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.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Such Great Heights
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.
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.
Friday, April 17, 2009
One year
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...?
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...?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
McTasty
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Maybe this is weird, but...
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.
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.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
El Cine
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.
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.
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