Felices Pascuas!

I had a very low-key Easter (Pascuas) this year. Argentines generally get Thursday and Friday off before Easter weekend, making it the perfect weekend for end-of-summer/ beginning-of-fall vacations. Lots of people go to the country with their families. Some of my roommates even went to the beach (though I think it was a little cold). I didn't go anywhere, but I did visit the church near my apartment for the Easter Mass. It was nice (I don't think I've been to church on Easter since I was 10, but whatevs), and sort of appropriate given the large Catholic population here. In a way I was surprised about this, in a country where Christmas Eve is OBVIOUSLY about partying with your friends, as is basically every other holiday. Argentines definitely value family time, but the holidays don't always reflect that.Most of my students told me that Argentines traditionally go to church, have a meal with their families, and eat chocolate on Easter, but none of THEM actually went to church this year, so it sounds a lot like a typical American Easter, sans Bunny. On a gross variation of the Easter Egg Hunt, Argentines traditionally enjoy a sweet yellow cake with hard-boiled eggs in it on Easter. I didn't try it, so I can't really comment, but that just doesn't sound enjoyable to me.

In one class, I ended up having an hour and a half discussion about holidays. Argentines get a bunch of days off around this time of year (March 24: Dia de la Memoria, April 2: Dia de los Veteranos y los Caidos en la Guerra de Malvinas, April 8 and 9: Feriado de Pascuas, May 1: Dia del Trabajador, May 25: Dia del Primer Gobierno Patrio) but not many during the rest of the year. My students thought it was weird that we get all kinds of holidays, like MLK Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, etc. I thought it was weird that they have most of their days off crammed into a two-month period in the fall. Seems a little silly, but whatever you're used to, right? I personally like the American tradition of spreading out the holidays, so we get a break every few weeks.

Another Survey Thing

The last survey was so much fun, I thought I'd do another! Goody for you guys. I have a post about Easter, but we'll get to that later.

1) What is your salad dressing of choice?
Mustard (not honey mustard, just the regular kind).

2) What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
In BA: I never go to nice restaurants, so probably Romario, haha
In Boston: Symphony Sushi
Ever: Gotham Bar/Grill

3) What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it?
Pizza or quesadillas.

4) What are your pizza toppings of choice?
Red or green peppers, onions. I love veggie pizza here with spinach and white sauce.

5) What do you like to put on toast?
Butter and strawberry jelly, or peanut butter.

6) How many televisions are in your house?
One, if you don't count my computer, which I use way more often for that purpose.

7) What color cell phone do you have?
White with red details. My American cell is silver (it's the same one Rufus uses on Gossip Girl, be jealousssss).

8) Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Left-handed.

9) Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A leeetl piece of bone.

10) What was the last heavy item you lifted?
Grocery bags, or the bag I take with me to classes, esp when it has my computer in it.

11) Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
No but I've been hit in the head by a pitch in softball, and with the trunk of a car.

12) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
No way.

13) If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I don't think my name fits me, but I don't know what I'd change it to... Thoughts?

14) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
Maybe, especially if it were Chipotle Tabasco sauce. I don't really like regular though.

15) How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
At least 20 I think, but my favorite pair was stolen in Cambodia ;-(

16) What’s your goal for the year?
Get as much as I can out of Buenos Aires, have a great time in Vtown, kick ass in law school.

17) Last person you talked to?
My housemate Irati.

18) Last person you hugged?
I think it was my student Silvia, lol!

19) Favorite Season?
Spring anywhere, fall in the Northeast.

20) Favorite Holiday?
CHRISTMAS.

21) Favorite day of the week?
Saturday.

22) Favorite Month?
May or December.

23) First place you went this morning?
Nowhere, it's 12:45 and I just woke up an hour ago. Blame the mosquitoes for torturing me all nightttttt

24) What's the last movie you saw?
In theaters: That Yakuza movie
In general: Mamma Mia (haha that's a little embarrassing)

25) Do you smile often?
I think so, yeah. I try to!

26) Do you always answer your phone?
Depends. Not during class/something serious/a movie.

27) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it?
Probably some random Argentine. In the U.S. it would be Lisa Cruz, hehe.

28) If you could change your eye color what would it be?
Maybe green, to be a little more different? Idk, I like the blue mostly.

29) What flavor drink do you get at Sonic?
I know they have a million kinds, but I've never been to Sonic. I would get a Bartley's Lime Rickey.

30) Have you ever had a pet fish?
Grace and I had goldfish named Sundance and Silverado (Sundance was mine).

31) Favorite Christmas song?
I love them all soooo much! Christmas Canon or anything Mariah Carey are my top faves.

32) What's on your wish list for your birthday?
Not sure. Rent for San Diego I guess!

33) Can you do push ups?
Not really, no. Maybe a couple.

34) Can you do a chin up?
No way but you should see Mom do them!

35) Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
Excited! I can't wait to move forward, haha.

36) Do you have any saved text?
No because my Inbox only holds 70 messages, sooo annoying.

37) Ever been in a car wreck?
Not yet, fortunately.

38) Do you have an accent?
Apparently I have the Upstate NY Nasal 'A' and can't pronounce certain things right. I also tend to pronounce Ts like Ds.

39) What is the last song to make you cry?
Wow I can't even remember. Probably something stupid and emo from high school.

40) Plans tonight?
I have a class until 8, then probably dinner and computer tv. I'm a baller.

41) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
No and I hope I never do.

42) Name 3 things you bought yesterday?
NOTHING because I'm broke. Getting paid today though!

43) Have you ever been given roses?
Yep.

44) Current HATE right now?
Mosquitoes. I thought they were gone but they came back with a vengeance!

45) Met someone who changed your life?
Of course.

46) How did you bring in the New Year?
In Vestal, low-key as usual.

47) What song represents you?
Definitely Fat Bottom Girls by Queen!

48) Name three people who might complete this?
Since I'm not posting this on Facebook I'll go ahead and say no one.

49) What were you doing at 12 AM last night?
Reading The Fountainhead (and i WILL finish it i SWEAR).

50) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
Grrrblerhghfla.

Tweet... or Baaa?

Yep, I gave in and got a Twitter account. Silly, I know, I'm a sheep. If any of you are on as well, add me! I'm jcataylor (http://twitter.com/jcataylor).

Mostly just did it because I was bored. We have a four day weekend for Easter (Felices Pascuas!) which is great, except that I STILL haven't gotten paid anything for working in March, so it's not like I can go on vacation or anything. We only get paid once a month, and I didn't work at all that first week I was here, so it's been a loooong time. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for surviving over a month and a half on 885 pesos (plus rent, there's no way a tourist like me could pay rent AND live on that little). It's been a great lesson in frugal living, but I'm really starting to get tired of it, and I'm getting low on books! One institute said they can pay me on Monday. I worked fewer hours for them than for the other one, but at least it's something!

I've noticed I talk about money a lot, even in classes. I bet that's annoying. It's just something I think a lot about now that I have to! It's a balance between actually LIVING and having fun, and being responsible and taking care of the necessities. Institutes are notoriously disorganized, so I can never expect to be paid at the beginning of the month, and these past few weeks have been crazy, lots of holidays, so it's understandable that they'd be even more delayed.

SO ANYWAY, in summation:
No money= Boredom= Twitter account= New way for me to share my life with you, boredom and all. Now I'm off to go out into the world, so I actually have something interesting to tweet about!



P.S. Shout out to the padres for the delicious Easter candy! As predicted, I ate about half of it in two days and am now quite sugared-out. Thanks!

Baficimo

Tonight, I went to Abasto mall to see a movie. This week was the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cinema Independiente (BAFICI). Literally hundreds of movies were shown in six or so theaters (and an open-air "theater" in the Plaza San Martin de Tours on weekends).

I didn't get my act together until the last day of the festival, so the film choices were a bit limited. We were later than we meant to be, and by the time we found the right ticket line etc. etc. it was past 8:30. The next show times were 8:45 and 10:15, so we had to go with the 8:45, which was a documentary about Japanese gangster movies. I was wary, especially since it was a film about Japanese movies, with a French director, showing in Argentina. The full title is "Yakuza Eiga: Une histoire secrete du cinema japonais." But the movie turned out to be strangely awesome. The subtitles were even in English (as well as Spanish), so we weren't totally confused the whole time. What's more, the theater was COMPLETELY full. As in people-sitting-in-the-aisles full. I've never been to a film festival screening before, but there's something awesome about tons of people deciding to watch a random, off-beat movie on a Sunday night, just because. I might be assuming too much, but I don't think all those people are Japanese film buffs. Maybe they just go there for the nachos and sugared popcorn.

A randomly fab outing. I have a mosquito bite on my eyelid, but otherwise it's been a good weekend.