Episode 25: Passover

So there goes a story about man who died and went to heaven, where he met G-d. 'We are going to take a walk down the story of your life' said G-d, and thus they started down the path. First, they saw the happiest moments of his life - his graduation, his first job, his marriage, his kids, his trophies and awards. The man was glowing with pride, and he noticed on the path there were two sets of footprints. Next, they continued onto the worst, lowest moments of his life. His divorce, his first redundancy, loss of loved ones. In this version of events, he noticed only one set of footprints on the floor.

The man was angry. 'So you never helped me, you didn't accompany me, you left me alone in my hard times! ' He exclaimed. 'No'. Said G-d. 'It is through those times I was carrying you'.


The good thing about stories such as those is that you can adapt them for different types of conclusions. This one i told to one of the families who invited my cousin and I for Passover Seder here in BA, in that just like G-d was with the Israelites in their escape from slavery in Eygpt thousands of years ago, he is still here today and we shouldn't forget that ( and that this type of conclusion could and should, then, be applied similarly to other religions for the same conclusion).


The main thing my cousin and I picked up from being here over nights such as those is the joy and fun people have. Seder (perhaps even the one in Obama's White House) can be a laboured event back in the UK, slow and at times not so easy to follow. Here, however, despite the fact that not so many people are especially religious jews, it was a bubbly chain of events with lots little kids creating trouble, lots of chatting and story telling. Even more special, then, that whilst these families knew me, they most certainly didnt know my cousin - yet still welcomed her with open arms and made an extra effort to speak to her even though most people don't speak english and she doesnt speak spanish! For all my negative/incredulous-at-times thoughts about the government - it seems that no matter how much more prosperous things could be, the people here will always be the most kind I have ever happened to chance upon.

Interlude 20: What were you thinking??

For any regular followers of this blog/anyone who even knows where Argentina is on a map, you probably already know this: Regardless of which religion you belong to here, how religious you are, how much money you have or your political beliefs, Lionel Messi is the next best thing to the Big Man upstairs himself.

So answer me this. If you were (almost) undoubtedly the greatest football player the world has ever seen at the young age of only 25 (yeah, I know, right) - what would you not do? Well, i think its reasonably obvious that you should NOT do whatever Messi has gone and done:



I'm not a big fan of tatoos, but thats neither here nor there. If you were ever going to get one as a footballer, get it on your back, your chest, your arm - even your face - just don't get it on your LEG. As you can see, and as radio commentators here have been constantly worrying about since yesterday, his left leg (he's left footed) is very inflamed, probably hurts like hell, and I heard a medical professional saying it could well get infected. If it is, anything could happen. So far, I haven't seen any articles from the english press about the worry. If I were a defender, I know exactly what i'd be doing to Messi all game - a couple of taps to the calf in the first few minutes should have him wincing, especially as now everyone knows exactly where/how bad it is.

The reason he got it, apparently, is because he loves his son so much (it's a tattoo of his sons handprints) that he wants to equate him to what is, essentially, his whole life (his left leg). But i think he missed a crucial point. You are not Phillipe Senderos. You are not Huerelho Gomes. You are not even Gareth Bale (although obviously you wish you were...). You are Leo Messi.

The greatest, the most feared, the best. But also a massive, massive plonker.

Interlude 19: City View

With my brain turned to jelly after being tortured by spurs last night, don't expect any words - just a view (with the government HQ building ' the Pink House' in the middle) from the top of one of the tallest buildings in the city, the YPF tower. It is a city, remember! 

                                                                    Have a good weekend!

Episode 24: The pope - the lowdown from inside Argentina

"Parece que mis hermanos cardenales fueron a buscarlo casi al fin del mundo"

"It looks like my Cardinal brothers nearly went to the end of the world to look [for a new pope]". A casual joke by the new Argentine pope as to the distant location of his homeland, it seems. Jose Mario Bergoglio, or as the world now knows him, el Papa Francisco I, was apparently the surprise choice to lead the Catholic world - even though he reportedly came second to the previous pope during the last conclave in 2005. 

"En mi nombre, en el del Gobierno argentino y en representación del pueblo de nuestro país, quiero saludarlo y expresarle mis felicitaciones con ocasión de haber resultado elegido como nuevo Romano Pontífice de la Iglesia Universal" Cristina Kirchner, Presidenta de Argentina.

“In my name,  in that of the Argentinian government and as representative of our country, I want to greet him and express my congratulations on the occasion of having been chosen as the new Pope” unequivocal words, then – especially from someone she has had disagreements with in the past (especially over gay marriage, of which he is firmly against but Argentina legalized a few years ago), and whose husband Nestor Kirchner (when he was president ) said that Francisco was the ‘true voice of opposition’. So, what is the local view on one of the new world leaders?

Scanning this morning’s papers (see Clarin, Lanacion, Puntobiz etc), it is hoped that he will clean up the Vatican and heal the so-called divides created by his incumbent, Joseph Ratzinger – an odd sight perhaps to see someone of 76 years of age associated with change and reform. So obviously, my colleagues at work immediately went to task outlining the religious and socioeconomic responsibilities Francisco now has both worldwide and inside Argentina, right?

Wrong. “For sure we’ll win the World Cup now – we have the Pope and G-d himself (Messi)” being my pick of the favorites. And when I said they had no defence or keeper – “we don’t need them – having the Pope is like parking the magical bus” to which I gave up trying.

Left: What the World saw. Right: What Argentinians saw

Devil to G-d "Here is says they chose your representative on earth and  he's argentinian"

Another excellent piece of information to come out in the press is that Bergoglio is a fanatical San Lorenzo fan – a small (sorry to my San Lorenzo fan friends!) team from a western part of BA, famous for, err, Fabrizio Collocini and having their stadium turned into a supermarket. To me, its like finding out the chief Rabbi is a closet Barnet fan! I bet he’d give a mean teamtalk though, maybe replace the half time lucozade with some holy water (and expect a swift return to glory for San Lorenzo in any case). In all seriousness though, it really does embody what it means to be Argentinian – everyone, from all walks of life, is obsessed with football!

Moving on, commentators are predicting an internal struggle locally - “Cristina is the official leader, President and head of State. Bergoglio is the head of the other state, the Vatican, the spiritual leader of 1.2billion people (40% of whom live in South America). They are not on the same page” says chief commentator of La Nacion, a mainstream newspaper (of which I counted 12 articles about the Pope on their website front page). Francisco himself hasn’t given his first press conference yet, so no one is quite sure what route he is going to go down. This, indeed, shows in the newspapers – he is described as anything from a conservative against gay marriage to an enthusiastic , breath of fresh air reformist. One thing, though, is for sure – all Argentinians, regardless of religion, race or football team, are proud that one of their own has made it onto the world stage.

Episode 23: 6 best ways to learn a language

                  
Having now been here for almost 6 months and coming to the end of my stay, I'm going to outline the 6 best ways to manage learning a foreign language whilst living in a foreign country (in my opinion, of course) and to do it without going mental and whilst at the same time having something to take back with you:

p.s. delete/insert other languages as appropriate

1) Try not to find English speakers. What i mean by that is do not deliberately be on the look out for that sort of home comfort. What I do not mean is ignore brits/americans when you chance across them. You need to find a balance but more importantly you need to...

2) Surround yourself with spanish speaking friends. It might seem trivial, and sometimes you might not even say anything - but ALL the time your brain is getting used to spanish sounds and words, ebbs and flows to the sentences and most importantly random pieces of vocab. Girlfriend/boyfriend? Even better. I am of the opinion (just like most things), that you could study and study for many years and be able to write the perfect essay or letter, but without interaction and practice you will struggle. At the end of the day, you don't want to end up like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd0tTl0nxU0

3) Do something during the day. It could be work, it could be study, it could even be volunteering. As long as you have a routine you have one less thing to worry about, your mind can relax and focus on what you are here to do - learn a foreign language, surely one of the top things on any given person's 'life list'

4) Put yourself out there. What you should not do is when you get home spend all evening on skype to friends and family back home (although obviously don't neglect that either). If its home comforts you're looking for, try and translate whatever you did back home to where you are now, whether thats sports, art, music, dance - whatever it is, they have it here too! That's the best way to get to grips with a new culture - do things your way, then do things their way, notice the difference and get used to it. All the while you'll be meeting new people and the language will be slowly but surely making its way into everything you do.

5) If you're working, get a teacher. In the last month or so I recruited a teacher to come and help me out with ironing out some grammar points during my lunch break. The thing is, unless you're going to spend more than, say, 18 months wherever you are (and having started with good knowledge), you're never going to be perfect. The sooner you realise that, the sooner you can try and be as best as you can. Personally, my teacher is excellent and has helped a lot - and I'll now go back to the UK in a better position than I would have been.

6) Do not despair! It's last but by no means least. At the beginning, things are tough. I'd studied spanish for about 4 or 5 years before coming, and naively thought it would be easy - its not. You have to plug away, keep your head up, and believe that even if it doesn't look like things are getting any easier that they will in the end. Languages are a natural human resource and your brain knows what its doing even if you do not realise, so let it take it's course and remember that everyone has been where you have before.

Episode 22: One month...left!

Jibberish. Or that's what it felt like everyone was speaking for the first few days until I started to get used to their unique dialect of spanish (here, castellano).

Immerse. It's easy to pick and choose the people you speak to as those who are fluent in the same language, but you really need to do what you came to do and learn! Oh, and you will probably make more mistakes than an Argentinian taking a driving test, but that's the best way to learn.

Nostalgia time. Coming up to 6 months ago I arrived in BA having studied spanish for years, but much like JD after med school it was impossible at first.

Now? Well, you'll never catch me saying I'm 100% fluent because I'm not - but its gotten a lot better. And with that, life has got more relaxed, more settled and more enjoyable. The taxi drivers no longer ask me where I'm from. Shop keepers no longer think to charge the tourist price. "se convertió en argentino" a friend said about me last week, when i told him "che basta, me chupa un huuuevo" about some rubbish he he was saying - i.e. shut up, I don't give a ****. And finally, instead of people asking me when I got here/when am I leaving, they ask are you moving here permanently.

Its easier just to say no, citing the socioeconomics. Why? The only thing i can say is that its home from home, but its not home.



Next up: 5 best ways to learn a language.