Happy gnocchi day! Feliz ñoquis del 29!

In case you didn't know, the 29th of each month in Argentina is Gnocchi Day! Can you imagine a better holiday? It comes once a month, not just once a year, and the whole purpose is to celebrate food. More details & quite a nice little article here. The bottom line is that we eat ñoquis on the 29th because of something having to do with payday, either that on the 29th you are poor and waiting for your paycheck, and flour & potatoes are cheap, or that you're celebrating that you got your paycheck, or that you put money under your plate because it's financially auspicious. Something like that. Somewhere along the line all the supersticions mixed in my head and I started to believe that you are actually supposed to put gnocchis under your pillow on the night of the 29th for good luck and prosperity, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. It sounds messy.
Anyway, E & I are going to Las Violetas, my favorite favorite old school BA café, for my last Gnocchi Day in Argentina. ¡Buen provecho!

And some more pictures of gnocchi to get you in the mood...

Gone Fishing...

I'm on vacation! Vacation in Buenos Aires. Taking my last couple weeks in this beautiful city to relax, say good-byes, and scamper around with my beautiful and intrepid friend E who has come wayyyy down South to visit me, and try not to get too sad about leaving.

p.s. it is obviously a conspiracy that Spring finally came just as I'm about to leave and the city could not look prettier. Le sigh.

Ch-ch-changes

I think of myself as someone who doesn't like change. But it seems that I actually have a strange addiction to it, as hard as it is. It's scary but exhilirating to not know what's going to happen next. All good things come to an end, and somehow I suddenly have less than a month left in Buenos Aires.
Yesterday was my last day of work as an English teacher. It's funny - I don't feel as sad or happy or anything as I expected. The hardest thing was saying goodbye to my first beginner student ever, Marcela. I've gotten close to a lot of my students but for some reason with Marcela it was more emotional, maybe because I've really seen her on this whole process of learning a language and I was so proud of her. Despite being completely different (me a random aimless foreigner here and her a mom in her forties with a family and office job and everything) we really clicked and could legitimately have fun and be silly together. In our last class we got close to tears laughing at how much we both hated The English Patient (Marcela: "Like, WHEN he die??") And then we actually both got close to tears again saying goodbye.
I've been trying my best to not think about leaving but for the first time today I did feel a little homesick for California, for family, the way the streets and the people look, how the air smells, and I got a little excited to go home.
Meanwhile I'm just going to appreciate every last minute I get to spend in this city - the way the sky looks and how the elevators smell (if you've been here you know what I mean, they ALL have the same smell), castellano, subte, dulce de leche & asado, the energy and pulse of the city. And as my friend Nina says, Buenos Aires isn't going anywhere. I can always come back.

Plastic Surgery: Why?

I've written about a lot of things on here, but never before about plastic surgery. Buenos Aires is the capital of plastic surgery, and keep in mind that I did live in Los Angeles for 4 years. Maybe the plastic surgery here is just more noticeable. But whatever it is, it's not pretty. I just don't get it. I'm not someone who judges people for wanting to look good and even for going to extreme measures to do so. Personally I hate even going to the doctor and so probably wouldn't have surgery for purely aesthetic reasons, but I think if something really bothers you, and plastic surgery can fix it, then go ahead. That said, a lot of the plastic surgery here is not good. The most common thing is a huge, stretched-out and often lopsided mouth. You'll often see this huge mouth on the same face as eyes that look like the extra skin has just been clipped away and then sewn back together. Yesterday I was in the elevator at the office building where my institute it, a huge office building that probably half the population of microcentro works in. I was standing next to an ex-famous Argentine actress from the 1980's and I could literally see the line in front of her ear where her facelift ended. Why, why, why? It's not about looking prettier, or younger. It's a really strange aesthetic that I don't understand. And what's more, when you're talking to someone with really obvious plastic surgery, it's so distracting and embarassing, and it's like a car accident where you don't mean to stare but you can't look away.
It's also pretty questionable that 15-year-old girls routinely get boob jobs as the ultimate quinceañera gift and that one of my students who is 21 just got liposuction. We think we're obsessed with looks in the United States but it just doesn't compare to here. It's strange and sad, and especially in a country with so many naturally beautiful people.

Photos: Argentina's most famous plastic surgery divas, Susana Giménez & Moria Casán

Before Sunrise

I stepped outside and into the city this morning, and something was different. The heartbeat, the flow, the mood and molecules of the city had changed.
All because of something that happened in the middle of the night, 7 blocks from where I was sleeping.
Last night was a big, big moment in Argentine politics & history. Whether it was good or bad depends on your point of view.
Here's some very, very condensed (and mildly one-sided) background information: in March, la presidenta CFdK wanted to raise taxes (from 35 to 45%) on the farmers, and they were like, no, we think we'll strike instead and she was like, well I'm not negotiating with you people, and they were like, fine, we'll just strike forever then, and also perhaps you should stop flaunting how crazily wealthy you are and how you never wear the same outfit twice while you are chastizing us for not wanting to redistribute wealth and help the poor. Or something like that.
So anyway, the proposed tax law, which was very unpopular and totally polarizing the country and becoming a very sad and seemingly deadlocked situation, was passed in Congress and went to a vote in the Senate last night. The Pro-K's were clustered in Plaza Congreso and the ruralistas in Palermo waiting for the results. The Senate debated for 18 hours and came to a tie at around 4 a.m., so it was up to vice-prez Julio Cobos to decide. No pressure there...
And then, in this totally heartbreakingly brave speech right out of some old Hollywood, Mr. Smith goes to Washington-esque movie, Cobos votes against the president, against his own party, and for the campo, saying, "Some say I have to go along [with the president] but my heart says something else. I don't think this is a reason to put the country, the government, and social peace in risk. This is one of the most difficult moments in my life... I don't believe it makes sense to pass a law that is not a solution to this conflict. History will judge me, I don't know how. I'm a family man like all of you and I have a responsibility in this case... this doesn't mean I'm betraying anyone.
May history judge me, my vote is against."*
*Which all sounded better in Castellano.
I don't pretend to know every detail, or even most details and information, about this. But I do know what most of my students and friends here have told me, and that is: this is democracy. They feel for the first time in awhile that democracy is alive and kicking in Argentina, and that the federalist system is working. Someone dared to speak out against los K. The mood on the street just feels a little lighter, a little happier, a little more proud.
Also, I totally have a crush on Julio Cobos now.

P.s. just to clarify, not everyone in Argentina/Buenos Aires is happy about what happened - far from it. The feeling I have about what happened is just what I've gotten from talking with my students and other people and trying to understand a very complicated situation as best I can.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

...with a little political tension thrown in to make things interesting.

"Don't fuck with the food."
i.e. don't screw around with the campo, where all the food is produced.

You can buy maiz to feed the palomas...
Also known as pigeons. Kind of like feeding sewer rats?
I don't know, pigeons scare me. And I'll never understand how in Spanish the same word is used for pigeons and doves.

San Telmo's Fire

Yes, I am a huge dork. But I've been waiting to use that horrible play on words, somewhere, for months. How is there not a bar in San Telmo with that name yet? (If you're out of the loop/ weren't born in the 1980's, I'm referring of course to St. Elmo's Fire, a brat pack Andrew McCarthy/Ally Sheedy movie from 1985.) Anyway, I took my camera out today, something I always forget to do, and took some pictures of my neighborhood and around San Telmo. Then I saw the most amazing sunset I have ever seen in my life. Here we go:

My favorite Subte line, Linea A, and the Casa Rosada.

Pan relleno - a HUGE fabulous piece of homemade bread stuffed with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. Against my better judgement, I ate almost the whole thing.

"Live with passion every instant of your life. Be happy, dream, and together we'll build a different future."

Plaza de Mayo

Av. Roque Sáenz Peña & the obelisco

Espanglish is espectacular

Who doesn't love Spanglish? There's nothing better than a conversation between people who both speak Spanish & English fluently (or close to it) because you can pick and choose the best and most convenient words from each language - words like "cozy" or "upset" that don't have perfect translations in Spanish, or like "regalar" or "tener ganas" that lack a perfect equivalent in English.

Exstrangers = strangers + extranjeros
What pass? = awful direct translation of ¿Que pasa?*
*Popularized by Moria Casán on Bailando por un sueño (the Argentine version of Dancing with the Stars)
Milagrous = milagroso/a + miraculous
It has sense = tener sentido + it makes sense
Living = living room
Ejemple = ejemplo + example
Fashion = in fashion/fashionable (Ex. Starbucks is so popular because it's fashion here.)

9 months in Argentina and my Spanish is still not fluent, my English is increasingly stranger and less coherent every day. But my Spanglish is just perfect. So much so that it interferes with my teaching. I think teachers who don't speak Spanish are probably better teachers in some ways, because if their students say something incomprehensible, they will simply not understand. Whereas I now automatically translate it into Spanish and back into English in my head and often don't even realize I've done it or that what the student said was wrong. When 90% of the conversations you have in English are with non-native speakers, you get so accustomed to certain mistakes that they stop sounding odd.

The most common mistakes are little things like saying "career" instead of degree, translating directly from "carrera," or getting confused by other false cognates like support & soportar, sensible & sensible, assist & asistir, etc., which sound alike but have completely different meanings. There are some pretty funny ones, like molestarse, which means "to bother" in Spanish, and translates to sentences like "I don't mean to molest you, but..." or the confusion between earn and win, which are the same word in Spanish, so you hear things like, "He wins 15 pesos every hour."

I don't have so many good examples of the same thing happening with English speakers trying to speak Spanish... Except one beloved incident that occured with W while we were living in Palermo last year. We went to a restaurant and I ordered steak & mashed potatoes, and he ordered a milanesa with french fries. The waiter explained that that particular dish was actually meant for two people. W then gestured at me and said something like, "Bueno, lo mismo," as in, Okay, I'll have what she's having in that case. And then added, "Y con papas fritas." Doubtless, when our orders came, I got my steak and W got the Milanesa and french fries for two, with an extra side of french fries. Try, if you can, to imagine the hysterical laughter, to the point of tears, that followed, thinking about what the waiter must have thought. Like, Oh really? That dish is for two? Perfect. Could I have some extra french fries with that?

Anyway. I love Spanglish. On another note, I also love winter in Bs As if for no other reason than the vendors on the street selling hot sugared almonds - I've never tried them but it has to be the best smell in the entire world.

xoxo

101 National Holidays

Good God, Argentina has a ridiculous amount of public holidays. It seems like at least every other week there is some holiday either devoted to one of the big names in Argentine history (Belgrano, San Martín, etc.) or something Catholic. Tomorrow is Día de la Bandera (Flag Day.) So are there really more national holidays in Argentina than the United States? Yes. Thanks to Wikipedia: The United States has 10 national holidays, while Argentina has 15. The UK has only 8 and Israel, apparently, has 24.
I know, you're thinking, that's awesome! Lots of holidays = good! But. First, I get paid hourly, not on salary, so a public holiday means either a day of missed pay or that I have to somehow arrange with my students to squeeze that day's classes into my schedule for the rest of the week. Second, holidays are usually spent with family in Arg, and these are the days that being an expat is kind of sad. Even my friends who have Argentine boyfriends/husbands, and therefore are much more integrated into Argentine family life, say they find these days more or less sad and depressing. On these days, you miss being around people over the age of 25, who have some semblance of stability in their life, and you remember the little miscellaneous comforts of home like having baking ingredients around all time (not just buying them each time you decide to make cookies) and having a newspaper delivered. You know, a real home.
I guess I've been feeling extra transient lately, both because I just got back from a trip home, and because another group of friends has left - the life of an expat is cycling through people who come here on vacation or travel and leave after a few months. After a while, you get a bit jaded and don't really want to invest time into these people, because as cool as they may be, they won't be around for long. And Argentine friends are fantastic, but don't really understand what it's like to live here as an extranjero.
Well. Off to commiserate with a fellow expat chica from Canada. You'll find us drowning our sorrows in locro and Malbec somewhere in Palermo.

I ♥ BA

That had to be the title because I was kind of having doubts about how much I loved BA. Well, not really, but more like I forgot while I was away. Because I was home, where everything is so much easier, it's all in my own language, there's Mexican food and the milk tastes normal, and there are trees and lawns and backyards everywhere. So much is taken for granted. But now I'm back, and I remember why I love it so much here. Even though it's chaotic and crowded and insane and there is no spicy food, there is something magical about this city. It's like a crazy urban Disneyland. It's not for everyone, but once you've lived here, you can live anywhere.

I do have one complaint, more about the entire Southern hemisphere than just Buenos Aires, and that is: winter doesn't work without winter holidays. Winter arrived while I was away and now the air is clear and crisp outside and it's warm and cozy inside, and you get to wear scarves and gloves, and I really like all that. I love winter. But I keep thinking to myself, Christmas is just around the corner, and then it's like, oh wait, no, it's June. At home winter is synonymous with Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's, lots of big holidays, big parties, cooking big meals, seeing friends & family. Christmas doesn't work as a summer holiday. I've witnessed it. Santa Claus just looks silly wearing a fur-lined velvet suit in 100 degree heat.
It gives me seasonal vertigo being down here, but I guess that won't be changing anytime soon.

Anyway, I still love it. And now, there's a Starbucks in BA!!! I thought it was an urban legend that Starbucks was coming, but it's true, I saw it with my own eyes. And Argentines, it turns out, love Starbucks even more than we do, because there was a line around the block.

Below: pretty pictures! From before I left but I never got around to posting them.

Oui Oui.

Gorgeous dog in Boca.

Even the elephants live in style. Bs As Zoo.

Working for vacation

Current theme song: Cibo Matto's Working for vacation from Stereo Type A
"Feeling wrong cuz the days are too long/counting heartbeats, 72 in a minute..." Go download, you!

Anyway, I'm going on vacation next week! On holiday, as my very properly and Britishly trained students would say. For the first time in my life, I'm going on a vacation to the United States. One week in New York and around, then one week at home in the beautiful Bay Area, in my beloved Golden State. It goes without saying that I am the most excited to see my family and friends (and dog and cat.)

Apart from that, I'm counting down the days till I can:

• Communicate effortlessly.
• Eat at Intermezzo, Cheeseboard, Gordo's, Cafe Raj, Zachary's, Cactus, SF Japantown, the list goes on and on. And yes, get a huge decaf soy latte at Starbucks. I miss that too.
  
• And, eat spicy food. Actually spicy. In case you don't know, 99% of Argentines that I've met can't eat spicy food and melodramatically fan their mouths and make desperate faces when they eat, like, a salad with a little black pepper sprinkled on it.
• Drink a local microbrew IPA on the patio at Jupiter, Raleigh's, or Triple Rock
  
• Lay in the sun in my backyard (because it's almost summer at home!!!)
• Take the dog for a run at the Berkeley Marina and watch the fog roll in
• Go to Safeway and see no less than 15 people I went to high school with and/or their parents
• Wander through the UCB campus and end with a coffee at Strada
• Do my own laundry, in my own house, for free! *Well, okay, I kind of need to edit that, since I just had a HUGE bag of laundry washed and dried for only 9 pesos. And before you think I'm all spoiled, sending my laundry out, that's the only way to get your laundry done in BA. I've never seen a self-service laundromat, and it's dirt cheap to have it done for you, because, unlike in Santiago de Chile where they charge by the kilo, here they charge by the bag, no matter how big or small. And it comes back warm, folded neatly and smelling just like fresh laundry should. Anyway.
  

What I think I'll miss most about BA while I'm gone:

• Kisses! I love, love, love the excessive amount of cheek kissing that goes on in this culture.
• The colectivos. That's not sarcastic, I will really miss the unapologetic craziness of this system. Especially now that I've discovered the 140 bus line, painted lipstick red, doing their best to out-crazy all the other lines and drivers, and give you an exhilarating brush with death every time you ride. Not bad for just 90 centavos.
• How beautiful, entertaining, ridiculous, lively & chaotic, and convenient the city is.
  
• Gorgeous Argentine men in business suits (just being honest, okay...)
• Constant public transportation problems meaning you ALWAYS have a good excuse for being late
• Hearing Spanish everywhere and therefore being able to relax and tune out other people's conversations in public places more easily than I can with English
• My adorable students! (The good ones.)
• The sky. I don't know, the sky here is something special, it's extra blue and pretty

What I won't miss:

• Lazy waiters who disappear after they bring your food and test your morals by making it too easy to dine & ditch (hacer un pagadios)
  
• Crazy inflation so you never know how much a Coke Light is gonna cost
• The occasional student who puts no effort into classes and makes me feel like every class is a bad first date
• Being asked, ¿De dónde sos? every time I open my mouth. Or people who immediately assume I am a tourist and don't take the time to realize that I can actually speak and understand Spanish, despite my accent.
• My horrible gym with its 18th century Brazilian treadmills

I just read this over and realized that my writing has a bit of a non-native English speaker feel to it these days. Pero bueno, no hace falta que escriba perfectamente aquí. Anyway, I'm tired after a long day of not working (all classes cancelled) and need to go chill out with some friends over a Quilmes, some pizza & faina. That's something else I'll miss.

Luego, mis amores!

Smoke gets in your eyes

So... nice weather we've been having. Unless maybe you've been living under a rock (or in the USA), you probably know that Buenos Aires is drowning in smoke from fires up north for the fifth day in a row. They are crop fires that, if you listen to the government, were started by reckless and/or conniving farmers. Ugh, who knows. I just want it to end.
You know when you've been in a super smoky underground club all night, and it's so gross, and you can't breathe, and you can smell the smoke in your hair and feel it on your skin? And all you want to do is emerge into the cool fresh air? Well, it's kind of like that except you can't escape. Really. Most of the highways leading out of the city are closed and the domestic airport is cancelling flights. Boo.

Well, what you can you do in this smoke but find new destinations in the city for art, culture, and air conditioning?

Today was Museo Xul Solar, Las Violetas (one of my favorite old school Buenos Aires cafés), Abasto shopping, and Casa Museo Carlos Gardel. With mi mama querida visiting me, I am getting to revisit & visit for the first time some nice touristy places. Museo Xul Solar was fantastic - lovely art, a super cool space, and lots of clean air! The others were smoky - but nice.

by Xul Solar...

Love his work!

Abasto & Gardel Museum

Pray for us here in la ciudad del humo... we've had about all the feo we can handle this week.

Luna de miel

The honeymoon's over. I've been in Argentina for 6 months, which means I don't have stars in my eyes about Buenos Aires anymore and I'm beginning to see what life here is really about.
It also means that I had to go across the river to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, to celebrate (read: renew my visa.) Before I went I was thinking about it as more of an expensive chore than a nice daytrip, but that changed when I arrived. Sidenote: to get to Colonia, you take a Buquebus ferry from Puerto Madero - there is a fast one that takes less than an hour, and a slow one that takes three hours. I took the fast one and it was basically more like a posh airplane than a boat - there were television screens and a duty free shop and nothing to indicate you were on a boat - no deck or access to the outside, no bumps or waves either.
Once you arrive, the historical part of town is a short walk from the ferry terminal. You cross a medieval-ish wooden drawbridge into the old part of the city, which is adorable, cobblestoned and picturesque. Even though it's totally touristy, it doesn't feel that way at all. It was quiet, uncrowded and serene. The perfect place to wander tiny winding streets, gaze out at the river and admire the brightly painted buildings - you could be anywhere in the Mediterranean.
While I was in Colonia, I realized something. When you live in a big, crazy city - in the case of Buenos Aires, extra big and extra crazy - you sometimes forget what the real world is like. The real world outside of the insane video game that is life in a big city. I am, undeniably, a city girl: I feel much more comfortable surrounded by skyscrapers, noise, and pigeons than trees, hills, and grass. However, I have come to the conclusion that, although endearing, Buenos Aires could drive even the most sane person in the world completely crazy.
So Colonia was a welcome, and desperately needed, breath of fresh air. It was adorable, quaint, and calm. And, I got what I needed, a stamp in my passport and 90 more precious days of legal residence in Argentina.

More pictures of Colonia below...

Pretty!

Yes, the Río de la Plata is actually that color. Silver it is not. It looks like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I don't know why.

Mellowed out Uruguayan perros sleeping in the sun.

The good, the bad, & the cheto cheto cheto

Cheto means "snobby" in Argie slang. Which brings me to restaurant review number one. (The Buenos Diaries is moonlighting as a food blog for this post.) Anyway, on Saturday I was feeling a little homesick and went in search of cafe comfort food. I had heard a lot about Mark's Deli in Palermo - like that there were real sandwiches, even brownies and lemonade! I was sold. Well... it was... okay. I actually feel uncomfortable even writing that but I don't want to criticize Mark's too harshly. Bottom line - the food may pass for upscale and interesting in Buenos Aires but it was pretty much just your basic "trendy cafe" fare - sandwiches on olive bread with smoked salmon or goat cheese or roasted red peppers, etc. The coffee was very good, and the pastries looked good. But it was simply not buena onda. I should know by now what I'm getting myself into when I go into that part of Palermo, but as I was sitting in Mark's I couldn't help thinking two things. First, if I wanted to live in Brentwood, I wouldn't have left LA. And two, am I on the set of The L-Word? Basically, it was just ridiculously trendy and not in an effortless way, either. The customers all rocked the same deliberate bedhead and this month's issue of Vogue makeup (bright lips, bare eyes) and variations on the same outfit. It was very see and be seen. I guess I still haven't learned that what is casual comfort food at home is sometimes sold as very hip and modern here. And the waiters were pretty but rude. I actually had quite a nice time at Mark's, but mainly because Jamie & I were able to make fun of the cheto-ness and focus on planning our next great adventures (to Colombia and Israel. Possibly living on the beach in Costa Rica.)
When dinnertime rolled around I was very ready for some down and dirty street food. Actually, I literally googled "dirty street parrilla buenos aires" and it came up with La rosalía, the one in Palermo, not San Telmo. First things first, go there. Just go. You will not regret it. It was awesome for several reasons. The grill faces the street (always a good sign), it was packed with locals, the waitress was exceptionally friendly, and it was very no-frills. Restaurants are always better when the focus is on the food, no? We tried to order a few things before coming up with something on the menu that was actually available. It was morcilla sandwiches (slathered with chimichurri) and mollejas. And they were AMAZING. All in all, with a bottle of wine thrown in, the bill came to 30 pesos (for 2 people.) Not bad.