Wednesay, February 15, 2012
Today was maybe the best day of class I’ve ever had since
the days of elementary school when you still took field trips. While I am
enjoying my 6 hour days of straight Spanish (on the days when I’m not
struggling for life) it was nice to take a cultural excursion through the city.
Our professor, as I’ve mentioned before, has just as much passion for helping
us learn Spanish as she does helping us learn the culture. I found out she’s a
lit teacher, so clearly that explains it.
We waited forever to catch the colectivo and after the
longest bus ride of my life, we arrived at Los Angelitos café, which is a
historic example of the classic Argentine café. It was an exquisite,
wide-windowed place that made you stop and ask yourself where you were exactly
(Paris, NYC, LA?). The walls were covered with “old Hollywood” photographs of
Argentine celebrities. Perhaps they used to eat there. I can’t really know for
sure. In addition to the rich history, the café had some rich food too. I
ordered the equivalent of a cold submarino (chocolate was hard to stir into
that…) and 2 medialunas which are lightly grazed croissants that are just absolutely
exquisite. If you thought you liked Pillsbury’s flaky pastries, then multiply
that by 10, subtract the fake ingredients for homemade ones and add a nice
glaze. I propose that Gamma Phi Beta change its symbol from the crescent moon
to the medialuna. You still get all the moon metaphors AND they’re just so insanely delicious. Oh my god. Café con 3 medialunas is a common breakfast here—begging
the question once again, HOW IS EVERYBODY SO THIN HERE!?!?!?!
Frrom Los Angelitos, we went to a theater that showed indie
flicks. I expected to have to shell out at least $25 pesos for my ticket and
almost devolver-ed my medialunas when I heard the woman say $6 pesos. SIX PESOS
FOR A MOVIE. That’s LESS THAN $2 USD! I know we have dollar theaters back home,
but we don’t have dollar indie theaters so I was completely stoked. Hey, American theater association—if you’re wondering why everybody pirates movies
it’s probably because you charge 10x this amount. Everybody would go to the
movies again if it was $5. But I digress…
The movie we saw was an Argentine independent movie called
Agua y Sal. It’s the kind of movie whose plot is hard to explain, but the
chances of you seeing it are quite slim, so I’ll try (if I can do it in
Spanish, I think I can do it in English). The movie begins with a couple (Javier
and Micaela) on vacation, living their perfect wealthy life. Clearly they
should have little room for discontent, but that’s exactly what Javier suffers
from and he dreams of living someone else’s life. Fernando on the other hand,
works for a fishing boat and has just knocked up 17 year old Milena. He wouldn’t
mind getting out of his life either—which he presumably does after he “dies”
and his spirit somewhat comes to occupy Javier. Unable to have children, Javier
and Micaela look towards adoption and are set to adopt Fernando’s
soon-to-be-born child. Javier sees the life Fernando left behind, and while he
is enticed by the young Milena, he comes to realize that his own life is worth
living. The real kicker is that Javier and Fernando are played by the same
actor. It’s almost like Inception (a life within a life?) and especially
because at times it’s hard to know what actually happened. The metaphorical use
of the ocean was intriguing as well. A lot of people in my class seemed to
dislike the film (though admittedly because they didn’t understand it literally
because of the Spanish or metaphorically), but I found it refreshing,
interesting and it caused me to reflect upon life and I think that’s what good
movies should do. It is possible to have “the perfect life” but still be
discontented by it. I certainly feel that way in Buenos Aires sometimes. But
then again, maybe that’s how I felt when I was back home sometimes, too
(definitely not my last month though—that was just a perfect life with no
strings attached). I really hate that taking things for granted is an implicit
part of being a human no matter where or who you are.
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