Northern Rob en el Sur

Hello, everyone! Here go some random thoughts about my first few days in Buenos Aires:

I made a conceited effort not to take a nap today. I have been suffering some sort of wicked jet lag/poor sleep scheduling since I arrived, which I believe I correctly attributed to two inter-related phenomena: 1) not getting much sleep right before and right after my arrival due to A) nerves, B) the overnight flight in from Toronto where it seemed, despite the red wine, Benadryl, and flight pillow, all was turbulence and seat belts all night long, and C) the 4 hr change in time; and 2) new found habits of A) staying up till 4 or 5 am, B) waking up after noon, and C) taking long naps between the hours of 6 and 9pm - all hours local time. BIORHYTHMS. I got away from the nap today by going to a quaint, old, traditional café called EL GATO NEGRO (THE BLACK CAT) in the early evening, where I read a recently purchased book about Ortega y Gasset and his influence on Latin America and (for, perhaps, the third time) the editor's introduction to Kant's Critique of Judgment. Maybe tomorrow I'll get past that dang introduction; although, I think the Kantian tendency to split and delineate has already affected my thinking (see above re: sleep)!

Admittedly, I have yet to really explore the city. Meaning, for me, at least, I have yet to take any public transit anywhere. It's been all on foot so far, but that's to change this week. I have, however, already purchased muchos libros (much books), with many of them related directly to the dissertation. All the book purchases stem from the fact that a nearby thoroughfare - la Avenida Corrientes - is chock-full of new/used bookstores, which is nice. Nevertheless, the bookstores themselves aren't so easy to navigate, as they seem to lack any clear order and none of the books have prices marked on them. These qualities do give the stores' employees something to do, though, as I'm always forced to ask them for help. Eh, perdón, eh, ?dónde se encuentra la sección de literatura argentina?

Something else at the end of Corrientes is the (world famous??) obelisk. As an undergrad, I once read some existentialist story about this very obelisk by an Argentine writer who was obviously affected by it and attempted to imbue the monument with some sense of personal and national angst. Perhaps there was something sexual about the obelisk in the story, too - though maybe I only see that possible signification now, in person: all ready to go with nowhere to go. Maybe this is why Argentines (or, at least, the folks in Buenos Aires, aka los porteños) are all so obsessed w/ Freud and Lacan!! Me? I was impressed, yes, but felt neither existential nor sexual. No raised malaise for this young man.

The other interesting thing about the general area around le obelisque is that it stands in the middle of what is purported to be the largest/widest city street in the world, la Avenida 9 de Julio.

I really like my current living situation. Much better than in Mexico City a couple summers back, where I stayed in a decent hotel, where I didn't go out after 8:30pm, where all I had was a shitty version of Tetris and my books. I'm staying here in BsAs with an artist couple, Leo and Daniel, they're weiner dog, Piolin, and their two cats, Domenico and ???, and they're all great. Except for the cats. When Domenico meows it sounds like a baby's cry, and that freaks me out. Anyways, Leo y Daniel are both very friendly, helpful, patient, talented, and smart. They routinely rent their spare rooms out to travelers and students. I started out with the small room - but have moved on just tonight (25.01.09) to the larger room. (I'll have more about the apartment and Leo and Daniel's artwork in a future post/email.)

One recent household blunder of mine happened just last night. I had yet to plug in the nice, JBL, i-pod compatible speakers that I had more or less stolen from my father in KC, and, as I was getting ready to go out to a party, I wanted some louder music to get me into the party mood. PARTY TIME w/ RAWBERTO WELLZ!! It was around 8:30pm, and I had just awaken from a nice nap, after all! When I plugged in the A/C adaptor for the speakers, however, an electric snap sounded and all the power went out in the apartment. I could smell the faint hint of smoke. No one else was around, so I didn't know what to do. Nor had I the cell numbers of either Leo or Daniel. Hence, I left them a note in scribbled Spanish (I couldn't see what I was writing) detailing the electrical accident and my own, personal, sunflower-designed keylight that my Grandmother gave me one Christmas, and that I had kept in my backpack ever since for moments such as this. In the end, I made it to the party, enjoyed myself, and came home to a lighted home, as L&D had come back and flipped the big switch. (1)

(By the way, I have a flickr site for my photos, too. Admittedly, the photos aren't super-iiiiiiiiinnnteresting as of yet, but that should change soon.)

Abrazos (Embraces),
Robert

(1) Hay una luz que sí se extingue: la de los baños extranjeros.