Sunday China Town Stroll

While sitting in a doorway on a street in China Town last Sunday, my husband Thomas and I shared a giant sushi roll and I sat with the Pentax taking pics of people as they walked by.  Some people didn't even notice, but one father who was strolling by with his two kids saw me.  He seemed delighted that I was interested in taking a picture of his children.  He paused, and coaxed his little girl into giving me a smile.  The result was buenisimo....

"Sunday China Town Stroll"

People Shooting

Today Thomas and I took a trip to an area of the city called Belgrano.  When had no idea that the area we were headed to also has a small China Town.  We spent a lovely afternoon eating, strolling and people shooting.

"Shopping"

"Belgrano Train Stop"

"Sadness"

"Thomas in China Town"

Side Profile

My husband Thomas took this picture of me yesterday in the living room.  He liked how I had styled my hair that morning...and snapped a couple of quick shots.  The results ended up better then we both expected as it it a rare occasion when he takes of photo of me that I actually like...

"Side Profile of Me"

Getting Around to It...

"Loud II"

This week I finally got around to organizing my pictures and clearing stuff off of all my cards.  I realized I actually have some good stuff that I simply have just not had to to get around to editing.  Last may Thomas and I attended a Remembrance March (in remembrance of the Dirty War) and we both ended up with some good shots.  Here is one that I worked on today:

Touch Up

I took this picture back in January...and recently my husband Thomas worked on touching it up.  I am pleased with the results.  There is a park near our home that has a couple of chess tables where people, mostly older men, like to spend evenings and weekends playing chess.  I spotted this little guy one Saturday afternoon sandwiched amongst a group of elderly men when who were absorbed in a very intense game.  This little boy was standing there watching every single move, you could practically see the wheels turning in his little head.  I found it captivating.

"Ajedrez"

More Urban Art...

"The Red Wall"

El Jefe

The owner of a great place in Palermo called "Finisterra".  (for any interested expats the address is: Honduras 5190) Good coffee, huge beers and even though we didn't try any of the food..it looked pretty good, but best of all the staff is extremely friendly, and the owner was gracious enough to allow us to take a ton of pictures...inside...outside..and even one of himself.

"El Jefe"

Argentine Cuisine

"Grilled Blood Sausage and Cheese"

Most people who are not very familiar with Buenos Aires are surprised to find out that the main cuisine here is in fact…Italian.  I know I was surprised by this the first time I ventured down here.  Argentina is a unique place and is home in an incredibly large Italian/Argentine population.  I need to do a little more research as to why exactly, but Italian immigrants have been coming to Argentina to make new lives since the 1800’s, and this humongous influx has resulted in Italian food ruing Buenos Aires.  I have been told that more traditional dishes are found amongst the countryside, but the most popular food in the city is as follows:

Pizza: had you asked me last year what area in the world produces the best pizza, I would have answered New York City without hesitation.  Then I tasted pizza from a little carry out place down the street called Nicolleto…and I literally died and went to heaven.  I like pizza.  I like to eat pizza.  I’ve tried pizza from an amalgam of places, and never in my life has anything tasted as good as this teeny tiny Argentine pizza joint.  I don’t know what it is…well, I have a theory that the secret is in their spices, but this place does pizza unlike any other.  In fact, Argentina has a knack for producing some mouth watering pizza, and they don’t usually top it with the usual stuff we see back in the states like pepperoni or sausage.  They tend to put ham, sliced tomatoes, green olives, and chopped up hard boiled eggs in their pies, which is surprisingly, egg tastes really good on pizza.  So if you ever make it down here, try the pizza, you will not be disappointed.

Steak: Argentina is well known for their steak, and yes, these people know how to grill their meat.  Argentine asado (BBQ) is an amazing experience.  Lots of places offer an all-you-can-eat special that for a very reasonable price allows you to completely pig out on some serious carne.  Steak isn’t the only meat served at asados, you will more than likely be offered “chorizo” a type of sausage that is not to be confused with Mexican chorizo as it is not at all spicy, “morcilla,” which my husband refuses to eat but I actually like and is in fact a tasty blood sausage, as well as they cook up organ meats like kidney and liver which I personally do not care for.  All of these are grilled to perfection and offered to you until it becomes impossible to take another bite.

Empanadas: also knows as… the all time best poor people’s food.  Living on a strict budget means that my husband and I eat a lot of empanadas because these meat filled pastries are usually under $2.00 (USD) a pop. The most popular empanada by far is the meat filled ones, which are usually packed with ground beef but are sometimes stuffed with pieces of chopped up steak.  The meat ones usually have chopped up hard boiled eggs and sometimes olives mixed in.  The second most popular is ham and cheese.  My Spanish tutor once told me that Argentines live for ham, and it’s true, these people consume ham like it’s going out of style, maybe even more than steak, and I believe it’s because with the price of food having gone up due to inflation, ham is much easier on the wallet than steak.  So ham and cheese empanadas are all the rage.  The same places that produces the phenomenal pizza I mentioned earlier, also produces bomb empanadas.  They’re empanadas are flaky and they have a huge assortment to choose from, my favorite is the chicken and mushroom, but every single empanada I have tried on their menu has been delicious. 

Pasta: Buenos Aires is a pasta Mecca, and is home to a wide assortment of goods: spaghetti, gnocchi, ravioli…cooked to perfection and doused in the sauce of your choice: cream sauce, red sauce, Bolognese… Lots of restaurants offer homemade pasta or you can buy handmade pasta in shops that can be found all around town.  I was informed by my students that families here eat pasta on Sundays, and since then Thomas and I have been eating pasta at the end of the week, as it is also easy on the wallet.

Milenesa: steak or chicken pounded thin, doused in bread crumbs, fried, and then served alongside mashed potatoes, French fries, or in between a crusty bread roll with lettuce and tomato.  It’s basically a badass chicken fried steak.  Enough said.

All in all, the food here is good.  I did not cover all of the cuisine options that Buenos Aires has to offer, but these are the basics, a tutorial of sorts, so if you want to know more, you’ll just have to come on down and try it out for yourself.

"Salud!"

"Carne y Salsas"

Shops

Although chain stores like Walmart exist here in Buenos Aires, anything you could need can be found in a specialty “shop”.  That’s what they call stores here...“shops.”  I don’t know if this is unique to Argentina, but there is seriously a shop for everything…there are of course the standard shops that sell average things like clothing, shoes, toys, and food…but then there are shops that sell “specialty items,” for example, there is the shop that sells only remote controls, the shop that sells only cookies, backpacks, cheese, homemade pasta, and yes…there is even a shop that sells mannequins.  

"The Mannequin Shop"

  

A Walk in Abasto

"Beard"

Today Thomas and I strolled around a neighborhood called Abasto.  I actually just started to work in Abasto and this last week I started to notice that it seems to be home to a large Jewish community.  Since I love taking pictures of people I suggested to Thomas that we visit the neighborhood with our cameras.  So we did, and although it is always hard to take discreet photos of people, and I came up with a lot of duds today, there are a few keepers...

"The Red House"

Por Favooooooor...

"Uruguaiano"

My husband and I took a day trip by ferry to Colonia, Uruguay a couple of weeks ago.  We needed to renew our visas and this is done by simply spending the day in Uruguay and then re-entering Buenos Aires.  Pretty easy stuff.  Colonia is a very small and very old city, but it's also rather quaint.  Thomas add I spent the day simply wandering around taking pictures.  I spotted an older man sitting in front of his home while we were walking through a neighborhood and immediately decided I wanted to take his picture.  I thought about taking a sneaky hip shot with my Canon, but decided what I really wanted was to take his photo using Thomas's clunky but wonderful Pentax.  So I decided I was simply going to ask the guy.  I gained up my courage, crossed the street, and asked, "May I please take a photo of you."  His response.."Por Favoooooooor." Meaning of couuuuuurse." He said this with a friendly smile and immediately struck a pose.  I am rather pleased with the results.

The Dirty Truth about Teaching ESL in Buenos Aires

Teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) is really one of the only jobs available to English speaking expats living in Buenos Aires.  I’ve heard that jobs in the tourism and restaurant industry exist, but the easiest jobs to find are teaching English is schools and private institutes.  So what is teaching English like down here in the Paris of the South?  To be honest it’s pretty unglamorous and a bit frustrating.  English schools often times experience a high English teacher turnover rat.   The main reason being that the pay is squat, teachers make anywhere from $8-$11 USD an hour.  The hours are low.  Students are usually only interested in taking English classes in the morning, late afternoons and evenings, which often means you only have 10-20 hours of work a week.  Full time employment is virtually non-existent, as is the possibility of making decent money.  The third thing that factor is travel time.  A twenty hour work week can end up being a thirty hour work week due to travel time if your classes are located in different parts of the city, and while Buenos Aires does have a subway and bus system, there are often strikes which lead to subway closures and overcrowded buses.  Basically, you earn enough money to pay your rent, eat and buy yourself an occasional treat.  So is it worth it?  Well, it really depends on what a person hopes to gain from their experience in Buenos Aires. 

I am no stranger to this city or unfamiliar with the bureaucracy that exists. I lived for a semester in Buenos Aires back in 2004 and traveled back and forth on several other occasions.  This however was back when things were much less expensive and before inflation had caused the prices of food to rise astronomically, but when my husband Thomas and I decided to come to Buenos Aires it was not to make our fortune.  My personal goal was to improve my Spanish and gain some valuable teaching experience.  My husband Thomas, who lugged what felt like 50 lbs of camera equipment, came with the goal of taking some fantastic photographs.  A couple weeks in, and I discovered I too enjoy taking pictures, and together we have enjoyed documenting life in Buenos Aires.  Even though we both work for peanuts, the opportunity to experience big city life has been totally worth it.  This however may not be the case for all expats who decide to embark on an adventure down south. I chatted with an American ESL teacher on the subway a few weeks ago.  She had been teaching in Korea and before that Japan.  She had only been in Buenos Aires a couple of weeks but expressed the desire to leave as soon as she was able to secure a position abroad somewhere else.   “Teaching English here is nothing like teaching English is Korea and Japan…they pay you nothing here, and I find that schools here exists by taking advantage of teachers…I don’t know how you can stand it here,” she said to me.  I sort of responded with a shrug and I told her it’s not for everyone I guess, and that is my advice for anyone who is interesting in coming here to work and live.  Decide what your goals are and if making money is one of them…then you might need to reconsider Buenos Aires as your destination.  However, if you are interested in learning Spanish, eating some wonderful cuisine, making friends with some amazingly hospitable people and experience adventure in a face paced city, then come on down…the water really ain’t that bad.

A Night at the Opera...

"Singing"

My best friend Cesar is an aspiring opera singer.  Last Saturday he performed "La boheme" in a show that was held at the "Manzana de Luces," a historical building in downtown Buenos Aires.  I am obviously bias because I adore him, but I think Cesar has an amazing voice, and there is nothing better then seeing the passion in his face when he sings.  Remember the name Cesar Cota D'Angelo...because I have high hopes that he will see fame in his lifetime...

"A Night at the Opera"

Living in Buenos Aires

I realized that my blog has been a little neglected lately.  When I started it, I had intended to post lots of thoughts about Buenos Aires, a way of documenting my experiences here, and here I am four months later and I have yet to do this.  Well, today I decided was as good a day as any other…So here goes:

"Banderas Argentinas"

                                                        LIVING IN BUENOS AIRES

My husband Thomas and I have been living here in Argentina for almost five months now.  We both have jobs, a place to live, friends and a grasp on how life in this urban jungle works.  So what is it like?   To sum it up in one word, I would choose the word…different.  Two words: very different.  When I left Denver I decided that mindset was what was going to prevent me from becoming homesick.  I had mentally prepared myself to accept the fact that things were going to change and that the comfortable, yet boring life I had been living was going to be altered drastically.  I knew that I would not be able to bring all the comforts of home with me however, I take solace in the fact that those comforts will be there when I return.   So when I drop landed in this city I decided I was ready to take on anything, and expect anything to happen.

So what is living in Buenos Aires like?  It’s busy and noisy…beautiful, a little dangerous, sometimes frustrating, often times amazing, on some occasions intimidating, more times than not it’s distressing,  a thousand times different from Denver, and yet I often find myself walking amongst a noisy metropolis surrounded by a sea of people, and I could not feel more at home.  When I chat with native Argentines they all ask me the same thing with genuine confusion on their faces, “why would you come to live here?” they ask.  Argentina has had and has its share of problems…especially economically and politically.  The city is not the most modern of destinations, its European style architecture while beautiful is very worn out…this really must have been an amazing city in its heyday...but you might describe Buenos Aires as being a little bit gritty.  However, this city has character.  From the cobble stone streets, wooden subway cars from the 1920’s, yes, the 1920’s…they have been refurbished of course, to street merchants and entertainment.  There is always something interesting to see and do and this is what I like.  So my husband I have learned to adapt.  We are learning to live on less money, in a much smaller apartment, and we anticipate and are never surprised by subway closures, as it happens often here due to striking, and the biggest hurdle to deal with: language.  Thomas speaks Spanish very well.  Me…mas o menos…I know my Spanish sounds like what my beginning intermediate English students sounds like to me.  Oh well, I am learning every day, and most people are both patient and amused by my attempts at communication. 

Stay Tuned:  I plan on doing more writing.  There are a lot of topics I would like to cover and discuss on this blog…also a shout out for my good friend Charis Kotzebue’s blog: An American Artist’s Italian Affair.

http://anamericanartistsitalianaffair.blogspot.com.ar/p/old-art.html  Charis has just embarked on an abroad adventure to Italy, and she is an amazing artist and posts her work on her site.  Worth a look friends!