Exams are well under way, and I´ve been beating them up like they owe me money. I´ll be shocked -- shocked! -- if I don´t get A´s on the two tests I took today, and if I can finish up my paper on Venezuela this afternoon I will be all but finished with my first semester of Argentine schooling. I must say, it´s a good feeling, not least of all because I know a celebratory rib eye and cuban (legal here) cigar await.
I really don´t have much to write about anymore, since my past few weeks have mostly been filled with penny-pinching and studying, but Gladys, the house mother, left this weekend, and everyone enjoyed our newly-gained autonomy. Until she returned.
While I don´t want to delve deeply into the situation, a definite United Front has formed among the exchange students and the host mother, with good reason (that really doesn´t merit being discussed here). I only mention it all because of the audacity of the end of the weekend hystrionics, and because of the hilarity of our United Front and our recent slogan: ¨there is a new sheriff in town.¨
With the house to ourselves we were able to do whatever we wanted to without being blamed, guilt-tripped, or mean-mugged, and for the first time in a while everyone was smiling. I don´t want to imply that no one is ever happy, just that everyone is never happy when everyone is sharing the house´s common areas. We cooked up a B.A. (and that doesn´t stand for Buenos Aires) American style lunch of Daddy´s BBQ Chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, and beer. The chicken was juicy and delicious, and we chopped up the remnants for the huge ass bowl of pasta we ate at dinner. It was like the Taco Bell commercial: we didn´t know what to do, except yell ¨I´m FULLLLLL!¨
Our house mother returned Monday, and, apparently, flew off the handle, claiming that the house was dirty (I don´t know how she was able to distinguish the dirtiness of the house from the usual layer of filth) and, from what I hear, berated our (rent-paying) female roomate, because she was the ´woman of the house´. This is all antecdotal evidence, because, thankfully, I wasn´t there to witness the shit-storm, but it is clearly out of line, and I have a feeling that in about 10 to 15 days when people start moving out, Front Desk will receive a few reports.
That being said, I really love living with the majority of my roomates, and, if anything, we have bonded over the experience. The house, for the most part, hasn´t put a damper on my semester, but instead has encouraged me to get out and do something. anything. other than sit around and watch Prison Break all day.
On Thursday night I went out with Mike Segundo and his girlfriend, who claimed she had never stayed out to see the sun come up. We went out just in time to catch the end of happy hour -- 2 a.m. -- and after multiple bars, including one with, for god knows what reason, a ton of hot dog buns everywhere, and another where a slurring scottish guy asked us where to buy coke (where the hell did he get the ´I-know-where-to-buy-coke-vibe´?), we finished up with a plate of medialunas, a few orange juices, and a long bus ride home. Good times, good times.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Frank celebrated his birthday the other day, and I got a phenomenal, 2-inch thick, perfectly cooked (rare) rib eye for 15 bucks. It was unbelievable. It was like butter, meaty, juicy butter. The only bad part was that when we were going home the taxi driver took us on a ridiculous route, and when I called him out on it he immediately shot back: ¨that´s the problem with you Americans, you´re always in a hurry.¨ Are you F´n kidding me? I´m paying you by the minute, you bum. I was about to ¨fly off the handle¨, but decided against it, since I was splitting the fare with 3 other people and it only came out to a few bucks each anyways.
On another note, Lil Wayne is blogging for ESPN.com. How bad of an idea is that? I love Lil Wayne, the best rapper alive, but the column is absolutely retarded:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3648624
The only funny parts were when he said he likes to watch the Nascar channel where you ride shotgun with the driver, because they cuss a lot, and the goon to a goblin reference (and non-sensical explanation). ESPN: I want my 5 minutes back.
On another note, Lil Wayne is blogging for ESPN.com. How bad of an idea is that? I love Lil Wayne, the best rapper alive, but the column is absolutely retarded:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3648624
The only funny parts were when he said he likes to watch the Nascar channel where you ride shotgun with the driver, because they cuss a lot, and the goon to a goblin reference (and non-sensical explanation). ESPN: I want my 5 minutes back.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Pictures
Found a place to upload the pictures that should have gone with the blog below:
Tempus Alba, the high-tech vineyard
Plaza San Martín, Mendoza:
San Martín de los Andes:
More San Martín de los Andes:
Mendoza, these trees line every street:
Post-arrival:
The side of the road on the bike ride:
Tempus Alba, the high-tech vineyard
Plaza San Martín, Mendoza:
San Martín de los Andes:
More San Martín de los Andes:
Mendoza, these trees line every street:
Post-arrival:
The side of the road on the bike ride:
Mendoza
What an unpleasant way to wake up -- there was an earthquake this morning, or at least I think there was. Nothing major, no infrastructure damage or anything like that, but the room definitely felt like it was shaking, and the effects of the wine tour had worn off hours before, so that didn´t have anything to do with it. Mendoza has been leveled by earthquakes in the past, which I guess isn´t surprising when you consider how close it is to the Andes, and it seems like these folks are used to it, because no one said or did anything. I do know my roomate woke up as well, and he started snoring when he finally went back to sleep. When I went upstairs the computer upstairs had a recent google search for ¨mendoza seismic activity¨, so I guess I wasn´t the only unsettled gringo.
You can just chalk that up as a little more excitement at the end of a really good day. I woke up early and went to the bikesandwines office. They said the wineries aren´t within biking distance of the main office, but that wouldn´t be a problem because I could catch a ride with the Argentine hippy bad asses waiting outside -- apparently taxi drivers aren´t the only people who drive crazy down here. Judging from the way the way they were driving, these guys had confused their reggae-painted VW van with a Porsche. It made the ride a lot more exciting, although the smashed-up windshield was a slightly unsettling testament to the dangers of their sketchy driving.
Upon arriving they gave everyone a map, a bright yellow bike, and an indication of where our first stop was (which was pretty cool because it was a wine museum as well as a winery). There was also a stop along the way that was an artesanal chocolate and liquore factory, but the rest of the places I visited were wineries, 4 in total. They were all unique for different reasons, but my favorite two were Caranie and Tempus Albus. Caranie was a small ¨boutique winery¨where the owner gave the tour ... she and her husband wanted to buy land in Argentina after the economic collapse and they got a great deal on more land than they really wanted. The land already had grapes growing on it, and they were French, so they spent a year studying the vinting process and then upgraded all the machinery and started creating and bottling their own wine. Cool lady.
Tempus Albus was a really nice bodega, everything was new and shiny, and they had a wine bar upstairs where you could get 3 generous pours of the wines of your choice for 7 bucks. I picked the Syrah, Malbec, and their premium blend, which was by far the best. There were about 6 or 7 other folks, English and Australian, on the beautiful deck upstairs, and we spent about an hour talking about travelling, soccer, accents, and the Argentine lifestyle.
The bike route itself was pretty long, and I was wiped out at the end of the day. The roads varied from paved to gravel to dust, but tall trees lined most of them and the mountains were clearly visible on the right said of the road. The sun and the countryside was as enjoyable as the wineries themselves.
My bus leaves in 8 hours and I don´t have much to do except hang around the city and try to get a little bit of reading done. I went to the modern art museum earlier today, and I might check out the aquarium later, if it isn´t too expensive to get in. I will upload pictures eventually, but the computers here are terrible. I have spent 50 minutes trying to upload 5 pictures without any success.
RJ is in Brazil playing soccer for 5 days right now. Must be nice..
You can just chalk that up as a little more excitement at the end of a really good day. I woke up early and went to the bikesandwines office. They said the wineries aren´t within biking distance of the main office, but that wouldn´t be a problem because I could catch a ride with the Argentine hippy bad asses waiting outside -- apparently taxi drivers aren´t the only people who drive crazy down here. Judging from the way the way they were driving, these guys had confused their reggae-painted VW van with a Porsche. It made the ride a lot more exciting, although the smashed-up windshield was a slightly unsettling testament to the dangers of their sketchy driving.
Upon arriving they gave everyone a map, a bright yellow bike, and an indication of where our first stop was (which was pretty cool because it was a wine museum as well as a winery). There was also a stop along the way that was an artesanal chocolate and liquore factory, but the rest of the places I visited were wineries, 4 in total. They were all unique for different reasons, but my favorite two were Caranie and Tempus Albus. Caranie was a small ¨boutique winery¨where the owner gave the tour ... she and her husband wanted to buy land in Argentina after the economic collapse and they got a great deal on more land than they really wanted. The land already had grapes growing on it, and they were French, so they spent a year studying the vinting process and then upgraded all the machinery and started creating and bottling their own wine. Cool lady.
Tempus Albus was a really nice bodega, everything was new and shiny, and they had a wine bar upstairs where you could get 3 generous pours of the wines of your choice for 7 bucks. I picked the Syrah, Malbec, and their premium blend, which was by far the best. There were about 6 or 7 other folks, English and Australian, on the beautiful deck upstairs, and we spent about an hour talking about travelling, soccer, accents, and the Argentine lifestyle.
The bike route itself was pretty long, and I was wiped out at the end of the day. The roads varied from paved to gravel to dust, but tall trees lined most of them and the mountains were clearly visible on the right said of the road. The sun and the countryside was as enjoyable as the wineries themselves.
My bus leaves in 8 hours and I don´t have much to do except hang around the city and try to get a little bit of reading done. I went to the modern art museum earlier today, and I might check out the aquarium later, if it isn´t too expensive to get in. I will upload pictures eventually, but the computers here are terrible. I have spent 50 minutes trying to upload 5 pictures without any success.
RJ is in Brazil playing soccer for 5 days right now. Must be nice..
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
This is the Last Stop
I arrived in Mendoza today, the land of sun and wine. Well, there isn´t much sun, nor have I seen too much wine, but the vineyards are all outside of the city -- obviously -- and I think the weather should clear up mañana. Having said that, I´m really impressed with Mendoza.
I already told RJ, my hostel is like the Real World house of hostels ... it´s awesome, clean, pretty funky and cool looking, with a back terrace with a grill and kitchen, pool, foosball, ping pong, DirectTV. It has an adjoining bar, the Publick House, that looks really cool. It has everything. And it costs me half of what the place in San Martín did, where all I had was a tiny, wooden room. My elbows scraped the walls when I tried to do push-ups. Tiny. Also, I did the math today, lodging and travel over the 8 day trip will come out to just about 200 bucks U.S. total. Not bad at all!
The trip from San Martín was more or less hellacious, because the bus arrived an hour and a half late, complicating things because I had a connecting bus in Nequen that had to wait for me. The worst part of this was that I had a chocolate treat after lunch, expecting to eat between busses. Not so. I did get another alfajor on the bus. And then another one, because they wanted to apologize for the delay. Breakfast on the bus today? Alfajor. Within 18 hours the only possible nutritional sources I had were chocolate bars. Combine my low blood sugar levels and a crappy bus, and you can imagine how I felt. Luckily, I had a gigantic steak sandwich when I got in that was out of this world. Just a huge ass loaf of bread with fried egg, steak, ´Golf Sauce´ a.k.a. a mixture of mayo and ketchup, ham, and cheese. It was delicious.
In San Martín I had buffalo bresealoa and ciervo a la cazadora -- Deer: hunter style. Both were great. Tonights gastronomical treats will be the Chimay Tripel I just bought and grape leaves and shawarma from the Lonely Planet recommended Mediterranian place that is within viewing distance of the hostel. Ciao!
I already told RJ, my hostel is like the Real World house of hostels ... it´s awesome, clean, pretty funky and cool looking, with a back terrace with a grill and kitchen, pool, foosball, ping pong, DirectTV. It has an adjoining bar, the Publick House, that looks really cool. It has everything. And it costs me half of what the place in San Martín did, where all I had was a tiny, wooden room. My elbows scraped the walls when I tried to do push-ups. Tiny. Also, I did the math today, lodging and travel over the 8 day trip will come out to just about 200 bucks U.S. total. Not bad at all!
The trip from San Martín was more or less hellacious, because the bus arrived an hour and a half late, complicating things because I had a connecting bus in Nequen that had to wait for me. The worst part of this was that I had a chocolate treat after lunch, expecting to eat between busses. Not so. I did get another alfajor on the bus. And then another one, because they wanted to apologize for the delay. Breakfast on the bus today? Alfajor. Within 18 hours the only possible nutritional sources I had were chocolate bars. Combine my low blood sugar levels and a crappy bus, and you can imagine how I felt. Luckily, I had a gigantic steak sandwich when I got in that was out of this world. Just a huge ass loaf of bread with fried egg, steak, ´Golf Sauce´ a.k.a. a mixture of mayo and ketchup, ham, and cheese. It was delicious.
In San Martín I had buffalo bresealoa and ciervo a la cazadora -- Deer: hunter style. Both were great. Tonights gastronomical treats will be the Chimay Tripel I just bought and grape leaves and shawarma from the Lonely Planet recommended Mediterranian place that is within viewing distance of the hostel. Ciao!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Stop 2: San Martín
I made it into San Martín de los Andes today, and while it wasn´t what I expected, it´s still a really really nice town. It´s quaint, which isn´t necesarily what I was looking for, but it´s very secluded and I plan on renting a bike and getting into the trails and what not a little bit tomorrow. It also is supposed to have really great venison and trout, so that´s what I´ll be eating tonight.
The Lonely Planet guide had led me to believe that it had a lot of restaurants and bars around the lake, and one restaurant is described as being the ¨cheapest place to eat on the lake¨. Well, there are only two buildings on the lake, so it´s not like that was a great bit of insight.
Lonely Planet came through big time with the hostel it recommended for Bariloche though, and I met some really cool people. The hostel was probably the best part of the stay, next to Cerro Campanario, which I have some pictures of right below. The views were incredible, the pictures don´t begin to do them justice, because they can´t convey how big and impressive the lakes were and how they stretched all around you. Even still, the pictures are pretty cool..
One of the best parts of the hostel was the view, which you can see in my previous blog, but the staff and the people living there were awesome as well. In fact, I probably met more cool people in that hostel than I have during my whole trip so far. I spent most of my time with a couple of English guys, a Danish couple, a Dutch guy and an Austrian, but I also had really good conversations just hanging out with a couple of Argentines, and with a South African couple last night. The hostel had a great sense of community. We found a pub owned by an English guy as well, so the Englishmen and myself went there to watch Uruguay get beat by Argentina on the big screen. On the way home I decided I was going to take advantage of the big kitchen, and buy some groceries.
The Lonely Planet guide had led me to believe that it had a lot of restaurants and bars around the lake, and one restaurant is described as being the ¨cheapest place to eat on the lake¨. Well, there are only two buildings on the lake, so it´s not like that was a great bit of insight.
Lonely Planet came through big time with the hostel it recommended for Bariloche though, and I met some really cool people. The hostel was probably the best part of the stay, next to Cerro Campanario, which I have some pictures of right below. The views were incredible, the pictures don´t begin to do them justice, because they can´t convey how big and impressive the lakes were and how they stretched all around you. Even still, the pictures are pretty cool..
One of the best parts of the hostel was the view, which you can see in my previous blog, but the staff and the people living there were awesome as well. In fact, I probably met more cool people in that hostel than I have during my whole trip so far. I spent most of my time with a couple of English guys, a Danish couple, a Dutch guy and an Austrian, but I also had really good conversations just hanging out with a couple of Argentines, and with a South African couple last night. The hostel had a great sense of community. We found a pub owned by an English guy as well, so the Englishmen and myself went there to watch Uruguay get beat by Argentina on the big screen. On the way home I decided I was going to take advantage of the big kitchen, and buy some groceries.
I was going to make something easy, something that wouldn´t require a lot of ingredients, so I got a bag of cheese ravioli, a can of tomatoes, and a kilo of ground beef. I was paying more attention to the price than anything, and I ended up with way more beef than I expected ... I didn´t think much before telling the guy what I wanted, and I had thought a pound was 2 kilos, not the otherway around. Long story short I had an entire bag of pasta and a little over a pound of meat. I couldn´t finish it, but I definitely got my moneys worth.
I´m staying in Residencia Italia tonight, and I´m going to try to get to Mendoza on an overnight bus trip tomorrow, if I can. I´ll put up some San Martín and Mendoza pictures in 3 or 4 days, most likely.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Into the Wild
Arrival! 21.5 hours on a bus, and I never thought it would have went so smoothly. A few hours in they brought around your choice of tea or coffee, with an alfajor and some toast and jam. Dinner came later, which I thought was a little weak, because it was salad and a couple slice of ham, but it turns out that was just a starter, and I got a steaming container of beef and spinach that put airline food to shame. It also came with two complementary glasses of red wine.
I got in at about 10 a.m. this morning, and walked around town, took some pictures, ate at a wonderful Mexican place owned by real Mexicans! and went to a Patagonian museum.
There is a place that brews their own beer that looks great, sitting on the lake, for dinner, or for after dinner, and a local delicacy is roasted lamb. Trout is also big. Can't wait. Here's a picture, I took some more, but my camera is apparently broken, I hope I can figure it out before ascending the peak tomorrow. The piece that covers the memory card and battery popped off, I can't get it back on, and it won't turn on without that piece.
Mom ... I'm staying in Hostel 1004, like I told you. Sunday, at 9 a.m., I leave for San Martin de los Andes.
EDIT.Change of plans on the pictures ... I fixed the camera, but facebook won't let me upload them directly, so I am going to put a handful more here and use this site to try and put them on facebook. Enjoy.
Yep, view from the hostel.
Centro Civico.
Cathedral.
The square. Notice the Saint Bernard in the bottom right. They are everywhere around here, but you have to pay to take their pictures, just like everything else in Argentina, or any touristy part of the world.
Mexican place. Legit.
I got in at about 10 a.m. this morning, and walked around town, took some pictures, ate at a wonderful Mexican place owned by real Mexicans! and went to a Patagonian museum.
There is a place that brews their own beer that looks great, sitting on the lake, for dinner, or for after dinner, and a local delicacy is roasted lamb. Trout is also big. Can't wait. Here's a picture, I took some more, but my camera is apparently broken, I hope I can figure it out before ascending the peak tomorrow. The piece that covers the memory card and battery popped off, I can't get it back on, and it won't turn on without that piece.
Mom ... I'm staying in Hostel 1004, like I told you. Sunday, at 9 a.m., I leave for San Martin de los Andes.
EDIT.Change of plans on the pictures ... I fixed the camera, but facebook won't let me upload them directly, so I am going to put a handful more here and use this site to try and put them on facebook. Enjoy.
Yep, view from the hostel.
Centro Civico.
Cathedral.
The square. Notice the Saint Bernard in the bottom right. They are everywhere around here, but you have to pay to take their pictures, just like everything else in Argentina, or any touristy part of the world.
Mexican place. Legit.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire
Alright, that title probably doesn´t have much to do with anything I´m about to write about, but it was a chapter in The Hobbit. Great book, from a great man, J.R.R. Tolkien, who has a great quote on R.J´s blog and my facebook: ¨Not all those who wander are lost.¨
I think that kind of sums up the trip I am about to embark on. I have an idea where I want to go, and what I want to do, but I have very little in the way of real plans. I know that I am leaving in about 16 hours, and I am going to spend about 20 hours on a bus that will take me to Bariloche, the Telluride/Aspen of South America. I don´t know if there will be snow, but I imagine there will be. I am also going to stop, I think, in San Martín de los Andes, and Mendoza, the wine country. I plan on doing some bike tours, wine tours, and maybe paragliding? We´ll see.
I may be able to get a computer to post an update or two during the trip, but if not I will post again when I get back. I don´t know when that will be, two Sundays from now at the latest.
I think that kind of sums up the trip I am about to embark on. I have an idea where I want to go, and what I want to do, but I have very little in the way of real plans. I know that I am leaving in about 16 hours, and I am going to spend about 20 hours on a bus that will take me to Bariloche, the Telluride/Aspen of South America. I don´t know if there will be snow, but I imagine there will be. I am also going to stop, I think, in San Martín de los Andes, and Mendoza, the wine country. I plan on doing some bike tours, wine tours, and maybe paragliding? We´ll see.
I may be able to get a computer to post an update or two during the trip, but if not I will post again when I get back. I don´t know when that will be, two Sundays from now at the latest.
Monday, October 6, 2008
He came, we saw, we conquered.
Where to start? Well, first off, I´m tired, and I´m about to go hit a nap, because this weekend wore me out. It was probably one of my top 2 or 3 weekends here, and I´ll try to give y´all a quick review.
The concert. Was. Sick. We got there early-ish: very early by Argentine standards, but average to late by Michael´s Festival Standards. I wondered if we were at the right stage when we first found it, because there were no more than 100 people listening to the band that was playing. When the band finished about 75 of these people left, and we hunkered down in the front row, on the rail. For a Dave Matthews concert. That only cost 30 dollars. Now that´s value.
We picked out the fellow Americans with ease, and spent the next three or four hours talking and waiting. Some of the bands were good, some were ... well, I think my wording at the time was ¨queerer than a 3 dollar bill.¨ This was mostly directed at the guy who kept winking at the almost all male crowd and doing a Ricky Martin-esque ass shake, while wearing skinny jeans hemmed with polka dots and some other super-homo accesories. We couldn´t stop laughing though, and one of the songs was pretty catchy. Fito Paez played just before Dave, and this was both the begining of the good music and the begining of an important realization:
Argentina has a couple of things they are known for: tango dancing and going to soccer games. And military dictatorships, but that´s a different story. They also have a few customs which are less well known but just as much a part of their way of life. One such custom is jumping up and down and singing. Cool, right? Wrong, because when you have thousands of people jumping and pushing on you it actually sucks, and, at times, can strike fear into your heart as you almost fall down because you are standing on the ledge of the barrier and you feel like you are going to end up getting trampled. At least that was my personal experience.
Despite the jumping, the concert was awesome. Really awesome. During the second song, or an extension of the first song, depending on how you look at it, the sound system stopped working. I thought there was going to be a riot, and I was between a crowd and a hard (metal barrier) place. And then it happened. Dave descended into the crowd and came right at us. And then stopped, and started shaking hands and thanking all of the Argentines that had come out, walking THE OTHER WAY. So close. RJ´s hand was within inches of touching the man, the myth, the legend, but it was still really sweet. Other highlights include the encore, All Along the Watchtower, in which Tim Reynolds substitituted (and demolished) the Stairway to Heaven solo, improving the middle part and then, to blow the few minds that hadn´t already been, playing the last part with his teeth. Which I have filmed. It was, as we say, ¨ridonk¨, or ridonkulous.
Another highlight was Two Step. A lot of popular DMB songs have certain parts where the crowd participates, but I have never heard this done before, and I´m not sure Dave had either, because he was absolutely loving it. During Two Step, if you know the song you just have to imagine the intro riff -- which is also the jam. During the jam the crowd started chanting daaaaaaaah dah dah daaaaaaaah, for about 5 minutes while the band just rocked out. The crowd was, basically, another instrument accompanying the seven guys on stage, and Dave started to scat (the jazz-speak freestyle type thing) towards the end. It was, also, ¨ridonk.¨
During the jumping and shoving I did manage to tear my shorts, and of the 7 americans 4 of them and countless others had security pull them over the rail because they were so uncomfortable, but those of us who stayed were rewarded with front row seats to the aforementioned encore performance during which Tim Reynolds ascended into the stratosphere of most mind blowing guitar performances I have seen live, joining Warren Haynes, Luther Dickinson, and Davy Knowles.
After the concert we went to a place which really opened my eyes to what sushi can (and should) be. If you´re from Gulfport you probably know that Samurai is good, but there is a difference between a place that has great sushi because the rolls are huge and filled with awesome and exotic stuff -- coconut shrimp, mango, whatever -- and a place that just has such high quality fish that a simple piece of niguri or a regular Philadelphia roll tastes like heaven in your mouth. And that´s what Moshi-Moshi did. We also did a sake tasting, 8 kinds of sake, and they were all good, but there was one that had gold leaf in it that was a definite fan favorite.
The next day we went all around the downtown area, and did lots of cool stuff, and then met up with RJ´s friends, the mexican girls and the Spaniards, a little later. This was cool because:
A.) I don´t have a cool social group like that, and the people were a lot of fun.
B.) Two good ratios were present at this gathering: 2 native English speakers to 7 or 8 native Spanish speakers, and 3 guys to like 7 girls -- as Dylan Drake would be able to let you know, this is a ratio rarely found in Oxford.
All kidding aside, the whole group was really fun, and I´m envious of RJ for having such a tight-knit group of pals. I´m excited to go hang out with them all again in about a month. RJ may or may not have lost the memory card with the pictures from the weekend, but I will upload them if I can find it.
T-minus a few days until I take off for the Andes. Weather is about 80 all week in Mendoza and in the 50´s or maybe low 60´s in Patagonia. Can´t wait.
Take care folks, until next time.
The concert. Was. Sick. We got there early-ish: very early by Argentine standards, but average to late by Michael´s Festival Standards. I wondered if we were at the right stage when we first found it, because there were no more than 100 people listening to the band that was playing. When the band finished about 75 of these people left, and we hunkered down in the front row, on the rail. For a Dave Matthews concert. That only cost 30 dollars. Now that´s value.
We picked out the fellow Americans with ease, and spent the next three or four hours talking and waiting. Some of the bands were good, some were ... well, I think my wording at the time was ¨queerer than a 3 dollar bill.¨ This was mostly directed at the guy who kept winking at the almost all male crowd and doing a Ricky Martin-esque ass shake, while wearing skinny jeans hemmed with polka dots and some other super-homo accesories. We couldn´t stop laughing though, and one of the songs was pretty catchy. Fito Paez played just before Dave, and this was both the begining of the good music and the begining of an important realization:
Argentina has a couple of things they are known for: tango dancing and going to soccer games. And military dictatorships, but that´s a different story. They also have a few customs which are less well known but just as much a part of their way of life. One such custom is jumping up and down and singing. Cool, right? Wrong, because when you have thousands of people jumping and pushing on you it actually sucks, and, at times, can strike fear into your heart as you almost fall down because you are standing on the ledge of the barrier and you feel like you are going to end up getting trampled. At least that was my personal experience.
Despite the jumping, the concert was awesome. Really awesome. During the second song, or an extension of the first song, depending on how you look at it, the sound system stopped working. I thought there was going to be a riot, and I was between a crowd and a hard (metal barrier) place. And then it happened. Dave descended into the crowd and came right at us. And then stopped, and started shaking hands and thanking all of the Argentines that had come out, walking THE OTHER WAY. So close. RJ´s hand was within inches of touching the man, the myth, the legend, but it was still really sweet. Other highlights include the encore, All Along the Watchtower, in which Tim Reynolds substitituted (and demolished) the Stairway to Heaven solo, improving the middle part and then, to blow the few minds that hadn´t already been, playing the last part with his teeth. Which I have filmed. It was, as we say, ¨ridonk¨, or ridonkulous.
Another highlight was Two Step. A lot of popular DMB songs have certain parts where the crowd participates, but I have never heard this done before, and I´m not sure Dave had either, because he was absolutely loving it. During Two Step, if you know the song you just have to imagine the intro riff -- which is also the jam. During the jam the crowd started chanting daaaaaaaah dah dah daaaaaaaah, for about 5 minutes while the band just rocked out. The crowd was, basically, another instrument accompanying the seven guys on stage, and Dave started to scat (the jazz-speak freestyle type thing) towards the end. It was, also, ¨ridonk.¨
During the jumping and shoving I did manage to tear my shorts, and of the 7 americans 4 of them and countless others had security pull them over the rail because they were so uncomfortable, but those of us who stayed were rewarded with front row seats to the aforementioned encore performance during which Tim Reynolds ascended into the stratosphere of most mind blowing guitar performances I have seen live, joining Warren Haynes, Luther Dickinson, and Davy Knowles.
After the concert we went to a place which really opened my eyes to what sushi can (and should) be. If you´re from Gulfport you probably know that Samurai is good, but there is a difference between a place that has great sushi because the rolls are huge and filled with awesome and exotic stuff -- coconut shrimp, mango, whatever -- and a place that just has such high quality fish that a simple piece of niguri or a regular Philadelphia roll tastes like heaven in your mouth. And that´s what Moshi-Moshi did. We also did a sake tasting, 8 kinds of sake, and they were all good, but there was one that had gold leaf in it that was a definite fan favorite.
The next day we went all around the downtown area, and did lots of cool stuff, and then met up with RJ´s friends, the mexican girls and the Spaniards, a little later. This was cool because:
A.) I don´t have a cool social group like that, and the people were a lot of fun.
B.) Two good ratios were present at this gathering: 2 native English speakers to 7 or 8 native Spanish speakers, and 3 guys to like 7 girls -- as Dylan Drake would be able to let you know, this is a ratio rarely found in Oxford.
All kidding aside, the whole group was really fun, and I´m envious of RJ for having such a tight-knit group of pals. I´m excited to go hang out with them all again in about a month. RJ may or may not have lost the memory card with the pictures from the weekend, but I will upload them if I can find it.
T-minus a few days until I take off for the Andes. Weather is about 80 all week in Mendoza and in the 50´s or maybe low 60´s in Patagonia. Can´t wait.
Take care folks, until next time.
Friday, October 3, 2008
RJ Arrives, Dubious Begining
Uf. RJ got in yesterday and I´m not sure whether you could call it a great begining or not. I´m inclined to say not, but I´m also inclined to not let it put a damper on the weekend.
Everyone got off the ferry and RJ´s friends all split off to go to wherever they were staying, mostly because they had brought a lot of luggage, but RJ had only brought one backpack. I live about an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half, or a really expensive cab ride, from Downtown, so we opted to go to Van Koning and wait for his friends to get ready before meeting up with them later for dinner.
We had been sitting down for about 10 minutes when the manager came over and asked: ¨Are you missing anything?¨ Um, no. ¨Did you have anything, a bag maybe?¨ RJ starts feeling around on the ground, can´t find it. I know we both experienced an indescribable sinking feeling. ¨Yes, I had one.¨ The guy gestured for us to wait, and ran outside. He didn´t find them, but apparently he had seen two guys stop behind RJ for a minute and somehow grab his bag. I say somehow, because I don´t know how they managed to do it; at the time this happened there were 11 people in the place, not counting the staff. 11. He should have had the bag inbetween his feet, not at his side, but it just didn´t seem like anything could have happened in a nearly empty bar on a Thursday. These guys really are pro´s, and they are good at what they do.
So that was obviously a very dissapointing way to start the night. RJ lost his camera and North Face backpack, not to mention 3 days worth of clothes and a pair of shoes.
We still needed to eat, so after staying there for about an hour longer (what else did we have to lose? -- get it?) we went to go find dinner. There is a really hip place around the corner that is known for having large lines to get in and really good, reasonably priced food once you do get it in. It was about midnight so we were able to find a table for 2 without waiting, but it was still packed, and we ordered like real Argentines, without seeing the menu. Parrilada para dos. What this means is that as soon as it came off of the grill they brought us more or less a whole cow, including the innards. Blood sausage, intestine, flank, ribs, sweetbreads. All of the delicacies. Plus a big bowl of fries. And a litter of Stella Artois. 61 pesos ... a little under 20 bucks U.S. You will be hard pressed to find that kind of deal at the most popular place in any neighborhood in the country.
Of course, it was cash only, and I realized that after we ordered, which led to me leaving RJ stranded while I followed the hostess´instructions to the nearest ATM. The instructions, of course were wrong (honest to God truth: I´m not sure that I have ever received accurate instructions from an Argentine on the street. EVER. And they give them readily, they just don´t know where they are going). I asked another guy: ¨There is one two blocks that way, I think.¨ Wrong again. So I end up sprinting about 10 blocks to the bank nearby where I used to live and then sprinting the whole way back. I´m hurdling garbage on the side of the road, cutting through traffic -- people are pointing, wondering what´s going on. I felt like Clark Kent, urgically looking for a phone booth with none in sight. It was that dramatic.
So between Van Koning (they comped everything -- about 25-30 bucks U.S. -- for us because they felt bad, and because the waitress, apparently is responsible for watching for stuff like that) and Las Cholas (the Parilla where we ate) we consumed a great quantity of excellent quality food and beverage for about 20 bucks U.S. All things considered, it could have been better, obviously, but I suppose it could have been a lot worse. We could have not already done all the great stuff we have done, could not have tickets to what is gonna be a great concert today, and could not have great plans for the rest of the weekend. As I justified it to RJ, using Mom´s famous 5 year plan -- when you look back in 5 years, you are going to remember having a great weekend and doing all kinds of cool stuff a lot more than you are going to miss 500 bucks.
Everyone got off the ferry and RJ´s friends all split off to go to wherever they were staying, mostly because they had brought a lot of luggage, but RJ had only brought one backpack. I live about an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half, or a really expensive cab ride, from Downtown, so we opted to go to Van Koning and wait for his friends to get ready before meeting up with them later for dinner.
We had been sitting down for about 10 minutes when the manager came over and asked: ¨Are you missing anything?¨ Um, no. ¨Did you have anything, a bag maybe?¨ RJ starts feeling around on the ground, can´t find it. I know we both experienced an indescribable sinking feeling. ¨Yes, I had one.¨ The guy gestured for us to wait, and ran outside. He didn´t find them, but apparently he had seen two guys stop behind RJ for a minute and somehow grab his bag. I say somehow, because I don´t know how they managed to do it; at the time this happened there were 11 people in the place, not counting the staff. 11. He should have had the bag inbetween his feet, not at his side, but it just didn´t seem like anything could have happened in a nearly empty bar on a Thursday. These guys really are pro´s, and they are good at what they do.
So that was obviously a very dissapointing way to start the night. RJ lost his camera and North Face backpack, not to mention 3 days worth of clothes and a pair of shoes.
We still needed to eat, so after staying there for about an hour longer (what else did we have to lose? -- get it?) we went to go find dinner. There is a really hip place around the corner that is known for having large lines to get in and really good, reasonably priced food once you do get it in. It was about midnight so we were able to find a table for 2 without waiting, but it was still packed, and we ordered like real Argentines, without seeing the menu. Parrilada para dos. What this means is that as soon as it came off of the grill they brought us more or less a whole cow, including the innards. Blood sausage, intestine, flank, ribs, sweetbreads. All of the delicacies. Plus a big bowl of fries. And a litter of Stella Artois. 61 pesos ... a little under 20 bucks U.S. You will be hard pressed to find that kind of deal at the most popular place in any neighborhood in the country.
Of course, it was cash only, and I realized that after we ordered, which led to me leaving RJ stranded while I followed the hostess´instructions to the nearest ATM. The instructions, of course were wrong (honest to God truth: I´m not sure that I have ever received accurate instructions from an Argentine on the street. EVER. And they give them readily, they just don´t know where they are going). I asked another guy: ¨There is one two blocks that way, I think.¨ Wrong again. So I end up sprinting about 10 blocks to the bank nearby where I used to live and then sprinting the whole way back. I´m hurdling garbage on the side of the road, cutting through traffic -- people are pointing, wondering what´s going on. I felt like Clark Kent, urgically looking for a phone booth with none in sight. It was that dramatic.
So between Van Koning (they comped everything -- about 25-30 bucks U.S. -- for us because they felt bad, and because the waitress, apparently is responsible for watching for stuff like that) and Las Cholas (the Parilla where we ate) we consumed a great quantity of excellent quality food and beverage for about 20 bucks U.S. All things considered, it could have been better, obviously, but I suppose it could have been a lot worse. We could have not already done all the great stuff we have done, could not have tickets to what is gonna be a great concert today, and could not have great plans for the rest of the weekend. As I justified it to RJ, using Mom´s famous 5 year plan -- when you look back in 5 years, you are going to remember having a great weekend and doing all kinds of cool stuff a lot more than you are going to miss 500 bucks.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Waiting for Dave
I really can´t wait for the DMB show, and I have been watching videos of their concerts all week. There are two reasons that Mr. David J. Matthews is underrated, aside from his excellent rhythm guitar playing: his masterful storytelling, which, thankfully, rarely veers into political territory, with the exception of a few FEMA comments in post-Katrina New Orleans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHy0q86Kl_Q
and his sweet dance moves (and how bad is Stefan, the bass player? Geeeez.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skOY7nKH144
And Tim Reynolds is going to be with the band. And it´s highly likely that they open with Bartender or Don´t Drink the Water. Can´t wait.
RJ gets in this afternoon, so maybe he´ll finally have an excuse to put up some good pictures again.
I thought that my midterms were finished, but I have one more Monday in Spanish, so my Andes trip may start as soon as Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHy0q86Kl_Q
and his sweet dance moves (and how bad is Stefan, the bass player? Geeeez.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skOY7nKH144
And Tim Reynolds is going to be with the band. And it´s highly likely that they open with Bartender or Don´t Drink the Water. Can´t wait.
RJ gets in this afternoon, so maybe he´ll finally have an excuse to put up some good pictures again.
I thought that my midterms were finished, but I have one more Monday in Spanish, so my Andes trip may start as soon as Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Waiting for RJ
It´s been a week since I last wrote, but I really haven´t done much except study for my exams and go to Van Koning for a couple of hours on Saturday night (after Ole Miss upset Florida, of course).
I watched the Presidential Debate. I think both candidates have their strong points, but I can´t get over Palin. The more I see of her the worse it gets. There is a good clip on youtube of Matt Damon talking about her: ¨it´s like a bad Disney Movie. The hockey mom with 2 years of experience becomes President.¨
RJ changed his plans so that he could come in a little earlier (good call), and he will be here in something like 18 or 20 hours. I have a basic itinerary planned out, it´s going to be excellent. Stay tuned for updates on our adventures.
I watched the Presidential Debate. I think both candidates have their strong points, but I can´t get over Palin. The more I see of her the worse it gets. There is a good clip on youtube of Matt Damon talking about her: ¨it´s like a bad Disney Movie. The hockey mom with 2 years of experience becomes President.¨
RJ changed his plans so that he could come in a little earlier (good call), and he will be here in something like 18 or 20 hours. I have a basic itinerary planned out, it´s going to be excellent. Stay tuned for updates on our adventures.
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