Vamos Obama!

I forewarn you, this will be my only piece of political writing on this blog. Whether you agree or disagree is fine with me, I´m just throwing my views into the mix... Isn´t that what all bloggers and even journalists do anyways??

Upon receiving the news that Obama has finally received that magic number of super-delegate vote and Hillary conceded, finally, a rush of excitement hit me.

A fresh face running for the White House!

It wasn´t much of a surprise to see that Obama was greeted hastily by his next opponent in his run for Presidency, Republican nominee John McCain. As if the continuous Tuesday-to-Tuesday battle between Hillary and Barack wasn´t enough. Now begins the real media frenzy in the race to the White House. Politics to me are like who´s the most popular kid on the playground. I ask anyone who really truly cares and follows this race until November to keep track of how many times McCain uses Obama´s lack of political experience as his advantage. Thank you Señor McCain, this is exactly one of the reasons I like Obama, he´s a fresh face and offers a new perspective to American politics. He hasn´t been in the game long enough to be fully tainted. I respect McCain´s history and being a POW in Vietnam and his long history in politics but as a person who has travelled and met many citizens of the globe outside of the US of A, a new perspective on our political playground has formed in my mind. It should be understood that the country needs a person who has actually lived outside of the country to offer an objective view.

Both Obama and McCain have policies that I like and dislike that I will not get into now but I wanted to offer my one piece of political opinion in the beginning of this political popularity contest marathon. After the Election of 2000, won by Al Gore... I mean Jeb.. I mean George Dubbya and the 2004 Election I do understand that whoever plays the game best between now and November will be the next President. Unless the landscape of American politics has changed and its truly about who´s most intelligent to take office, then I stand by my view that Republicans just play the game of politics better than Democrats. Not to say that either party is more intelligent than the other because when it comes to this game, its not about intelligence, its about who´s more likeable at any point in time.

What I really respect about Obama is he has yet to lay personal attack on any candidate´s history mishaps. From what I´ve seen, he´s only discussed policy on issues that really matter. What a concept? Either way after the last 8 years of the infamous Bush Administration, I do feel truly sorry for whomever is the next President as they have a large mess to clean up (No-end war against terrorism, all-time record national budget deficit, downward economy, etc.) After-all maybe a young, untested politician is really what it takes to have the energy for this cleaning process.

Anyways, I am refraining from writing anymore on this topic and I welcome any replies that discredit my views with facts or any opinions because essentially, these are only opinons. The only fact here is that 30 seconds of research went into this blog post. So please call the O´Reilly Factor for me and get the facts since I´m out of the country.

After all its all just a game in the end anyways right? Just ask John Stewart and Steven Colbert. Let´s have some fun with it!

June in Winter Slows me to Reflection Period

Winter has officially arrived here in the southern hemisphere, I strangely forgot what the cold can be like since I practically lived a year straight of summer season. My daily 20-block to and from work brings back silly memories of walking to and from school as a kid in the blistering cold winters of Colorado. The cold here is a bit different in that it is dense with humidity. Ask the people of the northeast US, humid cold is much worse than the dry cold that nestles the Rocky Mountains.

I woke up today and it hit me that June 1st has arrived and exactly one year ago, my brother and I started our journey through Europe. Wow! Then my mind started wandering freely back into the memories of the last year in my life. Furthermore, I realized that my residence in Buenos Aires has hit its six-month mark as well. Most travelers I meet along the way say once you've been in one place for more than six-months you might as well consider it home. Home until October at least. It's been a great day of reflection on what has happened in the last year. The education bestowed upon myself since college graduation has been phenomenal and it truly lies in the day-to-day life of meeting people from all over the world. My cooking recipe has picked up some new treats, the musical ears have been exposed to many new genres, and I have even managed to pick up a new language along the way.

The day of reflection could deliver several pages of literature, but today I'll keep it short and simple. I really used this reflection to think about those people in my life in past and present. It's amazing how much the lives of all my friends have changed as well. Some of my friends have just graduated from University and so begins their new educational chapter as well. Some of my friends are living very happily and successfully for such a young age and reap new knowlege everyday. Some other friends are living in other parts of the world experiencing their own worldly education. It's such a pleasure to catch up with friends and family, the few times it happens, to see how they are passing time.

How fortunate I really am to be where I am at this point in my life. Thank you friends and family and I will have more to post in this second half of the year residence in Argentina.

Tranquility and Beauty in Rosario

Life in Buenos Aires was just becoming too routine and mundane with my work schedule here. I've been working much more to save money to fund more travel in this country. I had an itch to pack the bag and put on the travel shoes again since I hadn't escaped the city in over four months, Iguazu being the most recent. It's imperative to see the many places outside of Capital Federal to fully experience this country. The decision process on where to travel next was very short-lived since we had heard so much about the beauty in Rosario, which is just a 3-4 hour drive northwest of Buenos Aires. The beauty of the small city atmosphere, the beauty of the people (opinion of many that the most beautiful people of Argentina reside in Rosario) and the beauty of simpatico. It is a popular conception that people from Buenos Aires are a bit more snobby than people from the provinces. My tendency to see past the popular conception may be mistaken in this case. The two day hiatus in Rosario quickly proved this conception true.

We arrived Saturday evening around 6pm with a familiar excitement for being in a new place once again. It took the bus 5 minutes to transport us from the station to our two-day residence, Cool Raul Hostel. Omar was the nice young man, who sports big curly red/blonde afro hair, who is the heir owner of the hostel. Yes he is grandson of the cool Raul himself. The atmoshere of this hostel was much like that of a friend's house. Omar and the rest of the crew were so open and friendly, it was strangely as if we had all known each other for years. There was no awkward 'where are you from and what do you stand for?' conversation. The ice was broken once we arrived. My joy for travels were immediately refreshed in my mind once we met the other travelers passing time at the Cool Raul. After a yummy pizza dinner at the Malteria just two blocks from the hostel, we all started the night of consuming Quilmes (beer of choice in Argentina) and mingling with our newest network of friends. (In pic below/left is Omar, myself, Rodrigo and Shanina. Below center is Laura (Germany) and William (aka Prince Harry from England. Below right is Mike, his two girlfriends and I)

No plans had been set for the night until Omar approached us in his scratchy voice ¨You guys want to go club?¨ Needless to say, we simply nodded "Si senor" since we had heard so much positive about the nightlife in Rosario. Fernanda and Shanina, both from Buenos Aires, hopped in the car with Mike, Omar and I as we set out for the club around 2am jamming to Led Zeppelin. Strangely, the club we went to had an age requirement, no it wasn´t 21 years old..... it was 25 years old. Wow, I the feeling of bein under age gave me that excited feeling in my stomach for using some janky ID to enter the club. Shhh I know I´m such a rebel. We passed the night like rockstars in the 25 and up club only to sleep until 2pm the next day and miss out on the huge protests in Rosario.

Oh, you didn't hear about the protests? Neither did we until after they happened. Sunday was a huge holiday in Argentina, 25 de Mayo, which is the Argentine national holiday in memory of the Argentine revolution. We were well aware of the holiday but didn't expect there to be a 350,000-person protest in Rosario. Why the protests? You may have guessed it, the farmers are resuming their strike as a reasonable compromise has yet to be reached between the government and the farmers. After collecting our wits from our fun night, we walked the city which didn't take too long and were able to see the aftermath of the protests. People were walking the streets wearing flags, we weren't really sure if it was for the protests or the holiday... or both. (Pictured below/left is Parque Nacional de las banderas. Pictured below right is just one of the many who was sporting the flag. Blue and white was everywhere)

With all of that said, we still really enjoyed seeing the city center and Parque Nacional de las Banderas. This plaza had a true Argentine ambience with all of the flags and people dressed in the national colors, light blue and white. We proceeded to eat at VIP, a little restaurant along the river meanwhile watching the Boca Juniors futbol game. Boca Juniors is the popular team in Argentina and you either love them or you hate them. After walking the city to the fullest, we returned to the Cool Raul and mingled more only to live up another night as 25 year olds in yet another 25 and up club. Needless to say, Rosario came through with its promise of good nightlife, fresh air, nice/beautiful people and good small-town atmosphere.

Upon returning to Buenos Aires, I felt a renewed energy from the weekend travels. Before this weekend, it was as if I had forgotten that I was living in another country, it had all become too comfortable. This renewed energy stimulated from the Rosario weekend has only spurred my motivation to travel and see as much of this country as I can in the coming months. It all brought me in full circle to my message from Euro travels, live your life, it is so easy to forget sometimes we only have once to fulfill the life we want to live.

Too Happy? Read the News

It had become a common routine for me, returning home from a good day of activities in Buenos Aires only to open up my laptop and check out the news. Talk about going from good mood to utter disbelief in the latest news story on cnn.com or bbc.com. News anymore, whether you receive it from your television set or internet, is synonymous with a prescription to turn happiness into a downer. Sometimes, you have to question how much you can take of Obama vs. Hillary, the Olympic protests, the Bush Administration´s Iraq policy, Zimbabwe´s new President/s, some idiot who tried to cash a $360 billion check in Texas, and the sad list goes on. If you excuse me while I go on a tangent, really American politics? How many different ways can you divide the votes? (black vs. white vote, men vs. women, Hispanic woman vote vs. white man vote).

Oh I´m warmed up now, tangent number 2, a kid tried cashing a $360 billion dollar check. The ignorance of people never ceases to amaze me, so sad you can´t help but laugh it out. Needless to say, the news was just a bit too ridiculous for my taste. After too many smiles had been turned upside down by the steady feed of depressing news, I decided enough was enough. A news fasting period, as I like to think of it, was in store.

The fasting period would be for 10 days, I went without checking the typical yahoo news, cnn.com, bbc.com or whatever it may be. The only exlusion from this group was espn.com, I mean come on, sports news aren´t that depressing unless you´re an avid New York Knicks fan. What would I do with this excess free time? I decided the internet is a tricky place, but lucky for us we can go anywhere that piques our interest. The time spent on my computer was now going to expanding my knowledge on different topics, mainly on wikipedia. I would choose a different topic each day which resulted in a new self-education system. The majority of my time went to reading up on health, cooking, history of Argentina, globalization, Ronaldinho and many more random topics. Another portion of the time went to keeping in tune with the world of commerce via the McKinsey Quarterly and Economist.com. This period of researching whatever the hell my little heart desired brought me back to restored happiness in terms of my internet reading. Things weren´t right, I was just letting my mind wander and the happiness was getting to be overbearing. Time had come to get back to the ¨real world¨and read the news.

My first visit to cnn online after a 10 day hiatus welcomed me back in open arms. ¨22,000 people killed in Myanmar Cyclones.¨ This number of casualties has now been estimated near 100,000. The harsh reality of natural disasters has come back to remind us of the tsunamis in Southeast Asia and Hurricane Katrina just several years ago. My only hope for cause of action right now is that aid arrives to the few survivors in Burma more quickly than the case was in 2005 with Katrina. My thoughts go out to all of those effected by the cyclones. The fact that a large proportion of a country´s population can be whiped out in a matter of days is a cold reminder that all of our personal problems are very miniscule contrary to our neighbors around the globe.

I thought this was bad enough but the next headline grabbed my eyes even more, ¨Drug raid hits SDSU.¨ Great! Now my alma mater has a polished reputation for drug trafficking from Mexican cartels straight to the fraternity houses resulting in two deaths of drug overdose in the last year alone on campus. Ironically, the majority of them were Criminal Justice and Homeland Security majors. At least my resume will be nice and ready for my job interview next week in Medellin, Colombia as a druglord. See you in Miami! Needless to say, I´m feeling a bit sarcastic today. It only took one day for the news to recapture me in its illumination of the madness.

Back to espn and the wiki!

Waking Up in a New Room, Again.

Time is escaping quickly, I just realized I haven't posted anything in several weeks. I moved to a new part of the city, San Telmo, which is an authentic older part of the city known as the tango district. The culture is very rich in this part of the city as you can find a place to dance tango within nearly four blocks of corner and the nightlife is second to none. San Telmo is the place to be on Sundays as it hosts a large street fair where numerous creative artists make an appearance to earn a couple pesos for their hard work. The antique, cultural ambience in this barrio provides a confirmed sentiment that this is the Argentina I had dreamt of before flipping my world.

Not to be confused with Palermo or Recoleta, which are much nicer areas of the city, San Telmo still has everything you need and fills the role of tourist central on the weekends. However, it is not an area to be a naive tourist aimlessly wandering the streets late night, some of the areas in San Telmo are to be avoided after 1am. I've discovered the best way to walk 'shady' streets late night while alone (which is not recommended for white boys in Latin America) is to camouflage yourself with your surroundings. Not literally but walk with a purpose and have a sense you know where you are and where you're going (even if you don't), street smarts: 102, feel free to laugh it out. As I'm writing this, I search for the nearest wood to knock on as to avoid jinxing my white boy street smarts.


The house:
Now, the neighborhood is great but its really about that place we call home. I found this home on a local website for renting apartments in Buenos Aires called compartodepto where you can find more reasonably priced apartments than craigslist. The catch, be ready to negotiate in Spanish. This was my a great experience due to the fact I had to call the owners (duenos) of these places and arrange times to meet and negotiate price, if necesarry, all in castellano. The house we settled on is a Bohemian style artistic home that provides a rather endearing feeling. My distractions have been cut enormously since there is no television here. Without a television present, this has left a greater amount of time for reading, internet research and conversing in Spanish. Every day I leave work, I leave the English language behind as well. The house is very simple, artistic, cultural and only one language is spoken, Spanish.


Vanessa y Josephina loving life over some mate

Since moving here nearly two weeks ago, I've already noticed a difference in my conversational skills. One of the housemates living here is an Argentine, Danny, who is from another province and prefers to speak mostly slang. Therefore, we are learning a lot of street Spanish which is hugely beneficial. Josephina is the renter of this apartment and she is an incredible artist. She is the reason this house has such a creative, cultural feeling. Josephina is in her 40's and possesses of load of knowledge from her many years of travel. Her stories are incredible and my favorite is how she climbed the Incan Trail in Peru to Machu Picchu with Manu Chao, who is one of my all-time favorite musicians. She has the picture to prove it because I certainly did not believe her at first. Unfortunately, Josephina and Danny are moving this weekend to travel more. Alexis (the funny French kid), Jenny (Australian study abroad girl), Mike (Chinito) and I (Colorado) round out the rest of the international vibes.
Josephina y yo Mike and I with Danny and Josephina

Bienvenidos a Malos Aires

San Diego Wildfires sound familiar to anyone? The smoky, toxic smelling air that filled southern California just 6 months ago has cleared, yet many are still recovering their lives, homes and normal way of life. Now that same smoky, nasty air is haunting the people of the province of Buenos Aires. For the last week, the fumes of wildfire have clouded the city leaving many people with medical complaints including respiratory problems, sore eyes, etc. Argentina's health ministry has said the smoke is not toxic but does contain high levels of carbone monoxide. Oh, that's just great, we all love inhaling carbon monoxide on our way to work or class. The walk to the offices yesterday morning was a perfect example, the visibility was not more than 2 city blocks in downtown and upon arrival I had a headache an a nice cough to accompany it. How we love our Buenos Aires.

The cause?

Remember the farmers' strike? Well, the farmers called a stop to the strike and warned the goverment to have a resolution by the end of the month. The fires that are turning Buenos Aires into malos aires have been started outside of the city in grasslands supposedly by farmers clearing the land to graze cattle. My first thought several days ago was, 'hmmm, must be farmers' revenge!' Now this is the thought of everyone including the government, as it has said it will prosecute anyone they find responsible for lighting the fires. Of course, the farmers are denying any such action. I'm sticking to my opinion that this is a case of the farmers striking back at the government, yet risking the health of the 13 million providencial residents. If this hypothesis proves true, the farmers sure have a way of standing up to the government. First they cut distribution of food to the butchers and markets then follow up by burning the hell out of the grasslands.

Que se yo? In translation, this means 'what do I know?' This could be a false hypothesis but the way I've seen things happen in my four months as an Argentine, anything is possible especially when the government is involved. What's with the pessimism Robin? Wow I am truly evolving into a local with my political unrest. Please don't confuse my foul attitude with my sheer joy of South American lifestyle, however some distrust in the political system comes with Argentine immersion. Wait, isn't that a world-wide custom?

view from our terrace

Creating Opportunities Through Teaching

Another Monday approaches on the calendar and all seems normal. I experienced an unusual case of insomnia last night only gathering 1 hour of sleep, then managed to go to classes this morning with tons of energy. After the morning class, I did my normal walk over to the language institute to turn in my hours for the month of March. All was usual until I was greeted at the institute with a big smile and hug from a former student of mine. Alejandro Guevara (no relation to Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, the Argentinian Marxist revolutionary) was a student I had in three intensive courses in the end of February/beginning of March. The objective for class with Alejandro, employee of Saab, was simple; prepare him for the biggest presentation of his career.... in English.

No pressure, right?

Alejandro had a big conference in Santiago, Chile in the middle of March where he was to present to the President and CEO of Saab Aircraft Leasing. Alejandro is currently supervisor of the Aircraft Leasing division in northern Argentina. The scenario was if he did a good enough job with his presentation at the conference, he may have an opportunity for promotion in his division.

No pressure, right?

Well, through the three intensive classes I had with Alejandro, we had a good time prepping him for his delivery. To be completely honest, I wasn't sure how well he was going to do as he still hadn't nailed his presentation in front of me and I could see the possibilities of him struggling. As an ESL teacher, there are those classes where you just don't feel you did a good job of getting through to the student. Sometimes, you walk away from a class wondering what you could have done better to help him/her understand more, to make it stick. Then there are classes that you walk away from with an incredible feeling knowing that your students understand and everything was just clicking that class. Well, with Senor Guevara, I felt more of the former than the latter. I could only hope he pulled off a miracle to earn his promotion.

And that he did! Greeting me with a hug and a smile this morning with full appreciation and thanks simply made my day, week, and maybe even month. He claimed the little tips I gave him on how to conquer nerves, relax and deliver with confidence are what earned him this promotion and newfound happiness in his job. I beg to differ, I think he simply found it in himself and is lucky to be a quick learner, nobody executed that presentation but himself and I'm damn proud of him. There is no greater feeling in knowing that you may have created more opportunity for somebody else and their family. This may be the best 'case of the Mondays' I've ever had, what a beautiful day. His smile and happiness made me want to go teach thirty more classes today. But..... I think I will settle for the one more class I have this evening and approach it with a new found appreciation for the business of ESL teaching.