Adios, Mercedes Sosa

Just noticed in the New York Times that Mercedes Sosa, one of the most famous folk singers of Argentina, passed away this morning.

Sosa's face was everywhere when I was living in Buenos Aires. She released a new album not too long ago, and it was recently nominated for a few Latin Grammy Awards. Even though she was 74 she would record songs with some of the most popular musicians of 2009, including Shakira, Fito Paez and Calle 13. The only artist I can really think to compare her to, that a lot of people would recognize, is Joan Baez.

We read her lyrics and dissected them in my classes to better learn about the Dirty War and human rights in Latin America. They've always moved me. Sosa was a true icon for a generation, and one of the greatest examples of the ability to merge human rights and art.

Here's a live performance of Sosa singing the politically-charged song "La Canción es Urgente," or "The Song is Urgent."

Home.

Jeez Louise, I've been home almost a month.

Sorry not to post sooner. Returning to a state of normality has been a pretty taxing experience, both physically and mentally.

Like the simple act of coming home. Fun story: while I felt fine during my last day in Buenos Aires, during the flight home I came down with a cough.

By the time I arrived in Philadelphia the next morning I had not only a nasty cough, but a snotty nose, clogged head, weakness and the shivers.

Basically every symptom of swine flu but a fever. I'm still amazed I wasn't tackled and tazered by security when I left the airport.

It was bad. I ended up missing my first day of work at the JCC, and it took me quite a while to recover from my faux swine flu (which I also passed on to my dad. He wasn't so happy that I came home after that).

And during one of my first healthy days, I started to get itchy. Contact with...something gave me a tasty case of contact dermatitis (probably spelled wrong, sorry!). This fun little illness looked like prickly heat, and made my arms and legs itch like crazy. The doctors still don't know what caused it.

My parents decided that I just have bad case of Argentine-itis and that I'm having an allergic reaction to America.

And I think they're a little right.

Little culture shocks just keep coming and coming. Like today I went to Panera with some co-workers and I ordered a small coffee. A small coffee in the States is the equivalent of like...a large at a Havanna in Buenos Aires. The large may acutally be a smidge smaller.

Just looking at that huge cup in my hand really made me want a little one there instead. Also Panera's coffee kind of sucked.

I miss you, Cafe Arenales!

Don't get me wrong, I do like being home. I'm get to see my friends and family every day, and am able to enjoy the little things I used to take for granted in the States. HBO! Peanut butter in every market! Cantaloupe in every fruit salad! SALAD! A shower I don't have to squeegie!!!!

Actually I really liked my squeegie-able shower. So scratch that one.

But I miss Buenos Aires'...everything. The city really changed me. For one thing, I definitely feel more independent. I don't need to rely on friends to make plans and enjoy myself...or speak the local language very well to accomplish things.

I've also learned that it's ok to be a little late, to screw the schedule and take things as they come (Argentina's so unpredictable that there's really no other way to take things), and to simply take everything a little slower. Especially meals :). So far as I know, you only live once so you better fucking enjoy it.

Minus the "so you better fucking enjoy it," it sounds like a Hallmark card. But it's true!

I'm sure lots of other pretentious college students say this, but I've never really felt completely at ease in the States. Possibly because I spend most of my time in Jersey...and it's Jersey, but I've always had the travel bug and I don't know why. And now more than ever I feel like a round peg trying to shove itself into a square hole. I'm the peg, America is the hole. I'll eventually be jammed in somehow, but I'll never truly fit.

But I'm ok with this. Because it means that even though I'm back in the States, I still have a little bit of Buenos Aires living on in my heart.

Sappiest. Post. Ever.

The "Oh Jesus I Can't Believe I'm Going Home in Three Days" Mega Playlist

So I finally recharged my ipod, and have been listening to it as I walk to school and my internship. But for the past few days, I've unconsciously been going back to the same few songs, listening to them again and again. Seem like with only three days to go, my mind has created a "good bye get traveling" playlist. So for your viewing pleasure, here's what has been on repeat on my ipod and computer:

1. Homeward Bound-Simon & Garfunkel ("Sittin' in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination...)
2. Across the Ocean-Azure Ray ("Now I'm traveling across the ocean, with the same shoes just longer hair...")
3.It Won't be Long-The Beatles (although I've been listening to the "Across the Universe" version)
4.California-Joni Mitchell ("I'm gonna see the folks I dig, even kiss a sunset pig, oh California I'm coming home...")
5.Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You-Colin Hay
6.The Only Living Boy in New York ("Tom, get your plane ride on time...")
7.June on the West Coast-Bright Eyes
8.Chipi Chipi-Motorcycle Diaries Soundtrack (I've been here four months and just this week I could finally understand all the lyrics)
9.Al Otro Lado del Rio-Jorge Drexler
10.Trying to Pull Myself Away-Once Soundtrack
11.Get Back-Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova
12.The Maker Makes-Rufus Wainwright (from the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack)
13.The Song of Purple Summer-Spring Awakening (closing song from the show)
14.Perfect Day-Lou Reed

MOST DEPRESSING PLAYLIST EVER.

Weird Buenos Aires

As my time in Buenos Aires is drawing to a close (Saturday makes one week WTF), I've begun to explore all the little nooks and crannies in the city that I walk by almost every day but have never really noticed.

And they're strange nooks and crannies.

For instance, take in this beauty.


This is Floralis Generica, a GIANT metal sculpture with its own park in the Recoleta barrio. It runs on solar energy and is capable of opening and closing like a real flower. When the sun rises, the petals open. When the sun sets, the petals close up again.

Or that was the initial concept.

Unfortunately, it's constantly breaking. It's really fun to walk by just as the sun goes down and watch the tourists holding up their cameras, waiting for Floralis Generica to close and then realizing that it's not going to happen. It's like watching a bunch of kids realize that Santa Claus isn't real.

Exhibit B: Siga la Vaca.

Haha, that's the door handle of this amazing parrilla (steakhouse). A forty-five peso lunch at this Puerto Madero eatery gets you all the salad and meat you can eat (seriously. All the meat you can eat), a drink and a dessert.

But notice Siga la Vaca's logo.



That little cow's face is all over the restaurant. And the whole time I was eating, I just kept thinking of this:



Mooby the Golden Calf watched me commit the sin of gluttony. I'm waiting for Matt Damon to slay me.

And finally, the coup de grace of weird Buenos Aires (at least to me): the hair salon across the street from my school.



Notice the portrait on the left of the sign.

Yes, that is Sawyer from Lost.

No, I don't get it either.

It`s the Final Countdown

Ten days and counting, folks. ¡Diez días!

It`s really weird for me to think that next Sunday, NEXT Sunday I`ll be getting off the plane in Philadelphia and my parents will be there waiting for me. If they remember that I`m arriving on Sunday, and not Saturday, that is. But I have faith they`ll figure it out. I come from smart stock.

Every time I walk home from school, or go to my favorite cafe down the block from my apartment (that`s Cafe Arenales on the corner of Larrea and Arenales, for any folks visiting Buenos Aires in the near future), I just think "well that`s one less time that I`m going to do that again." And here`s the thing. I may hate school, but I love the walk more than anything. Unlike Ithaca, I do not need to manuver through freezing rain and snow.

And I love being able to go to Cafe Arenales, where they know me, and I can sit for hours with my tea and my computer and just relax. I`m ready to go home, but I`m not ready to give up a lot of the things Buenos Aires has offered to me.

Especially cafes. The only real cafe near me in NJ (and by "real" I mean not Starbucks) is CoffeeWorks in Voorhees. A lot of the relaxing experience is taken away when you have to drive 20 minutes to get there, and you never know if there is going to be live music. Don`t get me wrong, the live music at CoffeeWorks totally makes the scene for me. But there are days that I just want to go to a cafe with a book or paperwork, and live music days kind of kill that.

Does anyone know if any new cafe has opened up in the area? Not a Starshmucks?

I`m definitely going to be in for some culture shock. And as much as I mentally prepare myself for it, for the lack of cafes and the need for a car and the dinners at 5pm instead of 9pm, there`s really nothing I can do.

Oh, and the English. The fact that I can speak English all the time. Although that could be a very very pleasant type of culture shock, that I can sound like an articulate human being again.

Let's Go to the Movies

This is something I've wanted to post about for quite some time: movie titles. You know, some movie titles just don't translate well into Spanish. So the film companies play around with them for a bit. For instance, I was watching TV the other day and A Very Brady Sequel came on. But it wasn't A Very Brady Sequel, it was "El Impostor."

For those who don't speak Spanish, El Impostor means...The Impostor. Yeah. Thanks to the perils of translating, the Brady family's little movie was turned into a spy thriller.

Here are some others that I find curious and entertaining. There are definitely more and better ones out there, these just happen to have been on the top of my head. If I see or think of more, I'll be sure to post them later!

Revolutionary Road has become:

Only in Dreams

Confessions of a Shopaholic is:
Crazy for the Shopping

Happy Go Lucky has become:

The Happiness Brings Luck

Adventureland (which I just happened to have seen this past Saturday)

Adventureland, a Memorable Summer

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:
Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Prince

Jersey Girl:

Single Father

Not as good as Engrish, I'm sure, but still entertaining. Or maybe I only find them entertaining because I enjoy translating them? You tell me.

Oh by the way...less than 13 days until I'm back in the States!

¡Cordoba! ¡And Argentine Hopsitals!

It finally happened.

Every semester...every semester since I was a freshman at Ithaca College I manage to become sick or injured once. Just once, but it makes up for the rest of my healthy time by being the worst illness or injury ever.

Some highlights:
Freshman: pulling my back out and a stomach virus that kept me from eating chocolate, dairy, caffeine or anything else that made me happy for two weeks.

Sophomore: pink eye and the flu. At the same time.

Last semester it was bronchitis.

And now...drum roll...

A cold and a urinary tract infection! WOOOO!

Yesterday morning I ended up giving into the cranky germiness and went to the local hospital...which I have to say was really well organized and efficient. It´s all about taking a number (from one of those red machines you see at the deli counter at an American supermarket), and the lines move pretty fast. It could very well have been the time of day I arrived, but I was in and out in about two hours. Quite an improvement over the five-hour wait-a-palooza I had in Ithaca when I pulled my back out.

One thing that concerns me is that the doctor prescribed me antibiotics without actually inspecting my body. I came in and was like, "well I think I have a UTI." And he went "okey dokey, here are some drugs. Give a urine sample and we´ll see in five days whether or not I gave you the right meds."

I´ve watched House. I KNOW that when doctors do that, the patient is misdiagnosed, then gets worse then the doctor says something snarky and then saves the day, when the patient is already on their death bed.

Anyway. I think I´m getting better, but I have to hang around Buenos Aires for the next couple of days to pick up the results from my test. Which basically ends all future travel plans, since this is the last four day weekend I´ll have before I go back to the States.

I´m sad, but at the same time ok with this. Now I have time to explore the rest of Buenos Aires that I haven´t had time for previously.

But last weekend...what a way to send off Argentine traveling. I went to Cordoba last Thursday to visit my friend Claudia. We were roommates together last year at the Charles Schusterman Leaders Assembly in Israel and kept in touch. So when she found out I was in Argentina, she invited me to spend a weekend with her family.

And it was amazing. It was wonderful to be able to sit down with a family for Shabbat dinner, and everyone was so nice.

Claudia, Guillermo (another friend from Israel), and Claudia´s boyfriend Mati and I had a great time. They showed me around the city, which was BEAUTIFUL, and I got to see how the Jewish community thrives there. There are only about 7,000 Jews in Cordoba and Clau seems to know them all. Since it´s a pretty small community, everyone sticks together. All the kids go to the same Jewish day school, go to the same three synagogues, and frequent the same Jewish community center.

It all REALLY made me miss IC Hillel. I can´t wait to go back to Ithaca and get the semester started.

I could have stayed in Cordoba forever. It was wonderful.

I was a loser and took no pictures.

"Spring" Break pt...whatever let's just finish this

Don't know if the creative title tells you anything about my state of mind, but yeah. I think I've blogged enough about my break, don't you? All that's really left to talk about is how I didn't pack enough socks and I kept having a weird dream that I was married to Chandler Bing.

Oh, and Bariloche. That place was pretty important.

Bariloche is in the northern part of Argentine Patagonia, AKA Switzerland for people too cheap like me to go to Europe. It's lots of mountains and lakes, and is very very beautiful. My friends and I were very fortunate because we picked a hostel on top of a hill. It was a bit of a slog to get up all the steps, but to be able to see something like this every morning, it was well worth it.


On our first full day me, Sarah J, Lizzie, Jenny and I took a chair lift up a mountain. It was cold, but we got to see awesome things like this on the way up and from the top.

Did I mention the chair lift was called "The Gringo Trail?" Gringo doesn't have nearly the same connotation as it does in other parts of Latin America...but still. Really?

Lizzie decided to take on the Gringo Trail barefoot.




On Friday, me Lizzie and Jenny braved the pouring rain to go to a multi-trek on Tronador. Tronador is a mountain in Nahuel Huapi, South America's first national park. It was gorgeous, and we got to see A BLACK ICE GLACIER.

It's black because when it slid down from the mountain, it picked up a ton of volcanic ash. It was a pretty tough hike (partly because I was stupid and didn't bring a coat), but was definitely a highlight of the trip. Well worth the 7 or so hours of cold wetness.




That concludes my blogger presentation of my "Spring" Break travel extravaganza! Next stop on the globe is...Uruguay! Or as one of my professors here calls it, Argentina's Canada!

Reality Check

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled "Spring" Break broadcast to get you up to date really quickly with what I´ve been doing since I got home from my trip.

I got stuck in a riot.

On Sunday afternoon my friend Danielle and I went to an Israel Independence Day celebration being hosted by the city. There were speeches, music, and dancing and there was a pretty decent sized crowd. The event was happening on a blocked off street near the Casa Rosada, and Danielle and I were near the back.

All of a sudden we heard a loud bang, some screams, and then people just started to RUN. Since Danielle and I were in the back (and short), we didn´t see the group of 25 protesters burst out of the nearby subway station with signs and weapons. They had sticks and nunchuks, and just started hitting people and screaming in Spanish. We started to run too.

I`m still not really positive who they were. Some people in the crowd were shouting that they were Nazis. Articles I´ve been looking at have said that they were anti-zionist, pro-palestinian, or anti-semetic. Now, these things don´t always have to go hand-in-hand so I can´t really say for sure who they were. Some people are starting to speculate that the rioters were hired just to create a ruckus.

People started shouting for the police, who took a really long time to come. Oh, there were police there--I saw them talking on their cell phones and walking away. Some went to help, but most didn´t. Three people ended up being injured. The front page of most newspapers yesterday showed a young Jewish man holding his head. There was a lot of blood.

Danielle and I ran to the other side of the crowd, away from the protesters. Once the police got their shit together, the program started again and people started coming back. It took about maybe...another 30 minutes for an ambulance to show up, and it came in from the wrong side of the stage so it just had to back up and go around the block to get to the people that needed help. And security still seemed sketch, so Danielle and I booked it.

Argentina has a history of anti-semitic and anti-Israel attacks occuring. In the 1990s the Israeli embassy and a Jewish cultural center were blown up. In addition, the South American nation was a hub for Nazis fleeing Germany after WWII.

But I never thought these things would directly affect me during my semester in Buenos Aires. I´ve essentially been able to be open about my Jewish-ness here, and suddenly all at once I´m not so sure that´s a good idea. I appreciate better now why many Synagogues in the area and the Hillel building still check our IDs and passports before we can come in.

In Argentina, the past is always having a major, direct effect on the present. Sunday was definitely no exception.

"Spring" Break pt.1: Driving Through the Andes and the Importance of Listening to Customs Control

So after a brief fifteen hour bus ride to Mendoza, me and my friends Sarah J, Brenna and Lizzie hopped on a bus for Valparaiso, which is a port city on the coast of Chile. The bus took eight hours, but felt like longer because we had to get off the bus to go through border control.

A note to travelers: when a country says "don't bring produce across the border, we'll make you pay," they mean it. Both literally and figuratively. A woman on my bus tried to bring AN APPLE across the border, and after an hour and a half hold up (by which point we all wanted to flog her), she had to pay approx. $170 American for that piece of fruit.

Anyway. The Andes Mountains. Very pretty, very much larger than these photos make them out to be, and very twisty turny.

Yeah, we drove down that. And I may have raised my hands in the air like I was on a roller coaster more than once...

Three other shots of the Andes, where I have decided I want to build a cabin and be a crazy old hermit that gives water and fruit and sage advice to wayward wanderers.







I'd write about more of my trip in this post than just a bus ride, but the Internet isn't giving mama any sugar today.

Home Sweet Buenos Aires...

Hellooo!

I`m back from my fantastically awesome "Spring" Break, and I have to say...

I never want to take a bus again as long as I live. If my calculations are correct, I was on a bus for a total of 61 1/2 hours during my ten-day break. Some of the movies they showed on these buses included:
-Transporter 3
-Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
-Lakeview Terrace
-The Best of Mana
-The Women
-Latin American music videos from the 1970s

I started losing it around Orsono.

Here´s a lovely illustration of where I traveled.



Right now I`m playing the catch-up dance with my classes and internship, but I will definitely post later some photos and commentary on exactly what I did to terrorize South America.

My New Housemate

So my house brother and friend Nacho is a med student. And apparently, in Buenos Aires they let med students take home unclaimed skeletons from cemeteries to play with.



I named him Earl.

Here's to World Enough and Time...

I'm really trying to ignore the fact that my semester in Argentina is almost halfway over but it's staring me in the face.

To borrow some imagery from "The Time Traveler's Wife," it feels like I've been at the top of a roller coaster. The first two months here I was kind of chugging up hill, getting used to things and just having a relaxing time. Now I'm at the final two months, and every day goes by faster and faster and my mind is screaming, "hurry up and experience everything, because the ride is almost over and you don't know if you'll ever be back again."

Happy happy thoughts.

Anyway, my midterms start this week and after that I'm off on Spring break! I'm going to Chile to explore and unleash my nerdy side (thought: do I have a nerdy side, or am I just all nerd?). I really want to try and visit all of Pablo Neruda's houses. There are three: one in Santiago, one in Valparaiso, and one in Isla Negra. I think I can do it.


If you didn't know, this is Pablo Neruda. He was the winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature, a Chilean diplomat, nominated to the seat of the Chilean presidency...and one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. Neruda HANDS DOWN bitchslap Shakespeare is my favorite poet, and I've been spending a lot of time this semester learning to read his poems in their original Spanish.

Know this man. Love this man.

If you love me, you'll begin to read Neruda's poetry. I recommend starting with his first book, "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair." It's really been freaking me out down here how few people from my program know who Neruda is. It's also really depressing. I want his memory to live on.

And on a light note...after Chile it's back to Argentina to visit Bariloche, the chocolate capital of Argentina. Located in the north of Patagonia, it is also a city apparently populated by avid gnome collectors. Good times shall be had.

Turning 21 and other things of some importance

So people are actually reading this thing...and asking me to update it? Definitely not the type of response I was expecting, so thanks everyone for reading it and encouraging me to continue!

Not that I would stop without your support...I like to think that I´m kind of a big deal.

Fun Fact: Briana googles herself quite a lot.

Anyway, here´s a quick Argentine update.

My 21st birthday was on Sunday! And I have no pictures of my birthday party from Saturday night! I was just too lazy to take any. But anyway, it was awesome. Here is a very faithful re-creation of what occured, brought to you by Google Image search. Not appropriate for minors!

My friends down here and I went to my favorite pizza restaurant in Buenos Aires, Romario´s. It was very tasty.



During my dinner, I began my first drink as a 21-year-old. It was a chopp of Brahma Beer. It tasted very legal.


Afterwards, my friends and I took a cab to a really funky club called Tazz in Palermo.


We drank cosmopolitans...


And tried to crash a private party. We didn´t know what it was when we tried.


Anyway, around 2am some of my friends got tired and went home. We had a field trip early in the morning, so they wanted a good night´s sleep.


Me and my friends Amanda and Sarah J on the other hand, decided that sleep was not a necessary tennet of attending a field trip. We stayed at Tazz for a little while longer and danced.


On Sunday morning, we went with IES to the town of El Tigre...we were very very tired. I was happy it was my 21st birthday, but I just wanted to curl up in a little ball and sleep.


Yes, I know you guys expected my 21st birthday to look like this:


But I´m classier than that.

Sure, watching too much TV is bad for you. And breathing in too deep will make your lungs explode.

Hey, I don't know if this company exists in the United States. If it does, has anyone seen this music video? It's my life right now.



I love Argentine television a little too much. There is a television in my room here and that's something I'm definitely not used to. There's always been one in my dorm at Ithaca, but because I had a roommate that's not one that I could turn on whenever I wanted, to whatever channel I wanted. Also, I finished all the books I brought during my first week here and don't want to spend money on more.

Anyway...Argentine television. First of all, the censorship seems to be nil. Know those special "call a sexy friend" type commercials that come on after midnight in the States? Here they're on ALL the time. On every channel. That's right, Disney Playhouse. I'm looking at you. There seems to be an abundance of Christmas-themed ones lately...

And exercise products! Belly busters and other weird torture devices abound. I feel like in the United States we have transcended these products...and take lots of pills instead.

Different channels too. No NBC, ABC, CBS yada yada yada. There's some national stations, like Cronica TV and Telefe. And then there's the Universal Channel, the Warner Channel, and the Sony channel. They all have pretty decent selections, lots of familiar shows.

Sports stations? Bajillions. All soccer, of course.

Telenovelas abound. Love love love. And the music channels are glorious! Again, very little in the way of editing. Music videos that typically aren't shown after midnight in the United States, like say oh, Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" and most of the Prince catalog are shown at like 8am here.

I've always been a bit of a couch potato, but this is getting ridiculous.

"You are going to MENDOOOZZZZAA. Understand? Get on the bus that says MMMMEEEEENNNNDDDOOOOZZZZZAAAAAAA."

I came, I saw, I conquered the vineyards.

The title of this post comes from our friendly neighborhood bus ticket salesmen, who was smart enough to realize my friends and I are all idiots.

So here is a brief account of my brief visit to Argentine wine country.

After a lovely 15 hour bus ride sitting next to an even lovelier man named Max (forever known as "Christian" by my friends because of his very nice fitting Christian Dior pants), me, Brenna and Sarah J arrived in Mendoza. My other friends Jenny and Sarah W arrived much later in the evening.

First afternoon was national holiday. Everything was closed. The end, onto day two.

We traveled to the town of Maipu, where we traveled to different vineyards and farms for taste tastings. First up was Historias y Sabores, which makes their own chocolate, spreads, and liqueur. For ten pesos I got a shot of chocolate mint liqueur, four pieces of chocolate, and four spreads to taste test.

The chocolate mint was a little strong, but still tasty. I preferred Brenna's chocolate coffee shot, which I took a little sip of. The spreads and chocolate chunks were heavenly.

Next up: the wine.

We went to a little vineyard, where a young man taught us about how they make wine, and for 15 pesos let us have a little sample. And by little sample, I mean two huge glasses. I tried a young chardonnay and a fully aged cabernet, and took samples of people's malbecs. Very tasty.




Instead of Bienvenidos, which means welcome in Spanish the sign says Bienbebidos, which means "good drinks."

Did I mention we did this all on bikes?

The next day...I jumped off a cliff.



I spent the afternoon paragliding in the Andes. Don't worry; I wore a helmet.



It was SO much fun. I really didn't want to leave the sky, or Mendoza for that matter. I wish I was there longer. The landscape reminded me a lot of Israel and I got a little...would you call it homesick since Israel isn't my home? Israel-sick, maybe?

Anyway, Mendoza=great time. 15 hour bus ride home with the movies being "Shooter" and "Bad Boys"...not such a great time.