Dan's deep thoughts - March

Dan: One of the things I didn’t really picture over the past ten years or so, when I was dreaming about living in another land, was that the majority of people I’d meet and get to know very well in that foreign land would be other travelers. Through Spanish classes, teaching English and just running into fellow English speakers in public places, we’ve met a few extranjeros. They’ve all pretty much been from the States and Europe. But what we all have had in common was being in a place where we don’t know many people, and are still, to varying degrees, still learning the ropes.

A friend in Minnesota who came from out of state once commented on how by a certain age after high school or college, Minnesotans don’t really seem to want to make new friends. They’ve already got enough friends, no room for more. Whereas in a college town, or places like Colorado or San Francisco, where everybody seems to be from somewhere else, it’s relatively easy to find new people to hang out with. That may be the case here too, compounded of course with the obvious problem of a sizeable language barrier. So we’ve spent a good deal of time speaking English and bad Spanish with other travelers. Some of the people we’ve hung out with have traveled extensively, from tip to toe of South America, or around the world
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_McCormick ), while we’ve hardly left the Mendoza city limits. At times when I’m feeling that maybe things aren’t really working out here, I get antsy and start thinking about all the other places there are to see, and how maybe we could move to a country with more street food, one that recognizes the edibility of the chili pepper.

So those are some of the things going on in the brain of Dan these days. Hearing about what others are doing has, on the positive side, exposed us to other ideas of what we can do down here and made me more flexible on my vision this year.

Food

Lou: Since we aren´t doing much traveling we pass the time thinking about food. Here´s a round up of the food that we have in the house. Fresh fruits & veggies are usually bought & eaten the same day. (so not much around to take a picture of) Fresh bread is usually bought from the panaderia as needed, too. All so good!

I've been lazy about getting out & buying fruits now that I don't have classes in the mornings. Now I'm paying the price with a cold. Dan went right out & bought some oranges from across the street. Now we're on the right health track, again.

I need to remember my goal of eating as many avocados as I can and as many smoothies as possible. Well, the later will have to wait until I get a job & enough guita (money) to buy a blender. Simple goals! For now, more oranges, nectarines & bananas.

Even things that should be simple have a learning curve for us here. Tonight we had to ask the neighbor how to light the oven! I suppose we'll have her back over when it gets cold enough to have to turn on the gas heater, too!

Dan is watching Big Brother Argentina right now. It is BIG here. I think it may be on every night & all of the players are scantily clad model types.

Another long walk

Dan: This week somebody in our neighborhood got wi-fi, so we did as well. We were thinking about getting cable to have internet, but that sounded like a big investment, especially since we don’t know if we’ll stay in this apartment for very long. But now we have an intermittent connection. It goes from one bar to four bars and back, all day. Things load slowly, we can’t stream anything, and I think Skype would be a real pain. We basically have internet from 1998, but it saves us a few pesos and a few steps.

Yesterday we went looking for a market that may or may not exist. I wanted to find a place like the markets of Mexico and Central America where everything from pigs heads to power rangers backpacks are sold at very reasonable prices. I´m currently on the lookout for a cheap guitar. We were told that some sort of market or fair was between the bus station and the mall. We walked and walked. Whenever we asked someone on the way about the outdoor market, they either said that they hadn’t heard of such a thing, or said that it was still really far away, and that if we do get there we should be careful, due to the kind of people at such a market. Eventually we just ended up at the shopping mall. It was like walking into a little slice of Eden Prairie; shiny glass, movie theater, free bathrooms. We had some pasta and beer in the food court and found a bus to take back home. Big adventure. Tired legs.
Food: The other day we went to the pasta shop around the corner. They have fresh made or ready-to-eat food. We got some fresh raviolis (ricotta for lou, carne for me). They come in sheets, so you first cut them apart, then throw them in boiling water for 2 minutes and chow down. My raviolis were absolutely amazing little pillows of meat, cheese and spices. The texture was like no other ravioli I’ve had. The pasta part was thinner and whiter. In addition to various fresh pastas, the shop also sells take and bake pre-pizza crusts, sauces, and various doughy meat or veggie pies.

There was a little test for my Spanish and my willingness to make waves at the pasta shop. I didn’t realize until a few hours later, when the shop was closed, that I was given the wrong change. It was the equivalent of about $12, which is almost four trips to the pasta shop, so I had to come back the next day and explain what happened. They gave me quite a little lecture about always counting my change and paying attention, and that no one else would believe me but they would. I got my change back. I hope I can show my face in there again because I haven’t tried their gnocchi yet.

Lou and Dan join the 21st century

After successfully resisting attempts by Catherina Zeta Jones and the can-you-hear-me-now guy to get us into a phone plan, we have finally crumbled under the pressure.

Perhaps it was our incredibly busy social lives.

Maybe it was our increase in business transactions.

Or it could have been the influence of the slick Movistar spokesman, Gerardo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBoMvJM2tIY

2007 shall be known as the year that we finally got mobile phones.

Louann poses with phone.

Dan poses with phone.

Mountains & grape vines. Que bonita!














Our postcard picture of the gates of Park San Martin at night. (click for a bigger picture)

right: ahh nature! (hummer)

The IN list from the OUTsiders

Lou: Here’s my attempt to make a “what’s in/ & what’s out” list for Mendoza:

IN: tight jeans/ OUT: long or loose shirts-- IN: jean skirts/ OUT: shorts—IN: carrying around little puppies/ OUT: leashes for dogs (they just seem to know how to follow their owner & how to cross the street)-- IN: walking/ OUT: strollers for toddlers that can walk—IN: newborn babies/ OUT: maternity clothing--IN: sandals/ OUT: tennis shoes (unless stylish ones)—IN: mullets/ OUT: spiked hair

it´s all coming together

Dan: Even though I was only scheduled to teach for 3 hours last week, every time I went to the school, I was asked to cover another class. So my evenings were busy this week. I’ll give a sample of the type of people I’m teaching, at least last week; Federico, an import/export logistics guy from a huge holdings company with branches in 70 countries, Julio and Silvia, two accountants, Cristina, an Italian woman who needs to improve her English for her interview in Belgium next month for an EU scholarship to an international relations masters program, and Augusto, a general manager for a hydroelectric power company that builds 4 hydro stations around the world each year. Yesterday I felt like finally my studies in international relations were being put to use when I was making up interview questions for Cristina. Those incredibly boring macro and international econ courses that I barely passed 15 years ago provided me with just enough knowledge to keep up with Julio and Silvia’s business English curriculum. It’s all coming together. They* laughed when I said I wanted to study International Relations in Minnesota. Well who is laughing now? My life’s accumulation of knowledge has finally panned out, and allowed its application in a 12-peso per hour job.

*The people at Scott Hansen’s Comedy Gallery, the night my friends and I from St. Cloud sat in the front row and got singled out by the comedian onstage, Frank from Mystery Science Theater 3000, in 1994. His comment was something like, “St. Cloud, a real hotbed of international activity!”

Food: Pizza here is quite common, and a nice cheap thing for two people to split. I don’t know how many mozzarella pizzas we have split, for the lack of better options. There are usually only two varieties available anyway, the other one having ham on it. The mozzarella pizza varies in quality but always has a lot of cheese, is usually quite greasy, always includes green olives (with pits), and sometimes red pepper slices. The degree of extra herbs added for flavor has ranged from yummy to none at all. And as I think we mentioned before, sometimes you get some hardboiled egg on top. Some are baked on stones, some in plain old ovens, and one I’m sure was baked over fire. Tomato sauce is almost non-existent.

Drink: Fernet. I had heard a little about it, so I picked up a bottle. It comes in regular and mint. It’s a 90 proof alcohol. The old folks drink some after meals, I guess with water or soda, as a digestive. The young folks mix it with coke. Lou was told that a party without fernet is a failure. The flavor is similar to cloraseptic throat spray.