Home at last

Well, I'm finally back in the US after almost exactly a year and a half in Buenos Aires. My original plan was to stay only a year, but it turns out that it's difficult to bring a fiancee into the US. The process took us over 9 months, but eventually they gave Carla a visa so she could come here to get married.

The time I spend in Argentina was wonderful. I got to know the language and the culture, I made a number of friends and I took a much-needed break from my normal life. Now am I ready to continue my life with a fresh perspective and probably in some new directions.

There are some Spanish conversation groups in my city, so I'll be able to continue using the language. And of course I will speak Spanish with my fiancee for a while until she understands my English well.

Here's a picture of the building where we'll be getting married. We'd love to get married outdoors, but it will be cold here in November!

That's...different

Today as I was walking down the sidewalk returning to my apartment, I had a strange experience. There was a woman crouched down on the sidewalk, holding a baby. She had two other young children standing next to her. As I walked by them, I happened to glance down and see a yellow stream going right across where I was going to walk. I quickly sidestepped and continued walking. Yes, that's right: the little boy was peeing right on the sidewalk. Thank goodness I happened to glance down!

I want to stress that this is not at all normal behavior in Buenos Aires. It is the first time I've seen such a thing in the almost 15 months I've been here.

Carla and I ate at a Korean restaurant the other day. (Bi Won, Junín 548) It was her first time eating Korean. We both liked it, though some of the food was a little too spicy for her.

Speaking of food, eating grilled organ meats is very common here. So far I've tried intestines, kidney and molleja. No one is really sure what the latter is, but my best guess is that it's the pituitary gland of a cow. I haven't yet eaten brain, tripe (stomach) or heart. I'm sure liver is eaten here too, but it doesn't seem to be very common. I don't remember having ever seen it on a menu. Oh, and I've also had tongue, which amazingly is very tender.

Funny bump

Summer is finally over here, and thank goodness! The humidity here is deadly. On the two worse days the temperature was 97 degrees and the heat index 108! You definitely feel the heat a lot more here, too, because many places aren't air conditioned (and those that are are often still pretty warm).

On Sunday morning after eating breakfast I coughed and felt a pain just left of my belly bottom. Without thinking I reached down and touched my stomach and there was a funny bump there. Now that's pretty scary! It hurt when I pressed on it, but other than that it didn't bother me. My first thought was apendicits, but it was on the wrong side. I decided to keep on eye on it during the day.

Today (Monday) I woke up and it was still there. I was thinking that it could be a hernia, so I went to the emergency room. (Today is a holiday, so the doctors' offices are closed.) I waited less than five minutes to see an intern and then a doctor. The doctor told me that it was nothing serious and that it would probably go away in a week. If not, of course, I need to have it looked it. She said it was probably a fibroma or a "bolita de grasa" (llittle ball of fat). Anyone know that the medical name for the latter would be?

By the way, my fiancee's name is Carla. Well, actually that's what everyone calls her, but her real name is Maria. It turns out that when she was born you couldn't give your child a non-government approved name, and Carla wasn't on the list. Weird, huh?

One year!

As of today, I've been in Argentina for one year!

During the first couple of months, everything was new and time seemed to move very slowly. But since then the days have been flying by. I guess that's what happens when we get into a routine in life.

So, after one year, have I met my original goals? The short answer is yes. (See my first post in this blog.) I've had a year to learn about and experience life in another culture. And I now know what it means to move away from home, from family and friends, and find a new home and meet new friends.

I've also had a year to greatly improve my Spanish. It took longer than I expected -- about six months -- to start to feel more or less comfortable speaking to people and to be able to express myself fairly well in everyday circumstances. I guess it took so long because I was so selfconscious about my speaking. That's one personality trait that doesn't help when it comes to learning a language! My vocabulary is much greater than a year ago, but the biggest change is that I can understand spoken Spanish much better. Unfortuntely, I still have trouble understanding some people. You don't realize how much difference there is in the way individual speakers talk until you learn another language.

I was planning to go back to the US after one year, but a wrench has been thrown into the works: I have an Argentine fiancee, and it turns out to be a long process to bring her to the US with me. We began the process in early January, and it will be at least another two months before it's finished -- and maybe a lot more! It's a little frustrating, since I'm ready to go home, but it's worth it.

Working hard

I spent most of the last 3 weeks working long days at the office of a client in downtown Buenos Aires, but that's finally over. It was very stressful at times, but overall it was a good opportunity to practice my Spanish. The guys I worked with turned out to be cool.

New definition of "gross": Last night when I got home there was fresh vomit in front of my apartment building. No, that's not the gross part. This afternoon when I got home from a movie, there were a bunch of pigeons in front of my apartment, and they were feasting on the dried puke. Yuck.

Speaking of bad taste, the movie I saw was truly one of the worst I have ever seen. Any comedy that has to resort to a 70 year old man pulling down his pants in front of his daughter really needs help. There were a few funny moments, but the rest was really bad.

I saw the new Pirates of the Carribean movie over the weekend, and it was definitely worth seeing. I saw it in Spanish so I missed a some of the dialog, but still a fun movie.

New couch

Today I bought a couch for my apartment, which doesn't have a true couch (it's more like a day bed, and it's not very comfortable to sit on). It cost about $120 plus $15 for delivery. It arrives next Thursday.

Today I say for the first time the double-decker train that people have told me about. The train cars two-storey and have air conditioning, which most of the trains don't have. I take the train to work everyday, so I'm sure I'll get a chance to ride in one of the new trains someday.

A few days ago I started reading the latest Harry Potter book in Spanish. At 600 pages, it will take me a few weeks to read. At this point I understand everything I read except for an occasional word. Now if I could just understand spoken Spanish that well....

Funny subtitles

I was watching an interview with Will Smith today, and the subtitles were really badly translated. The person who wrote them obviously had no familiarity with American culture, nor did he understand Will Smith's accent very well. Some examples:

sign 'em, Dad = hijo muerto (son dead)
Tupac Shakur = dos paquetes (two packs)
while you was playing around = mientras usabas el avión (while you used the plane)

Now I know why I don't understand the jokes in foreign films with subtitles....

I've moved into my new apartment. It's not quite as nice as I'd hoped. I didn't actually see the apartment before I agreed to take it, which was really dumb. They showed me the apartment next door, which was supposedly identical except a little smaller, but that turns out not to be true. Live and learn. At least it's quite a bit cheaper than the other alternatives.