This story deserves it's own post. It's that weird. This will definitely be one of those "That one time in Argentina" stories that I will remember FOREVER. I still don't know what to make of it.
So I was calmly sitting in central park, which is only a few blocks north of my house, chilling on the hillside reading my book waiting for a friend to show up. All of the sudden, a man sits down next to me and begins to ask me how I am, what my name is, etc. Seems like a pretty normal guy, so I decide I'll chat with him for a while. Things are going great...until they get really weird. As it turns out, this male actually wants to turn into a female and asks if he can take a picture of me because he wants to look like me. His exact words were "I want boobs and a face like yours". I was so shocked I sat there, dumbfounded, for a good minute unable to say anything while he continues on to describe the hormone pills he's taking and how they make his penis shrink and become non-functional. When he started talking about his thong collection and waxing kits, I finally overcame my shocked silence and figured it was time to leave. After politely excusing myself, I practically sprinted from the park.
Creepy? Most definitely.
Strange? Of course.
Flattering? Yes, in a very, very weird way.
I have since seen Marcelo (or Marcela) several times since this incident running through central park. We occasionally exchange pleasantries, but never again has he asked to take a photo of me to use as a model for his new face. Thank goodness. Good luck to him, I wish him well, but he REALLY needs to work on his method of approaching strangers.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the story of the weirdest moment of my life thus far.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Adventures in San Rafael
Sorry I haven’t blogged recently, I’ve been
incredibly busy. And a little lazy. It’s just REALLY hard to sit down at my
computer and write when I could be doing so many other things… you understand.
Anyway, I’m taking a trip pretty far back
in time for this post. Earlier in the program, as in three or four weeks ago,
all of the students participating in the program took a weekend trip to San
Rafael for some bonding time and sightseeing. The trip was already pre-paid
with the program fee so all we had to do was jump on the bus and not worry
about anything which was pretty damn nice after all of the chaotic planning we
have all done lately with regards to classes for this semester as well as next
semester. Let me tell you… that gave me quite a headache.
I’m going to go on a quick tangent here.
So… organization is a word that the Argentinian school system simply does not
understand. When they say: “this is the schedule and list of classes offered
this semester” they really mean “we
don’t really know anything yet but if you want to start looking at things that
MIGHT be offered here’s a list”. Classes
are changed, cancelled, and switch professors several times before the semester
actually begins. Then, because this isn’t frustrating enough, they change
things again a couple times the first week of school. It’s entirely common to
walk into a classroom, wait, realize the professor is never going to show up,
then find out later that the class was cancelled with no warning. Or that your
professor was on strike (which happened during the first AND second weeks of
school). Very frustrating. However, despite these difficulties I have finally
managed to select classes for this semester that will most likely count towards
credit for major(s)/minor(s) at the U of M.
Back to San Rafael. San Rafael is about 6
hours south of Mendoza, and it’s located right at the base of the Andes
Mountains. This city is absolutely gorgeous. We were staying in the most
adorable 5-6 person log cabins that looked like they came straight out of a
movie. They had everything from wild roses growing up the sides to mosaic stone
floors, hand woven rugs, stained wooden furniture, fireplace, etc. The grounds
were even more impressive – they were directly at the foot of a smaller
mountain with rivers and pools running through and around the resort.
All of our activities were outdoor, and all
of them were absolutely beautiful. We were on a day hike through a river valley,
boated across a lake to go sunbath on a beach, and had the option of choosing
either rafting or zip-lining. The rafting would’ve been incredibly boring
because, although beautiful, the river was pretty straight with no real rapids.
I don’t even know if they have level 2 rapids. So of course I chose zip-lining.
There was a limited number of spaces available, and of the entire program only
10 students had the chance to do zip-lining – I’m glad I was one of the lucky
ones because it was AMAZING. Remember that lake we boated across? We were
ziplining hundreds of feet in the air across the lake from cliff to cliff…how
cool is that?!? You’ll be impressed when you see the pictures, I promise.
The best part about the ziplining was the
workers. We had three really chill guys taking us across all 7 ziplines, and
although they obviously wanted us to be safe, they also encouraged us to get a
little crazy. I was, of course, brave enough to try pretty much anything, so I
ended up doing two tandem rides (A tandem ride is basically when two people
zipline together). The first time, the instructor flipped me upside down,
holding my legs above his head, so I was dangling completely with no hold on
anything. Needless to say, that was beyond amazing; it felt like a was
free-falling and moving forward at the same time. The second time was even
better. The second instructor wanted to mess with me a bit, so he curled me up
in a fetal position, tipped me upside down on my head, and proceeded to spin me
in rapid circles over and over again all the way across the zipline. All I can
say is…that sure as hell beat any other adrenaline-packed activity I’ve done
prior to this. Spinning completely out of control, upside down, while being
launched forward hundreds of feet above a giant lagoon/lake with only a strap
holding you… it was magical.
One last thing
about San Rafael: I had my first asado! An asado is a basically a barbeque, but
it’s completely different than American barbeques. The asados here are to die
for; they’re basically an excuse for family to get together and cook as many
different types of meat as possible. For example, I went to an asado with my
host mom a few weeks ago and the host had smoked 12 different types of meat for
3 days in advance, then slow-roasted them in a grill that looks like a
stone-oven. They had everything from ribs and loins to roasts and sausages. I’m
not kidding when I say that was the best beef I’ve ever had in my life. These
people know how to cook beef. We need to learn from them.
Monday, March 18, 2013
The Wonderful World of Wine
“El vino es la sangre que fluye por mi propia tierra.”
Wine is the blood that flows through my
land.
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Wine is everything to the people of
Mendoza. The cultivation of grapes and the making of wine is the foundation
upon which this entire city operates – a bad grape harvest would be absolutely detrimental
to both the economy and the culture of this great city. Most Americans are
oblivious to this fact, but Argentina is the 6th largest wine producing
country in the world behind Italy, France, Spain, Australia and the United
States. This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that over 2/3
of all Argentinean wine is produced in the Mendoza providence. That means that ONE providence in Argentina
is producing almost two-thirds of the amount of wine that the entire country of
the United States. Pretty impressive. Want another fun fact about Argentinean
wine? Mendoza has over 300 sunny days per year and of those 65 that are cloudy,
very, very, very few actually rain. Due to the combination of the arid climate,
the Andes Mountains, and the type of grapes typically found here, Argentina
boasts some of the most potent and darkest colored wine grapes in the world. The
color of wine comes from the skin of the grape, and because of this most Argentinean
wines are much darker than what we normally see from European or American
wines. In fact, some Malbec’s and Cabernet Sauvignon’s here are dark in color
that they appear black unless held up to a very, very bright light. Also, because of the potency of the grapes
and the amount of sugar contained within them, Argentinean wine ends up being
the most naturally alcohol wine in the world. Most wines from this area end up
at about 15-18% alcohol which is a much, much higher average than any other
wine producing areas.
This is starting to sound like a history
lesson. I will desist with the detailed description of Argentinean wine – if you
wish to know more feel free to hit up Wikipedia or, if you feel so inclined,
the city of Mendoza tourism and culture website which I have found extremely
interesting.
Anyway, because of the immense importance
of wine in Mendoza, the Vindimia (harvest festival) has been celebrated every
fall for generations upon generations dating back before colonial times; its
main purpose is to give thanks for, and bless, this year’s crop of grapes prior
to harvesting them for wine. The
festivals start months before the harvest, in the beginning of the summer,
where each area of the Mendoza providence elects a queen to compete for the
honor of becoming the Queen of the Vindimia. This queen was traditionally
always a daughter of a family bodega, someone who knew wine intimately and
could act as a spokesperson and ambassador for the Mendoza region on an
international level. In today’s age however, they are a lot more lenient – the most
important qualification is beauty rather than an intimate knowledge of wine.
The queens, once elected, travel to the
city of Mendoza to take part in a parade, La Bia Blanca, where they will attempt
to win the hearts of the Mendocino people and win the votes of the 250
important members of the city (mayors, board members, professors, rich people,
etc.) whose votes will determine which queen will represent the providence of
Mendoza internationally as the Reina de la Vindimia. This is what the parade is
SUPPOSED to be, however the mendocinos really only go to the parade for one
reason: fruit and wine. Instead of throwing candy at people, the queens hand
out bottles of wine from wineries in their sector (yes, WHOLE bottles of wine)
and throw fruit at the mendocinan people. And yes, I literally mean that the
queens are throwing fruit at people – anything from grapes and plums to
peaches, nectarines, bananas, and melons. Yes, I said melons. There was an
unfortunate incident with a melon a few years ago when an American student made
the mistake of turning her back to the float…
Rule #1 of the Bia Blanca parade: never
turn your back to the parade because if you do, that’s when one of the queens
will decide to throw a melon.
There are plenty of other activities that
occur during La festival de la Vindimia, but to save time and keep from boring
you all, I’ll skip ahead to the culmination of the festival: the show. The best
way I can describe this event is as follows: picture an opening act to the
Olympics… now multiply it by 5. Yeah, it’s that elaborate. Historically, this
show was a way in which all of the sectors of the Mendoza providence could get
together and celebrate the one thing everyone has in common. Today however,
this show is used as a remembrance for the history and culture of wine making
in Mendoza as well as a being a symbolic representation of the significance of
wine to the economy and the people. This was an incredibly moving experience
and, although I did not fully understand all of the political symbolism and
historical references of the various dances, I was able to get a short but
beautiful summary of Mendoza’s cultural history with wine. Pictures below.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Music and Mountains
Music seems to be a vital part of life for
any Mendocino – there is ALWAYS some kind of concert or festival playing music
in one of the many plazas throughout the city. I fall asleep to different music
being played the nearest plaza every night. As I mentioned earlier, there is a
very strong Italian influence here and because of this Mendocinos just recently
celebrated their Italian heritage with a 3 day Fiesta de Italia. Basically,
this consisted of three days of listening to Italian music, dancing Argentine
and Italian dances, drinking wine and eating pizza. Needless to say, it was
quite fun, and the music was absolutely phenomenal.
Speaking of music, my host mom Graciela
took me to an opera concert the other night which was FANTASTIC. I think even
those of you who do not particularly like opera would've enjoyed and
appreciated this concert. Granted I didn’t understand all of the lyrics because
they were mostly in Italian and German, but one of the beauties of opera is
that the lyrics are almost unnecessary. A talented opera singer can convey
emotion and plot simply through their tone and facial features.
Many people have inquired about the strong
European influences I keep mentioning. One person (who will not be named)
accused Argentina of not having their own culture and simply borrowing bits and
pieces from various European countries. This is obviously false. Yes, Argentina is heavily influenced by the Italians
and the Spanish, but they still retain a very strong culture of their own. In
Argentina’s past, after the initial vehemence and resentment of colonialism
wore off, European customs, food, and music were desired because (from what I
understand) they were seen as customs of the elite, rich class. Now, these
customs are so much a part of Argentinian life that they aren't seen as
European anymore, and instead have integrated with the local customs. However, to this day the artistic communities
seem to highly appreciate and prefer film, music, and art from Europe. When I
made this observation to Graciela (who is very involved in the artistic
community here), she verified it and said that the artistic community here
absolutely loves to work with European material.
Enough about music, let’s talk about the
Andes!! They are GORGEOUS and incredibly majestic; I can’t even begin to
describe how happy it makes me to see a skyline of mountains instead of
skyscrapers. Although most of the mountain range only has snow during the winter,
there are a few peaks further south with snow that can barely be seen from
Mendoza. I can’t wait until April or May
to see how beautiful they are going to be covered in snow.
We have quite a few adventurous students on
this trip, so we got a group together to hike Cerro Arco, a mountain peak very
close to Mendoza that has a hiking trail to the top. The path itself wasn’t too
strenuous, but the heat made the hike pretty difficult. Of course we had to
pick one of the hottest days that we’ve experience in Mendoza so far and the
dry, arid climate only made it worse. We frequently had to take breaks in the
shade and ran out of water much quicker than anticipated. However, the trials
and struggles were worth it because the view at the top was phenomenal!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Land of Passion, Love, and Sex
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People in Argentina live for their passions
and eagerly follow their hearts. Each moment of each day is to be cherished and
enjoyed – whether you’re cooking for your family, walking home after work,
listening to music, or dancing in the streets. Here, there’s no excuse to not
be happy; if you want something, you go out and get it instead of sitting on
your ass wishing that it would come to you like people in America. Work is
secondary (unless of course your job is one of your passions) and family,
friends, and fun always come first. The Argentinian youth especially embrace
the “carpe diem” attitude and live almost solely for the moment. It’s
definitely a refreshing change from America.
Also, I have to say… I like the staring and
cat-calling, though at first it was a little unnerving and awkward. Even though
all women in Argentina, local and tourist, outwardly ignore male attention, we
all love it deep down inside. Here, all women can’t help but feel beautiful,
appreciated, and feminine. Men, here’s a lesson for you: when a woman denies the need for occasional
reassurance and compliments… that’s a bunch of bullshit. Women want to feel
beautiful but it’s almost impossible in the US; for some strange reason we have
created a culture where it’s ok to ogle at models and stars but impolite to
ogle at regular people. The only thing this accomplishes is making beauty
seemingly unattainable for “normal” American women. This is NOT ok. Beauty is not an enigma here,
beauty is not something to seek or try to obtain… instead beauty is in everything
and everyone. Beauty is not makeup and beautiful clothes and diets. Enough about that, you guys get the point.
People fall in and out of love faster than
the weather changes here. One minute, a couple will be passionately embracing
on a park bench and in the next, the woman could be accusing her boyfriend of
infidelity while he tries to soothe his angry female. Today, someone can be in
love with the cutest purse they’ve ever seen in their life, and tomorrow they’ll
call it shit that a sewing machine spat out. The fickleness and drama of
Mendocinos almost makes me feel as if I’m living in a one big soap opera. Either
emotions are heightened and more powerful here, or Americans try to stifle
emotions as much as possible. Probably a little bit of both. Also, in Mendoza everything is either described in one of two ways. The phrase“¡Qué lindo!” can mean anything from precious to cute to adorable to beautiful to trendy. This is a blanket statement means Mendocinos absolutely love whatever it is they are talking about. The same goes for the blanket statement “¡Qué horrible!” which could signify disgust, hatred, surprise, dislike, or any other such emotion. In Mendoza, it seems like EVERYTHING is either lindo or horrible. It’s impossible for my mendocina mom to see an object or action without categorizing it in one of the above two ways.
I learned what a letoh is today.
Argentinians have a strange habbit of reversing the spelling of words to give
them a different meaning. For example, letoh is hotel backwards; whereas a
hotel is place to sleep for the night, a letoh is a building that looks like a
hotel that you can rent a room by the hour to have sex. It sounds odd, I know,
but it’s actually very practical. Most
of the Argentinian youth live with their families until they are in their mid
to late twenties and normally don’t move out until they graduate from college
and start their first job. Obviously the country isn’t filled with millions of 20-28 year old virgins, and it’s awkward to have sex in your parents' house so
the letos were created for the youth of Argentina. Weird, huh?
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
A Love Affair with Evita
This blog post is dedicated entirely to the
beloved Evita. Everyone has heard of Eva Peron and vaguely knows who she is,
but it’s impossible to know the extent to which she permeates Argentinian culture and
infiltrates the hearts of the masses until you experience it for yourself. Evita is not a simply a politician who was
loved by her people – Evita was the mother, voice, savior, hope and protector of
the Argentinian people. Eva Peron was, is, and always will be loved. Evita is
literally the center and heart of Argentina as a giant portrait of Eva marks
the exact center of Buenos Aires (all street addresses, boulevards, and barrios
start in the heart of the city at 0,0,0).
The picture below is La Casa Rosa (The Pink
House) which is the Argentinian equivalent to The White House. The balcony shown in the second picture is
where Evita gave the famous speech that made her known and loved around the
world: the passionate and chilling speech where she rejects the vice presidency
due to her severe health condition. Eva was incredibly moved that her people
elected her for the role of vice president, but she also had to make the
hardest decision of her life to reject the role. According to legend and lore,
Evita was aware that she would die soon and thus wanted a candidate that could
give the people more stability in next couple years. Evita eventually ended the
speech because she was overcome with emotion and her tears of love, passion, and
sadness were shown in pictures all around the world. This dramatic goodbye to her people also spurred
the great Andrew Lloyd Weber to make this moment eternal with his famous song “Don’t
Cry for me Argentina”.
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| La Casa Rosa |
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| The Balcony of Eva's speech |
To this day, the people of Argentina still commemorate Evita and travel thousands of miles to the heart of Buenos Aires to leave flowers at her resting place.
The colors of Argentina
One of my favorite characteristics or
Argentina so far is their appreciation of color. Whether its street art,
painted houses, or beautiful handmade Italian tiling, Argentinians try to cover
up the ugliness of brick and concrete with vibrant colors and vegetation.
I’ll start with the tiling. Due to the
heavy Italian influences in Argentina, a huge sector of the local population
has made a living by studying the dying art of hand-painted and hand-cut
ceramic tiles. You can see these beautiful works of art on sidewalks, in houses
and churches, benches in the parks, and also walls and ceilings of homes and restaurants.
The intricate detail of the tiles is absolutely mind boggling when you consider
the years it would take to accomplish such a task. The first picture below is a
small square (6in. x 6in.) of the floor in one of the oldest churches in Buenos
Aires. Keep in mind, this is only a 6x6in square and the ENTIRE church floor was
made of this ornate tiling. If that’s not impressive enough, this church was
built was before the invention of modern pigments and paint so each tile was
made by mixing natural pigments (such as
blood, powdered flowers, and traded pigments like indigo) into the ceramic while
mixing. Then, each tile had to be dried in the sun for many days until it was
ready to use.
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| 6x6in square of tiling in one of the oldest churches in Buenos Aires |
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| Tiled fountain in one of the plazas |
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| Tiled base of church pillars |
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| Tiled mural outside of a random house |
Street art is also very popular here, but it’s nothing like in the states. Here, street art is a legitimate form of expression instead of the vandalism we see in the US. Street art in Argentina is not illegal, is not used to claim territories by gangs, and is actually appreciated by the general public. Examples are below.
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| Commemoration of Steve Jobs |
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| Portraits of Kennedy & Guevara |
As if the tiling and street art weren’t
enough, the Argentinians also made it a tradition to paint their houses in
attempt to make them match the vibrancy and vitality of their culture. Today, unfortunately, the modern sections of
the city look very similar to urban areas of the US but the old city still
retains this beautiful tradition. I will
say however, that even though the modern sections have lost the beautiful
colors of the old traditions, they still have plenty of green space. There are
dozens of plazas, trees lining every street and avenue, parks in the middle of
the city, etc. New York could learn a lot from Buenos Aires about aesthetics
and the importance of greenery.
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