Inauguration Day in South America

Well, the day finally arrived, and it couldn't have come soon enough. Barack Obama is our PRESIDENT!!!!!! I woke up around 11 (that's early here) to get ready and go meet some friends at a very well-known American expat owned bar called Sugar. They had a big election night party that I missed so I wanted to make sure I was around for this. The festivities started at 3 pm BA time but just to make sure I could get in I tried to get there a little earlier. The bus that takes me to the nearest point of the bar picks me up right on my block but since it is almost clear across town, it is at least an hour-long ride. I ended up getting to the bar at about 2:30 to find, to my horror, that it was already filled beyond capacity. I just HAD to watch the speech(es), especially since election night, while fun and amazing and all, was missing that little something: other Americans. Fortunately I remembered hearing about another place, also owned by an American expat, that was broadcasting all the events. I hopped in a cab and screamed over to that bar, which is about 5 minutes from my house (I didn't opt to go there in the first place because the vibe just isn't the same) and managed to get there just in the nick of time. It's a good things cabs are faster than buses. It was amazing watching this part of history happen in a foreign country with so many Americans living here right now. The place was packed, standing room only. The speech to me was great, but as I've mentioned to a lot of people, what really made it seem real was watching footage of the Bushes literally "flying" away, as if now maybe they can just fly away from our collective conscience and let a new beginning arise.

I hope all of you had a great time wherever you were (especially Tristan and Andrew, those lucky SOB's). I love it down here, but Election Night and Inauguration Day are two days I really would have loved to have been in the States. Oh well, we got 8 more years!

BsAs Breakdancers

The music scene here, at least on the surface, is not the most diverse. About 90% of the bars or clubs I've been to have played literally nothing but electronic music, which don't get me wrong, is fun, but it gets old. I actually found a place that plays hip hop and was eager to check it out. Here is a video of some fairly decent Argentine breakdancers from last night.

Best Photos of 2008

I thought since we have entered 2009, I would compile my favorite pictures of 2008. These are in no particular order. Enjoy and let me know which ones you like the most!

Tigre

Trying to escape the deathly heat of Buenos Aires, my roommates Gus, German and myself headed off to the town of Tigre for the weekend. We were also accompanied by Mark and Alex, two Swiss guys that are staying in the house for a few weeks (Mark used to live here, but has since moved back to Switzerland). So all 5 of us crammed into Gus' old VW coupe and made the 40 minute drive to the Delta of the Rio Parana. I had heard about Tigre but I had no idea it was so close to downtown BA. Essentially, Tigre is like any other river town, but what makes it different is that there are hundreds of islands dispersed throughout the delta. A lot of the islands have houses on them that you can rent. Gus and 9 of his friends rented a really cool house for the entire month of January for about 1000 US. The house has it's own private dock, about an acre of land behind it, a big area for a fire pit, a nice kitchen, and a few big rooms inside. Furnishing however is another story, thus making my night's "sleep" rather interesting. Getting to the islands too is pretty interesting. All the beds that were in the house went to those who paid so I settled for one of the hammocks outside, which all things considered was very comfortable. The only problem was that the mosquitos on this river are EVERYWHERE. You know the rest of the story. Since everything revolves around water, there are boat "buses" that go to different islands via various waterways. We had to take the number 59 I think. If you didn't plan well enough for supplies, there are floating supermarkets that come by every few hours too.

Once we got there, we ate unhealthy amounts of meat, had hours long drum circle sessions and swam. By the end of the afternoon, the house of 10 became about 50, with the friends of friends randomly hopping off #59.
It was great getting out of town for a day or so, getting some swimming in, meeting all of Gus' friends and exploring yet another part of the world. Aside from the mosquitos having an asado on my body, it was a blast and I will definitely be going back soon!

as always, my photos at: http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/tigre