Me echas suyo razon

Buenas chicos - I'm slowly getting a hang of this internet 2.0 atmosphere that now exists. For all you technological dinosaurs (or anyone who spends less than 2.5 hours on the internet a day) web 2.0 is basically the onset, use, and intermixing of all these new online applications. Obviously facebook, myspace, flickr, digg, twitter, newsvine, delicious, etc... Most of my days are spent scrounging the internet for new capabilities in various web programing languages and through this I have discovered the crazy world that is web 2.0 Anyway if anyone is interested by any of this digg is a pretty awesome website along with newsvine.

Segundo, I don't know if any of you guys know Mano Chau, the band but they are pretty sweet and darn catchy. Here's one song I'm particularly fond of



Tercera - The verb echar specifically means "to toss" but is used in a lot of colloquial phrases. For example, no me echas la culpa, " don't toss me the blame" , I like it cause it is a cool way to say a lot of things. The title of this post is asking you, if it is that anyone is reading this, in which case I would really only be asking myself, but anyway im blowing my mind too much right now...The title of this post is asking that you toss me your idea about a certain predicament I have found myself in. I have a job opportunity basically brokering auto transport for people in the US, this job would pay well (for expat Argentine standards) but I would be working 40hrs a week talking to Americans all day, not really what I left America for you know? But this is salary and commission based so if I'm good I would move from being paid well to ballin' real nasty potentially, saving money for that sunny day in the future when I can make a motorcycle trip back up to the states.

On the other hand I now have enough contacts where I could teach english full time and make enough money to survive, but it would involve a lot of jumping around the city everyday as well as paying me a fair amount less...hum?? The benefit of teaching is the human interaction, face to face, with argentines of all different walks of life I would be teaching them for at least 8 months and really get to know some people. Or I could also get to know some people but on the phone, and they would likely be living in Vermont. Either way I know that I will have a job paying me enough to survive and discover more about this city. Plus there's always that chance a producer will see me tearing up the dance floor on a friday night at Kika (local club) and immediately invite me to join his traveling urban/interpretive dance troop, who knows? If anyone has any insight please share it, or, if anyone has about 15,000 $ they would want to send me, that too would help, then I could just do a little bit of both these jobs.

My sister and Megan Rumpza arrive tomorrow around one, I think they are both stopping in Sao Paulo before the come to BA, which means that they will have been traveling for something 18-20 hours I think. So that means straight walk to the ecological park for a few hours strolling the jungle right?


As for right now, I am still working at DDB, getting to know the people I work with pretty well which is really awesome and still everyday trying to learn more spanish. It's weird though, since I'm so immersed in it some days I feel like I am completely absorbing everything, words, phrases, tones, all of it. Then the next day, or maybe even a few hours later, it will feel like I put on a helmet and regressed back a month in my understanding of what people say. I think learning a language is similar to feeding yourself. When your hungry, you eat every little thing you come across and it still tastes good and makes you want more. But then you reach a certain point and any piece of food, even the most delicious looking Chipotle burrito with chicken and steak and corn and green tabasco and extra guac and sour creme (there's nothing like that here) wouldn't be appealing to you. But then two hours later, your hungry again and start eating everything in sight. I think that works, right? But, did someone say something about a Chipotle nearby??


Chau Chau.

Me Encanta BA, sin emabargo...

Que tal amigos - How are you? Me, I'm good, a little hungry, disapointed in the US curling team and my legs are a little sore from a spirited game of footie (futbol(soccer)) yesterday, but other than that I'm happy. And I just found a NYC style deli place a few blocks from my apartment so actually I've rarely been better.

New occurrences in the greater Buenos Aires region: it's no longer so humid that the simple act of closing the window you opened a few minutes ago because it was so stuffy makes you sweat, which is nice, the people are finally coming back to the city making it even more crowded (I still don't understand the BsAs system for electing sidewalk widths. Some roads, usually the least busy with traffic, have the widest sidewalks, where as the most busy and bus dense, have "paths" resembling a trailway cut through a Peruvian jungle by a conquistador), and school is starting so my fellow certified teachers and I are finally hearing back from all the schools and institutes we wrote to weeks ago. All this is exciting and creates a buzzing atmosphere in the city, if only I had more time to experience it in the outside, I'm usually inside my office from 10:30 - 7, but there is certainly a sense of the real world acomin'.

I don't have much new news about my life other than my sister and Rumpza are coming to town in a week, then the following week Mr and Mrs. James Cokely - Bowman - Cloyd will be making a trip to South American Paris. I have little planned as of yet but have contacted the significant resource of the people I work with to write up a list of the must do's and see's of BA, I pretty much have the clubs and vegetable shops down but thats about it.

I have two interviews this week with English Institutes but I'm going to be at DDB for at least another month so it will be interesting to hear what they have to say, likely I will be a full time sub for people either sick or on vacay. Or of course I may move to mendoza and work on a vineyard during the winter season, all is up in the air, and all is exciting. I have yet to find that beautiful South American girlfriend so I have nothing locking me down to BA right now. Anyway I hope you guys are enjoying the last flurries of winter and looking forward to the gray mushy, dirty landscapes but pretty flowers of the spring. Much love and keep it real.

Chau

And sin embargo is a very useful word I'm sure most of you know or have learned and forgot. It means "however." -- Me gusta fiestas sin embargo no me voy a muchas porque no tengo dinero.

Great Song. Greater Video.

Check this out, humans are pretty smart I think.




Also if you like Malcolm Gladwell (Author Blink, Tipping Point, Oultiers) on his website he has all his New York Times articles archived. Reading hasn't been this informative since reading a Dan Brown book.

- I'm not always thrushed with work here, as made obvious by my reading of archived Gladwell work.

La Clave es...

Hola amigos, como andan hoy? - Today marks my second week working at DDB Digital - Argentina. DDB just moved into a pretty awesome new building a week before I started and it has a few key aspects that make it a good place to come to. 1. My specific room where my department works has a whopper of an AC unit, could be responsible for some of the upper trophosphere freezing thats creating all that snow in Georgia, 2. Spanish is spoken everywhere here, be it when I'm talking to some peeps, some peeps are talking to me, or I'm sitting in the office writing this post and I overhear and try to understand the conversations that are going on around me between them peeps--this is a great way to learn a language people--. And 3. I take the bus into Recoleta, which is basically a little bit outside the "down town" but still has the hustle and bustle of the 10th largest city in the world, so I actually feel like I'm participating in society, it's a good feeling, for now. Except yesterday on the bus I couldn't tell if the older Portena (woman who was born and raised in Buenos Aires, it's a port - portena) had poor balance or wanted to take me out to a stake dinner by the way she was falling into me on the ridiculously overpacked collectivo (the local buses here). All good things though.

My esteemed roommate Mike went to Montevideo this past weekend and said it is a dream capital, still manages to be a business hub while maintaining that ever so necessary beach town feel. Though, like I've been saying, all the city dwellers pretty much vacate the city on the first hint of summer humidity and sun so any judgment on population density or overall city feel is slightly skewed durante el verano. But if your looking for a nice place to live and can manage to find a job in Uruguay, head towards Montevideo, buen ondas alla. (Buen onda literally means good waves; they use that term here to either describe the atmosphere of a situation (good/bad bar scene) or if a person shoots out good or bad vibes, it works i recommend it.

Lastly if anyone knows how to operate a Samsung washer/dryer that looks to be made in Soviet Era Turkmenistan please send me a detailed tutorial, preferably in a video format so I can stop all my clothes from coming out 40% dirtier than when I put them in.

Oh and La Clave is a great phrase meaning "the key." As in el clave to a good time in Buenos Aires is having US$ in your bank account instead of pesos.

Buen Dia

Llamame

Here's team U.S. (and Peru) that in total cumulated 14 points.  In the negative.

Hey Mudarse, I really dislike you

Hola tios - which is actually slang from spain but I believe the Spanish accent is looked at here with the same aura of respect, sometimes not deserving, of a brittish accent in the states.  

Anyway, just to let you know if you ever move to Buenos Aires and are living in a studio apartment for a month then try to figure out a way better place to live, all in the span of two days, it's difficult.  (Spoiler: Mom + Dad probably shouldn't read this)  In all my unending genius I waited until yesterday and today to look for a new apartment, our move out day is Sunday.  Which of course means it's saturday because of all the necessary steps involved with pre-gamming a Superbowl.  All these darn tourists come in with Euro's, Pounds, or Dollars and jack up the prices of what would be low cost living in the western burbs of BsAs, no don't take this directly as a sting Jordan, but it hurts when you begin the transition of making bank in peseos, not those sturdy and reliable Obama greenbacks.  So the search is always inspiring when you see the three bedroom places with a pool on the roof, shared parilla (awesome huge Argentine Grill), and a spiral staircase up to your personal sauna.  Then you realize that those 400$USD are actually per day, not per month, the smile begins to fade. But this here is a big city so things must work out?

Mudarse is the reflexive verb of to move, which is exactly what I hope to be doing tomorrow.  And again the adventurous and tenacious spirit prevails, I contacted a craigslist ad hidden deep within the two day old posts and I believe Mike and I will be living with :Two Argentine Girls, 250$USD//We look for gregarious roommates!!!!:  That was the craigslist ad, word for word,  I literally couldn't have sat down at my desk for 6 hours and come up with a more desirable living situation, so I think were in the green. 

 I start work on monday so maybe soon I'll have some stories with some interest and adventure in them.  Keep it real and always remember "Peyton Manning wheres Kenney Chesney's jorts."

Here is a picture of the January 2010 Graduating class of TEFL International: Buenos Aires

Teach on Teachers