"...no tiene nada que ver con..."

[NOTE: Due to internet issues I was unable to publish this yesterday when it was originally written. In case you were wondering why it’s all about yesterday.]

Hey. So the title of this entry just translates to "...has nothing to do with..." except the verb that's used, "ver" means "to see" rather than "to do." It's just an expression that I find kind of funny, because it's used in exactly the same way as the english equivalent, but it just strikes me as odd that they use that particular verb. So that's that.

Anyway, yesterday was pretty good. From today to monday, I have virtually no commitments (although I might have to spend 9 hours one of these days at migraciones to finish obtaining my visa) and it's easy for such a vast amount of free time to get to a person, especially a person like me who is kind of cheap; because it's hard to pass time outside of the house around here without spending money. But yesterday I think I did pretty well. After sleeping in moderately late I went to a fairly deserted FLACSO to ask a few questions and to check my mail. And I was rewarded in both respects: my questions were answered quite satisfactorily, and I recieved my absentee ballot for the washington primary. My first semi-real election. So anyway, when I stepped out onto the street and it occured to me how utterly beautiful it was (sunny, clear, and not uncomfortably cold), I decided to make the trek down Azcuénaga to the neighborhood known as la Recoleta, and the famous cemetary by the same name.

I was certainly not disappointed. Buenos Aires is a city with a shocking number of statues and monuments, and the cemetary was reflective of that. It's a veritable necropolis, full of shrines, tombs, and statues dedicated to the various wealthy people and famous personalities the city has seen for the past 200 years. It was really incredible, enough so to exhaust my camera batteries. My favorite types of pictures to take were those that juxtaposed the classical/renaissance style angels, cherubs, busts, columns, chapels, inscriptions, and the like against the gritty modern apartment buildings that were occasionally visible past the cemetery's high walls. I also enjoyed the decaying tombs for some reason; probably something to do with the inevitability of mortality or something like that. There were some extremely contented cats that I enjoyed photographing as well. As usual, pictures will be on facebook as soon as I feel like I have time to sit in my room for two hours during the agonizingly slow upload. I got lost and was unable to find what's supposedly the highlight of the place, Evita's tomb. Luckily though, I eventually came across a tour group which quickly led me in the right direction. The tomb itself wasn't particularly exciting in comparison with many of the others in the cemetary: just a fairly nondescript black marble affair dedicated to the Duarte family, with several plaques purchased for Evita by various admiring people and groups. The most interesting part of the tomb was all the people photographing it, actually. These were not interesting photographs these people were taking! They were purely "I was here" shots. One woman I saw methodically moving her camera down the wall from plaque to plaque, quickly photographing each in succession. It was like she was at a crime scene or something and had to carefully document the scene's configuration in perfect detail. I just don't understand that mentality. Anyway, the whole situation struck me as a scene from a Sinclair Lewis book; or at least, a scene I would have enjoyed reading had Sinclair Lewis written it.

So afterwards I felt kind of tired and so once again abandoned my ambitions to go the el museo nacionál de bellas artes, and instead decided to search for a cafe to while away the hours. After a longer search than was necessary, I settled down over a cafe con leche and a 2 dollar bottle of water to fill out my ballot. There were some pretty funny candidates in that voter's pamphlet, I must say. For example, I would recommend you look up Javier O. Lopez, Washington gubernatorial candidate. "Significant Career Experience: As an artist and inventor I have come up with an invention that will solve all of the world's problems. I have invented an AIR ENGINE that has the power to operate an automobile while relying on air as its fuel source." Anyway, while making me fairly nostalgic for my home state, the voting process felt pretty good, and I think I made some pretty informed decisions.

Okay so I'm getting tired of all this exhaustive detail. The most exciting thing I did with the rest of the day was to go to this theater across the street from el congreso. It's a really wonderful place, actually, that I discovered last friday. It shows all Argentine films (while most other theaters around here seem to show mostly American films) for only 4 pesos, or about $1.50, per show. So I decided to see the next film that was playing, which I thought would be a film called Leonera about a woman who apparently has to give birth in prison or something of the sort. But because of some confusing signs I ended up in a theater full of little kids, all excited to see "Valentina." This is an animated preteen girls' movie, that is apparently based on some popular doll or toy. It was all about Valentina and her friends, and how Valentina finally has the first kiss she longs for and dreams about so much(SPOILER ALERT: She kisses Fede, not Matias!). So although I felt pretty embarrassed sitting in the theatre beforehand, the actual movie I didn't mind so much, especially as I was able to understand a large majority of what was being said. Anyway, I plan to end up seeing all the movies at that theatre anyway, so it really doesn't make much difference. Because I've decided seeing movies, especially in my situation, is terrific in every way. It allows me to pass my free time outside of the house in a way that is not very expensive, that exposes me to the culture, and that helps improve my fluency. So I'm pretty excited about the possibilities in that arena. I'm also going to be taking a class on argentine cinema, in case you were curious.


Oh yes, and I've had a request to talk about the types of food that I've been eating. Tonight I had a teriffic dinner as always. The main course was this mixture of lentils with pieces of steak, tomatoes, and onion. There was also a salad consisting solely of green leafy stuff with oil and vinegar, leftover milanesa (thin pieces of steak, fried and breaded), and of course bread. To drink there was available, as usual, red wine, coca cola, and water (both carbonated and non-carbonated). I apologize to my parents for being so much less picky here than I have tended to be at home; I guess it's just because it seems like there's more pressure to please these people so I don't want them to feel like I'm rejecting anything they offer me. But I promise, my culinary horizons have expanded, and when I return home I'll eat whatever you guys place before me (provided of course that it's something you're willing to eat as well). And on that lovely note I say ciao and buenas noches.
UPDATE: Hey, so speaking about 24 hours after the above segment of the entry, I just want to talk a little bit about today as well because it was a fortuitous day indeed. So after sleeping in fairly late (and catching up quite satisfactorily on my sleep) I went to beautiful Puerto Madero to inquire at los diques about the UCA rowing team (in Spanish the sport is called “remo,” if you were curious. As I walked along the waterfront in search of the docks I could see the rowers out in the canal and I considered yelling out to them to ask where their dock was. But really it was very easy to find, and the long and short of it is that the venture was a total success: the coach, Martín, seemed very happy to have me on the team once I told him of the experience that I’ve had, and I can start going to practices next week. The team, apparently, is fairly new and not extremely hardcore (practices are only twice a week for about an hour and forty five minutes) and they don’t even use racing shells, but rather boats that are considerably wider (and hence easier to balance and much slower). But I’m really happy about the whole thing: it’s a regular, non-academic activity that will allow me to get exercise, hang out with Argentinians, and maybe even travel a bit for some competitions. In fact, I’m kind of ecstatic about the whole prospect.

I also learned about the different volunteer opportunities I’ll have in my aprendizaje-servicio class, and that got me pretty excited as well. The two I’m considering are drastically different though. One is at a center for children in a barrio about an hour outside of the city (transportation is provided for us). This would involve basically hanging out with kids and organizing various types of workshop for them (such as sports, dance, music, cooking, art, that type of thing). The other is at an organization that deals with drug addiction. Their offices are within walking distance of my house, and the work would be mostly in an office, probably involving a lot of spanish-english translation. Obviously the choice here is between a challenge and something convenient and easy. The first option really appeals to me in that I would love to be able to get out of the city regularly and see the barrios, as well as in that I know it would probably help my Spanish skills quite a bit. It would also probably be extremely challenging and for me, with my fairly poor Spanish, quite stressful. I guess I just can’t help but think of my experience at Voz, trying to teach English to immigrant day laborers. In this situation, my limited language abilities made me feel like I wasn’t helping anyone at all. It’s easy to feel like the more challenging option is the one I “should” choose, that to choose the other would be lazy. But the fact is that I have a tendency to overburden my schedule, and in reality I might be better off taking it a bit easier in this respect. So while I’ll visit the challenging place, and still might choose that job, I’m leaning towards the “easy” one.

So that’s pretty much it, as I feel like I’ve talked far too much already. I’ll close with a quick culinary note: today for lunch I tried vegetable empanadas. They were pretty much as you would expect: pastry crust filled with various green leafy vegetables and cheese. A bit over-salty, but indubitably satisfying.

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