Here there is a person for every job, although certainly not the other way round. Or rather, whatever you want doing, there is someone to do it for you. I was hard pressed to find a 'self-service' laundrette and so for the first time in 18 years I had someone else wash my clothes for me (which I was initially very excied about with however I realised yesterday that my favourite jeans have been shrunk). Federico, one of the sone in the flat I am staying) recounted to me a time when traveling in Europe and had to fill the car up with petrol himself. He asked for help and was told that all the information he needed was there, just read the instructions. Helpful.
Here it is not uncommon to have a maid. In our house Graciela catches 2 hours worth of buses to work from 9am until 3pm weekdays doing the cooking and cleaning. Graciela speaks no English and so has been very helpful for me to practise with... although she has fallen out of favour a little as late for telling me my Spanish is getting worse. Graciela leaves various dishes inthe fridge for the family to heat up in the evenings. Many people here cannot cook and it is odd to them when I say that cooking is very fashionable in the UK. Many flats for sale are advertised as having 'maids quarters' which is essentially what I a staying in.
There are a lot of jobs that folk have invented for themselves: finding parking spaces, opening cab doors, groups of people on the streets who sort the rubbish into recycleables which can be sold on and repack the rest for the bin men.
Ok thats it from me... next time I will tell you about the Jesus theme park - Resurrections every half an hour. And on that note, feliz navidad and eat lots of roast potatoes for me please.
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Monday, 15 December 2008
Taxistas
Most of the guidebooks say to be careful of getting ripped off in cabs, check any change carefully as they are quite known for fiddling tourists especially. My experience has been quite different so far - thrice the taxista rounded down the fare and another time I got handed back my tip! Extraodinary.
On the whole the taxis (the usual road offender) and the traffic generally are really quite well behaved in the city. Considering my barrio os fairly tranquil these two combined make it a really pleasant city to walk around. My biggest fear I have regularly is that I am going to drop my keys down the lift-shaft.
Actually, I should correct that to the cars only, buses drive like maniacs. The other day I had to cross the well photographed Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest highway in the world (or some such similar claim). Yes indeed, this road actually has pedestrian crossings. I did wait until I had seen someone else do it before I had the guts (and belief that this feat was in fact possible) to do it myself. The particular place I chose to cross was at a point where the road is flanked either side by other smaller roads, meaning that essentially I was crossing over 3 motorways (20 lanes) of traffic. Woof.
On the whole the taxis (the usual road offender) and the traffic generally are really quite well behaved in the city. Considering my barrio os fairly tranquil these two combined make it a really pleasant city to walk around. My biggest fear I have regularly is that I am going to drop my keys down the lift-shaft.
Actually, I should correct that to the cars only, buses drive like maniacs. The other day I had to cross the well photographed Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest highway in the world (or some such similar claim). Yes indeed, this road actually has pedestrian crossings. I did wait until I had seen someone else do it before I had the guts (and belief that this feat was in fact possible) to do it myself. The particular place I chose to cross was at a point where the road is flanked either side by other smaller roads, meaning that essentially I was crossing over 3 motorways (20 lanes) of traffic. Woof.
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Porteños & Their Pets
Ah, the well dressed folk of Buenos Aires. I have yet to see anyone over the age of 40 wearing jeans. It probably helps that I am staying on the Sloane Street of the city however even outside my barrio there is a fairly high standard of dress. One thing I don't understand is how people can afford to wear clothes at all! Shoes, handbags, clothes and accessories are incredibly expensive here, even more so than in London.... this is making things difficult for me as there are a lot of very nice clothes here.
Whilst on the subject of the well presented, I saw a blind man with his guide dog recently, the chap was impeccably dressed as is standard however it was the dog that caught my attention. His/her halter was made of beautiful thick dark brown leather with shiny brass fastenings. So it appears even the canines know how to dress in this city. Interesting that the word for pet is 'mascota' I thought.
So yes dogs. There is a lot to say about them as there is such a large pooch population. They come in all different sizes - not just the rats on ropes that you see in Paris, here you see anything up to a St Bernard, although Golden Retrievers seem to be the most fashionable. A little cruel you might think considering the majority of people live in apartments? Well, this trend has lead to a whole new occupation: enter the Dog Walker.
Dog Walkers are mostly seen in the day with on average 7 or 8 dogs each. Tending to be fairly young and of both sexes, the dog alkers are also responsible for checking the overall wellbeing of the animal, doing a bit of grooming and the Dog Walkers often have some basic vetinary training. Since on the whole I'd nevr seen more than 8 dogs with any one dog walker Iassumed that this was sime kind of upper-limit regulattion. Regulation indeed! How terribly British of me; the other day I saw a chica with 14 dogs, all trotting along happily together.
So the good news is... I know that there is a perfect job waiting for me should I want to stay here forever.
Whilst on the subject of the well presented, I saw a blind man with his guide dog recently, the chap was impeccably dressed as is standard however it was the dog that caught my attention. His/her halter was made of beautiful thick dark brown leather with shiny brass fastenings. So it appears even the canines know how to dress in this city. Interesting that the word for pet is 'mascota' I thought.
So yes dogs. There is a lot to say about them as there is such a large pooch population. They come in all different sizes - not just the rats on ropes that you see in Paris, here you see anything up to a St Bernard, although Golden Retrievers seem to be the most fashionable. A little cruel you might think considering the majority of people live in apartments? Well, this trend has lead to a whole new occupation: enter the Dog Walker.
Dog Walkers are mostly seen in the day with on average 7 or 8 dogs each. Tending to be fairly young and of both sexes, the dog alkers are also responsible for checking the overall wellbeing of the animal, doing a bit of grooming and the Dog Walkers often have some basic vetinary training. Since on the whole I'd nevr seen more than 8 dogs with any one dog walker Iassumed that this was sime kind of upper-limit regulattion. Regulation indeed! How terribly British of me; the other day I saw a chica with 14 dogs, all trotting along happily together.
So the good news is... I know that there is a perfect job waiting for me should I want to stay here forever.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Latin Immersion
Contrary to what the books/teachers/etc say, people here seem to say Buen Dia rather than Buenos Dias.... although this may have something to do with the accent, many people hardly pronounce the letter 's' at all. Other things about Argentine spanish? Hmmm well they use an entirely different for of 'tu' and needs another conjugation and stress. Since it is a fairly informal place this (voseo) is quite important. But.... since 'tu' is used in much of the Spanish-speaking world, that is what they teach at the college.
So yes the college: I started classes on Monday and the first class was very full on as there was only me and the profesora. This was great for me however I left with a banging headache and went home for an early night. The rest of the week the class has included a really fun couple of guys from Sweden who most of the time want to talk about 'Los Argentinos'. Buenos Aires has pretty much the only gay scene in Latin America and my fellow students are very keen to learn the language (no prizes for guessing the motive!)
Susana is our teacher and has studied in London. Many people here love the English accent as most of the visitors are Swiss, German and of course from the States. Apart from being in love with Phil Collins, Susana has other fairly controversial views... most notably (for an Argentine) being on the Falklands. They go something along the lines of (and here I paraphrase) "they found 'em, they can 'av 'em". Susana was also keen to point out the many failings of the Argentine men over the gentlemanly, handsome ('muy lindo, muy muy lindo!'), respectful Englishman. All her words, by the way, not mine... and I won't translate what she wrote about the poor chaps from Buenos Aires.
The college is run by a team of about 10 people, mostly women and all seem to be under 30 or there abouts. They put a lot of effort into extra activities for the studants - much of which is a little too remeniscent of the cheery hell that Emily and I went through at Rocky River Ranch in Texas. The flip side is that the activities all have the alterior motive of improving our Spanish which is, of course, a good thing and the reason we are there.
Oh yes I have had my first steak! I met up with my Argy friend Matias from London who has just moved back here and when we were in the restaurant and I asked him to order for me. The steak came my itself - no salad, no potatoes, nada - the biggest piece of meat I have ever seen. I only ate half of it and still I felt I had eaten half a cow. What a bargain though! Starters and meat for 2 people plus wine was $80 pesos.... about 15 quid.
That is it from me for now apart from one little thing, a post-script and a note to pedants like me. Spelling and grammatical mistakes - I am writing this blog in Internet Cafés and am not re-reading what I have written, sorry in of advance of all the mistakes I will inevitable make.
Ok that's it from me, going to try and spear myself a cow (or rather, practise making errors in reflexive verbs). I hope everybody is well in Reino Unido!
So yes the college: I started classes on Monday and the first class was very full on as there was only me and the profesora. This was great for me however I left with a banging headache and went home for an early night. The rest of the week the class has included a really fun couple of guys from Sweden who most of the time want to talk about 'Los Argentinos'. Buenos Aires has pretty much the only gay scene in Latin America and my fellow students are very keen to learn the language (no prizes for guessing the motive!)
Susana is our teacher and has studied in London. Many people here love the English accent as most of the visitors are Swiss, German and of course from the States. Apart from being in love with Phil Collins, Susana has other fairly controversial views... most notably (for an Argentine) being on the Falklands. They go something along the lines of (and here I paraphrase) "they found 'em, they can 'av 'em". Susana was also keen to point out the many failings of the Argentine men over the gentlemanly, handsome ('muy lindo, muy muy lindo!'), respectful Englishman. All her words, by the way, not mine... and I won't translate what she wrote about the poor chaps from Buenos Aires.
The college is run by a team of about 10 people, mostly women and all seem to be under 30 or there abouts. They put a lot of effort into extra activities for the studants - much of which is a little too remeniscent of the cheery hell that Emily and I went through at Rocky River Ranch in Texas. The flip side is that the activities all have the alterior motive of improving our Spanish which is, of course, a good thing and the reason we are there.
Oh yes I have had my first steak! I met up with my Argy friend Matias from London who has just moved back here and when we were in the restaurant and I asked him to order for me. The steak came my itself - no salad, no potatoes, nada - the biggest piece of meat I have ever seen. I only ate half of it and still I felt I had eaten half a cow. What a bargain though! Starters and meat for 2 people plus wine was $80 pesos.... about 15 quid.
That is it from me for now apart from one little thing, a post-script and a note to pedants like me. Spelling and grammatical mistakes - I am writing this blog in Internet Cafés and am not re-reading what I have written, sorry in of advance of all the mistakes I will inevitable make.
Ok that's it from me, going to try and spear myself a cow (or rather, practise making errors in reflexive verbs). I hope everybody is well in Reino Unido!
Monday, 1 December 2008
Recoleta
So yes - Recoleta, where I am staying. There´s no denying that this place is very reminiscent of Paris - a comparison I got the impression (from a taxidriver so it must be accurate) that the porteños are a little tired with.
A few streets away is the famous cemetary. Many wealthy and influential Argentines are entombed here, most notably - and controvertially - María Eva Duarte de Perón, or rather Evita. As a casual observer it's apparent that she and her legacy have something about Princess Diana (or laddie dee) of them. Love her or loath her it's inescapable the inspirational something they had to rally people to their causes and each in turn almost bring the country to a stand still at their death even though neither had any particularly powerful official role.
The tombs are all like little rooms that you can see into and look at the coffins inside. Some are shiny polished black and brand new and others, like the 'Familia Santa Maria' are dangerously crumbly. Inside this one inparticular there were 5 coffins stacked on top of eath other on each side of the room going deep into the floor. I peered in far enough to feel the heat radiating from inside, not very nice. I have yet to find out if the people are really in there still, actually in the coffins; I'm sure they can't be however I was more than a little concerned that the stack of warm bodyboxes wouldtopple and expose me to something terribly grim.
One more thing about La Recoleta: this cemetary was crawlingwith cats! I know felines are known for being attracted to strange things like geopathic stress lines and magnetic fields and the like however I thought this was somewhat sinister! In particular was their behaviour... at the entrance to the cemetary there were gangs of them like a gaggle of teenagers, scrapping amongst themselves, ignoring everyone else aslthough at the same time making it absolutely clear whose territory it is.
Now I have started Spanish classes and I have a headache at the end of the first day.... ah well, I take it to mean that I am learning something.
A few streets away is the famous cemetary. Many wealthy and influential Argentines are entombed here, most notably - and controvertially - María Eva Duarte de Perón, or rather Evita. As a casual observer it's apparent that she and her legacy have something about Princess Diana (or laddie dee) of them. Love her or loath her it's inescapable the inspirational something they had to rally people to their causes and each in turn almost bring the country to a stand still at their death even though neither had any particularly powerful official role.
The tombs are all like little rooms that you can see into and look at the coffins inside. Some are shiny polished black and brand new and others, like the 'Familia Santa Maria' are dangerously crumbly. Inside this one inparticular there were 5 coffins stacked on top of eath other on each side of the room going deep into the floor. I peered in far enough to feel the heat radiating from inside, not very nice. I have yet to find out if the people are really in there still, actually in the coffins; I'm sure they can't be however I was more than a little concerned that the stack of warm bodyboxes wouldtopple and expose me to something terribly grim.
One more thing about La Recoleta: this cemetary was crawlingwith cats! I know felines are known for being attracted to strange things like geopathic stress lines and magnetic fields and the like however I thought this was somewhat sinister! In particular was their behaviour... at the entrance to the cemetary there were gangs of them like a gaggle of teenagers, scrapping amongst themselves, ignoring everyone else aslthough at the same time making it absolutely clear whose territory it is.
Now I have started Spanish classes and I have a headache at the end of the first day.... ah well, I take it to mean that I am learning something.
São Paulo Airport and over Brazil
¡Hola¡ I made it. Here I am in Buenos Aires staying with a lovely host family right in the middle of Recoleta, a very lovely (and affluent) barrio.
The journey here was pretty much event-free, sleeping most of the way from London to Sau Paulo. I was sat next to Claudia, a wonderfully enthusiastic Brazilian woman who had been over in the UK learning English and visiting her English boyfriend (whose name was Chris, a name I discovered sounds incredibly cute when said with a strong Latin accent).
Claudia was returning home and I happened to notice that she wasn't the only Brazilian heart-breaker on the aeroplane as I overheard at least 2 other Brazilian women speaking to their English beaux before they returned to their native Brazil for good. My advice to men is thus: yes they are gorgeous but it certainly comes at a price. She will inevitably leave you to go home much sooner than you think.
After arriving in Sao Paulo I had to wait for 7 hours stuck in their small 'connections' lounge. I could neither leave nor buy anything as I didn't have any usable currency. The time went very slowly. By the time I made it on the plane I was so hungry, I wolfed down my food with such speed that even the positively planetary Americal next to me raised an eyebrow. The flight itself was really quite interesting. At first we flew down the coast and I saw miles and miles of indeveloped, nay uninhabited white sandy beaches with miniture islands. I wondered if Magellan and his crew had disembarked much for a frolic on the sands as I expect the whole coast must have looked like that then.... although I don't know if beaches had the same appeal before the days of Mr Thomas Cook.
Another thing about flying over brazil was the amount of trees! Whereas when you fly over most places in europe, the majority of the view is of the patchwork of fields, here the trees were so dense that even the mountaintops were covered in trees - right to the peak - making them look furry.
Another thing about flying over brazil was the amount of trees! Whereas when you fly over most places in europe, the majority of the view is of the patchwork of fields, here the trees were so dense that even the mountaintops were covered in trees - right to the peak - making them look furry.
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