Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Random thoughts during NaBloPoMo

Apparently November is blogging month, which is called NaBloPoMo. Despite the ridiculous name, I'm going to try to post a blog a day (although I missed November 1) for the rest of the month. Here's a random compilation of items, just because none of them made a blog unto themselves. Not in my long-winded world, at least.

Eating ñoquis

First and foremost I'd like to share with everyone my favorite monthly tradition here in Argentina, which is the practice of eating handmade gnocchi pasta on the 29th of every month. Why do they do it? No one knows! What I do know is that on October 29th my friend Renée and I both indulged in this practice and were very happy about it. I'm already looking forward to November 29.


Wine is better when it's luxury
Sol works with a lot of people in the wine community and took me with her to a Luxury Wine Fair at a five-star hotel the other night. We got dressed up, got in for free (others paid 150 pesos, yikes!), and were exposed to virtually every winery in Argentina pouring liberal samples of whatever you wanted. There must have been 1,000 wines to choose from. Of course, this was a lot more fun for me since it was all new, whereas Sol knew just about everyone. Side note: the wine industry here is almost entirely composed of men, and almost all of them are good looking. Already looking forward to the next event...

I'm worthless when it comes to local technology

Argentina (all of South America, I think) is run entirely on gas appliances that require a direct use of fire to get them going. Although I can start the stovetop burners myself, I am incapable of starting the oven or turning on our calefont (water heater) if it goes out. So, I don't use the oven and the calefont luckily has not gone out when Sol wasn't here to take care of it for me. However, I couldn't do either of these things when I lived alone last year either, and I actually went 3 days without hot water until I finally asked a neighbor to restart it for me (it was hot so I was taking cold showers, but still). I'd like to think it's a testament to my capacity to do without certain things, but really it's just sort of pathetic.

Baby wipes are amazing

I bought a pack of 80 baby wipes for about U.S. $2 and it was an incredible investment. I wipe down my feet every night before getting into bed (in such a big, dirty city I can't keep them clean even with socks on), I made my grey keyboard white again, and it's an easy way to clean a sink or a toilet. They are also great portable showers when on a trip such as our Inca Trail excursion last year, in which Robyn and Matt wisely packed a ton in and for which I was very, very grateful.

Uruguay

Sol and I are going to Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay this weekend. She has some work to do there and I have nothing better to do than tag along for a fun trip. Will be sure to blog from abroad! (I can call that going abroad from Argentina, right? Blog from abroad, abroad?)

Go Phillies!

You've done 1/3 of what you need to do to win it. Tonight try to make it 2/3.

Either Blogger or my Dell Studio 1555 hates me

Should formatting, copying and pasting, and other basic functions really be so hard? Or am I really that inept?

See you again tomorrow!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The whole `gnocchis on the 29th` issue/question has been touched on in the Southron forum on Uruguay.

I may not have it 100% correct, but historically some government workers have had such idle jobs in the countryside, they would literally do nothing all month, then come into the `big city` of Montevideo to collect their monthly paycheck. When they would do so, they would be fed a meal of gnocchis.

Like I mention, I probably don`t have it 100% correct, but this is the gist of it.

Anonymous said...

Forgot to add to my comment that now when people refer to idle government employees, they often call them `gnocchis` (at least in Uruguay).