BA top 9

I´m getting ready to leave BA. I´ve had a blast here, but it´s time to move on. As many great things as there are about this city, I´m ready for new people, places, vistas, and truly fresh air. But before I go, here´s a few things you have to do when you visit BA.

1) Visit Cemetario de Recoleta, the nearby Buenos Aires Design Mall, the Floralis Generica, and on weekends, the craft stalls.

2) Spend a day at the boutiques, bars, and restaurants in posh barrios Palermo and Recoleta.

3) Walk from Plaza de Congresso to Plaza de Mayo, continue to Puerto Madera.

4) Stroll throughout San Telmo visiting the boutiques and antique shops. Good cafes and bars.

5) Visit Avenidas Florida and Lavelle . Then take a vacation.

6) Eat helado, pizza, empanadas, and of course, bif de chorizo from your local parrilla

7) Drink Ades

8) Go to Lansky´s in Barrio Norte. Yes, they might play cumbia, but this is an underground porteño-only establishment

9) Eat at Dada - Bif de Lomo, Bif de Mediteraneo, and the trucha (trout) are my favorites. Visit zanzibar across the street and get Alexis to make you a Katana, Fernet and Coke, or Cuba Libre!

¡feliz cumpleaños!

Last weekend was my birthday. It was really cool how many people remembered (largely in part to facebook) and dropped me a line. Thanks!

I´d say it was a great weekend over all.

Friday night was spent eating fresh pasta and gnocci from a pasteria, putting on strange glasss, then going out to a karaoke/cumbia club until 5 am.



Saturday was spent sleeping and relaxing, having dinner at Dada, Isenbeck and Fernet and Coke at Zanzibar, and heading to clubs.


Glorious Mint was closed yet again, and Pacha was mobbed because Nick Warren was spinning. We ended up going to Crobar at 4 am, harassing a Bolivian television production at 7:30, eating empanadas at 8, and heading to bed shortly after.


Sunday afternoon was spent strolling around the amazing weekly fair on Defensa in San Telmo. The whole affair is at least a mile long and is packed not only with tourists, but porteños out for the day. There I chatted up a stencil artist and got him to make me a tee shirt - a perfect addition to my stencil collection! Happy birthday me!




Sunday night, Cecilia, my hostess, made us empanadas and a dulche-de-something pie. We drank beer, took pictures, and discussed "home medicine". Later that night we went to The Red Door in San Telmo. It´s a bar with no markings. You have to know where the door is and then follow the instructions on it to get in. Came home at 2am. After all, it was a school night.

send me text messages for free!

Click here

At the 0 prompt, type: 11
At the 15 prompt, type: 30639502

Enter your name and message

Press ENVIAR

tarea (homework)

It may seem, based on my pictures and previous blog entries, that all I do in BA is party. But the truth is less glamourous, and school and homework don´t usually make good pictures or interesting stories. To prove that I actually am doing something productive in Argentina, here´s my most recent homework assignment. We´re learning imperatives, aka, orders, and I´ve thrown in a few future tenses and gerunds as well. For example, Read this!

Hay cinco reglas hay que vivir en Buenos Aires.
(There are 5 rules necessary to live in Buenos Aires)

1) Vigilá la acera. Hay muchas baldosas que pueden chapote al aqua u orima de los perros sobre tus pies. Hay mucha caca de los perros tambien.
(Watch the sidewalk. There are many loose tiles that can splash water and dog piss on your feet. There is a lot of dog shit, too.)

2) Tené cuidado cruzando las calles porque los carros conducirán mas rapido si hay una persona en la calle.
(Take care crossing the streets because the cars drive faster if there is a person in the street.)

3) Vigilá por unos ladrones. Hay ladrones y ladroñas por todos los sitios. Tené ojos en el derso de tu cabeza, o perolé tu pasoporte, tu dinero, tu camara, o algo valores.
(Watch for theives. There are male theives and female theives in all places. Have eyes in the back of your head, or lose your passport, money, camera, or other things you value.)


4) No aspirá los buenos aires. En realidad no estan bueno y hacerán tus pulmones cambian negro.
(Do not breathe the "good air". Actually the air is not good and it will make your lungs black.)

5) Tomé mate sin azucar. ¡Aceptá el sabor amorgo!
(Drink mate without sugar. Accept the bitter taste!)

commercial districts

Often cities have various commercial districts that focus on certain wares. For instance, in New York I know of a kitchen supply district and a carpet district. BA has those too. I live in the commercial textile district, where shops sell cloth to designers and manufacturers. A friend lives in a sort of hardware/machine district in which every other shop is dedicated to lawn mowers (which is strange because there isn´t a lot of private grass here in the city).

Yesterday during one of my epic ambulatory journeys throughout the city, I stumbled on two very strange districts. First was the ´Cotillion´ district which consisted entirely of costume shops and party stores. So if you want balloons, you have to travel to this completely out-of-the-way place (in barrio Once on calle Lavalle). Second, further down Lavalle was the entirely creepy ´Mannequin´ district in which all the store windows of a two block area were filled with nude androgenous look-alikes. I´ve never actually thought about where mannequins come from, but I guess they have to come from somewhere...

mujeres de la noche

Aka, thieving prostitutes! So I was walking home this morning with my flatmate Nick, and we were approached by two large, particularly unattractive women. One started to grind him against a building. He was laughing and trying to get away, and did, and then they approached me. One grinded me against a railing and the other came up behind me and was grabbing my legs. All I could think about was getting away from them, and it wasn´t until a block later that I realized they knicked my cell phone. I really liked that phone!! On the brightside, they didn´t get my camera, credit card, keys, or cash. And Nick noted that it was the best way to be robbed...take that as you will, but I´ll take it to mean at least no one got hurt. I don´t have your phone number anymore, so email it to me. Guess I´m going shopping this week for a celu.

C.A. Independiente

Last night we went to see a football match between Independiente and Tigre. Normally the hostels and language schools set up tours go to the soccer matches because 1) they´re in rough neighborhoods, 2) getting tickets and getting into the stadium is really confusing and forces you to really experience said neighborhoods, and 3) the crowds are passionate [read: maniacal]. But the tours don´t go to the best games with the best fans in the worst neighborhoods, so of course we decided to do it on our own. The stadium was surrounded by police in riot gear. Streets were blocked off. Have you ever heard 20,000 shirtless people chanting and beating drums for 3 hours? You could feel the power of the crowd 2 blocks away from the stadium. That´s why they have a moat around the field! They make the fans from different teams enter from different entrances, and they won´t let the home team leave until all the visiting team´s fans have left. There was a helicopter with a spotlight after the game, just in case things got out of control. Oh yeah, and I did I mention the firecrackers, roman candles, and smoke bombs people brought in? I don´t know how they got them in past security. I got frisked twice.

Lessons learned: 1) don´t wear flip-flops to the game, in case you have to run, and 2) don´t throw your garbage into the concessionaire´s trash can - he´s using it as a cooler.

sex sells

I´ve noticed an inordinate number of retail establishments displaying underwear in the store windows. These are not lingerie boutiques, but also regular clothing stores, discount stores, and hardware stores.

I think I need to start a few additional slideshows...

- stores that display underwear, front and center - for reasons explained above
- panaderias - bakeries on nearly every block selling bread, chocolates, candy, and milanesas (sandwiches with tomato, ham, cheese, and of course, fried beefsteak)
- pasta shops - there are about 5 or 6 pasta shops I´ve found, but the hours are all screwy - they´re never open when I´m around!
- subte stations - just because

Walking Life

I padded through several barrios this weekend and today. Here are the highlights:

Cemetario de Recoleta, an amazing mash-up of architecture styles, mausoleums, crypts, and statues of angels and blessed virgins. People were getting their pictures taken next Evita´s final resting place. If you could choose anyone, whose grave would you get your picture taken next to?

Nearby is Buenos Aires Design, a mall devoted to Design. Watch out Scandinavia! This place does modern pretty well.

Also nearby is Plaza Francia, a park with a huge craft fair on the weekends. Everyone should be happy to know that I purchased a pair of earings for myself. Pictures to come.

Floralis Genérica is a huge aluminum statue of a flower that opens and closes with the sun! Bonito! If only they put that in the middle of the city instead of that Washington-Monument-knock-off obelisk thing.

Recoleta itself, the barrio where all these wonders are located, is the posh section of town. It´s characterized by wide avenues, plentiful foliage, smart apartments, and the most elite retail establishments.

Today my classmate and I started exploring Palermo. It´s similar to Recoleta, but not as snobby. Expensive, but not as expensive, younger and hipper than Recoleta, and full of designer boutiques, restaurants, and bars. Plenty of stencils that I captured with Mark´s camera. I´ll get them up soon.

Chao!

BA Stencils

Mi amigo Jeff Barrett has a great collection stencil photos from BA. So I´m working on my own collection and have started a second slideshow on the right. Actually, I´ve met several travelers down here who collect these things. It feels a little strange taking pictures of things people walk by without thinking about, especially when those same people can´t help but notice you taking pictures of that which they take little interest in. I´m looking forward to understanding the literal translation of some of these... For now I´ll just collect them.

cup of Ades

Went to dinner with my classmate Mark B. (´b larga´). Then we went to the flat of my friend Mark V. (´b corta´) where I made an astounding discovery: Ades! No, not like Jared´s Aids. The kind of Ades (Ah-des) you get when you´re looking for a mixer for your vodka and you think you´re using orange juice, but it comes out all milky looking and turns out to be orange juice mixed with soy milk! You can get other variations including apple, pineapple, and fruit cocktail. Not a bad drink. Not a bad mixer either, but take my advice and put it on the rocks.

Had a great night otherwise. Paced myself, got to try talking in Espanol to a lot of people, and had fun dancing to cumbia!

dolche de leche

I got to BA on a Saturday. Saturdays are dead! The streets are quiet, lots of the shops are closed, and there aren´t that many cars or people about.

Weekdays are a whole new game - people run about to work and school, cars speed up when you´re in the crosswalk, and servers deliver café y comida to various businesses and homes. I bring this up because we ordered a kilo of gelato to the apartment this afternoon - ice cream delivery! Es bueno!! Where else can you do that?

It´s finally cooling down here today, and we´re expecting rain tomorrow. I´m going out tonight to pick up fresh pasta, fruit, and a trajeca prepada Personal por me celu(some more time for my phone (SAY-lu). Escuela es bueno y hago trajecas con palabras aprendir. Buenos noches chicos! (Mike, no need to correct my Espanol just yet, ha ha)

anteojos de sol blanco

One more thing for today. White sunglasses are the ISH down here. Too bad I left mine at home, but I´ll be getting a new pair pronto! NOTE: this pic was taken in CVille and features Tyler ´T-Dawg´ Schwartz.

what others think

I had lunch with two instructors of my school today. One had recently spent a month traveling in Estados Unidos (USA) using CouchSurfing.com. She said she felt ´creepy´ and ´unsafe´ when she was in Washington, D.C. I thought for sure she didn´t go to any of the right neighborhoods, but that wasn´t it. She felt like she was at the epicenter of the Evil Empire.

By the way, it´s hot as hell here. Tomorrow it´s going to be 90. Also, tomorrow is the Fiesta Despues-Oficina (the After-Office Party) at Museum. Christian gets us in for free - capado! (but only if I get my homework done first!)

my hosts

Cecilia and Christian are my portena hosts. They are both beautiful people, physically and, as far as I know, personalities as well. Then again, everyone is beautiful here. Why?

Diet? Not sure about this. Portions are huge, everyone eats ton of meat, and tons of dulce de leche (sweet milk syrup kinda like caramel).

Something to do with the earth´s gravitational pull? Obviously you´re not a golfer.

I think it´s something in the water. I´m drinking as much as possible, but I have little hope for myself.

Classes are going well. There aren´t enough students for a group class at my level (L: Pitiful) but one is coming tomorrow. That said, I´ve had private lessons for two days. I hope to put this spanish keyboard to use soon!

I´m not in Kansas...

...but I ate there last night. My first night in South America, and I went with my flatmate and his buddy to ´Kansas´, specializing in ´North American´ food, meaning American-style barbeque. Then we hit a couple bars and a club and came home at the reasonable hour of 6AM. There is no last call time, so people just keep going! Looking forward to seeing what daily life is like during the week when the whole city isn´t recovering from the night before.

Also, I´m trying to add a slideshow over on the right there, but it´s not quite working yet... Pics are straight from my flicker account http://www.flickr.com/photos/aslinth

arrived in BA

So I´m in BA! Hosts are both really nice and one speaks English pretty well, but she said she´s going to stop on Monday when I start taking classes. Looking forward to that - the sooner the better! There´s another boarder here, Nick, the perennial world traveler from the UK. He was asleep when I got here because he out until 6am. Perfect! He knows the city really well and has already provided a lot of good info. Looking forward to a nap, a stroll, and some food and drink!