14.12.07
9.12.07
i'm coming home in less than two weeks! so i'll give real updates and even hugs when i see everybody! things are amazing here, i'm excited to come home but really sad to leave and contemplating coming back in the summer because i am going to miss everyone so much. lately: uruguay, the beach, made my own bikini, living in friends houses, lots of concerts, free music, feria de libros independientes y alternativos, dancing, frustrations with school, etc. see you soooooon!
4.11.07
i love summer.
i love buenos aires.
things couldnt be better right now.
porque?
spending every day outside in the sun
lunches in the park
food not bombs and talking to lots of new poeple
a bikini making cooperative and invitations to visit them in monetvideo
flowers and fruit trees
the trainride into the city and looking out the window
living with CAt and lou and ally and esteban
tons of friends offering me places to stay and opening up their homes to me
a stranger who offers me a tangerine for dessert in the park and then sits and talks playing ukelele for an hour
an out of the blue invitation to el loco mas loco del mundo's beach house
permaculture workshops every saturday
meeting a sociologist doing cool research right now
not telling anyone i was coming back and still ending up surrounded by people and plans
etc.
i love buenos aires.
things couldnt be better right now.
porque?
spending every day outside in the sun
lunches in the park
food not bombs and talking to lots of new poeple
a bikini making cooperative and invitations to visit them in monetvideo
flowers and fruit trees
the trainride into the city and looking out the window
living with CAt and lou and ally and esteban
tons of friends offering me places to stay and opening up their homes to me
a stranger who offers me a tangerine for dessert in the park and then sits and talks playing ukelele for an hour
an out of the blue invitation to el loco mas loco del mundo's beach house
permaculture workshops every saturday
meeting a sociologist doing cool research right now
not telling anyone i was coming back and still ending up surrounded by people and plans
etc.
28.10.07
today was the election, which cristina kirchner won so things will most likely continue the same in argentina. thank god it is over. if i have to hear another van with a speaker yelling the names of candidates or hear more of the same empty promises and things like 'in democracy we all win' i might have to go to Las Heras (argentina's suicide capital an hour from here). i guess i'll be coming back to the us just when we're in the thick of it there too. basically the only good thing to come out of all of this politics is that since its obligatory to vote, the government hired buses to drive students home because there are no absentee ballots. so fede's brother came home on one of those but is staying in pico truncado with his girlfriend a week extra so it looks like i can take his spot on the way back to buenos aires (25 more hours!) and get a free trip back to the city. which is really great! but man, politics. i am so sick of propaganda and lies and doublethink and people who know that nothing changes but suddenly when october or november comes around we act like taking two minutes to cast a vote for soemone we don't even like or trust is really going to make a difference and not make us obligated to change anything in our own lives. but i won't get into that.
here are a few pictures of pico truncado. tomorrow is my last day here if everything works out with the bus then i will go back to bs as and live with ally and the cat for a little while and study i guess. hmmm other things, i cant remember...
soy!
merle africa
here are a few pictures of pico truncado. tomorrow is my last day here if everything works out with the bus then i will go back to bs as and live with ally and the cat for a little while and study i guess. hmmm other things, i cant remember...
soy!
merle africa
19.10.07
i made my own soy milk! and soy dulce de leche. and seitan. and three batches of cookies and bread and potato soy mayonaise and lunch and dinner pretty much every day. being a housewife is sort of fun when you also have someone else's mom to do all the cleaning and grocery shopping and don't have to be married.
and fede has a radio show called siempre libre every night for one hour that i've been going to with him and talking on and on wednesday we did a hiphop special and i brought music and his friend Akiles (who's 19 years old or something but really really really serious about hiphop and fighting for what it stands for and giving it a bigger place in patagonia and argentina and constructed his own studio in his bedroom and produces cds and music videos and documentaries about breakdancing and all sorts of projects...)came and talked and freestyled and played some music from his group Templo Under and even though i was really nervous speaking in spanish on the radio it was great!
what else? last weekend was nice and sunny so we went to the beach on saturday and camped there for a night. it was really beautiful with great tide pools and sleeping next to the water is always nice.
this weekend is mother's day (father's day is the same date as in the us but mother's day is inversed, so essentially the same day seasonally just not by month....) so that means that they are having a big asado with all the family at his grandmother's house on sunday, so maybe i'll see if i can stay for that since it sounds fun and then next week get up the energy to leave and go to mendoza. oh yeah and i started going to the gym with his mom and its at the chilean immigrants center with 20 other women doing funny dances and pelvic thrusts and weight lifting to music. its pretty fun!
these are some of the recipes if you're interested
SOY MILK is soo easy!
i soaked 1/2 kilo (i guess 1 lb) of soy beans over night.
Then i blended 1 cup beans with 2.5 c water and repeated until i had blended all the beans. I put it all in a big pot and cooked it for about half hour. (i think you could cook first and then blend too, maybe easier). Then with a cloth napkin as a filter over a jar i poured the mix, letting the milk go through and the bean pulp stayed in the napkin and then i squeezed it to make sure all the milk got out. it tastes a little funky plain but heated up with vanilla and suger was delicious and also with melted chocolate. and the bean pulp is good if you blend it with garlic and olive oil to make soy mayo or formed into patties for burgers
and with the milk you can make DULCE DE LECHE!!!!
this made one jam jar
1 liter soy milk
1/4 kilo (1 3/4 cups) brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
5 drops vanilla extract
cook the milk in a big pot until it boils. when boiling add the baking soda and sugar. bring it to a boil again, and then cover but so that some steam can escape, stirring to make sure that its not burning. then basically wait about 1.5 hours until it gets to a spreadable jamlike consistency. turn off the heat, add vanilla, put in jars immediately when hot. yum!
CAROB COOKIES!
so i figured out the secret to vegan cookies made with oil. you have to use some sort of blended fruit to get the right consistency. i've used (about 1/2 cup) banana, pear, apple (sauce), zucchini! or avocado and they all work really well especially zucchini and banana.
1/2 c oil
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c blended fruit
1.5 c flour (or oatmeal)
1.5 c carob in powder like flour (called algarroba in spanish)
1.5 tsp baking powder
chocolate chips
chopped nuts
raisins etc!
most important is to blend oild sugar and fruit first then slowly add flour and everything else. spoon into circles on a greased baking sheet and cook 10 minutes.
ok i think thats enough.
and fede has a radio show called siempre libre every night for one hour that i've been going to with him and talking on and on wednesday we did a hiphop special and i brought music and his friend Akiles (who's 19 years old or something but really really really serious about hiphop and fighting for what it stands for and giving it a bigger place in patagonia and argentina and constructed his own studio in his bedroom and produces cds and music videos and documentaries about breakdancing and all sorts of projects...)came and talked and freestyled and played some music from his group Templo Under and even though i was really nervous speaking in spanish on the radio it was great!
what else? last weekend was nice and sunny so we went to the beach on saturday and camped there for a night. it was really beautiful with great tide pools and sleeping next to the water is always nice.
this weekend is mother's day (father's day is the same date as in the us but mother's day is inversed, so essentially the same day seasonally just not by month....) so that means that they are having a big asado with all the family at his grandmother's house on sunday, so maybe i'll see if i can stay for that since it sounds fun and then next week get up the energy to leave and go to mendoza. oh yeah and i started going to the gym with his mom and its at the chilean immigrants center with 20 other women doing funny dances and pelvic thrusts and weight lifting to music. its pretty fun!
these are some of the recipes if you're interested
SOY MILK is soo easy!
i soaked 1/2 kilo (i guess 1 lb) of soy beans over night.
Then i blended 1 cup beans with 2.5 c water and repeated until i had blended all the beans. I put it all in a big pot and cooked it for about half hour. (i think you could cook first and then blend too, maybe easier). Then with a cloth napkin as a filter over a jar i poured the mix, letting the milk go through and the bean pulp stayed in the napkin and then i squeezed it to make sure all the milk got out. it tastes a little funky plain but heated up with vanilla and suger was delicious and also with melted chocolate. and the bean pulp is good if you blend it with garlic and olive oil to make soy mayo or formed into patties for burgers
and with the milk you can make DULCE DE LECHE!!!!
this made one jam jar
1 liter soy milk
1/4 kilo (1 3/4 cups) brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
5 drops vanilla extract
cook the milk in a big pot until it boils. when boiling add the baking soda and sugar. bring it to a boil again, and then cover but so that some steam can escape, stirring to make sure that its not burning. then basically wait about 1.5 hours until it gets to a spreadable jamlike consistency. turn off the heat, add vanilla, put in jars immediately when hot. yum!
CAROB COOKIES!
so i figured out the secret to vegan cookies made with oil. you have to use some sort of blended fruit to get the right consistency. i've used (about 1/2 cup) banana, pear, apple (sauce), zucchini! or avocado and they all work really well especially zucchini and banana.
1/2 c oil
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c blended fruit
1.5 c flour (or oatmeal)
1.5 c carob in powder like flour (called algarroba in spanish)
1.5 tsp baking powder
chocolate chips
chopped nuts
raisins etc!
most important is to blend oild sugar and fruit first then slowly add flour and everything else. spoon into circles on a greased baking sheet and cook 10 minutes.
ok i think thats enough.
7.10.07
4.10.07
2.10.07
a quick update before i leave
i'm finally leaving buenos aires on friday! this is the plan:
27 bus ride to Pico Truncado, which is waaaay in the south, at the the top of patagonia, here are some maps.
there i will stay with Federico and his family.
then i will travel around and make my way northwest to Mendoza, by the end of october where i'll spend a month at El Peregrino, which is an organic vegetarian farm, mostly for apples but now it's cherry season and time for planting vegetables and doing construction.
On saturday I took the cat on the train to Lomas de Zamora to her new home with Ally and Esteban and a kitty playmate, Lou who is 4 months old. For the first two days she hissed in the corner and bit everyone but now they are playing and she's ok. but i miss her!!!
Tomorrow I give my computer to Facundo for 2 months, Juan gets my bike, i'll bring all my old clothes and art supplies to La Sala community center, then there's Food not Bombs thursday morning, Rocio's play opens thursday night, i have a check-up at the doctors friday morning before leaving, ally and some friends come over for tea and fruit on friday afternoon and then I'm GONE!
27 bus ride to Pico Truncado, which is waaaay in the south, at the the top of patagonia, here are some maps.
there i will stay with Federico and his family.
then i will travel around and make my way northwest to Mendoza, by the end of october where i'll spend a month at El Peregrino, which is an organic vegetarian farm, mostly for apples but now it's cherry season and time for planting vegetables and doing construction.
On saturday I took the cat on the train to Lomas de Zamora to her new home with Ally and Esteban and a kitty playmate, Lou who is 4 months old. For the first two days she hissed in the corner and bit everyone but now they are playing and she's ok. but i miss her!!!
Tomorrow I give my computer to Facundo for 2 months, Juan gets my bike, i'll bring all my old clothes and art supplies to La Sala community center, then there's Food not Bombs thursday morning, Rocio's play opens thursday night, i have a check-up at the doctors friday morning before leaving, ally and some friends come over for tea and fruit on friday afternoon and then I'm GONE!
19.9.07
so what's new, smellyman?
what's new? i moved out of my room because i am leaving the city really soon. I am living in the living room right now for free which is fine. except i have a fever from getting stuck in the rain but i am feeling better now. i cant think of what's going on. i finally finished an english/spanish recipe book of all the recipes i invented this year and pictures of appetizing monsters alongside that i will photocopy and give to people. on october third i am leaving for mendoza, everything is confirmed with the farm to arrive the 9th so that gives me a few days to hang out in the city of Mendoza with Niki and Erny. the weather almost got good and i spent everyday reading in the sun on the terrace and eating dinner outside enjoying warm nights but then it rained for 10 days and is cold again. hopefully it will be spring soon. i have gotten pretty bored of the nightlife and second hand smoke gives me caughing attacks lately so i've been a homebody reading moslty. although there was poesia promiscua in kasa las estrellas en la boca, a murga in villa 31 (lots of kids dancing in carnaval costumes in one of the "shantytown"ish neighborhoods, on the other side of the train tracks of Recoleta the poshest neighborhood, the contrasts in this city are mindblowing), and a friend named Natalia came to visit this past week and we went to a raggaeton party at the youth communist headquarters. so still some parties. andre my german roommate leaves on friday so most of the people i know have left the city. i give the cat away to my chilean friend Ally, who lives in Lomas de Zamora, a 20 min trainride out of the city. she has a 4 month old kitten so Lea will have someone to play with when i abandon her. that will be hard but there's no other option. and i can't remember what else, i'm going to get some sleep and write again when i'm feeling better....
28.8.07
tuwuntee won
climbing trees, good food, hidden restaurants, my first glass of wine, bardeando, a nice birthday....
13.8.07
hermanito
patrick came last tuesday, now he's gone but we did tons of stuff: homemade soyburgers with sean at his friends' apartment; silkscreening at the Sala (community center in caballito); painting a house at the huerta (the community garden); a night of dancing that my friend gregg djd with really good brazilian beats; a visit to my campus, english class; more silkscreening; a ride on the exilirating A-line rollercoaster metro in the first car; patrick's first mate, puerto madero; ecological reserve; choripan; steak (for him) at Club Eros restaurant/soccer club; Recoleta artesania fair; recoleta cemetary (down in the crypts even, dad you would have liked it); bellas artes muesum; playing with the cat; empanadas; birthday party for Rocio, whose friends are all dancers and danced tango, samba, and rock n roll for us; San telmo street fair; and a night of cooking (disgusting looking) hummus and corn pizzas with the vegan kids. all in all a really nice mix of getting in some tourist attractions and getting to see what my normal life is like and meet friends.
5.8.07
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