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!!