A Home at Last!

Well, you remember that "very non-decent apartment" in the "area I wouldn't want to spend a month in for safety reasons" that had been "deserted by the wealthy after being ravaged by yellow fever and other infectious diseases"? Funny how things work out.

As I mentioned, our second day hunting for an apartment yielded no results (actually we did visit several real estate offices and even saw one apartment, but lets just consider that "no results"). On our third day, we successfully juggled six visits with six different agencies/owners around the city but they were all either over $800/month and simply "decent" or were a bit less but for good reason. By the end of the day, as we scrambled to finish our daily translations before the internet cafe closed, I was tired and Joo was beyond tired. So we simply decided to call the second place from our first day of searching. It had been a bit pricey and without a computer, but it was clean, cute and in a good area. So after 30 minutes of debate and growing excitement about how the place was actually quite a beautiful apartment, I called Sandra (the agent for that place) who lamentably told me another person had already reserved it.

Things got a bit gnarly at this point, but I won't go into the gritty details. Neither of us really wanted to shell out a lot of money for an apartment we were only halfhearted about and so JooYeon told me to email a French guy about that previously mentioned non-decent apartment. If we weren´t going to find our dream apartment for a month or two, at least we would avoid financial regrets by securing a cheap base (Kristoffe's place is only $500 a month).

So, here we are, in our bohemian loft in the middle of San Telmo, Buenos Aires. It's all a matter of perspective. When we compare this to my Nakseongdae apartment I had while dating Joo in Seoul, it's a huge step up. Yes, it's a bit dusty but Nakseongdae had dust so thick and moist it had created a type of dust fudge. Sure, it may have just a bit of a funky smell (which incidentally I can't even smell, making me wonder if I AM the funky smell), but there was a sewage accumulation one floor below our bathroom in Nakseongdae whose odors seeped through the vents two weeks out of every month. And in terms of floor space, the 50 square meters completely dwarf the space of Nakseongdae (which was literally about 2 square meters after subtracting for the bed and toilet, our only furniture). As for the infectious diseases, the rats hopefully scurried away long ago!

In all actuality, it's quite a perfect resting spot for us for the next month. It came equipped with more than any other apartment we looked at - DVD, TV with cable, PC, jacuzi, sound system, coffee maker, patio, fridge, stove, heater (remember it's winter here), and everything else we could possibly need for the next month.

And it came just in time for our Paniversary! Pan means across in Greek (I think) and since September 12 was our first date and September 10 was our first marriage, September 11 is our paniversary :) I left the apartment early to get Joo a nice warm croissant breakfast, flowers and her favorite cafe con leche, and she slaved away in the evening, cooking me up a delicious curry dinner.

So, we´ve settled in... Joo´s first task was to arrange all the sugar packets...

And then we went shopping in Koreatown for Korean food, and the local Carefour for all our comfort food and cooking stuff, finished off by a neighborhood kiosk to pick up any local spices and vegetables. We've already had a couple translating jobs since we moved in, so our hope is that they will continue to roll in and help us cover our living costs for our month or two as portenos (residents of Buenos Aires). Ciao ciao!

Take me to Kansas, Toto!

"There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home." While I could certainly go for some of my mom's cooking and I'm sure JooYeon wouldn't mind a clean bed and washing machine, we'd both gladly just settle for an apartment right now. We've been back in Buenos Aires for three days now, searching for a nice, clean, reasonably priced pad where we can hanker down and do some translating, cooking, etc. Our first day was mildly successful with a decent option (after a very non-decent option), but upon awakening the next day JooYeon felt much less excited about it. So we reserved a cheap little hostel in San Telmo and geared up for a long searching process.


San Telmo is the artsy sector of BA which was originally the stronghold for the wealthy until yellow fever and some other diseases ravaged the area 100-150 years ago. Then they moved Northwards towards areas like Recoleta and Palermo (where we are searching for apartments since they are the safest, cleanest, greenest areas). Since then, the area has maintained its artsy, cultural feel but with a more bohemian crowd. I don´t think it would be the best place for us to live for a month or two (safety reasons), but it has been fun to be around the energy for a couple days as we do apartment-searching. The markets are lively and colorful...

And, especially on Sundays, the cobblestone streets are lined with people, vendors, musicians, etc.

I was particularly fascinated by this little guy whose street puppet show was impressively meaningful and heartfelt. His 5 minute drama portrayed a man drinking in the streets who then realized the error of his ways and struggled to get inside, but it was too late. And so he passed away and drifted upwards to heaven, all to a poignant opera song.

But we can´t have too much fun and entertainment... not when we´re engaged in a serious house-searching process...

Our second day apartment-searching was quite a failure and consisted mostly of emailing, phone-calling, and answering machines. In fact, despite our long day, we didn´t manage to see a single place. We were quite tired by the end and luckily found a huge tree where we could eat our stuffed tomato and rest.

Tomorrow, we have six visits lined up, all in decent areas, so hopefully the next blog will hold pictures of our apartment!

Mate Mythology 101

Our final day here in Uruguay and I had planned a spectacular mate shoot where I'd cruise the whole city taking pictures of a wide range of mate drinkers - police, kids, beggars, businessmen, drivers (while driving), etc. Unfortunately, the rainy season began today in Montevideo so my promised mate blog fell far short of my desired anticipations. Nevertheless, here it is and remember, as the guy said tonight while he was cooking up chorizos for Joo and me, "If you don´t drink mate, then you surely aren´t Uruguayan."

The basic rules of mate are very simple. Once you´ve loaded your mate (gourd or other drinking apparatus) with yerba (the actual herb, a relative of holly), you pour...


and drink...


and repeat the process continuously until either your thermos is empty or the world ends. Those are the basic rules of course. The real culture goes much deeper. If you add fruits to your mate, you´d be welcomed in Argentina, but scorned as a heretic in Uruguay. Drinking alone also seems to be more acceptable in Argentina, whereas Uruguayans tend to see it as a communal event. If you do choose to participate in communal mate, the servidor (server) initiates it by offering the mate to the person on his right. That person drinks it completely and passes it back to the server, who refills it and moves counterclockwise around the circle. The server will continually pour drinks to each person in turn until they say gracias (although apparently Joo´s Korean head nod is an acceptable substitute). The drinkers can enjoy as long as they desire until this point, as long as they don´t touch the bombilla (metal siphoning straw).

Hmm... you must be thinking... this eternal refill gives the drinkers unlimited power! Not so fast. The server wields more subtle weapons like the -shudder- WASHED mate. A mate is considered lavado or washed when it has been through too many refills and the server refuses to either rotate or change the mate. A sure sign that the ceremony is over. But not near as bad as the OVERFLOW. You´d think being handed an overflowing mate would be a welcoming sign, but as it turns out, it basically means, "Go away, you´re not welcome at this mate fiesta."

Thankfully, Joo and I experienced nothing but flavorful, hot, appropriately full mates from our first servidor Emilio...


But, despite the rain, I was determined to nail down some mate pictures for our blog since I had promised you, the reader... so I finally said my "gracias" to Emilio and Joo and I set out in search of drinkers. At first, we had people pose...

But that was rather unnatural. So we decided to stalk people from an upstairs McDonalds window. This was also rather unsuccessful, but we did have a couple that turned out enough for you to be able to witness the elegant "cradle" where the Uruguayans manage to hold their thermos AND mate in one hand, leaving the other free for cigarettes, umbrellas, etc.




There is an entire mythology built around the miraculous powers of mate - anti-carcinogous, stimulating like coffee but easier on the stomach, weight loss, and brain power. I´m not sure how they would hold up in scientific testing, but I believe the brain power one at least. Joo and I saw a trash can catch on fire near a busy street this evening...

Within seconds, the homeless man across the street who had been curled up in newspapers (sipping his mate?) rushed over and used the fire to light his cigarette. Now that´s quick thinking...

So, as we leave the friendly land of Uruguay, the final question on my mind is... "If Mom were to visit Uruguay, would she drink mate or tea?"

Montevideo... Home of the Gourmet Hot Dog

It IS an avocado!!! JooYeon and I had debated the issue for four days as we nursed it and protected it from all backpacking harm in our bags. I should have made a wager on it... maybe something like, ¨we have to stay in a room with cockroaches at least three times a month¨or something, but alas, I did not. From romantic little Colonia in Western Uruguay, we drove east to the capital of Montevideo. The bus was a very typical Uruguayan experience... the driver occasionally stopped just to talk to one of his friends near the roadside and, judging by his intimacy of conversation with the woman at the tollgate, she must have been his sister! As I said before, just as discussion oriented as the Argentinians, minus a bit of the boldness with strangers. Must be all the mate. It was very present in Argentina, but it is EVERYWHERE here... if possible, I´ll dedicate a blog entry just to mate later on.

Our bags continue to swell as if they were gestating (congratulations Angie and Ryan by the way!) and we´re beginning to waddle like penguins as we walk down the road...

Luckily, there´s no shortage of protein recharge for our muscles now that we are meateaters again and in a carnivorous land. Uruguayan´s two big specialties are muzzarellas and chorizos. Muzzarellas are basically pizzas minus the toppings, with half of the sauce, and four times the cheese (hence the appropriate name). Chorizos are cheap sausages roasted to a crispy outside and placed on some bread. But the best part is that you then get to choose from among 15 sauces or so in a Subway-style manner...

A bit heavy, but a lot more manageable when washed down with some cafe con leche, especially for Joo who is now fully addicted to the stuff...

I, on the other hand, have fallen prey to the tempting snares of mate, but more on that later. Montevideo was quite cold and wintery for our four days here, but there was still a peaceful spirit, expansive architecture, and a proud national spirit (I tried to shy away from referring to Argentina too much so as not to offend). My favorite part, aside from the mate, has been waking up each morning to the clip, clop, clip, clop of the horse carriages traipsing down the street with their owners collecting trash or selling vegetables (two different types of carriages thankfully)

We had considered renting in Uruguay for awhile, and we even landed some good personal contacts, but eventually decided against it simply because it would have been quite complicated to rent only for a month. So... one more day here and then we head back to Buenos Aires on an overnight bus where we already have a couple appointments set up to look at flats. Will we soon have a home larger than the babies on our backs?

The AmeriKorean Couple in Colonial Uruguay

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, when we left Buenos Aires, our bags were HEAVY. That was our first adaptation to losing our boys (they had carried several things previously). Our second adaptation was that it was no longer very cost effective to take taxis with only two people, so we walked. Our third adaptation was that we were missing Gyu´s alarm clock, which meant we woke up late, which meant instead of walking, we powerwalked with our heavy bags and arms full of plastic bags holding extra stuff.

Eventually, we found our dock on the Rio Uruguay and were prepared for a small boat full of sweaty tourist (that had been our previous experience). We went through Uruguayan customs and walked down a hallway and into a huge lounge filled with lounge chairs, pianos, bars, a cafe, etc. Since our boat was scheduled to leave in five minutes, I walked briskly to an official looking person and asked them where to find the boat to Uruguay. They just started laughing and said, ¨Esto ES el barco!¨(this IS the ship). I was impressed. So was JooYeon who now had the space to properly do some yoga and relieve her back muscles that had tensed from carrying the heavy load...

It was a very luxurious 3 hour river crossing, filled with live entertainment and a good nap, that carried us to Colonia de Sacremento, Uruguay, a small town of 20,000 which still has a very colonial feel to it. Several of the streets are cobblestone and are filled with creative little craft shops (Mom, you´d love it!)






Uruguay was a country I didn´t know much about before coming. As it turns out, it´s a very cowboyish country filled with even more steaks and mate than Argentina. Stereotypically, the people are the most laidback in South America, in stark contrast to their flashy and outgoing Argentian neighbors. We found this to be fairly true, although they were just as friendly once we initiated conversations with anyone. Kind of like the Argentinians are the friendly extroverts and the Uruguayans are the friendly introverts. The owner of our hostel (which was really just a huge restored colonial homestead) was particularly hospitable and even shared some avocados which fell from the tree outside our window as well as part of the Sunday family asado (steak roast) with us...

Once JooYeon figured out how to work a colonial flush, got her nap by the riverside, and had a cup of coffee in a colorful cafe, she was quite affirmative about Uruguay :)



At the moment, our big goal is to find an apartment to rent for a month, either in Argentina or Uruguay, while we settle down for a bit and do some translating, serious cooking, and whatever else we end up getting into. It´s quite fun to look through all kinds of classifieds and talk to agents, even though 75% of the places aren´t even available to us since we´re foreign shortterm renters. But before that will come a trip to the capital of Uruguay... can you name it? See if you can guess it before we reveal it in our next blog...