BA knows exactly what I'm talking about though).

It took me awhile to find pictures for the other post...ahem, that'd be this one. That may be because everyone in this city is gone. Seriously, like half of the portenos I know are on vacation right now, and those that aren't seem to be planning their imminent vacation in the 2nd half of January. There are clubs that have shut down for the summer and moved to one of the beach towns, blah blah blah. Apparently it used to be even more so than it is now. But there are definitely less people in the street.

Anyway, walking around in Buenos Aires during the summer can make you occasionally feel lots of little raindrops. Funny, you think, it's not raining. Why do I feel raindrops? Let's take a look at two pictures, taken from the exact same spot, one looking down, and one looking up.

Walking along the sidewalk during the summertime, you normally see lots of puddles caused by air conditioners-- not today, of course, since I actually had a camera this time. That's because air conditioners here tend to be window units...with little hoses hanging off the side.

If you look, some of them actually had other ways of dealing with the condensed water byproduct. In fact, the entire puddle was caused by the air conditioner on the right, which has a little hose hanging down inbetween the unit and the building.

Now I recall reading somewhere that water produced as a byproduct is pure molecularly, so it's not a big deal, but I do still shudder a little when I get sprinkled and it's not raining.

Salimos las campeones

2008-12-27T20:59:00.001-08:00

Boca won the championship, in case you were curious.

I have to say, I am pretty much sure I can guarantee you that I am the only Boca socio who has a picture of the River Plate stadium (our archrivals) as their background.

That mark

2008-12-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

A few months ago -- I'm going to guess I was dancing in a boliche, because I am notoriously bored while dancing -- I noticed that every Argentine girl I've seen has this little round indentation on the outside of her upper arm.

It's obviously some sort of leftover after a shot. But it's just so ubiquitous here, whereas I have never noticed it on any other nationality. I assume the guys have the mark too, but I don't see nearly as many upperarms on chicos. Oh, and older women here don't have the mark.

I've looked on the internet and didn't find anything. So I guess they just have some different kind of shot here. The funny thing is that while I once found this mark slightly unattractive, I'm starting to find it sexy.

I don't know why I find this so funny

2008-12-22T17:31:00.000-08:00

But the translation of "It's greek to me" is something like "It's basic Chinese" in Argentine spanish.

I laugh hilariously every time I hear this and can't really explain to people why I'm laughing.

Moving

2008-12-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

As of now, I have 8 more days in my apartment, then I am moving. New year, new start....maybe with a pool.

Where, you say? That's a good question. I have no idea.

How I get coins

2008-12-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

I've written before about the nation-wide coin shortage here. Slate wrote an article about it, which a few of y'all forwarded to me (Rudy got there first, job well done). The article was a bit exaggerated and overdramatic (really, I disagreed with quite a few things -- it's like the author took every overdone stereotype and then multiplied it by 3)

In the never-ending quest to find coins here, I have come up with a few strategies.

1. Buy a subway pass with a 2 peso note. This way, you get 1.10 pesos in change. Some subway stations have signs posted saying that you have to buy at least 2 subway passes, so this is obviously not a sure-fire strategy. Also, it's crucial to use a 2 peso note. If you pay with a 5 or a 10 peso bill, then you will not get any coins in return.

Normally I use my prepaid electronic subway card, but not when I need coins.

2. Buy train pass from the clerk instead of from the automated coin machine. I hadn't realized that there was a clerk until recently, so now I both save coins that I would have put in the machine and get coins in return for my 2 peso note. Sweet!

3. Carefully plan your purchases to ensure the most number of coins. Some stores won't let you buy something if it isn't very expensive and they have to give you alot of coins in return. So plot carefully. Just the other day, I bought some medialunas (croissants) and it costs $2.50. I go to the panaderia alot, and didn't have coins, so she just decided to charge me $2 pesos and forget the .50. Really, I'd rather have paid that 50 cents and gotten 50 cents in return, but...

4. Offer to buy the $1 peso coin from people for $2 pesos. Yeah, that might be ridiculous, but when I want to get home, I want to get home.

5. I could probably go to the bank and ask for coins, but banks are only open between 10 and 3 and there are frequently lines, so I haven't done this yet.

UPDATE (evening): I just got back from picking up my chinese food. Paying with a 100 peso note, he could have easily given me all paper notes, but chose to give me a one peso coin. I am baffled. Plus, he didn't scowl at me when I paid for my 12 peso bill with a 100...which may have been a first for him.

Speaking of, I was talking -- in Spanish -- to a rather cute girl last night who asked me what I like to eat. Not thinking, I told her that I eat in alot of asian restaurants in palermo (and by that, I mean that I eat at Sudestada for lunch everyday). She asked me why I liked Chinese food. I said I didn't like Chinese food. So it seems she thought I was playing games with her, as Portenos generally say "Chino" for all asian. Anyway, sucked for me because it totally ended that conversation.

Random question

2008-12-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

Which city in your opinion is more likely to leave the average person soul-less: Los Angeles or Las Vegas?

What schmuck goes running with their camera...? (part 2)

2008-12-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

I went running with my camera again yesterday (part 1 was actually a week ago), and have a little bit of a sunburn to show for it. It was a beautiful day.

This little Catholic church is one corner of Las Canitas, the corner of Avenida Las Heras and Avenida Dorrego.

This is shot from just off the right corner of the first photo. It's looking up over the elevated railroad track. Don't know why, but I thought this was a super cool picture.

A little farther down the road is the polo field of Las Canitas. They just had the championship last weekend, but I guess they still have to get the horses out to exercise them.

Just across Avenida Libertador is the horse track. I forget the name of this too. Either this horse track or the polo fields is called the Hipodromo, I think, but I don't remember exactly.

This is Crobar, a boliche (club/discotheque/whateveryoucallit) over inbetween the horse track and Bosques de Palermo. It's pretty much all electronica, all the time. As I recall, it's part of an international chain of clubs. Not really my scene, although there are definitely some cute girls there (they might be 16, be careful)*. But what's interesting about Crobar -- and what I tried to capture -- is that it's built inbetween and under the railroad tracks, both of which you can see at the top of the picture. Anyway, I think it's interesting inside architecturally.

* If you speak English and are a foreigner, you can usually jump the line and skip the cover. This seems like the opposite of what it should be.

I went over the bridge and into the island to the rose garden.

Another picture down the main boulevard looking at the fountains.

This was looking back at the main bridge to get inside over the water. I think it really highlights my lack of photography skills, as some angles are pretty. I should've taken pictures of the Andalusian plaza and the little island inside as well as some more pictures of the roses. But I didn't. Next.

I think my hand moved while taking this shot. That's what happens when you have shaky hands. This is the corner of Bullrich and Libertador. And while that billboard of Universidad de Palermo is always there, UP isn't anywhere close to here.

It's a church....wait, that's not a cross at the top. No, it's a mosque. I took a picture of this before, and within a week of me posting my pictures from this area, the New York Times did a travel article that referenced all the places where I had pictures. Suspicious eh?

I must be getting old

2008-12-16T10:36:00.001-08:00

Everytime I go run or play futbol, my ankles hurt afterwards. Wah.

What schmuck goes running with their camera...?

2008-12-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

...this guy.

A few blocks from my house, there's a bridge over the railroad tracks. This looks back towards my place. Apparently it was still gray at 10am.

I took a picture of this because it's a random, non-descript building on a street. [For the record, I think this was Avenida Cordoba on the border of Soho and Villa Crespo.] But for the sign that says "futbol 5," you'd never know that there are probably 6 soccer fields inside the building. Maybe more. It's funny because I wondered where everyone played soccer here, and I have slowly realized that I just don't see most of the buildings.

From there I wandered down through Villa Crespo. Not sure how well it turned out, but those are little brick shacks on the left side of the picture. I'm guessing they saw the median and figured they could get away with putting a house up there. They've clearly been there for years, probably decades, and neighborhood-wise it's a good location, though I don't think I'd like living beside a railway.

Notice that the train goes the opposite way as in the US. I'm used to this now in the subways, but it did take me awhile. I'm not sure how the cultural norm happened, though, because cars drive on the right side of the road here. Perhaps the Euro influence was stronger back when railroads started, but by the time cars were invented, the Euro influence had declined? That's my working hypothesis.

I was trying to run to the Parque del Centennario, but apparently got a little lost. I found myself at this little city block park.

As I was wandering around semi-lost, I saw this house and thought it was cute.

A ha! I figured out where to go. This was as I came into the park -- which is either hexagonal or octagonal if I remember correctly. Not sure if you can see the fountains or the playground off to the right.

I was a sucker for the little baby ducks swimming. Aren't their little heads bobbing out of the water so cute?

Same vantage point as before looking another direction. Very tranquilo, or at least as much as Capital Federal ever gets.

Birthday present

2008-12-05T13:21:00.001-08:00

With less than half a year remaining until my birthday, I'm pretty sure I've decided on a present for me: lasik surgery. I've had hard contacts for more than 15 years now; I don't want to have them for the rest of my life.

Yo soy de Boca

2008-12-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday went to the game. Didn't take too many pictures. See below.

While we lost last game, we won this one 2-1 on dos tantos de Riquelme. It's pretty crazy that Boca has Riquelme, who makes multiples more than anyone else in the Argentine league. It's totally a privilege to get to watch him. It's funny, because even Boca fans seem to be love/hate with him. They love him because he is effective, but they hate him because he is supposedly a pecho frio. Literally translated to "cold breast." It's hard to describe him. If you grew up playing soccer with me, I have a feeling we'd have described Danny that way if we were Argentines (although Daniel was so clutch in high school that it's not fair). You were frequently pissed off watching him play because sometimes he just seemed lazy, yet somehow at the end of the game he has a hat trick.

Anyway, like Danny, Riquelme has a ton of talent. It's pretty awesome getting to watch him play, even if he sometimes appears to play effortlessly.

I was pretty amazed that I managed to snatch this action shot. That tattoo on the inside of random che's right leg is the Boca shield. Boquenses (boca fans) are passionate, let me assure you.

My view from where I ~~sat~~ stood. Also, whenever something exciting happened, you'd have people climbing up to the top of that fence. Which kinda scared me -- how firm can fences be? -- but so far so good. Obviously, it was my first night game here.

Definitely not a great vantage point, but pretty intense. I was right underneath the doce. There was a girl next to me who came alone to the game and was just incredibly intense. Somehow that was very attractive. Hard to describe what it's like to be there. Everyone starts singing pregame. When the opposing team comes out, I'm pretty sure the whistling decreased my high-end frequency hearing. At halftime, everyone immediately grabs the best real estate near where they are standing for sitting. People are screaming at the ref for every call (mostly calling him gay (puto) or a son of a prostitute (hijo de puta) and plenty of other things I probably just don't understand).

Like many things here, it is intense. When Boca scores, the crowd just goes nuts.

Anyway, we are up 2 points in the league with 2 games left in the season. Our last two games are relatively weak opponents. Next week is away, and then the last game is home. Obviously I'm going to go to the last game of the season, and hope I don't experience any hooliganism. I can definitely see the crowd rioting if we win the championship at home. Heck, even this week I was definitely knocked over in the crowd a few times. Standard, and awesome.

I may have been in Argentina too long

2008-11-28T11:32:00.001-08:00

I'm starting to like mate.

Update: For those who don't know what mate is, check Wikipedia.

James Bond as dictator

2008-11-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one who thinks the new James Bond looks exactly like Vladimir Putin?