Checking In

Has it really been over two weeks since I last wrote? Woah, hard to believe.

I haven't done anything on par with RJ's trip, but a few things have changed lately.

First of all, my precocious brother and sister decided to follow in their big brothers' footsteps and join the blogging world. While I can't necessarily endorse either of their views (""now as a mississippian I have seen first hand people take capitolism to a whole new level, even to the point of extreme or even beyond facism but there is a point were you have to agree with me and i do not see why everyone does not agree with what i previously wrote."/ "i guess some poeple are just born to be dramatic, and others just aren't"), I can pass on the links to their pages.

sister: spotlightonthedramaqueen.blogspot.com
brother: marchelephant.blogspot.com

Ah, good stuff. As for me, a few recent changes in my life: I finally bought my own mate, which I drank for about 3 hours straight the first night it was ready. Mate is a kind of tea that is extremely popular in this little corner of the world, and while it only has about half as much caffeine as coffee, I hear it has some other stimulants as well. All I know is that I felt absolutely wired, and I haven't drank that much in one sitting again, although it did help me knock out more school work than I have in a while.

On another note, a guitar turned up in the house today, so I've really been enjoying that. It's an old, fragile piece of crap, but the nylon strings give it a really warm sound and make it really easy to play. I'm lovin' it.

Dad is coming down in under a month, which is really exciting. I haven't even gone out in a week or two, but my justification is that I am going to ball in the next few weeks -- my Debit card debacle should be sorted out by Monday, and I plan on using my soon-to-be-accessible cash flow to get out of Buenos Aires for a couple of weekends. Pictures, and updates, to follow, of course.

I've also been playing a lot of online chess. I think rocking out to some jazz/Dave/"Creep" by Stone Temple Pilots/Beatles/Mogwai/etc., nursing a mate, destroying people in online chess, and taking it unbelievably easy may be the secret to happiness. I have 2 months and a couple days left here, and I think they are going to fly by.

I'll put something substantive up here eventually. Until then, I'm still alive and kicking,

Miguel

La Vida Argentina

We have another national holiday today, which means no school, which means we decided to go out last night to one of the biggest, best clubs in the city. It was a blast.

Looking out over the masses:

RJ is coming through Buenos Aires tomorrow, but only for a few hours, on his way much farther south. Check out his blog at some point if you get a chance, I'm sure he will put up pictures, and his trip sounds incredible. He'll be spending a few days among the glaciers, and then hiking in the mountains for 4 or 5 days. I'm really jealous.

The whole continent has the week off for Easter, so I want to do something. I may end up heading to the beach with a couple friends from here and some Argentine girls, or maybe with some Ole Miss students who are studying all around Argentina and Uruguay. We'll figure that out soon.

Our friend from Harvard yesterday had a pretty cool story. A Harvard student that he knows, or knows of, at least, was studying in Mexico and couldn't get access to some of the sources she needed for her paper, or thesis, or whatever she was working on. Anyways, long story short, one of the professors, the head of the department, I believe, made a few calls, and one day her phone rang -- the Mexican president was on the line, and apparently offered to do whatever he could to help her get the information she needed. Bad ass.

The TV is on right now, and there was a commerical that reminded me of something interesting down here. I don't know if this is subsidized by the government or not, but I assume it is: grocery stores, and a lot of other places, offer good discounts to people who pay with credit cards. I think this is because, and I think I've already mentioned this, there isn't really enough money in circulation, but increasing the money supply would increase inflation, which is already way too high. And which the government lies about.

I have an eccentric Economics teacher who worked for World Bank, who told us, more or less, "Come on man, you don't have to be an economist to realize that if you spend 20 percent more at the grocery store every month to be the same thing, the inflation rate isn't at normal levels, like the government is saying."

Approval for the current administration is falling fast, and there are talks about going against the constitutionally-set election procedures to make the election earlier in the year, before it's completely unwinnable. Or something like that, honestly I haven't followed this as closely as I should have, but it's still interesting.

That's all for now folks, take care.