One thing I want everyone to know about is this place called Ugi's. They're everywhere in Buenos Aires and they give you a whole pizza for 28 pesos. Which is, essentially, a steal. Speaking of essentials, that is pretty much all their pizza is: dough, sauce (unless you order the focaccia variety), and mozzarella. They'll also sprinkle some oregano blend on top too which pretty much makes the whole thing. The inside of the place, as some friends have noted, features the decor of an insane asylum: a pizza oven behind a counter, surrounded by blank white walls that clash with the floor, featuring tiles of the same color. All that's missing is padding on the walls. Yet I go here at least 2 times a week, eating a whole pizza all by myself. I even realized it goes really good with an avocado, which I can buy right down the street for 6 pesos.
Before I came here, I had asked people I knew who were familiar with Argentina what the country was like. Some of them used this as a chance to mess with me (I'm not mad, I would probably do the same thing), saying things like "they don't have chocolate there" (which is a bold faced lie) or "there's no ice cream in Argentina." The second rings truer, there isn't ice cream here. What they do have is helado, or as you probably know it, gelato--the Italian version of ice cream. Now, you may be thinking (if you haven't yet given up on this blog entry as I have), "is there really any difference between ice cream and helado?" to which I say, plebeian, of course there is a difference. The first difference is the cost--in the states, gelato (and ice cream too) can get really expensive. Here they charge (usually very low prices depending on where you go) by the kilogram. Dulce de leche is the most popular flavor here, and I find that it goes quite well with white chocolate.
This brings me to my recent helado-related mix-up. Across the street from CEDES (where I take my classes) is a heladaria that has prices that frankly cannot be beat. As I walked inside, I saw that 1/4 of a kilogram cost only 15 pesos. However I realized right after that I had no idea how to order that in Spanish. This abrupt realization, combined with my lack of basic knowledge of the metric system, led me to ask for a mediokilo (1/2 kilogram) instead. I walked out of the shop with half of a kilogram of helado in a styrofoam
vessel and a strong sense of foolishness. Later, my foolishness turned to shame.
As much as I love life here, I really miss home. It seems that every day I look at people on the street and find doppelgangers of people from Wooster and Santa Cruz. I'll see someone vaguely similar and automatically think, "hey look! It's an Argentinian Jesse Tiffen!"* It hasn't even been friends necessarily, because sometimes I see Argentine versions of acquaintances and even people I've never even talked to at Wooster. The one thing that holds these sightings together is that they all remind me of home.
Finally, I took the metrobus home from an evening in San Telmo and walked home from the obelisk in the center of the city (a gift from France, I'm told) that sits on one of the busiest streets in the world, Avenida 9 de Julio. I was surrounded by advertisements, bright screens shining from the tops of buildings. I was reminded of how stark the contrast is between above and below. The tops of buildings broadcast the projections of capitalism, a representation of the quite recent development of privatized industries and increased aperture of the economy to foreign investors. Pepsi, Mercedes-Benz, and McDonald's all seem to light up the night sky. However, at the street level, banks, restaurants, and other businesses exhibit graffiti and cage themselves within steel bars.
Funny note about the obelisk--my host family doesn't really like it. It's simple, they say--a nice gesture from France, perhaps--but did it really have to be so boring? In contrast with the Statue of Liberty (a gift to the United States from France, as you may know), a symbol of freedom and toting the famous words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," I suppose it could be the lack of context behind their dissatisfaction. It is kind of just a relatively tall obelisk that really just sits in the middle of a busy avenue, not representing anything. Regardless, it isn't that bad to look at:
It's been a while since I've written and for the next week I'm going to Bariloche, a famous city in the Patagonia. I will be hanging out with an indigenous community for a few days and being a tourist for the rest. I will take pictures and write about it when I return!
*I've seen 3 of you by the way if you are reading this, Jesse.
Finally, I took the metrobus home from an evening in San Telmo and walked home from the obelisk in the center of the city (a gift from France, I'm told) that sits on one of the busiest streets in the world, Avenida 9 de Julio. I was surrounded by advertisements, bright screens shining from the tops of buildings. I was reminded of how stark the contrast is between above and below. The tops of buildings broadcast the projections of capitalism, a representation of the quite recent development of privatized industries and increased aperture of the economy to foreign investors. Pepsi, Mercedes-Benz, and McDonald's all seem to light up the night sky. However, at the street level, banks, restaurants, and other businesses exhibit graffiti and cage themselves within steel bars.
Funny note about the obelisk--my host family doesn't really like it. It's simple, they say--a nice gesture from France, perhaps--but did it really have to be so boring? In contrast with the Statue of Liberty (a gift to the United States from France, as you may know), a symbol of freedom and toting the famous words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," I suppose it could be the lack of context behind their dissatisfaction. It is kind of just a relatively tall obelisk that really just sits in the middle of a busy avenue, not representing anything. Regardless, it isn't that bad to look at:
(Picture taken courtesy of Wikipedia)
It's been a while since I've written and for the next week I'm going to Bariloche, a famous city in the Patagonia. I will be hanging out with an indigenous community for a few days and being a tourist for the rest. I will take pictures and write about it when I return!
*I've seen 3 of you by the way if you are reading this, Jesse.
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