buenos dos

¡Che! (Yo! but much cooler)

News> Buenos Aires is still quite breathtaking and exciting, a counter to what my friend Tara told me a bit ago you could live in the most exciting place your whole life and get bored with it...similar to the NY phenomenon i would assume... Yet, here in Bs As i have talked with many people who are enchanted by their city and wouldn't leave. There is a sense among the people that i feel which is connected many times to hope and each other, but don't get me wrong i can sense some of the crisis and despair in the air. Especially if i make it down to one of those touristy districts there is a certain act each person puts up with there. Luckily for me though i live in an Incorporated *real life center* with working class people and moderate prices for goods, yet still genuine enough to give you some of the old and the new culture *most notably the mc cafe *macdonalds.... and the tango restaurant with huge coca cola tango ads. yet i also live close to some of the most amazing cultural centers and barrios *districts* My eating habits have calmed down a bit and pasta is my main staple occasionally i'll order a pizza or have a some empanadas but it truly isn't anything extravagant...My adventures have been a quite fruitful and even though it's cloudy and a certain cold mist which looks like rain comes in most days there has still been great exploration. I have gone to the bomba tiempo literally *time bomb* which is wonderful drum, instrumental improv orchestra % i will post on my blog once i get it up and running %, plaza de 3 de feburario, had my first tango lesson and enjoyed the simpsons en espanol.

i am changing from being a watcher into the mesh of the crowd so i think i deserve this journey as much as you all do....enjoy...

Eye: lights breaks into the iris and it twists and cringes a bit the body has a stretch for the cellular: it shows the time 7:00, then shows again 7:15 then 7:17 & 7:30 finally. a look to the floor, a few steps forward and a side of a creamy building that resembles in certain portions creme brulé. a stretch of the neck and the vista stretches out to a suspended citadel of rooftops and awnings pigeons scurry for shadows and a few distant clothes lines flap and rap out afar. the sky scampers out of sight with gray and sol glowing in the distance. your eyes go to breakfast watching eggs, leche and studying in the morning within your turnabout kitchen. an open and close of the door then a little red light is pushed and receives a response with a grated lift for shipping people up and down. things are closed and opened. the street: dust from chiseling away at the sidewalk is swirled up by a few kids in long white coat uniforms. street windows mix makeup and cleaning supplies, farmacias show off their most recent inhalers and one lucky shop owner down the street seems to own a remote control museum with every remote every made stacked in it's window like bricks. In front of windows and apartments men young and old wait in front of doors while crowds gather by bus stops. taxis slide between and buses seem to drive over them. an old lady throws her hand in the air and the huge silver bus sways towards her and she sways a bit but is the first to raise herself into the bus. a few coins slide down into the machine numbers click away almost randomly and slices you a pinkie size sheet of paper. the bus slips in and over cars never people, and your feet hit the ground while an occasional rain drop makes you blink twice. Plaza de mayo is it's offical name and surrounding it are buildings slated in glossy marble tile or Parthenon style acid stained statutes and columns. Your feet beat quickly and brisk and the sidewalk is short enough to wheel a shopping cart down and as you careen off people and over holes in the walkway you press a brass button on a classy old colonial...Watching walrus business men waddle past on to their next feast at a cafe or meeting, women y couriers pass with their paraguas and alforhores [umbrellas and big cookies think 3 cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche], The door opens un beso [kiss] for the secretario y after a few hours you are running through the plaza with pink terra cotta underneath your feet timing your dash just right to catch the crosswalk. The collectivo rounding a blind corner you see your number 64 and throw your arm into the air.

la primero dia en buenos aires

¡ Hola ! ¿Que Pasa?

Vive (live) muy circa (close) a aquí
(i will begin taking my own photos soon...promise..)

At 10 GST and 15:00 hours Buenos Aires red meat was taken voluntarily by my pallet and the flavor burst into my mouth rendering me useless for the 45 seconds it took for me to eat an empanda.

In real genuine news: Buenos Aires the city of good aired people (for you people who don´t habla espaniol Buenos Aires literally translates to Good Airs). The smog may be clogging my perceptions most days but my guides and new friends have helped me so wonderfully. When our shuttle drove into Buenos Aires the city evolved in a very strange way... it went from pristine wilderness to shanty town, into run down industrial us city, breifly into a london burrow and finally into a blossoming city center the videos and guidebooks have been telling me about. It wasn´t difficult to get around the city and my bus driver & taxi driver tried to speak about the differences between the famous Carlos Gardel and Joan Manuel Serrat...and if you don´t know who Carlos Gardel is... then well it´s ok people here will tell you about him if you ask. Yet, the two i´ve spoken to so far didn´t really have an agressive disposition like it thought they might have about the worshipped singer.

Getting around = i spent my first day pushing myself to walk a little bit of my area and remember it well. Connie Mae´s mother did something similar in Miami i believe she drove 15 minutes north and 15 minutes south everyday retracing her steps. I don´t have a car (nor would i want one) so i just walk around the areas i know i will be safe in and really really give myself the benifit of the doubt to remember streets, etc. The stores are actually much more memorable then trying to find a street name everytime. The shops are wonderful because they all use the ¨shop window¨ effect. Which is no matter how nasty (pig face) or common (circuit boards) look they put it in the windows, it´s great to see mops on display with such decadance and know that they truly believe in the placement of their products. so it´s really easy to know where you are going for at least one day (as long as the shop doesn´t change on you) by just looking for the stuffed chicken with transitors on a breakfast tray while sitting on a bulb as a pumpkin is crushing it (if i could be so lucky to find this). the subway is really easy to ride and i hear the buses are as well, sadly enough the taxi drivers aren´t as speed racerish as they were in Bogota in 2005 where Connie Mae and her famila were thrown around the winding mountainous streets of Bogota, Columbia. Yet, the taxi drivers are pleasant and they have the same radio taxi service they do in Bogota so you know you are always getting in with a legit taxi.

Yesterday i started the day at my jobs associates place. Lucky for me Mariana oriented me well with Buenos Aires map district print-outs, a subway card, good directions and a honesty intensity to help! I also think Mariana and i will be running together some days due to her training to climb the Cerro Acongagua, Argentina !!! Guess what. i might get to climb half of it with them coming in November! Also around the time i´ll be running in the http://www.maratondebuenosaires.com/ Buenos Aires Marathon!!! Hopefully if all goes well with me getting my routine down!

Strange things about the city and the people.... well the people are extra friendly and the only thing is i´ve been run into a few times by mean buisness men...no biggie...although they were extra biggie i think that is why it was hard for me to pass them with my bags. speaking of biggie burger king, mcdonalds and taco bell are usually pretty packet. no matter what i do to counter any good feelings to the people i´ve met here about their strange tastes with all the wonderful food around them they stick to their passions, which is very respectable. my friends here are quite calm but eager to laugh and much fun. i think they were expecting me to take my bad spanish and them speaking in spanish, a little more seriously but luckily for me they are very understanding and love to ask me why americans hate futbol (soccer) and do we really live like they do on the simpsons. we had a fun conversation about sterotypes, etc.

candy, cookies and little sodas at the little kiosks are wonderful. taxis are great, cell phones are easy to get and everyone has one. the food isn´t as strange as some of my friends stateside said but it is very delicious. right now it´s about 50 - 40 degrees F and during the night the wind pushes that cold right into your heart so it´s a necessity to wear a scarf over your corazon (heart). my spanish is improving but right now i´m tripping over words and going around is circles a bit...kinda like this email. anyways in the end the food is great, the people are wonderfully happy, (no not every woman is a super model), it´s easy to get around it´s safe, lost in translation is much more fun then people give it credit for. i am lucky to have extremely loving and hopeful people around me all the time, it reminds me of some of my friends stateside.

those are my deepest impressions so far (as much as i can remember at least) since yesterday was a whirlwind from 530 - 130 am.