Let's talk about food...again

I'm not going to lie, the lack of food variety is starting to get to me...well a little bit. What I meant by 'food variety' is the different types of cuisine. While the Argentine have great great great steak and various kinds of yummy local dishes, they do use pretty much the same ingredients for almost everything, (scream JAMON y QUESO!), and they aren't big in seasoning either. I've found that they keep spicing up to the minimal, like salt and oil.

Different types of cuisine restaurants do exist here, BsAs is a big city after all. However, they are definitely not the everyday fare type of eateries and you have to seek them out. Not like we can let's go around the corner and have a bowl of Pho. Don't like Pho, let's go down the street a bit to grab some wings then. The prices for these 'specialty' restaurants are above average also so they are a luxury.

A couple weeks ago, my visiting friends and I lunched at a contemporary Argentine restaurant. It was a cool place and I had a nice smoked salmon sandwich, not sure about the choice of bread, but I was glad to have a change to my tastebuds. For a sandwich like this, you could easily find one at a half-decent cafe in N. America, but here you have to go to a semi-highend one, and for the price, it's around, if not more, than a sirloin steak at a local parrilla. While I don't want to say I took things for granted when I was back home but I surely didn't realize actually how accessible global cuisines are there.

I want to give a shout out to dumplings, congee, good chinese noodle soup, pho, pad thai, samosas, buffalo wings, pancakes, curry, tacos, Loblaw's sushi...yes even Loblaw's sushi, I miss you!

This or That

I have been pretty much only talking about things that I like here in Buenos Aires, and you must wonder there has to be something that I don't like. Well, you're absolutely right and I think it's time to balance things out a bit. There are 2 things I really do not like here in Buenos Aires and both of them constitute the quality of the air that I breathe in everyday. Yikes!

One is the exhaust from cars and most of all, from the coletivos (buses). We have many coletivos running on small streets, big streets all the time, and literally you'll see black smoke coming out of them. When I see one coming, I'd time my breath so I could hold it in but sometimes it's totally impossible when there are 2-3 buses in a row or you're stuck in a cab with windows down. (The latter was really bad.)

The other one is second-hand smoke. Argentines LOVE to smoke. While many countries have been banning smoking indoors or educating people about smoking etiquette, these 'ideals' back home do not exist here. They don't care if their cigarette is burning right next to you even if you're eating, they don't care if they are blowing second-hand smoke into young children's faces, even if they are their own. They want their fixes so badly that while leaving the subte station, they'd already have their cigarette ready and lit while going up the stairs, and have their first puff at the same time they stepped onto the last step of the stairs. Wow, what a timing eh?! Whenever I saw that, I just can't help but think, 'come on, really?! Is 30 more seconds gonna kill you from not smoking a cigarette?'

In the Microcentro area (downtown downtown), there are many narrow streets and buses go through them all the time; at least one every few minutes if not 3 at the same time. There is also a street called Florida which is pedestrian only (yes the shopping street), no buses BUT full of people walking and smoking. So after a while having to walk through those areas everyday, I had to take a pick. Bus exhaust or second-hand smoke? Which is less hazardous? Which path is less unpleasant? Which is easier for me to maneuver to pass by this yucky air area asap? And I've eventually decided that Florida street full of smokers is marginally more manageable. I figured I can at least duck or swerve or bypass them but when it comes to big clouds of black exhaust from the 'monstrous' buses, there's really no escape...may lord be with you...

Summer Drink

The warm weather has really picked up here, hitting 30 almost everyday. One of my favorite summer drinks has to be ice tea but such sentiment of mine is not shared by my fellow Argentinians unfortunately. You won't be able to find it anywhere (well, except in Chinatown, but isn't that like everything else? Can't find something, go to Chinatown, they should have it! lol) You thought with the very hot weather here, refreshing ice tea would be a booming business already but that's actually very far from the truth. I was told that big companies like Lipton, had tried to bring it to the market but everyone had failed miserably.

When it comes to non-alcoholic drinks, the Argentines drink a lot of pop, juices, water or flavored water con gas or sin gas (carbonated or non-carbonated) and all these beverages can be easily found in every Kiosko (corner store). Since I don't like carbonated drinks, I left with water and juices to choose from, and sometimes you just don't want plain water. Flavored water is too fake for me so juices it is. From having only a mere 4 -5 choices of juices here, I have to say that we N. Americans are really spoiled with the unending choices of products back home. I'm not complaining though because I always just like it simple, apple juice with the occasional orange juice.

Sometimes I do find the juice too sweet so I've started mixing it with water. And guess what, the juice brand Cepita (by Coca Cola) have just released these new products that are just like that! 3 flavors of fruit juices (not fake flavoring) mix with water and sugar: manzana (apple), pera (pear) and pomelo (grapefruit). After having seen the TV commercials for the 50th time, I finally picked one up on a hot afternoon and it was exactly what I needed, something natural tasting, just the right amount of sweetness, refreshing and cold! Despite that I'm still missing my ice tea on-the-go, I can now officially announce that I've found my summer drinks!!

Reading Materials

One morning I went to the bathroom at work and there they were, a good few copies of Playboy were splattered across added to our magazine collection in the bathtub! Someone really scored some nice reading materials for the bathroom break eh?! I have no problems with them personally but then after a second of reality check, I was like this is a workplace and this is umm... inappropriate?! But then again, this is Argentina. Remember the aforementioned in-your-face bare titties and bumbums magazine covers all over at the newstands?

I guess at least Playboy is considerably tasteful in comparison to many other rowdy ones but this is something definitely will not happen in North America. That could easily become a case of sexual harassment lawsuit. It's kinda odd that I didn't even feel uneasy even when a coworker read it while eating lunch next to me. I think my indifference may be due to the fact that I'm already brainwashed by not only the constant racy magazine covers but also primetime TV shows where girls dancing with pretty much a bare butt in my face, being thrown up and down in almost non-existent skimpy skirts or totally see through body linen suit, or there's always a hot sunshine-girl-like in bikinis or lingerie picture on the front page, yes FRONT page, of the free dailies you get on the streets... For the guys who are reading this and are already searching for the next flight to BsAs, I don't blame you. The weather has been hitting the low 30's these days as well, so you never know what you will see on the streets. LOL

Po-tA-toe

I've always thought that Americans eat a lot of potatoes but I think Argentines could easily surpass that. I don't have statistics but I really think they eat potatoes as much as they eat beef. Many dishes they serve here say 'con guarnición' (with garnish). Typically when you see the word 'garnish' you'd probably think green vegetables, but not here, it means it comes with potatoes only. You will get to choose how you want your potatoes though: papas fritas (fries), puré de papa (smashed potatoe), papas noisettes (in ball shape), papas regillas (waffle fries), papas al horno (baked potatoe), papas españolas (scalloped potatoes) etc etc.

I do love potatoes but sometimes you do wonder would that be too much potatoes for my body. The ultimate potatoe dish I have had so far has to be this one that's called Fideos Chinos. It has chinese in the name so I was like ok, that's interesting... Asked the mozo (waiter) what it was, he tried to explain it to me which I couldn't really understand perfectly but then he said 'es muy bueno' (it's very good) which I totally got it, so I decided to give it a shot.

Since I wasn't sure what I was expecting, I was a bit confused when it arrived at my table. It looked pretty much like a Chow Mien but the mien (noodles) were noodle-shaped po-tA-toe! Thus its name Fideos Chinos ('Chinese Noodles')! LOL So just like a typical chow mien, there were some kind of meat (they used ham), eggs and veggie (peas in this case). It tasted fine but it did get heavy real quick. Argentine's food is pretty straightforward in general but I have to give them an A+ for creativity on this one. They do look like udon in this picture don't they?

Parrilla

While my castellano (the type of spanish Argentine speaks) is improving at a turtle-speed and still very far away from being fluent, I figured that I need to do something else to add onto my Argentinism. I had the pleasure of being invited to someone's house and they have a built-in parrilla there! And of course, we had bbq meat. yummmm... Anyway, even it was only by observation, now I know how to prepare a parrilla for asado and how to clean it. Here are what need to be done...

To start, you put big pieces of coals on the wire shelf on the side and put newspapers, woods or what not underneath to get a fire going. Once the coals started to burn, they'd break down into smaller pieces and you'd spread them evenly at the bottom of the grill. That would take some time and patience so that you can warm up the grill real good for the main event.

When the coals are all white and hot, nicely mattressed underneath the wire grill, it's time to bring in the meat! I don't think they really marinated the meat other than sprinkled them with some salt; which I think it's because the natural taste of the Argentine meat is flavorful enough. So that day, we had chorizo (pork sausage), asado de tira (beef ribs) and chuleta de cerdo (porkchop), as seen in pic.

To serve them, we put them in a little grill which is called parrillada. We actually put burning hot coals on bottom layer to keep the food fresh and hot. It was reeeallly hot to handle, gotta watch it. You can actually order parrillada in the steak house too, that's definitely something one should try since they put all kinds of meat on it and you'll get to try different cut of meat and parts of the cow, and yes, that include organs.

I did learn how to clean the parrilla but cleaning is never fun to talk about so I'm just gonna skip that. Buen provecho! (Bon appétit!)

Ready for the jungle

I am planning to go to Iguazu Falls next month when a dear friend of mine comes to town. I was told that it's not absolutely necessary to get a Yellow Fever shot if I'm only going to stay on the Argentine side but of course it's recommended given Iguazu Falls is located at the border of Argentina and Brazil, and I doubt there is an air border control screening problematic mosquitos like how we human beings scan for flu-like SARS symptoms at the airport. (You do want to get a Yellow Fever shot if you are heading to Brazil though, I think it's even required for people from certain countries.) Especially mosquitos love me for some reason, so I have decided to be safe than sorry.

After some inquiring, I've found out that I can actually get it for free at the Public Health of Borders office! I was delightfully surprised and impressed at the same time and then my usual inquisitve nature was to ask 'why?'. Argentina has public healthcare and it is available to everyone, not just local. In fact, I was told that it is in its constitution that whoever sets foot on Argentine soil, he/she will be treated equally as any Argentine. That's why a lot of people from nearby countries, which don't offer affordable healthcare, come to Argentina just to get medical attention. This public service is, of course, funded by tax payers' money and not surprisingly, I have heard quite some disgruntled complaints from the locals about this issue.

Rather than getting all political about this right now, I just want to say I am very thankful for the generosity and hospitality of this country for making my life much easier. The process was super fast and easy. All I needed to do was headed to the public health office, passport in hand, waited for ~10mins to have my name called, clean individually packaged needle skilfully and swiftly inserted into my arm, passport returned to me with a signed and stamped certificate, and off I went vaccinated! I may feel pain or fever in 3-4 days but still Swwweeeett!

My Favorite Dish

Not sure why it took me so long to talk about this, anyway, here we go! Argentina is famous for their cow products and that includes eating them. The most popular way of cooking the meat here is the method called 'asado', using a 'parrilla', the grill. When we say we go to a parrilla, that means we're going to a BBQ steak house.

I, of course, have a couple favorite parrillas but my ultimate one has to be this place called Manolo in San Telmo. I love Desnivel like everyone else but Manolo has this fabulous dish which is just absolutely absolutely amazing!! Get this, it's not only a sirloin steak but they fold this big steak with ham and cheese in between, in other words, it's like a ham and cheese sandwich but the steak is the bread!!! How rad is that?! I have to say, however, may be it's the inflation or they got smart, the size of this dish has significantly shrunk since a year and a half ago. They even skimmed on the garnish! Anyway, you be the judge...upper right is this year's, on the left is last year's. Same dish.

I think I have to go back again to investigate, what do you think? eheh

Hay Un Problema Grande!

I have been delaying my visit to MickyD here because I know I shouldn't. However when every morning comes, I always think about Egg McMuffin. I usually save this treat for those 'special' mornings after a late night of whatever you fancy to imagine but this morning, totally out of laziness and burning curiosity, I decided to make my trip there. I pass by the Golden Arches everyday on my way to work and it´s only a block away. You see now how good I´ve been for not having been there yet?! Me so proud of me and you should too.

Anyway, hugely anticipating my first MickyD yummy breakfast with a growling stomach, I walked into the oh-so-familiar set up of everyday McDonald…but not so soon, don't let that fool you because the MickyD here does NOT have Egg McMuffin!!!! OMG!! [insert extreme thunder sound effect here, then cue in sad sad sad violin music] After a few deep breaths, I collected myself and reinvestigated the menu. Argentines aren't big in eating eggs for breakfast, as a matter of fact, not at all, so there is only one choice with egg. It is like the Egg McMuffin but with the bagel and we all know how their bagels are. Since my stomach was screaming at me, it wasn't the time to be picky, so I ordered the only alternative: 'Bagel con huevo (egg), lomito (ham) y queso (cheese)' with my tea.

While I was walking to the office, I kept thinking how can they not have McMuffin, it's such a simple thing... and then it suddenly dawned on me that I don't think I've ever seen English Muffin here! May be you could find them in the very N. American-like Palermo but I wonder how much they'd cost. Anyhow, sat down at my desk and couldn't wait to chow down this bagel thingy but guess what, the girl gave me the wrong one! It had no egg! Urgh! I could have gone back to exchange for it because the receipt did say so, but it felt so not meant to be so I stuck with the no-egg breakfast. It was quite a disappointment to say the least but on the bright side, they did give me warm milk for my tea.

Discovery Walk

Buenos Aires is a super walkable city and I absolutely love that about it. Traffic jam is no longer my concern, finding parking is none of my business and even when I'm tired of being a sardine in the subte, I could just walk that few more blocks, which I suspect sometimes that it could very likely be faster than trying to squeeze onto a jam-packed subte. There are also always so much to see on the streets. You never know what you'd discover when you walk around the city.

This past weekend I walked into something really cool. My friend and I, out of the ordinary, decided to go grab lunch in Microcentro (downtown downtown), which is a very busy area during the weekdays but on the weekends, it was surprisingly empty. We took the 'quiet' opportunity to scroll around. When we got to the famous Plaza de Mayo, which is another very busy area during the weekdays and it is also a favorite protesting spot, we unexpectedly saw that there was a little art exhibition going on. It wasn't only a display of art but the artists were actually painting en vivo (live). It was a little art event promoting Bolivian culture, super cool!

Since there was no people traffic to avoid or force you to move, we could actually stand there and take in the view. Not only there was this beautiful creative energy around us but also with all the gorgeous architecture, including Casa Rosa, around the plaza serenely standing under a nice blue sky and a warm afternoon sun, there was this very majestic peaceful feeling in the air. Also with the view of where the 3 main streets, including the famous Avenido de Mayo, meet, this uninterrupted scenery was absolutely stunning. I have to say that not until that moment that I was able to really FEEL the city. It was like you looking into someone's eyes and they are looking back at you.

Chinatown

While chinese food has never been my favorite food, I do need my noodle soup once in a while. Woke up to a gorgeous sunny Sunday, I decided to take the bus and venture out to Chinatown. The Chinatown here is actually quite out of the way, in the barrio called Belgrano, and it barely makes it on my BsAs map. Nonetheless, the bus took way less than I thought and pretty direct. Looks like future noodle soup cravings won't be a huge problem to solve.

BsAs' Chinatown is quite small, it's only 2 blocks and 1 across of chinese stores, restaurants and supermarkets. After my más o menos (so so) bowl of noodle soup (wasn't the kind of noodle I was hoping for), it was time to do some shopping. Within this tiny Chinatown, there are 3 very good sized supermarkets. That's a lot for this tiny town but from the traffic I saw today, no wonder they have 3. Everyone of them was jammed with mypeople, non-mypeople and tourists, and they all were buying LOTS. Bags of raw meat, crabs, big fish (big as in the length of your whole arm) and huge amount of vegetables. Looked like everyone there runs a restaurant and it was time to stock up.

The shopping experience was quite chaotic. With only a basket in hand, you couldn't believe how hard it was to go from one end of an aisle to another, not to mention to get to another one: people with loaded carts in every 3 steps just wouldn't budge, kids were RUNNING around, many were taking their time to examine every piece of products while being totally oblivious to making space for others to pass, and for some, they basically decided to knock you out of the way to get to what they wanted...sound familiar? If so, you've definitely shopped at a chinese supermarket before! Don't I miss that! I guess something never change no matter where in the world you are.

That being said, however, I have to say I was quite impressed with the products they have there. Despite of not carrying the red vinegar for dumplings and a particular type of noodle, they can definitely live up to the expectations of being the real chinese supermarket. From many different kinds of chinese sauces to spices and from very asian-specific beverages to snacks like Pocky, they have them all. They even carry some Japanese, Korean and Thai food as well. Last but not least, they have bubble tea! I haven't been a crazy fan of bubbletea for years but today, after a very tiring shopping episode, the bubble tea being sold right at the exit looked extaordinary yummy, and it was exactly the sugary fix that I needed.

Shop n Learn

The other day I suddenly realized that my spanish has actually improved quite a bit, or at least in the vocabularios (vocabularies) department, in comparison to a few weeks ago. You know how I knew? It was because my grocery shopping time has significantly shortened! I remember when I went grocery shopping for the first time, it literally took me 30 mins to buy a hand soap, shampoo and conditioner. It took me 15 minutes to buy milk. It took me another 10 minutes to buy empanada wraps. You can of course figure out from the pictures or packaging of what they are but the problem is there are many different kinds of them in front of you and you want to pick the one you want exactly; and sometimes you think you know but you don't know...

Like this one time, I really wanted apple and orange juice, so I ran into a store to the fridge, saw the packaging with fruit pictures all over them, and picked out one with apple and one with orange on them. The design had this kid riding a bike or running with a kite..I don't remember exactly but I thought cool, that looked 'healthy', I'd get them. Got home, couldn't wait to have some apple/orange juice (yes I like to mix them up, I don't think that's weird, or is it?!). Expected to see a stream of sparkly golden stream of sweet apple juice coming out from the box but noo, it's creamy white! Opened the orange one, same creamy white liquid with a tint of pale orange. I was like what's going on?! Is it bad? but I've never seen bad apple juice turned white...so then I asked my Argentine landlord and he said that wasn't juice, it's soy milk with fruit flavor (seriously?!). I did have some of it, it tasted alright but not my cup of tea really, but apparently they love it here. Okay....

So with that experience, I took extra caution when buying things. This one time I bailed out buying milk because I just wasn't sure which one to get. When there were at least 4 different kinds in front of you, all of them sorta looked the same and with all these writings on them, while I know I could be dumb dumb sometimes, but it could really get quite confusing! After some learning, I now can buy milk with confident but there's still a long way to go...I still have to figure out spices, cheese (the only name I can recognize is mozzarella, that's it!), different part of meat, types of salsa (sauce) by names, cooking methods, cleaning products...and then there's the pharmacy....loong way to go my friend, looong way to go...

Squeeeeeeze

Everyday I take the subte (subway) to and from work. Like in all big cities in the world, taking subway during rush hours is definitely an experience. Here in BsAs, it is definitely no less than an adventure. Pretty much everyday we are playing the game ´let´s see how many people we can fit onto a subway cart´. Not that I´ve taken every subway during rush hours in the world but I have lived in a few big cities so far (including the tiny cosmo city called Hong Kong) and this has to be the craziest.

Scenario 1: Subte arrived with people up against the door, and I´m talking PRESSED against the door, and I´d think ´darn I´d have to wait for the next one.' However, somehow people would push so hard that I'd 'flow' into the cart involuntarily, and thought 'cool, I'm on.' That had actually become my strategy to make sure I get on the subte with the help of stronger pushing people.

Scenario 2: I was already stuck in the middle of a full cart, no need to grab onto a handle because there was literally no room to fall. Think of a bag of marshmallows, I'd be one of those teeny weeny ones squooshed in the bag. The subte arrived at the next stop and I'd think 'there's no friggin' way people are getting on.' Guess what?! Noooo, people still pushed and pushed, and I got squeezed and squeezed. Voila, 5 more people got on. How did that happen?! Must be some kind of magic.

There were days I really thought that I could die in here but again I've survived so far. At the moment, we still have sorta cool weather, which means everyone is still in more clothes, so it could get 'cozy' but in a bearable way. When summer comes though, to be honest, I can't imagine how this would be like especially there's no AC in the subte. Nope, nada, nil, zip... and we'd be in our tanks, T-shirts, sweaty skins... you got the picture. Wish me luck!! And I'll update.

Spring is here!

This past Sunday was the official first day of Spring here. YESSS! Not sure if it's a mental thing but I felt that the wind did kinda blow differently since then and it's no longer as chilly as it was even though the temperature is still hovering around the mid teens. I am so ready for some real South American heat. Give it to me baby!

To celebrate the arrival of Spring, there were tons of fiestas going on everywhere, including those that started at 0:01am. I had, however, chosen to be a daytime person this time, so my body loves me more, and also because there was this Jazz Festival going on in the city that I wanted to check out. What's so special about this festival you may ask, and I'll tell you that not only the festival was free but the coolest part was that all the shows took place inside different subte (subway) stations! This was actually a jazz festival organized by the subte company, Metrovías. Wasn't that an awesome idea?!

So this was how it worked, the Festival was one day only and it was from 4pm - 8pm. Every hour on the hour there would be several bands playing at different subte stations at the same time. To check them, you just needed to take the subte to the corresponding station, got out, went up to the main area, and you could enjoy live jazz for free!!! If you wanted something different, just hopped right back onto the subte and went to another station. Seriously, wasn't it wicked?! Ok, the sound wasn't the best, especially it'd occasionally be obscured by the subte roaring (and honking?! wtf!) into the stations.

I saw some nice jazz bands of all different style from big band to instrumental trio, and from vocal jazz to tango jazz quartet. The turn out was not bad at all. There were people like me who bought a few trips and just went from one station to another. Some just came stumbled across one when leaving/arriving to the subte and stayed.

All in all, it was quite a neat little outing and all that costed me was only a few 0.90 peso trips for some nice live jazz.

Café Paulin

I was recommended by my boss that I should check out this café around the corner from the office because I told him I like to go to different places for lunch to see what and how the local eat. It was quite a place that it has now been added to my 'have-to-check-out' list when family and friends come visit!

One of the BsAs characteristics is definitely its café culture. They are everywhere and there are many famous historical ones that one has to check out. There are quite a few in San Telmo and it's like going back in time when you sit there and sip your coffee. Having checked out quite a few of them already, Café Paulin is pretty much the same that the decor has stopped in time but its set up for sure makes it stand out from the others.

Café Paulin is not big at all. The whole place is taken up by this very looong bar and people sit all around it to eat. Think rotating sushi bar. Inside the bar, that's where the servers work, and they are all in uniforms, including wearing this mini-version chef hat, so cute! I ordered my lasagna and café con leche, sat there and watched how things went down there. The mozo (waiter) took orders from customers, served them, communicated with the ktichen with this tiny microphone embedded in the top shelf, catching dishes sweeped through the long bar from one end to another... all of these happened in such swift efficiency, it's almost like clockwork. While the eating table was a bit lower than the seat, I can't say it's the most comfortable eating position. However, I felt like I'm part of them and I absolutely love it!

Is it the culture or something in the water?

Let's play a guessing game today. See the picture on the right (and I made this one a bit bigger this time), do you see what I see? uh yea, exactly... That was what I walked into this morning on my way out and it was absolutely hilarious! The funniest part was that the dog knew it wasn't supposed to be doing that because it jumped off the cat when it saw me watching. However, when I started to move away, it jumped right back into action and that went on a few times because I really wanted to snap a shot of this. Was I being a pervert?!

When I got home in the evening, I told the owner what I saw because the dog actually just arrived last night and I didn't know where it came from. He then showed me this youtube video that he shot. So, I guess what I witnessed was 'normal' for these two 'good friends' which are both the owner's family's pets. How adorable!! Man, my innocence just went right out the window from this morning incident...

Latin culture has always been known for being a passionate one. A kiss on the cheek when you greet and say goodbye to someone, doesn't matter which gender you are or whether or not you just met that person. There are LOTS of make out sessions on the streets, at doorways, on the bus, in semi dark corners. Singing, drumming and dancing to whatever they have their hearts for. Basically, they have no problem showing their love.

There is however one thing I don't know yet if it has anything to do with their hot-blooded nature, their values or just they are very accustomed to expressing their desires freely. When you pass by any news stand in the city, and they are pretty much in every corner, the magazines that would be flapping right in your face at the most prominent spots are with half naked women. I'm not talking the Maxim type, I'm talking about bare booties and bare titties. I'm not talking about one or two either but a whole wall of display, including DVDs and tapes too. I'm by no means a conservative person but the sight of it still made me go 'holy, that's a bit much don't you think?' It'll take me some time to figure out what that really says about the culture. May be I should ask the dog, she'll probably be able to shine some light on it.

Soccer = Football - Part II

As we all know that we North Americans call football 'soccer', and because of that, I unknowingly 'insulted' this English guy this one time. He insisted that I should call it for what it is, which is football and nothing else. While it's a habit hard to shake off at the moment, my solution is to speak Spanish whenever it comes to fútbol, no alternative there.

So, it was the Boca vs Independiente fútbol match that I was at. It was a fabulous game. I know Boca Junior is definitely one of the best but I don't know anything about Independiente. Not that I know a lot about fútbol but from what I've seen, their defense was really good. As quick and skillful as the Boca offense players were able to maneuver the ball with amazing footworks, they still had a hard time getting pass Independiente defense. Very impressive indeed. They didn't score their first goal until the second half and it was tied very soon after, and the score remained as 1-1 till the end.

A good fútbol match couldn't go by without any drama. During the game, 2 Independiente players got a red card, one after another probably 10 mins apart. Each time, there were so much intense commotions on the field that I thought 'oh shoot, fights were going to break out anytime now.' Especially at one point, 2 police came out from the corner, each had his helmet on and a big shield in hand, standing at the side lines waiting. The look of it really didn't seem positive but soon after, I found out that they were there to protect the foul Independiente player from getting stuff thrown at him when he was leaving the field passing the Boca fans. So much 'passion' in these people!

Going to a fútbol game in Argentina is definitely one of the must do's. Why? Because the atmosphere is absolutely amazing. They drummed and cheered from the very moment they were waiting on the stands till the very end. They would dance and sang from the top of their lungs songs that were written for the team. They all sang with so much heart in them that you felt the love, the passion, and then you became one of them too. The Boca fans call themselves the 'Jugador No. 12' because they are a significant part of the team: while the 11 players playing on the field (10 player + 1 goalie), they are the 12th 'player'. Get it?

I have to say though that it could be the chilly weather that people were a bit more subdued than the match I went to last year in the summer time. Nonetheless the electrifying energy was still there, only that last year's was 10 folds more. That sounds like I have to go back in the summer and hopefully by then I'd have gotten smart enough to not having to rely on the mafia-like guy to get me in.

Soccer = Football - Part I

I went to see Boca Junior play the second time in my life, and again I had to pay a bit more in order to get in since we, as in foreigners, still a bit confused with how to get tickets 'properly'. However, trying to get tickets at an apparently sold out game, which we've come to find out later on, was an experience on its own for sure.

Last year, my friend and I somehow got to buy a pair of season tickets off of this guy whose friend couldn't come. This year, it was way more interesting. After 3 friends and I were told by numerous working people that it was really sold out, we wandered among herds of football fan outside of the stadium trying to see what we could do. We then asked this man if he could tell us where we could get tickets, he said he could get us in and it'd cost us 100 pesos each for a seated spot. We really wanted to see the match and we also knew that that was a normal call-for price under such situation so we went for it hoping he'd really keep his words. After he pocketed all of our money, we got through the security gate and waited for this guy to get his friend's (let's call him Mr. F) attention, who was inside the ticketholder area. After 10 minutes of wondering if this was going to come through, he told us to go ahead and said that we were here with Mr. F.

Once we greeted Mr. F, we were told to wait there. Now imagine this Mr. F as a big tall middle-aged man, dark tanned skin, in a business attire, sunglasses on his head, carrying a shoulder bag, cellphone in hand and most of all, while we were waiting, he was either talking on the phone or greeting a lot of well-dressed middle-aged men in sight...mmm...a tag mafia-feel to me...note to self, do NOT piss him off. So we stayed put and waited patiently but our doubts were also growing bigger by the minute. Around 15 minutes later, finally he said 'follow me.' Yay!

He showed us to this old man at the turnstile and we were shuffled through the turnstile but get this: he told 2 of us to squeeze through one turn together while the man beeped once on his card. Aha!! Now we know how this whole 'operation' works. They probably made more than double the actual cost but anyway, we were happy that we were in!!

Last Piece of the Puzzle

I've been mentioning enough times about my new home so here we go!! First off, I am not living in San Telmo...I know I know how I said I reeeeally wanted to live there...but after some thoughts and numerous visits of potential new home, I realized that the current crazy-inflated prices and (disappointed) stagnant quality just not cutting it. However, I did pick a barrio that is just a 10-15mins bus/subte ride away. It's very residential, very local. Nothing touristy about it, which is a plus. AND there is a very traditional and well-known tangueria (where people go dance tango) super close to me. I didn't know until the owner told me about it and right there, on top of it being such a wicked house already, I knew I've found the place I can call home for the next few months.

The owner rents out rooms at this place so basically we are a bunch of people sharing this big house. Currently 6 of us, all are foreigners, from all over, here to stay for a while to travel, to work, to learn Spanish, to experience... My room is not very big, actually smaller than my old room, but it's definitely cozy, and I have a DOUBLE BED! I didn't even have a double bed at home. Sweeeet! Since the house is huge, there are tons of room to hang out outside of my room. Given we have wifi, I can take my computer anywhere and satisfy my cyber-addiction. Sweeeeet!

We have a cleaning lady here for most of the week, so yea, we'll be spoiled for sure, and I'll cook more in the big kitchen since washing dishes won't become an issue. eheh I did cook for my first time here yesterday and it felt good that I could finally really control what I put into my body. (Not that I'm super healthy but I do try and I had veggie today. Mom are you listening?) My good friend microwave is currently out of service which is a little bummer but hopefully it'll get well soon.

Are you ready for another awesome 'facility' we getta enjoy here? We have a projection TV with many many many channels!!!! And I CANNOT wait to watch tennis on it. I'd be so close to Federer, Djokovic, Gonzalez, Gasquet, Blake...mmmm niice.... sorry I digress. The bathrooms are white, modern, and most of all, clean (by our awesome cleaning lady eheh).

So I guess it's pretty obvious that I gave up my hippie-style and go in-style. Not that I got weak, or may be a little after a week of torture-like incidents (I'll save you from the awfulness of it for now), I did think that since I'm not only here for a few weeks, I really need a place which I can look forward to return to and have a good sleep every night. I have to also say though that luck has really been on my side so far that I scored this super cool place without having to break the bank. This deserves another Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet for sure!!

Just a Tad Cold

In the last couple of weeks that I've been in BsAs so far, the weather has been pondering around low to high teens, with nights hitting the single digits. While I did know that it's technically still winter here, I thought, nah I am used to the northern cold, this shouldn't be a problem, but it turned out my cold tolerance is way below average. So, after a hectic week and a I-need-to-paaar-tay weekend, my body gave in and I'm now under the weather. [cough cough]

I haven't had a cold for ages and this time I really needed to go to the drug store to find some relief. Went to one yesterday, spent 20 minutes looking around, saw the section but had absolutely no clue what the words on the boxes mean; especially when you had a woozy head, deciphering codes became an impossible task. So I left hoping I wasn't really gonna get sick.

And too bad for me. Woke up today, totally feeling it and I had a class and work ahead of me. Just fabulous! So this time, I found out how to say 'I have a cold (resfrío)' before I go to one again. After some more effort of trying to understand what each of the boxes say (btw, they don't have the same brands here at all). I had to finally resort to asking someone, and very intelligently I asked the pharmacist (why didn't I think of that yesterday?!). She pointed me to this box in the picture. Nothing on it mentions the word 'resfrío'...mmm, may be it's better to trust someone than myself this time, and it does have the picture of a person with 'inflamed' orange color marking all the problematic areas...not bad not bad. I'm gonna take it and hope it does what it does.

Foreshadow - I did move into my new GORGEOUS home! I really can't wait to talk about it but I do need a bit more time to get my room in order so I can snap a good shot of it to show off. eheh

Congreso

I think it's time to talk about my current neighborhood, which could be changing really soon but I don't want to jinx anything yet because my new home is almost at my finger tips!

My hood is called Congreso and as the name says, it is because the congress building is right there. It's a very beautiful building and it's definitely one of the many famous architectures in BsAs. Somehow they don't light it at night and it's pretty much lost in the dark. Otherwise, it'd even look more majestic and I'd be able to find my way home easier at night. On the bright side though, they are saving a lot of energy and taxpayer's money for not doing so.

In front of Congreso is the Congress Plaza and it's where people protest a lot, and I think that is why they have fences up all around the beautiful structures in the plaza. It's quite unfortunate because the fences really obstructed the whole view. Congreso is a very busy area, especially during week days. There is the Congreso subte station, major big streets all around and tons of traffic going by this intersection, so I don't find this plaza an ideal place to sit and chill, not to mention the occasional protesting.

This hood is generally a very safe area, very local and is very close to everything and other barrios. Other than the congress building and the plaza to check out, there is really nothing touristy about it. The downside is really the protesting which could potentially get very ugly, cause inconveniences (as mentioned in my post a few days ago), and a lot of noise (they drum a lot here when they want to get their messages across. Great beat though!) All in all, it's a good spot and it feels kinda special that every morning when you walk out the door, the first thing you see is this gorgeous, very significant landmark of this country.

No fuss laundry

One thing I absolutely enjoy living here in BsAs is that I don't have to do my own laundry. whahahahah Taking it to the lavadero (laundromat) is so affordable and the service is so incredibly amazing that it's actually stupid to do it yourself.

All you need to do is to take your dirty clothes/towels/bed sheets, whatever you need to get washed to the the lavadero, tell them how you want to wash them (like I usually request them to be washed in aqua frio (cold water) and I can even ask them to not dry certain ones that can't go into the dryer). And in around 4 hours, they'll have them washed, dried, smoothed out, neatly folded, bagged and ready for pick up!

Opening the bags of clean laundry is like taking out a freshly baked cake from the oven. Not only they are warm to the touch but also smell wonderful: a whisp of fresh scent of clean laundry would rush out from the bags and fill the whole room with this homey feeling. Since I don't have to do a thing and all these only cost me ~8 pesos/bag, I have to say this little relatively insignificant moment of living really brings me joy. Btw, please feel free to envy me.

Picture: I had 2 bags done this last time, with jackets, towels, bedsheets etc. All so nicely folded that you can't really tell there are quite a few big items in there, and they all cost me only 17 pesos, which was around C$6.

BAFIM

I found out a couple days ago that there is this music fair going on here this week called BAFIM (Buenos Aires Feria International de La Musica). Not too sure exactly what to expect when I checked out the website but what the heck you know. Once I got there, I knew right away that it was totally my thing, and with an entrance fee of 8 pesos, it couldn’t really go wrong.

First thing you saw when you entered was a DJ spinning techno beats. To your right was a big stage (sponsored by a radio station) with a band rocking out. To your left was all the booths of record labels which included the BIG 4. They actually (and of course) got the premium spots facing the center stage where a jazz/big band was grooving it out. Not to be biased but EMI did have the best booth display and yes, the weakest one with yellow signs was Universal (kinda odd but I did later confirm that it was indeed Umusic).

The most interesting thing for me of course wasn’t just seeing the ‘familiar faces’ but all the indie labels that were there. I grabbed quite a few postcards, flyers, and catalogues with me, and when I finally have internet at home, I can take my time to check out all these bands and new music. Yeaaaah! I can’t wait to discover that new sound that would make my mind, body and soul go crazy!

So from talking to people and from what I have gathered, BAFIM is THE music industry festival in BsAs. Think Canadian Music Week and guess what CMW has a booth there too! Thought I´d meet a Canuck there but unfortunately the girl working there was a rep from BAFIM. I was really tthhiiissss close to asking her may be they can hire me to sit there instead, just thought it´d be more appropriate.

Demonstration

Today when I took the subte (subway) home, it skipped my stop at Congreso and stopped at 2 stations after. I wasn't aware they have an express train so I got off all confused. Asked the police which direction was Congreso. He pointed me to the right way and he said 'Ojo, mucha gente en Congreso.' (Watch out, there's a lot of people in Congreso.) I have been here for a week now, can't say it's a lot of time but it has been quite peaceful so far being living in the area where the Congress building is, and it has been quite dead at night in my area, so I still didn't clue in.

When I got closer to the block and I knew why the subte skipped my stop, it was all for crowd control. There were barricades on the roads, surrounding the block of the Congress building, police everywhere, police cars and even a huge police truck which looks like it could shoot things out of it. Yikes! They were serious.

The demonstration was in the plaza right across from the Congress building. There were a big screen TV showing a man making a speech and TV cameras all around reporting. Since I still can't understand much yet, I couldn't make out exactly what was going on, but from the signs, it's something about 'airlines are ours'. People were singing, drumming, raising flags, cheering...all in all peaceful. Traffic was a complete chaos at the intersection though, honking and maneuvering.

It was quite a little experience to see that in person and I was totally glad that nothing crazy happened because I needed food so bad and wouldn't want to get stuck in the house starving. As I'm writing this, I'm having dinner and using wifi at this pizzeria that is half a block from my place. Looking out to the plaza, drumming noise in the background and is slowly fading away...

Kaka City

Walking around in Buenos Aires, no matter which barrio (neighborhood) you are in, there is one thing that you wouldn't miss on the streets...drum roll please...let me introduce you to KaKa! What is kaka, you may ask? That's spanish for dog sh*t. I love the word, sounds so cute. haha

People here love dogs and you will see them walking the dogs at any hours of the day. I'm not kidding. Every time when I went home from tango between the hours of 3-5AM (take note: AM), I'd see at least a few people, head half hanging, half asleep, walking their dogs. I always wonder why does the dogs need to do their business at these peculiar hours?

Anyway, while they like to have their dogs, not so much about their surroundings I guess. They seem to not see the connection between when your dog poopies, it's the owner's responsibility to pick up after them; thus so many kaka on the streets. When I was in Recoleta (a ritzy neighborhood) checking out their Sunday market in the plaza, I saw that someone decided to raise the flags, literally (see pic), to the problem. In case the pic is a bit too small to tell, nice little colorful flags were used to mark every single piece of kaka in the proximity of 2 grass lawns. Each has their own slogan saying: 'Stop Kaka!', 'Kaka Go Home', 'No More Kaka please...' etc etc. It was quite a scene really. At first I thought it was some name tags for plants but no no no...It's KaKa City!!

Cycle of Friends

I met my first new friend yesterday through my Spanish school. He is a nice young fella from England, travelling around South America and perfecting his Spanish. This is the thing being in a foreign country. All English-speaking extranjeros (foreigners) you meet will instinctly become your friends because we don´t have anyone else except each other, especially for those that are travelling solo, and there are TONS of them.

At the moment, Buenos Aires is still in its low season and it´s very obvious that there aren`t a lot of visitors from far far away. Last year in their summertime, I made 6 new friends in a matter of days and we would go out to drink, to dine, to dance, to hang out, to discuss each others’ countries, and our different lifestyles or similar daily issues (boyfriends/girlfriends is definitely an universal one). It was really a wonderful time and I learned a lot from all these people. They all love life, they are all brave and adventurous, and they made me feel that I´m not all alone.

Whether they´ll become true friends or not, time will tell, but one thing is certain is that they all come and go, as we are all travellers. We may have the best times of our lives together but we may never see each other again either. Such as many things in life. From that, I really learn to grasp onto the present and not worry about what´s next because you have no control over it. I’m lucky to say that I´m still in touch with a few of those people I´ve met last year, we´d say hi once in a while on MSN or Facebook (gotta love technology eh, as opposed to writing snail mail letters when I first moved to Toronto!). While life goes on, I know if one day we were going to visit each others´countries, we´d welcome each other with open arms.

Picture: Meeting new friends while travelling is like adding information antennas to your little world. My new England friend found out from a local that there was this open gallery night on this street, so we went to look at some classic and contemporary arts, and most importantly, we scored free champaigns! And yes it´s legal to drink on the streets too!

Too cold for tango

I have yet to put on my dancing shoes. Surprising eh? Me too but you know what, it’s so darn cold over here at night these days (has been in single digits) that I’m very content with just snuggling next to the heater, having some quiet time to myself.

However, today is the day that I´m going to open the flood gate! There is a Mundial de Tango event going on this week. It´s like a competition/events type of tango festival. There are free dancing classes and I am going to go to one today. It´d be a good start for me to warm up to it because, to be honest, I am quite nervous to go out and dance in THE tangoland.

I started dancing tango in Buenos Aires last year. I threw myself into the fire when I was a total beginner. I had nothing to lose. However, now I have pressure. After many hours of dancing and learning, I want to show that I am at least a decent dancer, and most of all, I know the customs, the etiquette, the ´game´ very well. I know from the first step you got onto the dance floor, people are watching you, and these people are not just any people, they are milongueros. They know their dance. If you want people to ask you to dance, that first dance is key especially if you´re a new face. There are not a lot of asians who dance tango here and if you see any, most likely they are Japanese and tourists. And because of that, me walking into a place will absolutely scream NEW FACE and eyes will start watching and judging and see if this chica knows what she is doing. As self-conscious as I might be, I do need some hot sexy tango dancing to warm me up. It´s like the hot chocolate in Argentina style.