different methods of learning

"I read People magazine yesterday. I have some doubts about some of the words."

"Alright. Like what?"

"Um....What is this? 'She hit rock bottom'."

"Oh. Well, uh, you see, it means you cannot go any lower. Maybe you're drinking, partying, the police arrest you. There's nothing worse you can do. Usually they use it when the person has decided to enter rehab and want to come up from the bottom."

"Yes, I saw that word a lot. Rehab."

"Yup, they're both in there. People's very good for that kind of vocabulary."

company's coming

So here's a question for you travellers and hosts out there:

Say a friend says that you can stay at their place as you're passing through town for a few days, no problem. Is it an unspoken requirement to hang out with your host - have dinner, drinks, maybe see a local sight with them? Only them, or are friends of yours (or theirs) allowed to come along? If they turn it down, are you required to ask again? What if you've made arrangements/promises before coming to town that wouldn't allow you to make plans with them?

Back with more later. Please, comment - I've got my thoughts, but I'm interested in what others think.

the family visits - the pictures

It's been a month since they've been gone (and I still have yet to write much about the trip, getting there? I hope so), but I've worked hard to get my stuff together and finally got some pictures online for all to see. There's a trip up north to Iguazú Falls and the small town of Wanda and its gem mine, a few days spent in Mendoza next to the Andes, drinking wine and seeing gorgeous mountains, and a trip across the river delta to visit Montevideo in Uruguay and get more passport stamps. Enjoy!

i'm on the internet!

Well, that much is obvious, but the photos I took of the Estancia La Margarita a few moons ago have been used almost in their entirety on their website. Lookin' pretty good, if I do say so myself.

visitors coming and going

First of all, thanks for the comments on your feelings regarding the guest-host relationship. Here are mine.

We've had two guests come and visit here in Buenos Aires, one a few months ago, and another just a week ago. When the first friend visited, she was between homes - she had been working in Ecuador for a while and was on her way to Córdoba to work for a month there. She also stopped through on her way back. On the way through, she offered to take us out when she arrived, even to hang out with us if we had time. She did her own thing while we were working, exploring the city. To quality, she had never been here before and hadn't even done any research before coming. On the way back, she hung out with friends she had made in Córdoba for the most part, however, she did join us for dinner one night before she left. She also talked with our roommate when she saw him and left a gift and a note for him when she left. Our roommate still asks how she is.

The other guest had been in Córdoba for a few months studying Spanish and had been to Buenos Aires before. Neither of us had directly met her before (friend of a friend), we'd only communicated through email, so we asked if she'd like to go out for dinner while she was here (she was only around for three days) and maybe get to know each other a little. She informed us that she already had plans for both nights and couldn't meet us, but we were welcome to join her and her friends for drinks when they went out the second night (we did, and it was nice). She didn't speak to our roommate (who owns the apartment, a fact she had been made aware of), even when he tried to initiate conversation, and didn't say goodbye or thank you to him when she left, even though he was around the place (he was rather hurt by it). She sent a brief email after she got home thanking us (nothing about the roommate. I don't think he'll be asking after her in the future.)

To be honest, I was put off by the second guest. Admittedly, she is younger than the first one - just finishing high school, as opposed to finished university. Maybe it was a question of experience? It could be experience with the city, too. Maybe it's not fair comparing the two - there are a few differences, though the basic case remains the same.

The biggest issue for me was the treatment of my roommate, as he allowed a stranger into his house and she didn't even thank him. We would like to have guests again in the future, and as it is his apartment, we'd like his approval in doing so. As I mentioned, he was rather put out, and we bought him a nice bottle of wine and said it was from her, as this could be something that could cause a negative response to guests in the future (especially as they use his extra cot kept in his office).

This is why I was eliciting responses. Should a guest yield to a request by the host for some time? I completely agree with the opinions on the reverse - the host is generally living a life in the place the guest is visiting, and if they are too busy to spend time with the guest, well, that's life. However, I believe if you are staying in someone's house and eating their food, you should make a little time for them if they request. Is that so hard?

Note to future guests (hopefully in plentiful numbers. I like guests): I will want to hang out with you. Plan on it. You've been warned.

ripped from the headlines

Well, the news, anyway. Two things to share, one funny, one not. Bad before good.

In a huge upset victory, one team beat another in a football match Sunday. Who is it isn't really important, but happened after is: a riot (yes, again) that ended in numerous injuries and the death of a man from too much lead in his head in the form of pipes. Yeah, he was beaten to death after a game beside a busy highway. The cause, in the end (as it always seems to be), was at least partially due to money - the club had decided to only hire 300 police officers for security instead of the 1000 that should have been present. Nice work, guys! It just blows me away that you could kill someone in cold blood over a game.

To end on a high note, here's a clip from the news briefs in today's paper:

"Puerto Madryn prosecutor Marcela Pérez investigated the silo where 10 workers died for the second time yesterday."

Either we've got zombie problems in Argentina or the English paper here seriously needs to get a copy editor.

littered about

Growing up, my parents taught me what I know now to be right - respect. Respect for others, respect for the place I was, respect for myself. Any shortcomings now are definitely my own. Thanks Mom and Dad!

I think that's why, when I encounter a basic lack of respect for anything, anywhere, it really gets to me. Starting at the bottom, littering. I have picked up after myself, more or less, or at least kept my trash until I got to a garbage can - it just seems like common sense. I'd see trash on the side of the highway or blown into some corner and think yuck. I wasn't incredibly environmentally conscious then, but enough that I knew that garbage+street=wrong. Garbage was for garbage cans (I used to be such a clean, organized kid. Ha!)

Moving to Taiwan, my first trip outside of Western culture, was a bit of a shock in this regard. Cleanliness was made quite difficult in Taiwan by the complete lack of garbage cans. Anywhere. Well, you could walk into a 7-11 (or a clone) and use their bin, but how many people do you think did that? There just isn't the same connection with the natural environment there as in countries like the U.S., Canada, the UK, and so on. One reason is simply that one's everyday life isn't considered in combination with the environment - they exist in two different spaces. For example, on the way to an Earth Day cleanup one year, I was following a car when, suddenly, a load of garbage flew out of the window - McDonalds burger boxes, drink cups, and the other parts of someone's lunch. This vehicle then proceeded to the same area I was going to help with the cleanup. It's almost taken as part of life - there will be trash in the street, and if it's already there, what's one more piece? You got used to it - you had to - but it was never nice. On the positive side, they had an amazing recycling program, but it was both necessary and very practical (dense populations make for profitable recycling, and an island only has so much space).

Coming to Argentina, I had hoped that maybe, with a lower population density, a cleaner city would greet us. Unfortunately, the exact same attitude follows here - possibly worse. There are garbage cans here, but they're rarely used. In fact, I've seen people standing two paces from a garbage can throw stuff on the ground (though, in fairness, I have seen people use them, too).

In both places, the warmer temperatures mean more little businesses outside selling more little things, which means more garbage on the streets (buy some peanuts, eat, toss wrapper on the ground.) Also, hand bills and business cards are handed out at all corners - it's cheap, easy advertising. I bet the percentage that make it more than a block from where they are distributed is very low. Most people take one, take a look, and immediately drop it on the ground. The ground, therefore, becomes covered with pieces of paper, making me wonder how the people handing them out can not notice them (they do, of course, but they're paid by the number they give out, so as long as they're in someone else's hands, it's no longer their concern). These little things build up quickly to create a lot of garbage in the street everywhere you go. It actually surprised my parents a little when they arrived, though this is the state of streets in a lot of the world.

Added to this, ickily enough, is the fact that many (though not all, there are some blessed exceptions) people allow their dogs to shit wherever they are. It really is gross - even grosser when a) the dog is sick, and/or b) when you see that clearly someone has stepped in the mess and made it messier. I can count on two hands the number of times I've seen someone with a baggie, and at least one of those times I know the person was a foreigner.

I think it builds. Simple little things like not respecting your surroundings (contributing to a constantly dirty locale) add up to not respecting others (those behind or after you).

It is a cultural thing to be late here, and I can appreciate that - living in a different place, you can't expect an entire country to conform to the way you run your life - but I've had clients schedule things right in the middle of our class. That really sucks, I gotta say. It's one thing to be busy, it's another to be told that you're less important than someone's massage or haircut when you've based your schedule around them. And yes, I've gotten that.

So many problems develop out of a lack of respect for someone or something else, and on a very extreme scale, it can lead to incredibly terrible things. Look at genocide (I'm reading a book on Rwanda right now) - a basic disrespect for the value of a life, a fellow human being. As I said, extreme, but it had (and has, it's still happening) to start somewhere.

I guess it just gets to me, having seen both extremes - such demonstrations of love and helpfulness and also of hatred and strife, of cleanliness and of filth - knowing that both are possible by so many, it all boils down to a choice one makes, whether that be not throwing your trash on the ground or respecting someone else's choice of who they want to worship and their right to live. Though these may seem unequal to you, in my mind, they both start in the same place - that place where we decide whether what we are doing is convenient to us or best for everyone.

the how-i've-been-the-last-six-months update

It's been a while, and I've just sent out my keeping-in-touch email to various friends and acquaintances, so here it is, reproduced in its full glory.

*****

When I last left you (on the edge of your seat, I know), I had just started teaching and was gearing up for Christmas and New Year. We spent both at a friend's place out in the suburbs, roasting the turkey, goat, and ourselves in the 40*C+ weather. It was a short holiday for us, but the rest of the country shuts down at some point during January and February - even the courts close for two weeks! My friend Kendra, whom I met waaay back in Australia and had been volunteering in Ecuador, stopped in for a couple of quick visits and steak dinners between destinations on this part of the continent, and was a real pleasure to have, I must say. We even managed to visit the Christian-themed amusement park in town, which, I have to say, given what it sets out to do, is pretty impressive. Jesus even rises every half an hour! Now there's something you don't see every day...unless you come to the park!

Photographic opportunities have been presenting themselves fairly regularly in the form of trips and work. Firstly, right after my last email, I was asked (and paid!) to do candid photography at a friend's wedding. In typical Argentine tradition, dinner was at 10, dessert at 1:30 AM, and the party wrapped up after much dancing and debauchery (a lot of debauchery) at 4:30 AM - all on a Sunday. My first class the next morning was a wee bit sluggish, to tell the truth.

Next, Christine and I managed to snag some damn-near perfect tickets for a Carnival celebration in Gualeguaychú - the largest in Argentina, and third-largest in the world - through a student of ours - right down near the line, close enough to see nothing (on the dancers), and lots of it! Giant floats that had been worked on for a year, glittery costumes, drunken college guys who offered us booze the night through and insisted we should know Argentine tennis players better - this celebration had it all. We piled back on the bus in the early hours of the morning and slept the whole way back to Buenos Aires.

The next adventure was actually came as a work assignment for me - a friend working for an estancia (an Argentine ranch, basically), needed photos for promotional materials and got us a free weekend on the ranch in exchange for pictures. It was a weekend of rustic, authentic homemade food (including homemade dulce de leche, a treat that can't be topped), horseback riding twice a day, and a trip into the sleepy little town nearby, falling asleep each night with the Argentine prairies stretching out to forever outside and a fire crackling in our fireplace. Peace defined.

Lastly, and most importantly, my family endured 24 hours (each way) in airplanes and airports to pay me a visit after three-and-a-half years as an expat. Finally, a well-deserved vacation! I wanted them to see as much of the country as they could (its length is equal to the width of the US - 8th largest country in the world!), so we explored a little bit of Buenos Aires before jetting off to Iguazú Falls, considered by some to be the most beautiful waterfalls in the world (only Victoria Falls could be more impressive. Niagara's got nothing on these babies). 287 waterfalls, all at TWICE flood levels when we visited, stopping us from visiting some of the best, but giving us a rare view of the absolute ferocity of the water as it drenched us. We also visited a small gem mine nearby in a town called Wanda that pumped out geodes, amethysts, and topaz, recommended to me by a good friend also named Wanda.

Next up was Mendoza in the west, home to the best wines in the country and also giving us some of the Andean experience, being set in the breath-taking mountain range stretching the continent, home to ginormous condors, sky-piercing snow-covered peaks, and giant black wasps as big as your hand called horsekillers or, simply, St. George. It was a vacation, so we...vacated? And did it in style. And with plenty of wine. Not to leave out little Uruguay, being so close, we took a quick hop to Montevideo, possibly the most relaxed national capital in South America, and definitely the most laid-back one I've ever been in. A little souvenir shopping, relaxing, wine-drinking, steak-eating, and plenty of catching-up, and they were off again, back to a chilly Saskatchewan spring. It was a wonderful visit enjoyed by all.

As for life outside of adventures, it's been going well. Teaching has been a challenge, with schedule changes becoming a fact of life. I haven't taught the same weekly schedule in the 35 weeks I've been teaching, with people always changing their minds about their classes. Such is life as a service provider! Christine has managed to jump out of that particular rat race and into an easier one, landing a translation and editing job at a local company. Higher pay, fewer hours, no traveling - sounds like a dream job to me! We continue to explore the city in the meantime - in a city this size, there's always something to do, whatever your interest. We've also started planning the next trip, starting in the not-so-distant future and covering three continents in the space of a year. Stay tuned for more details. I, for one, am looking forward to it.