VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!

Now playing: The Mars Volta - Cicatriz Esp

via FoxyTunes

First thing first. Go out and purchase The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry read it and get back to me.

Ah, well I am over my sickness and climbed a mountain today but let’s rewind to what was last night. I went on a double date last night to a blues performance, a tribute to Billie Holiday.

Look at the picture the one below . My dates name was Mary (Got to love Geriatrics) and she even paid for my ticket. Score! It was exactly what I needed. Being a little home sick I attended the show and it lifted my spirits before the show even began. As I walked into the theater they were playing Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, the song, Minarets followed by more and more DMB FYP let’s DTI!!! Lainey… So anyways the performance was great. The set list is as follows.

1. Solitude
2. St. Lois Blues
3. Summertime
4. All of me
5. Georgia on my mind. (More like Dougherty)
6. Let’s Do It (See parentheses above) inappropriate you say?don’t care it’s my blog
7. Lady Sings the Blues
8. Me Myself and I
9. Body and Soul
10. April in Paris
11. Strange Fruit
12. Fine and Mellow
13. Good Morning
14. Night and Day

I have video of 3 of the performances but seeing as uploading takes longer than hearing back from Jay Wall via FB I am not sure if I will have time to upload it. So after the show my date Pablo and his girlfriend (Look at the picture look at the picture) went to get some ZA!!! For those of you who are not schooled in the Michael Scott School of Hard Knocks ZA is Pizza without the Piz, duh. I will give it the Argentineans they have NO idea what good ZA is. Come to America, visit Pagliai’s Pizza in Iowa City and take some lessons. Moving on to today.

Today I conquered a mountain with Pablo and Perdro. It was a long sweaty hike up but a beautiful and relaxing one. I know driving there it is over 16 km but seeing as we were going vertical the entire time I doubt it was that far. We went to Susana’s mountain house and had some lunch. It was delicious, empanadas and spag with some wicked red sauce con pollo. Pedro, Pablo, and I watched an old movie about a legendary Argentinean badass who whose name slips my mind. It was good. After the movie we walked back down. My legs are tired but it felt great to get out listen to nothing but a steam trickling down the rocks was relaxing and it let me clear my mind of stupid dreams I have been having. Sorry Katie never again, hey but I am representing!!!!

So I am tired and a little well a lot Janileated right now but it’s ok because I am an adult and I can do whatever I want. Later world. Tomorrow I will work on my children’s book. Love you all take care keep kicking, this place has it’s highs and it lows. But its highs are much higher than the lows. Does it make sense I don’t know, but then again I don’t care. PEACE!!!

For the note thank you grandma and grandpa because without you my education and this trip wouldn't be possible, I love you more than you know.

Arg.

Now playing: Dave Matthews - Minarets (Live)
via FoxyTunes Wouldn’t you know it I go and poke fun at a child who has diarrhea and what happens, I catch a nasty virus that is going around Tucuman. I would be sick for the first time in 3-4 years down here. I have had a fever for over a day now and can’t hold food or water down. I’m going to give it to the morning hopefully this fever will break and fluids will stop flying out of my body. Till then good night.

I love that show...

Now playing: Kings Of Leon - Milk
via FoxyTunes I am tired. Tonight is family night people will be here until at least midnight and I am tired. My head hurts from thinking in Spanish. I need something, but I don’t know what I need. Ah J I need a tradition. The city is nice but it may be the most polluted place I have ever been. My eyes burn when I walk home because there is so much dust in the air. They are bloodshot at the end of every day. When I breathe I can taste exhaust. I shit you not when I say I can feel the pollution in my teeth. I brush 4-5 times a day because I can feel the grit and soot grind between my teeth. This is the only thing I do not like about this city. Its hump day!!! I am really starting to miss my friends my habits my family they mean so much to me. At least it’s good to be King.

How's that for a new shirt GIBS ?

Diarrhea

Now playing: Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds - When the World Ends
via FoxyTunes

Smile, a kid came back from the bathroom with diarrhea all over his pants. Let’s rewind. So I am sitting there watching Silvia, the teacher, when this kid flies out of his desk from the far side of the room screaming at the teacher “Profesora! Profesora! Necesito el papel para el cuarto de baño” Silvia gives the kid a roll and away he runs. Mind you he is a first grader. A few minutes later he comes back with half a role in hand and Silvia looks at him and says, “Bien” and he nods his head and starts walking to his desk. As the kid passes me I grab him and say “Silvia venido aquí.” (Come here) As she is walking over I am staring and pointing at what appears to me a chocolate milkshake all over the back of this kids pants, ass to knee, knee to ass. Silvia walks over takes a gander and rushes him straight to the office so they can deal with him. Here is my take on what happened in the bathroom. In the processes of doing the O shit I can see the toilet dance and pulling his pants down some slipped while hopping onto the toliet and he didn’t realize. Believe it or not this is a common occurrence. So smile shit is funny.

The children are wonderful at the school. A pequeño niño who is in the first level told her mom who told the teacher that she is going to take me under her wing and make sure that I like it here and never leave. Don’t worry Dork I’m coming home to you.

PS I downloaded the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds New York, NY CD and it’s is seriously rivaling their Live at Luther Performance. Six songs deep.

Chaos

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Now playing: TV On the Radio - You Could Be Love
via FoxyTunes Chaos pure blissful chaos, this was my first day in the Argentinean school system. If an American teacher were here she would demand that every child be tested for ADHD and put on some type of drug. Good thing ADHD doesn’t exist it’s just a combination of poor parenting and lack of patients and proper teaching methods on the teachers part. But I shit you not pure Chaos. For a moment I wonder if Dr. Crossland didn’t send me down here to get a taste of my own medicine but I know she would never do a thing like that, or would she? I love the school here, wild, loud, full of energy. The children are not retained to sitting they get up and move as they please often rushing to the board to answer questions. All the wiggle room they can handle. The kids make physical contact with each other all day often shoving one another chasing and pushing and when they fall down they don’t cry and tattle. It’s amazing they are not pampered whiney silvers spoon fed, they are tough, strong, and confident. I know I am slamming American children right now but for the most part these kids would kick the hell out of SOME of the children I have taught some being most. But as different as they are the children here and there are still the same. They are constantly dirty with runny noses that are wiped up using their sleeve or the shoulder of their neighbor. They have scabs on their knees or hands at all times. They stick out their tongue when concentrating and they all find a way to slouch in their chair till the point they are laying down.

One observation I have made. The children here especially in the upper levels have an unbelievable grasp of the basic knowledge that is taught in all schools, and I got to thinking as to why that could be. For now the reason I believe this to be is lack of technology. As great as technology is made out to be I feel it CAN hamper a child’s ability to learn. Why…instead of having worksheets printed out and calculators doing operations they have to write the days work out and do the math by hand forcing computation of the mind. Yes computations of the mind. There are no short cuts here it’s not even a possibility. DunderMiff on that…for now.

But all in all it was an AMAZING day full of bright eyes, smiles, and as always boogery faces!!!

Andes

So I just arrived home and it is 2a.m. our time midnight yours. I realized why I loved traveling and experiencing new cultures. The world I thought I knew was smashed tonight. You know those stories you see in film and read about in books, I heard first hand experiences about them tonight. Thirty years ago Argentina was ruled by a dictator named Buso or Busco not sure. A very right winged nepotism dictator. 30,000 to 50,000 people went missing. (Sleep and wake) Ok so this Buso guy decided to flat line the economy by equaling one dollar to one peso. He imported goods and services to Argentina and this is where the problem was created. All the money the Argentina borrowed they had to pay twice the amount back in 2 years. With the economy only importing goods and not exporting they went under and shit hit the fan. Instead of using the money to create a strong economy they acted like they were living the good life and whittled it away. With no money being produced and a huge debt to pay it got bloody. If you were not a right wing devotee you disappeared. If someone who disappeared had you in their cell phone you too would disappear. And so the trend continued. 30,000 people disappeared. (Read about the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War) Yes this happened 30 years ago and yes he was removed from power and yes Argentineans live in a democracy but the effects are still being felt. An entire generation of artist and free thinkers were killed. There is no one with original ideas to lead the country. Enter Pablo. This is where Pablo’s generation comes into play. His generation will be the next to rise to power. But they are at a disadvantage. Since many to all of the free thinkers and artist were killed their teachers were 18 year olds strait out of secondary school. Their country has been educated but only to a certain extent. They need to create higher standards but there is no on in place to lead them.

Pablo is a very interesting individual. Like most Argentineans I have met he is very passionate about what he does. He writes and has a radio show that he works with his professor at the university Pedro. I spend most of my days talking with Pablo about various issues. Last night when we were out on the town Pablo, Pedro and I talked about music and movies for hours. Pedro is older than us and is a professor at the university. As we killed some time and some wine he explained the government situation and how he is trying to change things through film. He is a linguistics and film professor, I believe. Steve you would love this man. So change of subject.

We are out at dinner and I have had nothing but traditional Argentinean food and I must say like most things I have discovered in this county I love it. The four us Pablo, Pedro, Gorgi (or something like that not really sure) and a girl whose names evades me even now ordered 4 plates of food and shared which is custom. The first plate was Locro a spicy bean and corn soup with the stomach of a cow for meat. Very tasty. Next was Sfijas a triangular empanada con pollo y carne. After that was Tamal a ground corn in a bowl with spices, it is almost like a warm oatmeal but F-ing delicious. Finally we ate Humita. Humita is cooked in a corn husk. It is a corn based meal with meat and spices as always very tasty. MMmmmm I will include pictures next time I eat the meals that do not have pics. Well that was last night and today was an adventure.

Today we went to their weekend house in the Andes Mountains better start being jealous because this house and land is beautiful. It is about a 30min drive from their city house and well worth it. I plan on going deeper into the mountains but for now here is a taste. Late September and early October is when everything is in bloom. The land transforms and I can not wait. Again we ate like kings true Argentinean cuisine; Carne asado, chorizo, and morcellai. The first is steak and the other two are sausages the darker one being a blood sausage which was tender and tasty. It is good for all you anemic’s out there.

Well in short I love this land and the people. I have learned more in three days than I have in years. So go shut your TV off get up from the computer screen go say hello to a stranger and start talking. There is always something to learn.

O Yea that is Flan, it is eggs and sugar some other stuff but in short its awesome. I give it 6.7 Schrutes out of a possible 10 Schrutes. Which brings me to my last point. The Schrute scale is named after Dwight Schrute if you don't know you should. The Schrute scale is trade marked by Tones Inc, all rights reserved.

The trip there

Suddenly I feel so small. This is something that I wanted to do. To be isolated from everyone I know and love is difficult. The day and a half it took me to get here got me thinking about life and love and I realized that I am not isolated from everyone I know and love, I have their memories. I get to discover a new culture and love it. Susana and family have taken me and I already feel like part of the family and I know I am going to love this life style. It is family centered. At noon everyone goes home for an hour and a half to eat lunch with their family. I have not had a chance to explore the city yet. I slept in late today woke up ate a marvelous meal and drank some wine then coffee with the family. I met “Maria” the grandmother. (That is not her real name) She is the legal representative of the school. I love this woman already. We sat for an hour over coffee nerding out talking about educational issues until Susana told me that I need to go and write everyone to let them know I am ok. She says that despite what you think they are not “Indians” and they live a modern way life. She also sends her best to everyone who read this.

I need to vent about the airline service. Before I left I was joking with Katie about how I was probably going to be sitting next to geriatrics, obese smelly people, and screaming children on my flights to Tucuman. All of which I can proudly say came true. From Chicago to Miami I sat next to geriatrics. I had to buckle his seat belt for him and open his wine but one good thing came out of this. Wine, he purchased a bottle for me and we talked about his life. The man sells boxes that all I can say about it. By looking at him I thought he was going to up and die next to me but he was rather humorous during the flight. On the 9 hour trip I sat next to obesities that smelt of poo. This was terrible; his maness was folding over the armrest and sweating on me. However his wife was gorgeous, I didn’t understand. Three hours into the flight he switched spots with his child who used my arm as a pillow for the entire trip, I didn’t mind. From Buenos Aires to Tucuman the child in front me screamed non stop. I did notice if you want to be a flight attendant a combination of the following must be in place; terrible grey teeth, mustache, mud flap, 4 inch plus fingernails, long braided hair of many colors, or a very greasy persona.

I wrote seven pages in my journal yesterday but you don’t need to know it all. What you need to know is that I had a very happy birthday. I feel comfortable and welcome with this family in Tucuman. I am here to do something that I love. And I miss my dork. A lot!