Sorry it's been a while since I've blogged! Here's a some picture of me in my new room (with my purple salteño blanket). I am loving it, although I mostly go to events all day and walk around outside. I've done the most cooking I've ever done here. Nothing complex, but it's all decently rico (delicious) and cheap. =)
Last week I met up with Kate and Nigam before they left for the United States. We ate at their favorite milanesa place — El Americano — and went shopping around San Telmo. We found an amazing antique/costume shop featuring mannequins wearing martini glass-glasses, scuba masks, wigs, and retro dresses. It was really great! I'd never gone into the shops around San Telmo: only the ferias.
I went to the San Telmo feria (craft fair) that weekend: my third time there! The feria stretches down Defensa street for miles, and is filled to capacity every Sunday. Some families and couples hold hands so as not to get separated by the drifting of the crowd. At la Plaza de Mayo there was a super-crowded celebration honoring Human Rights organizations with concerts and readings. I listened to it for a while, bought a newspaper with a section commemorating the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, and later ate medialunas with jamón y queso blanco with a new Armenian friend I made.
Fede and his sister liked the little American treats and things I gave them. Fede and I ate milanesa with Mexican hot sauce (yum!) and watched "Death at a Funeral" while eating buttery, salty American popcorn.
On Tuesday I had ice cream with a Scottish guy who wanted to practice basic Spanish. He majored in Italian and has traveled to Italy, so he helped me practice my basic Italian! We spoke in Italian for the first hour and in Spanish for the second. That was pretty fun: my first ever language exchange. He said my Italian was good!
On Wednesday I went to el MALBA (the Museum of Latin American Art) and saw the new Marta Minujín exhibit. Before the exhibit the only piece I'd seen by Minujín was one of my favorite permanent pieces at the museum: a picture of her repaying Argentina's debt to America by giving choclos (corn cobs), Latin American gold, to Andy Warhol (if you search "Minujin and Warhol" in Google you can see it). The exhibit was amazing! There were technicolor, mattress sculptures; US hippy culture imported through clothes, homemade psychedelic slides, and newspapers; records of giant sculptures Minujín had made and then destroyed; and a modest bedroom where a young couple slept and talked (in the gallery). It was really great!
I went to two presentations at MALBA this week: one was pesada (boring), and the other was really good. The one I liked was about three award-winning art history essays. The authors, two Colombian and Brazilian women, talked about their goals for the project and gave us free copies of the essays and wine. The Colombian said that sometimes while she was writing, she wondered why on earth she'd chosen the work that she had, because it "wasn't speaking to her." She said that if you push at any subject long enough, though, and move it enough around, eventually it has something to say.
She told us that a newspaper headline she'd read, "Tomatoes create work in Ecuador," had appalled her. She said that in modern times, we've got everything reversed. Work creates tomatoes, not the other way around. When we think of an hour, we sometimes think of the $10 we earn for working it, and not of the hour itself. I thought those were amusing and interesting thoughts!
There was no translator for the Brazilian speaker (who speaks Portuguese), so I only understood about 40% of what she said. I went to this event with a British friend, and he said that it was common for Brazilian people to speak without translators here. After the lecture she talked with us and apologized for there not being a translator because she could tell it was more difficult for us. I told her that I loved el MALBA and the new Minujín exhibit and she compared Minujín to Lady Gaga. I hadn't thought about it, but they are somewhat alike!
While everyone was chatting after the lecture, I saw someone with the exact hair length and color of Marta Minujín. I looked again, and it was her! My closest encounter with a world-renouned artist so far! lol.
The spring weather here is great. The streets smell like jasmine flowers, which are popular at kiosks. I've been spending a lot of time reading, writing, and sitting around in plazas. While walking around aimlessly one day, I ran into el rosedal: a huge, public rose garden!
Tonight is la Noche de Librerías, the Night of Bookstores, and will have lots of free events, so I'll probably go to that!
Saludos!
Kaeli
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