Staying Alive

Not only am I still alive, but I found a way to convert the rest of my American dollars, $228 to be exact, into Argentinian pesos, close to $700. This is kind of like having the ´unlimited plan´ down here for the next few weeks, because 700 bones goes a long way. This should help keep me alive until I get the debit card situation sorted out, although things were looking dicey for a minute, because without cash, or efectivo, it is hard to buy things ... for those of you back home, appreciate the fact that just about everywhere you go is going to accept your MasterCard without asking questions. I know I will, especially after I went to a buffet, ate, and then found out I couldn´t pay with the only thing I had. That was a tricky situation to get out of, especially since it was a buffet (which means -- yes, even here -- it was run by hard-to-understand Chinese folks).

Soccer was OK today, but it´s going to take a little while longer to settle in and get confident. I´m thinking about bringing a camera because the stadium is really sweet. Well, it is really run down, actually, but the bleachers could easily hold 3 or 4 thousand people, and the field is surrounded by a big ass fence topped with barbed wire. As long as batteries and bags of urine aren´t thrown at us during games, things should be good. There was another American out there today, from New York ... he used to play D1 ball at Seton Hall, with US National Teamer Sascha Klejstan. I feel like that is a good indication of the level down here. Our center-mid dropped in a shot off the kick off, it was gross.

Tomorrow I am going to try and go to the River Plate stadium and take a tour, expect pictures later on in the weekend. Ciao.

First Day of School, Soccer

School was uneventful, except that my first teacher is a little hard to understand because it sounds like he has a frog in his throat -- I´m not sure if they have frogs in Argentina, I haven´t seen one yet, but there is definitely some sort of croaky reptile hiding in there.

Oh yeah ... and my nose decided it didn´t like sitting through two hours of Spanish class so it started bleeding spontaneously in order to get out of there. At first thought -- well played, nose, now you don´t have to do the boring first-day-of-school stuff. Not so fast. The teacher sends me to the infermeria. And they stuff a foot of bandage up my nose, until I swear it is tickling my cerrebellum. AND THEN decide, since that does not look awkward enough, to tape it off. With the most awkward, crooked, nasty looking pieces of tape ever. 30 minutes before class ended. I looked like Elephant Man. I scared small children when I walked home. And I had to walk back into the class. And the Italian guy behind me told me that it happened because I talked trash about the Italian soccer team earlier in front of the class. Fair game. But the Italian guy is cool, and there is a German behind me as well who is like 6´4¨with a blond mohawk. Hoss.

On a more exciting, less morbid note, I went out to play with the school team for a tryout. They are on the cover of the school magazine and their poster is on every door, because taahey won the whole league last year. I showed up about forty minutes before everyone else, but it ended up just being me and two new guys and the whole team. We ran for about 80 minutes, and I did very well with that. And then we played a bit, which was confusing because the field is poorly-lit and there was no way of distinguishing who was playing for what team. No bibs, no shirts vs. skins, nada. I played it safe and passed it back to whoever gave me the ball just about every time. Butttttt.. the last play of the game I won the ball, built up some confidence, scooped it past the center mid, and diiiiced the center back up. It was ugly. I cut it behind my leg, and an onrushing him, and got it on the other side at the top of the box. I couldn´t understand what his teamates were saying to him afterwards, but I think they were saying ¨that was ugly¨. Our next practice is Thursday, and they told me to come back, so I don´t know if that means I am on the team or what, but it´s a good start. If I could learn to understand what they are saying that would be even better. One step at a time..

I have to go now. Lord of the Rings is on TV, with subtitles, and I really need to learn how to say some of the words they use in that movie in Spanish. Ciao!

Friday, July 25th.

Today I went to Recoleta, one of the nicer neighborhoods in town, to eat lunch and explore. I had heard that the local cemetary was cool, but I had no idea it was going to be as big as it was. The tombs were huge; some of them were probably 25 or 30 feet tall, and many famous Argentinians are buried there. I couldn´t find Evita, but there were a lot of cool statues, and many feral cats creeping around.



Outside of the cemetary´s walls are a ton of really cool bars, including one called ¨We´re Crazy about Soccer¨, which my house mother told me plays all of the big games on a projector. I will make a point of going back here when the Copa Liberatadores starts.

I have met a few more people, and we all went out the other day and got a first hand look at the nightlife -- the place where we went was still full of people at four in the morning, and this was on a Wednesday. There is not much to do in our neighborhood, but Palermo SoHo and Palermo Hollywood, the ¨hip¨parts of town, are within walking distance, which is good because the buses are all privately owned and there are more than a hundred different types, each with their own paint jobs and unique routes. This makes planning a bus-trip a daunting task. And the subways close at ten. Hence the importance of having things within walking distance.

That´s all for now, dinner awaits. School starts Monday.

Settling In

It´s 9 p.m. here and I am about to go back to the house, get dinner, and go for a run.

Things are going well -- I went looking for a soccer game shortly after posting my first blog, and found one after about an hour of walking around. There is a big park nearby where lots of people were playing. I got kicked (with a foot) directly in the face, and still have a big scab on the bridge of my nose, but other than that things went smoothly. I can´t wait to play again.

We had our orientation yesterday, which was pretty boring, but included a helpful bus tour. I saw a lot of the city, and while they had an English speaking bus, we opted to take the Spanish one. The only problem was that the speakers in the bus were blown out, and it sounded like Charlie Brown´s teacher was our guide.

I have done a good bit of exploring on my own as well, and am now comfortable wandering around most of the nearby neighborhoods. I have brought my camera on few of these excursions and have taken a few cool pictures. The first few are from side-streets and parks, and the last one is a major street, Cabildo.



I have made another couple of realizations during my time here.

Dogs are treated very differently. Leashes are only used by about half of the local dog-owners, and many times wandering dogs have approached me as their owners yell ¨Veni! Veni!¨. The dogs generally do seem to be well-behaved though, and it is bizarre to see a couple of Jack Russels trotting behind their owner down a crowded street. This is not my problem with the local dog-culture though. My problem is with the lack of responbility ... no one picks up after the dogs, which means everyone I know has stepped in shit at least once already, and there are many feral dogs just hanging around. I saw one today eating out of a trash bag on the ground. These dogs have yet to unite in packs, but I think we will be in trouble if they ever do.

I meet with my advisor tomorrow to pick my schedule and get my classes, and I may go to verify that I don´t have a criminal record in Argentina, so that I can move forward in becoming a resident. I also spoke with the guy in charge of sports today, and I think I am going to have a try-out with the team. If they are too good, or if I don´t want to play, I will be able to get involved with indoor and outdoor intramurals.

I am paying by the minute, so I am going to end this here, but I will try and get back on here by the end of the weekend. Take care.

Greetings from Buenos Aires

I made it! I got in about 6 hours ago, and I spent about 3 of those hours passed out in my new bed because I wa sandwiched in the middle seat for 10 hours on the way down. In the United States this is called riding Bitch, and if it is not fun in a Honda, it sure as hell isnt in a Boeing 747. I have spent the rest of my time unpacking and exploring the city. I have not been here long, but I have already been able to identify many, many differences between home, so I am going to try and share some of those with you in the 20 minutes I have left.

1. First off ... what. the hell. is going on with these keyboards. I have yet to figure out how to do anything but type on them, since all of the punctation points and symbols are different. This means that I have to google search an email address so that I can copy and paste the sign between mpmalenf and olemiss in mpmalenf@olemiss.edu, just so I can log in. That should be easy to figure out, but I dont want to ask for help because ...


2. The language barrier. This is a real problem. While I can communicate, effectively at times, clumsily at others, I have discovered a new degree of self conciousness. For the sake of brevity I am going to avoid going into too much detail on this one, but if my Spanish doesnt improve I should be skilled enough to work as a professional Mime when I return to the States.

3. I thought Soccer was the national sport. While I have seen a lot of guys in Manchester United jerseys, neither my house mother or my taxi driver are fans. On the way in I did notice that the Argentines on the outskirts of town found a way to pop up a pair of goals in just about every half cleared area, but I have yet to find anywhere to play near the house, and my house mother is little help with this. After I finish this posting, my exploration will continue.

4. I had my first taste of a parilla, the traditional Argentine grill where all kinds of meat are raked over the coals right in front of your eyes. I got a choripan ... thats grilled sausage on a roll ... and vacio, or veal. It was one of the most flavorful cuts of meat I have had in a while, but there was tons of connective tissue that made finishing the fattier bites a real test of my chewing endurance. Thankfully, my jaw will be getting a good rest until my next meal time, because I doubt I will do too much talking.

Final thoughts ...

If there is a shortage of old beaters from the 70s and 80s in the United States it is probably because they are all here. On the drive from the Airport to mi casa I saw banged up Beatles and Mustangs in every color imaginable. Some of them were multicolored. Everything else is a Peugot or Renault.

Cyclists are everywhere. You would have thought the French got bored and relocated the Tour de France to Buenos Aires. It might just be a Sunday thing, but there were tons of guys in full spandex peddling by on the way in.

Alright, I am running out of time. I will keep in touch.

Ciao!