Monday, April 18, 2016

FOMO is real

In case you missed it, I had a life event:


FB Official. I live in Buenos Aires.....for like another two weeks now.

But first, it's time for our post-ly (once per post) Q&A time, where I answer the most common questions that no one actually sent to me.

Q: Have you had any good steak in Argentina?

A: I get this question a lot. Everyone has heard about the steak in Argentina. I've definitely had some steak in Argentina, but I wouldn't say its been like a steak orgy. There's been no cow holocaust. The beef hasn't flowed like wine. I haven't been swimming in a sea of calf blood.

But, yeah I ate some steak.







Q: Have you seen any Breaking Bad themed restaurants

A: Yes






Q: Is Limp Bizkit still a band?

A: Funny you should ask that. I happen to just have seen a sign for them coming to Buenos Aires.



Q: How can I become a digital nomad?

A: Well my current roommate Charles (seen above holding up a dead cow with me), paid me money to pitch the course he's working on that helps people become digital nomads. He paid me top dollar specifically because I have so many readers of this blog. Here's the link.


Wow. That was great. Keep sending in those questions and I will continue to give you answers (cause that's how Q&A works).


Now let's move on to what has become your next favorite section of my blog....my very accurate and representative observations on culture and people in the places I go. Since I'm still in Argentina you get a whole other list from here:

  • Doors of buildings are locked from the inside. As in you need a key to get out of the building. This is ridiculously annoying. Just picture this: Its 5am. You just kicked a girl out of your apartment. But then you remember, she can't get out of the building without you unlocking the door for her downstairs. Do you get out of bed to go let her out? Or do you hope she doesn't remember your apartment number so she can't come back and knock? Also, you know....it seems dangerous....like what if there's a fire?
  • There's a lot of street performers that juggle in front of cars parked at red lights and then ask for money. A lot of them really suck. There was there one guy who stood at the intersection outside the Starbucks in Cordoba with a clown nose and clown hair and he just tossed two balls between his hands. Like c'mon man. At least learn how to juggle. Oh look there he is now.




  • Instead of texting 'haha', they use 'jaja' here. Here's an example from Tinder (yes they tinder everywhere)
Wow that was funny. Jaja.
  • The song "Don't Cry for me Argentina" is actually about Argentina (just realized that)
  • Mail has like a 50% chance of actual arrival here. It just disappears apparently. Its like a thing that no on does anything about. My dad sent my absentee ballot for the NYC primary and it never got it. Sorry Bernie.
  • People like meat here

Now, a little more on Buenos Aires (btw it's rained almost every day we've been here....wtf is that?) It's def bigger than Cordoba (duh!). And a lot more to see. I feel like I really haven't seen anything despite having gone on a walking, bike and bus tour. But here's some stuff that tourists look at.

Mural of Evita (more on Madonna below)

The Pink House (where the president lives). Yes, its like our
White House, only Pink. It's cause they put cow blood in
their paint to make it last longer or something. True story.

Plaza de Mayo (see other post for info on these symbols)

La Recoleta Cemetery (yeah thats a street sign in a cemetery)
Yea those are all giant tombstones/
mausoleums/things 



The Thinker in front of the Congress building (their Congress building, not ours)


Since you brought up Madonna, lets talk about Evita. I didn't really know the backstory because I had never seen the movie. But, through several walking tours I have learned the deets. Here's a summary:

Married Juan Peron who became president. She championed workers right and feminists rights and other hippie causes. Working class people loved her, rich people hated her. People wanted her to become vice president and gathered in front of the building with her mural painted above. She came out and spoke from that building and said "no thanks", then disappeared for a while. People were like wtf Evita? Then she scheduled this speech from the Casa Rosado (the pink house) and all the peoples came and it was like the first speech televised in Argentina or something. She came out and said....

Don't cry for me Argentina

Well she actually she said she was dying, but those lyrics are supposed to represent that speech. Then she died three months later at the age of 33 (only one year older than me). Then Madonna made a move about it 50 years later.

Bummer.



Speaking of street art (great topic transition Matt), Beunos Aires has a ton of it. Like every street is tagged in someway, but there's some pretty awesome stuff too. We actually went on a street art (grafitti) tour of the city.







And in other news, I played polo. As in I got on a horse with a mallet, rode around and hit things.


Like this type of polo


It was a full day trip organized out to a polo ranch. Now I had never ridden a horse before and much wine was consumed beforehand, but this place decided it was still OK to let us do this. And it was amazing! I mean I was terrible at polo (and riding the horse), but I feel like I made a lot of new friends...Mr. Mustang, and Britney Spurs and Charlie Horse (I looked those puns up). I even got my horse to gallop which was a new, unique and pretty awesome sensation.


Ballers (as in Polo Ballers)



Me and Mr. Mustang


Its a sophisticated game



Me and Mrs. Mustang


So that about sums up my average life for the past few weeks. Tomorrow, I continue in typical fashion by heading to Patagonia for almost a week. So, in case you're looking for me, I'll be here:



Oh and here I am wearing some platform shoes