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| I dont know why but I guess I just can't get into the habit of blogging. Maybe its not in me to Blog. But I'm not throwing in the towel just yet
So the last time I blogged was, crap, October... Lots of stuff has gone on since then, mainly work and some play. Its nice to have a job and be able to work in another country for sure. However at the same time, with my job, I stay in my house most if not all of the time. So that means several things. My spanish is getting better but I feel that I should be speaking perfectly by now, especially seeing how other friends of mine that have been here for the same amount of time kick my butt in spanish. Also, meeting people. I haven't met that many locals yet, at least not as many as I wanted. Takes time I guess.
Recently though I took some time off work and went to a beach city close to Mar Del Plata in the south. A buddy of mine, Tadj, is here hanging around Argentina with plans to stay for a couple of months. At the hostel we stayed at, there were all Argentines and then us, a great opportunity to speak just spanish. The room we had stunk, in fact it had an 'ali golshan' kind of smell to it, like the smell of his old car. But the location was great, right next to the beach and right next to the most happening club in the city. The club, unfortunately, was typical of most Argentine clubs, filled with 16-20 year old kids. Most kids here go through their 'going out' 'getting wasted' stage of their life during their teens. It's usually tough to find bars with crowds of people in their mid 20's. Popular drinks amongst kids: Speed (Brazilian equivalant of Redbull) with Vodka, and Speek/Champagne. Sounds nasty no?
It was great getting into the club the second night. We went with a group of people from the hostel and waited for about 20 minutes before the bouncer let crowds of people into the main door where we pushed and shoved our way in for another 20 minutes. Funny thing, most the kids there were snobby, high-class, beverly hills like kids. Its funny to see snobby kids pushing shoving yelling and screaming to get inside a bar, super classy. After 3 days I had to leave, work was bugging me. Tadj is still there, pushing and shoving his way in every night.
I'm starting to get more involved in activities. Last week I played futbol with teachers and students at my school and it was great, even though I played like a blind guy, always passing the ball to the other team and kicking it out frequently. But hey, at the very least, I can say I've never played before. I want to get involved in Basketball and take upcoming Ginobilis to skool here but can't seem to find any courts. Tennis is another option I want to look into..
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| Just recently I've discovered the wonderful world of YouTube. Up until last week, I had a bunch of problems with sound on YouTube videos so for a while I just gave up on it. But wow! Theres a whole crap-load of great content!
No wonder they got bought for billions of dólares. I think on average, you could easily waste about 2 hours a day finding hard to find videos or stuff that just cracks you up.
Here are some fantastic videos I've found so far:
Swedish Idol - The first guy is just.. I don't know... Can't describe it, you be the judge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alaicxeNoV4&feature=PlayList&p=690EEE50C2D92ACE&index=0
MJ's Thriller Bollywood Style - Gotta love the effort put forth in this one, just superb. And those dance moves, poetry in motion...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll8Qm8yDj-8 d
Little Indian Kid - The second or third time you watch this, check out the dude in the back wearing blue, hes got more moves than the midget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zfWhZ8_-JM
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| I almost gave up on blogging because I figured no one was reading it so what the hell's the point. Well, I guess it doesn't matter if nobody reads it, I'll continue with it regardless.
A lot has happened, obviously, since the last post. I'm feeling more and more comfortable living abroad. My spanish is improving, and more importantly, my confidence in speaking is improving (even sober). I finally got a place, unfurnished and all, in an area I like. The place is huge, about 90 square meters or 900 sq feet. But thats a good thing for people that come and stop by because now they will have there own bed (instead of sharing a bed with me :).
When I first got the place, it was pretty crappy. It's pretty common for people here to provide for their own light fixtures, so when you move into a place, there's usually no fixtures. That was my first task, bring some light to my new apartment. I'm no electrician, but thanks to Mike's help, we got 3 or 4 lights setup before we blew the circuit. After that we decided to call a professional to install the remaining 5 lights.
After light came painting the place, which at times seemed endless. The cool thing is that here owners let there tenants paint the walls whatever color they want. Painting sounds fun but in reality its a real bitch and is time consuming. Now I have another thing to add to my resume..
And then, there's the mullet. About 2 months ago, I got sick of my long, "Jesus-like" hair (I quote Amir) and went into a salon here and asked them to give me 'something different'. Well they succeeded in doing that, one side of my hair is normal, short and 'toolish' if you will. The other side is rockin 80's glam rock mullet. I guess you can say, I have a 'new-age' mullet, business on the left, party on the right. Or as Mike put it... "The Duality of Man". At any rate, the hair style is a hit with the ladies as I always get looks walking down the street. However I dont know if those are looks of 'what the hell is that' or 'damn thats hot'.
Heres a quick little shot for you guys of me tickling my nephew... and a the right (mullet) side...
By the way, my nephew is awesome. For those that don't know, my sister-in-law gave birth last April so little Kian is rapidly aproaching 6 months. He's a cute little guy as you can see. Even though I miss him a lot, I get a chance to see him on Skype video calls which is awesome.
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| My friend sent me a funny little video:
http://www.vavavoomstudio.com/lol/oops.gif
Watch homeboy attempt a forward flip with a Yamika... Awesome stuff!!
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| Must say, I'm glad Germany lost their game and I'm happy for all Italians out there. In fact the whole city is happy. After the Argentina's loss last Friday, a black cloud was hovering over the entire city. Brazil's loss helped disipate that cloud a little bit but not until yesterday did it finally disappear. It's funny, Germany was seen as the evil team that 'fixed' their way to the semi-finals (personally, I think they did). Now they're history and everyone is happy happy joy joy.
Enough with fútbol... Starting this week, I've been trying to look for a permanent place to live. Mike and Vanessa, whose place I've been loitering at for the last month, came back from their trip to Germany and told me I have 1 week to find a place or find a nice spot on the streets. The way its going, I better find a safe warm shelter under a bridge or something.
The problem is that there are two types of apartments, furnished and unfurnished. The furnished ones are designed for Yankees (pronounced 'Shankees' here) like myself who come from the states with more money than god, or at least that's what they think. Therefore, those apartments are fairly small and expensive. Typically a 'dollar apartment', as they call them, will have the cheapest, crapiest, furniture bought from the local KMart-like store. They aren't all that bad though, but the thing that sucks about them is the price. They range usually from 700 for basic ones and 1200 for the 'I wanna be a Big BaLLaH' ones. May not sound that expensive by American standards but when you compare it to the prices of unfurnished 'Peso apartments', it would piss you off like it's been pissing me off.
For Peso apartments, the max you'd pay for a 'BaLLaH' pad would be about 500, about 1/2 the price. So, to any smart person, the peso apartments would be the way to go. Enter the 'lack of trust' issue that Argentine culture has, especially here in a big city. Apparently, the eviction laws aren't too landowner friendly, so once a hobo decides to not pay the rent, it's really hard to kick him out. Therefore, you have to pay a year in advance in straight cash or have a guarantor that owns property here, or in some cases, do both. Sometimes, even with all that, the landlords still won't trust you. So, all in all, it may take some time before I find my dream pad if I ever do.
But Mike and Vanessa aren't really kicking me out, I just kind of want my own place as I'm sure they want their futon to be free of that persian man smell. So we shall see what happens, wish me luck...
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