Sawdust & Diamonds

We're changing locations!

2008-10-18T06:15:02Z

That's right, folks, I'm upgrading to a more legitimate (and dare I say more adult-looking) blog space. I won't be taking these old posts down, but I will begin to update the new blog (which is so pretty, you should really go check it out) in place of updating this one. There's actually a new post already up for your viewing pleasure!

Follow this link: http://moiraamk.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your support as you follow me to my new location!

Grass

2008-10-15T14:22:53Z

This past weekend I went to Mendoza with my friends Ben, Teddy, and Ree. We had originally planned on going with our program, GIC, but the trip had been cancelled and at the last minute we decided to just go ourselves. Mendoza is to Argentina as Napa is to the US; in other worlds, it’s the wine capital of the country. Although I think Chilean wine is still more famous, Argentines are very proud of their wine (red, by the way, and in particular Malbec), and they’re starting to show up more and more on the wine map of the world. Mendoza is located all the way across the country on the eastern border, separated from Chile by these mountains you might have heard of called the Andes.

Mendoza is supposed to be a beautiful, quiet little town to spend a weekend where you can tour vineyards and participate in wine tastings, so we thought why not! (or porque no! as we like to say), and hopped on another long bus ride (this time only 13 hours). We arrived early Friday morning and I spent the day recuperating and walking around the city while my more ambitious colleagues went horseback riding. On Saturday morning we got up early (7am!) to get on a bus tour of the Andes. We spent pretty much the whole day on the bus being driven around to different landmarks in the mountains. Who knew that there were so many historical points of interest nestled in between the mountains! Needless to say, there was no lack of spectacular views, and we got to get out every so often to do a bit of wandering/exploring. We even did a trek part-way up one of the mountains where there was still snow on the ground and everything. Our guide estimated that we were at an altitude of about 2,500 meters above sea level. Don’t ask me to convert that to feet because I don’t even have the semblance of a clue. We saw the tallest mountain outside of the Himalayas, called Aconcagua and we got to roll around in the snow a bit. That trip through the mountains was definitely the highlight of the trip for me, and well worth the $30 or $40 bucks we paid for it!

On Monday we had arranged to do a bike tour of the vineyards in the satellite town of Maipu where most of the vineyards are located. At around 11am we hopped on our bikes to begin a day of early drinking! Little did we know that the bike route was about 10 miles long each way! At first we had planned on being really ambitious and biking all the way to the farthest vineyard and making our way back slowly, but when we got the vineyard about three-quarters of the way to the end of the route, we decided that was going to be as far as we went. We went into our first vineyard and tried two wines and then decided to back-track a little bit and go to another. Unfortunately, Ben hadn’t told us that he had been feeling a bit under the weather that morning, but as soon as we pulled up to the second vineyard, he threw up everywhere. He must have caught some weird 24 hour thing because he was sick all day for the rest of the day. Needless to say, that kind of cut our wine tasting a little bit short, as wine isn’t always the best thing for an upset stomach. We also were all feeling tired and the gray day wasn’t helping much, so we asked the people from the rental company to just come pick us up and take us back to the hostel. So, even though the main objective of going to Mendoza was to try so really great wines and bring back a couple of bottles, we only tried a handful of wines from two wineries and couldn’t buy any bottles because we had no way of taking the bottles back with us on our bikes.

Not to say that the trip to Mendoza was a total bust, because it definitely wasn’t. It did, however, turn out a little bit differently than planned.

After 13 more long hours on the bus (much longer for Ben, I assure you), we arrived back to a gloomy, gray Buenos Aires. I still can’t believe the weather here hasn’t warmed up much! When I was planning on coming down here I figured it’s fall-blown fall in the US by this point, it should be full-blown spring in the southern hemisphere. Wrong again. It’s only technically been spring for a few weeks now, and it looks like spring is especially shy this year. As usual, I’m glad to be back in the city where I can go back to my normal routine of sleeping really late and eating dinner really late. And I know that I’ve only got a little over a month left here, which is really no time at all, but I’m starting to really feel homesick! I never really thought about how hard it would be to live outside of the US until I lived outside of the US! I think the gray, cold weather has something to do with it, and also the fact that Argentina is such a poor country. Living here is just unlike the really privileged life that I’ve lived in the US. I mean, in the US you can definitely see poverty around you, but living in Manhattan, Hastings, and Santa Cruz, poverty's not exactly the norm. Coming here, it’s rare that you’ll eat at a restaurant and someone won’t come up to your table asking for money or kids won’t come up to you asking for scraps of food. And that’s not just in Buenos Aires, that has been my experience in the little traveling that I’ve down outside of the city as well. On top of all that, it just gets tiring to be a tourist all the time! It’s actually really exhausting always feeling like you’re an outsider and having to be aware of your appearance all the time so that you don’t make it completely obvious that you’re an American who has no idea what’s going on. The majority of my friends here have been pick-pocketed and most of them just while they’re riding the subway or walking down the street in the middle of the day. I’m trying really hard to keep myself busy and try to be present here in the moment and not think about home all the time, but right about now a burrito on the beach is sounding pretty good. I knew that coming to live in South American for 2 ½ months would be hard, so it’s nothing that I didn’t expect, but it’s also nothing that I could have really prepared for, either. I’m just going to try to enjoy the rest of the short time I have left here while realizing that the end is in sight and I won’t living outside of my homeland forever! I think that saying about the grass always being greener would perfectly sum up my sentiment right now.

Moira the Explorer

2008-10-01T23:03:58Z

So now that I’ve been in Argentina for just over a month, I guess my updates on this blog have begun to slow down. This is mainly due to the fact that now that I finally have figured things out a little better, everyday life doesn’t seem as unbelievable to me any more. When I first got here it was pretty strange that I was walking around in an entirely new city in a language which I didn’t always understand, but now I’m familiar with my neighborhood and I’ve even found a few places to frequent! Although I’m definitely enjoying myself and taking in a bit of the city, my day to day life has become much more, well, day to day! That is to say that I’m feeling pretty comfortable here.

I have done a couple of interesting things since my last post, even though the weather is doing all it can to prevent me from leaving the house—it’s been pretty much cloudy and rainy for the past two weeks. I guess the spring in the southern hemisphere does the same thing that it does in the northern hemisphere: tease! Every time I wake up and the sun is shining I think to myself “yes! It’s finally spring!” I throw aside my sweaters and smother myself in sun block. But, sure enough, the winter always comes back a day later and I have to pick my sweaters up off the floor and put my sun block back on the shelf.

First of all, the end of September marked the end of level five of my Spanish class. I just began level six today! Technically there are ten levels offered through my school, but I think it’s pretty common for people to leave the classroom behind after level six, because you’ve basically learned all of the grammar that you can cram into one head. I definitely feel that my Spanish is improving, although I’m far from fluent. In general, the main thing that holds me back is my lack of vocabulary. I’ve got the present and past tenses pretty down pat and can even say cool things like “if I had been born an only child, I wouldn’t have had to share my toys.” Pretty exciting, I know.

I was actually surprised today to find that there were tons of new kids in my class this month! I thought that for sure September would be the most popular month to leave your respective country, but apparently, October is just as popular. About half of my class is from the US and the other half is from all over the place: various European countries, a few representatives from Asian nations, and one Brazilian girl. It’s pretty great to be in the beginning of this month’s class and not feel totally scared to open my mouth like I was when I first arrived. I’m also glad to not still be feeling loopy from the plan ride while trying to conjugate the pluscuamperfecto en modo subjuntivo.

Other than beginning classes today, I’ve just been doing some general city/outer city exploring this weekend. I had planned on taking a trip with my friend Teddy to Montevideo, Uruguay (just a three hour boat ride across el rio de la plata!), but as the weather was so unattractive, we opted to stay in the city instead. On Saturday (the only nice day this weekend) we spent the whole day visiting various parks in Palermo, the super trendy/awesome part of the city. Below are some photos from the Jardin Botanico and the Parque Tres de Frebrero.:

I’ve also been trying to take more photos of my general surroundings in order to give a better idea of what things look like here. There’s tons of graffiti everywhere, and, being a big city and all, naturally lots to take in. Here are some photos taken mostly around my neighborhood:

On Sunday I went with some friends to Villa Ocampo, the estate of Victoria Ocampo (pictured below) just outside of the federal district of Buenos Aires, but still located within the province of BsAs. Ocampo was a really important writer/socialite/women’s rights advocate during the beginning of the 20th century in Argentina. Her house is decorated in a stunning modern style which was incredibly tasteful. The house is really well preserved and it felt so homey! I was ready to move in as soon as I saw it. Although a lot of the rooms had been rearranged since she lived there, it really felt like a house as opposed to a museum. You weren’t allowed to take photographs inside the house, but here are some photos from the train ride out there. I went with my friends Natalie (also my roommate), Teddy, Carsten, and Molly.:

Yesterday I went to visit the museum of another important Argentine artist, Xul Solar. Solar was also living and working during the same time as Ocampo (beginning in the nineteen-teens, they both worked until around nineteen sixty). His museum is an expanded version of his former studio, and the museum, although small, is as much a place to see for the architecture as it is for Solar’s art. Although Solar’s paintings were beautiful, the other kinds of art he created throughout his lifetime were what really interested me. He built a few pianos/organs with colored keys, which pretty much is a concrete object demonstrating the topic that I wrote me senior thesis on: synaesthesia. So that was really cool to see in person. Also, Solar created an entirely new language that he envisioned all of Latin America using by mixing bits of Spanish, Portuguese, and some indigenous languages. He also created a board game which somewhat resembles chess, only the goal is to create new languages with it. Here are some photos from his museum:

The language game:

Synaesthetic piano:

Here are some photos from a place my friends and I went last night called the Soul Café which was this strange understanding of 1970’s Americana. You can’t tell it from my photos, but the wallpaper was decorated with drawings of a guy with an afro and there were a couple of other drawings of people wearing bell bottoms. Even though the restaurant was great, they didn’t quite hit the nail on the head: their version of the 1970’s in the America included 80’s pop music and sushi!:

Tonight I’m going out to dinner with some friends to celebrate starting classes again, Natalie’s internship at a male modeling agency here (I know! It’s pretty much her dream come true), and Amelia (my Argentine roommate) finishing two big exams! I’ll try my best to keep living it up and exploring the city so I have more to share with you all soon.

As always, the US is on my mind, especially in this time where things seem so undecided. I just watched Katie Couric’s interviews with Palin and actually laughed out loud several times. Tomorrow night I’m going with a friend to go to the American Democrats in Buenos Aires meeting to watch the Palin/Bidden debate. I’m sure he’s going to tear her apart, and I can’t WAIT to see it. I received my absentee ballot in the mail last week and not all I’ve got to do is figure out how to send mail from this country… Shouldn’t be too hard.

All my love!

From the Windows To The Falls

2008-09-24T02:03:10Z

This weekend I took my first trip outside of the city of Buenos Aires to Porto Iguazu, Argentina. Porto Iguazu is the town closest to the famous Igauzu Falls. The falls are located on/create the boarder between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Here’s a link to a map so you can get a visual representation:

View Larger Map

As you can see, Buenos Aires isn’t exactly close to Porto Iguazu, so the trip there was quite long, 16 hours by bus to be exact! Luckily, bus travel is pretty popular in South America, so they have incredibly nice buses! We rode (we = me and fourteen other Americans from my program + 1 Argentine leader who works for my program) in super cama seats which are basically beds on a bus. They’re way nicer than first-class seats on a plane, and for a quarter of the piece. Granted, you have to sit on a bus for 16 hours, so I guess that’s the trade off. But they treated us pretty damn nice; they gave us wine with dinner and a champagne night cap, not too shabby.

We took off from BsAs (that’s how Buenos Aires is abbreviated in Spanish since it’s plural) around eight o’clock at night and arrived in Porto Iguazu around noon the following day. We checked into this beautiful hostel which I’m pretty sure is the only hostel in the world with a pool:

I was feeling pretty loopy from the long bus ride, so me and most of the other girls decided to hang out at the hostel and read magazines by the pool. Little did we know the sun that was shining was the only sun we were going to get the entire trip! Saturday morning we woke up early to head over to the falls and the sky was ominously gray. Even though it wasn’t raining, the smarter half of the group (yours truly included) bundled up in our rain gear and headed to the national park where the falls are located. Sure enough, after we had walked about fifteen minutes into the park it started to drizzle a bit. But we hadn’t reached the falls yet, so I was pretty excited and didn’t think much about the impending storm. The park is set up in a really interesting way. The falls are located in a jungle/forest which was pretty much all cut down when the Spanish and Portuguese began colonizing the area. There even used to be an airport only a mile or two from the falls. Everything has pretty much grown back, but it’s all very short, small, young growth. When you first enter the park you first have to walk through a huge strip mall of gift shops and cafes until you reach a point of entry to the falls.

The Iguazu Falls are massive. They’re much more spread out than, say, Niagra, so the park is set up in a series of circuits where you can see all of the sections of the falls from different vantage points. To get to the first vantage point we visited we walked along this narrow metal bridge over the lake which comprises the top half of the falls. As the rain began to trickle down a little faster, my group and I walked about ten minutes along this bridge to catch our first glimpse of the falls. As we got closer and closer, you could see a wall of mist rising in the background. With each step a new sense was let into the secret that the falls were just ahead. First you could see the cloud of mist rising in the air, then you could hear the pounding of the water, and finally you could smell the fresh water dissipating into the air. When we got to the end of the platform we were literally standing on top of the falls. It was incredible. Staring into the water rushing down at god knows what speed it was easy to become lost in the sheer mass of water rushing over the edge. Swifts flew rapidly over and into the falls. Like many other waterfalls in tropical climates, there is a huge population of swifts which lives just behind the rushing water of the falls on the cliffs behind them. The swirling rush of white water was frequently punctuated with the small black swifts like a black and white Jackson Pollock painting or a page littered with periods and semicolons.

We spent a good fifteen minutes at this vista point admiring the sheer force of nature and taking lots and lots of photos. I mean lots. It felt like senior prom all over again, only this time I was in a rain jacket and denim cut-offs which were slowly becoming plastered to my body.:

The group lumbered on to the other circuits to gain different perspectives of the different sides of the waterfalls. We admired Brazil and Paraguay from across the water (they looked exactly the same as Argentina at this point). The view points were excellently executed. You could see the falls from afar, up close, to the left, to the right, over, under and beneath. By the time we got to the third circuit it was pouring rain. At this point, almost everyone who had not brought a rain jacket bought one for a ridiculous sum at one of the man souvenir shops located throughout the park. There were one or two who refused to cave in however, and I can pretty confidently assume that by the end of the day they were more than ready to head home.

However, the vista of the falls in the pouring rain was nothing compared to the “gran aventura” that we were about to take. I say gran aventura because that was literally the name of the next part of our trip: a boat ride under the falls. Now, in any normal circumstance, it seems kind of crazy to go in a relatively small boat under pounding waterfalls. But I guess if it had been a really hot day, I could see the appeal in that. However, in the freezing cold rain, it was a whole different brand of crazy altogether. As we walked down to the dock where the boat was everyone crossed themselves and said they’re last prayers. I honestly thought if the falls didn’t kill me, the hypothermia would. (Okay, I’m exaggerating here a little bit. But just a little). We waddle down to the boat, shoes full of water, rain jackets at this point making a joke out of us, but cameras in hand. “Here we go!” I thought as I sat down and splashed into a seat full of cold water. (Please note that the photo of my friends below was taken before we went under the falls, not after):

Because the falls are so powerful, they create a bit of a rapid river underneath them. We buckled up our life vests and dove head-on into the whirlpools. At this point everyone was screaming and I was hysterically crying. No, I jest. Actually, I’m pretty sure my friend Teddy who I was sitting next to, was hysterically crying. We were all holding on for dear life and the boat jumped into and out of the water. Finally we could see the falls around the bend. We can’t really be going into those falls, I foolishly thought to myself. Boy was I wrong. Not only were we going INTO the fall, but we were going into a section of the falls call la garganta del diablo. For those of you non-Spanish speakers, that roughly translates to the devil’s throat. THE DEVIL’S THROAT. Eh hem. So here we are, racing full speed right INTO the devil’s fucking throat. I almost blacked out. Right before we were totally submerged and swallowed up by the devil, the boat slowed down and we coasted slowly under the fall, being careful to not crash into the cliffs behind the falls (I hope this was intentional, at least). The water came pouring down on us and we were officially soaked. I felt like I was on some bad Nickelodeon show and was being slimed. Only, this was actually really fun! The water was super warm, way warmer than the outside air, and everyone was just screaming and yucking it up.

I was pretty ready to get off the boat after the first dunk, but we did two more for good measure before we got off back at the dock. All in all, I have to say, going to the falls and going under the falls was probably in the top three of the most epic things I’ve ever done in my life. (Number one involved eating an uncomfortable amount of In N Out grilled cheeses). But yeah, all in all it was pretty great. If you're a facebook user, I definitely encourage you to check out the videos that my roommate, Natalie posted of us going under the falls (that lucky duck has a water-proof camera! Pretty smart). The videos are not completely comprehensible, but should be at least fairly amusing.

I’m glad to be back in good ole BsAs now. It was great to get out of the city, but kind of sucky to share my room with 7 other girls in a hostel. Sunday was the first day of Spring here, and it’s starting to show (very, very, VERY slowly). The trip to the falls definitely whet my appetite for traveling outside of the city while I’m here and I’m definitely going to try to plan some more trips around Argentina and hopefully into Uruguay before I head back to the states in another six weeks. That’s not much time at all to travel, so I’ve got to get on it now while I still can!

As always, thinking of you all every minute. (Not all of you simultaneously, everyone gets one second per minute. You know if you’re in the top 60. If you’re not sure, don’t ask. That would be really awkward for both of us).

Hasta luego!

***************************************************************************************************

UPDATE!

I'm posting the videos that my roommate took below. I was sitting in front of her on the right, you can't really see me, but you can get an idea of the craziness that was going on!

Hope you enjoy!:

The importance of being patient

2008-09-17T00:35:30Z

So, I've been in Argentina for just over two weeks now, and I FINALLY feel like I am being to figure things out and I have a clear(er) sense of the city.

For one thing, I've been exploring the city more by subway, or subte as it's called here, so I feel like I have a better understanding of the layout. Although the subte is a cheap and fast way to get around, there is so much of the city that isn't accessible by subte. For this, you can either walk, take cabs, or take the buses (collectivos). I haven't tried my hand at the collectivos yet because you have to be pretty sure about where you're going. Like in New York, they don't announce the stops and there aren't always marked stops for the buses, you just kind of get on wherever you can. Last week I explored the Abasto neighborhood where there's an enormous mall with a ferris wheel and two arcades, and Palermo, a really chic and trendy part of town were we had an amazing Indian dinner. I feel like the many doors of Buenos Aires are slowly creaking open so that I can now see more of what's really inside.

Patience is definitely something that I'm working on while I'm down here. Not only being patient about letting Buenos Aires really unfold its petals for me, but life down here in general requires much more patience. Everyone is on their own schedule and no one is in much of a rush for anything. You may wait at a restaurant to be sat for over an hour (as I did on Saturday night) or you may find yourself waiting in line at the grocery store for 45 minutes (also a true story). Being the kind of person that I am, it's extremely hard for me to be patient (growing up in New York City has not helped either). I don't even wait for my pasta to cook all the way before I eat it, for goodness sakes. This whole Buenos Aires thing may be more of a challenge than I thought...

On Sunday I went to to la feria de matadores (the Matadores fair/festival) which is a gaucho festival in the barrio called Matadores, held every Sunday. The feria basically consisted of a bunch of great craft stalls where they sold everything from mate cups (pronounced mah-tey, mate is the traditional Argentine drink which is basically like a green tea. You have to drink the mate out of a special straw which has a strainer on the end of it, since you pour hot water straight over the loose leaves) to woven goods, to jewelry. There were also gauchos (gaucho = Argentine cowboy) playing this game on horses where they would gallop as fast as they could down a street which had an arch with a small ring (one that would fit your finger) suspended from it. When they got to the ring they would try to stick a pencil through it as they galloped past. Here are some photos from the feria:

Natalie and Benson (my American roommates) at the feria:

Benson eating a choripan (chorizo sandwich):

This coming weekend I'm going to be taking a trip with some students from my program to Iguazu Falls which are on the border of Argentina and Brazil. I am so excited! They are one of the biggest waterfalls in the world, and they're supposed to be incredibly beautiful. It will be really nice to get out of the city a bit and see what the countryside looks like. Plus, it will (hopefully) be a lot warmer up there. The weather here has been pretty cold, still. I thought that North American fall = South American spring, but I was pretty wrong. Winter officially ends on the 21st of this month, but I don't suspect it will get warm until at least October. I've been wearing a jacket and scarf just about every day that I've been here, which has been kind of a bummer. But Iguazu should be fantastic. I'm a little bit nervous for the bus ride which is about 18 hours from Buenos Aires, but supposedly the buses here have fully reclining seats and are nicer than flying first class in an airplane. We'll see about that!

I'll be sure to update everyone on how the trip goes when I get back on Monday. As I sign off, I'll leave you with some more photos of my friends here.

Teddy and Amelia (my Argentine housemate):

Natalie drinking a mojito at the Cuban restaurant where we ate last night:

With that, I'll say ciao, ciao!

Todo Bien

2008-09-07T01:53:15Z

After almost a full week in Buenos Aires, I have so much more to share with you all! I'm slowly learning more about Argentinian culture and especially about los Portenos, which is what people from Buenos Aires are called.

I feel like I'm finally learning my way around the city a little bit and I'm making friends. In the 1920's and 30's there was a big push from the Argentinian government to turn Buenos Aires into "the Paris of South America." In order to do this, they built a lot of buildings in the style of old Parisian buildings, and introduced other European preferences such as a plethora of cafes with outside seating, etc. This European influence is still manifest today, only in different ways, namely, the men have mullets and rat tails (kind of attractive in some circumstances), everyone eats really late (I had dinner last night around 11:30) and stays out really late (I got home at 5am!). Also everyone smokes cigarettes, and you don't tip (much) in restaurants or cabs. Having traveled to Europe and to Paris myself, it's fascinating to me to see how these European trends and pillars of society have become so integrated into everyday life here.

Apart from the European side of things, I'm living with a really interesting set of kids. One is the Argentine (I still can't figure out if it's more proper to say Argentine or Argentinian, but I like Argentine because it's easier to say), Amelia, who works full time answering phones somewhere and studies psychology at the University of BA at night. She has braces and loves American music like the Strokes, the Killers, the Rapture, and basically everything else that starts with "the." She claims to not speak English, but she understands it perfectly from watching so many American TV shows/movies and listening to American music. For instance, I heard her singing along to "Billy Jean" last night while she was in the shower and she knew every damn word! It was impressive. Also, Portenos love to sing! Everyone here is always singing as they walk down the street or will just burst into song in the middle of a store and no one pays any attention. The Argentines like to think of themselves as very extroverted people, and they definitely are.

Elliott, who also goes by his last name, Benson, because no one here can pronounce "Elliott" is a fairly shy but sweet guy from South Carolina. He's very much the little brother of the house even though he's a year older than the rest of us. My other roommate is Natalie. She's from north of Dallas, Texas. She went to U of Michigan and is a very sweet girl who is going full speed non-stop! She's studying Spanish at the same school as I am and is planning on staying down here for a year. It's great having her around because she already has figured out all the cool places to go and the things that are worth seeing. I think she's saving me a lot of time that I could be wasting going to lame places. So that's cool. Don't worry, both Elliott and Natalie are voting for Obama, so they're good in my book.

Speaking of Obama, it's been really interesting to talk to people here and from other countries who I've met while I've been here about their opinions on American politics. It's really impressive that everyone here knows the two presidential candidates who are running in the US, while most people in the US probably couldn't locate Argentina on a map, much less tell you who their president is (her name is Cristina Krichner-- they already have a woman president!). Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what the Porteno attitude towards Americans is, the cab drivers definitely try to rip you off/take advantage of you if they know you're a tourist-- it's super common for people, tourists and locals alike, to get counterfeit money from cab drives-- but I think they're just as into American pop culture as the rest of the world. Except maybe Japan which is pretty fanatical and takes the cake on that one.

I've been doing a good bit of sight-seeing, but I'm not pushing myself too hard since I've got a lot of time to explore. I've been trying to get a taste for the different neighborhoods in Buenos Aires and today I went to el museo de bellas artes, which was actually a really nice (and free!) museum. I also went to see an Argentinian movie with one of my friends from school called un hombre para mi mujer. It was a romantic comedy and pretty predictable, so fairly easy to follow. I just kind of chuckled along with the rest of the audience even though I didn't really get all the jokes.

I'll end this entry with the photos that I promised. I'm still getting over the being an annoying American tourist with a camera thing, so I haven't taken a ton of photos, but beggars can't be choosers, okay people?

My building:

My room:

The view from my room:

The entrance to the apartment:

La casa rosada where the president works (kind of equivalent to our white house). This is located in the Plaza de Mayo which is very famous historically. Evita spoke here (along with many of the presidents) and las madres de la plaza de mayo were based here for a long time. The photo of the painted headscarf is their symbol:

An area of town called La Boca:

The magnificent building where my program's office is located:

My friend Teddy looking really awkward in the subte station:

Los primeros dias en Buenos Aires

2008-09-02T23:39:46Z

Where to even begin? Buenos Aires is in some ways exactly as I imagined it to be and in others completely different from what I thought it would be like. It is one part Paris, one part New York City, and one part South America. The city, as my professor said today, is in a bit of chaos, but that is precisely the only way that it can function. Everything feels very hodge-podge and pieced together almost recklessly. The bus system consists of too many routes to count, operated on by buses that seem to be straight out of the 1950's, coughing exhaust all over the crowded streets. The architecture is also this way. One building will have the most beautiful and decadent French-style facade, while the building next to it will be a horrendously ugly slab of concrete. There is quite a mix of the beautiful and the ugly in this city. You may find yourself in an impressive square in front of the congress building, but the streets will be so cracked as to make them completely unwalkable.

My first morning, I arrived in EZE, the airport here, bleary-eyed and hungry. The program that I came here with, GIC, met me at the airport and directed me to a taxi driver who had the address where I was to go. I had signed up to reside in a shared student apartment near the school where I would be taking classes. The driver dropped me off and directed me to buzz "el tercer piso," even though the address I had with me said I would be on the sixth floor. After being admitted to the building, I was able to find the landlord. She welcomed me into a beautiful old apartment that appeared to be a dormitory, placed me in a room with two Argentinian students and closed the door. At this point I was feeling a bit confused because before I had left to come down here I had read on the website that in shared student apartments everyone had her own room and that it would be only a few other students in the apartment. As I wandered around the residence where I was put, introducing myself to the many other Americans staying there, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that there had been a mistake. However, I shrugged my shoulders and accepted my roommates' invitation to go to the antique fair in San Telmo.

After following around three Argentinian girls who were jabbering away in Spanish for over two hours, I was feeling pretty exhausted and just a touch lonely. When I came back to the residence I chatted with the other American students who, for the most part, had been in Buenos Aires for at least a month previous. It was beginning to feel a bit too much like my freshman year at college, so I escaped with two of the American students to go see a concert. The music was what can only be described as a Argentinian hipster/Argentinian folk music mixed with techno. It was all very strange and after one fernet y cola (the national drink, which although I'm not sure what it is entirely, tastes like something between licorice, peppermint, and metal) I was exhausted and finally returned to the residence to sleep.

Although I slept for 10 hours I felt like I could have slept for 10 more. As I was getting ready to leave to head over to the language school for my orientation, the landlord knocked on the door. "You know there's been a mistake," she said to me in Spanish, "you're not supposed to be living here." I sighed with relief. It had felt a little daunting to think about spending the next two months sharing a tiny room with two other girls. Although the residence was very clean and very beautiful, I felt way too old to be living in that arrangement. Most of the students there were a few years younger than me and still in college (just young tots!).

I attended my orientation and took a placement test, placing in nivel 5 which is the first level of the advanced levels at the school. That gave me a huge confidence boost that I desperately needed and has encouraged me to speak more Spanish and try not to be so afraid to go in to stores and buy things (like food, which is pretty necessary). After all that, I was finally able to move into my new apartment (where I was supposed to be living). The building is one of the beautiful old ones (but it's sandwiched in between two ugly buildings). The apartment itself has beautifully tiled floors and is rather large. I live with one Argentinian girl and two Americans. We are all 22 and all students. It was an enormous relief to move into my own room which is much quieter and not so dorm-like. My roommates are really sweet and the apartment is perfect. I even have a little Parisian-style balcony on my window.

I realize that this entry is getting a bit long and that I'm really giving a blow-by-blow, but if you're reading this, you're probably bored at a desk somewhere, so I'm just doing my part to keep you entertained...

The neighborhood where I am living is not touristy at all, which is nice, but I also feel like people can tell that I'm not from here and see me as a bit of an oddity. I'm living very near la plaza de los dos congresos, which is where the congress building is (I'm uncertain if it is actually used for congressional business or not). My block is some kind of musician haven; there are at least ten guitar stores on my street and even a small Guitar Center store. It seems that every block has its own specialty. One block down is completely covered with pawn shops selling jewelry. Also, the streets here are covered in graffiti, especially political graffiti. It covers everything ranging from meat is murder to destroy the establishment.

Today I had my first day of classes which was great. My class consists of about 15 or so students from all over. The majority are Americans, but there are many Europeans, a few Koreans, and one Brazilian. We have two different teachers who alternate days, but the one I met today was really great: very nice, smart, and understandable.

Anyway, as I still haven't done all that much, I'll end this entry for now. I'll include pictures as soon as I take some, I promise! I miss everyone so much and I'm already thinking about all the things I can't wait to do and the people I can't wait to see when I get back... But I'm trying very hard to be present here and now while I'm living in this city (which I'm still having a hard time believing!)

Dios Mio

2008-08-11T07:59:38Z

I finally sucked it up and bought my ticket a few weeks ago: I'm going to Argentina for three months to do a Spanish immersion program at the University of Buenos Aires. Although I am essentially taking an abbreviated and delayed semester abroad, which should be no big thang, I'm scared shitless! I've never traveled by myself and I'm not going with a group of kids from my school (much less a group of Americans, period), and I don't know a soul down there. In some ways this makes me feel that I'll have the most quote-unquote authentic experience. But on the other hand I think it's stupid as hell.

It's crazy to think that in two weeks I'll be packing up my room, putting Santa Cruz and the 2007-2008 school year behind me entirely, preparing for my imminent move to Los Angeles, and packing to go abroad for three months all at the same time. I definitely feel ready for the next chapter of my life-- I've out grown my Santa Cruz britches-- but it can be a little overwhelming thinking about MY WHOLE LIFE ahead of me. I'm in the place in life where adults wish they could return and where those of us who are just blooming as young adults just wish they could fast-forward to a few years down the road. I feel like I'm about to jump in head first with a blindfold on.

Oh boy.

Muzak

2008-06-09T18:09:46Z

Everyone loves music, that's pretty much a given. Dating a musician whose entire world pretty much revolves around playing music, discovering new and bizarre kinds of music, and creating music, I think about music a lot. Recently I've been thinking about music even more due to my new job as a waitress at a touristy little chowder shack/diner on the wharf.

A few weeks ago, the owner installed a fancy new sound system including an XM radio with a ridiculous amount of channels. Every morning when the owner comes in to open the restaurant, he puts on his favorite radio station which plays jazz. Then, if I'm the one opening that morning, as soon as he leaves I change the station to a rock hits channel which plays everything from David Bowie to Black Sabbath to T. Rex. And this is all well and good. I get to spend two or three blissful hours in the restaurant in the morning with few customers and great music.

This all comes to a rapid halt around two o'clock, however, when the manager of the restaurant comes in. Usually the restaurant is starting to pick up at around two and more and more people begin trickling in for lunch. While I'm distracted with serving customers, the manager changes the XM station to a station called Water Colors. Now, if you cannot tell from merely the title of this station that it is cheesy elevator music, let me assure you that it is. It's music with boring arrangements, a generic sound, and would definitely classify as easy listening, which I find is not easy to the listen to at all. Then for the next two hours or so that I am running around the little dining room trying to make sure that everyone is happy, I can no longer listen to my favorite sing-a-long songs that keep me in a good mood. Instead, I am forced to listen to Water Colors. Woe is me.

Piano Lessons

2008-01-30T07:07:00Z

So a few weeks ago I found a woman on Craigslist who was offering to give cheap piano lessons. Below is part I of our email exchange:

Hello!
My name is Moira Kerrigan and I am responding to your ad on craigslist for piano lesson. I'm a student at UCSC and live near downtown Santa Cruz. I don't have a piano, but I do have a keyboard-- would you be willing to work with that? Please email me back when you get a chance, I really want to get started with lessons in the beginning of January. Thanks!
Moira

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 14:41:25 -0800 (PST)

Susan Joyce wrote:
Hi Moira...

Thanks for responding to my ad. I'd be totally happy to teach you. If you spend much time at UCSC, you can use the practice rooms there simply by signing in on the sheet on the doors to reserve a time, or you can use any empty room.

Have you taken before? Do you read music or need to learn? Is classical music what you want to play or do
you want to play other kinds? I can adapt to what your needs are.

Let's keep in touch and maybe we can schedule a meeting right after the break.
Thanks again for contacting me!
Susan

Moira Anabel Kerrigan <mkerriga@ucsc.edu> wrote:

Hi Susan,
Thanks for getting back to me. I like the idea of practicing up on campus, too. I took piano lessons a very long time ago for a very short amount of time, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch. I don't read music at all.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of piano I'd like to learn-- probably more rock/pop/contemporary music rather
than classical. I'll send you an email when I get back from the break and maybe we can set up a meeting and
discuss hourly fees, etc. Thanks so much! I'm really looking forward to working with you!

Moira

On Mon, 7 Jan 2008 09:43:05 -0800 (PST)
Susan Joyce wrote:

Hi Moira

Hope you had a good holiday break.

Let me know when you are settled in for the quarter and then we can talk about meeting. I'm looking forward to meeting you.

Thanks
Susan

On Mon, 7 Jan 2008 09:43:05 -0800 (PST)
Susan Joyce wrote

Hi Moira

Thanks for emailing! Wednesday is good. Does 3 pm work? And an long hour is fine. Hope you have a good week and I'll email you again to confirm Wednesday.

Best

Susan

So, to make a long story short(er), we decided to meet on Wednesday at 4pm in the Music Center on campus. I arrived at our appointed meeting place about ten minutes early and ran into my friend Linnea. While I was waiting for Susan to show up, Linnea and I chatted. At about 4:15 I was feeling a little disappointed because I hadn't seen any signs of my soon-to-be piano teacher. Suddenly a frumpy looking woman in sweatpants with a half-eaten cup of ice cream in her hand stormed frantically through the hall.
"Is THAT your piano teacher?" Linnea exclaimed. "Oh my God, Moira, I really hope that's not. That woman is seriously crazy. She always signs up to use practice rooms for like, six hours straight even though she's not a student and she's technically not allowed to do that. She even tried to kick Adrian out of the room he was using and when he wouldn't let her in, she burst into hysterical tears and told him how she can't hold down a job and that she's been working at five different churches in the past five years or something... No one I know has had a good experience with her."
"I really don't think that's her," I replied. "She seemed really nice and normal in our emails." And just as we began to resume our former conversation, the frazzled woman we had just been speaking of approached us and nearly screamed "Is one of you Moira!?" mispronouncing the silent letter "i" in my name.
"Y-y-y-es," I admitted. "You must be Susan. Well, um, it's already quarter past four and I have class at five on the other side of campus, so I don't think today will really... you know... work out for a lesson," I stammered.
"Can I email you to reschedule for next week?" Mind you, I had no intention whatsoever of emailing this woman as she had clearly demonstrated herself to be highly unprofessional and probably a crazy person. We agreed I would email her and she half-muttered an apology for her tardiness and then flashed me a cruel look which made me feel that she knew what I thinking; however, I hoped this would only mean that we had a mutual understanding that it was clearly not fated that we would work together.

Now I shall let part II of our emails tell the rest of the story.

From: Susan Joyce <susanjoyce23@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Piano Lessons
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:40:32 -0800 (PST)
To: Moira Anabel Kerrigan

Moira

Apologies for being late. I was on campus myself and misjudged the walking time to the music building, which was much longer than I thought it would be. I hope it did not disrupt your schedule. If next week works for you, maybe we can try again.

Thanks for your patience and I apologize again that today did not work out.

Susan

(I did not respond to this email in hopes that she would harass me no further. I was, of course, mistaken.)

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:23:54 -0800 (PST)
Susan Joyce <susanjoyce23@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hi Moira

I haven't heard anything from you about rescheduling, so I'm assuming you don't want lessons or have found someone you like better.

If you still want lessons, just let me know.

If downtown works better, that's fine with me.

Susan

Moira Kerrigan <mkerriga@ucsc.edu> wrote:

Hi Susan,
So sorry I didn't get back to you! This quarter actually looks like it's going to be too busy for me to take lessons. Maybe we can work something out in the spring.

Thanks though and take care.

Moira

From: Susan Joyce <susanjoyce23@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re:
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:45:52 -0800 (PST)
To: Moira Anabel Kerrigan <mkerriga@ucsc.edu>

How did I know that was going to be your answer?

Don't worry. I think that I made a bad impression on you looks wise. I arrived to the lesson late and you don't want to work with me. Thanks for soft-pedalling it though. Maybe you will find a younger, more attractive teacher at some point.

(And then in a separate email sent fourteen minutes later:)

From: Susan Joyce <susanjoyce23@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re:
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:00:30 -0800 (PST)
To: Moira Anabel Kerrigan <mkerriga@ucsc.edu>

Also, I don't really play the piano.
It was all a hoax.

Kind of inappropriate, no?

New year

2008-01-04T06:47:32Z

I just want everyone I love to be in the same place. I'm sick of missing you guys all the damn time.

Two in the Pink

2007-12-25T18:22:30Z

So it's Christmas! Which is totally great! This year I made off with some really useful and delightful gifts including a pair of moccasin boots (I know, I'm so behind the times), a bike helmet, and a sweet Christmas myspace page/song from Sean for our band (www.myspace.com/yousaypotato)! Also an interesting-looking book that my sister claims "all the English majors at Oberlin are obsessed with," which can't be a bad thing.

Last night we had some old family friends over for dinner. One of the daughters who is my age used to be a good friend of mine when we were little, but we haven't kept in touch and it was really wonderful to catch up with her and the whole family.

Alas, however. Not only is this Christmas utterly without snow, but since yesterday Zoe has been infected with (two in the) pink eye! Talk about a stink! Which brings me not to watching old videos of myself as a kid with my beloved kid sister, but instead posting to my livejournal on Christmas day.

I'm doing a lot of hand washing, however, and using the day to be thankful for not having pink eye, which is kind of what Christmas is all about.

My band

2007-12-11T09:21:46Z

www.myspace.com/yousaypotato

I'm ready to go back to New York. I want winter, heat, friends, new year's eve, food, and city.

moirak @ 2007-11-25T18:14:00

2007-11-26T02:19:39Z

Although I didn't make it home to New York for Thanksgiving, I did make it up to Palo Alto to do the family thing with Sean's family. It was really nice to be in a real, real home (as opposed to a college home where we don't turn the heat on, etc.) and to have a big fat meal and to spend some quality time with the fam... Sean's fam, but the fam nonetheless.

Now I'm sick with a cold and struggling through lots and lots of reading. But I got into all the classes I really wanted to take for next quarter, which I'm so excited about, and I'm gearing up to head back to New York for Christmas and New Years. I'm glad I'll get to be in NYC for New Years, because even though I won't be with Sean, I will be dressin' up, drinkin' champagne, and (hopefully) dancin' my ass off. That is pretty much the ideal New Years Eve if I can't be with the boy. Me in a black sequined dress, the NYC gurrls, and the bitter cold city.

Why I am thinking about New Years already? I've got to get through all this other stuff...

You say potato

2007-10-25T21:36:38Z

is going to be the name of my one-girl band

Konichiwa!

2007-09-16T23:41:02Z

Just arrived in Tokyo last night after such a long day of traveling. Met up with my cousin for dinner last night and had some great food. This place is a trip, but I still haven't really gone out to explore at all yet, so I think we're going to head out soon, to do what, I don't know. I can't wait to see what's going on here! Right now all I know is that it's fucking hot and humid. But really awesome, nonetheless.

Images

2007-08-23T18:39:25Z

Luckily, my internship has led me to some cool images while doing photo research. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Peter Fonda

2007-08-17T19:46:34Z

Oh my goodness, do I love that man. Also, this:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12836725

Lightning, the heavy word is frightning

2007-08-10T20:13:34Z

When I'm on the West Coast, I do terribly miss the heavy thunder and lightning storms that we have out here in the East (although I hear that LA gets thunder and lightning occasionally), but the other night, I experienced the most incredibly terrifying storm yet.

I woke up around 5:30am on Wednesday morning because there was lightning so bright that I could see it flashing with my eyes closed. Simultaneously I heard an enormous crash of thunder which I initially thought was a building falling. When I wiped my bleary eyes and shook a little of the sleep out of my head, I myself in the middle of a torrential rain storm.

After covering my head with a pillow in a feeble attempt to mute the sound of the storm, I was finally able to fall back asleep cowering under the covers.

When I woke to go to work, I discovered that all of the subways had flooded so no trains were running (although by this point it was eerily sunny and hot and humid as ever). Made the long trek uptown in that heat wearing jeans and boots and carrying my umbrella (it didn't rain again until today).

Although it always seems a deep let-down when it rains in the summer, the rain today, which is far less deluge-like than on Wednesday, is actually very welcome. It's finally cool and it's a good excuse to stay get warm and eat some Chinese food (for some reason Chinese food is my staple cold, rainy weather food).

Also, I bought Carol Lewis's Alice in Wonderland yesterday, which I can't wait to dig into; this seems the perfect opportunity.

I miss this

2007-07-30T01:28:10Z

Art and things

2007-07-27T21:02:37Z

It's 5 o'clock on a Friday and I've been sitting at my desk all day mindlessly scrolling through pages on the internet, spreadsheets, and word documents, yet I am stalling leaving the office because I just came upon Miranda July's website which is incredibly awesome:

mirandajuly.com

I would totally love to hang out with that lady. Then again, she would probably think that I'm way too cynical and would leave me alone at the bar after telling me very politely that it was nice to meet me and now she has to go. But seriously, what a cool lady!

Post Script

2007-07-12T14:38:02Z

Yesterday I got two extremely exciting things in the mail:

a postcard from Courtney and Caitlin in Paris which had a picture of a giant cat photo-shopped so that it looks like it is sitting underneath the Eiffel Tower

and

a letter from one of my girls from Girls Moving Forward! A little sweet 4th grader named Consuelo. I was thrilled!

Right now I'm at work... my boss just left to go to a meeting and she was like "Okay, you're going to that presentation in an hour, I don't need to give you anything to do." Which is tiiiight. Plus, it's actually really beautiful in New York right now!

Such a good day!

I keep doing these kind of annoying 3 week recaps...

2007-07-07T20:47:54Z

But I'm just going to continue doing them anyway because I prefer it to updating my live journal everyday and sometimes interesting/important things DO actually happen in my life and I like to recount them here.

Being in New York is great, the internships are wonderful and the apartment is perfect. We've almost completely furnished it with great stuff we've picked up off the street (a brand new enormous leather chair, a sweet wooden table and chairs taken from the bar next door apparently owned by Fall Out Boy) as well as some goodies taken from our parents (thanks Kamala!). Our apartment has been and I think will continue to be a kind of revolving door hostel, which has its ups and downs. Downs mostly being our guests wanting us to go out and party with them and Legacy, Candace and I (Hayley is ever the party girl! Mad props) being like "waah, we have to wake up at 7am. Let us go to bed). The ups being of course lots of sweet friends (and making friends with my friends' friends) and the sweet gifts they leave behind (booze, things/$$ to furnish our apartment with, etc. -- thanks Tsione (I hope that's spelled right), Nina and Sean!).

Sean came out for 4 amazing days where the weather was beautiful and I didn't have to work. This was, of course, after a really traumatic almost not coming out thanks to Jet Blue experience where I almost had a nervous breakdown thinking about not seeing that boy for another unexpected 2 months. It felt like our honeymoon; we canoodled in the park with Legacy and Candace, visited the Met, saw a movie, snuggled a lot, hung out with the NYC crew, and smoked joints on the roof. I was so happy that Sean could come out to visit me and that my friends could finally meet him (and they liked him, too!).

Now I am in Nantucket (an island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts for you Californians) with my family. It's been really nice to be here, get out of the city and have some alone time with the family before my sister leaves for college in the fall! We are leaving tomorrow and I'm ready to get back to my place so we can host some more guests (I know Courtney's coming out soon!) and plan for our much-delayed party.

I can't believe it's going to be the second week in July already and in just less than 2 months I'll be heading back to California to see my man and hopefully move into a new place (granted we figure out this housing situation business). Or else I will just go hippie-style and do one of those woods living things where you make a tree house and shit in a bucket.

I can't wait to hear about Courtney and Caitlin's trip once Courtney gets here as I try to convince Caitlin and Jake to scrounge together the funds to add their names to our guest book. Wait, but we should seriously start a guest book... brilliant.

I have to admit, I do miss Santa Cruz a bit, but mostly my California crew. I miss the band and their girlfriends (namely Jessie), I miss riding my bike places, and I miss my friends from school. At least in the fall everyone will finally be back in town and then Santa Cruz will feel interesting and complete again (if only for 9 months until graduation...).

Signing off for now with sand in my toes (the East Coast, preppy kind of sand).

Summer of Love

2007-06-17T07:02:28Z

So I've just arrived in New York and I am spending the night at my folk's house in the 'burbs where I am eating delicious food and watching my sister get ready for her prom tomorrow night. Then I am finally, finally moving into my place where the Summer of Love 2007 is going to begin. By Summer of Love I really mean me cuddling Hayley while Legacy and Candace spoon and be a really cute couple.

Sean's in Tahoe right now playing a show at some fancy casino with AC/DShe, and each Renegade gets his own hotel room for the night! I wish I could be there with them, I'm sure they're having a great time between the "cigarettes in vending machines, legalized prostitution and no last call" as Sean so elegantly put it. There was a scare last night with their van but apparently they just bought some watered-down gas. Weird middle of nowhere on the 5 shit. I don't know.

I'm exhausted from finals, moving, racing to Palo Alto to hang out with Sean's family for a bit, helping the band with their gear, etc. and flying all the way out here. Not to mention I start one of my internships at 9am on Monday!

This summer is moving quickly already and I can't wait to get into the thick of things once I settle down into the apartment with the girls.

Now it's time for some desperately needed sleep...

Forward and onward!

2007-06-06T20:48:34Z

Since you've least heard/read from me I've managed to accomplish some things which are making my life quite pleasant right now.

I've secured an internship at Oxford University Press and at McGraw-Hill Publishing for the summer, got myself a sweet apartment with Legacy, Hayley and Candace on 11th St. and B, and by the end of today hopefully will have someone lined up to sublet my Santa Cruz room. Plus, I've (we've) sorted through all the housing stuff and now have a solid house of 6 wonderful people in the process of trying to find a place in SC for next year. Sean, although sadly out of his house, has been staying with me for the past week and a half which has been nice and just what we need before the long summer apart.

I'm so sad for Sean and the guys to head off into the vast landscape of America in the Great White Hope of the Phoenix van they've just bought, but I'm excited for them to be doing, really doing something with their music and I can't wait to be in New York where I won't have to deal with being hot/cold all the time. It'll just be fucking hot and sweaty and humid and wonderful.

Right now I am going to drink iced coffee, wear a pretty dress and read Virginia Woolf until I ride my bike downtown to the farmer's market (my first visit down there since I started tutoring, which thankfully now is over for the summer)!

Just one more day of class and three finals to go until I can move forward and onward!