The situation in Chile is awful and all over the news here. Thanks to those who are emailing to check in on us. Buenos Aires was not affected.
terremoto en chile
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Monthly Archives: February 2010
adventuras con las abuelas
Para practicar, mi estrategia habia sido eschuchar conversaciones en la calle y hablar con personas diferentes cada dia. Me pasó algo muy gracioso. Cuando estaba en el colectivo, una abuela entró y le dije “quiere sentir” en vez de “quiere sentar”. Pero ella no hizo ninguna de las dos opciones. ¡Qué lástima!
davidson’s coldplay review
I understand why many a music afficionado would put Coldplay at the same level as elevator music, or how their over-exposure can make a disgruntled Band of Horses fans shudder at every Chris Martin falsetto. However, seeing Coldplay in a stadium with enthusiastic porteño fans really made me appreciate Chris Martin’s true strength—he engaged the crowd with a Bob Marley-like intensity.
A few memorable highlights from the concert:
1. The entire audience would regularly break into the famed South American soccer game chorus of “Ole! Ole! Ole. Ole”. It’s pretty awesome to hear it in a stadium setting.
2.The band starts playing “Fix You” (the one with the “lights will gui-i-ide you home” part) and this teenage girl next to us pops out her cell, hits her speed dial and screams, “¡Eschucha puta!” into the phone and holds it up for the entire song. What a friend.
3.Near the end of the show, Denise and I snuck down to the floor level (Brooklyn keeps on taking it!) and got to hear the band perform a Billie Jean acoustic cover and a new song “Don Quixote”.
Overall, it was a great show and my fave band, Bat for Lashes, opened so we definitely got our money’s worth.
river plate stadium
We went to see a big stadium concert just for s and g’s. Bat for Lashes opening for Coldplay—or what I like to think of as Wolves and Twinks. Bat owned that She Wolf motif way before Shakira and her itchy privates (watch the video on youtube if you like grossness). Chris Martin is such a leaping, tumbling, twinking pixie of a man. I’m meh about Coldplay, and I think it’s spillover Gwyneth distaste. Enough about that over-moisturized narcissist. I’m a terrible music reviewer. Read Davidson’s post for a more in-depth take on the music.
learning curve: salads without the salad part
Don’t forget to ask for the romaine/arugula/iceberg in Buenos Aires! If you order a salad with tomatoes and onions, you will get a bowl with just that. A couple double takes later, I figured out that it wasn’t the weirdo restaurant skimping on salad leaves…
not just wall scrawl
The walls here are always interesting. A stroll through the Palermo and Villa Crespo barrios yielded the pics below. Apparently there is an offish walking tour. But we are cheap and like finding these gems day by day. A sampling of wall scrawls and amazing work:
(p/s- This is just the first post. There will be more. We’ve barely seen all of it. But I wanted to share…)
¡soy escritor!
Este es mi primer post dedicado a aprender español. Había estudiado español muchas veces en el pasado pero nunca había aprendido a hablar el español facilmente. ¡Ahora estoy in Argentina por un périodo largo, este es mi oportunidad! Por favor, Decíme como empiezo mi aventura de aprender Español.
street snaps: the obelisk
Learning Curve: Taking the Bus
They call buses los colectivos here. The bus system is pretty extensive, with many lines serving the city pretty comprehensively. Each bus route has its own number, colours and bus stop. And disparate routes are part of collectives belonging to several different owners—hence the name. Sounds confusing, but porteños have found a way to make sense of it all with guidebooks like the Guia “T” or the Filcar (which we have). Here’s what we’ve learned:
1. Get the guidebook at a newsstand. Spend some hours on the guidebook. They’re confusing at first, but start to make sense because of osmosis. Swear.
2. Don’t just go to any bus stop. Each bus has its own number and its own stop. These numbers are not obvious and you have to employ the eagle eye for this.
3. Everyone has to flag the bus so the driver knows how many passengers to pick up.
This took us almost a week to get straight. Here, enjoy the fruit of our confusion and embarrassment.
very touristy
Yup, we went to see the resting place of Evita. She’s located in the Recoleta Cemetary, which is a huge plot of mausoleums where rich people’s bodies chill out in really sculpted marble. Soy Cat Lady, so I went a little crazy over the cute stray kitties.
