23 April 2010
Random Bs.As. photo: Turn that frown upside d...oh wait
Every street here has it's own pastelería or confitería (pastry shop) and we found these gems at our new favorite around the corner from our house. You know sometimes you just have the kind of day that you want your pastry to frown back at you :(
22 April 2010
Studying, Training and Working
I started taking Spanish classes at la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) at the beginning of January, and am now in my third intensive class and level! The professors at UBA have been great, the tuition is incredibly low, and my classmates have been an interesting mix of people from all over the world. Spanish seems to be a fairly easy language for English-speakers to learn. Not only do we share basically the same alphabet, but many words are cognates so more often than not, it's easy to guess the meaning of a new word that I've never seen before. I’m continually amazed by my classmates from countries like China and Russia, who started with completely different alphabets and have far fewer language resources available—if there’s a second language here, it’s English.
This month, I've also been taking a conversation workshop at UBA. With only 5 people, it's a nice small class and provides an opportunity to get lots of speaking practice! We spend a good deal of time doing listening comprehension activities with songs and radio broadcasts. I've also gotten some speaking practice at an event called Spanglish, where our friend Jill B. works. Spanglish pairs a native Spanish-speaker with a native English-speaker for about 5-10 minute intervals. During that time, you speak in both languages, for half the time, so both people have the opportunity to practice the one they're learning . Then one person moves to the next table so you continually meet new people throughout the night. It's kind of like speed dating without the dating part, unless you're looking for a date, in which case you can try to flirt with strangers.
I've also been taking two juggling classes in Spanish at different cultural centers. One of them meets for 2-3 hours every week at Circo Criollo, which is only a 20 minute bus ride from our apartment. I love this class because it's made up of only myself and 1-2 Argentineans, which means I get to learn a lot from the instructor, and everyone at the center is incredibly nice. Since the class is so small, I also get plenty of Spanish-speaking and a lot of listening practice! The other class I'm taking meets twice a week for two hours at a neat place called Circo Trivenchi, located in the Barracas neighborhood. It's a cooperative, so once you pay a monthly fee for using the building, you're allowed to take any class you want. Instructors are compensated a la gorra (by the money you put in their hat). The hat is placed on the side and people walk by it on their way out, which allows everyone to pay what they can on a sliding scale without feeling like they're being judged. It's a great system because it makes all of the classes available to nearly everyone without making them feel guilty for being unable to pay for classes upfront (like you have to at other cultural centers). I enjoy these classes as well, but it takes me a full hour to get there on the bus or the subway! And they're a little larger, so I've met more Argentinians but gotten less individual instruction in this class.
I also started working for a consulting company that works with search-engine optimization/marketing for companies in the U.S. I write articles, which this company then places on various websites and blogs. The articles aren't necessarily supposed to be written very well, they're just supposed to follow a few guidelines and include some hidden keywords. By putting more content on the internet that includes those keywords, the company can increase traffic to their customers' websites and move those websites into a higher position on search engines (so you see their product first when you search for those keywords). Even though I can write about pretty much anything I want as long as I include those keywords, you can only get so creative with keywords like home security system. But so far, the positives outweigh the negatives. The nice thing about this job is that I can choose how many hours I work and I get paid electronically in USD. If I work only 20 hours a week, that more than covers my living expenses here and leaves enough time to take Spanish and juggling classes, which is what I really want to be doing here.
This month, I've also been taking a conversation workshop at UBA. With only 5 people, it's a nice small class and provides an opportunity to get lots of speaking practice! We spend a good deal of time doing listening comprehension activities with songs and radio broadcasts. I've also gotten some speaking practice at an event called Spanglish, where our friend Jill B. works. Spanglish pairs a native Spanish-speaker with a native English-speaker for about 5-10 minute intervals. During that time, you speak in both languages, for half the time, so both people have the opportunity to practice the one they're learning . Then one person moves to the next table so you continually meet new people throughout the night. It's kind of like speed dating without the dating part, unless you're looking for a date, in which case you can try to flirt with strangers.
I've also been taking two juggling classes in Spanish at different cultural centers. One of them meets for 2-3 hours every week at Circo Criollo, which is only a 20 minute bus ride from our apartment. I love this class because it's made up of only myself and 1-2 Argentineans, which means I get to learn a lot from the instructor, and everyone at the center is incredibly nice. Since the class is so small, I also get plenty of Spanish-speaking and a lot of listening practice! The other class I'm taking meets twice a week for two hours at a neat place called Circo Trivenchi, located in the Barracas neighborhood. It's a cooperative, so once you pay a monthly fee for using the building, you're allowed to take any class you want. Instructors are compensated a la gorra (by the money you put in their hat). The hat is placed on the side and people walk by it on their way out, which allows everyone to pay what they can on a sliding scale without feeling like they're being judged. It's a great system because it makes all of the classes available to nearly everyone without making them feel guilty for being unable to pay for classes upfront (like you have to at other cultural centers). I enjoy these classes as well, but it takes me a full hour to get there on the bus or the subway! And they're a little larger, so I've met more Argentinians but gotten less individual instruction in this class.
I also started working for a consulting company that works with search-engine optimization/marketing for companies in the U.S. I write articles, which this company then places on various websites and blogs. The articles aren't necessarily supposed to be written very well, they're just supposed to follow a few guidelines and include some hidden keywords. By putting more content on the internet that includes those keywords, the company can increase traffic to their customers' websites and move those websites into a higher position on search engines (so you see their product first when you search for those keywords). Even though I can write about pretty much anything I want as long as I include those keywords, you can only get so creative with keywords like home security system. But so far, the positives outweigh the negatives. The nice thing about this job is that I can choose how many hours I work and I get paid electronically in USD. If I work only 20 hours a week, that more than covers my living expenses here and leaves enough time to take Spanish and juggling classes, which is what I really want to be doing here.
16 April 2010
Random Bs.As. photo: The Big Apple...of South America
Buenos Aires' own little Chrysler Building can be found in Belgrano at the Manhattan club, for anyone who misses NYC.
13 April 2010
08 April 2010
02 April 2010
Our Uruguayan Beach Trip
Punta del Diablo
After traveling by ferry and bus for about 12 hours, we finally arrived at Punta del Diablo at noon and were ready to spend the remainder of the day napping on the beach. We spent 1.5 days here with our friend Bliss and really liked:
● Seeing the ocean from almost any point in town because it is built on a hill
● Lying on the beach all day, only interrupted by a walk along the water or a walk into to town to buy some food or beer
● Friendly dogs we temporarily adopted (but really they adopted us).
● Cold Pilsen on the beach, Uruguay's cheap beer that is, in our opinion, markedly better tasting then Argentina's Quilmes.
● Fried seafood empanadas filled with fresh fish, mussels and cheese (yum!).
● Watching surfers ride the waves (or at least attempt to).
● Clerico, an Uruguayan white sangria filled with lemons, grapes, peaches and bananas.
● Chivito, an Uruguayan special sandwich that has beef (surprise!), egg, panceta (kinda like bacon), ham, lettuce, tomato, onions, and mayo.
Cabo Polonio
Getting to Cabo Polonio was a bit of an adventure since there are no paved roads to access it. We took a bus to the "puerta" of Cabo Polonio and from there took a 4X4 that we liked to call a "dune buggy". When the woman who sold us the tickets said 4X4 we were picturing a small ATV and wondering how we would ever get our bags on one of those. But what we got instead was a big truck with benches that could barrel right through the sand dunes. Some highlights were:
● Our nighttime dune buggy ride under the stars. With zero light pollution and a clear sky it was like seeing the sky for the first time, completely filled with stars.
● Eating dinner, brushing our teeth and doing all other nighttime activities by candlelight, since there wasn't electricity.
● Waking up in the morning to play with puppies and sit on the porch of our hostel that was literally on the beach.
● Taking an early morning walk on the beach and once again being flanked and befriended by the local stray dogs.
● Hearing the the constant calls and barks from the sea lion colony on an island just off the shore from Cabo Polonio. It sounded like a stadium of people cheering and screaming.
● Spotting a few sea lions on our side of the water, who were basking in the sun and fishing in the water by the lighthouse.
● Eating fresh Corvina (local whitefish) and Cazón (dogfish shark!) a la plancha (grilled with a spritz of lemon) for about $5USD apiece
● Being on very unpopulated beaches and having giant stretches of sand all to ourselves.
● Running into another juggler on a virtually empty beach and Sara getting to pass clubs with him.
● Meeting the famous Condor, the man featured in Anthony Bourdain's Uruguay episode on our first night.
Punta del Este and Jose Ignacio
We met up with our other friends, Elana and Jill B., from BA to spend out final 1.5 days at Jose Ignacio and Punta del Este. Punta del Este is the more ritzy of all the places we went to, as it is a big vacation spot for Latin America's rich and famous. It was certainly a different feel than Cabo Polonio and Punta del Diablo with it's skycrapers creeping up towards the beaches. Jose Ignacio, a 40 minute bus ride from Punta del Este, was a quieter beach with beautiful beach homes (Shakira apparently owns a home here) and a lighthouse that reminded us of beaches in Cape Cod. We enjoyed:
● Walking the boardwalk at Jose Ignacio along the rocks, sand, and past the lighthouse to find the perfect beach spot.
● Admiring the beautiful beach homes (mansions)and watching for Shakira sightings.
● The famous "La Mano" sculpture at Playa Brava in Punta del Este, that looks like a giant stone hand coming out of the sand. We all took turns climbing onto the thumb.
● Watching the sunset over Playa Mansa.
● Spending our last morning on the beach, Sara juggling and Jill getting sunburned!
● Just making our bus to Montevideo by about 2 minutes because we just couldn't pull ourselves away from the beach, and of course we had to stop to buy some sweet and savory emapanadas (raisin-pork and hawaiian ham-pineapple).
● Befriending an Argentine man on the boat ride home who was also graciously our temporary Spanish teacher.
● Watching the sunset from the boat and getting a quick glimpse of the light reflecting off the distant skyscrapers in BA from across the water.
● Our constellation lesson led by the captain of the ship to keep us entertained on the top deck during the 3 hour boat ride.
After traveling by ferry and bus for about 12 hours, we finally arrived at Punta del Diablo at noon and were ready to spend the remainder of the day napping on the beach. We spent 1.5 days here with our friend Bliss and really liked:
● Seeing the ocean from almost any point in town because it is built on a hill
● Lying on the beach all day, only interrupted by a walk along the water or a walk into to town to buy some food or beer
● Friendly dogs we temporarily adopted (but really they adopted us).
● Cold Pilsen on the beach, Uruguay's cheap beer that is, in our opinion, markedly better tasting then Argentina's Quilmes.
● Fried seafood empanadas filled with fresh fish, mussels and cheese (yum!).
● Watching surfers ride the waves (or at least attempt to).
● Clerico, an Uruguayan white sangria filled with lemons, grapes, peaches and bananas.
● Chivito, an Uruguayan special sandwich that has beef (surprise!), egg, panceta (kinda like bacon), ham, lettuce, tomato, onions, and mayo.
Cabo Polonio
Getting to Cabo Polonio was a bit of an adventure since there are no paved roads to access it. We took a bus to the "puerta" of Cabo Polonio and from there took a 4X4 that we liked to call a "dune buggy". When the woman who sold us the tickets said 4X4 we were picturing a small ATV and wondering how we would ever get our bags on one of those. But what we got instead was a big truck with benches that could barrel right through the sand dunes. Some highlights were:
● Our nighttime dune buggy ride under the stars. With zero light pollution and a clear sky it was like seeing the sky for the first time, completely filled with stars.
● Eating dinner, brushing our teeth and doing all other nighttime activities by candlelight, since there wasn't electricity.
● Waking up in the morning to play with puppies and sit on the porch of our hostel that was literally on the beach.
● Taking an early morning walk on the beach and once again being flanked and befriended by the local stray dogs.
● Hearing the the constant calls and barks from the sea lion colony on an island just off the shore from Cabo Polonio. It sounded like a stadium of people cheering and screaming.
● Spotting a few sea lions on our side of the water, who were basking in the sun and fishing in the water by the lighthouse.
● Eating fresh Corvina (local whitefish) and Cazón (dogfish shark!) a la plancha (grilled with a spritz of lemon) for about $5USD apiece
● Being on very unpopulated beaches and having giant stretches of sand all to ourselves.
● Running into another juggler on a virtually empty beach and Sara getting to pass clubs with him.
● Meeting the famous Condor, the man featured in Anthony Bourdain's Uruguay episode on our first night.
Punta del Este and Jose Ignacio
We met up with our other friends, Elana and Jill B., from BA to spend out final 1.5 days at Jose Ignacio and Punta del Este. Punta del Este is the more ritzy of all the places we went to, as it is a big vacation spot for Latin America's rich and famous. It was certainly a different feel than Cabo Polonio and Punta del Diablo with it's skycrapers creeping up towards the beaches. Jose Ignacio, a 40 minute bus ride from Punta del Este, was a quieter beach with beautiful beach homes (Shakira apparently owns a home here) and a lighthouse that reminded us of beaches in Cape Cod. We enjoyed:
● Walking the boardwalk at Jose Ignacio along the rocks, sand, and past the lighthouse to find the perfect beach spot.
● Admiring the beautiful beach homes (mansions)and watching for Shakira sightings.
● The famous "La Mano" sculpture at Playa Brava in Punta del Este, that looks like a giant stone hand coming out of the sand. We all took turns climbing onto the thumb.
● Watching the sunset over Playa Mansa.
● Spending our last morning on the beach, Sara juggling and Jill getting sunburned!
● Just making our bus to Montevideo by about 2 minutes because we just couldn't pull ourselves away from the beach, and of course we had to stop to buy some sweet and savory emapanadas (raisin-pork and hawaiian ham-pineapple).
● Befriending an Argentine man on the boat ride home who was also graciously our temporary Spanish teacher.
● Watching the sunset from the boat and getting a quick glimpse of the light reflecting off the distant skyscrapers in BA from across the water.
● Our constellation lesson led by the captain of the ship to keep us entertained on the top deck during the 3 hour boat ride.
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