The fluttery wings inside my belly

March 30, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

I feel lightheaded and my knees are weak. The hypnotic sounds of the Orquestra Sexteto Mayor swirl around me. I am having trouble catching my breath. No this is not an intimate encounter on the dance floor, this is how my body is dealing with creepy crawling creatures. This discovery, disposal and disinfection of a moth infestation!

Read This Entry In Full

An Apology and a Few Cookies

March 30, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

I am so sorry darling readers! Normally here in Argentina everything can be fixed with a little duct tape and a few wires, but there still comes a point when it is time to just let go. My poor laptop has been in and out of the fix it shop more times than I can count, it wouldn’t normally be an issue but as a lone gringa in a foreign country I like to try to stay connected to my family back home, look up the odd knitting pattern and of course read (and write) about my cooking passion.
Last week I could take no more, the intermittent working of my laptop had gotten to me and I made the mighty decision to move on with my life and have Santiago build me a computer. Yes, that is right, build. His brother had some of the parts(which he […]

Read This Entry In Full

Your dancing is amazing tonight

March 30, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Some nights your Tango is better than other nights. The difference between a good night and a bad one? It isn’t about the spectacular tricks; vals, secadas, boleos etc.. a beautiful Tango happens in the simplicity of the expressed emotion.For me it is usually my emotions. Whenever I am a sullen girl, I seem to dance exceptionally well, or at least I receive the compliments that I am an amazing dancer, that evening.The cause of all my sulleness? Regrets, longing, repression and desire. I become one with the songs of Tango. My partner may be leading the step, but the music conducts the expression and emotion of my movement which is where the alchemy of the dance really begins, the music.

Read This Entry In Full

70 Things You Can Do with Soccer at School

March 28, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

You can tell a country by the crises, controversies, and scandals that capture media attention, be a stained blue dresses or the secret diaries of dead princesses. So what’s the hot topic here? With the solemn observance of the thirtieth anniversary of the last Argentine coup over, attention returns to a pressing social issue:
Should schools let students watch the Argentine team games during this year’s World Cup in Germany?
[Just in case some US readers–whose national pastime’s championship is called, oddly enough, “the World Series”–still don’t know what the World Cup is: It’s soccer, my friends, or “fútbol,” as they say everywhere else. Thirty-two teams from six continents make up the field for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ finals in Germany, a truly global championship. See http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/ for more.]
The state religion in Argentina may technically be Catholicism, but everyone here knows it is really fútbol.
We are talking about a country in […]

Read This Entry In Full

i heart electronics

March 25, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Yesterday I exchanged a tour for smuggled electronics. I guess besides peanut butter & spicy food, the thing I miss most about living in the US is the availability of awesome (& inexpensive) electronics. So by ordering online, I had a couple guys from Virginia bring me a new digital camera & a replacement mp3 player. I’m in love with both of them.
The Canon Powershot S80 is the fourth digital camera I’ve bought. And they’ve all been Canon. I had an S30 which I broke the screen in Sintra, Portugal. I replaced it with a G3 - nice but bulky. Then there’s the Digital Rebel - a full SLR. But I wanted something that would fit in my pocket, hence the S80. The screen is ginormous, & it takes great pics. And not much bigger than my cell phone.

Of course, I’m my most willing subject. Expect lots more pics of […]

Check out the full story…

learn from past mistakes 5

March 24, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Thirty years ago today Isabel Perón had been detained, & the Argentine military took charge. The previous four posts have described what happened next. Events of today were more about speaking out against the atrocities of the past.
I was amazed at how many people showed up for the commemorative march… a non-stop sea of people down Avenida de Mayo. I was doing a tour, & we popped out of Café Tortoni to catch a bunch of the action. From stencil graffiti, more silhouettes, & every group imaginable, the last time I saw 50K people out, it was a very different situation. Today was nothing like the protests of December 2001. Thankfully.

Check out the full story…

Culture, Adaptation, and Happiness: Adventures in Positive Psychology

March 24, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

How and where do we find authentic happiness? Are the tools for finding happiness really universal? Or at least “transportable across cultures?”
Happiness, Seligman explains, is found on the three roads of pleasure, flow, and meaning. On our journey through life, we find respectively, routes to sensory gratifications, engagement of character strengths, and encounters with the transcendent.
While Seligman and other positive psychologists illuminate significant general processes that lead to wider, deeper, and longer experiences of human happiness on those paths, I find myself wondering about the cultural differences in the contents of those processes.From my new perspective south of the equator, it seems evident to me that our families and cultures collaborate to direct our inherent nature towards particular targets. Certain preferences are purely personal, of course, while others are cultural markers. For example, we know in simple culinary pleasures, culture plays a powerful role. Not many of us would knowingly […]

Read This Entry In Full

learn from past mistakes 4

March 22, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Tonight beginning at 23:30 there was an alphabetical projection of the desaparecidos on the Obelisco. It was an interesting way to make even the casual passerby stop & reflect. I thought it would be a little more flashy, but simple is usually better.

Check out the full story…

learn from past mistakes 3

March 22, 2006 | Filed Under Argentina | No Comments

Whoever takes my Microcentro walking tour knows I love architecture. One of the buildings I enjoy explaining is the Banco de la Nación on Plaza de Mayo. I usually discuss the economic problems of Argentina before & after 2001 there, but with a temporary exhibit in the art gallery, I can now talk about the last dictatorship as well. A general overview of the junta years is on display as well as biographies of each of the 12 bank employees who were among the desaparecidos. In addition, white cardboard silhouettes representing all 12 are on display… the white silhouette as a symbol of a missing person originated with the Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
The people running the exhibit are great. In fact, they want me to work with them on a commission. I mentioned that it would be helpful if there were some English available, even as a pamphlet to […]

Check out the full story…