Last week in Buenos Aires

I'm down to my last six days here in Buenos Aires. Usually, as I get closer and closer to leaving, I just get increasingly more sad. This time around I have pretty mixed feelings, but only because of other decisions I've made. Up until a few days ago, I was just experiencing the usual sensation of dreading the return to New Mexico. However, since I've decided to move back to Maine rather than stay in Albuquerque, I'm feeling a lot better about leaving Buenos Aires (thought still very sad).

Yesterday was overall a very good day for me. It started off a little rocky, because I have been eating like crap, and being extremely lazy with my exercise routine (comparatively lazy, at least) and was pretty disappointed with myself. As easy as it is to say, "Well, look, you're on vacation, you're taking advantage of the time you have to do other things, and eat the kind of stuff you can't get in the states", I am all too aware of how easy it is to get f-a-t FAT again, so I decided to move my ass over to the park for a run. It was meant to be an "easing back into things" 5-miler (the round trip walk to the park, at about 5.5 miles, was going to be an added bonus). As it turns out, I ended up running my fastest ever five miles. I'm not sure how that happened, but I'll take it. It's a good sign of things to come, I hope.

After the run, I went over to Recoleta Cemetery to take some photos. I was mostly interested in the statues, and anything else that might catch my eye. One picture, in particular, came out pretty nice, I think. I wasn't sure whether or not it would, but have a look for yourself:



The sun was right behind the statue's head, and I couldn't tell if it was going to look very good when I took the photo, but I think it's interesting.

Tomorrow I'm going to do another photo-project. I don't know if you all know, but Buenos Aires not only has the widest street in the world (9 de Julio) but also the longest (Rivadavia). A couple years ago I walked the length of Rivadavia from where it starts (near the Plaza de Mayo) to the outermost edge of the capital (the street continues well into the province). It was stunning to see how much the city changed as I walked along, so tomorrow I'm planning on taking a photo of each block as I walk the 10 miles or so that the avenue runs here in the capital. Then, I'll try to figure out a way to display them that gives you that sense of spatial continuity (and, thereby, showing the change). Hopefully it turns out to be as interesting as I think it will. My German buddy, Benedict, is thankfully crazy enough to accompany me.

So, yes, I decided that, since I'm going to be waiting anywhere from 6 months to a year to start my new job, I might as well be unemployed and looking for work in lovely, idyllic Aroostook County, Maine in my own house, rather than unemployed in filthy, dirty Albuquerque renting an apartment and spending what little savings I have. The only upside to being in Albuquerque, I think, is a stronger job-market, but there are a few things I can do in Maine, and I really like the idea of settling into my own place for a year (I say my own place, but it really belongs to my mother, my brother, and me). I'm looking forward to growing some vegetables, fishing, continuing to work on the house with my brother, and just generally being "home" and near family. Just taking it easy, doing what I can for work to get by for a while, and then engaging with the big wide world again. Anyway, here's a picture of the house:



I can't wait for spring!

Anyway, gonna go now, more later. Thanks for reading.

Little Boy from Fuerte Apache

Look, unless I can come up with some kind of gimmick, I have to accept at least one of the following realities:

1. I'm not interesting enough to regularly write a blog, or
2. I'm not self-indulgent enough to regularly write a blog.

Either way, as you can see, I'm having no more luck this time around at maintaining a blog than I did the first couple tries. Ah, well.

Anyway, last night I went to Villa Devoto to go to the movies with a friend. I screwed up and got off the bus at the wrong corner (though, luckily, only a couple blocks away from where I was supposed to get off). As I was waiting there, I saw what appeared to be two boys playing on the other side of the street. They appeared to be wrestling around. I watched with more than a little curiosity, having enjoyed a childhood wrestling match or two myself.

Since I'm now a "trained" intelligence analyst, I'm pretty conscious of a lot of the mental processes that most people unconsciously go through when trying to evaluate something, whether it be a difficult problem, a news story, or simply a puzzling situation they are witnessing first hand. Watching these two boys go at it was no exception. Let me give you a blow-by-blow of my analysis:

Hey, look at those two little kids wrestling. I remember when I used to do that!

But, it's kind of dangerous for them to be wrestling there right on the corner with the traffic passing by so closely. What if one of them falls in the street?

Wait a minute...there's a grassy park right there, why aren't they just playing in the park?

Shit, they might actually be fighting. They're both really little, maybe 8 or 10
years old. They can't hurt each other that badly, but maybe I should cross the
street and break them up anyway.

But wait, there are people over there, responsible adults, just walking by without saying or doing anything. I really haven't been in this neighborhood before, maybe this is just how kids play here.

Besides, there´s no yelling or anything going on. They're obviously just having
fun.

Oh wait, this one is pulling that one's shirt off...and now he's turning his pocket inside out...and now he's taking his money. And now he's kicking him and crossing the street. Damn it, I should have gone and broken it up.

The miniature robber crossed the street, and started to walk by me. "Hey, kid, what are you doing?" I ask him, so he starts to run. I started to run after him but then thought, "What am I going to do? Beat up a 10 year old and re-steal the money?" so I just let him take off. I instead turned my attention to the little boy across the street, trying to get himself dressed on the corner.

When I reached him, I saw that he was quite a bit smaller than his adversary, which I hadn't noticed when they were just a tangled ball of little kids a few moments before. He was crying, swearing at himself. I asked him what happened, and he told me the bigger boy had just grabbed him and told him to hand over everything he had, and he'd tried to tell him that he didn't have anything, and that's what prompted the beating. I asked him if he lived nearby, and he told me he lived in Fuerte Apache, which is, depending on who you ask, the most dangerous neighborhood in all of the Buenos Aires urban area. I asked him how much money he lost, and he told me $19 pesos (a little less than 5 bucks). He had probably already sized up the situation and was lying through his teeth to me, and I was conscious of this but didn't care. I took $19 out of my wallet and handed it to him, and told him to be safe on his way home (I sure as hell wasn't going to walk him to Fuerte Apache, even if I hadn't had arrangements to meet a friend).

It's hard telling what he'd had to do to get that money. Although there are some pretty young little criminals, he obviously didn't have a weapon and was far too small to present a credible threat to someone, unarmed as he was. He probably had just begged it, or sold gum, or something. The typical stuff that little poor kids have to do here that will almost certainly prevent them from getting a proper education to ensure that their own kids won't be the victims of a Liliputian street-corner assault and robbery 15 or 20 years from now. $19 pesos is a pittance, but for a little boy, especially from Fuerte Apache, it was probably quite a bit, and I got the feeling that he was expected to go home with something to show for the day he'd spent out and about.

He didn't thank me for the money, but he seemed a little relieved and had stopped crying. As he was walking away he stopped, turned back to me and said, "You sure made that asshole run!" He smiled, then turned back around and headed home to Fuerte Apache.

2011 Report: One Day In

Well, based on the sketchiest of preliminary data culled from a very small sample size, 2011 is shaping up to be better for me than 2010, if only by default. Despite not really doing much of anything other than reading and talking with some friends, I had a pretty good day. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the future. Although I'm not sure it's so bright that I've gotta wear shades, I have a good overall feeling about this year.

For one thing, I'm actively trying to make small adjustments to my way of thinking about life. Near the end of 2010 it became obvious to me that my life was not going to be the way I once thought it was. Because I was excited about what I thought it was going to be, this realization was pretty much a bummer. I spent more than enough time ruminating on this particular bummer, trying to figure out what mistakes I'd made and take responsibility for them, and resolving not to make them again. I'm extremely analytical by nature, as well as honest with myself, so I think that rumination process was pretty successful for me. It also allowed me to see the things I'd done right which, in the final analysis, were not inconsiderable. So, now that I'm (more or less) done with that, it's time to stop dwelling on what could have been or what I wanted my life to be, and start re-creating my vision for the future...at least my own personal future. That's kind of liberating.

Usually as I write these posts, I'll go back and edit them, not so much for content as for the flow of the words, little typos, whatever. I'm not going to re-read the previous paragraph, because I think I'd vomit from the ham-handed cliche of it all, but I really believe it to be true, so there it stays.

I'm really excited to be headed back to Buenos Aires for a couple months, despite it being the "scene of the crime", if you will. I have a couple interesting projects I'm planning on working on, and some great friends - both old and new - that I'm looking forward to seeing and spending time with. I'm also excited about getting back here:


That's Lago de Regatas in Palermo, which is essentially the center of both my geographical and spiritual universe, crazy as that might sound. It's there that I started running in late 2009, and that changed my life in so many ways. I've made that 1.25-mile loop around the lake I don't know how many times and no matter what kind of mood I'm in when I start running, by the time I finish, I always feel like my mental batteries are completely re-charged. Nowadays, a good run anywhere will accomplish that for me, but this little lake...well, it will always be special for me.

Speaking of running, I think I've run out of things to say. I might post a book review later. Something to keep this blog busy, at least.

Thanks for reading.