| July/Aug/Sept 2006
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| 9-20-06. My last full day in Buenos Aires. Woke up early this morning, had some Palmeritas (facturas) from Milan's favorite bread place, took a long shower and walked out to Plaza de Mayo, overlooking the Pink House as the morning sun was hitting its 8 o'clock mark.
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| 9-20-06. While I was enjoying this beautiful scene, I noticed a homeless man with a bevy of stray dogs enjoying the same scene. Government splendor with those that don't fit into that splendorous plan.
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| 9-20-06. I didn't know if I would witness anything special on my final morning walk, but I did. Bread here in the downtown area is delivered by boys on bicycles equipped with huge baskets. This one immediately attracted two other stray dogs from across the street in the park. They chased after him, perhaps because of the smell?, or the sound of his bicycle. I dunno. Probably the latter. Once he stopped at the light, they lost interest and left him alone. Even dogs must have their fun.
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| 9-20-06. A girl hawking a loogie on the street. I thought I'd seen everything, but this was a new one for me. So much for elegance and the modern girl. Well, these four images came to me in the brief ten minutes before 8, where I was waiting for my coffee shop to open.
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| 8-28-06. Good news. Got a 2-term TA job back at UW teaching Japanese this year. What a relief! Nana, Milan (not pictured, sorry!), and I went to a fancy-schmancy restaurant in on Posadas street ($$$), 1042 Posadas to be exact, called "Piegari" -- great seafood and fresh pasta. Their seafood kicks butt -- seafood, good seafood, is hard to find in BsAs, but this place has it. Recommend you order half-orders though -- one order alone is way more food than 2 people can eat. We ordered the "spicy fresh spaghetti" and the "salmon + risotto" pictured here.
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| 8-28-06. Been enjoying the cloyingly sweet retro-synth pop of this Argentinian band, Miranda. "El Profe" and "El Agente" are the best songs. Happy happy, joy joy.
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| 8-firstweek-06. Our friends Alan and Nathalia got married a few weeks ago. She's originally from Taiwan, but has lived here for ...years....(no age given away). Alan and Nathalia met in Taiwan, moved here, and finally got married (in da church: see prev. months for their civil wedding photos). Here she is being escorted down the isle at the Taiwanese Presbyterian church by her dashing dad.
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| 8-firstweek-06. And a photo of both families including Alan's folks from Cincinatti.
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| 8-2ndweek-06. Alan took these photos on his trip to Mendoza a week back, thinking of my grafitti series. These are much lighter, funnier than the political ones I posted...
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| 7-30-06. At the Japanese Gardens, where koi massively hunger. A duck nearby would swim in when food was thrown out and he would poke at the koi with his beak.
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| 7-30-06. At the Japanese Garden on Saturday when my fellow Nichia Gakuin buddy Andreas (guitar) and his band were playing. They have a band that plays Japanese pop. The lead singer is the girl on the right -- she doesn't understand Japanese but can sing it by hearing it, reproducing the sounds. Nana said her pronunciation was very good.
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| 7-21-06. One of my true guilty pleasures. The Alfajor (pl. Alfajores) of Argentina. Basically a big cookie usually dipped in chocolate, commonly filled with Dulce de Leche. Here is a mix of Alfajores bought from Havanna, perhaps the most popular place to buy them.
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| 7-21-06. Peanut salesmen with their vending cart. Very common on the downtown street corners.
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| 7-21-06. There is a protest now outside my internet cafe. These photos are from a protest near my apartment I took a few weeks ago. The crowd is rounding the corner at the city's major Cathedral.
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| 7-21-06. Fireworks and flags and all...
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| 7-21-06. Some magazine covers from the news/gossip rags here. This is GENTE, a big popular weekly. Before the world cup semifinals match...
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| 7-21-06. And the magazines AFTER the world cup...
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| 7-12-06. Yesterday a man died outside my apartment on Chacabuco street. When I was walking home from my cafe, around 11:30 in the morning, there was a crowd of people massed around an ambulance. Chacabuco is a busy street, so when I saw the man lying on the ground being helped by the paramedics I thought that he must have been sideswiped by a colectivo bus. (This is one of my fears living here: that I'll get run over by one of those monstrosities.)
Anyway, we later found out that he had a heart attack. I didn't want to crowd around him while the paramedics were helping him. I walked across the street, and briefly looked to understand the situation. In that time, I saw his body snap a few times into short, violent convulsions. I thought, "That's not good." And then I went upstairs.
It was hard to study thinking that the guy was down there. My window can overlook that side of the street. I opened the window and leaned over the balcony to watch as the paramedics began to pump his chest. I realized in a few short minutes that it would soon be over. Strangely, when I closed the window I noticed that a fine dust had blown into the apartment. It covered everything. The maid had just come that morning, too.
I took this photo about 30 minutes later. The ambulance had left, to be replaced by the police. You can see the plastic covering the police put over the man's body. I realized: this was the first time I had been that close to someone's dying. Maybe that's what living in a big, dense city does to you.
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| 7-12-06. I'm in a somber mood, so I decided to document the ghost that lives in our house. I haven't written about this because, well, it kinda freaks Nana out. Here at 711 Alsina Adolfo, we have a ghost. We think he is "attached" to the foyer. So I took photos of the foyer, wondering if he might turn up in them.
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| 7-12-06. Within 2 days of living in the apartment, Nana and I both sensed a ghost was here. Nana was the first to...publically...report it. On the 2nd day of living in the apartment (end of April...?), around 11pm Nana suddenly burst into a scream. She thought she sensed a ghost standing in the foyer. She had just come home from Tango and when she passed through the foyer, she passed through...him. That gave her the chills and so she screamed. She called for me, telling me that there was a ghost. I was just settled into bed, into the apartment, and I thought, "If I indulge her, we'll end up moving ...again..." So I barked back she was nuts. Nana doesn't take no for an answer so I went to check it out. No ghost. Later Nana talked to her Taiwanese friend who lives here and he advised her how to send the ghost away.
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7-12-06. In truth, I had sensed the ghost about 12 hours earlier. It was my first day to sit down and start studying without any distractions. I was at our living/dining room table. After a bit of study, I sensed someone in the apartment. From the corner of my eye, I could see a figure dressed in black standing in the foyer. As you might see from the photos, we have a wall separating our kitchen and the foyer -- it's basically a huge stain glass window. These photos are from the perspective of me in the living/dining room. I sensed the ghost STANDING with his HEAD BENT and FACING the stain glass window/wall. In the corner. I could tell (in that instant?) that he was MALE. I could also vaguely sense that he was wearing a dark overcoat and also a dark, wide-brimmed hat. His head was bent so I could not make out his face. It gave me the chills. When I turned to look at him, he was gone. There's something about things in the corner of the eye. Kinda like a things in the rear-view mirror: objects may appear closer than they are... Nana later reported seeing the exact same kind of person (male, overcoat, head bent, facing the corner/wall). That's creepy.
I could tell that the ghost was sad. He wasn't mad, or malevolent. I sensed a kind of resignation and grief. It made me sad. I didn't want to tell Nana, because I knew that it would freak her out. I didn't want to move again, either. So, when she screamed 12 hours later....it put me in an uncomfortable situation.
I asked my Argentinian Spanish teacher about what to do. She was so intrigued. "Detalles! Detalles!" The whole thing freaked her out too (but not my classmate Brad, who thought I was a real loony). She suggested we get a RED CANDLE and burn it to keep him at bay.
That happened to be the same advice Nana's Taiwanese (Argentinian resident) friend suggested, so we gave it a shot. Supposedly, you burn a RED (not WHITE) CANDLE. it repels ghosts. You then tell the ghost that you mean no harm, and that you would appreciate it if he/she would not show up. You're just borrowing the apartment, and realize that the ghost has dibs on it. If the ghost has something he/she wants, you ask the ghost to inform you via a dream.
I thought I screwed things up by offering in addition a small glass of wine to the ghost, ala Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club), as a way of saying, "thank you for understanding". Our friend Satoko, a spiritual-angel believer says this was a bad move. It will make the ghost all the more attached to the place. (After all, he's getting free wine.) Later, I spoke with a Cuban friend and he said, "No, you did the right thing." In Ayuba, the religion of Cuba, making offerings to spirits doesn't attach them more, it is a sign of respect and a kind of patronage thing.
It turns out, we did ok. The ghost hasn't reappeared. Of course, when I told Nana 1-2 weeks later I had the same experience that same day, she flipped out and began plotting our next move. Waiting that long to tell her wasn't a good idea.
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| 7-12-06. Been listening to another Badly Drawn Boy album; this one, like the "About a Boy" soundtrack has a lot of lasting power. Lot of various styles -- I really enjoy the subdued, amusing qualities of BDB.
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| 7-04-06. On Sunday (7/2), we went with our buddies to go see a revista (= revue, show, etc.). These shows are made up of dancing girls, stand-up comedy and singing. In particularly, the singing is quite good. (The dancing leaves much to be desired.)
On Corrientes Ave., there are tons of these shows. BsAs's Broadway. It's generally the same: the stars are improbably perfect women and men who probably need some perfection. In this photo, you don't see the male stars of the show -- I'll have to get more photos of them -- but one, I swear, looks just like a short, balding Bobby De Niro. Here we have the ladies -- Kristin, Nana, and Ayako.
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| 7-04-06. And the rest of us...Brian, Kristin, Me, and Ayako. The show lasted about 2 hours, with no breaks. Although throughout the show it was nothing but machine-gun Spanish, I still enjoyed it. The dance numbers were very risque, but very cheesy. The comedy, when I could understand it, was fun. Vaudeville is still alive down here in BsAs. Tickets, for our 2nd row seats, ran about 55 pesos (almost 20 bucks).
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| 7-03-06. The dogwalkers in Buenos Aries are a true phenomenon. Amazing how well dogs behave when they're packed together.
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| 7-03-06. At our laundromat, called a Lavandero, we always get greeted by this petite cat called Muruka (sp?).
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| 7-03-06. Many businesses use this roller-gate to lock up the businesses at night as customers leave, but our laundromat (really launderers) keeps it down all the time. You just do your transactions through a hole in the gate.
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