Archive for category Life Among Porteños
My New Camera Even Has a Phone!
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños, On Photography on September 8, 2011
“I see you finally got your first adult cell phone,” Vero told me when I visited her yesterday. I was busy snap, snap, snapping away with my new Nokia X2, a super sophisticated camera that, very James Bond-like, has been ingeniously disguised as a tiny, lower-end cell phone.
Carla gifted me the X2 on Sunday, and hasn’t been able to get much of my attention since.
“You don’t really need a phone with a camera,” she commented on Monday night. “You need a camera with a phone.”
Oh right. This phone in this camera is real! And so is the great radio! And, hell, I could put my music collection on it if, um, I had a music collection. Hell, it will even play the videos I will load onto it as soon as I expand the memory, which is, um, expandable.
I know I’m a Luddite, but am I really the only one who is surprised that a piece of technology this sophisticated and elegant doesn’t earn the “smart” designation? If this is a dumb phone, I can’t even imagine what kind of cameras you First World People are making calls on.
And, no, I do not have any regrets being 5 or 10 years late to the everyone’s-got-a-camera-in-his-phone party. You see, whenever I have a camera in hand, 1) I can’t seem to stop snap, snap, snapping away with it, 2) I like to take pictures of people at close range, and 3) as a result (and I’m sorry about this, Carla), I sometimes make people a little antsy. Well. . .
It turns out that in 2011, even in the Third World, you can take as many pictures of people as you want, and you can do so as close as you want. Not only do people not mind, thy don’t even notice. They just think you’re on the phone.
Quilmes Beach Surprise
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Life Among Porteños, Travels on December 5, 2010
Took the bus down to Quilmes yesterday for the first time. Whodathunkit.
3 to 1: Falling Back and Springing Forward
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños on March 16, 2009
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?) Read the rest of this entry »
My Standard Porteño Breakfast
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños, Travels on January 25, 2009
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.”
Home Movie of a Despedida (with Juvenile, Inside Joke)
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Life Among Porteños on January 12, 2009
This is the going away party (“despedida”) of Dany Glusman and his girlfriend, Jose*, who have headed off to live in Panama for a couple years. It took place at the great Parilla La Dorita in Palermo, Buenos Aires, on January 4, 2009.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK2985-EKpk]
My little movie aint much, as it’s just me futzing around with my Canon G9 and iMovie to try to learn some basic storytelling skills using motion. I knew it would be hard but damn!
Quality aside, the movie still gives a peak into typical family life of middle-class porteños. The despedida event is common because–besides liking any excuse to come together and celebrate–families in this immigrant-oriented culture move around a lot internationally to find opportunities and simply out of a love of extended travel. The casual, long, festive nature of dinner is just typical porteño, despedida or not. Read the rest of this entry »
Son of a Bitch! "Hijo de Puta" Unmasked!
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños on January 10, 2009
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!
Old Roomies Collide, FaceBook Not Involved
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños on January 10, 2009
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!
Can You Cross Nueve de Julio in One Light?
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños on December 18, 2008
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.”
[blip.tv ?posts_id=1648327&dest=-1]
Quote of the Day
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Life Among Porteños on April 2, 2008
“Have fun at our 20th! If anyone asks, in twenty years I have accomplished nothing except to move to a country where accomplishing things means almost nothing.”
-Ethan G. Salwen, email to high school classmate
