Austin returns to Argentina

¡Buen día!

After my parent’s visit, I went to Houston for two and a half weeks!! I think it was my busiest two and a half weeks since I graduated from college.

Why did I go home, you ask? Well, Aunt Suzanne offered her miles, and I was starving. Thanks Aunt Suzanne!!! And Zig had a two-week science camp thing where he spent all day from 8am to 8pm doing experiments. Don’t tell him I called it science camp, he gets a little sensitive about that.

I saw lots and lots of people. I went to San Antonio and Austin. I ate Mexican food and drank margaritas made out of lime. It was glorious.

Disappointingly though, Argentina has ruined my ability to eat. I can’t eat meat anymore without feeling sick. Or cheese. Or spices. One lunch, I could only eat half a hamburger, and at Shivas, my number one all time favorite restaurant, I couldn’t even eat my whole plate of masala and sag paneer. This is a major concern. My summer project is going to be rebound from this unfortunate infirmity.

I brought two full suitcases of stuff home with me. I didn’t want to bring anything back with me to Argentina that would have to be returned to the US, but I had to bring at least one of the suitcases. So I filled it with food.

Things I brought back with me from the US:

1 tub William Sonoma Egg Nog Pancake Mix
1 tub Stonewall Kitchen Blueberry Pancake Mix
1 box Kirbey Lane Gingerbread Pancake Mix
1 box Kirbey Lane Pumpkin Pancake Mix
1 bottle Aunt Jemima maple syrup*
1 jar extra crunchy Jiff Peanut Butter
1 bag Jet Puffed Marshmallows
1 box Barefoot Contessa Red Velvet Cupcake mix
1 box Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cupcake mix
1 tub Valentine’s sprinkles
1 box Stonewall Kitchen Smores Brownie mix
2 boxes Quaker Oatmeal
2 bottles Stubb’s Original Barbecue Sauce
1 tub Tony Cacheres
1 tub Mrs. Dash
1 tub paprika
1 tub chili powder
1 tub curry powder
2 boxes instant cous cous
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix
1 box 2 Alarm Chili mix
6 packets powdered cheese mix from Annie’s Mac
2 bags Deidrich’s French Roast coffee (1 for a gift)
1 bottle Sriracha sauce
1 jar Salsa, Texas homemade hot salsa
1 bottle Patron Tequila (purchased duty free at the airport!) to make up for the appalling hegemony of Jose Cuervo in this country

Also, tupperware, ziploc bags, heart shaped cupcake molds, new space bags (because the brave Helga killed our other ones), 40 new movies (purchased at one of my favorite establishments, Half Price Books), several books, 2 cookbooks (for gifts), a bag full of state quarters (also a gift), Don’t Mess with Texas playing cards, and two Texas magnets, “Don’t Mess with Texas” and “You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.” Both for Nicolas, to balance out all the classy Swiss cow magnets on his fridge. Thanks Davey Crockett+.

*Did you ever notice that Aunt Jemima doesn’t actually say maple syrup on it? Its “original” syrup. I guess it’s like sparkling wine that’s not from Champagne... but made out of corn syrup.

+All Texas paraphernalia purchased at another of my favorite establishments, Bucee’s.

In addition, having been officially accepted to a law school, and on the recommendation of a friend at said law school, I brought several law school books. Specifically, commercial outlines for Torts, Property, and Contracts, and a book called Law School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience.  He said, “If you have the time to read them, they will really help you get ahead for your first year.” Oh D.J., I have nothing but time.

My suitcase weighed 60 lbs.

Last, but not least, I brought.......

ROBIN!!!!!

Robin, a BFF of many years, who had never before left the country, came back with me for a whirlwind tour of Argentina!

Much to Robin’s chagrin, I told pretty much everyone we met how it was her first time out of the country. I was very proud of myself for facilitating her first trip abroad. She wasn’t amused.

First, we spent 5 days in Buenos Aires.

I’ll skip all the stuff that I already blogged about. We saw it. It was the same.  I saw 3 new things though.

#1: Recoleta Cemetery, where the rich go to spend eternity among tree lined avenues...

 

Very fancy. Big crypts. Shiny. Eva Peron. The end.

Side note: It was really, really hot in Buenos Aires. But without air conditioning. It was like being in Houston with no air conditioning. We spent a lot of time in malls, and saw several movies so we could avoid the hottest part of the day. We got the only room in our hostel with air conditioning by sheer luck. Two recommendations: 1) Don’t go to Buenos Aires in February, and 2) don’t see Daybreakers or whatever that new Ethan Hawke vampire movie is called. It was disgusting. I think it was trying really hard to be the opposite of Twilight, and I have to say it succeeded. Not only was there blood sucking, but also decapitation and disembowelment. That guy from Jurassic Park got eaten real good.

#2: The Eva Peron Museum, which I didn’t really want to see but then Robin pointed out that it probably contained some samples from her stylish and sizable wardrobe. It did.

I would wear every single one of those dresses. Except the black one with the flowers.

Also, there were several pictures of Evita that looked startlingly like Lady Gaga...

 

I think it’s the nose that really seals the deal.
 

I learned several things about Eva Peron...

Evita is controversial in Argentina. Poor people really liked her because of her social programs; Rich people really hated her because of her social programs.

Evita did a lot of her social work with orphans. She ran homes for them. One picture was of her and Juan serving as godparents for orphans so that they could be baptized (you have to have godparents to be baptized in Catholic Church). Apparently she was godmother to hundreds of orphans.

She was also instrumental in the women’s suffrage movement in Argentina. Women were granted suffrage during Juan Peron’s presidency.

After she died, her body was carted around to many places, even being buried under a false name in Europe, to avoid being destroyed by supporters of the dictatorship that succeeded Juan’s presidency. It was finally recovered and sent back to Recoleta Cemetary, where she’s buried in her family’s crypt.
 

#3: La Bonbonera and the River Plate Stadium. GOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!

Robin apparently really likes soccer, or futbol as we say in this country. There wasn’t a game going on while we were there, but we found this tour that takes you to the stadiums of the two most popular futbol teams, La Boca Juniors and River Plate. I thought I was going to be bored, given my long held opinion that sports are boring, but I SO wasn’t.

First, an explanation of how futbol teams work in Argentina. They are part of neighborhood athletic clubs. Basically, it’s like if all the YMCA’s in the US had professional soccer teams based out of them. People pay dues and have access to all kinds of sports facilities, equipment, swimming pools, and even aerobics classes (which I saw, but thought it rude to take a picture of). They also host stuff like movie nights, summer camps, and dance classes. All of this stuff is located in and around the stadium. River Plate even had an elementary and high school in it. Every dues-paying member is guaranteed a seat to the games, and after say 30 years of membership, you get a lifetime member seat, which are the best seats in the house.  Do you know how much members pay per month at River Plate? 70 pesos. Thats $US 18.31

So, La Boca. This stadium is located in the neighborhood La Boca (hence the team name), which is not the safest place in Buenos Aires. But we were with a guide who had a very large Nikon. If one of us was getting robbed that day, it wasn’t going to be me.
 

La Boca Futbol Club was started by Italian immigrants. They needed to pick team colors, but couldn’t come to an agreement, so, being that La Boca was the port of BsAs at the time, somebody decided that they should use the colors of the first ship to dock the following morning.  The ship was Swedish, so the blue and yellow come from the Swedish flag.

 

 

First we saw the Museo de la Pasion Boquense, which had lots of cool stuff in it. Lots of stuff about Diego Maradona.

 

Then we went out to the field. We went to all the different sections.

 

 La Boca is a very small stadium. They tried to expand, but the neighbors wouldn’t sell their houses (I don’t blame them), and engineers said the foundations couldn’t support another tier. At one point, they had fewer seats than they had members of the club, so they had to take some seats away from the visitor’s section, reducing it to only a couple thousand. In retaliation, every team that plays La Boca in their stadium reduces the amount of tickets it will sell La Boca fans to the same number, even if it means they have empty seats. Forget capitalism, this is futbol.

 

 

This is the cheapest, standing room only section. And Robin acting like a crazed fan at the instruction of our guide, Gonzalo, pictured here with his large camera.

Gonzalo had to take new pictures for the Tangol Tour Company website, and since we were the only people to actually show up for the tour, we had to do a lot of posing. He told me he’d email me when the pictures are up, so we’ll see how they turn out.

We got to stand on the field...
 

  

Gonzalo said this is a reproduction. I can pretend it was the real thing. I don't know what it is, but its real shiny.

 

Then we went back to the locker room. It was WE-EIRD.  Apparently, it was redone in the 70s, and the following season was one of La Boca’s best. So then they decided that that meant they could NEVER EVER renovate the locker room again. Like not changing your underwear or socks for a season. Except its 40 years of pea green tile.

 

 

 

 

After our group shower, lets all take a turn in the jacuzzi....

 

 

Not surprisingly for Latin America, most of the team members are very Catholic, and have set up shrines to the Virgin Mary all around the locker room. This one is over the corner where Maradona used to sit before games.

 

People in La Boca are very, very dedicated to the neighborhood and the team. Gonzalo told us that some people who live in the neighborhood return address their letters as being from the city La Boca and not Buenos Aires. 

  

Moving on to River Plate. Gonzalo explained that La Boca, being in a poor neighborhood, is thought of as the team of the people. The everyman’s scrappy underdog. Tiny stadium, old facilities, non-fancy trophy room, etc. (except most of that seems to be by choice.) River Plate, on the other hand, is located in the richest neighborhood in BsAs, Recoleta, and has state of the art facilities and a brand new museum. It’s the rich team. It seems to be like the difference between the Mets and the Yankees, and even I know how I’m supposed to feel about the Yankees.

 

Gonzalo did point out, however, that recently, River Plate has suffered some serious financial difficulties because of all its new stuff, and La Boca has made a killing on merch because of its popularity. The tables are turning, but their reputations remain.

Gonzalo is a fan of River Plate. Robin and I decided it was more proper to be fans of the scrappy underdogs, even though they’re making bank.

The brand new state of the art museum was silly. We went into this room where the floor shook and a scientist on a video told us it was a time machine taking us back to 1900. Then we went to all these rooms that listed every game won by River Plate by decade and smelled of cleaning fluid. Amusingly, it skipped a decade because River Plate didn’t win any games.  The one cool thing was that each decade had a small display of pop culture items from that time. And Robin and I danced to some rockin tunes in the 60s room.
 

  

Next, we got to see the stadium. Which was round. Weird. It was cool to see.

 

This is the view from what used to be the club president’s box, but then people started throwing things at the last president because he was hated, so he had to move it elsewhere. An elsewhere farther away from the crowd.

 

 

 

Thats enough of that.

Robin and I also went to Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay. Zig and I had gone already, so I’ll only put up this picture of a guy on the ferry. He's hooked on phonics.

 

In addition, we went to the modern art museum to see an Andy Warhol exhibit. It was really, really awesome, but has nothing to do with Argentina so I won’t describe further. I got a cow wallpaper poster though. Sweet.

Robin, as I mentioned previously, is a vegetarian. Argentineans, as I’ve mentioned previously, are the opposite of vegetarians.  I’ve learned that Buenos Aires vegetarian means either very, very bad for you (like cheese pizza or pastries), or very, very good for you (like macrobiotic, organic whole wheat bread. ugh.).  It does not, however, involve more vegetables than any other Argentinean meal. Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No.

All right, I’m getting tired of writing. Next, we reunite with Zig and head south. Way, way south.

Chau!!

 

 

im back!!

It’s been two months since my last post, and I have a lot of catching up to do.

Lets take our magical blog time machine back to December....

First, Zig and I had to go to Chile, because one of us doesn’t have a visa and doesn’t want to be deported. My tourist visa has to be renewed every 90 days. I could cross the border and immediately come back and that would be ok. Thats what the guy at the Houston consulate told me anyway.

Chile is very high strung about imports. NO FRUIT. Or tribal masks. Here is a picture with all the things you are not allowed to bring. This is the WRONG way to pack a suitcase if you want to come to Chile.

Shucks, I really wanted to bring half a ham and some daisies. Now what will I do????

They took all our bags of the bus and sent them through an xray machine, plus had dogs come on. Cute yellow labs. Way better drug sniffing dogs than scary German shepherds. I guess they weren’t drug dogs though. Fruit sniffing dogs.

We only had time to spend one night in Chile (due to the imminent arrival of the rents), so we could only get as far as Osorno, the first stop on the other side of the border. It was gross. Very dirty and industrial. So we made the most of it by drinking and eating fish.

Here we are at Lonely Planet’s recommended authentic old guy bar. We were the only people there because it was 3 in the afternoon. They make their own beer.

 

They had the TV on a Chilean version of MTV.  It was a live show with a live audience of screaming 14 year-old girls. The announcer kept telling them, “We MAY have a special guest today, and it MAY be the Jonas Brothers!!!” But then, in a surprise twist, the announcer said, “Just kidding, not only are the Jonas Brothers not coming to the show, but they’re also BREAKING UP!!!”

There was a lot of crying. Apparently Chilean MTV is really sadistic.

For dinner we went to a sushi restaurant. We had Chile’s national alcoholic beverage, the pisco sour. Apparently they fight over it with Peru, which also claims it as its own. Whatever.
 

 

Note the South American-friendly safety chopsticks. They had individually prepared them with rubber bands at the restaurant.

Also, Chile still allows smoking in restaurants. A LOT of smoking. No non-smoking section. Check in the plus column for Argentina.

The next day we wiled away the hours at this fine eating establishment. More pisco sours, and Zig had a “completo”, which is a very fancy hot dog. He enjoyed it.
 

 

Back on the bus, back through customs (which took significantly less time, because Argentina doesn’t care about fruit), and back to Bariloche.

Shortly there after, our parents came to visit!

 

Then we took Jenz out for a night on the town!! We went to Antares, our favorite cerveceria. Mom had the sampler. I finally got to taste all the beers!

Here’s what the average Argentinean grocery store looks like on the days leading up to Christmas. This is the row of fruitcakes. Yes, I kid you not, every single one of those packages is a fruitcake.  Once Argentina finds something it likes, it sticks with it. Especially if there’s sugar involved.

And here are the lambs. What better way to celebrate the holiday than to throw a whole lamb on the old asado. I mean, its even vegetarian!

Mom and Dad got to Argentina 4 days before Christmas, and then promptly left for their fishing expedition. "Hi Austin, Bye Austin!!!" They came back Christmas Day.

Zig’s parents were here the whole time, so on Christmas Eve Eve we went on a boat tour to see the Parque Nacional de los Arrayanes. Arrayanes are these creepy trees. They were cool looking.

 

And there was a rainbow.

Christmas Day, with Mom and Dad back in town, we went to the Llao Llao for tea. The Llao Llao is FAN-CY. Too fancy for us, they shunned us to the back room even though we had reservations. Jerks. Here's the aftermath...

The tea was good, as was the all you can eat pastry buffet. I think they must have had to import that antler chandelier. There aren't large deer in Bariloche.

That night, Zig and Jenz swam in the pool at my parent's hotel. A good end to a good Christmas. Videos to follow.

The day after Christmas, we went to El Bolson, handicraft shopping central. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy carrying all of the stuff mom bought.

Next day we went to El Tronador. THE THUNDERER. Bariloche's very own glacier.

 

It was really really cool. Then, as we were looking at it, it calved!! BOOOOOMMMM. It was awesome. Then dad and I took a nap on the ground.  I come from a family of excellent sleepers.

Fast forward to New Year's Eve. Our parents all left the day or so before. Zig spent the day practicing the use of his Christmas present, the classic Argentinean knife/fork in a belt sheath combo. Got to be prepared for all meat related emergencies.

 

He's getting to be a quick draw.

We spent New Year's Eve at Nicolas's house with his parents. There was lots of steak. More practice time for Zig!

We tried to go out that night with Nico, but then Zig stepped in a puddle and his feet were cold so we went home. The next day, we went to Nico's again for more asado!!

 

I made the pecan pie. MMMM. Fun party!!!

Last thing before the new year.... we made bagels!! Home made! I tried to use the Cooks Illustrated recipe, but it called for some weird kind of flour. If I could find weird flour, I could probably find bagels. In which case, why would I be making bagels? These bagels definitely were better than grocery store bagels, but they weren't better than Einsteins. Sometimes you have to rely on the experts.

Great success!! They were really super tasty. Even when we correct for my current low standards for food. Mmm.

Ok thats it for now. I have to go eat. Next installment, Austin goes home to Houston and brings Robyn back to Argentina. Then, Austin overcomes the struggles of feeding a picky vegetarian in a meat filled country. Great success!!

Chau!