Almost Spring, September 2006

Of course, spring here begins September 21! It is somewhat difficult to become a Southern Hemisphere person if you weren’t born or raised here. Even after a year, I still get it confused and subconsciously, as September moves on, somehow expect the weather to become colder rather than warmer. And when Summer comes, officially, on December 21, it’s hot as can be and Christmas and New Year’s are upon us. Strange, strange. When anyone says “January” here, it means “hot.”

The Awful Castilian Language (with apologies to Sam Clemens): Meanwhile, it’s been a wonderfully interesting time since my last missive, although nothing of an earth-shaking nature has occurred; rather, it has been sort of normal life in a normal situation, with lots of things going on and lots of things to do, and always, always, trying to pick up more and more Castellano words, phrases, and locutions. One that had eluded me for a long time but is now in my lexicon is a word that sounds like “shas-tá.” People use it all the time, and it simply means, “That’s it,” or “That’s the one,” or “There we are,” or “That’s finished now.” In Castellano it’s two words – Ya esta – which literally means “already/now/soon is.” But Ya takes on a ton of different meanings as it’s used, such as “Ya te arreglo,” which means “I’ll get you!” And, of course, the Spanish “Y” here is pronounced with a “sh” or “zhe” sound, uniquely, I think, in the Spanish-speaking world. Another frequently used word sounds like “spéra,” and is actually the word “espera,” or “wait,” or “hold on.” Then, a word that sounds like “dá-lay,” and is actually “da le,” in Spanish, meaning “give it to me,” or just “give it,” and can be used in a variety of situations, from telling a waiter that’s what you’ll have, or choosing something to buy, to meaning “go ahead, give it to me/tell me,” or just “go ahead, do it.” Finally, there is “a-vere,” in Spanish, “a ver,” “to see,” which as a single ejaculation simply means, “let’s see (something),” or, “let me see that,” or, “let’s look at it,” or often, “wait a second, let’s look.” Sorry if it sounds confusing, but that’s because it sometimes is.

There are many of these words and short phrases that are pretty much unique to “Rioplatense” Spanish, meaning the language as spoken in the Rio Plate region (which includes the closest parts of Uruguay, across the river). They take a while first to hear, and then to integrate into your conversation. Beyond that, of course, is the famous lunfardo slang of Buenos Aires, which is both Italian- and Spanish-based and includes lots of popular swear words, the most-used of which seems to be “boludo(m)” or “boluda(f).” In times past, calling someone a boludo was an invitation to a physical encounter (and still can be when used with that intent), but in everyday speech it has just come to be a “friendly insult” of the type used among young people, especially boys, and schoolmates (as well as some adults). Another popular use occurs when you make a mistake or mess something up and say to those around you, “Ai, estoy boludo,” or “Ai, que boludo” – “Ah, what a boludo I am!” What does it mean? Well, if you’ll pardon the words here, it means everything from fool to idiot to a**hole to f***er to anything else generally foul you can imagine. And it isn’t normally used in seriously polite situations except where those present are old, old friends.

The language learning is likely to go on for years for me, as I’m convinced I’ve become a much slower learned than I had imagined. This is painful to admit, of course, but seems true. After my courses at UBA, I’m now on the lookout for a local tutor to meet with for an hour or two a week to continue the long haul. But progress is being made; I can, when I have to, talk on the telephone and understand what’s being said, or listen to the radio or television and get a lot of it.

The Winter: Has been about average, according to most I’ve talked to. We’ve had a few stretches of 30-degree days with wind and some rain, and although there have been a few days that felt warm, the constant experience is one of needing extra clothes when you go out, no matter whether the sun is shining or not. And my gas wall-heater has been on just about 24/7 for a couple of months, even occasionally requiring me to turn on the oven as well to get thing warmed up in the morning. I could install another/more wall heaters, but I don’t think I will just yet.

Return to Tennis: For those of you who may be tennis players, you might be interested in the fact that I’ve finally re-entered the game after many years of absence. One of my retirement goals is thus being pursued. While there are thousands of tennis courts in Buenos Aires, getting access to one is not always easy if you’re not connected via a school, a club, a company, or a union (the latter two having clubs of their own for members). But last month, while talking to friends, I learned that one of their sons, who’s a med-school student, is a very well-regarded player who teaches/coaches on Friday afternoons each week to supplement his pocket money for school. So now, every Friday I have an hour-long lesson, and have begun the work of getting my game back. Almost all the courts here are red clay, which is easier on the feet and legs than hard courts, but require a lot of scurrying around because the ball slows and hangs so long after a bounce. It’s very hard to play “power tennis” on clay, although the pros, as seen in the French Open every year, can make it look fast. The courts where my coach teaches are in a section north of me called Punta Chica (little point), which is actually a part of the San Fernando municipality, and are part of a huge club owned and run by the national clothing and textile workers’ union, Soiva. I pay 10 pesos ($3) for the use of the court, and 20 pesos for the coach; less than $10 an hour for first-class instruction. The same in NYC would cost at least $50 an hour, and probably more. My goal is to be able to get back into playing doubles, and I already have the promise of joining a regular group if my game is good enough. I think it should take at least two or three months before that will occur.

My Incredibly Brief Acting Career: Recently I was asked to audition for the lead role in an upcoming play at the Suburban Players theater group, a 40+ year-old institution not far up the road in San Isidro. This was the venue where I had played the piano player in a mystery-theater-dinner (where unbeknownst to me, I turned out to be the murderer!) and evidently had acquitted myself well enough to be asked to do this audition. The auditions were held at the large apartment of a couple that is very active in the theater. When I arrived I received about 20 pages of a script and was told to read it by myself and then when it was my turn to join the director and others at the dining room table where we would do the read-through. After an hour or so, while listening to others read and seeing people come and go, it was my turn, and, in a word, I blew it. I was completely incompetent, I couldn’t get a feel for the part, and didn’t seem to meet any of the criteria the director had it. Perhaps it’s just as well, since a) I really didn’t like the part much anyway, and b) being chosen would have entailed endless hours of memorization, rehearsals, etc., between now and mid-November. They were very gentle in indicating their disapproval, but it was clear I was not their man. So I finished my coffee, thanked them, and politely refused an invitation to join the stage crew. Thus my sole foray into the world of the theater since high school days was a consummate disaster, and I have learned my lesson! And saved myself and the public a lot of time and anguish in the process. So much for my acting career! (I will add that there was another guy there, an Australian, who I thought was absolutely terrible in his read-through, but the director thought was wonderful. Go figure.)

Continuing to Understand Psychological Factors in Argentine History: I’ve written about or alluded to the passive-depressive dynamic in Argentine history before; this is just another “take” on a widespread phenomenon. Basically, it is a way of describing the outlook on Argentina’s future that is held by many, if not a vast majority, of citizens here. As you probably know, the country – after the terrible economic collapse of 2001-2 -- has been enjoying three-plus years of economic growth and stability, some say at a cost of an increasingly powerful President and executive branch. Inflation is present, but is running well behind growth, and nearly every Argentine has more now than in perhaps the previous 15 or 20 years, and in a more substantial way, because this time the growth is not due to the selling-off of public assets and the subsequent squandering of the profits therefrom, as occurred in the Menem era of the 80s and early 90s. Everyone is traditionally guarded and cautious about “feeling good” about just about anything here, whether the national economy or local school test scores. The general feeling nowadays about the reality of Argentine economic growth is that it is somehow fraudulent and cannot continue, even though there are many indications otherwise. That feeling is also echoed in the common comment that “whatever happens, there will be another economic crash; we have them every ten years or so like clockwork.” The main reason given for all economic crashes is that the economic oligarchy, while happy with growth and profiting greatly from it, refuses to buy in on the idea of the importance of capital reinvestment during boom times. Many factories and shops are just “back in production mode,” but are producing, once again, without a lot of reinvestment in new machinery, computer technology, or other areas of corporate infrastructure that need modernization and change. Thus, when the machinery wears out or profits sag because costs increase owing to lack of reinvestment, the economy slows, the oligarchy once again begins sending money overseas, and either a crash or a recession hits. Overseas investors are conscious of this phenomenon (certainly not rare in even highly-developed economies) and thus reluctant to make significantly higher investments. Added to this is the fact that Argentina doesn’t allow profit-taking by foreign investors at anything resembling the rate at which it occurs. In one sense, this is good in that it discourages foreign investment from just taking out all their profits the minute they occur; but if profit-taking is allowed at too low a level, foreign companies go elsewhere with their money. I’m not conversant with the technical aspects of this issue, but I do know that it is something that needs to be balanced and managed on a continuous basis so that foreign companies will invest and be allowed a reasonable level of profit-taking so as not to feel they are just in business in Argentina to help the local economy. I understand from my reading that there is no easy answer to determining this balance, and it is clear that the conservative approach favors practically unrestricted profit-taking, while a more liberal/social approach favors reduced levels of profit-taking, increased levels of taxation, and reinvestment by foreign firms. All this is just by way of saying that the challenge for Argentines seems to be one of a) believing they have the ability to build and sustain a strong international economy, as difficult as it is, and b) convincing the economic oligarchy to understand the importance of long-term goals and reinvestment as the soundest way to ongoing growth. However, the historic temptation to take the money and run -- by both foreigners and the local power group -- is always present, and its justification seems always to be the “watch out for the next crash” and “it’s always been like this” syndromes. So the average person continues to be passive, in considering him/herself a victim of the rich and powerless against the oligarchy, and depressive, in not believing anything will ever change. I'm sure psychologists understand this corporate version of the "shitty self image" syndrome better than I, but it's pandemic here and will have to change before the long haul becomes the norm.

Argentine Quirks, part III: As noted in earlier entries, daily life in Argentina is filled with little behavioral and other differences that mark some differences between Argentine and US life.
• Grocery Shopping: The city has several chains of large supermarkets that are pretty much the same as supermarkets everywhere in the world these days, I imagine. Aisle after aisle of shelves, freezer and cooler cases, paper goods, fresh fruit and vegetables, meats. One difference here is that when you buy either vegetables or fruits, or bread or rolls from the store’s ovens, you have them weighed and priced in the area where you buy them, with a bar-coded sticker that the check-out person scans. Naturally, if you fail to do this, the checker has to take the stuff back to that section and have it weighed. This doesn’t appear to please those behind you on line, although most Argentines are too polite to offer any response other than perhaps a quiet sigh.
• Men and Beards: How men deal with facial hair is probably a subject of moderate interest to sociologists and perhaps others. In Buenos Aires, full beards, Van Dycks, and moustaches are all popular, and are seen on men in all walks of life. The President doesn’t sport one, but many in his cabinet do. Bank presidents, construction workers, restaurant workers, students, bishops, etc., are all to be seen with facial hair. I even have a moustache, which may not last long but is kind of fun at the moment. But what is more interesting, to me, is the fact that men seem not to feel the need (nor the requirement) to shave regularly, regardless of their facial hair posture. On any working day on the subway or buses you see young and old men with day-old or two-day-old beards, otherwise perfectly normally dressed in their suits and ties, on their ways to work. In any office you visit, a good number of the men working there will have not shaved that day. This seems to be perfectly acceptable in the marketplace and is an interesting twist on the New York City style of men not shaving on weekends. I would guess that it comes under a heading of “personal freedoms” that all enjoy here, and find it less strange now than I did at first – when I thought it was just because those men had left home in a hurry to get to work. Or worse.
• Deliveries: Another interesting thing here is that nearly everything can be delivered to your house or apartment. If you want, you can have a single sack of groceries delivered, at no cost other than a small tip to the delivery person. Almost every restaurant offers home delivery. Any regular commercial shop, from clothing to electronics to household goods, does the same. And all confiterias, or coffee shops (although they are far more than just coffee shops), will deliver even a single cup of coffee to your home or business within its delivery range. It’s a common sight to see waiters in their vests and aprons carrying trays of cups of coffee, cream, and sugar, in the streets. They stop back later to pick up the cups, saucers, spoons, and pitchers.
• Siesta time: Perhaps 70 per cent of the shops in the city close their doors for from one to three hours every afternoon, usually beginning at 1 or 1:30, with reopening from 3:30 to 4:3o. They open by 10 each morning, and are open until 8 every night. Larger stores, malls, and supermarkets do not usually have the “siesta” closings. After living here awhile, you begin to realize that your shopping is most easily done in late morning or late afternoon, or after work. Saturdays most of the shops are open until 1 here in Martinez, and most Saturday mornings huge numbers of people are in the streets and cafes. By 2 p.m., the shopping area is deserted for the rest of the weekend.
• Dentists: Dental practice here, like medical practice, seems very non-quirky. Operation of dentists’ offices is very similar to the US. However, appointments (tournos) are kept very close to time, and all the equipment is modern. My dentista is a 55-year-old widow lady who’s been practicing dentistry for nearly 30 years (the walls of her two dental-chair areas are covered with diplomas and certificates) and is very well regarded. I have about eight more appointments to go in a series of 16, and I guess my teeth feel better, but sometimes it’s hard to tell when basically you have bad choppers to start with. The only thing about her office I don’t like is the Muzak – all 1980s US pop music. Sigh. I’d rather it be classical or even tango, but no luck.

So that’s it for this entry. Everyone is waiting for Spring and Summer to arrive, and life goes on apace in Argentina. As always, write if you have questions or comments. Chau (a literalization of the Italian ciao) for now!

Peter