A Russian in Argentina

Wake up with San Lorenzo

2012-01-28T21:28:00.000-03:00

Every morning at 8 am i listen to the same live orchestra music. On saturdays it wakes me up. Well, that's obvious - first of all, i live in a building that was designed and made for military people. Secondly, this zone has a hospital and college for militaries, which makes me practically being surrounded by military people.

And every morning i listen to the same theme... I've already got used to it and got a speciall skill to almost not notice it. Untill i was involved into one of many fruitful convesations about global history with my coworkers. We were discussing a Second WW and each country-participant, when one of the guys said: "And Argentina played a very important role as well".

... wait, i said. Argentina?? in a Second World War?? by being a destination for all victims starting from European Jews in 30-s and finishing with Nazis in 40-s after WW had finished?

Not only, he answered. According to him, when Paris was occupied, Hitler's army entered with Marcha San Lorenzo, an Argentine Military march. And later in 1945, the Allied troops played the same theme! So ironic it was!

Marcha San Lorenzo itself was written in 1901 speaking about the battle in San Lorenzo and a general San Martin.

Ok, i said. Let me listen to it. And then - FLASH, but it's the music i listen to EVERY morning! It's my music!

And here it is, an-every-day melody that wakes me up :) Now i feel obliged to learn the lyrics!

Medianeras talking about modern Buenos Aires

2012-01-22T23:34:00.000-03:00

I've got this trailer from my Dutch friend first (Hola, Lisa :P). Then my Argentine friend mentioned he'd seen the building where i live in that film (Hola, Lu :))

And i completely forgot to watch it unless my another Argentine friend brought me to Cosmos cine and made me learn something more about Buenos Aires.

Medianeras is a fresh new branded film about a modern city lifestyle on an example of Buenos Aires. First i thought it was devoted to city arquitecture which is impressive and rich. And suddenly i realized - it was about everyone who lives in a big overpopulated city, that at some point depresses and scares till hiding and closing oneself in a virtual world. Medianeras talks about everyone who is looking for something or someone among the masses but cannot meet because the city itself is an obstacle. The typical solutions like using Internet as an alternative world, doing therapy, going for superficial "fastfood" relations or even leaving life don't add optimism to the film. That is why it doesn't look like a nice easy hollywood story.

The end of the story is positive though - they found each other after going through experiences that had prepared them to be together. Bravo, Gustavo Taretto!

Trailer "Medianeras" por yuanpatric

First tango in Russia

2012-01-09T06:40:00.000-03:00

Tango has never been my big passion. I'd say i saw it like a country "must try" thing and never really devoted my time and efforts to learn it properly. Firstly, this dance is quite strict and serious: you can't improvise and lie in tango. It requires a right attitude and a lot of commitment. And secondly, i got a bit sceptic about tango exploitation in the city image and thought i would never be such a gringa going for those touristic activities :)

And then i met Luciano, who frankly speaking never seemed to be a big tango lover neither :P and with him i met Viviana, a person born for tango. Her classes and her way to teach, dance and live amazed me throughout few classes. To be honest, i haven't become a good student since then, but ironically i had to come back to my hometown to understand how great it was to know to dance it.

Here is the video, where i dance my first tango in Ufa (my hometown) at the birthday of my friend in one restaurant. The video was not taken till the end, but trust me, people applauded a lot and asked us to dance a second one ;p

Argentina lessons

2012-01-02T15:29:00.001-03:00

2 years in a same foreign country. What do they mean? A balanced sustainable life? Evolution, stagnation?

"You became way more feminine" - this is what my theatre professor told me at an evaluation lesson. So that's it for 2 entire years?

Patience
Argentina taught me to be more patient. To wait, accept, enjoy participation, even if i want(ed) to kill weird bus drivers, slow supermarkets staff, non educated waitresses and a long etcetera. Things don't work sometimes and noone knows when they work again. Sounds like a crappy unprofessional excuse. But when you can't change it, you have one simple dilemma: love it or leave it.

Friendships
I wanted to write a special post about them, but it could be squeezed here. Friendship is everything in Argentina. People get friends before they learn how to talk and walk. And these friends stay with them forever till they get unable to talk and walk.

As a life-long nomad (i changed radically my "sweet homes" and schools in most critical life periods: at the age of 6, 11, 21 with other smaller movements) i got used to change countries and people around as well and believed in the theory of "there are no friendships, but networks and business/emotional moment needs". Argentina has thrown that theory into the garbage and gave me incredible life time friends. It also made me get back to my old old Russian and Slovenian friends and re-build relationships in a proper way. And yes, i do adore the ones i have around and forever :)

Let it go
With lots of encounters and friendships Argentina put me through millions of people day by day. And it taught me to let those millions go and be with the ones who matter. Sounds clear, but imagine you meet amazing bunches of people every day and want to be with all of them. Or some of them. But these "some of them" probably don't want to be with you no matter what you do. So i learnt to let them go and say good byes knowing they would not leave to another country or even city. They would only leave your life and give space to the special ones. Or maybe to themselves in another moment when they grow and be ready. And then you learn another lesson - let it come and don't close the doors. Because these people need to learn from you as well.

Process and evolution
As a very ambitious person i used to put those magic 3 concrete goals and do everything to reach them soon. Up or out. Right here right now, faster better. Adelante! And solve all the issues with 1 great pill.

Argentina told me, that all results come from an intensive and sometimes long process of self-development, work and committment. There are no immediate results, no magic solutions. And even if it seems to be slow and stagnating, tranquila querida. The process is already on.

A second year in a messy passionate country made me quite patient, organized and maybe wise. I landed here with a lot of mess in my mind and passion in my nature, thinking it was a best place to express them and feel great. And ironically this country took those mess and passion out and led me to the person i am now.

Thousands of unwritten stories

2011-12-22T13:39:00.001-03:00

Every day they happen to me, to you, to whoever who lives a life. Unwritten stories and experiences that will never happen. They are hidden in unchosen ways to get somewhere in the city or in unchosen faces to pay attention to.

I've got quite a bunch of such stories this year... And some of them left me with "what if" feeling. I am sure, you've lived the same, wherever you hanged out in 2011.

I still remember that deep killing look in starbucks in Las Heras one Sunday afternoon. That look followed me every where and in every way. After a while i could not handle it anymore and instead of talking or at least smiling i ran away from starbucks. I looked back from outside and those eyes were still observing and scaring me. And i've never seen them again.

I remember that long conversation with an Uruguayan guy in the balcony of a friend at a windy April night. He told me - i know i met you for a reason and you are so different from any other person in this city. I want you to be my mentor.. (honestly, that night i thought it was one more chamulla - a latinamerican art of pick up - case). So i left and didn't even tell him my name.

I frequently meet a tall neighbour from 19th floor and hear his similar morning questions in the elevator to catch my attention. Unfortunately, i am not sociable and functional in the mornings... And it's so hard to look up when you are sleepy :P

My palms still feel the warmth of a half-Argentine, half-foreigner, whose communications style with me meant holding hands. He always asked me where he would see me next time and i always smiled timidly and answered - life will bring us to the same place. For last months it doesn't.

Last night i was running through Av. Santa Fe and trying to find that amazing expat from Berlin, who made me laugh, talk his language and be acknowledged for what i did well. But i was such a busy chicken, that got stuck in my to-do-immediately list and calls, when i noticed he left already as it would have been ridiculous for him to stay and wait.
M, if you by any miracle read this blog, i want to wish you Frohe Weihnachten!~ And maybe one day we'll drink our daiquiri on the Caribbean beach.

And to all people who crossed my life too fast or almost untouched, i want to wish you Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate. i am sure, you've lived amazing stories in 2011 and who knows maybe 2012 we will write some stories together :)

Catching moments in Buenos Aires

2011-12-14T05:29:00.001-03:00

It's been one of early November nights/mornings, when i was coming back from a boliche (night club) through Costanera at 5-6 am (quite normal for Buenos Aires).

Among the noise that couldn't stop even at such an hour i heard first accords of the song performed by a young porteño with a guitar in his hands. It took me a while to recognize a song of Maná, a Mexican artist, very beloved all across Latin America.

And from that moment all my attention was given to that beautiful song and nothing could distract me: i just got isolated from races of crazy drivers, cumbia sounds from every corner, smells of cooked choripans, images of clumsy girls on high hills and a list of complaints about Argentina coming from one Dutchy all walk long (of course it was not you, Lydia :P).

...I felt like an ancient Indian monk with aroma bags capturing the moment and a song that corresponded to my state of mind that night. Few days ago i heard it again in a busy metro of the Linea B. It was 6 pm with a rush and mess of office people, but the song took me back to the morning in Costanera and a young porteño with his guitar.

Listen to it. Isn't it beautiful?

For the sake of safety - Financial Argentina

2011-12-12T23:49:00.001-03:00

Receiving my first salary in cash in Argentina back in 2009 is and will always be a moment to remember forever.

My documents were going through a long legalization process, but i kicked off my professional life in Argentina immediately. Which meant, i had to receive my first money in papers and hide them into my bra in the office bathroom. It was pretty fun as it felt almost like being a strip dancer or a spy.

With time i've got my personal financial habits, like carrying not more than 200 pesos (~45USD, 1400 RUB) with me, not using ATMs after sunset and doing/not doing other cute things so typical for young tiny gringas.

And then i faced it.
It was called a Problem, which in fact had been resulted as a solution for others.

After a series of robberies and other financial related crimes Argentina prohibited withdrawals of more than 2000 pesos (450 USD, 14000 RUB) per day (exact number depends on the bank, i am speaking for my own). Moreover - even payments from the debit card have become impossible, if they cross the line of 2000 pesos. All was done for the sake of safety of people. I totally agree with it, also knowing that you don't spend such money at once if you belong to 95% of the society.

Where was the problem for me?
I urgently needed to buy a flight ticket to my dear home. Which is far far and far away. Don't ask me about the price of that ticket. It's been very expensive.
I could have paid for it with a credit card. Smart and simple. But i don't have it as i don't have a permanent residence (another point to security and care).

So i tried to pay with what i had.
Debit Card - failed.
Cash withdrawal - failed.

So, few days after consecutive withdrawals i recalled my early experience in this amazing country and distributed my cash by 50-50 in my bra. For the sake of safety of course...

Happy birthday, tango!

2011-12-10T14:07:00.000-03:00

Tango has become a strong, sometimes elegant, sometimes annoying cliche of Buenos Aires. Seems that each and everyone dances it from morning to morning in the streets which is not true. But despite all these daily shows in touristic areas, boring images in souvenirs and fastfood type of dance lessons, tango remains a special part of Buenos Aires soul.

11 of December is a World Day of Tango but this year it was celebrated 2 days before. And as Argentine soul is full of love and passion, the tango day was celebrated appropriately.

Actually, i hadn't expected presence of historical Tango figures on one scene that day until i saw all of them, singing and dancing one by one. Some of them like Juan Carlos Copes or Horacio Ferrer could barely walk till the scene... But as soon as they got their microphones and started singing, they seemed much younger and stronger than any of 8 000 spectators (i assume, there were even more). Fulfillment of life and beauty was so clearly shown in their eyes that they shined way brighter than Planetarium and fireworks that night...

And all the thousands of grateful porteños, gringos, old generations and babies, everyone applauded and stood up for their legends and idols: Amelita Baltar and María Graña, Alberto Podestá and Juan Carlos Godoy. And i was personally amazed by few couples who jumped from their seats and started dancing near the scene. Amazed because i would give them 70-80 years, not less... Would you be able to repeat their steps when you get to their age? :)

To finalize this post i will leave one famous song for you, it was written in 1969 sang twice last night. The song is incredibly deep and purely beautiful. Guess, i fell in love with it forever.

It starts as a poem:

"Las tardecitas de Buenos Aires tienen ese qué sé yo, ¿viste? Salís de tu casa, por Arenales. Lo de siempre: en la calle y en vos. . . Cuando, de repente, de atrás de un árbol, me aparezco yo. Mezcla rara de penúltimo linyera y de primer polizón en el viaje a Venus: medio melón en la cabeza, las rayas de la camisa pintadas en la piel, dos medias suelas clavadas en los pies, y una banderita de taxi libre levantada en cada mano. ¡Te reís!... Pero sólo vos me ves: porque los maniquíes me guiñan; los semáforos me dan tres luces celestes, y las naranjas del frutero de la esquina me tiran azahares. ¡Vení!, que así, medio bailando y medio volando, me saco el melón para saludarte, te regalo una banderita, y te digo..."

My favourite argentine words and phrases

2011-12-05T23:29:00.000-03:00

Once you learn Spanish, you break language barriers with at least 500 mln people worldwide, whose native language is Spanish.

"That's what she said" (a favorite daily phrase of my male coworkers :D).

Yes, that's what promo materials say when they look for students. In practice, if you learn Spanish of Spain, be ready to use it in Spain and Europe. If you learn Spanish of Colombia, you could get all Caribbeans. And if you learn Spanish of Argentina, well... Argentines will understand you for sure. And the rest of the world not really :P

When i traveled in Chile, i noticed that people simply didn't understand me sometimes. I explained it as an accent issue, but later i realized, they didn't understand the meaning of some phrases. And i felt killed when folks from other Latin American countries seriously thought i was Argentine...

And as i've never really had a strong alternative of the right, neutral or just different Spanish, i would like to list some of my favorite phrases produced by people i interact to. By the Argentines ;)

1. No me hinchas las pelotas/ No me hinchas los huevos - something similar to "don't bullshit/bother me". A very machista phrase pointing out the pain of masculine organs. You could also hear something like "es un dolor de huevos" when they speak about something difficult to do/achieve/solve.

2. Se me complicó \no sabés que me pasó - a typical phrase, when someone promised to come or do something but aparently it never happened :D

3. JODA (estoy de joda, salir de joda) - fun. Used for parties (in boliches = night clubs), for fun and joy in general. Be careful with the phrase - no me jodas! that would mean a different thing - like, stop making fun of me. One of the first phrases i learnt before Spanish itself was "no me jodas, flaco" - a strong expressive phrase to be used in boliches as a message to someone you don't want to flirt with.

4. Ponerse las pilas - getting involved, engaged into something. I really like this one :)

5. BOLA (No me das ni bola - don't pay attention - how many times i've heard it :D, romper las bolas - break someone's balls, en bolas - naked).

6. Cagarse.. Me cagaste - you fucked me up. Cagón(a) - someone coward, cagarse de risa - to burst out laughing

7. Ni en pedo - i would never ever do it, no way. En pedo is also used as being drunk. Al pedo - for nothing.

8. Me chupo huevo - i don´t care. Actually, heard this phrase from Colombians too :P

9. Buena onda :) - THE phrase. Good atmosphere, energy of the person, place, event, i also imagine it as something cool and moving. Another related phrase is Tirar la onda - to flirt actively, to show interest :)

What about adjectives to express the attitude and personal characteristics?

Grosso/a, posta, genio/a, divino/a, copado/a...

Se entiende?
Any more suggestions?

My world. My love. My Elkafka.

2011-12-05T07:40:00.001-03:00

How would you feel on a stage of a real theatre in a foreign country as an... actress?

weird?
impossible?
random?

Unless you are a professional with years of good experiences, you would feel strange. Me too, when i start thinking and analyzing it. And when i switch off unnecessary logic, i feel simply comfortable and great doing what makes me excited - THE ARTS.

I guess, it was 1.5 years ago when i was sitting at the class of my precious teacher of Spanish Sandra, talking about life and willing to change something. My idea was to start doing yoga. Sandra, a very direct woman, looked at me and laughed ironically - What? Yoga? You? Are you kidding me? Go to the theatre, that's your place.

Ok, i said and contacted few schools to "a ver que onda" as they say it here. The first and best response came from Elkafka and since then i've never regretted about that spontaneous step in my life.

In 2011 we've been in our second year, working more seriously with texts and preparing 3 plays. Yesterday we showed them all to the public. As if we were real actors...

So what? A lot of people might do it as a hobby. Failing would not kill us. And come on, all my colleagues were there for fun and joy.

True and not true.

All this work of few months, all the resources, changes and people gave me very important life lessons:

-> it doesn't matter, if you do something for fun or work. As long as it involves people and time of your life, it becomes important and requires commitment. And commitment requires high level of professionalism.

-> being an actor is not just having talent and good memory. It's a hell lots of concentration, structure, emotional engineering and constant improvements.

-> each play is unique and special. and its quality completely depends on the team of actors and contribution of each and everyone. And besides the team, there is another key person - a director, whose involvement is very crucial.

I must say, that i am endlessly lucky to have such a brilliant professor as Maria Zambelli and adore her leadership style - very strict and human at the same time. I am lucky to have a brilliant group of students for the 2d year and obviously i will continue with them next year as well. And i am damn lucky to have friends, who support and encourage me all the time recognizing what i am doing.

...5 minutes before the start i drank a little bit of wine and hugged my team. And after the first seconds on the stage i felt completely fine and comfortable. It was my time, my place and my people. Yes, i enjoyed a lot. Every word and every move came out naturally and passionately. And i enjoyed them taking all the energy from people who watched me.

Moreover, i enjoyed the "afterparty" when i didn't remove my crazy make up and some of my friends took me to drive through the city, crash in the restaurant, continue playing funny improvised roles and chasing men, singing italian songs and taking pictures with Lyza Minelli (hopefully, i can add this picture too if i get it).

thank you thank you, les quiero mucho y mucho mas!!!

Hombre Vertiente

2011-11-28T11:52:00.000-03:00

I´ve danced in the moonlight, in the rain, on the roofs, in the streets. I´ve danced alone, in couples, with kids, cats, old people.

But i had never danced in water with dragons and scorpions before i went to the show called Hombre Vertiente.

The whole idea and its transmission is simple and genious from the very beginning - you enter the space and first thing that you get is a huge splash of water from above. Right. Shake out all your thoughts and troubles to be right here right now.

And then the show starts. Yes, it´s somewhat similar to Fuerza Bruta, also an Argentine masterpiece. A man looking for himself in a fantastic world, running and jumping from one reality to another, fighting with scorpions and continuing the way.

The whole show is practically overwhelmed with unusual movements of actors, usage of new technologies, 4 energies and a lot of WATER. I read somewhere, they had used 18 000 litres of water which was recycled for every next show. Water was a key element. At one point, few actors appeared in the crowd and in a second i "took" a strong shower which made me blind for a while. Then someone grabbed my hand and led to the construction, which was a balloon-flower with a growing dragon inside. Few spectators and me among them started pushing it and then simply dancing in a mess and splashing water.

In 1 hour it was over. I wouldn´t have handled more i guess. All my body was completely wet. With my friend we looked like chicken after a storm or as Russians say мокрые курицы. Luckily, the weather was simply amazing to not suffer the evening cold, but we looked quite impressive on our way home.

I definitely adore the creativity, professionalism and passion of people, who made Hombre Vertiente happen. Argentina, you are Number 1. Seriously.

http://www.hombrevertiente.com/

La chica del barrio

2011-11-27T21:38:00.001-03:00

The more far from the Coast part of Buenos Aires you go, the nicer and lovelier you find it...

How well do you know Buenos Aires, if you are a foreigner who has all the needed infrastructure in touristic zones? How deep do you explore the city, if your guide books have only recommendations for places in Palermo, Recoleta and Puerto Madero?

Sometimes i think that i've stayed for too long here and shall discover other countries and continents, as life is short and its opportunities are not proportional to the timing of a normal human being. And today i realized again, how wrong i was, thinking i had known Baires well enough.

Villa Uqruiza, Chacabuco, Agronomia... What do the travel books say about these areas? Correct. Nothing.

What do they have to offer? Maybe not that much from a consumption point of view. Maybe they even don't have impressive cultural and historical buildings. To me, they offer another Buenos Aires. Calm and normal, free from garbage and dust of Av Santa Fe, free from lights and mess of Av Corrientes, free from endless boutiques of Av Cordoba. You simply see another rhythm of life and faces. And you meet a different reaction as a foreigner - first you get surprised by a lack of questions about your-greatest-self and then you notice, that people are so used to their own peace, that maybe they get scared or don't know how to approach you. But then they definitely threat you as one of them - la chica del barrio - , the one who speaks and understands their language, jokes and ideas, who is practically not that different from them.

And as a chica del barrio i enjoy its people who seem much more real than the ones being on a front line with foreigners and business centres.

People of "my barrio" take my hand, grab me in a hug, invite to asados/dinners/teas and simply share their life space without being afraid to loose it. It doesn't matter what role they play exactly. And how much they give and how much they expect to get back. They do it, because it's a part of their reality and their own peace.. They are not better or worse than other porteños, but they look happier.

I don't have any pictures to attach to this post. If you read me from some fancy place in Buenos Aires, get out of there, take buses you never use and go see and know these people :)

a one in a million view

2011-11-20T15:19:00.000-03:00

Home is a very magic and special word for anyone in the world. As one my friend says, it's a place where you can always fall down and die in peace :P

For an expat home has a contradictory meaning. From one side, it is a place where you live permanently/stay for a while/sleep for more than ~3 nights. From the other, home is your motherland and your parents' house. Complicated again :)

The place where i've been living now is actually special as well. It's been more than a year in this sweet warm barrio Las Cañitas and my house is the one that attracts anyone´s attention. It has even a special page on wikipedia, cause it was built for military people in 60s of XX century. Maybe that´s why most of my neighbours of a 30-floor-building are cute old ladies and gentlemen, who share opinions and ask a lot of questions every time we catch up in the elevator or when we stop by a portero in the evenings and chat about life.

But besides such a special history of this house it has something that makes me love it more. The city view from the 22th floor gives a huge portion of inspiration, freedom and great moments when you can see horse races if you look to the right or Rio de la Plata with its ships if you look above the hippodrome. You can see the lights of Monumental Stadium and fireworks coming from small houses in Belgrano. And you can feel the city and breath it from above.

Here is the picture taken by my ex-rommie Jonathan, when we just moved to the place

Here is the picture of our friend Guille, a professional Peruvian photographer taken in march

Spring like no other

2011-11-18T20:04:00.000-03:00

Buenos Aires is actually not such a big city. It gives you a feeling of a big mess or a mix of everyone and everything. But in the end it manages to be tiny and cute, like most female tango dancers in microcentro and la boca.

Spring in Buenos Aires is full of flowers, colours and bird's songs that you can enjoy despite all industrial noises and daily fights of porteños. To escape from them you only need to find a narrow little street among high buildings, that leads you to some small park. and there you find your peace, nice people and sometimes important life moments...

This spring in Buenos Aires could be marked with a velvet colour. It belongs to jacaranda, a gorgeous tree blossoming all around the city. I guess, i will remember my sweet november 2011 as a velvet spring of jacaranda. The tree, i watched while walking slowly in Palermo and Belgrano, or being stuck in a traffic jam in Santa Fe, or holding someone´s hand and simply enjoying the moments that will never come back again.

In few weeks or maybe even days we won´t see jacaranda blossoming anymore. So maybe we should walk slower, get out of the buses, find narrow streets and hold someone´s hand stronger. Because one day spring will be over. And jacaranda flowers as well.

Boys boys and boys

2011-11-11T12:08:00.001-03:00

i am always asked, how it feels to work in a totally male environment (I work with 6 guys in the Argentine office of my company). Well, in fact, i got used to it after an outstanding year in Slovenia where i worked and lived with muchachos, who became my brothers for life.

Working with men is not a piece of cake at all.

In my case it's an amazing cup of coffee (prepared by them) almost every morning on my desk :)

Powerful expression of a powerful life

2011-11-04T18:25:00.000-03:00

"Arts can't be beautiful or ugly. It can be well done or not well done" - those were the key simple words that opened a new exhibition of a very special artist on 2 November in CUI, CABA (Buenos Aires)

His name is Hernan Alaniz. He is a good looking talented guy and has been paiting since he was 5 years old. Now he is 22. How many people do it worldwide in this age? Millions or at least thousands.

But Hernan is not like millions and not even thousands others. He has one important detail with his health and capacities: they are different from others. He can't breath without a special huge apparate and thus can't move and speak freely. Quite big obstacle to live a full life, isn't it?

Well, not for him. I have seen him few times before, living a good social life, being a modern guy with a fancy haircut and surrounded by lots of friends. And 2 days ago he presented a good number of his art works - very well done paintings expressing the nature, animals, people and his proper personality.

I shall say that from the first view i was almost paralized. There was nothing super puper innovative in forms and expressions, nothing shocking, but i was deeply touched by the power of each painting: a power of the strong personality and beautiful soul. Most paintings were done in dark colours and expressed a movement: of a human being, of the ocean wave, of the rain, of a couple of swans. I guess, it was the movement of life that can and shall be lived fully and completely despite all obstacles. A beatiful life in its expression of talent and personal strength.

If you are in Buenos Aires till 2 December, do visit this exhibition and celebrate success of arts with Hernan. Junin 222, CABA (CENTRO UNIVERSITARIO DE IDIOMA)

P.S. Pictures are stolen from Diego Ferreiro Subi. And HUGE thank you for inviting me!

P.S.S. Here is a text written by another friend of Hernan for this exhibition. SO worth to share ;)

Es el tiempo un momento que quiero recordar,
En pensamientos que estacionan con algún color del alma,
Dinámica de acciones que viajan de ida y vuelta,
Mis ojos se extienden en un papel sin ser,
Hasta que los de otros, forman sus pensamientos,
Bailando la mente, se llevan intervalos,
Y la obra vaga se desprende del autor,
Como hoja de la copa, en pleno canto del viento.

Alejandro Bianchi

More about Hernan

Don´t worry, be loved

2011-11-03T17:47:00.001-03:00

I've highighted few times some argentine films, that impacted me a lot. Some of them were Oscar winners (and truly deserved from my point of view) and all of them were great works consisting of complex conflict lines and complicated relations among characters.

Today i would like to share a short 16 min long film that is called No me ama (She doesn't love me). Surprisingly, it was a Russian girl (living in Buenos Aires) who introduced me this film few weeks ago.

This film doesn't have a very BIG thing inside. It is made by a person who played a main acting role as well. And this person managed to make me laugh for all 16 minutes.

Watch it and you will find out a little bit more about male psychology, about their "cucarachas en la cabeza" and funny conclusions they make. I think these misunderstanding problems could be applied to any couple in the world, but the way the key character thinks in this film is SO porteño, SO argentine! And the idea behind is so simple and important - take care of who you love and make sure they know you love them!

NO ME AMA (SHE DOESN'T LOVE ME) from MARCIANO FILMS on Vimeo.

Immigrant song (very random post)

2011-11-02T16:19:00.000-03:00

Randomly found this song while browsing Shrek soundtracks

"We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow"

:)

here is the scene in the film

and here is the full song

enjoy it as i am enjoying a hot sunny NOVEMBER day here in Buenos Aires :P

La Boca without Caminito - they are watching you

2011-10-31T20:26:00.002-03:00

If you open a typical tourist guide for La Boca which is famous for its Caminito (2 blocks of colored houses, tango on the streets, Gardel music and tonnes of sneeky tourists) you will find out a key tip: once you are there, dont go out and keep stick to tourists area. And then leave fast before 6 pm.

Because La Boca is famous to be a dangerous barrio. And still attractive one.

La Boca definitely has a special rebellious spirit built firstly by south-italian immigrants 200 hundred years ago and followed later by a mix of all people whose key features were being independent, free spirits, family lovers and in many cases extravagant and adventurous. At the beginning of the 20th century La Boca was in a huge mess, where the key idea was to become an independent Republic of La Boca. Independence would be obviously a key word for this barrio... Other key words are drugs,futbol, family, gangsters and a coast with the most contaminated river in the world.

I went to La Boca for the first time in january 2010 and for the second time i did so yesterday.

And as i always follow tourist guides rules, this time i did the same as usual - i left Caminito area and walked down to barrio chino, which is considered to be one of the most dangerous areas in Buenos Aires. Why did i look for adventures for my ass? Actually, i didnt. That day i visited my friend Ori, the one i wrote little about few months ago. He finally came back from Europe and i simply went to visit him with my another friend.

Oh, this Ori :) As a real freak artist, fan of "pura vida" and life without the gadgets and consumption he decided to buy a house in that zone 4 years ago. His house and studio are really HUGE. And he enjoys his space and environment by all means. He knows everyone in his barrio and everyone knows him. Local people support and protect each other. Because they are a family. How weird does it sound to compare an artist with projects all around the world and people whose job is to rob and maybe kill? It IS weird. But they are neighbours. And they succeed in building this strong connection and friendly relations while seeing good sides in each other. Ori doesn't know about their business and he values them for who they are with him. Such an attitude made me think a lot and challenged in a quite direct way - how to live with people who you know are criminals? How to live among many of them? Is it possible and right to make friends with them? Are they human in the end, if they do unhuman things? And my current conclusion is quite reasonable i guess - and who am i to judge?...

Ori is happy to do arts installations and other works for his neighbours, paint their house walls upon endless requests. Lately, he's been working on a visual piece of art which is a tribute to one local guy´s death, that found place some time ago in a gangster´s fight. The guy was 16 years old...

But before

...We were walking down from Caminito and at one point i felt danger. just like animals feel it. In one minute an owner of one local shop looked at us and commanded: don´t walk here, you will get into troubles. choose a parallel street. so we did. 3 more blocks in a silent street almost trembling and barely breathing we met a guy, who looked like a classical chorro (dont know exact translation, but its like a very very bad guy) and instead of hiding eyes i approached him and asked how to get where we were supposed to get and calling him amigo all the time. The guy became a pure angel explaining and showing us the way and i felt the climate changed in the whole street...

Later on Ori stated 3 facts, that still sound unbelievable, but i dont have any other options:

1. everyone is informed about every movement in barrio chino. We were still kinda far away but everyone already knew who we were visiting. They watch you all the time.

2. La Boca is safe, because those who live there, do all their "bad things" in other barrios (like Palermo as he likes to say hehe). This sounds like "dont shit where you sleep". Anyways, the way we chose, was the dangerous one, cause it was the route of lost tourists :D

3. Woman is saint and untouchable in La Boca. And according to Ori, a woman can walk at 4 or 5 am alone there and nothing would happen to her, because everyone knows, that she either belongs to someone or is there for someone. Woman is a mother, a sister and a wife. So she is saint. Ok..

...Actually, that day Boca, a local and very beloved footbal team was playing in Bombonera, a stadium very close to Ori´s house. Basically, noone even cared about 2 scared Russians visiting a freak artist, when such an important event was happening :)

P.S. this post was about Barrio Chino de La Boca. La Boca itself is way bigger and has many more usual inhabitants, completely different from Ori and his gangster friends :)))

P.S.S. will i go there for the 3d time? of course i will! now i am planning to paint few walls and stop being a stupid gringa shaking where it's expected to smile and talk.

Rusia Hoy - Presenting Russia abroad and stereotypes that Russians have about Russians

2011-10-23T22:47:00.000-03:00

Rusia Hoy is a spanish speaking version of the huge project called "Russia beyond the headlines". Its goal on 3 continents is to present Russia abroad in a complex way: culturally, politically, economically through interviews, story telling, news and opinions.

Currently the project is established in 17 countries as a supplementary for local newspapers. Each country has one representative that drives the project.

Argentina was kicked off this year by an extremely energetic, passionate and professional journalist Katerina Medvedeva. Thanks her, i got to know more about Russian routes in Argentina in just few months. Basically, wherever you have any event, seminar, show or whatever connected with Russia, Katia is already there presenting and moving forward Rusia Hoy, establishing business connections and supporting initiatives.

In Argentina you can find the supplementary in Clarin every first tuesday of the month. Additionally, you can always see more online materials. For instance, few days ago a material about the author of this blog was published. For some reason Katia decided it would be an interesting story to share, also because she wrote about AIESEC, a global student organization, that played a huge role in bringing me to this country.

Material is in Spanish. Actually, Katia wrote it in Russian (later it was revised/translated by editors). I shall admit, that the Russian version is more correct, live-full and describes better my professional activities and plans, reflections/connections with Russia and daily life in Buenos Aires... but "es lo que hay".

Medio mundo es poco | Rusia Hoy (América Latina)

P.S. Katia posted a link to the material on her FB wall and it was quite fun to see few comments from one Russian guy, stating, she was not supposed to write about the person, who is not even Russian (by ethnicity). His key arguments were about my non-Slavic name, no blond/blue eyed appearance... From now on i am not complaining about stereotypes, that foreigners have about Russians ;p

P.S.S. happy to reside in the country, where no one points on your family routes, skin color and name. And where everyone is so mixed, that it's ridiculous to argue, who is more Argentine and who is less Argentine. Where multiculturalism is not an empty word.

Secret of success - Cristina and her elections campaign 2011

2011-10-19T09:48:00.001-03:00

I've written once about "freedom" concept of national elections in Argentina. This year is basically a year of all kind of elections, and this weekend will be highlighted with the last one - president's elections.

I've been quite apolitical all my life and don't have enough knowledge and right to judge presidents, governments of any country. I express my judgement by expressing my general impressions about life and all its components. And i wouldn't have even noticed any elections if not something curious that always attracts my attention: billboards and visual commercials in the streets (still missing some from TV, but i never watch TV).

Actually seeing the approaches that politicians use you can understand better what moves people and what is the level of maturity in this local society. And i focused my attention on elections campaign of a current president - Cristina Fernandez. It is quite hard not to focus though - her posters overwhelmed all the city and maybe country...

In few words her campaign goes as follows:

Key word - Fuerza (Power)
Key target - masses of people, poor people, workers, families
Key approach - i am with you, i understand you, i am like you
Key attitude - being sweet and simple maybe even weak (especially after death of her husband, ex-president)
Key visual effect - being among all social groups and classes, hugging kids and sharing working moments with adults

I've heard a lot of discussions around her personality, some very positive, some very negative. Being almost sure, Cristina wins, i shall say that despite all negative facts, she has something what people need here and what works for this country. She has charisma and certain elegancy to be an example to follow. She speaks same language as most people and admits she is weak too. Cristina evangelizes core values of Argentine society: family, friends and national pride for things like sports (footbal), nature. And at the same time she must be strong enough to move country forward.

Not every woman is able to achieve it, right?

p.s. don't consider this post as a propaganda for elections. But if there were other bright candidates, i would have written about them as well. From gringa's point of view of course :)

Argentine cartoons

2011-10-14T10:48:00.000-03:00

Yesterday while chatting with one my work collegue we remembered our first girl/boyfriends. The ones who impacted us most of course. Those were our kinder garden girl/boyfriends.

I suppose, all people who used to go to kinder gardens, lived that amazing experience of first romance: playing together, behaving terrible with
tutors and avoiding terrible milk soup every lunch!

But the best part of all of that childhood thing was definitely watching cartoons! My collegue wondered, if Soviet Union had produced good ones. Of course, i introduced him Cheburashka and sent a link to the funniest cartoon ever about Winnie Pooh & Pyatachok which made him laugh till stomachache.

And then i wondered about Argentine cartoons. I realized, i had never seen any. Maybe Mafalda, but she is somewhat above cartoons, she is a special person.

And now i have one truly Argentine cartoon to present, the one that used to be shown all afternoons many years ago. Good alternative to Disney ones, right? And a best way to connect with people when you are incredibly young but very sociable in your kinder garden.

Happy Friday to all :))

Amor y Gas (+Agua Caliente!)

2011-10-04T18:52:00.004-03:00

If you think, that Latin America is all about paradise islands, palms and beaches, you are wrong.

If you expect to drink only caipirinhas and fruit cocktails, be also ready to face situations, when instead of 2 pieces of ice you will have to add boiled water...

Officially spring gave it start on 21st of September and that start was followed by sunny weather, smells of flowers and happy people. Last sunday i was reviewing my wardrobe and taking away pullovers, heavy dresses and gloves.

****
Last night i was not able to sleep because it was cold like never.

This morning i couldn't take a shower because there was no hot water.

Ok, i thought. Let's do something. So i went to the kitchen with a simple idea of boiling water and voila.

I couldn't boil water because there was NO gas.

Ok, i thought. Let's do something. So i boiled damn water in the microwave and luckily it worked.

Later i went outside expecting that at least i would get warmer under the sun. And guess what? I couldn't, because there was no sun!

You would ask me, what was the right answer to all of this? Like what was the point of the story. Of course, i did ask the building responsible (not sure i know his title). One answer was that they performed an annual profilactic procedure for the whole building. And for the question "Why?" the only best answer sounded sharp and simple - "Por que es asi" (Because it's like this)

Never stop admiring this country :D

p.s. noone knows when gas, warm water and sun are back :))) maybe in 3 days maybe more

colon colon :)

2011-10-01T19:45:00.000-03:00

like Moscow can´t be visited without Bolshoy Buenos Aires requires a visit to Teatro Colon - a cultural face and proud of the country and probably all Latin America.

i have a big shame to admit that 2 days ago was my first time going there. Well, it had a big reconstruction period that finished only in May 2010. I used to live 2 blocks far from the theatre but always had some obstacles to get to know it - mismatches of times-people-strike of actors (A ballet Manon it was!!)

And 2 days ago i did it.
It was an Opera Lohengrin, a famous german opera based on medieval legends about Saint Graal. I really wanted to see that opera after visiting Schloss Neuschwanstein in 2003, a famous castle in Bavaria, that was built as a result of inspiration by Wagner´s music and old legends. The one who built the castle was King Ludvig II, a quite extraordinary and crazy person.

My perception of the opera was quite interesting after reading all the legends, visiting the castle and listening to Wagner. I could strangely feel all the power and glory of those Old old times in one Opera that lasted 4 hours. I don´t like operas, but this one managed to take me back to my Germany 2003 when i was a kid in my sweet little 16 exploring South Germany and gathering cultural tasty tips for my brain life-luggage.

And Colon. It´s huge and impressive. It looks like one more ordinary building when you see it from Avenida 9 Julio. But when you enter, you enter another world. You enter a Reneissance epoch with a lot of gold, red, with paintings on roofs and the chapel form that has its energetic meaning - it enables positive brain work.

I took only few pictures with my mob that are of incredibly terrible quality, but this is what i have (es lo que hay :p)

FIBA 2011 - Ala de Criados - one more piece of history

2011-09-28T18:11:00.002-03:00

Let's write this one as a real eastern european does:

1.
2.
3.

:)

1)

What the hell is FIBA? Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires.

Very descriptive, right? ;p

FIBA is devoted to Theatre, Dance and Music. It's devoted to all talented people that appear, grow and flourish like crazy in this incredible garden of Arts. At FIBA 2011 15 argentine theatre plays were selected to show in 2 weeks(among them you can find the plays that were already shown before, new ones for a contest 2011, the plays from the capital and from provinces). International plays came mainly from Chile, Italy, Germany, Spain and some other countries.

Amazing fact is that like with BAF, tickets are ridiculously cheap - 8 pesos for national plays. Not amazing fact - most tickets were gone in first 2 days of sales (1 month before the FIBA itself). And the reason is not in price. I am delighted to admit, that porteños are incredibly active and aware of what happens in a city life. A big applause also goes to Organization bodies: Very frequent and good quality commercials, free liflets and booklets, online promotion and additional events. Good job, as always!

Another attractive point for me is the content of these plays - history and specific aspects of Argentina. As a curious gringa (and this time smartly curios, not like in one of my previous posts) i chose one extraordinary play "Ala de Criados" and took my dutch friend Lydia with me. Surpisingly, the whole story behind that play opened a new unknown chapter of an argentine history for me: La semana tragica.

2)
Tragic Week, also famous as a Red Week happened in january 1919. From the second name you can smartly guess, which country influenced those events. In only 4 days 700 people were killed, 4000 injured mainly in Buenos Aires. Strikes of fabric workers, fights between anarchists and middle class, massacres of Jews (who were mainly Russian decendents) by a Patriotic Leage - all that horror was happening together with a massive european immigration to Argentina and involvement of other countries into that big conflict.

I couldn't find a lot of information besides wikipedia, neither it figures a lot in all known (to me) literature, cine and theatre. So i dressed nicely, put big expectations into my pocket and headed to a 2-hour-play in Teatro del Pueblo.

3)

The play

Ok. I didn't understand everything, especially culture-based jokes. But as a bit more experienced person in theatre (as before) i again faced interesting approaches towards Russia's image (yeah, hell, Russia Russia everywhere...)

- a concept of the dominant woman is all around.
inspired by Chekhov, followed by revolutions' heroes a russian woman is always shown as a half male here in Argentina ;p

- Revolution of 1917 is a very popular topic and royal family, workers, migrations are always going out of mouths of actors.

- Vodka.
I will be surprised when i see some argentine play about Russia without presence of vodka. Seriously. That would be revolutionary and innovative. If someone from that side of the scene reads this post, here is a little piece of truth or feedback: vodka doesn't make your plays full of russian spirit. Please, focus on smth different! For example...

- Pronounciation of russian words.
I know, its hard. And practically noone understands anyways, but at least names could be pronounced properly. such little details might destroy a good image for some spectators because they make such plays less trustworthy...

Besides the content part i noticed a big perceptive change and an "artist" eye in myself. After so much time spent as a theatre student (not that much, actually) i was able to analyse actors work almost like a professional. From this point of view i could notice a very dynamic and harmonic work of 4 actors with constant change of energies. They were successful in keeping spectators alive and attentive all the play. I loved expressive costumes though they were simple and practically same for all 4. A huge stone worked as a good decorational and functional item and was used for multiple goals: as furniture, as a scirm, as a border and as a characteristic of that epoch. Additionaly, guns, smells, real tears and sweat along with marked gestures, lights and eye games made Ala de criados a lifefull play to enjoy.

I did enjoy it a lot despite my long list of complaints as a sensitive russian :D

clown as an attitude

2011-09-25T22:50:00.000-03:00

i already mentioned that studying theatre changed my life in a quality way. it's my second year there with practically same group. A group, i adore and enjoy a lot for diversity of generations, professions and backgrounds.

One of my theatre mates is a quite charming funny lady, that reminds me my mother and maybe me in some 20 years :) she is extrovert, incredibly energetic and hard to handle sometimes. Once at traditional post-class coffees drinking she said: "i am very shy". And everyone immediately started laughing and making sarcastic jokes. She repeated: "i am very shy and my extroversion is a way to hide it" . By occasion she gave me a lift to Palermo Soho that day and we had a long conversation about what she had said. I was listening to her and making parallels with my own life. Remaining all the (million) times when i was acting like a clown or silly girl and having one goal - not to show my true personality (probably being a clown/silly girl is actually my personality, who knows ;p). Times when i was talking a lot to avoid the real story telling about myself. Times when i was laughing and making fun of everything instead of saying - i am afraid and don't know what to do.

Times when i put all types of masks and my roles lasted 24/7. Just because facing thousands spectators from the scene and making fun was easier than facing very few special people and saying "i love you" to them. Replying "sure, i will manage somehow" was easier than "please, help me". Showing stupid independence was easier than asking "hug me, i need you". And... This one also deserves to be said loud: Pretending that i dont understand and smiling from distance was easier than being direct and asking "no me jodas (mas)" ;p

Listening to my theatre mate was a good exercise and i asked her if that attitude could be actually changed. Not sure i liked the answer :D But i am definitely happy to raise more self-awareness, even if it scares more each time i realize that the only thing the world sees is a funny clown's mask which gets stronger and more elusive. But it's colorful and cute also, right? ;p

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More story telling - some anecdotes about police

2011-09-21T23:41:00.000-03:00

as a russian saying says: раз пошла такая пьянка...

seems that warmer weather activates my writing-sharing skills.

just today crossing Av. Santa Fe close to Plaza Italia (quite remarkable area) i saw 3 police cars running fast somewhere. "Yeah, Feliz dia primavera" - i thought. Today, 21 September, is a first spring's day in Southern Hemisphere and also a Students day which usually means a lot of fun, mess and interesting material for evening news (most likely under the category CRIME).

There is no safe place in the world and luckily i have never dealt with police in any role, but the short view of 3 police cars made me remember one more "story-to-tell-in-dark-nights-and-scare-grandchildren".

It was maybe one year ago or much more. 9, 10 pm and me coming back from somewhere to my X house in the centre. Suddenly i found myself almost alone in a dark street that didn't have anything open around. The only person walking in front of me was a policeman with a gun. In the best traditions of a silly gringa i wanted to talk a little and asked the guy what he was doing there with a gun. Maybe i attached a smile of a sociable person that was so polite and nice that she stopped and approached a local person...

A policeman looked at me with a poker face and answered: I am catching a criminal. He has a gun as well and is hiding here around...

My communication skills and developing spanish skills were forgotten - i was running away like crazy...

p.s. i imagine you expected some backgrounds like who are these people, if it's worth to work as a policeman in Argentina. I will post it as soon as i get to know personally some of them and not while they are at work :)

Power of being a beggar

2011-09-20T13:45:00.001-03:00

This post is probably more general than specific about the country where i am residing right now. Nevertheless, it's Argentina that made me reflect a lot about this never ending question - how to deal with beggars.

Extremes and bipolar worlds, rich neighbourhoods and villas, ladies 100% dressed by famous designers and kids sleeping in the streets: you can see it in most developing countries where balances don't exist, where 10% of population posseses 90% of wealth. Nothing really new and shocking. Somehow people got used to it and accepted long time ago. Not saying, nothing is being done: Latin America is famous for strong NGOs, reinforcements and solutions seeking. Not saying, people are indifferent - i know lots of them do little things to improve bigger ones.

But today i asked myself: does it really make sense?
Not talking about poverty in general.
Talking about people mingering all days long across the streets and houses begging begging begging. Begging with a special attitude. This attitude says: You owe me. Give it to me. And give me more.

I was sitting on one of the benches in Puerto Madero starting my lunch and enjoying the long waited sunny break to clean up my mind. The place that i chose was between Casa Rosada (President's palace) and well.. all Puerto Madero high buildings with probably richest people in the country. Suddenly i see a girl walking with a baby that instead of approaching those in Casa Rosada or those in skyscrapers choses me, a common girl out of thousands. Choses to ask for money of course. I am not a fan of enabling parasitic lifestyle but when i see babies, i just give what i am asked without extra reflections.

So i gave her some cash.

She was still there staring at my food.
"Do you have something to eat?"

Ok, i thought. Food is essential, it's better to give something that really helps rather than money that you never know where it goes in the end.

And eventhough i already gave her money i offered her one part of my food.

"mmm. not sure it will be good for my kid. Let me see, what else you have"- with these words she grabbed my bag. I took it back saying that only fruits remained, so if she wanted, she could have them, but then she would have to leave the first part.

"maybe you have some potatoes"

"i'm sorry, there are some restaurants, you could go and ask there" (no sarcasm, i was really lost and didnt know how to react)

"ok, so just give me a fork then."

That phrase was already too much to handle and i just said good bye. And the lady left without even saying thank you, but with one of my cans and maybe feeling offended.

What can i say. Of course, some people are luckier with their life circumstances, some not. Some people make mistakes that change their lives a lot. Giving something doesn't mean being generous, in most cases i see it as something egoistic - look, how kind i am. And there will be always those who give more and those who only take.

But then if giving/taking and parasitism system works so perfect, why are we talking about changing something? And why are we thinking that something changes? And if i am the one who for some reasons has more in life, why should i always feel guilty for all those, who don't have it?

Patagonia argentina: El Calafate, El Chalten, Hiuelche

2011-09-12T11:11:00.004-03:00

Smells of upcoming spring were coming slowly and taking clothes off people in Buenos Aires... Warm air and very yellow sun made everyone smile more often and complain less. The nature was about to awaken and flourish. Meanwhile two girls were rushing to the local airport Jorge Newberry carrying winter clothes. Check in 25 minutes before departure and innocent puppy smiles, 5 more minutes to get to the plane and yes, the mission was completed: the plane left Buenos Aires with us on board.

3,5 hours directly to the south were full of anxiety when suddenly amazing but really amazing views opened: Lago Argentino (a biggest lake in the country) and chains of snowy mountains finishing in strange earth. South. Cold cold south in its late winter period.

There is no sense to describe all days and all lakes, all mountains and glaciers. Plenty of lonely planets and other standard books are full of detailed descriptions and tips and tricks about stuff that interests people in general. Tourism wise i would leave following advice:

- Winter is not the best period to come according to locals: most tourists come between october and april due to better weather conditions.
Ok, though i loved being less crowded and enjoying more of nature in silence and getting more contact with guides. And i could enjoy something, that is not there in summer: SNOW

- Patagonia is expensive. Really. and a lot! So be prepared to spend a lot no matter what.

- If you like trekking, go to El Chalten for few days and stay there. It's quite far from El Calafate (220 km) so it makes so much sense to just stay there.

In my typical "luckiest girl in {location}" style i definitely lived my magic, funny, dangerous, stupid experiences which left me touched, saved (those who know me... well, you know me ;p) and grateful.

First thing that killed all my stereotypes about climate influence on people was local men. My very simple and smart theory said that men in warmer climate are more open and talkative (includes random street compliments). No! Windy evening in Calafate brought us few locals behaving totally same as in Buenos Aires.

Second thing was of course spiritual. I've seen a picture of a bird (indigenous style) that was kind of similar to some of my own paintings. Yesi, my friend, also noticed that. Later, i started chatting with one local seller of artesanal items and he told me a lot about the arts of tehuelches, the peoples who had lived there before spaniards came. Our conversation was so fruitful that in the end i took a bird, hands painting and one more painting as a gift. Somehow i know i got a strong protection.

Third surprise was a big amount of snow everywhere. I haven't seen it for quite a while, so what i did immediately was a jump. Into the snow. Like a puppy. Incredible feeling!!! Incredible throat ache after ;p

Fourth value is and will be always people. A bit distant, but warm inside, a bit introvert but interesting to talk to. All argentines living in Calafate came from other provinces for various reasons: some to look for adventures and luck, some for peace and love, some to forget their love and some to disappear from very hot weather. Some of them couldn't change their northern nature even in 10 years, like one guy from Cordoba with typical jokes and chats every second ;p

As for glaciers and mountains, well, you could get a lot of information anywhere. One true fact is that they are unique and you won't see anything like them in the world. It's a fact that the sizes are changing, some glaciers are growing, some are decreasing. It's a fact that few fantasy films were made here, and it feels like in fantasy movies all the time.

As for my learnings, i just got sure again, that travels feed human souls and i will keep traveling as long as i keep living.

P.S. And in my best traditions i finished an incredible week and a trip with a forro dancing just 1 hour after landing at the airport in Buenos Aires. La vida loca(l) keeps running ;p

Soul twins

2011-09-07T10:59:00.000-03:00

I am always asked here, if Argentina is very different from Russia and difficult to adapt. And i always say no. The reasons are not only connected with political, economical and some cultural similarities. I discovered, that there is one more deeper reason that could be applied to any country, any culture and human being - we all have our soul twins or something like this. Once i read a curious article about history twins: an author would take 2 famous personalities coming from distinctive epochs and countries and compare them. In many cases even their faces were similar. I can't give a link to the article now, i even don't remember where and when i read it. Yesterday i realized that after meeting and getting to know millions of amazing, magic people i could easily match them in groups or couples.

Once i had a walk in Palermo Soho and it brought me to one of the small and fun boutiques. There was an owner inside who immediately started talking to me. I looked at him and had a strong feeling i had known him for longer time. So we just talked and talked, all other customers were forgotten, all other appointments of mine were postponed (quite typical for BA lifestyle :P). I came back few more times to that boutique always trying to find an answer - what attracted me in that person and why i knew how to talk to him and what to expect. Of course, he was a charming and incredibly positive human being, but that wasn't a good answer. And then one day i had a very strong aha click - he was almost a copy of one slovenian guy i had used to see almost every day in my office in Ljubljana. A person whose light energy was enormous.

Later i've met more and more people that always reminded me of someone particular from another country and another life reality. The funniest thing is that i already knew how to build my relations with these new people and it made me think of something quite weird - despite the fact, that everyone is unique and special, we always attract particular types of people to our life. And sometimes saying good bye to someone means meeting this person again but... in another reality.

So... Sounds like a good material to investigate more, right? :P

p.s. the song doesnt really have a connection with the topic of the post ;)

haven't you voted yet?

2011-07-10T14:18:00.000-03:00

Midday in the elevator of my house building and my old neighbour is asking me a typical question for 10 July 2011:
- Have you voted already?
- No, i am not voting today
- .... (surprised face)

Argentina is famous and beloved for being a free country. Freedom of expression, freedom of opinions, freedom is a keyword in a national anthem.

And now Elections. By law, all Argentine citizens are obliged to vote. Of course, noone will kill you for not doing so, but you might have some difficulties in the future, like not being able to apply and work in governmental structures, difficulties with some bureaucratic procedures etc.
Sounds a bit surprising. Basically, as a citizen, you have freedom and rights for anything, but you don't have a freedom to not vote. An idea to make people more participative in political life is understandable, but the way is quite questionable - what if i don't want to know anything about politics?

Another surprise for me was saturday night, when all the bars and cafes were closed almost from 8 pm on. And today, on sunday, all cultural events have been canceled. This already reminds a parents approach to their 10-year-old kid who needs additional control...

- You still have time to vote - continued my old neighbor, not noticing, i was a foreigner. - Your generation is the one, who will make this country a better place to live, i am sure.

So, have you voted already, my dear Argentines?

El secreto de sus ojos with gringas eyes

2011-06-27T22:07:00.000-03:00

"El secreto de sus ojos" is an Argentine film that won Oscar in 2010. As i am not a big cinema fan, i missed the global interest to watch it right away. For some reason postponed it every time, i had a possibility to get to know the film.

What is this brilliant film about? As in any art creation of Argentina, you will see some features that speak about the country:

- never ending passion for life, love (and footbal ;p)
- high value of friendship
- personal drama
- fight between justice and injustice
- strong emotions in everything.

... And eyes. Eyes of actors that are so expressive that no words are needed. Eyes that hypnotize and take one's breath away. Eyes that show you all the palitra of feelings.

After 1.5 years of intensive cultural experience i could taste the film as good as an old wine. It was worth to wait. Wait to understand clearly so many things and have answers for many "why's".

You should definitely watch this film. But watch it after living in Argentina for a while. In a country that gives passion, friendships, personal dramas, fights and strong emotions.

In the country that always makes you cry :)

http://www.elsecretodesusojos.com/

5 silly questions about football (live match in Argentina)

2011-06-22T00:09:00.000-03:00

Those, who have been reading my blog since last year, know about my shocks, impressions and analysis of World Cup 2010 and Argentina in it.

I thought, football mania would be over untill the next World Cup, but i was wrong again. In fact, Passion and Fewer for football never end in Argentina. Without them Argentina is not Argentina at all.

Sooo. It was a sunny monday morning of a long weekend (National Flag's birthday\ El dia de la Bandera) and nothing seemed to shake it for me. Then my roommate Baher, a crazy sports fan, suddenly started to convince me to go to the match of Argentina and Albania. Right. Me, who has never been at any live match, me, who has no idea about football rules and faces. So basically those 2 facts became a key selling point for Baher to get me to the River stadium for almost 200 pesos (considered as a very cheap price :S).

We came there 2 hours before the beginning and it was already full of people. I got few flashbacks of last year's mundial seeing all people in blue-white colors, singing and screaming. Argentina: Albania was a friendly match as a send off for a Copa de America, starting July 1. So no drama, no tension, no intrigue. In opposite - easy predicted nice results, stars like Messi and Teves, huge stadium and our closeness to the field.

And then the best part started - Silly questions from Aigul. Those, who know the way Baher laughs, could imagine now, HOW he reacted to them. Those, who are super professionals in football questions, could laugh as well. Just keep in mind it was my first live match EVER:

1 why do these football matches start so late? (6 or more pm). It will be dark soon, they won't be able to see anything
2 why do they announce only Argentine sponsors? did they also pay for Albanian team?
3 why do the players train 1 hour before the match? won't they get tired soon?
4 where is Heinze?? (i asked many people, noone knew why my favorite Argentine player was absent :-( )
5 will i have problems for having a different outfit? (i was dressed all in pink for no reason and hadn't checked colors of Albanian national flag. Luckily it was red). I am wondering if there is any country in the world with a pink color in its national flag, aha ;)
- ....

So Baher was laughing out loud, the match was going on with brilliant goals, it was incredibly cold and i realized that even being a sensitive and emotional person i couldn't be a part of that football fewer. I definitely loved the mood and such ownership, i was touched by a fun way of the anthem reproduction, but i couldn't start behaving like true fans of this amazing sport that unites people. I leave it for others. But now from July 1, Vamos Argentina!!! :)))

Sweet home Argentina, sweet home America Latina

2011-06-11T20:52:00.000-03:00

This post is nothing more than a personal reflection.

In my 24 full years i've traveled quite a lot considering resources i had. I stayed in million places and lived in 4 countries, including my homeland. Each place has taken and given a lot to me, and i admit that love all of them, no matter how diverse and tough my experiences were.

And i always wanted to live in Latin America. I didn't think of the country i didn't think of the activity i just knew i would be there one day. And i didn't bother why and what for. That day came 1.5 years ago and it finished in Buenos Aires. This city fascinated and scared, impressed and frustrated, but never left indifferent. And for some reason i knew it would be my home for a long time.

Coming back and living more here was a complicated decision but my doubts were thrown away with a first big hug that i got from the house responsible (portero) who screamed: "Camila, como te extrañaba!". Camilo is a name of my roommate and that portero seemed to be very reserved with me before. Where else in the world it could happen?
Where else in the world people would hug you all the time calling you "mi rusita favorita" and promising to keep you hard and close?
Where else in the world you could start chatting with whoever and wherever about anything?
Where else in the world smile would solve all the problems?
Where else in the world speaking a local language would be such a pleasure and so natural?
And where else in the world people would trust you for no reason and excuse you so many things?

Maybe in other Latam countries. Maybe in other developing and sunny countries. Maybe anywhere depending on your personality. Maybe.

For now this perfect place in world to me is definitely Argentina. A warm country that hits you with so much love and care despite winter and winds.

Unlimited Arts of Buenos Aires

2011-05-17T15:19:00.000-03:00

Arts in Buenos Aires don't have any borders or rules. Actually all new things that come out of its kitchen are breaking them. That's why it looks like Buenos Aires is being always reborn. Weeks of special cinema, street museums, workshops of northern dancing - my mind has gone crazy many times trying to understand where it all comes from.

And then i met Orilo, one of the brightest figures of modern arts movement in Buenos Aires. According to specifics of my encounters it happened in a random way but in the right place - his own galery in Palermo, where i was lost one sunny day in January. Actually i would have never noticed that galery, if he hadn't grabbed me for eternity and shown the new exhibition, meanwhile talking about everything else in the world.

Later Orilo kinda made my summer 2011 with all the crazy events related to his arts, which amazed and shocked at the same time. Officially he is a film maker, but the scope of his creativity goes way beyond - he is the one, who painted a lot of walls in BA (and then recognized half of them in my album :D) and my beloved Poststreet bar. He is the one who organizes carnivals and shows (you probably remember that funny picture), creates designer objects and feels responsible for Art development in Buenos Aires, especially La Boca.

We still can't catch up for a profound conversation/interview about why, how and since when.
First reason i am writing about him shortly now is the official video made by him looong time ago for a song of the Argentine band Babasonicos. Btw, quite specific and crazy one as well :P And this video explains better all the illogical and absurd way of human self-expression :)))

When i go back to BA i will for sure grab him for a more detailed conversation and show-how. Because the second reason i am writing and talking about Arts all the time is that i decided to devote more of my professional life to it. Near future will show if it's Theatre, Painting, Writing or all together :)

Easter in Jujuy

2011-05-08T08:26:00.001-03:00

This region and the city name in the north of Argentina would make any Russian laugh a lot for its phonetics. I won't translate it, but admit, that always wanted to be in the place just because it seemed funny to say later: I've been in Jujuy :P

After my Atacama extreme trips and encounters I was in the bus to Argentina. I again spent longest time in all border windows chatting with policemen about how come and what the hell a Russian with argentine accent was doing in Chilean desert. Latin America has not seen many of us, because my compatriots generally hang out on Turkish and Egyptian beaches. So i felt like a rare plant brought by wind from far far away.

In Jujuy I stopped by a family of my friend Maxi (btw the first Argentine person I've ever met in my life jeje). Maxi lives in Brazil now, but he immediately asked his family to host me, but forgot to tell them my name, time of arrival and place of departure. So it was pretty fun to meet his mother who gave me an amazing welcome and host worth of a palace (it felt like this after a previous night in the tent). I planned to only overnight and see few places, but I didn't know that Maxi's mother had made a plan for me.

Next morning his 7-year-old niece Rosio, a cute and smart lady, informed me we were going to Purmamarca. I only nodded in silence and later spent one of the most spectacular days in my life. Purmamarca is a small village close to the mountains of 7 colors. Its artisanal architecture and folklore elements make it a sweet and adorable place to visit. Along with ferias of clothes, house items and millions of souvenirs you can meet people that you won't see often in Buenos Aires indigene. After Purmamarca I was shown few more places around before we finally stopped in Tilcara, an ancient village of Incas. Its stone-made houses, temples, enormous cactuses all around are a valuable archeological treasure. And one feels strong energy all around.

Basically Jujuy is a small but very diverse region of Argentina. It has few types of nature: jungles, desert, vlleys. Mountains are present almost everywhere, but they are different from one kilometer to another: full of green, full of colours, "naked", small, huge or in chains. Jujuy is famous for producing sugar and vegetables. I spent only 2 days in that amazing region but 2 unforgettable days with a familyof Maxi, that threaded me as their own daughter. It was Easter, so it felt even more special, even morecared and welcome. So I was saying my good bye with true tears and very tender hugs.

And then all my long way back to Buenos Aires I was thinking, why and how did I deserve such a giant luck in meeting incredible, warm and big hearted people in my life. I was also linking it to my pure randomness and need to be lost. Because such people appear and give me their hands exactly at these moments. There must be some very smart spiritual explanation for this one, but for now I just prefer to be grateful and pay back doubled or tripled. I wish I could make it one day for Maxi's family.

More pictures

it's good to be home. is it?

2011-05-05T15:22:00.001-03:00

Coming back home from long long absense is a special experience. I did it 1.5 years after living in another continent or basically another world.

Very early morning Domodedovo airport in Moscow and announcement of the weather: +6C. Late russian spring it was. My positive pink flip flops didn't change the situation. It was COLD. Big smile on a border control made it worst: i forgot, it was not common to smile in my country.

Coming home changes and turns everything upside down. You see things differently, though you act same sometimes. I think, it's all about unconsious memory somewhere deep inside the brain. You take it out as old shoes, take off the dust and just make them usable. You speak the language, though words like "si", "permiso", "mierda" jump out of the mouth frequently and you have hard times building proper phrases. But it doesn't matter. Your identity remains same, even if you live in jungles for some period.

Other things that make me feel weird in my home home are quite funny too:
- no need to pay for the rent
- no need to pay for food
- and a lot of cheap high quality FISH and caviar
- access to so many amazing things for granted like in childhood
- my cat that still recognizes and loves me
- sunset is late! At 22 it's still light
- difficulties to meet some friends because they are in late months/days of pregnancy :D
- to be continued ...

to be continued!

Chile Part III - ATACAMA desert

2011-04-26T20:04:00.000-03:00

To get to know Magic Atacama you should go to San Pedro.

San Pedro de Atacama is a town-village where all houses have only 1 floor and all were made of same material. Generally it looks like a typical ancient creation from fantasy books. This village is one of the most touristic and expensive places in Chile actually, and main reason is that it’s in the middle of the desert and mountains. Such location makes all accesses harder. For instance, i was surprised to have hot water practically all the time when I needed it.

Anyways, the key treasure of this region is definitely the desert Atacama. One of the most amazing, marvelous and random deserts on the earth. My only stereotype about any desert has always been a big amount of sand and some oasis in the middle. And Atacama is definitely not like this. It has all the variety of natural and human made wonders. Lagoons, salt lakes, geisers, volcanos, flamingos, donkeys – it’s just a small part of all of it. This desert has been alimented by underground water systems. Main attractions to see here are Valle de la Luna, Lagunas Antiplanicas, Geisers Tatio etc. I got pretty much exhausted with all the tours and long trips to those places, as Atacama seems to be really huge. Temperatures change here in extreme ways: you can suffer from killing heat all day long and then tremble from incredible cold at night. Early morning visits to places with height of more than 4000 m take some degrees away as well. For example, geiser Tatio at 6 am has minus 10 degrees and next to it you have a thermal bath with +30. Afterwords going down the mountains you get back to some +20. Dry air and sometimes its lack together with sand all around make you live some harder times. At one point i felt like being made of sand myself. Once i was nearly to faint, because sun was just cooking my head. And never never i regretted to be there. Because Atacama is worth it!

It’s worth to be in Atacama, because stars at night are so close to the Earth that you have a feeling you can touch them. It’s worth because eyes are always open to see and be fascinated. And it’s worth because of its local people, who give you everything they have and you simply feel safe and cared. Those who know me, won’t be surprised that my eternal randomness made me undefined with what to do where to go where to sleep all the time. But at critical moments I just got someone around who shared his food, his house and life with me. Actually i met all types of people i needed to meet: loud gringos who never stopped talking, a lot of swiss, french and english backpackers with a bunch of crazy stories to share, adventurous chilean guys who sold everything and came to Atacama hitchhiking to work and live close to nature. San Pedro sent me people with beautiful and ugly stories, with fantastic ideas and sad circumstances. I chatted with a miner who promised me to work not more than 4 months and then be always with his little daughter. I was convinced to jump into water in minus 10C by a guy who lost everything in the past and was planning to conquer Europe. I spent my first and last hours in San Pedro with a person, who's father had been tortured by militarists during Pinochet regime and whose main life passion was archeology, wild nature, Africa and dangerous sports! Magic Atacama...

And I am glad to admit, that I was leaving that small village and long country with some tears of happiness and sadness. Chile managed to take a huge piece of my heart just in 2 weeks.

More pictures from Atacama
Chile Part II
Chile Part I

Chile Part II - Ocean, Stars and Mining

2011-04-24T00:57:00.000-03:00

Chile seems to be a small barely visible country from the first view. But it’s not! Its unusual form made it possible to catch all amazing pieces of southamerican nature. My final decision was to go to the north of the country, which attracted with its weird desert and long seaside. It was a hard choice, as south seemed to be more safe and green. But my inner voice was repeating - Go North!

First stop after Santiago waited for me in La Serena, a small town on the coast with a lighthouse, that I’ve never seen. I came with 0 idea of where to stop, what to do. I again just followed a God of Randomness and ended up in a nice hostel in the center. It was actually my 4th time ever staying in a hostel during endless trips, but the one I chose, was a sweetest place to be. In 2 hours I was already in another bus taking me to the huge astronomical observatory Mamalluca and a full moon promised spectacular views. The excursion was a little poorer than I had expected, but I was simply fascinated by such closeness of stars to the earth. These places here are famous for being if not spiritual but astronomically paranormal for sure. At some point listening to all ancient myths about stars made me feel present in those civilizations. The views just got me back to my imaginary pictures, when i used to read the history books or fairy tales. I guess, a big impact was also provided by Andes and closeness to the ocean.

Next morning after chatting and hanging around with a Brazilian girl Carol and making a big travel lunch with Chilean wine I kept my way to the north. Despite small inconveniences such as endlessly crying kids, random men etc (people are same in all parts of the world) I enjoyed my trip staring at the window again. Ocean, mountains, weird landscapes and colored houses simply took all my sleepy and tiring mood away. One curios thing about traveling by buses in Chile is that it looks like a lottery - you can get a very cheap or a very expensive ticket for the same route. Prices are higher during holidays, weekends and for the most touristic destinations. You can also get a discount for a nice smile or last minute decision. Magic Chile ;)

So, getting back to my story: In 12 hours of a tiring trip we stopped in Antofagasta, modern city of mining industry and small houses. In 3 hours I breathed the air of Calama, a capital of mineries. 1 hour was enough to get to know the town and swallow my first portion of sand. A big adventure of a desert was just about to come…

(Chile First part)

On the edge of the world - Chile Part I

2011-04-21T00:20:00.000-03:00

A long long line on the edge of the world. A territory that could be confused with Argentina and lost while watching it globally. A line that completes South America from the Pacific side and represents a true west of the southern hemisphere.
This country attracted me first when learnt about Cordilleras. As a real mountain lover I always wanted to go there. And then what else would one kid learn about a far far away country in a Russian school? Immigration, Pinochet, earthquakes. That’s practically it! Then I met my first and big Chilean friend Emil, who turned out to be a reason to go to this country.

First encounter with Chile (if you travel by land, which I prefer a lot) starts with mountains and fascinates with power and strict gorgeousness. Chilean border is much more organized and doesn’t give you a welcome feeling as an argentine one. People generally seem to be colder and more reserved than the rest of Latin America. If you walk along the streets in Santiago or find yourself in metro, bus or even supermarkets, you will never listen to a lot of noise. People are just quiet and don’t express themselves loud.

Santiago generally gave me series of flashbacks of Northern Germany or Belgium. All the architecture spread in all city, hidden above the dark blocks of buildings, can surprise you a lot. Logically, Chile got a huge influence of Germany, England, France and it explains many curious features. At the same time to discover a real Santiago, one needs a good guide, as most amazing streets and places are not presented well to an ordinary tourist. Santiago is divided into barrios (neighborhoods) which live their own life with all infrastructure (Must have list: a church, a school, a hospital, shops etc). so local people rarely leave their barrios. Santiago is full of hills to climb and is surrounded by mountains which gives you a feeling of being protected.

In 1.5 hours to the west the landscape changes completely. Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are 2 marvelous cities on the pacific ocean coast connected with a bridge. Valparaiso is an eternal festival of colors, founded and invaded by artists that didn’t leave any house without a portion of a rainbow. Mostly you can see purple, yellow and red colors. Sometimes seeing one house on another gives you an impression of a villa /favella, but that’s not true. The problem of Valpa is that it suffers the lack of land, so people build houses close to each other. One interesting fact about the city is that the national congress is placed there. It was done by Pinochet with an objective of decentralizing the country and letting other cities be more proactive. Valpa has a port, universities, it’s a home city of Pablo Neruda and a lot of amazing people.

Vina del Mar is a long long coast that is accessible very easily. It was made for tourists and lives for tourists. One of the usual and best activities to do there is to go to the beach and/or watch the ocean. One of the best things that happened to me is staying in the apartment of local people, cooking a huge dinner of seaproducts and drinking pisco, a national alcohol. All that awesomeness was accompanied with deep and funny conversations with chilenos, new people who entered my life and left and took a piece of themselves and me.

After Vina I went back to Santiago to get Emil for the whole Saturday and again it was incredibly interesting and comfortable to be with the person I had known for a long time. He told me all the history of Chilean presidents, whose good common feature was continuity and ability to appreciate previous successes and convert them into a sustainable future. This explains why Chile is actually in a much better state of political and economical development than most Latin-American countries. Mentioning the earthquakes and tsunami I must say that the consequences are not visible in most parts of 3 cities. Chilean people know how to recover fast and move on. And even when at one point it started shaking in Santiago, I was in a panic and totally pale. Emil in contrary looked at me with yawning face and asked if I wanted to go walk a bit.

Chile was about to open its secrets to me...

to be continued

Art to accept and be honest - Gay marriages in Argentina

2011-04-16T11:32:00.000-03:00

***
Argentina legalized same-sex marriages on 22 July 2010. It has generated a huge impact involving various groups of the country population, mainly political parties and youth organizations. In fact, Argentina is the only country in Latin America that allows gay marriages and the 10th in the world to accept them legally.

***

Few months ago i met Alisson, my brazilian friend, in a bar in Las Canitas where i used to gather with my ex-coworkers. There was a guy next to him. "Gaby, mi marido" (my husband) - this is how he presented him to me. I smiled and gave him a typical greeting kiss and then i repeated loud - tu marido? Well, Buenos Aires has a big number of gays and i met and got friends with many of them, few couples as well, but never spouses. Next hour they were telling me their story of lives, love and marriage. I got truly fascinated by both of them and was up to date about their routine for the following months. But it took me a bit more time to get closer to them and start a profound conversation. In the end i spent one saturday in their house drinking mate, being fed by homemade cake and keeping my ears open to listen and understand.

***

Alisson grew up in a quite conservative Brazilian family and always dreamed to get married one day. When he discovered he was a gay, hard times started for him, as he was denied by family, school and church. It was pretty tough to accept himself in such a role as well. He lost a hope of having a desired life by being what he really was and having a couple at the same time. Life took Ali to extreme adventures and gave lessons of getting a true inner balance, taking through various professional experiences and learning from other cultures (he has lived in South Africa for 9 years). In the end, Ali considers Buenos Aires his present and future place to live and create. He is a professional photo-reporter.

Gabriel in opposite didn't have big challenges with his family, though he went through some hard times in life as well. His reflections around this topic are curious. Living in Argentine society makes lots of things easier, he thinks. One of the features of it is being open to dialogues and a habit of analyzing and talking about all issues (it's true, Buenos Aires has more psychologists per capita than any other city in the world). Another great feature is that Argentina is being driven by a generation that wants changes (especially after dictatorship time), so basically it has proactive and brave people who are not afraid of anything and involve into everything that they consider important. Gabriel didn't participate in any political discussions or movements for legalizing gay marriages, he is actually against the way they are being perceived. Main reason is that most participants see such events as fun festivals and forget their key goal: to give equal right to everyone. The way he's working on that is Arts, as he is a professional dramatist.

They met each other almost 2 years ago and since then never doubted they were meant for each other.

***
Everyone who enters their house, feels like home. Ali and Gaby have a cosy apartment designed on their own. They always discuss their daily routine, share and ask, and it seems they are one personality divided into 2 parts. Another important person in the house is their dog Eric, that is being cared with all love that Ali and Gaby can give. Actually the quantity of their love could be enough for the whole Buenos Aires. They are incredibly mature, respectful to each other and know the value of such a harmony. They paid a lot to get to it.

Actually they are just usual people that are building a great family day by day. With no labels and definitions...

***
In the future Ali and Gaby want to found their own NGO working with education for families that adopt children. One of the dreams and plans of this couple is to adopt a kid as well.

Wake up! You ARE in Buenos Aires!

2011-04-03T21:10:00.002-03:00

This time i would love to present you my first guest author: Julia Karavia from Germany/Greece who has spent 6 months in Buenos Aires as an Exchange student in UCES. Her experience and view of the city is quite intriguing, so i invite you to read a shortened version of the story (the longer one is available in her facebook as well as amazing pictures on flickr)

Buenos Aires…a sexy, vibrant, alive and extremely confident city…a place where exclusivity and luxury clash on poverty whilst all day-life seems to be as easy-going as a beautiful spring walk in the morning…simply a magic city to fall in love with! I got the chance to get one of its passionate lovers…

…Everything began on July,24th 2010. I was on my flight to Buenos Aires counting the hours upon the Atlantic led by a feeling of excitement, happiness and sort of fear in the same time. Some turbulences and 16 hours later I arrived on the Ezeiza International Airport of Buenos Aires…

… Equipped with a city map and some tips of the reception guys I hit off to the centre. Crossing the 18-lane road “Avenida 9 de Julio” was one of the highlights for me on my first day in vibrant Buenos Aires. It was a rainy day. This didn’t prevent the Argentines of being outside, doing their shopping and just having a walk downtown. If I could give the first characteristic to this city at that moment, it would be loud!

…Soon I learned that its nothing to be scared or surprised of in Buenos Aires. Hitting on somebody is just an everydays act in every part of the city no matter what age ! People in Buenos Aires love to live, to flirt, to fall in love!!! And thats what makes this city so sexy! Sensuality and Sexuality are exposed day by day in public. You will see couples in the park, in the supermarket, on the streets, in the buses or the Subte (the Underground train in Buenos Aires), in the museum or in the restaurant kissing each other and being physically veeery close to each other. Love is everywhere “in the air”. And that’s because the Argentines love being around with somebody, sharing the beauty of their city spots and just get to know new people as a continuing process…

…In search for a room in Buenos Aires for the upcoming 6 months I was dedicating( with exception of my first day in the city) every day on this! Not knowing the distances, the different areas and the grade of danger by night in each one of them didn’t make the search easy. I made up to 5 inspections every day. From Caballito to Palermo, from San Telmo to Flores, from Recoleta to Belgrano and from Balvanera to the Microcentro…by walk or by taxi, as I wasn’t familiar with the (at this moment) confusing bus lines yet. There are 200 lines only in Capital Federal! I had never walked so much in so little time!!! Awful apartments in splendid bourgeois buildings, weird house keepers, freaky roommates, cats, dogs, hippies, toilet bowls in the rooms, scary neighborhoods, windows with wall-view and rudely high prices for very bad accommodations advertised on the web with beautiful pictures of which I still don’t have a clue from which perspective they took them of. These where the results of a 4 days search!

…A bad flue and two more inspections later I found a happy ending in a shared apartment with a young professional Cordobes in Recoleta. It made click and after 3 days I moved in. It felt like “home” from the beginning on.

...Loosing my shyness in speaking Spanish I started talking Spanish to Marcelo, whom was hoping to benefit by talking in English with me and was visible surprised that I CAN speak Spanish! Surprise, surprise :P

…Walking down the streets heading for Avenida Santa Fe one always meets elegant old Argentine ladies robed with haute couture and designer bags having a walk with their well-combed dog ( if its not taken for a walk by one of the numerous dog-sitters you see daily especially in this part of the city – it could be also be seen as an attraction in my opinion) . And I often was wondering ”am I in Buenos Aires or in Paris? How can it be that only a few blocks away the city arises in a completely different way?”

…Although I was impressed with the beauty of this city and its diversity I have to admit that it took me a long time to find my peace with this huge metropolis and overcome the cultural shock which I evidently had. That’s why I cant speak of “love at first sight”…

… There were days in which every single step, every single moment appeared as a dream to me. And I had to say to myself…wake up Juli! You ARE in Buenos Aires!

Earth Hour and Candles Night in Buenos Aires

2011-03-27T22:42:00.000-03:00

I guess everyone is familiar with Earth Hour campaign that happens annually in march all over the world, when Earth practically has a rest from us, consumers and inhabitants, for at least 1 hour.

Buenos Aires surprised with its creativity and prepared a Night in candles (La Noche en Vela) in 3 zones: South, Center and North. It started quite early at 7 pm and finished around 6 am with a huge amount of cultural events.

At 20.30 Earth Hour officially kicked off at Obelisco with fire show. It was really marvelous - hundreds of people were watching it having candles in their hands. Later Obelisco was used as a screen for various light effects that were constantly changing. At that moment my friend Marcelo made us reflect about usage of natural resources and we came up with our ideas-promises for this year, like planting a tree or becoming vegetarians.

Following events were really well organized and each of them had a light element. So imagine, how beautiful it was to watch them: tango shows all along Corrientes together with stand up shows and small art projects, various dancers at the monuments and parks in Recoleta and singers in Palermo. All events were for free.

At these moments i really adore Buenos Aires for its genius creativity and such a smart usage of opportunities and resources for best.

Power of social networks in Argentina

2011-03-23T00:29:00.000-03:00

Social networks, web 2.0, facebooking, twitting...

Where is Argentina with all this?

According to my experiences, facebook is being used more than anything. Along with some usage of linkedin and twitter, now is its most active period, which is slowly going down. According to statistics, Argentina has more than 13 mln facebook users, which is 32% of all population. Most of them are young people up to 30 years old as worldwide, though i personally know way elder active users too (an issue of parents spying their kids is quite an issue here :P).

Generally, facebook represents a special social picture of life. Why and How does it look like from my perspective?

1. Pictures
- Millions and milliards of them are being uploaded daily. Before coming here i had maybe some 200 tags (having a big network and active life). In few months of argentine life the number tripled and as a result i switched off the option to see my pictures, where i am tagged, because...
- People like to upload All and Any pictures, no matter if they look fine or not. And if something is not on facebook, it just has never happened.
- People upload pictures FAST. Sometimes i could see some freaks at 5-6 am in the morning back from parties uploading pictures and tagging others of course :)
- Profile pictures are being changed quite often too, and they express relevant moods and commitments to people, pets, world events. And these moods and commitments usually change fast too.

2. Comments
- Millions and milliards of them :) I've had times having my mailbox full of alerts of comments to pictures, statuses and whatever else. I also had a feeling, that those comments had their "own life".
- Emotions are on fire. Especially if you put some statistics or opinion, get ready for anything, also insults. Be also ready to moderate peace among others even if the conversations go out of the topic (which happens often). Some favorite topics for fights: Cristina and her politics, footbal, law change discussions.

3. Relations
- this one is my favorite part. Actually like in any part of the world, stating your relationships status on facebook is considered as a serious step. And everyone has his/her own reasons to do so. In my case being kind of closed in one-two circles of friends/contacts i watched hollywood type of updates which were even more exciting than telenovelas.
- having a good relation with someone means this person will always put "likes" and good comments to all your updates, support you in virtual way by uploading pictures with you, posting songs on your wall or just doing something pleasant.
- another side of relations thing among local facebookers is that when someone doesn't like you anymore, he/she deletes you from friends. It's quite common but doesn't mean a big step, cause next day you might get a friend request from the same person again.

So, summing up all these personal observations, i could say that facebook world shows a miniature of the real local world. It was different in Slovenia, it has another platform in Russia. And here in Argentina it's totally another world which seems powerful, sweet and very dangerous sometimes.

Turn your weak points to strenghts by changing the country

2011-03-21T20:40:00.000-03:00

Most porteñas (women of Buenos Aires) dont want to have curly hair. They do all possible and impossible to straighten it. The problem is that their hair is naturally curly.
All my life i've been trying to get my hair curly and here i feel envied because i have straight hair taking 0 efforts.

A lot of argentine people have their own opinion about punctuality and don't have this skill.
All my life i've been late almost everywhere and here i feel totally fine with managing my time and even upset waiting for others!

Many Argentines love to hug and express their attitude in a kinetic way. They can scream, jump on you, change intonations in extreme ways while talking including usage of gestures.
All my life i've been just like that and perceived as a neurotic person, who can't control her emotions. And here i even feel i am cold and quiet comparing to locos argentinos :P

So you never know what is actually a strength and what not, what is right and what is wrong. Your black is someone's white and your sweet is someone's bitter. Actually understanding this i decided that the best way to handle various perspectives is just to accept them as they are. And of course to be a good person, because this is the only thing that matters in a crazy mix of cultures, rules and habits :)

Speed of word

2011-03-18T21:43:00.000-03:00

Argentines speak fast. No, really - they speak VERY fast, like dynamites. More than others - porteños. More than porteños - porteñas. If you listen to the chat of 2 porteñas, you might get crazy, as you get so much information in such a short time. Basically, even having a basic conversation doesn't mean, that content will be basic as well. You will know all the aspects of the topics and related ones in a short time. You will know all the opinions of related and non-related people, details of each activity and possible solutions for each detail. From your side, either full attention or/and same commitment will be required: questions fly out so fast that in seconds you won't even notice that you shared soooo much about yourself :P

But don´t worry, cause in some time you will be able to speak with same speed also in your own language. And i still dont know WHY and HOW COME porteños have this capacity.

smile, you are watched

2011-03-15T22:19:00.000-03:00

Since my first days in this country i've always had a feeling of being watched. And i understood is like being very different from local people (style, clothes, habits).

Once, i was crossing the street and there was a bunch of policemen on the way. I realized, they were staring at me and then one of them started twisting and saying something. My first instinctive reaction was: omggggg, i broke some rule, should i stop or should i run?? (Russian readers will understand me, as in my country the best way to interact with police is never ever face it, especially if you are totally fine with law).

In that situation in Buenos Aires, i just looked at those guys and they started smiling and throwing words like "linda, que tal" and it was a quite big shock for me. And then anytime anywhere i couldn't get used to be watched by official guys (security, gallery/museum workers) whose goal was not to punish or say something negative, but just to watch and say compliments. I have to say, that i look pretty ordinary for this country, so i am sure, any female gets all this attention. It's just still weird to take it as something normal and make fun of it :)

Carnival No Carnival

2011-03-12T19:57:00.000-03:00

I have never been at the real real carnival. Sometimes my life reminds one though. Actually titles never mattered for me to feel the spirit.

Just look at these 2 pictures taken from non-carnival days and feel it :)

June 2010 Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

March 2011 Palermo, Buenos Aires

Mendoza: best wine and mountains

2011-03-10T20:42:00.002-03:00

"Once upon a time there was a woman, who escaped from the village to mountains hiding herself and her kid. She died soon without food and water, but her kid survived. He was found by villagers and since then people always have been bringing bottles of water and personal items to the mountains for a spirit of the dead woman"

"Once we were chilling in the garden and water in the swimming pool started to move. Also earth was kind of unstable. Then we realized, there was an earthquake in Chile, but we got used to it".

"Do you like wine with orange flavour or with something more exotic?"

If you hear these things, it definitely means you are in Mendoza. Mendoza is a huge province of Argentina close to Chile and Bolivia with rich nature and powerful economy.

To me Mendoza is an argentine Bashkortostan (my province in Russia) or argentine Kobarid (Slovenia). I really felt like home there surrounded by high mountains, narrow rivers and agro fields.

Why Mendoza? My first goal was to go to the Vendimia, an annual autumn wine festival. It's huge and diverse: besides wine-related activities, people are occupied with selection of a Queen of the festival and regional promotion. Recently they have started also Gay Queen selection. But somehow i never reached celebrations as my daily activities ate all my energy. Last night vendimia was even cancelled because of some protests and political issues.

Mendoza people have tonnes of urban legends to tell you and funny accent + appearance similar to chilean. I sounded quite funny with my porteno accent among them. In general, people there are way more relaxed and cheerful than in BA. I spent my time mainly with Vicky who lives close to the capital (in La Puntilla, which is like San Isidro for BA). She introduced me to her friends that own wineries and live an economically good and sustainable life. Actually one of them told me, he expected colapse of the wine production in Argentina soon. But well, i am sure, no matter what happens with this country and market, there will be always a way to keep on going!

Besides those nice conversations filled with mate, fresh and best ever grapes i also managed to see Aconcagua, the highest mountain of the whole Americas. Its height is almost 7000 kms, 1 500 more than Elbrus (Europe/Russia/Caucasus). We could see it from different views, including the Cristo Redentor monument in Chile (4000 km above the sea, hard to breath, and don't ask me how i entered Chile :D). The climate is incredibly dry in these places that's why mountains have a special look.

Mountains as always impacted me, made a different person (though i didnt climb them a lot). I've had a lot of magic and strange moments spiritually speaking, but i prefer not to share them and not to scare you :P

I would also really love to THANK Vicky for an amazing-amazing host, opportunity to see and hear SO much, get to know SO many local people (including wine princes :D), feel safe and simply good. I would love to thank Marek, my one-in-a-million blue prince Charming for tips and contacts. I would love to thank AIESEC people and my beloved roomies for all the crazy moments and experiences that made me value them a lot!

More pictures (few out of 400 of mountains that i am never tired to stare, adore and love)

and more pictures are on facebook of course

Mafalda

2011-03-04T13:11:00.001-03:00

I mention pretty frequently that don't really understand argentine girls. The way they think and act, the values and tastes are quite different from mine at least.

However, there is one special argentine girl, that i adore a lot! Her name is Mafalda. Actually, she could be easily my mom, as she was born in 60s of the previous century. Mafalda is a famous, beloved cartoon heroe, who became a symbol of the whole epoch of 60s-70s. She is famous in all Latin America and some european countries thanks Umberto Eco.

What is special about her?
She comes from the middle class family and represents an ideal and utopic view of the world. She is young and sweet, but her ideas are advanced for her age and her judgements are incredibly mature. She sees a big role of female power of voice and fights for what she believes in. She is never indifferent and in the end always achieves what she strives for.

I haven't read all her stories, generally i watched some from youtube. In Buenos Aires you can see tonnes of her monuments, images and now she even has a twitter account where she posts interesting thoughts.

** "El mundo es un pañuelo" ¿? "Habrá que quejarse al lavadero entonces"
** "Se acabaron los líos internacionales? se declaró la paz en el mundo? No? Despiértenme para el almuerzo entonces"
** "Los adultos son como las películas, ¿cómo entenderlos si cuando nosotros llegamos ellos ya estaban todos empezados?"

So, if you still don't her, it's high time to do it and fall in love :)

Temporary life

2011-03-01T10:37:00.000-03:00

What makes me sad sometimes about living abroad is that the whole life and its components seem temporary. Temporary house, temporary places to work/spend time, temporary habits and ... temporary friends?

Local people (especially in big cities) often see foreigners/expats like this. For some of them it's a good reason to give less to not be committed too much. And it is fair enough, i guess. For some of them it's a good excuse to give and take maximum, live carpe diem "right here right now" like a summer loving which is bright and short and never turns into valuable long term relations.

Foreigners also might have this attitude (not talking about regular tourists). But it's more challenging for them to live it because of the lack of the family and close people around. Some even become butteflies who always need new experiences, emotions and changes. Or maybe they are just afraid or not able to settle down and learn how to build and manage relations.

But even though i believe, that living outside of your home environment doesn't give you only people for season. Some of them are for lifetime. And life in general is a temporary thing ;)

Buenos Aires in 10 minutes

2011-02-27T17:43:00.000-03:00

I've spent more than a year in this city and can't stop admiring it.

I was lost and found, attracted and attracting, peaceful and mad, tired and re-lived. Sometimes i think, i gave too much time just to 1 city (especially when i look at the map and consider my age). Sometimes i think, that i still don't know anything about the secrets of this place.

So when i saw this video of Buenos Aires in 10 minutes, i realized, that BA is like a net: once you get into there and get its spirit, you can't escape anymore. You just love its diversity, elegance and uniqueness.

Watch it till the end and fall in love with Buenos Aires (again :P)

Some information about this video and authors

BAF - Buenos Aires Fashion Week

2011-02-26T02:46:00.000-03:00

Arts, Culture, Fashion. These words are related to any megapolis.

Fashion shows open for everyone - this doesn't happen so often, right? This week Buenos Aires hosted a big Fashion Show, where anyone could enter paying only 30 pesos (or 70 for those who considered themselves special :P). We went to the final defile by a designer Trosman that presented fall/winter collection. Summer actually finishes soon in southern hemisphere which is sad.

Besides defiles we could also see few tiendas of some designers, others were giving workshops on fashion-related topics. Looking at women around i actually felt like back in Russia :)

Basically, fashion of Buenos Aires still seems quite contradictory for me. From one side, you can meet a huge variety of unique designers and freaks who appreciate individualism and creativity. But from the other side, most of the city is being dressed same. When i say same, it means completely same: flowerish dresses/skirts/leggings, military or ancient roman shoes, white tops and of course the snickers!! Same goes to accessories: big earrings of one style, a lot of fluffy things on long hair and whatever that can be found in ferias or Onda shops. Still you can meet a lot of weird interesting and original personalities with their style that simply fascinates and deserves big respect.

At BAF we saw how upcoming fall/winter would be presented. Pretty dark right? If you want to know more about the event, names and fashion itself, go to the official website. Tonnes of celebrities attended the final show too, but even living more than 1 year here i didn't recognize any face. I only realized their status by the number of paparazzi and excitement around. So it was like in a song: "I don't know who you are, but you must be some kind of superstar" :)

P.S. (random)
Going back from this show i actually remembered that i had used to attend the model's school when i was 12 or 13. I loved theater classes at most and defiles always surprised me as they seem to kill all female part of the girls. I am wondering, if there is anything i haven't tried learning yet :P

Graduation in Argentina

2011-02-22T00:14:00.000-03:00

University graduation in Argentina....

Probably you imagine now a fancy dinner with boys and girls in fancy clothes, bottles of wine and classical music.

Aha...

It was my 4th or 5th day in Argentina, when my friend Andrulo graduated. I was so grateful to him for his hospitality and happy for such a big moment in his life, that i dressed up nicely and bought flowers. And this was my first cultural embarrassment, that he has been reminding me ALL the time :)

Because graduation in Argentina is a different thing!
First of all it's quite random timewise. People graduate, whenever they are done with their exams, projects and whatever that is missing. It is similar to Slovenian system, which is actually convenient, if you are busy with other projects and able to coordinate your studies, work and other things.
Second thing is age. You can meet 22-year-old graduates, 26 years, 30 years being in same groups.
Third thing is a procedure that truly shocks!

So it was 5 pm in the big room where a charismatic professor was naming people and saying results of the semester and giving notes (from 1 to 10, usually it would be 8,9). As the we were waiting long to start, i got bored and just took out my camera to interview Andrus:

And then after announcement we followed outside of the university where i was given some eggs and other random products.

And then the real graduation started - with throwing all the weird stinky leaky things. The graduated person could only accept all that and be thankful! So this is how it looks like:

And imagine now same process in winter, when it's actually cold outside! Usually parents of the graduate have a cleaning role: they bring a lot of water, towels, new clothes and help the person to get nice and human again :)

Everyone wants to take a picture with a graduate, but far enough and avoiding physical touch :D

sometimes i really consider studying here just to have fun of being graduated :)

Why haven't you told me that before?

2011-02-20T21:55:00.002-03:00

Last night staying in a looooooong queue to the boliche (night club) i was talking to Facu, a local guy, that i've known since a long time, but almost never really seen and talked to. We got into a conversation about cultural differences, as he was looking for exchange opportunities in Central Europe. And as the queue was really long, our chat went quite deep and i discovered things i hadn't really thought before.

When you are in another country, you realize that shocks and differences would be your true followers. But then after some time, you get relaxed and your defenses disappear. So you suppose, that now everything is fine and you have a perfect understanding of all aspects. If the culture is completely distinctive, you know when you do something wrong or something that is misunderstood. Most of the times it's easy to notice it.

Argentina became my big challenge quite late. People here have been always smiley-shiny-friendly and it gave me a wrong impression that that was what they really felt. 2-3 months after arrival i came to conclusion, that i was totally integrated and included, so i stopped worrying about things naturally. And that was a strategic mistake. The curious point about Argentina (and i guess about Latam) is that people will never tell you directly that you are doing something wrong or that they don't like what you are doing. In most cases they will just understand it differently than you mean but you won't be informed about it or will be, but later and in other circumstances.

I remember one situation few months ago, when i went out with 2 latinos and 1 european to the night club. Electro music was playing, so i just started dancing on my own. Those, who know me, will imagine now a person, who was totally out of reality fully given to music, because when aigul dances, nothing and noone else matters. At one point my friends just told me: STOP dancing like a slut, otherwise men will eat you now. I was really annoyed by such a comment, as dancing for me is dancing and nothing else. Those guys were my friends who really cared so i wasn't offended at all. I was a little sad about those, who had never told me anything while my crazy going out period of first months. They just smiled thinking same what my friends expressed verbally.

Another situation kind of killed me when i had a serious talk with one argentine girl and suddenly she started telling me strong feedbacks about events of 4 months back. I looked at her and asked, why she hadn't told me that before. She just made a casual face and replied: "i don't know".

Well, you live you learn ;)

Spanglish songs

2011-02-19T15:27:00.000-03:00

Once browsing for Roxette and ABBA songs i ended up with their translations to spanish. Some songs sounded quite funny, some were even more interesting than original versions.

Then i found more english songs translated to spanish. I think that the reason is same as in Russia: people just don't understand lyrics and best way is to translate (like films and TV programs). Taking into consideration big audience (more than 500 mln native spanish speakers worldwide) it makes sense!

Here is Roxette singing a famous song in spanish which to me sounds quite cute :)

And here Ale Sanz and Alicia Keys are singing Looking for paradise 1/2 in english, 1/2 in spanish and it sounds amazing :)

How did i learn spanish

2011-02-16T20:17:00.002-03:00

A lot of people have been asking me this question frequently.
So i suppose, the best way to answer all is to write a structured post about my way of learning spanish (which is a continuous process!).

Pre-via
I came to Argentina in December 2009 with no spanish at all. I knew few words and had 2 books to learn (like fastfood "Learn spanish in 30 days") and a pen drive with a collection of Caribbean songs.

Learning on fire!
First month i was trying to understand where i was and what i was doing so i didn't have personal strength for adequate learning. Though i started baby steps by bugging everyone around with same questions: "how to say this?", "what does it mean?"

Second month brought me a personal teacher Sandra and 3 hours of classes per week. It was a start of a big progress, because she never spoke any other language to me.

Third month i started reading easy books, small articles, actively listening to songs and having conversations with taxi drivers and people in the streets. Only god knows what were those conversations about.

Fourth month i started speaking. I actually didn't care, how i sounded, just stepped on my pride and ignored all "smart" jokes about my accent. Btw i love my rrrrussian accent and not gonna loose it!

Show must go on!
In september i stopped taking classes but kept reading literature, listening to music and studying theatre.

Well, i still make a lot of mistakes with subjuntivo and tonnes of other grammar mistakes. Actually i never paid much attention to grammar, but now i see it as a wrong attitude. So my current goals are to improve grammar and write good quality texts daily.

Which are the best methods to learn spanish in Argentina from my point of view:

Visual:
- books (but not Borges!!), magazines (but not cosmo!!), advertising.
- social networks in spanish (at the beginning i laughed a lot at the option "me gusta" - "ya no me gusta" on facebook for no special reason and was totally lost clicking all the buttons like a monkey, but it helped a lot).

Audial:
- songs and films, radio
- chamuya de los argentinos (relevant for girls that are being approached by unconditionally optimistic men anytime and anywhere :D)
- neighbours fighting on another side of the wall
- asking for opinions of local people (1 question is enough, argentine people looooove to talk and share what they think ;) )

Interactive:
- a lot of communications with local people in local language/slang/dialect, minimum contact with people from your country
- new studies (like theatre or singing classes), active participation in social activities, constant evolution
- rich personal life (the best one, especially with dramatic scenes and emotional people :P)

Some people are using innovative methods like learning while sleeping, NLP, hypnosis, tandem learning and more, but to me the ones mentioned above were enough and simple.

The key to succeed in learning any foreign language i guess is the will to speak and understand, courage to "just do it" (enjoy the best and f*** the rest ;) ) + consecutive approach: if you can say "hola, que tal, todo bien", believe me, it's not enough and you have a big space to improve and evolve ;).

disfruta!

any good external links?
Nop! Be creative and find your way!

Feria Buenos Aires - loving it!

2011-02-14T14:41:00.007-03:00

Shopping in Buenos Aires could be a topic for the big book. It's so complex and
diverse, that i prefer to avoid it and pay attention to some aspects that fascinate me personally.

One of such aspects is called Feria. Oh, this word touches my consumer's heart in the same way as an ice-cream smell moves a kid or cheese turns a disney mouse Rokfor crazy.

Ferias in Buenos Aires are fairs that are happening generally at weekends in various spaces of the city and represent a whole special world. This world could be described in few words: artesanal objects, designer items, homemade food, performances of local artists, unique accessories and more...

My favourite places are in San Telmo, Plaza Cerrano, Pque Bicentenario, Recoleta, Belgrano (close to Barrio Chino). Some ferias are quite far from the city and prices are also way cheaper: Liniers, Once, Avellaneda, Mataderos. If you go to province, you will find even more places, which don't exactly need to be ferias: people just sell their self-made jewelleries, clothes etc.

Who are these people?
Well, when thinking of the profile of "Feria-people" one should divide them by
categories. Walking through the tiendas you can meet local and foreign people (peruvians, bolivians, colombians), young and old (masters, artists, families),
individuals and representatives of factories/brands (that is why you obviously find same "unique" mate cups at all ferias). One of individual artists that i know is Sabrina. She makes all kinds of jeweleries from almost any material. Her style is more likely to hippy style as this describes her personality too. Sabrina learnt on her own how to make all those amazing items and she frequently sells them at ferias in Buenos Aires and Gualeguaychu, where she lives in summer.

.. and as i used the word of "a whole special world", it definitely has its
features and spirit: smell of orange juice and choripans, baby's cry, overwhelming music of a peruvian flote or guitarr accords by a crazy guy from Colegiales. You can bargain, you can try, you can doubt. You can find a precious braslet for 3 pesos or a cup of juice for 15. You can find whatever.

Because it's a feria. The feria of Buenos Aires.

Feria in Pque Bicentenario

Some of the handmade belts (leather)

(me and my favourite stands) :P

Old Buenos Aires in pictures

2011-02-10T08:52:00.000-03:00

Could you ever imagine this charming city 100 years ago? How did the space of overpopulated streets look like? What was the primary outfit of gorgeous historic buildings?

Recently i've ended up watching marvelous fotos from the collection of Oregon State University. If you take a look at them you actually realize, how enormous was the power and wealth of the country, that managed to create such a city.

To start with, look at the picture below. It's Avenida de Mayo.

Argentines of today: Marcelo Baudino and Relations that matter

2011-02-08T12:55:00.007-03:00

He puts a lot of sugar to mix it with mate and addresses me a new challenging question. Marcelo is my old friend here, who has a special sense of humor and endless curiosity about the world and people.

Marce is only 28, but his life already grabbed him out of Argentina for intensive international experiences in United States, Switzerland and Mexico. He wrapped them up to build his own consultancy based on cultural inteligency and international business. His business is very new in the LatAm market and Marcelo implements a lot of innovations into all his projects. Actually, he is one of my biggest information/experience providers for this blog as well.

Marcelo could be considered as a typical argentino from a middle-class family from
Cordoba. He grew up during a complex epoch, when the country was in transition period between Dictatorship and Democracy. Middle class was hit a lot later during the 2001 crisis and was examined for ability to survive and grow. As Marce refers to that period, Argentina had a huge challenge to go back to its identity and national pride. And as a patriot of his country Marce values Argentina for providing various opportunities to all people, for its natural and intelectual diversity and social component (free education and medicine granted to everyone). As a critical thinker he also recognizes negative aspects, like a huge gap between very rich and very poor people, corruption and few others.

Marcelo considers himself as a world citizen and could easily live anywhere in
the world, though for now he sees himself here, in Argentina, settling down
and building a base for a lifestyle he wants. He sees his impact on the country
through developing entrepreneurship, which he makes a reality in his own venture. Basically, the wish to make Argentina a better place to live was a key motivation to start up his consultancy. Active social position, life according to values and power of voice are also powerful tools to make an impact daily. Finally, the most important approach for Marcelo is maintaining quality relations with his family and friends. Family has always given him a huge support and inspiration. So he is sure, that relations is everything in Argentina and in all Latin America. Relations that matter.

To me Marcelo is an incredibly smart and sensible person, a passionate footbal fan and the best fernet-maker. He knows how to joke ironically and sees a bitter side of life from another perspective (or tries to reduce it like with sugar in mate! ;) ) He is a person you can trust and feel the warmth of his huge heart: no matter if it's a deep conversation in some park or a crazy road travel without gas in Cordoba's pampa or even a tough debate. Marcelo will definitely do the best to move a friendship forward! Because Relations matter!

Smells like Buenos Aires spirit

2011-02-01T21:38:00.003-03:00

In 2007 i came to Kazan (a russian city) for the first time. It was 7 am in the morning, no one picked me up in the train station, so i just went to the Baumana street (the key one) followed by travel intuition. It was almost empty and silent all around. So i was walking and walking, when at one point i just closed my eyes and decided to catch the smell of the city. I had read before about some monks in India, who had small bags with various aromas with them all the time. When they lived a happy moment, they took one and breathed deeply to remember the smell. And at sad moments of their lives they just took the bag out to catch the smell and happy feeling back.

And i remembered a smell of Kazan. It became a first city of my new tradition to catch the smells. Followed by Moscow and its dust, Istanbul and its seafood, central Russian cities with flower and industrial smells i always found few minutes to close my eyes and remember the moment. I will never forget Skopje and its mountain fresh air, Ljubljana and coffee, Vienna with a strong horses smell. Venecia was no other than elegant parfume and Sao Paulo was a cocktail of fruits. Then my nose was kind of lost in a parade of european cities, that mainly left smells of morning coffee, parfume, autumn leafs and christmas candies.

And today i was wondering how Buenos Aires smells like... And honestly i couldn't give one answer. At some parts it's a heavy choripan, at some - fresh facturas and ice-creams. Many times it smells "like teen spirit" in the streets and close to villas, but then it covers you with recently published books smell. There are moments when it's hard to breath because of humidity as well. But that's another story.

Buenos Aires is roses and indian candels in Santa Fe, where i simply love to walk with closed eyes (dangerous sometimes ;) ). It's leather in Microcentro and tobaco (all kinds) close to any park and pub. Moreover, it's a little big Rio de la Plata with drops of water in the air, when you are in the north. And South is usually a chemical smell of cheap clothes and toys. Maybe this mix of smells makes me feel like in all my previous cities from time to time. it comes and leaves suddenly without a permission. probably it makes sense to keep it in bags like indian monks?

Anyways, Buenos Aires is uncatchable in its smell. How does it smell for you?

Buttefly butterfly where do you fly?

2011-01-31T12:37:00.000-03:00

Butteflies are very special. They have an important role in the nature: delivering nectars from one flower to another. They fly rapidly and can change the mode easily. Sometimes they migrate from one continent to another (for instance, the Polyommatus caeruleus from Nabokov's theory migrated from Siberia to South America in 5 waves, now it's a proven fact!).

Butteflies have millions of colors and it's hard to catch them, it's almost impossible to watch them, but their presence always causes attention, admiration, annoyment and frustration: butterfly can stop by on your palm, spend as much time as it wants and then fly away. Because it's boring to be always at the same place. Plus, there are so many flowers around to discover and to take/pass forward pieces of their essence.

Butteflies live short, bright, easy, tough and bring as much beauty to the world as a human eye can/want to notice. How long would you remember a moment of having a buttefly on your palm? And how big would be your smile? :)

I think, nomads are all butterflies inside themselves.

Buenos Aires for free

2011-01-29T13:33:00.001-03:00

Capitals are almost always the most expensive cities of their countries. Bigger salaries mean also bigger expenses. And if you want to live a full life, then your material resources might be in danger.

Buenos Aires is a city of contrasts. You can spend lots of money in one day having few things or spend nothing getting maximums. Examples?

What did i get for free in Baires, that is usually sold:

- free courses, trainings, seminars.
Some of them were provided by universities, educational centers like Camara Argentina, Escuela de Negocios. Some of them were delivered by independent professors or masters.

- free concerts, shows, theatres, cinema.
The greatest one was a concert of Caetano in may 2010 in Plaza Italia, that gathered few thousands of people. Shows can be watched almost every day (in summer), especially tango shows. Theaters are given to big squares and usually they represent some NGOs. Another possibility could be Rojas, a theater in Corrientes, that gives space for free performances. And as for cinema, a cool option is autocine in Rosedal (you watch the cinema from the car in a park, listening to words from one radio station).

- free sports
You can join special groups (usually in yoga, tai-chi, reiki) and practice these sports in open air. I've never done it, because hours are too early, but i tried tonnes of "first class for free" things :)

- and the rest :)
Presentations, exhibitions, interviews at special events: options are like drops of water in the ocean of Buenos Aires, sometimes you just get lost choosing the best! Radios and travel agencies organize various lotteries, competitions, but i personally never participate in them.

Some good references could be:

http://gratisenbuenosaires.blogspot.com/
http://gobaires.com/ (i follow them in twitter)

still willing to ask me, why am i still here? ;)

compare Argentina to Russia

2011-01-28T00:42:00.004-03:00

We like to compare many things: clothes, cars, jobs, climate, countries.

Why do we travel? Besides a wish of new impressions and "loosing ourselves to find ourselves" excitement, we also want to compare our countries of origin to the new ones. It's a part of our nature :)

I wondered from the Argentine point of view, how would it be for me to live in Russia? What are the assets besides getting cold, old, bold and drunk (according to stereotypes)? I've already done comparissons before, pointing positive and negative (said by other foreigners) aspects.

And here i found detailed and interesting answers:

If Russia were your home instead of Argentina you would...
be 2.2 times more likely to have HIV/AIDS

The number of adults living with HIV/AIDS in Russia is 1.10% while in Argentina it is 0.50%.

use 3.1 times more electricity

The per capita consumption of electricity in Russia is 7,339kWh while in Argentina it is 2,400kWh.

die 10.6 years sooner

The life expectancy at birth in Russia is 66.16 while in Argentina it is 76.76.

have 37.41% less babies

The annual number of births per 1,000 people in Russia is 11.11 while in Argentina it is 17.75.

consume 36.14% more oil

Russia consumes 0.8437 gallons of oil per day per capita while Argentina consumes 0.6197

spend 42.07% less money on health care

Per capita public and private health expenditures combined in Russia are $698 USD while Argentina spends $1,205 USD

make 9.42% more money

The GDP per capita in Russia is $15,100 while in Argentina it is $13,800

have 7.29% more chance at being employed

Russia has an unemployment rate of 8.90% while Argentina has 9.60%

have 7.11% less chance of dying in infancy

Curious?

Try other countries on this website and make a good choice :)

spread your wings and fly

2011-01-23T16:17:00.003-03:00

When you live abroad, your perception of reality and measures transform a lot. Sometimes you don't understand well, what is going on around, sometimes you are extremely sensitive to each detail.

I've been reading a brilliant work of Ken Robinson, called Element. One of the ideas there was that to find your element, sometimes you have to leave your country/environment. Reflecting about this, i realized that most of my personal talent discoveries happened abroad.

The memories of them still and always will take my breath away. I learnt how to drive a small plane as a second pilot and make clocks at mechanic lessons at my sweet little 16 in Germany. My first salsa lesson was in slovenian language, as well as most new extreme sports. Buenos Aires opened an actress in me and tempts to try more arts.

And i am wondering - Why are we eager to learn and do it better when we are out of our home environment?

- we loose all our old paradigms because we are in a new place;
- when we are on our own abroad, we have different worries than before. So instead of thinking - oh, i am not flexible enough to dance - , we think if we have enough money to buy food;
- public opinion doesn't matter. we are anyways exotic and strange, so we don't loose anything by trying whatever;
- if we managed to get out of the physical comfort zone, we would be also able to get out of the emotional one.

***
Since the age of 6 i've been always told, that i sang horrible and music was not my thing. So i gave up in learning anything which was related to music. 2 days ago i took a singing class just to try something new. First applied technique showed, i was actually good and had a potential to sing well. Let's see, what happens on the 2d lesson :) p.s. my mother doesn't believe me :D

listen, do you want to know a secret?

2011-01-19T14:10:00.005-03:00

it's hard to keep secrets.

big secrets, small secrets one day become public. Or non-public, but everybody knows them. How many times did you have tension to share forward something branded as "oh, but it's a big secret, don't tell anyone!"?

in Argentina i realized that this quality (sharing is caring) is quite common. You say something to one person, and next day everyone knows about it. Few times it made my life way harder, and even destroyed some friendships. But let's leave dramatic part for some other time (as well as reflections about reasons, like a need of feeling important and informed, lack of ability to keep mouth closed and lack of a bright personal life etc).

But sometimes we need to share our secrets and choose wrong people. That is why i would love to give you 2 links where people tell their secrets to noone and everyone. They are quite fun though and give you a deep view of human nature :D

spanish version (argentina of course) - www.tusecreto.com.ar
english version - http://www.postsecret.com/

have fun and stay anonymous!

another Argentina :)

2011-01-13T14:26:00.003-03:00

I mentioned many times that Buenos Aires is so complex and diverse that you never get bored discovering new things.

As i remember now my first months i've had a "pura joda" lifestyle: going out almost every night and dancing/listening to popular music, spending time with people of my age and being fully into one part of life here with all activities, types of conversations and interests.

When i decided to bring a quality diference to my life, i started taking theatre classes and as a bonus (which became more important) i got to know incredibly talented and fascinating people, who introduced me to the classical cultural side of Buenos Aires. And as the average age of these people is 45 years, i also got an opportunity to know about their childhood/adolesence times through music and literature. It seems that i opened the curtains of completely distinctive life and environment. And it feels like being so small time here.

~~~~

Maria Elena Walsh was a famous argentine artist, specialized on books and songs for children. She died few days ago. As i read about her, she was born in a worker's family, published her first poems at the age of 15 and lived in Paris for 4 years during peronism epoch. When she came back, she worked with texts and also had a big success as a singer. She had a very meaningful and incredible life as a bright-eyed talented artist could have.

I would love to post 2 songs of her. One of them is about a tortule Manuelita (for kids), that i heard yesterday. Its simple and deep lyrics somehow reminded me a bit of my life.

The second one is called Las Estatuas, very beautiful and sad. Thank you, Damian, for sending it :)

a minute of laughter

2011-01-09T15:37:00.004-03:00

Argentine people (mainly portenos - from BA) are famous for being arrogant and thinking that all the best that world has is in Argentina. It might be taken as a stereotype or truth or whatever, but today i saw 3 jokes that made me laugh a lot. As you know there is a piece of joke in every joke .. (the rest is truth ;p)

¿Cómo se suicidan los argentinos?
- Tirándose desde lo más alto de su ego.

¿Qué es el ego?
- Es el argentinito que todos llevamos dentro.

¿Cómo se hace para saber que un espía es argentino?
- Lleva un letrero en la espalda que dice: soy el mejor espía del mundo.

¿Por qué un argentino mira al cielo y sonríe cuando relampaguea?
- Porque cree que Dios le está sacando fotos.

Traveling around - Iguazu waterfalls

2011-01-08T11:15:00.011-03:00

Who has never heard about Iguazu? Probably any person, who vizualizes Argentina and Brazil beyond Obelisco and Christ's statue, sees famous waterfalls as countries presentations as well (thanks good promotion).

Iguazu falls are one of the nominants to be in list of 7 new world wonders. Huge complex located on border of 2 countries attracts millions of tourists every year and this number is growing. Just imagine having 275 falls in 2.7 kms when some of them reach 90 meters (the falls). People come here not only to take few fabulous pictures of waterfalls (though anyone could feel like a great photographer here). Nop, this area gathers a lot of nature-lovers, diversity admirers and the ones who feel a special energy of falling water.

My idea to visit Cataratas (Cacoeiras in port, Waterfalls in engl) came up spontaneosly when i was thinking of the most original way to spend new year. So on 31st Dec i was already there in sunny Puerto Iguazu with a small backpack on my shoulders changing it to new white dress with pink flip flops and a plastic glass of sidra in my hand. On 1st of January for the first time in my life i had a full day being awake :p and living it actively: i explored an argentine side of the park: i was surely amazed by stunning awesomeness of Garganta del Diablo ("throat of the devil"), went for an adventurous tour close to the falls and felt all its power directly - by being totally wet and not being able to keep my eyes opened sometimes. Long way by a bridge and warnings: Attention, you can meet dangerous animals here! was a great added-value to be focused and curious - what if? ;)

Basically, you can do a lot of activities there, as argentine side is really huge and allows you all kinds of entertainment, discoveries and provides you with adrenaline for a long time ahead. Following brazilian side the day after i noticed a slight difference: it was more panoramic, cute and ... small. Nature made that day sunnier and hotter, so all the views were much more clear and still breathtaking. In my traditions of facing surprises i met Lina, my friend from old AIESEC times in Russia. Just imagine staying in front of the marvelous falls, watching them through the rainbow and being caught by a girl who spoke my language and asked how i had appeared there. Really, those kind of questions became tricky for me, i can't even really answer which country i am from now :)

Besides Iguazu falls with their gorgeous pride and beauty, with sounds of various birds, that i saw for the first time, with strange, curious trees and plants i also used opportunities to expand the area of visits. Starting with Ruines of San Ignacio and guarani locations down in the province Misiones, following Wanda (point of digging precious stones from caves) and endless gardens of flowers, birds, eco villages (Aripuca) i simply realized how much that relatively small area of the world had to offer. And how much of it was new for me! Listening to a guarani guide i got my strong flashback of some etnic villages in Russia, where such dedicated scientists are doing best to save the culture and language. These people deserve big respect from all past, current and future generations.

I didn't go to Paraguay, though i felt its presence through certain aborigens (maka) selling their unique accessoiries and demonstrating customes and costumes :) Brazil made me smile with its fun commercials/offers for its citizens on the road (1 - come to Paraguay to buy cheap, 2 - come to Argentina to play casino) and with a comment of one local guy: brasileiro vai primero :))). Also the food in one of the local restaurants was a relief after argentine bread-based meals.

And even though most of the time i was guided professionaly (i chose that option as i had got tired of being on my own and active 100% all the time during all trips), i managed to escape few times and got lost around (just like i love it).

Some personal reflections

well, it was my personal choice to start new year close to nature and feed myself with energy and fresh power. I definitely felt special there, admiring magnificence and strength of moving water, pure diversity of animal and plant world, big open spaces. I felt again that i always looked for new strong emotions and experiences and a need of getting them became quite obsessive - i wouldn't be happy to hang out on the beach or having a party in the club/house. From one side it scares me: i just wonder what happens when i experience the maximum of places and activities in my life. Would i be okei with it? or would it look like same cycle like changing countries? From the other side i am glad, because each experience is unique and special and a human being needs to go for more,conquer more space and build bridges instead of borders. And when i get tired of it, i will for sure find out new ways to challenge and open my world wider ;) for now my way is to move as much as possible.

Iguazu falls were definitely special for me. They played a big role. Besides fascinating with their spectacular views they also cleaned up my mind and soul. They just threw out all sick and dead paradigms, emotions, thoughts and turned me back to my dreams as a new relieved person.

lost and found

2010-12-28T22:55:00.005-03:00

to find yourself first you need to loose yourself..

i've seen this phrase in Marina's statuses many times and never really understood fully. unless i realized that i was still lost in the world. this is a feeling that many expats/travellers might have during their adventures. Last months i've felt homesick several times as it's been a long time being far away from my country and family. And it was not a typical nostalgy when you miss each and everyone. Nope. I've had nightmares with a physically painful fear of being lost forever. being lost in this country, continent without an opportunity to go back any time i wanted. living an unreal life with unreal people who have never been a part of my childhood. seeing new places and faces, so different every time. not having that another life which had been probably meant to be mine. life which seems like a flashback of the past reincarnations.

and i escaped from that life to explore the world. have i really explored the world? have i really done something meaningful during my experiences? or i am just hanging around like a gypsy with no goal, no attachments, being always fascinated by changes and new emotions/challenges/mountains to be climbed?.

My mother called me a gypsy with no homeland, but her words affected me in a different way. i realized that now it's the moment to be found. which doesn't mean settling down and buying a house close to my parents. it means to be in my element and see myself as i am. i really wished it to change as soon as possible and put my efforts in it. then according to all universe rules, it started happening. right people entering my life, right places and coincidences, right activities and aha-moments, road back to my true passions and successes. things only started happening but it feels like i am on the right path. and when you are there, no additional decorations (like country/village/language/colors/opinions of others) are important anymore. i am here because i am here. i am making this place good to be in. for me. and if it's good for me and makes me happy, i am able to make the world around happy as i always dreamt :)

it doesn't sound like inspiration to conquer the world. it doesn't look like a 10-steps-to-be-superfine-abroad book at all :) for now i let others do so and live their fruitful and dramatic experiences of THE new.

i lost a lot this year. my connections with far-away friends and family, my cultural identity, my weight (7 kilos of my body dissapeared in 1 year :o), my stability and few times trust in my own capacities.

and i found more. found new incredible people, passions, successes, ways to survive/enjoy/smile and be feminine. i found my mind opened more through all shocks and internal evolutions.
my ship is resting now. ocean and uncertainty don't scare it anymore (like never) but it wants to stay in this port for a while :)

1 year, 1 life, 1 country :)

2010-12-10T12:30:00.008-03:00

One year in a different country/continent makes you older for all 3. at least this is how it works with me. so no matter if i am shocked or bored, but YES, i've spent 1 year in Argentina and it happened soooo fast.

Which pictures come out from my memory when i think of this year?

I definitely remember the feeling and smell of first days - noise and colours of the big city, expressive people and tones of flowers, weird compliments and cute faces, pure poverty and lack of air. Fascinated, excited and scared :)

My first 2 months ran like a dream and nightmare: confusions and “lost in translation” moments, people opening doors of their houses and hearts, green Christmas/new year/birthday, never-ending cumbia and first romantic affair, learning by crying (Spanish :D), lots of people and events. First frustrations and doubts. Puro quilombo ;)

And then “when I never settled down” it went pretty much same way – I never settled down in Buenos Aires :) I’ve been changing places to live, people to live with, people to be with. It’s been like a big show all the time – I still can’t loose the feeling of being observed. I survived incredibly hot and cold-until-my-bones weather, inflation of 30% in 1 year and strikes. I climbed mountains with flip flops and buildings’ roofs with high hills shoes. Generally contradictions always followed me. Like I’ve made crazy-dancing shows at some parties and then ran away offended like virgin mary. I was afraid of relationships but totally okei with 5 dates per week with different people. I never had more than 100 pesos in cash with me but always found in some dangerous areas taking pictures of painted walls. I never really heard about football, but dressed in blue-white all june during WC and was so proud on 25th May celebrating 200 years of Argentina. Maybe this is how i became "isterica" (a person who doesn't know what she wants) :/ :p

I’ve been genius in generating troubles for myself: coming back home late at night alone many times, living for 60 pesos for 2 weeks saving on food but never on fluffy stuff, chatting with police guys (one more funny-bloody story for my grandchildren), making direct opinions about anything. I met a huge amount of people – good and not very good, warm and cold, fake and real. And I learnt from all of them.

I’ve had it all. Maybe more that I could handle. And still have without asking for it. I faced all my fears and “what if” thoughts. I opened my heart many times and many times I failed terribly. I’ve been flying in the sky and falling to the hell . From one extreme to another. I learnt how to be happy just because even when external world kept hurting (not in purpose but just because as well). And I learnt to be fine with the feeling that at the end of the day I was totally on my own.

But one thing that I’ve never done is being fake and double-faced. No idea if it’s for good or bad, but there is something that is still the same – my transparency and faithfulness. Black or white, cold or hot, yes or no. Being real me by listening to my heart through every step i made. And having baby/animal perception of world and people. Not the most convenient quality, right?

Soooo what’s next? No idea. And no idea about the proper attitude – to be active and persistent or let it go and surprise me as it happened with coming to Argentina. I only know that my time in Latam is not over. And there is still a lot to learn, give and …meet. It feels right to be here now. Being grateful to every day and person. Te amo Argentina :)))

any more message?

don't be afraid to live, love, risk, jump, fail, fly and do whatever you want as long as you are able to take responsibility for your actions and learn from them!

"La vida es un escenario y los hombres sus actores"

2010-12-06T13:40:00.008-03:00

This is a very famous Shakespeare's phrase translated to spanish.

If you are a theatre fan, Buenos Aires is definitely a place for you to be. Anytime any season any hour!

I guess noone knows the exact number of theatres, but there are tonnes of them. Starting from classical monsters like Teatro Colon or National Servantes theatre going to more commercial located on avenida Corrientes or totally alternative by smaller groups in San Telmo or Palermo.

Comparing opportunities that this city offer and my usage of them i must say that i am not using them a lot. Theatre world is also something quite messy here - you can find whatever you find for totally free or huge sums of money.

Anyways during all my stay in this city there were few performances that impacted me most.

La Isla Desierta

It is a performance all made by blind actors. So we were sitting in total darkness all the play but participating with other senses - smelling, hearing, touching/being touched. And well, it was a very strong experience and huge challenge. I found myself crying at some moments simply because i could dont change the situation - i didn't see anything and felt insecure.

Fuerza Bruta

Truly amazing, incredible show with full participation of the audience. A triumph of creativity and brave thinking. Some people even get physical pleasure from this performance :) You can't get it unless you experience it! Here i leave its trailer that gives a basic idea what i am talking about:

Tango Ruso

of course i couldn't leave it without my very special attention. Well it was taken from Dostoevskiy, which automatically made it depressive for me. Fun part included the view of Russia by a director and language. The only mystery for me is still the name (cause original name of the book is Eternal marido)

No te confies en mi (don't trust me)

A short weird play about human relations - tragic, absurd, silly, funny. 2 epochs being demonstrated at the same time, 2 generations with the same problem of confidence, love, female power and tough decisions, including murder.

~~~~~

Living in this atmosphere of creating-performing-watching made me start studying theatre as well. My choice was quite random (based on advice of my best friend - intuition - as always :P) and i never regreted it. I chose a theatre called Elkafka and to be true that experience helped me to open a lot. Well, i've never been a shy person but very very deep inside i was closed.

Theatre lessons made up by psychological, communicative, creative, some medical exercises pumped all my hidden emotions out. I learnt practically how to be just myself playing and doing whatever i wanted. Well, it is something cliche that you can find in any "help yourself.20 advices" book, but most of us never go beyond just reading and repeating golden words, right?

Theatre classes where you have to do "weird" exercises in front of everyone by yourself or in couples or all together make you completely free from any preocupations about the way you look or perceived. You express yourself through a greek tragedy or realism, minimalistic scenes or involving ghosts - it's all about the frames that bring out your personality.

The final accord of my studies for this year was a play called "La Otredad" (Different) that we composed from 0 to hero with all students. I consider this experience as one of the most magnificent in my life - just making it happen for no other intentions rather than arts and pleasure. Maybe that's why the biggest recognition of that play was tears on the face of one of our professors.

Soooo... Life is a theatre. Play it! Much more interesting than just watching :P

"who are the judges?" (Griboedov)*

2010-08-23T13:34:00.006-03:00

А судьи кто?* (Грибоедов, "Горе от ума")

It's one of the very famous sayings of a russian writer Griboedov. Actually it doesn't have a lot with cultural specifics of Argentina, as it can be applied to the whole humanity anytime and anywhere. But i would love to mention it because it's something strong that i realized here. After 23 years of my life and one sunday afternoon :)

It's about human relations, societies, rules of engagement etc. Something that is called "chumeria barata". I realized it through few intensive emotional experiences, tough conversations and tears+smiles.

- People love to talk about others.
There is one amazing saying - "Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people." [Eleanor Roosevelt]
I am wondering sometimes what would people do if there was noone to talk about? Would they take courage to build their own life?

- Opinions can't be right or wrong. They are only opinions.
We all have our social, cultural, intellectual backgrounds and there is none same. We see the world with our eyes and our perceptions. What is black for us can be dark-blue for the others.

- Noone has a right to judge.
We can like something or hate it, but only because things don't work out the way we are used to, that doesn't mean we can put etiquettes on them. The only person to judge the one it's him/herself. Because everyone has a right to make mistakes.

- There is always another side of the coin.
Things become so much easier when we just put ourselves in the shoes of others. And the best question we could ask - why? and try to understand of course.

- People tend to destroy/eliminate everything that is better than them.
I remember it from one amazing article of Agranovsky (the soviet journalist-legend). Sometimes i noticed that people who are being discussed most are the ones who are more successful in some spheres and brighter than the others. I guess it's because they don't waste their life for talking about others. Instead of playing the rules set by others they make their own rules and make themselves happy.

- People will always find the reason to judge you
No matter what you do, there is always some spot to do so. Even if you change something in your behaviours, that doesn't garantee the change of attitudes of others. Maybe because it takes a lot of personal strength to change your attitude.

and last but not least -
- As long as you live your own life according to your values and honest to yourself, you should not be worried about the rest. Because each and everyone is a special story and completely different from any other.

"Los tres de Lechecuajada" (one more piece of Russia)

2010-07-29T10:11:00.004-03:00

All russian kids of all epochs know the soviet cartoon called "Трое из Простоквашино". But most of them don't know that there is a translation of it to spanish and actually a good one. Translation was made for cuban kids (wondering why :P) that's why it sounds like normal spanish.

Anyways, enjoy!

Antonio, fa freddo!

2010-07-19T13:19:00.003-03:00

Everyone (at least in Russia) knows this advertising. And it's sooo much about Argentina :D Soooo let's talk about weather specifics of this never-boring-country.

Argentina is located in Southern Hemisphere so the hottest month here is january and the coldest - july. Buenos Aires is very close to Rio de la Plata and has an incredibly high level of humidity which makes a climatic experience very strong - it's very hot in summer and very cold in winter, no matter how many degrees are on thermometre. Besides this it can be very cold in the morning and very warm in the afternoon. You never know.

As for summer, i had a huge climatic shock feeling hot days and nights and being a polar beer. And everyday i could hear - ah que calor - from people, because even though they've been living here all their life they are still human beings. Now all my facebook/twitter/g-chat contacts are full of "que frio" statuses. Frio here is 3-4 degrees (minimum) with no snow, some rain and almost no heating system inside of the buildings which adds a lot of suffering to the author of this post :) Never ever in my life i have slept in a jacket. But yeah Argentina makes me live a lot of things for the first time :)

All those climatic reflections and my first article in spanish (that i am still ashamed to put in public) brought me to some cultural/biological conclusions:

1. weather influences a lot on culture
People in tropical countries are happier/more opened, people with eternal winters are colder. Yes it could be one of characteristics (though i hate generalizations). Winter here is so sunny that it's just mentally illegal to make sad faces. People in Baires for instance live a very intensive social life, being always out and then sleeping all day (during weekends). Probably they can just do it more and enjoy. Also habits of looooong dinners and gatherings can be connected with the weather - it's simply possible :)

2. Health and Physical state
Countries with little-sweet winter are not ready for hosting it. Here i am talking about heating system that doesn't exist (in my opinion), clothes that is not really warm, food (not enough vitamines for winter) and some facilities in transports, buildings that stop working (elevators, phones, light).

3. Human relations
In my personal opinion people here are not into serious relationships (romantic) and take it slow and easy till late 20-s. And now i also understand - really, when it's sunny and hot outside, you want to enjoy life and take maximums without being engaged into something serious. And when winter comes, you want to feel more safe and comfortable (otherwise, why did so many people change their statuses into "in a relationship - tiene relacion" in june-july? :p). My friend Marcelo says that winter is the best time for "cucharitas" - when you get warm hugging someone. So this hypothesis makes sense.

and more...
I was reading one interesting article about lingvo specifics and climate (like people from mountain areas have a lot of short and hard-to-spell words while their neibours from valleys are singing) but don't have a link for now. It's also sweet for me to watch the desperate wish of local fashionate girls to use winter clothes - for example, wearing boots, when foreighners are on flip-flops. Several times i listened to people from the south of Brasil who were proud that they had all 4 seasons :)

and me, a Russian... yes i feel cold too because of humidity mainly and biological confusion of time and weather. and started feeling annoyed when people make big eyes and say that i can't be cold because i am russian. or call me "rusa-trucha" (fake russian). Anyways we are all looking forward for spring! really! que friiiiiio

World Cup or World War?

2010-07-04T20:56:00.011-03:00

So it has finished.

El Mundial has finished for Argentina with the last game on saturday in 1/4 where Germany won with 4 gols vs 0.

Some thoughts after living this weird and incredible experience in one of the most passionate and emotional countries:

+ footbal is the only thing that matters

i didnt need to know time of matches of Argentina. It was sooo clear by empty streets and each gol was celebrated by incredible level of shouts, music, throwing papers. Noone worked during matches of Argentina, some companies were even reserving restaurants for their employees to watch footbal. Brasil made a 1month vacation for all country. When Argentina beated Mexico, everyone went to Obelisco to celebrate and people - this was one of my top10 wow experiences in Argentina.

+ footbal is a religion.

well kind of. and it has a lot of psyhological explanations. Religion is a powerful tool to manipulate masses and unite people. And the biggest affect is on the ones who have a need to belong to smth big, to feel themselves as a part of the family. Nowadays religion is loosing its power. So footbal is more attractive way to unite and then control people.

for fun: this is the sms i got one morning from unknown number:
"Padre nuestro que estás en Sudáfrica, santificado sea Argentina. Venga a
nosotros el 5to partido. Hágase tu voluntad tanto en el cuerpo técnico
como en los jugadores. Danos hoy nuestro gol de cada día. Perdona a
nuestras defensas, como también nosotros perdonamos al árbitro que nos
...ofende. No...nos... dejes al borde de la eliminación. Y llévanos a la
final . AMEN !!!!"( a copiarlo y pasarlo.)

As all religions have their god(s) here is the argentine god Maradona.

+ footbal (WC) is another form of the war

in the 21st century we dont have so many wars anymore (thanks god). Still people have a need of symbolic fights, that is why we can see sooooo many people coloring themselves in country flags, using vuvuzels to be heard and social networks for verbal fights. Fun part of it is creativity of people and adrenalin, sad part is nationalistic moods and low level of debates. It was pretty strange to see so many patriots in all countries and i was wondering - where have you been before? and is it the only way to express your love to your country?
+ Argentina vs Brasil :O

they really hate each other during WC. And when Brasil lost, people in Argentina were happy. I guess same happened in Brasil when Argentina lost.
One of the argentine shouts says following:
"Brasileiro brasileiro qué amargado se te ve!! Maradona es más grande, es más grande que Pelé."
I was really curios once and as a real journalist made an experiment. I went to the last match on friday with my brasilian collegues all dressed as them and trust me i had never heard soooooo many insulting things as that day. I was negatively surprised to see how happy people were seeing that Brasil lost and what they were saying. Of course, its cultural, but there is always space to remain a human being.

Here is a brasilian article about the restaurant in Rio de Janeiro that promised free beers for each gol to Argentina

+ hola como estas? and art of loosing

in one of my first posts i mentioned that the only answer to this question could be BIEN. well, on saturday the best answer was - triste (sad). It was a very hard experience - to see the country suffering so much, to listen to silence and almost nothing about footbal. A lot of adult men were crying, noone was joking or flirting as always. I was quite scared for some of my friends, because indeed the loss of Argentina was taken personally by a lot of people.

Some negative behaviours that i didnt like were exposed through blaming all and everything like other countries, foreigners in Argentina, Maradona, Messi, referees, african gods etc. Several people told me that Argentines dont know how to lose. Having a big network and using social media actively i can say that such an opinion makes sense. It makes so much sense that i deleted one person from my contacts on facebook for personal security reasons - and ive never deleted anyone from my facebook before..

+ (Anti)Mundial 2010 - women
Not every woman is a footbal fan and argentine women are not an exception. nevertheless during this Mundial i could see a nice outcome in fashion - blue-white colours in clothes, make up and really creative accessories. Also remember funny moments when men were reacting at them saying - ooooh que linda bunfarda (scarf) or que hermosa sos con este camiseta (tshirt of Argentina)

Here is another point of view

So to sum up - living the Mundial in Argentina has been quite impressive and hard at the same time. It has nothing to compare with Europe (and i lived in Germany in summer 2006 and close to Austria in 2008). With all tears and smiles its a strong experience and we can love or hate it but never ignore.

UPD:
for fun - the video of a match Brasil-Chile in Santiago was very famous in some brasilian social networks. Don't know to which category i should put it :D

no brasil es diferenci

2010-06-23T13:41:00.007-03:00

Brasil was my first latin-american country to visit in 2008 and i fell in love with it obviously.

And then living in Argentina i always wanted to go back and see how it would look like again after being latinized. It was not so hard - my country cancelled visas with Brazil and then my new friend-carioca invited me to his house for a long weekend. And i went :)

So what crashed my mind and surprised as a person that has lived for 7 months in Argentina?

1. Doublements

Brasilian currency real is 2 pesos which also means that this country is double-expensive for argentinos. And that brasilian economy is better right now. Not cool for me, eh?

Brasilians kiss twice (Argentinos only once) while greeting and saying bye. So again i was dragged back to people after kissing them once as i was used to.

2. Pele(a)

Yes in a way i was "lucky" to come here during the WC-2010 - all country just went crazy. And as i was with 2 more argentine people i was lucky to be present at never-ending debates about - who is better: Pele or Maradona? Who is cuter: Messi or Kaka?. With this WC i've got a feeling of being on another field, where everything is so different but has similar spirit :) Yellow-green colours instead of blue-white and totally distinctive perspective on media.

3. Alegria

As i went to Rio, the weather was simply amazing - so people again seemed to be happier than anyone else in the world. And i felt totally comfortable being so much myself again - dancing in the streets, talking to people and laughing loud. Well, i can also do it here in Argentina, but there it felt like totally normal and more simple :) A lot of brasilians think that their neighbours are complicated and worried about their problems, when life in fact is so simple. Interesting perspective no?

4. Language

Being a castellano-speaker :D made my stay easier, but it's not true that many people in Brasil can speak/understand spanish. However the languages are so similar that i realized - my portuñol level is excelenchi :p besides that i was threated as an argentine sometimes which was a great field for me to make fun of people and situations ;) But from the other side it throwed me into a new round of self-identity crisis - who am i? why did i always say - and we in Argentina...?

In the end i would love to share one song of Caetano about cultural differences between Argentina and Brasil :)

O Samba e O Tango - Caetano Veloso

el mundial al pelo

2010-06-16T15:42:00.002-03:00

conversation with an argentino today:

him - are you religios?
me - ?
him - do you believe in Maradona?

...

Stay tuned...

i have never ever :p

2010-06-07T17:05:00.000-03:00

some people know this nasty game of home parties, but this time i would love to share some of my country-discovering stuffs that i have never done. Why? in 3 days it will be exactly 6 months of my incredible and beautiful quilombo experience here, so i just thought of things i haven't done (yet). I wont include geography stuff, neither too personal.

sooooo in my 6 months in Argentina

i have never ever:

- eaten asado (neither choripan)
you can't experience Argentina without meat :p well you can if you are vegetarian like me.

- been in a real villa
and though i want to visit some of them badly i am afraid...

- gone to any theater
this is the biggest shame - to live in the epicenter of culture and arts, moreover - very close to many theaters and to never visit them. first i was doubting about my language understanding skills, but now i don't know what makes me wait so long.

- paid for an ice-cream :D
just a random observation :) i've been invited quite a lot for ice-creams but never paid for different reasons.

- watched any footbal match nor visited any stadium
well, mundial is coming, so maybe. but nothing so far, i dont know any other names except Maradona.

- been robbed/harrasted/cheated
thanks god! a lot of gringos have this experience in their life, but i've been very lucky, extremely lucky, taking into consideration my total randomness and talent to get lost in strange places at night.

p.s. and one more thing - i have never ever had a feeling it was a mistake to come here. This country and city especially makes me happy and every day i fall in love with it more and more ;)

language - part 3 :)

2010-06-04T12:11:00.004-03:00

once i was told that you are totally into the foreign language when you start thinking in it. it's kind of funny - to think and talk to yourself in a foreign language, also funny to talk to animals in it. Try ;)

why am i writing all this? i guess it's because i realized this week that i am running my inner dialogues in spanish/castellano now and it makes me super-happy. because i love this language and love thinking in it. nothing more to add :O

Music break - Gardel :)

2010-05-31T14:02:00.005-03:00

When i heard this name sitting in cafe tortoni - oldest legendary cafe of Buenos Aires - i was quite ashamed to say no.

Here he is - Carlos Gardel - with amazing and always funny songs that have no age

UPD:
I found a place which is very much connected with Gardel - his museum, monument, songs on walls and even metro station :)
Here are some AMAZING pictures

Cordoba - it's a kind of magic!

2010-05-26T11:26:00.009-03:00

Want to try sweetest alfajor, dance cuarteto and climb the mountains while drinking fernet and talking to funniest people in Argentina all at once? Go to Cordoba! It's a special place that makes you feel happy all the time.

If you look at the map of Argentina, you will see that Buenos Aires is a port - which is logical, as it's strategically and historically the best place for the capital.

Cordoba province in opposite is in geographical middle of the country and the city is 2d biggest in Argentina. Incredible thing about it is that Cordoba differs sooo much from Buenos Aires and probably the rest of the country, that it deserves a special note.
Soooo what is important to know about it?

Spanish? Castellano? Cordobes?
People in Cordoba (los cordobeses) speak in a very special way - mainly it's about the intonation. Sometimes it seems that they sing. You will define the cordobes from others hearing their first 3 words. And you will always smile and make jokes on their language.

Las Sierras/Hills
Natural beauty of Cordoba province is impossibly marvellous. I was lucky to see the mountains/hills that i miss a lot in Buenos Aires. So no surprise that i started jumping and climbing them like a goat from the first moment. Basically i was doing it every time i could. And at the end of the day i fell asleep in the car with a big smile. Because mountains are my love.

Alfajores
It's a sweet specialty of Argentina which is originally from Cordoba. And here it's sweeter and better. Here you can get it as a gift on every corner and want more and more. Because it's Cordoba.

Fernet
It's an alcoholic specialty of Argentina which is originally from Cordoba :p Actually its originally from Italy. but it's not important now. Sooo prehistory says that when Aigul came to Argentina and tried fernet, she made one of her famous disgusted faces. The reason is that fernet tastes like grannie's medicine. In 5.5 months of never-ever drinking fernet she went to Cordoba and ... just started drinking it and loving. Still can't explain how it happened.

Cuarteto
it's a social dance similar to cumbia and salsa which was born here in Cordoba among poor people and became popular with Rodrigo. Cuarteto is very funny and very common in Argentina. We went to the show of 4 groups and it was amazing. Nothing more to add :)

City
it's much smaller than Buenos Aires (1.5 mln), still it's bigcomparing to other cities. Cordoba has a long history (starting 1573 with Cabrera) and 70 first quarters growing into an important economical and educational center. It played a big role at different periods of the country history, also a sad one, like at Dirty War. Now it's a student city, host of ArCor - biggest Arg. company and according to some gossips a potential capital of the country (there has been an idea of the same trick as Brazil did with Rio de Janeiro - Brasilia).

People
to me they are more calm and relaxed than portenos - but it's understandable. i was lucky to meet really warm people that were doing everything for me (and more). Remember my last minutes in the bus station at 2.40 am cooooold weather and 3 people with me asking - if i was sure i wanted to leave and not to stay one more week. Sweet and warm. And like with previous trips i was incredibly blessed to be invited and hosted by the local people - Marcelo, thank you and your family again and again!

mate

2010-05-20T09:25:00.005-03:00

first time i heard this magic word when i was having an LC visit to AIESEC Samara as their coach in 2007. In the end of the visit Slava - the LC President - gave me a mate cup as a present from the whole LC. And said that i would use it one day in Latin America. Well, Slava, you predicted the future.

first time i tried mate in Macedonia at IPM when Mauricio from Brasil was walking around with a strange cup full of grass. I liked it and then next time mate arrived in my house in Slovenia with Barbara, also from the south of Brasil.

And then from the first week living in Buenos Aires, i've been drinking it constantly and loving it more and more.

So basically what is mate?
This is a traditional drink of gauchos (people from south of Brasil, Uruguay and north of Argentina). It has specific flavours - yerba, which as uruguayos say comes from their territory. The way people drink it is that they put this yerba to the specific cup (2/3) then add warm water and drink using bombilla. Usually it's one person caring the whole thing and giving the cup to whoever he wants. You can't ask for it, you can't say thanks after drinking it. Mate cups are made of pumpkin mainly, but in all 3 countries they are different. Also there is a saying that mate cup says a lot about the personality of its owner (like clothes).

People love to drink mate anywhere anytime, but special time for it is sundays in parks or mornings around 11-12 am. Mate can be drunk with sugar, but it tastes better when it's pure :)

i personally have 2 more cups - presents from Gimena and Andrulo and recently i've got cachamate - it's all in one - the best tool if you are travelling.

i heard that some foreigners tried to smoke yerba thinking that there is something special in it, but the magic of the whole tradition is in its social context (gathering people, talking and being united) and health (it has varios effects on you - keeping you warm/energetic/calm - depending on what is your body's need).

villas-villeros

2010-05-04T15:42:00.003-03:00

Everyone heard about brazilian favellas, so called countries within the cities where the poorest people live and have their own rules and lifestyle. Number of people counts usually millions but noone can give exact numbers.

In Argentina such places are called villas and in Buenos Aires they have a big territory. I've never been there, but heard that about 4 mln people live there and obviously these people are the ones of lowest social level.

Besides special villas people - villeros - also make up smaller ones across the city. In Buenos Aires they are definitely in Retiro (train station), Constitucion, La Boca, even close to my place - at Tribunales you can see the one. Once mapa de la inseguridad - places where it's better to be very careful - http://www.mapadelainseguridad.com/

I believe it's dangerous to go to villas, as they represent completely different world and people are being grown up with different psychology. Speaking about dangerous part - as people are incredibly poor, if they want to do anything with you, they will for sure do it - nothing can limit them.

Someone told me they can kill for 2 pesos because they think that "rich" people get everything for granted so it's their fault. Another sad part is also that girls get pregnant and don't know about it - they discover it because they feel the pain and their body increases. After giving a birth to a kid they often leave it in the street or earn money begging for money holding 2-3 or more kids. Definitely main reason for all this is that people are cut off basic education and they grow up being rejected by their more lucky citizens.

Of course this post doesn't have any expertise and is all based on personal experiences like facing impressively poor people every day everywhere and seeing that nothing basically changes - the government has been planning to build and move villeros to new places but once this initiative has been failed and somehow it doesn't look like a solution. I've never been in any villa or any near and to be true i have a huge fear of going there so i don't think i add more about it in the future. I am sure there is a lot that we don't know about this another world called villas.

Here is one video called cartoneros - a very dirty job that villeros do - you can meet thousands of them every evening sorting trash near supermarkets.

not only tango and wine

2010-04-26T10:12:00.002-03:00

i've been posting a lot of facts/observations about Argentina connected with my personal experience here.

today i would love to touch a more serious topic, which is the history of Argentina. Not going too much back to building a country in 16th century, i would stop more on years 1976 - 1983, time called as a Dirty war. Those are one of the most awful and disgusting years of the history when more than 30 000 disappeared and were murdered by the government (right-wing). Most of them were young students, who disagreed with the military regime and wanted to make changes. In fact, the "bloody government" made up by army people was not successful economically and failed dramatically. The final accord was a war for Malvinas (Faulkland Islands) with UK - to take out attention of people from real problems. Loosing in the war showed that the government was able to fight only against its own people.

why am i writing about this? One thing is that it reminded me a lot the history of Russia during USSR times, when a lot of people were disappearing, and part of society tried to change it when another part (majority) just pretended that nothing was going on. Right now there have been a lot of discussions and society in Argentina is split in 2 parts as well.

Another thing is a film made in 1986 which won Oscar - La historia oficial - about post-Dirty war time. I watched it and it's incredibly strong, deep and dramatic.

Here is the trailer of it on youtube (it's available as a film split in 13 parts).

P.S. special thanks to Marcelo B for recommending me this film.

philosophical thought :P

2010-04-22T08:37:00.002-03:00

some wise and smart person said once - to be happy with a man, you should rather understand him than love. to be happy with a woman, you should never try to understand her but only love :)

why i thought of it? because Argentina is like a woman for me. I've been reading the history of the country, watching films, learning the language and talking to people, but there are still a lot of things that just put me in a state of "wtf?" and squize my brain.

so just like in a poem about Russia (YES, these 2 countries are becoming more and more similar to me) - Умом Россию не понять, большим аршином не измерить, у ней особенная стать, в Россию можно только ВЕРИТЬ - i claim that Argentina can be only loved and never really understood :)

songs - lingvo analysis :P

2010-04-19T13:03:00.005-03:00

Everyone knows latinamerican songs and everyone knows they are generally very romantic.

These songs also help to understand real spoken language though their lexicon is quite limited. Here in Argentina you can generally hear music from Carribeans, especially Colombia and Puerto Rico, at the same time local groups are also popular. So after 24 hours listening to my old love Bacilos, Fonseca, Ale Sanz and new things like Los Authenticos, Kilates, Los Pijos, Rodrigo etc etc i made up a small linguistic analysis of the lyrics and here is what i figured out (that was not hard :D):

Key topic:
Love and male-female relations

Key categories:

mental/physical statement:
gustar (me gusta me gusta me gusta :D)
frio/calor
dolor

Parts of the body:
corazon
cuerpo - body
manos - hands
ojos - eyes
pechos - breasts
labios - lips

actions:
bailar - dance
jugar - play
enamorar - fall in love
mentir - lie
compartir - share
olvidar - forget
morir - die
volver - return

first you just like listening to these songs (or not and then forget them). after you start understanding the lyrics, you delete half of them from your playlist (especially reggaeton, especially daddy yankee). Then the remaining ones have 2 affects on you - you either listen to them as background or change your mood according to these lyrics. In my opinion these songs influence a lot if you listen to them too often - from falling in love to hating :)

to make a more clear picture of what i am talking about listen to these 2 songs. The first one is puerto rican, really beautiful and sweet.

The second one is local - Gotan Project (Gotan means tango in lunfardo) - quite an old song that i got to know 3 years ago - with some views of Buenos Aires

and somehow it's funny and true - you feel you are in the right place when music that you like to listen is totally matched with the one listened here - in the streets, clubs, restaurants, shops.

spassionate

2010-04-16T17:34:00.004-03:00

che boludo, como andas, gordo?

this is a normal list of words you hear very often from people living in Argentina. and a lot more...

i realized that i'm actually comfortable with spanish (castellano) while debating long with the guy from programming team at my work.
realized when one ecuadorian girl asked me if i was from "here" after 5-10 minutes of chatting at some party.
realized when i started understanding ALL songs that i used to like (some i dont like anymore :D)
realized when i stopped falling asleep after reading 1 page of "Argentine" - a book about the history of Argentina in castellano.
realized when i simply felt good speaking and listening to it.

soooo spanish is amazing. it's passionate. it's expressive. it's rich. once you start speaking it you don't want to stop. for me as a Russian it's easier phonetically (than english) and lexically (more words to be clear and full in descriptions). for me as aigul it's easier than any language because it's totally matched with my emotional and extrovert personality. it has all levels and types of words/phrases to make your speech spicy and delicious.

sooo if castellano sounds as a mistery that you want to discover, you can use this website and learn it (i never tried, but heard it's good). if it sounds boring, simply come here and go to people ;) they like to talk A LOT :P

from Russia with love - 2 (about Argentina)

2010-04-14T10:42:00.003-03:00

Today is the first visit or a russian president Medvedev to Argentina.

I was really curious how it's presented in the Russian media, so skipping all speeches and political things that don't interest me at the moment, i would just put a link to the material of NTV (russian channel) about Argentina-Buenos Aires-Relations between 2 countries here. It's in Russian.

music break :)

2010-04-12T15:27:00.002-03:00

i wrote about dancing specifics of Argentina, but haven't touched the music topic in general. Actually for now i don't really feel comfortable writing about it, so for today i would love to introduce you Mariano Acosta, a rising superstar of Argentina and a very funny and shiny person :)

Love this video also because of Buenos Aires views and castellano

In 2 weeks he has a concert here, so if you are in, vamos ;)

from Russia with love

2010-03-30T13:48:00.009-03:00

Being an expact anywhere means also representing your country and discovering it again through eyes of local people.

Argentina has more than 1.5 mln russian immigrants (from all times i guess) and most of them live in the south (obviosly why).

Anyways being a Russian here means being exotic. Because Baires (at least from what i've been living) doesn't have a lot of people from my country and especially tourists. And even though i have "la carra adaptable" (my beloved teacher Sandra) meaning i can belong to any nationality with my face, i still look exotic here.

So every time i open my mouth and show i am not local, people overwhelm me with variety of funny reactions:

- why is your skin not as white as milk?
- are you sure you are russian? your surname doesn't sound like vodka.
- Rusa? in serio?
- ya tebya lyublyu (i love you in russian)

I am very happy noone asks me about polar bears, vodka etc, which i had enough in all other places. I am very surprised that people here know a lot of names of musicians, actors, sportsmen - names, that even i don't know.

So in a way Russia is presented quite positively here - all thanks culture and arts. I heard that a lot of artists learn according to Stanislavskiy and take the russian school of theatre as an example.

I haven't met a lot of Russians here so i have no idea how they live. There is one cultural centre (for those who are really interested) - http://www.casaderusia.org/index.php
Sooo i feel somehow proud though also annoyed (in clubs) to be a Russian in Argentina ;)

Matryoshka - they call it "mamushka" here

over-attaching to the country

2010-03-26T17:19:00.003-03:00

Every and each country has some sensitive spots culturally, politically or economicaly. Quite often they are in a deep connection with the neighbours or countries that they interact a lot with. Such sensitive spots are a good tool to unite people and make them feel as one or a part of something big and be proud of it. Something interesting can happen also to expacts that live in these countries and it's quite funny i guess.

For instance when i lived in Slovenia at one point i found myself debating with 2 croatian guys about Istria (a territory that both Slovenia and Croatia think belongs to them and a reason for many problems between 2 countries). And guess what - i was defending Slovenia. In some other conversations with other people i was very sensitive to jokes about small size of the country and reacted as a person who had born and spent all her life in Slovenia.
And now my dear Argentina grabbed me into the mood of its daughter and this is how it happened:

Some people know that Argentines and Brazilians don't really like each other (speaking very generally) - because they are 2 big competitors in South America, because of footbal, becauseof language specifics and whatever else. The way they express this "hate" is simple talking and joking at each other. One night i was coming back home by bus and was sitting close to 3 young Brazilians that were - what a surprise! - making jokes at castellano - argentine spanish. 3 minutes after listening to them i realized that i already hated them for those jokes :) and everything seemed so awful. And it was me who has a bunch of very close friends in Brazil and who loves the country.

Other moments to feel sympathetic to Argentina usually come when foreigners start their complaining sessions and i cut them by asking - why would't you go to another country then? Now? another way is to find explanations for anything and turn negative feedbacks into positive ones.

Still don't know if it's a normal metamorphose for an expact but it's a second time for me sooooo i am definitely a new patriot of Republic of Argentina no matter how weird it sounds

:P

Alternatives of preciosa

2010-03-23T13:52:00.004-03:00

i was complaining to be called preciosa, hermosa, nena etc. right.

seemed that people in this country call like this even their enemies. My first shock arrived when the portero of the house where i live told me: "hola gorda (fat)!". well, i am used to be called fat girl (big hug to my slovenian bamboo team ;) ) but here??

Soooooo let's jump into the culture again and understand why?

a lot of people heard "che boludo" thing. Actually it's also a name of a book - gringo's guide in Argentina. Che is a common word and means practically nothing. "Hola che" is same as just hola and is said to whoever not meaning anything special. Historically it must come from Che Guevara times but it doesn't. Originally it meant Mapuche (People). In guarani it also meant "mi" (my), like Che Señora - Mi Señora that housekeepers used to call their owners. (Che meaning has been updated after Diego L.B. comment ;) )

Boludo - this word i heard 3 years ago in Turkey (hola, Martin :D) - primarily has a bad meaning all over the spanish-speaking countries, but in Argentina can mean also nothing like a word that you just use talking to your friends.

Gordo/a - fat, is said to skinny people, sometimes it shows that you like a person (as person, not in a romantic way)

Flaco/a - skinny, is said to whoever, also to waiters but you should know when is apropriate to use it. Also common to be used at discos when men molest you ;)

Seems that i started feeling very comfortable in this country :)))))

Arts in Baires - Graffiti

2010-03-19T13:36:00.005-03:00

One thing that hit my eyes from the very beginning at the streets here was Graffiti. Each city in the world has a lot of graffiti, but in Baires it's incredible - you can see all types of arts and a lot of masterpieces on walls. Amazing fact is that they change them almost monthly so you can never get used to images - the city is moving also on walls.

Main neighbourhoods where you can find a lot of them are Palermo (absolute champion), Recoletta, San Telmo. And the best way you find them is just to get lost in endless messed up streets and always explore more and more because there is no limit for unbelievable paintings.

I have a special album for Baires Graffiti on facebook, and here you can watch a very specific video of Graffiti life - it's awesome!

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

que hora son mi corazon?

2010-03-12T13:42:00.003-03:00

What do you see everytime you enter any building in Western Europe, especially Switzerland?

Clocks.

What do you see in buildings in Argentina?

A lot of art :)

I will definitely write about arts here next time. But clocks and timing is a special thing. People in Latin America are famous for being not very punctual. Argentina (Baires at least) is not an exception, though there are some personal exceptions (Hola, Marcelo :))

That is why such words as mañana, tranquillo are being used a lot. People are never in a hurry here. Quite often you get the feeling of Griboedov's phrase (a russian writer) - happy people don't follow the time.

If someone invited you somewhere "around 8 pm" come easily around 10 pm - you might be the first person to come.

Why is it like this?

Well, one reason i guess it's general tranquilo culture, when you are not in a hurry and take your life easy. Another reason is that people like to talk and spend a lot of time doing it, so obviously they are late, and it means that main value is communications with people regardless such limits as timing.

Anyways, it takes time to get used to timing specifics and requires easy approach. Nothing is impossible ;)

:*

2010-03-10T13:52:00.005-03:00

People in Baires kiss a lot.

Practically you have the feeling that they kiss all the time - and i don't mean lovers and families here.

Imagine you come to the house full of some 20 guests of all ages, genders and you make a round of kisses for everyone. Even if you stay 10 minutes, you have to make this round again when you leave. Because this is how it works here.

Kissing people as greeting is generally normal for many countries in the world, in some you give/get 2 kisses, but only here i experienced this culture of getting kisses from anyone at anytime. And if you skip this rithual people will understand you of course, but it will feel weird and a bit impolite. Once i was so horrified that i had to approach the father of one family asking him for kind of permission for not kissing people and saying - i can't anymore please. He just laughed at me :)

So in Baires:
#People give one kiss when say hi and bye (Andrulo - my friend here - told me it's because people were too lazy while taking a spanish culture of kissing people twice) ;)

#Men kiss men

#Word Besos in the end of email (like in all latinamerican countries) means same as Regards

#Very emotional people can kiss you all of a sudden just like this and it's sweet, reminds a mother kiss

So as long as it's nice/sweet/innocent - kiss a lot, one day it will become something ordinary and necessary like brushing teeth

say it right

2010-03-08T17:39:00.004-03:00

as i mentioned in one of my previous posts people in Argentina are very expressive and rich for compliments (btw it's been a funny flash mob that everyone started calling me preciosa in every email/sms after i had published my post)and as this expressiveness is close to my personal nature i felt very relaxed being same.

Basically you can always hear about any person - he/she is sooooo cool, so dulce, so amazing etc - and this would last hours :) people will never say anything negative about you in face. It's same as responding "bad" to the question "how are you". So this specifics caused some cultural misunderstandings for me here, that can be summarized in following:

1. if you plan/agree on something with someone and it's not gonna happen (because of another person) you will almost never know it directly probably because people are afraid to sound negative/make you feel bad. They might tell you that in a metaphoric way so if you have humanistic educational background you will get the point, if not - good luck :)

2. if you are happy and really like someone (as personality, not in a romantic way) be carefull expressing that as well, otherwise people might think: a) you are in love, b) or/and you've had something with this person. And you will be the last one to know about it (according to classics of global gossiping)

3. if point 2 is addressed to someone who is in a relationship (no matter which grade/stage/type) be carefull twice - the girlfriend/whoever attached to this person might change the attitude towards you even though there is no strong culture of being belonged to someone here.

4. if you are making jokes and you from CEE country be careful triple - i noticed long time go that cee jokes are quite brutal and hardrock for LatAm countries. My experiences in Argentina have proved it - it's easy to offend people if you joke in an ironic way. And of course they won;t tell you that (see Point 1)

Anyways facing all these differences and challenges i personally remember one thing - there is no limit for improvements and some specifics can't be improved simply because they are against your nature. i guess i am lucky with people here as they always smile, wave and say - but you are a foreigner :)

where the streets have no name

2010-03-05T13:41:00.005-03:00

Thanks god streets in Baires have names :)

from one side there is no magic about them - their diversity is quite similar to any big city's diversity. Anyways some of the tips&tricks are different for me.

Let's start with names of these streets - they are quite common:

Names of famous/important people of the history:
- Belgrano, M. Alvear, Lopez (a lot), Fernandez

Dates of important events:
- Av. 9 Julio, Av. 25 Mayo, 3 Febrero, 24 Noviembre

Countries+cities:
- El Salvador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brasil etc..

Others:
- Los Incas, Pescadores, Libertad

When you need to find a house in Baires you almost dont face challenges - the city is built up in a square form so you count everything in blocks And when you want to have an idea how far/close something is you say - that is 6 (5, 10) blocks from here.

However sometimes you can easily get lost here, because:
- you can't just go straight and have always same street on the way - they change when the numbers are more than 6000 (60 blocks) or they turn left/right and you have to watch out where you go and if it's correct.
- sometimes there are no signs or no names/numbers on buildings so you have to walk a lot to figure it out
- sometimes arrows don't match with numbers. Like: Libetrador -> 2000-1900 which can confuse you
- some neighbourhoods have a lot of one type for names (for example a lot of "country" streets in Palermo) and then you have Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica parallel to each other or you have Uruguay and Montevideo close to each other in Recoletta.

what can help you to be a fish in water?
- GUIA T - a city guide that might have same value as Bibel or phonebook or whatever. I can forget my mobile at home, but GUIA T never!
- People. Just ask. of course when you are in a hurry it happens that you get involved into a 30min conversation with someone who explains you, but that is local specifics, so just enjoy it ;)

dulce vida or how to resist facturas?

2010-02-25T13:15:00.004-03:00

Argentina can shock, amaze, sweeten you with a lot of its specifics.

Have you ever tried Argentinian breakfast? - was i asked once.

Well, if you try it you don't need any food for the rest of the day eventhough this breakfast is full of sweet incgredients.

But let's start with the basics.

Dulce de leche

That is cooked sweet milk (вареная сгущенка) which argentine people think is their invention. According to one legend that i found in my Guia T (city guide) it was "invented" in 19th century when the wife of BA governor was making breakfast for her husband, but forgot milk in fire with sugar so it burned. However the governer loved the taste and this is how dulce de leche was born :) Nowadays you can see it almost in every sweet thing, even in McD ice-creams - it's just ingridient "by default" Even when i was cooking my birthday cake with a lady - owner of my previous flat - we made it with a lot of dulce de leche. You can find dulce de leche of all possible types and flavours and it's Amazing!

My birthday cake looks tasty doesn't it?

Facturas

These are sweet things made of sugar, flour, eggs, butter - so called pastries but argentine ones. They are extremely tasty and cheap (1 peso each), everyone buys and shares them so you can imagine what is the personal pressure and fight you have with yourself everyday. Usually local families buy them on sundays (at least a dozen if not more) in panaderias (bakeries) and enjoy at mate time (after midday). So now you know what is the best time to visit them ;) And it looks very fun - a table overloaded with facturas and a lot of mate. best conditions for fruitful conversations right?

So there are some types of facturas i managed to remember (there must be many more):

medialunes - these remind french croissants - are small but very rich so that they kill all your hunger for the rest of the day ;)

churros - plain and filled with dulce de leche - very good ones

vigilantes - these are longer and best option if you don't want to eat a lot but can't resist - my choice N1 ;)

Other sweets:

something i have seen only in Argentina so far is sweet potatoes. Without dulce de leche yet but different from the regular potatoe :D

If you want to try it on your own, here i found one recipe of dulce de leche:

Fill the bottom of a double boiler halfway with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium for an active simmer. Pour a 14-oz. can of sweetened condensed milk in the top of the double boiler and set it over the simmering water. Don't cover. Every 45 minutes, check the water level and give the milk a stir. Replentish the simmering water with hot water as needed. When the milk is as thick as pudding and is a rich, dark caramel color, 2 1/2 to 2 hours, remove from heat, cool thoroughly, cover, and refrigerate or use immediately.

taken from here

if you are russian, just take a can of сгущенка and boil it for 1-2 hours, i did it when i was young :)

my first ice-cream with dulce de leche in Argentina:

and now the question of life in Argentina - how to resist facturas? i have no idea. It's impossible, probably it's one more philosophical question to think about.

soap operas

2010-02-22T13:05:00.004-03:00

One of the most successful products that Argentina exports to the world is soap operas. Key words for them are: corazon, dolor, drama, amor etc.
They used to be very popular in Russia in 90-s, time when i have been growing up. And the key star of all the soap operas was Natalia Oreiro, the actress from Uruguay.

Basically all people in Russia know who is Natalia Oreiro as she came several times to my country with concerts and was even shot in the soap opera there. One joke that some Argentines like to make with me is that all russian immigrants/tourists come here because of this woman and her soap operas. There is a piece of joke in each joke, the rest is true - i believe those soap operas promoted Argentina a lot for the rest of the world (which is not Italy, Spain, Germany..) and people started considering it as a destination point.

If you don't know what i am talking about, here is a VERY famous video of the Muneca Brava (Дикий Ангел) film and the song that all russian girls of my age know by heart :D

Natalia Oreiro - Cambio Dolor
por m_e_l_o_m_a_n

If you wonder why Argentina is so successful with soap operas just come here - they are being created everyday by people here. No need to hire superprofessionals for scenarios - they take them from daily life ;)