Noruega en Argentina

May 17th in Buenos Aires

Posted on May 25, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

As mentioned earlier, there were a few celebrations for Norway’s Constitution Day here in Buenos Aires. On Friday, May 16th I attended a reception in Recoleta organized by the embassy. It was at lunch time and was really pretty boring, sorry to say! But I caught up with two of my three Norwegian friends, and, dare I say, added another!

On Sunday, May 18th, the Norwegian Community, spearheaded by Caroline Borgersen of Imperial Park Hotel, organized a celebration at the Nordic Church in San Telmo (formerly the Swedish Church, now, also invaded by Finns and Norwegians.) I helped with set-up the day before and with translation, set-up and serving the day of. The weather was nice which made a huge difference. Turnout was great, around 160 people, Norwegians, Norwegian-Argentines, those interested in Norway, students, etc. Nice group!

Posted in Buenos Aires, Comunidad noruega, Norsk i Argentina, Noruega en Argentina, Norway in Argentina | 2 Comments

On the radio

Posted on May 20, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

I mentioned that on May 15th I was interviewed on the radio, as part of a weekly segment on different countries represented in Buenos Aires. (I wrote a short post in Spanish here.) It was a lot of fun, the journalist was great and we laughed a lot. I also learned things about radio that I didn’t know, and I appreciated the pointers about being short, to the point, and very specific: general impressions and ideas are not very fun to listen to, so we were encouraged to give short, specific examples when asked for a funny episode or what we like the most about Argentina. Being Buenos Aires, the questions were mainly about, well, Buenos Aires, but I did get in a couple of fun facts about Norway too, such as the fact that there is no “cancelación por lluvia”, or rain check, in Norway – we’d never do anything if we canceled stuff because of bad weather!

Here is the link to the interview, enjoy!

Posted in Buenos Aires, Comunidad noruega, Norsk i Argentina, Noruega en Argentina, Norway in Argentina | Leave a comment

Estrella de radio :)

Posted on May 15, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

Hoy tuve el gusto de salir en un programa de radio! Me llamaron de Metro 95.1, del programa “Su atención por favor”, donde el locutor Jason Mayne hace un segmento sobre extranjeros en Buenos Aires. Fui al bar Olsen con otra chica noruega, Berit, y nos divertimos un montón! Les dejo una foto y cuando tenga el link de la entrevista también lo pongo acá.

Posted in Buenos Aires, Norsk i Argentina, Noruega en Argentina, Personal | 3 Comments

Dupont Circle vs. Villa Crespo

Posted on May 8, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

S Street between 18th and 19th Streets NW

This headline may not make a lot of sense to you, but I figured I’d do a very non-scientific comparison of my previous and current city neighborhoods. I lived for many years in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC, and loved the beautiful, vibrant feel. It is super convenient to downtown (I usually always walked or biked to work), it has gorgeous architecture, basically, it is great! Now, let’s see how Villa Crespo measures up…

Transport: How cool is this, they are both on the Red Line metro/subway! In BsAs, it is more commonly referred to as the Línea B, but its color is red! Both places are served well by metro. Dupont is closer to the city center than Villa Crespo is, but VC has better transport overall: The metro comes much more frequently and the area has a gazillion bus lines. Villa Crespo +1

Biking: Villa Crespo has some bikelanes, but I have not dared to try them yet. Biking in BsAs seems pretty scary… In Dupont, it is totally normal and there are lots of bike shops in the area, as it borders some of the most hipster places in the city. Dupont Circle +1

Shopping: While Dupont Circle does have some grocery stores, bakeries etc., it doesn’t really have everything you need, and many people go other places to shop. In Villa Crespo, as I pointed out in my other post, I have absolutely everything within just a couple of blocks. Villa Crespo: +1

Food: This is difficult because I haven’t been here very long. In Dupont, I had some really good favorite places, such as Bistro du Coin (yum!!) and Sette (it did go down but I still liked it.) In VC, I just haven’t tried many places yet, but the ones I have tried have been really good (Malvón, La Crespo, Café Crespin.) I will have to say that the jury is out on this one. Check out Pick up the Fork‘s reviews of places in Villa Crespo. No points given yet!

Pretty street between Corrientes and Murillo

Architecture: VC has some nice buildings, lots of cute houses and some adorable streets. However, I think Dupont wins from just the sheer quantity of gorgeous houses. Dupont: +1

Jewish presence: You might wonder how that factors in to my non-scientific review, but I just think it is cool that Villa Crespo has such a large Jewish presence: Outside the police station it says “police” in Hebrew, the area is home to the Scholem Aleijem School, and you can get great bagels and lox at La Crespo (and other places) – while people in DC were always complaining that the bagels were no good! So, a point to Villa Crespo: +1

Well, this leads us to a draw: 3 points to each place, and one yet-to-be decided… I guess I will have to do lots of eating so that I can decide this once and for all. Dupont has a very special place in my heart and Villa Crespo is definitely making its way in there as well.

Posted in Buenos Aires, Norsk i Argentina, Restaurants, Villa Crespo | 3 Comments

Big changes, big city

Posted on May 6, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

So, some big changes have taken place: I moved to Buenos Aires! After a year and a half in the countryside, I am now living in la Reina del Plata. It has just been a couple of weeks so the novelty of everything is still very exciting! I am working, but not full time, which means I have time to explore the city, hang out with friends, cook (today I made lentil stew and some Norwegian knekkebrod), take photos, pick up old hobbies – it is fantastic! The first few days I also spent some time catching up on sleep; I know that technically we cannot recuperate sleep but it sure felt good! I even have a television but I haven’t used it yet, although I am looking forward to enjoying some English language channels.

I have rented a flat in the neighborhood of Villa Crespo, which I absolutely adore. I knew the area from a course I was taking and from a few friends who live here, and I think it is perfect: It has a real barrio (neighborhood) feel to it, it is not as crazy as closer to the center, it has much fewer foreigners than say Palermo, and I feel I have everything I need within a few blocks: multiple supermarkets (Día, Coto, Carrefour…), lots of greengrocers, bakeries, hardware shops, flowers, health food stores. I am close to the metro and a bunch of different bus lines (I have written before about my obsession with the BA bus system and now I am loving zipping around the city by bus!) and I can also walk many different places.

I do miss the campo in certain ways, maybe especially the cold, clear, quiet nights with lots of stars. Also, working so much made me really, really appreciate any little break or special occassion. And of course I miss my friends and the animals!

My “to do”-list for Buenos Aires is long (a one-page Word document, single space – yes, forever the nerd), including trying some of the fantastic restaurants the city has to offer, but little by little of course. There are some cool work projects coming up that I’ll talk more about in the future, and I also want to write more about the neighborhood very soon. Buenos Aires is a great city and I am thrilled to call it my new home!

Posted in Buenos Aires, Norsk i Argentina, Norway in Argentina, Personal | 10 Comments

La Feria del Libro

Posted on May 2, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

La Feria del Libro (the Book Fair) in Buenos Aires is a huge event. It takes place in La Rural, the agricultural fair in Palermo that is of course home to the big livestock/animal exhibition in July, and more than a million readers visit the 45,000 square meter space. I went there on April 30 and it was really a beautiful event. All the big publishing houses and book stores are represented, and there are countless readings and other events taking place. Just walking around can be a little overwhelming and you might also feel like you are just visiting bookstore after bookstore, so I suggest going for something specific that you are interested in, such as a presentation by a favorite author.

One of the pavilions had stands from many different countries and cultures, and it was neat to see what authors they were representing. This was my chance to brush up on my Armenian literature knowledge! The fair opened on April 24 and runs until May 12. Entrance is 25 pesos. We went on a weekday and it was perfect – the next day was May 1, I happened to be passing by on the bus and the line to buy tickets was many, many blocks long. Yay for books!

More information here: Feria Internacional del Libro de Buenos Aires.

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | Leave a comment

Film review: El crítico

Posted on April 29, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

Movie Title I went to see “El crítico“, an Argentinian film released this month, directed by Hernán Gerschuny and starring Rafael Spregelburd as Victor Tellez. From the synopsis:

Tellez is a strict and prestigious film critic, totally weary of Hollywood romantic comedies and certain that the best of the seventh art died long time ago. Maybe because of its work, suffers from what he calls the ‘maladie du cinema’: He sees the world like if it was a big movie that, in addition, he cannot keep from criticizing.

I found the film utterly amusing: Tellez was the perfect intellectual film critic, using big words and sitting around with his other critic friends dissecting anything arriving on the film scene. I think one of my favorite parts was at the very beginning, when there is a voice speaking in French: Tellez is so pretentious that he narrates his inner monologue in French! The movie turns into somewhat of a romantic comedy and is really well done. Totally worth seeing. It was my first time seeing an Argentine movie in the the movie theater here and I enjoyed it very much.

Posted in Film, Language, Personal | 4 Comments

Montevideo!

Posted on April 24, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

I had the chance to go Montevideo, Uruguay a few weeks ago, and I loved it! It totally is Buenos Aires for Norwegians – small, manageable, clean, easy to get around. You can feel that it is an up and coming country, as soon as you get off the plane there is just a pleasant air of buenda onda, prosperity, and of course the great weather helped. It is definitely more expensive than Argentina, but was well worth a visit. I met up with former colleagues and it was great catching up. Ever since seeing Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” episode from Uruguay I had been wanting to go and we enjoyed a few of his recommendations, such as the Mercado del Puerto.

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

17. mai i Buenos Aires – 17 de mayo en Buenos Aires

Posted on April 17, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

For nordmenn i Buenos Aires som titter innom bloggen, eller andre som er interesserte i å feire 17. mai: Det arrangeres 17. mai-feiring i Den nordiske kirken (Azopardo 1422, 1107 Buenos Aires) sondag 18. mai klokken 11:30. Arrangementet er åpent for alle og begynner med gudstjeneste etterfulgt av lunsj og underholdning for barn og voksne.

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Para noruegos en Buenos Aires, u otros que quieren celebrar el 17 de mayo (día de la constitución noruega y cuando nos liberamos de los daneses), se celebra domingo 18 de mayo en la Iglesia nórdica (Azopardo 1422, 1107 Buenos Aires). Arranca a las 11:30 y está abierto al público.

Posted in Comunidad noruega, Norsk i Argentina, Norway in Argentina | 3 Comments

Caminito, La Boca

Posted on April 9, 2014 by noruegaenargentina

There are certain tourist spots that are a must, but not somewhere one would return to over and over. Caminito in La Boca is one of those places – it was really fun to see the first time, it was fine to see the second time (last year when a Norwegian friend was visiting) and then just OK this time, when I went with some friends from Ecuador who were visiting. La Boca is one of the 48 neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires and is located in the south-east part of the city; to me it always seems a little remote from where I usually hang out, and it was especially so when we were returning during rush hour. (You can get there easily on the 152 bus.) It is of course maybe most famous for being the home of the football team Boca Juniors, and their stadium La Bombonera.

Caminito is a pedestrian street in La Boca with colorful houses, souvenir shops, restaurants and tango shows. It is cute but definitely not my favorite part of the city, I don’t even think it would be on my top ten touristy things to do in Buenos Aires. But still, always nice to just hang out being a tourist.