walking to talk, greeting to meet

Alrighty so here we are at my very first futbol juegan. My roommate Arie is a huge San Lorenzo fan so I am following suit. This is at San Lorenzo stadium we were playing Argentinos Jrs. We lost 2-0 it was a pretty exciting game from my experience in watching soccer. (Lots of passing, running, and........ the occasional shot on goal.) But, let me tell you this; I thought Oakland A's fans were bad. I take that back I've never been to a game were I heard, "hijo de puta" said so many times when the referee went by. I also heard allot of other bad words, so my vocabulary of cursed words has gone up ten-fold. When I go to baseball games at home I usually know what type of language I will use by the people I'm sitting next to, i.e. children, abuelos, etc. But, here the kids are encouraged by there parents (as was I by Arie) at any chance they could to say something bad about the Argemtino Jrs. or refs. This place was crazy nobody sat down and we were in the high priced seats which is typically more mellow. Which it was compared to the hooligan side. As you can see they had huge flags probably three different ones, the same size as the one in the picture, streaming down every twenty minutes. These people played drums, brass instruments, started chants that cursed the other team and refs, threw toilette paper rolls at the opposing goalie, and they didn't sit down for a second.

So my new best buddy Cesar is a super cool dude and a friend of mine down here. The other night he called me up to see if I wanted to go see this Brazilian band play. And in my horrible castalleano I said, "yes I will go." So, he picked me up we went and saw the band (which was awesome) and we took a cab back towards our barrio. Later I followed him to a friends house and we hung out drank some wine and meet more portenos (what you call people who are from Buenos Aires) all the dudes and chicas were as cool as ice to me. So after going from house to house our group was slowly growing then we finally made it to this ska/reggae show. And the next thing I know it's me with ten portenos watching this show. I was the only person that didn't speak spanish it was awesome. I can't express how nice it is to mingle with the locals out here. Especially Cesar I can't express how cool it is to know you have a good friend even though there is a language barrier, there is no awkward silence between us, it feels like hanging out with any of my friends back home. I have become friends with all of the people I hung out with that night. And one of my professors the other day was explaining to our class, "That if you become a friend with a porteno you are a friend for life, they hold friendship very highly out here." They give me a call every time they go out and say, "Debin vamos." It is great out here. So i suggest to friends and family by a plane ticket and that's all the money you will have to spend, I'm getting this place dialed in. But, still have so much to see and do, come explore and meet people with me! One more thing: Jozef and Matt I meet the lead singer of Gotan Project while I was watching Tangoloco (infusion of tango music that covers Beatles songs) what are the chances, right?

modest and mute as a garden-wall

Okie dokie here are some pictures of an excursion I took on my day off from school. I walked passed a few gardens some ginormous parks and a zoo last Wednesday. What struck me the most was that I was always told that everybody works on Wednesdays. Not true here. I think down here Wednesdays are "take family to the park day." The days before, i.e. weekdays my routine has mainly been concentrated on school and doing some solo trips around town. But, don't let this full you I still manage to go out and have a good time with friends and what not. In fact I finally meet an Argentine dude that's way cool. He's a really good photographer and is taking me to his little gallery coming up soon. I can't mention enough how nice it is to have a male Argentine friend. So lets get into the photos. First we have a typical day on my street which is the best. Next is a picture of my bedroom window with the awesome view of our neighbors kitchen, and yes I picked out the plants and the purple lettuce. The next picture is my street yet again just a different look to the left this time. We have the best inexpensive restaurant right next door called El Buen Gourmet. The people that work there are the most kind people ever and the food is the best. My first time there I decided to introduce myself and explaining to them in my horrible castalleano that I am their new neighbor. Before I could even tell them with whom I live with they said "Oh Thor" so yeah, need I say anymore. Following suit with the order of the pictures are the weirdest cats I've ever seen, don't you think? And the last picture is from what I can come up, is a graveyard for statues. Like I said in my first post "please insert better vocab."

Now here we are on Thursday at the best museum I've ever been to. It is called Malba, full of Latin America's best artist. Here I saw original Frida Khalo, Diego Rivera, and the Colombian painter who always draws the really "fat" charactures of people, amazing. It was also full of other artists that a better art connoisseur would no about. The pictures are just of the outside. I could not take my camera in.

Now it is Friday and we are in the little river town know as Tigre. It is beautiful here just a bunch of intersecting rivers forming islands between them. We took a train from Belgrano (where my school is) for 1,10 pesos there and back and it was about 60 miles away. What a deal right? Money seems to go the furthest with transportation, food, beer, wine, and the other stuff we drink. So in the photo to introduce this section we have Aldo, the Brazilian from Miami now residing in Argentina, next is the lovely Canadians, Tara and Kylie. The next photo is us riverside on the steps just hanging. It was really hard to leave those steps, with the view, the laughter of all the kids chasing the pigeons and just being with great company. The best smoothie ever, real fruit cut right in front of you. Blows all those chain and coffee shop smoothies out of the water. The sign is very funny just read. Tigre is also known for its churros and they are very good to let you know.
Okay so I must emphasize these two awesome spirits. These girls (Tara on the left and Kylie on the right) are zen masters and don't even know it. -Which is the way people of that kind tend to role; modest, humble, and kinder than kind.- These girls everyone in the world should have to be obligated to meet in order to grasp how friendly the world really is. So let me share on how they made the day feel for me. Examples: they make the sun brighter, the scenery more clear, make all the sounds you hear sound like music, and make you smile with teeth you didn't even know you had. I could go on forever talking about these two, but I will stop here. So if you ever see them say hi and you'll completely understand what I mean. And to top it off they are amazing salsa dancers!

Now we are on Sunday a day after my bros birthday -dd happy bday- We are at the FERIA De MATADEROS, this is in the barrio of Nuevo Chicago one of the oldest slaughterhouse places that is still in running condition in the world. That was not our main attraction though, the little get together was a gaucho festival and a cultural showcase for Argentina and surrounding countries. It involved the most dancing I've ever seen in the middle of the streets, the best music I've heard so far, and some really good food. Above are just some kids doing there thing in the park, next is some men that will blow you way with their dance moves. An authentic gaucho, Maria Elena hanging with the cutest lama ever. And the last is what was typically heard and seen around every corner or start of a new street.

Buenos Aires has been bery bery good to me. Chau

big smiles, grey skies, and scary stars

So hello and greetings from Palermo Soho (mio barrio) in Buenos Aires. I can finally say that I have a home now. Yesterday, after three weeks of living through my suitcase I was finally able to see what I packed for the next five months.-It's hard to believe I've already been here for three weeks. I feel like I'm coming down with reverse home sickness, if that makes any sense.- So what I forgot luggage wise.... towels! (You were right mom should of brought more than just a beach towel.) I can not stress enough how good it feels to get out of my suitcase. A similar feeling to it would be: getting a knot rubbed out of your back by a Japanese masseuse. Awww so good, right? My symptoms of a runny nose when I'm awake and stuffy nose when i dream, and soar throat are slowly going away finally. The pictures above are as follows, left to right and then down accordingly: Thor in his equipo de San Lorenzo hat, my awesome bedroom that could hold at least 15 Shaq's comfortably, trying to get my visa situation all squared away, we had some friends come over that I go to CSULB with, and the view from our little back balcony.

If you couldn't tell the first picture of this section, that is a horse and a big one as well. So on Thursday my friend Carolina said she had a surprise for me. And as the pictures portray we did some riding of the horses. Being my first time ever on a horse, I think the self portrait picture kinda shows how I felt about doing this. Of course, Carolina was awesome on the caballo running, jumping, etc.. Me, lets just say all the horse heard come out of my mouth was, "traaaaaanquilo, and alto por favor." But, let me tell you it was super fun. Argentina I must add has some gorgeous horses. Matt, they were even prettier than the ones we saw on the side of the rode coming from the airport to BA.

My school. When going by this school and all the other universities here, you feel like your looking at a First American Title building. It is a huge 20 story building that oversees the greater Buenos Aires region. As you can tell the weather was not so good to show you the whole city. And even if it was good, this city is so big you would probably only see about 16-17% of it. The white building I took a picture of is directly across the street from school. It is the Australian Embassy, but from 1928-1932 (I think. I'll have to look at the plaque again.) Albert Einstein lived there...pretty cool maybe that's why this school is ranked in the top 50 schools in the world, ahead of Stanford!