06/07/09

How uneventful.

 It rained again today. This cancelled my trip to El Tigre with my family. This also made the walk home from school more of a swim. I took a nap, watched a Southpark episode in Castillano, and then ate a pizza that only cost me $1.45. It turned out to be a pretty good pizza. I finished homework, cleaned the apartment, and am now going to sleep. Sorry this is kind of a waste of space but I figured I would at least keep up on this weeks events while I can.

   Buenos Noches,  pero no besos porque de la gripe.

Translation: Goodnight, but no kisses because of the swine flu.

05/07/09

Sunday, the day of rest.

I have never been more relieved that out of all days to follow the 4th of July, it was followed by a Sunday. Last night was great, 4 of my friends from school and I went on a Buenos Aires adventure. It's amazing how fast time flies when you are dancing and seeing different parts of a new city. Since I took the liberty to not wear a watch while I am here, I was a bit surprised to see the time when I returned home. 7:00 am is supposed to be an early morning, not a late night. 

Nevertheless, it was a great night and I had a ton of fun with my new friends. I am going to get a few pictures so you can see what the Buenos Aires nightlife looks like. Check back in a few days.

For now, I'm going to enjoy my Sunday.

Oh the wind chimes.

04/07/09

It's the 4th of July. 

I am in a place that doesn't care and I don't blame them because I didn't even have the slightest idea that their independence day is 5 days later. I woke up in Lujan this morning to an Argentina rendition of an American omelette. After breakfast Sebastian took me to the city of Lujan to see this beast.

This is a cathedral of some sort and I am totally spacing on the name of it......oh its called   The Basilica Nuestra Señora de Lujan | Thanks Cande | and since this picture really doesn't do it any justice, here are a few more to give you an idea.

Imagine the street littered with people and no visible pavement for a mile.

Once a year people from Buenos Aires walk to this place to gather around and celebrate God. It is a 43 mile walk so it takes nearly an entire day to get there. A pretty amazing thing if you ask me. 

      The merchants that lined the outside of the building all had wind-chimes that played in unison as the breeze tickled the glass. As we walked through this wind channel of sound, the resonance of a normal wind-chime resembled something similar to a symphony of harps all playing the same chord. If this isn't a spiritual place then God stop the wind.

Lujan.

03/07/09..... After Boca

Today after school I decided to go with my cousin Sebastian to his families country home in a town called Lujan.

Es mi Tio Mariano.

...

 Tonight it seems that I have been introduced to an entirely different side of Argentina. I am in a very nice house in a place called Lujan. I am in a bed with a sailboat comforter. I am in a country club weekend quinta. Although it took an hour's drive to get here, I still feel at home. I think I finally have realized the true meaning of the saying: "Home is where the heart is." It's not the hotel room or apartment. It's not where you go to sleep or where you wake up. It's not whether everything is completely different or exactly the same. Home is simply, where you want to be. And right now I don't want to be anywhere but here. I have felt this way for almost the entire time i've been in Buenos Aires. A great contribution to this is my family and their eagerness to not only entertain and feed me, but to also keep me warm in both a physical and mental sense. I don't know that i've ever felt so welcome in my life. It really has opened my eyes to the fact that family, whether you can understand them or not, is family. It's hard to swallow, but it took for me to come all the way here in order for me to realize that I have the most amazing family not only here but waiting for me to return home safely. 

      On a side note:

I feel sorry for the ceiling fan because in winter he's forgotten.

I wanna rock right now.

03/07/09

One of my favorite things about being here so far is listening to my cousins and other Argentines sing songs from artists such as; Coldplay, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keane, Pink Floyd, etc. Not only is this entertaining for me because I like most of the music, but mostly because I'm pretty sure they don't understand the majority of the words they are singing. I must admit if i was playing a game of "You now how I know you're gay?" and the answer was "Because you listen to Coldplay" I would be guilty... of liking Coldplay. It was amazing to be driving through the Barrio of La Boca, seeing things i've never seen before while listening to Coldplay's song titled Scientists. Currently I am listening to a song named "Chromakey Dreamcoat" by a group called Boards of Canada. If you've never heard of them then you not only suck at life, but also need to buy one of their albums. Today I saw the barrio of Boca. Boca is famous for their futbol team and for being a huge part of the immigration into Argentina. I learned that the colors blue and yellow that are used for the teams jerseys were chosen because they couldn't decide on colors so they said "We will use the colors of the next ship that comes into port". The next ship that sailed into port happened to be from Sweden. To this day, the Futbol team remains blue and yellow. The city, although it looked a bit more run down than the rest of Buenos Aires, was very beautiful in it's own ways. So far my favorite thing about Buenos Aires is that each Barrio has so much to offer. Around each corner is a new experience waiting to take me in.  If you are curious as to what Boca looks like, this might give you an idea:

    This is the Boca futbol team's stadium

 In 20 minutes I leave to go to my cousin Sebastian's families country club. So I should have pictures from that tomorrow. 

But for now, chau

01/07/09

Last night I went out with about 20 students and a few teachers from my school. We went to a little restaurant in Palermo called "El 22". The idea of the evening was that our teachers were going to order different cuts of beef and let us try the different parts of the cow without telling us what part it was. I'll admit I felt a little left out at first for not partaking in this experience, however I wanted to make my first Argentine steak experience extra special. So Colja(A friend of mine who is from Germany) and I ordered the Lomo or what is the equivalent of Filet Mignon here. Hands down, no questions asked, the best steak i've ever had. But the best part of my dinner had to be the salad I ordered. Apparently not all countries do things the same way. I was wrong to assume that a salad automatically comes with lettuce. So when I asked for a salad with only tomatoes, to my surprise, minutes later, I had an oversized bowl full of chopped tomatoes in front of me. I couldn't tell whether or not the grimace on the waiters face was because he hated tomatoes or because I liked them so much. 

Nevertheless, last night was eventful.

 I was unaware that today was "Take advantage of an American" day in Buenos Aires. What an interesting day. Today I learned the majority of bad words used in Argentina (Thanks to my teacher and her persistence for us to know them all). After school I went to lunch with Veronica, I had an amazing Torta with cheese and ham. Afterwards I went to San Thelmo with my cousins. San Thelmo is the oldest Barrio or neighborhood of Buenos Aires. This is where a good deal of Tango dancing occurs on the weekends here in Argentina. after that I came home, took a 4 hour nap, had a salad, soup, and soda that cost me 100 pesos(hence the Take advantage of an American Day comment), and now I'm going to bed.

Oh ya,  

here are some photos:

30/06/09

a brief exchange of  banter with myself,

   I am spoiled rotten.  My life back home in San Diego doesn't cease to exist when I'm gone. I know I'm spoiled rotten because this is a difficult concept for me to grasp. Although I have always been grateful for everything I have and all the great experiences I've been fortunate enough to live through, I guess I always just felt that if I left, everything would turn to stone and wait for me to come back. 

 This is where my thoughts start to bleed through my fingers and on to this oh so useful blog of mine. Because if it weren't for this blog I would have nothing to read over and over again before I fall asleep, smiling at the clever and the witty thoughts that constantly fill my head before I close my eyes. 

 It's vanity I tell you, it's back and it's worse than ever. It's funny how sometimes someone can be the most insecure person, and the next day feel like they're always on a Bachelor's Promenade. 

] A Bachelors Promenade:

  Noun

  A midnight stroll through a well lit street

  where the women flock like pigeons looking

  for bread crumbs. 

Oh how this has never been the case and how it never will be. I feel like there are so many people out there living their lives through the eyes of someone who is much more physically attractive. I don't why I am ranting, but to be quite honest, I feel relieved. Thank you blog, you are my dreamcatcher.

Goodnight. Buenos Noches. Chua.