Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Two Months in Buenos Aires

Today, December 1, marks my two-month anniversary of being in Argentina. It's a beautiful sunny day and my legs are covered in red, swollen mosquito bites - summer must be close!

Music in the Air

What better way to celebrate my two-month marker than by going to see one of my favorite musicians of all time in concert? That's right, Manu Chao (and his band Radio Bemba) is in town and he added tonight's concert especially for me at the last minute. (Actually it was added as a 20 year celebration of something, possibly the fall of the Berlin wall but it's fuzzy as things tend to be down here; it's being broadcast live over a local radio station, too!)

I'm going with 4 American girls and a Brasilian dude and I'm so excited. I've always wanted to see him live in concert and the stadium where he is playing is just one neighborhood over from mine. What are the odds?

End of a Cycle

Renée and I were talking about how life abroad passes in shifts which seem to be on a cycle of 8 weeks. So, cycle #1 is over, in which I had very little Apex work and I had Renée here to entertain me.

Cycle #2 will be until February 1, until which time I will be busting my butt to get my work project up and running and Renée will be in California with her family for the first time in almost 2 years. (Which means there is an opening for entertaining me until then, fyi.)

And Cycle #3 will include a month at the beach and then March... who knows what March might hold?? I'm looking forward to finding out, but all in good time. First I have to get through three months of torturously humid summer.

Malditos Mosquitos

It's interesting how I feel guilty about killing the most minor of insects, even if I do it accidentally, yet when I see a mosquito I turn into a deadly stalker and will not rest until he is thoroughly smashed. Never once have I sympathized with a mosquito. They embody all that is evil and MUST. BE. DESTROYED. When I'm awake I try to tackle the job on my own and have gotten very skilled at the mid-air-between-my-bare-hands kill, but when I'm asleep I use a plug-in Raid liquid (aka pesticide, probably) that keeps the buggers at bay.

If I were of a normal state of mind I would think, huh, maybe it's not healthy to sleep in a room that is spewing poision every night, all night long? But, my friends, this is no normal state of mind. It's mosquito warfare and they are winning.

**UPDATE: I checked and it uses a chemical called prallethrin. Couldn't find much except this abstract. I'm pretty sure mosquitos are more immediately damaging to my health (plus I'd like to avoid both malaria and dengue fever) than any potential alteration to my "plasma biochemical profile" (hey smart genetics friends, what does that even mean?), I'm going to keep using it. Plus the amount of liquid it expels is minuscule, she justified to herself convincingly.

En Fin

Christmas is just around the corner and I still don't know what I'm doing but I will likely take a trip somewhere. I'll be sure to post Manu Chao updates and I have some pictures to share soon. I also plan on learning how to finally edit my videos together as one of my mom's Christmas gifts, so there's that to look forward to (or not, I think I'm a pretty miserable cinematographer but we'll see).

I hope you are all well!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm one of your fans who checks in regularly to read what is new in your life. I am an old friend of your Dad and teach Spanish to 8th graders in Lynden, WA. That's why I love reading about South America and its culture. You're a good writer and your posts are very interesting and entertaining. Thanks for sharing. Ken Hayward

Amy said...

month at the beach = accepting visitors, right? i could use some playa in my life right now....also, blatantly ignoring that update about the pesticide. i prefer to live in unbitten bliss rather than worry about the brain cells i might be poisoning, de acuerdo? plus my ceiling is already covered in smashed mosquito bodies and if i murder any more im going to have re-paint the walls.

KM said...

HI elizabeth..i haven´t been able to get in touch with renee and she didn´t email me your email address...mine is kmetzidakis at gmail.com ...let me know if you´re going to be showing peeps around the city today as i´d love to come along for an insiders perspective of BA...it was nice to meet you last night and i hope you got all of your key cell phone numbers etc issues figured out!!!

ElizaBeth said...

Hi Mr. Hayward! I'm so glad to know you're reading, and if I can ever help you with anything Spanish-class related let me know. If one of them wants a Spanish pen pal for instance...

Amy, You are of course coming to the beach.

Anonymous said...

I think you should get a mosquito net! (Although they are kind of really inconvenient, and I only like them because they make me feel like I am Alfred Russell Wallace, which doesn't even make sense because if he had used one he maybe never would have come up with natural selection...which I guess doesn't even matter, seeing as Darwin was the one that got famous.)

But, yes. Down with chemicals! Up with nets!

Mike said...

I hate mosquitoes with a white-hot fire, too. The intensity of my hate for mosquitoes is directly proportional to the magnitude of their attraction to me. The distinct lack of the vile bloodsuckers in Seattle is definitely one of the many reasons I love it here!

Jenn said...

Mike and I were watching The Simpson's 20th Anniversary last night ("in 3-D! On ice!"). There was a segment about the Porteno in Recoleta (somewhere thereabouts) who is brewing Duff Beer. He stole the name AND label design from The Simpson's and simply doesn't care about the legalities.
:-)
What a crack up!

Have you been there? (I know: you have not had the beer.)