The Pope's Toilet

A very good Uruguayan Film: El Baño del Papa Written and directed by César Charlone and Enrique Fernández

English name: The Pope's Toilet. No, you are not reading wrong, that is the correct translation. The movie follows one man who smuggles goods from Brazil for a living. There are rumors that thousands of people are going to visit Melo, his hometown, because the Pope is planning a visit. He comes up with the brillant idea to build a private toilet to accomodate the visitors who are expected to arrive to the town, and to charge them to use it. Will he succeed? Will he be able to pull his family out of poverty?

It was a great movie. I would classify it as a low-budget drama with the classic independent foreign film feel. I liked it just about as much as I liked Slumdog Millionaire (and I really liked Slumdog Millionaire). The film was showcased at MoMA (New York City's Museum of Modern Art) last week, so the critics liked it too. There's a lot of imagery, symbolism, social commentary, and artistic development. It's one of those "make you think" types of movies that I could chatter about for hours.

If you watch it, we can discuss. Poverty? Religion? Capitalism? Relationships? Corruption? Morality? Greed? Hope? Media? Globalization? Sacred vs. Profane? This one's got it all.

Salto Grande

I went on a field trip yesterday with the sixth graders at my school. We went to Salto Grande, the dam shared by Argentina and Uruguay on the Rio Uruguay.

Next week I am going to give a presentation on the Hoover Dam in the United States so the students can work on using English comparatives and superlatives to describe the differences between the two dams. Hopefully they will be able to say things like: The Hoover Dam is bigger. The Salto Grande is prettier. The Hoover Dam is the largest. Salto Grande is the newest (or whatever adjective + er or + est).


I was probably just about as excited as the 6th graders to go on a field trip. Dams are impressive displays of human engineering to be able to harness the power of nature.

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

I forgot to mention the Recoleta Cemetery that we visited in Buenos Aires. It is perhaps the coolest place I've been where dead people are buried.


The Cemetery is situated in the fancy Recoleta neighborhood and is a large enclosure where hundreds of monuments are built to the honor the dead. The grounds were well-groomed yet still very creepy. Many visitors (and stray cats) milled about the grave sites.


The cemetery, or rather mausoleum, if we are being precise with our terms, boasts of the graves of many past Argentine presidents and of Eva Peron, the very person whom the play, Evita, is based upon. We had to do a little detective work to find her grave, which more or less involved us trailing two guys who were talking about finding her grave. I suppose that kind of made me feel like a spy...


I think the appeal of the cemetery lies in the fact that it is both somber yet commemorative, dark yet sunny, creepy yet beautiful, aging yet manicured, peaceful yet lively, old yet invigorating.

José Pedro Varela

The other national hero of Uruguay is José Pedro Varela. He is famous for his contribution to the education system.

In my school there are two very large paintings in the cafeteria; one of Artigas and the other of Varela. These two men are the most praised in all the country.

Argentine Art

Here's a quick review a few more things I did in Argentina art related:

Visited Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA). A good traditional and modern art museum combined. I spent too long on the lower level and not enough on the upper one, but a good way to spend an afternoon. Famous European Artists below and Latin American artists above.

Visited Museo de Arte Latinoamercano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). A GREAT modern art museum. Loved it. Lots of funky pieces. Lots of fun.

Saw 2 live theater performances at the Cultural de la Cooperación Floreal Gorini for more or less $10 each (35 Argentine pesos). One very good, one very confusing. One I could follow, the other hopeless. One a story arc, the other crazy people on stage ranting about...well, I don't even know. El Tiempo y los Conway and Los Siete Locos

Saw a movie. Although a German film with Spanish subtitles, still very good. And Along Came Tourists

In review, if you plan on going to Buenos Aires you have to partake in the local art scene. Definitely go to a live performance and definitely pick a few of the art museums and visit the ones you think you'd like the most.

Discourse Analysis

Today was my first day teaching a Thursday morning class which just happens to be, get this, discourse analysis. Yay! Discourse analysis you ask? Isn't that just rhetoric by a different name? Why yes, yes it is. Imagine that; I get to teach the students at the Centro Regional de Profesores (CERP) what I love. It's so exciting. Officially the course is entitled linguistics, but there is a large component that involves the analysis of texts. Today we talked about what makes a text a text and I passed around several examples and had them defend whether or not they though the materials were pieces of discourse.

Whoo. I just thought I share some of joy with all of you. Hoorah for studying discourse. I can only wait until next Thursday...

Parillada

So what does one eat when they go to Argentina? Well, let me tell you. It's beef. That is what you order. In particular, parrillada. But, you have to be careful, parrillada can include some interesting cuts of meat. This site says: "In Argentina, the meat is often grilled at the table, and includes various cuts of steak, lamb, pork, sausages, sweetbreads, and internal organs not often found on US menus." Mmmhhhhmmm. Knowing what you are ordering is the name of the game. Stay away from the chorizos, kidneys, intestines, livers, udders, and sweetbreads. In my opinion, avoid being "adventurous" when it comes to strange words on the menu of a parilla restaurant.


I ordered a bife de costilla which is a t-bone. As you can see it turned out to be huge. I'm not the biggest red meat fan, but this steak was good. Yes, Argentina has good meat if you stick to costillas alone.

Argentine Tango

My favorite thing we did in Buenos Aires was probably go to the Catedral de Tango where real Argentineans go to dance. It was no touristy tango spectacle, just a big, dimly lit, warehouse-like space with table on one side a dance floor on the other. There were different sorts of modern "art" on the walls and a big picture of Carlos Gardel, one of the most famous tango dancers ever (who by the way both Argentina and Uruguay claim as their own).

We got there at about 11:30 PM and the locals didn't start arriving until more like 1:30-2 AM. The dinner off the menu of the day was delicious--some sort of baked squash with cheese. I enjoyed sitting there listening to the beautiful tango music and occasionally sneaking peaks at the couples on the dance floor. We didn't end up leaving the catedral until about 4 in the morning, and apparently that was an early evening for most South Americans.