Hello Again

After a long long day of traveling, I'm back in Vestal. It's pretty nice to be home. Now, who wants to help me find a job?

Salir Time

There have been times when I wished I were going back to the U.S. Sometimes the adventure seemed to be too much. After a long day, or a SHORT day without enough work, when I was tormented by mosquitoes or eating only eggs and toast for days at a time to save money, I longed to be home, taken care of, living the easy life. There were times when I thought May 19 couldn't come fast enough.

But now that it HAS come, pretty much, and I keep thinking "it's too soon! Wait!" I've seen the touristy things, I've dome pretty much everything I wanted to do here, but I'm not ready to stop living the porteño lifestyle yet. My favorite thing to do in this city is just BE here, walk down the streets, sit in cafes, go to bars and talk to people. I like my students, my roommates, and my job. I have fun with my friends. My life here isn't always comfortable, but it's mine and I love it.

Am I really done here? Can I move on from Buenos Aires? Have I taken everything possible from this year? I'm not sure. The only thing to do now is enjoy the next couple of days, and get ready to take on the next adventure.

I probably won't blog as much once I get home, unless something fab happens or I get so bored I feel the need to subject you all to my special brand of rambling nonsense. We shall see. On the other hand, I'd be happy to blog about Starbucks, the library and Taffy for 2+ months, wouldn't that be entertaining?

Meditating on Medialunas

There's nothing like a lazy morning, nowhere to go, nothing to do, plenty of time to sit in the sun (or curl up somewhere cozy if it's cold and rainy, like today) and have breakfast. Argentines don't do breakfast the way we do in the states: they normally stick with very light fare, maybe some coffee or mate with toast or a little pastry. In my 9+ months in Buenos Aires, I have become a connoisseur of medialunas ("half moons"). Medialunas may not be unique to Argentina, but they have been perfected here: small, sweet, flaky little bits of heaven. Since I absolutely love anything sweet, unhealthy, and complementary to coffee, the medialuna has been one of the highlights of my stay here.

The perfect medialuna de manteca is actually pretty hard to find (and believe me, I've done my research). It must be soft and flaky, but have some substance to it. The top should be harder, with a sweet sugary coating that covers the softer sides as well. Since most medialunas are baked in bulk, they should have two "legs" that are sweet, a little crispy, and easy to pull off and dunk in cafe con leche. The dough itself should be sweetened but not TOO sweet, and have no other weird subflavors or aftertastes. The sugary glaze should take care of most of the sweetness. Fresher is always better, and warm from the oven is the best.Medialunas and cafe con leche from Sabatico, one of my favorite places!

There are about a thousand ways to mess up a medialuna. The most common problems are textural (and you know how picky I am about food texture): too doughy and mushy or too crispy. Unlike its brother, the medialuna de grasa, the medialuna de manteca should only be slightly crispy on the top, and flaky but soft the rest of the way through. Medialunas de grasa are not very sweet and tend to be more compact, like little crispy croissants. Some people prefer this kind, but they're not my favorite.

The best medialunas, according to me, can be found at:

La Piazza: Avenida de Mayo and Saenz Peña.

Sabatico: Cordoba near 25 de Mayo. (Only open on weekdays).

Cafe Parana: Parana near Corrientes. (These are a little hit-or-miss).

Facturas del Abuelo: Cordoba near Reconquista. (Not actually on par with the rest of this list, but reliably adequate AND there's a special- 3 medialunas and a cafe con leche for 6 pesos, any time of day).

Mataderos

Last Sunday I ventured outside my little Buenos Aires downtown bubble and visited the Feria de Mataderos. It's a pretty big street fair on the edge of the city, in the neighborhood where they used to slaugher cattle (hence the name- "killers"). It's so much fun because it's a lot less touristy than the other street fairs in BA- there are lots of tourists, sure, but also tons of locals just hanging out with their families, dancing, eating, etc. Callie pointed out that most people in the U.S. don't just drop everything and spend the day in the park- why is that? We saw so many families with picnic lunches, mate, and soccer balls having a great time on a gorgeous fall day.

The thing I really love about the Mataderos fair (as you might have guessed) is the food. Sadly, my favorite empanadas were not available this time, but I did get to have a delicious tamale, and this snack consisting of pieces of various fruits on a stick covered in honey and popcorn. Weird but delicious! The best was the strawberry at the top, second was the kiwi. Other food stands gave us samples of dulce de leche, olive oil, liqueurs, chocolate, and more. Besides selling food, the fair is chock-full of traditional crafts, jewelry, clothing, even knives. So many interesting, uniquely Argentine things to see!


As usual, we had a little issue getting home. The normal bus ride back takes maybe 40 minutes, but I (the genius that I am) got us on the wrong bus, so it took muuuch longer than that to get home. To be fair, we got on the 180 instead of the 180 route 155, and I was so excited to see a 180 that I didn't even look at the other number. The good news was that Callie used to live near the area we ended up, so it was pretty easy to grab the Subte back. Story of my lifeeeeee.


With only one week left in this country, it was nice to get to one of my favorite places one last time. It's weird to think I won't be able to go out there any time I want (I've only been 4 times total, but STILL).


ETA: Photos added!

ETA also: I forgot to mention that on this particular Sunday, everyone was celebrating some sort of festival from the area of La Rioja, and this required them to wear basil behind their ears and get covered in flour. No idea.

Recuerdo

I finally got myself a souvenir from BA (aside from that Quilmes tee shirt). With a week to spare!

Feria Internacional del Libro

In an attempt to spend my last days in Argentina doing culturally enriching things instead of just eating a million empanadas, I went to check out the 35th Annual International Book Fair on Wednesday.

I bought a 10 peso ticket and went right in (no lines at 2 pm on a Wednesday, except for the scads of schoolchildren there on field trips). To my surprise, it was ENORMOUS. I should have known, given the fact that the event was located inside La Rural, Buenos Aires' events megacenter. I had been there before, for a wine tasting expo, but in that case all the booths were in one large room, and the book fair took up about five. I didn't even realize the place was so big!

Most of the large rooms were dedicated to displays from different publishers and book outlets. I looked for my former student Lorena, because she runs a local publishing company, but didn't see her. Her company might have been there, I don't know, I definitely didn't see everything. All the major Argentine bookstores were represented (El Ateneo, Cuspide, Distal, Dickens, etc. etc.) as well as tons and tons of smaller companies. There were booths dedicated to travel books, text books, children's books, folklore books, religious books, reference books. There were books in Spanish, German, English, Portuguese, and French (to name a few). There was even an entire stall that only sold those tiny books you find near the Barnes and Noble checkout counter. Needless to say, I was in absolute heaven! The first main room also had interactive and informational displays about famous national authors and the importance of reading set up by tourism bureaus, the post office, the bank, etc. Branching off of these rooms, there were smaller lecture halls in which various literary-minded people gave talks. In the three weeks the fair is open, hundreds of speakers gave presentations in 13 rooms.

This being Argentina, even a book fair is an excuse to party. Outside, on the path from one main building to the next, there was a giant Heineken truck serving drinks and food ("Heineken?" you say? I know, I didn't get it either, but hey, the fair is international). Festive music played over a scattering of plastic dining tables with umbrellas.

One and a half weeks left! See (some of) you soon!