I absolutely love this city! And with extremely nice apartments in the city and nice beach side homes for around $60k, not to mention the amazing people I have been meeting, I will return to this wonderful place through out my life. However, there are some aspects of the city that just cannot be ignored. I would never say these things are deal breakers, but none the less, they must be respected or fall victim to the horrible consequences.
A great question to ask somebody is “when were you most scared?” I find it can be a very revealing story and always interesting. I have heard stories having to do with being underwater for way to long, watching a loved one receive a serious injury, high speed collisions, falls from tall places, animal attacks, waking up from bad dreams, and many more. Interestingly many have to do with near death situations. We are all terrified to die it seems and quite rightly so when we have such a lovely world around us. I will have to elaborate more on my theory on death in a later entry but now is no time for philosophy. Here is the time when I was most scared.
In the last few years it has become very popular to deep fry a turkey in the United States or at least in southern California. I suppose this is due to the fact that we are all getting lazier and claim to be so busy that we do not have the time to cook such splendid feasts anymore like the ones we have been having with Kurt and Jamie the last few years. (Thank you both for the splendid memories.) So my Dad is a pretty good cook, I will admit that he can make a killer roast and a spectacular gravy. And for an English man these are two very important things considering a roast is a national staple food, and gravy is mandatory to hide the fact that the English haven’t used salt since world war II. One Thanksgiving, with the help of my good friend Pat, we attempted to deep fry a turkey and the following picture I find to be very revealing of how it went.
The time had come once again to pack up my bicycle and head off into the campo (fields) of the state of Buenos Aires to seek victory and fame in my beloved sport of cycling. The race was early on Sunday so I needed to take a 3 hour bus on Saturday to find a hotel, assemble the bike, prepare, and beat every Argentine I could possibly find in front of me, on the track of course. Heres how it went down.
There is a phenomenon here in Buenos Aires that I have alluded to in a previous post but I feel that it deserves a little more attention now that I have become a surfing junkie on the streets of BsAs. A lot of people here in BsAs think that I am a little crazy for riding a $2000 bicycle around the streets of a town with roads the width of our highways back home, all one way, intersected with small veins of cobblestone streets, and filled with thousands of taxis and hissing buses that will send a shiver down the spine of the bravest individual when they breath down your back waiting to pick up their constituents and spit you out along the way. Although I save on transportation costs (buses and the subte cost $0.30 and taxis are no more than $5 for a half hour ride), transportation time, and I get some exercise, here is the main reason I love riding around here.
Something I learned traveling around Europe and will never forget is the fact that it is Never a good idea to stay up all night to avoid staying in a hotel or catching some early morning event like a train or a race. Well this story is a tale of a group of travelers about to leave Sweden on a 6am train and have decided to stay up all night to avoid the ludicrous exchange rate of the Swedish Kroner.
While traveling around Europe, our group coined the term ‘dupe’ which is basically to be tricked. Dupes happen all the time especially in a foreign country where you do not speak the language. Thus far I have been rather lucky and I have only been duped twice. Here they are…
Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday. I have never been a big fan of american football. In fact I didn’t even know who was playing until a few hours before. I googled “Where to watch the superbowl in BsAs” and found my spot. Around 10pm I left my house anticipating a night full of english language and rabid football fans frothing at the mouth wearing that football jersey everyone told them not to bring to south america. On the way I stopped by my favorite empenada place to fill up on some cheap eats and booze before I was forced to pay american prices. The place was packed with people standing on toilets and sitting on the beer fridges which is not normal for this place. But it was normal when the TV is showing the Boca Jrs v. River Plate futbol (soccer) game. I decided to stay and mingle with the locals and drink two liters of Quilmes and watch the first half of the game which ended at 1-0 boca. I then found my way to the superbowl bar and watched part of the game. The futbol game was between two of the biggest teams in the country being played at a neutral field so I thought it was a good cahnce to compare to the superbowl.