I'm cheating on my vegetable stand.

One of the things I most love about Córdoba, and my specific area in Córdoba, is I can walk to get almost anything I need, including vegetables. That means that almost every day I can go to a vegetable stand, pick out what I want for lunch and or dinner (or, knowing me and my lazy habit of cooking way too much so that I only have to re-heat, for lunch and dinner and lunch and dinner etc etc). This is highly preferible to my Vassar schedule of bumming a ride to the grocery store every two weeks, buying a bunch of produce and subsequently learning a lot of hard lessons in the form of very, very soft tomatoes, carrots and bananas.
Here I even have my neighborhood vegetable stand: less than one block a way, a wide variety, a vegetable guy with whom I have the chummy neighborhood rapport I always dreamed of, and it's even owned by my housemate Vicky´s aunt, so I´m practically part of the family. Perfect, right?

Wrong. The problems started with a few mushy apples, and then snowballed into not one, but TWO worm-in-miniature-squash incidents. As I sadly handled my white-on-the-inside carrots or green-on-the-inside tomatoes, I would hear Vicky´s siren song in my ear. "There's another way.... look at my tomatoes, so red and perfect.... I've had these bananas in my basket for two weeks and they're fresher than the prince of Belair....come on, you deserve better..."
Finally, I gave in and asked her where she was buying. Hey, I thought, if Vicky could abandon her family vegetable stand (discount and all) for better quality, why couldn't I do the same?
I walked the couple of blocks to her place: Onda Verde, a chain (gasp!) of self-service (double gasp!), expensive (triple gasp!) veggies. I bought a few samplers and took them home.

Delicious. My 5 dishes I always make took on new life, and I discovered a new world where opening the produce bag wasn't a game of Russian roulette. Everything was fine, until I walked by the old stand. "Hey, why haven't you come by lately?" my vegetable man friend called as I scurried past.
What could I say? I don't eat vegetables anymore? I´m on a bread and meat diet? I forgot?
No. I couldn't lie. But I'm also a conflict-averse coward. So what do I do?
That's right folks, I am now going to two vegetable stands, often two visits in the same day. Onda Verde for the important stuff, and my first place for whatever´s safe: potatoes, a beet, a packet of juice. It is truly pathetic... but I just can't make the break!

Test your skillz!

So nothing beats the Ultimate frisbee universe, but Argentina has a pretty good supply of weird nicknames that have nothing to do with the person's actual name. Try this quiz to see if you can key into the Argentine mindset!
REAL NAMES
a. Valentin
b. Lucas
c. Manuel
d. Andrea
e. Ernesto

NICKNAMES
1. Ta Ta
2. La Huevo
3. Pity (pronounced Petey)
4. Persona
5. Pee Pee. Not kidding.

Answers: a, 3; b, 4; c, 1;d, 2; e, 5

The Dark Side to Teacher´s Day

On what was probably my last Teacher's Day gift (a rustic picture frame) I found this tag.
"A teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to light the way for others."
WHOA, I did not sign up for THAT!

Happy Teacher's Day to Me!

Remember when I was mocking all the ridiculous holidays in Argentina? Well that was until today, September 11 2008, aka Teacher's Day! The gifts have been pouring in! My booty includes:
an incense holder and incense
a tank top
a potted plant
a homemade card
metallic pens
a pencil case
two Agatha Christies (!!)
and an all-expense-paid-PLUS-dessert dinner with the boss lady!
For those of you who were unaware of this important holiday, not to worry, there's still time!Look at previous blog entries to find my address. As long as they are postmarked September 11th, I won't deduct any points for tardiness of gifts.

September 16th update-
the gifts keep pouring in! two bags of chewy candy AND a little scarf!

Un Sábado cualquiera

Hola! So I haven´t written in a while! Mainly because, although I am still trying to be adventurous and do new things, I have found a pretty pleasant, not very bloggable routine here. However, after a dear Austinite friend told me that her image of all countries Mexico and below was "a combination of the jungle and the San Antonio riverwalk," I decided to take her suggestion and write just a little bit about daily life in Córdoba.
Last Saturday, I did my traditional Saturday jog around the plaza about a block from my house (see what I mean about routine? I did change the route up a little bit though!) Afterwards I plopped down to stretch and watch people. In order to not appear creepy, I had to keep a quick rotation. Here´s what I saw.
(I am going to use the present tense to add some of the excitement that might be missing due to a lack of dangerous protests, mysterious Latin lovers or strange cuts of meat).
On my left, there are three or four separate pairs of girls, all drinking maté, silver thermoses in their laps. Thanks to my new, lovely, estrogen-filled housing arrangement, I no longer look at female friends and long desperately for them to turn to me and invite me into their circle. It feels nice. On my right, there are about 25 kids (who would hate to be called kids) between the ages of 13 and 17. Judging by their long, carefully placed bangs, tight pants and gender-blind eye makeup, I would probably say they are floggers. Do floggers exist in the US? Well, just in case they don´t, floggers are a weird hybrid of emo, hipster and a little bit of goth, plus lots of colors. The name comes from the fact that there biggest activity (besides meeting up in plazas) is taking pictures of themselves and putting them on fotolog. As is the case with most "urban tribes," they probably would not call themselves floggers. I like them because at least they stray from the standard Córdoba uniform of tight jeans, tight striped purple sweaters, boots and long layered hair (girls) and boring t-shirts and jeans (boys). They look friendly, and one girl even has a kitchen pot with some sort of delicious snack in it. I resist asking for a bite.
By the fountain there´s a GIANT man who might be a flogger except for his black fishnet sleeve on one arm and some chains dangling from his black pants. He is calling someone on the phone, and he is annoyed. Finally, about ten minutes later, his friends arrive. They are also "onda dark", and I smile as they all greet each other with kisses on the cheek. They may be rebellious in their clothing, but you still gotta follow some societal norms. I love Argentina.
My favorite part of the plaza is the dogs (as long as I don´t lie in their poop). They are so spunky and full of personality, a little gang of British street urchins grabbing cookies from wherever they can get 'em. Just cause they are independent, however, does not mean they don´t need love. One big, stinky guy curls up to a hippie girl who appears to be studying. The fact that she lets him lay his head in her lap makes my day.

Word of the Day: Quilombo

"Quilombo," n, African origin, def. :bordello, used vulgarly in Argentina and other South American countries to describe a big, fat mess. Also the word my housemate Vicky uttered about 15 times this morning as she sat glued to the tv screen, smoking a cigarette in her bathrobe.
Our house is a block away from the municipality and the provincial courts, so at least once a week you´re bound to see groups of people protesting with drums, banners, explosions that sound like shotguns in your ear, and, on one occasion (an ambulance driver's strike) the wafting melodies of a dozen dischordant sirens going off at the same time. So, when I came back from an early English class this morning around 9:30, I didn´t think much about the group of about 100 people gathered in front of my door, this time protesting today's legislative vote to drastically cut retirement benefits throughout the province of Córdoba (I briefly considered going out to the balcony and pulling an Evita. Then I reconsidered.) However, as Vicky and I watched the news throughout the morning, I realized this protest was much bigger than average... the little group on our street met up with tons of other little groups to form (according to the news) 4 "fronts" of 10,000 protesters, all moving towards the legislative building where the vote was taking place. By around 12:30, things were really messy. The tv showed police in guard uniforms with the big shields and everything, detaining and shooting rubber bullets at groups of mainly young men throwing stones, smoke bombs, even burning a tree in the main plaza of Córdoba. According to Vicky, these "quilomberos" most likely don´t even care about the cause, but are hired by the union leaders to cause trouble... they even cover their faces so that anybody watching tv won't realize that it's the same guys that two weeks ago, for example, were protesting something completely different.
Around 1:30 I headed to the terminal to try to find a bus to Hogwarts, and it was crazy!! GHOST TOWN! So many streets blocked off, those dramatic-looking squadrons of police officers standing with their shields all around. As I got on the bus, I felt guilty for this vague sensation of, "Aw man, I´m going to miss all the fun." But at least I´m not the only one: I overheard a guy describing the action on his cellphone with a huge grin on his face, and Vicky gleefully confessed, "I love quilombo." After all, what is a protest if not a spectacle? I guess the question is if all the lights and explosions will actually make a difference. Stay tuned.

Hot dogs, etc.

Whoops! Haven't written in a while! So, here's the newest dish in the life of the Abmeister....
1. Still teachin English. All you patriots out there will be glad to know that we had not one, not two, but THREE 4th of July celebrations here at Hogwarts, complete with my off-key, eleven-year-old-boy-giggle-inducing rendition of America the Beautiful and hot dogs, of course (on the left are some photos).
2. I just can´t get enough of Chile! Early June I went to visit my Zapallar Chicagoan pal Bekah (here pictured eating a papapleto, a delicious french fry guacamole hot dog creation) in Viña del Mar. We went into Valparaiso, the Coolest City on the Planet... but we also spent a LOT of time in Bekah's wonderful cloudlike bed watching CABLE! It was awesome.
3. The biggest news is that, for almost two wonderful weeks, I got to see my MOM AND SISTER! Yep, Debby and Lize spent the second half of their independence day on a plane to Buenos Aires, where I met them early the morning of the 5th. We did it up, a little Buenos Aires sightseeing , lots of beauty treatments, , a visit to the north to see the puny Iguazú Falls, and wonderful visits to Mendoza and Córdoba where mom and lize got to meet a few of the characters I have come into contact with in my time here in Argentina. It was all I could have hoped for: hugs, chatting, early morning bickering, and the chance to show my family my life down here.
4. Speaking of that, things are going well in my new house (knock on wood). Right before Mom and Lize arrived we had a "Fiesta Dark" to bid farewell to very slightly goth German housemate Yvonne. (Here's the girls preparing SANGRE-IA... get it? totally my idea!)
CHAU!