31 July 2012

Proyecto Dino

This weekend for Sandro's birthday we visited the Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University's museum and fossil lab here in Philadelphia. There, we met two young women who had the opportunity to work on the Argentinosaurus found in Patagonia! We saw the 3 foot long femur and some of the vertebrae up close while they were skillfully chipping away at the crud that had been attached to these bones for tens of millions of years.



Dinosaurs 230 million years old and weighing 60 tons have been excavated in Patagonia, the southern most province of Argentina. These are the biggest and oldest dinosaur fossils ever found! With an excellent preservation climate, this region has produced fossils of creatures called Giganotosaurus, Titanosaurus, and Argentinosaurus. The city of Neuquén, in its public excavation site, has unearthed thirty dinosaurs, carnivores and herbivores, and their bowling ball sized eggs since the 1990s. We can even go there and see the dinos ourselves! The paleontologists at this national interest site allow visitors and are available to answer questions, explain their techniques, give tours of the site, and even put people up for the night. Has anyone been to Lake Barreales or worked with Project Dino?



29 July 2012

Buenos Aires Dream State...

It's midnight on countdown day 73 before we leave Philadelphia, the United States, for Argentina. The aim of these notes is to solicit the wisdom of those who have gone before us and to pass what we gain on to those who consider it after. Well, honesty suits me well today, and I must say - I am already mourning the loss of familiarity. When my days are filled with bbqs, friends, and my home, it does hurt to think these things will belong to someone else, or at least only in my memories. I'm choosing to give my nest, my long walks home through South Philly after dark, my favorite corner store, my confidence and belonging, to whoever takes my place here, in return for the unknown. Some days it feels crazy and some days absolutely perfect. But 'There's no time like the present' rings so true right now, and besides the fact that I have a super game partner in crime, it's what's getting me there. And also that we'll get to visit THE SOUTH POLE (ish)! Something I've learned already from planning this trip is that (given the privilege of having fewer systematic, social barriers in my way than many other genres of person), life is just decisions and moves we make. Sure, there are so many things that can and will steer a well intentioned plan off track, and no one knows how things will go once we get there. But we have motivation, and curiosity, and youth on our side, which gives us a pretty fair shot.

(map via migy)

All this to say...friends and family at home, Thank You. Keep us in mind. Potential Buenos Aires arrivals, you can do it. Think practically and revel in your excitement. We really do only get one go at this!

24 July 2012

Blog-spiration

All About Buenos Aires

o Argentina Independent
o Before We Age
o Buenos Aires Expat Hub
o Buenos Aires Foodies
o Discover Buenos Aires
o FotosEli
o Gringo in Buenos Aires
o La Dulce Vida
o Landing Pad BA
o My.Beautiful.Air
o My Buenos Aires Travel Guide
o NOLA Chef
o SaltShaker
o The Modern Nomad
o The Real Argentina
o Yanqui Mike


More Great Blogs

o Petrifying Forms
o Doggie Eyes
o Style is Style


Blog Tools

o Something Swanky
o PicMonkey
o Image Maps
o EEF Etcetera
o Great Fun 4 Kids

Ferias

There is nothing I love more than a street fair. Any kind of outdoor social event, really. Carnivals, flea markets, yard sales, food fests, whatever. Something about gathering with strangers to check out whatever it is the vendors are hawking is really pleasing to most of my senses. I love the slow pace of walking through the stalls. I want to see every single thing, taste every single sample, and pet every single dog. I don't even care about buying anything, though I get excited when something awesome is cheap. It's more the looking and being out, and even talking to the vendors and other people who are strolling the market, that really draws me to these kind of events.

Philadelphia is pretty good at street fairs. The Philadelphia Flea Markets Association hosts markets in parks all over the city every weekend in the summer and in warehouses every winter. A lot of the same people and new people participate each week and there are always new things to be seen. There are farmer's markets every day of the week in Philly and even night markets where food trucks battle it out for the "Best Taco" or "Best Pulled Pork" awards. I love this stuff!



Lucky for me, Buenos Aires could be called the Street Fair Capital of ... well, at least Argentina! Ferias are a way of life there and cater to not just tourists but locals as well. These markets sell anything from fresh produce to antiques to clothing to lunch! Everything I want in life? Pretty much. On our trip to BA last year, I dragged Sandro to a new market everyday. I mostly just perused, but I did pick up some handmade jewelry as gifts, as well as a hip bag and a mate gourd for myself! The real pleasure was in chatting with the vendors (read: fumbling through my Spanish!), sipping hot mate, and people watching in a new place.

Here are a list of some of the ferias I really loved:

Feria de Plaza Serrano
Located at Plaza Serrano at the corners of Serrano and Honduras in Palermo Soho. Open on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 11am-7pm, but don't be surprised if the vendors are still setting up shop at noon or 1pm! This is where I found my handmade hip bag of denim and neon, woven Bolivian fabric for $8 USD. The crafter was a sweetheart who helped me find the perfect fit. I also bough inexpensive leather earrings here for all my girl friends back home.

Feria de Recoleta
This market circles the Recoleta Cemetery on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 9am-6pm. Mostly catering to the tourists who are admiring the graveyard, this market offers a thousand takes on the traditional mate and bombilla, prints and paintings of Buenos Aires, and a variety of leather goods. I bought my mate gourd here for $6 USD. It's not the best quality, but it got me through half a bag of tea on our trip!

Feria de San Telmo
This market stretches all the way down Defensa and to Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo. There are hundreds of vendors every Sunday, with some showing up on Saturdays as well. The indoor mercado there on Defensa is open everyday from 10am-7pm. These ferias are packed with antique furniture, housewares, clothing, and art. Crafts, electronics, modern housewares, and of course, food make up this eclectic, high traffic event. We spent hours walking up and down, and I picked up a hand carved and painted lechuza, a tiny wooden owl (a reminder of our favorite Italian restaurant, La Lechuza in Palermo Viejo).



Disclaimer: I am aware that many of the vendors and their wares at these markets are inauthentic. Being open to conversation and critical about high priced items are the keys to not getting ripped off in any situation where money changes hands. Enjoy the people watching, the local street cuisine, and pick up a small token for yourself or a friend.

20 July 2012

Lookin' Good.


Argentina's 'National Dishes'

In case you didn't notice, this blog is not only a record of a life experiment, it is also an experiment in blogging itself. Meta, I know. I'm really learning how to make a blog interesting and useful enough that people read it, self aware enough to not be self indulgent, and good looking enough that I like looking at it. Ha! There are so many aspects to blog design and for me they can be challenging and really fun. Today, for instance, I learned how to make a decent looking photo collage(see above!). I'm so tempted to go back and change all my other posts; deleting all the Blogger template image placements and creating something more sleek looking. But I've decided to leave them as is so that I have an account of my progress.

All that to say, this blog should be easier on the eyes in the coming posts!
xo,
Amber

18 July 2012

Connect

This is why I do this blog.

From Reddit.com/r/argentina
from MB6K sent 7 days ago
"So I commented on your post a little while back, and I just wanted to let you know how much I love your blog! I am leaving a week from today for BsAs, so needless to say I am super pumped and researching everything there is to know. You write very enjoyable articles, and I have learned more by reading your blog than I have by doing 100 google searches, haha. Just wanted to say thank you!" :)

No, far away friend. Thank you!

What's an Expat Anyway?

The first time I heard the term "expat", it was in a gossip mag and in reference to Johnny Depp and his 80s, French, existential crisis. I assumed he hated America and all the wealth and fame it had given him so much so that he simply couldn't bear to live there anymore. He retreated to a more exotic locale where he became an Ex-Patriate. Very romantic!


Image courtesy of Starr Secrets.

Today, the term expat is more common and refers to anyone living somewhere other than the country in which they have citizenship. Expat infers that there is some kind of longevity or commitment to the living arrangement without a legal citizenship change. So maybe you're not an expat if you are studying abroad for a semester; and you are a proper citizen if you have gone through another country's naturalization process. However, like all socially constructed labels, it is a fluid term that, as far as I'm concerned, people use as they will.

I bring up the term expat because it is difficult to miss when learning about Buenos Aires on the internet. In researching just how to live in Argentina for an indeterminate amount of time, I have found expat forums, expat services, expat bars, and everything else you can imagine. There is quite a community presence of American, European, and South American citizens living and working together while mingling cultures with the locals. Well, at least there is on the internet. As a soon-to-be member of this population, I am interested to see how the online representation of this group corresponds to the people on the ground, living there and working it out.


Bilingual pub quiz?! This looks awesome! So is it?

So my questions are:

Is there an active community of expats in Buenos Aires? And I mean community in the fullest sense of the word; people with similar goals and interests living and working to create a cohesive group.
If the expat community is active, how is it viewed by the locals? Are self-proclaimed expats accepted as contributors to the culture and city, or is the group seen as parasitic?
What have been the positive and negative cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of the influx of expats in Buenos Aires in the last couple of decades?
Do expats live in particular areas of Buenos Aires, or are they integrated into many areas of the city?
What are some tips for a person trying this whole thing out for the first time?

For those of you considering the move, I'll be sure to update with my perceptions after I've been there long enough to have a clue! For now, those of you who have done it, what do you think??

16 July 2012

A Work in Progress...

So much to do! Here is my brain on a platter:

July

o Book apartment for October. Just a roof over our head while we find a place to live.



o Celebrate Sandro's 32nd Birthday!



August

o Have a million backyard BBQs. Basically what we are doing with our summer anyway. So much Philly, so much friends, so much food and fun.



o Secure some more web-based work. I'd like to get the majority of my expenses covered this way ASAP.

September

o Get an eye exam and new glasses. Staying on top of it.



o Get rid of everything. You're invited.
- Have a yard sale
- Have a clothing swap
- Give lots of presents

o Move to West Chester. This will happen September 30, a week before we actually leave. Miccio is going to be living with Sandro's family, so this will be her new home!
- Pack up clothes, treasures, and la gata
- Get the cat's microchip updated

13 July 2012

Where is Buenos Aires??

I'm no expert. I've been to Buenos Aires once for 12 days. I spend time internet researching the city, but due to the lightning speed rate of social, political, economic, and everything-else change in Argentina, so much of the info out there is outdated as of this morning.
But I thought it would be helpful to do a quick overview of BA for all those friends/family/expat hopefuls who don't know a lot about where on god's green earth we're up-and-outing to.
Here are some basic stats to get started:



Buenos Aires is the largest city in Argentina and its capital, but it is not the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires. The city is an autonomous district, similar to Washington DC in the States.
Three million people live in Buenos Aires (Philly has two million), and the city is approximately 60% the size of Philadelphia in square miles. The city sits right at the convergence of the Uruguay and Paraná Rivers on the estuary of the Río de la Plata, which dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. It looks like this from outerspace:



Thanks to that sweet geographic situation, the climate is pretty medium. In January, at the height of summer, temperatures average 77 degrees Fahrenheit (though 90 degree days are not unheard of) and it's a bit humid. Winter is chilled and foggy and averages 51 degrees (again, it could get down to the 30s) in July. So the coastal climate is not far from what I'm used to in Philadelphia, but with that breeze that lives in my California bones. I'll take it.

Porteños, people from the port of Buenos Aires, are largely the descendants of Italian and Spanish immigrants. The city boasts a large Jewish population and pockets of indigenous South Americans, eastern and northern Europeans, and Asian immigrants. As a modern, cosmopolitan city, it is as diverse as any other major global metropolis.

With all of those people you can imagine the language is pretty interesting (or I do at least!). Porteños speak a form of Spanish called Castellano, or Rioplatanese Spanish. This sounds like a mix of the Spanish spoken in Andalusia, Spain and Neapolitan Italian. So an ' s ' is sometimes lispy and a double ' l ' sounds something like an english ' j '. Pronunciation can be non-traditional and some verb tenses used are uncommon in much of Latin America. Needless to say, my American Spanish has some work to do!



Regarding other awesome cultural aspects of Buenos Aires:

The city is compact, dense, and full of life. The streets are narrow, cobble-stoned or paved, sometimes tree-lined, and generally one-way (except Avenida 9 de Julio, which is arguably the widest boulevard in the world with 9 lanes, garden medians, and 3 separate crosswalks to get through!).
Buenos Aires is a neighborhoody city, much like Philadelphia, where pockets of common architecture, culture, and aesthetic preferences exist, bounded my major thoroughfares or natural obstacles. Residential areas consist of a mix of older, row-like homes, and apartment buildings with restaurants, markets, and other small businesses occupying the ground floor store fronts. Neighborhoods are often characterized by their particular parks, city squares, and outdoor food and craft markets. Microcentro, or the downtown business district, owes it's skyline to regular skyscrapers, brick and mortar, and sooooo much beautiful French, Spanish, Italian, and Rioplatanese baroque style architecture. Here's some visual assistance:





Buenos Aires is super walkable and the city also offers a free, shared bicycle rental program with over 700 bicis available and 100 miles of protected bike lanes. Buses and the subway system are doable and effective when you know where you're going. Because the public transportation systems are government subsidized, a single ride costs only $2.50 ARG (45 cents USD!).



While we're talking pesos, let me tell you something else awesome:

The cost of living in Buenos Aires is, on average, 20-40% less than Philadelphia. Right now, the exchange rate is $4.5 ARG to $1 USD. Remember, it depends on who you ask, what day it is, and what you include in your living expenses. From my personal experience:
Rent on a studio/1 bedroom apartment in a decent barrio: $400-700 USD (depending on whether you're getting native or tourist rates, which depends on your landlord schmoozing skills).
Cost of dinner out at a typical Argentine Parilla: $12 USD + 10% tip per person(this includes bread and cheese, a glass of local wine, a meat-heavy entree, salad, tiramisu, and espresso).


Overwhelmed, Uruguay, August 2011

Cost of a choripan from a street vendor: $2 USD (parilla sausage on a baguette).

Cost of a beer at a bar: $2 USD (quality, local, craft brew); a bottle of Malbec wine at the supermarket: $5 USD (high quality, Argentine wine equivalent to a $20 USD bottle in the States).

Desayuno: $4 USD (breakfast at a cafe that includes three medialunas, or mini croissants, a macchiato, and a glass of aqua con gas).

Um, besides coffee, treats, meat, wine, and transportation, I am blanking on what else could possibly matter in the 'cost of living' category! If you're interested in more on this subject, go here.

I know I've dropped a lot of specific food and drink items here, and let me tell you...I only know them from the whirlwind romance we had last August. I promise to get deeper into these important subjects once I'm in BA and have had a chance to do some proper "research"!

P.S. Buenos Aires wouldn't be its glorious self without fútbol, it's history and politics, empanadas, tango, its proximity to ANTARCTICA, dinosaurs, and a million other things. But that's enough for today. So teaser...more on these soon!

09 July 2012

The Safety Dance

Living in Philadelphia and having been robbed once before, I know the basics of being cautious in the big city. Don't dangle my handbag around my wrist and don't hang it on the back of my chair at the bar. Keep tabs on my phone, wallet, and anything else someone might want so bad that they could just take it from me. It has become second nature now that I know this city and I know when and where I might need to be a little more aware of my stuff and my surroundings. But moving to a foreign city where crime is just as prevalent is forcing me to look a little deeper into theft prevention tactics.



Travel websites insist on money belts. These unattractive, bulky velcro waist lassos keep money, cards, and maybe one key under the pants. Hm. I see the value in keeping things out of view, but a fanny pack under my pants? A belt under my dress? It would be really cute to order a drink at a bar and then have to reach down my pants to pay for it. Do I go to the bathroom and retrieve my money every time I want to pay for something? Must I nearly undress to unlock my front door? And should there be a tried and true thief lurking about, won't my secret stash become pretty obvious pretty quickly??



Other options include hidden pockets I could attach to my bra (just as awkward, ¿no?), my thigh, my ankle, pretty much any bodily protrusion. Funny thing about this is not only will it be weird and obvious when I need to take my money out of the thing, but there's no hiding the fact that a primarily English speaking white girl walking around without a handbag, eating, drinking, purchasing trinkets from the street markets, etc. must be wearing one of these silly devices! Thieves are smart.

If I were visiting Buenos Aires for two weeks or less in the winter, wearing bulky clothes and with plans to galavant through tourist hot spots and the designer shopping district, then maybe I'd consider wearing one of these "safety" devices. But that's not the case. If I'm going to live in Buenos Aires and am looking to immerse myself in the porteño lifestyle, locking myself up in a cage of fear and secrecy won't help!

The most practical advice I've come across so far is...Use Common Sense! Confidence and normalcy do the work of making a new comer look like a local, making a target less obvious, and making holding onto your stuff a lot easier. After all this investigation into preventing a mugging, it makes more sense to play it cool (read: wear a cross-body handbag, keep money out of back pockets, don't be flashy), then to prep tourist style and over think the whole thing. Though, this thing is kinda cool...



02 July 2012

arte de la calle

On our first trip into Buenos Aires, in the taxi from Ezeiza Airport last August, I immediately noticed all the graffiti. It was your typical freeway, under the bridge, along the train tracks tagging. Nothing too creative or aesthetically pleasing. But I had read about and poured over photos of the "great street art of Buenos Aires" online and was dying to find out where it could be hiding.

It didn't take me long to literally stumble over the cracked up brick sidewalks on to what I had been looking for.

Unlike a lot of the street art I see in the States, these huge pieces that are all over Buenos Aires are beyond graffiti. It really is fine art that has been brought out of the gallery and onto the streets. The beauty of this is that it reaches such an audience; the people, not just the art "authorities".

I really consider what street artists can do to be a service to the city. Without these colorful, creative, and hilarious images plastered all over the place, cities would be dull brick and concrete cages! I'm sure I outed myself as a tourist by taking these photos; for porteños, they are part of everyday life. But for me, they really were a surprise every time I turned the corner!


Does anyone know who these artists are? One thing that is both interesting and kind of a shame is that street artists are generally hide in mystery due to their illegal shenaningans. But how great would it be to meet them out somewhere and thank them for their work?!


More research on this subject to come!
I also recently discovered GraffitiMundo, for your viewing pleasure. So much good stuff! ...