Last Day In Buenos Aires

After the soccer game on Saturday about 12,000 peeople rushed the center of city to celebrate, cheer and light off fireworks, but watch your pockets, our friend sarah had her camera stolen.

Rugby game between the New Zealand All Blacks and Argentinea, fun but rained the whole time.

They drink their milk in bags here...

Money we were given that felt and looked forged.

If you want to eat well cook it yourself.

Can't leave this City

Like the locals I can't seem to leave this beautiful city. Local custom here -for the fabulously wealthy at least- is to build extravagant houses with marble, oak doors and columns and then leave them behind and move across town and build another, then when the neighborhood goes "bad" to move to another part of the city and build another outrageous multi million dollar house, very unlike in the US where people just flee to the suburbs. This provides the city with mansions in both the poorest and richest neighborhoods, as well as by the skyscrapers and ports.

I also got to watch another futbol game here but unfortunately they tied so I have to stay for the next futbol game.

I wasn't even supposed to come to BaAs but now it looks like I will be staying here for at least another couple days on my friend Emily's couch.

It's worth mentioning that when you buy milk here it comes in a bag, instead of a box.

Recoleta one of the most famous cemeteries but watch your step getting there

Yesterday Nate and I traveled to the Recoleta Cemetary in Buenos Aires to see the graves of Evita and many of her bourgousie friends. This place is filled with zarcophogae and statues dedicated to themselves, many of which might make the eqyptians blush.
Imagine knowing that you were going to die and thinking to yourself, "well if I am going to be dead then I mine as well be surrounded by the most ostentatious little marble house and accessories that 99% of the living can't afford, let alone probably have never seen." This is Recoleta. But even in the most wealthy and affluent neighborhoods there is that one family who doesn't mow their lawn, or in this case keep their marble prisitine.

At least while I was there I did get a picture with jesus.

Another notable aspect of the streets here is that they are covered by dog poo. Everyone here owns a dog, but very few people walk them. Instead they hire dog walkers, who drive herds of dogs around the city and do not have time to bend down and pick up the poo. Both foreigners and locals agree that when walking keep your head down and watch your feet.

BaAs

Remeber about two years ago in the US people began belieivng in the atkins diet? People lost weight, the beef industry skyrocketed and multi national wheat company’s profits suffered. In Argentina there probably never was a atkins, the beef industry has always dominated and few people have heard of that useless grain. Put very simply the people here are skinny and beautiful. The other day one of our friends actually tried to marry at least four different girls in the club, claiming that they were the most beautiful women in the world.
In restaraunts here you can pay about 18 pesos (6 dollars) and receive a several course meal with all you can eat sausages, beef ribs and filet, drink good wine and scarf down free Italian bread, while at the same time ordering seconds for no extra charge. It’s strange because in a place where things are cheap one finds themselves becoming even cheaper. For example a three peso (One dollar) sanwhich and a 4 peso litre of stella artois seems not only steep but unacceptable. Weird.
The food might be good but few are ready for the quality of nightlife. Since here there has not been a single night where i even got close to my bed before 530 am. Taking taxis home at 7 in the morning is standard for both young professionals and middle aged homemakers, not to mention the pre-teens who roam the streets trying to either make a buck or engage in the local culture of never sleeping or being able to speak because your voice box is so worn out from yelling over fast paced techno music for days on end, while drinking fernet –the local herbal liquor that tastes much like the flouride treatment in a dental office, which most argentineans mix with cola.
Much like Santiago, national holidays here are strictly observed. Most stores close down, even for holidays like flag day and national watch-argentina-play-futbol-day.
We should be here another couple of days, but is hard to leave, especially in the face of the high quality trinket markets where nate has bought everything from soap boxes to brass knuckles.
Oh yeah i can't forget about the national dance the tango, which in spanish translates literally to "old people dance very sexy very slow" but it can be fun dancing with your neighbor's gradmother, even on a friday night.
Well it's 130 am and my goal is to go to bed early tonight.

Argentinean Futbol

Friday, Buenos Aires 10 am –In a café resting on the corner of a cobbled-stone street sat about twenty people planted in front of a flat screen television waiting for the world cup game between Argentina and Serbia to begin.
Inside were us three –a UVM student, UVM alum, and an Isreali engineer from brazil- along with locals dressed in fashionable sport coats, sweater vests and ties and the staff watching while they worked. Looking out the window past the patriotic blue and white post-it notes the city had ground to a halt, put on pause for the duration of the game.
We expected to find half-sane hooligans, tables covered with chicken wings and lager but were just as happy to watch futbol with these fans, who conversed politely and dunked crossaints in their espressos.
Sliding into the comfortable and dark hardwood chairs we acclimated ourselves to surprisingly refined surroundings and breathed in our neighbors ciggerette smoke and enthusiasm for soccer.
We opened our menus amidst quiet speculations that the recent German national team´s victory was the worst defeat Poland had suffered on the field since 1939.
Periodically the muffled conversations exploded into short hearty cheers, like when Argentina´s Maxi Rodriquez scored the first goal only six minutes into the match. Soon after the initial excitement died down, the quiet ebb and flow of conversation returned.
By the time Esteban Cambiasso scored the game´s second goal, bringing Argentina up to a 2-0 lead, the environment had loosened up with the patrons erupting into prolonged cheers and hand-clapping.
Seconds after Cambiasso´s goal the cafe patrons´ conversations reached a temporary high-point, heard even above the honking horns of the passing taxi-drivers.
As Argentina continued to dominate, Maxi Rodriguez knocked in his second goal, delivering a padded 3-0 lead. At this point, the prospect of a close game vanished and phrases like ´és todo´´ or ´´that´s all´´ were heard from the cafe´s satisfied patrons.
More individual athleticism and team work lead to goals by eighteen year old Hernan Crespo, Carlos Tavez, and Lionel Messi, and brought the game to a close with a lopsided score of 6-0, delivering the worst rout yet seen in the 2006 World Cup and a resounding victory sending Serbia home, eliminated from the tournament.
Cries of ´´Vamos a salir campeonatos, como en ´86´´ (We´re going to leave champions, just like in ´86) were heard from the audience on the live television broadcast, but inside the cafe, after allowing themselves a brief congraduatory cheer, a few women shuffled out the door and the silent and serious middle aged men returned to reading their papers.
With the game over, people began trickling and then streaming out of the neighborhoods´ apartment buildings, pubs, and cafes, returning the city to the drone of late morning hustle-and-bustle--- the Argentinians proud of their victory and content with the sentiment that they had not seen a worse collapse since their country´s 2001 currency crisis.

Buenoa Aires

In Chile stray dogs roam the streets but in Buenos Aires the dogs wear nicer sweaters than me. I love it here, the people are very nice and the streets are cobble-stoned and very european. People speak like Italians and say ciao.

I have kissed more women in the past three days then in my whole life because it is a necessity that anytime you meet or greet a woman you kiss her on the cheek.

The white house here is pink and the house where evita lived is right behind it, we biked by, while almost getting hit by cars, who do not under any circumstances yeild to bikers or walkers.

They even have flaming drinks, which burned both my tounge and my hand. And like any good city the national bird resides in numbers

From Chile to Buenos Aires

If you have ever been jewish on christmas in america then you know exactly what it feels like to try and do or eat anything in Chile when there is even a minor Catholic holiday. This past monday was such a day and surprisingly I found myself in a chinese restaurant ordering spring rolls, sushi and mongolian beef. The sushi was excelltent, soft and delicious, having been caught only kilometers west of the city.

I can´t say that I was very upset to leave Santiago especially after our last night which conisisted of seaching for a restaurant for two hours and then sleeping in the most delapidated and dreadful hostel one could imagine. After resting for only a couple of hours poorly-fully clothed and gripping my pássport. Nate and I headed to the bus station for a six hour bus trip to Mendoza, Argentina.

On the bus I took some beautiful pics of the 3000 meter Andean mouintains and the switchbacks of the intimidating roads, only to then delete them as I ´trained´ myself to use the different complicated functions on the camera.

Finally after six hours, slow moving customs agents, and the film ´the skeleton key´ (an american film which we watched with spanish dub and english subtitles) we arrived in one of the most gorgeous little cities I have seen.

Mendoza, located in the heart of wine country and in a valley surrounded by the Andes, is just like burlington, except with many beautiful Argentinean women, historic sites and fashion. The city exudes a warmness and friendliness that was severely deficient in Santiago, and it felt good to walk across the tiled sidewalks and pedestrian streets without beggars demanding your money and political graffiti covering the walls. mendoza even has minoras!

In Mendoza nate and I hired a guide and went mountain biking through the foothills of the andes. Our guide Juan was in training for climbing the highest peak in all the americas, yet he still smoked -like any good s. american -the whole time we were together. Halfway through the day long trip we stopped for lunch and nate napped.

As well as exercise and move we also spent an extensive amount of time in a restaurant eating great steaks and having our choice of the finest wines the area had to offer, which are many but hard to pick since I cannot say and nate cannot translate ´I would like a wine that has few tanens but is not to sweet and will compliment and balance the flavors of new york strip steak in my mouth...rather we chose by label and recomendation.

Last night we took a 14 hr bus into Buenos Aires and are here now, excited to see what this great city has to offer.

En la playa de San Antonio

This past weekend nate and I traveled to our host family`s beach house, which was once owned by their uncle who, according to Nate, was once an advisor to the man himslef -Pinochet. In our travel we stopped at a ¨typical pit¨ ro eat. The common food here is a beef sanwhich with cheese, they serve it to you while wearing winter parkas and scarfs because no one has heat in their stores or even houses. Locals take a mediterenean approach to life, meaning they have no use for central heating.

One thing I have noticed is the many stray dogs on the street, who will follow you around and look sad. We saw one dog with three legs hopping around and another, well not so well off (see pic).

Somos Turistas en la Santa Lucia

One thing to remeber when traveling through Chile is that it is always important to be late, no matter what the occasion. Whether it be for your child`s birth or to meet a friend for cafe, always be at least a half an hour late, otherwise people might think you`re weird. Or at least that is the belief Nate subscribes to.

After eating a late breakfast, consisting of pan (bread), cheese, spam paste and green tea we headed out to see the sights of Santiago.

In order to conceal that I am a gringo I carry my Let`s go Chile Book in a shopping bag and try not to reference it when people are looking. Unfortunately any attempt at concealing my identity was promptly shot to hell when I stepped into Santa Lucia -a small mountain in the midlle of a city that was made into the most confusing set of circling staircases in order for the government to hide the fact a big pile of stones are in the middle of the city by making you want to throw up from dizziness -and realized that everyone else on the steps were of European descent except for the many stray dogs wandering around and the volunteer security brigade.

Santa Lucia is nestled right in the middle of skyscrapers and busy roads, giving a great view of the idustrial and natural sky line. Nate told me that since it had rained for the past three days this day was by far the clearest since the rain cleared out the pollution that generally covers the city.

After Santa Lucia we went to two different art museums and looked at many different Chilean and Latino artists. But possibly the best part of the musems was the restaurant across the street which gave us a three course lunch (french food), a glass of wine and a cafe cortado -the local way of drinking espresso- all for 6 american dollars.

To finish the day off we visited Nate`s friend Soledad who let us know that no matter how much I covered my book with plastic, or kept silent, Chileans would always know that I was a gringo.

My first day in Chile

After flying through the night I arrived in Santiago, where I was immediately cheated out of four dollars by a porter who insisted that he carry my bags out to the curb. I thought he was doing me a favor but then he stood around leering at me until I gave him the smallest amount of pesos that I could. I guess he either thought I was incapable of carrying my two enourmous bags, or that the ultra smooth sport coat I was wearing indicated that I had many extra dineros.

Luckily my jounrey into the city from the airport was made easy as my friend Nate met me at the airport and guided us to my new home in Las Condes, a suburb of Santiago, where people believe everyone is trying to rob them and therefore feel the need to erect stone walls and gates around their houses.

The family I am stying with is very friendly. There is a mother Janet, sister Ali (picture of nate and Alijandra) and brother Alfredo living in the house and I am sleeping in one of their spare rooms which has interent access. Our house is overlooked by snow covered chilean mountains, which can be seen in the back of the photo of Nate and Ali.

Since I have been here I have dined at two of the best rated resaturants santiago has to offer. The first was paid for by the exchange program nate just finished. At this meal waiters poured flaming syrup from one dish to anther, heating it up only to then pour over ice cream covered crepes. The second was to celebrate Nate´s 22nd birthday (see pictures in restaurant and with cake which Janet made out of delicious layered soft graham cracker.) The restaurant was on the top floor of a tall building and the dining room floor revolved slowly, revealing the entire Santiagan landscape through giant windows and making me a little sea sick. Both of these big meals lasted for over three hours, as is the custom when dining out here -slow and relaxed.

I have been enjoying myself, drinking great, cheap Chilean wine and hanging out with Nates classmates, and eating four meals a day, many of which are prepared by my host mother. I even bumped into my old baseball teamate Ben Shapiro, who was in nates program (see pic).

This weekend I am travling to the beach, where my family has a house, and after the weekend Nate and I are hitting the road.