the good

Yesterday I walked past two guys that were selling things on the street.  It is very common that people sell things on the footpath here, like socks, fake havaianas, power adapters, sunglasses etc.  One of these guys is always in the same spot every day, outside the supermarket a couple of blocks from my apartment.  Yesterday, when I walked past him, he was dancing and singing with another guy who was selling stuff next to him.  And I thought wow, that´s really cool.  I´m sure he doesn´t make a lot of money selling 2 pairs of knee length socks for 15 pesos (I bought some last year from him), but at least he is enjoying himself.  Maybe not all day, every day, but yesterday he was.

Small Spaces - The Bad

Compared to all the gigantic houses in the United States, apartments in Buenos Aires tend to be quite small. Even my friends who live with their whole family live in with just the bare essentials space-wise. They don´t have dens and basements and craft rooms. This is the same for the actual rooms they DO have. Bedrooms are smaller. Kitchens are way smaller. Space in general is small.

My bathroom, for example, is pretty small. Not super small, but pretty small. The other day I had a small flood from the toilet and as I was trying to fix it, I hit my head on the bidet, which hurt super bad. Then, as I was standing up, I hit my lower back on the sink. The rapid head and back pain left me in a delirious rage. Why does everything have to be so close together? I created this picture/diagram for you to better understand.



P.S. I wrote the word "small" a lot in this post.

the good

Tom Ford´s first feature film A Single Man is good.  The cinematography, sets and 60´s style are a visual treat.  Colin Firth and Julianne Moore are great, and the narrative is moving.  It was a little surprising that the cinema was full of older people, especially since it was about a gay man (this subject is still quite taboo with many older Argentines).  I wonder how many of them actually knew what the film was about before it began, as the old man near us remarked to his wife after the first 5 minutes "I think he (Colin Firth) is gay".

the bad

 Something that I just cannot get past in Buenos Aires is inflation.  Every time I go to the supermarket things cost more.  You can´t even buy 200g of butter in my supermarket for under 6 or 7 pesos, and when I first arrived here two years ago it cost less than 3 pesos.  The problem is, you need to buy food to live, every day, so this reality is constantly hitting you in the face.  It´s in the newspapers, the government deny it, everybody talks about it and it´s enough to be a downer in your otherwise quite pleasant day.  I hardly ever buy cheese anymore because it´s basically a luxury item.  Good for my figure but not so good for my taste buds. 

In the supermarket about an hour ago, the people in front of me were putting their 300 peso grocery bill on a credit card of three payments.  If you can´t even afford to pay for your groceries in one shot, what hope is there?  Maybe I am being dramatic but for me, inflation is a big concern and a huge BAD on this blog.

the good

Today, Emiliano rescued a kitten that has been living under a car infront of our apartment for the last two days.  It has been crying the last two nights, and we tried to catch it before, but it was too scared to come near us.  Somehow, he was able to catch it today, and it is currently sleeping inside the case of his guitar.  Our cats are not happy about it at all, they are making hissing noises but I think they will come round, after all, they are usually pretty relaxed and well-loved.  Tomorrow we will take the kitten to the vet for a check up and a clean (it´s a he), and see if we can find a new home for him.  For now we call him "the tiny one" as I fear that naming him will only make it harder to distance ourselves when the time comes for him to leave us.

the bad

BAFICI.  This time, a Japanese film charading as a post modern, arthouse masterpiece was really a glorified porno.  Do I really need to see a vagina that close for 20 minutes?  And oysters were not meant to go there, well if they were, I was certainly not meant to see it.  Up close.

the ugly

Last night at 10pm I walked past a homeless woman pooing on the footpath.  Whilst being horrified I also thought about what it must be like for her, having to do that.  Definitely ugly no matter which way you look at it.

the good

The international independent film festival BAFICI is good.  Well actually, more than good.  There are over 400 films to choose from, in just under two weeks of cinema madness.  My favourite part is that the director is often there to talk about the film and answer questions afterwards, brilliant!  The other day I saw a film called Cooking History in which the cooks who fed the soldiers during many European wars as far back as World War 2, talked about their experiences whilst recreating the meals they used to cook, where they used to cook them.  These people were full of personality, amazing characters in a story that was very real.  The film ended with a man who used to cook on a military submarine that sank, cooking on the edge of the water.  As he cooked and told his story, the tide came in and rose so high that eventually, it swept away the food, the table, everything, and the man was left standing in the water alone.  He survived 14 hours in the water after the sub sank, and was the only one to make it.  A very moving and at times funny; visually and culturally rich film that takes a completely different perspective of war.