Saturday, October 30, 2010

Living History

Once again, this semester has thrown another curveball: as you may or may not know, this Wednesday, ex-president Nestor Kirchner died of a heart attack--he had already been in poor health. His death was also strangely on the national census day.

The white dot is where I live--about a 15 minute sub ride to the Plaza de Mayo.
To put things in perspective, he was: President of the nation, chancellor of UNASUR (SA international alliance), head of the current day Peronist party, former governor of the province of Santa Cruz, and past husband of the current president, Cristina Fernandez Kirchner. Additionally, Nestor's presidency was considered the first truly stable democratic government that Argentina has ever had. The power that this man had in this country is tremendous and his influence was a major factor in the current administration (he was basically quasi-president).
 He was still nonetheless a very controversial politician with many, many allegations of corruption. Like most things in this country, people either hated or loved this man. But his passing is reflective of a tremendous space of power and politics that he has left--the government will be making the rounds over the next few months.

I went Wednesday night to the Plaza de Mayo and La Casa Rosada (presidential palace) to see the events that were happening, and to be honest, I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. Thousands upon thousands of people with banners, fireworks, chants, floats, and graffiti everywhere--the scene was anything but quiet. Argentina is a place of passion, they are a people of extremities and when there are things to either morn or celebrate, they are anything but somber.Sure, maybe there have been larger gatherings that have happened and perhaps Nestor isn't going to go down as one of the most famous people in the world, but to see and feel what I felt, is something that very few countries in the world produce from their culture. Whether the Argentines were crying for the tremendous loss or cracking champagne to celebrate his death (many reasonable people really didn't like him--including the family that I live with) it cannot be denied how much of an influence he had and how reflective he was of this country--we can only guess where this place will take me next.
I call it living history.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

"Pirates of the Customs Bureau: At World's End"

 
Before I finish the second segment of my trip, I just thought I would take a few minutes to briefly explain an experience that I had with Argentine Customs.

Remember when I said I had lost a contact? Well, my parents were nice enough to send me another set that I planned on having arrive to my building here. Putting contacts into an envelope and sending them to a home address sounds simple enough right?
WRONG

Because they fall under the "medical/cosmetic" category, my package literally got detained with customs in the international airport. "Why?" do you ask--I still do not have an answer. So what I had to do to retreive them was:
1. Go to DHL in another part of town on a Monday
2. PAY DHL $72 American JUST to release paperwork containing the shipping documentation
3. Go to Ezeiza International on a Wednesday by taking a 2 hour bus to get there...and back.
4. Return home Wednesday because for whatever reason, I needed to have my visa forms to prove that I was legally allowed to be in Argentina.(dumb)
5. Return on a Friday to complete the process which took 4 hours of going through various offices and costed me an additional $100 in taxes and storage fees.

Customs is literally a huge facility of multiple hangars that contain packages (like at the end of Indiana Jones--I'm not joking) that are withheld by the pirates of customs. There were hundreds of people there from various parts of the PROVINCE just to collect small packages. The process was literally something you would see in a movie where they make fun of huge paper-pushing bureacracies. It makes going to the secretary of state look like an all inclusive Caribbean cruise--I'm dead serious, I wish I was joking. Also, I could ONLY pay in cash, apparently the National Bank of Argentina won't take Visa cards at that location. Oh yea, it also may have been difficult because everything was in a different language, maybe.

It was seriously one of the worst things I have ever had to do. I love this country dearly and I hate talking about negative aspects, but that whole facility should be carpet bombed. As a wrap-up, I met a German woman sitting in line next to me. She told me that she had done this before a few times and gave me a pamphlet detailing all of the things I had to do. Before she left, she looked at me and said in English: "Welcome to Hell".

But hey, it's all part of the experience right?...

Monday, October 18, 2010

La Fiesta Nacional de la Cerveza/Oktoberfest /Cordoba Part 1

I really wanted this sign for my dorm room.
 As promised, I lived through Oktoberfest to tell you all about it. While you might think that passing the better half of an entire weekend in a fenced in park full of kegs and giant mugs may be a breeze, I beg to differ. On the contrary, it was quite a lot of work to enjoy myself.

From Buenos Aires, the beautiful city Cordoba is roughly a 9 hour ride away by bus. The ride isn't as bad as it sounds but for someone that is not used to going to a massive bus terminal/station, it can be very confusing. Buses are common here because it is generally more expensive to fly--so 16 hour rides to other parts of the country are not uncommon.
This place was good and super packed. Caja=cash register
From the beginning of the trip however, everything was turning out to be an uphill battle. Upon our arrival in Cordoba, we had forgotten the hostel detail sheet and had to go to a locutorio (computer/internet service place) to re-print the information. When we finally got to the hostel after a long walk, we were surprised to learn that although they can use a terminal to charge a $7 deposit fee, they can't use it to charge for our actual stay--cash which we did not bring with us for obvious reasons. Additionally, only one of us actually had our debit card with us--so that was pretty cool. Anyway, it was mid-afternoon and we were ready to get dr--...errr, I mean go to the festival /Festival Nacional de la Cerveza. Now Oktoberfest was actually in a smaller town 2 hours outside Cordoba in a small German, Tudor-style town nestled between a pretty lake and a grassy mountain. The ride was pretty to look at the first time, but the other times I was forced to sit on the floor the whole time because some French dudes in the front of the ticket line bought the remaining SEAT tickets. I can't really explain how uncomfortable that was.

Nonetheless, we finally arrive and find ourselves in the middle of a HUGE crowd all carrying mugs and ready to party. Now when I say "carrying" mugs. I mean people (including myself) had bought buckle straps and were literally carrying their mugs around like Samsonite handbags.
Furthermore, people were dressed up in goofy outfits and cheers-ing (Salud!) one-another.The town is very quaint and a large fenced-in park was set-up for all of the festivities. In addition to beer and weiner schnitzels there was a full program each day (October 4-11) with music, parades, and various German/Argentine celebratory shows that took place either in-town or on a big stage that was set-up in the middle of the park. All the beer stands (Isenbeck, Heineken, micro-brews, etc.) were located in a mulched area away from the initial mug/trinket stands (my mug can hold a liter!).

One hoppin' fiesta
Now we went on Friday and Saturday, but most of the action didn't happen until Saturday night. The real big crowds didn't show until about 10 at night which was when things got a little out of hand. At about 9 at night was when some German bands came on stage and started playing old school German drinking songs. There was actually a german rock band that yodeled which was pretty awesome. As the bands were playing their ridiculous songs in laterhoosen, people were storming the beer lines and downing beer like sailors that just got into port. Through the evening I saw various things that I won't mention here, but one noteworthy/moderately appropriate encounter was with a group of Argentine guys who thought that my friends and I were the coolest people on Earth because we are American (or Northamerican as they say). For whatever reason, my memory seems to be cloudy at this point in the evening, but I do remember one of these guys wearing a huge afro and the other without a shirt. As we talked to them, they told us that they only knew 2 phrases in English "How are you?" and "Suck my b----" which they proceeded to chant in unison. After a while they took some photos with us and before they left to make the rounds, one of them had his (female) cousin with him that he kept trying to basically give to us as an offering. As absolutely hysterical as that was, she wasn't having any of it, hahaha.
These are some the beer vendors. The rest are attached to these and out of view--forming a big circle of well, beer..














By around 2 a.m. the party was winding down and we needed to catch our bus. 2 things happened however that made the ending a bit sour: As I walked to the urinal area (Think of the Joe Louis Arena men's troughs with a couple hundred drunk people and less than perfect aim) and did my business, I was returning back towards the entrance when a guy who was running very quickly, collided into me and caused me to lose one of my contacts. As you all know very well, that is especially bad for me. So I had to run back to the bus terminal in the dark, only being able to see out of 1/2 of my head. I am still missing a contact as I write this post.



 The second thing that frustrated me was a bad interaction with some "cultured" Americans. To my fellow countrymen abroad: 

STOP ACTING LIKE DAMN FOOLS

Seriously, the ONLY bad interactions I have had with people in Argentina have been with other Americans. These guys were drunk like everybody else, but yet the only ones who felt a need to act aggressively, arrogantly, and try to start a fight with my friends at the bus stop. I won't go into details, but these guys were just plain embarrasments. No wonder the world gets tired of our crap sometimes.

Overall a good time. I will have more on Cordoba for "Part 2" later--this post is already really long. I don't have many good pictures of the fest (mostly because we were having trouble holding the camera for some silly reason) but I have some great one for Cordoba.

Buenas Noches y Hasta Pronto!



Stage in the park







Saturday, October 2, 2010

Larger than life.

Road sign on the freeway
Hola, everyone! This last weekend I went with my program to the most northwestern province of Jujuy (look HERE) (Hoo--Hoowee) from Thursday until late Sunday. This province is nestled around the base of the Andes Mountains on the borders of both Bolivia and Chile. I would like to say I have a lot to say here, but there are few words I can use to describe the intensity and beauty of landscapes of the region.

I will say however that it took 2 hours by plane and 3 by bus to get to our cabanas nearly 2 miles above sea level in the puebla of Tilcara (got burned pretty good by the sun that high). The environment is very dry--so it gets very hot during the day and cold at night. Most of the houses constructed there are made of adobe and are constructed attached to one another (similar to what can be characterized as Mexican architecture). The bus ride was amazing because it was a vertical ascent up a mountain which took us through the clouds. I couldn't help but keep thinking about Misery during the ride however, where James Caan flips off the side of the road and gets 'rescued" by Kathy Bates, but anyway...

Fun Fact: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was actually filmed primarily in Argentina--I did not know that.
Different from Sonoran cactus, but very cool.

Took this on the bus when we were covered in clouds.

Check it out!


The ground is like this for miles.



Unbelievebly bright outside
man-made pools to form usable/consumible salt

We met these guys along the way--here they are drinking beer at least 80 feet above the next flat surface.

At one point, each mountain contained 7 colors a piece

Shot this at the end of the hike--what a rewarding view!


Moving on, we spent a great deal of Friday visiting ancient ruins of a native settlement around the time of the Incas--which was miraculously preserved despite the rampant and brutal takeover at the hands of the Spanish hundreds of years ago and on Saturday, we took an absolutely stunning hike into the mountains and a visit to the great salinas or salt flats. I was most impressed by the salinas not only because they are so striking, but because the surrounding area looks like someone placed a large square over the earth and hit the "delete" button--it's a very strange area that was once covered by the ocean. Again, I think I will end here, these pics are gorgeous.
Half my program--notice I am front and center. Alright!


P.S. I have a real treat for next weekend, here is a hint: it starts with an "O" and ends in "Ktoberfest".  I will be going to the beautiful city of Cordoba to celebrate BEER<

P.P.S. (P.S.S.??) The students at UBA are STILL on strike--we'll see what happens.