Lots of photos for ya

This is a picture of my abuela (grandmother). That's her holding a bottle of Quilmes (the beer everyone drinks here). She is a lively old lady who still enjoys cooking... though few of my cousins actually enjoy eating what she cooks (they call it "feo")

This is a pic with one of my cousins and nieces whom I'm staying with. They had just taken me shopping cuz I needed to buy some warmer clothes, as I had only brought summer wear with me and its freakin' freezing over here. They're girly girls who take hours to get ready, are always on their cell phones texting, and watching their telenovelas (same as me!). My cousin to my right is Veronica, and she has a myspace type of site: http://www.fotolog.com/verito_86_ntr My niece is furthest right, she's named Estefanie. I play Uno and a game called Chancho (that I plan to convert into a drinking game) with them daily, along with some of my other cousins, and I end up laughing so hard and so much that my ab muscles are actually sore the next day.

This is a pic of my cousins (the white girl in the back is a friend of theirs) watching one of their favorite shows: The Flavor of Love! Flava Flaaaaaav! I dunno if you can see Flav in the pic, but you can make out his big ol' clock on the tv screen. They like alot of american tv shows, but they get them a little later (they hadn't heard of 'Charm School' and 'I Love New York', but sure are eager to see them). They also love youtube. We went into their room and we watched some vids, including that drag queen (Brittany Houston) remake of the music video 'Lip Gloss', which they loooove. In fact the little one in the pic above dances to it and does and impression of the drag queen in the video (which I recorded and am gonna youtube soon, it is sooo funny).


Click on the pic above to see a widescreen photo of a dinner at my Tia Maria's house. They drink alot of Coke here, the one bottle of water in the pic was just for me. Oh and the one boy my age in the background isn't family... like I said I'm one of the few!

Lastly, here is a clip of a very famous Argentinean movie "Esperando la Carroza." We watched it on youtube and I could barely catch any of the punchlines... but maybe you'll have more luck.



Oh and an odd sighting: have any of you ever heard of 'McDonald's Kosher'? Me neither, but it exists here. Here is a pic to prove it! You know McDonald's delivers here too? Pretty much every place does here. You can't get that in the USA!

Greetings from Argentina!

Hey everyone!
So I’ve arrived here in Argentina safe and sound (and jetlagged). Right now I’m staying at my Uncle Hector’s house in Buenos Aires with his wife, 3 daughters, and 2 grandchildren. Take a look at the photos to get a good idea of the place, but in short, it’s a nice comfortable house, painted pink with a backyard area where they package baby clothes to sell. When I was here 13 years ago they had lots of equipment and workers in the back where they produced sweaters. But my Uncle said it took too much labor and time and so he moved to baby clothes and outsources the work now. Globalization biatch! The house is next door to a loud factory where they produce car parts and blast the radio all day over loud speakers (right now Toni Braxton’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ is playing). Around the corner is a large grocery store that opened up recently, my Uncle explained that the neighborhood has gotten better thanks to it – the police come around more regularly, so it has become safer in the area now.
My grandmother surprised my dad and I at the airport, she traveled from Bolivia to greet us on arrival. She is about 80 years old now and still full of life (and likes beer).
You can see some of my cousins in the pic below… and there is a lot more of them! Too many in fact, neither my dad or I can remember all their names (and even my cousins admitted they can’t remember everyone).
As you can see in the pic, it’s all girls! Boys are rare in the family, and the ‘Tapia’ name is dying out because of it. They are all pursuing good careers too: one is studying to be a doctor, 2 are training as nurses, 1 an accountant. The younger girls are boy crazy right now – I’m staying in one of their rooms at the moment and it has framed pictures of hot celebrity boys on the desk. Also, one of my cousins, Miria loves black men – Fifty Cent, Will Smith, Chris Tucker, Eminem, all of them! I showed her my Men’s Fitness magazine with a shirtless Terrell Owens on the cover and she went crazy (its in front of her in the pic). The girls are all up to date on celeb gossip too, thanks to the Spanish versions of ET, VH1 and MTV. They love that show… whats it called? The one with Hugh Hefner and his three girlfriends? And they know all about Britney Spears’ troubles.

My Uncle showed me how to bbq Argentinean steak… apparently the secret is in the salt. They also bbq’d a whole chicken (and I mean whole), chirozzo sausage, something called blood sausage, and stuffed chicken intestines. I also discovered the best beer I’ve ever tasted: called Quilmes. If you can find the stuff you should try it! So we prepared an all meat lunch… which is common apparently – as my uncle put it (in Spanish) “It isn’t a meal unless there is meat” They eat steak here everyday. Ham is common too. When I went shopping for some sandwich meat, they had an entire section dedicated to sliced ham (30 different types), and I couldn’t find a single package of turkey or chicken. And of course the butchers had tons of beef, every part of the cow in fact.

As for my Spanish – I’m doing alright. My verb tenses are bad right now, but I’m able to spout off simple sentences. 2 of my cousins have taken several years of English, but are too embarrassed to speak it. I helped one of them with their homework as well – writing a summary of ‘The Ghost of Canterville’ in English. Anyways, this is just the first 2 days here... alot more happened but I don't wanna keep droning on and on! Laters!