Capital

Tuesday 31 July 2007

The capital building at sunset.

Paty Cerveza Milanesa

Monday 30 July 2007

A corner fast-food place, Argentine-style. I liked the green lights, though. Just so you know, the paty (a hamburger with tomato and lettuce, maybe a bun) is $1 US, 3/4 liter of beer is about $1.75 US, and a fried steak sandwich is $1 US. That's why tourists love Buenos Aires! Granted, it's not the best quality food, but still a lot better than McDonald's! (Which actually costs like five times more!)

Big Tree 8

Sunday 29 July 2007

A wonderful big tree in Parque Patricios.

Gaucho door

Friday 28 July 2007

This is the gaucho entrance. If you're a gaucho, you can come in here. Well, I'll bet if you have a mate and a knife and are wearing leather and smell like a horse you could pass.

Architect

Saturday 28 July 2007

On the older, European architecture, and sometimes on the newer stuff too, you can often see architects' and builders' signatures. It's kinda neat, to see who made the building.

However, not every building has a name on it. So, that raises the question: do only some, slightly more vain architects put their names on their work? Or do all architects do it, but only on buildings they are really proud of?

Los ojos al tigre . . .

Thursday 26 July 2007

These dirty little sayings, carefully and artistically painted, used to be quite common on all the public buses here, but are rarely seen any more. I had to snap this one in a hurry, but was pleased to find a little piece of Buenos Aires history.

It says: "The eyes of the tiger shine when meat is near." I don't really think they're talking about a good Argentine steak, though.

Tower

Wednesday 25 July 2007

A tower I saw one day. I don't know what it's for.

Building

Tuesday 24 July 2007

More typical Buenos Aires architecture.

Self Portrait 6

Monday 23 July 2007

I like this photo because between my scarf making my neck look huge, and the pencil in my hair, and the green wall, I kinda look like a witch. But I liked the picture anyway!

Booze

Sunday 22 July 2007

A liquor store near my house that I've been meaning to take a picture of. They have three display windows like this. And the whole inside of the store looks like this.

Door 2

Saturday 21 July 2007

Some of the doors here are absolutely gorgeous. I love the metal work.

Street Musicians

Friday 20 July 2007

I went to meet Ryan for our weekly Friday dinner date, and on my way ran into these guys. Man, they were making quite the racket, a full drum band walking down the street, the front guy with a hat out. I gave them a few coins, and they very happily stopped to pose for a picture. If you're looking to make a few bucks, this sure is a way to get people's attention!

Big Building

Thursday 19 July 2007

Yep, it's a great big green apartment building. I just thought it looked neat.

PC

Wednesday 18 July 2007

Yeah, Argentine's aren't very quiet about their racism. We've had students come right out and say the Peruvians are all thieves, Bolivians are here to steal their jobs, Chinese-owned grocery stores are dirty, and Chileans, of course, are terrible, mean, stupid people. They talk very openly about the "Desert Campaign," the genocide of the native peoples of Argentina, as a necessary and normal part of their history. It is taught in schools very matter-of-factly, with no mention of the fact that it was wrong to kill all those people.

Darker-skinned people find it much harder to get a job here, and foreigners from elsewhere in South America will encounter an awful lot of difficulties. The Argentines are extremely proud of their European roots, and hold up their Spanish and Italian forefathers as glorious examples of brave, adventurous pioneers who charged into this land and made it the great, European nation it is today! Yes, they consider themselves a European nation - I have heard people complain about how "South American" Argentina is getting, and that it's really going downhill.

Okay, not every single Argentine is so blatant, but many are. The feeling in the air is that the lighter your skin the better. Period.

Palacio Barolo 2

Tuesday 17 July 2007

Well, I started up Spanish classes again today, finally. And I'm taking them in this neat old building, the Palacio Barolo. Ryan and I took a tour back in September or so, and I posted about it then. This is the building that is completely based on Dante's Inferno, down to the last measurement. All the numbers, of floors and rooms and whatnot, are symbolic, as well as many of the shape and color choices. A certain number of floors represent hell, a certain number Earth, and a certain number are heaven. (I'm pretty sure my classroom is on Earth.)

Tarot

Monday 16 July 2007

I thought this sign was funny, so I snapped a shot. These kinds of things, often offering Andean love potions, are pretty common. But what really caught my attention was the line about "Ayuda laboral, espiritual, e impotencia." This amazingly talented person is offering help with work, spiritual matters, and impotence. Wow, now that's quite the range.

Knitting

Sunday 15 July 2007

So, after months of work, I finally finished the knitting project I've been working on! It is an afghan for a friend who got married an embarassingly long time ago. (And I don't believe she reads this blog, hence my ability to put up a picture of her gift.) I was just so proud of myself for finishing, that I decided to post my accomplishment for today.

Casa Saltshaker 2

Saturday 14 July 2007

So, as a late birthday treat, Ryan and I went back to Casa Saltshaker tonight. (The private in-house restaurant we visited with his parents.) In honor of Bastille Day the food was French, and it was amazing. The wine pairings were great, too. Now, I know this may be a little predictable, especially for me, but this was my favorite course - the chocolate tart.

Digits

Friday 13 July 2007

Today, as I was walking down the street, some guy (a rather greasy guy, I must say) came up to me, out of nowhere, to say that he'd love to take me to coffee sometime, and handed me this paper with his number and email. (I've whited it out so the poor guy doesn't have his info all over the internet.) Now, I don't mention this to brag or anything, because moves like this don't mean that a girl is particularly pretty, it really just means that she is noticeably female.

You see, Argentine men take the word "macho" to heart, and will give "piropos," or come-ons, to pretty much any female on the street between the ages of 15 and 70. Ninety-nine percent of the time, these are just rude comments about your ass, or the words "que linda sos" (you're so pretty) repeated over and over again. I get a lot about my eyes, because blue is pretty rare here.

I guess traditionally, a long time ago, these piropos were creative and funny. They often rhymed, and the point was to make the woman smile or laugh. It sounds like they took a lot of thought back then, and were kinda sweet. Not quite so crass as the yells and whistles and lude suggestions that fill the streets today.

So, while he definitely wins the prize for forwardness (oh wait, maybe that goes to the guy who grabbed my bum once), this guy was definitely much better than most!

Fat-free cream?

Thursday 12 July 2007

Argentines are obsessed with "light" food. All the most popular sodas here are made with calorie-free chemical sugars, crackers, cheese, cookies, everything has a light version. Women are constantly thinking about their weight, about their looks. They usually don't even breakfast (just cigarettes and mate) maybe lunch, maybe just more mate. And you can sometimes hear them turning things down with a "me estoy cuidando." (I'm taking care of myself.)

But this, this was going a little too far. This is fat-free cream. Not milk, cream. (Although really, it must just be milk by that point.) It just seemed to be taking the trend a little too far.

Pastelitas

Wednesday 11 July 2007

Another Argentine treat, these little pastries are called "pastelitas," and are often served around national holidays. Basically, they're a tiny bit of quince or sweet potato jam, wrapped up in endless layers of very thin dough. Very fatty, very oily, very delicious!

SNOW!!!!

Tuesday 10 July 2007

I was so on the ball yesterday, that I posted my picture by mid-afternoon. And see what happens when I am up-to-date? I miss amazing photo opportunities!

Shortly after I posted yesterday, it started to snow! Yes, snow, in Buenos Aries! This has not happened in about 90 years! It is extremely rare for the temperature to even drop below freezing. Everyone was out and about, amazed by the snow. For most of the people here, it was the first time they'd ever even seen snow.

It had been nearly 5 years since I'd seen snow, although I was perfectly happy to keep that count going. And it was certainly the first time I've seen it snow in July!

EDIT: I would just like to add that although the snow didn't stick at all in the city, and only collected a few inches for a couple of hours in the suburbs, and was completely and totally gone the next day, the airport canceled all international flights for 24 hours. And, although the snow came and went on a holiday, over a hundred schools canceled classes the next day because of the "extreme cold." I figured you guys up in Michigan and Canada would get a kick out of that!

Nueve de Julio

Monday 9 July 2007

Today is Argentina's Independence Day! The holiday itself has the feel of a bank holiday, of just another day off, probably because it's in the middle of winter. Nothing like Fourth of July.

But Ryan and I braved the cold and went down to Plaza Congreso to see the ceremony. This is a picture of the flag-raising, which turned out to be a very religious event. Before they raised it they said a very very long prayer to Mary, asking for peace and whatnot, and asking all the different Virgens to pray for them. They even blessed the flag with holy water! Lots of signs of the cross and a Hail Mary later, the flag finally went up. It was the most religious national ceremony I've ever seen.

We also had some churros and chocolate (nothing like a traditional Spanish dish to celebrate independence from Spain!) and the band played, lots of groups marched, some high school kids carried flags, gauchos danced, it was quite the parade.

Pigeons in the Park

Sunday 8 July 2007

In Plaza Congreso

Climb right in

Saturday 7 July 2007

Interesting piece of art in the San Telmo neighborhood.

Almacen

Friday 6 July 2007

This is a price board outside of an almacen, or small grocery store. You may notice that they've just given up on the painted prices, and go with paper ones taped on. This is because prices change all the time here. And I mean all the time. Even in our year here we've seen incredible inflation, with prices constantly on the rise. The government claims that inflation is low ("well, the price of shoelaces hasn't changed in a very long time") but everyday items just keep going up. Stores all advertise in paper like this, and many have given up, leaving ads with dollar signs empty, not bothering to show the price.

High fashion

Thursday 5 July 2007

Speaking of Argentine fashion . . . .

I can think of so many uses for this belt . . . what do you think?

Happy Birthday to Ryan!

Wednesday 4 July 2007

Well, he may not be a real-life nephew of my Uncle Sam, but Ryan was indeed born on the fourth of July. My gift (which wouldn't have to be packed later, adding unwanted weight to suitcases, only to us. But there is no weight limit on people at the airport!) was a cheesecake, one of his favorites. This was my very first attempt at cheesecake ever (I love cooking and can do a pretty good job of that most of the time, but I don't have much natural baking talent) and it wasn't quite perfect. The edges were a little burned and the bottom crust was missing something. But, it was smothered with chocolate and raspberries and still tasted cheese-cakey, so we enjoyed it!

Lottery

Tuesday 3 July 2007

Lottery tickets here are sold exclusively in lottery stores, where the only thing you can buy is lottery tickets. They usually hang the tickets in the windows, like this. I'm not sure why - so you can pick out one that looks ripe?

New Job

Monday 2 July 2007

Well, I started my new job today, which is located in the neighborhood known as "Caballito" (pron: cab-a-shjee-toe), a word which literally means "little horse." So, here's my little horse!

I am still teaching a few classes this week, but I'm really excited about this job. It was actually a lot of fun today, although all I did was check translations of kids' stories.

Park Cats

Sunday 1 July 2007

Ryan and I went to the Parque Lezama today, to start setting up the photographic scavenger hunt we're designing and putting on in the spring. (It's going to be so much fun!) There was a corner of the park reserved for cats, as usual. Many of the parks here have resident cats, of varying degrees of friendliness. (The cats at the botanical gardens were really affectionate.)People just dump them when they don't want a kitten any more, or strays move in. Here's a bunch of resident cats in the roots of a tree.