Los Dougherty

My family came to Buenos Aires and has since left. Bridget, Justin, Mom and Dad were here for ten days (finishing up two successful weeks of visitors), and I can honestly say it was on of the smoothest trips we've ever had. It would have been the perfect family vacation had Brittnye and Theo been here. Then, however, we would have had eight people in the smallest apartment ever, which would have required the construction of some kind of bunk bed to fit everyone.

We accomplished everything Margaret and I thought they needed to do and see to get a good feel for the city: the Recoleta Cemetery, La Boca, a bunch of other neighborhoods, Plaza de Mayo, way too many good restaurants, San Telmo, a tango show, and we even went to Colonia, a city on the Rio De La Plata in Uruguay, for Thanksgiving. I had a really good time. I'm glad they came and am already looking forward to the next random family vacation. Where to next guys?

Here are a few pictures of the trip:

La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires.


A Parilla (Steakhouse) in San Telmo.


My mom chillin' with some fruit. Don't ask.


Our Thanksgiving Dinner Table.

Bridget and I sitting by the Rio De La Plata in Uruguay.

We met a dog in Uruguay outside a random restaurant in Colonia. All in all, she did the best job of summing up my general feeling about the trip, which, as you can see, was relaxing.

Can't we stay?

It is true, our lives have been very easy and simple here, with very little obligation. However, for many reasons, things have become a lot more busy here in the last few weeks (in a good way).

Brian's family visited, which was a blast, and which he will write about soon enough. Because we want to include pictures, you know, we needed a few days to sort through the thousands of fabulous ones that were taken...

And, because this always happens the closer you get to leaving, we've just become more involved. We've met people and spent time with them, and we're into various activities. I, for one, have decided that this is a good time to focus on things that I've always wanted to do, and so I've been taking silkscreening classes (!) and continuing capoeira. And I've begun to work with a great youth arts organization, Proyectarte. Brian's Spanish is amazing (really, he's modest, but it is), because he goes to class five days a week. And now, of course, it seems like the time is going by too quickly!

More to come soon, we promise.

Mom and Buenos Aires: A perfect balance.

My mom came to visit! And although it seems that she brought a little Chicago weather with here (where did those 80 degree days go?), we still had a blast. It was the perfect opportunity to do a lot of sightseeing and restaurant touring-- I think we pretty much hit all of the "must see" spots. For some reason several times we either forgot to bring the camera or discovered that it wasn't charged, so I'll do my best with the pictures we do have.

I have to say, I think it was a particularly successful five days because of our ability to balance everything perfectly. We stuffed ourselves silly with steak and discovered the best Malbec ever, but we also walked and ran through the parks and botanical gardens. We did the touristy but charming La Boca and saw an intimate little tango show, and also got off the beaten track by meeting up with some local friends-of-friends.

Mom and the lovely purple "jacaranDAH" trees.

We saw old Buenos Aires through the antique fair in San Telmo and the astounding Recoleta cemetery, and we saw "new" Latin America at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA).

Final resting place for anyone with power or influence in BA.
Also a fascinating architectural tour!

And of course, we balanced plenty of excellent coffee breaks (something my family has an uncanny ability for while traveling) with mom's first taste of yerba mate, Argentine-style. She didn't like it, but at least it was a new experience.

Mom: "I don't want to taste it-- it's ugly!"

Great balance-- we both wish you were still here mama!

De vuelta.

So after five years, I finally got to go back to Chile! The massive, gorgeous mountains are still there, surrounding Santiago on all sides, but the endless lines of sun-yellow, eternally speeding public buses are not! The view is still spectacular from on top of Cerro San Cristobal, and it includes views of new buildings and skyscrapers under construction. There is an underground highway and an underground museum at La Moneda, the presidential building. And although their lives have changed in lots of ways, the friends that I saw are still as charming and fun as ever.

Brian and I visited Santiago and Valparaiso-Vina del Mar last week, and I did my best to give him an idea of my time there. Along the way, we caught up with lots of people, sights, and transportation systems. We saw Ingrid, Carlos, Cristobal, and Cristian, my hilarious host family. They're doing well, were as welcoming as they always were, and the kids are three times as tall. They entertained the crap out of Brian, as they always did for me when I lived there...

Brian, Ingrid, Carlos, Margaret

We also hung out with my good friend Felipe, who took us out, showed us the sights and helped to bring back my Chilean Spanish.

La Marmota y Feliponcio

And we went to the coast, thankfully finding space in the coolest hostel ever after I sortofkindof forgot to make a reservation until the day we got there. We stayed up in the hills:

Hills (interior)

and took the ascensor (ancient rickety wooden elevator, capacity seven, that rumbles you to the top of a huge hill) to the top of a second hill where we had dinner overlooking the port.

Hills (exterior)

We went to the beach in Vina and got pooped on by a bird flying about 10,000 feet above us (imagine the velocity!).


We marveled at the beautiful, sunny weather. We took photos.

Back in Santiago, Felipe accompanied us on a sort of walking tour of the places where I spent the most time, and later we were driven at amazing speeds around the hills outside of Santiago by Brian's law school friend Rodrigo. We forgot to take a picture of him, sorry!

It was a whirlwind of course (revisiting a place you knew so well after five years has to be), but it was lovely. "Super," as the chilenos would say. And we came back just in time to get ready for my mom's visit! Yaaaay, mom!

A Little Place Called...Budweiser

At this very moment we are 5,598 miles from Chicago. Yet part of me feels like I never left. I came to South America to learn a new language and see a new thing or two. The new language is coming along nicely. Classes are good, and the instructor is wonderful. Seeing new things, however, has been a little harder than expected, at least here in Buenos Aires. Within walking distance from our apartment, probably within walking distance of all 13 million Porteños (remember a person from Buenos Aires), is a McDonalds or a McCafe (a chain of coffee shops owned by McDonalds). Right outside my apartment window is a giant Motorola Razor ad that says, in English mind you, "not a bitch, just the jeans."


It might be a jeans ad combined with a Motorola ad. But still, try to explain that one. Two blocks from us is a well-known place in Buenos Aires called Plaza Serrano, where a bunch of bars and restaurants surround the plaza. One of the most popular bars has a 20 foot-long, red neon sign on the facade that reads "Budweiser."


I don't know the name of the bar so I just call it "The Budweiser Bar" because of the sign and because everyone drinks forties of Budweiser. Fords almost hit me in the streets. Converse shoes are everywhere. The only product I see more of is pictures of Tiger Woods's face. Everyone smokes Marlboros. This is not to say that there aren't Argentine products here, or Chinese, or French products, because there are. But most of those are recognizable too. The point being, it's getting a little harder to have different experiences, even this far from home.

There are positives and negatives to being able to get a Coca-Cola every half a block. For example, you can get a Coke every half block. But really, the more common experiences people share could mean less to disagree over, which hopefully will then mean less to fight about. But yet, it's a little disappointing or even a little sad that the day may be approaching where the only differences Porteños and Chicagoans, people who live five and a half thousand miles apart, have to talk about is the fact that they call it "Coca Light" and we call it "Diet Coke."

Ya pues.

Okay, okay, okay. We've been receiving a little "feedback," and it seems like people think we don't update enough, or something. A lot of the diminished frequency has to do with the fact that we're not on the move every other day like we were before, and so often we just take long walks, or go to museums, or Brian goes to Spanish class and I walk or read in the park or find a new neighborhood that we haven't seen. We've also forgotten the camera (or neglected to charge it) several times, and it's just not as fun without pictures. But still, we promise to be better!

We have gone to several not-to-be-missed sites, but have also saved a lot for when our visitors come. We took a short little stroll through La Boca, just a Sunday evening preview; we'll be back for more time soon.

Me, strolling.

We went to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Buenos Aires). It's a great museum. I don't have pictures, sorry. I do have pictures of our street though:

Nuestro departamento.

Oh, and a while ago we went to the a very, very cool underground tango club. It has the highest ceilings ever, crazy stuff on the walls, and an entrance that looks like nothing! It's so cool that our pictures are all dark and mysterious and full of candlelight and red wine!

I'd tell you where this is, but then I'd have to kill you.

We also (okay we've done a lot) took a little trip to Tigre this weekend, which everyone and their madre said was "liiiiiiindo" and shouldn't be missed. And it was, indeed, muy lindo! It's only 50 minutes on the train to get there, and it's a popular weekend destination for portenos (people from Buenos Aires) and foreigners alike. The whole town is centered around the river and has lovely architecture, walkways, and a huge market called the Mercado de Frutos. It was lovely to walk around, and it was actually really nice to be among a bunch of "tourists" that were majority Argentine instead of gringo. I also met with a rowing coach and looked into rowing on the river there out of their fancy-schmancy rowing club that functions like a country club (how fun would that be?), but alas, it looks like it's not going to be possible. Que lastima. But here is a picture of a boat in Tigre that is not powered by rowing:

For like a minute we talked about how the opposite bank
might be Uruguay, but then we decided it totally wasn't.

In other news, the national elections were yesterday. We saw very little evidence of the actual voting (where are the polling places anyway? And since voting is mandatory, wouldn't we see more?) except for the fact that Brian couldn't order a beer before 9pm. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (aka, "The Hillary of the South"), the current president's wife, won by like a million percentage points. No surprise there. It looks like people really want stability nowadays, also not such a surprise.

This week we're off to Santiago, Chile, my home for five months five years ago (holy crap)! Can't wait to see it...

Rodents Of Unusual Size

One of the sights here, that is not so far from us, is the city's botanical garden. It's a lovely big place full of interesting plants, beautiful sculptures, exhibitions, and cats. Yes, real cats, the alive kind. For some reason they live here (and also in the Recoleta cemetery, but that's another story) in abundance and seem to be quite well fed. We went there recently and had a lot of fun watching them wander around, completely unfazed by the presence of so many people.

But that's not the strange part. Just across the street from the garden is the zoo, which we decided to visit just the other day. We were excited to be getting out and seeing one of the "sights" that was so nearby, it was a beautiful day, and zoos are fun. We wandered, pointed, you know, met some friends.


I have to say, however, when my friend Susie later commented that foreign zoos can be kind of weird, I think she was right. Sometimes you can put your finger on why, and sometimes it's just a feeling, but this zoo was no exception. Don't get me wrong, it was a lovely place, laid out park-style a la Lincoln Park Zoo, with old buildings and lots of foliage and ponds. We had a great time wandering and learned a lot of animal names in Spanish. It was just...a little bit different from the kind of zoos we're used to. First of all, they sell food for the animals there, so unless it's a tiger or a hippo, you're allowed to feed all of them these little pellets. So we watched as countless (and sometimes enormous) animals came right up to the outstretched hands of three-year-olds and nibbled away. The whole food system is great in that, you know, baboons stick their hands out and catch the pellets, and you get to see some really crazy animals at extremely close range:


But something about it is also totally weird, no? Like there's very little emphasis on watching animals in their natural behavior, because they're all prancing about tripping over each other like "mmmmmpelletpelletpelletyumyumyumgimmepellet..." Also, the cages and pens and everything seemed a tad bit cramped in most cases, no where for the animals to hide. Again, fun for us as viewers, but maybe a little sad? I, of course, know nothing at all about zoology, so it's important to realize that I'm just going with my gut here.

But you know what I know is REALLY freaking weird? The fact that they let a WHOLE BUNCH of animals roam free in the zoo, and I'm not just talking about ducks and a couple of peacocks! We first realized this place was a little different when we saw these animals that looked like a cross between a deer and a rabbit (yes I know that makes no sense, but we still haven't figured out what they were) resting calmly on the lawns, enclosed in no way. And then, we met these guys:



And when I say "met," I mean I stood at a safe distance while Brian came close and then quickly backed away, while watching an old lady pet it. Ew. (That's my freaked-out laughing in the background, fyi.) If you don't know, these things are called nutria, and they're basically huge swimming rats whose hind feet are webbed. Awwww! I just want to cuddle it!

I like my goat buddies better.