International Affairs

I started a grad program yesterday, in international affairs with a focus on relations between the EU and the Mercosur. Tonight was the first econ class and we talked about growth, mostly Argentina's history which has been the story of a progressively richer nation hitting many economic walls. Today it is a country that could have been, that still hopes to become fully franchised, always looking to the US, Italy and Spain to join the ranks of the countries it identifies with in the First World. While 50% of Argentines subsist in poverty.

I take the bus from the marginal neighborhood where I live on the south side of the city, the old section of Buenos Aires proper, to the elegant part of town. Recoleta is where the wealthy shop and dine, it resembles areas of Paris, and Fendi and Louis Vitton are around the corner from the Universidad de Bologna.

The program is made up of 50 students, most in their late 20s from upper-middle class families in BA and neighboring La Plata. I had coffee with a well-dressed girl from Venezuela today and chatted up a guy from Puerto Rico. Rio, Mexico City, Quito, Rome and Milan are also represented. So far it's a nice program and I'm the only English speaker, deciphering Spanish and Italian lectures and trying to ask questions without stumbling. It's both exhilarating and extremely humbling.

One thing that always strikes me, living here, is that even the people at the top of regular society live well within their means. They are frugal, they live with their parents until they can buy something of their own, they eat at home, they wear clothes that show signs of actual use. They ride the bus. I saw the same when I lived in France and Italy.

Waiting in line for the bus on my way home, in my own skirt and blouse circa 1998 and Payless shoes from 2005, I revisited the lecture and how Argentina escaped the Great Depression by being in their own private economic bubble. Their economic progress has been bleak compared to that of the US but I thought how we Americans could learn from the Argentine response to crises.


I've spent the past four months working at the British newspaper here, doing some writing about economics and social issues and being really glad I don't have to be in this economy forever. On Wednesdays I visit the office of the paper, bought out by the national financial newspaper - their equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. Ambito Financiero can't pay my salary in full because they can't get access to funds. Their advertisers pay by check and the bank holds their funds for reasons I can't quite wrap my head around. So I join a thick book of invoices that have to be paid out bit by bit since the accounting department only gets a few thousand pesos in cash a week, and works through payments as it is able.

The accounting department of the national financial newspaper.



I'm reading my way through events at home and peeping chapters of Studs Terkel's Hard Times but obviously I am disconnected. Still, here in Argentina where I live off pesos I gather as I can from jobs long completed, I'm in the rhythm and thinking of you people back home, living through a gloomy piece of history. This cool article from today's NYTimes looked for the upside of dealing with market dribbles.

Let me know what is happening with you? It's hard to picture NYC slowing down or LA without petty cash. Besides, in economic downturn, isn't that when Hollywood, bars and city nightlife make the most loot?

Rio Carnaval

Rio de Janeiro has a reputation for:
a) danger and mayhem
b) Samba
c) Carnaval

Argentine Virna and myself spent the first three days of Carnaval in Rio, before heading to the beach at Buzios. We saw the famous city through the lens of the biggest single party in the world and it was high energy.

Urban jungle was juxtaposed against nature's jungle. Dramatic cliffs jutted up through a neighborhood block, fuzzy stone mountains against turn-of-the-century architecture.

People looked like home to me. Every ethnicity faced-off in friendly Rio. We felt safe and enjoyed staying in Botafogo, in the communal apt I found on Craigslist a couple of weeks before Carnaval. We had a room along with two American students from Chicago, an Italian living in Rio, and a local couple who wanted us to enjoy local plant life through their bong. The woman who organized the Carnaval rental was Fernanda, a Rio journalist and environmentalist. We ended up staying an extra night when we couldn't get bus tickets on to Buzios, Fernanda's friend Ricardo hosted the last night at his apt in Lapa. He's a veteran musician and producer of Samba records. His latest record, Blocos de Laranjeiras, sounds exactly like Rio Carnaval.

Lapa is the nightlife hub with winding streets full of people every night of the week. Music, caipirinhas, costumes, all that you'd expect was there full blast. It was Brazilian though, I mean there weren't many foreign tourists the way there are in Buenos Aires. Everyone spoke Portuguese and they were there to follow the blocos and marching bands that made their way to the old neighborhood under the arches of a former aqueduct; giving the scene a Roman gladiator vibe with a Samba soundtrack.

Yes, it was a lot like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, minus the lewd suggestions to females and extreme intoxication. Rio was surprisingly sober and elated nonetheless. The party congregated around the music, with people dancing together in the street, singing Samba and smiling all for hours.

3 days at Rio Carnaval in the Buenos Aires Herald here.

December starts the summer

I’m writing this at midnight, Xmas Eve – just rode my bike home from work. Opening the door to my building I half jump from a firecracker set off in the street. The neighborhood is noisy with cherry bombs, honking horns, and cumbia villera playing constantly. I’m sitting here in a hundred-year old house at a big glass desk and widescreen monitor with the doors wide open onto the terrace hallway (New Orleans style) and garden over a mini courtyard downstairs.

Kasha comes in and visits me between making her rounds in the big house. She’s got two stray kitten/cats who keep running through and eating her food and using her litter box before she can barely get up from lounging on the terrace. She’s trying to protect her territory but she’s definitely out of shape and the youth are wiry and quick. Funny, the cats and dogs here are just like the people – they are tranquilo! They rarely bark at you or hiss, they basically don’t panic and assume you’ll be cool. Another example of how pets are like their owners.

All the travelers that were staying here these past two months have taken off to the beach or the countryside and the rooms are vacant until January. I just got the house ready for a dinner here with friends tomorrow night. It’s been a lucky couple of months in Buenos Aires.

Last month was the start of a boarding house/ mini hostel at the border of San Telmo and La Boca, the old part of the city. So far, a German girl, a Danish couple, a Londoner Greek guy (hi Chris☺), and a Scottish girl have lived in casa de Kashi. Kasha has really enjoyed the company and I did too, great peops all of them. I’ve been waiting almost two months for the phone company to put in a line and I don’t have the funds to properly stock the kitchen yet or to purchase a couch. We chop veggies on plates and sit on stools but the garden is rocking hard. I may turn out to have a green thumb.

This was the month of my new favorite job. My best impression of Lois Lane, I report on Argentine politics and economics – hard news, as well as arts and culture. Officially, I'm on the serious beat but end up submitting music, art, and happenings too. Enjoying the meaty issues as much as the nightlife interviews.

Today I covered commuter rowboats in the polluted old port of La Boca; yesterday was the Presidenta’s plan to subsidize refrigerator purchases and a piece on the murderous beatdown of a hipster out in BA’s version of the Inland Empire. The other day I did an art feature on the city government and Krylon’s sponsoring of a graffiti paint-athon at the park. I’d like to include links but the website doesn’t let you read the whole story yet. The paper was just purchased by a financial publication so hopefully they’ll get our finances straight and fix up the digital side.

Work has taken me out a lot lately – went to a great music and design fest in Parque Palermo, Buen Dia, and heard my new favorite band, Norma, there. Checked out some new nightlife spots and wrote about them along with restaurant reviews for Time Out’s new summer issue. Got to do my first Time Out feature on the Italian influence in Buenos Aires! Which brings me to my next piece of news.

Last week completed the application process and acceptance for graduate school at the Universita de Bologna. Copernicus’ alma mater, the school of Dante Alghieri of Inferno fame, aka the oldest university in the western world.

Of course, Italy one thousand years later is no longer the center of the world (that’d be NYC) but it’s still a nice place to study International Affairs with a focus on the European Union and the Mercosur (South America’s regional market org). They have a campus here in Buenos Aires where classes start in March, end in August and then finish off with 3 months and an internship in Italy. Sounds pretty good, right? If you're thinking about grad school, could be your way to save some loot and eat some pasta.

It’ll be exactly 16 years since I lived in Florence, 45 minutes away by train, and I hope to relive my culinary adventures without gaining the weight I did at 20. I feel better prepared to handle gender relations there this time too. Supposedly women have made some gains since then, but judging by my interview with the Italian academic coordinator, I don’t buy it and I’ll have to see how much sexual harassment still goes down. 15 minutes in conversation with him about my career in at-risk education and my social justice goals had me leaving feeling like a brainless PR bimbo. Because, well, I’d dressed up nice and smiled and I was female.

Argentina has been a great place to work and walk the city streets as a member of the bouncier sex. Men treat you nice and you’re not a second-class citizen. If you come up against gender-based discrimination it’s subtle and folded in charm and chivalry. Which is a nice break from the outright competitiveness of the US workplace, so far. I’m a couple of months in to my new job and I can’t believe how pleasant the office is. Granted, the pay is garbage so it better at least be nice, but it could just as easily have been sucko and it's good. Many of the people who work there have been at the Buenos Aires Herald for 15+ years. They’re all Argentines and Brits. There are two other Americans, both editors. It’s a very cool experience getting to write what I want and learn more about this cool pocket of the world.

What else? The city is happy to be in spring and heading into summer - and the month where everyone goes on vacation and the place turns into a ghost town full of tourists. I’m happy to welcome a bunch of friends heading here on vacation from NYC.