ser vs. estar

Salta La Linda

2006-07-06T16:06:00.000-04:00

after over 5 beautiful months of buenos aires, i packed my argentinian life into my hiking pack, said my despedidas, met up with my sister and and begun our adventure through northern Argentina, Bolivia and Peru.

¡Sigo la joda!

Today I am in Salta, Argentina. Just got here, I`ll let you know how cool it is in a day or two.

2006-06-22T00:07:00.000-04:00

iguazú falls: there was not much water, but the sights were still maravilloso. on day two we hired a taxi driver to smuggle us into brasil. his name was ricardo and i bought flip flops with a little baby brazilian flag on them. bárbaro.

how can you even breath looking at something like this? (plus, all of my pictures have a enormous rainbow running through the canyon)

GOOOOOOOOOAAALLLLLLLL

2006-06-11T20:11:00.000-04:00

I present a haiku series in honor of La Copa Mundial.

On the game against Cote dÍvoire (2-1, Argentina) :

Boca and River
fans unite in excitment,
discrimination

oh, inverted world!
news reporters interview
housewives in the street

boliches will bounce
maradona taps his feet
we won we won we!

¿adonde van mis pesitos?

2006-06-02T09:18:00.000-04:00

every week i withdraw the dreaded 100 pesos bills, which no one can ever break, and each week they dissappear without a trace. Unless reciepts are a trace. Or the objects themselves.

very recent purchases:

1 Tarjeta Personal Light: 20
7 video package from Blockbuster: 27 pesos (yes, they have blockbuster here. it´s weird)
3 scones (2 chocolate chip, one with raisins): 1.50
2 books about Nazis
1 new sketch book: 9.50 (i filled my last one! and then left it on a plane)
1 dress from an independant design fair: 80 pesos
1 glass bottle of Sprite Cero: 1 pesp (the glass bottle contains the perfect amount of sprite. perfect)

but some things come free:

2 hours cuddling with Ali, overreacting to the movie Happy Endings (the first I rented on my video pakage)

a goldmine of a class picture: Jardín de Enfantes Dailan Kifki, Sala 5A, Turno Mañana, 2001.This one photo, found laying on sidewalk in Belgrano, has inspired a series of drawings about strange kids and the people the turn out to be.

oh, yes i did.

2006-05-26T09:19:00.000-04:00

The Phantom Visitor: Life A/Life B

2006-05-24T11:42:00.000-04:00

hooooooooooooooola. ¡tanto tiempo, no?

my trip to the US was lovely. after a solid 3.5 months of buenos aires locura i reunited with suburban america. i´d forgoten the hidden pleasures of driving to the pharmacy, being able to get to a friend´s house in 10 minutes, and eating at the Stage Deli.

due to the fortunate circumstances of my trip, i was able to see nearly EVERYONE I KNOW in the short 5 day visit. i was especially glad to see señor autumnatic for an evening. he aptly concluded that i was a phantom visitor; i was not supposed to be home, i was supposed to be in Buenos Aires. That´s truly how it felt. Like in the middle of a new movie I had never seen before, a scene ended and changed to a scene from Newsies, or The Princess Bride or Fantasia. Maybe not Fantasia, but you get it, something I know by heart.

going back home provided a new perspective of my experience here, making me realize--becuase apparently i had forgotten admidst the city angst of unreturned phone calls and mean salespeople--how lucky i am to be here.

Here. Yes, I am back in the city hace una semana. Tales of boludeses soon to follow...

Things I brought back to Argentina:

1 Seven Layer Cake from Diamond Bakery
1 huge bag of Nestlé Chocolate Chips (unheard of here)
Orbitz Gum Variety Pack from Costco
New Socks
2 pairs of hiking pants (as Amy and I will be hiking through Bolivia and Peru during the upcoming month of July)
2 Packs of Big Red. (there´s really nothing like it)

southfest: daft punk is playing in my country

2006-05-07T12:04:00.000-04:00

i don`t know why, but last night i went to an electronic music festival.

in spite of the autumn evening/morning air, and the relatively pricey entrance fee (85 pesos! how dare they!) it was bàrbaro.

my ladies and i hipster shuffled, roboted, and argentinian boogied to the recently-hip-again Ladytron and LCD Soundsystem, the kids who never left the cool table (although got looks for being on the OC Soundtrack). Also present, a plethora of international celebrity DJs and many people wearing sun glasses past midnight.

we left after LCD becuase, well, we weren`t on X, and a 4 hours of electronic music is enough.

when you`re 21, you`re no fun.

Mendoza Sola

2006-05-01T18:26:00.001-04:00

For my first ever Amazing Solo Adventure in South America, I went to Mendoza. Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina and minutes from the Andes Cordillera.

I hiked, drank wine at bodegas (which is supposedly of fine, fine quality), visited an old Inca Bridge, went horse-back riding in the mountains (still feeling that activity) snapped photos of Cerro Aconcgua (the tallest mountain outside of the Himalaya Range) and met some crazy hostel-bouncing Europeans.

night feels like

2006-04-21T18:51:00.000-04:00

ciudad de cine

2006-04-20T10:40:00.000-04:00

The 8th Annual International Independant Film Festival, now into it´s final weekend, is still kicking it all over Buenos Aires.

Kids don´t come any more indie, more scene, more hip than youthful porteños waiting in line to buy tickets to a documentary about Mexican construction workers, or a Uruguayan feature about a religious fanatic and her transvestite best friend.

The directors were present for all the screenings I went to and graciously answered questions afterwards, of both the embarrassingly naive ("What does the end mean?) and highly intelligent variety.

These are the films I´ve seen and I put an estrellita next to it if you should really try to see it, somehow.

El Exterior
*Alma Mater*
Diario Argentino
Shorts by Director Matías Guitler
Der Shone Tag
*La Sagrada Familia* (especially this one. apparently playing at the upcoming TriBecA Film Festival)
The Gravel Road (left in the middle)
*Glue* (won the grand prize)

alerta!

2006-04-15T13:00:00.000-04:00

Hoy comprè mi propia taza para el matè. Es lindo y a mi me gusta mucho el mate.

El proceso de argentinizar ya empezò.

that doesn´t remind us of musetta´s waltz

2006-04-02T12:25:00.000-04:00

Saturday evening I had my first opera experience at the Teatro Colòn, Buenos Aires` devoutly and deserevedly praised opera house. I saw the closing night of Puccini`s La Bohème.

We sat, well-- stood, rather--in Paradìso, the Colon`s answer to the Globe`s groundlings section. Thrust way up to the ceiling, we could hear the flawless voices and orchestration (Colòn is acoustically perfect: you hear the same thing in the front row as in Paradìso).

The view, however, was quite obstructed. I bought some largavistas (binoculars) off the street for 10 pesos, which was twice the price of my ticket. Yes, I saw La Bohème at Colòn for the equivalent of one US dollar and fifty cents. The set was giant and the whole thing rotated for different views of the city. The costumes were decadently brilliant. Alicia, the woman I live with, told me that once a costume is worn by a prinipal player in Colòn, they keep it in a special room, never to be worn again. Unless, of course, it is the very same star performing the very same role.

I could follow along pretty well based on my extensive knowledge of RENT. My favorite song was the one right before the end of the first act, "Musetta`s Waltz" ( the composers always put the best one in that slot so that people would go out for intermission, rave to their friends, and stay for the second act). I highly recommend that you listen to it. Pucchini`s music is is far better, but I must admit, that his ending is far worse. After twenty agonizing minutes, Mimi dies. She really dies. As the audience errupted in applause and a ridiculously self-conscious smattering of "Bravo!" I actually said aloud, and loudly, "Wait! Is that the end?" My friends laughed, as I waited for Marc and Roger and the gang to begin the Finale B.

Jew Watch

2006-03-31T08:47:00.000-05:00

Was Christopher Colombus a jew?

(i don´t think we want this guy on the team...)

about time

2006-03-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

My week long vacation in the lake district was a true success. Me and four American girlfriends flew into Bariloche, stayed for about two hours, then hopped on a bus for El Bolsón. In El Bolsón we magically encountered an organic farm hostel, Chacra El Cielo. We planned on staying for 2 days, then moving on to other cities, but we ended up staying for 5 days. In that time I met all the travellers passing through, read, wrote, cooked, played, hiked, and ate hearty (organic) farm meals. We stopped for 2 days in Bariloche to experience the chocolate, the plethora of tourist shops ("Alguien que le quiero mucho fue a Bariloche..."), and the Route of the Seven Lakes. I had big mental plans to do the whole 300K route, which as it turns out, is extremely difficult. We biked for half a day on the Circuito Chico (a small portion of the Route), which was not quite as chico as what I was expecting: very hilly, very steep, very easy to be hit by a bus. We tried, in our glorious stretch pants and helmets, to tomar té at the luxourious and famous Hotel Llao Llao. With a wry smile the manager told us that tea had just ended. i´m sure it had nothing to do with the sweat dripping down our faces or my grey leggings.

The trip marked the end of Phase I: Introduction to Argentina. I´m now fully in Phase II. I don´t know what to call it, but it feels cozier, more accessable, more fun. I´ve begun my semester classes, managing to contain my schooling to only three days a week. My classes are as follows:

20th Century Hispanoamerican History
Radio Production
Tango: Dance and Theory
Hispanoamerican Literature I (Lost Empires and Colonization)
Magical Realism Literature

The picture I´ve included is of me at the most scared I´ve ever been. Due to the 60 degree tilt, pouring rain and many missing planks of wood, we didn´t know if it was safe or not to cross this bridge. This is me testing it out for the group. I asked my friend Erica to take a picture on my new camera to send it to my Dad in the case that if something bad happened, he would know I was taking pictures and appreciated his sending the camera all the way to Argentina. Thanks, Dad.

las morras

2006-03-18T18:30:00.000-05:00

i am really happy eating the blackberries along the road en el bolsón while polly contemplates.

wear your patagonia

2006-03-06T17:44:00.000-05:00

¡Hola!

Greetings from El Bolsòn, a small town in the Lake District in norther Patagonia, right up against Chile. This region is gorgeous and I am staying in an organic farm hostel for a few days. Details and photos as they become available.

The Big Schlep: A Travel Narrative

2006-03-01T17:58:00.000-05:00

Uruguay : The afternoon light in the pampas, the sprawling solitude of the coast, the rare excitement of being somewhere--feeling something--slightly undiscovered.

That being said, this weekend getaway to Punta del Diablo was such a schlep, you woudn´t even believe it. Here are the stats:

5 : bus trips
36 : hours spent on a bus
4 : nights
2 : nights we paid for accomodations
¿50? : medialunas eaten
3 : abrupt rainstorms
2 : times i ate freshly caught fish (and it was delicious)
4: lifts we got when we hitch-hiked to Laguna Negra

We arrived in the Monteviedo bus station on a very rainy Friday morning after a bus ride 5 hours longer than it was meant to be. This extension in the route avoids the hundreds of Argentinian piqueteras (protesters) who are freaking out over the construction of Uruguayian papeleras (paper factories). I won´t go into the details, everybody is wrong, everybody is right, and every bus trip between the quarreling cities will be 5 hours longer until further notice.

Then we missed our bus to Punta del Diablo becuase no one mentioned that there is a time difference between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. That would have been useful knowledge. While trying to sort out another route, we realized that this was Carnival weekend, the biggest traveling weekend of the year for Brazilians and Uruguayians. We ran, literally ran, over to the ticket counter to ensure that we had tickets home for Sunday afternoon.

We secured tickets back to Buenos Aires on the first bus available, Monday mid-day. Knowing that we had more time to work with than we originally had planned (or wanted, as we would be missing part of the crucial last week before the ¡examén! ), we headed up to coast to La Paloma.

We arrived in La Paloma during a night time thunderstorm. Thinking I was in for nothing more rustic than a gentle weekend at the beach, I packed only a lepoard print umbrella, not a full rainsuit. As we lugged our bags in the rain, the wind flipped my umbrella inside-out, making me look like the awkward American tourist that I still, unfortunately, am. We stayed at a quiet, little hotel and spent the next day on the beach (for 20 minutes, until the rainstorm), riding bikes, and riding a bus to the original destination, Punta del Diablo.

We arrived at lovely Punta del Diablo in just enough time to catch the encore of a live concert. We spent the evening meeting a series of kind Argenteenagers, and afterwards relaxed for the slight duration of the night in our own private cabaña. The next day was filled with beach naps, fresh fish (at the restraunt pictured above) and hacer dedo to this supposedly `magical laguna. The lake looked quite normal to me, with no apparent signs of magic . The 50 meters wide shore, however, suggested a Martian landscape. Or, perhaps a Martian vacation home on the Uruguayian coast.

As we walked through a pampas farm on the way back, and the back of my neck was getting burned, and the cows were staring at us, and the horses began a mild stampeed, and i was dying for some Salus sin gas, i thought about the near 24 hours of traveling to come just to get back to Buenos Aires, and i realized that Uruguay is endless, magnetic, and absolutely, as we say here, vale la pena.

el calor insoportable

2006-02-22T16:41:00.000-05:00

Summertime in Buenos Aires.

At it´s best, the city is a breezy delight. At it´s worst (the past week and a half), it is a mosquito ridden steam room. To beat the heat, options are limited and air conditioning is hard to come by. This is my brainstorm so far:

1) eat ice cream

the very first day of this unbearable heat i ate ice cream 3 times and paid dearly for that choice with a 3 day stomach ache. It will be many days before i again enjoy the deliciousness of granizado de mente (mint chocolate chip) or dulce de leche (a very important topic to which we will later attend).

2) go to a pool

In order to get into a public pool in Buenos Aires (yes, i said public pool. that´s how desperate is was) you must surmount a physical exam. As I waited in sun with screaming two-year-olds and twiggy teenagers, i deemed the process a farce and a total waste of time. The physician looked between my toes and fingers. There was nothing unusual to be found.

3) go to school

I have consistently attended my 5 hour grammar class. The reason behind this trend is more subliminal than it is a sense of duty or educational propriety. Belgrano is air conditioned, my house is not air conditioned. And so I go. I have only one more week of the intensive spanish course, ¡gracias a dios!

4) go to Uruguay

This won´t actually make the heat go away, but it will be fun. The bus leaves for Punta del Diablo at 11pm tonight. (23:00 hr. actually. They use military time here and do not know that it´s military time. I still have to use my fingers to count down the difference in time).

I hope you have a nice weekend and are just the right temperature.

San Ironía

2006-02-15T19:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Valentine´s day, I decided to buy myself flowers in autonomous celebration of a holiday that does not exist here in Argentina. The flowers are beautiful and smell better than any other flower ever. Within 5 minutes of arriving at my DJ class my Argentinian friends informed me that I had bought myself the national funeral flower. They told me I smelled like a cemetery.

Happy Valentine´s Day.

CULTURE!

2006-02-06T17:04:00.001-05:00

Intensive Spanish Class began with a bang on Monday morning. I took a placement exam and am semi-uncomfortably placed in Intermedio II (the second highest level). I am one of 15 students, most of the whom have spent significant time living in another spanish speaking country. I´m happy to be with them, making my merry mistakes, because I will rise to their level and hopefully beyond. Already I feel like my spanish is improving, not a whole lot yet, but little by little.

At school I met a great friend, Polly. She attends Bard College and is super hip and wonderful. After our second day of classes I went with her to the MALBA. This is the Museum of Latin American Art from the 20th Century. The museum is small but ferocious. I was blown away by the depth of the collection and the insight of the stationed curators. They have Frida Kahol, Diego Rivera, and a few other recognizable names. I discovered an Argentinian artist, Xul Solar, whose work looks somewhat like the achievment of a kindergartner, sort of like Chagall, but seething and striking in originality (see photo). He also invented languages and was friends with Borges, so he was probably pretty awesome. I´m going to go to his personalized Museo de Xul Solar sometime soon.

By now it was the middle of the week and I realized that 5 hours of Spanish a day is a whole lot of spanish. But, truly, my life here is in spanish. Sometimes it feels like my life, but sometimes it feels like I´m watching a DVD and I can´t figure out how to turn off the German dubbing. Speaking of films, I recently survived my first movie all in spanish. Hunter (the other student in my house) invited me to see Iluminados por el Fuego, with he and his friends. It was a very loud and frightening expose on the 1982 Malvinas War between Argentina and England. The war is something that people here don´t really talk about becuase it makes Argentina look really disorganized and cruel. Tristan Bauer, director, comes right out and says that toward the end of the film: Why doesn´t anyone talk about Malvinas? If you´re interested, you should look up the war. It was, and still is, pretty messed up.

Fui al Zoo! I went with friends to the Buenos Aires Zoo, which is large and interactive. You can buy food to feed all the animals, and you can get quite close to them. At the Detroit Zoo, you´re about 30 feet away from the Black Bears. At the Buenos Aires Zoo, there is about a 8 foot space. The Bears could jump over to the spectator side, no problem. My favorite animals were the Hippos (pronounced here like this, "hee-poes") and the solitary giraffe ("he-raff-a").

Last night I went with Polly and the Brazilian girl that lives with her, Tatiana, to see a free ballet in the Bosques de Palermo. The ballet was Don Quiote, and it was so wonderful. This was really a community event. Families sat together drinking Maté, enjoying some Ballet. A beautiful sight. In characteristic solidarity, the crowd united to gang up on the people standing (A-SEN-TAR-SE! , A-SEN-TAR-SE!). There are some rascals here that don´t like to sit down when they´re told to, but most everyone else is sensible and knows how to add humor to any situation.

I feel my life here calming down after the initial arrival phase. I´m learning the streets, picking out my favorite cafés, and doing laundry. After my DJ class tonight (still awesome), I´m going to go out with a few of the other students in the class for a drink. Argentinian Friends! I can´t really understand most of what they say to me, but, sin embargo, it will be great.

it feels like something´s heatin´ up

2006-02-06T17:04:00.000-05:00

I began my career as a DJ on Saturday evening. I walked into Sonica, a recording studio in the middle of the otherwise sparse Las Canitas barrio (the barrio in which I live. I do not, as it turns out, live in Palermo). Already seated in the room were 8 young men, who all sort of looked at each other like "What the hell is she doing here?" And I was like "What, you can´t handle a girl DJ?¨ (all in castellano). All at once, three of the guys said "Señorita!" and tried to give me their seat. I laughed as the vamp to J Timberlake´s track began to spin in my head. (Ladies and Gentlemen, it´s my pleasure to introduce to you, he´s a friend of mine....(yes, yes i am)). As I sat down in one of their seats, I realized that it´s pretty sweet to be a señorita DJ in Argentina.

Oh! I actually made it through a night out in Buenos Aires. Dinner at 11:45, Dancing until 5:30 at The Roxy. Cafe until 6:30. When we left the pista (dancefloor) there was still a long line to get in. I also learned recently that there are club which OPEN at 8 am. Ridiculous. As the sun rose during my 6:30am cab ride home, I figured the city would be quiet, asleep. Oh, no. In nearly every cafe men, women, couples, children were drinking, dancing, laughing and--most definitely--wide, wide awake.

ya esta

2006-02-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

I have spent the past three days with one very close friend: Mi Guïa. My guide book to Buenos Aires. During these three days of touristical glory I have seen many sights, walked many calles ("kai-shays" is the word here for street), and drank many bottles of agua, sin gas

Alicia (my host lady) and I tired to go to the largest Mosque in the city. The president before Kirshner (the current president) converted to Islam, and due to this, sanctioned a VERY large´piece of property to build a Mosque. It is spectacular to see this profound representation of Islam in the middle of a Roman Catholic city. Unfortunately, the Mosque is open for tours at 12:00pm Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not 12:01, 12:00. Of course we missed the tour, so I´ll have to return in the future. Alicia taught me an expression that has become essential to my life here in Argentina: "Ya esta". It pretty much means "oh, well, what happend happened, so let´s move on."

So instead, we went to the Japanese Gardens, which would have been gorgeous, but they are under construction. The Koi are swimming in mucky water, the grass is unclipped, and the the place is mess. Ya esta.

I went downtown to the central, Times Square area of town (if you wanted to make such a comparison), around the Plaza de Mayo. You have to cross the treacherous Ave. 9 de Julio, is SO big it has 3 seperate crosswalks to get across it. (Oh, and another word about crossing the street. Cars speed up as if they´re trying to hit you and busses act like they dont´t see you at all.). The most remarkable event of the afternoon was the weekly demonstration of the Madres de los Desaparacidos (Mothers of the Dissapeared). The mothers of those who were secrretly taken and killed during the military dictatorship of the 70s and 80s gather every Thursday at 3:30pm and walk around the plaza in solidarity and protest. They have been doing this since the dissapearances began, 25 years ago. That part of Argentina´s history still lives and remind everyone, buisnessmen and photo-snapping tourists alike, that we must demand, and keep demanding answers from those in power.

I also ate at the elegant Cafe Tortoni, famous for having been the hotbed of radicalism in the late 19th century and the favorite cafe of many an Argentinian writer. They have great hamburgers.

The next day I went to check out my school, Universidad de Belgrano. I have to take the bus for 10 minutes then walk for 10 minutes, not bad. Belgrano is quite a posh neighbourhood, and I feel very safe walking down the leafy streets lined with mansions. Seriously. The school itself is only one big building, like Angell Hall flipped vertically. Classes start Monday, should be interesting.

With Hunter, the other student living with Alicia, I went back downtown for a tour of Teatro Colon, a very well known opera theater. The tour was cancelled. Surprise, Surprise. But, ya esta, we went to the Recoleta Cemetery instead and walked around looking at creepy tombs of famous Argentians for 2 hours. Evita´s tomb, in case you were wondering, is quite humble. That is due to the fact that, when she died, many people hated her (including the ruling government) so they didn´t hook her up with a fancy tomb.

Last night was the welcome dinner for my program. I tried the Chorizo, but I just couldn´t put the blood sausage in my mouth. After dinner we went to a bar called Mi Lion. The owener converted an old mansion into a multi-level bar, with excellent results. We went there at 11:30 ish, maybe 12. This is a pre-bar. You do not go dancing until, earliest, 2:30. I didn´t make it to the danceclub last night, I conked out at 3, just as the group was going. Clubs don´t close until 7 or 8 am!

..but I think I can make it tonight...oye.

This City is Really Big

2006-02-01T18:15:00.000-05:00

8:17pm
Telefonica (an internet place near my house)

my two days here have been one "learning experience" after another. i say learning experience, but what i really mean is that the company i paid to help me with everything is totally disorganized. XPlor Argentina makes it very difficult for you to actually explore Argentina. I started at the wrong woman´s house, but soon (8 emotionally exhausting hours later) upgraded to la casa de Alicia Ramzatto. She is a 54 year old woman with 4 kids, limited cooking skills and a spacious house in Palermo. Being in her house reminds me of being in my grandparent´s house in Florida...i think it´s the cool (temperatures, i mean) floors (marble? is that expensive? maybe granite). She has one other student living there, Hunter (24, Colorado, USA). I didn´t meet him until midnight last night and he seems quite nice, although certainly doing his own thing (studying language and working at a website that promotes US made dog products). I have my own room with key lime green walls and tons of closet space.

Her kids are at the playa (beach) for a week. I assume they are with their father, or some relative. Alicia and I communicate pretty well. She tells me I speak well although I certainly do not. She is relaxed, easy-going and fun to talk to, but I´m sure thing will get shaken up a little when the niños come home. I´m looking foward to the action of 4 kids in the house. It´s a little big and quiet now.

XPlor Argentina also failed to mention that my classes don´t being until almost a week after I got here. I begin class on Monday morning, today is Wednesday. No, it´s not that long, but to be in a foreign city alone without friends or a sense of place, it feels long. I´ve been trying, desperately, to meet up with other students in my program. There has been very little success in this. I´ll let you know when I actually make a friend. (sigh).

Things I bought today include*:

shampoo and conditioner: 15 pesos
raspberry sorbet (after learning that the word frambuesa means raspberry) : 3 pesos
cellular phone: 125 pesos

* please keep in mind the 3 pesos: 1 dollar exchange rate

my phone is so cute and small, but doesn´t work until tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day I begin using the subte system. Because no one else will, I´m going to take myself on a sight seeing tour and probably get lost many times and shamelessly pull out my map like the little tourist I am. This city is really big.

today is the day!

2006-01-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

goodbye, usa. hellooo, argentina!

2006-01-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

i'm living in west bloomfield this month, doing all kinds of predictable west bloomfield things: working out at the JCC (fantastic facicities, truly), secretarial work at Oakland Hills Cardiology (Dad's Office), babysitting for my cousins and going to sleep by 10pm.

something unsettling happened yesterday. my dad and i wanted Yoz. It was 9:50pm, and i--being a knowledgable on the ways of Yoz--knew the shop closes at 10:00. We booked it to 14 and Farmington, and arrived at 10:01. literally :01. i ran up to the store front just as the manager was locking door. i mouthed, "are you still open?" knowing they were not still open, but hoping for a pity let in. He looked at me, making unmistakeable eye contact, then turned his back to me, walking confidently to the store room.

and so i ask: is this not one of the rudest things one person can do to another? did he really need to deny my existance over one minute and a small vanilla cone? sure, it is his right to close the shop, the closing time was clearly posted, but is there not leeway? there's gotta be leeway.

return flight

2006-01-02T10:45:00.000-05:00

and i'm home.

jet lag is just begining to wear off. this morning was the first morning i didn't awake at 4am. what can you do at 4am, alone? nothing. it is an hour undesigned for wakefulness.

and that's true too

2005-12-31T15:41:00.000-05:00

shabbat shalom & very happy new year to you!

we welcomed the sabbath by praying and singing at the kotel, among thousands of other jews. the western wall--the closest retaining wall of the temple mount (on which both the 1st and 2nd temple were built and destroyed) to the holiest of the holies, the room containing the arc of the covenant. The holiest of the holies is basically the most exclusive club ever, the highest priest could enter that room only one day a year, yom kippur. so basically, what i'm saying is that jews are into clubbing. always have been.

today i slept in, went for a run around jerusalem, then meandered through the Arab and Christian quarters of the Old City. I revisited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus Christ is said to have died and been resurrected. As I walked out of the chruch doors, both the Muslim call to worship and the Christian church bells chimed. A procession of Armenian priests descended the ancient steps into the church and began to pray. I am constantly thinking about the variations of religious beliefs, and how people--likely MUCH more intelligent than I-- can believe something entirely different than I do, how, at least in some degree, we both think we're right.

ani po (i am here)

2005-12-26T11:24:00.003-05:00

location: the sheraton hotel in jerusalem, israel.
time: 6:26 pm
date: december...25th?

it seems that the cost of internet usage fluxuates in israel. agressively. therefore, i must post in the following 13 minutes because i only had 27 shekles. now it's 12. let's get going.

started out in eilat, the southern-most tip of israel. people go there for the weather, the snorkling, and the heat. i found no benifits in those arenas. (50s, partly sunny, red sea = cold). BUT! i hiked the negev desert (with views of jordan, egypt, and saudi arabia. that's when i knew i was in the middle east) ; climbed that beast of a mountain Masada (35 minutes, not bad) ; and admired the floatationally inclined Dead sea. the city of eilat has recently opened a biblical themed amusement park, King's City. (they mean King Solomon, the hebrew king known for luxury, debauchery and wisdom). upon hearing this, i asked myself, i asked: isn't that just Israel? A biblical themed amusement park?

there are 730 west bloomfield jews on this mission. west bloomfield has emptied out: powerhouse gym has no power, stage deli will make no corned beef sandwiches, dr. michael grey will botox no jewish foreheads this week. here we are, transported from our little jewish town into a jewish state. here, there is no job too base for a jew: the doctors are jewish and the pizza delivery guy is jewish. the banker is jewish and the hotel maintence man. how strange and wonderful to realize that--oh, yes--everyone is a person just like you. it just might take a seemingly homogenous state to make us realize that.

"seemingly homogenous" i say becuase israel is a hodge-podge, a mezcla of all kinds of people, believers in at least 4 major religions. yesterday i played with ethopian jewish babies. i kvell at the hasidic little boys with their tallises hanging out of their sweatshirts.

there is so much more, but for now, shalom.

p.s. i posted this post a few days after i wrote it due to unforseen complications

the land of milk and honey

2005-12-20T21:59:00.000-05:00

eretz yisrael, the holy land, the land of milk and honey, israel, the promised land.

no matter how you say it, i'm going tomorrow. 10 days of schnitzel, family photos and non-stop israeli accents. oh yes, it will be good.

rabbit fur coat

2005-12-19T16:40:00.000-05:00

jenny lewis has a spectacular new solo album : rabbit fur coat

you might know jenny lewis from her other musical venture, rilo kiley; or, maybe you know her from the 1989 classic troop beverly hills, in which she plays hannah nefler. rabbit fur coat is the meeting place of jenny's enveloping voice, the watson twins' surprisingly un-annoying harmonies, conner oberst & ben gibbard, and two guys from maroon 5.

this album is infective. i listened once, not realizing the effect it had on me. now i cannot get her out of my mind. and i mean that in a good way. a really, really good way. jenny's record label team love accurately cites this as "an album equally suited to the darkest parts of midnight and the bright light of day." lovely.

stand-out tracks:

rise up with fists!!!
happy
rabbit fur coat
handle with care
born secular

i will alarm islamic owls

2005-12-17T00:10:00.000-05:00

i bought my plane ticket for argentina. so, it looks like i'm actually going. january 30th, 5:55 pm.

but on to more pressing matters--

amid the fury of finals, i have been pondering the following question:

What would poets write about if their poems could only be titled with an anagram of his or her own name?

francis heaney has the answer in his book
HOLY TANGO of LITERATURE

my faves:

BASHO
(Two Haiku)

HAS B.O.
Swamp mist,
eyes water—
Why is that monk still wearing
Winter robes in June?

AH, SOB
A yellow snake eats
The robin’s lone precious egg—
You motherfucker

I WILL ALARM ISLAMIC OWLS
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

I will be alarming
the
Islamic owls
that are in
the
barn

and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises

Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah

the anagram of emily friedman? i am friendly me. aww, thanks Anagram Genius!

who is john galt?

2005-12-14T18:18:00.000-05:00

Old School
(tobias wolff)

recommended by my aunt carole

an extraordinary, duplicitous, and witty look inside the ivy lined walls of a new england prep school. wolff documents the lives of book-crazed young lads and pokes fun (some are more agressive pokes than others) at the school's visiting authors: robert frost, ayn rand, and ernest hemmingway.

a conversation with ayn rand:

-But let me ask you this. If you had to name the single greatest work by an American author, what would it be?
AR: Atlas Shrugged.
-Your own novel.
AR: Is there another?
-And after that?
AR: The Fountainhead.

bienvenidos a mi blog

2005-12-13T17:24:00.000-05:00

with only the kindest encouragment, i have created a blog to document my travels of both the world (estar) and of the mind (ser).

come visit my site often and please do leave comments

this is kinda fun