The Asado
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005El Gran Asadór
This is Adolfo, who was kind enough to invite me to his house last night for an ¨asado.¨ As I mentioned earlier, an asado is a huge deal in Argentina - much more than your random burgers and hotdog BBQ. Here´s how the night played out.
Adolfo´s son, Frederico, who is 23, met up with me downtown at my apartment around 7ish. Because Adolfo lives in Olivos - which is a really nice suburb of the city - we took the subway as far north as it could go and then caught a bus to go another 15 minutes north to his house. Olivos is a really cool place to live, because you actually have enough space to spread out and live in a house, but it´s so close to the city. It´s definitely a well-to-do area as well: the houses were all really nice, and fairly big. Not to mention, there were alot of German cars driving around the streets there, and yes, my friends, even a Honda CR-V or two (no joke). It´s interesting to note that while Adolfo had a big gate in front of his driveway, from what I gather, this small security measure is nothing compared to most Latin American cities. This summer I met a guy from Caracas, Venezuela who had a setup that reminded me alot of the Corleone compund: a moat, two guards armed with automatics, and six dogs keeping him safe.
Grillin´it and Grillin´it and Grillin´it Well….
This was a meal for the ages…definitely the best I had since I´ve been in Argentina, and I anticipate the best I´ll have for awhile. It is also a meal that is guaranteed to offend all vegetarians - First, we had appetizers of fresh chorizo sausage, with three different types of cheese, olives, and french bread. After that´s gone, we get the first grilled meats, which are basically half-foot long grilled sausage. And this is just the warm up! Yes, I did just get over being sick, and I vowed not to overindulge - but honestly, turning any of this down would be like turning down two free pints at the Guiness Brewery- total sacrilege . So instead, I ate and drank everything I was given, and hoped for the best. Miraculously my stomach held up (meaning I didn´t have to endure any awkward pauses in the middle of dinner) until I got home. Greaaaaat succcccessss! Anyway, after these sausage sandwiches, I´m basically full. But we´re just getting started! So we sit down and have a full meal of grilled steak and chicken, salad, bread, etc. And for dessert we had 6 different types of Gelati…Adolfo done hooked it up!
Now dinner was also a trip. Adolfo has a huge family - 3 sons (15, 18 and 23), 2 daughters (20 and 24 - although she wasn´t there), so we had a looong meal. Long. During dinner we´re talking about everything, sports, politics, the US vs. Argentina, the inevitable discussion on Jorge Bush, and so on. We laughed, we cried, it all came out - in Spanish the entire time. Add to this the fact that we were listening to music on his new sound system during the meal, and you know it was a blast. Adolfo loves Frank Sinatra and Rod Stewart, so we listened to that. Frederico loves reggae, so we also listened to Bob Marley. Close your eyes, imagine: Bob Marley plays in the background, your drinking fine wine, while eating some of the best beef you´ve ever tasted. Scrumptious.
Frederico y su Papá
About the family: everyone was incredibly nice and friendly. Also, they got along so well and didn´t fight/bicker at all…so I´m still about suspicious that they are in fact a real, functioning ¨family.¨ Frederico is a really cool guy. He´s 23, but unlike most Argentines, who live with their families until their late 20´s or so, he lives in an apartment in Olivos with one of his friends. Frederico works in restaurant/hospitality management, and his roommate is the guittarist in a reggae band. After dinner him and I stopped off for a nightcap at this Irish pub downtown near my place, and really just kicked it. It was pretty funny because he kept letting me know how much he enjoyed living by himself, because most people our age just aren´t able to or don´t. For example, I definitely think I´m the youngest person in my apartment building, and I definitely don´t give off the impression of being any young, successful entreprenuer type, I´ll tell you that much…I´m not rockin´the sideways O´s hat, but I´m definitely not rockin´the Burberry either. I can only imagine what people think my business is living in their building. Anyway, because of the whole living on your own thing, I think we had really good connection, because he understands that a young man living without the supervision of his elders but with that of his friends always leads to a good time….
The younger kids were really cool too, they loved the Simpsons - most of the people I´ve talked to like ¨Los Simpsons¨ here, so that´s an instant connection. It´s actually on twice a day here but I don´t have cable so the only show I get on my communist-era manual-turning TV is some cheesy-ass wannabe crime thriller/drama/romantic comedy called ¨Sin Código¨ (literally, ¨without code,¨ but I think it means ¨without a clue¨), a show where the producers are so lazy they didn´t even bother making or getting a theme song, but instead just use the one from Hawaii Five - O! Let´s just say I´ve seen more drama in the Bumblee Man episodes on the Simpsons….but I digress.
So after the goodbyes with Adolofo´s family Frederico drove me home - which by car is only about a 20 minute ride - but first we stop off at a bar near my place for a quick drink. Capping the whole night off is the fact that on the ride home from there, we´re listening to the radio, and Plush (the ACOUSTIC VERSION, mind you) comes on. When´s the last time you´ve heard that on North American radio stations? Man, what a great time.
La Familia y Yo
Getting on to other topics…
1) School really, really, really sucks. It´s long and boring, and it makes me think and do stuff, so I can´t wait for it to be over. I spend hours doing these lesson plans for class, and other assignments…I feel like I´m already getting burnt out. Basically, talk about grammar for 7 hours, and then talk about talking about grammar in front of a class. It just doesn´t leave me any time to do anything! Only 1 1/2 more weeks, thankfully.
2) Here are some more pics I took over the past few days:
The Main Synagogue, which is literally across the street from my school. One of my friends is having me at her house for Rosh Hashanah, which is pretty legit - I love me some apples and honey.
3) Dogs are EVERYWHERE in this city - and so is their trace. There´s actually a big business in dog walking, so I here´s a picture of two dogwalkers about to cross Avenida 9 de Julio-the widest street in the world-with a pack of dogs.
A final note: I like this city alot and it´s treating me pretty well, but this course is really wearing me out and I´m starting to get the itch (no, not that itch - the Travel itch). I think I´m gonna blow this town, and soon. Why? The better question, my friends, is Why Not? I didn´t come this far away just to sit in a big city, sitting in cafes sipping lattes before I take the subway to work…I could have done all of that at home. So, I didn´t renew the contract on my apartment, which means I need to leave a week from Sunday. After that, I´m planning on chilling in BA for a week, and then taking off for Córdoba the following Sunday. Córdoba is about 10 hours north of BA, and is supposedly a very cool, laid-back, university town that´s close to the mountains. Apparently there´s alot of young people, and, being Argentina´s ¨2nd City¨(but still nowhere the size of BA) there´s a fair amount going on. And, because it´s further north, it´s closer to Bolivia, which I´m gonna try to visit as well. Honestly, I don´t know where I´m going to settle down…my course claims that they have relationships with English teaching institutes all over Argentina, but even still I don´t think it´d be too hard to settle down in a place like Córdoba and find a job if I want to. After the course is up is the time to move around and find my own Happy Place, no?
That´s it for now. I´m tired, sweaty, and about to fall asleep, but I still got mad work to do and I gotta go get some Empanadas delivered to my place. I know this was an absurdly long post, so thanks for bearing with me…I´m writing this blog also so I´ll have a record of this crazy thing after it´s all said and done, so you understand.
Adios,
Adam
