Saturday, February 28, 2009

Quick post

Good evening folks. I just wanted to write a quick post before I went out to get sushi with the roomies. We all had a big old party last night for our roommates 21st birthday. I thought I was past the age which I could celebrate friends' 21st, but I'm glad I got one more chance. Many fun times ensued with people from all origins. John Mayer(2) was here. He plans on making it big in the US someday, even though he's older than Johnny when he released his first LP. Bummer.

I like being so 'international', even though the general response when I tell people I'm from the states....'wait you mean Georgia, like in the US? Oh...' It basically means that I don't speak 4 or 5 different languages even though I have an international parent. I'm trying to learn my first other language. I suppose I could tell everyone I speak American and British...

Anyway, off to eat sushi. I hope it doesn't come out of the brown river. A little picture of the pool to make everyone in winter a little jealous. I swear it's bigger than it looks! My pale ass skin was not so ready for such brilliant sunlight.

-B

Friday, February 27, 2009

Bailamos!



We took a tango class last night. Our roommate convinced Byron that it wasn't hard, so we did it! As it turns out, we're amazing. Look for us on Dancing with the Stars... we'll be the professionals. The venue was a huge old warehouse called La Catedral. It's about 10 blocks away from our place and one of the most well-known tango places in town. There were only four other couples taking the "class," and one more that was teaching it. Byron would get really nervous and sweat profusely when one of the teachers would come by to watch us. Once the amateurs stop dancing around 12 or 1am, the musicians grab their guitars and entertain while the spectators sip on beers and devour the cuisine. There is a huge performance every Sunday night, and we're pumped about going this week. I bet our mommies are so proud!!

Earlier in the day, we trekked out to the Jewish Day school that was offering Hanna a job. It's about an hour away from the city center and only accessible by hot bus. It's a part-time gig and might not be worth the nausea caused by the bus fumes, but we'll see what they offer. On the bright side, we got to see the President's house, or at least the brick fence around it. The houses in that suburb were amazing. Here's a sample of something we probably won't see again while down here...

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Being tourists

We've been here almost a week now and it has been fun. We've basically been tourists, walking everywhere, figuring out the subte (subway), checking out new places to eat and drink, and checking out the parks and sites that Buenos has to offer.


On our way to all the sites, we had to cross some major roads. This is taken from one of the pedestrian bridges in the northern part of the city. There are tons of trees around, but they're probably all being choked by the exhaust of the buses.


We visited the famous Cemetaria Recoleta where Eva Peron is "buried." The graves are little huts with entire families buried in the depths below. Some of the coffins can be seen from the little windows on "ground level". I think those are the most important people in the grave or maybe they were just the ones who died last. We could probably read about it, because the man begging for money at the front forgot to tell us. The following are pictures from the cemetary.


Two pictures from the church connected to the cemetary.

Somebody's important crypt.Another wicked cool tomb that kind of reminds of a 'sand drip' castle. This person didn't want all the pomp and circumstance that came with gold...a low-flyer.Eva Peron's crypt. She's somewhere in there. We heard that there were some body snatchers who have tried to get her in the past. She means that much to people around here.
A peek into a crypt. The gold handrails lead to the depths of the unknown. There were a couple we peered into that we could see at least three floors down. Every door is padlocked for the dead's safety. We wouldn't want them to get out either...

The church that we went in before the cemetary was pretty interesting. Lots of graphic Jesus' in many different poses. Much smaller than most of those found in Europe.


Yesterday we went to the Reserva Ecológica near Puerto Madero. There are a bunch of trails that many of the locals use to 'escape' the city. They said that over 30% of the nations bird species were represented here. But, what was funny was Hanna's chorizo almost getting tagged by a parrot-looking bird just outside the park. I probably still would have eaten it. Our 3 or 4 mile walk included stops at the river, which you may notice has kind of a brownish tint...if you can even call it that.
The skyscrapers blowing up the landscape. Shows how close we were. You can see all the cranes in the distance too, we're amazed at how much construction is going down all around.

You can make out grandma in the background with her sweet bikini. Never mind those people front and center.
Rio de la Plata in the background of both the previous pictures. Looks pretty 'silver' huh? I tried to drink it but Hanna wouldn't let me.

In other news, Byron's decision to get a haircut prior to landing in BsAs was a bad decision. His sweet mullet surely would have protected him from the lashing rays. Instead his bare neck beared the brunt of the hot sun all day. Maybe he'll listen to his girlfriend one day.

We ate dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant last night. Pretty sure we were the only non-regulars to set foot inside there in the past ten years. We ate two full meals, complete with bread and salad and a bottle of wine all for about $17 US dollars. The walls were adorned with pictures of tango dancers from the roaring 20's. Our neighborhood is famous for tango, and dance classes are plentiful. Hanna takes classes while Byron goes to play soccer. It's a perfect way to spend the evening. So clearly we have no jobs yet, but things are brewing.

Thanks for reading, we're off to the store to get some empanadas with cheese, empanadas with carne, emanadas with carne dulce (sweet meat), empanadas...you get the idea. Probably some yogurt and icecream too, the people around here love that stuff.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Oscars

Don't worry everybody... We're watching the Academy Awards completely dubbed in Spanish. We had steak for breakfast and beef empanadas for lunch. I think we're acclimating pretty well...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

First pictures

This building is the Secretaria de Comunicaciones. Not sure what they do there, but I'm sure we would be good at it.





This is DC... oh wait, wrong flag.





















Byron in the courtyard. Living room is to his left and he's facing our room. Very nice! Check out the grill for parilla in the background.

Rain, rain, go away

So we've been here two days now, and each day there have been substantial showers. It seemingly has made it more difficult to not sleep. We're sitting in our room looking out over our courtyard which is blowing a cool gentle breeze into the room. Each of the seven bedrooms all open up to the courtyard in the middle of the second story of the building. We are pretty immune to street noise and having lived in DC we barely even notice it. There's even a completely open air terrace on the third level which has a sweet kiddie pool in which we can swim. The kitchen has two stoves and two fridges. The storage of food in both the cabinets and the fridge is a complex hierarchical system which we have yet to figure out. There does seem to be every type of appliance minus a microwave. The two stoves would be clutch for brewing massive amounts of beer.

Our six other roommates are from all over the world. Italy, France, Germany, Brazil, Miami, and Boston (there was also a Irish girl here for a couple days). We can't really keep them straight, but it's a bummer that the default language is always English. Doesn't really help us learn the native Spanish.

Other than walking around the city and catching up with roommates, we have had a pretty chill weekend. Byron got to play some futbito with a bunch of people and Hanna energetically cheered him on. He scored at least two goals in her honor. He's pretty sweet in that regard.

We did get a chance to eat some parilla (grilled meat...usually all cow parts) with our new friend Alex (from Cincinnati) and his Norweigen roommate Ivan. Being adventurers and wanting to eat as locals, we tried the parillada (smattering of parts including intestine, kidney, liver, 'blood' sausage, regular sausage, ribs...and those questionable parts that we at least tried a bite of, attempting to chew). Afterwards, around midnight, we ventured over to a happening bar scene in Palermo. After gobbling up some delicious helado (icecream), we walked over to a plaza to watch the nightlife unfold. A wise person once told us 'there is no love without icecream'. The amazing creamy fruit laden concotion of heaven on a cone may have proved them right. Although most people who hit up the clubs don't make it home until 4 or 5 am on an early night, we made it home around 2am; about the time most grandparents here go to bed. We felt good about that. Working our way up to the young porteño way of life...

Other than that, it looks to be a lazy Sunday. Groovy. There was talk about heading to Uruguay to sit on some fantastic beach over there.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

My girfriend rules!


Hanna got into Berkeley School of Social Welfare! She found out right when we landed yesterday...even though California's bankrupt she's getting all up in on the action with her 'stipend' courtesy of Arnold...

Hanners and Byron do South America

We have safely landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina. My total flying time was only around 15 hours and I got to visit Newark and Houston before finally touching down in rainy BsAs. The long flight was pretty easy as I drank three bottles of vino with dinner (I gave up my seat next to a window so a dad could be with his daughter...he had a middle seat in the middle row...hence the nice flight attendent that kept me boozed up). I did reclaim my window seat for landing; I think my pops has successfully helped me to keep that inner child alive for my whole life.

Hanna's sweet nonstop flight was much easier. Delta's stock may be tanking, but adding a direct flight from ATL was a sweet addition. She ate dinner and woke up to the captains "seat backs in the upright and locked position" annoucement, who could seemlessly transition between Spanish and English, a definite goal of this trip (even if I never actually find a job). She made up for her once perfectly easy trip by waiting for me for 5 hours in the baggage claim room, where there are no chairs and all the smelly tourists gather confused. Our reunion was a huge relief, I spotted Hanner's across the room jumping up and down and flailing her arms about. Now let the adventures begin...