I'm not rude, I'm Dutch!

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

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

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.

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

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

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!

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.