Why on earth did I move to Argentina?

Dioses, ritos y oficios del Mexico prehispanico, in PROA.

katti — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:13:14 +0000

I know I am much to late with this post, as today was the last day of this exhibition in Fundacion PROA in la Bocca. I hope that many of my readers have checked it out as it was definitely worth it. It was another really nice exhibition as a proof that there is always something interesting to do and to see here in this great city….

I especially like this museum as it has a nice terrace on the roof where they serve good food and nice wine. Especially on a cool day like today it is a perfect place to have lunch.

Keep an eye on their web, or follow me through my blog or on twitter, because there are good exhibitions to come!

Musica en Espera

katti — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:12:50 +0000

If I liked Viudas, I was told to watch Musica en Espera, supposedly Natalia Oreiro’s best movie.

It’s another Argentine movie, this time directed by Hernan Goldfrid, with next to Natalia Oreiro (Paula Otero), Diego Peretti (Ezequiel Font) and Norma Aleandro (la madre de Paula) as main characters.

It is the funny story of Paula, who is pregnant and about to be a single mom, where as her parents (living in Spain) think she has a boyfriend, Santiago. When mom pays her daughter an unexpected visit, and she wants to meet the boyfriend, Paula tells her that Ezequiel, a man who accidentally enters in her office, is in fact her boyfriend Santiago.

Ezequiel is a mucisian currently having a blackout and a deadline. He heard a nice tune on waiting music in the bank where Paula works. He needs to hear the tune again and Paula is willing to help him, if only he pretends he is her boyfriend Santiago, just for a couple of days…

This turns out to be a hilarious couple of days. It’s a fun movie, rent it!

Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat

katti — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:21:12 +0000

Yesterday, the 18th of February, mrs Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat has passed away at the age of 90. Not only was she considered to be the richest woman in Argentina, she has always loved her country and has always been generous through her trust fund, founded in 1976. This fund had the goal to support all kinds of research and initiatives : scientific, educational, cultural and other.
she was also an important art collector. She will always be remembered through her museum, named after her, in Puerto Madero, where you can see her collection.

Check out my old article on her and her museum.

Orange Traffic Lights

katti — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:13:16 +0000

On my daily morning walk, my head in the clouds, I was crossing the street. As in many places in Capital nowadays, the pedestrian traffic lights didn’t work. I looked up : red light for the cars, so green to me. I started crossing the street and when I was at 3/4th, just in front of the 2nd car, the light switched to orange. Orange, in Argentina, means “GO! Whatever obstacle is in front of you!” so the cars started driving. I looked at the driver in terror. Hasn’t she -yes it was a she- seen me? Obviously she had. We were looking eye to eye. She was driving, I was walking. I had only 3 steps to go until safety. She seemed to be in a hurry. Me, I just wanted to be safe. She seemed to be expecting that I would just vanish into the air. In the end, just in time, she pushed the break. Back on the sidewalk my heart was pumping. Jack Sparrow would say that this day will go into history as the day I ‘almost’ got run over by a car. How amazingly fast one gets used to a country’s traffic. In just a few weeks I had gotten used to being able to cross the street in relative safeness, even if the lights turn red on your way, but now, in less then 3 seconds, I am used to Buenos Aires traffic again. Never lose sight of the cars.
Yes. I’m back. Nevertheless, it feels good to be back.

A Big Apple

katti — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:29:51 +0000

Although the majority of the Argentines love to spend the month of January and/or February on the Argentine, Uruguayan or Brazilian beaches, that is not really my cup of tea. I don’t like crowded beaches. And I don’t like to sunbathe. This year I got to pick out our holiday destination, and I decided to drag the boys to the Big Apple, trying to convince them that it really is a magnificent city.

New York is very similar to Buenos Aires, more than it resembles any place in Belgium. It is also a metropolitan city. It is also big and crowded. It has lots of museums and exhibitions, lots of shows and theatres, lots of restaurants and shops. The biggest difference is probably that New York is a top of the notch first world city. It is the place to be for artists and designers. If you’ve made it in New York, you’ve made it. It is a city where it is impossible to sit still. To me it is London plus Paris (both cities I love) raised to a square. I could come here again and again and not get tired of it.

My daughter agrees : as soon as we land here, we feel at home. But the boys don’t. Actually my son has never been here. He said he doesn’t need to. He has seen it on TV so often that he feels like he knows it. But then he hadn’t counted on the cars. He is born a terrible car freak -terrible in the sense of it dominating all his interests- and here he sees all the cars he loves. The American Escalade and the Dodge RAM ; all the latest models of the European (luxury) cars which, living in Buenos Aires, he only knew from magazines, all with the extra heavy powerful engines especially made for the US market ; and the ‘really’ luxury cars like Bentleys, Aston Martins, SLR’s etc. They are all not only present, but they are abundant. Not being able to turn your head when you see a fancy car, and follow it until it disappears behind the horizon (well, more like until it disappears in traffic) is probably one of the reasons why Buenos Aires will never really be ‘his’ town. It actually took him about 24 hours to finally look up and realise where he was. New York City, where many buildings have the size of a whole block, and are immensely high. Adding the beautiful girls to this and he decided he could actually live here…

My husband is harder to convince. Although he (as European) is very Europe-minded he has to agree that this is a city that can’t be ignored. It is a city that intrigues. A place where the cost of living is extremely high -rent, expenses, taxes- but still the restaurants, clothing and technology are so much cheaper then in Europe. A city that is not only beautiful, but where there is lots of art, fashion, and not to forget the huge offer of different restaurants with a seemingly unlimited variety of dishes and tastes.

My husband is worried about his wallet. And he probably should?

White

katti — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:05:58 +0000

It is official, the Belgian record is broken : the biggest traffic chaos caused by 4cm of snow that fell during 2 hours…

Let it snow, let it snow…

katti — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:14:24 +0000

When you live in the first world, you take everything for granted. When you live in the third world you are convinced that everything in the first world always goes smoothly. How common it is that a taxi driver, fussing about something, tells you : ‘I am sure this does not happen in your country’, and is surprised when I answer ‘sure it does’. I suppose my expectations are too high, as Argentinised as I am, I am always surprised when something in the first world gets out of control. And it happens every time again. Not everything goes smoothly here.

Just like now. For 4 days they have been predicting snow on Friday 12am. Everyone was prepared and for a change (after the disaster of last year) there is enough salt available. Everyone could have been ready to prevent a possible chaos, but when snow came, with a 2h delay, the whole Flemish (west) part of Belgium was and still is paralysed. There is a 1300 km traffic jam (highways only). Nobody in the whole country suspected we had that many highways. There is a traffic jam of 4500 km secondary roads included (waw!). The average speed on the highway is 5 to 8km an hour, that is, if you you are lucky to be moving.

And above that, the traffic information system crashed, the biggest cell phone operator is down (only texting works) and God knows what else… Fortunately the radio stations make the best of it. Some are really funny and succeed to make the people laugh in their misery. They play christmas songs saying it finally feels like christmas, let people request the most impossible songs as long as they are fun. They make you (at least : me), laugh.

I have to go out in a while. Maybe I should cancel it, but I won’t. I will see how far my car takes me. It is my last night and I want to see my friends. 2 already canceled, it looks like they are stuck in traffic…

(photos will follow, because apart from causing chaos, snow is sooooo beautiful!!)

erratum : or how the sun can be a life changer!

katti — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:40:43 +0000

Although it’s -5C today, it feels like -16C. But the sun is out! This is my favourite winter weather, very similar to BA winter, although there we should probably have to add a couple of degrees. I had decided not to complain about the weather anymore, but it turns out there is no reason to complain : the weather gods have given in to my request, again.

In the sun my hometown, the medeavial city of Gent, is the most beautiful in the world. Much nicer then the similar -but open air museum- Brugge. It is a very small town, especially if you are used to a city like BA, but very cosy, very well maintained, and especially famous for the way it is lighted at night.

In the 13th century it was the biggest city of Europe, after Paris, and it has been important for textile production until the 20th century. Today it is an important university city which attracts a lot of international students through the Erasmus project, and it has become very popular for tourists. But although very touristy, it is still a very authentic place and not yest spoiled by tourism.

If you go to Europe, stop by in Gent. At least, if you can stand a little bit of greyish weather…

Grey, Dark and Gloomy

katti — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:14:30 +0000

It was my son who drew my attention to it. Was that the landing gear that came out? About to land but still above a thick pack of clouds? Ouch! That did not look good!

In the car I kept my eyes closed as much as possible : after a long night, a long day was awaiting me, and of course I was trying not to notice the darkness in the middle of the day. But driving into the neighbourhood that used to be ours, in the forrest, the dark- and gloominess got me right back into reality.

The monotonous grey sky, the dark brown trees-without-leaves, the mud. Even the bushes and the grass looked dark green brownish. I felt like I got struck by a hammer.

The streets were full of pedestrians, going out for a nice sunday afternoon walk. We were stunned. These people must be desperate to go out for a walk in this weather, but the mud pools on both sides of the road proved that this is probably the first day without rain. And again I wondered how people can actually live in this disagreeable climate.

We immediately started our family visits. I dressed like an eskimo, we put the carheating on maximum and we left. Although it was really nice and warm inside the living rooms, I didn’t bother taking my coat off. I was frozen to the bones. It looked like my family had made a bet, how long until Katti complanes about the weather? They asked me what the weather in BA was like when we left, and I said that it was actually very nice and cool. When the figures 28-29-30 (degrees) start dancing in my head I decided not to tell them. They would not understand, that is not their idea of ‘cool’.

They just nod. And then I knew that if I would ask these Belgians to make a choice between -let’s make it easy- Belgium with Argentine climate or Belgium with Belgian climate, I just knew they would chose the latter. Again it is confirmed that it is just me who has a weird twist in her brain. In case I had forgotten : this is one of the reasons why I moved, and I am so happy I am only here temporary. Meanwhile I will just have to deal with the dark- and gloominess. But not for long. Thank God for this!

An Argentine Movie Night

katti — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:07:53 +0000

Mi primer boda (my first wedding)

A movie by Ariel Winograd with Daniel Hendler (Adrian) and Natalia Oreiro (Leonora).
The wedding takes place in the beautiful estancia Villa Maria. The groom, obviously not the cleverest person in the world, looses the wedding rings, and instead of telling his beautiful wife to be, he tries to postpone the ceremony so he would have time to look for it. This is the beginning of a fun and chaotic afternoon.
The story is quite simple, and I don’t know how many times I told Adrian he should tell his fiancé, but I suppose there wouldn’t have been a movie if he had. In case the story doesn’t entertain you, the setting is lovely

Viudas (widows)

After the wedding comes the funeral. Viudas is a movie by Marcos Carnevale. On her husbands deathbed, Elena (Graciela Borges) finds out that her husband was having an affair with the very young Adela (Valeria Bertuccelli). He asked her to look after his mistress. This is how the unusual situation starts, the widow who is allowed to grieve gets constantly interrupted by the mistress, the mistress who is not allowed to grieve searches for support from the wife. And then there is Justina, the maid, played by Martín Bossi, faithful to the deceased, who tries to get the 2 together and become friends, as it is obvious that not only did the husband love both women, both women are devastated and lost without the man…

I especially loved the this last movie.