Adventures in South America: April 2006

Seth and Gaby

Me and my Birthday Tart!

Gimena and Pato

Vanesa and Silvina

Kathy, Desiree, Vanesa

Trying to stop the tickle attacks from Desiree. Vanesa is on the right

Adriana and Gaby

Vanesa, Martin and Fernando

Ashley, me and LIli

Kathy, Lukas and Lili

The Megatlon Crew at my Birthday - Lukas, Claudio, Lili and Nico

It's MY Party!!

My birthday on April 22nd was a lot of fun. Definitely some déjà vu, as it was at the same place as last year – Morelia Pizza in Palermo Hollywood. It’s a swanky pizza place that has a private loft/living room type space that is perfect for a group of 15-25 people. In addition, pizza fits everyone’s budget. Seth and I, and 16 of our closest Argentine friends made it out that night. We arrived around 10pm and didn’t get home til 3am (which is the time Senior Citizens go to bed is this part of the world… 6/7am is more inline with my age group!). As we get closer to our departure date (May 9th) it’s been fun to get as many friends together as possible… to try and see as many people as possible before we leave. We are lucky to have such a good group of friends here, and we look forward to coming back to visit during future vacations.

Kathy, Adrian and Deepali with a Cow from the Puerto Madero Cow Parade

Adrian and Deepali in Buenos Aires for a visit

Sunday Brunch at Olsen with Silvina, Deepali, Lili, Vanesa and Kathy

Seth, Sergio and Gonzalo

Just the 6 of us (plus Seth taking the picture!)

Deepali, Adrian and Pablo

Monday night Dinner at Bangalore

Atilio, Florencia, Kathy and Seth

Atilio, Florencia and friend

Celebrating Passover with the family

Atilio's grandparents at Passover Seder

semana santa

semana santa (holy week) - it is that time year again Easter (pasqua) for christians - pretty much all catholic here in argentina - and Pesach (passover) for jews. here in argentina it starts on thursday and mainly it is a long weekend of seeing family and relaxing. On Thursday night we were invited by a friend of ours. Florencia, to the home of her husbands (Atilio) family for what is known as Seder (in celebration of passover the 1st two nights of the holiday you usually have a traditional meal with family and friends).

Atilio's family is Sephardic (meaning of spanish or middle eastern descent, as opposed to most jews in the u.s. who are ashkenazi/eastern european/russian descent). And so with Sephardim the food is completely different, one major difference is they eat rice while traditionally my family does not (on this holiday). It was a nice size group of about 20 people including his mother, grandparents, brother/sister, and brother/sisternlaw, cousin, uncle etc... of course as is traditional in foreign countries nowdays when you are introduced as being from the u.s. there is sure to be a few people who ask about our "friend" George (in case you dont get the reference think about our intelligent president). let's just say he has a lot of "admirers" worldwide:)

some of the conversation got pretty lively (all in good fun:) atilio's brothernlaw, Walter, made some interesting points about the bellicose nature of the u.s. historically using the example of in ww2 after the japanese attacked pearl harbor (and killed about 5k innocent people) we used that as justification to drop (the only time so far and hopefully forever) 2 atomic bombs on them killing instantly over 100,000 innocent people:( - for further reading American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - anyway i thought it was an interesting point and he made the analogy to today, not sure i fully agree but its always nice to hear other perspectives. overall everyone was really nice and the evening went very late (2am) as is typical here in buenos aires, with espresso, wine, good conversation ahhhhhh porteno life...

the actual traditional part of the meal (meaning the prayers, story etc...) was essentially the same and that cultural/historical link is nice to feel even halfway around the world:) i really appreciate the warmth and hospitality that was shown to us by Atilio and his family and thank Florencia for thinking of us and inviting us. Hopefully one day we can show them the same in nyc...

Happy Holidays everyone!

When in Armenia...

Last night we went with our Fernando Schapachnik to an Armenian restaurant called.... Armenia (bet you didn't see that one coming!). It's a restaurant that's located at the Armenian Cultural Center here on Armenia Street (in Palermo Viejo). Fernando recommended the restaurant for a fun night out and I really enjoyed the experience. Armenian cuisine has a lot of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences. We had a price fix option for $24 Pesos (per person) that included 3 appetizers, 1 main course and dessert (per person). We enjoyed Tabbuleh, Hummus, a spread made from Roasted Red Peppers, salad of roasted eggplant, red pepper. almonds and raisins, and grape leaves stuffed with rice as appetizers. For main course we had beef shish kebabs and for dessert baklava, fruit salad and mamul (a type of cookie stuffed with nuts and sprinkled with powdered sugar). What made the evening particularly interesting was that there was an Armenian dance performance that occurs every Friday and Saturday night. There were four talented dancers - 3 men and 1 women - in traditional garb that performed various dances and explained the meaning and history of each dance. Of course there was the standard audience participation and the crowd was very lively. Will definitely go back to this old school restaurant the next time I am in the mood for Armenian food.

"They will remain alive for as long as we do, for by remembering them they are already part of us." We dedicate this display to the 30 thousand dissappeared, in the memory of Victor Galuz and Armando Croatto. We invite you to complete this dedication with the names of the people you would like to remember.

random thoughts

well, its been awhile in between posts i thought i would just throw together a list of random things.

sundays in buenos aires:) they are truly special in the sense that it is a real day of rest (not necessarily in the religious sense) but the fact is most people take the day to relax. the usual activities are eat a big lunch get together with family or friends, watch futbol and of course sleep in from saturday nights activies... i love the tranquility and lack of activity on a sunday where the city really recharges and takes a break.

futbol locura. this year is the world cup and in addition to it being just general hype and craziness they have now floated the idea of closing schools on the day argentina plays! there is absolutely nothing to compare to the importance of futbol here as a sport. when the two biggest local teams are playing (boca jrs, or river plate) you can usually here screams after gooooooooools from all over and if they happen to be playing each other in a super-clasico (twice a yr) everybody in the city pays attention. its hard to put into words the level of craziness the fans have here for futbol.

24 de marzo. that is the day that was declared a holiday this year in memory of the start of the military dictatorship here on march 24th, 1976, which lasted 7 years. there were countelss articles, tv shows, street marches etc... in advance of this day and on the day. i think it is good that the country is facing its past and demons and teaching its children about what happened so that they can truly live up to the 'nunca mas' slogans. the other day kathy and i went to a museum dedicated to this era. it had many chilling photos, satire and information unfortunately the good ole u.s.a was involved. i wonder how many people in the u.s. know our involvement in destabilizing latin american countries during this era (chile, brasil, el salvador, panama, nicaragua etc.....) and our role in providing tactictal military advice and not to mention infusing us$$ - it would be nice if we were taught our history in our schools:)

and lastly for now how bout it for the 2006 ncaa mens national champs, Florida Gators!! :) it was fun watching here with commentary in spanish.
thats it for now i will try and check in more this last month.

Long overdue South Africa Wrap Up

During our last two days in South Africa, we just enjoyed being there. We spent one afternoon at the beach. Afterwards we went to a bar in Clifton and met two lovely Black South African women named Cynthia and Moretlo. We had very interesting conversation with them – the conversation started because they were sitting at the table next to us and one of them began to loudly express her glee over the fact that the South African movie “Tsotsi” one the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. This was big news in South Africa and was in every newspaper. We invited them to join us at our table and learned that they both moved to Cape Town from Johannesburg several years ago (they are both in their early 30’s). Moretlo is a Hair Stylist in a salon where most of the clientele is white and Cynthia is a Make up artist. It was very interesting to hear their perspectives about the race situation in South Africa. Their general sentiment, which seemed to echo the feelings of the black South Africans that we came into contact with, is that to forgive, but not to forget. They don’t seem to harbour any negative feelings about Apartheid and are just trying to improve their lives. This was a really enlightening evening for us, as this was the first meaningful contact that we had with young, black professionals in Cape Town.

On our last night, we went to an Improvisational Comedy Show at the Artscape Theatre Center. That night we also happened upon the opening night party being held at the center for the Cape Town Theatre Festival. It was quite a big shindig with free food, wine and entertainment. There were several hundred people there! We had a good time at the ‘pre-party’ before watching the enjoyable Improvisation group. Afterwards we went to a bar on Kloof Street (the “nightscene” of sleepy Cape Town).

Some other observations about Cape Town
Many of the roads are one way along the drive to the Garden Route. Common passing courtesy in South Africa dictates that you put on your blinking emergency lights when you pass someone on a one lane road
The hardest part about the Garden Route drive was that the radio stations were AWFUL. There were two stations for most of the drive – one was in Afrikaans, the other seemed to be big fans of Jefferson Starship. For a country that has such a rich musical history, we had a hard time finding any decent music on the radio.
As is the case in Buenos Aires, in Cape Town you are also expected to Tip ‘Car Attendents’. These Car Attendents were self appointed locals who would come up to your car as you were parking, and inform you that they were going to guard your car. They expected a tip upon your return.
Baboon Crossing signs – Along several points along our drive to the Cape of Good Hood, there were signs indicating a Baboon Crossing. That was a “you know you are in South Africa” moment for me.
Kingklip Fish – the most common type of fish eating in South AFrica
Umoja – a very entertaining play that we saw while we were in Cape Town. It was a musical that told a story about the history of South Africa music – lots of great dance numbers.
Hitchhiking is very common – there does not seem to be a great public transport infrastructure.
Rooibos Tea – basically the national beverage of South Africa. It is a type of tea that is grown only in South Africa. It’s considered very healthy and has no caffeine. We drank this tea nearly every day and purchased quite a bit to bring back.
Springbok (a type of antelope) and Ostrich meat are commonly found in the grocery store.
Woolworth’s in South Africa is an upscale Target-like National Brand. In addition to selling clothing and household goods, they also have great grocery stores
In many of the restaurants we went to in Cape Town, there were very few blacks that weren’t part of the staff.
“Pleasure” We heard this phrase over and over again while we were in South Africa. Instead of saying “You’re Welcome”, “Pleasure” is said – short for “It’s a pleasure.” Ile de Pain and Lush in Thesen Islands - two restaurants we ate at while in the Garden Route

Martin getting cosy with a bear outside of the restaurant German restaurant Baviera (Bavaria in Spanish) in Belgrano

Adventures in South America

Saturday, April 29, 2006

It's MY Party!!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

semana santa

Saturday, April 08, 2006

When in Armenia...

Friday, April 07, 2006

Thursday, April 06, 2006

random thoughts

Long overdue South Africa Wrap Up

Sunday, April 02, 2006

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