After perusing the trivial verbiage that passes for GRE vocabulary with great perspicacity, this standard testing tyro has seen his initial diffidence replaced by confidence, obviated any possible complications sedulously and is ready to be tested.
It'll be like a practice run, I guess... I'll tell you how it goes, eh?
Pi-R-squared,
Ch.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Río Cuarto, Córdoba
Setting out from Mendoza, I got on a bus and took a long ride that would take me to Río Cuarto, in the province of Córdoba. Córdoba is known for their delicious alfajores, their rich farmland, the huge university town that is the city of Córdoba, and the strange cordobés accent (they put their em-PHAS-is on the wrong syll-A-ble). I'll be going to the city of Córdoba for their apparently-legendary Oktoberfest celebrations a few months down the road, but for now I stopped at Río Cuarto, where two Fulbright friends are teaching English.
I got in close to midnight to find Linds, K-Gore, and their friend Fran about to sit down to an amazing Italian dinner: salad with fresh pepper and pear slices, Risotto with chicken and grated cheese, and of course red wine. We ate together and Fran, a microbiology professor and a former scholarship recipient in the US, became the 100th person on this trip to comment on my porteño accent (You're number 100! You win a dance party!). We danced to 80s music until 4am, when the police arrived to notify us there was a noise complaint from a neighbor. Good night!
The next day I walked around the river for which the town is named with K-Gore, and pondered about what happened to the first, second and third rivers. There were horses all over (but here it wasn't just the trash collectors, and it didn't seem anachronistic) at the park, and Katie remarked that this maybe was what Chicago would look like a century ago. I could see it I guess. A lot of the buildings in Río Cuarto seemed to be new and they had a very blocky, modern architectural style, juxtaposed against the humble homes on the fringe of the river. We ate some really amazing facturas and drank maté at a nearby municipal field, which soon was invaded by a 9th grade boys' gym class. Haha.
Later on we studied vocabulary for the GREs (Linds is taking them too) and then recorded some songs (me on vocals, guitars and Miss Sovereign on vocals, drums). The songs can be found on my MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/checharlyeua
Happy listening!
Anyway, then it was off to La Plata on a bus the next day. Soon I'll be hanging out with Brazilian friends (Renata and Ygor are visiting, see earlier posts) and Agus and Tino and all my platense peeps.
I got in close to midnight to find Linds, K-Gore, and their friend Fran about to sit down to an amazing Italian dinner: salad with fresh pepper and pear slices, Risotto with chicken and grated cheese, and of course red wine. We ate together and Fran, a microbiology professor and a former scholarship recipient in the US, became the 100th person on this trip to comment on my porteño accent (You're number 100! You win a dance party!). We danced to 80s music until 4am, when the police arrived to notify us there was a noise complaint from a neighbor. Good night!
The next day I walked around the river for which the town is named with K-Gore, and pondered about what happened to the first, second and third rivers. There were horses all over (but here it wasn't just the trash collectors, and it didn't seem anachronistic) at the park, and Katie remarked that this maybe was what Chicago would look like a century ago. I could see it I guess. A lot of the buildings in Río Cuarto seemed to be new and they had a very blocky, modern architectural style, juxtaposed against the humble homes on the fringe of the river. We ate some really amazing facturas and drank maté at a nearby municipal field, which soon was invaded by a 9th grade boys' gym class. Haha.
Later on we studied vocabulary for the GREs (Linds is taking them too) and then recorded some songs (me on vocals, guitars and Miss Sovereign on vocals, drums). The songs can be found on my MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/checharlyeua
Happy listening!
Anyway, then it was off to La Plata on a bus the next day. Soon I'll be hanging out with Brazilian friends (Renata and Ygor are visiting, see earlier posts) and Agus and Tino and all my platense peeps.
Monday, August 11, 2008
MENDOZA
I left La Plata at night (this time I went for the classy cama section on the planta baja) and arrived at Mendoza the next morning, where I proceeded to hang out with Fulbrightera friend Lilli, who is way awesome and one of my favorite people around, and happened to have a whole extra room in her house free! My stay in Mendoza would be gratis.
We went over to the big public park near her house and I met her neighbor and a few friends. We layed out on a big blanket, drank mate and played guitars. Lilli´s friends were really nice and really cool.
Soon thereafter I went over to the bus terminal to meet up with Marcela my Chilean sister! YAY!!! You dedicated blog-readers will remember her from my last visit to Chile and from my estancia en Valdivia, Chile (po) (weón). She arrived and the familia feliz reunited! I gave her the iPod she had ordered from my last trip to the US and she jumped up and down and carried it around like her baby. Haha yeah!!
After that we went on the hunt for this restaurant that´s actually a house where a family cooks up a big dinner and guests eat with the family, whatever they´re having. The rumor is that they have the very best food in the whole city. We tracked down the place but it was closed, so we took a recommendation from the super-nice cabby who took us to a place with famous lomitos (for the Rowleys: ok, think of a Bumstead with fried egg and steak and other stuff in it, with amaaazing fresh French bread that tastes almost like crusty Angel food cake). The sandwich I got could have won a Nobel prize. I ate it in self-defense. It could have eaten me. Photographic evidence will be up soon on my Picasa site (at right on this bloggy). Lilli had been on one of those lemon juice fasts (trying to get her body to get rid of all that... well... Argentinean food) and she kindly broke her fast in honor of her esteemed guests, who were dead set on eating like chanchos.
After that we we stopped at an artesan ice cream place (the best in Mendoza, according to the cabby, whose opinion I trusted). It indeed was the best ever! We had a sundae between the three of us, then three shakes in succession (also between the three of us, with straws). Marcela and I had made a pact before the night started that we would return to our respective homes rolling like giant bowling-ball-people. I am a man of my word.
After that, Lilli and I went to her favorite bar, a place run by two of her friends. It was a really cozy, artistic place. The kind of place where the owner invites you into the kitchen to talk about the better points of empanadas with the chef (as we did).
The next day, Marcy and I went to the mall and I got a new poofy down vest and Marcy looked for iPod accessories and bought some chocolate and stuff to bring back. I took her to the bus station and watched ride of into the sunset (figuratively - it was about 3pm).
Lilli and I had tea and played music and philosophized and talked about grad schools and lesson plans and came up with a detailed plan of how we would start our own hostel/bar and what it would be like and how we could make it have our kind of vibe. We could link it to a local NGO, we could make a chain of them, we could use our contacts around here to... well, I shouldn´t reveal our entire business plan just yet. Suffice it to say it would be sweet!
After that we were off to a ciclo de cine run by the university in this giant and amazing theater, with a friend of Lil´s. It was a terrible, trite, ridiculous movie about Elijah Wood solving a serial killer mystery in Oxford, England by using...mathematical calculations? I should reveal that one of my favorite pastimes with good friends is to see terrible movies and be the only people in the theater who laugh. Mystery Science Theater style.
I´m now in the bus station in Mendoza, about to ¨study GREs¨ (draw a comic book of my trip), having eaten a heaping helping of amazing oatmeal, spinach salad with almonds and soy sauce, orange juice, coffee, and a delicious pastry.
If Lilli ran a hostel, I would stay there for a long time.
We went over to the big public park near her house and I met her neighbor and a few friends. We layed out on a big blanket, drank mate and played guitars. Lilli´s friends were really nice and really cool.
Soon thereafter I went over to the bus terminal to meet up with Marcela my Chilean sister! YAY!!! You dedicated blog-readers will remember her from my last visit to Chile and from my estancia en Valdivia, Chile (po) (weón). She arrived and the familia feliz reunited! I gave her the iPod she had ordered from my last trip to the US and she jumped up and down and carried it around like her baby. Haha yeah!!
After that we went on the hunt for this restaurant that´s actually a house where a family cooks up a big dinner and guests eat with the family, whatever they´re having. The rumor is that they have the very best food in the whole city. We tracked down the place but it was closed, so we took a recommendation from the super-nice cabby who took us to a place with famous lomitos (for the Rowleys: ok, think of a Bumstead with fried egg and steak and other stuff in it, with amaaazing fresh French bread that tastes almost like crusty Angel food cake). The sandwich I got could have won a Nobel prize. I ate it in self-defense. It could have eaten me. Photographic evidence will be up soon on my Picasa site (at right on this bloggy). Lilli had been on one of those lemon juice fasts (trying to get her body to get rid of all that... well... Argentinean food) and she kindly broke her fast in honor of her esteemed guests, who were dead set on eating like chanchos.
After that we we stopped at an artesan ice cream place (the best in Mendoza, according to the cabby, whose opinion I trusted). It indeed was the best ever! We had a sundae between the three of us, then three shakes in succession (also between the three of us, with straws). Marcela and I had made a pact before the night started that we would return to our respective homes rolling like giant bowling-ball-people. I am a man of my word.
After that, Lilli and I went to her favorite bar, a place run by two of her friends. It was a really cozy, artistic place. The kind of place where the owner invites you into the kitchen to talk about the better points of empanadas with the chef (as we did).
The next day, Marcy and I went to the mall and I got a new poofy down vest and Marcy looked for iPod accessories and bought some chocolate and stuff to bring back. I took her to the bus station and watched ride of into the sunset (figuratively - it was about 3pm).
Lilli and I had tea and played music and philosophized and talked about grad schools and lesson plans and came up with a detailed plan of how we would start our own hostel/bar and what it would be like and how we could make it have our kind of vibe. We could link it to a local NGO, we could make a chain of them, we could use our contacts around here to... well, I shouldn´t reveal our entire business plan just yet. Suffice it to say it would be sweet!
After that we were off to a ciclo de cine run by the university in this giant and amazing theater, with a friend of Lil´s. It was a terrible, trite, ridiculous movie about Elijah Wood solving a serial killer mystery in Oxford, England by using...mathematical calculations? I should reveal that one of my favorite pastimes with good friends is to see terrible movies and be the only people in the theater who laugh. Mystery Science Theater style.
I´m now in the bus station in Mendoza, about to ¨study GREs¨ (draw a comic book of my trip), having eaten a heaping helping of amazing oatmeal, spinach salad with almonds and soy sauce, orange juice, coffee, and a delicious pastry.
If Lilli ran a hostel, I would stay there for a long time.
Mar del Plata
Before I start this entry I want to commend Ma and Pa for some serious serious computer help that is only possible in this era de la informática. We made a three-way call and were able to repair my ailing computer. It is now good-as-new (*knock on wood - as good-as-new as a compy with Windows Vista can be)!!! Thank you thank you thank you!
MAR DEL PLATA
I embarked for Mar del Plata to visit Sanchez and el Colo (Matt and Jake). They had already achieved celebrity status there after only a few months and it was cool to travel in their entourage. Their coolness gave me coolness my proxy. Anyway, I saw sea lions and went out to the ocean and ate a gigantic burger and loved it. I only spent a day there but I was able to get the full MDP experience. Artesan alfajores, playing pool (Jake kept explaining the international rules of pool, which apparently are completely different from the way I learned it, and kept saying ¨no, no, let´s play it your way¨... about the only thing they have in common is that you´re trying to get the ball in the pocket), having fun with our nationalities (Jake is Australian and it´s fun to have old people come over and say, ¨Aw yeah! Crocodile Dundee!¨ to us,... for Matt and I they didn´t know where the hell we would be from, with our apparent ¨caras de platenses¨).
It was like one of those times (have you had these, reader?) when you walk into a party and don´t know anyone and leave having met everybody. Like Wedding Crashers.
Pictures to follow.
I returned to La Plata and put together a heaping helping of salad (what? salad in Argentina?) with Agus. The next day I left for Mendoza!
MAR DEL PLATA
I embarked for Mar del Plata to visit Sanchez and el Colo (Matt and Jake). They had already achieved celebrity status there after only a few months and it was cool to travel in their entourage. Their coolness gave me coolness my proxy. Anyway, I saw sea lions and went out to the ocean and ate a gigantic burger and loved it. I only spent a day there but I was able to get the full MDP experience. Artesan alfajores, playing pool (Jake kept explaining the international rules of pool, which apparently are completely different from the way I learned it, and kept saying ¨no, no, let´s play it your way¨... about the only thing they have in common is that you´re trying to get the ball in the pocket), having fun with our nationalities (Jake is Australian and it´s fun to have old people come over and say, ¨Aw yeah! Crocodile Dundee!¨ to us,... for Matt and I they didn´t know where the hell we would be from, with our apparent ¨caras de platenses¨).
It was like one of those times (have you had these, reader?) when you walk into a party and don´t know anyone and leave having met everybody. Like Wedding Crashers.
Pictures to follow.
I returned to La Plata and put together a heaping helping of salad (what? salad in Argentina?) with Agus. The next day I left for Mendoza!
Buenos Aires addendum
B.A., etc.
Haha, an explanation of the FOTC reference in the last posting: I was walking to the bus stop in Buenos Aires at about 11pm after a great long visit with the Colombian former-roommates. We ate choripan and walked around the Sunday artesan markets and then went to the coastal reserve park, then I went to my favorite ice cream place. I also registered for the GREs - I´ll take them in BA on the 19th. I figured, why not? Since then I´ve been re-studying geometry and trying to remember how I did analogies on the SATs whenever I´m on a long bus ride.
Anyway, I was walking to the bus stop around 11pm, right? Well 11pm on Sunday night must have been Ask-Charly-for-Money-O´Clock because no less than six people came up to me and asked me for money. The first guy was nice so I gave him a coin. The second guy was a cortonero and those guys are making an honest living and I totally respect him so as he was walking by and asked for a giant sip of the Coke I´d just bought I let him drink it. He drank about half in one gulp. The third guy was about to say some intricate I-need-money story but I interrupted before he could start and gave him the rest of the Coke. The fourth and fifth guys I just told them no because my generosity was spent and this was already well outside of my normal amount of giving (sorry, I´m being real here - I´m not made of money). The sixth guy was a disabled guy who I asked for directions and when he asked for change he started by saying ¨with all respect, you don´t have to, but...¨ so I gave him the last coin I had. Buenos Aires has a coin shortage almost year-round so this was a stretch for me, but he had helped me after all.
Finally, at the bus stop, some blonde guy in nicer clothes than mine came over to me and asked me for 5 pesos. Wait, did I say six people asked me for money? I mean seven. By now my response was NO WAY! He kept asking and started getting pushy and it turned to ¨No!... NO, NO, NO BOLUDO!! If you want 5 pesos get a $%&/· job! You don´t know what poverty is!¨ He didn´t like this and kind of lunged at me but I took a few steps back and started yelling at him, so he ran off. (There was a cop half a block away.) I stayed at the bus stop, legs trembling a little since I hadn´t cursed out a stranger in a long time, and put my hood up. My students tell me that you can tell someone looks dangerous if they´re wearing a hat and have their hood up.
*A confession: after living in Honduras I have a potty mouth. I am trying to correct this. It especially comes out when I´m angry or sleepy. I was both.
When I got home at 4 am, I didn´t have time to write the whole story so I put up the song. I was still thinking to myself, ¨What happened? Have I gotten soft since leaving Honduras? Are my defenses down? ... Or am I just over-confident here so I think I can walk in any neighborhood at any time of day?¨ I think it´s the latter. I mean, Buenos Aires, and all of Argentina for that matter, is so tame! I know Argentineans who don´t lock their door!
Anyway, that´s the story of
Inner.
City.
Pressure.
Haha, an explanation of the FOTC reference in the last posting: I was walking to the bus stop in Buenos Aires at about 11pm after a great long visit with the Colombian former-roommates. We ate choripan and walked around the Sunday artesan markets and then went to the coastal reserve park, then I went to my favorite ice cream place. I also registered for the GREs - I´ll take them in BA on the 19th. I figured, why not? Since then I´ve been re-studying geometry and trying to remember how I did analogies on the SATs whenever I´m on a long bus ride.
Anyway, I was walking to the bus stop around 11pm, right? Well 11pm on Sunday night must have been Ask-Charly-for-Money-O´Clock because no less than six people came up to me and asked me for money. The first guy was nice so I gave him a coin. The second guy was a cortonero and those guys are making an honest living and I totally respect him so as he was walking by and asked for a giant sip of the Coke I´d just bought I let him drink it. He drank about half in one gulp. The third guy was about to say some intricate I-need-money story but I interrupted before he could start and gave him the rest of the Coke. The fourth and fifth guys I just told them no because my generosity was spent and this was already well outside of my normal amount of giving (sorry, I´m being real here - I´m not made of money). The sixth guy was a disabled guy who I asked for directions and when he asked for change he started by saying ¨with all respect, you don´t have to, but...¨ so I gave him the last coin I had. Buenos Aires has a coin shortage almost year-round so this was a stretch for me, but he had helped me after all.
Finally, at the bus stop, some blonde guy in nicer clothes than mine came over to me and asked me for 5 pesos. Wait, did I say six people asked me for money? I mean seven. By now my response was NO WAY! He kept asking and started getting pushy and it turned to ¨No!... NO, NO, NO BOLUDO!! If you want 5 pesos get a $%&/· job! You don´t know what poverty is!¨ He didn´t like this and kind of lunged at me but I took a few steps back and started yelling at him, so he ran off. (There was a cop half a block away.) I stayed at the bus stop, legs trembling a little since I hadn´t cursed out a stranger in a long time, and put my hood up. My students tell me that you can tell someone looks dangerous if they´re wearing a hat and have their hood up.
*A confession: after living in Honduras I have a potty mouth. I am trying to correct this. It especially comes out when I´m angry or sleepy. I was both.
When I got home at 4 am, I didn´t have time to write the whole story so I put up the song. I was still thinking to myself, ¨What happened? Have I gotten soft since leaving Honduras? Are my defenses down? ... Or am I just over-confident here so I think I can walk in any neighborhood at any time of day?¨ I think it´s the latter. I mean, Buenos Aires, and all of Argentina for that matter, is so tame! I know Argentineans who don´t lock their door!
Anyway, that´s the story of
Inner.
City.
Pressure.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Daddy Yankee and Mommy Yankee tour Argentina
Shortly after giving my final lesson, and getting an improvised visit from a WM friend, Ma and Pa got into town and I was ready to begin winter vacation!
I introduced them to Prof. Morales, my Fulbright referente, who is kind of like my Argentine mommy in La Plata, and we shared a huge family parrillada. They also got to check out my deluxe double apartment and meet Tino, Bob and Manson (my roommate and two fish respectively). They also had the pleasure, as some of you choice readers may have had, of staying on the new fold-out futon.
After a day and a half in La Plata it was time to roll out to Iguazú. This meant getting semi-cama bus tickets and packing into a double-decker bus full of Paraguayans with their cell phones blasting cumbia music on full blast. "Boom chicka boom chicka boom chicka ..." I met a nice Brazilian lady on the bus who is doing a Master's in Education in Paraguay is applying to a doctorate program at the UNLP. Anyway, twenty hours into hour scenic, officially-17-hour bus ride, we arrived at the town of Puerto Iguazú. We proceeded to stay in a sweet hotel that had breakfast and dinner buffets included in the price of our lodging. Oh yeah!
We visited the ecological park surround Iguazú Falls. There were wide, well-paved paths through the park and even restaurants, gift-shops, and Guaraní artesans with official nametags selling cool carved wooden things. We got some awesome mandatory us-in-front-of-the-falls pictures and then went on some of the trails through the woods, where we saw capuchin monkeys, coatíes (coatimundu in English? Like jungle raccoons), parrots, iguanas, and other beasties. We also went into a boat ride that actually took us under some of the falls. We had bought ponchos after seeing how pathetic all the people coming off the boat before us looked. Have you ever seen when a cat get soaked, and slinks around looking all mopey and indignant? That was them. Oh, but not us! We were ponchoed head to toe - we looked like triumphant condoms (*great name for an epic metal band) and we came out dry and happy!
At night we "hit" the "town". We were drinking beers and Fernet-and-Coke (Dad didn't like this admittedly foul-smelling Italo-Argentine mixed drink but he was brave and tried it) and a kid came over to our table and did magic tricks and then give us crystals out of a shoebox for good luck. What showmanship! He'll be famous some day.
We also went to the Triple Border area, where Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil are separated and the merging of three river branches. Each side of the river has its own obelisk with its national colors on it and on a clear day like the one we spent there, you can see all the people in other countries taking pictures of you as you take pictures of them.
On the bus ride back, I formally withdrew any and all complaints I might have had about the first one. There was a screaming two-year-old with a nasty cough right behind me in the bus. I found myself wishing there would just be loud music from people's cell phones instead. Eventually, the baby got tired of screaming and her young parents learned that lollipops are only a quick fix for making her stop crying... And we woke up in Buenos Aires.
Their last few days were spent in Buenos Aires, where Agus and I were their official "native guides" bringing them to see the sights: the obelisk, the microcento, San Telmo, Puerto Madero, la Plaza de Mayo, la Casa Rosada, Recoleta, Floris Generalis, Tango Show at Cafe Tortoni, etc. When Mom and Dad left at the airport I realized that I had missed them more than I thought. At that same moment, Agus's brother was flying back to Spain. We pulled ourselves together and took a long series of cheap buses back to La Plata.
That same night, I got a visit from Justin (remember Honduras? He was there: co-founder of OYE). Justin, Agus and I spent two days just recharging in LP. Justin is now gone, my computer has crashed and been completely reformatted (thanks Dell tech support!) and in no time I will be en route to Argentina's hinterlands, where more exploration awaits.
I introduced them to Prof. Morales, my Fulbright referente, who is kind of like my Argentine mommy in La Plata, and we shared a huge family parrillada. They also got to check out my deluxe double apartment and meet Tino, Bob and Manson (my roommate and two fish respectively). They also had the pleasure, as some of you choice readers may have had, of staying on the new fold-out futon.
After a day and a half in La Plata it was time to roll out to Iguazú. This meant getting semi-cama bus tickets and packing into a double-decker bus full of Paraguayans with their cell phones blasting cumbia music on full blast. "Boom chicka boom chicka boom chicka ..." I met a nice Brazilian lady on the bus who is doing a Master's in Education in Paraguay is applying to a doctorate program at the UNLP. Anyway, twenty hours into hour scenic, officially-17-hour bus ride, we arrived at the town of Puerto Iguazú. We proceeded to stay in a sweet hotel that had breakfast and dinner buffets included in the price of our lodging. Oh yeah!
We visited the ecological park surround Iguazú Falls. There were wide, well-paved paths through the park and even restaurants, gift-shops, and Guaraní artesans with official nametags selling cool carved wooden things. We got some awesome mandatory us-in-front-of-the-falls pictures and then went on some of the trails through the woods, where we saw capuchin monkeys, coatíes (coatimundu in English? Like jungle raccoons), parrots, iguanas, and other beasties. We also went into a boat ride that actually took us under some of the falls. We had bought ponchos after seeing how pathetic all the people coming off the boat before us looked. Have you ever seen when a cat get soaked, and slinks around looking all mopey and indignant? That was them. Oh, but not us! We were ponchoed head to toe - we looked like triumphant condoms (*great name for an epic metal band) and we came out dry and happy!
At night we "hit" the "town". We were drinking beers and Fernet-and-Coke (Dad didn't like this admittedly foul-smelling Italo-Argentine mixed drink but he was brave and tried it) and a kid came over to our table and did magic tricks and then give us crystals out of a shoebox for good luck. What showmanship! He'll be famous some day.
We also went to the Triple Border area, where Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil are separated and the merging of three river branches. Each side of the river has its own obelisk with its national colors on it and on a clear day like the one we spent there, you can see all the people in other countries taking pictures of you as you take pictures of them.
On the bus ride back, I formally withdrew any and all complaints I might have had about the first one. There was a screaming two-year-old with a nasty cough right behind me in the bus. I found myself wishing there would just be loud music from people's cell phones instead. Eventually, the baby got tired of screaming and her young parents learned that lollipops are only a quick fix for making her stop crying... And we woke up in Buenos Aires.
Their last few days were spent in Buenos Aires, where Agus and I were their official "native guides" bringing them to see the sights: the obelisk, the microcento, San Telmo, Puerto Madero, la Plaza de Mayo, la Casa Rosada, Recoleta, Floris Generalis, Tango Show at Cafe Tortoni, etc. When Mom and Dad left at the airport I realized that I had missed them more than I thought. At that same moment, Agus's brother was flying back to Spain. We pulled ourselves together and took a long series of cheap buses back to La Plata.
That same night, I got a visit from Justin (remember Honduras? He was there: co-founder of OYE). Justin, Agus and I spent two days just recharging in LP. Justin is now gone, my computer has crashed and been completely reformatted (thanks Dell tech support!) and in no time I will be en route to Argentina's hinterlands, where more exploration awaits.
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