heading down to Bariloche in about 5 hrs, by 20 hr busride. funtimes.
oh and I bought a harddrive and installed it myself (took almost an hr ugh) last night! woof! and montevideo was amazing! maybe ill have some time to post a few pics (one is already up on flickr) before I say goodbye to BsAs i think im coming back here for a few days though once i hit the road after my stay in Santiago Chile. Goodbye filthy streets, hello fresh air!
Filed under: Uncategorized — iggystarbucks @ 12:27 am
Still alive, while my other half is still dead. I actually bought a new hard drive on Friday only to realize that it was way too big for my Macbook pro upon returning home.
They told me they should get the right one for me tomorrow so we´ll see.
Saturday was perhaps the most ¨productive day¨ in terms of travelling as I was in 3 different cities in 2 different countries. In reality, I was just trying to get to Colonia(de Sacramento) in Uruguay which was…pretty good.
Weather here in Rio de Plata has been unpredictable and gloomy for the last few days but I´d decided to go there in my filmsy puffy dress as it´s quite comfortable to move around. As I was walking down the edge of the town, enjoying the view of tumultuous waves of muddy water clashing with grey sky, my dress was flying everywhere, of course not in the glam manner a la Ms. Monroe but revealing whatever was underneath, which should be shielded away from human eyes for their own good. gah.
I got attacked by a mob of elementary/middleschool kids who apparently needed to get a signature of a Japanese. sorry kids. I almost went nuts over little kids when I heard one kid mumble ¿todos son igual, no? (they are all the same, no?) behind my back. AHHHHHHH!!! ignorant parents raise ignorant little pigs like them! ugh.
I don´t know why but since my late teens the origin of my ethnicity has been of interest to many strangers and not much else. To clear things up before I go any further, I´m of Korean ancestry, North Korea to be exact but it´s all the same, it´s a homogeneous nation so I don´t think people look that different in North. My paternal grandparents come from way up north near Russia so maybe that explains my pale skin. Maybe not. Very often people mistake me for a Japanese, I mean even Japanese people think I´m Japanese inspite of my 173cm height(which would be considered VERY rare for a Japanese)
A lot of Korean people (as have many other Asian people)I´ve encountered last few years assumed I was either Japanese or mixed . Some of the unusual assumptions include: Australian(In India), half-Mexican and Argentinian(In Argentina)….how is that physically possible? I mean even my own mother told me that she could see why people think I´m mixed/Japanese but damn, I didn´t think I looked that *global*
Speaking of encounters, I´ve met so, so many ignorant idiotic Americans(of the USA, that is: can we get a proper name for our country please?) during my stay in BsAs:
case 1: A medical student, preparing for his residency, who didn´t know what a ¨prose¨ is. I´m talking about full-American born and bred here. a MEDICAL student. I have so much faith in our educational system, thank you very much.
case 2: A major asshole 66 yr old retiree from GA, who apparently despite of visiting 60+ countries in his lifetime has failed to overcome his ignorance towards other cultures.
A) First day we met, he was talking about how government ought to impose a law against cartoneros(people who go through trash everyday to collect cardboard among other things here in BsAs) because it´s ¨very bad for tourism¨ Now, so I admit they do leave the streets a bit messy every time they go through trash but they are trying to make living here, it´s not like it´s their pastime fun activity. I´m sorry people here are trying to survive on daily basis and can´t accomodate your rich tourist ass, geesh.
B) We were talking about world population and I was talking about how in Japan their low birth-rate is going to create a huge problem for near future and he intervened saying how we have more than enough people on this planet already and how we don´t need anymore. I admit I was feeling really sick that day after hearing about the whole AIDS-genocide accusation made by that former rev. of Senator Obama so I was kind of sensitive about the whole population control issue but still, I don´t want to hear complaints about over-population from a 66 yr old when the whole problem stems from old farts like him surviving on medical advances. I´m not being an age-ist here but it´s the truth, not enough people are dying to balance out the birthrate. So when someone like him declares that he wants to live anoter 15 yrs while saying that we don´t need anymore people on this planet, please, how else am I going to think of him but an asshole?
C) aka the final seal of the deal: I was walking home when someone tabbed me from behind and it was him. I was in a pretty good mood so we were talking as we were walking along, and he was saying how the most dangerous place he´s been to is the U.S.A. Then he was talking about how it´s most dangerous to drive in Atlanta GA because ¨there´s a huge negro population.¨ I froze, doubting my ears. He went on, ¨A lot of them are illiterate and illiterate people cán´t do anything well in general and driving isn´t one either.¨ To make it clear, for the first two cases I was telling him off but this time, I was speechless. What can you say to someone who supposedly saw SO MANY different cultures and yet say things like these in year 2008 with a straight face. What are you suppose to say. tell me. Next day he patted my head as he was leaving class, saying that I have an Argentinian hair. WHATTT??? I felt like a Jewish kid being patted by Hitler. ugh.
Case 3: A middle aged Caucasian woman who wanted to tell me how she doesn´t like Asians in general based on the people she´s encountered in midwest USA and don´t fancy visiting Asia ever except that she´s visited India 5 times because it´s ¨not really Asia.¨ Great. The method she used in telling me these was the usage of the familiar sentences such as ¨they do this¨ ¨they do that.¨ um, except that ¨theÿ¨ are actually ¨my¨ people. I must note that she was telling me this extensively for at least an hr, confiding in me for some odd reason. I wonder what she saw in me. I mean I agree with what she was saying about some Asian immigrants lying on their taxes and being unreasonably cheap but that obviously doesn´t apply to the entire population. Nothing does. I love it when people decide that India is not really Asia.
I never really fit into one ethnic category since my early separation from my parents but still, it just puzzles me when these ignorant racists confide in me as if I´m one of them. Perhaps these old people get super excited at the fact that they are conversing with someone in 20s.
More identity crisis to come I suppose.
Case 4: a 40+ yr old Philly man making whistle noise by blowing into his fisted hands at a museum/private workshop. Not once but thrice.
oh why, really. It´s so embarrassing to see your fellow countrymen being like this. ugh. really.
Tomorrow night I´m off to Montevideo. Coming back Friday morning(I opted for overnight cheaper 10hr busride over 3-5 hr boat/bus ride) As much as I love BsAs, I´m quite psyched to be hitting the road again. On Saturday evening I leave for Bariloche(19 hrs by bus! GAHH!!) where I´ll be yodelling with strange patagonian birds with flowers in my hair, skipping down endless green meadow for 2 weeks. (more like staying put by a heater in my room haha)
oh and I have a new *thinspiration* (I kid I kid) love in my life and his name is Charly Garcia:
computer needs a new hard drive and I´m trying to buy a new one and install it myself instead of letting the Apple center handle it. Overcharging bastards.
I just spent 4 hrs listening to a lecture about Brasilian culture, emphasis on the idea of saudade, in Spanish, with 90% of handouts in Portuguese. Started at 9:30 am.
…for god´s sake,
where do I start.
….
my brain is usually in a half dead state until 2 pm and I´ve never taken a Portuguese class in my life, mind you I´m still studying Spanish(albeit in advanced level now) but dear god, this is not something I would touch in the morning even in English!!!!
I mean to be fair, I´m always complaining about how most of my daily life (not in Argentina particularly) lacks a healthy dosage of intellectual discussions so I reckon this did me good and the lecturer explained it well enough for me to understand most of it but for god´s sake,
I finally murdered my computer. It was dropped to the floor and I cant open Internet Browsers. about 2 weeks ago. I finally received a new external harddrive to back up my data last week and hopefully the computer will be fixed by this weekend. ugh.
A: A New Zealander. A native New Zealander is called a Maori, a non-native is called a Pakeha or a Kiwi.
lol for some time now, I’ve been questioning that myself because I usually refer (jokingly) them as “kiwis” and never heard anyone use the word “New Zealnader” At one point I came up with words like “New Zealish” and “New Zeal”(modeled after England(English) and Thailand(Thai) respectively) but they both sounded rather odd.
well now you know.
Happy Worker’s Day!!
I hope you all had a good one. I did. photos and comments to follow once I finish watching this movie.
haha I’m so full of shit but finally my “movie” has been uploaded and please go to the site and click on “watch in High Quality” to watch it in a better version. come on, it’s only 3 minutes and 40 seconds long, perfect for the ADD generation.
the first song is Dancing Girls and Dancing Men by Robert Pollard and the second song is Let’s Dance On by the Monkees.
all filmed in Feria de San Telmo y Feria de Mataderos.
i think im coming back here for a few days though once i hit the road after my stay in Santiago Chile. Goodbye filthy streets, hello fresh air!
