Miercoles y Jueves

Dear Chicago,

I've been awful this week about documenting my adventures. Forgive me. Its getting more difficult to schlep around my laptop and find the time to have a coffee after hunting down a cafe that has wireless internet.

Miercoles - Wednesday
Another great week - on Wednesday I was invited to Liliana's for dinner. A big step in my spanish language ability: I ordered a car all by myself! The drive to her house is pretty far, so I arranged a 'remis' taxi. The phone remains the hardest part of communication for me, and the fact that I ordered it and made it to the right place at the right time was pretty great. Liliana and Norberto were kind as always, and there were 9 of us from dinner. My conversation skills were markedly improved from our last dinner. When the topic switched to footbal, I was still lost. A beautiful dinner of rugula salad, smoked salmon appetizers and fresh homemade gnocchi. Dessert was a brick of chocolate Liliana had brought back from a meeting in Barcelona and quince with cheese - unbelievable! Norberto and Liliana went to bed and I figured I would hang out with Carla a bit before ordering a taxi home - was I wrong!

Carla, her cousin and I hung out in the kitchen listening to music and drinking champagne (they live well and I really, really enjoy it). After the champagne were more drinks and then we were off. Her cousin had friends with an apartment party and from there we went to a secret club. A friend had rented out the space for her birthday party and it was amazing! I made it home at 6:30AM! It was a night of great conversations, drinks and places - not a word of English the whole time.

Jueves - Thursday - Independence day
I met up with a friend of a friend and his friend... confusing. Mike is an Iowa guy and Julian is a former colleague of his. They're touring around South America and I was proud to serve as their ambassador to Buenos Aires. We grabbed lunch at the oldest cafe in BsAs, the Tortoni - a good mix of authentic food for tourists. I sent them on their way to the Feria de Los Matadores, as I have been there, done that. I continued laying low due to the awful stomach ache I've had for about 2 weeks now. The diet here is getting to me! I'm sure it has more to do with portion sizes than the food itself. Many things were closed for Independence Day, and that combined with the swine flu gave me a nice mellow day. I'm officially getting a hang of the bus schedule, which is nice! No Argentine traditions here for Independence day - it felt like a regular weekend day. I continue to learn something new everyday and I am ever surprised by this city!

Ciao Chicago!

Tess

Pico Iyer -- #3 and #4

#3 Devour the Hotel Literature
The best example of this in Argentina was the horseback riding trip in Mendoza. I had tried unsuccessfully, on my own, to book a trip to ride. Only when we flipped through guidebooks and catalogs did we find what we were looking for. Not only that - it ended up being safe and amazing!

#4 Run an Errand for a Friend

Finally, Cristina asked me to run out for something. I got a 3 liter bottle of water and some rolls from a bakery. Of course, I bought the wrong type of rolls... they looked the same to me but apparently I bought breakfast buns. Oops.

Saturday Morning Market

Blustery Day in the Barrio...

Dear Chicago,

Content and exhausted after another fabulous weekend. On Friday night I felt under the weather and I stayed in to enjoy the company of my house mom and her daughter and son in law once again. Saturday morning I was up bright and early to check out a potential apartment for me and M to stay in. He'll be here next week, I can hardly believe it. After many price comparisons and inspections (I drive a hard bargain) I found a place around the corner. Literally - my senora recommended a place around the corner from her apartment! Its a beautiful hotel, brand new and caters to 'long term stays' a week or longer. I got the price down by saying I lived in the neighborhood, and now we're all set!

Saturday afternoon: Salvador Dali exhibit at a mall. It was a highly recommended collection but I have to say I was very disappointed. Whoever arranged the lighting hung spots so that I had to shield my eyes to see the artwork... I've never had that happen at a museum. I also feel like a museum snob - what a tough life I lead! I had tried to arrange for a big group to celebrate the Fourth of July at an American bar downtown... I ended up at a Brazilian bar. Very random but a fun night with friends.

Sunday was the best day of the weekend. Another early morning to hop on a bus with classmates to see a gaucho ranch. We drove 75 miles north of the Province to see a gaucho horse-maneuvering show (best way to describe it), have a big Sunday asado lunch of grilled meat (I didn't eat the blood sausage... I couldn't) and see a working farm. Carrie and I had a great time - I'm always surprised by how nice it is to get out of the city even though I love the city, too.
video of the gauchos:








Today was a rainy, cold Monday. It was the first thunderstorm I've seen during my time in Argentina. (It made me miss Corky a lot). Unfortunately, the rain meant that volunteering was cancelled. The government permitted our organization to continue working with the kids, provided we use outdoor spaces like parks and plazas... a rainstorm meant that was cancelled. The swine flu is communicated to be a real and present danger here - more people in masks than I would have expected. So far, I feel great!

Looking forward to a potential weekend in the northern provinces as we have a day off for Argentine Independence Day, July 9th.

I cannot believe MC is visiting a week from tomorrow, and my family a week after! I live a charmed life.

besos - Tess

Loving LIFE

Dear Chicago,

Volunteering today with L.I.F.E was AWESOME. Every day in the van on our way back home, the volunteers cannot stop raving about the experience. We get a high from frantically doing our best with the group of the day. Today presented a few curve balls - the power was shut off to the woman's home that serves as the Comedor, so we herded the kids and plastic tables into the courtyard. Fortunately the winter solstice has come and gone here, so we had JUST enough light to last until 6:15. The theme of the day was 'pirates' so worksheets teaching English and Spanish were followed by mazes and puzzles, drawing and making their treasure maps look old with the help of some tea bags to stain the paper and a lighter to burn the edges. Dad would have been proud as I reminded the 6 year olds over and over (in spanish) that only grownups can use fire and that burning paper was not a normal activity.




The kids were great today and I'm officially a familiar face. I melted when the girls all asked me to spell my name and made paintings for me. That being said, we had 20 kids running around in a courtyard fighting over paintbrushes and scissors. One little girl got punched in the face by her cousin (not exaggerating) - I've learned to discipline in Spanish! (Grandpa, you would have lots to see at these outings). Punching means no more painting! The time FLEW by as the kids made pirate eye patches, asked to learn more English words and tried to figure out what they could get away with. The four other volunteers and I formed a special bond as we were covered in paint, tea, spit and tears. It was an exhausting, great day out. I'm glad I took pictures as it may have been my last outing - the government has halted all gatherings in the Comedor kitchen lines due to the swine flu. I realize what I risk I present to the kids (and what a risk the neighborhood presents to me!) but I really hope we get back out again. I'm just starting to get the hang of it!


Diego and Adan the pirates:


The volunteers are great people from all over the world - my group out was 2 from London, 1 from Ireland and one from the states. I learn as much from them as I do the kids. I'm one of the only volunteers here taking class - the majority seem to have two jobs: volunteer by late afternoon, party by night. A volunteer from London moonlights as a club promoter and was rounding everyone up to go on a party bus to a club... it was a bit expensive, I was exhausted and had class... but I was so there. It was a great decision - my friend Carrie joined me for a very random and hilarious night. A street car trolley turned schoolbus picked the 30 of us up at a bar and we look a long bumpy ride around the city. The drinks were flowing, the lights flashing and the music blaring. It was great! We were dropped off at a club on the waterfront of Puerto Madero and danced the night away. Yes, this is a view of the bus:



Me and Carrie as Asia


It was SO much fun!! After the entire night out (SOMEHOW) I made it to class bright eyed and bushy tailed. Yawn! Can't wait for the weekend!


Tess

Swine Flu...

Dear Chicago,
Hmmm. Swine flu.


From the BBC:

Swine flu emergency in Argentina
People wear masks at a hospital in Buenos Aires on 30 June 2009
Argentina is currently going through its peak annual flu season

The city and province of Buenos Aires have announced a health emergency to fight a swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 26 people in Argentina.

Officials are being given more power and resources to tackle the epidemic, and school holidays for millions of children are being extended. Argentina has confirmed more than 1,500 cases of swine flu, which is spreading during the southern hemisphere winter. Meanwhile, an international conference on swine flu is opening in Mexico. Teams from some 40 countries are attending the three-day event in Cancun. The head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, is also participating.

'Too late'

The health emergency measures in the capital and surrounding Buenos Aires province were unveiled on Tuesday. Local officials said they wanted to improve co-ordination between different state services and to put more medical staff on stand-by. They also said that school classes in the capital and three other regions would be cancelled from Monday, bringing forward winter holidays that had been due to start on 20 July.
"Families shouldn't treat this as extra holidays for the kids. They should see it as a time for the children to stay at home as much as possible and avoid places where people are crowded together," said Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri.

He also appealed for calm, saying that officials were doing everything possible to control the epidemic.

Officials said that restaurants, cinemas and other public buildings would remain open.
Much of Argentina's population lives in the capital and the province. Many of the cases in the region have been reported in working class and poorer areas, says the BBC's Candace Piette in Buenos Aires. There has been much criticism that the government may have responded too late to stop the epidemic, our correspondent says. Argentina has had the third largest number of swine flu deaths in the world after Mexico and the United States.

Trabajo Voluntario

Dear Chicago,

Wednesday was my favorite day volunteering to date. I went out to another birthday party at the Vencedores Comedor site. The site is new - we set up in the dirt floor living room of a woman in the community who the government subsidizes to feed the neighborhood. Its a very, very interesting set up and the most dangerous location. My spanish is good enough that I can go, because I can understand whats going on when I'm there. The birthday party is the only celebration these kids get for their big day, and yesterday I could see it in their faces. Luna, 11 and Daria, 7 had birthdays and watched my every move in anticipation for their presents. We decorated the humble space with balloons and old signs.

Facepainting occupied them for the first hour and a fellow volunteer, John, had the guts to take the kids to a back alley to play soccer (I didn't join in that part). I was running around with giggly little kids, making balloon animals, speaking in Spanish and helping their English (when they sing "happy birthday" in English, they say "Happy Baby" - phonetically pretty close and absolutely adorable). I snuck into a corner to wrap presents and was just as happy as the girls when they opened them. Daria was almost in tears that she received 2 sticker books, and Luna got a little plastic watch that she was very happy with. It was adorable. I've been to Vencedores a few times now and have gotten to know a few chicos - hopefully I'll go again a few days next week.

It feels good knowing that for a few hours every day these kids are somewhere safe. It was also a blast.

LIFE is good.

Tess