La Bomba!

So last night I was invited to this event called La Bomba.  I had absolutely no idea what to expect and I was told you either love it or hate it.  Which meant I dragged my new friend Anna with me in case it was horrible.  First we went to my friend Nanu's house, because she has a dog and I had to get my dog fix for the day.  We show up wearing jeans and t shirts and the first thing Nanu says to me is, "you probably should have worn joggers," which I'm assuming meant sweatpants.  Then Nanu asks us if we would like shots of tequila. Mind you, it's about 6:30 on a Monday. We were a little unsure, but decided that if Nanu thinks we should have tequila, well why not.  After a couple of shots, we catch a bus and head to the club, with Nanu taking her shot to go.  Thats right, she put it in a plastic shot glass and drank it on the bus.

When we get there Nanu drags us toward a crowd of people who I recognize as couchsurfers I have met at previous events.  Everyone is hugging and giving the Argentine kiss, I just tell Anna to go with it.  Everyone is also drinking giant liter bottles of beer and before I know it, I've been handed one to share with Anna. After about ten minutes of mingling and pretending I know people, we are told to chug because it's time to go inside.

We entered this giant open space which reminded me of entering a football stadium.  There were concessions to buy beer and empenadas and then there was a giant entranceway into this room full of people jumping and dancing.  There was a huge stage with about 15 men dressed in red banging on drums and singing, with a crazy energetic man conducting them. Anna and I chose to buy beers then stand in the corner and watch everything for a little while.  I can compare the situation to a concert, because it was obvious a lot of people were on drugs, but these people had more room to move around in than a concert, so the dancing was amazing to watch.  Everyone was sweating and laughing and just having a great time.  We finished our beers and decided to join, though not nearly as over the top as some people.  Nanu grabbed us and dragged us to the middle of all the dancing, and for two hours we jumped around and apparently experienced the "good energy" of the place.

When La Bomba was finally over, EVERYONE was covered in sweat. Kind of disgusting, but it was cool to see people so unselfconscious about it. There was a La Bomba after party, but Anna and I chose to skip out on that until next time.  After all, it was only 10 pm on a Monday and I was just not prepared for all the insanity.  Next time I plan on takin pictures, because you have to see it to really believe it, but it is one of those cultural things I'm glad I was able to experience.

Wild parakeets!

So, Saturday Leah and I went to a huge park for a picnic with our friend Fatima.  It was a beautiful day and nice to be outside with friends AND the wild parakeets.  Leah and I must have seemed like crazy people, but it was so weird to feed bread to bright green birds that I have only seen in pet stores.  They were just so green.  We forgot cameras, but next time we go we plan on taking many pictures.  Fatima just laughed at us and told us we would have to visit her in Bolivia because she has monkeys in her backyard and she can't wait to see our reactions to those.

Saturday was also great because I got to meet a good friend of Katie Wenzler, one of my best friends.  Anna and Katie are friends from U of M and I've been corresponding with her for a while about her coming to BA.  She finally arrived and we hung out all night, met some of her American friends, and then went to bother Leah at her new job. Ah yes, for those who don't know, Leah got a job as a bartender/waitress on Friday and Saturday nights at a bar called Sugar.  Yes, she has left me to my own devices on the weekends, forcing me to go out and make new friends without her.  

Anyways, I'm off to some thing called la bomba (without leah dah) that apparently involves drums and dancing.  I have no idea what to expect but plan on reporting in full detail tomorrow, so hopefully that post will be far more exciting then this one.

COOKIES

I came to the very disturbing realization today that no one in Argentina has had proper cookies.

The lack of cookies in this country is not new to us; about a month in Kelly went crazed one weekend and practically salivated in front of the counter at Tea Connection, the extremely Americanized cafe nearby which is the only place known to sell cookies here. But whether it be lack of money or short attention span, we passed on those cookies, but the craving has been reinstated thanks to a sudden crush of holiday specials being shown on TV, from Full House to Family Guy. Why? I don't know. But a Lifetime holiday special starring Tate Donovan and Anne Heche seems like a good enough reason to celebrate an early Christmas with some Santa-shaped sugar cookies.

Today I started teaching a new student. Relevant update: I now teach through Wall Street Institute, where I sit for several hours in a row and have a new small group every hour, and through 2 other institutes that pimp (for lack of a better word) me out to their business clients, and those students I have more regularly and get paid twice as much for. We got to talking about holidays, as Argentines seem to take the first day of Spring as a legit vacation day, and we covered various other holidays and their traditions (New Years, oddly, is not about bubbly to them), and any such conversation with me naturally comes down to the food.

And this is where I realized that these people have lived their entire existence without cookies. Cookies to them are breakfast biscuits or, at best, oreos. They also have something called alfajores here, which are like extra floury cookies with dulce de leche in the middle. They are nothing compared to homemade batches of Christmas cookies and snickerdoodles. Peanut butter cookies were beyond their mental grasps.

If anyone has a good recipe for Christmas cookies that we could use, that would be awesome, as I promised many a porteño today that I would bring them some. Preferably ones with few ingredients. That I can eyeball the measurements for. Or are in metric.

For some reason I find this hysterical:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

MALBA and Suspicious Vans

Kelly and I made our second museum trip yesterday to MALBA, a major collection of modern Latin American art... not exactly our cup of tea, but we convinced the guy at the desk to let us in for free despite our lack of identification so all was not for naught, and we happened to run into Emma who we met at the potluck the night before. Across the street was pretty much the largest Carrefour (supermarket) I'd ever seen, with an extensive home goods and electronics selection. They had a tray out with Jim Beam samples and some champagne for tasting. The meat section, per Argentine standards, was extensive and included some kind of packaged rat tail but surprisingly no pig heads. Pictures will be posted later today/tomorrow.

At night we decided to go to another CS event, this one was at a bar/club called Uniclub or something along those lines. We went to our friend David's apartment first, which we had never been to before and were pleased to discover that it involved a zebra skin rug (again, pictures to come). Then we met up with some more characters from around the world and headed to the party. Downstairs, I thought I recognized Yoshi, who is a chef from Israel who I met at the potluck. I approached him and said, "Hey! You cooked the fish last night right? It was delicious." This man was perplexed. Yoshi he was not.

The real Yoshi, and Aussie Zara and Bolivian Fatima were upstairs. We had a grand old time dancing to "Love Shack" and our current favorite "I Don't Feel Like Dancing." Our friend drove us home in the most ghetto, run-down bright yellow VW van I have ever seen. It belongs on this website: Suspicious Vans.
Come back for pics.

CS Potluck

Yesterday I went with Leah to go shoe shopping on the main shopping street, Santa Fe. Unfortunately, this shopping expedition proved futile for myself when I learned that shoes in this country do not come in my size.  I attempted to squeeze my apparently gargantuan sized foot into the largest size the stores had, a 40, but it just wouldn't fit.  Leah found some really cute shoes though, so I suppose I will just have to live vicariously through her.

Last night we went to a couchsurfing potluck.  Each person was supposed to prepare a meal from their own country, or at least something they were really good at.  Leah chose to make a tortellini salad and I chose to watch her make it and help chop onion when necessary.  I did buy the wine though, so I feel that kind of counts for something.  

We got there and recognized a lot of people from the previous Saturday.  Everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming once again, especially when I pulled out the bottle of wine. Glasses were running out, so Leah made the genuis decision of using a yogurt cup as a wine glass.  Everyone was preparing their dishes and chatting, there was at least 15 different things to eat.  Finally everyone brought their food out and set it on the floor.  There was fish, meatball sandwiches, greek yogurt, spicy thai curry, tacos, the list goes on and on.  The dessert was even better.  A giant flan and a giant chocolate cake that was probably one of the greatest things I have ever eaten.  Leah and I were still discussing it today, which I know is both pathetic and a little embarrassing.

After the amazing dinner, everyone just sat around and talked.  It was a lot of fun and I was only mildly embarrassed when one person told me that I really opened up once I had some wine in me.  We all know it's true, so I've embraced this fact and moved on.  We left at around 12 30, too full and exhausted to continue on with the party.

We've been invited to some private birthday party held a huge club tonight, which we plan on attending.  The best part is that their are numerous fake names on the list for us to use so we can get in.  The only issue with this is that they are all Argentine names, so unless I can suddenly speak spanish and Leah can darken her hair and eyes, we might have a slight problem pulling it off...

Our First Couch Surfing Meeting

Contrary to what you may believe in regards to how Cousin Kelly and I spend our time in Buenos Aires due to the narrow perspective provided by this here blog (because we can't really help that alcohol really spices up our lives), we are occasionally spotted leaving the house in the daylight hours. Why just this Saturday we attended our first Couch Surfing event, that started at 4 but we showed up fashionably late at 4:30 and were still the first ones there. Nanu, the hostess, was really friendly and we sat around and talked until the apartment was full with about 30 people, at which point we broke up and played various board games.

We fell into the kitchen table kids who play taboo group, only taboo in this case was in Spanish, which is challenging for so many reasons you couldn't possibly grasp until you're staring at a card that says 'microbe' and you can't say disease, infection, germ, bacteria, and several other Spanish words whose meanings you can't derive, therefore eliminating just about everything you could've possibly said. Also, Taboo is no where near as awesome with no buzzer control. But we improved our vocabulary while charming the locals with our sarcastic wits.

This went on for 8 hours and we met and air kissed a ridiculous amount of people. We walked home at midnight and, though exhausted from so much human contact, needed to rehash the night over a glass of wine. I decided it was high time for Kelly to try Indian food, so we stopped into the Indian restaurant we've wanted to try and debriefed.

Oh, the people we meet

I would just like to say, that right now in Argentina, it's starting to get warm, and it's kind of weirding me out. After all, it's fall in the US and I'm expecting to see the leaves turning, feel the air getting colder and did I mention that fall is my favorite season and I'm a little sad I'm missing it? I'm especially nostalgic for a pumpkin spice latte from starbucks, or actually, pumpkin spice anything, but Leah promised we could make pumpkin pancakes, so hopefully that will help.

Anyways, sorry for that little bit of whining, I'm in fabulous Buenos Aires, and don't really miss anything in the US yet. Except maybe Dr. Pepper. SO Friday Leah and I planned on getting up early to go and apply for our CUIT/tax numbers, but when we woke up we decided that we had a better chance if we applied on a Monday instead of a Friday. We figured that the person who decided whether to accept or deny our applications would be a lot more generous at the beginning of a new week than the end of a long one.

With that decision made, we went back to bed and woke up several hours later, much more prepared for the day. We each did our own thing, Leah made some lentil type meal for dinner, then we headed out. We decided the we needed the familiar comforts of the Alamo after our crazy Thursday night, but little did we realize it would be just as crazy as the night before.

It started out calmly enough, the bouncers recognizing us and letting us in. We got beers, we chilled, Leah got harassed by some Colombian that I couldn't bother being civil to, so I went and got us seats at the bar. Fortunately for me, Leah sat on the outside and was more prone to being harassed by weirdos, and believe me, she was.

First there was the crazy Argentine man in sunglasses who came running up and pounded his fist in front of her and started shouting at her. I don't really recall what he was saying, something about TEACHING ENGLISH (fist pound) and GETTING HIS TEACHING CERTIFICATE (fist pound) and WANTING TO GO HOME TO TOUCH HIMSELF(fist pound + maniacal laughter). I was laughing so hard by that time I was of no help. The two guys next to me told me I should help her, but I honestly had no idea what to do. I mean, he was clearly drunk and coked out. Then I made eye contact with an older man (way older) standing behind them and he saved the day by distracting the crazy guy.

Unfortunately, the old man thought he could come and talk to us after he got rid of crazy. I was fine with it until I told him I was from Ann Arbor and he called me a rich bitch, which I really did not appreciate. I turned to the guys next to me and started talking to them, but unfortunately, Leah got stuck talking to the old guy who turned out to be a severely racist and an asshole. Once again, the guys next to me told me to save her, I kept trying to include her in conversations, but the bar was loud and it was impossible. Finally the old guy got the hint and left. We talked to the two Argentine guys a bit longer, but they were a little weird. The only memorable thing about one of them was his hair was FANTASTIC, but he knew it, which was not so fantastic. It was comparable to Mr. Bingley's (see right), that red haired guy in the Pride and Prejudice movie, except even taller. I wish I had gotten a picture.

Finally, we were left alone for a while, then Leah got to chatting in Spanish with a guy and I was glued to ESPN, watching the awesome football commercials, especially the one about the USC/OSU game the next day. Man I miss football. Then I started talking to a guy who turned out to be American which was GREAT because I was sick of trying to speak spanish and it was nice to just talk football with someone.

Leah and I left at bartime, agreeing once again that bars are really only good for single serving friends and no way to meet real people. Fortunately for us, we had a couchsurfing event the next day, which I'll let Leah tell you about since couchsurfing is her baby and I'm just along for the ride.

Champagne

As Kelly's birthday weekend of celebration develops, we miss more and more of the daylight hours to sleep.

On Wednesday, after the tragic film that is Wanted, we indulged in champagne and went to The Red Door, an unmarked bar in San Telmo where we discovered the delightful homemade pretzels and hummus they serve. Appropriately, Kelly made friends with the bartenders while I chatted with some artsy weirdos. We then went to Museum, per Wednesday night tradition, and had a grand old time and devouring the 2 kilos of ice cream I gifted Kelly then ate myself.

Thursday night we returned to B52, the restaurant Megan introduced us to on our very first night in Argentina. It was quite as delicious as we had remembered, though the menu had changed. They have their own reserves of Malbec, which is delicious, and the decor was reminiscent of being inside a wine bottle to me - green lights tinted the windows and dark wood and a spiral staircase reminded us of an old professor's library. Plus, you get amazing free champagne whenever you go, and we got extra by announcing Kelly's birthday, which is obviously a ploy we will continue at many new restaurants.

We followed dinner expecting quiet drinks at a bar in Plaza Serrano and an early night, but the swarms of people wanting to twirl us on the dance floor forbid it. Seriously, what is with the dancing here? I can't keep up. And yet at one point Kelly was being chased by the owner with promises of free champagne (and he didn't even know it was her birthday...) while I led the conga line for a lap around the floor.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!

Today is my birthday, Leah took me to see a movie to kill some time and the only one worth seeing was Wanted.  I say worth seeing because I didn't realize how TERRIBLE it was.  Plenty of action, little plot, more of a wait for the dvd sort of film.  We are about to go out tonight having killed bottle of cheap champagne between us.  I just have one memorable quote from my father via ichat to post:

Keith Stone: I can't tell if you guys are dumb and dumber or wild and wilder

Leah: Well, I'm pretty sure we know which one is the "er" in both scenerios

Obviously she was talking about me, but I've looked past the insult and seen the humor. Anyways, we are off, thanks for reading!

Hey guys, thought I would check in so people know we are still alive.  Today Leah and I began the process of getting our CUIT, which is like a tax number so we can actually be semi-legitimate and find jobs.  This is more for me, by the way, since Leah is already a productive member of society and gives back to the community, whereas I only help the economy by going to the bars.  We had to go to the police station today, where the cops there were surprisingly helpful and friendly. They need to stop by our place tomorrow or Wednesday to make sure we have a legitimate address.  They could be coming at any hour, so I hope I hear the buzzer.  

Apparently that's the easy part, because once we get a certificate from the police, we have to go wait in line for several hours and fill out all these forms, blah blah blah.  I probably would have given up on this long ago, but thankfully Leah has a different mentality than I and is making me go through with all of this.

Um, Saturday night was really fun.  We made new friends at this bar Gibralter.  Some I hope to never see again, including some scary man who told me I should be an actress because I have very expressive eyes.  I tried to express I was going to hit him if he didn't leave me alone, but he didn't get the hint.  Fortunately Leah did and we escaped to another section of the bar where we met a cool guy who took us to our FIRST HIP HOP CLUB!  It was a little intense, with the metal detectors and being patted down for weapons, but they did play 50 cent, Snoop, and even that Tipsy song I loved when I was 18, so I would consider going back.

Other then that, we've become obsessed with couchsurfers.com.  We want to go to Uraguay this weekend or the next, and hope to crash on some complete stranger's couch and have them show us the town. Preferably a rich, good looking stranger, but we could easily settle for some hot guy with a futon.  Hopefully I've sufficiently freaked my parents out with that last comment, hasta luego!

Tropic Thunder

Leah and I just went to see Tropic Thunder.  It was great, Robert Downey Jr was brilliant, we laughed, good times.  It was also a very awkward experience. Comedic films really do not translate.  We would laugh hysterically at subtle jokes and we would be the only ones laughing. Apparently the line, "my urine smells like bologna and I don't know why" is not funny to the Argentine community, but I thought it was amazing and Leah and I were the only ones laughing.

Ironically, before the film there was a trailer for Superhero Movie and the crowd thought that that piece of crap was the funniest thing ever, even though it is obviously one of the stupidest movies of all time.  So yeah, thats my bit on cultural differences for the day, we're off to check out the bar scene.

you know how i know you're a lush?

Today started with a job interview for another English institute, PLS (Professional Language Services). I went in not expecting to get it as it's more serious and for businesspeople, but they basically just asked me when my available hours were and signed me up immediately. So that starts next week and I'm pretty clueless as to what it entails.

Kelly then met me for lunch at California Burrito Company on Lavalle, close to the Wall Street Institute where I work. It was like Chipotle, which was awesome, and although the tortilla wraps were not up to par, the guacamole and real tortilla chips made up for it. Kelly managed to make a fool of herself in front of all the clientele by tripping not once, but twice on her way out, with the second time nearly taking out the corrugated metal siding of the food counter.

I then worked for 6 hours and had some of my favorite students, which always puts me in a good mood. When I went to leave and said goodbye, my coworker Norberto said, "Ah, The Alamo is calling you." I asked him to repeat this, because my honest-to-God first thought was... "How does the Alamo know I'm at work?" I not-too-quickly realized that this was not literal; that, in fact, my favorite bar does not keep tabs on me and try to contact me when they haven't seen me in a week to check on my state of wellness. Norberto meant the Alamo is beckoning to me. And that is how I know it's time for a break from the Alamo.

silly americans

Yesterday we wanted helado, so we went into a store we had never been in before. There were at least 30 different flavors and only half of them were labeled, so being our obnoxious selves, we decided we had to try ALL of them to figure out what they were. We avoided the ones that had old, withered looking marachino cherries in them. At first the guy behind the counter (sporting an amazing jheri curl mullet) humored us, and eventually he took it upon himself to select the flavors which we should try next, deriving great entertainment from our reactions.

Not to be left out, his coworker wanted to introduce us to a curious pale yellow ice cream that was mostly untouched in the front of the store. When we asked what flavor it was, the man refused to tell us and just handed us a sample. Jheri-Curl tried to warn us with exaggerated gesticulation. Leah tried it first, made a horrible face and said, "EWWW." Kelly was intrigued, since this was the first ice cream Leah had ever tried and not likee. Kelly tasted it and immediately wanted to spit it out. It was wine flavored ice cream. Not a good expensive wine flavor, but a boxed, 6 days old, severe hangover the next day, franzia type of flavor. Then Kelly finished it when no one was looking so it wouldn't drip on her and tried not to throw up.

All the men behind the counter were laughing at us, which was especially strange because their uniforms consisted of ridiculous red bowties and white shirts with pink lettering all over them, so who were they to laugh at us?! Anyways, we gave our order to the guy, and once he got our cones he added one of the disgusting marichino cherries to the top of each one, as an extra little treat. It would have been rude to ignore this gesture, so as he watched we both ate the cherries. Let's just say the rest of the ice cream was glorious in comparison.

touring the city

This weekend, we finally took a tour of the city. Granted, it was at 8 am on Sunday after a long night out, but it counts.

We finally met up with Juan, Tammy's Argentine friend who went abroad for a semester to Illinois, and he gallantly showed us a night on the town. We started out at a bar in Palermo at 12:30 or so, then worked our way into Shampoo, which is CLEARLY the kind of club that only permits really ugly girls because Kelly and I couldn't get in for a while (I think it was Kelly's windbreaker that really did it). But when we left the club we were hungry, so we went out for empanadas and tostadas while the sun rose. Taking advantage of the bright and uncrowded streets we drove around town and were literally shocked by the city that we hadn't seen. It was quite the pleasant surprise... we saw Boca stadium, the port, lots of buildings, some stray dogs, and Kelly was stared down by a bus driver on the early morning shift. We got home at 9, turning our made-up faces in embarrassment, pretending we somehow didn't notice Walter, our doorman, washing the sidewalk. I think the fact that we tried to hide is going to make it more awkward in the long run.

In other news, I've been teaching many hours of English and I love it. The only downside is that I speak English all day, so my Spanish is not exactly in top shape. I have different students every hour and every day, so I never really see them with consistency, but it's finally getting to the point where I've had enough repeats to see their progress and, more importantly, pick favorites.