Soy un pasaje de tu vida

Queridos amigos,

 

My first year in Buenos Aires has been the best year of my life. I've grown up, learned, and seen so much — it feels like four years' worth! My series of unplanned moves turned out to be one of the best things that happened to me: I met all my best friends that way. And my final exams, though by no means pleasant, were a landmark. 

Where in South America or Europe shall I end up? Brazil, Holland, Italy? Besides my usual projects — seeing/making art, activism, and education (Was I born to be a professor, or what...?) — my new priority is finding work and situating myself in a place I like. The only update on the situation is that I don't feel ready to settle down in the United States. I'm going back to visit my family, but will search for long-term work abroad. I want to learn new languages and cultures, see more of the world, and live well (be able to afford healthy food, pursue a masters degree, see a doctor when I need to, and pay my bills). Brazil has been calling me (their tourism motto is "Brazil is calling you!"). Europe would be most convenient for paying down my massive student debts. My plans are still uncertain, but I'm getting there. 

With only two more days in Buenos Aires, I don't feel as melancholic as you'd think. I know I will miss it so much, but I've been having a great time with all my friends and the city's art. I haven't had time to be sad. My landlady, Fernanda, feels sure that I'll come back. I think it seems likely, too! At any rate, as she says, I'll bring home much more than my suitcases: all my new friends and memories!

I saw four great movies this week: 

• "La vida útil," an Uruguayan film about a cultural center worker who loses his job. Amazing cinematography, music, and dialogue!
• "Paul s'en va," a French existentialist film directed by Alain Tanner. It more like a play than a film and has lots of literary and philosophical dialogue. Highly recommended, too!
• A few amazing Spanish shorts. 
• The new Steve Carrell movie, "Crazy, Stupid, Love." It was really cute and made me miss my mom! I used to always watch romantic comedies at the mall with her.

I'll never forget all the great cinema classics I saw here at MALBA and Teatro San Martín. Of the 50 or so movies I saw, I was disappointed by one, and enthralled by all the rest. 

And now, for a photo summary of the rest of my last few weeks!

The famous Café Tortoni, founded in 1909, where the the great tangueros played. It's filled with amazing paintings and has lots of old-time character.

August is International Tango Month. When I arrived in Buenos Aires last August, I had a hard time adjusting to the new country and didn't get to experience much of tango month. I booked my flight at the end of August specifically so I'd be here for this festival. It has lived up to my expectations and more!! I've been seeing world-class tango musicians, singers, and dancers live every day! This is Sandra Mihanovich performing in an homage to Eladia Blázquez.

 

When I left Buenos Aires to visit my family for Thanksgiving, I missed every so much. I moped around listening to electrotango and drinking mate, wondering how soon I'd be able to get back. Bajofondo was one of the electrotango bands I discovered. I never dreamed I'd get to see them in concert. They played an amazing concert for free at a big technological festival, Technopolis! Amazing times. =)

 "El tango vuelve al barrio" ("Tango returns to the neighborhood") was one of my favorite acts of the festival. I saw them twice! Their goal is to present a more friendly, genuine sort of tango back to the neighborhoods. The guitarist and singer are amazing. I bought their CD! On the stage were two cafe tables, to set a more "neighborly" mood. During the first show, my friend José Miguel and I sat at one!

 Last night I made tacos for the kids in my house, Jorge, and, Miryam, a santiagüena (from the Santiago province) friend of his. It was the most successful dinner I've ever made! In the first 30 minutes, everyone had eaten three tacos — pausing only to compliment the food or say "mmm" — and all the food was gone! haha. This is the fourth or fifth dinner we've eaten together!

 

 Angéline and Nora, French and German respectively, from my house. =)

My sorority sister Dominique and I eating ice cream at Vesuvio, the first heladería (ice cream shop) in all of Argentina! I will miss the ice cream. It is heavenly! It has the texture Italian gelato and the flavors of America.

José Miguel, Jun, and Rodrigo at Tecnopolis. After the fair we had a great time eating pizza and drinking beer at Jun's house.

 

 José Miguel and his friends from Maracaibo, Venezuela. Alana and her boyfriend came to Argentina with only 10 pesos in hand, and in five months have worked their way up to renting their own room and finding artistic work. I admire them, and they put things in perspective for me: I had felt poor at times having to choose between coffee and empanadas, or only go to cafes a few times a week. They have lived in Argentina for five months and have only been out to eat twice. They survived with la fuerza de su voluntad (their strong willpower) and the help of friends, and they really accomplished so much. Alana assured me that I can come back to Buenos Aires or go to Europe if I want to. It's so nice to meet people like that. They make me believe it! =)

Fernanda (my landlady), Juliana, Angéline, and Nora — the girls of my house (only Camila is missing). Fernanda has been like an aunt to me. They were all so great to meet!

 Angéline, Johannes, Juliana, and Camila at Camila's favorite ice cream shop: Nonna Bianca.

Fede at Recoleta. I like this picture!

 

Signs at the Plaza de Mayo. "The only fight one loses, is the fight they abandon, and that is not in our minds." "You cannot and should not stop talking about the past, especially when there are open wounds like the Malvinas/Faulkland Islands."

 This display at the Memorial Museum behind la Casa Rosada really had an impact on me. The bandana, worn in protest by a mother whose child had "disappeared" and been tortured and killed, is stained with blood from a military officer's attack. The mother was later killed.

The Mothers (now Grandmothers) of Plaza de Mayo asking for the whereabouts of their disappeared (kidnapped and tortured) children. This happened in Buenos Aires — in all of Argentina and Latin America — in the 70's. They are right: it's important to remember. These things have happened and are eternally possible. It is our duty to put an end to them and make sure they don't happen again.

A bunch of Jurassic Park-style mechanized dinosaurs were featured at Tecnopolis, along with these fossils of a real dinosaur. Next to the fossils were a sign that said "Please don't touch the dinosaur." In my five minutes in front of it, I saw three people lay their fingers on the bones. Only in Argentina! haha.

I waited in line three and a half hours for Tango World Championship tickets with José Miguel. The finals are on Monday night, just before I leave. I think they will be spectacular!

Abrazos!!
Kaeli

Cumpleaños

Hola amigos,

¡Mi cumpleaños fue buenísimo! (I had an amazing birthday!) In the afternoon I had coffee with Steven and went to el MALBA, my favorite art museum, and for dinner I ate (a lot) at a spectacular Mexican restaurant in Palermo Soho, La Fábrica del Taco, with a few of my best friends. Muchísimas gracias, amigos, for all your nice wishes and gifts!

My Sunday was also great. My landlady, Fernanda, surprised me with a dulce de leche-frosted birthday cake. Cake and mate tea were the perfect breakfast! In the afternoon I went to the San Telmo craft feria and chatted with some artisans (I do that every Sunday!). Most are from Colombia or Perú and travel South America with their work.

After that I went to a café I like, Petit Colón (I like it because of the classic atmosphere and because they always play tango music there). I drank an espresso (“café chico,” my regular order) and read a story by Horacio Quiroga, one of my current favorite authors.  Sunday night I went to Chinatown with Jorge. We had a lot of fun shopping for knick-knacks and international food. We walked into an indigenous crafts store called Pachamama (Mother Earth) that I’d been curious about, and it turned out to be really great. Their business buys crafts from indigenous artisans at a dignified price that enables them to make a living from their work, and brings great crafts (plus books and natural medicines) from around the world to Buenos Aires.  I especially liked this “prosperity charm.” He comes with a cigar, which you’re supposed to smoke and then place in his mouth for good luck in earthly prosperity. Jun gave me her lucky US dollar for my birthday. She hopes it will bring me back to Buenos Aires! 

 

 August 5^th was the anniversary of my arrival in Buenos Aires! All the travels, homes, friendships, and nice Sunday afternoons I’ve had this year have been incredible.  Ever since last August, I’ve been collecting little pieces of Buenos Aires, trying to take what I could of it home with me: ticket stubs, agendas, photos, letters, yerba mate (tea), books, napkins from favorite cafes… While I can’t take the whole city home, I will leave it charged with memories. I’ll come back a true hispanoparlante (Spanish-speaker), with a much deeper knowledge of Latin-American culture and history, new friends, a small but excellent Spanish library (the question is where to station it… I have many more travels ahead!), and the desire to kiss everyone on the cheek when I say hello (“¡Hola!” + a kiss on the cheek is the normal greeting here).  My Portuguese is progressing (slowly but surely!). “Águas de Março” and “A Minha Menina” are songs I'm learning from. I found this website, Releituras, full of literature in Portuguese, and will use that to help me, too.   My work plans are also progressing. I'll give a more detailed update about that part when I have one! Here are some pictures of the last few weeks. (A small fraction of all the thousands of pictures I've taken this month!)

These next three are time-themed:

 

Of my wanderings in San Telmo:

 

Jorge's terraza (terrace). If I were more sophisticated with either Photoshop or Blogger, I would put these photos next to each other. But you can imagine it! 

For our last dinner together (my goodbyes have started!), I taught Nam how to make empanadas. Jorge prepared the meat! =)

Lovely San Telmo.

From the feria:

This is my friend Leo with his work. He shapes all the stones himself and sculpts tiny figures into the silver above them.

Jewelery from the 70's. To the right of these were what looked like little pill-boxes, which according to the vendor, "the girls used to keep their weed in." haha.

 

Amazing graffiti. San Telmo is filled with it!

Thanks for reading! Beijos!

Kaeli

Baile y português. El pensador.

Hola amigos,

My grandparents gave me money to buy a camera as an early birthday gift. ¡Muchísimas gracias, abuelos! I haven't been this excited about a gift since the Colonial American Girl doll I got when I was 10. My picture-taking spree began immediately as soon as the battery was charged. Me encanta mi cámara (I really love my camera) and have been having a lot of fun!

I've started learning Brazilian Portuguese, minha linguagem favorita do mundo (my favorite language in the world), using Live Mocha and some podcasts. It's similar to Spanish, and I can understand a lot, but I want to drastically improve my communication skills. So far I've learned lots of basic vocabulary and pronunciation rules. I set my camera's language to Portuguese and have been speaking portuñol, haha. If you know of any great Brazilian songs or movies, or friends I can practice speaking with, let me know! =)

Other than taking pictures e aprendendo português, I've been reading, writing, and editing and hanging out with friends. I've been feeling a bit like this (The Thinker): not sure what my next enterprise will be. Suggestions, anyone?

Last week I planned to go to el Museo la Ene, a new contemporary art museum that a friend of a friend curates, with Nam. On our way there, though, we ran into a huge crowd with torches, signs, and instruments. It turned out to be an homage to Evita, a famous Argentinean first lady, and we decided to stay and watch. I will post the pictures from the homage soon. There were fireworks, music (mostly la marcha peronista, haha), and I got to hear the president speak.

Another foiled plan I had was to see "Metropolis," a classic movie from the 1920's which they recently recovered lost footage from. I went with Camilo, who I met at the homage to Evita. Since tickets to the movie turned out to be sold out, we went to the Museo Metropólito instead and walked around Palermo. It wasn't what we had in mind, but it was fun. Palermo is, in general, like a giant shopping mall, but I love all the parks and flower kiosks there!

One of the major highlights of my week (and possibly my year) was the dance show I saw at El Caminito: part tango and part danza gauchesca. These pictures don't do it justice! It was one of the best dance shows I've ever seen.

 I will have to find some more salsa-dancing friends so I can continue spinning around like this. =)

Other than that, Nam and I went to Congreso to take pictures and at empanadas at La Americana, and on Sunday went to the feria (Nam's last this time around!); Jorge, Jun and I had a pizza night; I went to the Joan Miró-themed café I've had my eye on (I especially loved a painting that says "A painting is never finished: only abandoned); and Jun introduced me to Hugh Laurie's blues CD** (I fell in love instantly!).

I also saw two great movies with Jorge and Leo: "I Killed My Mother" (France) and "Revolution: The Crossing of the Andes" (Argentina). Both were great and had really nice cinematography!  

Buenos Aires-style pizza, topped with ham, olives, tomatoes, spinach, salami...

 Plaza de Mayo. The Colonial Cabildo, one of the oldest buildings in Buenos Aires, is the white building with green doors in the background.

Nam and I walked the whole San Telmo feria: from Plaza Dorrego to la Casa Rosada. I love the electric pink of la Casa Rosada at night!

Some grafitti I like:

 I take this as social commentary about the objectification of bodies.

 The bookstore kitty. This librería has a great collection and plays all the best Beatles songs.

Hola, kitty!

 A building I like near Congress. I want to see the New York Statue of Liberty!

But this one is also great. 

 

El Palacio Barolo, based on Dante's Divine Comedy.

Peace, love, and abraixos! Thanks for reading! =)

Kaeli