Asados and Gothic people dancing to Reggaeton

Well it's been a little bit since I last updated this thing so I guess a new posting is due. I am loving it here. The weather is getting nice, summer time attitude is creeping in and there is never a shortage of people to hang out with. The house I'm living in has become even more appealing now that the water heater works. It's kind of bizarre that there have been two isolated incidents involving water heaters in less than a month. So basically what my life has consisted of the last couple weeks is sending applications to various non-profits (chances are much better of getting unpaid internship positions in cool programs than getting paid), Spanish conversation classes, going out, and eating good food. Life is pretty damn good.

Going out here is always something different. For example in the last week, I've gone to Pacha (a massive Euro style super-club), a milonga (tango house) at 444 Cochabamba in San Telmo that has probably not changed since the 30's, a small club also in San Telmo called Torquata Tasso to see my roommate Tigre's folk band play, and a huge party at my German friend Hannes' house where Gothic people were going dumb to reggaeton music. There are many faces to this city it seems.

On Sunday (yesterday) I experienced my first asado. For anyone that loves meat, asados are pretty much the best place to be. I went out pretty hard on Saturday night so chilling during the day with friends and meeting new people was perfect. Since the weather is really starting to be amazing, we're going to be doing these pretty much every weekend. Here are a few photos from the asado.


That's all for now. I have a lot to look forward to though. Playing tennis with my friend Hannes this week, going to Uruguay this weekend with my roommates, then the week after that I'm going to CREAMFIELDS (a huge electronic music festival). In between all of that, the job hunt continues. Things are really starting to fall into place here though so I have a good feeling. OK, time to go watch the Rays hopefully beat the Phillies.

more photos on http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/buenos_aires
also, have a new gallery to check out: http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/playing_with_fire

Funny Money

Hopefully this is the last time I will have to mention my money issues or dinerWOES as I like to call them. Wow, I'm even making puns in Spanish. Progress! So anyways, I got $200 transferred to Western Union thanks to the suggestion from Hana (I had no idea they were international) and the patience of my dad. Getting that actual money would of course prove to be a huge fiasco (surprise, surprise). On the Western Union website there is a tab to select "Agent Locations". This is very helpful since it shows you the location of the branch and gives you driving directions. I should say, this WOULD be helpful, if it were CORRECT. I plug in my current address and find one that is a little over 2 miles away. I figure, hey what the hell, I'll put my iPod in and go for a walk since the weather isn't so bad. I look at the map that shows up and it turns out the route is very straightforward: walk 4 blocks down Avenida Rivadavia, turn left at Jujuy and arrive at Avenida Caseros after about 10-12 blocks. Of course that didn't end up being the case. I walked for well over an hour before I even got to Caseros. I guess I should have asked someone where it was. In any case, I got to the Western Union, went upstairs and pulled a number that determined my place in line. Fortunately, there weren't too many people in front of me and I only waited about 15 minutes. Once I got called to the cashier, I gave her my fund transfer # and my passport. It seemed like all was going to be fine. I should have guessed it wasn't going to be as smooth as it should be. The teller looks at my passport and then walks off to her supervisor where they discuss something for a few minutes. The teller comes back and tells me that they can't deliver my money because their computers are only equipped to handle identifaction numbers (passports, etc..) of 8 digits or less. USA passports are 9 digits. I am not kidding. She then hands me a piece of paper with an address on it for a Western Union with computers that are so advanced they can handle an extra digit in their database. The address is 2500 Rivadavia. RIVADAVIA!!!! I live on the corner of the 2000 block of Rivadavia! I tell her where I live and she gives me this look like, aww man I'm sorry, you are not the first to get this bad news. For some reason, this branch isn't listed on the website and a lot of people have the same reaction. Fortunately, I discovered a subte line that runs almost directly from the bank to a few blocks from the Western Union I wanted to go to. So in the end, I did get my money. The actual Western Union I needed to go to was packed of course and ended up taking forever, but I got my money. It only took over four hours when it should have taken twenty minutes.

In other news, life is good here. I had an interview for a receptionist position at a hostel in the Palermo neighborhood. The guy wanted to give me the job but there was a major catch: Friday through Tuesday from midnight to 8 a.m. Not gonna happen. I've been getting to know my roommates, finally met them all. It's going to be a good time. A couple funny sports-related things to report too. I've been watching the Tampa Bay-Red Sox series on ESPN Deportes. I didn't realize that the commentators call home runs just like they do goals in futbol. Every time someone hits a home run, the commentators yell at the top of their lungs: "OOOOHLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO!!!!". It's pretty funny. The second thing that I find funny about sports here in South America is that apparently coaches smoke cigarettes on the sidelines in soccer. I watched the Argentina-Chile match yesterday and the coaches were chain-smoking the whole time. That would never fly in the States.

Casa Pasco Tour

Here's a quick video showing a little bit of my new home.

I've also posted more pictures:
http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/buenos_aires

Pasco 54 C.P. 1034, Buenos Aires, Argentina

As much fun as it's been since I've been here, there hasn't been a shortage of obstacles. The most recent issue involves my lone credit card. Between going to dinner a block from the hostel around midnight on Saturday and going to a pharmacy no more than two blocks away on Sunday, I lost my credit card. Not only does this suck normally, it really really sucks in a foreign country. I'm still not sure how it happened, but I'm pretty sure it fell out of my pocket after taking money out before dinner Saturday. Who knows? Either way, it has proved to be a not-so-fun part of my time abroad. I also managed to lose this valuable item at a most inopportune time because not only were banks closed on Monday (Columbus Day), I moved in to my new house and had to pay my first month's rent. After brainstorming and brainstorming and brainstorming, I was finally able to get some help from a really nice guy Jared I met in the hostel from Tennessee who was willing to withdraw the cash I needed to get it reimbursed through PayPal. Fhew! It turns out too that even if the banks were open, I would be totally out of luck since the only way to withdraw money from an actual teller is by showing your ATM/Debit card. Not quite sure what people do that aren't able to get bailed out by someone they met two days prior. Fortunately there are Western Unions here so I'm going to have some cash until my new card arrives. Another bullet I dodged is that I woulda been screwed had I not already found a place to live since Wells Fargo will only send you a card to a permanent (meaning 6 months or longer) residence. Had I not found a place to live before losing the card would have posed a Catch 22. No card no residence, no residence no card.

In any case, I am here in my nuevo digs. I've met three of the five roommates: Tigre (from Argentina, and yes that is his name) Annika (architecture student from Germany) and German (a guy from Uruguay who is a musician and has a mini recording studio set up in his room. He uses Reason too!). So far, the first day here hasn't been boring. Had a few hours of broken spanish conversation. It is improving already though, I'm getting excited. Spent some time shopping for food with my remaining cash. My meals today included a plate of Chef Boyardee-like pasta and a couple of sandwiches with ham and mayo on 2 peso white bread. Mmmmmm. It's been a crazy couple days though. I was losing sleep over how I was going to explain to my new landlord that, "uh sorry I can't pay you, but I'm good for it, I swear." Fortunately it all worked out in the end, as it usually does. So for now I'm just taking it easy in my new room in my version of L'Auberge Espagnol after watching the Devil Rays stomp the BoSox in the living room. Should be an interesting few months to come, I'm sure...

By the way, the title of this post is my new mailing address.

Argentina v. Uruguay VIDEO

Tall South African Twins and Argentina v. Uruguay

I have literally been out every night since I've been here until at least 5 am so I decided to stay in last night and work on this blog and upload pics. Lame, I know. A lot has happened since the last time I posted. For one, I found myself a place to live. Pretty juiced about that. My initial thought was to get a one bedroom apartment or studio but after thinking about it, I realized that since I don't really know anyone here, it might make sense to try to live with other people. Not only is this going to be more fun but it cut my rent in more than half. Tomorrow I move in to a house in the Congresso neighborhood which is kind of on the outskirts of downtown. It's a five bedroom, very old, interesting house with maze-like features. I was getting lost when I was getting shown around. The room I'm moving into isn't that huge but it has plenty of space for me. The major upsides of living there is the fact that everyone that lives there now is from a different country (Argentina, Uruguay, Denmark and Germany). This is going to be a great test for my espanol skills. The other major upside is that it has a HUGE rooftop terrace that they use every week for parties and asados (Argentinean BBQ). It's also directly next to a tennis club with clay courts. I just gotta find someone to play with. I don't actually move in until tomorrow because my reservation at the hostel goes through tonight. Once I'm actually in there, I will definitely be taking pics and videos and posting them up!

Aside from the housing hunt, my days have been generally stress-free. Since you go out so late, I usually don't start my day until about 2 pm. I think this has been the case more so because I've been in a hostel full of people that have literally no obligations. So far I've been hanging out with people from New Zealand, France (there's a guy here who grew up in Angers), Sweden, Tennessee, Mexico, Brazil, England, etc..I've been eating a lot, wandering around the city a lot, and going out a lot. It's a good life. Specific stories are failing me right now but the funniest thing I can remember from going out this week was on my 2nd pub crawl (still waiting to hear if I got the job). There were two twins from South Africa who were not only blatantly identical, but at least 6 ft 5. I had a hard time keeping them apart. Anyways, this really drunk, typical American ditzy girl walks up to us and looks at the twins and after a couple minutes of the usual pub crawl small talk, asks them how they know each other. I don't know if all unusually tall South African twins are comedically inclined, but they were. They played off this whole story about them being distant cousins, one from Alberta, the other from South Africa for about ten minutes before saying in a very deadpan fashion, "actually we are obviously identical twins". The girl then says, "Oh, I had no idea, cool!". Classic.

The highlight of the week however, besides finding lodging, was the Argentina vs. Uruguay World Cup qualifying match at Estadio River Plate. The hostel keeps a bunch of tickets in reserve for people that want to go so I was able to get on board for it just a few hours before the actual match. The match was awesome, totally what you would expect of a South American rivalry. The chants weren't very clever but they were to the point. "HIJO DE PUTA! HIJO DE PUTA" was one, "PUTA MADRE! PUTA MADRE!" was another. In any case, it was a very spirited, surprisingly competitive game (Argentina won 2-1). We traveled to the game with a Diego Maradona look-alike who had to be escorted around with probably the largest man in Argentina. Everyone was taking pictures with him. Apparently there are over a thousand of these look-alikes.



http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/buenos_aires

A few pics...

Here are a few pictures I've gotten of the city so far. The rest can be found at:
http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/buenos_aires

Apparently hipsters don't ride fixies here...

I don't have a job yet and I also don't have a place to live, but other than that life is damn good! The past few days have essentially involved three things: Steak, steak, and more steak (with some chorizo mixed in too). Wow! They were not lying. The meat here is absolutely incredible. The first place I had steak was at this place down the street from my hostel that is literally a hole in a wall. I got a lot of stares because not only was I about 50 years younger than the rest of the clientele, I didn't know the complete family history of those working behind the counter. I'm assuming by all the chatter between the customers and the employees that they all go way, way back. This place was so good. Basically, there is a variety of huge hunks of meat on the grill and when you pick out which one you want, they cut a portion off and grill it up right in front of you. They give you a steak knife but you don't need it. It's so tender. Throw a little (or a lot) of chimichurri on that sucker and you are in heaven.

Aside from eating steak, I have been on the serious job/apartment hunt. I have some very promising leads in both departments, but haven't committed to either. I've already met some local expats who are kind of helping me with the whole lodging process here. I'm getting some good tips on how to not get screwed. So far at the hostel, I've been hanging out mostly with a couple of absolutely hilarious British guys and a couple of Canadians as well. The other night we hung out in Palermo, what's considered the most trendy, upscale part of town, and I discovered that it's a haven for the local hipsters. It's also a place where one should not be surprised by the plethora of trannies that frequent the bars once it gets really, really late/early. In all seriousness though, it's a cool part of town, I'm just not sure if I want to live out there.

My spanish lessons have begun as well. I just had my first one with this girl from Mendoza that Jerry the espresso addict from Jimmy Beans recommended. We met up in the Abasto neighborhood which once again seems to transport you to Paris. It's amazing. I apologize in advance to all my spanish speaking friends outside of Argentina because I'm learning how to use "vos". It sounds weird at first but I'm starting to understand it.

If I magically find a place to live by tomorrow, I will be heading out to Cordoba for their Oktoberfest. Otherwise, I'm going to to be in BA staying heavy on the grind one time.

First night out=Pub Crawl

Ok, don't worry people. I'm not going to do a new post every single day I'm here because, frankly, you'll get bored. My first night however was pretty hilarious. Of course the first night I'm here, the hostel offers a pub crawl. Anyone that knows me knows I love pub crawls. I got on the Subte (the metro) and headed into the San Telmo neighborhood to the first bar. It's a place called Cyrano, not a bad bar. Within 5 minutes of being there I found out that they are always hiring so there's a chance I might get a job with the pub crawl. Ideal, right? It's a group of a few guys from Atlanta, a guy from Brazil, a couple of British people, and a girl from San Francisco. Right up my alley. The night was pretty fun, hit up a bunch of places, met a lot of hilarious people. Most notably were the Aussies who made me an honorary Aussie for the night and this guy from Toronto. The Canadian guy was awesome, he's been living in Brazil teaching science. Hilarious guy. The Aussies were also hilarious. They are all here on a trip that they won from competing in the Australian version of the show wipeout. A couple of them were pretty fat and it's for that reason they were pegged to be on the show in the first place. Exploitation of their overweightness ended up being a blessing for them! I turned on my famous homing beacon once I got too drunk and felt out of my element. One the way of course I stopped for a burger near the hostel. They make 'em just how I like them (with a fried egg on top).

I'm in the process now of compiling a cover letter and editing my resume to send to the Pub Crawl people. They take pictures every time they go out and post them on their site, but they only use a dinky little digital camera. I'm going to try to get them to let me be the event photog since I brought all my equipment down. Hopefully it works out! I could have a job within my first week of being here, kind of ridiculous. Now all I need to do is find an apartment...

Here's a hilarious video of Matt the Canuck:

Arrival in Buenos Aires

Well, I did it! I finally made it to Argentina. At a certain point at Dulles Airport last night I wasn't quite so sure it would actually happen. This whole experience is about being open-ended and having no commitments so naturally when I decided to go ahead and head down south, I bought a one-way ticket. Apparently I didn't read the fine print. Having been taught well to always arrive early for flights, I got to the airport over 2 hours early. This came in handy because when I tried to check in I was told my tickets were not going to be issued. Fortunately there weren't more than 5 other people in the United check in area so I was able to talk to an agent almost immediately. To my horror they explained to me that because of Argentina's three month tourist visa guidelines, you have to have a return ticket to prove that at some point within those three months you will be leaving. Not only do I not know how long I will be here, I am planning on traveling overland back to the States meaning I will probably not be flying out of Buenos Aires. At this point, the only thing I could think to do was buy a return ticket within those 3 month guidelines. Fortunately the people at STA were able to cut the price in more than half (from a whopping $2200 to $1059). Still, it sucked having to pay an extra $1000 bucks when I didn't prepare for it. That's traveling for ya! What's worse is I didn't think to get a ticket to a country a bit closer, like Uruguay for example. All I needed to prove was that I was leaving the country (and after looking at the prices for those flights, I wish I hadn't). Hindsight is 20/20, what can I say? The point is, I made it. And to be honest, the flight was quite pleasant, I actually slept for about 8 of the 10 hours.

So now I'm at the Hostel Suites Obelisco where I will be staying until I find my own apartment. It's a pretty sweet place, right near the Obelisco (who would have figured...). It's about 11:30 am right now and you can't check in until 2, so I'm going to wander around and find some food.

Goodbye Berkeley, Hello Washington DC!

It begins NOW! I left Berkeley October 1st at about 7 am, it was a weird morning. I said goodbye to the house I grew up in at 1726 Sonoma Avenue and got on plane bound for Washington D.C. I had originally planned on taking a couple hour layover there before heading to Buenos Aires but I decided to spend $150 on a four day stopover to check out the city. My good friend Tristan is a first year grad student at George Washington University here and offered me a place to crash so I took advantage of it. He would maybe regret this later. Story to follow. I have a couple other friends living here too so it made a lot of sense to check out the place. Not to mention that I hadn't spent any real time here before this week.

The actual traveling portion of this leg was not the most fun thing in my life. My bags are HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY but somehow the scale at the United check-in counter didn't read them properly so I didn't get charged. Not sure if that's such a good thing. I also got run through secondary security, probably because of my one-way ticket. I then happened to get a small child behind my seat who didn't grasp the concept that HIS tray table was attached to MY seat. This made for an especially bumpy ride.


more pics at http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/washington_dc

I landed at about 8 pm and got in a cab to head to Woodly Park where Tristan lives. I had originally planned on taking the metro but my bags are so goddamn heavy I said screw it and coughed up about 60 bucks to get to my destination. There is no way I could take the metro with these things. While I was here in DC I did the standard tourist things. I checked out the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetary, Holocaust Museum, etc...I also spent some time wandering around Georgetown with my friend Annie from school who is also living out here trying to make a buck and get a change of scenery. Georgetown's a nice part of town. This is due partly to the fact that they don't have a metro stop (trying to keep the riff raff out a la Marin County). That evening I went out to Arlington to have dinner with some family friends, Robin and Harry, who work for the State Department and are in the states for the year to learn Vietnamese. I wonder where their next posting will be? Robin was my babysitter when I was maybe a year old and I can't even remember the last time I had seen them so it was fun to catch up. They lived in Chile and other places in Latin America so it was appropriate to see them right before my journey. The nightlife here is pretty fun. I spent most of the time going out to places in Adams Morgan which seems to me like a typical strip of tacky, nasty bars you'd find in any college town in the country. Only this isn't a college town per se. Still it's the type of place where you can see a super drunk kid yak all over the ground in front of a good 20 people while his friend shrugs his shoulders and says "it happens..." The highlight of the nightlife for me was the 18th Street Lounge, a club owned by the guys of Thievery Corporation. Awesome ambience, great music.

It wouldn't be fair to end this posting without mentioning the funniest story of the past few days. I amaze myself sometimes. Before going out to see the sights on thursday, I decided to take a shower. I go to turn it on and twist the knob labeled "H". Nothing comes out. I can hear water trying to make it's way through the nozzle, but nothing. I turn the "C" knob and it shoots out instantly. I'm pretty groggy from oversleeping so I just keep trying and trying and trying with the hot knob. I turn it back and forth probably a good 15-20 times but still nothing. I figure well whatever, I'll just take a shower before I go to Robin and Harry's and I leave. For like 6 hours. Little did I know that at the exact time I was trying to take a hot shower, there was a guy in the basement replacing the water heater meaning he cut off the access to hot water. I had turned the knob back and forth so many times and no water came out that I just figured it didn't work. I get back at about 5 pm to find the shower running. I figured Tristan, who had said he would be back at about 8, had just come early and was taking a shower. Nope. I open the door to his room, which he keeps locked, to find a makeshift steam room. The ENTIRE place was filled with steam, the mirrors were fogged up, condensation was dripping from the ceiling. It was bad. My first thought is oh shit, the electronics! The floor was soaked, his bed was soaked, my bags and my clothes were soaked. Luckily, for both of us, but mostly for me nothing of value was damaged. I immediately thought there goes all the money I've saved up to live in South America because I just ruined thousands of dollars of stereo and computer equipment. It ended up being all good though. Not quite sure how, but it did.



The room I almost destroyed...

On that note, I will finish this post. I leave DC at 9:45 tonight. Next time you'll hear from me I'll be in Sud America!