Monday, January 26, 2009

year of the ox

We had to watch the inauguration from a Brazilian bar up the street, as the expat dive we had intended to go to was packed to street overflow, due to the Buffalo wings special and huge local TV crew that filled the bar to get the 'American reaction'. This was my favorite part:

And not just for the pleasure of seeing the back-end of a jackass and his last tax-payer-paid helicopter ride, but because of the over 35 degree (that’s like 100 degrees F) spread between our respective temperatures. It was almost worth missing America’s greatest moment in person for the pleasure of watching it in shorts.

On Thursday, Michael and I went down to La Boca to take pictures of brightly-colored shacks:

The next couple nights are a bit of a blur – I’ve been out dancing until 6AM, pretending not to have cancer. What’s funny is that people don’t seem to notice. They can’t even tell! Amazing.

Saturday was to be my night in (the weekends are for amateurs), but my neighbor invited me to a barbecue at his place to meet his girlfriend’s fantastic parents and brother:

I was grilled by the father about all things Czech for much of the evening, until we moved on to the topics of Basque nationalism, the Spanish monarchy, winemaking and New York in the early ‘70s (last time he was there). We laughed and bantered until 4AM. Coty (the lovely girlfriend – Constanza) said that they never stay up past 2, even on Christmas, so the evening was declared an unparalled success!

Yesterday we went from the overcrowded frying pan that is the San Telmo street fair straight into the fire of the ‘Ballio Chino’ for New Year’s:

All the restaurants, as well as the streets and sidewalks, were jam-packed, so we had pizza at a nonstop, but I did manage to find my ‘membranous milk vetch’ in a supermarket, so that’s a relief:

The year of the ox should have interesting implications in the Czech Republic, so please keep me posted. Ann comes to visit on Sunday. Can't wait.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Georgous, I´ve just started to be proud being Czech LOL... I ´d love to be there and can´t wait to grill you about all things Argentinien. Miss you a lot... Take care + my love to Anne

chihuahua lady said...

can you pick me up some vetch?

Anonymous said...

You take good care of my wife Mike.
I know the two of you will have a fine time.

James

Anonymous said...

I love the vetch too - rhymes with kvetsch,. Bring on the vetch!!
Love, Tim H.

Anonymous said...

Hey Buddy,
Looks like a great time with the neighbor's girlfriend's family. Hope you're having a wonderful time. You're not missing much here in Poughkeepsie. Just lots of chunks of dirty snow, residual salt, seedy looks from the one-eyed Blockbuster "video consultant,"and guff from the pizza girl. So you at the turn hopefully.
Tom

Anonymous said...

Mike-

Looks like you're having a splendid time in the Land of Brightly Colored Shacks. Tom is correct: very cold and salty hereabouts. Just writing to offer a taxi to Brooklyn (if you need one) on 9.2; after an appt. at 1300I have the rest of the day free. Let me know-

Sherm

Anonymous said...

Hola Miku and Anna! ;-) Great to see you two yesterday ... what a nice surprise. Stay well and warm (notice I didn't say scorching hot) and be sure to snap off lots of photos. Mike, ahem, still waiting on those steak platters we discussed. Landscape portraits, replete with side orders, drinks and prices in crowns.