Midweek Update

It´s Wednesday afternoon, which means I only have one more class left before the weekend, and I figured it would be a good time to check in with some important updates on things I have mentioned in previous blog posts.

1.) Holidays: http://malinargentina.blogspot.com/2008/09/argentinian-gladiators-and-day-of.html

I got a lot of feedback on this, and it´s official, the Day of the Gnocchi is a real holiday, and Argentines and Uruguayans celebrate it on a monthly basis. I was also told that it is customary to put a bill under your dinner plate on this day, because it brings good luck. No word on if there is a Gnocchi Fairy or not, but I like to imagine that there is. Unfortunately I can´t say for sure which day of the month is ñoqui day, because I have heard both the 20th and the 29th. Until I can clear this up, eat them twice a month to be safe.

Also, while I´m on the Holiday topic. While getting onto the bus today I heard something on the radio about The Day of the Girlfriend, which apparently isn´t just Valentines Day any more. It may be today, or it may be coming up soon, I didn´t hear enough to figure that out, but I´m begining to think these ¨holidays¨are being created by the Government to increase spending and stop the economy from being so crappy. The chocolate industry must be booming, but that probably has more to do with my previously mentioned alfajor habit.

2.) Midterm in Argentina Sociedad Abierta: http://malinargentina.blogspot.com/2008/09/pop-midterm.html

I beat my midterm up. Like it owed me money. We got our tests back yesterday and I got a 10 out of 10, an A-plus. This was a very good feeling, especially considering the circumstances and how unprepared I was when I showed up for class. 1 down, 4 to go.

3.) This doesn´t relate to a blog I actually wrote, but it relates to one I thought about writing, which counts for something. Starbucks is huge here, but there is only one. I have never seen this particular Starbucks without a line out the door. It is slightly more expensive here, as is McDonalds (I treated myself to an Oreo McFlurry yesterday after finding out how well I did on my test), and the menu is similar, although Argentinized. They have Maté Lattes, and Dulce de Leche Frapuccinos. I hear you can also get a real Capuccino there, because a ¨capuccino¨here is normally a sweet drink that is basically a coffee with a bunch of chocolate. I have learned that Argentines find a way to add sugar to everything, including sandwiches -- for dinner one day our house mom brought home ham sandwiches, half of which were on puff pastry that was covered in sugar. I kid you not.

Here is another blog on Starbucks down here, it´s a short and entertaining read.
http://atexaninargentina.blogspot.com/2008/05/will-starbucks-be-hit-in-argentina.html

Argentinian Gladiators and The Day of the Student

Student´s Day: an important celebration on the Argentine calendar? Not really, but it´s there, and someone is going to celebrate it. That´s the Argentine mindset, and maybe I´m begining to adopt it myself, because I didn´t really feel like sitting on the couch and watching AC Milan get drilled again by a lowly Serie A side.

Now I already know what you are thinking: ¨Wow, a holiday just for students? What a nice idea ... Argentines must really appreciate the hard work that these kids are putting in.¨ Not so fast. We have seen not only the Day of the Student, but also the Day of the Grandparents, the Day of the Friend, the Day of the Teacher, and, among many others, The Day of the Gnocchi, since I have been here. I kid you not. I walked down the street one day and every restaurant seemed to have a Gnocchi special -- one of them claimed it was the Day of the Gnocchi, and as hard as it was to believe, I think it was an official event. Because I believe that Argentines do appreciate the hard work the Gnocchi is putting in, and because I couldn´t make that up.

Naturally, when a country schedules so many ¨holidays¨ a few of them are going to overlap, as was the case today, and while this may at first seem like poor planning on the part of whoever is assigning arbitrary days to these random, meaningless celebrations, the conflicing holiday today was The Day of Spring. The first day of Spring. Spring Day. And Student´s Day. Sounds like Spring Break. Sounds like fun.

Now for the down side. Whoever scheduled these days did so on a Sunday. Weak. And on a cloudy, altogether un-spring-like Sunday. The gall.

Anyways, my roomates and I went out to a local park where there was supposed to be some stuff going on. Not quite what I had in mind, but I´m glad we went. Sure, most of the students there may have been ¨elementary school students¨. Sure, the games may have been designed for ¨small children¨. Has that ever stopped me?

The human foosball looked enticing until I saw the inflatable American Gladiators set-up. I´ve always wanted to be an American Gladiator (of course I´m thinking Nitro, Turbo, and Gemini, not the freakish Wolf Guy that was on the Hulk Hogan version last year) and this is my chance. Game on. The gauntlet was thrown, and Mike 2 and Mike 3 climbed into the inflatable ring.


I leapt onto the inflated pedestal right away, and right away I realized that a 180 pound guy displaces a lot more air than a 75 pound 3rd grader. I wish we would have filmed it, but the picture above is going to have to suffice. I couldn´t get onto the pedestal for more than two seconds without it buckling beneath me. I face-planted immediatedly, and continued to do so throughout the ¨bout¨, laughing hysterically the whole time. It was stupid, but it was a lot of fun. There was also free candy involved, so Student´s Day, and the Gladiator Ring in particular, gets my approval.

I guess that´s the upside of having two holidays in one day ... if Spring Day is ruined by terrible weather, there is another excuse to go do something dumb.

Moving on. I forgot to mention, but last week I got hit by a biker. Not a Hell´s Angel, thank God, and not really a Lance Armstrong type either. Local paper boy would be more on the right track. I got BLINDSIDED.
Anyways, it was completely this guys fault, but when I got ran into he was the one that got wiped out. I limped away with a cut knee and bruised hip, but the most damage was done to my manhood, because I gave out a really terrible shriek when I saw this guy hurtling the wrong way down a one-way street.

Enough of that ... here´s a photo I took a while back that I just got around to uploading.

My pleasure reading has reached a stand still, but my school reading has really picked up, and I expect to smash the rest of my midterms in a few weeks and enjoy my Andean trek guilt-free. Ah, my Andean trek. I can´t wait. I´m not sure how much, if any, of this trek will be spent in the Andes, but the majority of it will certainly be spent in their shadows, which is close enough for me.

RJ should be here in under 2 weeks. He is going to love it. That´s all for now, happen Student´s Day, and take care.

Mostly Pictures.

Here are a few photos I have taken over the past week, the top two were last night, in the Bosques of Palermo, or the Forests of Palermo, which is kind of like Argentina´s answer to Central Park. It is not as nice as Central Park, but it does have a cool lake with a lot of ducks and swans. They have paddle boats that you can take out in the Spring, so I might have to give that a shot some time and release my inner-child. Or maybe not.

The bottom two are from last week, one is an antique store in San Telmo and the other is just a pair of doors that I saw in Palermo.

I´m getting really excited about being done with midterms, because I know the first few weeks after them are going to be awesome, starting off with RJ´s visit and the Dave Matthews Concert.

I´m going to study, hit the gym, and watch some soccer today, nothing too exciting. I might try and follow the Ole Miss game online -- go Rebs.

Pop Midterm?

What. A. Nightmare. I´m talking about the cold-sweat variety, the kind that starts when you´re sitting in class wondering ´why are so many people here early?´and then hear: ¨Man, I´m just ready to get this over with.¨

Wait, what? What do you want to be over with? I want to ask, but I don´t want to look like the only idiot in there. And then everyone starts pulling out passports -- we need to bring our passport to the midterm, but none of my midterms are for another 2 weeks, right? Wrong.



This is a scary realization, as is the fact that I don´t have my passport. Or my real student ID, which we also need, which is another story that is going to get me angry if I start to tell it, so we will leave it at that. Anyway, my drivers license and substitute ID work fine, so I sit down, pull out my pen, and continue worrying. My teacher writes the questions on the board. Number 1 I feel confident I can bang out ... number 2: What were the social movements in Argentina in ´95 and 2001, and what social classes were they made up of. This is a ´biatch´of a test question, because if there is one thing Argentines like to do it is to get together and complain, a.k.a. manifest, a.k.a. create ´social movements´. The good news is that the second part of the question is a cinch, because almost all of the countries´major social movements are comprised of the lower and middle social classes.

The other good news is that this is the class I have taken most seriously. I have done all of the readings, I have annotated all of the readings, I have taken extensive notes, I have paid attention in class, and, most importantly, I know what the teacher wants to hear. I fill up every inch of paper given to me, I glorify the struggle of the lower class, and I give her a few gems like: ¨the only real achievement of the military dictatorship was to unite the people behind President Alfonsín in 1983, and to begin a new era of Argentine politics with greater transparency and with constitucional successions of power.¨ Something like that. Anyways, it could have been a lot worse, and while it´s possible that I didn´t hit it out of the ball park, I have to feel like I can still snatch an ´A´in this class.

So what else is new with you, Mike? I knew you were going to ask that. This weekend I went to what I thought was going to be the Natural History Museum. It was the National History Museum, and so while I didn´t get to see any dinosaurs, I did see the Liberator General San Martín´s bed (it was tiny ... it looked more like a loveseat. He must have made Napoleon look like Andre the Giant) and a painting of Evita and Juan D. Perón. The museum, like General San Martín´s bed, was a lot smaller than I expected, so after checking out the 2 or 3 rooms that we rode and hour on a bus to see, my roomate and I went to San Telmo. San Telmo is well known for its fair, but it is also well known for its antiques. I didn´t know why, because last time I went was late and a lot of the stores were closed. But there is an incredible selection of cool stuff to be found, although most of it is very expensive, especially by Argentine standards.

One of the coolest finds was a Katana carved out of ivory. Super legit. I have no idea if it was from ancient Japan, but judging from the other awesome stuff in the store it had to be. They also had a really cool collection of Rolex, Breitling, and Omega watches that might have been from the turn of the century. Very sweet. Old cameras are really popular too, which I found a little bizarre, but some of them are pretty sweet. A street vendor had one that I liked a lot, but when I asked him how much it was, I liked it a little less -- 300 bucks, but apparently it still works and it had some sort of historical significance because of its use by Germans in one of the World Wars.

To end things on a happy note, I found a good place about a block from my gym, so I try to grab lunch there 3 times a week, usually after my morning workouts. Its name is La Esmeralda, and while Esmeralda is known for making fresh pasta that people come and buy in bulk, you can also get meals to go. For between 4 and 5 bucks I can take my pick of all kinds of pasta and all kinds of sauces (as well as a package of shredded parm and a roll of bread) and have myself a nice meal when I get home. The spinach and chicken ravioli with four cheese sauce occupies a warm place in my heart.

Until next time..

Full Moon

I wonder if the American Werewolf in Montevideo is howling.

I snapped this picture about 5 minutes ago on the walk home. I´m currently reading Big Sur, by Jack Kerouac, in Spanish, and struggling to get through it, but it´s a good kind of challenge. I just bought a book of short stories too, so we´ll see how that goes.

Black and white fotos, quick update.

Attached are some of the pictures I have taken over the last eight to ten days. I´ve been getting to know my camera a little bit and experimenting with different settings, exposures, etc. I´ve been pretty happy with the outcome, although what you see here is the result of my quantity-over-quality method, where I take about 60 pictures a day and hope a few turn out alright. Enjoy:





Yesterday my roomate and I went to an American bar to watch some NFL action and eat some buffalo wings, so that should help sustain my American food cravings and keep me out of McDonalds or Burger King for at least the remainder of this week. It will do little, however, to help sustain my growing chocolate cravings, which have a lot to do with my regular consumption of alfajores, a local delicacy involving two little cookies sandwiched around dulce de leche, a caramel-flavored spread, and covered in chocolate. They are delicious, cheap, and worst of all, readily available. I´m going to try and smuggle some home for the family to try, but I might end up eating them all on the flight. No promises.

Vamos Argentina, Vamos! Futból and Football

I`ve been riding an emotional rollercoaster since I posted last, and, thankfully, I´ve reached a content plateau, thawing in the kitchen, reviewing the days events, drinking a mixed hot-chocolate-slash-coffee, and knocking off a chapter here and there of the book I´ve been tearing through since yesterday. More on that later.

First, a quick review of the ups and downs. Up: Hear that tickets to the Argentina vs. Paraguay game are a possibility. Down: Hear tons of false information about how tough they will be to get; don´t get them. A few days pass.

Up: House mother says she can get them.
Down: House mother says she can´t get them.
Up: House mother says she can get them.
Down: .. game day, where are tickets? I gave her my money like 2 days ago.
Up: Tickets arrive.
Down: Walk outside. 40 degrees. Wet. Raining. Windy. Bone-chilling.
Up: Ok, I´m getting tired of this, but you see what I´m getting at. Things were awesome when I got to the game though, and despite the horrendous weather I was more than happy to soak in the atmosphere. The Paraguayan die-hards, decked out in red and white stripes, were opposite the Argentine barra brava, the standing-room only blue-collar section full of waving banners and flags. Both sections were bouncing in unison as they exchanged chants, songs, and taunts. I didn´t understand any of them, except the one where the Paraguayans would give a hearty ¨Paraguay!¨and the Argentines would puncutate it with a quick ¨puto!¨, the rough equivalent of tagging ¨sucks!¨ onto a rival players name after he is announced at a baseball game. The other cheers were more clever, I think, but the intricacies were lost on me.

I doubt anyone is too interested in having me break down the game, but while a couple of questionable calls from the ref negatively effected the game, it was great to see such talented players. Leo Messi created a little bit of magic to tie it up after what was easily one of the most embarrasingly awful goals I have seen a team concede, at any level, in person. I need to see a replay before I assess the blame, but the keeper, Abondonzieri, has been the media whipping-boy lately, I think, and the 12 year boy next to me was yelling colorful profanities at him as he was stretchered off the pitch.

I´ll put up some photos when I upload next, but none of them turned out too great. I did take a couple of cool videos.

I trolled the main street nearby yesterday to try and find a scarf to show my support for the team. I didn´t find any scarves, but I did find a John Grisham book, Playing for Pizza, that I picked up. I wanted something to read at night to help me sleep, but I´ve knocked out 170 pages since yesterday, so it´s not going to give me much benefit in that regard. It is entertaining though, and it deals with a former NFL quarterback banished to the hinterlands of NFL Europe ... the fictional quarterback and I struggled with many of the same problems upon arriving in a foreign country, which makes it extra interesting. Dinner is ready ... peace!

Words and Pictures

Technical difficulties: solved. I was able to use my roomate´s computer to upload the pictures, so here are a few of my favorites.

The MALBA, outside:


MALBA, inside. Sneaky, sneaky.


Old Argentinian couples dancing in the square, San Telmo.

San Telmo, the part that reminded me of the French Quarter.

More San Telmo, with a beautiful late afternoon sky.

Puerto Madero, with one of the few roomates not named Mike: Frank.

The weather has been really awesome here lately, and although it is a bit humid today, this marks the third consecutive day of Michael in sandals. Exciting times.

I am contemplating doing a few different things in the next few days, but nothing is yet set in stone. As always, I´ll keep you posted.

Technical Difficulties

First off, I hope everyone is doing well back home. I´m glad to see the Rebels won, and worried to see that Hurricane Gustav(o) is bearing down on the Coast, but from what I´ve heard this storm is going to hit Lousiana harder than Mississippi. Tough break for them, but it´ll help me sleep a little easier tonight.

I did some cool things this weekend, but most of them would seem a lot cooler if I had pictures. Unfortunately, I am experiencing ¨technical difficulties¨. Hopefully I´ll find a way to resolve them and retrieve the pictures, but until then you are going to have to look at the ones I pulled off of the ´net.

I went to the MALBA, a Modern Art museum, and by far the coolest art museum I have been too. They had some really neat stuff, including a series of photographs of a man dramatically posing as if he were getting shot, with the bullet-holes going through the actual glass and the photograph, and a sculpture with a little fish living in it, titled ¨Fish Habitat¨.
They had a few famous artists I recognized -- Frida Kahlo, and the Colombian guy that paints really rotund people. No photos at all were allowed. But I am sneaky. I got a few cool pictures that hopefully I´ll be able to share. Here are a few I pilfered from the net. Note: the picture attached is not the bullet riddled one I mentioned. Shooting stuff must be artsy down here. I dig it.

I also went to a famous old neighborhood I hadn´t seen yet and saw some folks doing the tango in a beautiful square on a beautiful night. The weather has been great lately ... in the seventies, I think. The neighborhood seemed almost New Orleanian, if that´s a word, with older architecture, smaller, colorful buildings, and a charming grittiness. I have to run to soccer right now, so I´m going to paste in a picture that doesn´t really adequately show the neighborhood.

If all goes well the pictures will be up in a day or two.