Ethan G. Salwen

Woman preparing for festival. Santiago, Paraguay.

I took this image on my first full day in Paraguay, five hours south of the Capital, Asunción, where I had landed the day before, after 36 hours of flights from San Francisco. I was just warming up — in the 100+ Fº temperatures typical of Paraguay January — and photographed hundred of more times throughout this day. But seeing this image on my still-mesmerizing camera monitor gave me a “Ah few” moment, and I become much more focused on shooting. Very excited about digitial. This woman is a domestic worker in the one of the richest homes in Santiago, Paraguay, where my new friend, Penny Newberry, had lived for two years during a recent Peace Corps stint.

This past Friday here in Buenos Aires it was now three hours earlier in New York than it was here. Today, on Monday, it is now one hour earlier there than it is there. That’s what happens when one location falls back and the other springs forward.

I’ve never been very good with time, keeping track of it, being on time with it, leaving enough of it to accomplish work and on an on. Of particular confusion for me has been these things called “time changes.” I never have a clue when changes in time are taking place and I definitely don’t know why.

I’m also not so great with managing time zones, often calling someone three hours later than intended instead of six hours early, just because I happened to be in California and they happened to be in New York, or maybe it was the other way around. (And why would I be calling three hours late, anyway?) (more…)

Café con leche and medialunas in Buenos Aires.

I’ve eaten this classic Buenos Aires breakfast hundreds of times before, and I can imagine stopping anytime soon. This is what they just delivered me here at “Américas” restaurant here in the Caballito neighborhood when I ordered:

“Café con leche con tres medialunas de manteca.” The small glass of “agua con gas” is automatically delivered on the side and, in true porteño form, a pile of sugar is provided to dump into the rich, milky coffee. Talk about “yum!” meets “comfortingly familiar.”

Sure, I could tell you that “hijo de puta” means “son of a bitch” or, more literally, “son of a whore.” But that just doesn´t translate how the colorful phrase is used so colorfully and almost non-stop by portenos. It can be shit, damn, fuck and all kinds of other things, but to really get it you need to see it in action. And thanks to YouTube and a cultural tipoff I got today, you can.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwuC5dw2ZOw&feature=related]

You don´t have to know Spanish to appreciate the flexibility of “hijo de puta” in real-life situations. The malleable “mala palabra” helps passionate portenos express anything. Anything.

This awesome documentation comes from a now defunct TV show for the early 2000s  called “Todo Por Dos Pesos.” Clearly the “HP” series is a  spoof but it sure seems real to me.  (You got it. “HP” for “Hijo de Puta.”)

This HP episode is particularly hilarious because it features Graciela Dufau, a famous actress of dramas. Check out her use of HP. Epa!

Last night I was hanging out with this guy named Brendon for more than an hour before we finally realized we had been roommates in boarding school. This was 23 years ago, and 21 since we lost saw each other, so you can imagine our surprise.

"Hey! We used to sleep together 23 years ago!"

It was greet to meet up with Brendon Sharp down here in Buenos Aires, where he has a local wife and three half-local children. It was wild to find out that 20 years will make very different teenagers very like-minded, buena onda-oriented men.

It was also nice that complete randomness and not FaceBook or any other such social media medium brought us back together. It was just Veronica. She and I were hanging and decided to visit her buddy Frankie, who was staying with his friend Brendon, who had some kids she said.

When you have a chance encounter of this magnitude it´s hard to get over the Whoa! Factor. It´s hard to not keep saying, ¨I can´t fucking believe it!” So I actually think it was great that Brandon and I didn´t figure out that we were Brendon and Ethan from Oakwood Friends School for an hour. It gave us a chance to meet each other like regular people, to talk about the lives we´ve been living outside the States, but much longer.

To FaceBook-less encounters!

What can I say? The Ateneo bookstore on Santa Fe rocks. A beautiful, airy rescued old theater. Amazing books. Friendly, casual. Absurdly expensive. Coffees served in the former stage area  will set you back a dinner. A  place I sometimes meet up with friends. Good air conditioning. Awesome browsing. Understandably, a popular spot with tourists. Good for R&R. And $500USD art books.

El Ateneo Bookstore, Buenos Aires

This is the must-see Part II of a “Crossing Nueve de Julio.” Part I was good but Part II knocks it out of the park. If you want to get the back farther in Nueve de Julio crossing experience, check out “Crossing Nueve de Julio: Part I.”

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