The End

Yesterday we said goodbye to Buenos Aires.  Our flight didn’t leave until 9pm so we hung around our neighborhood for our last day in the city, spending the afternoon with our favorite locals.  I kept shaking my head in wonderment at how fast the time has flown; Kathleen reminded me how long we’ve been away by pointing to all the X’s she’s made on her calendar.  I don’t think she considers this sabbatical a prison term, but she’s ready for her banishment to end.  Despite her enthusiasm for all things North American, I know Kathleen will miss:

Our view:

Our local cafe and their healthy pours!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I love Buenos Aires so much.  There are so many things wrong with the city, from the cracked and uneven sidewalks littered with dog poop to the graffiti tagging on buildings. People on the street can be pushy and rude and customer service is a foreign concept.  But despite the chaos, I can’t walk a city block without finding something beautiful to look at.  The architecture is amazing and the city parks offer little oases of calm amidst the asphalt jungle.

Most of the Argentines I’ve met agree that there’s not much of a focus on the future here, which isn’t surprising considering they spent so many years under a brutal military regime only to have their economy collapse.  Who could trust the future when it seems so far out of anyone’s control? If something doesn’t work as well as it should, it’s easier to get used to the dysfunction than put in the effort to try to fix it.  (In that sense, Kathleen says I’m very Argentine.)  Most North Americans get frustrated by this apathy without recognizing that it comes with certain benefits.  There’s more life on the streets here; no matter what time you’re out you’ll find people crowded in cafes or taking a stroll with their family or dog. That kind of leisure is what I’ll miss most when I go back to the States and start obsessing over The Next Big Thing.

The Meat Tent

For our last dinner in Argentina (not counting plane food) we followed our friends Brooke and Adam to Las Talas del Enterriendo, or as Adam accurately refers to it, The Meat Tent.  This place was awesome, both in its size and selection of carne.  To get an idea of what the place was like imagine a CostCo warehouse filled with the grilled livestock from a small farm.  In the back, there was even a McDonald’s play structure where they smoked the kids along with the beef.  The meal probably shortened our life span by a few days, but it was worth it.  Besides, we’ve all committed to a vegan lifestyle when we return to San Francisco.

Off hours

One aspect of Argentine life that’s been hard for us to adjust to is the late evening meal. Dinners here usually don’t start until after 10pm, which means we’re the first to show up to eat.  The up side to this is that we have no problems finding a table at popular restaurants.  The downside is we’re usually eating with people in their nineties who chew loudly.

That’s why it was surprising last night to find both the restaurant and bar we visited packed at gringo hours.  Kathleen, Jessica, and I arrived at Sarkis, a great Middle Eastern restaurant, at 9pm and there was an actual line out the door. Some guy asked us to put our name on a piece of paper so that he could call us when a table opened up.  How weird is that? After dinner, we headed over to El Boliche de Roberto, a great place to hear live tango music, and found the bar packed as well.  We had to squeeze past throngs of twenty-somethings to get to an open spot in the corner. I didn’t know how we were going to hear the unplugged musicians over the din of conversation and breaking glass, but as soon as the singer and her accompanist were ready, the bartender told everyone to shut up.  And they did!  Here is a snippet of the beautiful music that followed:

Country living

On our last week here, we took a day trip to the El Ombu estancia in San Antonio de Areco and had a great time getting, uhm, closer to the nature. OK, not as close as this guy, but close enough.  After the gaucho made out with his horse, I got to cuddle with her and take a little nap, which was great.

If we had more time, we definitely would have stayed longer.  The grounds were beautiful, the food was great, and we got to do a lot of horseback riding through the 750 acre working cattle ranch.  Henry loved the horses, especially when they broke into a trot and bounced him all over the saddle.  After two tours of the grounds, he was ready to go again, but our legs and backs were finished for the day.

Presents we didn’t buy you

We know what it’s like.  Your family and/or friends have been out of the country for a while.  You await their return expecting some artesianal souvenir from whatever country they were visiting.  Well, I’m writing to tell you to stop holding your breath.  Kathleen’s cheap, I’m lazy and Henry is selfish.  It’s not a good combination when it comes to gift giving.

Still, our character flaws didn’t stop us from venturing into San Telmo today to look for authentic Argentine gifts to bring home.  What follows are a collection of virtual gifts we hope you will appreciate. (Don’t forget to write thank you cards!)

For the moms – We know how much you love to cook so we hunted high and low for the best copper utensils for your kitchens.  These authentic Argentine pieces would have looked great dangling from your ceiling or sitting on the stove with a steaming paella inside. (OK paella isn’t an Argentine dish, but really.  Who makes locro?)

For the coffee lovers. We know you’re all addicted to your lattes and cappuccinos, but have you tried mate?  It’s very popular here and we thought you would appreciate your very own mate cup to prepare the intoxicating mixture of herbs in lieu of your regular cup of joe.  The problem with this gift is that once you’ve tried mate, you may want to hurl the cup at us for ever introducing you to the stuff.

For the gun lovers.  For some reason, knives and guns are really popular items in the open markets in Argentina.  These weapons have the hand crafted feel you just can’t find in the States anymore.  Maybe that’s because they come directly from the cattle farms or military death camps.

For the lovers of indigenous culture.  The gaucho ensemble was something we really wanted to get you. The ponchos are hand-made and protect you from the winter chill.  Until this clothing item comes back in style, however, we realized most of these gifts would hang in closets before making their way to the nearest Goodwill.

For the boozers. Since you can purchase most Argentine malbecs in the States, we thought the drinkers would like an antique seltzer bottle.  These look great in the home or apartment and if they weren’t absurdly expensive and hard to get home in one piece, I’m sure we would have bought one for you.

For us. After searching in every stall for something distinctly Argentine, we finally decided on a fileteado painting welcoming all our friends and family members over for a big party when we return next week.  I’m sure you’ve all pitched in on a wonderful welcome home gift.  Know that we appreciate anything you get us, even if we don’t send you a thank you card.

Making friends

For our last two weeks in Argentina, we had a difficult decision to make: Do we do something we want to do (e.g. wine tasting tour of Mendoza) or something Henry wants to do (e.g. stay home and watch TV all day.)  In the spirit of compromise, we decided to stay put and enroll Henry in a two week winter camp at Club de Amigos.  Henry and I visited this sports club at the beginning of our Argentina stay and found the gated and guarded fortress a little intimidating.  I couldn’t help think that Friends Club! (exclamation mine) sounded a bit like the Ministry of Love in Orwell’s 1984 where the government tortures and then vaporizes its dissident citizens. Now that we’re inside the compound, we see that Club de Amigos is a Shangri-La of recreational activity.  Henry says it’s like going to a school that only teaches P.E. (I think he means this as a compliment.)  The other day, they taught him fencing.  So Henry’s happy and we’re happy.  So far, it’s the start of a perfect vacation.

Yes, I’m still working

Sort of.

In between long lunches with Kathleen, I’ve managed to write the bulk of my research paper for my Fulbright project. When my advisor asked me to present the paper at the graduate program in Education, Language, and Media at the University of San Martin, I hesitated.  While there are some interesting photography exchanges, I did not have the participation rates I had hoped for from either the U.S. or Argentine students.  There are many reasons for this, chief of which is the work was completely voluntary and thus easy to blow off.  Despite this failure, I decided to give the speech.  I couldn’t continue to dine guilt free on the government’s nickel unless I showed up to speak when invited by my host country.

It turned out that these graduate students were the middle schoolers to my Justin Bieber.  Many of them were public school teachers and administrators trying to integrate media studies into their core curriculum.  They were enthusiastic about my work and by the end of the lecture, I had a couple offers from educators to collaborate on projects next year. I left the classroom feeling a lot better about my work than I did going in. My Fulbright experience has helped me identify my project strengths and how it can be improved.  With the right educational partner, I feel ready to begin the process all over again.

To celebrate, I took Kathleen to lunch.

Here is the English version of my presentation.