Happy Thanksgiving for One, Please!

November 25, 2005 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

With special thanks to Jaume de Marcos and the Rev. David Blanchard
Here it is the end of Thanksgiving Day, spent mostly alone here in San Nicolás, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This morning, when homemakers up north would be stuffing turkeys and getting them in the oven, anticipating that wonderful aroma with every basting, I wavered. Should I bother to celebrate Thanksgiving here? I briefly tuned into CNN en Español, hoping to catch a glimpse of a Thanksgiving Day parade and help get me in the mood on this ordinary Argentine workday. But no luck.
Who here cares about a U.S. holiday? There is no ex-pat community. Of course I can give thanks, and in fact, I keep a gratitude diary. Giving thanks is my cultural and familial heritage. But do I need to take a day off to celebrate that?
Sure, my food-focused Argentinian guests always dig right in to meals here. All […]

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Finding the Key to Paradise

November 8, 2005 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Occasionally U.S. friends, especially women, express envy, imagining me in some Argentine Garden of Eden, lounging by the pool in gauzy summer dresses, accepting frozen strawberry daiquiris from my Latin lover.
Okay, some days are really are like that. Today could be one of them, in fact. Yes, the blooming orchids, roses, jacaranda, magnolias, bottle brush, and oleander punctuate the verdant ribbon below an endless azure sky . . . yes, it can be a Paradise, especially in Spring!
But just to keep things in perspective, let’s consider what goes wrong. . . Especially how things break. All the time. In fact, “repairs” is a regular item in my agenda book! Here’s last week’s repairs:
Auto: new windshield (broken by truck-launched flying rock) installed (the third in 18 months!). At the same time, the speaker cables were finally fixed correctly after a three attempts during various tune-ups over the course of a year. […]

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Welcome to the Summit of the Americas!

November 1, 2005 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Going by the numbers. . . 2: number of days of Summit, November 4-534: number of heads of state who will attend, including Bush and Chavez400: kilometers from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata, seaside resort hosting Summit250: number of city blocks of Mar del Plata cordoned off for the event10,000: number of Argentine federal & regional police officers needed to cordon area45: minutes of advance notification to receive permission to land during event176: kilometers to be patrolled against unauthorized planes50,000: expected visitors to Mar del Plata during Summit600,000: number of year-round residents of Mar del Plata100: percent of Mar del Plata public schools shut down during preparation and Summit4: number of Argentine cities already having protests of “Go home, W!”300: additional cities planning Friday protests2: number of alternative summits being held in Argentina this week1: rank of Argentina among Latin American countries for anti-US sentiments

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