Move on

The sun has arrived in Buenos Aires! The weekend has been scorching, strange to associate hot, sunny weather with October, never mind the heat of summer with December? Christmas with blue skies and the chance of a tan? Lo que sea!

A rather strange statue of a bull but mira! blue skieees!

It has been a few weeks and indeed I am nearing the end of the semester, the end of work and the end of the house. It is the end of a mini era, part I of Buenos Aires is coming to a close. As is always the case, it has gone so quick, nearing November?! I remember the days of thinking and praying for the mystical opportunity of going to BA, "Yeh going to study in BA next year, touch wood!" Wood was touched and here I am! Currently planning, or thinking about planning, a big trip, November to March is holiday time! I will stay here in November, taking some little weekend jaunts away to various places but spending the time getting to know the city, which will be good. December off to Patagonia con los viejos and then the trip will continue solo up north to Bolivia, Peroo and Brazil, hopefully, need to start planning for seriousnessly.

I am currently considering my first escape from the city for a while, it is getting to me a little, brought up on t' country air n all that! I long for countryside and peaaaaaace! That is one thing about this city, it is a long way from escapism, not like glasgow a wee jaunt into the hills and fresh air. The buses, cars, heat and noise gets to you every now and again. Thinking la sierra de Córdoba..mountains! green! clean rivers! fresh air!



On another note, these past two weeks have seen me actually doing some uni work! Also been carrying on working like 18 hours a week so been a bit heavy. The argentine education system is a little different from what I am used to, or at least it is at USAL. Everything depends on the class and the teacher, deciding the way the course will be assessed and there are no real "official exams", as all the classes are quite small, all the exams just happen in the class hour. I had my first partial, like a mini exam, last Tuesday for History of Art. I thought it went terribly, for one, the whole class left after about half an hour, of a two hour class, and left me alone with the teacher halfway through the second question, feeling somewhat bemused and panicky. I asked the teacher and she just said, oh it is fine just continue until you are ready, we have plenty of time, so I continued, in a rushed manner, and scribbled what I knew down in no particular order. Turns out I got a 9/10?! I think she was being kind to me due to my englishness or maybe argentines are lazier than me?! Earlier in the day I found out my mark for the argentine literature course: 8/10. All good so far considering I only need a 4, not even sure if I need that, Glasgow didn't really do a job of informing me of what I had to do: bad idea!

Just getting over a small bout of what is presumed to be rubella, a poxy chicken like thing which includes a rash, temperature, aching joints and comes with a complementary cold, which is the only remaining sign, oh and the itching of non existent rash, "it's all in your head!" That may be the case but it still itches and feels satisfying to itch, I likened it to smoking before, I know it is bad but I can't help it and it feels better afterwards (itching of course...!) Managed to miss two exams, Portuguese, but hopefully can rearrange them. It also resulted in the second fund boost for the argentine private health system from the Robin Perkins illness foundation. A total of nearly $400pesos, nearly £80, pfft. bluddy german hospital.

While the world seems to fall deeper and deeper into a pit of financial uncertainty each and every day, Argentina is also feeling the heat and doesn't seem to be doing itself any favours. I have discovered that people do not like Kirchner II, she is unpopular on a lot of fronts, well, that is the impression I have so far. A quick survery: my boss thinks she is generally bad for the future of the country and the whole region, the man who cut my hair said he didn't know anyone who admitted having voted for her and people were fed up, christ, even her vice president voted against her! Not exactly a vote of confidence. Her latest move which has riled investors and economists, was the nationalisation of private pension funds, a move to free up capital for the govt. I am no economist but a "private source" (Jason) told me that private pension funds are key to keeping an economy going by attracting investment, Kristina says the govt needs the money more and the investment funds were just a money drain in light of the worldwide crisis. It is being seen as an obvious way of raising capital for the govt, which is seriously lacking, in order to help pay off some of it's quite moutnainous debts to the world. The stock prices fell by 9% in light of the move but some people seem to be saying it might be a good thing in the long run, allowing for state pension funds alongside an optional private pension fund which workers could opt in or out of, similar to what Brazil has. Brazil is numero uno in economy round these parts, a big player for the future so I hear :)


Now if economy isn't your thing, I apologise but it seems we can't avoid it these days. Watched a nice simple, quite amusing little BBC video on the whole crisis yesterday, kind of a crisis for dummies: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7688308.stm. The end of the weekend, the beginning of the weekbegninning :(

A Day in the Life

This blog post was called a day in the life but it is turning into a life in a day.

I am in the middle of a thunderstorm. Rain, humidity, thunder and lightening. Music from penguins or proud robots or something is spluttering out of the old samsung "beatbox," it really is like an old school, hike it onto your shoulder and parade around the streets piece of kit, blasting out some public enemy. just had a strange encounter with a dutch girl in the corridor. Friend of roy, new flatmate, roy isn't here, she is going to wander around for half an hour and come back...ok..its raining.


Well, this will be a collection of memories from the past few weeks in BA, I do not remember the time or the inspiration or indeed the place. though it may be mentioned. They catalogue, kind of like a broken up diary, some moments in the past month or so. It is October. Time fliess.

Part I: Spring and Snow
It is snowing, it is spring. Though autumn may be arriving in the northern hemisphere it is attempting to make an appearance here, the leaves are scattering from the trees and falling like snow onto the street. It is pretty and inspired a song.

As a certain family member mentioned to me yesterday this blog seems to mention food quite a lot. It seems to be that I am either eating or thinking about eating or remembering something I ate while I am writing. So today's food is Italian; I ate a pizza and dank a coffee. Am sat in the pizza place with Pamela and we are being very anti-social, abusing the free internet (three hours and counting!) It has been a while since the last "real" update so here I will try again. ) Time is passing like clouds on a very windy day(!), if I am not careful I will miss my birthday. (chanson)

Part II - Maté

"I am in neeof a maté, it's 8pm on a wednesday night. My head is filled with figures, GDPs, UNHWIs, AuM, FDI, IFC...."

That was how it was on the day it was, when I do not recall but obviously the maté didn't work, or the writing of those acronyms sent me to sleep. I think it was a particularly eyelid drooping night after a particularly figure filled day.

Global business is not my forte.

Part II - The Office

I am writing this from the office with another cup of tea, a plate with the crumbs remaining from the first cheese toasty of the day, it is raining outside and the garden looks particularly splendid, even the soaked stone figure, which I personally think is grotesque (I never liked those "classical" naked people made of stone, especially in your garden..purrlease!) While making the latest brew I got thinking that the brews here are just terrible. bad water, bad teabags, bad milk; bad. Yet, force of habit means I just keep on putting on that kettle and supping tea. I also got thinking...(edit: don't know what happened to the "thinking" part)

"How are you finding the Latin American high net worth market this year?"

"Hoy es no te has olvidando de algo?"

Insert picture of "delicious" gnocchi. An advert I glanced at for today: apparently it is gnocchi day. Don't know why, but a good reason to eat gnocchi, which I probably wont do, not having any gnocchi.

Part III - The End of the Day

It is the end of the day, I am sat on a speaker in the kitchen, outside it is dark and rainy inside all I can hear is clicks and Pamela laughing/expletives/singing, and a little French being spoken. This is life after work.


Part IV - The beginning of the weekend

So this is now, whever now is for you or for me but it is some kind of now, I guess it was all now. This blog is turning into some kind of free-jazz, all out Borges, free word association game. Soon I will just choose words from my day and arrange them in a random order to give you a general view, a sentiment, a sense of MY space and time.

Meanwhile in the real world it is October which means Novmeber is next which means this month is going to be a little manic. Lots of essays in Spanish, lots of "classes" and alongside work, my failed/dogged journalism attempts and my desire to write lots of music (i.e. spend hours staring at ableton and arranging sound waves,) it is going to be a busy few weeks. As with storms and their quiet aftermath I think November is going to be comparatively tranquilo. No more classes and a month without having to get up early (depending on whether I continue to work). Sigh of relief please. On that note; work.

I have now been working nearly a month, it has been really interesting, certainly learnt a lot about a lot and it has given me a new perspective on the world. I have experienced the accents accross South America from Bloivia to Colombia to Argentina....."

Now, for real: October 11

There ends the freeflow bloging. Here begins my today. I got paid last week and so today decided to splash out and take a wander into the heart of Palermo. An unwise idea for a recently paid young student willing to indulge and weak when tempted with pretty things. Luckily I didn't have to go far. I stumbled into an ace shop called rethink. Lots of really original and excellent clothing design, inspired by music and more. I bought two t-shirts and a jumper. All cool-as.

It is October and I am 22 on Tuesday. Billy Bragg