Halloweenies

Amanda and Kea had a halloween party last night, but if you can believe it only the Argentines dressed up! They looked great and we had a blast, and I, as a result, spent all day in bed today. In recovery.

Ok I can't get this second one off, but I like it so there you go, you've got it twice!

Gorgeous!

Gina and me after a fantastic meal at Cabana Las Lillas in Puerto Madero. Beautiful food and atmosphere. Gina was wuite popular with the waiters. One of them was staring so hard that he walked right into a wall before I got there. You can see why, though, what a hottie! Word has it that eating at this restaurant is supposed to be one of the things everyone should do before they die. I say, if you got to Argentina and had some steak you are pretty much dying happy, but if you want to get technical about it...

Whew!

So I have so much to catch up on! The past weekend was great, on Friday I warked from 8 til 8 and was dying and fell asleep early and slept through the "girl's night" I was supposed to go to, which was terrible, but luckily I was able to hang out with Vanessa (the hostess) the next day and go to the MALBA museum to check out the Andy Warhol exhibit on and have lunch in Chinatown. And when I say town, I mean block, because that is how large the "town" is. One block long with a few restaurants, but it was a good change of pace and I found some chili paste which should be hot, and I got to have some new flavors on my little tongue! Then we did a little shopping in the Juramento fair before heading out.

I went to meet Kea for a coffee (wine) then went back home for a few minutes before Amanda came over and we went to Bar 6 for a drink. It was very swanky and nice, but we got cut off at midnight, because the elections were the next day and the law here states that there is no alcohol to be sold after midnight the night before an election. Can you imagine a place that takes voting so seriously? I thought it was great. I heard in Peru it's three days you have to wait. Kirchner (the president's wife) won here in the province, and Macri, who owns one of the fulbol teams, won in Cap. Fed. Very interesting. Apparently, according to Pablo, my new favorite student (who incidentally invited me and Levi to his house for parilla because he is the self-proclaimed best in the world...) we are glad to not have Chiche Duhalde in power, she is a mafioso and worse than her husband. I taught him the term "power hungry." He loved it.

Then Sunday I went to my friend Anna's place and had dinner with her and her friend Allan and we had Munchi's ice cream, best yet! I loved it! And that was my weekend, very nice.

Monday I worked as usual. Well, actually, my new schedule has me working Mondays, which is not so great. I really did like the days of the three day weekend, but alas, no more. Anyhow so then I went home to meet Seema and Laurie which was really fun, we had coffee and I heard about their adventures at Iguazu Falls. I really want to go, they totally had a blast. Then I met them for dinner and Gina took us to Desnivel in San Telmo. Oh my god it was great. Great, great, great. Loved it.

Tuesday I worked, had an awesome class debating the ethics of cloning, then met Carmen, my intercambio for a chat, and after came home to sleep. Today I worked then met my new intercambio partner, Johanna, which was awesome. She is really cute and fun, and has been to San Francisco! So hopefully we will hang out this weekend, but if not then defnitely we will be chatting next Wed.

This weekend the plan is to party party party. Sat I am going to a halloween party at Kea and Amanda's, then Sunday recovering, then Monday is Gina's halloween party with the brilliant theme "dress as a profession that begins with the letter P." I will be going as Evita, a politician!

Buenos dias amigos

Ok so I think I just hit a button and published a blank page. Well, that's for all the people not too interested in reading lengthy entries. Anyhoo, I wanted to put up a little update that was less angry more interesting, so here goes.

Last weekend I went to a party with my friend Anna, and brought Kea and Amanda with me, which was a blast. Anna is a girl I met at a training at one of the schools, and she is from Ireland and is living with a Swedish girl (I think.) She brings my international-friends quotient up by a lot! Anyway she is taking Spanish classes at UBA and her friends were having a party. They live in this beauuuutiful house in Palermo, with a giant terraza and 14 roommates. It was almost all Americans (yawn) but there were some Argentines (yay!) who said my spanish was really good (swoon!) and we partied all night. Kea and Amanda both net boys which made for a really exciting night for them, and Anna even kissed one, though she didn't really know why, but what the hell? She's in Argentina, who cares! It really made me miss Levi, though. But got me a reputation as a matchmaker, so now everyone wants to rub my belly. The boy-finding buddah? Catchy.

Anyway then on Sunday we went to a bar to watch the big River-Boca soccer game. Huge, rivals, really big deal, we lined up outside the bar to get in and get a seat, ordered our beer and empanadas, then got ready to watch the game. Ok, the entire place was silent. No chatting, no conversation, nothing. It was weird. Then, the game ended 0-0 and the whole place cleared out in about 30 seconds. Everyone just got up and left. Half-drunk beers were on the tbales, no one stayed to chat or reminisce about the plays, it was completely empty and we were left staring at each other wondering what just happened? It was pretty funny.

Other than that it's just work as usual, I had my intercambio with Carmen last night, which was fun, and then I went home and went to bed to get ready for my classes today! Whew!

Buenos dias amigos

More Pics? Jes!

Photos!

Here are some photos that I have been meaning to upload for a long time. The first is at the reserva, a beautiful refuge just minutes from the city. Soon that may be me and Levi there on that bench... The second is Gina looking so cute at lunch in one of my favorite cafes, the next is a swing from the park where we had our picnic last weekend, the fourth is a picture of the beer just minutes before it was down the hatch! Quilmes is the most widely drunk beer here, from what I can tell, but is slightly better than Bud or Miller. Whatever, we like it!!! Cheers!

My Lunch With Pablo (action figures sold separately)

So a funny thing happened today, I was sitting having lunch talking with my student when the guy at the table behind him all of a sudden fell to the floor- his chair broke right in half! And his whole table started clapping and gave him a round of applause. I was dying- I have never seen anything like it before! It was hilarious. Pablo, my student, just smiled, shook his head, and said “There you go, only in Buenos Aires.”

He also gave me a short history of the politics here. There is a race for a seat in the Senate going on right now, so I have been loosly following it and was asking him if he was going to vote and who he would vote for. First of all, he told me about the last time he voted. A strange thing happened, he said, because the person in front of him was a transvestite. He was a giant man dressed up as a woman. So Pablo looked around and wondered if he was in the right line- because in Argentina men and women line up in different lines to vote. Crazy!

Anyway so the main people who are running for seats in Capital Federal are two women, Cristina Fernandez del Kirchner, the wife of the current president, who is actually from the province of Santa Cruz and built her political party there, and Hilda “Chiche” Duhalde,who is from Cap. Fed. and is the wife of the interim president who backed Kirchner for the permanent job. Kirchner, the president, is now speaking against Duhalde, though they are both from the party. In fact they are all part of the same party. People believe that just by saying you are a Peronist you are more popular, but what is means to be a Peronist is actually very different depending on who you are. Pretty loco. Another of the front runners is an entrepreneur who owns the popular futbol team La Boca Juniors. As a side note, both groups are under investigation for buying votes by way of cash, electrical equipment, shoes and soccer cleats. They really know how to get to the hearts of their constituents, I guess.

Pablo also told me about the immediate time in 2001 when the economy crashed. Apparently the president at the time was facing such strife and antagonism that he one day got into a helicopter and just flew home. Classic. In the following two weeks they had a total of 4 presidents before Kirchner was oficially appointed to finish the term until 2007 when he will no doubt run again. This, I believe, explains why there is so much animosity toward the president from people here. They all speak of the corruption of the government and lament the fact that there is no immediate upturn for their economy in sight. It's sad, really. So in turn, to protest, instead of inserting their ballots, they put slices of salami in their ballot envelopes. Power to the people!

Well here I am enjoying the view, and what a view it is!!! I am not quite in the baggy-eyed club, like a proper Argentine, but as you can see I am getting close. The other night I was woken up at 3:00 in the morning while a parade went down the street, drums, whistles, chanting, clapping and all. Spent the weekend drinking mate and Quilmes, the official Argentine beer, and talking to a bunch of other teachers and expats. I had a great time Saturday, with my bi-weekly mate group, who meet at Vanessa's house and walk to the reserva and drink mate and eat facturas on Saturday afternoons.

Sat. night I went to Kea and Amanda's house. We hung out, watched Sex and the City and drank Calimochos, which is cheap red wine and Coke. So delicious! This week I am working, and the evenings are going to be busy. Tues. night I have an intercambio to practice my Spanish. Wed. night there's a music show at a bar close by, which I definitley want to catch out, if I can stay up for it! Then Thurs. there is the annual monthly gallery night on Costa Rica, by my house, with open bar for 10 pesos! Yeah!

The Tues. Thurs classes with ABS at Atento are continuing through the month, and then Levi and I are going to be working the summer camp Nov. 9-11. It will be great- Levi is going to have to practice all those campfire sing-alongs on the guitar!!! He gets here the 5th, I am SO excited!!!